[jAMEs] SECOND LEGISLATURE OF UPPER CANADA 153 



across a number of farms of 2nd concession. It is said he got a quit 

 claim deed from government when in parliament. Ellen Clute married 

 Dr. J. B. Ham, a son of Henry Ham. He first practised law in King- 

 ston, with John A. Ma,cdonald or in the same office, then studied medi- 

 cine and moved to Whitby, where both he and his wife died. There was 

 a long law suit about the gore or gores of land in which a number of 

 Fredericksburgh families were interested, and they spent $3,700 in that 

 way but they held the land, which belongs to their farms till this day. 



Addington and Ontario. — Upon the opening of the third session at 

 York, 5th June, 1799, the clerk of the assembly, Mr. Angus Macdonell, 

 read a letter addressed to Hon. D. W. Smith, speaker of the House of 

 Assembly, dated 20<th November, 1798, and signed by Robert I. D. Gray 

 and Timothy Thompson, stating that " Christopher Eobinson, late a 

 member of the said house, serving as the knight of the shire for the 

 county of Addington, died upon the second day of November.'' 



This locates the first member elected to the second house for 

 Addington and Ontario, and gives us the date of his death, 2nd No- 

 vember, 1798. 



This Christopher Eobinson was the progenitor of the well-known 

 Robinson family, in Upper Canada, and the name has been perpetuated 

 in many well-known citizens of Toronto, where the first Christopher sat 

 as member in 1797 and 1798. Through the Robinson family of Vir- 

 ginia, he traced back to a family in Yorkshire, England. He was born 

 in 1764. He was an officer in the Queen's Rangers during the revolu- 

 tionary war and after first going to New Brunswick came to Upper Can- 

 ada in 1792, doubtless through the influence of Simcoe, the old com- 

 mander of the Queen's Rangers. He was one of the charter members 

 of the Law Society of Upper Canada (1797). Tliis second legislature 

 held two other charter members, Robert I. D. Gray and Timothy 

 Thompson; and the clerk of the house, Mr. Angus Macdonell was also 

 a member. The first six Benchers were John White, R. I. D. Gray, 

 Walter Roe, Angus Macdonell, James Clark and Christopher Robinson. 



In 1784, Mr. Robinson married Esther, daughter of Rev. John 

 Sayre, formerly of Fairfield, Conn. The descendants are fully set forth 

 in j\Lr. C. E. Chadwick's " Ontarian families," Vol. II, page 57. It 

 might be well to mention that the three sons, Hon. Peter, Sir John Be- 

 verly and Hon. AYilliam Benjamin were prominent .public men in Upper 

 Canada, and the two daughters married D'Arcy Boulton and Stephen 

 Howard, who filled important places. A sketch of the second son, Sir 

 John Beverly Robinson, Bart., may be found in Mr. H. J. Morgan's 

 Slriches of Celebrated Canadians. It may be M^orth noticing that a 

 grandson of the first Christopher is to-day in active practice, at present 



