Henry Vansittart, Vice-Admiral with the British navy, was born at Bisham Abbey, Berkshire, England, in 1779. He entered the British navy as a midshipman in 1791, and served throughout the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. In 1830 he was promoted Rear-Admiral, and in 1841 Vice-Admiral. In 1834 he bought an estate near Woodstock, Upper Canada, on which he settled; and he died there in 1844.
Frederick Arthur Verner was born 26 February 1836 in Hammondsville, Upper Canada and died 16 May 1928 in London, England. He was a painter who specialized in the Canadian West, often depicting Indigenous peoples and bison. He sought to convey an accuracy of his subjects as he portrayed the west as a veritable eden. He was an artist present at the signing of the North West Angle Treaty Lake of the Woods. (Taken from: The Canadian Encyclopedia. Edmonton: Hurtig Publishers, 1985.)
From 1966 to 1973, John Leishman was Controller and, from 1971, also Vice-President (Finance). The office was split in 1973 and there was a Vice-President (Finance) and a Controller (Peter Lewis). John Earnshaw became Vice-President (Administration and Finance) in 1981 as John Leishman moved to the position of Executive Vice-President (External Relations and Financial Affairs). John Earnshaw held the office until August 1991. Nancy Sullivan became Vice-President (Finance and Administration), 1991-1994. For further information about the office and its leadership over the years, see A.O.C. Cole, Trent: The Making of a University, pp. 126-129; D'Arcy Jenish, Trent University: Celebrating 50 Years of Excellence, 2014; and the annual course calendars (available in the Archives Reading Room).
Victoria College was established by the Methodists as an Academy in Cobourg, Canada West. In 1829 at the Conference of Methodist's conference it was decided to establish a seminary for preparatory education for males and females. The cornerstone of the College, which was known as the Upper Canada Academy, was laid June 7, 1832. The official opening occurred four years later on June 18, 1836. On October 6, 1836 the Academy was granted its Royal Charter for its incorporation. The Academy provided co-educational, non-denominational preparatory education similar to the grammar schools of the time. In 1841 a Provincial Statute elevated the status of the Academy to College. Thus on October 21, 1842 Victoria College started its first semester as a degree-granting institution. The College granted degrees in Arts, Science, Law, Medicine and Divinity. When it acquired its elevated status as a College women were no longer allowed to attend until 1880. From 1876 to 1878 a new building, called Faraday Hall, was built on campus to house the Science Department. This was sponsored by Dr. Eugene Haanel. The College enlivened the community of Cobourg by encouraging intellectual pursuits. The College gave a Conversazione, the first of its kind in Cobourg, after convocation. This allowed the students to march around to music since dancing was not allowed at that time in the College. On November 20, 1892 a Act was passed by the Province that federated Victoria College with the University of Toronto. At this point the college professors and students moved to Toronto and the building which used to house the College became in turn a Provincial Asylum, a Military Hospital, an Ontario Hospital and a training centre for the Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services. (Taken from: Cobourg Early Days and Modern Times. Cobourg: Haynes Printing Company, 1981.)
Victoria County, formally established in 1860, is comprised of the Townships of Bexley, Carden, Dalton, Eldon, Emily, Fenelon, Laxton, Digby, Longford, Manvers, Mariposa, Ops, Somerville, and Verulam. The town of Lindsay in Ops Township is the county seat. The County is bordered in the north by the Muskoka District, in the east by Haliburton and Peterborough Counties, in the south by Lake Scugog and the Regional Municipality of Durham, and in the west by Durham and Simcoe Counties. It is 2 169 km square in area. The land in Victoria County was first opened for settlement in 1821 and the first settlers were mainly Irish, both Protestant and Catholic, and Scottish Presbyterians. By 1880, lumbering was firmly established as the main industry in the county. Quickly the region was stripped of its forests, and it was not until the 1920's that an interest in reforestation developed. Today, Victoria County is a prime grain producing region. As well, chemical industries and tourism make up the present day economic picture of the county. (Taken from: Mika, Nick and Helma. Places in Ontario, Part III. Belleville: Mika Publishing Company, 1983.)
