Marchant

   "Marchant" is French, English and/or Scottish in origin, an occupational name for a buyer and seller of goods, from the Old French, Middle English term march(e)ant, and the Late Latin term mercatans, from Latin mercari (‘to trade’), and from merx (‘commerce’, ‘exchange’, ‘merchandise’). In the Middle Ages the term was used mainly to denote a wholesale dealer.
   The Scottish branch of the family was first found in Buckinghamshire, where they were seated from early times and granted lands by King William for their assistance at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 A.D. The family Coat of Arms: Black with a bend between two gold griffins. The Crest is a Moor Cock.
   Our family lineage to the Marchants can be traced back through an English Music Master named WILLIAM W. MARCHANT (b. 8 June, 1828), born in England, and a member of the Church of England, who ended up in Oxford County, Ontario. The area had been established by settlers in the 1790s from the wilderness. But when an influx of squatters from the ever-expanding United States began settling in the area, there were fears of U.S. "Manifest Destiny" and a repeat of the War of 1812. British immigrants were then encouraged to settle in Oxford to ensure this community's loyalty to the British crown. William ended up in an area that on January 1, 1851, became the town of Woodstock. The 1851 census records 2112 people living in 240 frame and 47 brick houses in the newly established town.

LEFT-RIGHT: A township map of Oxford County in Ontario, in 1885, where William W. Marchant lived. Woodstock is in the center of the map; At right is a township map of Middlesex County in Ontario, in 1885, where William W.'s son, William H Marchant, lived. London Township is to the right. (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Read

   Eventually they moved to Ingersoll, the township next to Woodstock, on the Thames River. Aimee Semple McPherson, future American evangelist, was born there in 1890. The township of London is to the west, where their son WILLIAM HENRY MARCHANT, the next ancestor in our line would settle.
   William and Martha had the following children:

CHILDREN OF WILLIAM W. MARCHANT AND MARTHA LOUISA READ

ROSANNE LOUISA MARCHANT, b. 30 September, 1848. Died on 2 Dec 1849, age 1 year, 2 months, 2 days.

WILLIAM HENRY MARCHANT, b. 26 December, 1850. Died 9 March, 1896, age 45 years, 5 months.

LOUISA JANE MARCHANT, b. 20 March, 1853. Died 30 Nov 1853, age 8 months, 10 days.

JULIA ANN MARCHANT, b. 26 September, 1854. Died 29 Oct 1855, age 1 year, 1 month, 3 days.

ROBERT JAMES MARCHANT, b. 10 September, 1856. Died at age of 29 years and ten months, in Ingersoll, 3rd Inst. Notice dated August 3, 1886. Funeral August 5 and father's residence on King Street East. Buried at Ingersoll Rural Cemetery.²

MARTHA LOUISE MARCHANT, b. 13 January, 1859. Died 7 Apr 1872, age 13 years, 2 months, 24 days.

SOPHIA ANN MARCHANT, b. 12 October, 1862. Married JAMES BADDEN, the foreman painter at Noxon Brothers. They had a daughter on Sunday, June 14, 1885, and a son on Tuesday, June 14, 1892.

THOMAS CHARLES MARCHANT, b. 19 April, 1864. Died 2 Dec 1867, age 3 years, 7 months, 13 days.

MARY MARIA MARCHANT, b. 19 January, 1867. She married EDWARD B. MORREY, a collector for the Unuin Publishing Company, on July 09, 1884. “Edward Barker Morrey, 21, book keeper, Ingersoll, Ingersoll, son of James F. and Caroline, married Mary Maria Marchant, 17, Woodstock, Ingersoll, daughter of William W. and Martha L., witnessed by F.T. Morrey and Sarah A. Marchant, both of Ingersoll, 9 July, 1884 at Ingersoll.” (Marriage notice appeared in Sentinel Review, Woodstock, 18 Jul 1884, page 4, column 6.) She had a son on Tuesday, 3 May 1887, then died on 10 May 1887, age 20 years.³ (10 May 1888 in Family Bible.)

HARRIET JANE MARCHANT, b. 18 May, 1869. She married JAMES SHAW on 18 Oct 1888. (Marriage notice appeared in Sentinel Review, Woodstock, 19 Oct 1888, page 1, column 5.)

Holland

   As you can see, the death rate among the Marchant children was tragic. But fortunately for William and Martha (and obviously, for us), their son WILLIAM HENRY MARCHANT grew to adulthood, and even became a musician, like his father.
   William married MARTHA HOLLAND (May 1852 - 1911), on October 26, 1870 in Bothwell, Ontario. They were also members of the Church of England, like William's parents. Both of Martha's parents were from Ireland, and had relocated to Canada, as well. Her father was CHARLES HOLLAND, according to Ingersoll directories of the time, and her mother was MARJERY (or MARJORY) BROWN. Martha's family was of heartier stock. The legend in the Marchant Family Bible intones: "Marjorie Brown Holland, lived to age 94, had five children... Seven Brown sisters came from N. Ireland (County Caven)." So hopefully, with this long-lived Irish blood now pumping in the Marchant veins, the next generation would do better.

