Bury's Green Women's Institute of East Victoria District was founded in 1953. A branch member of the larger world-wide Women's Institutes organization, Bury's Green Women's Institute's focus was to strive "for all that is best "For Home and Country"". Activities in the community included raising money by means of card parties, bazaars, making and selling quilts, and entering local fairs. The Women's Institute donated money and food to the County Home, widows in Korea, and shut-ins at Christmas. The local 4-H Club came under the jurisdiction of the Women's Institute and was sponsored by it. The Institute disbanded in 2000. (Taken from the Tweedsmuir History)
Zaccheus Burnham was born February 20, 1777 in Dunbarton, New Hampshire, son of Asa Burnham and Elizabeth Cutler. He was raised in New Hampshire and came to central Upper Canada in 1797, eventually settling in Hamilton Township, Newcastle District. Several of his brothers also settled in the same area.
On February 1, 1801, he married Elizabeth Choate, also of New Hampshire. Together they had six children, five daughters and one son. As soon as Burnham arrived in Upper Canada, he became interested in acquiring land and was eventually to become one of the largest land holders in the Newcastle District (he owned the land on which the village of Ashburnham is situated). He also carried out land surveys with his future son-in-law, land surveyor Richard Birdsall, which allowed Burnham to determine the best plots of land to acquire. As well, payment for land surveys was often in the form of land. By 1831, Burnham had a 1000 acre farm, plus thousands of acres of land scattered throughout the United Counties of Northumberland and Durham, and Peterborough County.
Burnham was also involved in the military. He joined the militia as a private in 1801. In the War of 1812 he was a captain. He remained active in the military as a member of the First Regiment of the Northumberland Militia, and as Colonel, led a large force to Toronto in response to the Rebellion of 1837. Burnham was also involved in many other activities and was a leading member in the community. He became a road commissioner for the Newcastle District in 1811. In 1813, he was appointed as a Justice of the Peace. He was also the Treasurer of the Newcastle District from 1815 to 1851, and he represented the riding of Northumberland and Durham in the House of Assembly from 1817 to 1820. In 1831 he was appointed to the Legislative Council by Lieutenant Governor Sir John Colbourne, and served there until 1841. In July 1839, he was made a Judge for the District court of Newcastle.
Zaccheus Burnham died February 25, 1857, at Cobourg, Upper Canada.
W. Burnett was a merchant and proprietor in Cobourg, Ontario, in the early 1900's.
Joseph Walton (1772-1826) was the first settler of the Walton family to settle in Smith Township, Peterborough County in 1819. He married Hannah Stuart (1772-1861) and they had seven children: John (1797-1881), Nancy, Joseph (1913-1900), William (1814-), Matthew (1817-1902), Jacob (1820-1865) and Robert (1823-1904). The family farmed in Smith Township and eventually spread out across Canada and the United States. Verna Burgess is the granddaughter of Joseph Walton who married Sarah Jane Chalmers (1821-1875). Their daughter Emma (1861-1946) married Dr. Francis John Burgess (1861-1945), a general practitioner and pharmacist in Lakefield, Ontario, and they had four daughters: Lelia, Verna, Doris, and Helen. Verna became a high school Department Head and she sat on the committee (as representative of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation) to examine the need to have a non-sectarian degree-granting college, which would eventually become Trent University.
Verna Burgess was the daughter of Dr. John Burgess and Emma Burgess and was the second oldest of four daughters. Her father operated a drug store and had a medical practice in Lakefield and the girls received their early schooling there, coming to Peterborough to finish high school, and in Verna's case, to attend the Peterborough Normal School. Burgess taught for the Peterborough Board of Education at King Edward and Queen Alexandra Public Schools, and was also associated with the Normal School as a practice and critic teacher. A tobogganing accident confined her to bed for a considerable time, during which she began extramural studies through Queen's University, eventually going to Kingston to complete an Honours B.A. in English and History. Subsequently she finished her M.A. She joined the staff of the Peterborough Collegiate and Vocational School where she taught history until her retirement. She was an excellent and inspiring teacher and a public-spirited citizen. She was a member of the original committee set up to study the feasibility of the establishment of Trent University. (Taken from a typewritten note by Fern A. Rahmel, which accompanied the fonds, and from information supplied by Gordon Young. The Rahmel note is located in the Rahmel donor file, Trent University Archives).
