Descendant of New Hamburg founder William Scott visits from New Zealand
- Galen Simmons
- Apr 10
- 4 min read
By Galen Simmons, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Though there wasn’t much fanfare with their visit, a New Zealand couple with a direct ancestral connection to New Hamburg founder William Scott spent several days in the Wilmot town last week, staying in the house Scott built and learning more about his life in Canada prior to his departure in 1867.
Sheryl Patterson, Scott’s third great-granddaughter, and her husband, Ross Patterson, stopped in New Hamburg last week to visit local historian Marie Voisin and her husband, Greg Voisin, on their way to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where they were set to embark on a Caribbean cruise. This marked just their second-ever visit to the town Sheryl Patterson’s ancestor helped found before he packed up his family and left Canada forever, vowing to disinherit any family member who returned.
“Scott came over from Scotland in the early 1830s and he bought land in North Dumfries, all around, and didn’t settle here until … right after 1834 when cholera wiped out the population. So, Scott then bought the land, the mill, the river rights and started another mill (in what would become New Hamburg),” said Marie Voisin during a lunch with her husband and the Pattersons at the Scran & Dram Scottish Public House in New Hamburg April 4.
“Every small town had a mill because they had to mill lumber to build houses, and then after that they would have a wool factory, a distillery and other things would flow from that just because of the water from the dam, which would turn the waterwheel and create energy. So, he did all that; he had all kinds of stores and he divided up New Hamburg into lots. He’s the one who created New Hamburg.”
Scott’s involvement with the local community soon extended beyond its borders when he ran in the 1857 election and won a seat as a member of parliament for the government of the Province of Canada representing the Waterloo South riding.
To make a long story short, Scott quickly became disillusioned with the direction Canada was heading in under the leadership of John A. Macdonald in the leadup to Confederation.
“As an elected official, he thought he could make a difference in the federal government, and he just found it very partisan with bickering and there was a lot of underhanded stuff going on,” Marie Voisin said. “It was John A. Macdonald who was in charge and he was trying to set up Canada, so he had to do some devious things, and Scott just thought, ‘Nah, I’m not into this.’ ”
Scott returned to New Hamburg from Canada’s then capital, Quebec City, in 1861 and virtually disappeared from public life for six years. During that time, Scott departed on two sailing tours of the world, visiting Australia and New Zealand in both 1861 and 1865. While in New Zealand in 1865, which was only just being settled by the British, Scott fell in love with the country and bought 3,000 acres of what became cattle-pasture land in Paterangi, a settlement in the region of Waikato.
“Even today, it is prime dairy farming land in the middle of the Waikato,” said Ross Patterson. “In fact, he might have built the first-ever dairy factory there, or he was involved in it.”
Whether it was because of his disillusionment with the direction Canada was heading in, or he was following the lead of his brother-in-law and neighbour, James Henderson, who left Canada for New Zealand in 1864, or he wanted to live in a warmer climate for the sake of the health his ailing daughter, Catherine, Scott opted to pack up his family – including members of the Scott, Germann, Henderson and Ross families – and leave New Hamburg and Canada for a life in New Zealand.
“I think he wanted to keep the family together,” Marie Voisin said as to why Scott threatened disinheritance if any of his family members returned to Canada.
“He lost is wife (Marion Henderson) at a young age, too, and he had four surviving children,” Ross Patterson added.
While Scott, his immediate and extended family remained in New Zealand for generations, Marie and Greg Voisin, who live in and restored the house Scott built in New Hamburg in 1858, first met the town founder’s descendants when Marie Voisin decided to begin researching her book, William Scott and his Extended Family.
After contacting Jack Scott, William Scott’s great-grandson early on in her research, Marie Voisin ultimately connected with many descendants of the Scott, Germann, Henderson and Ross families living in New Zealand, including Sheryl and Ross Patterson, who Marie and Greg Voisin met for the first time while visiting New Zealand on a research trip.
The New Zealand couple was later invited to visit New Hamburg and stay with the Voisins in 2009, and have since developed a strong friendship, leading to last week’s visit.
“We’ve learned a lot more about the family and history because obviously Marie is a wonderful historian,” Sheryl Patterson said. “It’s very special and going back to the house that Marie and Greg own that was the original Scott homestead – we slept in Catherine’s room – that’s pretty special.”
“It’s so special,” added Ross Patterson, noting nearly everything brought to New Zealand that had connected Scott and his family to New Hamburg had long since been lost to a house fire, making trips like this one among the only connections the Pattersons have to their ancestors’ lives in Canada.
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