Family Tree (Denison, Douglas, Harvey, Helmcken, Mackenzie, Maclean, Maclennan, McTavish, Norcross, Riley)

From an e-mail from Marianne Girling Feb 2003:

I have been trying to find out what happened to Peggy, the slave woman given to Sophia Denison (Mrs. Capt.)
by Elizabeth Russell, half-sister to Peter Russell. Peggy's husband, known as Pompadour or Pompy was a
"free negro". They had three children, Amy, Milly and Jupiter Pompadour.

There are references to all of them in various diaries and early newspapers. I wonder if there are any decendents
still in the Toronto area. They may have returned to USA with the end of slavery there.

I have contacted Ontario Black History Society, Ontario Provincial Archives and Toronto Reference Library.
So far the trail goes cold.

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From an e-mail from Tim Martin Mar 2003:

Legend has it that the slave woman was furtively
buried at the cemetery right beside sophia which is
directly to the north of the box tomb in the denison
area.

In those days a slave would not have had a marker so
we can't prove this. I was also told that the slave
woman was the last slave held in what was then Upper
Canada.

Of course all this could have been a figment of my
father's rather vivid imagination - makes a good story
though.

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From website managed by L. Everett Sanders (no longer online):

He asserts that Sophia was born on Nov 20th.

Also from the website - quoted from the church registry
- she was known as "Sophy"