The Lockwood family in North America began when two brothers left England for the colony of Governor Winthrop. Over a hundred years later, before the war between the American colonies and England, Benjamin was born in New York.
After this war, he became a Loyalist refugee. Along with some family, his parents and others, he went first to the Maritime settlements of Canada. By 1794, he was at the “Head-of-the-Lake, now known as Hamilton. Here he had met and married Keziah Springer, whose Loyalist father had been killed during the war.
They were living in Glanford when lands to the west, near London, became available for settlers. In 1820, Benjamin again left what was familiar. Soon the family was making a new home in Caradoc. Left behind were the three oldest daughters, now married and beginning families of their own. Within a few years even these three families had made the move to the Caradoc area.
On the 19th of January 1857, the long life of Benjamin Lockwood came to a close. Still alive to mourn his passing were his wife, Keziah, and 124 descendants.
Submitted by Judith Hay UE