The Victoria Museum grew out of the Peterborough Historical Society's efforts to preserve the past. They received $200.00 from the City of Peterborough; $100.00 from the County of Peterborough and the Society raised $100.00. June 22, 1897 was the official dedication of the Victoria Museum. It was called the Victoria Museum to celebrate the Queen's Jubilee. The Victoria Museum officially opened October 31, 1898. It was housed in the two front rooms, the large ground floor hall, the upstairs hall and two upstairs rooms at Inverlea House. The museum had a number of cases of birds and animals, Indigenous curios, old documents, antique firearms, an old canoe and displays of minerals. T.A.S. Hay became the first curator when the Victoria Museum moved from Inverlea Park to the top floor of the new library building on April 23, 1912. G.H. Clarke became the next curator as Hay died in 1917 and the Library Board took over stewardship of the museum. In the 1950's William Graff became the curator but by this point much of the museum's collection had been dispersed to other sources in the Peterborough area. The Historical Society re-established itself and the museum became renewed with display cases on the upper floor and in the basement of the library. Eventually the artifacts which were part of the Victoria Museum's collections and later under library stewardship came to be housed in the Peterborough Centennial Museum. The Centennial Museum originated from the need in the city for a new museum. At this point the Peterborough District Historical and Art Museum Foundation was established in 1961 to fund and establish a new museum and safeguard remnants of the Victoria Museum collection. On November 19, 1966 the Historical Society transferred ownership of the collection to the Foundation since the society was not incorporated. On October 28, 1967 the Peterborough Centennial Museum was officially opened on Armour Hill and the collections of the Victoria Museum became a part of the Centennial Museum's collections. (Taken from: Doherty, Ken. Preserving Peterborough's Past: 150 Years of Museums and History. Occasional Paper 16. Peterborough Historical Society, November 1995.)
The village of Ashburnham was situated in the north-west portion of Otonabee Township in Peterborough County. It is believed that Presbyterian minister, Reverend Samuel Armour, who arrived from Scotland in 1826, was its first settler. Prior to 1904, the village was a municipality of the County of Peterborough; in 1904, it was annexed by the City of Peterborough.
Peterborough is situated, for the most part, on the west bank of the Otonabee River which runs south into Rice Lake. Samuel de Champlain was the first European to cross the site of Peterborough. In 1819 Barnabus Bletcher, Thomas Edmison, John Farrelly, Charles Fothergill, Adam Scott and Thomas Ward entered the area looking for a suitable mill site. The mill eventually became a landmark to residents and travellers in the area until it burnt down in 1835. In 1825 Peter Robinson entered the area with Irish settlers. The area was originally known as Scott's Plains. In 1826 the settlement was named Peterborough in honour of Peter Robinson. The town had mills and churches to start with and eventually expanded with banking arriving in 1840 and water power in the 1850's. (Taken from: Illustrated Historical Atlas of Peterborough County, 1825-1875. Peterborough: The Peterborough Historical Atlas Foundation Inc., 1975.)
VOX was the student publication of United College, now the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Robert Waddell and Hugh Waddell were brothers who were both businessmen in Durham County in the middle to late 1800's and the early 1900's. Robert Waddell resided in Balieboro and Hugh Waddell lived in Millbrook, Ontario.
Professor John Wadland was born in 1943. He was educated at the University of Waterloo where he received his M.A. in history, and at York University where he received his Ph.D in the same subject in 1976. He joined the staff of the Canadian Studies Department of Trent University when it was created in the 1972-73 academic year.
