Simcoe's Gentry: Toronto's Park Lots

A widow leaves her mark on Toronto

Jane E. MacNamara — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 18:53:58 +0000

Was the Toronto community of Brockton named for War of 1812 hero Sir Isaac Brock?

Well, no. As Stephen Otto tells us in a new article for the Simcoe’s Gentry project, it was named for Sir Isaac’s not-so-famous cousin James Brock who was granted Park Lot 30.

An officer with the 49th Regiment of Foot and private secretary to his cousin during his tenure as Administrator of Upper Canada, James Brock has his own fascinating War of 1812 story.

James didn’t spend much time in the fledgling Town of York, in fact, probably as little as he could get away with. His wife Susannah Lucy Quirke (Short) Brock, even less, but it was her actions and acumen that ensured the name Brock would live on in Toronto.

We’re thrilled to have author (and remarkable historian) Stephen Otto and his colleagues at the Friends of Fort York and Garrison Common as contributors to the Simcoe’s Gentry project.

Wonderful things planned for Historic Fort York all through 2012. Be sure to visit.

Brockton toll gate was on Dundas Street West between Sheridan and Brock Street (Watercolour by John Wesley Cotton c1913, Toronto Reference Library. Baldwin Room, JRR 932 Cab IV)

The Mysterious Joseph Dainty

Janet Berkman — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 02:51:29 +0000

Not much is known about Joseph Dainty, but he petitioned twice for land from Lt.-Gov. Simcoe. On July 10, 1793, he requested a lot in the new town being developed at Toronto as well as a 200-acre farm close by, and this request was granted three days later. A month later, he made a specific request for Township Lot 33, along with the property adjacent to it on the waterfront. The Lot was granted to him, but without the adjacent land.

Three years later, the York Report lists Joseph Dainty as deceased and, after some confusion regarding improvements to the property, the land was granted to David Shank in March 1797.

Simcoe may have held Dainty in some esteem, approving both of these plum grants—or perhaps he was just in the right place at the right time. Our research in Crown Land records has turned up some intriguing details but leaves many questions unanswered. What we know of Joseph Dainty is detailed here.

Census Day 2011: Make your mark in history!

Jane E. MacNamara — Thu, 05 May 2011 14:06:53 +0000

Census Day in Canada is Tuesday, May 10. Canadians will receive the information brochure in the mail this week. It provides instructions from Statistics Canada about completing the census online, and how to order a paper form over the telephone if you prefer.

Regardless of the method you choose, please remember to check the “YES” box for the question that will allow your information to be released to the public in 92 years.

If you don’t check the “YES” box, Statistics Canada will consider that you have said “NO” and your information will not be available to historians and genealogists in the future. And the “picture” of Canada in 2011 will be less complete.

Make sure you (and your friends, relatives, and neighbours) make your mark in history. Check YES!

Allan Gardens: Legacy of an Early Park Lot Owner

Janet Berkman — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 03:26:55 +0000

Park Lot 5, shown in gold.

While not the original owner, William Allan did much of the early subdivision of Park Lot 5, which was bounded by Sherbourne Street to the west to George and Huntley Streets to the east. Originally a poor Scots immigrant, Allen had become one of the wealthiest citizens of York. When he bought the lot in 1819, he began by building a palatial home, Moss Park, towards the south end. Completed in 1828, he enlisted the help of Andre Parmentier, a well-respected New York landscape designer to establish appropriately grand gardens around the estate.

Allen’s son, George, built a house north of Moss Park named Homewood, where he lived for some years until his wife died, at which point he moved back in with his father at Moss Park, and Homewood was rented out. Having a keen interest in horticulture and with the encroachment of the city on both sides of his lot, George was keen to keep some green space in the Lot and had a vision of a residential area combined with parks. In 1854, shortly after the death of his father, Allen announced The Moss Park Estate Plan, offering villas for sale.

It would appear that he had a change of heart at some point as the minutes of the Toronto Horticultural Society of 1856 state that Allen had offered them permanent grounds for public gardens. In September 1860, the Price of Wales officially opened the Horticultural Gardens.

More details about the history of this lot and the planning of the Gardens are here.

Duchess Street Burial Ground (Source: Boulton, W. S. and H. C. Boulton, Atlas of Toronto. John Ellis: Toronto, 1858.)

A side note:

Toronto Branch volunteers who have been indexing records from the Toronto Necropolis have “uncovered” an interesting connection to Park Lot 5 and Allan’s “meadow”. One of Toronto’s earliest burial grounds was located just south of Allan’s land on Duchess (now Richmond) Street. The map to the left shows the location of this small extension of Park Lot 5, south of Queen Street. Over time, the little cemetery was nearly forgotten, and various excavations due to building projects led to the discovery of interred remains. These mostly anonymous souls were carefully reburied at the Toronto Necropolis– only to be found by our indexing volunteers some 240 years later. Read more about the newly discovered story.

