John Farquhar Travel Journal: Scotland to Canada

I would love to track down the travel journal of John Farquhar who emigrated from Scotland to the U.S. via Canada. Here is an excerpt from a letter that mentions the journal. This John is not in my direct line, but he traveled with members of his family who were my direct ancestors.

Joseph and Margaret came from Aberdeen, Scotland, (where the name Farquhar is familiar) in 1832, with their son John, my father, aged 11, and another John, his cousin, somewhat older (who settled in Boston and prospered, leaving a considerable progeny. He kept a journal of the voyage, which is in the possession of his only surviving child, Nellie, Mrs. Charles H. Furber, 35 Maple Street, Milton, Massachusetts. Strangely the journal makes no mention of the other members of the party. The immigrants landed at Montreal and entered the United States by way of Prescott, on the St. Lawrence opposite Ogdensburg.)

You can read the entire letter on my John Wilson Farquhar page here.

Searching for John Farquhar and His Journal

I have searched for another reference to John Farquhar’s journal, but so far I have not found a transcription, catalog entry, digitized copy, or independent mention of it online. At present, the 1938 family letter quoted above is the only source I have found that specifically describes the journal and tells us where it was at that time: in the possession of John’s only surviving child, Nellie, Mrs. Charles H. Furber, of 35 Maple Street in Milton, Massachusetts.
The letter does, however, provide several useful clues about John himself. It describes him as a cousin of my ancestor John Fraser Farquhar, says that he was somewhat older, that he traveled with the family from Scotland in 1832, and that he later “settled in Boston and prospered, leaving a considerable progeny.”

A Possible Identification: John Farquhar, Boston Roofer

An 1896 article in The Architectural Record describes the history of John Farquhar’s Sons, a prominent Boston roofing and metalworking company. According to the article, the company’s founder was John Farquhar, “a Scotchman” who had learned the roofing trade from his father in Aberdeen, Scotland, before coming to Boston. He subsequently established his own roofing business there. The article, written in 1896, states that the business had been established approximately sixty years earlier, placing its beginning at about 1836.

That chronology fits remarkably well with the family story. The John Farquhar in the journal account came from the Aberdeen area in 1832 and subsequently settled in Boston. A young Scottish tradesman arriving in North America in 1832 and establishing his own business in Boston a few years later is entirely plausible.

By the end of the nineteenth century, the company had become a substantial family enterprise. The five Farquhar brothers then associated with the business—Samuel, David W., Joseph, Rollin, and Frank C. Farquhar—were identified as sons of the founder. The firm handled slate, copper, tin, tile, and other roofing materials and worked on a number of prominent Boston and New England buildings. A Boston-area directory in 1894 advertised John Farquhar’s Sons as having been “Established 1836” and listed the same members of the family as officers and directors. That successful business and large family fit the 1938 description of the journal writer as a man who “settled in Boston and prospered, leaving a considerable progeny” unusually well.

There is another interesting confirmation from Francis Peloubet Farquhar (1887–1974), the well-known mountaineer, historian, and later president of the Sierra Club. Francis was a grandson of the founder of John Farquhar’s Sons through his father, David Webber Farquhar. In an oral history, Francis recalled that his grandfather had founded the family roofing business and that his father and uncles later operated it. He remembered John Farquhar’s Sons as a successful firm responsible for some of the finest slate roofs in New England.

All of this makes the Boston roofer a strong candidate for the John Farquhar who made the 1832 voyage and kept the journal. It is not yet proof, however. I have not found a document explicitly identifying the founder of John Farquhar’s Sons as the cousin who traveled with Joseph Farquhar, Margaret Christian Fraser, and their eleven-year-old son John Fraser Farquhar. Until that relationship can be demonstrated, I am treating the identification as a working hypothesis.

Where Might the Journal Be Today?

The most important clue remains the one in the 1938 letter: the journal was then owned by John Farquhar’s only surviving child, Nellie, Mrs. Charles H. Furber, at 35 Maple Street in Milton, Massachusetts. Tracing Nellie and her descendants may therefore be the best way to discover what became of the original journal.

There is also an archival possibility. Francis P. Farquhar’s papers are preserved at The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, as the Francis P. Farquhar Papers, 1912–1968, collection BANC MSS C-B 517. The online finding aid does not identify the 1832 travel journal, and I have found no indication that it is part of the collection. Nevertheless, because Francis was a grandson of the Boston John Farquhar, the collection is worth keeping in mind as a possible repository for other Farquhar family material.

For now, the journal itself remains missing. But identifying the Boston Farquhar family gives us a much better path forward than we had before. If this is indeed the same John Farquhar, his journal would be an unusually valuable first-hand account of the family’s 1832 journey from Scotland to Canada and onward to the United States—even if, as the 1938 letter rather frustratingly notes, John apparently neglected to mention the other Farquhars traveling with him.

I would very much like to locate the original journal or a copy of it. If anyone reading this knows what became of the journal of John Farquhar, or has information about Nellie Farquhar Furber and her descendants, please contact me or leave a comment below.