Introduction / Barbara Allan / Westray Allans / Isabella Allan and George Gullion

Grace Gullion and Adam Benston

Grace Gullion was baptised in the East Parish of Westray on 7th October 1809, the only known daughter of George Gullion and Isabella Allan. She married, on Eday on 31st January 1832, Adam Benston. Grace was his second wife. They had five children:

• James Benston, b. 9th Sep 1832 on Eday who married Mary Jane Richmond.

• Peter Benston, b. abt 1842, Eday, who married first, a woman named Emely and second, Adda A Crowell.

• Jane Benston, b. abt 1850, Eday. It is not known what became of her.

• Thomas Benston, b. abt 1852 in Canada who married first, Mary Elizabeth Henry and second, Mary Lenhart.

• Joseph H. Benson, b. Apr 1853 in Wisconsin who married Susan Faulds.

Adam was born on Eday on 8th November 1804 to Adam Beanston and Mary Sandison. He had previously married Jean (Jane) Begg on 25th February 1823. They had three sons:

• Adam Benston, b. 19th Nov 1823

• John Benston, b. 20th Apr 1827

• William Benston, b. 8th July 1829

In 1841 Adam was a farmer at Ferseness on Eday. However, on 22nd May 1843 he was one of five passengers to arrive in New York aboard the ship "Prince Albert" from New Castle. Adam was later found in the 1846 Wisconsin State Census in Racine County, located on the shore of Lake Michigan. At this time Grace and his children were not with him. In the late 1840s Adam must have returned to Eday, and the family is found there in 1851 at Lochend. Adam and several members, if not all, of his family soon left for North America, probably first going to Canada where Thomas was born about 1852. Soon after they were in Wisconsin near where Adam had lived earlier.

The youngest Adam (b. 1823) was noted in Lewis County of the Oregon Territory in the 1845 Oregon census and was also there according to the 1850 US census. This area was later Pierce County, Washington State. Adam's brother William also settled there, but it is not known when he arrived. Both men married, had families and worked for the Hudson's Bay Company that owned Fort Nisqually and farming operations in the area. Their brother John (who had probably married Ann Harcus on Eday on 13th March 1851 and been widowed) was a farmer in Green Lake County, Wisconsin in 1860, and later in Buffalo County. He married Charlotte Johncock in Buffalo County.

It is not known where in Canada Adam and Grace lived when Thomas was born, but they were soon in Wisconsin. In 1860 Adam was a farmer in New Glareus, Green County. In 1869 he acquired about 48 acres in Buffalo County by means of a Wisconsin Land Patent. He sold this property to his son John in 1876. Adam and Grace were living in Buffalo County in 1870 and 1880, but had apparently died before the 1900 census. There has been indication that Adam died in February 1888, but this has not been substantiated.