Thomas McKay | |
|---|---|
 Reproduction of a McKay portrait | |
| Born | 1 September 1792 |
| Died | 9 October 1855 |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Occupation | Architect |
Thomas McKay [lower-alpha 1] (1 September 1792 – 9 October 1855) was a Canadian businessman who was one of the founders of the city of Ottawa, Ontario.
McKay was born in Perth, Scotland and became a skilled stonemason. He emigrated to the Canadas in 1817, and settled in Montreal.
He became partners with John Redpath and their firm did the masonry work on the Lachine Canal near Montreal, they then went on to build the locks on the lower section of the Rideau Canal, between the Rideau River and the Ottawa River at Bytown. McKay also built two stone spans for the Union Bridge, which was the first bridge across the Ottawa River between Hull, Quebec and Bytown. The Commissariat building built by McKay in 1827 during the construction of the Rideau Canal now serves as home to the Bytown Museum and is the oldest surviving stone building in the city of Ottawa.
McKay was one of the few business leaders to remain in Bytown after the canal project was finished. He bought land at the intersection of the Rideau River and Ottawa River and laid out a town, which he named New Edinburgh. McKay built a sawmill and a gristmill on land there. He encouraged Scottish immigrants to come to the area and it became a prosperous industrial centre. He was an Elder and Trustee of St. Andrew's congregation of the Church of Scotland, and partly responsible for the acquisition of The Glebe lands for St Andrew's. He was also a founding trustee of Queen's College.
Thomas McKay became quite wealthy and in 1837 he bought 1100 acres (4.5 km2) east of the village. On the western edge of this new land he built in 1838 for himself a limestone Scottish Regency mansion which he named Rideau Hall, and which is today official residence of the Governor General of Canada. [1] He also built Earnscliffe to house his daughter and son-in-law. The remainder of McKay's lands later became the village of Rockcliffe Park. McKay also brought the first railroad to the Ottawa area with the Prescott and Bytown Railway that had its terminus at a station near Sussex Drive just south of New Edinburgh.
McKay entered politics serving on Bytown's city council, and then the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada from 1834 to 1841. From 1841 until his death in 1855, he served on the Legislative Council of the United Province of Canada.
Thomas McKay was interred in the Beechwood Cemetery in Ottawa. In New Edinburgh, the MacKay United Church is named in his memory.
| 1874 Canadian federal election : Colchester | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | ||||||
| Liberal–Conservative | Thomas McKay | 1,429 | ||||||
| Liberal | F.M. Pearson | 1,313 | ||||||
| Source: Canadian Elections Database [2] | ||||||||
| By-election on 17 December 1874 On Mr. McKay being un-seated on petition, 14 November 1874 | |||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal–Conservative | Thomas McKay | 1,818 | |||
| Unknown | Alex C. Page | 951 | |||
| 1878 Canadian federal election : Colchester | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | ||||||
| Liberal–Conservative | Thomas McKay | 1,829 | ||||||
| Unknown | Alex C. Page | 1,453 | ||||||
| Building | Year completed | Builder | Style | Source | Location | Image |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| McKay and McKinnon cloth mill | Thomas McKay | Library and Archives Canada, C-003853 | Rideau Falls near Ottawa, Ontario |  | ||
| Stone House currently the Bytown Museum | 1827 | Thomas McKay | Ottawa, Ontario |  | ||
| Rideau Hall | 1838 | Thomas McKay | Scottish Regency | Ottawa, Ontario |  | |
| Earnscliffe | 1855 | Thomas McKay | Scottish Regency | Ottawa, Ontario |  |
The Province of Upper Canada was a part of British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of the Province of Quebec since 1763. Upper Canada included all of modern-day Southern Ontario and all those areas of Northern Ontario in the Pays d'en Haut which had formed part of New France, essentially the watersheds of the Ottawa River or Lakes Huron and Superior, excluding any lands within the watershed of Hudson Bay. The "upper" prefix in the name reflects its geographic position along the Great Lakes, mostly above the headwaters of the Saint Lawrence River, contrasted with Lower Canada to the northeast.
The Rideau Canal is a 202-kilometre long canal that links the Ottawa River at Ottawa with the Cataraqui River and Lake Ontario at Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Its 46 locks raise boats from the Ottawa River 83 metres upstream along the Rideau River to the Rideau Lakes, and from there drop 50 metres downstream along the Cataraqui River to Kingston.
Bytown is the former name of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It was founded on September 26, 1826, incorporated as a town on January 1, 1850, and superseded by the incorporation of the City of Ottawa on January 1, 1855. The founding was marked by a sod turning, and a letter from Governor General Dalhousie which authorized Lieutenant Colonel John By to divide up the town into lots. Bytown came about as a result of the construction of the Rideau Canal and grew largely due to the Ottawa River timber trade. Bytown's first mayor was John Scott, elected in 1847.
