Work by Elwood H.

Published January 28, 2004

Peterborough was named in 1825, as a compliment to Peter Robinson, who had just led a group of 2000 Irish immigrants to the area surrounding that administrative town. However, public lore has misunderstood the origins of the name, and the circumstances of its adoption. The name was acceptable to earlier settlers as well as the newcomers. The name was chosen by the Hon Zacheus Burnham, and was evocative of his New Hampshire upbringing. Its real local appeal was as a constant reminder that the provincial government had special obligations in this neighborhood. 

No story in local history has had more discussion. Every discussion has been affected by the limited use of historical sources, of which the three most accepted are seriously in error in different ways. As well, most commentators have had modern reasons for believing the details they had. History is not simply about sharing facts. But when the facts are wrong, the general public naturally gets skewed versions of the past. 

When researching for Peterborough: the Electric City I noticed several candidates for the name of what became Peterborough. The Indian name for this place was Nogojiwanong, a name appropriately applied to a river park near Simcoe Street. In the mid-1820s, the names in the air included Scott’s Mills,  Scott’s Plains, Horton, and Peterborough, and perhaps more. There seems little doubt that the first two names relate to Adam Scott, whose mill near the corner of what is now King and Water streets, was the source of the first two names, both of which lacked imagination for what might be. Horton was a reference to Robert Wilmot Horton, the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, the great promoter of group immigration as a means of moving poor settlers from Ireland to a colony, arguably to reduce poor law payments in Ireland and spur advancement of the colonies. An 1826 letter from Miss Beaufort to Frances Stewart says, “I am rather sorry you chose the name Peterborough, we think your former choice of Horton much prettier and more uncommon.”¹

Peterborough is no one’s last name. The origin of this word was New Hampshire. In Upper Canada, naming rights for geographical features was commonly assumed by surveyors, postmasters or first settlers. In both Ontario and New Hampshire, Keene, Ashburnham and Peterborough are in the same area. The link to New Hampshire is direct and strong. 

If a town were “named for” Peter Robinson, a logical choice would be Robinson, a name not overly used. Peterborough, New Hampshire was named for Peterborough, England and that city, formerly St Peter’s burh, St Peter’s fortified town. St Petersburg is named for Peter the Great, and elsewhere in North America there are many places named Petersburg. If one were naming a city for a Peter, Petersburg would be more likely. 

With this background in mind, let’s consider the sources that discuss this matter. Most famously, Frances Stewart describes an event at Government House during the visit of the Lieutenant-Governor, Sir Peregrine Maitland, in February 1826. The large party of five sleighs brought many dignitaries, including John Beverley Robinson, the brother of Peter and also Attorney-General of Upper Canada, and the person who mentioned Peter to Wilmot-Horton. Thomas Talbot, who was bringing Irish immigration to the Talbot settlement in the London area of western Ontario, was also on hand. Local and Cobourg dignitaries included Dr and Mrs Reade, Mrs and Captain Charles Rubidge, James Grey Bethune, and Hon Zacheus Burnham. The narrator of My Forest Home says “My mother suggested “Peterborough” in honor of Mr. Peter Robinson and it was at once chosen as most suitable.” (2^nd ed, 91) Frances Stewart was more precise. She said if the place were named Peterborough, Peter Robinson would accept it as a compliment. T.A.S. Hay, in his short history of Peterborough, appended to the second edition of My Forest Home says that during Maitland’s visit in 1826, “After several suggestions the name ‘Peterborough’ was unanimously adopted, out of compliment to the Hon. Peter Robinson.” Hay was blending the language of Poole and his grandmother.²

In 1866, The Canadian News reports curiously in an otherwise informative article, “Peterborough takes its name from the Honourable Peter Robinson, who first formed a settlement of Irish immigrants on the north shore of Rice Lake, about forty years ago.”³ 

Dr T.W. Poole in his 1867 book, The Early Settlement of Peterborough County, says the visit in the winter of 1826, “just one year and a few months after the arrival of the immigrants.” The immigrants arrived in Peterborough in August and September 1825, so Poole suggested the visit was in February 1827. However, in this account he refers to the next season as the spring of 1826. His use of the winter of 1826 has likewise confused subsequent readers. Poole’s account has been the most available, and has been paraphrased often, errors included. 

