Henry Wisdom , b. abt 1699 --- m. --- Hester

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John Wisdom, b. 1733 --- m. --- Mary Maker

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Henry Wisdom, b. 1754 --- m. --- Mary Scott

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William Henry Wisdom, b. 1797 --- m. --- Mary S. Elliott

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Harriet Smith Wisdom, b. abt 1830 --- m. --- William Muir

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Mary Muir, b. ? --- m. --- Frank Graham b.1869

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Paul Graham, b. 1901 --- m. --- Mildred Maxwell

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William Graham, b. 1929 -- m. ---Margaret Barclay (3 children)

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Douglas J. Graham, b. 1959 --- m. --- France Marcoux (2 children)

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Camille, b. 1992 and Stéphanie Graham, b. 1994

A FAMILY REUNION

Wisdom Family of Nova Scotia

Harriet Smith Wisdom married William Muir and was the grandmother of my grandfather, Paul Ashmore Graham. Harriet's grandfather was Henry Wisdom, an emigrant to Nova Scotia in late 1700s. He married a Mary Scott (Lucy?), all of which is fairly well established. However, there are three very different versions of Henry Wisdom's ancestry and further research is going to be needed to determine which makes more sense.

Mrs. Brown West Indies Version

The evidence for this version comes primarily from a handwritten card that came from the bible of Agnes Muir (b. 1870) as well as various scraps of paper in the papers of my late great-aunt Ethel Graham (probably dating from at least the 1940s). None of this information has been independently verified and I doubt it is very reliable.

The bible card, perhaps written by Agnes, but really of unknown origin, states:

Mrs. Brown went from England to the West Indies with her brother for her health, there she met and married Mr. Wisdom who also came from England. They came to Halifax and had two sons Stephen and John. John married and he and his wife are both buried in the cemetery on Pleasant Street, Halifax. One of their children Henry married a Lucy Scott who lived near Truro. She had a son William Wisom who married Mary Elliott and who had their daughter Harriet Wisdom [who] married William Muir November 18, 1850.

Mrs. Brown, next Mrs. Wisdom and then Mrs. Godfrey.

Presumably the last sentence implies that Mrs. Brown had a Mr. Godfrey as her third husband. It seems also to be implied that John Wisdom is the son of Mrs. Brown but elsewhere I have a note that states "Mrs. Brown married John Wisdom (1720-____) and their son, Henry Wisdom, b. 1750, married Lucy Scott. John lived near what is now Dartmouth, NS. He was known as "John in the forest" and is apparently buried in St. Paul's Cemetery. With the Mrs. Brown version also comes the information that John Wisdom (representing at least two generations?) emigrated to Virginia in 1660 or 1675 from England and Ireland and then to Nova Scotia in 1740.

Abner Wisdom Version

The second version comes from a book published in 1910 on the Wisdom genealogy by George W. Wisdom (source 1). I have in my possesion a booklet with a small extract from the book, prepared by Gertrude Grant Sanborn (the booklet is not dated but was received by my great-aunt Ethel Graham in 1955). I have also a typed extract from the book which has a note on it written by Ethel: "August 8, 1948, Full of errors, Ethel Graham". I briefly consulted the full book in the New England Genealogical Society Library in Boston in 1999 and verified the content of the booklet I have. It remains to be seen how reliable this information is. As far as I know, none of the information on early Wisdoms is supported by any other source.

George W. Wisdom wrote that he had "succeeded in tracing the name back as far as the reign of Charles II [1660-1685], King of england. few perhaps can even imagine the long and tedious efforts that have been made to accomplish this end". The booklet starts with Abner Wisdom:

Abner was born near the border of Wales [1675] and although it is not known who or when he married it is believed he married at a young age. He was a man of high intellectual powers and was a member of the House of Commons durng the reign of George II [1727-1760]. He was a very brilliant lawyer and was reputedly quite influential among his colleagues. Abner had five sons: Brinsley Mortimer, Pollard William, Francis Torrence, Abner Jnr. and Tavner.

