Peter Jones, known in Ojibwa as Kahkewaquonaby (“sacred feathers”), was a Mississauga Ojibwa chief and Methodist minister born on January 1, 1802, at Burlington Heights (now Hamilton) and died near Brantford on June 29, 1856. He led the Credit River mission west of York, translated scripture into Ojibwa, and pressed colonial officials to protect the land of his people. His books and petitions reached Toronto presses and offices, and the Mississaugas he served were the same people who, as the Mississaugas of the Credit, were party to the land transactions that opened the Toronto area to settlement.
Life in brief
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | January 1, 1802, Burlington Heights, Upper Canada |
| Died | June 29, 1856, near Brantford, Canada West |
| Names | Kahkewaquonaby (Ojibwa); Desagondensta (Mohawk); Peter Jones |
| Role | Mississauga Ojibwa chief, Methodist minister, author, translator |
| Parents | Augustus Jones, a surveyor; Tuhbenahneequay (Sarah Henry), daughter of the Mississauga chief Wahbanosay |
| Toronto connection | Petitions to York, books printed in York and Toronto, friendship with Egerton Ryerson, dealings with John Strachan |
Early years between two peoples
According to the Dictionary of Canadian Biography (DCB), Jones was born in a wigwam and raised by his Mississauga mother until about 1816. His father, Augustus Jones, was a retired surveyor who was legally married to Sarah Tekarihogen, the daughter of a Mohawk chief, and left the boys’ upbringing to Tuhbenahneequay. About 1816 Peter was sent to a school near Stoney Creek, where he learned to read and write English. In 1817 he went with his father to the Grand River and spent about seven years among the Iroquois, where he was adopted by the Mohawk and given the name Desagondensta. He spoke English at home and never learned Mohawk.
The DCB records that he was baptized in the Church of England in 1820 at his father’s request, and that he later said the baptism had no lasting effect. In 1805 Augustus Jones had obtained a deed from the Mississaugas for a two-square-mile grant for each of his sons at the mouth of the Credit River. The government did not recognize it, and the claim to part of that grant later became a source of dispute inside the Credit band.
Conversion and the Credit River mission
In June 1823 Jones attended a five-day Methodist camp meeting in Ancaster Township and converted. The Reverend William Case publicly welcomed him as a convert. By 1825 he had brought more than half of his band into the church. Lieutenant Governor Sir Peregrine Maitland offered to build a village of 20 houses on the west bank of the Credit River, and Jones moved there in early 1826. The mission was complete by the winter of 1826-27. A young Egerton Ryerson was stationed at the Credit from September 1826.
The DCB gives figures for the farming effort. By the fall of 1827 each family worked a quarter-acre plot and shared a 30-acre field, and within ten years the band had cleared another 850 acres. Jones was elected one of three band chiefs in January 1829. He also took the Methodist message to Mississauga communities at Rice Lake and Grape Island, to Ojibwa at Lake Simcoe, and to Muncey and Lake Huron.
Petitions to York and Toronto
Peter and his brother John took Mississauga grievances to the colonial capital. In 1825 they objected to white encroachment on the salmon fishery at the Credit, and in 1826 they protested that the Indian Department had shorted the annuity owed under the 1818 land surrender. Both matters went to York. The DCB also notes that Jones turned down an offer from John Strachan, the Anglican archdeacon of York, of better salaries in return for switching allegiance to the Church of England. Strachan’s own career is covered in the biography of John Strachan.
The Ojibwa scripture work that Peter and John prepared reached print in the provincial capital: the Gospel of Matthew was published at York in 1831 and Genesis at Toronto in 1835, and a hymnal followed at Toronto in 1840. The change in the place name between those years reflects the incorporation of the City of Toronto in 1834.
The land question and Toronto
Peter Jones was a child of three years when the 1805 treaty was signed, and no source consulted for this page places him at the negotiations. The connection is indirect but real. The Mississaugas of the Credit were the people who, according to the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation, “purportedly sold” the Toronto lands in 1787, in a deed later found to be blank. The 1805 Treaty No. 13 followed, covering 250,830 acres for 10 shillings, with the Mississaugas keeping the exclusive right to fish at Etobicoke Creek. The sequence is told in the article on the Toronto Purchase of 1787. The Government of Canada settled the specific claim in 2010 for CAD 145 million, according to the band.