Professor William Henry Marchant (at right) with band.

   Their first child, Fredie, lived less than a year. But their next child, a daughter named Lillie, was healthy and strong. This is how the family was listed in the 1881 Ontario census:

   Eventually, around 1884, the Marchant family crossed from Southern Ontario into Port Huron, Michigan, to Kalamazoo. Why they ended up there is lost to time, although there were Marchants already living there. John Marchant was an inventor and had secured several U. S. patents. One being for the "Trim-O-Saw" a machine used in paper mills and printing offices. He was part owner of the American Tool & Die Co. at Kalamazoo, and married Frances Helen Wilson Marchant. Children: Margaret Marchant (b. Dec.29, 1858) and Frances Helen. Were these Marchants related? Was John a sibling of William Sr.? Heck if I know.
   Another clue to the move to Kalamazoo is in the possession of Lillie Marchant's daughter-in-law, Gloria Benson: a sampler, which Lillian said had been made by her "Aunt Mary." MARY ANN PARKER, born in 1809 in Cavendish, Vermont, made the sampler in 1822. We don't know if she was blood kin or married into the Marchant line, but with the timeline involved, she would probably be a great-aunt. Mary Ann Parker married Hosea B. Huston, and became pioneers in Kalamazoo County. Her older sister, Eliza, married Thaddeus Smith, and they settled in Kalamazoo County in 1830. Their brother, John Parker, also ended up there. So how are they related to us? Again, I have no idea.
   Once in the United States, they had another daughter, MARJORIE EVELYN MARCHANT, born on April 5th, 1892, in Kalamazoo. The children of William and Martha were:

CHILDREN OF WILLIAM MARCHANT AND MARTHA HOLLAND

FREDIE THOMAS MARCHANT, b. 10 May 1872. Died 10 Feb 1872, age 10 months.

LILLIE MAUD MARCHANT was born 11 Jan 1878 in Ontario, Canada. She became a music and art teacher in Minnesota and married Henry Nathaniel Benson (1 Aug 1872 - 10 May 1960), who served as Minnesota Attorney General at the State Capitol from 1929-1933. They had three children: They had three children: Alice (b. 1908), Margaret (b. 1909), and Henry (b. 1917), in St. Peter, Nicollet, Minnesota. (1920 Census of Nicollet County, Saint Peter township, ED#107, Roll T625_848). "Lillian" died in 1942. Henry Jr.'s wife, Gloria, lives in Minnesota and owns the Marchant Family Bible.

MARJORIE EVELYN MARCHANT was born 5 Apr 1892. She grew up in Macomb County, Michigan, near a boy named CARLISLE HAUSE until her mother died. Then she moved to Minnesota with her sister. Carlisle then traveled to Minnesota, proposed, and brought her back with him to Michigan. Her death in 1939 was so unendurable for Carlisle that he set fire to all of his photographs of her, trying to burn her from his memory. The only images that we have of her today are from in-laws. See her family here. Burial: Evergreen Cemetery, 19807 Woodward Ave., Detroit 48203-1593 (313) 368-1330

Book Information Book Image Name: Marchant Family Bible Author: Martha Holland Marchant Year: 1880-- Pages: 13 View Bible (.PDF) SOURCE INFORMATION: Collection of Gloria Benson.

   William died in 1896, leaving Martha to care for the family herself. (This was all recorded in the Marchant Family Bible, which can be accessed at right.)
   Lillian ended up as a music and art teacher in Minnesota, while Martha and Marjorie moved to Richmond Township, St. Clair County, Michigan, where Martha found work as a housekeeper. She was listed there as widow with her daughter, Marjorie, in the 1900 census of Richmond Township in Macomb County—as a servant of day laborer Manly C. Gilbert (b. 1862), a widower with daughter Mabel, 10, and son Russell, aged two. But in another mysterious twist, by the 1910 census Martha had married Gilbert, in Memphis, Michigan. Whether this is the fact, or just a mistake by the census taker, is lost to time:

Personal Information Census Image Name: Martha Marchant Home in 1900: Richmond, Macomb, Michigan Age: 48 Birthplace: Canada Relationship to head-of-house: Servant Marital Status: Widow View image View blank 1900 census form  (PDF 13K) Personal Information Census Image Name: Martha Gilbert Home in 1910: Richmond, Macomb, Michigan Age: 58 Birthplace: Canada Relationship to head-of-house: Head Marital Status: Wife View image View blank 1910 census form  (PDF 13K) SOURCE INFORMATION: Data imaged from National Archives and Records Administration.

