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The WEEKES' are an old Devonshire family and seems to have been usually farmers, the younger sons learning trades or going to sea while the oldest son carried on the farm. The name is still common in Devonshire and also Wiltshire and Somerset. William WEEKES I was born in Chagford, Devon in 1794 with his christening on Saturday the 17 Jan 1795. At the age of 14 William was apprenticed to the cabinet making trade in Plymouth. As a journeyman he seems to been a good deal of a wanderer, having gone to sea several times with his uncle Capt. Robert WEEKES and wintering one time at St. John, New Brunswick. It is said that while there he built the first organ ever built in that province. Returning to England, after spending 1 year on the Isle of Gernsey, William settled in London where he married Elizabeth Grey, who claimed to be a distant relative of Earl Grey. There William II was born in September 1827. Life in London does not seem to have suited William I very well as, in 1828, he emigrated to Pennsylvania, through New York, with his wife and two children, where his elder brother John had gone two or three years before. In 1832 he moved again, this time to St Thomas ON, where he lived for five years. Then he moved to Mosa Twp. in West Middlesex where he bought a bush farm and a few years later he started a small store on the Longwoods road nearby the point being known as Weekes' Corner for many years. It was here in Ontario that William became known as "The Squire". The store and warehouse were afterwards used for a cheese factory and remained standing until about 1880. The land was purchased by the late John CURRIE who owned the adjoining farm and the building were torn down. Written by Abel Senca WEEKES circa 1930 A family story about Capt. WEEKES is that during a particular vicious storm the mate approached the him asking for permission to have the sails lowered. Captain WEEKES looked up at the mast and said admiringly "That is a beautiful piece of timber. It bends just like a piece of whalebone." As told to me by my Mother, Miriam Lydia SUTTON nee WEEKES
Larry SUTTON
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