Neighbourhood history

Major-General Sir John Colborne, GCB, GCMG, 1^st Baron Seaton (1778-1863).
British field marshal, Lieutenant Governor of Guernsey, Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, founder of Upper Canada College, Commander-in-Chief of the British armed forces during the Rebellions of 1837 in the Canadas, Acting Governor of British North America, Commander-in-Chief of Ireland. Colborne left Canada in 1839 for England, where he was named a privy councillor and raised to a peer as Lord Seaton.

Map: Toronto Annexations, 1834-1914, in Toronto to 1918: an Illustrated History, JMS Careless, p. 126. (With Town of York annotation.)

Like most of the province’s élite, George Crookshank engaged in land speculation from the time he came to Upper Canada. In 1797 he had received a crown grant of 1,200 acres, including farms at Thornhill, some 10 miles north of York, and another still farther north at Newmarket. In York itself he purchased a large number of properties which he rented out.

George Crookshank was born in New York City of Scottish parents in 1763. His father was owner and captain of a trading vessel and immigrated to New Brunswick after the American Revolution. George first went to work aboard his uncle's merchant ships trading to Jamaica. A sister, Catherine Crookshank, married John McGill, who was appointed commissary of stores and provisions at York in 1792. George and another sister, Rachel, followed Mrs. McGill to York in December 1796.

Crookshank served with the commissariat of supplies for Fort York and other garrisons in the area. A series of promotions followed: Assistant Commissary General in 1814; Receiver General of Public Accounts (1819-1820); a member of the Legislative Council (1821-1841). He was Director of the Bank of Upper Canada from 1822 to 1827.

Crookshank's first house, built circa 1800, was on the lakeshore on the east side of the intersection of Front and Peter Streets — was a colonial cottage with a central section 15' wide and two wings of about 20' each. It had a central porch, over which a small window illuminated an attic room. Its white clapboard was relieved by vines around the porch. This was destroyed in the War of 1812 and was rebuilt. In 1821, he built a two-story addition. The house had a large central hall leading to large, airy rooms and was well appointed for its time. This house was demolished in 1841.

He also acquired the western half of park lot 18 and lots 19 and 20 between Queen and Bloor Streets, where he constructed a large estate of some 330 acres, the a farm house just north of what we now know as Dundas Street.

He then built Crookshank's Lane to connect the farm to town. This lane became Bathurst Street eventually. The Crookshank farm house was one of the few buildings in that section of York Township prior to 1812, and when York fell to the Americans during the war, the home was looted and commandeered by the Americans for headquarters.

In 1821, George married Sarah Lambert of New York and acquired property in the United States through his wife's family. The Crookshanks had one daughter and two sons and enjoyed a privileged life on their country estate. A staff of eight servants kept the household running smoothly.

CROOKSHANK began to sell off his land in parcels to developers beginning around 1850. He died in 1859, leaving a considerable fortune to his daughter. In 1864, Philip Brown purchased the farm house, moved it east, and renovated it. Nothing remains today. Even Crookshank's Lane was renamed shortly after George's death; it became part of Bathurst Street in 1870.

The map above shows the 330-acre Crookshank Estate highlighted in pink. Bathurst Street at first extended no further north than Lot Street — Crookshank extended it with a semi-private path which became known as Crookshank’s Lane.

By 1870, the road between Queen and Bloor Streets had been completed, and Crookshank's Lane was renamed Bathurst Street. A muddy trail continued north past Seaton Village to Bracondale.

In 1842, when this map was drawn — eight years after the incorporation of Toronto — much of the land north of Queen Street was still marsh and forest, with some homesteads and orchards cut out of the countryside. Within a decade a housing boom would see subdivisions sprouting up to and beyond Bloor Street.

Map to the left: Seaton Village circa 1875. The pink highlighted area shows the boundaries of Seaton Village as known today: Bathurst to Christie Street, Bloor to Dupont Street.

In Seaton Village's earliest years the streets had names like Seaton and Colborne, reflecting the gentry's appreciation in that era for Lord Seaton. Those streets were renamed in later years after later heroes, for example, Palmerston Gardens and Palmerston Avenue after Lord Henry John Palmerston, the British Prime Minister between 1855 and 1865.

Colborne and Seaton remain as street names in the downtown Cabbagetown and St. Lawrence neighbourhoods. Colborne Lodge, in High Park, also holds his name.

The map to the left is an annotated section of the Map of Yorkville and its Vicinity, circa 1875, by Alfred T. Cotterell, C.E., Toronto.