Ashbourne Flour Mill ; WEBSTER in Ontario (General)

by slowhands , proud of his ancient Dean Forest roots, Tuesday, May 07, 2013, 07:42 (4213 days ago) @ Jefff

I cannot find any mention of a place called Ashbourne in Glostershire, I wonder if its the name of a house or estate ?. I do know the Webster name was wellknown in the Stroud area aka "Gloucester" in the early 1800s.

It looks like the Ashbourne references comes from a later death certificate - son James, and also as the name of the Flour Mill.

So....

Ashbourne to me is in the Derbyshire Peak district.

However...

North of Gloucester is Ashchurch and nearby are the Washbournes ( Great and Little)

it would be easy to see the corruption occuring esp. over time and distance.

Or

Is Ashbourne a hunch / red herring in a Public members tree not backed up by multiple sources ?

If Joseph's father was an Army man and Joseph was born in England, its reasonable that he might have been born in/near a garrison town, such as Bristol/Gloucester. Perhaps his father was from Derbyshire and Ashbourne was "special" to him ????

<><><> WEBSTER in Dundas Ontario area
Dundas has many waterfalls within its region. The two most common visited waterfalls are Webster's Falls (named after Joseph Webster) and Tew's Falls.
Both waterfalls are accessible by the Bruce trail leading to the Dundas Peninsula.

Circa 1819, Joseph Webster purchased property on the escarpment above Dundas, including the waterfall which still bears his family's name.

In 1856, his son built a huge stone flour mill (ASHBOURNE MILL) just above the falls but it was destroyed by fire in 1898. After the fire one of the first hydro-electric generators
in Ontario was built at the base of the falls.

http://www.cityofwaterfalls.ca/websters_falls.html

http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/p/u/r/Shelley-Purdon-BC/GENE1-0019.html
Notes for Joseph Webster:
April 1998 Donald G Webster "Springdale"Raymond Island 3880 Victoria, Australia:
I think that there is enough evidence to prove that there was a James Webster at the time of the family's arrival in Canada, that he was the father of Joseph II, and that he was the original purchaser of the Webster's Falls land. There is no evidence that Joseph I lived at West Flamborough prior to 1825.

When purchased in 1819 the mountain property had upon it a stone house in the cellar of which was a distillery which "manufactured a poor quality of whisky which was much favoured by the local Indians" A picture of the Ashbourne Mill annotated by Maria Wilhelmina Webster Paulus (1881-1980), the daughter of Joseph II's son Francis Edward Webster, shows quite clearly: oo our "house bought with land", and xx the house "built when mills were built". The first mentioned building seems to be about where the present gardener's shed and public toilet building now stands, and the second, the present Wells home built by Joseph Webster II and into which he moved in 1861 from his farm, "Springdale" at the foot of the escarpment. I apologise for the poor quality of this which seems to have been cut from an old business letterhead. It seems that the previously mentioned utility building may have been built on the ruins of the first house which seems to have existed until the formation of the park. Joseph moved into the present house in 1861 as stated but there is reason to believe that construction was begun in the 1850's following the construction of the mills and of the highway up the escarpment. The George Webster home still stands on the highway at the corner of Webster's Falls Road and that of Francis, also a miller, was in the original building next door to Joseph II. Son Joseph III lived to the north of the mill in Falls View Rd. William and James conducted the family business in Hamilton and Dundas and lived nearby. Springdale Farm, the home of Joseph II until 1861 was described on the census of 1861 as "comprising a total of 234 acres of which 205 were under cultivation and the balance, 29 acres either waste or woods." The property was valued at $45,000 making it "by far the most valuable in an area where the average was $10,000". The owner grew "56 acres of wheat in two crops which yielded 1360 bushels". He also grew barley, peas, oats, corn, potatoes, turnips, mangel wurzell, carrots, beans, and hay. The livestock of the farm included 7 bulls, 12 steers, 6 cows, 5 horses and 8 pigs. In store he held 500 lbs of butter, 9 barrels of beef, and 17 of pork. There were also 25 bushels of miscellaneous produce from his gardens and orchards. The farm was sold in 1861 - the same year that the family moved to the top of the mountain.

The house at 6 Webster's Falls Road is called Springdale. In 1819 Joseph Webster, a retired Army officer bought 78 acres from Richard Hatt's estate. He moved into the house here which had been built about ten years earlier by Hector McKay. Three years later Webster bought the remaining 122 acres of the lot but, before 1830, he had returned to England, leaving the property in the hands of his son, Joseph Jr. Young Joseph then built the Ashbourne Mill. In 1832, he married Maria Green of Greensville, enlarged the house and moved in. In 1848, he extended King Street north to Bullock's Corners.

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Ἀριστοτέλης A Gloster Boy in the Forest of Dean ><((((*>