Covert-Massie (family) : John Covert (1768-1843) was born in Sussex, England and moved to Upper Canada in 1820. Settling in Hamilton Township, near the town of Cobourg, he gained local notoriety as a magistrate and businessman. By the early 1830s he became the Colonel of the 1st Regiment of Northumberland Militia. His conservative politics, especially his efforts to embarrass reform-minded men in the regiment, led to court martial and his subsequent dismissal from command. John Covert settled at New Lodge Farm in Cobourg, where a grand, Regency-style cottage was built.
Henry Covert (1814-1893) was left a substantial inheritance from his father John and played a role in the local militia as was the tradition for businessmen of his station. Henry Covert became well-known in the Cobourg area for his various ventures including the Peterborough Railway Company. Covert married Mary Isabel Goodrich (1855-1941). Upon Henry's death, New Lodge Farm was passed to their daughter Isabel "Birdie" Eliza Covert (1879-1963).
The marriage of Isabel to Robert Frank Massie (1879-1935) brought together the Covert and Massie families and New Lodge Farm became the summer home for the young couple. Robert Frank Massie, D.S.O. was born into the prominent Guelph, Ontario family of James Massie (1833-1904) and Mary Armstrong (1843-1913). Robert Massie was educated in Guelph and in Toronto and by 1893 had begun a career with the Confederation Life Association. After a four year tenure with the Canadian General Electric Company ending in 1906, Robert Massie founded the Dominion of Canada Fire Insurance Company. In the First World War, Massie turned from his successful work as an insurance magnate to found the 34th Battery, 9th Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery. He went overseas and saw active service in the battles of Ypres, Somme, Vimy Ridge, Hill 70 and Passchendaele. It was for his, "distinguished and courageous work during the period of July 1916 to September 1917," that he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order on 1 January 1918. Robert and Isabel Massie had three sons, the eldest being James Hamilton Covert Massie.
Michael Harrington was an officer in the Upper Canadian militia throughout the mid-nineteenth century. He married Mary Sullivan. Their daughter, Mary Helen Harrington (1878-1958) married the American businessman Almon Penfield Turner (1863?-1917) on 26 November 1906. Almon Penfield Turner came to Canada from Cleveland, Ohio where he was a businessman, prospector and a member of the Cleveland Gatling Gun Division (2nd Division, 2nd Battery) Ohio Naval Militia. One of his first recorded visits to Canada was in 1887 under the auspices of the Canadian Copper Company. After his marriage to Mary Harrington, Turner managed the operations of the International Nickel Company (INCO) at Copper Cliff, Ontario. The Turners had two daughters, Mable "May" Marie F. Turner (Plaxton) (1910-?) and Helen Mary Harrington Turner (Massie). In 1917, Almon Turner died, leaving Mary Turner to bring up her two daughters alone. Helen Turner, the eldest daughter, received her high school education in Toronto. In the 1920s, she pursued a science degree at the University of Toronto and later studied piano in Lausanne, Switzerland.
In 1936, Helen Turner married James Hamilton Covert Massie, bringing together the Covert, Massie, Harrington and Turner family lines. Upon their marriage, J.H.C. Massie converted to Roman Catholicism, his wife's faith. The couple later moved to New Lodge Farm, the traditional Covert-Massie estate, and had six sons: Robert, James, Turner, Brian, Malcolm, and Anthony. During the Second World War, J.H.C. Massie followed in his father's footsteps and served as a major in the Royal Canadian Artillery. He was a professional engineer who studied at the Royal Military College of Canada in the 1920s and at the University of Toronto after the Second World War. From the mid-1950s until his death in 1978, J.H.C. Massie divided his attention between his work at a Toronto Rolls-Royce dealership and the day-to-day operations of New Lodge Farm.
Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Vol. 7 (1988); A Standard Dictionary of Canadian Biography (1938).
