My latest research enabled me to find a marriage certificate for Elizabeth and John. There is not much more information except her age is given as twenty-five which would make her two years Richard's senior. She is listed as living in Port Quin and her father was John Phillips. The marriage took place November 24 1844,(1) at the parish church. I know little else about Elizabeth Philips-Knight other than what I found in the 1851 Ontario census. I do know that the information for the census was taken beginning in January of 1852,(2) and at that time Elizabeth was alive. They lived in Vaughan, York County at that time, Richard working as a tailor and Elizabeth was at home with four children ages five to one. They also had a young twelve year girl from England by the name of Harriet Bone who lived with them. She was listed as servant. She must have died shortly after or taken other employ. I am unable to find her an any further census. Elizabeth's headstone includes the name of her son William H. and is situated at the Bowmanton Cemetery, Haldimand Township, Northumberland County, Ontario. After further investigation it would appear that the family moved to Bowmanton shortly after the 1851 census. Richard had acquired land there and was starting to farm. It would appear that Elizabeth may have contracted a disease that also took her youngest son William. The headstone says he died three days later. Elizabeth died 15 February 1854.(3) The stone is very difficult to read. Her son William H appears on the stone below and his date of death is February 18, 1854. The stone that marks the grave of her youngest son has both names on it. The Bowmanton Cemetery is a pioneer cemetery and parts are in very poor repair. Together the couple had four children.
Children of Richard Knight 1824 -1892 and ELIZABETH PHILLIPS (1822 - 1854)
John Phillips Knight (1846-) John Phillips Knight was the first born son of Richard Knight and Elizabeth Philips. He appears in the census for 1852,(2) with his parents but disappears after that. I am unable to find out what happened to him. It should be noted, in the 1852 Census of Canada he is listed as have being born in Canada. This suggests Richard and Elisabeth arrived in the Vaughan area in or before 1846.
Elizabeth, like her siblings appears in the census for 1852.(2) She continues to be part of the family in subsequent census' until they moved to Toronto.(4) (5) (6) I came across events for Elizabeth quite by accident while searching for one of my Ostrom ancestors. I was assuming she stayed with her father and stepmother until they moved to Toronto and possibly died in Bowmanton. However while perusing the Bomanton Cemetery I was unable to find a gravesite. She actually married Byron Preston, a widower, July 12, 1882,(8) in Peterborough, Ontario.This would indicate she did not go with them to Toronto but instead remained in Ontario. She would have been in her mid-thirties, considered late to marry. Byron was the son of Elijah and Nancy Preston. Elizabeth's address is listed as York, indicating she did move with her father and stepmother to Toronto, and also indicating they either moved there shortly after the census of 1881. John had been previously married, first to Eliza Mulligan from Hamilton Township. He and Eliza had three children; Annie Victoria, John Sylvester and Jane. His second wife Margaret White, also from Hamilton Township and he had no children. Their marriage lasted but two years. Margaret is present in the 1881 census but his marriage to Elizabeth Knight in July of the following year indicates she died in 1881 or early 1882. John would have been in need of a caregiver for his three children and Elizabeth would have fit the bill. Having lived with a large family, she certainly would have been responsible for the care of some at home. The couple gave birth to Richard Lewis in 1884, quite possibly in Toronto, as they can be found in the next census there. In 1891 Elizabeth and Byron along with John and Jane, his children from his first marriage and Richard Lewis, age six which would have been their only child. The family resides in Toronto's St. Mathew's Ward. 1901 John has left but Annie, Byron's eldest daughter Annie and Jane his youngest, both sewing machine operators along with Lewis, now a fur cutter live with them in Toronto. Byron was employed as a painter. In the 1911 census she is living in Toronto East with her husband Byron. Their son Lewis and his wife, Bertha and their seven month old child Norman live with them. By 1921, the couple has left Toronto to spend their later years in Port hope, on Bramley Street. Elizabeth Knight-Preston died October 13, 1922,(9) in Port Hope, Durham County at the age 68 according to the death certificate but she was more likely seventy-five years old. She died from debility of age and exhaustion. Byron outlived her by five years. Her tombstone lists her date of birth as 1849 not 1848. She is buried in the Welcome United Cemetery C2 L11 on Toronto Road alongside her husband Byron. Byron died January 11 1928.
Anna J. Knight (1849 - )
Anna or Hannah J. Knight was Richard and Elizabeth's third child. She appears in the 1851 census,(2) with he family at two years old. We know the census was gathered after January of 1852 which would mean she was born sometime in 1849. Anna appears in the next census of 1861,(4) with Richard and Fanny. She is now eleven, the family calls her Hannah not Anna. This is possibly because Fanny has had several children, the youngest among them at one year of age, named Ann. The last record I have of Anna or Hannah is the 1871,(5) census where she remains with her father and stepmother on the farm. She is twenty-one at the time.
Gravestone for William H Knight
William H. Knight (1851 - 1854)
William H. Knight was the youngest son of Richard and Elizabeth. His inscription on the headstone at Bowmanton Cemetery. indicate that he was born in August of 1851.(2) According to the 1851 census (taken in January of 1852) he was at that time one year old. After the death of Elizabeth or possibly even while she was alive, Richard would have been in need of someone to care for the children while he worked on the land and at his trade as a tailor. That person was most likely Fanny May. Since they married in 1853 and Fanny had a child of her own in August of the same year, it would mean that Fanny was pregnant in December of 1852, shortly after Richard arrived there. This leads me to believe that the date of birth for William was most likely 1851. The grave marker for William H Knight in the Bomanton Cemetery along with other family members. He died February 18 1854. The marker states he was 1 year and six months of age. There is confusion with this part of the family as I have found information to support several theories. Dates of births and deaths which may or may not be the right Knight. The two strongest pieces I have are that William appears on the 1851 census (taken January of 1852) stating he is less than one year old, and the inscription on the gravestone.
(1) M. 1846 Knight John/Phillips Elizabeth "England, Cornwall Parish Registers, 1538-2010," database with images, Richard Knight and Elizabeth Phillips, 25 Nov 1846; citing Marriage, St Endellion, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, Cornwall Records Office, Truro. (1a) M. 1846 Knight John/Phillips Elizabeth England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1837-1915 Bodmin V.IX p.43 (2) C. 1851 Census Place: Vaughan, York County, Canada West (Ontario); Schedule: A; Roll: C_11759; Page: 35; Line: 3 (3) D. 1853-4 Knight Elizabeth Phillips Headstone Bowmanton Cemetery, Haldimand, Township, Northumberland, Ontario. (4) C. 1861 Census Place: Canada West (Ontario) Northumberland Haldimand Image No.: 4391947_00306 (5) C. 1871 Census Place: Canada West (Ontario) Northumberland Haldimand Image No.: 4396346_00164 (6) C. 1881 Census Richard Knight, Haldimand, Northumberland, Ontario, Canada; from "1881 Canadian Census." Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, Ontario. (7) C. 1891 Census Census Place: St Mathews Ward, York East, Ontario; Roll: T-6379; Family No: 341 (8) M. 1882 Ontario, Canada, Marriages, 1801-1928, 1933-1934 Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Registrations of Marriages, 1869-1928; Reel: 41 (9) D. 1922 Ontario, Canada, Deaths and Deaths Overseas, 1869-1946 Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Collection: MS935; Reel: 292