John William Burbidge was born in 1936 in Hoiryung, Korea, the son of missionary parents. He married Barbara Annette Perkins in 1958 and they have three children, James, Elizabeth, and Bruce. Professor Burbidge received an undergraduate degree in Philosophy and History at the University of Toronto in 1957 and a M.A. degree in Philosophy at Yale University in 1958. He then entered Emmanuel College, proceeding to ordination in the United Church of Canada and a Bachelor of Divinity in 1962. After studying theology at the University of Heidelberg the following year, Professor Burbidge became the minister responsible for Lakeview United Church in Mississauga. In 1971 he received a Ph.D. at the University of Toronto. Professor Burbidge began teaching at Trent University in the Philosophy department in 1970 and taught there until his retirement in 1999. While at Trent, he served in several roles including Master of Champlain College, Chair of the Philosophy Department, Acting Registrar, and Associate Vice President for Student Services. He was also a long-time member of the Friends of the Bata Library. In the 1980s, Professor Burbidge served as Vice-President and President of the Hegel Society of America and in 1998 was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Amongst his publications, to name a few, are such titles as: On Hegel's Logic; Hegel on Logic and Religion; Real Process: How Logic and Chemistry Combine in Hegel's Philosophy of Nature; and Hegel's Systematic Contingency. Professor Burbidge has developed an interest in bookbinding and repair and is working towards certification by the Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild.
The Buckhorn Wilderness Centre, established in 1966, was a non-profit corporation dedicated to the preservation of typical Canadian wilderness for the education and cultural enrichment of future generations. In 1971 responsibility for the Centre was transferred to the Otonabee Region Conservation Authority.
The Buck family genealogy was compiled by Louise Buck, wife of Edwin D. Buck of Norwood, Ontario. From curiosity she researched and produced a book on the Buck family in Canada from the first ancestor to descendants. The book begins with a brief history of England then Yorkshire, Dent and its surroundings. Louise then writes about the English ancestors, immigration to Canada and gives a short history of Upper Canada and then Norwood. Included in the book are genealogical charts, abbreviations and codes, variations in the spelling of names, relationship charts, family charts and connected families. The book was privately produced in 1987.
Professor Alan Brunger was educated in England (B.Sc. Hons. Southampton 1963) and came to Canada in 1964 for graduate work, first in Alberta (M.Sc. Calgary 1966) and later in Ontario (Ph.D. Western Ontario 1973). He joined the faculty in Geography at Trent University in 1969 and has lectured and undertaken research mainly in historical geography within Canada, Australia and South Africa. His main research interest is in the pattern and process of nineteenth century immigration and settlement. Professor Brunger retired from the Geography Department at Trent University in 2008.
William Brownscombe was a potter by trade in Peterborough.
Brenda Brownlee was a student at Trent University, class of 1966. She graduated in 1970 from the Bachelor of Arts program and continued her education through the Anthropology honors program and later entered graduate school in Toronto. As a student at Trent University, she was also a prompter for the Dramatis Personae productions of Gilbert and Sullivan’s, “Patience,” (1964) and “The Mikado” (1970). Additionally, Brenda was hired as a student to complete an inventory collection of Inuit art at Lady Eaton College.
Kenneth Brown was born 21 January 1949 in Toronto and moved to Peterborough in 1974. He is married to Kathleen Brownscombe and has three children. Brown attended the Haliburton Scout Reserve for boy scouts in 1965-1967 and became a leader there. He was founding president of Kawartha Jazz Society (founded in 1989) and a partner at Stow Brown and McLeod where he worked until 2011 in public accounting. Interested in local history, Brown has extensively researched his wife's family, the Brownscombes, and is author of: The Invention of the Board Canoe, 2001; The Peterborough Potteries, 2003; and The Canadian Canoe Company, 2011. He also published a poster entitled "View of Ashburnham from the Tower of St. John's Church c. 1874."
