Friday, November 21, 2014

Thomas Argyle and Ellen Tufts; lighthouse keepers in Victoria, British Columbia



As I have been working on the third chapter of Nova Scotia Tufts I came across this story about Gershom Tufts Great-Granddaughter from his son Francis and his son Samuel of Dartmouth or Halifax NS. It’s unclear what possessed Ellen to move from Nova Scotia to British Columbia but she made a wonderful life there and left many descendents.




MARY ELLA (Ellen)  TUFTS (1836-1923) 
married THOMAS FREDERICK ARGYLE (1839-1919) of Birmingham England.
These pioneers in early Victoria, British Columbia lived and worked on the small island called Race Rocks where they were lighthouse keepers. They had 6 of their nine children there and many of their stories are available for research. They lost a son to the sea. They also say Thomas found a treasure as he used to pay for supplies in gold coins. Please read the full story below. I also have some news stories I can send to interested readers.
Image of engineers from their site 


One item the articles and references here need correcting on is their continued statements that Ellen’s family were loyalists expelled from Boston. Gershom Tufts moved to Nova Scotia well prior to the war and Loyalist expulsions. One reference even claims the Tufts came to America on the Mayflower.  Ellen's ancestry clearly traces back to Peter Tufts of Charlestown Massachusetts in 1638, our common immigrant ancestor. Their family details will be chronicled in Nova Scotia Tufts families’ chapter 3.Perhaps it fit better to describe her as such, given Thomas' status with the Royal Engineers.
I have not chronicled their family descendents here. A quick search on ancestry.com reveals many trees with full families of many children. They could be living in the area today. Please feel free to leave details of their descendents in the comments section or links to family sites. Some of these images are from ancestry.com trees.




In the publication Canadian Frontier: Annual 1977
Edited by Gordon Thomas Stewart, Brian Antonson
Published by Antonson Publishing, 1977 a great story about this family is told by writer George Inglis:  
click on the images for a larger image to read the article.




Thomas is recognized on the Royal Engineers page was well:


3 comments:

  1. Thomas Argyle and Ellen Tufts were my sixth great I grandparents on my mother's side.

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  2. Mary Ellen was my 1st cousin 4x removed. Thanks for creating and posting this interesting research Thomas.

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  3. I live just outside of Toronto. While employed with our local school board, one of my fellow employee’s and I were discussing genealogy. She happened to mention that she & her husband, when they first married, were living and working at a lighthouse, in British Columbia. I’ve know Ellen & Thomas’ story so asked her if she had ever heard of Race Rock...yep...that’s where they were and she knew all about their story! Just goes to show that we live in a small world!!

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