Notes for Thomas Sturgis

Notes for Thomas Sturgis

Thomas Sturgis, son of John and Mary (Evans) Sturgis, was born at Philadelphia, Philadelphia Co., Pennsylvania, April 8, 1723, and died at Mt. Pleasant, Ontario, Canada, August 22, 1807, and was the first person to be buried in the cemetery of that community. After the Revolutionary War, Thomas Sturgis sold his lands in Upper Merion, consisting of 210 acres, and, with his wife, son Amos, and family of Amos, emigrated to Canada.
In 1798 the Sturgis and Ellis families, consisting of sixteen persons, who, owing to their loyalty to the British cause during the Revolutionary War, had been compelled to give up possession of their lands, left the "Big Bend" of the Susquehanna River, in the State of Pennsylvania, their destination being Canada. They crossed the river below Black Rock, now Buffalo, October 3, 1798, and passed through what was then known as the Short Hills, or Upper Settlement, then to Burlington Bay, now the city of Hamilton, through Ancaster, and then to Brant's Fording Place, now the city of Brantford, which at that time consisted of two small Indian huts. Crossing the river they proceeded on to what is now Mount Pleasant, and took up two farms consisting of two hundred acres each. These farms were leased to them by
Captain Joseph Brant for a term of 999 years, dating from October 1, 1 So I. On July 11, 1931, a monument as unveiled in honor of these pioneer settlers by the Hon. Senator A. C. Hardy, a descendant in Canada of Thomas Sturgis.
Thomas Sturgis married, in December, 1747, in Christ Church, Philadelphia, Philadelphia Co., Pennsylvania, Catherine Roberts, daughter of Edward Roberts (Roberts I, Line No. i) and of Sarah Roberts (Roberts II, Line No. 2), of Tredyffrin, and sister to the wife of Jonathan Sturgis, his brother.
Catherine Roberts was born September 30, 1724, in Upper Merion, and died February 7, 1810, in Mt. Pleasant, Ontario, Canada. Sarah (Roberts) Roberts was a daughter of John Roberts, of Tredyffrin.

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