By Howard Greenlees Yeilding III .

Hi Marlene,

I know you have so much material on the Yeilding's and are our unofficial keeper of family history so I am adding to your valuable library the following saga concerning that party of Yeilding's who migrated to Canada in the early 1800's. I have invested some time in the libraries of Ottawa during recent visits and have put together some of the history there, but as you must know discovering the answer to one question only raises several others. In any case I hope you will find Agar's story interesting. I have attached a photo of Agar's grave marker in Beechwood Cemetery. His body was moved there at it opening in 1882 for Ottawa's North Hill Cemetery which is no longer in existence. On it reads: "...Agar Yeilding, son of the late Richard Massy Yeilding, of Bellevue, Co. Limerick, Ireland. He died in his home Glensharrold near Ottawa City." It also lists his wife Mary Campbell of whom I previously had no knowledge. By the way, Agar's brother was also named Richard Massy Yeilding.

Preface: This grave marker was my first confirmation of the families link to Glensharrold, Co. Limerick. Agar named his home Glensharrold and my great great grandfather, Agar's brother, named his Kansas homestead, Glen Sharrald. It seems to me that all or most of the Yeilding's in America must be linked to this family in Limerick. They owned over a thousand acres in the county and together with the Eagar's, Tallis', Blennerhassett's, Maunsell's, and Massy's into which they intermarried, owned more than 10% of land the county. Note, these were all Anglo-Irish landed gentry in the counties of Limerick and Kerry.

In the 1820's England was urging loyal subjects to populate the vast openness of Upper (Ontario), and Lower (Quebec and the Maritimes) Canada. Since the end of the War of 1812 there was continued boarder clashes with US concerns. Parties in the US still talked about uniting Canada with the US and there were elements within Canada that supported this idea. Thus, England wanted to populate Colonial Canada with loyal subjects that would ward off such an outcome. England felt so insecure moving troops and supplies along the St. Laurence seaway that in 1826 they commissioned the construction of a navigation canal from the eastern end of Lake Ontario (Kingston) to Montreal. The canal followed the south flowing Courirel River to the north flowing Rideau River (thus the name Rideau Canal), then down the Ottawa River to Montreal. The engineer commissioned to build the canal was a Colonel John By.

Where the Rideau flowed into the Ottawa River there existed only a small lumber mill and supporting activities making up the village later named Hull. Across the river from Hull where Colonel By built his construction headquarters on the banks of the Rideau a town sprung up called Bytown. Construction on the canal was completed in 1832 and by that time the population of Bytown had grown to almost 2000. The canal construction supported many new businesses and the commerce that would then flow along the canal would guarantee its continued growth.

About this time the Yeilding party from Limerick sailed up the St. Laurence to Montreal, then a city of about 20,000. Montreal at the time was the home of a large Irish (mostly Catholic) contingent. Thousands of whom helped build the Rideau Canal. Family lore has the arriving party consisting of only Agar and Richard Massy. However, according to the 1850 census of Batavia, New York, Richard had a son, Richard Jr. (21 at the time) who was also born in Ireland. Thus, I believe Richard Jr. was with Agar and Richard Sr. when they arrived in Montreal about 1830. Perhaps Junior's mother died during child birth. There is no record of her at all. She remains a great mystery that needs solving. By the way, both Richard Massy and Richard Jr. specified their occupations as Veterinary Surgeons. Richard Jr went his own way after Batavia and I have lost his trail. The rest of the family migrated to Grant Co., Wisconsin in 1855.

In about 1834, apparently while in Montreal, Richard Massy and in 1836 Agar married - Richard to Margaret Blake (of Ireland), and Agar to Mary Campbell (also of Ireland - probably Co. Antrim). Richard Sr., Margaret, Richard Jr., their two new children, William Massy (b. 1835) and Fannie Belinda (b. 1837), made their way to Batavia, New York by 1838. My father's Grandfather, Alexander Tallis Yeilding was born there in Batavia to Richard and Margaret in August of 1838, their third and last child.