John Quentin Brown (Quentin), U.E.L., was born in Toronto, Ontario, to Newton H. Brown and Grace Amanda Young, U.E.L. He worked for the Fairchild Aircraft Company between May 1939 and December 1941. In 1941, he joined the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve (RCNVR). On active duty, Quentin served in Prince Rupert on HMCS French, on HMCS Malpeque and on HMCS Ontario demobilizing in December 1945. Correspondence from the War years exchanged between Quentin, his brother Robert and his sister Elizabeth is found in the book The Army's Mister Brown: A Family Trilogy 1941-1952, compiled by Elizabeth, Robert and Quentin in 1982; another brother, Harcourt Brown, was editor. After returning from War, Quentin earned a B.A. from McGill University in 1946 and a M.A. in dramatic art from the University of North Carolina in 1948. He married Myrtle Louise Stumberg of Alabama 28 August 1948 and together they had four children. Quentin worked in Ottawa at Crawley Films for 11 years. He moved to Boston and worked for the Educational Development Centre for 10 years where his main contribution was as producer of the Netsilik Eskimo film series—innovative films that focused on close portrayals of Indigenous people living in their own settings, with Inuit dialogue, and without English-speakers and talking heads. He also held a position at the University of Manitoba as Director of Instructional Media for seven years. In 1976, he moved to the Peterborough area where he was a researcher, amateur historian and writer; he was the editor of This Green and Pleasant Land: Chronicles of Cavan Township produced by the Millbrook and Cavan Historical Society in 1990. For a number of years, Quentin volunteered at Trent University Archives and was an active member of the Friends of the Bata Library at Trent.
Professor Jennifer Stacey Harcourt Brown was born on 30 December 1940, in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown’s parents, Professor Harcourt Brown of Brown University and his wife Dorothy were good friends of Professor Kenneth and Martha Kidd, who were long associated with Trent University. Her father and Professor Kidd became friends through similar research interests. Their families visited one another throughout the summer months in Providence, Rhode Island, and at their summer island place near Perry Sound. Browns family visited the Kidds in Scarborough and later in Peterborough. Professor Jennifer Brown’s uncle, Quentin Brown, was a generous supporter of the Archives at Trent University and accessioned over 100 records into the collection.
Professor Brown was invited by Professor Kidd to participate in the Serpent Mounds archaeological dig at Rice Lake when she finished high school. She was a student digger for 10 weeks during the summer of 1958. She then went on to complete an archaeological dig in San Carlos, Guatemala, during the summer of 1959.
Professor Brown received a BA Honours in Ancient and Medieval Culture from Brown University in 1962. She received her AM in Classical Archaeology from Harvard University in 1963 and her PhD in Cultural and Social Anthropology from the University of Chicago in 1976.
Professor Brown has published many books in which one in particular has received Honourable Mention for the Canadian Historical Association’s Sir John A. Macdonald Prize. This book is titled Strangers in Blood, published by The University of British Columbia Press.
J. Brown was a farmer in Peterborough, Canada West, during the mid 1800's.
Egerton Brown was the son of Newton H. Brown and Grace Amanda Young. His siblings include Elizabeth, Robert, Harcourt, and Quentin, and his wife's name was Hazel. Brown attended the University of Toronto in the 1920's and was involved in the U.C. Literary and Athletic Society. He was made a corporal in the Queen's Own Rifle in 1926 and became Captain in command of Head Quarters Company in the 4th Battalion of the Regiment. In 1939-1940, Brown was a volunteer fireman and policeman in the City of Westmount, and in 1940, joined the Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment of Canada) as a second lieutenant based on Varsity COTC and Queens Own Rifle Training. Brown became President of the Montreal Chapter of the National Office Management Association and was an administrator with Sun Life. In his own words, from 1939-1945 while at Sun Life, he was "in charge of world-wide office staff and administration." (Taken from The Army's Mister Brown: A Family Trilogy, 1941-1952 / edited by Harcourt Brown, 1982)
Edward Templeton Brown, grandson to Frances and Thomas Stewart, was born at Goodwood, the family farm in Douro Township, Canada West, on December 24, 1852 to Edward Wilson Brown and Elizabeth Lydia Stewart. In 1879 he went to the Northwest Territory to help survey Riding Mountain National Park. After the survey was completed he worked for the Hudson's Bay Company. In 1880 he joined a party, led by Major Boulton, heading for the Shell River area of western Manitoba to settle on land. He joined Boulton's Scouts and during the Battle of Batoche was killed in action on May 12, 1885. The community in Peterborough decided to raise a memorial stone to Edward Brown to commemorate his death in the Riel Uprising.
