I,J,K and L surnamesCity of Toronto residents A History of Toronto and County of York

SAMUEL IREDALE, retired, was born in Keswick, Cumberland, England, in 1807, his parents being James and Jane (Shaw) Iredale; his grandfather was Jeremiah Iredale, of Manningham, England. In 1819 his father came to Canada with his family and settled in Toronto, at the corner of Queen and Bay Streets, in a building which his son John had built on the lot, and which is still standing. By trade he was a plumber and glazier; after he came out here he worked at tinsmithing, which business he carried on until his death, December 18th, 1845. Ishmael Iredale came to Canada in 1825, and learned the tin trade with his brother; he then went to work for Hiram Piper, with whom he stayed for twenty-three years. He then began tin business for himself on Yonge Street, near Trinity Square, retiring about seven years ago. Mr. Iredale served in the fire brigade for thirty-eight years; he is a Reformer and a member of the Church of England. On July 9th he married Elizabeth Burns, fourth daughter of Thomas Burns, who had come from Yorkshire, England; by her he had four sons and five daughters; only two sons are now living, one of whom keeps a tin shop on the corner of Queen and Bay Streets. He has a sister living who is ninety-four years of age. (Vol. II, p. 84)

WILLIAM IREDALE, retired, was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1826, being the fourth son of William and Grace (Hollinrake) Iredale. In 1832 he came to Canada with his parents. His father who had been a plumber in glazier in England, engaged in the tin business when he settled in Toronto, and continued in that line until his death in 1865. The subject of this sketch was engaged in the last manufacturing business, up to March, 1879, then having lost an arm by being caught with a belt and thrown round a shaft in his factory, on Sheppard Street, he retired; his son now attends to the business. In 1849 he married Rachael, daughter of William Daniel. Mr. Iredale was a member of the old fire brigade. In religion he is a Methodist, and in politics a Reformer. (Vol. II, p. 84)

ALDERMAN JOHN IRWIN was born in Ireland, between Vetrinam and Leitrim, in 1824, and is the eldest son of William and Martha Irwin. In 1850 he sailed for New York, where he remained a short time, finally coming to Canada and locating in Toronto for a short period. After spending four years in Quebec he returned to Toronto, where he has since resided. For fifteen years he was proprietor of the General Wolfe Hotel, on the corner of Church and King Streets, and was also engaged in farming eight years, ten miles out of the city. He was the first man to hitch a horse to a steam fire engine, having had a contract to furnish the horses for the fire-engines for eighteen years. Mr. Irwin has been in the City Council the last five years, and for the last eight years has been living retired. He is a large property owner. In 1856 Mr. Irwin was married to Jane Henry, daughter of John Henry, by whom he has had two children. (Vol. II, p. 85)

JOHN JACQUES, Beverley Street, one of the founders of the manufacturing firm of Jacques & Hay, was born in Cumberland, England, in the year 1804. His father, Thomas Jacques, was educated for the Church, but he entertained conscientious scruples about signing the Thirty-nine Articles of Faith, and being possessed of remarkable skill in mathematics, he became a teacher in Carlisle, and after a successful career retired to the country, where he died, leaving six children. The subject of our memoir was then but six years old. He learned the cabinet-making business in Wigton, but early in life went to London and acquired a knowledge of his trade which served him so well in after years. In 1831 he embarked for New York with his mother and sisters, and after a short stay in that city moved to what was then York, the capital of Upper Canada. His first employer failed and left him in debt. He was next employed by the late Mr. Thomas Gilbert, who long resided on the corner of Bay and Adelaide Streets, after which he entered the service of a Mr. Maxwell, who, after a time, proposed that he should purchase his business. While on the way home from the shop one night he met Mr. Robert Hay, and proposed the partnership which was eventually accepted and the business taken in hand. Subsequently they erected two stores west of the Telegram Office, which in course of time proved to be too small for their large increase of business. They moved their shop to Front Street, its present site, in 1847. The business gradually increased until they not only supplied all Canada but built up a large trade with England and other foreign countries. The 1854 and 1856 they suffered loss by fire of over two hundred thousand dollars, almost all they possessed. They soon, however, rebuilt their works upon a larger scale, and the business grew to its present great dimensions. The partnership continued from 1838 to 1872, when Mr. Jacques retired with an ample fortune, which he has since considerably increased by judicious investments. In politics he has always been a strong Reformer, in religion a member of St. Andrew’s Church. He is a member of the St. George’s Society, and a Director of the National Investment Company. He has only one child, the wife of Mr. John Stewart, of Hamilton, President of the Bank of Hamilton, and of the Hamilton and North-Western Railway. Since 1872, Mr. Jacques has lived a quiet life, enjoying the fruits of his toil. (Vol. II, p. 85)