The three elder brothers emigrated sometime around 1730 to America and settled in Virginia. Later they moved and took up land near present day Dansville, Kentucky. These brothers were the first of the name Wisdom to come to America. A few years after his arrival Brinsley married a lady of Scotch-Irish ancestry. He was a Baptist missionary and at one time he went on an evangelistic mission to Armagh, Ireland. In Armagh, he met two of his nephews (sons of Tavner) and it is he who probably induced one of them, Henry, to come to America. Brinsley fought in the American Revolution on the side of the Americans.

Pollard and Francis also fought in the Revolution where Pollard was a captain of a company. A grandson of Francis' named John died with George Washington's army. These two brothers had each married shortly after their emigration. Pollard married a German woman and Francis married an English woman.

Abner Jr., the fourth son, remained in England and was eminent in both military affairs and in literature. He had one son Robert who was a colonel in the British Army.

Tavner, the fifth son was born about 1720 and lived near London where he was a wealthy farmer and stock raiser. He and his wife also kept a girl's seminary which was "the most elaborate institution of that kind in the country". He had three sons: Moses, Hezekiah (or Henry), born about 1750 and Aroclia. Henry and Aroclia were members of the British Army and while stationed at Armagh, Ireland they met, as previously stated, their Uncle Brinsley from America.

This Henry Wisdom came to America after he left the Army and settled in South Carolina. He married Lucy Scott who had been born 19 February 1756. George Wisdom writes: "It is not known where she was born but she was in America at the time of the Revolution in 1776". Henry and Lucy moved to Halifax where she died 19 February 1854 on her 98th birthday.

John Wisdom and Mary Maker Version

The Third version of Henry's ancestry seems to be the most commonly encountered in different websites on the Web. Most Web databases are not sourced at all but some of this information at some sites (e.g., (4)) seems to have come from LDS or other verifiable sources. It remains to document precisely where this information comes from. My guess is that because of the precise dates that come with this version, that it is the most reliable. Note that it has certain similarities with the first version although key details differ.

According to these sources we have: Henry Wisdom, m. Hester, b. abt 1699 (note that the name Hester appears in subsequent generations, supporting this version). If the "bible card" version above is at all reliable, he could be the "Mr. Wisdom" and she could be the "Mrs. Brown" (AKA Mrs. Wisdom and Mrs. Godrey). They had one son:

John Wisdom, b. and christened 17 September 1733 (one also finds the dates of 1729 in 1730 in unsourced web databases) in Newbury, MA. He married 17 July 1750 in Halifax to Mary Maker and he died 19 Dec. 1794 in Halifax. Mary was b. about 1731 in Halifax. She died 28 Sept. 1820 in Halifax. They had six children:

1. Sarah, b. and christened 16 Jan. 1752, Halifax. She m. Richard Wooden on 5 April 1770 in Halifax. She died 2 July 1789 in Halifax.
2. Henry, b. 7 July 1754, Halifax. He married on 5 November 1774, in Halifax to Lucy Scott, b. 19 Feb. 1756 in Boston. No death date recorded for Henry but Lucy died 18 Feb. 1854, Halifax. This Lucy in (4) is the daughter of Joseph Scott and Mary Edmunds. The source (4) then attributes to them 8 children (see next section).
3. Mary, christened 6 January 1761, Halifax. She married in July 1778 to Samuel King, of Halifax.
4. Abigail, b. 27 March 1763 in Halifax. She m. on 18 January 1781 Jacob Tuttle, of Halifax.
5. Edward Godfrey, b. 1764/1765, Halifax. He m. 21 Oct. 1790 in Boston to Elizabeth Greenwood. He died 27 June 1844. Note that the "Mrs. Brown Version" above would seem to explain the name Godfrey...
6. Wisdom (apparently unknown name), b. 1767 Halifax, m. Joseph Holeman.

Mary/Lucy Scott Mystery

What do we know about the Ms. Scott that was the wife of Henry Wisdom in Halifax? I found in 1999 the death notice of Henry Wisdom's wife (2) which reads: "Mrs. Mary Scott Wisdom, having on that day completed her 98th year (funeral from residence of her son, W. H. Wisdom, Halifax. Died 18 February 1854 (Acadian Review)". This confirmed her name was actually Mary. The same death date is given by George Wisdom (1). George Wisdom however wrote that Henry: "married Lucy (name not known). [Note: Her name was Lucy Scott, probably]". The note in brackets was perhaps added by the compiler of the booklet and not text of George Wisdom? Either the Lucy is simply erroneous or perhaps she did use this name, only further research will help clarify this point. They had daughters named both Mary and Lucy so that does not provide a clue!