Agar stayed in Canada and moved to Bytown. There he acquired some land where he raised beef cattle and opened a shop where he sold groceries and leather goods. Agar is listed as a butcher, tanner, and leather merchant. His store is listed as being located in "Lower Town" (a blue collar, mostly Irish. section of Bytwon) on Rideau Street in the 1851 directory. The actual location was only about 400 yards from the canal across from which is now the location of Canada's Parliament buildings. I have attached an old painting looking at the last lock of the Rideau Canal looking east down Rideau Street as it looked in 1845. It is not very clear but it gives you the idea of how things looked back then. On one of the hills to the far left is where the Beechwood Cemetery is now located. The Canadian Parliament buildings would be built out of the painting on the right, behind where the artist is show sitting on a rock while his companion stands behind him.

In 1874, William Pittman Lett, the son of another Irishman, published a book written entirely in prose entitled "Recollections of Old Bytown and its Inhabitants" - published by the Bytown Historical Society. In it he had this to say about our Agar:

". . . And Charles Baines, an old time lawyer, Stood here professional top sawyer; He owned a bull dog, arrant thief! Who plundered Agar Yeilding's beef; And when friend Yeilding sought for law, To deal with canine of such maw, 'Why, there is just one simple way,' Said Charley, 'Make the owner pay;' 'I thank you for your judgement brief,' Said Agar, 'pay me for the beef, Seven and sixpence worth of prog, Was bolted by your big bull dog.'

" 'All right,' said Charley, like a flash, And quickly handed o'er the cash; But as friend Yeilding turned to go, 'Come back', said Charley, 'for you owe Just seven and sixpense for advice, So hand it over in a trice.' "

In 1840, England passed an Act of Union in which, among other things, Canada was provided with a colonial parliament, and Upper and Lower Canada was renamed Canada West and Canada East respectively. In 1854, Agar stood for election to Parliament to represent Bytown. By then Bytown had a population of about 8,000. Agar was nominated to represent his party (Conservative or Tory) by, Nicholas Sparks (a rich and very influential man of the time who it is said made his money by discovering gold a plot of land he bought for only £60.) and seconded by Alexander Gibb, publisher of one of the city's newspapers. The opposition (the Liberal or Reform Party) was divided by the fight between to eventual Members of Parliament, R.W. Scott, and H.J. Friel (one of Ottawa's first mayors). In 1854 Parliament consisted of 40 of the Reform Party, and only 15 Tory.

There exists today two streets named after Sparks in downtown Ottawa, Nicholas Street and Sparks Street. So why isn't there an Agar Street or Yeilding Street?

Agar and Mary had nine children, seven daughters and two sons. One son, John, was to take over Agar's business in 1869 only to have it closed by 1879. I don't know where John went from there, maybe Toronto. The other son, seems to be a W.R. (probably William Richard or Royce - those being often used old family names) Yeilding, a Colonel in the English military who served in India. A girl named Eileen Geraldine Yeilding* was born to him in Punjab, India (now part of Pakastan). Colonel Yeilding was living at 2 Kent Gardens, Ealing, London, England (an upper class address) in 1912 when his daughter Eileen sailed to Ottawa to visit the family.

In 1869, Agar had acquired a commission as an "Issuer of Marriage Licenses," an easy but lucrative operation which his daughter, Fannie, would inherit upon his death in 1873, and enjoy the rest of her life. This was likely a political consideration, or preference, much like the appointment of a Post Master's Commission was in the U.S. Until the family died out in 1932 with the death of Mary Massy Yeilding, Agar's daughters worked mostly as clerks in the Department of Indian Affairs.

*footnote: Eileen was the cousin of a Clara Eugene Aylwin. Clara was listed as the "informant" and niece on most of the death certificates of Agar Yeilding's daughters. Her mother was Catherine (Campbell) Hollingsworth, Agar's sister-in-law. She buried the last of the girls Mary Massy and seems to have disappeared. Logic would dictate that she would have been buried in Beechwood Cemetery in Ottawa but the cemetery records say otherwise. Neither is her husband, Francis Percival Aylwin listed there. He died about 1919 while she then lived with the Yeilding spinsters until the '30's. Her last known address in Ottawa was a house located at 5 Ralph Street, still in existence.

