| Notes |
- [Edey.FTW]
"Strange Wedding" by J.H. Edey, A.G.S. No. 1300
While doing research in the Edmonton Branch of the Alberta Genealogical
Society library in the winter of 1982, I found a book entitled "Marriage
Notices of Ontario" by William D. Reid. In the index there was the name
Betsey Edey and referred to Page 176. There I found the following:
"20 January 1843. Upon the ice, on the Chaudiere Lake, on Tuesday,
December 27th, James F. Taylor, of Hull, to Betsey Edey, of the same place
(Rev. Mr. Williams)".
In the Introduction to this book I found that the book had been published
after Reid's death from extracts he had taken from different newspapers
and periodicals which were published between 1813 and 1854. The item
above had been extracted from "The Church" which was published at times in
Coburg and at times in Toronto between 1837 and 1849. I decided that when
I could I would find the original account in "The Church". On September
2, 1983, I was in the Archives of Ontario, Toronto, and got the Microfilm
N52 R1P, a copy of "The Church, Toronto, 6 May, 1837 - 30 June 1843". The
print was small and difficult to read but in the issue of 20 January,
1843, I deciphered the following information as best I could:
"STRANGE WEDDING - Taking it Coolly! - On Tuesday 27 Decr last, James F.
Taylor, Esq., of Hull to Miss Betsey Edey of the same place. The ceremony
was performed by the Revd (?) Mr. Williams at 7 o'clock in the evening,
upon the ice, on Chaudiere Lake.
'Not a drum was heard, or a conjugal note, As alone on the cold ice they
hurried."
The reasons assigned for selecting this cool retreat is that Ministers of
the Methodist persuasion are not authorized by the law to marry persons in
Lower Canada. The Revd Gentleman did not conceive Hymen's torch would
afford his optics sufficient light to read the marriage ceremony by, he
had therefore provided himself with a lantern. After the knot was tied,
the happy pair drove off for a more genial clime to enjoy the honeymoon.
Ottawa (Aylmer) Advocate, 3 Jan."
When I was in Ottawa later that month I asked to see a copy of the Ottawa
(Aylmer) Advocate of 3 January 1843 but it was not available in the Public
Archives of Canada or in the Ottawa Public Library. I would like to read
the original story.
It is interesting to note that Betsey (Elizabeth was her right name) was
the third wife of James Finlayson Taylor and that her brother, Nelson,
married Margaret Taylor, daugher of James F. Taylor and his second wife,
Nancy Olmstead on 10 March, 1853. Thus, Elizabeth was the step-mother of
her sister-in-law.
Edmonton 30.12.1983
|
1811 - 1899 (87 years)
d. 7 Dec 1857, Aylmer, Quebec 