ROBERT JAFFRAY was the third son of William and Margaret (Heugh) Jaffray; born at Bannockburn, Scotland, 1832, near which was his father’s farm, where he passed his early life. When twelve years of age, by the death of his father, he was thrown upon his own resources. After attending school at Stirling until the age of fifteen he entered the service, as an apprentice, of J. R. Dymock, grocer and wine merchant, Edinburgh, Scotland, where he remained for five years, at the expiration of which time he came to Canada, arriving in Toronto in the fall of 1852, where he joined his brother-in-law, Mr. J.B. Smith, grocer and wine dealer, being employed as his manager. The establishment was situated on the site now occupied by Jaffray & Ryan, corner of Yonge and Louisa Streets, then the most northern establishment on Yonge Street. Three years later he became a partner, the business being conducted under the name of Smith & Jaffray. In 1858 a disastrous fire swept away Mr. Smith’s lumber yard and sash and door factory, by which they sustained a great loss. Mr. Smith then retired from the firm. With industry, combined with perseverance, which will enable a man to overcome difficulties that actually seem insurmountable (and these excellent qualities Mr. Jaffray possessed in an eminent degree), he began to work with renewed energy to repair their commercial interests, and was ultimately rewarded. Under his efficient management prosperity crowned his efforts with brilliant success. In 1883 he retired upon a competency, and the business, which he laboured so long and faithfully to establish, passed into the hands of the present firm of Mr. George Jaffray & James Ryan. During the thirty years of Mr. Jaffray’s residence in Toronto, besides managing his mercantile interests, he has been identified with many public enterprises of great magnitude. His indomitable energy, untiring industry, exemplary character; his devoted attention to every minute detail in business, and abnegation of self in his studious zeal for the interests of those whom he served caused his services to be eagerly sought. Under the advice of the late Hon. George Brown, he was appointed by the Hon. Alexander Mackenzie Director of the Northern Railroad, in which capacity he served three years in looking after their interests, the Government being large creditors of that corporation. From information furnished by Mr. Jaffray, a Royal Commission was issued by the Government to look into the affairs of the company, which resulted in a satisfactory settlement of the then existing claims. He was afterwards chosen a Director of the Midland Railway, of which board he is at present an efficient member. In 1874 he took an active part in organizing the Toronto House Building Society (now the Land Security Company), of which he is Vice-President. He is also Director of the Toronto Trust Company, Director of the Globe Printing Company, Director of the Sovereign Insurance Company, Director of the North America Life Insurance Company, Director of the Homewood Retreat, or Private Asylum for Inebriates and Insane, at Guelph; and Director of the Midland and North Shore Lumber Company. He is a member of the Caledonian and St. Andrew’s Societies. In politics Mr. Jaffray has identified himself with the Reform Party, and although solicited to accept nomination for civic and parliamentary honours he has declined. In 1860 he married Sarah, youngest daughter of John Bugg, by whom he has two sons and two daughters. Immediately after the exciting political campaign of 1879, one of the most bold and daring attempts on record was made to kidnap several of the leading men of the Reform Party for the purpose of extorting from them a large ransom. Among these were the late Hon. George Brown, Hon. Oliver Mowat and the subject of this sketch. Through a chain of circumstances the latter was drawn into the snare and taken from his residence at night upon a pretended arrest, Mr. Jaffray giving himself up to his captors on their producing a document purporting to be signed by the Hon. Judge Wilson, acting for the Minister of Justice at Ottawa, directing him to be immediately brought to his residence for examination, relative to certain charges of a grave character. Our subject went with his captors, having no suspicion of foul play; but instead of being taken to Judge Wilson’s residence, he was driven to a lonely spot on the east side of the Don and Danforth Road where it was intended to imprison him in a cave on the bank, which his captors had previously prepared for his reception. The cave was discovered by two detectives while searching in the neighbourhood where the outrage was committed. They found a cavity dug out of the hill on a farm owned by Mr. Playter, which was capable of accommodating several persons, under the peculiar circumstances in which they might have been induced to abide in it. Mr. Jaffray, on alighting from the carriage, and finding himself the victim of a nefarious plot against his personal liberty, struggled with his captors and managed to free himself from them, and awakened the inmates of a house a short distance away, when his abductors made their escape. The officers of the law at once made vigorous efforts to solve the mystery, and arrested two young men, brothers, Thomas and Ross Deal, who were tried; the former was found guilty of committing the outrage, and was sentenced by Judge Burton to be confined in the County Jail, at hard labour, for a period of two years, and to give bonds for his future good behaviour. His accomplice was discharged. And thus ended one of the boldest plots to deprive several citizens of their liberty ever recorded in the Province. (Vol. II, p. 86)

