Showing 70 results

Harriet Catherine Brock was the daughter of Daniel de Lisle Brock (1762-1842), the chief magistrate of the Isle of Guernsey from 1821 to 1842. She was the niece of Sir Isaac Brock who was killed at Queenston Heights, Upper Canada, 1812. On September 16, 1834 Harriet married Captain Robert Lamport Pengelley. Robert Pengelley was born at Fowey, Cornwall in 1798, the son of Captain John Pengelley (killed at Palermo 1834) and Catherine Lamport. After being wounded at the Battle Lissa, Robert was rewarded by being appointed agent for the Brock estate in South Monaghan, Upper Canada, and given a piece of land on Rice Lake subsequently called "Brocklands". (Note: As of 2018, "Brocklands" was still held by Pengelley family descendants). On April 6, 1835 Robert and Harriet Pengelley sailed for Upper Canada, arriving in New York on May 7, 1835 they took a steamer for Albany and then traveled to Toronto, Upper Canada. After a trip to Guelph to look at land, they journeyed to South Monaghan, arriving in July 1835. Harriet died less than a year later, June 6, 1836, leaving no children. Robert secondly married in Monaghan Township in 1838 to Lydia Emily Roche/Roach; they had five children, only one of whom survived to adulthood, Theodore Robert Pengelley.

Note: For further information about the Brock family, see A Brock Family History: Isaac Brock and his Guernsey family, authored by Janice Shersby; commissioned by Caroline Brock, 2012 (located in Special Collections FC 443 .B8 S42 2012).

Note: For further information about the Pengelley, Brock, Roche and Scriven families, see Connections Between the Names Pengelley, Brock, Roche & Scriven in Monaghan Township, authored by Robert Bowley, 1993 (located in Special Collections [TC] CS 89 .B69 1993).

The Orgill family is a branch of the Boyd family of Bobcaygeon, Ontario. Mrs. Norma Orgill (1922-2020), the donor of the collection, was the wife of Herbert Orgill, a descendant of William (Willie) Thornton Cust Boyd (1859-1919). Willie was the son of the lumbering entrepreneur Mossom Boyd (1815-1883).

John Northway was born August 17, 1848, at Leat, near Lifton, England, the eldest son of Thomas Neathern Northway and Grace Doidge. In 1868, John left England for New York, where he was soon relieved of his watch and money. Disenchanted, he made his way to Canada, and went to work for a tailor in Embro, Ontario. From this inauspicious beginning, Northway, using his sound business judgement, became, not just a tailor "on the floor" of a shop, but, by 1901, a merchant, manufacturer and financier with partnerships throughout the province and investments throughout the continent. Having achieved success, Northway sent his children to the best schools, and provided for them the formal education he had never received. John Northway founded two main companies: The Northway Company Limited, and John Northway and Son Limited. Upon his death in 1926, leadership of these two firms fell to his sons, A. Garfield and John A. respectively, under whose direction expansion and later retraction was carried out. The factory, begun in 1896 to supply the companies, was closed down in 1930. John Northway and Sons Limited came to have three stores in Toronto, and one each in Hamilton and Stratford. In 1957, this company bought the Brantford outlet of the Northway Company Limited, which A.G. Norhtway, who foresaw no successor, had been gradually disposing of. In January 1960, A.G. Northway died, and The Northway Company Limited was put into voluntary liquidation by its directors. In November 1960, the directors of John Northway and Sons Limited sold the company to outside interests. It has since disappeared. Dr. Mary Louise Northway, born in 1909, was the daughter of A. Garfield Northway and Mary McKellar and the granddaughter of John Northway, founder of the Northway Company Limited and John Northway and Son Limited. Mary was educated in Toronto and graduated from the University of Toronto, B.A. 1933, M.A. 1934, and Ph.D. 1938. In addition, Mary did graduate work at Cambridge University in England. Dr. Northway taught psychology at the University of Toronto from 1934 to 1968, and the last fifteen years of her tenure were as Supervisor of Research at the Institute of Child Study. She also earned international recognition as a pioneer in the field of Sociometry. From 1950 to 1963, she was the president of the Northway Company Limited. Among the many honours bestowed upon Dr. Northway were: Fellow of the Canadian Psycological Association, Honorary Life Member of the Ontario Camping Association, and an Honorary Degree from Trent University in 1979. Throughout her life, Mary was involved in camping and she believed in the value of Canadian summer camping and tripping. She was the program director of Glen Bernard Camp from 1930 to 1939 and, with Flora Morrison, was co-director of their own girls' camp, Windy Pine Point, from 1941 to 1950. Dr. Mary L. Northway died in 1987. In her will she left to Trent University its largest private benefaction to be known as the Northway Bequest in memory of her father, Garfield Northway, provising permanent support towards a number of areas, including the facilities for the Trent University Archives. (Information taken from a plaque commemorating the dedication of the Northway Reading Room which was written by the Trent University Archivist, Bernadine Dodge.)

