Wesbroom

William Wesbroom was born in London in 1830. He appears to have been the son of the Martha Wesbroom who married William Millett in 1834, but the birth certificate of one of Martha and William's daughters suggests that her maiden name was Robinson, so it is not clear whether William Wesbroom was the product of a brief second marriage or whether he was illegitimate. On the 1841 census he is living with the Millett family in George St, Chelsea. He cannot be found on the 1851 census, but in 1853 he married Mary Johnson in Shoreditch.

A year later the couple emigrated to Canada. We can pick them up in the Toronto city directories in 1864. William is a clerk working at 51 Front St east, and living in a lane off Sydenham St. By 1866 they had moved to 166 Berkeley St, and William is a “collector”. In 1867 they were at 220 Queen St east, and Mary was keeping a dry goods shop. William was working as an assistant book-keeper for the firm of Lyman & Elliott.

By 1872 William was no longer working for someone else. Perhaps the dry goods shop was paying well. A year later he opened the Baptist Book Room at 1 Adelaide St east, and the family home and shop was at 228 Queen St east. In 1878 William opened a second Baptist Book Room at 109 Yonge St, but by 1880 he had withdrawn from the religious book trade and was a draper at Dover Court Rd. The last known directory entry in 1881 shows the Wesbrooms living on Maple St.

When William died of cirrhosis of the liver on 8 March 1902 the family residence was 157 Dovercourt Rd, Toronto. His occupation was given as “gentleman”. Mary died two years late

William Nathaniel Wesbroom had a dual career.  The 1881 directory lists him as an engraver, but he was actually a skilled lithographer and artist.  His best-known work is a lithograph print, a view of Toronto shown below.

But William gave up art for preaching, and moved to the USA in 1893 with his wife Elizabeth. In 1900 they were living in Nassau, New York state, and William's occupation was given as “Preacher Baptist”. By 1910 they had moved to Camden, New Jersey and William had become a Baptist Minister. Two of their daughters were still at home; Florence was a music teacher and Gertrude was a “Stenographer (talking machine)”. It is not known when William died, but Elizabeth returned to Toronto, where she died of bowel cancer in 1913. Her home was at 207 Grace St. The informant was James Wesbroom, presumably her son. 

There may have been another son of William Wesbroom. The 1920 United States Federal Census has Nathan Wesbroom, born about 1860, living as a farmer in Harris, Charles, Maryland. His year of immigration is given as 1893. 

There are further records of Wesbrooms in Canada. In 1878 Annie Wesbroom of Toronto was a witness at the wedding of Thomas Wilkins and Annie Cornell in Toronto. In 1926, Annie Wesbroom aged 43, nationality Welsh, arrived in Quebec on the Ausonia. In 1931, Annie Wesbroom aged 50, nationality Welsh, arrived in Quebec on the Ausonia. (It is quite possible that this is the same person.) 

A number of Wesbroom descendants still live in Quebec.

The USA

The 1880 US census shows three young Westbrooms in Brewer, Howard, Arkansas, two of them living as stepsons of William and Elizabeth Hale.

The 1900 census shows two families named Westbrown.  Stephen R Westbrown was born in Vermont in 1870, and in 1900 was living in Manchester, New Hampshire with his wife Maggie and son Aubroy.  In Franklin town, Macon, North Carolina, we find Martha Westbrown, born in Georgia in 1864, with 2 of her 6 children.  A third is with the army in Sumter, Georgia.  Intriguingly, the whole family is listed as black.

Ellis Island immigration records show no Wesbrooms, Westbrowns or near variants.