Lillian (left), Marjorie, and children Henry Benson, Jr., Carleton Hause, and Alice Benson.

CHILDREN OF CARLISLE HAUSE AND MARJORIE MARCHANT

GRETCHEN HAUSE (15 Aug. 1912 - Feb. 1985) married Alan John Brundage in 1939. They had three children: Susan, Nancy and James. They purchased a cabin next to her father's on Vaughn Lake, and Gretchen and the children spent summers there while John worked. She and her family then followed her brother out west, but spent every summer on the lake. She died in 1985 in San Marcos, San Diego Co., California. Posing with her father in 1928; Posing with her mother; The Brundages with sister-in-law Jeanne Brunner-Hause at Torrey Pines in the 1970s.

CARLETON MARCHANT HAUSE was born in 24 July 1917. He started out working in a Michigan factory for his father-in-law, but ended up teaching in Southern California with his wife, JEANNE BRUNNER. "Bud" loved the water, whether in his youth at the cabin on Vaughn Lake, or raising his kids, Carl Jr. and Marjorie, on the shores of Lake Erie in Gibraltar, MI, or at his retirement home on a tributary to the Colorado River in Parker, AZ... or finally the Pacific Ocean, where his ashes were spread in 1983 by his loving wife and children.

Newspaper Article File Image Title: Mrs. Carlisle Hause Dies At Her Home In Detroit Subject: Obituary of Marjorie Marchant-Hause Original Publication: October, 1939 View file SOURCE INFORMATION: Port Huron Times-Herald

   Then Marjorie battled a long illness, of which little is known. Carlisle later told his grandson, Carleton Jr., that it all started at an accident by the well at the Vaughn Lake cabin. Whatever caused her poor health, Marjorie finally passed away in October of 1939.
   Carlisle was so crazed by her passing that he destroyed almost every photo he had of her. Fortunately, over time, photographs belonging to Carlisle's other family members have been handed down to us, so that we have a few images of her. But still, I never knew my great-grandmother, because she died a month before my father was even born. We heard stories about her from my grandfather, whose middle name was Marchant (as is my father's, and my aunt is named Marjorie). We knew nothing of her parents or siblings, or where they were from. So until recently, we always felt there was a crucial part of our family and our heritage that we knew next to nothing about, until...

The Hause and Benson lines of the Marchant family meet up during the thirties. From left to right: Henry Benson, Jr., (unknown), Gretchen Hause (in rear), Carlisle Hause, Margaret Benson Weigelt, Marilyl Weigelt, Carleton Hause (in rear), Alice Benson, and the Marchant sisters, Lillian Marchant Benson and Marjorie Marchant Hause.

Martha Holland Marchant posing with grandchildren Alice and Margaret Benson (photo courtesy of Gloria Benson).

Carlisle Hause with Margaret Benson Weigelt and her daughter, Marilyl Weigelt.

NOTES ON THIS PAGE

¹—Ingersoll Chronicle & Canadian Dairyman. Thursday, December 23, 1886. Pg: , Col: 6. Date of Event: Friday, December 17, 1886. Text of Notice: "MARCHANT—In Ingersoll, on the 17th inst., Martha L., wife of William Marchant, aged 54 years." (Died on 7 Apr 1872). Death notice (Jan 1859-1872) appeared in Woodstock Sentinel, 12 Apr 1872, page 2, column 4"

²—Ingersoll Chronicle & Canadian Dairyman. Thursday, August 05, 1886. Pg: , Col: 8. Date of Event: Tuesday, August 03, 1886. Text of Notice: "MARCHANT—In Ingersoll, on the 3rd inst., Robert J. Marchant, aged 29 years and 10 months."

³—Ingersoll Chronicle & Canadian Dairyman. Thursday, July 10, 1884. Pg: 3, Col: 8. Date of Event: Wednesday, July 09, 1884. Morrey, E. B. weds Marchant, Mary. Ingersoll Chronicle & Canadian Dairyman. Thursday, May 12, 1887. Pg: , Col: 7. Date of Event: Tuesday, May 10, 1887. Text of Notice: "MORREY—In Ingersoll, on the 10th inst., May M. Marchant, wife of E. B. Morrey, and daughter of William Marchant, aged 20 years."

TOP PHOTO by Raymond Hause. "Tom" was his nickname for Carlisle, his brother. "Sis" was Marjorie Marchant. I have no idea who "Meta" and "Peg" are. The photo was taken in 1910, just before Carlisle and Marjorie were married.