Bates

WHERE WE CAME FROM

The Family of Lawrence (Buddy) Bates and Evelyn Rigby

The Irish have a long history of emmigration for one unhappy reason or another. The rate of leaving increased significantly in the mid to late ninteenth century for the same old reasons but with the added stress of the potato famine. Most who sailed to North America came out of the southeast counties of Waterford, Wexford, Kilkenny, Tipperary, and Cork. Emigrants often sailed first to Placentia Bay and the western outports of Newfoundland, then to Cape

Breton, Halifax, Saint John, Quebec, and Boston. This demonstrates the early connection between Ireland and Newfoundland, particlarly Waterford and Wexford in the former, and Placientia Bay in the latter. The relationship was driven by a combination of
1. Religious freedom and
2. Irish commercial interests.

1. The practise of the Roman Catholic religion was difficult at best, in any part of the British domain prior to the twentieth century. That restriction was profound in Ireland because the British associated catholicism with Irish nationalism and its practise was symptomatic of treason. Young men, and later male and females of all ages, ventured into the French colonies in North America where their religion was practised openly, and Irish communities were established in parts of old Quebec and French Atlantic Canada. There was a significant Irish presence in Louisbourg prior to and subsequent to its final capture in 1758.

Emigration ship disembarking

In Newfoundland there was an Irish presence in the French colony of Plaisance (now Pleasantia Bay) virtually from its founding in the 1600's. The Seven Years War between Britain and France ended in 1763 with the Treaty of Paris. Among other considerations the French effectively ceded all of its possessions in North America except Louisiana and Saint Pierre-and-Miquilon. One of the conditions of surrender was a British commitment to protection of

French culture and religion (catholicism). This established a corner of the world where the Irish could escape religious suppression while living their lives in familiar society.

2. Meanwhile, Irish business people had established a viable Ireland-Newfoundland fishing industry with Placentia Bay as its main outpost. This naturally expanded into a broader business conduct within and between Pleasantia Bay and Waterford-Wexford. Entrapreneurs with plants on both sides also operated shipping lines and workers had relativly easy facility

See comment oppression contributed much to North American settlement

to move from one to another. As well, ship fares out of the British Isles increased drastically in the middle decades of the 19th century, but those to Newfoundland were exempt. As might be expected, people emmigrating to North America often sailed first to Newfoundland then across the Cabot Strait to Cape Breton and beyond. These were referred to as "two-boaters."

While family ancestor Mark Bates might have worked his way to Newfoundland, in the system, and moved from there to Main-a-dieu on Cape Breton Island (an area that is in the Louisbourg neighborhood) it makes sense to me to consider that he was a two-boater.

Bates
Mark Bates was born at Kilmore Quay, Wexford County, Ireland, as was the girl he would marry, Catherine Carrrol. The papers, Descendants of Charles Martell and Ann Schmidt and MacKay Family and Connections in the Maritimes show that Mark and Catherine were married in Newfoundland in 1812 (but perhaps a little later, in that, the same material shows Catherine's date of birth as 1800. The date of birth of their second oldest child is 1822. Hand written field notes copied into the record, again by hand, are subject to minor discrepancies). They report as well, that the marriage took place in Newfoundland while a project at RootsWeb (Windwalker) indicates that it was back home at Kilmore Quay. Choose the latter, I suppose, because in those pre-Victoria days it is hardly likely that they would have taken such a journey together if they were not married. They settled in Main-a-Dieu where they raised the first nine of the large Bates clan that exists today.

Martin, the eight child, married Margaret Mullins of Glace Bay, a relatively large town about 50 kilometers north of Main-a-dieu. (Main-a dieu is on the edge of Catalone Lake and, of course, the Broad Atlantic. Close by now is the small community of Bateston). Margaret was the daughter of Lawrence Mullins and Margaret Buckley.

The MacKay and the Martell papers trace the Buckleys back to Charles Martell, whose parents were huguenots who escaped French persecution in the very early 1700's. Their first destination was Ireland where Charles was born and, in 1747 or 1748, Charles is with the military at Halifax, settling eventally in Main-a-Dieu.

