Original, photocopied, and transcribed materials pertaining to the family of Thomas Alexander Stewart and Frances Stewart. Included are correspondence (1869-1935; 1989); a family tree and genealogical material; paper titled “Selections from “Fragments That Remain”” by Alec Wilson; probate of the will of Thomas Alexander Stewart Brown (1937); conveyance Edward T. Brown to Thomas Alexander Stewart Brown (1880); a typescript list made from a 1789 sale notice of auction items belonging to James Frood; a colour copy of a sketch and map of the original Stewart home and early Douro Township; and typescripts of articles and diaries pertaining to Stewart family history and their settlement in Upper Canada.

Fonds consists of the printed genealogy of the families of Ian Lachlan Campbell (1927-) and Marion Isabel (Wellwood) Campbell (1926-). Included are 14 spiral-bound volumes entitled "Difficulty Overcome." The volumes are a study of the clans, extended families, lineages and families of the descendants of Colin Campbell (b. Islay 1792, d. Eldon Twp., Ontario - 1877); Isabella Carmichael (b. Islay 1792, d. Eldon Twp., Ontario - 1830); William McLachlan (b. Isle of Islay, d. Victoria County, Ontario); Christina Bell; William McCoy (b. Co. Down, Ireland, 1819, d. Hamilton, Ontario, 1887), Ann Hamilton (Ireland); Samuel Jeffery (b. County Down, Ireland, d. Haley Station, Ontario); John Elis Gilpin (b. United Kingdom, d. Jellys, Ontario - 1869); and Margaret Laycock (d. Haley Station, Ontario - 1900).

This fond consists of three scrapbooks of assorted clippings covering topics such as: handicrafts, holidays, recipes, entertainment, poetry and songs. It also includes attendance records, trustee meetings, teachers’ contacts, religious instruction, authorized textbooks and other education related records for School Section No. 10, Brock Township, Ontario. Lastly, there are three atlases in this collection. Two of them are of the county of Ontario and the third one is a geographical, astronomical, historical home atlas.

This fonds consists of letters from a servant girl, Isabella Brownlie in Otonabee to her brother Claud in Scotland. After 1845, the letters are from Isabella and her husband James Miller. The fonds also contains two photographs, one of Isabella's brother, Claud Brownlie, with his wife, Elizabeth [Kendrick], and the second of Claud Brownlie alone, as well as a diploma for Thomas Menzies Miller, 1891.

Fonds consists of photographs, correspondence, and miscellaneous documents pertaining to the Atwood family of Lakefield, Ontario. Also included are materials pertaining to Anne Atwood's family, the Traills; a sketch identified through an accompanying note as Ernest Shackleton; and correspondence between Edwin Guillet and explorer George M. Douglas.

Fonds consists of research materials and notes, modern correspondence, photocopies of historical documentation, and genealogical resources for the Need family as well as other people living in both England and Newcastle District. The historical documentation includes wills, gravesite information, lot and concession records, military records, correspondence. As well as the Need family, there is also biographical information on other families, including the Dunsfords, Langtons, Campbells, and Sawers.

These research materials were accumulated by Dawn Bell Logan and used to write books, articles, and biographical entries about Thomas Need, including Thomas Need : settler in the backwoods of Upper Canada (self published, 2022), and the Dictionary of Canadian Biography entry for Thomas Need (V. 12). Photographs are of some sites in Lincolnshire, U.K, Peterborough, Canada, the Trent Severn Waterway, Thomas Need’s descendants, and gravestones of Need family members.

Fonds is organized into four series: Thomas Need journals and correspondence; Research materials and manuscripts; Dawn Logan correspondence; and Files on Dawn Logan’s publications.

Thomas Need Biography

Thomas Need (1808-1895) emigrated from Nottingham, England to Upper Canada in May 1832 and settled in Verulam Township in Victoria County in 1833 around Sturgeon Lake. He had graduated from University College, London, in 1830 and rejected the idea of becoming a member of the clergy. This contributed to his decision to leave England.

While in Upper Canada, Need was a member of the government commission that oversaw the construction of what became the first lock of the Trent-Severn Waterway, founded the Village of Bobcaygeon in 1834, and served as a magistrate for the Court of Requests from 1835 to 1837.

Need anonymously published his book Six years in the bush or extracts from the journal of a settler in Upper Canada (London, 1838) on his experiences in Upper Canada. The book was based on his journal entries he made in his personal journal which he called the “Woodhouse Journal.” Need returned to Nottingham, England permanently in 1847 and died in 1895. His authorship was confirmed with the publication of John Langton’s letters in 1926 and he was subsequently recognized as a contributor to early Canadian literature.