SILAS JAMES, provincial Land Surveyor, was born in the Township of York in 1834. His father was William James, who was born in the County of Tyrone, Ireland, in 1801; his mother was born in the Township of York, and was a daughter of Thomas Johnson, a U.E. Loyalist. They had ten children, Silas being the fourth. William James was a Justice of the Peace and a member of the District Council; in politics he was a Reformer and in religion a Methodist; he died in 1874, his wife having died many years previous (1855). Silas James came to Toronto in 1854 and began a course of study with Dennison & Bolton, with whom he remained four years. For the next five years he was in British Columbia engaged in the milling and mining business, then he returned to Toronto. From 1867 till 1874 he was County Engineer; he also had charge of the York Roads. From 1874 until 1880 he was a director of the Toronto House Building Association; he is a member of the York Pioneer Society. In 1867 Mr. James married the fourth daughter of Richard Sully, of London, Ont., formerly of Nottinghamshire, England. (Vol. II, p. 88)

THOMAS R. JOHNSTONE, flour and feed merchant, was born in Little York in 1829, on the present site of the Post-office, and is the seventh in a family of nine children. His father, John Johnstone, came to Canada from Scotland, about 1798, with his father’s family. His father carried on the business of a butcher and drover until his death in 1834. He left a family of four daughters and two sons, as follows: John, living in the United States; Thomas R., Almeria, Sarah, dead; Adeline; and Isabela, married to T.W. Gosford, Aurora. Mr. Thomas R. Johnstone has been engaged in the flour and feed business since 1882. (Vol. II, p. 88)

