Seymour

(from Settlers)

Jane (Iles) Seymour (1836–) was seven when she came to Canada with her parents, Catherine O’Brien and Andrew Iles, and her grandparents. She was the only girl, with eight brothers.

Their voyage took twelve weeks in a sailing vessel. They spent some time in Whitby with relatives and eventually made their way to Warwick Twp. where her father bought a farm.

Being of Irish descent, the family was quite superstitious. The men used to sow the grain and butcher the pigs when the moon was right and the women would pick the geese and make their soap according to the moon. There was an old almanac hanging on a nail in the kitchen and it was often looked at when they were planning some particular work.

Jane married her husband when she was eighteen, on New Year’s Day in 1854. Upon completion of the ceremony, everyone piled into sleighs and, with a fiddler playing the entire way, they journeyed home for a grand celebration. The younger boys had placed ropes across the road in various places and the groom had to give them handfuls of coins before the bridal procession could pass through.

Chapter 24 of 25 - Seymour Family

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