The Nimmo family lived in Bensfort, South Monaghan Township in Northumberland County.

Daniel Nill was a farmer who at one time owned the property at 1202 Morton Line in Cavan, Ontario. The fonds consists of items which were found on the property in 2001; they relate to Nill and to members of the Mason family.

Miss Neads was the organist at the Presbyterian Church in Bowmanville, Ontario, in 1876.

The Munros were writers and local historians who lived in Peterborough, Ontario.

William Hamilton Munro (1882-1976) was born in Peterborough, Ontario, the oldest son of George and Euphemie Hamilton Munro. He attended public school and high school in Peterborough and later entered the School of Practical Science, University of Toronto, from which he graduated in 1904. He joined the engineering staff of his grandfather's firm, the William Hamilton Manufacturing Company, for a short time and later worked for other engineering companies, first with John B. McRae of Ottawa and later with Smith, Kerry & Chase of Toronto. During this period, Munro gained wide experience in dam and power house construction. In 1909, W.H. Munro was transferred to the Electric Power Company of Ontario and in 1910 was appointed manager of the Peterborough Light & Power and Radial Railway Companies, branches of Electric Power. He then joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force and went overseas as a transport officer. On his arrival in England, W.H. Munro was stationed at a reception and training base at Shorncliffe, Kent. Here he remained for eight months before being posted to northern France early in 1916. He was still in northern France on Armistice Day, 1918 and was with the Canadian Forces during their brief occupation of Germany in 1919. On May 29, 1919, Munro married Angele Melina Marie Pouille of Bruay, Pas de Calais, France. He took his military discharge in England and joined Vickers Limited of London and Barrow-in-Furness. This invloved him in water turbine engineering and sales which led to a good deal of travel. Munro left Vickers in 1926 to become manager of the Nova Scotia Tramways and Power Company in Halifax. He remained in this position until 1928 when he was appointed manager of the Bolivian Power Company Limited in La Paz, Bolivia. In 1933, W.H. Munro returned to Canada and joined International Utilities Limited as general manager of one of its divisions, the Ottawa Light, Heat & Power Company. He remained as manager of International Utilities until his retirement in 1951 when he and his wife returned to Peterborough, Ontario. W.H. Munro died in 1976. George Reid Munro (Reid), 1887-1920, was the second son in the Munro family. He graduated from the School of Practical Science in 1905, and in 1907, he joined the survey party of the Hudson Bay Railway Company. During the World War I, he remained in Peterborough, taking care of the William Hamilton Company and looking after the Munro family affairs. He died in 1920, a victim of an influenza epidemic. (Note that some of George Reid Munro's papers relating to his work are located at Library and Archives Canada - MG 30.) Euphemia Margaret Munro (Effie), 1885-1950, was the only daughter in the Munro family. She attended St. Hilda's College and later graduated from from the University of Toronto in modern languages in 1906. In 1918, she graduated from the Training School for Librarianship in Toronto and was appointed librarian of the Peterborough Normal School, a position she retained until her retirement. The youngest Munro child, Alan Hugh Munro, 1889-1948, graduated from the Faculty of Applied Science, University of Toronto in 1911. On graduation he worked for a succession of power companies on power development construction including the Dominion Department of Railways and Canals, Rice Lake Division of the Trent Canal at Campbellford, Ontario. During the World War I, he served with the 6th Field Company, Canadian Engineers from 1914-1919 and was wounded in 1917. After the World War I, he again worked for a variety of companies on construction projects but appears not to have established himself firmly with any one of them, a situation which was exacerbated by the coming of the Depression. Many letters between 1918 and 1921 mention the influenza epidemic and the many deaths.

