Description Canada’s First Quints Born in Pictou County by R. H. Sherwood

Passing Parade

Canada’s First Quints Born in Pictou County

By R. H. Sherwood

Historical Writer

In this column we go back to 1880, when in the County of Pictou, a most amazing event occurred.  It was the birth of Canada’s first quintuplets.  Many believe that the Dionne Quintuplets, five born at once time, to be the first in Canada.  This is not so, and even the Guinness Book of Records list the Dionne Quintuplets without mention of the Murray quintuplets, they do qualify the record by stating, “The earliest quintuplets in which all survived.”

 

In the case of the Pictou County quintuplets, three of the five lived for only a day. 

 

On the morning of February 15, 1880, Dr. William Fraser of New Glasgow, was called to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Adam Murray at Little Egypt.  It was a case of childbirth.

 

At the time of Doctor Fraser’s arrival, the family of Mr. and Mrs. Adam Murray, consisted of seven children, but within an hour, Mrs. Murray gave birth to five children, all very small but perfectly formed.

 

The unusual birth attracted considerable attention in the press of the day.  Hundreds of people flocked to the Murray homestead to view the five mites of this remarkable birth.

 

Three of the children died on their birthday.  Another died the following day, while the smallest and first born, a girl, lived for two days.

 

Baby Statistics

The weights and measurements of the three girls and two boys were as follows:  the longest, 16 inches, weight, 3 pounds, 14 ounces; second, 15 ¼ inches, 3 pounds, 6 ounces; third, 15 ¼ inches, 3 pounds, 4 ounces; fourth, 14 5/8 inches, 3 pounds, fifth 13 ½ inches, 2 pounds, 8 ounces.

 

The mother of the five babies was a strong healthy woman of little over 30 years of age at the time of their births.  At that time Mrs. Murray had 17 sisters and brothers, all living.  Her mother who was living at the time of the unusual birth had 18 children of her own, three of the births being twins.

The father of the quintuplets was a man below average in height and proportions.

 

The children were named, Elizabeth McGregor, Margaret McQueen, William Fraser and James Jackson after prominent men and women of New Glasgow in those days, while the fifth baby was named Jeanette Rankin, which was the maiden name of the mother of the five babies.

 

The bodies of the five children, in tiny rosewood caskets, were viewed by large numbers of people, and a newspaper report at the time stated that the infants resembled beautiful works of art in wax.  For some years, perhaps five or six years ago, a store on Provost Street in New Glasgow displayed a newspaper picture of the five Murray children.

 

It was reported at the time that a showman from the United States offered the parents a large sum of money for the bodies of the infants.  This offer was refused, but fear that the bodies might be stolen resulted in the children being buried in the cellar of the Murray home for three months.  Later the bodies were removed and buried secretly, so for many years only a half dozen people knew of the final resting place of Canada’s first quintuplets.