Eliza and her son

 John and I were out geocaching a few years ago, which took us to two cemeteries that we've driven by countless times and never knew they were tucked away off the Niagara Parkway. I snapped a photo of this pic of a stone that seems to have survived remarkable well over the last 200+ years.  It's a bit hard to see but the stone reads:

Sacred to the memory of Eliza, wife of Thomas Dickson of Queenston who died on the 5th day of September 1802 in the twenty eighth year of her age. And their only son John Alexander Dickson who died on the 18th day of July 1821 in the twenty first year of his age.

Given the early dates, I decided to try a google search over an ancestry search to uncover some information.  I was immediately successful.  Thomas Dickson was a merchant, office holder, Justice of the Peace, politician, and militia officer during the War of 1812.  He was baptized on 19 Feb. 1775 in Dumfries, Scotland but came to Canada with his brothers.  He settled in Queenston in 1789, opened up a shop in Fort Erie in 1793 and then returned to Queenston in 1796.  He married Eliza Taylor, a widow (nee Wilkinson)  on 17 Nov. 1799. (1)(2).  John Alexander was baptized in Niagara (St Marks or St Andrew's Church) on 17 December 1800.(3)  When Queenston became a port of customs in 1801, Thomas was the first customs collector(4)   I tried to find information about Eliza and Alexander but no luck.  I'm wondering if I can try to find more information about her and Alexander in an old newspaper.

**UPDATE** Feb 20, 2023

I've always been interested in Canadian history and lately have focus on Niagara and War of 1812.  John bought me a book about loyalists in Niagara. I flipped through it hoping to find something about Eliza.  I wasn't disappointed!  The first mention of Elizabeth is that she was counted in the 1783 Census of Niagara Loyalist in the Indian Department, along with her parents Robert Norton Wilkinson and Amelia Everett, her younger brother Walter Butler and her younger sister Amelia.  In 1784, Robert appears on Lot 17 in the 1784 Shubel Walton map.  Robert and Amelia, sister of Peter Everitt (a member of the  Kings Royal Regiment of New York),  were married 14 December 1773 and had Elizabeth about two years later.  The book states that when Robert applied for his land grant (presumably Lot 17) he stated he was previously from Cornwall.   At a date not known, Amelia must have passed away because Richard married Helen McDonnell on remarried on 10 May 1792. (5) On 5 March 1798, Elizabeth married Nathaniel Taylor Jr in Kingston by license(6)   It seems that the couple were busy that year acquiring land. On December 8, Elizabeth and Walter inherited several parcels of land from their uncle Peter who at the time was a lieutenant of Sir John Johnson's Regiment.(7)  Nathaniel, in 1797 petitioned for and received 600 acres of land.(8)    It seems however that once he heard that other men who did not served in the military, had received 1200 acres of land, he spoke with John Graves Simcoe about the matter and petitioned for 1200 acres(9) It appears that Elizabeth and Nathaniel were busy in other ways too.  They conceived soon after their wedding, as their daughter Eliza was baptized on May 9 of the following year.  Sponsors were John Taylor, Elizabeth's half sister Eleanor Wilkinson and Ann McDonnel.(11)  Sadly, we know that Nathaniel died soon after they conceived their daughter andI searched around for a bit for a death record and checkout out the Lower Burial Grounds records (12) but did not find a record of Nathaniel's death.  I did come across a land petition made by Eliza in 1800 on behalf of her daughter Eliza for all of Nathaniel's lands but have yet to confirm that the transaction completed before Eliza Srs death. (13)

  With respect to Nathaniel, it seems he was quite a bit older than Eliza. In this 1796 land petition,   he explains that he left Boston, Massachusetts in 1779 to be with his father's family in Quebec City and had early left Boston in 1775 to serve with his majesty's troops.  With that statement I was hooked and decided to explore Nathaniel a bit. Nathaniel was born on 30 Sept 1761 to parents Nathaniel and Sarah (Minot).(14)  Nathaniel Sr served as a Deputy Naval officer in Massachusetts until he and his family were evacuated by the British in 1776 to Halifax.(15) He was later named in the Banishments Act of the State of Massachusetts.(16)   

I did a few searches of Quebec Drouin records to see if Nathaniel had married prior to Eliza.  The first record I found was unfortunately for the death of his 29 year old sister Elizabeth who passed away not too long before him in Quebec on March 5, 1798.  Nathaniel Sr was listed as a justice of the peace(17)

Although I haven't yet determined his exact date of death or the cause, I have been able to narrow down the timeframe.  Notice of his death appears in the Massachusetts newspaper the Columbian Centinel on 7 Nov 1798 (page 2) so he didn't live long enough to see the birth of his daughter(18).  I tried to signup for an account on genealogybank to look up the notice but sadly had problems and could not register my account.  I was able to get in touch with a gentleman on RAOGK (Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness) in Boston and he was able to provide me with a transcription of the notice.  At the time of his death, Nathaniel was the Commissary General of Upper Canada and passed away in Hallowell(Prince Edward County) of yellow fever.  At the time of the writing, 14 people had contract yellow fever in Hallowell and he was the only one who died from the virus.  It's odd that I've yet to uncover information about his death from a Canadian source.  The Lennox Addington Historical Society published a transcription of early deaths but he is not referenced.(19)

(1)NOTL newspaper archives at Brock: https://ocul-bu.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma991007612539705152&context=L&vid=01OCUL_BU:BU_DEFAULT&lang=en&search_scope=MyInst_and_CI&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=Everything&query=any,contains,%22niagara%20peninsula%20papers%22&mode=basic
(2)http://my.tbaytel.net/bmartin/niag-mar.htm
(3)http://my.tbaytel.net/bmartin/niag-bap.htm

(4)https://vitacollections.ca/notlheritage/details.asp?ID=2494147

(5)(7)Woodruff, Gail, Loyalists and Early Settlers on the Niagara River Parkway, Col. John Butler (Niagara) Branch of the United Empire Loyalists Association of Canada, page 30

(6)https://electriccanadian.com/history/ontario/parishrecordskingston.pdf

(8)Library and Archives Canada, Land Petitions of Upper Canada, 1763-1865 Microfilm C2832  Year 1796, Volume 495 Bundle T2, Petition 19 Reference RG 1 L3

(9)Library and Archives Canada, Land Petitions of Upper Canada, 1763-1865 Microfilm C2833  Year 1797, Volume 495 Bundle T3, Petition 17 Reference RG 1 L3

(10)https://www.ontariogenealogy.com/uppercanadalandpetitions/t_landpetition.html

(11)http://my.tbaytel.net/bmartin/kingstn2.htm

(12)https://www.lowerburialground.ca/burials/

(13)Library and Archives Canada, Land Petitions of Upper Canada, 1763-1865 Microfilm C1743  Year 1800, Volume 151 Bundle D5, Petition 17 Reference RG 1 L3

(14)Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

(15)https://archives.gnb.ca/exhibits/forthavoc/html/Evacuation-Boston.aspx?culture=en-CA
(16)https://archives.gnb.ca/exhibits/forthavoc/html/Mass-Banishment-Act.aspx?culture=en-CA'

(17)Ancestry.com. Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2008.

(18)Ancestry.com. U.S., Newspaper Extractions from the Northeast, 1704-1930 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. '

(19) https://lahistoricalsociety.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/DEATH-IN-UPPER-CANADA.pdf