Sussex Drive, also known as Ottawa Regional Road 93, is an arterial road in Ottawa, Ontario, the capital of Canada. It is one of the city's main ceremonial and institutional routes. Travelling roughly parallel to the Ottawa River, Sussex Drive begins as a continuation of Sir George-Étienne Cartier Parkway at Rideau Gate, at the entrance to Rideau Hall. It travels south to Rideau Street, with the portion south of St. Patrick Street forming the northbound half of a one-way pair with Mackenzie Avenue. Both Mackenzie Avenue and Sussex Drive connect with Colonel By Drive at their southern end, which continues south alongside the Rideau Canal.
New Edinburgh is a neighbourhood in Rideau-Rockcliffe Ward, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is located to the northeast of the downtown core. It is bordered on the west by the Rideau River, to the north by the Ottawa River, to the south by Beechwood Avenue, and on the east by Springfield Road and the former Rockcliffe Park village limits.
Ruggles Wright was a Canadian lumber merchant, the second youngest son of Philemon Wright.
Nicholas Sparks was an early landholder of Bytown, Upper Canada who owned most of the lands in the present day commercial core of Downtown Ottawa.
The Senate of Canada Building is a government building and former railway station that serves as the temporary seat of the Senate of Canada. Located at 2 Rideau Street in downtown Ottawa, it was known as Ottawa Union Station and served as the city's central railway station from 1912 until 1966. From 1966 to 2018, it was operated by the Government of Canada as the Government Conference Centre. The building currently includes a temporary Senate chamber, as well as some Senate offices and committee rooms.
St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church is the oldest Presbyterian church in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Lees Avenue is both a road and a neighbourhood in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The area lies in the narrow stretch between the Rideau Canal and Rideau River south of Sandy Hill and the Queensway and is part of Old Ottawa East. The neighbourhood is dominated by five large apartment buildings, some of the largest in Ottawa. These buildings range from low cost to moderate cost and mostly house new immigrants, students and young professionals. Across the Rideau River to the east Hurdman is a more recently built such area.
The Bytown and Prescott Railway (B&PR) was a railway joining Ottawa with Prescott on the Saint Lawrence River, in the Province of Canada. The company was incorporated in 1850, and the first train ran from Prescott into Bytown on Christmas Day, 1854. The 84 kilometres (52 mi) railway, Ottawa's first to outside markets, was initially used to ship lumber collected on the Ottawa River for further shipping along the St. Lawrence to markets in the United States and Montreal.
William Stewart was a businessman and political figure in Upper Canada and Canada West. An immigrant from Scotland, he settled in Bytown where he was active in business and public life. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada, serving from 1843 to 1847. He died in Toronto in 1856, while representing the interests of the city of Ottawa.
Edward Malloch (1801–1867) was a merchant and political figure in Upper Canada.
Robert Drummond was a businessman in Upper Canada.
Frederick Preston Rubidge,, was a surveyor and an architect. He was born in England and emigrated to Upper Canada around 1825 where he took his training.
Thomas Burrowes (1796–1866) was a Captain with the Corps of Royal Sappers and Miners who served as both a surveyor and overseer during the construction of the Rideau Canal in Ontario, Canada. Burrowes is known, however, for having documented the construction of the canal and the landscape of the surrounding area in a series of watercolour paintings, thus creating an important eyewitness record of one of the most important engineering projects of 19th century Canada.
This is a timeline of the history of Ottawa.
The history of Ottawa, capital of Canada, was shaped by events such as the construction of the Rideau Canal, the lumber industry, the choice of Ottawa as the location of Canada's capital, as well as American and European influences and interactions. By 1914, Ottawa's population had surpassed 100,000 and today it is the capital of a G7 country whose metropolitan population exceeds one million.
The Ottawa River timber trade, also known as the Ottawa Valley timber trade or Ottawa River lumber trade, was the nineteenth century production of wood products by Canada on areas of the Ottawa River and the regions of the Ottawa Valley and western Quebec, destined for British and American markets. It was the major industry of the historical colonies of Upper Canada and Lower Canada and it created an entrepreneur known as a lumber baron. The trade in squared timber and later sawed lumber led to population growth and prosperity to communities in the Ottawa Valley, especially the city of Bytown. The product was chiefly red and white pine.The Ottawa River being conveniently located with access via the St. Lawrence River, was a valuable region due to its great pine forests surpassing any others nearby. The industry lasted until around 1900 as both markets and supplies decreased, it was then reoriented to the production of wood pulp which continued until the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Bytown was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of the Province of Canada. The district represented the town of Bytown, in Canada West, which was re-named Ottawa in 1855. The electoral district was created in 1841, upon the establishment of the Province of Canada, from the merger of Upper Canada and Lower Canada. It was renamed to Ottawa following the renaming of the city.
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