When Sir Francis Bond Head proposed in the late 1830s to move southern Ontario bands to Manitoulin Island, Jones argued that the land was too rocky for farming. In late 1837 he went to England on behalf of the Credit band, and the colonial secretary, Lord Glenelg, refused to approve the removal. In September 1838 Jones had an audience with Queen Victoria. Earlier, on April 5, 1832, he had met King William IV privately during a British tour with George Ryerson on which he gave more than 150 addresses and raised over £1,000 for Methodist missions. The wider story of the First Peoples of the area is outlined in the article on Toronto’s Indigenous history.
Family, later missions and New Credit
On the British tour Jones met Eliza Field, an Englishwoman. They married in New York City on September 8, 1833, and had five sons, four of whom survived infancy. He was ordained a Methodist minister on October 6, 1833. In 1840 the Canadian Methodists split from the British Wesleyans, and Jones stayed with the Canadian body. From 1841 to 1849 he worked at the Muncey Mission among the Ojibwa, Munsee Delaware, and Oneida. In 1845 he made a third British tour, and the portrait made that year by David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson is described by the Canadian Encyclopedia as believed to be the first photographic study of a Canadian Indigenous person.
By the 1840s the Credit band was losing members, and its council discussed relocation. In 1847 Jones led more than 200 people to land donated by the Six Nations in the southwest corner of the Grand River reserve, named New Credit. His health declined, his physician ordered him to retire in 1850, and in 1851 he moved to a brick house called Echo Villa near Brantford.
Death and legacy
Jones fell ill in December 1855 after a council trip and died on June 29, 1856. The Toronto Globe reported the largest funeral procession ever seen in Brantford, with more than 80 carriages. Egerton Ryerson, his friend of 30 years, preached the funeral sermon. Ryerson’s own life is told in the biography of Egerton Ryerson.
His diaries were edited by Eliza Jones and Enoch Wood and published at Toronto in 1860 as Life and Journals. History of the Ojebway Indians followed in London in 1861. His son Peter Edmund Jones, a physician, became a chief at New Credit in 1874, according to the DCB.
Where sources differ or are silent
- The DCB renders Kahkewaquonaby as “sacred feathers” and the Canadian Encyclopedia as “Sacred Feathers.” The meaning is the same.
- The Canadian Encyclopedia calls him the first Indigenous Methodist missionary to the Ojibwa. The DCB describes his conversion and ministry in detail but does not use that ranking.
- No source read for this page says that Jones lived in York or Toronto. His links to the city are petitions, publishing, and church ties.
Frequently asked questions
Who was Peter Jones, or Kahkewaquonaby?
He was a Mississauga Ojibwa chief and Methodist minister, born in 1802 to a surveyor father and a Mississauga mother, who ran the Credit River mission and translated scripture into Ojibwa.
What does Kahkewaquonaby mean?
The Dictionary of Canadian Biography gives “sacred feathers.” His maternal grandfather, the chief Wahbanosay, gave him the name.
Was Peter Jones involved in the Toronto Purchase?
No source places him there. He was a child in 1805 when Treaty No. 13 was signed, though his band, the Credit Mississaugas, was the party to that treaty.
Where did Peter Jones die?
He died near Brantford on June 29, 1856. He had lived since 1851 at Echo Villa, a brick house in that area.
Last verified: October 2026
Related reading
- The Toronto Purchase of 1787 and its settlement
- Indigenous history of the Toronto area
- Egerton Ryerson, Jones’s friend of 30 years
- John Strachan, Anglican archdeacon of York
- People of Toronto history
Sources
- Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Volume VIII, entry for Peter Jones (Kahkewaquonaby)
- The Canadian Encyclopedia, article on Peter Jones
- Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation, page on the Toronto Purchase Treaty No. 13 (1805)
Cite this page
APA: History of Toronto. (2026, October 23). Peter Jones (Kahkewaquonaby): Mississauga Chief and Missionary. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/peter-jones-kahkewaquonaby
MLA: “Peter Jones (Kahkewaquonaby): Mississauga Chief and Missionary.” History of Toronto, 23 Oct. 2026, https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/peter-jones-kahkewaquonaby. Accessed .
Chicago: History of Toronto. “Peter Jones (Kahkewaquonaby): Mississauga Chief and Missionary.” Last modified October 23, 2026. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/peter-jones-kahkewaquonaby.
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