BRITISH HOME CHILDREN IN CANADA
  • Home Page
  • This site is maintained by Home Children Canada
  • Home Children Canada website
  • The Sending Organizations
    • Barnardo's >
      • Dr. Thomas Barnardo >
        • Dr. Barnardo bio
        • Articles of Association Barnardo
        • DR. Barnardo's Funeral
        • Barnardo's medical credentials
        • Various articles
        • Home for the Homeless 1888
        • Broughall Legacy Letters
        • THE DOCTOR'S CHILDREN 1995
        • The Barnardo Publications >
          • The History of the Publication
          • Our Darlings - Barnardo's >
            • Barnardo's "Our Darlings"
            • Winter in Canada
            • Coloured Plates
            • Monotints
            • Articles of interest
          • Barnardo's "Night and Day"
          • Barnardo Boy's Mag
          • Taken out of the Gutter
      • Barnardo Homes in Britain >
        • Promotional material
        • Boys Garden Village - Barnardo
        • Babies Castle - Barnardo's
        • Watts Naval Training School
        • William Baker School - Barnardo
        • Barkingside
        • Stepney Causeway
        • St. Christopher's Babies Home
        • Teighmore, Channel Islands
        • Other British Homes
        • Vintage post cards
      • Barnardo shipping lists
      • Immigration Parties
      • Russell Manitoba - Barnardo's
      • Toronto Barnardo Homes
      • Hazelbrae Barnardo Home
      • Winnipeg Receiving Home
      • Barnardo's Musical Boys
      • E A Struthers Day Book 1905
      • Crime or Misdemeanors list
      • Promotional post cards
      • Toronto Maternity Home
      • Indenture Contracts
      • Various Barnardo Doc's
      • Barnardo Government Reports
      • Alfred B Owen
      • Excursion's to England
      • Good Conduct Medals
    • Application Fees for children
    • Agreements and indentures
    • Hotel Dieu, Kingston, Ontario
    • Catholic Emigration - 10,000 emigrated >
      • Catholic Emigration Records
      • St. Georges Home - Ottawa
      • Monsignor James Nugent
      • Father Hudson
      • Father Seddon
      • St. Vincent Rescue Home
    • Annie Macpherson - 8,000 emigrated
    • Ellen Bilbrough and Robert Wallace
    • William Quarrier- Brockville Ont 7,200 immigrated
    • Quarriers - Scotland
    • Louisa Birt - 6,000 emigrated >
      • Louisa Birt files (some)
    • John T Middlemore - 5,000 emigrated >
      • Middlemore Placement Lists
      • Guthrie House, London, Ont
      • Fairview Nova Scotia
      • Middlemore Letters
      • Who was John Middlemore
    • Maria Rye - 4,200 emigrated >
      • Maria Rye-Niagara on the Lake
      • Maria Rye Children's Letters
      • Inspections of Rye Children
    • National Children's Home 3,600 emigrated
    • Janet Wallis - Hurst Home
    • Fegan's >
      • Fegan's Home in England
    • Mr. Gold, Melbourne, Quebec
    • Shaftsbury Homes
    • various British organizations
    • Selling Insurance to BHC
    • Visitor Reports
    • John Joseph Kelso
    • 1911 Census of Canada
    • Elinor Close-New Brunswick
    • Vimy Ridge Training Farm
    • Fairbrige Farm Vancouver
    • Inspection of children 1893 to 1894
    • Emma Stirling of Hillfoot Farm >
      • Hillfoot Farm - Emma Stirling
      • The du Pont Inscription
      • Grace M Fagan - A Stirling Girl
      • Florida Humane Association
      • Emma & Bailey’s Bluff
      • The Wm Bingham Estate
    • Bristol Emigration Society
    • Grosse Isle
    • MRS. MARGARET BLAIKIE'S
    • Dakeyne Boy's Farm
    • Salford Catholic Protection Society
    • Ellen Smyly
    • St. Patrick's Home in Ottawa
    • Stanley Boys Home
