The Founding of Ancaster
Text from the plaque
In 1791 James Wilson in partnership with Richard Beasley built a sawmill and a grist-mill on the site of this community. The mills were sold to Jean Baptiste Rousseaux (known as St. John) in 1794 and developed into a thriving pioneer enterprise. The settlement which grew around these mills became an important trading community known by about 1800 as "Ancaster". In 1805 Samuel and Richard Hatt, who had built the "Red Mill" nearby in 1799, acquired extensive holdings in the vicinity, part of which they subdivided. The combined settlement grew rapidly and became a centre for water-powered industries until the end of the nineteenth century.
Transcribed from the marker, not summarised.
Find the place
The City of Hamilton
In Ancaster, on the south side of Wilson Street East
just west of Sulphur Springs Road
Also recorded for this place: The City of Hamilton
N 43 13.531 W 79 58.618
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