In the fall of 1798, some 40 exiled French Royalists under the leadership of Joseph-Genevieve, Comte de Puisaye (1754-1827), emigrated from England to Upper Canada. The following year, they were given rations and agricultural implements and settled along Yonge Street in the townships of Markham and Vaughan. However, these members of the nobility and their servants were unable to adapt themselves to a pioneer existence and, by 1806, their settlement, known as Windham, was abandoned. De Puisaye lived for a time on an estate near Niagara, but returned to England in 1802.

Location

On the grounds of St. John's Anglican Church, in the vicinity of the former settlement, Yonge Street or Highway 11, at the Jefferson Side Road, Richmond Hill

Themes

• Communities
• Franco-Ontarian heritage