We’ve received a researcher question to be put to the expertise of the CFHA and its membership:
Hello, I just discovered that my great, great grandfather, Enos Lundy III, was a Quaker, whose father, Enos Lundy II and grandfather, Enos Lundy I, immigrated to Canada from Pennsylvaia, USA, in 1805. They settled in York County in Whitchurch Township I believe.
The house built by Enos Lundy (II I beieve) has been designated a heritage home by Aurora.
Enos III was father to Sarah, who married John Cain. Their daughter, Fern, was my grandmother, who married Milton Palmateer. My mother, Irene, was their second child.
I would like to learn more about my Quaker roots. I understand that there might be a book written about the Lundys?
Any information would be greatly appreciated.
Can you help our researcher out with some relevant resources or suggestions for places to find further information? Please use the comment field below (and register for an account to post comments, if you have not yet done so.)
4 Comments
Robynne Rogers Healey · June 10, 2020 at 12:04 am
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.
Randy Saylor · June 11, 2020 at 3:35 pm
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
Glenn Wright · June 11, 2020 at 8:29 pm
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.
Sandra Fuller · June 27, 2020 at 9:46 am
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.