Continuation of tree (6th child of Narcisse David Pitre/Annie Jane Fowler); all known surname descendants:
8 David Nelson Peats b: September 1904 Wallaceburg, Kent, ONT; d: Aft. February 1960
Notes for David Nelson Peats:
Census
- 1911 Wallaceburg, Kent East, Ontario: David Peats 60, wife Annie 44, Arthur P. 13, David 6.
- 1921 Wallaceburg, Kent, ONT: David Peats 70, wife Annie 75, David 16.
- 1931
MISC: The Windsor Star (Windsor, ONT), Saturday, 4 April 1925: Wallaceburg, April 4 - David Peats was remanded in jail until next Thursday by Magistrate Carscellan, following a charge which had been laid against him of breaking into the Cleary garage and stealing four automobile tires. Peats elected summary trial, and pleaded not guilty.
- The Windsor Star (Windsor, ONT), Friday, 20 November 1931: Chatham, Nov. 20 - David Peats, 24, of Wallaceburg, was arrested on a vagrancy charge by city police today and remanded to the county jail for a week. He is to be questioned concerning his actions during the past few days, police said today.
- The Hamilton Spectator (Hamilton, ONT), Tuesday, 31 October 1933: Chatham, Oct. 31 - Aroused by the ringing of an electric burglar alarm, David Pickering hurried to his chicken coops with his son and captured David Peats, 27, Wallaceburg, whom they caught in the act of killing the birds. The Wallaceburg man admitted the offense and was remanded to jail for a week pending investigation of his record.
- The Windsor Star (Windsor, ONT), Wednesday, 27 November 1935: Chatham, Nov. 27 - (summary) Magistrate chastised subpoenaed witnesses who failed to appear...charge of theft of 20 chickens against David Peats, 29, of Wallaceburg.
- The Globe and Mail (Toronto, ONT), Tuesday, 10 March 1936: Wallaceburg, March 9 - David Peats, pleading guilty to a charge of stealing tools, the property of Alex. McLeod, valued at $10, also received a sentence of three months in the reformatory, and an indeterminate period of two years less one day. He pleaded he was drunk at the time.
- The Hamilton Spectator (Hamilton, ONT), Saturday, 29 April 1939: Sarnia, April 29 - David Peats, of Chatham, charged with theft of a coat belonging to Inman Osborne, employee of the Ryan Construction company, yesterday was remanded to jail for a week at the request of Crown Attorney Harry M. Taylor.
- The Windsor Star (Windsor, ONT), Wednesday, 17 May 1939: Chatham, May 17 - Muttering "kangaroo court," David Peats, 35-year-old soldier of fortune, was led from the court this morning after he had been sentenced to a term of 18 months in the Ontario Reformatory by Magistrate S. B. Arnold. Peats was convicted of stealing a quantity of silverware from Mrs. Ethel Gault, of 46 Kirk street. Earlier in the month he was sentenced to 18 months in Sarnia for stealing articles from a parked car and the term imposed today will run concurrently with that. Although Mrs. Cyril Lennox, of 46 Kirk street, positively identified Peats as the man who entered Mrs. Gault's apartment last June 4 and stole the articles, he denied that he had been there. "This is one charge I'm not guilty of," declared Peats, whose criminal record dates back to 1926. "If I was guilty, I'd admit it and take my medicine." "The woman identified you and I must find you guilty," replied Magistrate Arnold. Still persisting he was innocent, Peats muttered "kangaroo court" as an officer led him away. Mrs. Lennox, who lives in the back part of the house, told how she had heard a noise in Mrs. Gault's apartment and went in to investigate. "Here was this man into the silverware," she said. "He was drunk, you know. I asked him if he was trying to take the silverware. He said "No," but he kept right on stuffing it into his pockets. I went out and told a boarder what he was doing, and he came in and ordered the man out." She then swore that Peats was the man she had seen in the apartment. David Gault, husband of the woman who was robbed, said he had seen Peats earlier on the Saturday, but that he had left when he had told him he was going to Ridgetown. "You know that I met you in a beverage room and you had a gallon jug under your arm," Peats told Gault. "You asked me to go to the house to have a few drinks. I went over and left when you said you were going to Ridgetown."
- The Hamilton Spectator (Hamilton, ONT), Thursday, 18 May 1939: Chatham, May 18 - David Peats, 35, of no fixed address, was yesterday sentenced to the Ontario reformatory to serve a term of six months determinate and six months indeterminate, following a conviction of a charge of stealing silverware from a local home. The offence was committed last June.
