Researcher question: Do you know anything about the Lundy family?

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4 responses to “Researcher question: Do you know anything about the Lundy family?”

1. June 10, 2020

   Robynne Rogers Healey

   I’m sorry I can’t help with anything specific about Enos Lundy. There is a book by Helen Johnson entitled Samuel Lundy, 1740-1826, descendants and Whitchurch Quaker Settlement, 1800 that might help. Getting the book might be a bit of a challenge, but it may include information on your Lundy line.

   I can tell you that Pennsylvania Friends (Quakers) were led to the colony of Upper Canada in the early nineteenth century by Isaac Phillips and Samuel Lundy, both from Bucks County in Pennsylvania. They were exploring farmland north of York (what is now Toronto) at the same time that Timothy Rogers (from Vermont) was there in 1800. The first families from Vermont and Pennsylvania arrived in the area around present day Newmarket in 1801. Then there were a series of chain migrations from the settlers’ Quaker communities of origin. The farmland in King Township in which Newmarket is located was not great so settlement moved east of Yonge Street in to Whitchurch, East Gwillimbury, and Uxbridge Townships. 1805 was the peak migration year for Friends who came to Yonge Street from the American states. In that year, ninety-one individuals had their certificate of membership from their home meeting accepted by Pelham Monthly Meeting for Friends at Yonge Street. It was this wave of migration that increased the size of the Yonge Street meeting enough that it began the process of requesting Monthly Meeting Status in 1805.

   If your third and fourth great grandfathers were members prior to arriving in Upper Canada, their membership certificates will be in the Pelham Monthly Meeting Records, which is where Yonge Street memberships were recorded prior to Yonge Street becoming a Monthly Meeting in 1806. If you’ve got access to Ancestry.ca, the Pelham and Yonge Street records are there. You may find mention of your great, great grandfather in the Yonge Street Quaker records. You would want to look at Preparative Meeting as well as Monthly Meeting records. Whitchurch Preparative Meeting (the local meeting, under the care of a monthly meeting, that prepared business for the monthly meeting) has minutes from 1816-1841.

   An important note: sometimes Quakers who had been disowned in one meeting moved to another meeting because they had family or neighbour connections in the new meeting. In some cases, so many Quakers left their Pennsylvania meeting that the Pennsylvania meetings were laid down. If your ancestors were disowned when they arrived in Upper Canada, it is possible that they may have requested membership and become members again. Disowned Friends could attend meetings for worship and were part of the community; they just could not attend business meetings. Finally, even if your ancestors’ names are not in the minutes does not mean they were not part of the community. There were many Quakers who were not active on committee and lived lives that did not result in disciplinary action against them. There is a Yonge Street Registry of Births and Deaths, 1803-1866 that will be on Ancestry. If your ancestors were part of the Yonge Street Monthly Meeting (and if they were at Whitchurch, YS would be their MM), they should be in that document.

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   1. June 11, 2020

      Randy Saylor

      I do not know much about the Lundy family but I did notice that Israel Lundy was recorded as “separated from us” in the Yonge ST MM minutes 8mo 1812. Israel had followed David Willson and the Children of Peace. To see this record find image 73 of the Yonge St MM 1806-1818 (O-11-6) at this link. https://cfha.info/YongeStO-11-6.pdf

      Two great books on Yonge St and its related meetings are these;
      From Quaker to Upper Canadian: faith and community among Yonge Street Friends, 1801-1850, Robynne Rogers Healey, Publisher Montreal; Ithaca: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2006

      Children of Peace, John McIntyre, McGill Queen’s Press, 1994

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2. June 11, 2020

   Glenn Wright

   One might also look at William C. Armstrong’s The Lundy Family and Their Descendants, a book that was published over 100 years ago, but based on extensive research. I suspect that some portions of it have been superseded, but it is still useful. The book is available on the Internet Archive (www.archive.org). I too am descended from Enos Lundy.

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   1. June 27, 2020

      Sandra Fuller

      The Lundy family came from New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania.
      Newmarket Public Library has two books in Reference Local History:
      NPL Ref LH 929.2097
      Armstrong, William C. The Lundy Family and their descendants. originally published 1902.
      NPL Ref LH 929.20971 Lundy-J
      Johnston, Helen. Samuel Lundy 1740-1826 and descendants, Whitchurch. self-published 1983.

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