I remember absolutely nothing about my grandfather and know positively almost as little: only that he was born with a withered left arm and, if indeed I am correct about him being in the lumber business, he could speak the dialect of the Indians of the North Shore (the Baie Comeau and Sept Iles territory), that gentle tribe, the Montagnais, whom he visited because he did business with them. If I am wrong about this then the legend belongs to his father, John Robinson. I have always had the impression that ``Clav'' was definitely not a strong man; in fact was ``consumptive'' and T.B. was the cause of his death.
I don't know what Jane Thompson's father George did but he married Zipporah, Dr James Reed's sister. ``Uncle James'' of Reedsdale was greatly loved by his niece Jannie and his great nieces and nephews including Evalyn, my mother. (Alma inherited the Reedsdale silver cutlery and Barbara Holmes has, at the moment in her possession two copies of Krieghoff pictures painted on velvet by ``Zippy'' Reed --- probably the Krieghoffs that June Peverley finally inherited.)
Jannie had two brothers, George A. and Thomas R. and a sister, Catherine (Dolly) who married a man called Mason. The Tree says that they were all younger than Jannie and this makes me believe that ``Dody'' mentioned in a letter dated 1867 from her mother, ``Zippy'' to Jannie (who was the 12) and who seems to be a small boy is the nickname of one of the brothers. Anyway, she and ``Papa'' were anxious about him.
``Reedsdale'' I can't quite recognize anyone. Perhaps it was taken in 1910 by my
father who was doing the legal work on the Estate. See letter in ``Reed''
envelope dated Jan. 1911 
[I should mention here that the Photo Album with clasps has in it pictures of Reeds and Wilsons who were ``cousins''] of Dr James Reed in Newcatle-on-Tyne; Thompsons; Peverleys and Quebec types like Dr. Tessier. And the Manila envelope marked ``Reed'' contains all sorts of interesting things such as my father's (E. Edwin Howard) letter sorting out Dr. Reed's estate and 4 pages of, I imagine, Dr. Reed's story of Edward and Thomas Reed and the Hincks family. There are also various letters from Sir Wilfred Laurier, etc.)
Jannie was educated in the Ursuline Convent in Quebec City. Of course she spoke
fluent French. Everyone did. She seems to have been very happy there and
although she remained an Anglican she retained all her life the strong faith
she had learned from the nuns. In the small book ``Daily Light on the Daily
Path'' which was constantly by her she jotted down not only ``happenings''
(such as on March 29
: ``Good Friday, 1918, Horace two years at war'')
but little notes about her health: ``not well today'', ``Great trouble of
spirit --- comfort''. When her children annoyed her she would exclaim: ``How I
wish I had remained in the convent'' --- or words to that effect, which, I
remember Mother saying, always devastated them.