There are many Richard Yeilding's/Yielding's in the Limerick clan, and I have found it impossible to string them all together. Some day one of us needs to go there and spend some weeks trying to do that. I have maps showing the location of the Glensharrold townland where Bellevue House may or may not still exist. Let me know if you are interested.

By:Howard Greenlees Yeilding III Marlene, Did I send you this Yeilding information? If so, here it is again. I added some historical background in help the reader understand the newspaper article. Rgds, Howard The Yeilding’s of Limerick, 1823. In 1815 Napoleon was defeated, and the Napoleonic Wars ended after some 30 years of conflict. Although this end of hostilities was welcomed by everyone in that part of the world, it would soon bring unwanted hardships to all of the British Isles. The end of the war meant thousands of soldiers were returned to civilian lives. The war machine was insatiable making endless demands on the Kingdom’s production of goods and services and had driven a long period of prosperity. With the return of thousands of now jobless war veterans, vacant jobs were soon filled or vanished as industrial production was quickly cut back to meet the reduced needs. A severe recession was soon underway. By 1820 unemployment, higher rents, and low market prices (caused by falling demand) for farm products as well as industrial goods was hurting everyone, including the privileged classes. Thus, even though the Great Famine was still over 20 years away, there were thousands of homeless and starving in Ireland. To pay their taxes, landowners were forced to raise rents to offset the loss of land revenues. Tenants, unable to pay their rents, were either having their property seized and auctioned off to pay their debts (called distress for rent), or were being put off their land. In the latter instance, families were put out on the street and their now empty homes were sometimes burned to make more land available to the landowner for cultivation or grazing. In 1820 the population of Ireland was more than twice that of today. Tenants sometimes subleased their land to others as joint tenants. Thus, land was being split up into smaller plots making it increasingly difficult to support the growing families thereon. When “distress for rent” was claimed by the landlord, or his overseer, it often included standing crops, livestock, and farming implements. To prevent the loss of their crops, it was not uncommon among the tenant farmers to band together by the hundreds, and “harvest” the crops during a night raid. A resident landowner would often be confined to his home, beaten into submission, forced to flee, or a combination thereof to prevent him from interfering with the theft. Even well armed, a landowner would be helpless in the face of two or three hundred raiders armed with pitch forks and spikes. Unable to steal the confiscated livestock or crops the tenants would sometimes resort to destroying them to prevent their benefiting the landowners. Thus cows were hoed (physically deformed to prevent their resale or giving milk) or butchered, horses had their ears cut off, and stocks of grain burned. It is with this back drop that the Yeilding’s, large land owners in Limerick and Kerry Counties, were caught up in the troubling events of the time as described in the following newspaper account. THE CONNAUGHT JOURNAL1 Galway, Thursday, October 9, 1823 LIMERICK, OCT. 4. On Friday last, a number of men, armed with sickles and hay-forks, assembled on the lands of Ballyphilip, near Kilmore, in this County, held by persons of the name of Duggan, under Mr. Nathaniel Simeux, on which previously a distress for rent had been made, by authority from a receiver under the Court of Chancery, and though the care-taker came forward and cautioned this banditti to desist, they, by force, maliciously cut down several acres of unique oats, and drew off the lands a quantity of same. Next day they dug the potatoes growing on said farm, and drew off some of the corn cut the day before. Mr. Richard Yielding, jun.2 whose father has an estate on said lands, having heard of the outrage, came up in support of the care-taker, in order to prevent the corn from being removed, but to no effect, as the fellows dropped their spades, and with hay-forks, forced away the corn, and also grossly abused Mr. Yielding- six of the party were apprehended early on Sunday morning, by W.R. Yielding, Esq. and a party of the military from Kilmore, while in the act of conveying away the remainder of the cow. Several hundred persons were assembling to destroy and carry off the remainder off the property with horses, cars, &c., but on the appearance of the military they fled in all directions. 1. We owe our sincere thanks to: Cathy Joynt Labath, Abstracts from Irish Newspapers, 2. “Richard Yielding, jun.”, I believe was our Richard Massy Yeilding, Jr., who by 10 years later had migrated to Canada with his brother, Agar Yeilding. His father, Richard Massy Yeilding, Sr., is referred to in the article and is identified on Agar’s grave stone as his father, “the late Richard Massy Yeilding.” Richard Jr. would have been 23 years old at the time of the reported conflict while brother Agar would have been 9. “W.R. Yielding” was Richard Jr.’s grandfather, Col. William Richard Yeilding, who would have been about 72. 3. Ballyphilip is a townland near Rathkeale, Co. Limerick, about 10 miles east of the Yeilding family homeland of Glensharrold.