The Medd family were early settlers in Millbrook, Cavan Township, Upper Canada who later moved to Peterborough, Upper Canada. The first member of the Medd family to settle in the region was Robert Medd. His son Thomas Medd (ca. 1850-1916) married Mary Scott (1845-1922) in 1870. Mary Scott was the granddaughter of Adam Scott, the first pioneer settler on the site of Peterborough. They had two sons, Sidney T. Medd and A.W. Medd. Sidney Taylor Medd, a barrister, married Estelle Lumsden Ackerman some time between 1909 and 1910. They had two children, Scott Ackerman Medd, born in 1911, and Mary E. Medd. Scott Ackerman was educated at Trinity College School in Port Hope, Ontario and upon graduation, was employed by the Bank of Montreal in both Peterborough and Oshawa. In 1932, dissatisfied with his career in banking, Scott Medd successfully applied to the Royal Academy School in London, England. In 1938, he married Beryl Gray-Rees in London, and on June of the following year, their only child Miriam Frances was born. With the outbreak of the World War II in 1939, Scott Medd's artistic career was interrupted as he spent the next six years of his life with the Royal Artillery. In 1945, he was a member of the British occupation force sent to liberate Norway from the Germans. After the War, Scott returned to art as a teacher at the Camberwell School of Art in London. In 1960, he was appointed Resident Advisor to the Students in Painting at the British School in Rome, Italy. He retained this position until 1970, when illness forced him to retire. Scott Medd had a long and successful career as an artist and teacher. He died 9 November 1984.

The first McIntyre living in Otonabee, Ontario, was either Duncan McIntyre (1765-1840) or a cousin Archie McIntye. Duncan married Isobella Blair (1766-?) in 1793. They had eight children: Catharine, 1793-?; Janet, 1795-?; Isabella, 1797-?; Donald, 1799-?; Archibald, 1801-1889; John, 1803-1803; John, 1804-?; Duncan, 1806-?; and Margaret, 1809-? (born in Otonabee). Duncan became the first town warden and sat on the first board of trustees for the Presbyterian Church.

The family history of David Logan (c 1890-1866) and Margaret Fairley (1799-1891) and their descendants is portrayed in A Logan Family - Eight Generations in Canada. Logan and Fairley were the great-grandparents of Marlow Banks, author and researcher of the above book. Born in Scotland, it is believed that Logan and Fairley married around 1830 and had two children before leaving for Canada around 1834 or 1835. They settled in Smith Township, about nine miles north of Peterborough, and later moved to Douro. They had four more children after arriving in Canada.

Robert “Lighty” Lightbody (1945-2017) was a lawyer, philanthropist and Trent Alumni. He was a part of the original class at Trent University (1964) and graduated with a degree in Economics and Mathematics. Bob and his wife, Margaret “Margie” Lightbody (1946-2022) were active alumni, engaging with various Trent University boards, committees, and associations. Robert was on the Board of Governors (1972-1983), the Planned Giving Committee, and an active member of the Trent University Alumni Association (TUAA), of which Robert was a founding member (1967).

Margaret “Margie” Lightbody (d. 2022) graduated from Trent University with a degree in French and Mathematics, also in the class of 1964. She was a high school math teacher at Adam Scott Collegiate Vocational Institute. She was also a proud and engaged Trent Alumni. She coordinated and organized many Trent Alumni events, including 30th and 50th anniversary events for the class of 1964, and represented TUAA at the Board of Governors Committee. She was also a great supporter of the Peterborough community and helped organized different events and fundraising campaigns.

The Lightbody’s philanthropy extended to Trent University where they engaged in many fundraising activities including the Robert Lightbody Prize (est. 1984), and supported the building of the Athletics Building and the Student Centre. The Lightbodys were active volunteers in the Trent community and both were noted for their boundless energy when it came to supporting Trent University be it with their time or with fundraising efforts.

