Person:Catherine Everitt (1)

It is not clear where Catherine was born. There was an Abner Everitt who lived in Ancaster. At the same time Catherine's father also named Abner Everitt, lived in West Flamborough Towsnhip. Both were in Wentworth County, Ontario.

Catherine was born 6 Jul 1805 according to the Everitt Family Bible. If true this means that she was only 15 when she married James Crooker who was 21 years old. James died of typhus fever less than two years after the wedding. Both of his baby daughters were dead less than two years after he died. Before she was 19 years old, Catharine had lost her husband and two baby daughters.

At 18 years of age she married the 40-year-old widower, Ephraim Hopkins of Saltfleet township. He already had 7 children and brought either 5 or 7 of them into the marriage. (It is not clear when William and Joseph died but it may have been before 1824.) The oldest child in the new marriage was the 12 year old Sarah. In 1853 Catharine lived in Saltfleet Township with the 8 children named in Ephraim Hopkins’ will. The will of her mother, Hannah Everitt, was written there in Saltfleet. Ephraim Hopkins had died in December 1852, just before Hannah’s will was written in January 1853.

10 months after her second husband’s death, Catharine Everitt married Isaac Van Norman on September 20 1853. The wedding was a year after the death of Isaac’s first wife, Catharine Cummins. Catharine Cummins had been Catherine Everitt’s maternal aunt. Isaac Van Norman was 20 years older than his new bride. When Isaac Van Norman wrote his will in 1874 he took steps to exclude Catherine wife from his estate. He was buried beside his first wife, Catharine Cummins, in Mount Vernon cemetery. Catharine Everitt outlived Isaac Van Norman by 6 years. She died in Stoney Creek and is buried in Hamilton in the plot of her son, John Wesley Hopkins.

1.   Marriage bond
   20 Nov 1824.

   Upper Canada Marriage Bonds (1803-1865) 20 Nov 1824, Ephraim HOPKINS (Flamborough East Twp) & Catherine CROCKER (sic CROOKER)(Flamborough West Twp) RG5B9 Vol 16, Bond 1022 Microfilm Reel C-6778 http://www.collectionscanada.ca

2.   Everitt Family Bible.