The late PAUL KANE, Canadian Artist. In the earlier numbers of the new series of the Canadian Journal, several papers on various Indian tribes of the North-West, from the pen of Paul Kane, attracted considerable attention, as the results of travel and personal observation in the remote Hudson’s Bay Territory and beyond the Rocky Mountains. Their author had long been known in Canada as a self-taught artist of great promise, who had devoted himself to the study of the native Indian tribes of British North America; and the contributions to that journal were the first published results of explorations, the fruits of which were afterwards set forth in more comprehensive form in his “Wanderings of an Artist among the Indians of North America”, published by Messrs. Longman & Co., of London, in 1859. His father, Mr. Michael Kane, was originally in the British Army, and served latterly, we believe, in the small force which accompanied Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe when he removed to the selected site of the future capital of Western Canada, in 1794. On his leaving the army, he settled in the newly-founded city, where his son was born in 1810. Toronto was then and long afterwards a very humble little backwoods settlement. The Indians, whose wigwams occupied the cleared ground near the mouth of the Don when Colonel Bouchette made his first survey in 1793, long continued to haunt this favourite spot; while an Indian trail through the partially cleared pine forest to the old French fort and another northward to Holland Landing were the precursors of the long lines of costly stores, hotels and public buildings which now extend for miles along King and Yonge Streets. In the midst of this conflict between the artless rudeness of savage life and the progressive energy of the Anglo-Saxon colonist young Paul grew up from boyhood, with few external influences calculated in the slightest degree to stimulate artistic tastes, or to direct his attention to the study of Indian manners and customs; for the Indian, as seen in his worst debasement, haunting the centres of new civilization, is little calculated to attract the eye of the artist or ethnical observer. Nevertheless, Mr. Kane, remarks, in the preface to his “Travels”, when referring to his resolution to devote himself to painting a series of studies of North American scenery and Indian life: “The subject was one in which I felt a deep interest in my boyhood. I had been accustomed to see hundreds of Indians about my native village, then Little York, muddy and dirty, just struggling into existence, now the City of Toronto, bursting forth in all its energy and commercial strength.” The youth of the future artist and traveller was passed amid all the disadvantages pertaining to the infancy of the embryo city. What little education he had was mainly received at the District Grammar School. There also he obtained whatever instruction he received in the art to which he was to devote his life from Mr. Drury, a clever but eccentric teacher of drawing. But his early manifestations of an artistic bias were regarded as the mere purposeless amusements of a boy; and his disinclination for the ordinary trading pursuits, which alone promised profitable occupation in the young settlement, seemed to unappreciative seniors only a further proof of his distaste for the restraints of steady industry. The circumstances of the community were indeed too frequently inimical to the fostering of settled habits among its youth. Dr. Scadding has remarked, when describing the first years of the District Grammar School, that “during the time of the early settlements in this country, the sons of even the most respectable families were brought into contact with semi-barbarous characters. A sporting ramble through the woods, a fishing excursion on the waters, could not be undertaken without communication with Indians and Half-breeds, and bad specimens of the French voyageur. It was from such sources that a certain idea was derived, which, as we remember, was in great vogue among the more fractious of the lads at the school at York. The proposition circulated about, whenever anything went counter to their notions, always was to run away to the Nor’-West. What that process really involved, or what the Nor’-West precisely was, were things vaguely realized. A sort of savage land of Cocaigne, a region of perfect freedom among the Indians, was imagined, and to reach it Lakes Huron and Superior were to be traversed.” In this way young Kane’s mind was early familiarized with the idea of that expedition across the continent, to ocean shores beyond the Rocky Mountains, of which he has left so many memorials by means of his facile pencil and pen. The first industrial pursuits of the boy appear to have been carried on in the employment of Mr. Conger, subsequently Sheriff of Peterborough, but then engaged in the manufacture of household furniture. In this occupation his latent talent found expression in the ornamentation of various pieces of furniture, till he began to be recognized as one whose artistic abilities deserved encouragement. But in his native village no works of art existed to furnish the slightest hint to the aspiring boy, and no teacher could be found to supply adequate instruction. He was thus a purely self-taught artist. Some of his crude efforts at portraiture would probably have amused himself at a later date. But his early patrons were, fortunately, not too critical; and thus he was enabled to overcome the first difficulties of his artistic career, and to save a little money for making an independent start in life. His first scene of artistic labour after leaving Toronto was Cobourg, where portraits of Sheriff and Mrs. Conger, her sister, Mrs. Perry, Sheriff Ruttan, and others of his early patrons were executed. By this means he acquired sufficient funds to enable him to set off for the neighbouring States, there to try his fortune as a portrait painter, in the hope of accumulating the requisite means for the bold project he had already formed of visiting Europe and perfecting himself in his favourite art by studying the works of the great masters. A letter from his father, addressed to him at Detroit, in 1836, speaks of difficulties that “will probably prevent your Italian excursion.” Thereafter he is found, at various dates between that and the year 1841, at Mobile, St. Louis, and other American cities, closing with New Orleans, whence he set sail, in June of the latter year, for Marseilles. The following four years were spent by Paul Kane in some of the great cities of Europe, studying and copying the works of the Italian masters. Unfortunately, a journal which he kept during this period has perished; so that the details of his continental sojourn are no longer recoverable. But we trace him, by means of his passports and other evidence, at Paris, Genoa, Milan, Verona, Venice, Bologna, Florence, Rome and Naples. While in the latter city, he availed himself of an offered passage in a Levantine cruiser, and visited the coasts both of Asia and Africa. He joined a party of Syrian explorers, and was already on his way to Jerusalem, when they were deserted by their Arab guides, and, after being exposed to great danger, were compelled to return to the coast, and abandon the attempt. This failure to accomplish a visit to the most sacred scenes of the ancient historic world was always a subject of mortifying reflection to him. It was on his return from this unsuccessful pilgrimage that he landed on some part of the African shore; and so was able to say, on regaining his Canadian home, that he had been in every quarter of the globe. Mr. Kane brought back with him, as the fruits of his four years’ professional tour, copies of famous pictures in the galleries of Venice, Florence and Rome. His mind had been enlarged by observation, and by intimate intercourse with artists trained in the best schools of Europe. A letter of introduction, given to him by and Irish artist, whose friendship he had acquired while in Rome, is addressed to the Right Rev. Dr. Purcell, Bishop of Cincinnati, in which the latter is urged by no means to miss the opportunity of seeing Mr. Kane’s “admirable copy of Raffaelle’s portrait of Pope Paul II.” He also copied some of the most prized pictures in the Palazzo Pitti, at Florence; and on his return, brought with him well-executed paintings from Raffaelle’s Madonna in the Pitti Palace, and his portrait of Pope Julius II; Leonardo da Vinci’s and Rembrandt’s fine portraits of themselves, in the Florentine gallery; Murillo’s Madonna, in the