THE CODES OF TROWBRIDGE - Perth County
& THE COADS OF EAST WAWANOSH

The settlers from Aghold Parish in Wicklow were, by the time they had settled in Eastern Ontario, used to the notion of moving on to find better conditions. Perhaps it was George Codd (by now George Code) and Richard Codd (by now Richard Coad) who led the way in 1850-55. They had scouted the Maitland River in Perth and Huron Counties, which at the time were inaccessible except with a guide. It was said that:

"The George Code family were the first residents of Elma Township according to the history of Perth County.

George Code and his brother Richard Coad left their homes in Lanark and Kitley in Leeds in the spring of 1848 hoping to find desirable land in the "Queens Bush". On reaching what is now Milverton in Perth County, they engaged a guide. He, with the help of a compass guided them to an area that pleased George. It was on the bank of the Maitland River. They continued on for a distance of about 20 miles.

Richard selected land on the Maitland River in East Wawanosh Township, in Huron County.

George and Richard's decision to locate in the "Queens Bush" shaped the settlement pattern of their youngest brother, James Code, two sons of their sister Rachel Jackson, a son and daughter of their brother Thomas Code, and members of other related families.

Robert and William Bingham were married to nieces of Sarah Code. They told George Code, shortly after his return to Lanark, that they were committed to settle in the "Queens Bush" provided that he would allow his sons Samuel and George to accompany them. The Bingham brothers and Samuel and George Code left Lanark in September 1848. Robert and William Bingham selected a site in Elma Township, near what was later to be the village of Attwood. It was October 1848 before Samuel and George were on their site on the bank of the Maitland River, and where later the village of Trowbridge would be located.

George Code visited his sons in 1853, and persuaded them to build a mill on the bank of the river. The George Code family, with the exception of daughter Margaret, moved from Lanark to Lots 7 and 8, Con. 2, Elma Township, Perth County, in 1855."    George Code


Children of GEORGE CODE and SARAH BOYD were:

1.)   SAMUEL  CODE, b. 04 December 1824, Lanark Twp., Lanark Co., Ontario, Canada; d. 21 August 1891.

2.)   THOMAS CODE, b. 24 October 1826, Lanark Twp., Lanark Co., Ontario, Canada; d. 27 October 1904, Trowbridge, Elma Twp., Perth Co., Ont., Canada.

3.)   GEORGE CODE, JR., b. 28 August 1829, Lanark Twp., Lanark Co., Ontario, Canada; d. 12 September 1890, Elma Twp., Perth Co., Ontario, Canada.

4.)  ELIZABETH CODE, b. 02 May 1831, Lanark Twp., Lanark Co., Ontario, Canada; d. 1920.

5.)  MARGARET CODE, b. 17 April 1834, Lanark Twp., Lanark Co., Ontario, Canada; d. 1893.

6.)   MARY JANE CODE, b. 17 September 1835, Lanark Twp., Lanark Co., Ontario, Canada.

7.)  RACHEL ALLICE CODE, b. 21 June 1837, Lanark Twp., Lanark Co., Ontario, Canada; d. 1918; m. ISAAC CRANE, REV., 02 May 1899, Wellington Co., Ontario, Canada13; b. 1822, Norfolk County, England14; d. 21 June 1899, Trowbridge, Perth Co.

8.)  JOHN RICHARD CODE, b. 13 May 1839, Lanark Twp., Lanark Co., Ontario, Canada; d. 21 March 1922, Trowbridge, Elma Twp., Perth Co., Ontario, Canada.

9.)  WILLIAM CODE, b. 1841, Lanark Twp., Lanark Co., Ontario, Canada; d. 1852.



The Codds were not the only families to leave Lanark and Kitley in the 1850's. Several other families, especially those who had come from Aghold Parish in Wicklow, left at the same time, and are seen clustered roughly in the same areas, some 20 miles apart...



On this map one sees not just the Codds but several settler families from Lanark and Kitley in Leeds County. I'm sure you will see others I don't know about, but I have pointed out some of them. In particular, I should point out Peter Twamley and his son John Twamley, who had emigrated to Carleton Place, and who were likely closely related to Elizabeth Twamley, wife of Thomas Codd b. 1773.

EAST WAWANOSH - Huron County

Richard Coad and his wife's family the James family of Aghold, chose further along the Maitland River near Lake Huron at East Wawanosh Township. The James family and very possibly the Codd family as well, were, in turn related to the Groves family of Aghold, who accompanied them as well. In East Wawanosh we see again other Aghold families - the Chamneys, the Wellwoods, the Singletons and members of the Hawkins family who had married into the Codd family in the early 1770s, and who would become the founders of the nearby town of Port Albert on Lake Huron.



Richard Coad's original log house was restored in 1976 by Don Kennedy and is seen as a before-after montage here -  along with an era photgraph of a barn-raising event held on the property in the later 19th century.

It remains an interesting mystery why the two Codd brothers chose different sites to locate their families and the other families who accompanied them from  Kitley and Lanark/Ramsay Twps.


                                                                                                             6.)  JANE ANN(IE) COAD b. September
                                                                                                                     1851; d. 02 December 1891.

                                                                                                             7.)   RICHARD COAD, b. 1853, Kitley
                                                                                                                        Twp., Ontario, Canada.

Richard Coad's settlement of East Wawanosh was part of a general emigration of second generation Irish who had, beginning about 1848, struck out from Kitley Township in Leeds and Lanark and Ramsay Townships in Lanark -  to the west to take advantage of the farmland which was opening up here. Families which enjoined this migration included the Deacons, members of the James family, the family of Elisha Lemmex, William Singleton (m. Catherine Coad) and several named Coad/Code families, and others whose names will be linked as they become apparent in the future. Families also began emigrating directly from Aghold, Wicklow and other linked communities - an example of which was the family of Richard Chamney, who was related to the Aghold Chamney family of Lanark, but who came from Rathdrum.  See Eileen Jackson's extensive Code/Jackson family tree.


From western Ontario, family members continued West and were soon found in Manitoba, North Dakota, Michigan and beyond. Soon there would be Codd family members right across Canada. Wherever they went in the 1850's and into the 1870's, the Codds would take with or accompany them members of the McCreary, Magee, Dezell, Benson and Mitchell families (perhaps others too), who would intermarry with great frequency for generations to come. Many of the second generation Irish Canadians held in common a memory of a church they had attended together in Aghold - St. Michael's Church of Ireland.

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