Descendants of the Honourable and Reverend Jonathan Odell

Odell

Sacred to the memory of Elizabeth Ludlow, wife of George M. Odell, M.D., of Fredericton who died April 19, 1861 in the 35th year of her age. "Them that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him."

George Mountain Odell, M.D., died at Newport, Rhode Island, April 21, 1892 in the 75th year of his age. "I believe in the life everlasting."

Charles Odell, C.E., May 27, 1898. Sadie Odell, Dec. 3, 1910. Erected in loving memory of our dear father and mother.

These three tombstones are surrounded by a stone fence.

G.M. Odell at present at Newport State of Rhode Island claims a lot in the burying lot 18 x 24, situate in the north corner enclosed by a wooden fence set on stones. Purchased from Robert Wood about 1861.

The Honourable and Reverend Jonathan Odell came to New Brunswick in 1783 with the New England Loyalists. A clergyman of the Church of England, he was for many years the government Secretary of the Province. His only son, Hon. William Franklin Odell (1774-1844), also a Loyalist, had four sons: William Hunter, George Mountain, James, and Charles. The house in which they were born and brought up had been built by their grandfather, Rev. Jonathan Odell. Their father, William F. Odell, later built "Rookwood", and the original family home ultimately became a residence for the youngest son, Charles.

George Mountain Odell lived for some time in St. Mary’s on the Caleb Fowler farm, which his father subsequently bequeathed to him in 1844. In 1846 he bought a town house in Brunswick Street from Horatio Nelson Drake and married not long after.

Royal Gazette, Fredericton, NB, 3 November 1847:

Married on Tuesday, the 26th ult. at St. Paul’s Church, Halifax, by the Rev. Dr. Twining, Chaplain of the Garrison, George Mountain Odell M.D., son of the late Hon. W.F. Odell of Fredericton, N.B., to Elizabeth Ludlow, daughter of D.L. Robinson, an uncle of Deputy Commissary General Robinson.

Dr. G.M. Odell married, secondly, Susan Philipse, daughter of Morris Robinson. She was a cousin of the Honourable F.P. Robinson. In 1865, Mrs. George Lee bequeathed to Susan P. Odell, her niece, wife of Dr. George M. Odell, £100, “also her work table and sofa table,” and a portrait of her father Morris Robinson. There is no inscription here in memory of Dr. Odell’s second wife.

New Brunswick Reporter, Fredericton, NB, 27 April 1892:

Intelligence of the death of Dr. Geo. M. Odell at Newport, R.I. last week was heard with sorrow by many of the old families in Fredericton whose physician and friend the deceased had been. Dr. Odell was for many years a leading physician here. His remains were brought to this city Monday and interred in the family enclosure in the old cemetery. The chief mourners were Capt. Odell, nephew of the deceased; Delancy Robinson, F.A.H. Straton and Geo. C. Hunt. Closely following these were all of the city physicians. The pall bearers were Sir John Allen, Judge Fraser, Lt. Col. Maunsell, Andrew Inches, E.H. Wilmot and J. Henry Phair. Capt. Odell was at the bedside for a couple of days before he died and accompanied the remains to the city. Rev. G.G. Roberts performed the last rites at the grave.

Charles Odell, born 16 August 1826, was twice married, first to Maynard Eliza Grange (born 1835) by whom he had two children, Florence Mary and George Grange. In 1867, Charles married, secondly, Sarah, daughter of John D. Kinnear, Judge of Probate for Cumberland County, Nova Scotia. They had five children. His eldest son, George Grange Odell, often visited his father from South America where he worked as an engineer. It is remembered that one of his parrots hid in the Cathedral and disrupted a Sunday service.

Their house, occupied for a hundred years or more by the Odell family, is now the Deanery. It is shown in the first town plat, the plan of which was made by Lieut. Dugald Campbell. Above each of the two upper rooms was a loft or sleeping quarter, entirely separate. The large iron rings bolted into the woodwork were probably placed there to chain deserters during one of the early periods of the movement of troops through Fredericton. Until 1844, this house with gardens, yards, stables, outhouses, together with land in rear, extended to Charlotte Street.

Tagged as: Allen, Campbell, Fowler, Fraser, Grange, Hunt, Inches, Kinnear, Lee, Maunsell, Odell, Phair, Roberts, Robinson, Straton, Twining, Wilmot, Wood