Samuel Leggott was born in 1825 in England. He immigrated with his wife to Rochester, New York and later moved to Canada in approximately 1851 with their two sons, Samuel Richard and Thomas Walter (1850-1932). Thomas became a Reverend and married Lydia Knight. Samuel Richard married Annie Trude of Lakefield; they had 3 children, Samuel Trude (Truddie), William and Henrietta (Etta). Samuel Trude married Dora Pemberthy. He joined the Gas and Electricity Inspection Service with the Department of Trade and Commerce in 1922. In 1923, he was stationed in Belleville where in 1938 he became the District Inspector of Electricity and Gas. In 1905 the Leggott family purchased Reydon Manor (200 Queen Street Lakefield ON), the former home of Robert Strickland, son of Samuel Strickland.

Henry Lapp, son of Jeremiah Lapp and Sarah, married Hannah Hoag, daughter of Elijah Hoag and Lydia, on April 27, 1848.

The Honourable William Kerr, 1836-1906, was born at Ameliasburgh, Prince Edward County, Upper Canada, a son of Francis William and Olive Shelley Kerr. He attended school at Newtonville and later, Victoria College at Cobourg, Ontario where he received his B.A. in 1855 and his M.A. in 1858. Subsequently, Victoria College honoured him with a L.L.D. in 1887. William Kerr carried on his legal studies in the office of Smith and Armour (later Chief Justice of Ontario) in Cobourg. He was called to the Upper Canada bar in 1859 and practised law in Cobourg. He became a Q.C. in 1876. In 1896 he was elected a Bencher of the Law Society of Ontario. During his career, Mr. Kerr maintained his lasting association with Victoria College as a member of its Board of Regents, then as a senator. In 1885 he was appointed the University's Vice-Chancellor. He was heavily involved in the many land transactions undertaken by the University in Northumberland and Durham Counties. Mr. Kerr began his political career as a Town Councillor of Cobourg, from 1862 to 1867 and as the town's mayor, from 1867 to 1873. In 1874, he was elected as a Liberal member of the House of Commons for Northumberland West. He was unseated by petition on September 26, 1874, but was re-elected at a by-election on November 17, 1874. He was later defeated in both the 1878 and 1882 elections. On March 15, 1899 he was called to the Senate. Mr. Kerr was a Methodist by religion. On November 12, 1858, he married Myra J. Field, daughter of John Field M.P.P. They had seven children, three daughters and four sons. The oldest son, William F. Kerr became a partner in his father's law practice to form the firm Kerr and Kerr of Cobourg. After the Senator's death on November 22, 1906 in Toronto, William F. carried on the firm with a series of partnerships. John Wesley Kerr, the Senator's brother, was also a lawyer in Cobourg. He was called to the bar in May 1860 and was commissioned as a notary public in the same year. On June 27, 1870, he married Eva Fraser. It is possible that during his career he was Clerk of the Peace for the United Counties of Northumberland and Durham. He died on September 4, 1903.

The Hueston family (fl. 1918-1919) lived in Thorndale, Ontario.

Some members of the Hay and Dunlop families are descendants of Thomas Alexander Stewart (1786-1847) and Frances Stewart (1794-1872), Irish immigrants who arrived in Cobourg, Ontario from Ireland in 1822 and settled the following year in Douro Township near the present city of Peterborough.

The Theodore Thorne Hamilton family is associated with the earliest settlement of the Bobcaygeon area and later relocation to western Canada, where Theodore Thorne Hamilton was a telegraph operator with the Canadian National Railway. Hamilton was born 10 April 1890 in Bobcaygeon and died 3 August 1959. While in western Canada, he resided in Eudako, British Columbia.

