Notes on Families

McTaggart/Brookbank

Photograph of Josephine Maud Spencer McTaggart sitting and crocheting

Photograph of Josephine Maud Spencer McTaggart sitting and crocheting 1884-1890, Photo © CMH

The Brookbank Collection, named for its donor, contains artifacts mainly related to descendants of the Brookbank family — the Spencers, Coons, McTaggarts, Elliots and Ellises of London, Ontario — during the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Josephine Maud McTaggart (née Spencer), born November 14, 1847, was the daughter of William and Jane Spencer. On September 17, 1884, she married Dr. Alexander McTaggart, and died on September 14, 1927. Her only daughter, Cecelia Jean Josephine Spencer Ellis (née McTaggart), was born on September 3, 1888 and married Colonel George Howard Ellis on June 28, 1921. They had two children: Patricia Josephine and Jane Buckley Ellis.

Sir John A. Macdonald

Sir John A. Macdonald (1815–1891) was a lawyer, businessman, and politician most remembered as the first Prime Minister of Canada. He was married twice: first to Isabella Clark (d. 1854), with whom he had two sons, and then in 1867 to Susan Agnes Bernard, with whom he had a daughter. The collection of artifacts pertaining to Sir John A. Macdonald’s family is thought to have come from either Sir John A. Macdonald’s estate or that of his son, Sir John Hugh Macdonald.

Portrait of Isabella Clark, first wife of Sir John A. Macdonald, ca. 1852

Portrait of Isabella Clark, first wife of Sir John A. Macdonald ca.1852, Photo © CMH

Lady Agnes Macdonald (née Susan Agnes Bernard) Ottawa, Ont., Mar. 1873

Lady Agnes Macdonald (née Susan Agnes Bernard) Ottawa, Ont.Mar. 1873, Photo © CMH

Reynolds

The Reynolds family resided in New Brunswick, where William Kilby Reynolds (1848–1902) was owner of a lumber mill and timber rights in Lepreau, and where he also formed the Saint John Suspension Bridge Company. He was the editor of New Brunswick Magazine and a member of the New Brunswick Historical Society, until he resigned in 1899 to work for the Intercolonial Railway in Moncton, New Brunswick.