- The Windsor Star (Windsor, ONT), Friday, 25 January 1946: Chatham - David Peats, Wallaceburg, evidently know new faces on Chatham's expanding police force. Yesterday he 'panhandled' Constable W. G. Graham, newest member of the department outside the Rankin Hotel, and as a consequence appeared before Magistrate Ivan B. Craig. Peats claimed "I was tight" and was given one year's suspended sentence on the condition he stays out of Chatham. For having a bottle of native wine partly consumed on his person when arrested, Peats told the Magistrate he would do the "ten days, sooner than pay the $13." The magistrate obliged him.
- The Windsor Star (Windsor, ONT), Thursday, 9 June 1949: Chatham - Three charges of vagrancy were laid in Chatham court yesterday. David Peats and William Kett, both charged with being vagrants by virtue of begging in the city, pleaded not guilty and were remanded until June 10 for trial. They were remanded in custody.
- The Owen Sound Sun Times (ONT), Friday, 29 June 1956: David Peats of London was sentenced to two months in jail on a vagrancy charge, and for arguing over the sentence was given an additional one month in jail.
- The Windsor Star (Windsor, ONT), Tuesday, 3 December 1957: Chatham - Magistrate Ivan B. Craig held his first court in his new offices on Centre St., Monday and greeted an old friend. David Peats, 54, no fixed abode, appeared before the court on a charge of being intoxicated in a public place. Speaking to the staff, lawyers, police and press, Magistrate Craig siad, "David has a unique distinction when he appears here today. The day I took my first court as magistrate he appeared before me on a charge of being drunk and here he is again on my first day in the new court." It is a maxim of Magistrate Craig's court that distinguished citizens and ordinary people all get equal treatment and so David got six months in jail.
- The Windsor Star (Windsor, ONT), Tuesday, 22 July 1958: Chatham - Two men charged with vagrancy were given one-year suspended sentences by Magistrate Ivan B. Craig on the condition that they "get out of Kent county." David Peats, 56, no fixed abode, an "old friend" of the magistrate was told to get out "and stay out" or face a jail sentence. Gordan Bain, 53, of London, was ordered to stay out of the county for one year. Both were released on their own recognizance of $200. "He started back in 1940," Magistrate Craig said of Peats. "He was the first person to appear before me when I was appointed magistrate and the first to appear before me in the new court." The two men were found by police Friday, sleeping in a boxcar west of Albert St. at the C. and O. railway. Police also found two part bottles of wine under the packing paper in the car.
- The Windsor Star (Windsor, ONT), Saturday, 12 September 1959: Chatham - Back in 1940 when Magistrate Ivan B. Craig was first appointed to the bench here, his first "customer" was David Nelson Peats of no fixed abode who appeared on a charge of vagrancy. Friday, the same David Nelson Peats appeared before him on a drinking charge. Recalling that first meeting the magistrate said, "I let you off that time but in the interim...what has happened." Magistrate Craig was referring to the stack of conviction cards he has on Peats. "I can't let you go this time. You are an absolute nuisance when you are drinking and if I let you off you would be drunk within half an hour," declared the magistrate. Peats was arrested in Wallaceburg. Magistrate Craig levied a fine of $17.10 or five days.
- The Windsor Star (Windsor, ONT), Saturday, 6 February 1960: Wallaceburg - Two Wallaceburg men, David Peats and Pete Shepley, were arrested by town police early Friday night and charged with theft of a portable radio from a local residence. They will appear in magistrate's court at Chatham, Monday. The arrest was made shortly after a complaint had been filed with police by the owner of the missing radio set.
- The Windsor Star (Windsor, ONT), Tuesday, 9 February 1960: Chatham - David Peats, 57, of no fixed abode, was sentenced to three months less one day in jail when he appeared in Magistrate's Court here Monday on a theft charge. Peats admitted stealing a radio, the property of Bob's Tire, Wallaceburg, which was on loan to Francis Turner, 456 King St., Wallaceburg, Feb. 4.
Back one generation to parents of David Nelson Peats
Items in RED have been verified against parish register entries. Births/Marriages/Deaths in RED without a church have come from the Michigan Return of Births/Marriages/Deaths (Family Search online - actual pages viewable). While births & marriages name parents, deaths list only age & marital status. Michigan deaths between 1897-1920 in RED taken from death certificates (online), which may also include birthdate.
Last updated: 4 March 2026.