The Ship Magnet and the War of 1812

For years people in our family have thought a few things about how and when our family arrived to North America. Some have thought it was via Scotland, Glasgow in fact. Others thought it was about 1825 and I agree, I thought so too. There were no ship records available for around 1812-1816 and nothing after that time had anything at all. There was a huge brick wall around how our family came to Canada.

It was not until the discovery of the marriage licence of James Lightbody in 1817 Nova Scotia that we began to narrow the time down. An email from a stranger provided another link, James had bought land in 1813 in Cumberland County, NS. Then a connection via an old research friend and some lateral research being done by someone else on the McCulloch family produced a link between Annie Lightbody and her husband Hugh McCulloch which provided the last bit of news..... they were on a ship called the Magnet and it was seized by the British en route to New York but they ended up in Halifax, NS in 1812. 

There was still no ship list, no proof that this Annie Lightbody was even related except her husband Hugh McCulloch was a witness on the land transaction in 1813 for James Lightbody. Nothing more happened until I found an advert for a lecture about the War of 1812 and the Ship Magnet in September of 2012. This led me to Faye Kert and the passenger list.

Below is the story of these events in an article, skillfully edited by Jean Kitchen and published in the British Isles Family Historical Society of Greater Ottawa ( BIFHSGO) Volume 19 Number 1, Spring 2013.

Thank you to both Faye, Jean and the BIFHSGO for without both of you, the brick wall would still be there and our family story would not have been shared.

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The Search for James Lightbody and the Magnet’s Passenger List - by Amanda Lightbody

A Halifax resident, Amanda found the Magnet passenger list when she saw Faye Kert’s lecture advertised on the BIFHSGO website. It was information she had been hunting for decades.

I

only knew my grand-father Hugh Lightbody for the first five years of my life, but those years would define a lifelong passion and drive for me. I did not know that I would spend some 30 years of my life looking for his ancestors, nor the connection they had to one of the more famous events in recent history, the War of 1812.

I have a “relationship” with my grandfather’s grandfather, James Lightbody one that I am sure he could never have imagined possible. I have always referred to him as “my James” as a way to distinguish him from the dozens of men over the generations called James Lightbody in my family.

Family researchers develop images of ancestors from the scraps and bits of information, pictures or stories available and keep them alive on some level, creating relationships with them. With this information we imagine their hopes, dreams, and fears when we learn of births, marriages, and deaths. We try to imagine what it was like . . . what they were like. On some levels there can be almost a palpable energy which exists or is created when you look into the past. This has been my experience and now is part of my story for the search for James Lightbody and the Magnet’s passenger list.

Early Discoveries

When I was about 13, a woman came to visit my family with several copies of an 1871 census record from Colchester County, Nova Scotia. On those pages were a dozen families named Lightbody. They were my relatives. I was hooked. When I began to search through old family photos and papers, I found charts my grandfather had started. He was looking for his ancestors too. It was then I made the decision (most likely a subconscious one, but nonetheless a decision) to find those ancestors for my grandfather. It was my way of staying connected to one of the most influential men in my life, whom I missed very much.

Nothing would stop me. I rode my little 10-speed bicycle along major highways and up hills and down country roads to long-forgotten cemeteries. I had my “Graveyard Kit” of chalk, brushes, gardening tools, camera, film, notepaper and pens. I searched row after row of half a dozen cemeteries, cleaning the headstones, documenting the names and dates and taking pictures. I could match some of the names to the census records . . . I was beginning to put some pieces of the puzzle together. It was a little collection of papers, nothing significant, yet it was the world to me.

It was not until my high school years when I joined our Genealogy Club at school that a whole new world opened for me. Archives, microfilms and lots of published books. There was one book in particular, Scotia Heritage by Edith L. Fletcher. I met with Edith and had her sign my copy of the book, which is now in tatters from all the reading and rereading. It was at that time I discovered it was her sister who had come to visit us years before. It would be years later that I would talk with Edith’s daughter and begin to compare notes. We are still friends today.

It turned out Edith was my third cousin twice removed. I learned from her research that the Lightbody family was heading to New York from Ireland and then left New York for land in Nova Scotia. She talked about the Lightbody brothers that came to Nova Scotia. There were Maine state connections but that was it. Nothing more! I needed to add to my line and the search for the Irish and New York connections became an unquenchable thirst.

I collected vital statistics, census records and land transactions. I cold-called people all over North America, from the deep U.S. south to the west coast of Canada and in New England; anyone I thought might be related. I began corresponding with Lightbody people in Scotland and throughout the U.S. This is when I received three legal-sized pages, each with a family chart for one of the three Lightbody brothers: James, William and Hugh. These were the three that Edith had mentioned in her book. Now all the research I had done on my own could be neatly placed with the right lines.

