We have gradually built up a picture of how the first Brinsmead's came to Canada. However, there is much we do not know. Our focus has primarily been on Hugh Brinsmead, the patriach of by far the largest Brinsmead clan in Canada. We know from the 1901 Census return that he reported arriving in Canada in 1855. This makes it very likely that he came out to Canada with his sister Mary Ann and her new husband Thomas Tanton, and another couple, William Ware and Mary Tanton, all of whom also left the St. Giles in the Wood area and came to the London, Ontario area in 1855.
We begin with a picture of life back in St. Giles in the Wood. The Hugh Brinsmead who came to Canada was the youngest of three children born to Hugh Brinsmead (born 1813) and his wife Mary Ann Turner (born 1815). The eldest daughter Eliza was born in 1835, and her sister Mary Ann was born about 20 months later in late 1836. Eliza died before Hugh was born, being buried in St. Giles in the Wood on December 8th, 1837. Hugh was born in 1839. Hugh Senior was a miller in St. Giles. Hugh would have recalled nothing of his father because he died in the same year young Hugh was born, on June 6th, 1839, of an inflammation of the chest.
The 1841 census shows Mary Brinsmead living at Stoneyford, which is a farm in St. Giles, with children Mary (4) and Hugh (2). Also living with them are Elizabeth Turner (20), William Turner (15), (presumably Mary's younger brother and sister), William Copp, John Quick and Thomas Lander. Mary is shown as a Miller and Elizabeth as a Glove Maker.
By 1851, Mary Anne had remarried and was living with her new husband William Ware at New Bridge Flower Mills, Huish Torrington. By then they had two children of their own, a daughter Eliza (4) and a son Francis (2) as well Mary Ann (now 14) and Hugh (now 11). John Ware's sister Wilmot Ware lived on the property, as well as Mary Ann's father and mother Robert and Mary Turner (ages 67 and 60) and her brother John. This appears to have been a substantial mill, since the census lists five millers; John Ware, John Turner, William Friend, Thomas Trace and Robert Blake.
By the late 1840's and early 1850's times were hard and people were leaving the village for Australia, so emigration was not a new concept. Family legend is that Hugh Brinsmead did not get on well with his step father.
We do not know what led him to leave but we do know that on July 15th, 1855 there was a double wedding in the area. The announcement of these weddings is a bit confused. The St. Giles in the Woods parish records show that banns were read in the church for both couples on June 24th, July 1st and July 8th, 1855.
We do know that these two couples, before the end of 1855, left St. Giles in the Wood and moved to the London, Ontario area. We have begun describing the various migrations from St. Giles in the Wood to London, Ontario on another page. Settlement in London, Ontario. This includes members of the Ashplant, Tanton, Ware and Brinsmead families.
The conclusion is irresistible that the two couples, along with Hugh Brinsmead, travelled together to Canada in the fall of 1855. There are virtually no passenger records for this period. We have been unable to find any record of their route or the ship they sailed on, but our research continues.
Hugh Brinsmead's great granddaughter Joan Selley recalls her grandmother Rachel Leckie (nee Brinsmead) telling her that Hugh returned to visit St. Giles in the Wood a couple of times in his later years. On one visit he was there all summer so he decided to grow some corn. Corn on the cob was not part of the English diet. When it had grown he brought some into his sister (probably his step-sister Eliza Ware) suggesting they might have it for lunch. When it was not on the lunch menu he did not think too much about it but in the middle of the afternoon his sister came to him: "Hugh", she said "I don't know what to do about that corn, I've been cooking it half the day and I still can't get a fork through it!"