    • W. J. Paddy
    • Charlotte Alexander
    • Chase Farm School
    • Bristol Union Children 1905
    • Manchester & Salford Boys' and Girls' Refuges
    • Church of England, Waifs & Strays 4,468
    • Miss Brennans Home - Montreal
    • House of Providence, Kingston Ontario
    • The Salvation Army
    • G.C. Cossar
    • Mr T. E. Sedgwick
    • Overseas Settlement Committee
    • The Children's Friends Society
    • Church Army
  • Requesting Children's Records
    • BHC's records
    • Barnardo Home Records
    • The Children's Society Records
  • Beacons of Light BHC Tribute
  • BHC Registry, over 82,000 children registered!
  • Ups and Down's Magazine
    • Ups and Downs 1895 - 1896
    • Ups and Down 1897 - 1898
    • Ups and Downs 1899 - 1900
    • Ups and Downs 1901 - 1902
    • Ups and Downs 1903
    • Ups and Downs 1904
    • Ups and Downs 1905
    • Ups and Downs 1906
    • Ups and Downs 1907 June
    • May 1910, 1913 & May & Aug 1912
    • Dec 1915 Ups and Downs
    • July 1939, Dec 1940, Dec 1942, Dec 1946
    • Our Old Friends Directory
    • December 1945 Ups and Downs
    • some articles
    • Names of child in the Ups and Downs
    • Pictures of Children 1903
    • Alfred Jolly
  • How to Research Your BHC
  • BHC Fact Page
  • First World War Casualty Index
  • BHC Burial Index
  • The Park Lawn Cemetery Monument
  • Children's Trunks & Bibles
  • Receiving Homes in Pictures
  • Ships the BHC Came On
  • History of the BHC - Film
  • 2016 BHC Memory Quilt
  • The 2010 Memory Quilts
    • BHC Memory Quilt (Ont)
    • BHC Memorial Quilt (Ab)
  • Service in the Wars
    • First World War Causalities
    • Second World War Service
    • Served in Both Wars
    • Lives Shortened
    • First World War service
    • Lists of boys who served
    • Individual Service Stories >
      • Private William Francis Conabree
      • John Mash
      • Sydney James Bevan
      • Alfred Mist
      • Cecil Bennett
      • Links to stories of BHC WW1 service
      • Newspaper clips - BHC service
  • BHCARA Upcoming Events
  • British Home Child Books
    • BHC Books for Children
    • Historical Books
    • True stories of BHC
    • Fiction Stories
    • Vintage Books
    • Downloadable Books
    • Kenneth Bagnell
    • Perry Snow - Neither Waif nor Stray
    • The Bitter Cry of Outcast London
    • Farm Life in Canada
    • PDF's for downloading
    • Films
    • BHC Articles >
      • Silence
      • Better Life or the Empire Fodder
      • EMIGRATION WORK IN CANADA 1905
      • THE EMIGRANT GIRLS HOME IN CANADA 1877
      • Kennington Cove
      • The Barnardo Boy
      • BHC to Nova Scotia
      • Personal Discovery 1935
      • The Land of the Lost Children
      • Rye's Western Home
      • Church Apologies to Child Migrants
      • Life in the Workhouse
      • Woman Miners
      • Victorian Child Labourers
      • Evicted London
      • Historical News Articles
      • Articles in the British Press
  • The Hazelbrae Memorial
  • Stories of British Home Children
    • Collection of various stories >
      • Reunited Families
      • Other mentions of children
      • Gone too soon
      • BHC Obituaries
      • BHC Mug Shots
      • Our Lost Children
      • 1901 census
      • First World War deaths
      • The darker stories
      • Discontented Maids
      • Lost Children
      • Quotes from BHC
      • Links to other BHC stories
      • BHC Posters
      • British Home Children Burial Records
      • Shorter BHC Stories
    • Stories A to M >
      • The Bagley Family
      • John Bolton
      • James Arthur Ball
      • The Bates Family
      • Hilda Blake
      • Charles Bradbury
