In the year 1791, Canada was divided into two provinces,
Lower and Upper Canada, and
John Graves Simcoe, already known in America as he had
served in the Revolutionary War, was sent out as the first Lieutenant-Governor
of Upper Canada The following year, 1792, Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe
partitioned the province into nineteen counties. The sixteenth one was
�hereafter to be called by the name of the county of Norfolk.�
ENGLISH COUNTY NAMES
�
Just here I want to draw attention to the fact that every
county on the eastern side of England, with the exception of Suffolk, is
represented in the names of the southern counties, beginning with Kent and
ending with Northumberland, and at one time there was a Suffolk which included Elgin and part of Middlesex. So
it can be readily seen that whoever had the naming of these counties came from
the east of England. And not only this, but the names of English towns and
families in the homeland are very frequent here. All that is needed is for one
to have a good map of England and check it over with one of our own.
�
TOWNSHIP NAMES
�As evidence of this
all the townships in our county, with one exception, have these local
English names,
beginning with Townsend which bears the name of an old Norfolk family, although
the name was usually spelled Townshend. Thomas Townsend, Baron Sydney, who was
at one time Secretary of State in the British Cabinet, was present as one of
Wolfe's generals at the battle of. the Plains of Abraham. To-day there are
Townsends in the Old Country, and when I was in England I even saw the name
Townsend on a tradesman�s sign in the ancient City of Norwich.
On the line of the Great Eastern Railway between Ely and
Norwich is the beautiful town of Wymondham (pronounced Windham) possessing one
of the many fine churches built long ago, which form one of the glories of
England and of which the people are so proud. This is doubtless where our
township of Windham obtained its name.
There are several Middletons in England, but the English
Norfolk has a Middleton. So this evidently accounts for our township's name, as
it is in keeping with other county appellations.
Houghton is another dear old village in the English Norfolk,
which is associated with that great Norfolk man Sir Robert Walpole, the noted Whig
politician of Queen Anne�s reign.
Then, there is the fine town of great antiquity Walsingham,
lying towards the north side of the County of Norfolk. This has been rather a
prominent name in English history, and the people n our own Walsingham can look
with pride upon their connection with the Old Land.
And as to the name of Woodhouse�the surname of Wodehouse has
been a famous one in Norwich. If anyone doubts this, all that person has to do
is to look at the number of tablets on the south wall of the nave of the grand
Norwich Cathedral of which it is said, "that every stone came from Caen in
Normandy."
So here are six of the names of our townships all derived
from the home of the North- folk in East Anglia. The only exception is
Charlotteville, which was called for the Charlotte Villa laid out by the
instructions of Governor Simcoe when he visited the district in the autumn of
1795. This name was bestowed to commemorate Charlotte, the Queen of King George
the Third, who was the daughter of Charles Louis, the Duke of Mechlenburg in
Germany, and who bore a large family of children to "Farmer George"
as many affectionately called the King,
SIMCOE� S NAME
As everyone knows, our town of Simcoe bears the name of John
Graves Simcoe himself. He was as doughty a Tory as ever wore a red coat, and
while he was here, he laboured unceasingly for what he believed was the good of
the province and its people. He died a comparatively young man, and his remains
rest at Wolford Lodge in his beloved Devon.
Just when the first building in what is now Simcoe was
erected it is difficult to say, but the probability is that it was the saw and
grist mill built by Aaron Culver, where the old Quance mill stands. But the
village must have been in existence a score or more of years before Abner Owen
made a deed on the 23rd day of February, 1818, to William Bird, for Lot Seven
on the west side of Nichol Street in the Village of Theresaville. I have never
yet found any other reference to this village so it is impossible to state
whether the lots numbered from the south or the north (probably from the south)
but we do know that it was on the west side of the present Norfolk Street. So
Theresaville was our first name for Simcoe and was in honour of the wife of
Robert Nichol, the well-known and famous man who was Quarter-master-General of
the Canadian Militia. Nichol Street also owed its designation to this family,
The William Bird above referred to kept a store on the east
side of Norfolk Street near the present museum building The name Birdtown was
borne by the hamlet for years but when the place arrived at the dignity of a
post office in 1829, it was changed to Simcoe. Many other alterations must have
occurred by this time, and there were actually two villages in existence when the
neighborhood was deemed worthy of receiving a post office. There was the small
group of houses at the south with Culver Mill as its centre, and if one went up
what is now known as Colborne Street for almost a mile to the north, another
hamlet was found where the former Sutton mill stood on the precious River Lynn,
which derives its name from the River Lynn in old Norfolk.
But now another question came up for consideration: What was
the new name the place was to be called? Duncan Campbell at the south voted
Simcoe; John Kirkpatrick and his friends at the north were strong advocates of
Wellington in honour of the great general who had beaten Napoleon fourteen
years previously. In the end the 'southerners" won the day, and so the
county town is Simcoe and not Wellington, But the Kirkpatrick forces though
outvoted were not exactly beaten. The post office was Simcoe, but the
northenders called their part Wellington, which name lasted for decades, and
some of our older citizens still know what is meant when Wellington is
mentioned. (Wellington Heights, Simcoe's north-end industrial centre, continues
the old name association, as does Wellington Park).
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