1800-1900. A Brief Historical Sketch of the Court Houses of the London District, the County of Middlesex and County of Elgin. COMPILED BY KENNETH W. McKAY, COUNTY CLERK. PUBLISHED BY THE ELGIN COUNTY COUNCIL. With Introduction by James H. Coyne, B. A. The Times Printing Company of St. Thomas, Limited. 1901....

The Wonderful Century is before the bar of history. Its record shows everywhere progress, consolidation, expansion, improvement. Civilization has spread, barbarism has given away. Labor has been restored to its honorable station, and idleness is accounted dishonor. Privilege has been curtailed, liberty has widened its borders. Slavery has almost disappeared from the earth. The beneficent forces are stronger. The comforts and conveniences of life are increased and more evenly distributed. Disease

The History of the Court Houses of Ontario is closely associated with the development of the Province. The first recognition of population in South Western Ontario was the formation in 1788, of the District of Hesse and the appointment of Justices of the Court of Common Pleas, and other officials. The only inhabitants were in the French settlements around Detroit, where the barracks and Government House were located. In 1792 Upper Canada, now Ontario, was divided into nineteen Counties, Norfolk,

The U. E. Loyalists settlement of Norfolk commenced in 1793, and in 1798 the rapid increase in population was recognized by a division of the Western District and the formation of three Counties, Norfolk, Oxford and Middlesex to be known as the London District. This was organized by the appointment of a general commission of the peace and the necessary officials. The first meeting of the resident Magistrates was held in the house of Lieutenant James Munro, of Charlotteville, on 1st April, 1800,

The Courts at Turkey Point were first held in the public house of Job Loder. In 1803 the contract for a court house was awarded. It was to be a frame building forty feet in length by twenty-six feet in width, to be two stories high, the first or lower story to be ten feet between floor and ceiling, and the second or upper story to be eight feet high. The original specifications were as follows: "The building to be erected on a foundation of white oak timber squared, the same to be sound and of s

In 1815 an act was passed which provided that the courts of general quarter sessions for the district of London should be held at Charlotteville. The Magistrates were ordered to make a choice of the most convenient place, and a meeting was accordingly held at the house of Thomas Finch on the 13th June, 1815. John Backhouse, Thomas Talbot and Robert Finch were appointed Commissioners to superintend the building, and a brick court house and gaol was erected at Vittoria at an expense of £9,000. Dur

An Act was then passed to establish a District town in a more central place, and courts were ordered to be held in some part of the reservation made for the site of a town near the forks of the River Thames. This was at London where four acres were set apart for the purposes of the jail and court house. The commissioners appointed for the purpose of erecting the building, Thomas Talbot, Mahlon Burwell, James Hamilton, Charles Ingersoll and John Matthews, held their first meeting in St. Thomas. D

The County of Elgin was established by an Act of the Legislature passed in August, 1851, and formed a union with Middlesex until County Buildings were erected. The provisional County Council held its first meeting in the Town Hall, St. Thomas, on April 15th, 1852. The first business was to erect a jail and Court House. Offers of building sites were received from Messrs. Curtis and Lawrence and Benjamin Drake. The Curtis sites were north of Talbot Street and West of East Street. The Lawrence site

The first meeting of the County Council, after the burning of the Court House, was held in the Grand Central Hotel, St. Thomas, on July 8th. The Insurance appraisers' award fixing the amount of damage at $5,509, was then presented. Mr. J. M. Green, contractor, was valuator on behalf of the County. The County officials were consulted in reference to temporary accommodation, and the Clerk was authorized to rent offices from Mr. Charles Spohn, on the south-west corner of William and Talbot streets.

  The statistics of 1817 are taken from Robt. Gourlay's Book. For other years official census reports were referred to....

1852. Aldborough —Duncan McColl. Dunwich —Moses Willey. Southwold —Colin Munro, Nicol McColl. Yarmouth —Elisha S. Ganson (Warden), Leslie Pierce. Malahide —Thomas Locker (Warden), Lewis J. Clarke. Bayham —John Elliott, J. Skinner. South Dorchester —Jacob Cline. St. Thomas —David Parish. 1898-1899. District No. 1 —(Aldborough) S. B. Morris, Daniel Lang (Warden 1898). District No. 2 —(Dutton and Dunwich) A. J. Leitch, Edward McKellar. District No. 3 —(Port Stanley and Southwold) William Jackson, D