Orsini Palace at Rome, and other favourite artistic studies; along with a highly finished copy of Busato’s portrait of Pope Gregory XVI. Stewart Watson, a well-known Scottish artist, appears to have been one of his special friends while in Italy. They returned together from Italy to London, and there for a time shared the same lodgings and studio, “at Mr. Martin’s, Russell Street.” Another of his brother artists, and fellow-travellers while in Italy, Mr. Hope James Stewart, thus writes to him from Edinburgh: “After London, this place looks like a dead city, and reminds me much of the way you and I felt in the quietness of Rome, after our trip to that noisy and favourite place, Naples.” In 1844, Mr. Kane returned to Canada, with all the prestige of a skilled artist, who by his own unaided energy had overcome every obstacle, and achieved for himself opportunities of studying the works of the great masters in the most famous galleries of Europe. He was now to display the same indomitable energy and self-reliance in widely different scenes. In the preface to his “Wanderings of an Artist among the Indians of North America”, he remarks: “On my return to Canada from the continent of Europe, I determined to devote whatever talents and proficiency I possessed to the painting of a series of pictures illustrative of the North American Indians and scenery.” On applying to Sir George Simpson, the Governor of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and showing him studies of Indians he had already made, Sir George entered cordially into his plan; furnished him with letters of introduction to the chief factors of the Company’s posts, and ordered him a passage in the brigade of canoes which was to start for Lake Superior in the spring of 1846. But before his arrangements could be completed – including all the miscellaneous supplies required for an artistic tour through regions where it would be vain to seek for the most simple appliances of his art – the voyageurs had set out, and he only succeeded in joining them, after much toil and hardship, before the party reached the mountain pass, forty miles above the Hudson’s Bay Fort on the Kaministiquia River, at the head of Lake Superior. Mr. Kane’s romantic experiences and adventures during the next four years are detailed with graphic truthfulness in the volume published by him in 1859. He crossed the continent in canoe and on foot, made his way up the valley of the Saskatchewan, and over the vast prairies beyond it, stretching westward to the Rocky Mountains. Crossing them, he navigated the Columbia River to Oregon, visited and explored Puget’s Sound, Vancouver’s Island, and other regions of the then savage west: which, though now rapidly filling up with European settlers, are described by him as “those wild scenes, amongst which I strayed almost alone, and scarcely meeting a white man, or hearing the sound of my own language.” Everywhere his pencil was busily employed on portraits of chiefs, warriors, and medicine-men of the Indian tribes; and on hunting scenes, games, dances, and other characteristic native rites and customs. He pictured various of the Flathead Indians, of the Cowlitz, Chinook, Newatee, and other tribes; had opportunities of studying the Crees, Blackfeet, Chimpseyabs, Clalams and others, including even the Esquimaux; and was everywhere received among them with mingled respect and apprehension, as a great medicine-man, whose reproduction of their likenesses by his mysterious art was supposed to give him some strange power over them. Among the most striking of the Indian portraits executed by him, is one of Kea-keke-Sacowaw, head chief of the Crees, whom he met when travelling on the Saskatchewan, engaged in raising a war-party against the Blackfeet. He had with him eleven decorated pipe-stems, ten of which were the pledges of as many chiefs engaged to join him in the proposed expedition. On learning that the artist was a great medicine-man, he agreed to exhibit to him the pipe-stems, in the belief that his sketching them would greatly increase their efficiency when opened on the war-path. A pipe-bowl was accordingly filled with tobacco and some aromatic weed; the chief chaunted a war-song; and then inserting one of the stems into the bowl, he lighted it, inhaled the smoke, and blew a long cloud upwards. This was his offering to the Great Spirit, whom he invoked to confer success on their expedition. Another prolonged puff, directed eastward, was followed by an appeal to the earth to produce an abundant supply of roots and buffalo for the coming season. The third was directed to Kane himself, with a request for his influence on their behalf. He had then to smoke all the eleven pipes; and thus enlisted in the cause, the portrait he then painted of the grim old chief, adorned with his war-paint, and holding in his hand his own pipe-stem, decorated with the head and plumage of an eagle, was esteemed a great medicine, calculated to contribute materially to the success of the war-party. At length, after many wild adventures and hair-breadth escapes, Mr. Kane returned to Toronto in 1848 with a valuable portfolio of studies of Indians and scenery of the great North-West. While still at the Saskatchewan he received from Sir George Simpson a commission for a dozen paintings of “buffalo hunts, Indian camps, councils, feasts, conjuring matches, dances, warlike exhibitions, or any other pieces of savage life you may consider to be most attractive or interesting.” Other commissions followed; and in 1851, by a vote of the Legislature of the Province of Canada, he was authorized to execute a series of Indian pictures which now hang in the Parliamentary library at Ottawa. But his most liberal patron was the Hon. G.W. Allan, to whom he subsequently dedicated the narrative of his travels, “as a token of gratitude for the kind and generous interest he has always taken in the author’s labours; as well as a sincere expression of admiration of the liberality with which, as a native Canadian, he is ever ready to foster Canadian talent and enterprise.” In 1853 Mr. Kane married Miss Harriet Clench, of Cobourge, a lady who, among other attractions, had a skill with her pencil and brush akin to his own. Thus happily domesticated with a companion able to sympathize with him in his artistic labours, Mr. Kane devoted himself to the execution of an extensive series of oil paintings, including one hundred pictures of Indian scenes, landscapes, portraits and groups, now in the Hon. G.W. Allan’s collection at Moss Park. There also a very curious collection Indian implements, weapons, masks, drums, carvings and other specimens of native art, obtained by Mr. Kane, during his travels in the North-West, is now preserved. In 1857 he re-visited Europe, and superintended the execution of the chromo-lithographic illustrations of his travels. On his return to Toronto in the following year, he resumed his pencil, and indulged in the long cherished hope of being able to follow up that volume by a more extensive work, illustrative of the characteristics, habits and tribal peculiarities of the Indians of British North America, and the scenery of the regions they occupy. But soon after his return to Canada his eyesight began to fail, and he had scarcely completed the liberal commission of Mr. Allan, when he was compelled entirely to abandon the favourite art, which till then he had pursued with such energetic zeal in defiance of every impediment. Mr. Kane had, at least in his later years, somewhat of the quiet unimpressible manner of the Indians, among whom he had spent some of the most eventful years of his life. A reviewer in the Athenoeum, in noticing the published narrative of his travels, described him as “an American artist, who had studied in Europe, and apparently unites the refinement of the Old World with Indian energy of the New.” His memory was singularly retentive; and, in spite of his reserved manner, his descriptive powers were great when he could be induced to give them free scope. In the company of those who did not sympathize with his favourite pursuits, his words were few and abrupt; but he was a man of acute observation, and, when questioned by an intelligent inquirer, abounded with curious information in reference to the native tribes among whom he had sojourned. His published narrative is a modest, but interesting and vivid description of novel scenes and incidents of travel; and his career is a creditable instance of the pursuits of a favourite art, by a self-taught artist, in spite of the most discouraging impediments. (Vol. II, following p. 175)