The York Report: Settling in

Janet Berkman — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 15:14:03 +0000

It was April 1796, and Simcoe was concerned. The town did not seem to be developing as quickly as it should and a few of his government officials were making every excuse to delay their move to York. Some of the grants made in September of 1793 (perhaps in haste) now needed clarification, and the allocation of any remaining land needed careful consideration. In 1796, he commissioned a report to determine whether the properties were being occupied and improved, with a view to encouraging true settlement and discouraging speculation.

These deliberations, recorded in the Upper Canada Land and State Minute Book, became known as the “York Report” and resulted in a number of changes to the allocation of the Park Lots, as well as commentary regarding who had not yet settled on their property. Grantees were required to appear or send a representative to describe the condition of their property. The Toronto Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society undertook to transcribe these minutes and they make up part of the introductory section of the Simcoe’s Gentry. View the transcription of this interesting part of Toronto history here.

Toronto’s Park Lots: The Granting Process

Janet Berkman — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 17:08:00 +0000

In 1793, the area along the Lake Ontario shoreline just west of the Don River was surveyed as the Town of York, the new capital of Upper Canada. To encourage “suitable” government officials to move to the new town and undertake the work of establishing homes and businesses there, John Graves Simcoe, the newly-appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada used the most valuable commodity he had—land, along with titles and power. Property just to the north of the Town of York was surveyed and made available to select applicants, who were typically also given property in the Town of York and elsewhere.

Compared to the typical land granting process of the time, the distribution of Park Lots was a much simplified and expedited process. Twenty-four of the lots were granted on September 4, 1793, based on petitions that had been written within a few days prior. This would suggest that at least some of the applicants were asked to write petitions for land. Unlike typical grantees who were required to settle on the land and do some work in preparing the land for use (for example, clearing, building a house, creating a roadway) before receiving the patent or title, many of the Park Lot grantees did not move to York until required to in 1796 and then received patents within a few months, suggesting that settlement duties were very slim.

Park Lot owners were free to lay out their roads in any way they wished, and to sell parts of the lot as desired. As described in an earlier post, the east-west streets on these narrow lots didn’t need to line up with those of their neighbours, resulting in many of today’s east-west streets jagging north and south. However, a positive effect of these lots are the often majestic north-south boulevards we enjoy today, either based on lot lines or central roads built by the lot owners, for example, Sherbourne Street (east boundary of Park Lot 5), Jarvis Street (down the centre of Park Lot 6), and Spadina Avenue (common boundary between Lots 15 and 16).

The map below shows the progress of development of the lots in 1851. The Park Lot numbers are visible just south of upper border of the lots. Queen’s Park Circle (labelled University of Toronto) lies north of College Avenue (now University Ave.) It’s also clear in examining the east west streets how relatively independently they were built from lot to lot.

At the westernmost part of the map we note that Township Lots 33 to 41 were twice as wide as the Park Lots. More detailed information on the granting process is here.

1851 Township of York - The original map can be seen at the Toronto Reference Library (call number 912.71354b68)

The Research Team

Janet Berkman — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 01:31:55 +0000

A sample of the working notes and other material collected by the Simcoe's Gentry research team

The Simcoe’s Gentry project was begun in 1997 by volunteer Diana Park (1926-2001) and a group of researchers. They combed through Crown Land and Land Registry records, books and periodicals, estate files of the grantees and their descendants, manuscripts held by Toronto archives and libraries, and walked the streets where these lots were first surveyed, photographing and documenting links to the past. Project files for each of the 41 lots were created and volunteer authors began the task of compiling the stories of these properties.

When Diana passed away in 2001, the project was picked up by Jane MacNamara who continued as project coordinator. It was decided to make this a web-based document, permitting additional articles to be added as they are created as well as for more efficient updating of existing documentation as new information is unearthed.

We are excited about the possibility that you, our readers, will come forward with new clues about these lots, and we welcome contact from anyone who has information for the site or story ideas for the blog. We can be contacted at simcoesgentry@torontofamilyhistory.org.

Further information about the research process is here.

Warming up cold January nights… in 1799

Jane E. MacNamara — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 15:57:47 +0000

Research for the Simcoe’s Gentry project has given us some intimate glimpses of what life was like in the early Town of York for the Park Lot owners.

For instance, we know from the diary of Alexander Macdonell (Collachie), that on January 2, 1799—“a fine, clear, cold day”—that he had both lunch and dinner in the officers’ mess with fellow Park Lot owners David Shank, Samuel Smith, David Burns, and Robert I.D. Gray. (The entries from Macdonell’s diary for this January week are extracted in: Firth, Edith G. The Town of York, 1793-1815. Toronto: Champlain Society, 1962. p 226-8.)

