Notes

1. [[Category:Lanark County, Ontario One Place Study]] [[Category:Montague Township, Upper Canada]][[Category: Union Cemetery, Merrickville, Ontario]][[Category:First Settlers, Lanark County, Ontario OPS]]{{One Place Study|place=Lanark County, Ontario|category=First Settlers, Lanark County, Ontario OPS}} == Biography ==:Sylvia (Comstock) Merrick was one of the first settler women in whatis today known as Lanark County. :Sylvia Comstock was born March 23, 1774.<ref>"Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV23-J63S : 11 July 2016), Sylvia Comstock Mirick, 1848; Burial, Merrickville, Leeds and Grenville United Counties, Ontario, Canada, Collar Hill Cemetery; citing record ID 60538022, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com.</ref> She was the step-daughter of Ephraim Eyres, a Loyalist spy during the Revolutionary War. While he was imprisoned at Albany, NY, Sylvia's mother took their family to Lunenburg, Upper Canada. They were joined by Ephraim in 1784 at Stormont Township. :She met William Merrick in 1788 after his arrival from the United States, by way of Sorel, Province of Quebec. They married that same year, when she was fourteen years old. As the daughter of a United Empire Loyalist, Sylvia was entitled to a significant land claim. :They first went to Elizabethtown (now Brockville), where she remained while her husband looked at land for their homestead. William chosea spot north of the Rideau River, close to where a fellow Loyalist had settled, in Montague Township. He and his neighbour (some sources say cousin, others a partner) began to build a mill at a location on the river known today as Merrickville. :Sylvia (Comstock) Merrick joined her husband on the banks of the Rideau River in 1796, with their growing family. They had three childrenat this time, but would eventually have a family of seven. :Her husband died in 1844. Sylvia died in 1848. They are buried together in Union Cemetery, at the foot of Collar Hill. ===Birth and Early Life=== :Bork in born March 23, 1774, Her father died when she was young. (3)and upon the death of her father and her mother’s re-marriage she became the step-daughter of Ephraim Eyres. During the Revolutionary Wars, Ephraim Eyres was a Loyalist spy and for his efforts in support of the British he was captured and jailed in Albany NY. (1): It appears during his imprisonment, his wife was allowed “go forward” with some of her property and family perhaps as far as Lunenburg, Ontario (Stormont Township, near Cornwall). Following the peace settlement in 1783, Ephraim escaped prison or was released and he headed north to Canada arriving to join his wife in 1784 at Stormont which atthe time was a “staging area” for new United Empire Loyalists awaiting receipt of land claims and entitlements. (1) Meanwhile millwright William Merrick arrived in Canada at Sorel, Quebec during the summer of 1788 (2) and traveled up the St. Lawrence fromSorel to Lunenburg where the same year he encountered and married Ephraim’s daughter Sylvia Comstock. Perhaps with several of own children, Ephraim was anxious to get his step daughter off his hands for Sylvia appears to have been only 14 or 15 years old at the time of her marriage to 28 year old William !! (3) Merrick, who was a late arriving Loyalist with no apparent record of service on behalf of the British inthe American Revolution, had nothing but a basic property claim to look forward to, whereas Sylvia as the daughter of a British Revolutionary war hero was entitled to petition for a substantial land entitlement. Ephraim Eyres himself was granted property in Elizabethtown (1) and Sylvia and William followed to the burgeoning settlement which would become Brockville. But millwright William Merrick was determined to finda sight for a new mill and as early as 1790 he began to explore the country north of the St. Lawrence with a partner Roger Stephens (also a1776 war veteran with substantial land entitlements). Together they struck the Rideau from Irish Creek, traveled down river to the “GreatFall” a sight they chose for their first lumber mill and soon a grist mill. Meanwhile back in Elizabethtown Sylvia was occupied with a new family<ref>"Ontario Births and Baptisms, 1779-1899," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V5MG-V5Q : 10 February 2018),William Merrick, 26 May 1793; citing SAINT ANDREW'S PRESBYTERIAN,WILLIAMSTOWN,GLENGARRY,ONTARIO; FHL microfilm 928,968.</ref> and by the time she joined Merrick at his new mill probably about 1796, she had given birth to three children, Charlotte, 1791, William Jr. 1793 and Charles, 1796. She was now 23 years old. While she had probably often traveled to her husband’s Merrick’s Mills it appears she continued to live in Elizabethtown, at least during the winters.(2). William Merrick died in 1844 and Sylvia followed a few years later (1848). They are both buried, together with their eldest child, Charlotte, and her husband, in Merrickville in the old cemetery at the foot ofCollar Hill. They were interred under Welsh style stone crypt and grave markers. Sylvia Comstock Merrick must certainly have been a remarkable woman. Aside from raising seven children, she was apparently of strong support to William, who was a dominant, strong-willed, determined and at times difficult individual. He was also opportunistic, generally allying himself with others who were in position to receive greater land grants and allocations than he was; all traits that made him successful as a pioneer and developer of Merrickville. But he probably was not the most gentle of men to live with. Sylvia and William Merrick had 7 children who survived to adulthood, and who as a family continued to build mills and develop the successful Village which became Merrickville. Sylvia was born in 1774. Sylvia Comstock ... She passed away in 1848. <ref>Entered by Jackie Merrick, Jan 22, 2012</ref> ''No more info is currently available for Sylvia Comstock. Can you add to her biography?'' == Sources == <references />* [[Merrick-236 | Jackie Merrick]], firsthand knowledge. Click the Changes tab for the details of edits by Jackie and others.*[http://www.merrickvillehistory.org/newsletters/newsletter-6-2.html Sylvia Comstock Merrick] : '''1803 Return of Inhabitants''' of the River Rideau: Including the townships of Wolford, Oxford, Marlborough & Montague (Upper Canada). : William Merrick - age 40 : William junior Merrick - age 10 : Charles Merrick - age 7 : Aaron Merrick - age 3 : Silvia Merrick - age 30 : Mabel Merrick - age 22 : Charlotte Merrick - age 12 : Parmelia Merrick - age 5 : Moses Merrick - age 30: "A true return of the River Rideau for the year 1803" signed by Daniel Burritt Jun, Town Clerk.: Lists of Inhabitants were also done in 1802, 1804, 1805, 1806 & 1807 but not all years had the ages.: Accessed at the Saskatchewan Genealogical Society library, Regina, Sask. : ......... *"Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV23-J63S : 11 July 2016), Sylvia Comstock Mirick, 1848; Burial, Merrickville, Leeds and Grenville United Counties, Ontario, Canada, Collar Hill Cemetery; citing record ID 60538022, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com. <!-- Please edit, add, or delete anything in this text, including this note. 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