      • Joseph Barnett
      • The Lost Children
      • Augustus Bridle
      • Percy Brown
      • Rev A. H. Brace
      • John & Benjamin Butterworth
      • The Brocklebank Family
      • William Joseph Carter
      • John Cawsey
      • Two Gun Cohen
      • Fifi the Clown
      • Henry Richard Cooper
      • Violet Elizabeth Chaffee
      • Edith Cherryholme
      • BHC Centenarians
      • Arthur Clarkson & Lily Wood
      • Albert McCarthy
      • Ronald Chamberlain
      • Anthony (Tony) Chambers
      • Cherryholme-Gizzard-Sharpe Family
      • Herbert Clifford
      • James E Cowell
      • George Daintree
      • George Martin Day
      • Esther & Elizabeth Dawson
      • Leslie Henry Baden Fielding
      • Charlie, Ted and Bill Elliott
      • Wallace Ford
      • George Frost
      • Gladys Fudge
      • Annie Garwood Letters
      • John Lydiet George
      • Annie Gevaux
      • Albert Edward Gill
      • Arthur Mcgregor GODSALL
      • Harry Gossage
      • George Everett Green
      • Robert "Robbie" Gray
      • Elsie Hathaway
      • Books and mentioned children
      • Stewart Harris
      • Cyril Hewitt
      • Margaret Healey
      • George Hollingshurst
      • The St. George's Memorial
      • Walter Leigh Lockett/Rayfield
      • Sydney Howarth
      • Bill Holtum
      • Tom Isherwood
      • General information - Heritage
      • Edward Jones
      • Cecelia & Ethel JOWETT
      • Frederick John Kempster
      • George Marlow Leeson
      • George & Annie McMaster
      • Edgar Evan Marselle
      • Will, Elsie & George Maybury
      • The Mintram Family
    • Stories N to Z >
      • Herbert Owens
      • Fred W. Palmer
      • Lizzie Poole
      • Liela Eliza Preston
      • Nellie Page
      • Francis James Preston
      • Edmond Roberts
      • Dr. John R. Seeley
      • Frederick Robert Shaw
      • Ellen, Martha & Rachel Birch
      • Walter Tompkins
      • Gipsy Simon Smith
      • Robert Rankin and George Nelson
      • Kate, Sarah & Jamie Stewart
      • The Stacey Family
      • The Richardson Sisters
      • Albert Stone
      • The Lois Stanford Collection
      • The Taylor's and Usher's
      • Charlie & Matthew Tyler
      • John Vallance
      • Arnold Walsh
      • The Ward and Seymour Family
      • Joe & Bob Waterer
      • Richard Weston
      • Hilda Williams
      • Walter Wilson
      • Children's Placement Lists
  • Documented Immigration Process
  • Making the Canadian Flag
  • Apologies to BHC & Families
    • Australian Apology
    • British Apology
    • Canadian Apology
  • Political Bigotry
    • Apology Petitions - Canada, Britain and Australia
    • Frederick Nicholls
    • Dr. C. K. Clarke
    • House of Commons Reports >
      • Paying Agents in England
      • Traveling Immigration Agent Reports
      • Immigration Stats
      • Bonus's Paid for Children
      • Propaganda in the press
      • MISS EFFIE BENTHAM
      • Diseased Savages Quote
      • Child Saving Conference 1894
    • John D. S. Campbell
    • Canadian recognition >
      • The Canadian Goverment
    • Britain's will never be slaves
  • Migration Legislation
    • Pauper Children Emigration Bill
    • British Legislation
    • Canadian Legislation
  • The Doyle Report 1875
  • Home Child Interviews
  • Collection/Penny Boxes
  • LAC and Heritage Canada
    • Deported Children >
      • Report of inspection of Home children
      • Inspection reports of Workhouse Children >
        • costs of Inspection Reports
  • Order your official BHC Pin
  • Lori Oschefski
  • Contact us
  • GRIMES, Arthur
  • HCC War Service Index Submission Form
  • Hazelbrae Indexing Forms