The two researchers differ on the parentage of Charles, the MacKay paper identifying the father as Anthony who, as a child, escaped a particularly vicious anti-huguenot attack at Lyons, France. The Martell researchers dispute that claim and the associated story, suggesting that the names of the parents were Thomas and Jane.

Margaret Buckley was the daughter of Paul Burnaby Buckley and Elizabeth Martell who was born in "Lower Mira," March 12, 1778. Elizabeth was the daughter of Charles Martell and Ann Schmidt, a native of Switzerland. Charles was born in Dublin in 1732. The Bates Family History, compiled by Gertrude (Bates) Walker and Edna

(Dullea) Gillis shows that Martin and Margaret had been established in the Catalone district by 1881. According to the 1891 census Martin was a fisherman with eight children, including Peter, Paul, William, ancestor Lawrence, Martin, and Richard. Lawrence, who was born in Bateston in 1872,

Sources Bates Family History

married Jane Kelly, a young lady from Louisbourg. He grew up in the fisherman culture and managed an effective education, an achievement in a time and place where education was difficult to attain. He taught school for a time and trained in accounting and took employment with Dominion Coal Co.(or perhaps one of its integral predecessor companies) who moved him and his family to Glace Bay. He later moved to New Waterford where he served as town clerk. Jane was the daughter of Richard and Margaret Kelly.

Lawrence and Jane had fourteen children including Wilfred, Martin, Geraldine, Loretta, Willis, Jane, Lawrence (Buddy), and Gertrude. Buddy was born in 1909, and married Evelyn Rigby in 1933, Granny and Grampa Bates. He died in 1976 from lung problems attributed to his many years in underground coal mining.

Rigby
The '45 in Scotland relates to the largely highlander uprising in support of the deposed Stuart King James II. The Scots were crushed at the historically devastating Battle of Culloden (1746), and the--at least--equally devastating loss of their leadership and youth. The wounded were executed on the field, others at their homes and hiding places, or on the scaffold. Many of the leaders who survived, and families of those who did not, had escaped into French protection where their sons grew up in a different culture. These were to return, eventually, but felt little or none of the social commitment that had been the policy of their predecessors.

In Culloden's aftermath, Britain had placed heavy restrictions on highland culture, the leadership process, some religious and other practises and, for good reason, possession of arms. But the restrictions were eased in the reign of George IV, in consideration of the military potential of the disarrayed youth.

During the reign of George IV and that of his neice, Queen Victoria, Scottish soldiers fought for Britain, and garrisoned her terrirories, from India through the Middle East and southern Europe to North America. Among these was Donnchadh (Duncan), son of Eoin (Jonathan) MacIntyre.
We are told in the website of Florence Palmer that Duncan

"...spent many years in the British army and eventally received a grant of land in the area of Shelburne, Nova Scotia. It appears that he didn't like the area for he never settled there. He went instead to Leitche's Creek and settled on land which had been granted to an officer of his old regiment, Captain MacKinnon, who in time transferred the land to him. They settled in Bridgeport, Cape Breton. His wife might have been Christina."

In any event, Duncan married a lady from Scotland, and their five children included Donald who married Mary MacIntyre. Donald and Mary had nine children including Margaret, who married William Rigby of Lingan, NS. Donnachadh, was born c. 1745, so it's a proper geneologic estimate to put Eoin's birth date at about 1715.

The 1871 census shows only one Rigby in Lingan: Alexander. But this was a count of heads of families only, so the names of Alexander's wife and children were not shown. The 1881 census included, as it does today, the names of the spouse, the children, and members of the extended family within the domicile. The family of William and Margaret, in 1881, included seven children as well as Alexander, 88, and Catherine, 80. Catherine was born in Newfoundland, but of Irish origin, and Alexander was born in Ireland. The oldest child, Mary, is shown as age 20 in the 1881 census, William was 48 and Margaret 44. There are some errors in the census-taking and/or recording, but easily corrected from the two ensuing counts (1891 and 1901).