Source: Biography – NEED, THOMAS – Volume XII (1891-1900) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography. http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/need_thomas_12E.html. Accessed 11 Jan. 2024.

Fonds consists of sheet music, some of which is hand-copied. The items originated with Captain Charles Rubidge and penciled annotations suggest that he collected or hand-copied a number of them in the early 1800s for his wife-to-be, Margaret Clarke, before coming to Canada. "Mrs. Rubidge" is written in hand on some pieces. Provenance is indicated on some documents in layered notes made by family descendants across generations. Also included is information compiled by Laurie Lambe Wallace about the sheet music and its history within the Rubidge family.

In 2017, 29 additional pieces of sheet music dating to the early 1800s were added. This music belonged to Mary Catharine Dunsford, wife of Reverend Hartley. Some of the music includes handwritten notations with family names and dates. While the publications of some pieces may date to the early 1800s, the handwritten penciled dates cover a period generally between the 1830s and 1860s. The notations point to connections between the Rubidge, Dunsford, McEwen, and Boyd families of the Peterborough area. Included in this addition is genealogical information compiled by the donor.

Collection consists of a guide to nearly all of the Frances Stewart letters located at Trent University Archives and elsewhere. The guide is a biographical reference tool which indexes all the names which appear in the letters. The indexing locates each name in the approximately 450 letters and gives the corresponding page number in the transcripts (94-006); it provides the source of biographic information, and explains the relationship of each person to Thomas Alexander Stewart and Frances Browne Stewart. The guide is arranged alphabetically by last name and includes hundreds of names, i.e., Sydney Bellingham, Rev. George Brabazon, Rev. Francis Browne, John Burnham, Rev. Mark Burnham, Zaccheus Burnham, Frances Anne Edgeworth, Agnes Fitzgibbon (nee Moodie), Catherine Elizabeth Kirkpatrick (nee Browne), Susanna Moodie (nee Strickland), Robert Reid, Peter Robinson, Captain Charles Rubidge, Frances Stewart (nee Browne), Thomas Alexander Stewart, Samuel Strickland, Catharine Parr Traill (nee Strickland), and Robert Waller (complete list of names attached below). The guide, which was researched and compiled by Jean Shearman and Elizabeth Shearman Hall, is a tremendous piece of work and is an invaluable resource for researchers.

This addition to the fonds represents a compendium of Stewart materials. It consists of 5 volumes of transcriptions of letters, journals and other papers of Frances Stewart of Douro Township, Upper Canada, and other family members. These 5 volumes transcribe materials of varying provenance and location and were made by Jean Shearman and her sisters. Interfiled within the volumes is the Stewart-Dunlop fonds (94-007) which is comprised of photocopies of correspondence and a family tree; the correspondence is interfiled where it would naturally occur chronologically and the family tree is located at the beginning of Vol. 1. Note: In 2013, the original letters were received for many of the 94-007 items; the originals are processed as 13-008.

This fonds consists of oral history tapes made by George Cobb. Topics covered on the tapes include: Trent Canal, lumbering, early medicine and dentistry in Peterborough County, Indigenous history and culture, mills and so forth. Fonds also includes tapes made by Cobb of other broadcasts and recordings (located at the end of the list). Browse file list for more information.

Collection consists of correspondence, 1882-1899, and several envelopes dating 1870s to 1890s, most of which are addressed to Thomas Choate of Warsaw, and Mrs. John Moore [Cettie Choate, daughter of Thomas]; souvenir brochure of pictures of Peterborough, Ontario; Maccabees brochures; approximately 125 stereographs depicting scenery, architecture, and people in the U.S.A., Europe, and Canada; two photographs of the employees of Western Clock Company Limited of Peterborough, Ontario, 1938 and 1944; a temperance meeting poster for Warsaw, Ontario, 1858; and an electoral district of East Durham proclamation broadside, 1924. Also included is the Choate Family Bible donated and added to the collection in 2002. The bible contains genealogical information on the Choate family.

This fonds consists of correspondence, photographs, family biographical information, notes and research for speeches, alderman election materials, accounts, land ownership documents, business records and newspaper clippings pertaining to the personal and political career of John Beverley Robinson. Also included in the fonds is research material of Mrs. Forsyth Grant, daughter of J.B. Robinson and President of the Women's Canadian Historical Society of Toronto.

