The following research by the late Harold Reeve is part of a photocopied 1937 work found at the Port Hope Public Library. The map at the bottom of this page was included with the text and has been relabelled as parts of it were difficult to read.

As much of it deals with general topics such as Upper Canada settlement, transportation, taxes, etc. which can readily be found elsewhere, we have chosen to present only his local information. A number of the lot owners mentioned were likely Mr. Reeve’s neighbours at the time of writing.

Additional material has been taken from Mr. Reeve's 1967, The History of the Township of Hope.

---

The first white settlers to Port Britain (1795) were Leonard Soper and his wife, Mary Marsh. "She rode horseback from Vermont. The hand-tooled sidesaddle that Mrs. Soper used was in existance a few years ago and may still be."

Their first house, the only house between Bowmanville and Port Hope, was on Lot 22 on the lake shore “...just east of the ball diamond at Willow Beach, and the old cellar may still be seen." This log house was 20’ x 20’, large for the time, but necessary for his family of 12 children. As late as 1930, one of the foundation logs, "probably one of the first logs cut by any white man in the school district, could still be seen".

As there was no mill at Port Hope, Soper went once to Kingston and several times to Napanee, taking his grist in a canoe. (Port Britain had its first mill by 1798.) At his death in 1838, he was buried in the family graveyard on Best’s farm [the Soper family cemetery], just north and west of the Willow Beach/Lakeshore roads intersection (Lot 23). Years later all the existing stones were removed to Bowmanville Cemetery; the remains were undisturbed.

Samuel William Marsh, generally considered to be the founder of Port Britain, settled around 1796. Their first house was on the point between lots 19 and 20, or Powers’ and Eley’s, which ran out into the lake further than it presently does. Their second house was at the foot of Port Britain hill. Some of the hand-hewn rafters exist in the steel barn at Lot 20. At his death in 1813, he was interred in the family cemetery near the old GTR crossing near the lake. Son, Robert, had the stone house and vault, where his father was reinterred, built in 1856.

Reeves wrote, "Twenty-six people are buried in the vault. Two rows of coffins are placed around the outside on the floor, three coffins are in the aisle, while shelves along the side walls hold the remainder. The resting place of Samuel Marsh is near the middle on the north side."

In 1855, a group of Montreal speculators - William Jackson, Sir Samuel Morton, Peter Baronet, Thomas Brassey, and Edward Ladd Betts - purchased the land south of the main road (Lots 21-23), comprising the harbour, the railway station on Lot 22, and land west of the side road to be divided into town lots. An auction was held, but few people turned up.
The prospectus can be found here.

The years 1856-’57 were boom years in Port Britain, with land speculation, the railway, and the harbour being built. They were boom years all over Upper Canada and resulted in over-speculation in railways and land, with the further result of a financial depression in 1857-’58. When the depression had lifted, Port Britain’s chances of becoming a metropolis had vanished.

Lovell’s 1857-’58 Canada Directory…

Port Britain, C.W.: A small but important village on Lake Ontario in the Township of Hope and County of Durham. An extensive Harbour of Refuge, and wharves are being created at this village within the breakwater. There will be an area of 14 acres with 14 feet of water. The Grand Trunk Railway has a station adjoining the harbour. The village has a trade in ship building. Distant from Port Hope 4 miles, and from Toronto, 59 miles. Daily mail. Population about 350.

A list of the businessmen:

• Thomas Crocker, cooper, gave the land for the second church.
• Robert Bickle, waggon maker, who later moved up Port Britain side road and made wooden hay rakes and cheese boxes, and whose constant financial difficulties caused the remark, “Port Britain is a lovely place to live in, but a poor place for business”.
• John Darke, builder, grandfather of Cyril Darke.
• William Dinner, cooper, grandfather of Mrs. Cyril Darke.
• William Glen, store and grist mill, who sued the GTR in 1856 for causing backwater at the mill and received $1500 damages.
• Thomas Jarvis, contractor.
• Charles Lee, builder.
• John Kinsman, builder. great-grandfather of Mrs. Arnold Austin. His lot was the site of the mill teamster building shown on the map.
• Mark Manley, blacksmith, came from England 1857, settled first in Port Britain, later living on Lot 21 on Concession 3, Hamilton Township, in 1878.
• Charles Lilly, railway station master. Location of his house is still clearly marked in the station yard on Lot 22.
• Robert Marsh, J.P. and farmer.
• William S. Marsh, lumber merchant and shipbuilder, who built the schooners Trafalgar, Jane Ann Marsh, Caroline Marsh, and Sarah Ann Marsh on the shore just east of Willow Beach, the latter three named after his daughters.
• Joseph Morrell, Proprietor of Harbour.
• Thomas Myers, postmaster and general storekeeper.
• Charles Potts, teacher. Died in NY state. His mother is buried in Wesleyville, 1854.
• James Reeves, mason, who built Marsh’s stone house and the burial vault.
• Hiram Soper, veterinary surgeon.
• Staples Bros., fishermen.
• Foster Stephenson, upholsterer.
• Richard Trenbeth, tailor and gardener, who paid 40 pounds for ¼ acre of land.
• James Spry, hotel keeper. This hotel (Mr. Nathan Nichols’ house), on the south side of Lakeshore Road, is the second house east from the corner. The tavern had been running for a number of years before the lot was bought by Spry in 1847. He ran the Port Britain Inn and the blacksmith shop for ten years, before putting it up for sale in 1853. The following year, the new owner, John Hawkins, had the Lake Shore Hotel for sale, but still held the licence in 1859. Spry had it again in 1860. The last year of record was 1868, when it was called Culver's Hotel.