David Brown was a teacher and collector of historical documents and books who resided in Hamilton, Ontario.
Reverend Robert Brooking was a Wesleyan Methodist missionary, born in England in 1813. He began his work with his wife, Elizabeth, on the Gold Coast of Africa but left after several years for health reasons. He and his wife were then sent to Canada, where he ministered to the Indigenous peoples at Rice Lake, Rama, Alderville, Canada West, and at Norway House in the Hudson's Bay Territory, until he retired in 1880. Elizabeth Brooking died in 1862. Robert Brooking died in 1893.
Ted Brock was Chair of the Camp Tonakela Association.
The Stuart dynasty began in Britain with the reign of James I (James VI of Scotland) in 1603. His reign was marked by the Gunpowder Plot, a new translation of the bible, the rise of Puritanism and increasing hostility between monarch and Parliament as the latter increased under the influence of barons and an increasingly powerful merchant class. James I died in 1625. (See, for example, Victor Slater. The Political History of Tudor and Stuart England. N.Y.: Routledge, 2002).
The first meeting of the Brighton Women's Auxiliary was held in January, 1895 at the Anglican Parsonage. The President was Caroline M. Westmacott, presumably the wife of A.G.E. Westmacott, Church of England clergyman in Brighton at the time.
Brighton Township was created by an Act in 1851. It is bounded on the north by Seymour Township; on the west by Cramahe Township; on the east by Murray Township and on the south by Lake Ontario. It is part of the United Counties of Northumberland and Durham. The Village of Brighton was incorporated in 1890 but existed well before then. Built on the Brighton Harbour as a point of entry it had a population of 500 in 1850 and 1700 in 1878. In 1850 it had two grist mills, a plaster mill and a tannery. By 1878 it had four churches and a school. The early settlers were the Singletons, Thayers, Proctors, Butlers, Lockwoods, Wills, Dr. Gross, Sanfords and Ketchums. John Lockwood was the first postmaster of the village. Brighton Harbour used to be known as Freeman Point and Gosport.
George W. Bridges married, had a number of children and his family lived in Jamaica. When his wife deserted her family she took with her two children, the oldest son and daughter, and left behind three (four?) young daughters and an infant son. When George eventually followed his wife to England he found that he was barred from his family. He managed to regain his eldest daughter. Unfortunately all his daughters drowned upon his return to Jamaica. He eventually moved to Canada but due the climate's effect upon his young son he moved to a more temperate climate. He went to Palermo, Naples and eventually Malta. His youngest son William joined the British Navy and was always with his father when possible. George's wife died at age fifty-five at which point George found out a little about why she had deserted him in 1834.
William Arthur Breyfogle was born in Toronto in 1905. He moved with his parents to Peterborough in 1910. He went to Dartmouth College in New Hampshire and graduated with a Rhodes Scholarship in 1928. He attended Magdalen College in Oxford and later attended the University of Munich in Germany. He married Elizabeth Hopwood in 1939. He had his first short story published in 1932 in the North American Review. He had numerous works published in such magazines as Macleans, Colliers, Toronto Star Weekly, and many others. At the time of his death he had begun to write a detective novel called The Phoenix and the Tavern. William (Bill) Breyfogle died of anaphylactic shock from a bee sting in 1958.