Toronto of Old Collections and recollections illustrative of the early settlement and social life of the capital of Ontario

Eight years after the occupation of the country by the English, a considerable traffic was being carried on at Toronto. We learn this from a despatch of Sir William Johnson's to...

On the 24th December, 1795, Mr. Jones writes to D. W. Smith, Acting Surveyor General:--"His Excellency was pleased to direct me, previous to my surveying the township of York, t...

After a light fall of snow in the night, the surface of the frozen stream would be marked all over with foot-prints innumerable of animals, small and great, that had been early...

Again, at Kingston, the ever-conscious Chief having written himself down in the visitors' book at the hotel as The MacNab, his juvenile relative, coming in immediately after and...

At one time it was expected that Toronto would be the capital of the United Province, but its liege lord pronounced it to be "too far and out of the way;" though at the same tim...

From being endowed with great energy of character, and having also a familiar knowledge of the native dialects, Mr. Borland had great influence with the Indian tribes frequentin...

It will be of interest to know that the name of Sir Peregrine Maitland is pleasantly preserved by means of Maitland Scholarships in a Grammar School for natives at Madras; and b...

Alexander Macnab, whose name occurs next in succession, was afterwards Capt. Macnab, who fell at Waterloo, the only instance, as is supposed, of a Canadian slain on that occasio...

"Also at the same time and place the right as per Register, to one hundred acres in front of lot 62, east side Yonge Street, for which a deed can be procured at pleasure, and th...

The streets which we passed southward of Wood Street, Carleton, Gerrard, Shuter, with Gould Street in the immediate vicinity, had their names from personal friends of Mr. McGill...

So early as 1799 we have it announced that the North-West Company intended to make use of this route. In the Niagara _Constellation_, of August, 3, 1799, we read: "We are inform...

It may be added that the destruction of the beautiful hereabout has to some extent a set-off in the fine geological studies displayed to the eye in the sides of the deep cuts at...

The narrative then gives the further particulars: "The Baldwin family all lived with Miss Russell after this, as she did not like being left alone. When the Americans made their...

The movement here initiated resulted in the steamer _Simcoe_, which plied for some years between the Landing and the ports of Lake Simcoe. The _Simcoe_ was built at the Upper La...

Passing westward, we had on the right the spacious home of Mr. Crookshank, a benevolent and excellent man, sometime Receiver-General of the Province, of whom we shall again have...

The southern portion of Mr. McGill's park-lot has, in the course of modern events, come to be assigned to religious uses. McGill Square, which contained the old homestead and it...

Again, in the same paper we have:--"Twenty dollars reward will be paid by the subscriber to any person who will discover the man who is so depraved and lost to every sense of so...

Mr. Bloor was an Englishman, respected by every one. That his name should have become permanently attached to the Northern Boulevard of the City of Toronto, a favourite thorough...

He was a Hungarian; born at Raab in 1784; and had been ordained a presbyter in the National Church of Austria. On emigrating to the United States, he, being himself a Franciscan...

The second advertisement is from the _Upper Canada Gazette_ of Dec. 17, 1829. "Upper Canada College, established at York. Visitor, the Lieutenant-Governor for the time being. Th...

Besides the legal cases tried and the judgments pronounced within the homely walls of the Old Court House, interest would attach to the curious scenes--could they be recovered a...

The _Loyalist_ newspaper of May 9, 1829, published at York, speaks of the re-interment on that day of the remains of an officer killed at the battle of York. The article runs as...

The negro population was small. Every individual of colour was recognizable at sight. Black Joe and Whistling Jack were two notabilities; both of them negroes of African birth....

"Died at York, on the 3rd instant, John White, Esq., Attorney-General of this Province. His death was occasioned by a wound he received in a duel fought the day before with John...

The first grantee of the park-lot which we next pass in our progress westward was Dr. Macaulay, an army surgeon attached successively to the 33rd Regiment and the famous Queen's...

Capt. S. Smith, whose name follows those of Capt. Macdonell and Col. Shank, was afterwards President Smith, of whom already. The park lot selected by him was subsequently the pr...

It did not chance to enter into the poet Longfellow's plan to lay the scene of any portion of his song of Hiawatha so far to the eastward; and the legends gathered by him

On the Saturday after the Royal Salutes, the first meeting of the Executive Council ever held in York, took place in the garrison; in the canvas-house, as we may suppose. "The f...

A notice of Mr. Baby occurs in Sibbald's _Canadian Magazine_ for March, 1833. The following is an extract: "James Baby was born at Detroit in 1762. His family was one of the mos...

