Oxford: Scotland to New Brunswick

The earliest known ancestor of this Oxford family is James OXFORD, b. 1748 or 1749 in Elgin, Morayshire, Scotland-- some two years after the Battle of Culloden.  This is the statement he made when he enlisted in the Northern (Gordon) Fencible Highland Regiment on 3 June 1778.  However, no birth record has yet been found for him.  His mother was Mary FRASSER of Mortlach Parish in Banffshire.  To date, no record of his father has been found.  The appearance of a very English name in the middle of Scotland at this time suggests that his father may have been part of the soldiery charged with "pacification" duties in the Highlands.

Some time before 1780, James married Margret URQUHART.  On 12 February 1780 in Glasgow where the North Fencible Regiment was stationed, they baptised a son, Mathew, born the day before.  In 1783, the Northern Fencible Regiment was disbanded.  In 1784, sometime after May, James OXFORD departed for America. 

Meanwhile back in Scotland, Margret baptised their daughter, Susanna, on 19 January 1785 in the parish of Mortlach, Banffshire.  On the baptismal certificate, James is noted as being "in America," and his mother, Mary FRASSER was sponsor for the child

By 1787, James appears in the records of New Brunswick, Canada, as living west of Newcastle in Northumberland county.  Land grant claims in 1808 show that his son, Mathew, had joined him in New Brunswick. 

No record of James' wife, Margret, has yet been found in New Brunswick.  The 1851 census of Northumberland County, NB, Parish of Newcastle (p. 4, house 17), shows a "Susannah NIGHT, widow, age 67, Scottish, entered province in 1816", living next door to Matthew Oxford's widow, Mary (Sweezy) Oxford.   This Susannah may be James daughter, the Susanna born in Mortlach.   James died in 1836.

Some descendants of James Oxford remained in New Brunswick.   Others migrated into the US, settling in Maine, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Michigan, Iowa, Rhode Island, and Washington DC. 

I hope you will contact me if you have (or think you have) a connection. ---> daurregt (at) gmail (dot) com
S. Harnwell, Compiler