BYGOTT, Thomas W.: 1838 - 1903
BOGERT (BOGART), Kate M.: 1840 - 1909
Thomas Wilson Bygott was born in England in 1838 and emigrated to Canada in 1858. He married Catherine M. Bogart in 1864. Catherine (Kate M. on the tile), the daughter of John and Phoebe (Campbell) Bogart, was a descendant of Abraham Bogart and Archibald Campbell, who were both original United Empire Loyalist settlers in Adolphustown.
Thomas purchased land from the Trumpours—lot 30 on the third concession of Adolphustown, in 1864.(1) The Trumpour family was descended from original United Empire Loyalists who had been amongst the first group of settlers to receive land grants in the area.
Thomas and Catherine had two children: a daughter, Louise, born in 1868 and a son, Frank, born on October 12, 1878.
Their daughter, Louise Campbell Bygott (1868-1943), married a young man from the neighbouring farm, Thomas N. Trumpour (1867-1914), the son of Thomas Trumpour and Almira Mallory (Tile # 58). An interesting description of their marriage was recorded in the local paper as follows:
“Yesterday morning (December 9, 1891) fashionable carriages have been seen drawing up to the pretty U.E.L. Memorial church in Adolphustown, where the sweet strains of the wedding march floated out on the ears of the congregation and Miss Lou Campbell Bygott walked up the aisle leaning on the arm of her father. She was received at the altar by the groom, Thomas Trumpour Jr. The bridesmaids were Miss Boldrick, Miss Chard and Miss Mallory. The groom being assisted by Master Bygott and Messrs. I. and E. Trumpour. The officiating clergymen were the rector, Rev. R.S. Forneri, B.D., and Rev. A.L. Geen, P.D. of Belleville. After a sumptuous breakfast the happy couple started on their wedding trip going west. The bride was the recipient of many pretty and useful presents.”(2)
Both daughter Louise, who died in 1943, and her husband, Thomas Trumpour, who died in 1914, are buried in St. Alban’s Cemetery and share a tombstone with Louise’s parents.
Thomas W. Bygott died in 1903 and his wife Kate Bygott, née Bogert, died in 1909. The tile dedicated to their memory marks the latest dated death on all sixty-four tiles in St. Alban’s and enabled the tile frieze to be completed and entirely encircle the walls of the church only shortly before this type of tile production ceased at the pottery works in Stoke-on-Trent, England.
Both Thomas W. Bygott and Kate Bygott, née Bogert, are buried in St. Alban’s Cemetery.
1. Patron’s Directory of Adolphustown, Illustrated Historical Atlas of Frontenac, Lennox and Addington (Toronto: J.H. Meacham & Co., 1878), p. 109.
2. Trumpour Family File, U.E.L. Research Centre, Adolphustown.