Gen Charters

I've been researching the Charters for just as long as the Gorsts I would say. Charters are my dad's family; the Gorsts are my mum's. The Charters are a lot easier to research in that I'm still living in Toronto, and the Charters were in Toronto by the 1850s. There is also quite a lot of city documentation to allow us to reconstruct the property ownership and so on by the family. This year I finally got into doing tax roll research. This is partly because I had such success doing property record research in Leeds when I was there in July this year... I suppose, until you start researching a source, it's hard to imagine what can pop up. Well, the visit to the archives was completely worth it.

One enigmatic figure in my history is William Captain. He doesn't have my last name, but he was married or lived with one of my forebears. For example he owned the house in which Lucy Anne White grew up in and in which she later lived with her husband Richard Blashford.

Lucy White was my grandfather Harvey's great-grandmother. She lived a long time--1827 to 1905. William Captain, who died in 1876, would have been a similar age to Lucy's father--but he was not her father, since they had different last names. Still, he lived with Ann Captain, who was Lucy's mother. Another family researcher also tells me that in her family, tradition has it that William and Ann Captain were not married... not not not! And that this is why they never had any other children. She suspects that Lucy White and Ann Captain were escaped slaves from Virginia and that William Captain was Ann's brother or uncle.

My approach has been to go address by address to build up a profile of where people lived and why.

Edward Street does not appear to have existed yet in 1843-44. But by 1846 the city directory says that Edward Street is the fifth street north of Queen Street, and runs west from Yonge. In the city directory of 1846, William Captain is listed as a plasterer on Edward Street (no number given). He is also listed there in the 1850-51 directory.

The city tax rolls also show William Captain living in and owning a house at 26 Edward Street in 1846-47. This was in the city Ward of St John. That part of Edward Street runs between Bay Street and Yonge Street; it is also one block north of Dundas Street. The row of houses where the Captains and Blashfords lived have been demolished--the World's Biggest Bookstore was there for ages. It seems that William Captain owned not one house here but two. He was repeatedly listed as a plasterer in both the tax rolls and the city directory. In the 1850s the street was still under construction. Lots 10-26, next door to where William Captain lived, are "vacant ground." Later this area would become the Briggs lumber yard.

The Charters also lived here on Edward St. In 1868-9, Wm Charters, mariner, is listed as living at 28 Edward Street. William Captain lives next door. Both men are still there in 1870. However, Lucy Blashford is living at 65 Edward Street and is listed as a "tailoress." William Charters lived on Edward Street probably until 1873-4, at which point he and his wife Mary (nee Blashford) and children moved to 181 Seaton Street.