Robert F. Gourlay 1778-1863

Photo by Alan L Brown - Posted August, 2004

Plaque Location

The County of Oxford
The Township of South West Oxford
In Mount Elgin, on the southwest corner of
Mount Elgin Road (Road 18) and Plank Line (Highway 19)

Coordinates: N 42 57.500 W 80 47.554

Plaque Text

Gourlay was a radical Scot who crusaded for social reform in Britain in the early nineteenth century. His activities in Upper Canada sent shock waves through the province. He arrived in 1817 to examine property he owned just east of here and became interested in promoting settlement. To encourage immigration, Gourlay began compiling his "Statistical Account of Upper Canada" (1822). He soon decided that government favouritism and mismanagement were stifling growth. Gourlay challenged the authorities, organizing protest meetings and publishing colourful, heated attacks on office holders. Cleared of charges of seditious libel in Kingston and Brockville, he was charged under the Seditious Alien Act late in 1818 in Niagara, jailed for eight months, then banished.

Related Ontario plaque
Court-House and Gaol 1817-1866

Related Toronto plaque
Robert Gourlay 1778-1863

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Politicians

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Posted September 3, 2008
when did he finished writting the "statistical Account of Upper Canada"?

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