Poole helps us to identify people who attended the rude levee or the later dinner at Government House on that Saturday night in early February 1826. The guests from York included Col Thomas Talbot and Hon John Beverly Robinson. From Cobourg, Poole mentions the Hon Zacheus Burnham and George G. Bethune, Esq. (surely James G. Bethune). In Otonabee, Captain Rubidge joined the party, and they were met in the town by Peter Robinson and Alexander McDonnel, and chief settlers, of which Poole notes Robert Reid and the Hon Thomas A. Stewart. (19) From Our Forest Home, we can add names noted by Frances Stewart: Dr and Mrs Reade; Mrs Rubidge; Frances Stewart; Maitland’s son as Maitland’s aide de camp; Major Hillier, Maitland’s secretary; Col Burke and Doctor Connin. (2^nd ed, 88-91) Howard Pammett, in his account as reprinted in the Heritage Gazette of the Trent Valley, February 2002, (18) confirms James G. Bethune from Cobourg and adds Richard Birdsall and George Burke with the local dignitaries. 

After a long discussion of Maitland’s visit, Poole continues, “It was soon after, that at a meeting of a few gentlemen residing in the vicinity, the name of “Peterborough” was selected for the future town, in compliment to the Hon. Peter Robinson, to whose exertions in promoting the settlement of the neighboring townships they felt so much indebted. The selection was at once ratified by general consent, and “Scott’s plains” ere long ceased to be associated with the prosperous town.” (22)

Nicholas Flood Davin’s The Irish in Peterborough paid particular attention to the Robinson settlers, Stafford Kirkpatrick and William Cluxton.⁴ The Peterborough visit by Sir Peregrine Maitland receives several paragraphs. He notes that many loyal addresses were forwarded to Earl Bathurst, the Colonial Secretary, and that the visit bore fruit: the government built a mill, purchased in 1827 by John Hall and Moore Lee; and a bridge was built over the river. Despite the opportunity, he does not comment on how Scott’s Plains became Peterborough, although he notices the spelling of Peterboro’ depends on the whim of the writer (364).

C.P. Mulvaney wrote the Peterborough section of the 1884 History of the County of Peterborough. Mulvaney, based in Toronto, credited Peter Robinson and Charles Rubidge with immense influence. He comments that the “large and important” Robinson immigration “was the true foundation of the Town of Peterborough, and thence the rising prosperity of the surrounding townships.” (252) After an extensive discussion of the Maitland visit in February 1827, Mulvaney begins the subsequent chapter with arresting observations. 

“The Governor’s visit gave such an impulse to the growth of the settlement of Scott’s Plains that at a meeting of the leading gentlemen of the neighborhood, held in the year 1827, it was resolved to adopt as the name of the future town, Peterborough, in well-deserved honour of its founder, the Hon. Peter Robinson. This was acceptable to everyone: to the English settlers it recalled the quaint old-time cathedral city; to the Catholics it brought associations of the fisherman-saint to whom, perhaps by an association of ideas, the Catholic Cathedral of Peterborough has been dedicated.” (289)

We gain hints of Mulvaney’s sources. He was used some Colonial Office correspondence, the Robinson papers then in possession of Christopher Robinson, and the evidence in the reports to Parliament.  He met with Adam Scott, a son of Adam Scott, living in Millbrook, and the Rev. Vincent Clementi, a son-in-law of Charles Rubidge. Charles M. Ryan, of Toronto, wrote the township histories. Several prominent people submitted biographies to the book. 

Francis H. Dobbin⁵, the reigning historian of the next generation, using Frances Stewart’s letters, dated Maitland’s visit at 4 February 1826. In a Peterborough Review column in 1910, Dobbin said: “It was soon after that at a meeting of a few gentlemen residing in the vicinity, the name of “Peterborough” was selected for the future town, to compliment to the Hon. Peter Robinson, to whose exertions in promoting the settlement of the neighboring townships they felt so much indebted. The selection was at once ratified by general consent, and “Scott’s Plains” ere long ceased to be associated with the prosperous town.”

One of Dobbin’s pertinent historical articles in 1923 records his first encounter with the Peter Robinson papers.⁶ These had been donated to the Victoria Museum of the Historical Society of Peterborough in 1897, and went to the Peterborough Public Library after the death in March 1917 of Thomas A. S. Hay, who with F. R. Yokome, was the protector of the museum. Dobbin said “nothing of particularity” has been written in forty years. 

