What's New - January 20, 2017
Genealogy - New Developments
Toronto Early Families
During research for my next book I have added several family trees for the first families of York, later Toronto. The story of the book revolves around the amazing sleigh ride in February of 1840 when William Weller, The Stage Coach King, drove the Governor General from Toronto to Montreal in 35 hours and 40 minutes. This was a land speed record and, because it was the GG, was big news at the time. The book will follow the sleigh from Toronto all the way along the Kingston Road to Montreal and Ontario history will hang off the sleigh all the way along.
The trip begins in Toronto and, in fact, begins at Beverly House which was acting as Government House while Governor General Thomson was in Toronto. Through circuitous means, I was able to link John Beverly Robinson, the owner of Beverly House and the Solicitor General of Upper Canada, to an existing tree so the Robinson family is represented to some degree. A close associate and neighbour was D'Arcy Boulton and the Boulton family was much enhanced, adding to the many Boultons in Cobourg that were already there.
And on and on it goes. Many Toronto people who were there in February 1840 or had family links to buildings along King Street that William Weller would have driven by will be mentioned in some way. How about the jail where the two rebels were hanged just a couple of years before or the site of the first brick house in York? And lots more.