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Robert Fleming Gourlay

Robert Fleming Gourlay, polemicist, reformer (b at Craigrothie, Scot 24 Mar 1778; d at Edinburgh, Scot 1 Aug 1863). A successful farmer and writer who fell into financial difficulties, he came to UPPER CANADA in 1817 to take up land he owned in Dereham Township and to write an immigrant's guide.

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Peter Matthews

Peter Matthews, farmer, rebel (b in Marysburgh or Sidney Twp, Qué [later UC] 1789 or 1790; d at Toronto 12 Apr 1838). The son of Loyalists, Matthews was a prosperous farmer and leading figure in Pickering Township.

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Caroline Affair

After the failed Rebellion of 1837 in Upper Canada, its leader, William Lyon Mackenzie, retreated to Navy Island, in the Niagara River, accompanied by some 200 followers. The Caroline, an American ship based at Fort Schlosser in New York State, was chartered to bring supplies to the rebels. On 29 December 1837, a force of the Upper Canada militia led by Commander Andrew Drew of the Royal Navy found the Caroline moored at Schlosser. In the quick skirmish that followed, an American was killed. The Caroline, set on fire and adrift, capsized before reaching the falls and sank. The incident aggravated the already tense relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States.

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Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester

In 1782-83 he was commander in chief at New York, which he refused to evacuate until the LOYALIST refugees had been sent to safety, and he urged their reception in Québec and Nova Scotia. Influenced by William SMITH, he unsuccessfully proposed while in England a single governor general for BNA.

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Mossom Boyd

Mossom Boyd, lumberman (b in India 1814; d at Bobcaygeon, Ont 23 July 1883). A member of the Anglo-Irish gentry, Mossom Boyd emigrated to the Sturgeon Lk area of Upper Canada in 1834.

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Abigail Becker

During a vicious storm on 24 Nov 1854, the overloaded schooner Conductor foundered on a nearby sandbar. The captain and crew clung to the frozen rigging all night, not daring to enter the raging surf.

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Robert Baldwin

Robert Baldwin, lawyer, politician, office holder (born 12 May 1804 in York [Toronto], Upper Canada; died 9 December 1858 in Yorkville [Toronto], Canada West).

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Canada Company

Canada Company, brainchild of John GALT, established in late 1824 and chartered in 1825 as a land and COLONIZATION COMPANY in Upper Canada. In 1826 the company purchased from the government about 2.5 million acres (1 million ha) of land for $295 000.

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Sir William Johnson

Sir William Johnson, merchant, fur trader, colonial official (born ca. 1715 in Smithtown, County Meath, Ireland; died 11 July 1774 in Johnson Hall, near Johnstown, NY).

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George Millward McDougall

George Millward McDougall, missionary, pioneer, negotiator (b at Kingston, UC 9 Sept 1821; d near Calgary 25 Jan 1876). Born of Scottish parents, McDougall attended Victoria College in Cobourg, UC and was ordained deacon 1852 and minister 1854.

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Jesse Ketchum

In politics Ketchum opposed the FAMILY COMPACT, and helped organize numerous Reform committees and associations. He held office once - from 1828 to 1834 he was in the House of Assembly. He did not participate in the REBELLIONS OF 1837 but following its collapse moved his business to Buffalo.

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Samuel Lount

Samuel Lount, blacksmith, politician, rebel (b at Cattawissa, Pa 24 Sept 1791; d at Toronto 12 Apr 1838). Variously employed after settling south of Lake Simcoe, Upper Canada, in 1815, Lount was best known as a blacksmith.

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Archibald McNab

Archibald McNab, 17th chief of Clan Macnab (b in Perthshire, Scot c 1781; d at Lannion, France 12 Aug 1860). McNab came to Upper Canada in 1822 to flee his creditors in Scotland. His settlement scheme was approved Nov 1823 and he was given land on the Madawaska River.

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Robert McDowall

Robert McDowall, pioneer Presbyterian minister (b at Balston Spa, near Albany, NY 25 July 1768; d at Fredericksburgh, Canada West 3 Aug 1841). In 1790 the Dutch Reformed Church sent McDowall as a missionary to what is now southern Ontario.

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Julia Catherine Hart

Julia Catherine Hart, née Beckwith (b at Fredericton 10 Mar 1796; d there 28 Nov 1867). Hart wrote the first work of fiction by a native-born Canadian to be published in Canada.

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George Hamilton

George Hamilton, lumberman and merchant (b at Hamwood, Co Meath, Ire 13 Apr 1781; d at Hawkesbury, UC 7 Jan 1839). He was one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the early timber trade in the Ottawa Valley.

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Phineas Riall

Riall arrived in UPPER CANADA in August 1813 and was placed in command of the Right Division, a geographic entity in the NIAGARA PENINSULA.

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Baron Sydenham

Charles Edward Poulett Thomson Sydenham, 1st Baron, politician, colonial administrator (b at Wimbledon, London, Eng 13 Sept 1799; d at Kingston, Canada W 19 Sept 1841).