Westerkirk Thomsons in Canada

The old parish of Westerkirk, a wholly agricultural area, is situated five miles north-west of Langholme on the River Esk. There are evidences extending from Roman times. Westerkirk was the most westerly of the five kirks of Eskdale.  There is little physical change since the days of the early Thomsons.

John and Robert Hyslop, local historians and authors of "Langholm As It Was" report that the Thomson family resided around the Westerkirk Parish, Dumfriesshire, Scotland from at least 1470. With some knowledge of family traits and customs, it is possible to make an educated guess about family lines. This was done by the researcher, Wm. Porter, for the writing of “A Backward Look at the Forefolk of Lord Thomson of Fleet and North Bridge”.  By the seventeenth century Thomsons were scattered over a wide area, including English parishes fringing the Scottish border. Only the main stem of the Thomson family remained in Westerkirk, as did the principal stem of the Beatties.

During the era, mid 1500s, of Border raiding the Thomson rode with the Beattie clan as bold raiders, rustlers and thieves on Lord Wharton’s instruction. The Borderers did not relinquish their scorn of authority. Even after the Union of the Crowns the peace was not easy. Lord William Cranstoun was prominent in executions about 1605. Archibald Thomson appears not to have suffered the capital fate of the less fortunate lawbreakers. It is ironic that two generations later a Margaret Cranstoun should marry into the Thomson family.

A grandson of Margaret and Adam Thomson, Andrew Thomson, became the father of emigrants to the new world. Andrew elected to be a stonemason rather than a farmer. He was one of the tradesmen who in 1735 built the hump-backed three-arch stone bridge across the River Esk. He and his wife, Jannet Scott, raised six sons and one daughter. Three sons, Archibald, Andrew and David, took their families overseas and two others, William and Helen, had offspring go.

Archibald was the first brother to come to North America in 1773, first to Harpersfield, New York State. With the start of the rebellion, came to Canada in 1775 and fought with McDonell's Loyalist Militia in the American Revolutionary War. He was a Scout for Chief Joseph Brant in the Mohawk Valley New York. After militia duty, he and his wife, Elizabeth McKay, settled in Kingston in 1786. Later, in 1795, they moved to Newark (now Niagara on the Lake), then the capital of Upper Canada. His brothers Andrew and David came in 1796. They had decided to go to York (now Toronto) as it was being made the new capital of Upper Canada. Archibald very likely did much to assist the building of the new community as he had in Kingston and Newark.

 David and his wife Mary arrived in Upper Canada (now Ontario) with their four children in 1796 and settled briefly in Newark, then York.  As a stone mason, David worked on the construction of the first parliament buildings.  In 1799 they became the first settlers in the Scarborough district. David joined other pioneers in the defense of Canada in the War of 1812. During the War of 1812 no fewer than a dozen Thomsons served in the Third Regiment of York Militia. Mary died in 1847, leaving over 100 descendants. There is the David and Mary Thomson Collegiate and the Thomson Memorial Park in Scarborough named after them.

 Andrew came to Canada in 1796 along with his brother David. He was accompanied by his second wife Jean and daughter. As a stone mason he too assisted in the construction of the new parliament buildings. He and Archibald followed David as early settlers in Scarborough.

 William himself never immigrated to Canada. But four of his sons, Archibald, Simon, Christopher and David did. They settled in the Scarborough and Orilla, Upper Canada areas.

 The families of the immigrant Thomson boys gave birth to some famous people who contributed in major measure to the life and times of the growing young Canada.