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The population of Newmarket was about 600 in 1841, about 2000 in 1900, under 20,000 in 1971 and 80,000 in 2011. [edit] MapsOntario GenWeb has a sketchmap of the original townships of York County and York GenWeb provides another sketchmap of the equivalent municipalities in York Region (established 1971). Note that after 1971 the boundaries of the towns of Newmarket, Aurora and Richmond Hill are defined. These towns were all separately incorporated from the townships many years before that date, but none would have had such a large geographical footprint. The map of York County circa 1951 from Ontario Archives locates the individual municipalities, townships, city, towns and villages of the county. (Click at the bottom of the page to see the map enlarged.) [edit] History
Newmarket's location on the Holland River enabled travel between Lake Ontario and Lake Simcoe. A portage route, the Toronto Carrying-Place Trail, ran one of its two routes up the Holland River through the Newmarket area, and over the Oak Ridges Moraine to the Rouge River and into Lake Ontario. A more widely used route ran up the western branch of the Holland River, over the moraine, and down the Humber River. In 1793, John Graves Simcoe travelled the trail northward along the main route to the west, and south to York (now Toronto) along the lesser used eastern route through Newmarket. Selecting the eastern route as the better of the two, Simcoe started construction of Yonge Street along the former trail in late 1795, starting in York in Toronto Bay, and ending at the newly named St. Albans (Holland Landing), north of Newmarket.
[edit] Early settlementQuakers from the Thirteen Colonies moved to the area to avoid violence they were expected to take part in during the American Revolution. In June 1800, Timothy Rogers, a Quaker from Vermont, explored the area around the Holland River to find a suitable location for a new Quaker settlement. He, Samuel Lundy and their group of Religious Society of Friends received the grant of around the Holland River. In 1801, Rogers returned along with several Quaker families who had left their homes in Vermont and Pennsylvania, and settled here between 1801 and 1803. Joseph Hill constructed a mill on the river,[1] damming it to produce a mill pond today known as Fairy Lake. The settlement of "Upper Yonge Street" developed around the mill and the Holland River. Hill also built a tannery north of the mill, the first general store and house, and additional mills. In 1802, Elisha Beman, who owned land in the area,[1] establish a mill, and then a distillery. Mordecai Millar also built mills, and Joseph Hill opened a tannery. During the War of 1812 a resident, William Roe, was hid the settlement's gold treasury from invading American troops. The war helped the settlement prosper, as the British army purchased goods and food and hired locals to build structures. By 1814, the settlement had two frame and several log buildings used as residences. The settlement continued to grow through the early 19th century, along with the formation of Aurora and Holland Landing. A post office opened in 1826, and until 1890 the name was spelled "New Market". Newmarket is noted for its role in the Rebellions of 1837–1838, and was a centre of discontent against the manipulations of the governing Family Compact. Rebel leader William Lyon Mackenzie organized a series of meetings leading to the Rebellion; the first of which, on August 3, 1837, was delivered from the veranda of the North American Hotel in Newmarket. This speech contributed to the rebellion, as it was heard by about 600 farmers and others sympathetic to Mackenzie’s cause, who later that year armed themselves and marched down Yonge Street to take the capital. A number of leaders from this area were attainted for high treason, convicted and hanged. By 1846, the population was about 600. Much of the settlement was built on the south side of the town, with farms surrounding it. There were six churches or chapels, a post office, five stores, three taverns, and tradesmen of various types. Industry included two grist-mills, two breweries, a distillery, one tannery, a foundry, a carding machine, and a cloth factory. In June 1853, the first train pulled into Newmarket on the Toronto, Simcoe & Lake Huron Union Railroad,[1] the first railway in Upper Canada. It was later called the Northern Railway of Canada, and carried passengers, agricultural products and manufactured goods. The line eventually linked Toronto to Collingwood on Georgian Bay, a major shipbuilding centre. Today, this line is the "Newmarket Subdivision" of the Canadian National Railway system, running north out of Newmarket towards Bradford, and south towards Toronto. [edit] From village to townNewmarket was incorporated as a village in 1857 with a population of 700, with Donald Sutherland as the first reeve.[1] In 1858, Robert Simpson co-opened "Simpson & Trent Groceries, Boots, Shoes and Dry Goods" in downtown Newmarket, the first store in what would become the Simpsons department store chain. In 1880, Newmarket became a town with a population of 2,000. William Cane was elected as the first mayor. Some years later, his sash and door factory would become the first Canadian manufacturer of lead pencils, the Dixon Pencil Company.[1] In 1869, the population was 1,500 and a gazetteer described Newmarket as one of the most flourishing villages on the Northern Railway line. In addition to the train, stagecoaches were available to nearby communities. By the time of the 1871 census, the population was 1,760 and by 1881, it had increased to 2,006; an elementary school and a high school were already in operation by then.