I have spent the better part of a week trying to prove my hypothesis that Catherine Jackman and Catherine Malcolm are the same person. This is the story of that adventure. First I’ll give you the context of what was happening in the lives of David Jackman and Robert Malcolm.

David J. Jackman (1869-1950) appears as Little Bay’s second tinsmith following the death of the town’s first tinsmith Robert Malcolm (1859-1888). David was the son of Michael and Margaret (Lannigan) Jackman. Born and raised in St. John’s, he was enrolled into the Christian Brother’s St. Patrick’s School there from 1879 ‘til 1882 when at the age of 13 he left to become a tinsmith’s apprentice under the tutelage of William Malcolm.

During this time Little Bay’s tinsmith was Robert Malcolm who, as suggested by Sergeant Wells’ diary was the likely arsonist behind Little Bay’s Public Hall fires. When he died there in 1888 it was William Malcolm, back in St. John’s, who posted newspaper ads seeking a replacement for Little Bay’s tinsmith. In the end he gave the position to his young apprentice, David Jackman.

Meanwhile, Robert Malcolm’s wife Catherine was left to raise two sons and one daughter by herself. References to a Mrs. Malcolm in town after 1888 suggest she remained in Little Bay after David Jackman took over her husband’s position.

David Jackman stayed in Little Bay until 1890. He ended up on Bell Island. In 1892, he married a woman named Catherine Malcolm. I’ve been working under the assumption that this is the same Catherine Malcolm but that has been difficult to confirm. It started with guess work but the circumstantial evidence built up as I failed to disprove it.

My first guess was that Robert Malcolm was the son of William Malcolm and William had sent his apprentice David Jackman to Little Bay for emotional as well as financial reasons. If so, David not only took over the Malcolm family business in Little Bay but further took on the Malcolm family itself there. My second guess was that the tinsmithy in Little Bay was attached to the tinsmith’s house. That just makes sense based on observed architecture. I haven’t been able to place its exact location but it’s probably one of the houses with an attached work area you can see in old photos of the Bight.

The guesswork allows us to imagine David moving to a new town with a family already waiting at home. One with connections to his old life and also one lacking a patriarch. They would have been able to fill holes in each other’s lives. The Malcolms would have known the ins and outs of assisting a tinsmith already. I like this interpretation as it gives Catherine and her children some agency in the story. Historical sources tend to emphasize men’s experiences but I think with enough context and imagination we can catch a glimpse into other lives. I needed to find Catherine.

Genealogy sites were my first stop. They proved more helpful for the Jackmans than the Malcolms but neither had reached the conclusion that the two Catherines were one in the same. I next went searching for documents and caught a small break in the case. David Jackman’s wife had been recorded as a widow at their wedding. So she was Mrs. Catherine (Kate) Malcolm; born in 1862. This at least explained why no one had found her parentage when taking Malcolm to be a maiden name.

I next attempted to work backwards to her from her children. I found only one for the Malcolms. They had a son named George William. Some information was recorded when he’d married in Switzerland in 1923. That put his birth in Little Bay in 1882. It also listed his parents as Robert Malcolm and Catherine Morisey. I had her maiden name!

The family trees found online for the Jackmans named four children – Nellie, Kathleen, Ignatius, and Frank. I was able to expand this list with reference to the “Who’s Who” (1927) as it contains a short biography for David J. Jackman. According to this source the couple had seven children – four sons and three daughters. Oddly, it only names six; Mollie, Michael, Ignatius, Ellen, Kathleen, and Frank. Nellie is likely Ellen which makes Mollie the new addition. From the “Who’s Who” we know that she was the oldest and that she died in 1912. That gives us enough to find her headstone on Bell Island which puts her date-of-birth in 1893. This left one missing male child but I think I found him. There was a 1898 baptism recorded in St. John’s for one Thomas Edward Jackman which lists his parents as David Jackman and Catherine Morissy. Morissy again! I’ll take that as the confirmation I was looking for.

So now, if we put it all together the baptism of Thomas Edward Jackman in 1893, the Swiss wedding of George William Malcolm in 1923, and David Jackman replacing Robert Malcolm as Little Bay’s tinsmith in 1888 it strongly suggests that one Catherine (Kate) Morisey/Morissy became both Mrs. Malcolm and Mrs. Jackman (1862-1911). We can now at least support our imagining her on some facts. 

This still leaves unanswered questions such as the whereabouts of her children with Robert Malcolm after leaving Little Bay but the lack of evidence for them in any way associated with David Jackman suggests they went elsewhere before the family relocated to Bell Island.

I’ll likely get around to giving this piece a proper source list eventually but in the meantime reach out if you want to confirm something particular. I think I’ve pointed you in the right direction for most of the big facts here. If you are working on this family these folks do have notable coverage with David Ignatius Jackman’s political career and Michael Jackman’s military files (8394) as highlights.

The picture of David Jackman used above comes from the “Who’s Who” (1927) and the family photo below comes from this CBC article. It puts a face to two names. Say hi to Kate!

Thanks for reading!