Captain Charles Rubidge, land agent and author, was born 20 April 1787 in the Parish of St. George-in-the-East, London, England. He was the son of Robert and Margaret Rubidge. In October 1796, at the young age of nine, Rubidge entered the Navy as a midshipman on the Arrow, Sloop of War. He served under Lord Nelson and Lord Cochrane and was honourably discharged in 1815, at the end of the War of 1812. In June 1819, Rubidge emigrated to Canada with his wife and three children (they later had three more children) and in May, 1820, became the second person to settle in Otonabee Township. He assisted in the settling of the Peter Robinson immigrants in 1825 and other immigrants in 1831 and 1839. In 1831 Rubidge was appointed Immigrant Agent at Peterborough by Lord Seaton, Governor-General of Canada. He was also the author of two books. The first was A Plain Statement of the Advantages Attending Emigration to Upper Canada (London, 1838) and the second An Autobiographical Sketch (Peterborough, 1870). Captain Charles Rubidge died 5 February 1873.
Captain Charles Rubidge, land agent and author, was born 20 April 1787 in the Parish of St. George-in-the-East, London, England. He was the son of Robert and Margaret Rubidge. In October 1796, at the young age of nine, Rubidge entered the Navy as a midshipman on the Arrow, Sloop of War. He served under Lord Nelson and Lord Cochrane and was honourably discharged in 1815, at the end of the War of 1812. In June 1819, Rubidge emigrated to Canada with his wife and three children (they later had three more children) and in May, 1820, became the second person to settle in Otonabee Township. He assisted in the settling of the Peter Robinson immigrants in 1825 and other immigrants in 1831 and 1839. In 1831 Rubidge was appointed Immigrant Agent at Peterborough by Lord Seaton, Governor-General of Canada. He was also the author of two books. The first was A Plain Statement of the Advantages Attending Emigration to Upper Canada (London, 1838) and the second An Autobiographical Sketch (Peterborough, 1870). Captain Charles Rubidge died 5 February 1873.
Professor Peter Royle was born in Coventry, England in 1934, the only son of James and Doris Royle. He received a Masters degree from Oxford University and a PhD from the University of Natal.
A scholar whose research focused on the existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, Professor Royle taught in the French and Philosophy Departments at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario from 1969 to 1996. He wrote many books, articles, plays, and short stories; a few of these include: L'Enfer et la liberté: Étude de "Huis clos" et des "Mouches" (1973); The Sartre-Camus Controversy. A literary and philosophical critique (1982); L’homme et le néant chez Jean-Paul Sartre (2005); and The Kaffir Killer, a black comedy (2010). The Kaffir Killer was earlier read twice as a radio play on BBC Radio 3 in 1971 and performed in theatres in 1982 and 1986. After retiring from Trent University, Professor Royle, together with his life partner Maren Thomas, lived in Germany and England. He died in England in 2017 and is survived by Maren Thomas and his two daughters, Eleanor Royle and Frances Royle (Roger Brush), both of Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Gordon Herbert Roper was born in Brantford, Ontario. He married Helen Caddy and they had two children, Susan and Mark. Professor Roper was educated at Peterborough Collegiate Institute; George Williams College in Chicago and the University of Chicago (B.A. 1938, M.A. 1939 and Ph.D. 1944). He served in the Canadian Army from 1944 to 1946. Professor Roper taught English at Yale University from 1939 to 1940; at the University of Chicago from 1941 to 1944 and in 1946; at Trinity College at the University of Toronto from 1946 to 1969 and at Trent University from 1969 to 1975. He researched and wrote extensively on a number of English Literature subjects including Herman Melville, Mark Twain, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Robertson Davies. Roper was a founding member of the Melville Society and an advisor to the Centre for the Editing of Early Canadian Texts. He was a key figure in the building of the Shell Collection of Canadian Literature for Bata Library at Trent University.
Barbara Rooke was educated at Queen's University (M.A.) and the University of London (Ph.D.) where she presumably studied English literature. She was a Professor of English literature at Trent University from 1967 to 1979.
Marjory Peters Seeley Rogers was born in Manitoba in 1921. She was educated at St. John's College (B.A. 1942), the University of Manitoba (Dip. in Social Work, 1944) and the University of Chicago School of Social Science Administration (1948). She married (1) Reverend Reg. S.K. Seeley, Provost of Trinity College, in 1955. He was killed in a car accident in which Marjory Seeley was seriously injured in 1957. She married (2) Professor William Rogers in 1976. Marjory Seeley Rogers was founding Principal of Lady Eaton College, Trent University (1968-1976). She was awarded Honorary Degrees by St. John's College (1974) and by Trinity College (1989).
James Roddy was a farmer and landowner in Cavan Township in the early 1900s.
G.M. Roche was a Land Surveyor in Canada West during the mid 1800s.