George Frost
A Murdered Fegan Child

(George came in 1890 aboard the Sarnia with the Fegan Homes. He arrived 1890-04-04 -source LAC)
Source:Library and Archives CanadaReference:RG 76 C1b Item Number:31183

Chapter LXIXTHE TURNIP PIT TRAGEDY 
from Memoirs of a great detective:
incidents in the life of John Wilson Murray (1904)
compiled by Victor Speer

PictureOttawa Journal, March 29, 1897 found by Linda Grandfield
BOYS were the bane of Ephraim Convay's life. He detested them as a nuisance, a pest, a plague. He had a long nose, and when he passed a boy he turned up this great nose, wrinkled his forehead, and made a wry face, as if he had been taking castor oil. The boys for miles around knew of his dislike, and they seized every opportunity to torment him. Naturally this increased his ire against all youth. He owned two big farms near Princeton, in the county of Oxford, within a few miles of the Blenheim Swamp, where Birchall murdered Benwell. Ephraim warned all boys to keep off his land. He vowed that any boy caught trespassing would be dragged to one of his barns and chastised until he tingled.

   "This amounted to nothing more or less than a challenge to all the boys around to make life miserable for old Ephraim," says Murray. "They teased him in a thousand ways. At night, when he was asleep, a fiery face suddenly would loom up at his bedroom window — a face with eyes like balls of fire, and a voracious mouth extending from ear to ear, and grinning hideously. A gentle tapping would begin on the window, made by clackers, otherwise a bunch of nails tied to a nail previously driven in the window-frame, and swayed to and fro by means of a long string. Ephraim would rise up in wrath or terror and gaze on this ghastly face. He would make for his gun and blaze away at the apparition, only to discover it was a jack-o'-lantern perched on a tall bean-pole. At other times his door would refuse to open, and he would find it nailed shut. His chimney would refuse to draw, and would smoke him out of his house, investigation revealing a bag of wheat stuck in the flue. One evening, when he went home, he found his house dark and his doors fastened. He climbed in through a window, and found himself in pitch darkness, with myriad screeching, scratching figures that darted about and leaped over chairs and tables in wild flight, and dealt him stinging blows. He lighted a candle, and found the room filled with cats collected from the entire countryside. When he got into bed he alighted on something cold and clammy. It was a turtle lying in state amid a nest of eggs.

   "In the early evenings resounding knocks would thunder on Ephraim's front door. At length he began to hide inside the door with a long club, waiting to hear the knockers approach, when he planned to leap out and belabour them. They heard him in the hall, and withdrew to deliberate. In the meantime a frail and very respectable friend, going to call on Ephraim, walked up to the door and knocked. The door flew open; out sprang Ephraim, and began to smite the knocker with the club. It was so dark Ephraim could not see who his captive was, and the old man went to work as if with a flail. There were shouts and shrieks of 'Murder!' and 'Help!' The victim rolled over on the ground, beseeching Ephraim for mercy.

   "'I'll show you!' roared the excited Ephraim. 'I'll teach you ever to dare to pester me again!'

   "The friend thought Ephraim had gone crazy. When the old man finally paused, exhausted, and discovered the identity of his visitor, he was beside himself with shame, and grief, and anger. He vowed deep vengeance on his tormentors.

   "'Hi, Ephraim!' they would yell. 'You were a boy yourself once, weren't you?'

   "'If I was, I've spent over half a century trying to live it down and atone for it!' roared Ephraim. 'No one ought to be born into this world under thirty. So long as the Lord could fix it for us to be born at all, He might as well have made the minimum entry age at least twenty-five. I'd rather have erysipelas all my life than have a boy around for half a day. You know where to look for St. Anthony's fire, but a boy is nowhere when you want him, and everywhere when you don't want him.'

   "'How about girls?'

   "'They are what boys might have been,' said the old man with a soft smile. "My mother was a girl once.'

   "'Wasn't your father a boy?'

   "'Yes; but he got over it as quick as he could,' snapped Ephraim.

