Thomas Hedley was the third son of Nicholas Hedley and Jane McBride, having been preceded by his brothers William and John Henry. Thomas was born July 13, 1840 in the newly constructed stone house on Lot 18, Conc. 4 of March Twp., Carleton County (near Ottawa). The 1851 Census for March Township shows him at age 11, a labourer, also attending school. Besides his mother and his father, who was the owner of a saw mill, seven brothers and sisters ranging in ages from one to fourteen years shared the stone house with him.
     Sometime before 1862, when Thomas was in his teens, his parents and eleven brothers and sisters left Carleton County and moved to West Wawanosh where his father gained employment as a miller besides farming Lot 16, Concession 10, adjoining the mill property. Thomas apparently remained behind in Carleton County, for his marriage registration shows Thomas Hedley  “of March Township, Carleton County.”
 

     Mary Ann Armstrong was the eldest daughter of James and Bridget Armstrong, a Roman Catholic family in March Twp. The 1861 Census for Carleton County shows the family living in a log house in March Township:
 

         Five years after this census Mary Ann married Thomas Hedley, and the following year John Armstrong, her brother, married Thomas's cousin, Elizabeth Hedley, daughter of William and Bridget Hedley.
         After their marriage in March Twp., Thomas and Mary Ann must have moved to West Wawanosh, for on the 16th March, 1867, according to Church records for Dungannon Anglican Church, their first child was born in Wawanosh.

 

The Seven Children of Thomas Hedley and Mary Ann Armstrong

Lucy Elizabeth  Hedley	b. Mar.16,1867, W. Wawanosh, Huron Co. (baptism Dungannon); m. unknown; living in Huron Twp., Bruce Co. in 1891 (age 23); d. date/place unknown
Mary Catherine (Ettie) Hedley	b. Mar. 26,1870, West Wawanosh; m. unknown; living in Huron Twp., Bruce County in 1891 (age 20); d.date & place  unknown.
Jemima Hedley	b. Jan. 14, 1874, Kincardine, Ont. (baptism Anglican Church of the Messiah); m. unknown; living in Huron Twp., Bruce Co. 1891 (age 17); d. date/place unknown
Florence May Hedley	b. Aug. 3, 1877,  Kincardine; living in Huron Twp., Bruce Co. in 1891 (age 14); m. unknown; d. date & place unknown
Thomas  Hedley (twin)	b. Aug. 3, 1877, Kincardine; died in infancy
John Alfred  Hedley	b. May 11, 1880, Kincardine; living in Huron Twp., Bruce Co. in 1891 (age 12);  m. unknown; d. date & place unknown
Hazel ‘Maude’  Catherine Hedley	b. Mar.28,1881, Kincardine; living in Huron Twp., Bruce Co. in 1891 (10 years old); m. unknown; d. date and place unknown
Minnie ‘Ann’  Hedley (twin)	b. March 28, 1881; d. Sept. 8, 1881
Beatrice ‘Pearl’ Hedley                                 .	b. Dec. 1885, Kincardine; living in Huron Twp., Bruce Co. in 1891  (age 5); m. unknown; d. date and place unknown

On the 17th of Feb, 1908 the newspaper, The Signal,  for Crewe, a community south
of Lucknow, contained the following item (provided by Phyllis Morrison of R.R. # 1, Lucknow):
 

        Thomas Hedley died February 13th, 1908 at age 67 years and 7 months. Mary Ann, if still living, would have been about 62.
         Their children would all have reached adulthood, the  youngest, Pearl, being 22 and the eldest, Lucy, 40. His relatives from Lucknow were probably his younger brother, Alexander Hedley and his wife Thomisine Fisher. Alexander was killed only four months later in an accident caused by runaway horses at the arena corner in Lucknow. There is no record of Thomas's grave in South Kinloss Cemetery.

this page last updated Jan 23, 2003

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