Peter Robinson was born in New Brunswick in 1785. Actively involved in politics, Robinson was a commissioner of crown lands and served in the Seventh and Eighth Parliaments from 1817 to 1824. In 1823 he was approached through his brother, Sir John Beverley Robinson, Attorney General for Upper Canada, to lead an emigration of 182 families from Ireland to Canada. Most of those emigrants were to settle in the Lanark area of the Ottawa Valley. Two years later he led an additional emigration, and nine over-crowded ships left Cork for Upper Canada. Several people on board were to die before they reached their new homeland. Several of the lists of passengers have survived, and Robinson's table of statistics show that, under his leadership, approximately 2,000 people emigrated to the Peterborough area from Ireland during that time period. In 1827, it was suggested by Frances Stewart, wife of Thomas A. Stewart, that, in honour of Peter Robinson's contribution to the settlement of the area, the name Scott's Plains be changed to Peterborough, meaning "Peter's Borough". Robinson died in 1838. (taken from: LaBranche, Bill. "The Peter Robinson Settlement of 1825" 1975, and Jones, Elwood and Bruce Dyer. The Electric City. Burlington: Windsor Publications, 1987.)
Mark Robinson was Superintendent and Ranger in Algonquin Park between 1908 and 1941. He served as an Army officer with the Canadian Militia during the First World War. He resided in Barrie and Elmvale, Ontario with his wife and Children but spent many months each year in Algonquin Park.
John Beverley Robinson was the second son of John Beverley Robinson, baronet and chief justice of Upper Canada, and Emma Walker. He was married to Mary Jane Hagerman on June 30, 1847 and together they had three sons and two daughters.
After attending Upper Canada College between 1830 and 1836, Robinson became an aide-de-camp to Sir Francis Bond Head during the rebellion. During the years that followed the rebellion he articled with Christopher Alexander Hagerman, whose daughter he married, and later with the firm of James McGill Strachan and John Hillyard Cameron until he was called to the bar in 1844.
In 1851, 1853-54, and 1856-57, Robinson was an alderman for St. Patrick's Ward, and in 1856 Mayor of Toronto. By 1860, as solicitor for the Canada Agency Association, he had successfully negotiated the sale of 439,000 acres in Haliburton County, almost three times the total sales for all other crown land sales for 1860 combined. In 1862 he became president of the Executive Council in the Conservative government of the Cartier-Macdonald administration, but only for a short few months. He was returned to Parliament for Algoma in 1872 until the dissolution. In 1878 he was elected by a large majority to represent West Toronto, a position he held until he was appointed lieutenant-governor in 1880. During the period from 1864-1880 Robinson also served as city solicitor for Toronto.
Robinson served as lieutenant-governor for Ontario from 1880-1887. He retired in 1887 to his Toronto home, Sleepy Hollow. On June 19, 1896 Robinson was invited to speak to a hostile group of Liberals at Massey Music Hall, where he suffered a sudden stroke and died.
Robert Romaine, along with two brother-in-laws, established the Peterborough Review in 1853 in Peterborough, Ontario. Romaine was editor and publisher at the "Review" until 1864. In 1853 he also wrote a paper on the subject of ploughing and pulverizing by steam power, and in 1868 became the first librarian of the Peterborough Mechanics Institute, the forerunner to the Peterborough Public Library. In 1870, he headed, along with others, a gas company which introduced the first gas street lights to the city. In 1877 he was a member of a committee which was appointed to look at possibilities for a waterworks system for the city of Peterborough.
Harry M. Robbins was born in 1887, and spent his early years on a farm in Oxford County. He became a career civil servant, and held the post of inspector of prisons and public charities in the Conservative regime of G. Howard Ferguson. He later became Deputy Provincial Secretary and Deputy Hospitals Minister. His civil service career ended abruptly in 1934, with the election of the Hepburn Liberals. Robbins was one of many civil servants who were fired in a general purge of the bureaucracy. Between the years of 1934 and 1939, little is known about his life, but it is generally believed that he was a bank manager in Northern Ontario. In 1939, he went to work for the Ontario Conservative party as its public relations officer, a post which he held with varying degrees of effectiveness until 1961, when he retired. He maintained an active interest in politics until his death in 1970, and he came out of retirement more than once to help local candidates in their bids for election to various offices.
Louis Riel, leader of the North West rebellions of 1870 and 1885, was born at St. Boniface, Manitoba, on October 22, 1844, the son of Louis Riel and Julie Lagimoniere, and the grandson of Jean Baptiste Riel, a native of Berthier, Lower Canada. Louis Riel was educated at the seminary in Montreal, and then returned to the West. In 1869 he became secretary of the Comite national des Metis, an organization formed to resist the establishment of Canadian authority in the North West. Later in the same year he was elected president of the provisional government set up by the rebels. He escaped from the country in August, 1870, on the arrival of the expeditionary force under Colonel Wolseley; but in 1873, and again in 1874, Riel was elected to represent Provencher in the Canadian House of Commons. In 1874, on taking the oath, he was expelled from the House; and in 1875 a warrant of outlawry was issued against him. He took refuge in Montana, and there he remained until, in the summer of 1884, he was invited to return to Canada to organize the half-breeds of the North West Territories so as to obtain redress of their grievances. The outcome of his visit to Canada was the second North West rebellion. On the defeat of the rebels at Batoche, on May 12, 1885, by General Middleton, Riel was captured. He was tried at Regina, in July, on the charge of high treason, was found guilty, and on November 16, 1885, was hanged at the Mounted Police barracks at Regina. (Taken from: The Macmillan Dictionary of Canadian Biography, fourth edition. Toronto: Macmillan of Canada, 1974.)