Vernon B. Wadsworth was born in 1844 and at the age of sixteen became an articled pupil of John S. Dennis, Provincial Land Surveyor, upon passing his preliminary surveying examination in Toronto in April 1860. Wadswoth assisted Dennison in the surveying of several colonization roads in the Muskoka, Parry Sound and Nipissing Districts. Wadsworth passed his final examination and became a licensed surveyor in 1864 and he continued to do surveys in the previously mentioned Districts. When John S. Dennis retired from his surveying practice and entered the Government Service as Surveyor General of Canada, Wadsworth arranged a partnership with Dennis' former partner B.W. Gossage and established a surveying office on Adelaide Street in Toronto. This partnership only lasted a few years. In 1868, Gossage gave up the surveying business, due to lack of business. In the same year, Wadsworth approached Charles Unwin, a successful and politically connected Toronto land surveyor, and the two formed the partnership of Wadsworth and Unwin. At the same time, the surveying business in Toronto and the Province took a turn for the better and Wadsworth and Unwin were able to develop a large practice. They received commissions from the Dominion and Ontario Governments, Railway Corporations and the City of Toronto. They were also employed as City Surveyors by the Corporation of Toronto and in 1872, they published the Wadsworth and Unwin's map of the City of Toronto which proved to be an invaluable resource to lawyers and those engaged in the real estate business. In February of 1875 Wadsworth married Laura Ridout. On 1 December 1876, Wadsworth entered the service of the London and Canadian Loan Agency Company as Chief Inspector. He also retained his name in his surveying firm. In 1899 he was made the General Manager of the company. On 1 April 1921, after 44 years of service, V.B. Wadsworth retired from the service of the London and Canadian Loan and Agency Company. He died in 1942 at the age of 98.
Professor Keith Walden was born in Montreal, Quebec. From 1966 to 1970 he was an undergraduate student at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. He also received his Master's degree (1971) and Doctorate degree (1981) from Queen's University. Professor Walden joined the History Department of Trent University in 1977. His major historical research interest has been in the area of popular culture, particularly myth and symbolism. Professor Walden served for several years, until August 1990, as an editor of the journal Ontario History, and has published several articles and books. His books include Isaac Brock, man and myth: a study of the militia myth of the War of 1812 in Upper Canada, 1812-1912, 1971; The symbol and myth of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in some British, American and English Canadian popular literature, 1873-1973, 1980; Visions of order, 1982; Becoming modern in Toronto: the Industrial Exhibition and the shaping of a late Victorian culture, 1997; and The papers of Harry Cassidy and Beatrice Pearce: the courtship years, 1917-1925, 2009.
The Wallace Point Bridge and Road Company was created on October 31, 1866 for the express purpose of building a road and bridge from South Monaghan Township, County of Northumberland, across the Otonabee River, to Wallace Point, Otonabee Township, County of Peterborough. The total distance of the road, including the bridge, was to be 2 1/4 miles. It is unknown when the company ceased to exist.
R. Waller was either a carpenter or wagon maker who lived and worked in Campbellford, Ontario, at the turn of the twentieth century.
(Biographical information copied from Trent University Archives newsletter "Archives News", Issue Number 48, January 2014: "The Wallis Family" by Janice Millard).
"The link between the two [Wallis family and Forbes family] is Louisa Forbes who became Mrs. James Wallis. Louisa was the mother of well-known Peterborough-born artist and sculptor Katherine Wallis and Louisa’s father was Capt. Robert Miller/Millar Forbes.
Capt. Robert Miller Forbes had a distinguished career in the British Navy. It was, however, marred by an incident in 1798. Robert caused his ship commander, Capt. Lord Henry Paulet, later Earl St. Vincent, to be court martialled. Paulet apparently struck the then Lieutenant Forbes while Forbes was on duty on their ship – the Thalia. Paulet lost the case - but soon after he was given clemency, re-instated, and in 1819 became a Vice-Admiral. Robert Miller did not fare as well. In a transcribed letter he says that “he became the object of the most cruel and vindictive persecution… that has proved a barrier to his professional progress thro’ the mis-representations of that distinguished officer.”
