WILLIAM MINCHIN TELLS HIS 1849 STORY
/in the wake of the irish potato famine
THIS STORY is an account written by William H. Minchin (1839-1914) of his life and struggle to become a school teacher, revealing how very difficult it was for immigrants to start a new life for themselves in Canada in the 1800's.
But really the story begins with his mother, JANE GLADNEY MINCHIN , (1807-1900), a brave and hardworking woman, who faced the eight week journey across the ocean with her husband, Daniel Minchin and five children, only to be left a widow, upon her arrival in Marmora, destitute and depending on relatives.
Sitting are Jane Gladney Minchin and her second husband, Richard Laycock. Standing are her two sons from her first marriage to Daniel Minchin - John on the left and William Henry on the right.
By the time William Minchin's family had arrived in Marmora, Jane's father, William Gladney (1780-1851) was well established as a merchant here, had married his second wife, Elizabeth Hampton, and produced a second Gladney family, who were the ancestors of the well known Gladneys that built 65 Forsyth Street, Marmora.