Aureen Richardson was born 15 August 1931 and lived in Warkworth, Ontario. She married Raymond Richardson and had two sons, Raymond and Richard. She was a school teacher for 36 years, and, for 50 years, beginning in 1949, was a volunteer newspaper reporter for local newspapers on a variety of topics, including coverage of the community, churches, the disabled, local history, seniors' events, and travel. She was responsible for creating local and government interest in the erection of plaques dedicated to J.D. Kelly, St. James Anglican Church (Roseneath, Ontario), Alderville First Nation Reserve, John Weir Foote, Warkworth Cheese Country, and the Richardson archaeological site. Richardson also wrote three books, Weaving on the family loom: an anthology of Northumberland County families, Historic visions of J.D. Kelly, and Warkworth Cheese Country. From 1980 to 1986, she presented a regular four-minute "News of Northumberland" radio segment on CJBQ in Belleville, Ontario. Richardson inherited a rare neurological disease, familial spastic paraplegia, and was an advocate for the disabled throughout her life. She was a leader in Campbellford's "More Able Than Disabled" Club, was a member of the Quinte Writers' Guild and the Ontario Historical Society, and was a regular Elderhostel participant. Aureen Richardson earned a Bachelor of Arts degree at Trent University in 1974. She died 6 February 2015.
In 1852, William Lyon Mackenzie introduced to the Legislative Assembly a resolution asking for a survey of the Huron-Ottawa Territory. His intent was to increase settlement within the uninhabited region of Canada West, to encourage immigration from Europe, and discourage emigration from the province. This resolution, along with similar recommendations, led to the Colonization Roads policy, and ultimately to the passing of the Public Land Act in 1853 by the Legislature. This Act allowed the government "to appropriate as free grants any public land in the province to actual settlers, upon or in the vicinity of any public roads in any new settlements which shall or may be opened through the Lands of the Crown." The policy and the Act led to surveys for many new roads in the northern portion of Canada West, including the Burleigh Road in 1860-1861 by James W. Fitzgerald. The original survey indicated that the road was to extend north from Burleigh rapids through the Townships of Burleigh, Anstruther, Chandos, Cardiff, Monmouth, and Dudley and end where it intersected the Peterson Road. By 1862, 23 miles of the proposed road had been constructed, running north from Burleigh Bridge. With the survey and proposed construction of the Monck Road, it was decided not to extend the Burleigh Road as far north as the Peterson Road, but only to the Monck Road, which resulted in a total distance of 43 miles for the Burleigh Road. Due to the poor quality of the Burleigh Road, settlement of the surrounding townships was extremely slow and it never achieved the importance of some of the other Colonization Roads. The Burleigh Road no longer exists today. (Taken from: Murray, Florence B. "Muskoka and Haliburton 1915-1875: a collection of documents." Toronto: The Champlain Society, 1963. Spragge, George W. "Colonization Roads in Canada West, 1850-1867." Ontario History. Vol. XLIX, no. 1, 1957.)
Elias Rendell, son of John Rendell and brother of John Rendell, was born in ca. 1797 and lived in Shaldon, County of Devon, England. Rendell was 15 years old at the time that the apprenticeship agreement was signed.
John Reid (d. 1882), the son of Maria Stewart (sister of Thomas Alexander Stewart) and Robert Reid, was born in Ireland and emigrated to Upper Canada in 1822 with his parents and siblings. He married Frances Hilton (1812-1878) and together they had 6 children. He settled in Douro Township and became a land surveyor in Peterborough County. Reid Street in the City of Peterborough was named after John Reid.
Harold Reid, the creator of this collection is the great-great-grandson of Robert Reid, pioneer settler in Peterborough, Ontario, grandson of Robert Henry Reid and son of Frederick Henry Adolphus Reid.
The Reid family originated in Ireland and settled in Peterborough, Ontario, in 1822. Descendants have continued to live in the area for several decades, marrying into the Stewart, McNeill, and Godard families.
The Registrar General registers are registers in which all instruments including proclamations, commissions, letters patent, and other documents issued under the Great Seal and the Privy Seal of Canada, are entered. Prior to Confederation, the registration function was the responsibility of the Provincial Secretary for each province. In 1867, this responsibility was assumed by the Secretary of State. It continued in that Department until 1966 when the Register General became a separate Department. In 1967, the new Department of Consumer and Corporate Affairs took over all the duties and functions of the Registrar General.
Elizabeth Ruth Redelmeier is a resident of Port Hope, Ontario.
During World War II, atomic bombs were used to attack Japan by the United States of America. Hiroshima was bombed on 6 August 1945 and Nagasaki on 9 August 1945. These were the first atomic bombs to be used in warfare. Two hundred and forty thousand Japanese civilians died.