The Honourable Robert Hamilton (1826-1891) was a factor of the Hudson's Bay Company who was stationed at Fort Edmonton. He married Ann (Annie) Seaborn (Seabourne) Miles (born in 1838 at Rupert's House d. 1863). Annie's mother was Elizabeth (Betsy) Sinclair (b. ca. 1805 and d. 1878) and her father was Robert Seaborn Miles Sr. (1795-1870). Like Robert Hamilton, Robert Miles Sr. was a Chief Factor of the Hudson's Bay Company. One of Robert and Annie's sons, Robert Miles Hamilton (1864-1939), married Alice May Barker and resided at "Auburn" in Peterborough, Ontario. Alice's father was the Honourable Samuel Barker, a Conservative Member of Parliament and a barrister. Alice and Robert Hamilton's children were Miles Beresford Hamilton, Robert Barker Hamilton, Alice Seabourne Hamilton, and S.R. Hamilton (male). Both Beresford and Robert Barker Hamilton served overseas during World War I. Alice Seabourne Hamilton married Charles Norman Geale.

Edward Armour Peck, whose papers are also included in this fonds, was the natural father of Arthur Henry Peck and the adoptive father of Charles Norman Geale. Edward Armour Peck was married to Kitty Revel.

Richard Birdsall Rogers was born at Ashburnham in 1857. He was the son of Robert David Rogers and Elizabeth Birdsall and a grandson of Richard Birdsall. He lived in Ashburnham until 1916 and then moved to "Beechwood Farm" in Douro Township. He was a land surveyor and was appointed Superintending Engineer of the Trent Valley Canal in about 1884. During his time in this office, he built the Peterborough-Lakefield Division and the Simcoe-Balsam Lake Division of the Trent Canal including the Hydraulic Lift Locks at Peterborough and Kirkfield, besides many dams and other works on this canal. Richard married Clara Mina Calcutt of Peterborough in 1881. They had seven children. Their daughter, Leah, married Herbert Geale, the brother of Charles Norman. Two of Richard and Mina's sons, Heber and Harry, served overseas in World War I.

The Honourable Leslie Miscampbell Frost, lawyer and Premier of Ontario, was born in Orillia, Ontario on September 20, 1895, the son of William Sword Frost and Margaret Jane Barker. He was educated at the Orillia Public School and the Orillia High School. He later attended the University of Toronto and Osgoode Hall. He served during World War I in France and Belgium, with the 20th Battalion, Queen's York Rangers, and was discharged with the rank of captain in 1918, after being severely wounded. Frost was called to the Bar in 1921. He was a member of the legal firm Frost, Inrig and Gorwill, among others, and was an honorary bencher of the Law Society of Upper Canada. He married Gertrude Jane Carew (1894-1970), in 1926. They never had children. Leslie M. Frost had a long and successful political career. He was elected to the legislature of Ontario in 1937, and he was consistently re-elected at each election until his retirement in 1963. He was Treasurer of Ontario and Minister of Mines in both the George Drew and T.L. Kennedy administrations. In 1949, Frost was chosen leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, and was sworn in as Premier and Provincial Treasurer on May 4, 1949. He remained Provincial Treasurer until 1955 and Premier until 1961. Besides his legal and political career, Frost took on many other obligations. He was a member of the Board of Governors of the University of Toronto and the first Chancellor of Trent University. He also held several directorships, including: the Bank of Montreal, Air Canada, Corporate Investors Ltd., Lever Brothers Ltd., KVP Company Ltd., John Deyell Ltd., Canada Life Assurance Company, Victoria and Grey Trust Co., Massey-Ferguson Ltd., and radio station CKLY. Frost was also keenly interested in history, primarily military history and the histories of Victoria, Peterborough and Haliburton Counties. He was the author of several books: Fighting Men, Forgotten Pathways of the Trent, Pleasant Point Story: a History of Pleasant Point and The Records on Sam Hughes Set Straight. Leslie M. Frost died at Lindsay, Ontario 4 May 1973. Cecil Grey Frost, younger brother of the Honourable Leslie M. Frost, was born in Orillia, Ontario, on August 27, 1897. His father, William Sword Frost, operated a jewelry and watchmaking business in Orillia, and as Mayor, introduced the concept of daylight saving time to the municipality. Cecil Grey Frost served overseas with the Canadian Machine Gun Corps during the World War I. When he returned to Canada, he attended Osgoode Hall Law School and graduated in 1921. He and his brother Leslie then opened a legal firm in Lindsay, Ontario, and both soon became active in local Conservative Politics. This led to Cecil's election in 1936 as Mayor of Lindsay, and in 1937 to the Presidency of the Ontario Conservative Association, As well, he organized and managed Earl Rowe's campaign in the provincial election of 1937. Thought of as a potential party leader himself, Cecil Grey Frost remained politically active until his sudden death on 8 June 1947. Robert John “Jack” Beal (1919-1994) was Gertrude Jane Frost’s nephew. He was married to Eileen Beal; their son, Robert “Bob” Beal, is a journalist and historian.

