Life History

Notes

• [Good Robinson Ritchie Lee et al.FTW]
  
  Robert Lee does not appear in the 1851 census of Ross Township, when he would have been about 20 years old. (The 1851 Census is the earliest we have located for Ross Twp.) His parents are living with two of his siblings, Sarah & Edward.
  
  Robert re-appears in the 1861 census, married to Sarah Ritchie and they are farming on 100 acres located at the north 1/2 of lot 7, concession 4 , Ross Twp.. They are still there in the 1871 Agricultural census and although they also show up in 1881, we have not been able to confirm as yet  if they were still on the same property.
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  A copy of Robert Lee's death registration has not been located in Ontario Vital Statistics, however
  we have  located a Surrogate Court copy of his last Will & Testament which reads as follows:
  
  
  
  In Her Majesty's Surrogate Court of the County of Renfrew
  
  Be it known that on the fifth day of October in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and eighty nine the Last Will and Testament of Robert Lee, late of the Township of Ross in the County of Renfrew and Province of Ontario, Yeoman, deceased, who died on or about the sixteenth day of July in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eighty nine in the Township of Ross in the County of Renfrew and who at the time of his death had a fixed place of abode at the Township of Ross in the said County of Renfrew was proved and registered in the said Surrogate Court a true copy of which said last Will and Testament is hereunder written, and that the administration of all and singular the real and personal estate and effects rights and credits of the said deceased and any way concerning his Will was granted by the aforesaid Court to John McGinn and Henry Hill the younger both of the Township of Ross in the County of Renfrew Yeomen the Executors named in said Will they having been first sworn well and faithfully to administer the same by paying the just debts of the deceased and the legacies contained in his Will so far as they are thereunto bound by law, and to exhibit a true and perfect inventory of all and singular the said estate and effects rights and credits and to render a just and true account of their Executorship whenever required by law so to do.
  (signed) Arch.. Thomson
  Registrar of the Surrogate Court
  of the County of Renfrew
  
  Robert Lee, of the Village of Cobden Township of Ross in the County of Renfrew and Province of Ontario declare this to be my Last Will and Testament.
  I appoint John McGinn, and Henry Hill of the Township of Ross, the trustees and executors of this my will and I direct the said John McGinn and Henry Hill, or the survivor of them his executors or administrators to convert my personal estate and effects into money as soon as may be after my death, and after payment of my just debts to pay to my wife Ann Jane Lee, the sum of fifty cents to divide the residue into three equal shares.
  I direct them to pay one of the said portions to my daughter Catherine Lee, and I direct my said trustees to hold the other two shares upon trust and to pay one share each to each of my younger children Sarah Lee, and Edward Lee, on their attaining the age of twenty one years, and in the meantime to invest the monies upon such securities as my trustees may think proper and apply the annual income arising therefrom towards the support and education of my said younger children during their (illegible) as my said trustees may deem most advantageous for them and in case any of my said trustees shall die, retire from office, or become incapable of acting in the execution of the trust of this my will, it shall be lawful for the continuing trustees or the executors or the administrators of the last acting trustee by an instrument in writing to appoint any trustee or trustees to such vacant trusteeship which new trustee or trustees when appointed shall have the same power and authorities as if originally appointed a trustee or trustees by this Will.
  In witness whereof I set my hand and seal this tenth day of June in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eighty nine.
  his
  (Signed) Robert   x     Lee
  mark
  Signed sealed and delivered
  in the presence of (signed)   John Burton                        Authenticated
  R.D. Boyle                  Arch. Thomson - Registrar
  _____________________________________________________________________________
  
  Family stories (Specifically from Eleen Tait nee Laura Eileen Weldon, a granddaughter of Robert Lee) had it that "after his wife Sarah died Robert Lee 'married' a Mrs. Tuffy, a widow with daughters. She didn't want Robert's children, so they all left home".
  
  In actual fact, Robert married Anne Jane Robinson, the widow of Hugh Ritchie (Robert's brother-in-law) on June 23, 1885. The marriage seems to have had problems, given that Ann Jane Lee was cut out of his will.
  