Her birthdate and birthplace: If she was 98 when she died in 1854, she would have been born in about 1756. Of her origins, George Wisdom (1) writes; "Lucy, born February 19, 1756. [...] Don't know where Lucy was born but she was in America at the time of the War of Independence 1776". There is some suggestion she may have been from South Carolina as that is supposedly where Henry was (see above) before moving to Nova Scotia. Web databases (e.g., 4) give this same birthdate and put her birthplace as Boston, MA but without giving a source for Boston.

What else is known about "Lucy" from original sources? The bible card (see beginning of this chapter) says she was "Lucy from Truro" and indicates Henry was already in Novia Scotia when they married; this does not seem too reliable.

Her parents: In the Wisdom booklet (1) a further section on Mayflower descendents (written by George Wisdom in his original book or added by the compiler of the booklet?) states that Lucy was daughter of Mary Edmonds and Joseph Scott, thus linking back through the Edmonds (or Edmunds) family to Degory Priest of the Mayflower. I don't know of any other original source that supports this theory of her parents but it is widely stated in many databases on the Web. In my own family history site, I have also accepted in the past this link and this is perhaps the source many people have relied on? (difficult to know as it is so rare that sources are cited on the Web!). How likely is this that Joseph Scott was her father? As noted in the Scott chapter and backed by very reliable research, Joseph did have a daughter Mary, bapt. 21 August 1753 at Ware, MA. Mary would have been about nine or ten years old when she would have travelled to Onslow NS in 1763 with her mother, stepfather, and her siblings. Thus the birthdates are close but yet both are quite specifically recorded and they are three years apart. Further mitigating against the Joseph Scott theory is the suggestion in various sources that Lucy Scott married in the States or was there till at least 1776.

Finally, what is likely another nail in the coffin of this theory is the careful work done on the family of James Graham and Rosanna MacLaughlin of Annapolis, NS (5). This Graham family is not related to my Hugh Graham line from Stewiacke. This carefully documented work notes that his son John Graham m. Mary Scott on 29 October 1772 at St Paul's Anglican Church, Halifax. This Mary Scott died 17 Dec. 1844 at Three Fathom Harbour, Halifax Co. George King concludes, although noting that the definitive proof remains to be found, that John Graham's Mary Scott is the Mary Scott, daughter of Joseph Scott and Mary Edmunds. He notes her age at death as 91 which corresponds perfectly to her known birth in 1753 (but I don't know if he has calculated this age himself or if her age is independently mentioned in death record; this remains to be checked).

In summary, a careful and prudent review of the available evidence suggests that "my" Scott is not the daughter of Joseph Scott and that therefore a Mayflower link does not seem substantiated. I will leave posted all the various Mayflower chapters and the Scott chapter, which I have done a great deal of work on, although in all likelihood, these do not belong in A Family Reunion! The origins of our Scott remain to be found, perhaps in Boston or in SC?

William Henry Wisdom. b. 1797, and Siblings

According to source (1), who notes only names and spouses without any dates or children, Henry Wisdom and his mysterious wife had eight children. The oldest child is noted as being born in Halifax (4) so Henry must have been in NS by that date. The source (4) gives the dates provided here. They were:

1) John, b. 1779 in Halifax. He married in Halifax on 4 January 1806 to Betsy Elliott (Elizabeth Elliott in (4)) and they had at least ten children (from handwritten notes of Ethel Graham, noted in the original text of A Family Reunion; see also (4) for the same 10 children). John died 28 September 1823 in Halifax. Elizabeth was b. 13 May 1786 in Halifax, daughter of Jonathan Elliott and Almy Green. She died 14 April 1822 in Halifax. One of his great-granddaughters, Jane Wisdom, a friend of Ethel Graham, was on the staff of Montreal's McGill University. Her observation on the Wisdoms, often quoted by Ethel, was that "the Wisdom men didn't have much brains, the Wisdom women had all the brains".