Howard Pammett did the most thorough investigation of the questions in his 1933 MA thesis for Queen’s. He made good use of the Robinson papers, the Colonial Office transcripts and the British Parliamentary Papers and the thesis, being published in serial form in the Heritage Gazette of the Trent Valley, had a well-founded credibility. He corrected the date of Maitland’s visit to 11 February 1826, deferred to Mulvaney’s account of the consensus-making, criticized Poole and noted that Frances Stewart’s account is unverified. Pammett noted that Robinson lived in Peterborough from August 1825, Government House was completed in October, and Robinson lived under canvas between August and November, and later made occasional visits to the immigrant depot.(February 2002, 17) On this occasion, town and park lots were given to George Burke, Alexander McDonell, John Smith, Charles Rubidge, Richard Birdsall and George Reade; the patents issued in May 1827.(16) Several grants were given to the Rev Mr Crowley, for the local Roman Catholic church.

In his discussion of Maitland’s visit in his 1974 history of Emily Township, Pammett curtly observed, “… the name “Peterborough” was bestowed on the infant village…” (33) His main interest in that work, of course, was with those who settled on land in Emily.

Peterborough Land of Shining Waters was an ambitious collective work. Robertson Davies comments on the use of “Peterborough man” and hopes the term will come to cover people not born in Peterborough. (viii) Robertson Davies does not use Peterburian.⁷ Writing to H.L. Mencken just after New Year’s 1946, he says properly a denizen of Peterborough is Peterboronian, but that some people in Peterborough used Peterborovian; and rude people outside said Peterboors. He seems to prefer “Peterborough man.”

Ron Borg said the purpose was to include essays by “Peterburians, resident or expatriate.” (ix) In a chapter on “Early Days,” J. E. R. Munro avoids discussion but aptly quotes the Deputy Provincial Surveyor, John Smith’s terse 1827 report to the government: “The name Peterborough has been given to Scott’s Plains.”(46)

Bill Labranche in his 1975 Peterborough Scrapbook largely paraphrased Mulvaney’s account. “Indeed their admiration for him was so great that in 1827, at the suggestion of Mrs Frances Stewart, wife of Thomas A. Stewart, the name of the settlement was officially changed from Scott’s Plains to Peterborough, in his honour.” (6)

A letter, 15 December 1825, from Dr Francis Connin, which Pammett had also noted as the earliest written proof that the name was in use before Maitland’s visit, refers to “Peterborro” and the circular postmark on the cancellation contained “Peterboro” in individual letters. Bob Bowley, a local expert on postal history said this predated the founding of the local post office by five years, and that for 100 years the post office spelled it Peterboro.⁸

Helen Marryat, reflecting on Our Forest Home and on the John Strachan letter book, speculated that John Strachan was the source of the name.⁹ She also believed that the post office must have started in 1825, in J.G. Bethune’s Peterboro store. Bowley notwithstanding, she may be right on the second point. However, her first point is based upon a false assumption that Strachan, because he had power at the centre, could do anything for a former student. Given credible explanations, one should avoid speculation.

Joyce Lewis wrote an informative article in the Peterborough Historical Society Bulletin, February 1976 to mark the sesquicentennial of Maitland’s visit. She had been reading the letters of Frances Stewart, which had been edited severely for publication in Our Forest Home. These are now in the Trent University Archives. She adds to the list of local notables the John Armstrongs, Sidney Bellingham, Lt A. McDonnell, and Samuel Strickland.

In a year end review of Peterborough’s 150^th year, the Peterborough Examiner commented on the Peterborough Historical Society’s story. “Peterborough wasn’t officially named until several months after the immigrants arrived.” After telling Frances Stewart’s version of the story, it reported Nick Nickels’ comments that the name came from Zacheus Burnham, who accompanied Maitland on the 1826 visit. Burnham was at the peak of his power as the official surveyor, treasurer of Newcastle District, and a member of the Family Compact. It was named for Peterborough, a place near where Burnham was born, which the Examiner mistakenly placed in England. Nickels had been a reporter with the Examiner, and was the Burnham family historian. No specific sources were mentioned by Nickels.¹⁰

Maitland’s party included Maitland’s son, and his secretary, Major George Hillier. Joyce Lewis writes, “It was during dinner that the subject of a name for the village came up. Mrs Stewart, seated between Sir Peregrine and Peter Robinson, suggested Peterborough. Maitland accepted this compliment to the founder of the village and proposed a toast to the new settlement’s growth and success.” She notes that the name Peterboro was used on a tavern license in January.¹¹ 

While writing several biographies for the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, I had the opportunity to do a close study of Dr John Gilchrist, the founder of Keene, Ontario. I was also engaged in a major historical project on the political culture of Upper Canada, that flowed in the early stages from my work on the Great Reform Convention of 1859. Gilchrist was also born in New Hampshire and settled in Cobourg; indeed quite a few New Englanders found their way to the shores of Lake Ontario, mainly in search of land. With the assistance of Zacheus Burnham, Gilchrist established a mill at Keene, which he named for a village in New Hampshire, about twenty miles from Peterborough, New Hampshire. Coincidences always need explaining. Peterborough, Keene and Ashburnham were in close proximity in both New Hampshire and Ontario, and Zacheus Burnham was always in the best position to suggest a name. 