  The discrepancy with this story and the facts no doubt relate to the fact that Anne Jane Robinson's daughter Ann Ritchie married a D. William Tuffy, and Anne Jane Robinson  moved in with them after Robert Lee died in 1889.  Anne Jane Lee, a widow, is living alone with her children (John, Mary & Alice Ritchie) in the 1891 census and is shown living with her daughter Ann Tuffy (nee Ritchie) in the 1901 census for Cobden Village.
  
  One can see that , although oral family histories can be notorious for inaccuracies, they generally have some basis for their origins.
  
  Said family stories  also have 4 of Robert's sons scattering as follows......."one boy went to the Klondike during the gold rush & never returned, one went to Penticton BC & had a fruit orchard, one went to Texas & joined the Texas Rangers, & one just disappeared".
  
  We have confirmed the Klondike story (John Lee died there), and two of his daughters, Annie & Catherine, died in Vancouver, while Edward lived in Keremos BC, not far from Penticton. The only child that went to the USA was Robert W. Lee, but he lived in Washington State, and we doubt he ever joined the Texas Rangers, as his occupation is given as "Engineer" in the census records we have been able to find.  The one that "just disappeared" was likely George, who died in Aylmer Quebec in 1955.
  
  As well, in the 1891 census, we have two of Robert's youngest children:
  
  (1) Sarah Lee (Age 16)  living with an aunt Eliza Ritchie, and
  (2) George Lee (Age 18)  living with an uncle James McGinn
  
  Edward Lee has not been definitely located at this point in time, but in the 1891 census there is an "Edward Reilly" the same age (12) living with one of Robert's sister's Ann Reilly (nee Lee) who was aged 63 at the time, so it was unlikely that Ann would have been having a child at age 51 (her husband Robert Reilly was 5 years older). This is therefore likely Edward Lee.
  The Renfrew Mercury reported on Dec. 14, 1897 that an Ed. Lee of Cobden, a carpenter, had moved to Crows Nest Pass in BC to find work and we know from his sister Catherine's obituary in 1945 that her brother Edward Lee was living in Keremos, BC at the time of her death, and we know that he was still in Keremos at the time of his death on  Jan 14, 1960 and apparently never married.
  
  James Russell Lee has not been located in the 1891 census but James is back in Ross (Cobden) in the 1901 census married to Laura McDonald. Family tradition had him living with the Oscar Stephens family after Robert Lee's marriage to the Tuffy widow, but he is not listed with this family in 1891, even though his sister Eliza Lee had married Oscar in 1886.Perhaps James simply wasn't present for the 1891 census as we know he worked for the CPR railway at some time and he would have been old enough (21) to have been out on his own at the time.
  Oscar Stephens later owned a carpentry/building business in Cobden & the writer (James David Lee) has personal knowledge that his grandfather James Lee was a carpenter and worked there as well as for the CPR.
  
  The only child of Robert Lee who we have not located after 1881 is the eldest, Mary.
  
  
  Stories are also told that Robert had a bit of a drinking problem & drowned when he fell out of his boat on Muskrat Lake, near Cobden, Ont. but we wonder about this given that he made his will less than a month before he died.
  
  Speaking of the "Demon Rum", the Renfrew Mercury of September 2, 1887 reports on an alcohol-related accident that involved a man named "Lee" from Cobden. The article reads, in part - and we quote -
  "....In the afternoon, a very pretty livery team ......... was in town driven by a young man named Lee, of Cobden. Whether he was drunk when he came to town we do not know, but when we saw him get out of his rig at Gravelle's Hotel, his legs twined around one another in a way that was wonderful to behold." The article goes on to state that Lee took a fellow named Cosgrove for a ride, and as a result (no doubt)  of being under the influence drove the rig into a passing train at a level crossing. The rig was destroyed and the horses killed, although the two young men were not injured. We suspect that the young Lee referred to was one of Robert's two eldest sons Robert W. or John......as the others were all too young at the time to have fit the description of events.