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• Bon Echo Inn
  In the early twentieth century many well-known Canadian artists painted and sketched in this area. They were drawn here by the striking landscape and the ideals of the owners of the Bon Echo Inn. Flora MacDonald Denison, a Toronto feminist, bought the inn in 1910. Inspired by the philosophy of American poet Walt Whitman, she set out to create a wilderness retreat for the avant-garde. Guests were offered painting lessons, amateur theatre, and poetry readings...

• Hazelton Spencer 1757-1813
  An important figure in early Upper Canada, Spencer was born in East Greenwich, Rhode Island. During the American Revolution he fought with the British forces and in 1784, when his unit was disbanded, he settled here. Widely acknowledged as a man of ability and stature, Spencer quickly achieved prominence. He represented this region in the province's first parliament (1792-96) and secured several judicial and administrative appointments. Continuing his distinguished military career, he was commissioned an...

• Madeleine de Roybon d'Allonne
  Of noble French birth, de Roybon was the first European woman to own land in what is now Ontario. She came to Fort Frontenac (Kingston), probably in 1679, where she acquired property from René-Robert Cavelier de La Salle, governor and seigneur of the fort. In 1681 she loaned him money to finance his explorations, and about this time he granted her a seigneury extending westward from Toneguignon (Collins Bay). On this land she built a...

• Fairfield House, The
  A superb example of an 18th-century dwelling, the Fairfield House was completed, according to tradition, in 1793. It was built by William Fairfield, Sr., a Loyalist who had settled here with his family nine years earlier. In form and mode of construction this large, handsome farmhouse reflects the New England background of the Fairfields. A timber-framed, clapboard structure, it is distinguished by a steeply pitched roof, balanced proportions and fine interior detailing. Later additions ...

• Upper Gap Archaeological Site
  First Nations peoples lived in this area thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans. In 1995, archaeological evidence of Iroquoian settlement was discovered nearby. The artifacts found reflected several periods of habitation dating from A.D. 700 to A.D. 1400 and included the remains of decorated ceramic pots, vessels for cooking and storage, and stone tools. Hundreds of years ago, the Iroquois lived in longhouses and practised an agricultural way of life, cultivating primarily corn...

• Addington Road, The
  This colonization road extended for about 73 miles northward from the Clare River in Sheffield Township to the Peterson Road in Burdenell Township. It formed a network of government roads built to open up the southern region of the pre-Cambrian Shield. From 1854 to 1857, Aylsworth B. Perry, a local surveyor, supervised construction of the road from the Clare River to the Madawaska River. A twelve-mile extension northward to the Peterson Road was added during...

• Bath Academy 1811, The
  On this site stood the Bath Academy, Lennox and Addington's earliest public school, founded in 1811 by means of local subscriptions. During the war of 1812, it was used for a time as a military barracks. Barnabus Bidwell, a radical political reformer and supporter of William Lyon Mackenzie, was its first teacher. His son, Marshall Spring Bidwell, who held similar views and became a leading member of the Legislative Assembly 1825-33, attended the academy. The...

• Bay of Quinte Loyalist Settlement, 1784
  This region was among the first in present-day Ontario to receive loyalist settlers following the American Revolution. Surveying began in 1783, and by the following year, five townships had been laid out between the Cataraqui River and the east end of the Isle of Quinte (Kingstown, Ernestown, Fredericksburgh, Adolphustown and Marysburgh). Loyalist refugees and discharged soldiers arrived to take up land grants in these five Cataraqui townships in 1784. That same year, Iroquois loyalists settled...

• Daniel Fowler 1810-1894
  In this house, Daniel Fowler, a well-known 19th-century Canadian artist, lived for over forty years. Born in England, he first took up law, but on the death of his father studied art under the English watercolour painter, J.D. Harding. As a result of ill health, he came to Canada in 1843, and settled on this farm on Amherst Island. He subjects ranged from landscapes to still life, and his work was marked by originality and a strong sense of colour. In 1879, he became one of the first members of the Royal Canadian Academy.

• Escape of the Royal George 1812, The
  Opposite here is the gap between Amherst Island and the eastern tip of Prince Edward County. On November 9, 1812, the British corvette "Royal George" (22 guns), commanded by Commodore Hugh Earl(e), was intercepted off False Duck Islands by an American fleet, comprising seven ships under Commodore Isaac Chauncey. Pursued by the enemy, "Royal George" escaped through this gap into the Bay of Quinte's North Channel. The chase resumed in light winds the following day...

• Founding of Bath, The
  Settlement of this village, one of Ontario's oldest communities, began in 1784 when discharged soldiers from Jessup's Rangers, a Loyalist corps, took up land grants in the vicinity. The sheltered harbour here provided easy access, stimulating the growth of a community. Connected to Kingston by an early waterfront road, the hamlet, called Ernestown, contained a tavern, a church and an academy by 1811. A significant shipbuilding industry developed and, in 1816, the "Frontanac," the first...

• Hawley House, The
  This house, the oldest in the Bay of Quinte district, was built about 1785 by Captain Jeptha Hawley (1740-1813), a Loyalist from Arlington, Vermont. The Lawley's, an old Connecticut family, had sent several representatives, including Jeptha's father, to the legislature of that colony. Jeptha joined the Royal Standard in 1776, served under General Burgoyne and was later in charge of Loyalist refugees at Machiche, Quebec. In 1784 he settled here in Ernestown Township. The stone...