The Family Takes Shape

A picture was forming of who these people were. They were Irish, Presbyterian, farmers and merchants with dozens of children and descendants. Some family generations had their children all die young from disease; others had 13 or more children. The question still remained unanswered . . . How did they get here and where in Ireland were they from? And why did all the family lore I could find—from my grandfather’s notes to the stories from other long-distant relatives—keep saying we were Scottish?

For this and other reasons, I believe the Lightbody name and family are Scottish and they left for Ireland after the Catholics were forced out by the English Crown. This family of mine was beginning to be connected with a lot of historical events. I even learned that the original beginnings of the family name were French; it probably looked something like LeBaudy. They most likely were French Protestants who fled Catholic rule in France during the late 1500s.

Over the years I was able to extend outward on my family. I met relatives in Maine and some in Illinois. I learned that descendants of William and Hugh lived in Nova Scotia locations like Londonderry, Debert, Masstown, and Onslow in Colchester County, right in my back yard. There was a sister Jane who married and had many children and lived in Cumberland County, Nova Scotia. I knew my James travelled between Maine and Nova Scotia, was a merchant and ran a boarding house. Still there was no place name in Ireland and no ship records of the family’s emigration. Ireland was a huge brick wall.

Years went past and I looked for a ship or passenger list that would hold the truth, but there was nothing. All I knew was that on the best speculation of family experts and my research, the Lightbody family was headed for New York. How did they end up in Nova Scotia? I could only guess to fill in the blanks.

I did know James was married in Nova Scotia in 1817, so that helped me narrow down my search, but not until about 2001, when a random email from someone gave me a great lead. I was emailed a copy of a land transaction for my James dated 1813! Finally I could narrow the search: ship records for 1812 and 1813.

A Dead End?

Once again, I came to a screeching halt! There was that brick wall again: no records. It was like no one sailed for the entire years of 1812–1814. WAIT, hold on . . . Wasn’t there a war on then?

I went to the history books. I should have paid a bit more attention in school. I have learned more about history researching my family than I ever could in school, but there were still more questions and no answers. Then a few years later I ran across some research on a family called McCulloch from Ireland. No big deal, except the wife’s name was Ann Lightbody and they lived in Nova Scotia.

This was my first introduction to the ship Magnet. The research indicated Ann and her husband Hugh McCulloch were on a ship called the Magnet that was seized by the British in 1812 and taken to Halifax. Then the light bulb lit up! Hugh McCulloch was a witness on the land deed of James Lightbody in 1813. Strike one to the brick wall, because if that was the same person the research papers indicated, Hugh and Ann had a daughter Charlotte born in Killinchy, Ireland, in 1812.

Well (big sigh) I looked at more land transactions, but this time those of Cumberland County, just a bit east of Colchester; and there they were, the pieces of evidence I needed to link the McCulloch and the Lightbody families. Several land transactions with both names. I also located land transactions in 1817 for William and Hugh Lightbody, James’ brothers, and some with the Angevine name of Jane’s husband. All of this and still no record of the Magnet.

I contacted the Public Archives of Nova Scotia and they said they no longer had anything for the Magnet of 1812 but that I should check with Ottawa. I contacted Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa and they said sorry, nothing here, you will have to check with London, England. Contacted London . . . nothing! (Only now do I realize why Ottawa said they had nothing: they mostly likely had no idea they even had the list or could access it.) And Ottawa and Nova Scotia are too far for a weekend trip to look for something you don’t know even exists.

Since the Magnet record was nowhere to be found, I did even more lateral research. I did not resign myself to never knowing where the family originated. I always felt I would know. After years of studying Irish Lightbody families, where they lived, historical events, time frame etc., I had a good guess: Kilmore or Killinchy in County Down, Northern Ireland. Yet I could not find any Lightbody records in County Down before 1700 at all and very little before 1785. Back to the history books I went, and this time I focused on the Ulster Scots or Scotch-Irish. A link with Scotland ticked all the boxes for this family. Another clue: I knew James Lightbody’s firstborn son arrived in New York in 1819, so there was something drawing them there. I decided to do some back research; there were other Lightbody families in New York, and most were of Scottish extraction. I thought I was on to something.

Meanwhile, in the past six years I have never stopped looking for the Magnet. I had all this information, which just needed one tiny little confirmation. I kept doing Google searches for Magnet . . . Ringdove . . . War of 1812, but the same things I already knew kept coming up.

Then it was 2012, the 200th anniversary of what I believed to be their arrival in Halifax. The city was bustling with the War of 1812 re-enactments and memorials. I now live here, and I walked the waterfront trying to imagine what they wore, how they felt, what the city was like. I was here in the same places 200 years to the day! I thought this was an appropriate time to try searching again.

(Fade in . . . Bright lights flashing, crowds cheering, tickertape blowing on the wind, the sounds of a brick wall crumbling . . .)

The Breakthrough

In early September, I Googled the ship yet again. Suddenly there were search results showing Faye Kert . . . presentation . . . Ship Magnet . . . PASSENGER LIST! WHAT?!?!?! Where? How? Who? When? It was an ad on the BIHFSGO website. In November Faye would be giving a presentation, but I couldn’t wait for that. I emailed the society but didn’t even wait for a response. I Googled Faye, tracked down her email address and wrote her, explaining who I was and what I thought and was looking for.