Advertisements courtesy of Mark Clayton,
porthopehistory.com

Deeds did not have to be registered before 1798. When this law came into effect, it was often eight to ten years between the application for, and receipt of, the Crown Deed. Following is a list of the Crown Deeds for the school section. The grant of land in each case extended from the water’s edge to the second concession.

Concession 1, Hope Township

1937 Lot Owner	Original Grantee	Date of Registration
King's Lot 9	Ann Ridout	16 June 1804
Uglow's Lot 10	James Robins	06 April 1804
Ferguson's Lot 11	King's College	03 January 1828
Little's Lot 12	Jonathan Walton	19 March 1804
Harcourt's Lot 13	Benjamin Marsh	17 May 1802
Brand's Lot 14	John Trull	05 May 1807
C. Dickinson's Lot 15, South Part (150 acres)	Daniel Brand	30 November 1842
Alexander’s Lot 15, North Part (50 acres)	William Sexton	03 September 1845
Holman's Lot 16	Josiah Haskill	19 August 1839
S. Haskill's Lot 17	Samuel William Marsh	01 November 1806
Nesbitt's Lot 18	James Stevens	24 March 1810
B. Dickinson's Lot 19	Joseph Haskill	30 January 1803
Port Britain Lot 20	Samuel William Marsh	01 November 1806
Rock's Lot 21	King's College	03 January 1828
Reeve's Lot 22	Leonard Soper	13 May 1803
Best's Lot 23	Mary Soper	14 May 1805

The first Bible Christian church "was of brick, made on the job, and was on the east bank of the Mill Pond on land granted to the church by Reuben Grant in 1851." The side road connecting the two concessions, just west of the stone house, went through the fields of Lot 20, thereby avoiding the necessity of bridges over the creek. About 1866, the new owner, Robert Elias Sculthorpe, objected to the church and road on his property, so the church was sold to him for $200, with the bricks being used in the construction of Sam Sculthorpe’s house.

Another $200 was realized from the sale of a church site just east of Sylvester’s house. With this, a new church was built, on land given by Sam Crocker, on the northeast corner of Cyril Darke’s farm. It opened 26 January 1868, and after the Methodist-Bible Christian union, the church was dropped from the circuit, and eventually sold, to be used in the building of Zion school c1906. The foundation can be seen on the southwest corner of Port Britain and Lakeshore roads.

Who’s who…

• John Hoar, the village blacksmith for many years.
• Charles Pillsworth ran the mill for some years and dug the creek channel south of the road.
• Harmer(?) Lashbrook, the village character, the butt of many a village prank. One evening, as he was walking home with a bundle of straw over his back, one of the boys crept up behind him and set it on fire to the great delight of the boys safely hidden behind fences and trees.
• Josiah Haskill, grandfather of Miss Haskill and Shuter. He walked from Port Britain to York between sunrise and sunset.
• Tim Haskill lived in a log house on O’Hara’s farm. The fireplace on one side of the room was big enough to roll in a four-foot log, two feet through. The iron poker that hung on the bricks at the side had hung there so long that the knob had worn flat on one side. His wife, Electa Johnson, came from Vermont in 1793.
• Judy Chartrand, grandfather of Lingard Bors, came up from Montreal with Bill Marsh when on one of his trips with lumber. Mr. Chartrand drew masts to Toronto on the Kingston Road.
• George Holdaway, grandfather of Alf, came to our section in 1862. For nine winters, he cut a cord of wood daily and drew it to Port Hope.
• Hiram Soper, veterinary surgeon, lived in Sylvester’s house. It was his pleasure to sit on the lawn and play the fiddle, much to the annoyance of an old woman across the road who always came out and cursed him as long as he played. This gave rise to much discussion as to which was the mightier – the bow or the tongue.
• Jim Mulvay, better known as Gunner, famous for his voice. It is said that on a calm evening, he could be heard in Port Britain as he left Port Hope with his horses galloping full tilt shouting, “Hurrah for Gunner!” The horses always galloped home from town. One evening, the connecting bolt came out of the reach, but he drove merrily on and swerved into the yard in true Ben Hur style, blissfully unaware that he had lost the back wheels of his chariot.

Please note In the map below, drawn by Mr. Reeve in 1937, the mill pond and surrounding area is on private property.

---

Peter and Barbara Bolton - Port Hope, Ontario
alivingpast.ca