[2] The Toronto and York Radial Railway arrived in Newmarket in 1899. This service operated along Yonge Street south of Newmarket, but turned east to run through the downtown area along Main Street; it would later be extended north to Sutton. At the time, it brought significant numbers of day-trippers to Newmarket to shop at the market. Automobile traffic on Yonge Street, and the already existing mainline railway, had a significant effect on ridership, and the Radial was discontinued in the early 1930s. North of Davis Drive in Newmarket, the East Holland River was straightened to prepare it for use as a commercial waterway to bypass the railway, whose prices were skyrocketing around the turn of the 20th century. Sir William Mulock, the local Member of Parliament, proposed a canal system running down the Holland River through Holland Landing and into Lake Simcoe. This would allow boats to connect from there to the Trent-Severn Waterway for eventual shipment south. The Newmarket Canal was almost complete by the summer of 1912, when it was cancelled by the incoming government of Robert Borden. Today, the locks are still visible and are known as the "Ghost Canal". The turning basin in downtown Newmarket was filled in and now forms the parking lot of The Old Davis Tannery Mall, on the site of the former Hill tannery. [edit] Recent developmentsFor much of the 20th century, Newmarket developed along the east-west Davis Drive axis, limited to the area between Yonge Street on the west and between Bayview and Leslie Street in the east, and running from just north of Davis on the north to the Fairy Lake area on the south. By the 1950s, Newmarket was experiencing a suburban building boom due to its proximity to Toronto. The population increased from 5,000 to 11,000 between 1950 and 1970. The Regional Municipality of York was formed in 1971, increasing the size of Newmarket with land from the Township of East Gwillimbury, from the Township of King and from the Township of Whitchurch. [3] The construction of Upper Canada Mall at the corner of Yonge Street and Davis Drive in 1974 started pulling the focal point of the town westward from the historic Downtown area along Main Street. By the early 1980s, the historic Downtown area suffered as most businesses had built up in the area around Upper Canada Mall, with additional strip malls developing directly across the Yonge Street/Davis Drive intersection to the south and southeast. A concerted effort to revitalize the historic Downtown area during the late 1980s was successful. More recently, a $2.3-million investment was made by the town in 2004 in streetscaping and infrastructure improvements to roads and sidewalks in the historic Downtown. The historic area of Downtown's Main Street is once again a major focal point of the town. The arrival of Highway 404 reversed the westward movement, pulling development eastward again, and surrounding the formerly separate hamlet of Bogarttown at the intersection of Mulock Drive and Leslie Street. Since then, Newmarket has grown considerably, filling out in all directions. The town limits now run from Bathurst Street in the west to Highway 404 in the east, and from just south of Green Lane to just north of St. John's Sideroad, taking over the former hamlet of Armitage at Yonge Street south of Mulock Drive. The southern boundary of the town is contiguous with Aurora to the south. Armitage was the first settlement of King township, named in honour of its first settler Amos Armitage.[4] He had been recruited by Timothy Rogers, a Loyalist from Vermont, who in 1801 had travelled along Yonge Street and found the area appealing, and so applied for and received a grant for land totalling 40 farms, each of . Other defunct communities once located within the modern boundaries of Newmarket include Garbut's Hill, Paddytown, Petchville, Pleasantville, and White Rose.[4] [edit] Research TipsThe primary source for basic documents (vital statistics, land records, wills) for people who lived in the Province of Ontario is the Archives of Ontario, 134 Ian Macdonald Blvd, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M7A 2C5. [edit] Early RecordsCivil registration did not begin in the province until 1869. Before then there may be church records of baptisms and burials. For the most part these are still held by the denomination who recorded them. Copies of marriage records made pre-1869 had to be sent by individual clergymen to the registrar of the county in which the marriage took place. These marriage records are available through Ontario Archives, on micorfilm through LDS libraries, and on paid and unpaid websites, but because they were copied at the registrars' offices, they cannot be considered a primary source. [edit] Vital Records after 1869Birth, marriage and death registrations are not open to the public until a specific number of years after the event occurred. Births to 1915 are now available [October 2014]; dates for marriages and deaths are later. Birth and death registration was not universally carried out in the early years after its adoption. Deaths were more apt to be reported than births for several years. The more rural the area, the less likely it would be that these happenings were reported to the authorities.
[edit] Land Records and WillsInformation on how to access land records and wills is best sought on the Archives of Ontario website. An ancestor's land holding might be found on Canadian County Atlas Digital Project if he was in occupancy circa 1878. Association for the Preservation of Ontario Land Registry Office Documents (APOLROD). A list of Land Registry Offices for all Counties of Ontario. [edit] CensusesThe original censuses are in the hands of Library and Archives Canada, known to Canadians as "LAC". Copies of original microfilms are online at the LAC website for all censuses up to 1921. Each census database is preceded with an explanation of the geographical area covered, the amount of material retained (some census division material has been lost), the questions on the census form, and whether there is a name index. Census divisions were redrawn as the population increased and more land was inhabited. [edit] Hard-to-Find Places
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