It is curious to observe that, in 1818, Gourlay, in his heat against the official party, whose headquarters were at York, threatened that town with extinction; at all events, wi...

In the _Gazette_ just named we have the following, under date of York, Saturday, Feb. 20, 1802: "We whose names are hereunto subscribed, contemplating the advantage which must a...

At the south-west corner of Princes Street, near where we are now supposing ourselves to be, was a building popularly known as Russell Abbey. It was the house of the Hon. Peter...

And lastly in the interstices of the assemblage was to be seen a plentiful representation of generation number three; young men and lads of good looks, for the most part, well s...

Jordan's York Hotel answered every purpose very well. Members of Parliament and other visitors considered themselves in luxurious quarters when housed there. Probably in no inst...

When it shall be proposed to alter the name of Dummer Street, with the hope, perhaps, of improving the fame of the locality along with its name, let the case of March Street be...

A rival Calendar continued to be issued at Niagara entitled "Tiffany's Upper Canada Almanac." This was a roughly-printed little tract, and contained popular matter in addition t...

A son of Mr. Spragge's became, in 1870, the Chancellor of Ontario, or Western Canada, after rising with distinction through the several grades of the legal profession, and filli...

On the return of peace, the absence of bridges, and the existence, in addition, of a second formidable water-filled moat, speedily began to be matters of serious regret to the i...

The _Bee_, which conveyed Mr. Galt when on his voyage of exploration along the western coast of Lake Huron, was sold by public auction in 1832. In that year the first great redu...

The _Moira_ was lying off the Garrison at York when the _Simcoe_ transport came in sight filled with prisoners taken on Queenston Heights, and bringing the first intelligence of...

The _Toronto_ (Capt. Shaw), named above as towing the _Canada_ into the harbour, was a steam-packet of peculiar make, built at York. She was constructed without any difference o...

The earlier almanac was entitled "Poor Richard, or the Yorkshire Almanac," and the compiler professed to be one "Patrick Swift, late of Belfast, in the Kingdom of Ireland, Esq.,...

Round the four sides of the new brick Market ran a wooden gallery, which served to shade the Butchers' stalls below. It was here that a fearful casualty occurred in 1834. A conc...

All the way from the site of the town of York to the front of this building, a narrow carriage-road and convenient bridle-path had been cut out by the soldiers, and carefully gr...

Colonel Fitzgibbon took the fancy of Mrs. Jameson when in Canada. She devotes several pages of her "Winter Studies" to the story of his life. She gives some account of his marri...

In 1827 Capt. Richardson was the recipient of an honorary present of a Key Bugle. In the _Loyalist_ of June 30, '27, we read the following card:--"Mr. Richardson takes this oppo...

Teams and solitary horses, led or ridden, seen passing into Yonge Street, south of King Street, either out of King Street or out of Front Street, would most likely be on their w...

In this year, it is noted in the Niagara _Herald_ (Nov. 18th, 1801), the people of Niagara saw for the first time flying from Fort George the British Flag, as blazoned after the...

In 1687 the business in contemplation was something more serious than the mere repression of trespass on the part of a few stray traders from Governor Dongan's province. The con...

At the time to which our recollections are just now transporting us, the windows of the part of the house that had been the store were always seen with the shutters closed. Mr....

Our notice of the assembly usually to be seen within the walls of the primitive St. James', would not be complete, were we to omit all mention of Mr. John Fenton, who for some t...

Lady Mary Willis, associated with Mr. Galt in the Fancy Ball just spoken of, was a daughter of the Earl of Strathmore. A trial of a painful nature known as Willis v. Bernard in...

Here, again, the presiding genius of the place was Dr. Strachan. From a boy he had been in the successful discharge of the duties of a schoolmaster. At the early age of sixteen...

In 1835, the harbour was visited by Capt. George and his barge from Quebec. Capt. George--for so he was styled in these parts, although, as we shall see, not a professional navi...

We can better picture to ourselves the author of Lalla Rookh floating on the streams and other waters "of Ormus and of Ind," constructing verses as he journeys on, than we can o...

We now proceed on our prescribed course. So late as 1833, Walton, in his "York Commercial Directory, Street Guide, and Register," when naming the residents on Lot Street, as he...

A dispute had arisen between the Upper and the Lower House as to the legal terms in which full civil rights should be conferred on a considerable portion of the inhabitants of t...

_Alciope_ is a singular name, taken as we suppose from the Greek mythology, betokening, it may have been thought, one of the Nereids, although we are not aware that the name occ...

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=Transcriber's Notes:= original hyphenation, spelling and grammar have been preserved as in the original Preface Page viii, "Fuller, of" changed to "Fuller of" Preface Page viii...