Sometimes things work out and this was one of them. Faye was on a cruise, but fortunately with her laptop and data. In a short time I received a reply with the words, “Meet your long lost Irish relatives.”

There was James Lightbody, age 22, from Killinchy! Yes—OMG. I actually cried. Then I tilted my head. What? No, that’s not right. James did not have the wife Ann, age 23, or the two children listed after his name! Or did he? Seriously . . . someone must have marked it wrong. But after all this time, to find the actual ship list and it was WRONG?

Fortunately, all was well—I figured things out. With the birth, death and census records I already had, I was able to determine the most likely error made when the passenger list was written.

The wife named Ann and the two children, James and Charlotte, were actually James Lightbody’s sister and his niece and nephew. They were the wife and children of the Hugh McCulloch listed above my James’ name, along with the other McCulloch daughters, Anne and Mary. James had come to Canada along with their family.

As well as finding James’ arrival, I finally had an Irish place name! I later also discovered a reference to a Magnet passenger’s letter to the Belfast Commercial Chronicle reporting the events in June and July. He said this new land seemed like a great place for an adventure. I guess my ancestors felt the same way too.

I contacted my relatives with the news. I even knew of descendants of the Henderson and Irvin families on the Magnet passenger list, so I passed the information to them. To my knowledge, about 15 to 20 people on that list have descendants who are actively looking for them. I am sure there are many more. 

An Unexpected Detour

So what did the unexpected detour to Halifax lead to in the end? Well, James decided to stay in Nova Scotia. He married Mary McLane in 1817, bought land and at one point had a wharf. While the Magnet passengers were for the most part poor, I do know James paid a good price for the land he bought a year after his arrival. There had to be some kind of family money when they left Ireland—to make money you need money.

I have a theory about where the family money may have come from. I still have not been able to confirm any vital statistics data on James’ parents, John Lightbody and Ann Hucking, but there is a John Lightbody living close to Killinchy mentioned in the Flax Seed Grants of 1790, which were given to farmers to encourage production. Only speculation, but that is sometimes what we need to do, make an educated guess then try to prove or disprove it to get at the truth.

James divided his time between Maine and Nova Scotia. He had nine children, most of whom settled in Maine and Massachusetts, and their descendants are primarily American now. My great-grandfather, James’ son Hugh, settled in Truro, Nova Scotia, and had four children. I grew up in the house he built in 1874.

James’ brother Hugh married Mary Peppard and his sister Jane married John Angevine in a double wedding in 1825, the same year William married Mary Ann Moore. Another sister, Elizabeth, married Anthony Peppard, the brother of her sister-in-law Mary Peppard, but she died at the age of 36 in the same part of the province.

As for Ann Lightbody-McCulloch, she had a dozen children who married into Ulster Scot families who had arrived a generation or two earlier. Most of the family in the first generation remained in Nova Scotia, but as the 1850s and 1860s came along some began to travel. By the late 1890s most of the Lightbody descendants had moved to western Canada or the U.S.

The name is almost a ghost now in Nova Scotia. There are only two of us with this last name left. While the Lightbody name may no longer be prevalent, there are dozens and dozens of families who have Lightbody DNA in central Nova Scotia. There is still a road in Belmont, Colchester County, Nova Scotia called Lightbody Road.

The Search Continues

After 30 years of searching I now have a big piece of the puzzle solved. I don’t know if or when I would have ever learned this information, so I am grateful for the time and energy Faye Kert spent to bring this list into the open. I am blessed to be given this chance to tell you about my family and its interesting and wonderful history.

In the months since I heard from Faye, I have done more research to see what other information I could find about the family’s arrivals in the New World. James’ siblings emigrated either before or after him, but did they come to Halifax or New York? It’s a matter of trying to find the route the rest of the family took
and the exact Lightbody connection to Scotland. I have finally found the answers to some burning questions and it has led to more questions. I like that kind of thing. It means the hunt is not over; there is more searching, and looking, and speculating, just what a good mystery needs!

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Here is the passenger list from the Magnet. Thank you to Faye Kert for a copy of these. 

Shows the name of the ship is Magnet and it was an American vessel from the port of Plymouth, Massachusetts and the Master, Timothy Drew and that she was going from Belfast to New York.

Hugh McCulloch is #79, his daughter Ann age six #80, Daughter Mary age three #81, James Lightbody is #82 age twenty two. Under Hugh McCulloch the place of residence is Killinchy and under James is says "do" meaning ditto.

Ann Lightbody #83 age twenty three is actually James sister and Hugh McCulloch's wife. #84 is James (should read McCulloch not Lightbody) age five, #85 is Charlotte (should read McCulloch not Lightbody) age two months.(born March or April 1812)