David Christie

1818 - 1880  (~ 62 years)

• Name	David Christie
  Born	Oct 1818	Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland
  Gender	Male
  FindAGrave	https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/220319507
  Residence	1848	North Dumfries Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [1, 2]
  Eby ID Number	Waterloo-27795
  Died	14 Dec 1880	Paris, Brant County, Ontario, Canada
  Buried	St. George United Cemetery, St. George, Brant Co., Ontario
  Person ID	I27795	Generations
  Last Modified	28 Jan 2025

  
  

  Family	Isabella Turnbull,   b. 13 Jul 1820, Oxnam, , Roxburgh, Scotland ,   d. 1858  (Age 37 years)
  Married	18 Feb 1848	North Dumfries Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [1, 2]
  Last Modified	29 Jan 2025
  Family ID	F7235	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Photos

  Honorable David Christie Library and Archives Canada MIKAN 3421056

  
  

• Notes

  CHRISTIE, DAVID, politician and farmer; b. in Edinburgh, Scotland, in October 1818, son of Robert Christie; d. at Paris, Ont., 14 Dec. 1880. David Christie was educated at Edinburgh High School; he was a good student, particularly well versed in Latin literature. In 1833 he came to Canada with his family. The next year his father took up a farm near St George in the southern part of Dumfries Township (in what is now South Dumfries Township), an area of largely Scottish settlement in the Grand River valley of Upper Canada. The Christie family was closely connected with the Dumfries Secessionist Presbyterian congregation, especially through David's uncle, the Reverend Thomas Christie, a Presbyterian missionary in the district for the United Associate Secessionist Church, a fragment split from the established Kirk in Scotland. David was certainly exposed to the Dumfries church's strongly held doctrine of voluntaryism - that churches should be voluntary organizations, not established, aided, or in any way interfered with by the state.......Meanwhile, he had continued to make his own estate, "The Plains," an agricultural showplace. The Dumfries property was also held until 1871, and by 1868 Christie already had, by deed, some 540 acres in his Brantford Township estate, on which he built a handsome mansion. He had married Isabella Turnbull of Dumfries in 1848. She died in 1858, and in 1860 he was married again, to Margaret Telfer of Springfield in Elgin County. The Christies had a large family at their Plains residence, where they frequently housed friends, political allies, and visiting agriculturalists. Moreover, from 1866 onward, a one-time schoolfellow become political enemy and now again an increasingly close friend, George Brown, had been developing his own extensive farming estate at Bow Park on the other side of Brantford. In the 1870s the two became frequent visitors, happily reminiscing about past political battles. Christie, in fact, became vice-president of the cattle company which Brown incorporated for his large-scale pedigreed stockbreeding enterprise at Bow Park..... J. M. S. Careless, "CHRISTIE, DAVID," in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 10, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003\endash , accessed May 31, 2014, https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/christie_david_10E.html. ____________________ Death of Hon. David Christie At four o'clock on Wednesday morning last, this gentleman died, after an illness extending over about three weeks. The cause of his death was somewhat singular. For a few days a corn on one of his toes had been troubling him very much and he undertook to cut it. Happening to cut to the quick it was observed that a small quantity of pus exuded, but nothing was thought of it at the time. The toe continuing very sore, while in Paris, he showed it to a medical man, who advised poulticing. This Mr. Christie did for a few days, but without any beneficial result. Another medical man was consulted, who simply changed the poultice, and thought a few days would effect a cure. Continuing to get worse, on Friday last symptoms of mortification showed themselves, and there been some delay in securing the attendance of a physician, we believe that when the medical man did arrive he pronounced the case as almost hopeless, as the mortification had extended so far that amputation to check it could not be resorted to in the then low condition of the patient. From this time Mr. Christie gradually sank, until at the hour we named, he died. It is needless to write of the life of this gentleman. In this district the record is well known. Successively he has occupied very responsible positions of trust. He was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1818, and was therefore aged 62 years at the time of his death. A brother in arms, in every sense, of the late Hon. George Brown, it is a curious coincidence that in the same year and from somewhat similar cases, they should both have been called away. Mr. Christie's funeral takes place today (Friday) at 1 o'clock pm, from the residence of Mrs. Telfer, Paris, to the Cemetery of St. George. Galt Reporter Dec 17 1880 pg 1 _____________________ Christie, Beverly McGeorge died 7 Aug 1860 At the Plains, Brantford. Infant son of Hon. David Christie. Dumfries Reformer 22 Aug 1860

  
  

• Sources

  [S1086] News - ON, Wellington, Guelph - Guelph Advertiser, "Marriage of David Christie to Isabella Turnbull," 2 Mar 1848. [S12] Vit - ON, Gore - Gore District Marriage Register - Waterloo Entries, Jas. Roy, Wesleyan Methodist Minister Not Hamilton area (pg. 105 & 106). David Christie, married Isabella Turnbull, both of Dumfries. 18 Feb 1848, by licence, Witnesses: Wm. MacKenzie and Wm. Burns.

  
  

• Event Map

  Born - Oct 1818 - Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland Residence - 1848 - North Dumfries Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Married - 18 Feb 1848 - North Dumfries Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Buried - - St. George United Cemetery, St. George, Brant Co., Ontario  = Link to Google Earth