Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
James Thomson fonds
General material designation
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Title statements of responsibility
Title notes
Level of description
Fonds
Repository
Edition area
Edition statement
Edition statement of responsibility
Class of material specific details area
Statement of scale (cartographic)
Statement of projection (cartographic)
Statement of coordinates (cartographic)
Statement of scale (architectural)
Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
-
1844-1949 (Creation)
- Creator
- Thomson, James
Physical description area
Physical description
0.05 m of textual records
Publisher's series area
Title proper of publisher's series
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Archival description area
Name of creator
Biographical history
James Thomson was a farmer, baker, miner and lumberman who lived in Edwardsburgh, Canada West (now Cardinal, Ont.). Born in 1823 in Aboyne, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, Thomson worked as a baker's apprentice at the age of 22 until he emigrated to Canada in 1844. He stayed in Montreal that first winter, then moved to Edwardsburgh to work as a baker. In 1849, he moved to Chicago, where he found employment in a lumber firm. In 1850, he travelled to California, then the Fraser Valley (Cariboo), where he took up mining, and continued working as a baker and a lumberman. Three years later, he had earned enough money to purchase a farm in Edwardsburgh. He would later work for the Edwardsburgh Starch Company as assistant book-keeper
After settling in Edwardsburgh, he married Mary Armstrong in 1854. They raised five children: James, Colin, Edwin, Mary and Agnes. They had born two others, Lora and an unnamed infant, who both died at young ages. James passed away in 1895.
Custodial history
Scope and content
The fonds consists of correspondence and a diary (1862) written by James Thomson, as well as genealogical notes on the Thomson family. The correspondence includes letters he wrote to his father, mother and sister in Scotland, and later to his wife in Edwardsburgh. Also includes an obituary notice of his son's (1949).
Notes area
Physical condition
Immediate source of acquisition
Gift of Mr. George Billings McClean.
Arrangement
Language of material
- English
Script of material
Location of originals
3016
Availability of other formats
The letters were published by McGill-Queen's University Press as "For friends at home: A Scottish emigrant's letters from Canada, California and the Cariboo 1844-1864," edited by Richard Arthur Preston.
Restrictions on access
None
Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication
None
Finding aids
Associated materials
See also the Richard Arthur Preston fonds.
Accruals
No further accruals are expected