Their children were: (showing later adult occupations (1891)) Mary 20, Agnes 18, Dan 17 (miner), Alexander 15 (carpentar), William 13 (Mom's grandfather) (coal miner), Kate 11, Peter 10 (farmer), Vincent 7, Jane 6, Thomas 4, Margaret 3. (Margaret (Aunt Maggie) married Ronald MacSween, and their daughter, Elizabeth (Aunt Bessie) married Wilfred Bates, Grandpa Buddy's older brother. They are the parents of Wilf Bates of Pointe Clare, PQ, who provided census material (1881, 1891, and 1901 ) used on this site)

There was no New Waterford in those days. Between Sydney and the Lingan district was South Bar and Low Point, in all a large farming district, still in the clearing mode, I suppose. Previously Lingan was occupied, or at least utilized, for coal supplies, by French military and

colonists attached to Fortress Louisbourg. The word "Lingan" is a corruption of its French name, L'Indienne (Indian woman).

Following the fall of Louisbourg in 1758, the French garrisons and those colonists who could be apprehended or were not unwilling, I suppose, were expelled and Lingan lay

Coal Miners' Families

abandonned until the Rigbys and other Irish immigrants arrived in the mid 1800's. Lingan is, in part, the district that New Waterford was built upon in the early 1900's.

In the census of 1891, William is not shown. Margaret was the head of the family.

William Rigby, jr, married Mary Anne MacDonald, identified as "Scotch." They had nine children who grew to maturity: Florence, Wilbert (a special friend of mine), Vince, Vina who moved to Boston where she married and had a family of two, Percy who moved to Winnipeg, married and also had a family of two, Margaret, Mildred, Olive, and Evelyn (Granny). Margaret died June 21, 2004, the family's last survivor.

Buddy Bates and Evelyn Rigby had four children who grew to maturity: Evelyn (Evie) who married me, Ron, from New Waterford, Wilma whose spouse is Jerry MacSween from Glace Bay, Lawrence whose spouse is Dina Senger from Kelowna, and Brian whose spouse is Denina Gillis from New Waterford. Evelyn (Granny) was born in 1913 in New Waterford, and died in 1999.

Evie graduated from Mount Carmel Highscool in 1950 at the age of 17, too young to gain admittance to most schools of nursing. She was accepted in Hamilton Memorial Hospital in North Sydney, however, and graduated in 1953. In those days nursing schools were located in hospitals.

Evie's brother Lawrence moved out west in 1960, joining us in Regina for a while. He spent five or six years in Regina, joined the sales staff of Sunrype, one of the top Canadian producers of juices and fruit products, working a Saskatchewan territory out of Saskatoon. He advanced through the company's marketing system and is currently (2002) its president and CEO.

Notes:1.

Religious oppression, sadly, contributed much to the early settlement of North America. While catholics fared poorly in the British domain, protestants suffered as severely in some catholic governed countries; and many found ways to reach the wildness of North America rather than submit. The Bates forbears endured both. It's the way we were--perhaps the way we are. Perhaps sometimes the oppressed were those who were not sufficiently strong to be the oppressers.return

Notes: 2.

The Bates geneology is from research by Gertrude Walker and Edna Gillis and distributed to at least part of the family by Minerva Fahey. The compilation by Edna Gillis includes, in its "Miscellaneos Information," the following statement:
This family history was originally compiled by Edna (Dullea) Gillis in 1993. Much of the following information came from earlier research done by Gertrude (Bates) Walker and some has been added since 1993.
return

Notes: 3.

The development of the coal mines in Lingan/New Waterford/Low Point provided welcome industrial developement in the area--but at a cost. There are not many families that have not expeienced the tragedy of sudden loss. Grampa Buddy, cripppled in his later years from mine-induced emphezema, died from his injuries in 1976. In that year, Alex, my brother and best friend was killed in a mining accident; and in 1958 Willis Bates, Grampa Buddy's brother was killed. There are always others who were special although not family.return

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