After the Napoleonic Wars Robert Forbes, along with a number of ex-British military personnel, took their families and settled in France. Robert’s first child, Louisa, was born in Avranches, France. There is a watercolour in our new donation of the Church where Louisa was christened. It is likely by Katherine Wallis. The Forbes family moved around in Europe and sons were born in St. Servan Sur Merin Brittany, France. Finally the family moved to Peterborough.
Robert Forbes had an even more well-known brother – Charles John Forbes. Charles was in both the British Navy and the British Army. While in the Navy, Charles was present at the Battle of the Nile (also called the Battle of Aboukir) where Nelson defeated the French Navy. Another person at Aboukir was Charles Rubidge. Perhaps Charles Forbes and Charles Rubidge reminisced together about old battles.
While in the British Army, Charles Forbes was present for the Battle of New Orleans in 1815. Our donation contains a letter written 29 Jan. 1815 on board H.M.S. Alceste, off Cat Island (near New Orleans), and sent to James Cobb, Secretary, East India Company (a cousin). In the letter Charles says that the information given to the Admiral was “fallacious” and that unlike what they had been led to believe, no “settlers of Louisiana and the Floridas” flocked to join the British cause and hence they had insufficient troops for the encounter with the Americans. It’s interesting to note that even by the end of January, Charles did not know that a treaty to end the War had been signed.
Charles had two separate enlistment periods with the British Army. Like his brother, he retired when the Napoleonic Wars were over and lived in Europe, but a few years later he re-enlisted in the Army. In 1824 he worked for the Commissariat in Nova Scotia and in 1825 he went to Montreal and stayed for 8 years. He was then posted to Jamaica and, like many Europeans who lived in the tropics, became ill. He briefly to went to England and then finally retired at half pay back in Quebec.
While posted in Quebec he acted as Commissary General for the Army and ensured there were supplies for the engineers and workers who were building canals in the Montreal region. While he was there he purchased land in the village of Carillon, on the Ottawa River just south of Lachute, Quebec, in what is now the Argenteuil Region of Quebec.
There he built a wonderful house called “Bellevue”. In our newly acquired scrapbook of Louisa Forbes there is a sketch of that house. Charles was known far and wide for his hospitality and many important people would visit him – including the Governors General.
Another well-known owner of land in the area was Sidney Robert Bellingham - nephew of Thomas A. Stewart. Sidney was very interested in politics and played a role in the 1837 rebellion – as did the British veteran Charles John Forbes."
Katherine E. Wallis was born in 1860 in Peterborough, Ontario. She studied art as a copyist at the National Gallery in Edinburgh, Scotland and later at the Royal College of Art in London, England. In London she discovered sculpting as her medium of expression and won the College's bronze medal and the Modellers' Free Scholarship for her work. After two years of study in London, she went to Paris to study under noted sculptor Oscar Waldmann and was soon invited to exhibit at the Exposition Universelle where she won honourable mention. In subsequent years, she exhibited frequently in the Spring Salon of the Artists Francais and later in the Societe Nationale des Beaux Arts, as well as at numerous exhibits in London and elsewhere in the British Isles. Katherine E. Wallis' career was interrupted by World War I while she served as a nurse in the Canadian Hospital in Paris, France. For her services she was decorated by the French and British governments. At the end of the war, Miss Wallis spent several years in Canada exhibiting her work and visiting her sister in Peterborough, Ontario. Later she returned to Paris, and in 1929, she received her highest recognition as an artist when she was the first Canadian to be elected Societaire of the Societe Nationale des Beaux Arts for her sculpture titled "La Lutte pour la Vie." She was forced to flee from France at the beginning of World War II and took up residence in Santa Cruz, California, where she lived until her death, 14 December 1957. Examples of the photographs are reproduced here.