2) Mary, b. 3 June 1781 in Halifax, m. a Bethune according to our own family records. A correspondent Dave Bethune (6) located a marriage bond in Halifax for her marriage to Daniel Bethune on Jan 11, 1799. The bond was witnessed by Henry Wisdom, who must certainly have been her father. Daniel died Sept 1887. The family line of the famous Dr. Norman Bethune is laid out in some detail in a book by Mary Larratt Smith (7) and it would seem to be there is no discernable link between this Daniel Bethune and the Norman Bethune line, who settled in Ontario and not in Nova Scotia.

3) Lucy, b. 1783 in Halifax, m. Charles Reeves. Information on their children can be found in WorldConnect databases, e.g. "bryanfkeddy" of Bryan Keddy.

4) Sally Sarah, b. 28 March 1786 in Halifax (called "Sarah" in (4)). She m. on 4 January 1803 to Titus Smith, Jr. Sarah died 17 November 1864. Titus was the brother of Sylvester Smith below, sons of Titus Smith Sr. and Damarius Nash. Titus Smith Jr. was born in Granby, MA on 4 Sept. 1768. He made several notable surveys of Nova Scotia and later became an authority on Nova Scotia's natural history. He was known as the "Dutch Village Philosopher". In some of his publications, he deals with plant succession, differentiation of forest types and humus layers, and other topics in ecology. it has been said in a paper by E. Gorham in the journal Ecology, that his "brilliant observations upon the vegetation of Nova Scotia may well comprise the first major contribution to plant ecology in North America. He died of jaundice on 4 January 1850 aged 81. For further information on their children and on the Smith Family see the original Family Reunion.

Chloe Hayes, grandmother of the 19th President of the United States, Rutherford B. Hayes, was a first cousin of Titus Smith, Jr. and thus the President is only very remotely related through marriage to my family!

Two of their 13 children maintained important ties with our family. A daughter, Olive L. Smith, b. 1811, m. John P. C. Bayer, b. 1811 of Halifax (see my files for more information on the Bayer family). One of Olive's children was Rufus Osborne Bayer who married his second cousin Elizabeth Jane Muir, b. 1858 (see Muir chapter). Another daughter, Harriet Sophia, b. 1827, m. in 1848 to William A. Hendry, b. 1823 of Halifax. One of their two daughters was Harriet who m. C. J. Creighton. Their son Norman Creighton, who lived in Kentville, NS, was interested in family history and corresponded with my great-aunt Ethel Graham (his third cousin), my father, and myself on that topic.

5) Hester, b. 1789 in Halifax, m. 26 January 1806 in Halifax to Sylvester Smith, brother of Titus above. She died 23 November 1877.

6) Abigail, b. 1793 in Halifax. She m. Thomas Davey (1) or Thomas Davis (4).

7) Olive, b. 1795 in Halifax. She m. (4) George McDonald on 10 July 1812.

8) William Henry, b. 12 March 1797 in Halifax. He lived in Halifax and married Mary S. Elliott on 15 May 1819, also of Halifax. We know virtually nothing of Mary; she was perhaps the sister of Betsy Eliott who married William's brother John Wisdom. In the database of (4), Elizabeth Elliott ("Betsy") is shown as coming from a large family and one of her sisters is indeed called Mary. This source however does not give the parents of Mary so this remains a hypothetical link which would need to be checked by perhaps finding their marriage record. William was a carpenter and a contractor in Halifax where his wife died on 5 July 1866. Two years later he went with his son Alonzo to New Zealand. He died at Cobden, Greymouth, N. Z. on 17 September 1883 aged 86. Their 15 children are in the next section.

Harriet Smith Wisdom. b. abt 1830?, and Siblings

From handwritten notes of Ethel G. Graham, we know of 15 children of William Henry Wisdom (chronological order unknown):

1) Olive, married twice, the first time to a Carter. They lived in the US and had two sons.

2) Elizabeth Mary, known as Libbia or Lib. She married James Farquhar. Libbia had a bad scoliosis.

3) Abna.

