Joseph Kingshott was born in Poplar in London and was baptised on 29th September 1799. He has been identified by long and painstaking work looking at hundreds of parish registers. This was a long process and I initially, and provisionally, placed him with the wrong family.

 

I know, from letters written by other members of their expedition party, that he went to Canada from Lurgashall parish and that his sister Sarah was married to a Nathaniel Morley. Now Sarah was baptised on 2nd December 1798 at Lurgashall, Sussex, to parents who settled in Lurgashall parish.  The parents were Henry & Hannah Kingshott. 

 

Finding Joseph's baptism, a long way away from Lurgashall, was one of my major brick walls and solving it allowed this entire branch of the Canadian family to be linked to the main Kingshott tree. It seems that Joseph's father, Henry, travelled with the Army and was sometimes based in the London area. This is why he, and one or two of his siblings, were baptised so far away from Lurgashall.

 

Joseph Kingshott, sometimes written as Kinshott, was one of the Petworth Emigrants' who left England in 1832 for a new life in Upper Canada (now Ontario). He took his wife Elizabeth, and their children Eleanor, John and Harriet.

 

The Kingshott family must have been excited, though anxious, and looking forward to their new life in the new world. Unfortunately, tragedy struck shortly after arrival in Canada as on 29th June 1832 Joseph Kingshott died from cholera, leaving his widow to travel the rest of the journey with three children. I believe that she survived, although I have not been able to find details of her subsequent settlement and death.

 

Of Joseph's three children, two definitely survived and I have traced some details of their descendants. I am always interested in further information, so if you are a descendant it would be great to hear from you.

 

Eleanor Kingshott, baptised at Lurgashall on 5th November 1826, married an American called Benjamin Loucks in Orford Township, Kent County, Ontario, Canada on 1st April 1847. She was Benjamin's second wife and they had a number of children in Orford. I have found nine so far and am currently trying to trace descendants.  

 

This is a photograph of Benjamin & Eleanor Loucks. It was sent to me by a descendant, Jim Moorman. Eleanor is a very good-looking lady, thereby confirming her Kingshott genetics! I'm not entirely sure what she saw in Mr Loucks, as he looks a bit mad to me, but there you are. There's no accounting for taste.