The 1981 Kawartha Conference featured a school history fair, displays and several interesting discussions which were published in the proceedings, edited by A.O.C. Cole and Jean Murray Cole as Kawartha Heritage. Dennis Carter-Edwards spoke about Zacheus Burnham, the remarkable Cobourg entrepreneur whose hand seemed to be in every project for promoting the Newcastle District. This included the building and promotion of mills, harbour improvement, canals and railroads. In 1829, for example, he worked closely with Thomas A. Stewart, Charles Rubidge, and James Grey Bethune to get the Cobourg harbor improved and recognized.¹² 

The importance of the Burnhams became more evident with several works on Cobourg and Peterborough, and Peter Ennals’ biographical sketch on Burnham for the Dictionary of Canadian Biography in the volume published in 1985. Of particular note was the fine 1976 article on James Grey Bethune which appeared in Victorian Cobourg. Many historians in the 1970s and 1980s were producing studies of communities that considered the different ways in which status could be studied and assessed. 

Neil Forkey in a recent environmental history of the Kawarthas summarized wrongly, “These immigrants were so grateful to Robinson that they named the Trent Valley’s major commercial centre, Peterborough, after him.”¹³ The recent immigrants did not get to name Peterborough, but the summary suggests that they should have had a say.

I referred to the naming of Peterborough a number of times between 1975 and 1987, and each time deferred to the received wisdom, generally saying Peterborough was named in honour of Peter Robinson, in 1826. Mulvaney erred, and confused subsequent observers, as to the meaning of Poole’s reference to Maitland’s visit in the “winter of 1826″; it was February 1826 not February 1827. Since Peterborough: the Electric City, I balanced the many received interpretations with my own gnawing concern about why a name that was “in the air” by 1825. In the Illustrated Historical Atlas of Peterborough County 1825-1875 (1975), writers were told to capture an 1875 perspective, and I wrote, the town was “named Peterborough in 1826 in honour of Peter Robinson.” (63, abridged edition). Twelve years later, in  Peterborough: the Electric City, I wrote:

“When Sir Peregrine Maitland, the lieutenant-governor, visited in February 1826, the village was officially named Peterboro, in honour of Peter Robinson, its valued patron. Peterboro was in use by late 1825, and it is possible the name was suggested by the New Hampshire town, near Keene and Ashburnham, familiar to the Burnhams, John Gilchrist and others.” (13)

I used similar language in speeches and articles during the late 1980s. With the new edition of the Canadian Encyclopedia, now in a website www.canadianencyclopeida.ca I say the name came from New Hampshire and was used because Robinson would see it as a compliment. 

In a Peterborough Examiner, December 2002 review of the recently published letters of Robertson Davies, I commented:

The most interesting explanation of Peterborough came in Davies’ 1946 letter (25-27) to H L Mencken, the great American writer who was fascinated with words. He said the proper word for someone from here was Peterboronian, but nothing was more honoured than being a “Peterborough man.” … He also told Mencken that Peterborough’s name was a tribute to Peter Robinson; “tribute” is precise. The name came from New Hampshire, but won over other choices because Robinson would see it as a compliment.¹⁴

The issue was raised recently when the Peterborough Examiner was helping researchers with a new edition of a dictionary.¹⁵ The following exchange of views suggested that some could be upset at efforts to downplay the importance of Peter Robinson after the City of Peterborough chose to name both its August civic holiday and its most prestigious local awards in honour of Peter Robinson. It was felt that once we have the uncontested facts people should be content. However, such arguments suggest that history is about the present rather than the past. When we have a usable past we should keep it. 

