106 CANADIAN LOCAL HISTORY : 



Many tilings thus combined to render Mr. John Ross not the least notable of our local dramat 

 person*. He was led, as we have understood, to the particular business, which was his usual 

 avocation, by the accident of having been desired, whilst out on active service as a militiaman 

 in 1812, to take charge of the body of Gen. Brock, when that officer was lulled on Queenston 

 Heights. 



While in this quarter we should pause too for a moment before the former abode of Mr. 

 Robert Stanton, sometime King's Printer for Upper Canada, as noted already, and afterwards 

 editor of the Loyalist ; and subsequently Collector of Customs at York : — a structure of the 

 secondary brick period, and situated on Peter Street, but commanding the view eastward 

 along the whole length of Richmond Street. Mr. Stanton's father was an officer in the Navy, 

 who between the year 1771 and 1786 saw much active service in the East and West Indies, in the 

 Mediterranean, at the seige of Gibraltar under General Elliott, and on the American coast 

 during the Revolutionary war. From 1786 to 1828 he was in the public service in several 

 military and civil capacities in Lower and Upper Canada. In 1806 he was, for one tiling, we 

 lind, issuer of Marriage Licenses at York. Prom memoranda of his while acting in this capacity 

 wo make a few extracts. The unceremoniousness of the record in the majority of cases, is 

 refreshing. The names are all familiar ones in this neighbourhood. Tlie parties set down as 

 about to pledge their troth, either to other, have not, in every instance, even yet (1871), passed 

 off the scene. 



1806, Nov. 26, Stephen Heward to Mary Robinson. Same date, Ely Playterto Sophia Beman. 

 Deo. 11, same year, Geo. T. Denison to C. B. Lippincott. 1807, Feb. 3, Jordan Tost to M. 

 Woodruffe. July 13, Hiram Kendrick to Hester Vanderburgh. Dec. 28, Jarvis Ashley to 

 Dorothy McDougal. 1808, Jan. 13, D'Arcy Boulton, Jun., to Sally Ann Robinson. March 17, 

 James Finch to M. Reynolds. April 9, David Wilson to Susannah Stone. May 2, John 

 Langstaff to Lucy Miles. May 80, John Murchison to Frances Hunt. Aug. 8, John Powell, 

 Esq., to Miss Isabella Shaw. Sep. 12, Hugh Heward to Eliza Mnir. 1809, April 14, Nicholas 

 Hagarman to Polly Fletcher. May IS, William Cornwall to Rhoda Terry. June 19, John 

 Ashbridge to Sarah Mercer. June 21, Jonathan Ashbridge to Hannah Barton. July 15, 

 Orrin Hale to Hannah Barrett. Aug. 5, Henry Drean to Jane Brooke. Dec. 14, 

 John Thompson to Ann Smith. 1810, March 8, Andrew Thomson to Sarah Smith. 

 March 30, Isaac Pilkington to Sarah McBride. June 2, Thomas Bright to Jane 

 Hunter. July 3, John Scarlett to Mary Thomson. Sept. 10, William Smith to Eleaaor 

 Thompson. June 22, William B. Sheldon to Jane Johnson. July 30, Robert Hamilton, gent., 

 to Miss Maria Lavinia Jarvis. 1811, Sept. 20, George Duggan to Mary Jackson. 



The family of Mr. Stanton, senior, was large. It was augmented by twins on five several 

 occasions. Not far from Mr. Stanton's house, a lesser edifice of brick of comparatively late 

 date on the north side of Richmond Street, immediately opposite the premises associated just 

 now with the memory of President Smith, may be noted as having been built and occupied 

 by the distinguished Admiral Vansittart, and the first example in this region, of a cottage 

 furnished with light, tasteful verandahs in the modern style. 



XXXIX. — QUEEN STREET — FROM JOHN STREET TO BROCK STREET AND 

 SPADINA AVENUE. 



We now return from our digression, and again proceed on our way westward. The grantee of 

 the park-lot which followed Solicitor-General Gray's, was the famous Hon. Peter Russell, of 

 whom we have had occasion again and again to speak. A portion of the property was brought 

 under cultivation at an early period, and a substantial farm-house put up thereon — a building 

 which in 1871 is still in existence. The name attached to this house and clearing was Peter- 

 fleld. Human depredators prowled about a solitary place like this. At their hands in 1803, 

 Mr. Russell suffered a serious loss, as we learn from an advertisement which about mid- 

 summer in that year appeared in several successive numbers of the Oracle. It ran as follows : 

 "Five Guineas Reward. Stolen on the 12th or 13th instant from Mr. Russell's farm, near this 

 town, a Turkey Hen, with her brood of six half-grown young ones. Whoever will give such 

 Information and evidence as may lead to the discovery of the Thieves shall receive from the 

 subscriber the above reward upon conviction of any of the delinquents, Peter Russell, York, 

 Aug. 15th, 1803." Another advertisement has been mentioned to us, issuing from the same 