This fonds consists of a number of issues of a handwritten newspaper, written weekly by agricultural students of Colonel Samuel Strickland of Lakefield, Canada West. The issues are scattered and topics covered include agriculture, local events, local gossip, and politics. Also included are four letters of George M. Douglas relating to the newspaper.

This fonds consists of the original and collected papers of E.C. Guillet, relating to his works and research on the Trent Valley/Peterborough/Kawartha area. Included is correspondence, primarily with George M. Douglas and Helen Marryat; maps (photocopies); newspaper articles regarding above area; collected manuscripts of historical authors; photographs; and Guillet's own unpublished manuscript of Canadian Literary Pioneers.

This index consists of computer output microfiches of land records held in Archives of Ontario. The microfiches provide an index to Crown Land Papers, Canada Company Papers, and the Peter Robinson Papers from 1819 to 1830.

Fonds consists of one copybook of arithmetic exercises belonging to Isabella Miller, Otonabee Township.

These portraits consist of two items. One is a portrait of Charles Rubidge, [181-?]. The caption "Captn C. Rubidge. Royal Navy, London, England," and a stamped credit "Brown 163 High Holborn London" are found on the reverse. The other is a portrait by F.W. Lock, 1845, of an unidentified male with last name Rubidge, believed to be a son of Charles Rubidge.

This addition to the fonds consists of photographs (approximately 141) taken by George Douglas on his many canoe trips [ca. 1920] in the Chandos, Burleigh, and Anstruther townships area and encompassing such towns and waterways as Lakefield, Stoney Lake, Loon Lake, Eel's Creek and Apsley. There is also a photocopy of an article entitled "George Douglas - Trip to Loon Lake 1925".

Folders are arranged as such:

1. Photographs (approximately 100 5"x7"s) taken by George Douglas on canoe trips in the Chandos, Burleigh, and Anstruther townships area [c:1920]
2. Photographs (approximately 35 8"x10"s) taken by George Douglas on canoe trips in the Chandos, Burleigh, and Anstruther townships area [c:1920]
3. Photocopy of an article entitled "George Douglas - Trip to Loon Lake 1925"
4. loose in box: small envelope containing 6 negatives and 4 photographs re: George Douglas canoe trips in the Chandos, Burleigh, and Anstruther townships area [c:1920]

This fonds consists of 11 black and white photographs collected for publication in "Kawartha Heritage".

This fonds consists of records relating to the professional and personal lives of Dr. Henry Turner (Sr.) and Dr. Henry A. Turner (Jr.), both medical doctors of the Millbrook area. The medical publications, prescription day books, office records, customer account books, transaction day books, stock books, business and domestic records and invoices, glass x-rays, and correspondence depict the lives of each man respectively, spanning the years 1872 to 1936. Also included are personal and business-related records of Alice Turner, nurse, daughter of H.A. Turner (Sr.). A Farmers and Business Directory for Peterborough and the United Counties has been catalogued and removed to the Trent Collection.

The grasses scrapbook was compiled by Catharine Parr Traill for her friend James Fletcher and given to him 12 January 1894. The inside cover has the following inscriptions: "Grasses from Stony Lake gathered and mounted by Cathe Parr Traill - Aged 92 years." These specimens are from the Island of Minne Wa-Wa and Otter Island. July-September 1893" and "With Mrs.Traill's kind wishes to her much valued and esteemed friend James Fletcher F.S.L.S. & etc. January 12th, 1894". The scrapbook consists of 20 pages, 18 of which have pressed grasses, from the Stoney Lake area of the Island of Minne Wa-Wa and Otter Island, glued onto them. Also included in the scrapbook is a specimen list of the grasses and a photocopy of an article, entitled "Grasses from Stony Lake Gathered and Mounted by Cathe Parr Traill - Aged 92 Years". The article was written by William G. Dore and published in The Ontario Naturalist in 1966.

The framed mosses were gathered by Catharine Parr Traill in the Stoney Lake area. Prior to the Archives receiving this addition, the pages were taken apart, mounted and framed in two frames each containing three pages of mosses; one medium frame containing "Sedges & grass, with mosses, from the bank below the garden at Westove. Gathered and arranged for Katie. With Grandmother's dear love. Oct. 24th, 1889"; and one small frame with Traill's autograph.

Collection consists primarily of photocopies and emails with information pertaining to various aspects of Peterborough's history, from both the city and the county. Brief history of the town of Lakefield is also included.

Fonds consists of one Order Book from the estate of Richard Prettie, [Vernonville, Ontario], listing the auction sale dispersal of the household. The name "Stanley McBride, Centreton, Ontario" is found on the fly leaf. Several items listed as sold in the estate auction relate to farming.