4) Louise (Lucy), married William Beck in Truro. They had three children: Louise, George, and William. George became a minister.

5) Charles Smith.

6) Ann, born in Halifax on 4 August 1823. She married on 26 September 1843 to Edward Stephens who, like her father was a carpenter and contractor. They moved to Maine.

7) Herbert.

8) William Henry Jr.

9) Alonzo, married Abigail. He emigrated to New Zealand, taking his elderly father. His brother Stephen preceded him by about two years; they traveled to this area where there was a minor gold rush at that time. The following was written by Jessie Wisdom Malcolm, Alonzo's granddaughter (in the small Wisdom booklet): "The Wisdom family settled on the west coast of the South Island – in Cobden, across the river from Greymouth. Grandfather was a carpenter-cabinetmaker of the old school – a very fine man, liked by all, very religious, and to us as small and not-so-small children, the nicest grandfather." Alonzo and Abigail Wisdom had nine children, eight of whom were born in New Zealand. Their first child was born in the US (3) so they must have passed through the US on their way to N. Z. See the original Family Reunion book for their names as well as further details in (3).

My parents Bill and Marg Graham had a terrific visit to Cobden in 1993 (3). Much information was provided to them by Beatrix Ashmore ("Trixie") McNeil, born 1919, a granddaughter of Alonzo. They learned that Alonzo founded a line of no less than seven generations of Wisdoms in Cobden. Alonzo had built a great many buildings in Cobden. He died in 1922 at age 79. My parents visited both his grave and that of our ancestor William Henry Wisdom. Alonzo's wife Abigail died in 1914 aged 72.

10) Stephen Elliott, apparently emigrated to New Zealand about two years before Alonzo. He married but had no children; he ran a post-office (3). He died August 1919 aged 92 and is buried in Cobden.

11) Harriet Smith, m. William Muir. See the Muir chapter for further details. She married in Halifax on 17 or 18 November 1852. We have no information on her, not even her birth or death date.

12) Alma Russell, b. 1831, Halifax. She married in 1859 to John Donald from Glasgow. John Donald and his brother-in-law William Muir were good friends. The Donalds had one child, Alma Mary Donald, b. 1868, m. John Forsyth from Maybole, Scotland. They had one daughter and two sons. The son was Ian Keith Forsyth, b. 1900 in Dartmouth. In 1935 he m. Winnfred ("Winnie") Killam from Moncton. Ian was much interested in his family history and contributed some of the information included here during a long period of correspondence with his second cousin Ethel Graham.

Of their four children, their youngest daughter Margaret m. Francis Harun Muchemi Wanyeki, a Kenyan. My parents met the Wanyekis in 1976 while they were living in Kenya and this connection has been maintained.

13-15) The names of the other three children (all boys) are not known; they undoubtedly all died as infants.

Sources

The original text on this family for "A Family Reunion" of July 1982, was written by Douglas Graham. A complete rewrite and update with some new information was undertaken in late 2005.

Footnotes

(1) Genealogy of the Wisdom Family 1675 to 1910. George W. Wisdom. Privately printed about 1910, Seattle, WA.

(2) Nova Scotia Vital Statistics from Newspapers. A multi-volume listing (those covering 1769-1854 consulted by me in Boston in July 1999 for the name Lucy Wisdom). The death notice for Mary Scott Wisdom was found in the volume for 1852-1854 (it is possible that the original record in the Acadian Recorder has more information?).

(3) "A Day in Greymouth/Cobden", William M. Graham, April 24, 1993. The account of my parents' visit to find Wisdoms in Cobden, NZ.

(4) WorldConnect database of Susan Bunker (s-bunker) checked in Aug. 05. Seems to be based on LDS records and archive and newspaper records.

(5) Web site with information on family of James Graham and Rosanna MacLaughlin (http://www.widomaker.com/~gwk/) by George W. King. In August 2005 the Graham link did not work on the site but I have a version (from 2000) that was previously posted on his site.

(6) Email correspondence with Dave Bethune in July 2006 (ID-228).

(7) "Prologue to Norman: The Canadian Bethunes", Mary Larratt Smith, Mosaic Press/Valley Editions, Oakville, Ottawa (1976).