Toronto Local History 3-Book Bundle. Scott Kennedy
Dickson over one hundred years earlier, the house was photographed by Lorna Gardner in 1962.
Courtesy of North York Historical Society, NYHS 319.
Dr. Mitchele reappeared at St. John’s, quite unexpectedly, in August of 1864. In September, he called a vestry meeting where he himself recorded the minutes in a strong, angry hand and used the same violent pen strokes to slash the word “cancelled” across the minutes of all meetings that had been held in his absence. Two months later he returned to England and never came back, while St. John’s remains a cornerstone of the community to this day.
The Macaulays’ involvement with Lot 25-2E had ended many years earlier when, in 1832, Sir James B. Macaulay sold the south half of the lot to William Dickson, who had lived in North York for over thirty years, and the north half of the lot to Joseph Abraham (also spelled Abrahams in some records), proprietor of the Green Bush Inn at Yonge and Steeles in 1833. Downtown Toronto remembered the Macaulays with a series of streets that were named after the family, including Elizabeth, Terauly, Macaulay, Louisa, Hayter, and James Streets.
William Dickson bought the one hundred acre southern half of Lot 25-2E for slightly less than £150, a relatively small amount for North York farmland at the time, and likely indicative of the fact that the property had probably not been cleared or built upon. This seems reasonable since the Macaulays were quite busy indeed with their pursuits in town. Well-connected Loyalists like the Macaulays were often granted title to their land even if they never lifted a finger to fulfill the conditions that other settlers had to complete before the Crown would hand over the deed. This practice resulted in many uncleared road allowances, further impeding the already difficult travel of the early settlers, and becoming one of many ongoing grievances that would eventually lead to the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837. But back to William Dickson.
It would be interesting to report that this is the same William Dickson who emigrated from Scotland to Lower Canada in 1785, built the first brick house in Upper Canada after settling in Niagara in 1792, killed William Weekes, a member of the House of Assembly, in a duel in 1806, bought 95,000 acres of former Six Nations land for £15,000, where he built the town of Galt, and served on the Legislative Council of Upper Canada, but that is not the case. It seems that there were several prominent William Dicksons in Upper Canada at the time, and this Dickson was one of the other ones. Fortunately, he also knew how to build a brick house.
The photo of Dickson’s home shows evidence of several later additions, including the enclosed vestibule, and wings on either side of the main structure. The six-over-six-pane sash windows are likely a later and much easier to clean version of the twelve-over-twelve pattern common to Georgian houses of the mid-nineteenth century. (As roads became smoother, it became easier to transport larger pieces of glass). William Dickson was by no means a newcomer to North York, having bought Lot 16-1W from the original grantee, James Johnson, in 1798. He sold the lot to Joseph Shepard in 1802, where, thirty-three years later, Joseph would build the house that stands to this day at 90 Burndale Avenue.
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.