Henry Fowlds was born in 1790 in Scotland and married in 1813 to Jane Marshall Steele. Together they had ten children (Eliza, John, James S., Robert H., Elizabeth, Henry M., Mary C., William J., Mary Anne, and Theresa) of which only five survived (James S., Elizabeth, Henry M., William J., and Theresa). The family came to North America in 1821, settling first in New York, and then in Hartford in 1833. In 1834, they crossed the border and settled in Prince Edward County, Upper Canada. The Fowld's family settled in Asphodel Township in 1836, and then moved on to Westwood, where they set up a saw mill in conjunction with Dr. John Gilchrist in what was to become the village of Keene. On September 27, 1851, Henry Fowlds purchased from the Honourable James Crooks the water rights, lands and buildings then known as Crooks' Rapids, and later as Hastings. The Fowlds built upon this base, expanding their original saw mill to a corporate busisness of saw mill, grist mill, general store and post office. The three Fowlds' brothers, James, Henry M. and William, set up a lumber and flour business under the name of Jas. L. Fowlds and Bros. This company was terminated with the death of James Fowlds in 1884. The Fowlds were quite active in Hastings, occupying the seat of reeve, and the office of postmaster. James S. (1818-1884) married Margaret MacGregor and they had nine children between the years of 1845 and 1860. Their seventh child, Frederick W. (1857-1930), married Elizabeth Sutherland and they had three children, Helen, Eric, and Donald. Eric and Donald were soldiers in World War I and Helen was a nurse in the same war. Helen married Gerald Marryat after the war and became a remarkable local historian of the Peterborough region.

John and Mary Anne Fair had a number of children. The oldest daughter, Martha Jane Fair married William Hall. John and Mary Anne's second son was John Joseph Fair. Their youngest daughter was Caroline Fair and she held a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Dr. J. Harry Ebbs was born in 1906, Worksop, England and moved to Peterborough, Ontario with his family in 1912. He became interested in camping through the Y.M.C.A., and, later, at the age of 17, became more involved in camping as a counsellor, in 1924, at Camp Ahmek in Algonquin Park. Throughout his university career, he continued to work as a camp counsellor at Camp Ahmek, and later at Camp Wapameo, both Taylor Statten Camps. He graduated from the faculty of medicine, University of Toronto in 1931 and his medical career led him to remote settlements in northern Canada and to hospitals in India and Malaysia. He was later the senior staff physician at the Hospital for Sick Children, a professor of pediatrics and a director of the school of physical and health education at the University of Toronto. From 1938 to 1975 he was the medical director of the Taylor Statten Camps. It was while working as a counsellor at the Taylor Statten Camps that he met his future wife Adele Statten, daughter of Taylor Statten. They were married in 1935 and together had three children: Barbara Adele, Alice Susan, and John William. Throughout their lives, the Ebbs have been involved in organized camping in Canada and the United States, as well as in India. Both were honorary life members of the Canadian Camping Association and Dr. Ebbs was a governor of Trent University, where the Ebbs Camping Archives were established in 1979 to honor the Ebbs' contributions to the children's camping movement in Canada. Dr. John Henry Ebbs died June 1, 1990 after suffering a stroke the previous year.

The Dunsford family is connected through marriage to families associated with the early settlement of Peterborough and area, namely the Boyd, Langton, and Rubidge families.

The Doane family were a Quaker family who settled in York County, probably in East Gwillimbury Township, as early as 1815. According to the 1878 Atlas of York County, the family held land on concession 3, lot 15, in that township, more or less equidistant from Sharon and Queensville Post Offices. Other members of the family branched out to North King Township (third concession, near the Holland River), to Pickering Township, Toronto, the United States, and in one case, to the Baptist Mission at Cocanada, Madras, India.