CAPTAIN JOHN KEMP, 6 Gerrard Street West, was born on the Canadian side of the Niagara River, about three miles from the Town of Niagara, in 1802, and was the third son in a family of nine sons and four daughters. His father, John Kemp, came from the State of New York in 1783, at the close of the Revolutionary War; he died in 1834. Captain Kemp remained on his father’s farm until 1829, when he came to Little York and commenced sailing on the lakes. He first sailed as purser with Wm. Brecket, who ran the packet between Kingston, Toronto and Niagara; he afterwards bought an interest in the vessel. He navigated the lakes from 1826 until 1873, the last boat that he was on being the Paragon, a sailing vessel. He married a daughter of George Laird, by whom he has three daughters and two sons living. (Vol. II, p. 88)

JAMES KIDD, deceased, was born in Ireland about 1809, and came to Canada in 1826, settling in Toronto, where he remained until his death in 1844. He was a volunteer during the Rebellion of 1837; and the exposure to which he was subjected, acting on a constitution not physically strong brought on a complaint from which he never recovered. His wife was Miss Catherine Oliver, a native of Ireland also, by whom he had eight children, only three of whom are now living. Mrs. Kidd died in 1844, in her eighty-third year. John Kidd, the second son of the above, was born in Toronto. At an early age he commenced to learn the painting and decorating trade, which he still continues to follow. He has been a city tax collector for the last six years, his residence being at 63 Seaton Street. In 1855 he married Miss Rebecca, daughter of Robert Stanley, an early settler in Toronto. They have a family of seven children, four sons and three daughters, all of whom are still living. (Vol. II, p. 89)

