Influence and Ambition: First Persons of Perth [Lanark County, Ontario]

By Ron W. Shaw

This thoroughly researched book will appeal to anyone interested in the settlement and development of Perth, Upper Canada (Ontario), the War of 1812, and the early families of Perth ,

Contents include:

• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 First Persons
• Chapter 2 William Bell
• Chapter 3 William Holderness
• Chapter 4 William Morris
• Chapter 5 Abbé Pierre-Jacques de La Mothe
• Chapter 6 John Stewart
• Chapter 7 John Adamson
• Chapter 8 Joseph Légaré
• Chapter 9 Josias William Tayler
• Chapter 10 Michael O’Connor
• Chapter 11 George Hume Reade
• Chapter 12 William Matheson
• Chapter 13 James Hamilton Powell
• Chapter 14 James Boulton
• Chapter 15 Henry Graham
• Chapter 16 William Richards
• Chapter 17 John Holliday
• Chapter 18 Roderick Matheson
• Chapter 19 Alexander Thom
• Selected sources
• Illustration credits

Browse a list of those who are mentioned in this book

Background: The British Army created the Perth Military Settlement in 1816 as part of a plan to provide “for the present defense and future protection of Upper Canada”. By 1822, when administration of the settlement was passed to the Colonial Office, more than 1,250 discharged soldiers with their families, as well as 700 civilian families, had been settled in the surrounding Townships of Bathurst, Drummond, Elmsley and Beckwith in what is now Lanark County, Ontario.

In Influence & Ambition: First Persons of Perth, local historian Ron W. Shaw challenges many of the accounts left by the Perth’s ‘First Historian’, Reverend William Bell. Through colourful biographies of Bell and seventeen other ‘First Persons’ Shaw takes a fresh look at Perth’s earliest history and the men who made it; many of whom went on to become Canada’s leading pioneer legislators and business leaders.

Shaw includes many references to other early settlers while telling the stories of those eighteen community leaders.

Details:

• 186 Pages
  
• 6 x 9"
  
• Index
  
• Softcover - Perfect bound
  
• Published by Global Heritage Press, Carleton Place, 2016 ISBN 978-1-77240-040-3 (paperback)