What’s New

In UP TO RAWDON

September 2026

After a busy summer, previous update 21 July 2026

Update page xvi, fn. 4

COPPING JOURNALS updated

The Copping Journals are found in ‘Supplementary information about families’, check the 1836 & 1837 Editorial Notes ☺ they flesh out George’s diary entries with information about people and places:

George Copping Journal 1836 to 1845 (since April 2023)
1836 Journal of George Copping (typed transcript)
☺ 1836 Journal of George Copping Differences & editorial notes
Journal of George Copping (typed transcript)
☺ 1837 Journal of George Copping editorial notes

The editorial notes ☺ give background on settler names – where from, when and where located. I have revised the 1836 notes that were published in July 2026. The 1837 diary traces the Measles epidemic, as it is passed from member to member of the Coppings, then the November refitting of their log house with new clapboard, windows, doors, floors and stairs by Mr. Genereux (the carpenter and his sons) in time for Christmas. The year ends with the burning of Thomas Griffith’s new house by patriots. He was the head of the Rawdon Loyal Volunteers, the militia, which later became the Rawdon Loyal Irish Militia, (in response to the Fenian Raids and attacks by Irish Americans). The boys were “soldiering” but the whole family was affected. Perils of Pioneer Life Recollections of the John Burns Family gives a view of the militia in the community. John patrolled roads and lanes near his farm home protecting his family and neighbours.

Update pages 146-147

A recent contact Travis Hoban found the Up To Rawdon website and has sent details of the indenture of Charles Copping in 1822, (before the family moved to Rawdon) to Joshua Bell, an Irish businessman in and shoe manufacturer in Montreal who was later connected to the Patriotes.

Updates of PHOTO page 41

Youthful photos of Richard Francis Boyce and Mary Ellen Mason Boyce updates/#p041 who left Rawdon with their children, in 1905, for a farm at Milby, Quebec also photos of their eldest daughter Cornelia Boyce Orr and only son Oscar Rowland Boyce. Many from Rawdon were drawn to settle in Compton County – Harkness, Copping, Marlin, Burns and, in the adjoining Ascot Township, Smiley. Some bought farms, helped by Johnny Copping at Compton, and near Sherbrooke there were the excellent railway connections to the USA.

I shared the c. 1888 group photo of the family of James Mason and Mary Copping Mason updates/#p041. For me it honours my late friend Richard E. A. Mason, who was responsible for Cyclone Days: Plowing, Planting & Parties. The Journals of Sarah Alice Mason Copping 1899-1925. Edited by Margaret Mason Polk, Richard Edward Alison Mason and Daniel Parkinson, privately published 2005. Richard strongly resembled his grandfather Edward Armstong Mason.

William Boyce and Melinda Seraphina Lindsay

Richard Boyce’s parents William Boyce and Melinda Seraphina Lindsay are pictured here and in the photo gallery. (They were misidentified as Michael and Mary Smith, as pointed out in Addendum text pages 517 and 843.)

There are few Rawdon families without strong connections to New York or New England and the broader American middle west. I am reminded of a man born at Rawdon William S. Copping, who visited so often he was known locally as ‘Yankee Bill’. His photo is at p 811 and his story on Update page 811 to remind us of the cordiality that was taken for granted and has recently been put at risk.

Update Page 297

Isabelle Gray was the youngest daughter of William Gray and Jane Lockens and was born at Rawdon before they moved to Sauk Center, Minn, raising a family in the Rawdon emigrant community there. Sara Lackner, her great great grand daughter wrote to me. I “recently purchased Up to Rawdon, and [I am] thoroughly enjoying reading … Thank you so much for writing it!”

Kevin Smiley of Alberta and Sara Lackner of Minnesota wrote to me about their Rawdon ancestry and offered words of appreciation. Thank you.

Update Page 524

I have added births & deaths, for the children of James Marlin and Elizabeth Dixon. A son and two daughters named Elizabeth.

Update Page 528

William Dunn was a witness at the 1929 Law/Marlin marriage. William and his wife Mary and their daughter Molly lived on the Sixth Range near the Law, Marlin and Asbil and Copping families.

Update Page 1077

The Schoolhouse at the Forks is often mentioned in UP TO RAWDON.

Yves Forest, one of our regular contributors, has provided details on how the schoolhouse land was acquired, from researching Rawdon notarial sources. It was the centre of community life, 1824- 1835, before the churches were built and the village developed in the centre if the Township.