NameWilliam Richardson (James) Croil, GGG Grandson
Birth10 Oct 1812, Petershill, Glasgow, Scotland
Death3 Apr 1873, Nassau, West Indies
Burial1873, Mount Royal Cemetery, Montreal, Canada
ResidenceCroil Island, Massena, NY, USA
ResidenceHochelaga, Montreal, Canada
EducationGlasgow Grammar School and Scott's private Academy at Gawtott, England.
OriginGlasgow, Scotland
Note 1Married his cousin. Went to Canada in 1835. Bought Stacey Island, St Lawrence County, USA, sold in 1859. The island became known as Croil’s Island where William’s brother John joined him in 1841.
Note 2Went to Canada in 1835, bought Stacey Island where he lived for 20 years. His home farm, Kelvin Grove, consisted of 400 acres, the rest occupied by half a dozen devoted Scottish tenants, paying $2 per acre, who had followed him to Canada.
Note 3“... a splendid horseman and an excellent sailor. He could build a boat and make his own sails...” Both William and his brother James were elders in the Presbyterian church at Woodlands.
Note 4Left Croil’s Island after 20 years “and went to Hochelaga, near Montreal where he made a pleasant home for his family on the banks of the St. Lawrence and where he indulged in his favourite pastimes of horsemanship and boating”.
Note 5In St. Matthew’s church, Woodlands, of which he was an elder, two “precious mementos” of his stewardship in that church have survived: a tablet put up by his tenants when he left and a chair that he himself had made.
Note 5“-There were four Croil brothers – Thomas, William, James and John, all of whom answered the lure of the new world and settled in Canada.”
Flags***, Croil, Richardson