Descendancy of Charles WESTLAKE

First Generation

      1. Charles WESTLAKE was born in Somerton, Somerset, England and was christened on May 20 1820 in Somerton, Somerset, England. He died in Mar 1895 in Barton Regis, Bristol, Gloucester, England.

Charles married Mary Ann SEYMOUR, daughter of Samuel SEYMOUR and Lydia, on Jul 03 1842 in Charlton Adam, Somerset, England. Mary was born in Charlton Adam, Somerset, England and was christened on Jul 10 1819 in Charlton Adam, Somerset, England. She died in Jun 1908 in Bristol, Gloucester, England.

They had the following children:

+           2 M i.   Fredrick WESTLAKE was born on Aug 08 1843 and died on Nov 06 1886.

               3 M ii.   Samuel Seymour WESTLAKE was born in Langport, Somerset, England and was christened on Feb 25 1846.

Samuel married Mary Ann WOOD on Jun 03 1880 in Bristol, England.

               4 M   iii.   Frank WESTLAKE was christened on Mar 27 1849.

               5 F iv.   Lydia Mary WESTLAKE was christened on Oct 13 1850.

Lydia married Joseph HILL in Sep 1872 in Clifton, Somerset, England. Joseph was born about 1852. He died in Mar 1875 in Clifton, Somerset, England.

               6 M v.   William WESTLAKE was born on Jun 09 1852 in Barton, St David, Somerset, England.

               7 F vi.   Jane WESTLAKE was christened on May 27 1855.

               8 F   vii.   Harriett WESTLAKE was born about 1860 in Somerton, Somerset, England.

Second Generation

      2. Fredrick WESTLAKE (Charles) was born on Aug 08 1843 in Charlton Adam, Somerset, England and was christened on Oct 22 1843 in Charlton Adam, Somerset, England. He died on Nov 06 1886 in St Thomas's Hospital, Lambeth, Surrey, England.

Fredrick married Mary Jane WILCOX, daughter of William WILCOX, on Dec 24 1865 in The Parish Church, St Woolos, Monmouthshire, Wales. Mary was born about 1845 in Somerset, England. She died on Nov 10 1884 in 35 Carlisle St., Lambeth, Surrey, England.

They had the following children:

               9 M i.   Samuel Seymour WESTLAKE was born on Aug 10 1866 in 3 Harford St. Bedmisnster, Somerset, England.

+         10 F ii.   Lydia Jennings WESTLAKE was born on Aug 31 1868 and died on Mar 24 1934.

+         11 M   iii.   Fredrick Charles William WESTLAKE Jr. was born on Jul 21 1872 and died on Oct 16 1934.

             12 M   iv.   John Sidney Herbert WESTLAKE was born on Oct 06 1874 in Lambeth, Surrey, England. He died on May 04 1951 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

             13 M v.   Frank WESTLAKE was born on Sep 23 1876 in Lambeth, Surrey, England. He died about 1937 in Lemsford, Saskatchewan, Canada.

             14 F vi.   Beatrice Maud Mary WESTLAKE was born on Jul 25 1881 in Lemsford, Saskatchewan, Canada. She died on Oct 08 1960 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Third Generation

     10. Lydia Jennings WESTLAKE (Fredrick, Charles) was born on Aug 31 1868 in Clifton, Gloucester, England. She died on Mar 24 1934 in Woodstock, Ontario, Canada and was buried on Mar 26 1934 in Anglican Cemetery, Woodstock, Ontario, Canada.

Lydia married William John SPECK, son of John SPECK and Mary ROBINSON, on Dec 18 1895 in East Zorra, Ontario, Canada. William was born about 1866.

They had the following children:

             15 M i.   Allenby Garfield SPECK was born on Nov 17 1906 in Ingersoll, Ontario, Canada.

             16 M ii.   Frank Sydney Westlake SPECK was born on Sep 18 1909 in Ingersoll, Ontario, Canada.

     11. Fredrick Charles William WESTLAKE Jr. (Fredrick, Charles) was born on Jul 21 1872 in 17 Paris St., Lambeth, Surrey, England. He died on Oct 16 1934 in Kennington, Lambeth, Surrey, England.