JOSIAH BROWN KING, Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Ontario Independent Order of Oddfellows, was born in Hamilton, Ont., July 4th, 1836, his father being Eleazar King, and his mother Adeline Corrinne Brown. His father’s people were Lower Canadian French. The early life of our subject was spent in Niagara, where he learned the trade of carpenter with his father. He afterwards worked at his trade in Brantford and Toronto, and subsequently engaged in the hat, cap and fur business in Brantford, Ont., which he carried on until his removal to Toronto in 1879, the Order requiring his whole time and attention. He was elected to his present position in August, 1876. He is a Reformer and a member of Bond Street Congregational Church. His wife was Miss Brockington, of Plymouth, England. (Vol. II, p. 89)

DR. JOHN S. KING, Toronto, was born at Georgetown, County of Halton, Ontario, on April 26th, 1843. His father was Stephen King, who was born in Doontown, Wiltshire, England, in 1813, being the second son in a family of six sons and two daughters born to James and Alice (Taylor) King. Stephen King came to Canada in 1833, visited Toronto and was joined, in 1835, by his father and his family, who located in the Township of Bayham, County of Elgin. Subsequent to the Canadian Rebellion he located in Toronto, and was one of the few who formed the first class at the Congregational College, which was then located on Yonge Street. The building (a frame one) stood, until last summer, where Edward’s lumber yard now is. In 1839 Stephen King went to Hamilton, and in 1842 married Margaret Hess, of German extraction. Her father, Samuel Hess, came from Pennsylvania, during the War of 1812, and settled in the Township of Barton, County of Wentworth. Stephen King and wife are both still living with their son, the Doctor, in Toronto. Dr. John S. King became a school teacher when nineteen years of age, and rapidly rose, soon becoming Principal of the Waterloo Central School; during the first two years of its existence, he was President of the Waterloo County Teachers’ Association. Meanwhile he had become a valuable and paid contributor to various newspapers and periodicals. He gave up teaching in 1869, and in 1872 became a member of the Globe editorial staff, on which he continued for three years; he was also for three years Canadian correspondent of the Chicago Tribune, as well as a writer for several other papers. While writing for the press he began the study of medicine, and abandoned the press to enter that profession. In 1876 he became a member of the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons. He subsequently received the degree of M.D. from the University of Victoria College. In 1881, he was appointed medical officer of the Mercer Reformatory. In addition to this he has a large and lucrative practice in Toronto. In 1874 he became a member of the Knights of Pythias, in which society he rapidly rose. In 1876 he entered the Grand Lodge, and at the same session was elected Grand Chancellor of the Order of Ontario; at the three following annual sessions he was re-elected to the office. In 1877 he was elected a member of the Supreme Grand Lodge, and is at this writing the Supreme Prelate, or third highest officer in that society, numbering one hundred and sixty thousand members. He has likewise held at various times official positions in the following societies, viz., Freemasons, Oddfellows, A.O.U.W., Select Knights, Sons of England and Royal Arcanum. He is now one of the Vice-presidents of St. George’s Society. (Vol. II, p. 89)