The family of Walter Nichol Davidson resided in Brighton, Ontario. Walter Davidson (?-1936) was a merchant-tailor. He married Isabella Massie D. McDonald (?-1946). They had two daughters: Annie Helen (1878-?) and Jessie Isabella. Annie wasa school teacher and she studied through correspondence courses from the University of Toronto Extension Branch. She married dentist by the last name of Harnden. This Davidson family maybe related to the Davidson family [(77-003)]: https://www.trentu.ca/library/archives/77-003 of Cobourg, Ontario. One letter in the 86-015 fonds is addressed to a W.N. Davidson and speaks of a "Lizzie", perhaps Elizabeth, and a "Jim", perhaps James. Both collections are similar in that they contain large number of deeds and mortgages.
Thomas Watson was a school teacher in 1858 for the Grammar School at Port Hope, Canada West, which was established in 1853. (Taken from: Hope and its Port. East Durham Historical Society, 1992.)
Jacob Way (1804-1882) was born in Northport, Prince Edward County. He moved with his wife Alzina Moran (1823-1851) and their son Edward Hoag Way (1845-1922) to Tyendinega Township, Hastings County. After Alzina’s death, Jacob married Delilah (Scriver) Herns (b. 1823) and they had a son Gideon Shepard Way (1853-1937). The family moved to Murray Township in Northumberland County. With the exception of Alzina who is buried in Tyendinega, the others are buried in the Stockdale Cemetery in Hastings County, north of the area where, over time, all three had farmed and raised their families. Extended family names include Scriver, Ostrander, Herns, and Moran. (Information provided by Yvonne A. Green).
Allan Percival Way (fl. 1921-1945), was a farmer who owned property in Murray Township, County of Northumberland. He also lived in Trenton, Ontario and was married to Florence Mildred Way.
Joseph Wearing is Professor Emeritus at Trent University, having been a member of the Department of Political Studies for three decades and, for a time, serving as Chair of the Department. He is a graduate of the universities of Western Ontario, Toronto and Oxford (D.Phil.) and is the author of books and articles on Canadian political parties. His books include The L-Shaped Party: The Liberal Party of Canada, 1958-1980; Strained Relations: Canadian Parties and Voters; and The Ballot and its Message: Voting in Canada (edited collection of articles on Canadian voting behaviour). He also wrote a book about his father, Lumberjack in the Court House: The Remarkable Career of Judge Joseph Wearing and helped to produce “:30 Second Democracy: A Documentary on Political Television Advertising.” A more recent research interest is the role of party discipline in the Canadian House of Commons. Apart from his academic activities, Professor Wearing has also contributed to the musical life of Trent University and the City of Peterborough. He was the musical director of six Gilbert & Sullivan productions between 1969 and 1975 and performed in a seventh production. He conducted the Coventry Singers of Peterborough, 1967-1975, and was chair of Town & Gown Concerts that presented concerts by local performers as well as by prominent Canadian musicians including Lois Marshall, soprano, and Anton Kuerti, piano. He was also on the Board of Directors of the Peterborough Symphony Orchestra and held the position of president. As a pianist and member of the Master Class Players, Wearing performs regularly at community events in Toronto.
Judge Joseph Wearing was born 20 August 1879 in Liverpool, England. He practised law in Peterborough from 1913 until 1930 when he was appointed Senior County Court Judge in London, Ontario. In addition to the practise of law, he wrote and gave addresses on many topics, mostly in the area of international relations, law, and imperialism. Judge Wearing died in London, Ontario, 29 March 1947.
The Wendaban Stewardship Authority (WSA) was created through a Memorandum of Understanding of April, 1990 and an Addendum of May 23, 1991 in which the Ontario and Teme-Augama Anishnabai governments agreed to form a “Stewardship Council” with co-management jurisdiction over four geographic townships in the Sudbury/Nipissing district of northern Ontario: Acadia; Shelburne; Canton; and Delhi. The total land area is approximately 400 square kilometres. The area is located northwest of Lake Temagami and includes the shores of Lakes Wakimika, Diamond, and the northern part of Obabika. (Taken from promotional materials issued by the WSA).