Ancaster
Description of the historic village
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The village of Ancaster got its name from the township, which in turn was named after Peregrine Bertie, the Duke of Ancaster, by Lieutenant- Governor Simcoe. In 1787, when the first Loyalists arrived to settle in the township, this was the frontier, the west. The nearest settlement of importance was Newark, now Niagara-on-the-Lake. These Loyalist settlers had been granted land but could only choose a plot of land hoping that they would be allocated the land after it had been surveyed. They had no idea where the eventual boundaries would be and could end up clearing land for somebody else. The area was finally surveyed in 1793. The founders of Ancaster are acknowledged to be James Wilson and Richard Beasley. They owned adjacent lots and, with Wilson's skills as a millwright and Beasley's money, they built a grist mill in 1791 and a saw mill the next year. Wilson then built up an industrial empire, which he sold in 1794 to St John Rousseaux. Rousseaux had a general store and ran a hotel in his home on Wilson Street. Before that he had been a successful trader with the aboriginals at his Humber River store. Rousseaux in turn sold the mills to a group of men known as the Union Mill Company and from the profits built another hotel, which he named the Union Hotel from the Union Company money that built it. This was the hotel used for the Bloody Assize during the War of 1812. In 1812, before the war, a group of people from Brant's Block (Burlington) petitioned for a new district to be set up between the Home District, with its County Town at York (Toronto), and the Niagara District, with its County Town at Niagara. The Brant's Block people felt that it should be the County Town of the new district. People of Dundas thought that Coote's Paradise was more suited so they petitioned too. Then the people of Greensville, Bullock's Corners, and Crooks Hollow sent in a petition for Crooks Hollow to be the County Town. A fourth petition arrived from James Durand's village on his farm. Then a fifth and final petition from Ancaster arrived. Before anything final could be done, the war had broken out and all plans had to be shelved. At the end of the war, when the matter came up again, things had changed. It had become apparent that the village on James Durand's farm was the most up-and-coming and it was named the County Town. Except that it was no longer owned by Durand. So, instead of becoming Durand, the new town was named after the new owner of the farm, George Hamilton, and so became Hamilton. And now Ancaster, Coote's Paradise, Greensville, Bullock's Corners, and Crooks Hollow are all part of Hamilton. In 1820, Job Lodor bought the Union Mills and revitalized the industrial complex in the 1820s. In 1826, William Wiard started a foundry and this employed Harris and Alonzo Egleston when they arrived here in 1832. Eventually they bought out Wiard and started an industrial empire of their own, including a grist mill that is now the Old Ancaster Mill. But gradually, in the 1830s, Hamilton's position as a port on Lake Ontario took it beyond Ancaster as a centre for industry. Places to see in Ancaster:
The Seymour Lodge building next door at 419 Wilson Street East may date from 1821 and may have been a wagon and carriage shop. It certainly looks old enough and once had a wide doorway in the front.
At 413 Wilson Street East, next door to the Seymour Lodge building, is the Moore store and house, noted for its two huge windows and an extremely high step out of the Wilson Street door. Each window of the Moore store contains twenty five separate panes of glass. In the early 1800s, when glass was so expensive, it was smarter to make large windows out of smaller panes of glass because of the risk of breakage during transportation over bumpy roads. Originally, there was a wooden sidewalk in front of the store. The sidewalk was much higher than the present sidewalk and had a set of steps between the Moore store and the Seymour Lodge building. The building was built about 1820.
On the other side of the road at 406 Wilson Street East is a 1½-storey house built by Alonzo Egleston, who with his brother Hiram, came to Ancaster from New York State in 1832 to become industrialists here. Egleston built this house in 1846 and it has been considerably modified over the years. Note that the Eglestons built the Old Ancaster Mill in 1836. At the time of writing, there is a plan to move the building from its position fronting onto Wilson Street to a position at the rear of the lot, so you may find it at its new location.
Just past the Egleston house is the Marr house at 400 Wilson Street East. The house was built about 1840 by a family of carpenters. There once was a workshop behind the house but that has been moved to Westfield Heritage Village. The Marr house has recently been covered with coloured vertical siding, which has managed to take away all of its character.
At 398 Wilson Street East is the John Phillipo house. This fine stone house was built after 1840 because that was the year when John arrived here from England. Notice the quoined corners of the building and the transom light over the front door.
This was the home of Richard Edmund Hammill, a grocer and butcher. It was built in the 1830s. While the new Township Hall was being built about 1966, this house was used as the municipal centre, police station, and council offices. There could not have been much room.
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