This group of men, along with Alexander Macdonell’s brother Angus and David Burn’s brother Alexander, socialized frequently over the next few days—including at a bonfire on January 4 to celebrate Admiral Nelson’s victory at the Battle of the Nile. (The battle had taken place in August 1798, although the official news of the outcome had arrived in York only the day before.)

On the evening of January 6, Macdonell dined with David Burns and Robert I.D. Gray. He notes that dinner was indifferent, but they “drank nearly a bottle of port each besides two bottles of porter”. (There was even more good cheer after dinner.) Now, Alexander Macdonell was Sheriff of the Home District; David Burns was Clerk of the Crown and Common Pleas, and Official Principal of the Court of Probate; and Robert Isaac Dey Gray was Solicitor General and a member of the House of Assembly.

There may not have been too much official work done on Monday, January 7!

Gould Street Fire consumes a bit of Toronto’s past

Janet Berkman — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 02:45:51 +0000

The fire at Yonge and Gould Streets yesterday consumed the upper stories of a 19th century commercial building that was built in 1888 by William Reynolds on property he purchased in 1847. Reynolds was one of the first bakers in Toronto and his shop was situated at the corner of Yonge and Gould. This morning, The Star detailed the history of this site back to that purchase. Here at Simcoe’s Gentry, we can identify its origins from the original survey in 1793, when it was designated as part of Park Lot 8.

Peter McGill, born Peter McCutcheon, nephew and heir to John McGill.

As described in the Introduction, these lots were made available upon petition to the government of Upper Canada. Park Lot 8 ran from today’s Bloor Street to Queen West and from Yonge Street to Bond Street, long and narrow, as were all the Park Lots. It was originally granted to George Playter on September 4, 1793 and he was issued the patent (or deed) on 24 Aug 1796. Just under a year later, in June 1797, Playter and his wife Elizabeth sold the south forty acres (from today’s McGill Street, southwards, including the site of yesterday’s fire) to the Honorable John McGill, who also owned Park Lot 7 (running from Bond Street to Mutual Street).

Playter also owned property west of the Don River above Castle Frank near the intersection of today’s Bloor Street E and Bayview. His son had property directly across the river and part of that area is known today as Playter Estates.

In 1799, the north 60 acres of Park Lots 7, 8, 9 and 10 were acquired by the Honorable John Elmsley, leaving McGill with an 80-acre block from Queen to McGill and Yonge to Mutual Street. At the time of his death in 1834, John McGill’s estate passed to his nephew, Peter McGill, then President of the Bank of Montreal, who had taken the surname McGill in 1821 at the request of his childless uncle.

The scope of our research doesn’t extend to how the property ended up with William Reynolds, but the stories behind the origins of this and other Park Lots are a fascinating look at yesterday’s Toronto.

Simcoe’s Gentry: the Park Lots of Toronto

Janet Berkman — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 05:31:53 +0000

Have you ever wondered why so many east-west streets in downtown Toronto are crooked? Did you realize that this is an artifact of the way the original land was first surveyed and granted to the original landowners in the area? Might you be related to an early family that settled in now-downtown Toronto?

Intersection of Dundas West and Bathurst: Sections of Park Lots 20, 19, 18, and 17

Welcome to the new blog associated with Simcoe’s Gentry, an exciting project of the Toronto Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society. We plan to bring you interesting pieces of information linking Toronto’s past and present, particularly with respect to the property originally granted in the late 1700s, land that now makes up much of the city’s downtown neighborhoods. Names of these early settlers are represented in street names and other civic establishments in today’s Toronto.

Stretching from what is now Queen Street in the south to Bloor Street in the north, and from the Don to the Humber Rivers, these lots in the (then) Town of York, capital of Upper Canada, were granted to various officials to entice them to move to the city from the settlements of Kingston, Newark (the former capital, now Niagara-on-the-Lake), and the eastern provinces.

These 100-acre Park Lots were long and narrow, extending from Bloor to Queen, a distance of about 6,600 feet but only 660 feet wide. A group of the lots at the western-most edge of York were twice as wide and termed Township Lots. We will talk more about how the lots were granted in the next few posts, but feel free to visit the introductory section of the site to read up on this fascinating process.

A great deal of research about the original owners of these lots is on-going and is being documented in the Simcoe’s Gentry website. This blog will point out some of the interesting findings of that work and link it to the Toronto of today.

Oh, and those east-west streets? The early landowners laid out their own roads on their lots, with little coordination between neighbours, so while north-south streets tended to run along lot lines, today’s east-west streets were eventually created by linking together independently constructed roadways from individual lots. In the image above, the jog to the east of Bathurst joins the former St. Patrick Street (east of Bathurst) to the former Arthur Street which was eventually projected westward to join Dundas Street at Shaw Street.

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