   "Ephraim's big farm was worked on shares by Russell Grover. Ephraim and Grover did not get along well. Grover had a young fellow working for him named George Frost. Like others, Frost teased Ephraim. On the afternoon of March 26th, 1897, the boy was found dead on the barn floor, with a bullet hole in his body. The Department was notified and I went to the farm. Ephraim had denied any knowledge of the shooting. So did Grover. Ephraim said he was not about when it happened and threw suspicion on Grover. Grover said he was away at the time and he threw suspicion on Ephraim. I learned from others that Grover was not near the barn on that afternoon. There was a turnip pit beneath the barn. To get to it several boards in the barn floor had to be raised. This trap had been moved recently and not replaced evenly. I raised it and went down into the pit. I saw the turnips, and we rolled them back from one corner and there discovered recently turned earth. We dug it up and there lay a revolver. It was a new one. I went to Princeton and to Woodstock, and finally found in Woodstock the store where Ephraim had bought it I learned from some of his neighbours that he had said he bought it for Grover, and to William Kip he had said: 'There will be murder down at the farm before April 1st.' I learned also that Ephraim had told Harvey Grover, Russell Grover's brother, that 'Frost and I have had a little fracas, and he has fainted on the barn floor.'

   "I went to Ephraim again, and this time he confessed. He said he had gone down into his turnip pit to shovel up some turnips. He noticed that as fast as he shovelled them up and turned for another shovelful the turnips rolled back into the pit from the floor of the barn. Then he heard a spitting noise, as if a cat was facing a dog. He looked up and saw the boy Frost on his hands and knees peering into the pit and spitting at him and rolling the turnips back on him. Ephraim said he grabbed his shovel by the handle end, and gave Frost a pat with it. His story was that Frost then seized a plank and shoved it down into the pit at him, and seemed to be preparing to send another after it when Ephraim whipped out the revolver, fired, and Frost fell. At first the old man thought to bury him in the turnip pit, but the barn floor already was dyed crimson, so he left the body to lie where it fell. 'Before he fell he staggered over by the door,' said Ephraim. 'I stuck my head out of the pit, and he turned and looked at me — looked, looked, looked at me, and then he fell. I dodged back into the pit, and then crept out and stepped over the body, and later went to Harvey Grover and told him I thought Frost must have fainted. I felt very sorry as I sat in the pit and thought of the boy lying on the barn floor.'

   "Ephraim was tried at Woodstock in September 1897. He insisted on taking the stand and he fretted and fumed until his counsel, Wallace Nesbit and A.S. Ball, called him to testify. He began slowly and calmly, but when he came to the story of the tragedy he grew very much excited and gasped for breath, swayed to and fro, thumped on the floor with his foot, got down on his hands, and graphically portrayed the scene in the turnip pit, and finally wept frenziedly. The defence showed that a brother of the prisoner had been in an insane asylum at Toronto, and swore witnesses to prove another brother was light-headed. The Jury found Ephraim guilty of manslaughter, and Justice Meredith sent him to Kingston Penitentiary for seven years.

   "'I hope there are no boys there,' said Ephraim. 'I'd be tempted to try to escape on the way if there were.'

   "I advised him not to try it, and told him of what happened to Frank Osier a month before."

Picture

Credit for article: http:
 Mount Royal Universitry
found by Linda Granfield

Linda Granfield Found elsewhere--The killer, Ephraim Convey, died of "senile dementia [suffered] for years" in April 1900. Age 76. No mention anywhere of him serving any time. Convey died in Princeton ON

Linda Granfield And just found--Convey was convicted of manslaughter, sentenced to five years at Kingston Pen. BUT the Governor General pardoned him (!!) because friends said EC was sick and over 80 (he wasn't). So, after one year served, EC sent home to Princeton ON. Article says EC was 'teased by GF, "a young Englishman from one of the homes" when 'the deed' was done. (Mail & Empire, Dec 10, 1898)

Linda Granfield Ancestry record--death registration--George Frost, "killed by gunshot wound, instantly"--born in England, laborer, b. about 1872. Dr. C. R. Staples, doctor who was in attendance and who registered the death on May 8, 1897. I can't find any grave listed.
Web Site Hit Counter
Web Site Hit Counter

 ​© 2022 Home children canada
CONTACT US ​

info@BritishHomeCHILDREN.com
BHC Facebook Group
Subsribe to the BHC Newsletter
Picture