Fredrick married Mary Ann HALESTRAPP, daughter of James HALESTRAPP and Mary CHAPMAN, on Jun 04 1893 in All Saints Church, Kensington, London, Middlesex, England. Mary was born on Jan 20 1865 in Fryerning, Chelmesford, Essex, England. She died on Dec 21 1947 in 22 Tantallon Rd, Balham, Wandsworth, Longdon, Middlesex, England.

They had the following children:

+         17 M i.   Ernest Sidney WESTLAKE was born on Sep 17 1893 and died in 1964.

             18 M ii.   Frederick Arthur WESTLAKE was born about 1897.

             19 F iii.   Beatrice Jessie WESTLAKE was born about 1898.

             20 M   iv.   Frank WESTLAKE was born about 1900.

Fourth Generation

     17. Ernest Sidney WESTLAKE (Fredrick Charles William, Fredrick, Charles) was born on Sep 17 1893 in 2 Larcorn St., Walworth, London, Middlesex, England. He died in 1964 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and was buried in Elmwood Cemetery, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

Ernest married Margaret Elizabeth VAUGHAN on Apr 22 1922 in St. Philip's, Lambeth, London, Middlesex, England.

They had the following children:

+         21 F  i.   Irene WESTLAKE.

Fifth Generation

     21. Irene WESTLAKE (Ernest Sidney, Fredrick Charles William, Fredrick, Charles).

Irene married Albert EDGAR.

Frederick Westlake Family Saga

 or

Why my Grandparents Emigrated to Canada

Jan Taylor

November 14, 2005

In the home of my Westlake grandparents in Winnipeg hung a large gilt-framed photograph of a man in a top hat.  His right arm is resting on the back of a couch.   He has a beard and kindly yet sad eyes.  We were told that this was a photo of Fred Westlake, an ancestor who worked as a carpenter but died from complications of a cut to his arm with a saw.  This tragedy left his six children orphans because his wife had died two years previously.  The oldest three had to fend for themselves, the younger three were sent to an orphanage. 

The younger children sent to the orphanage were 12 year old John, 10 year old Frank and five year old Beatrice.  Beatrice spent her childhood in the orphanage however, six months after their father’s death John and Frank were shipped to Canada as part of the British Home Children resettlement plan.  One can only imagine the shock for two young London boys to find themselves in Stratford Ontario shortly after losing their father.  Canada needed immigrants and British orphanages had an excess of children.  Unfortunately many of these children were placed with families that used and abused them as cheap labour.  An excellent book on this topic was published in 2001 titled:  “The Little Immigrants: The Orphans who came to Canada” by Kenneth Bagnell published by the Dundurn Group, Toronto and Oxford.

There are no stories about John and Frank’s childhood on Ontario farms.  What is known however is that they fought in the Boer War and ended up homesteading in Lemsford Saskatchewan.  Their youngest sister, Beatrice joined them on the farm.   The book “Septre-Lemsford District History” published in 1979 by the Septre-Lemsford Historical Society has an interesting chapter on these Westlake pioneers.  The three youngest orphanage siblings spent their adult lives together on the Canadian prairies and retired in Vancouver, British Columbia.

The three oldest siblings left to fend for themselves were Samuel, Lydia and Fred.  Little is known about Samuel except the 1901 Census finds him living with his widowed grandmother, Mary Ann Westlake in Bristol.  The second sibling, Lydia worked as a domestic servant until she moved to Canada sometime between 1891 and 1895 to be near her young brothers.  In 1895 she married William Speck in Ingersoll, Ontario and her brother John was the witness.  Lydia spent the rest of her life in Ontario.

Meanwhile, back in England the third sibling Fred married Mary Ann Halestrapp and their first child, my grandfather Ernest Sidney Westlake was born in 1893.   Ernest made several trips to Canada before he immigrated in 1922.  He visited his Aunt Lydia in Ingersoll, and his uncles and aunt homesteading in Saskatchewan.  His original goal was to farm on the prairies.  Instead he ended up working and raising a family in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Perhaps the reason the photo of Fred the carpenter featured so prominently in my grandparent’s house, is that his death was the precipitating factor that caused this branch of the Westlake family to move to Canada.  The story of Fred was passed down the family and all the facts have been verified by documents.