• Hay Bay Church 1792
  In 1791, William Losee, an itinerant preacher, organized in this district the first Methodist circuit in Upper Canada. This meeting house, Upper Canada's first Methodist chapel, was built in 1782. Enlarged in 1834-35, it was used for worship until about 1860 after which it served as a farmer's storehouse. In 1910 in recognition of its historical significance, it was reacquired and restored by The Methodist church and is still used for annual services by The United Church of Canada.

• John Thomson 1837-1920
  Born in Edinburgh, Thomson emigrated in 1854 to New Jersey, there completing his apprenticeship as a paper-maker. He moved in 1860 to Saint John, N.B., where he devised an improved method for the chemical manufacture of wood pulp. Thomson then joined the firm of Angus, Logan and Company, at whose plant in Windsor Mills in 1864 he supervised Canada's first commercial production of wood pulp. In 1872 he, his brother James and J.W. Rooklidge established...

• Lieutenant-Colonel James Rogers 1726-1790
  Born in Ireland, Rogers emigrated with his family to New Hampshire in 1740. During the Seven Years' War he served in the Queen's Rangers (Rogers' Rangers), a provincial corps raised by his brother Robert, and was present at the capture of Louisbourg and of Quebec. In the American Revolution he commanded the 2nd Battalion, King's Rangers, thereby forfeiting some 50,000 acres in the old colonies. In 1784 he led a party of about 300 disbanded...

• Loyalist Memorial Church, The
  The first Anglicans of Adolphustown were Loyalists who arrived in 1784. Early services were conducted at the home of Nicholas Hagerman by the Rev. John Langhorn who, from 1787 to 1813, was the resident missionary for the Townships of Ernesttown and Fredericksburgh. In 1822 a frame church named St. Paul's was built, which stills stands just west of this site. In that year Adolphustown became a mission and its first resident clergyman, the Rev. Job...

• Loyalists Landing Place 1784, The
  On June 16, 1784, a party of some 250 United Empire Loyalists landed from bateaux near this site and established the first permanent white settlement in Adolphustown Township. They had sailed from New York in the fall of 1783 under the leadership of Major Peter Van Alstine (1743-1800), a Loyalist of Dutch ancestry, and passed the winter at Sorel. Van Alstine was later appointed a justice of the peace, represented this area in the first Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada and built at Glenora the earliest gristmill in Prince Edward County.

• Macpherson House, The
  Built before 1830, this house remains a fine example of a late phase of Georgian architecture. It was constructed by Allan Macpherson who, about 1812, had leased the mills on the opposite side of the Napanee River. His new dwelling was near his other principal business enterprise, a general store on Dundas Street on this side of the stream. Napanee's first postmaster and an active magistrate, Macpherson was long the community's leading citizen. When he...

• Napanee Mills, The
  In 1785, the Canadian government commissioned Robert Clark, a Loyalist millwright from New York, to build mills on this site. A sawmill was completed in March, 1786, and a grist-mill toward the end of that year or early in 1787. The latter was the first to be erected between Kingston and the Niagara peninsula. The mills were operated for a time by a government agent, James Clarke. In 1799 they were purchased by a prominent Kingston merchant, Richard Cartwright. They served settlers as far west as the Trent and formed the nucleus of the thriving community of Napanee.

• Quakers of Adolphustown, The
  The first Preparative Meeting of the Society of Friends (Quakers) in either Upper or Lower Canada was organized in Adolphustown Township in 1798 at the house of Philip Dorland. Quakers had settled in this district in 1784 and at first held religious gatherings in private homes. In 1798, a frame meeting house was authorized, and shortly thereafter, it was erected on this site. A Monthly Meeting was formed in 1801 which aided the formation of...

• Reverend John Langhorn 1744-1817, The
  Born in Wales, Langhorn was appointed missionary to Ernesttown and Fredericksburgh townships in 1787. He thus became the first resident Anglican clergyman in the Bay of Quinte region, and the second in what is now Ontario. Although of somewhat eccentric character, he proved to be a tireless supporter of his faith during the twenty-six years he served in this area. He was largely responsible for the erection of St. Paul's Church at Sandhurst in 1791...

• Reverend Robert James McDowall 1768-1841, The
  Born at Ballston Spa, near Saratoga, New York, McDowall graduated from the Union Theological Seminary, Schenectady and was ordained by the Dutch Reformed Church at Albany in 1797. A year later he was sent to Canada and ministered to the Presbyterians in the Bay of Quinte area. He organized congregations in Ernesttown and Adolphustown Townships, and in Fredericksburg Township where he settled in 1800. a zealous missionary, McDowall traveled extensively preaching and performing marriage ceremonies...

• Sir Allen Bristol Aylesworth 1854-1952
  Born in Newburgh of United Empire Loyalist Ancestry, Aylesworth was educated at the University of Toronto, and called to the Ontario bar in 1878. As the Canadian member of the Alaska Boundary Tribunal in 1903, he presented his country's views in a minority report. Elected to the Dominium Parliament in 1905, he served in the cabinet of sir Wilfrid Laurier as postmaster-general and minister of Labour, 1905-06, and minister of justice, 1906-11. He acted as...

• Sir Gilbert Parker 1862-1932
  In this community of Camden East, where his father was a storekeeper and justice of the peace, was born Gilbert Parker, Canadian novelist and poet. Educated at the University of Toronto, he became a journalist and later turned to writing fiction. He moved to England in 1889 and achieved a considerable reputation as an author of historical novels, many of which, such as "The Seats of the Mighty", had a Canadian setting. Parker sat in the British House of Commons 1900-1918 as member for Gravesend and was knighted in 1902 for his literary achievements.