Historians have raised insightful questions, and should continue to do so.  How were decisions made in 1825? Why did the Robinson immigration solidify the power base of earlier settlers rather than the Irish newcomers? Why was the name accepted by different constituencies? Who had the opportunity to advance new names and make them stick? Who was empowered by the choice of names, and the uses made of the choice? Why was the name in the air in 1825? How important is the connection to the Family Compact, to which Peterborough is firmly tied with the government grants of 1827 and the naming of the town? Why does Frances Stewart use the coy expression that Robinson would see it as a compliment? What is the difference between compliment, honour and naming? If one were to name a town after Peter Robinson, what would be the most obvious choices? These are all valid historical questions that open windows into the past. Historians are obliged to make sense of the questions they encounter. We need to know more about interconnections, and how decisions are made. We need to read culturally the accounts around which people share their identities. For Peterburians, there is no better entry point into our history.

Referring to Robinson as “its valued patron” drew attention to the political protection that was necessary. Patronage in the language of the 1820s obliged people to support patrons. This was a neat opportunity to do so. Linking the names in the air with Keene and with New Hampshire drew attention to the importance of surveyors and founders in the naming of places. Zacheus Burnham, the Surveyor for the Newcastle District, was the son of a Loyalist from south-west New Hampshire. Dr John Gilchrist, the founder of Keene, was from that part of New Hampshire. Historians always question coincidences in history. 

The town was being surveyed in 1825, probably in preparation for the Robinson settlers, for which Scott’s Plains was the administrative centre. It was clear that the new town could benefit from close connections with the provincial capital, something that was very evident during Maitland’s visit. Peter’s brother was the attorney-general, and Peter became the Commissioner of Crown Lands in 1827. Peterborough saw its future tied to close links to Toronto then and in every subsequent generation; even as recently as the October 2003 election, Peterborough was a bellwether riding provincially. 

Saying that Peter Robinson would see it as a compliment is actually quite informative. Of all the names in the air, this was the only one that would please Robinson, and seal connections with the Family Compact. The Scott names were mundane. Horton, although a prettier name, and applied to a place in Nova Scotia, would suggest that people locally valued Horton, the political force behind the Irish migration, more than Robinson who handled the details. Robinson was under pressure to make his books balance and to account for the decisions he had made. Howard Pammett’s thesis which has been published in installments in the Heritage Gazette of the Trent Valley provides excellent insight into the political pressures. While the thesis was completed seventy years ago, it has only now reached a wide audience. 

The Hon Zacheus Burnham was among the people who accompanied Sir Peregrine Maitland to Peterborough in 1826. Burnham (1797-1857) was raised in New Hampshire, and came to the Cobourg area in his early 20s. He was considered a local success story, with over 1500 acres of land when he successfully bid in 1818 for the contract to survey several townships, including Otonabee, Asphodel, Douro and Dummer; his reward was over 13,000 acres. Richard Birdsall, who married one of Burnham’s daughter, surveyed Peterborough in 1825, coincident with the arrival of the Irish migration under Peter Robinson. The Birdsalls were among the local guests for the Maitland visit.¹⁶  His only son, the Rev Mark Burnham, inherited most of the estate of his father, and this included significant parts of Peterborough, and Ashburnham, which also was named for a place familiar to Zacheus Burnham. 

The naming of Peterborough was a moment of empowerment. The Robinson migration was not just about bringing settlers to this area. Those who had lived here suddenly had hope of a brighter future: Thomas A. Stewart and Charles Rubidge, for example, received government honours. Land chosen in Peterborough had potential value, and the surveying of the land was a confirmation of that.  Robinson had promises of future reward. People such as Zacheus Burnham knew that their estates grew in direct proportion with the growth of the district. With Robinson’s assistance, the town was able to have petitions granted for a local bridge, a local saw and grist mill, and for land for churches. 

This much is clear. In 1825, Peterborough experienced a moment of new opportunities captured by the arrival of nearly 2000 Irish settlers, the surveying of streets in the Town of Peterborough, and the first postal service. The combination empowered not only the new settlers, but those in Upper Canada associated with its organization and servicing, and also those who had settled in the District of Newcastle in the previous 30 years. The key to future success was tied to keeping connections open with Cobourg and with York. The name Peterborough, of New Hampshire origin, was introduced as a name because of the importance of Zacheus Burnham and Cobourg. It achieved a consensus because it evoked meaning at several levels. It was meant and accepted as a compliment to Peter Robinson. It acknowledged the importance of the emerging district elite. It was a safely English name, in a settlement with many links to the post-Napoleonic Wars migration. It evoked a meaningful trust by Irish Catholic settlers. The name was special, and no government would forget that this was a town founded on promises of continuing support. 

[The research for this report was greatly aided by the staff at the Trent Valley Archives who alerted me to many fresh sources. Thank you to Pat, Diane and Brooke.]

---