John Canton, MA, FRS (1718-1772) was the son of a weaver in Stroud, Gloucestershire, attending the local charity school. His intelligence was recognised early and he was taken to London to be educated. Although he spent his adult life as a schoolmaster, in Spital Square, London, he was also a distinguished experimental scientist and became a Fellow of the Royal Society. He was a friend of Benjamin Franklin and of many other 18th-century scientists and natural philosophers. John Canton had three sons, one of whom had four sons, and each of the latter had a large family. There are many descendants of John Canton, FRS, alive today and they form one of the largest linked trees in the one-name study - very few of them, however, bear the Canton surname and those few form a key line in the DNA project outlined below.
William Canton, Poet, Author, Journalist (1845-1926) was very well-known in the late Victorian period, especially for his poetry and for his historical works on religious subjects, though they have gone out of fashion since then. He was the son of an Irish soldier and, after preparation for the priesthood, renounced his vocation and took up teaching, then journalism and publishing. He wrote a number of books about his family life in north London, especially about his beloved daughter Winifred (W.V.), a lively and interesting child - when she died just before her eleventh birthday, William Canton's creative life came to an end, though he continued to write to commission. His W.V. books are a wonderful source for Canton family history.
Susan Ruth Canton, known as Ruth Canton, artist and sculptor (1849-1932), was the daughter of Crucefix Canton, a great-grandson of John Canton, FRS. She exhibited her work between 1880-1920 at the Royal Academy, the Royal Society of British Artists, the Society of Women Artists, as well as in various London and provincial galleries. Ruth Canton did not marry. She lived long enough to have known personally some of this writer's Canton correspondents. There is a scrapbook of her life and career in Canterbury Museum, New Zealand, compiled by 'W. Canton', named in the catalogue as her brother but in fact her cousin, Walter. Unfortunately, the scrapbook is too fragile to even be microfilmed.
Revd William John Canton (1854-1930) was born in quite humble circumstances, the son of James Canton, a haulier, and Mary (nee Gibbon, of a farming family). His Canton ancestors were tailors and parish clerks in Manorbier, Pembrokeshire - a hint, perhaps, of the piety which was to transform the young William's life. At the age of 17, by then living in the town of Pembroke, William was a joiner (1871 census). Ten years later he was a clergyman in the Church of England, married to the only daughter of a wealthy Member of Parliament. A Manx church history describes how he had come to the Isle of Man during the building of the railway, held a mission for the navvies and attracted the attention of the local bishop, resulting in his ordination. He met and married Helen Bashall Hick, daughter of John Hick MP who had a summer home on the Isle of Man - at his marriage in 1879, he described his father as 'Gentleman'. Later William J Canton held livings in the north-west of England and was for many years the respected rector of Whalley Range; the couple had two sons (both C of E clergymen) and a daughter, and there are living descendants. The end of his life was tragic: in April 1930 he travelled to Blackpool, walked on the Pier and fell into the sea, and a young man who dived in to save him also died. It was several weeks before William's body was found. At the inquest it was noted that he had suffered from bronchitis, heart trouble and had had fainting attacks. An extract from his diary, found on his body, said, 'My darling Nellie went to be with Jesus, June 10, 1928', but his sons said that, though troubled, William had not been suicidal. The inquest verdict was 'found drowned'.