William Richard Yeilding - Descendant Report

William Richard (WR) Yeilding, Col. (About 1751 - ) Richard Massy Yeilding (21 Jun 1773 - )

Alexander Yeilding (About 1798 - )

Richard Massy YEILDING (About 1820 - )

Mary M. Yeilding (About 1820 - )

Richard Massy Jr. Yeilding Dr.* (3 Apr 1800 - 12 Aug 1892)

Richard (Massy) III Yeilding (Before Jul 1829 - )

Charles F. Yeilding (1848 - )

Richard Massy Jr. Yeilding Dr.* (3 Apr 1800 Bellevue, Co. Limerick - 12 Aug 1892, Rice Co., Kansas)

William Massy Yeilding* (1835 - 1901)

Fred B. Yeilding (15 Jul 1857 - )

Marie W. Yeilding (4 Feb 1863 - )

Bradley W. Yeilding (22 Jun 1870 - )

(Fannie) Belinda Fancy Arrabella Yeilding (Jun 1837 - )

Alexander Tallis Yeilding (17 Aug 1838, Batavia, NY – 1897, Rice Co., Kanasa)

Charles William Yeilding (13 Jul 1878 - 1928)

Richard Andrew Yeilding (1880 - 1941)

Arthur Tallis Yeilding Dr. (24 Jan 1883 - 16 Jul 1917)

John Chester Yeilding (1885 - 1885)

Lillian Mary Greenlees Yeilding (1891 - 1967)

Howard Greenlees Yeilding (24 Jul 1894, Rice Co., Kansas - 12 Oct 1937, Cotton Co., OK)

Walter Archie Yeilding (1897 - 1983) William Yeilding (1801 - )

Frances Mary Yeilding (1821 - )

Annabella Yeilding (About 1823 - )

Hugh Eldon Yeilding (1829 - )

Hugh Blennerhassett Yeilding (11 Oct 1866 - )

John Yeilding (About 1803 - )

Alice Blennerhasset Yeilding (About 1835 - )

Agar Yeilding M.P.P. (1814 - 25 Mar 1873) Died in Ottawa, Canada

Fannie (Frances) Yeilding (1837 - 12 Jan 1913)

Annie Bella Yeilding (1838 - 6 Oct 1916) Mary Massy Yeilding (13 Mar 1842 - 25 Dec 1932)

Belinda M. (Massy?) Yeilding (1848 - 30 Dec 1928)

Richardina Eugnia Yeilding (8 Jul 1849 - 25 Dec 1902)

John W. Yeilding (About 1850 - ) Still Born Yeilding?? (20 Apr 1879 - 20 Apr 1879)

Arthur William Yeilding (1 Jan 1892 - 15 Jun 1892)

W.R. (William Richard or Royce) Yeilding Col. (About 1850 - ) Eileen Geraldine Yeilding (1883 - )

Agnes Royce Yeilding (1851 - 9 Jul 1931)

Alexina Yeilding (Jarvis) (28 Jan 1858 - 21 Jun 1922)

Mrs. Vernon Barry Jarvis (About 1880 - )

John Massy Yeilding (2 Mar 1775 - )

Francis Yeilding (About 1776 - )

Annabella Yeilding (About 1783 - )

Annabella Eagar (1815 - )

Sarah Eagar (1817 - 2 Feb 1856)

Alexina Eagar (11 Feb 1818 - )

Catherine Eagar (About 1823 - )

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