SAMUEL LEE, a deceased York Pioneer, was the second son of William Lee, of Blakefield, Ennescarthy, Wexford County, Ireland. He was born on the 25th December, 1795, and received his education in Dublin. He afterwards entered the artillery service of the Honourable East India Company, and, in the companionship of his brother, sailed for Madras in the year 1814. His battery (No. 3) was in active service continuously for six years, and during that period Samuel Lee visited the greater portion of the vast Indian peninsula. While stationed at Dum Dum, he occupied the Worshipful Master’s chair in lodge “Courage with Humanity”, A.F. and A.M., and was also a Companion of the Honourable and Ancient Order of Red Cross Knights. He returned to England in 1827, and thence to his home in Ireland, from which he had been absent thirteen years. After a stay there of six years, he set sail for Canada, bringing with him his two sisters, arriving in New York July, 1833. Two years after his advent he married Jane Taylor, by whom he had six children, of whom are still living: P.T. Lee, Newmarket; Joseph R. Lee, Toronto; and Mrs. E.C. Pomeroy, Le Clare Iowa. For thirty years Samuel Lee was manager and financier for John Richey, Esq., builder, and under his management many of the older churches of the city were erected; as also the Provincial Lunatic Asylum, Trinity College, Corn Exchange, Holy Trinity Church, St. George’s Church, Court House, New Fort buildings, the Widmer Hospital, the original Upper Canada College, and Professor’s dwelling the British Coffee House and other public and private buildings. He was secretary and treasurer of the Leader up to the time of its demise. At the time of the troubles of 1837, he was the first to answer Colonel McLean’s call for volunteers to defend Toronto against William Lyon Mackenzie’s irregulars. Mr. Lee died at his residence, Vanauley Street, on January 18th, 1882, after a short illness, in the eighty-seventh year of his age. (Vol. II, p. 90)

THOMAS H. LEE, importer of watches and jewellery, is the fourth son of a family of nine sons and eight daughters, born to Joseph Lee by his two wives, Mary Clark and Maria Shanks. Joseph Lee was born in London, England, in 1794, and was a ship architect. In 1832 he came to Canada and settled in Little York, where, after having held several offices, including that of Alderman, he died August 20th, 1861; his second wife, who was born in London, England, in 1810, is still living. Joseph Lee’s father was James Lee; he was an officer in the British army, and served in the Battle of Waterloo. The subject of this sketch was born in Montreal in 1832, and was educated at Toronto. In 1856 he began business in the jewellery line with J.G. Joseph, in the Victoria Block, on King Street. He is a Conservative in politics, and for twenty-seven years he has been connected with the Freemasons. He married a daughter of Thomas Bell. (Vol. II, p. 91)

JOHN LEYS, barrister, etc., was born January 27th, 1834, at Pickering, Ont., and is a son of the late Francis Leys, of Aberdeenshire, Scotland. He studied law with the late Angus Morrison, and in 1855 was admitted to the bar. He was one of the projectors of the Narrow Gauge Railway, and has always taken an active interest in railway matters. In politics he is a Reformer. He twice contested the seat for East Toronto in the Local Legislature, but was defeated, his opponent on each occasion being the Hon. Alex. Morris. In 1865 Mr. Leys was married to Helen, only daughter of the late William Arthurs. (Vol. II, p. 91)

WILLIAM LUMBERS, sen’r, was born at Peterborough, County of Northampton, England, in 1816, being the only son of James Lumbers. His mother’s maiden name was Maddison. Mr. Lumbers came to Quebec in 1837, then travelled through Ontario with a Cornish regiment, in which he had enlisted for a life term, but he only remained in it about four years and eight months. He returned to England, with the regiment, in 1841, and purchased his discharge. During the winter of 1837 the regiment was on duty in Lower Canada, after which it came to Ontario on foot, one thousand strong, commanded by Colonel Maitland, who later died at London (Ont.). Mr. Lumbers participated in the Battle of Point DePlay, when ninety-three men of his regiment defeated five hundred rebels, killing eighty of the enemy. After he had procured his discharge he came to Toronto in June, 1842, and engaged in different occupations, prominent among which was an immense dairy, consisting of over four hundred cows, from which he supplied almost the entire city with milk for a period of ten years. During nearly forty years of his life he made the herbs and roots of the fields and forest almost his constant study, until he acquired considerable knowledge of their use and medicinal virtues. He prepared from these simples invaluable compounds, which he gave gratuitously to the poor, and all who applied for them, for years. The demand becoming so great, he decided to bestow on all his fellow-men the benefit of his years of study and experience. Consequently, in 1881, taking to assist him his youngest son, Henry, he embarked in the proprietary medicines business, which enables him to place within the reach of all those invaluable preparations which cost him years of labour and study to discover. His family consists of seven sons (all of whom are engaged in different trades in Toronto, with the exception of one who resides in Manitoba), and two daughters. (Vol. II, p. 92)