Ontario History Scholarly Journal of The Ontario Historical Society Since 1899 Papers and Records [called Ontario History after 1946] Volume XI, 1913 Published by The Ontario Historical Society, 1913 The Ontario Historical Society Established in 1888, the OHS is a non-profit corporation and registered charity; a non- government group bringing together people of all ages, all walks of life and all cultural backgrounds interested in preserving some aspect of Ontario's history. Learn more at www.ontariohistoricalsociety.ca. ®ntario 1DistoricaI Society PAPERS AND RECORDS TORONTO PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY 1913 (lDntarin fiiatnriral Svnrivtg. PAPERS AND RECORDS VOL. X1. TORONTO: PUBLISHED BY THE SOCKET‘! I913 OFFICERS, 1912,13 President Honorary : THE HONORABLE THE MINISTER or EDUCATION or ONTARIQ. President : JOHN i)EARNEss, M.A., London. lst Vice'President: CLARANCE M. WARNER, Napanee. i Vice’ President 2nd : SIR EDMUND WALKER, Toronto ; Secretary and Acting Treasurer: ALEXANDER FRASER, LL.D., LiTT. D., Toronto. Auditors : J. J. MURPHY, Toronto. FRANK YEIGH, Toronto Councillors : A. F. HUNTER, M.A. W. STEWART WALLACE. B.A. J. STE-‘.\\'ART CARSTAIRS, B.A. W. L. GRANT, M.A. ALEXANDER FRAsER, LL.D.. LXTT. D.. F.S.A., SCOT. (Edin.) The Ontario Historical Society does not a:~sume 1'espu11sibilit)' for the statements of its contributors. Place/Names in Georgian Bay (Including the North Channel) BY JAMES WHITE, F.R.G.S. For convenience and on account Of the historical connection, the North Channel names have also been included in this compila- tion. Place—names in the area covered by this paper can be assigned to three distinct periods first. those given Bayfield ; by when he surveyed it in 1819-22 second, the local : names given by fishermen, residents and others between the date of Bayfield‘s survey and 1883 ; third, the new survey by Messrs. Boulton and Stewart in 1883-93. Before discussing the derivations of the first period, a few notes respecting Bayfield may be of interest. He was born in 1795, entered the Navy in 1806, on H.M.S. Pornpee (80), Sir William Syd- ney Smith, and was in action with a French privateer, six hours after leaving Portsmouth. Later, he served in H.l‘vI.S. Queen (98), Admiral Lord Coll'ingwood’s flagship, and in the Duchess of Bed- iord, Lieut. Spilsbury. In 1806, he was appointed to H.l\I.S. Beagle, Capt. F. Newconmbe, and, in I811, he was inidshiprnan in the Wanderer (21), Capt. F. Newcoinnbe. He was promoted to Lieu- tenant, 1815, and was appointed assistant to Capt. William Fitz- william Owen, R.N., in the survey of Lake Ontario. The war of 18} 2-14 had shown the necessity for a hydrographical survey of the Great Lakes and Capt, Owen had been appointed for the survey. While the naval force at the beginning of hostilities was a negli- gible quantity, at the close there were upwards of 40 British war vessels, ranging from oue—gun gunboats to the St. Lawrence, a ship of the line with 102 guns. To permit these vessels to navigate the l8l(€‘S \Vlll'1 COIlfld€I1C€, 8 Survey “rag absolutely necessary. Owen was in charge of the survey of Lake Ontario till its com- pletion in 1816, when he was succeeded by Bayfield who surveyed ‘Read at the annual meeting of the Ontario Historical Society at Bvantfcrd June, 19:: D 6 ONTARIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY. Lake Erie in 1818, Huron and Georgian Bay in 1819-22, and Su- perior in 1823-25. In 1827, Bayfield was appointed to the survey of the St. Lawrence River and Gulf. This work was carried on in Gulnare I, 1827-51, and Gulnare II, from 1852 till his promotion to Rear Admiral in 1856. He retired with rank of full Admiral, 1867, and died at Charlottetown, P.E.I., 1885. For the quality of his work it is suflicient to quote Capt. Boulton “While : making a sur- vey of Georgian Bay and the North Channel of Lake Huron . I had a good opportunity of witnessing the marvellous quantity and excellence of Admiral Bayfield’s work. I doubt whether the British Navy has ever possessed a more ‘gifted and zealous surveyor than Bayfield. He had a marvellous combination of natural talent with tremendous physical energy.” The charts that were sufficient for navigation in the “twen- ties” when the largest vessel on Lake Huron measured a few hun- dred tons were inadequate for the vessels of a half-century later. In 1883,, the Canadian Government secured the services of an Ad- miralty surveyor, Capt. J.G. Boulton, R.N. For ten years, 1883- 93, surveys of Georgian Bay and North Channel were carried on un- der his direction. In 1893, he resigned to return to duty in the Navy and was succeeded by his principal assistant, the present Chief Hydrographe-r, Mr. W. J. Stewart. So far as the names given by Bayfield are concerned, their de- rivation is a matter of inference, but ’the evidence, in some in- stances, almost amounts toa demonstration. At the date of his survey, George IV was King of Great Britain and Ireland, hence Georgian Bay and Lake George Prince William ; Henry, Duke of Clarence, was Admiral of the Fleet, 1811, and Lord High Ad- miral, 1827-28, hence Prince William Henry Island; William Fred- erick, Duke of Gloucester, married Prince William Henry‘s sister, Mary, and was thus, both his cousin and his brother-in—la«w, hence Gloucester Point and Bay. In 1822, Robert Saunder Dundas, 2nd Viscount Melville, Sir Wm. Johnstone Hope, Sir Geo. Cockburn and Wm. Robt. Keith Douglas were Lord High Admirals, hence Cape Dundas, Melville Sound, Hope Bay and Island, Cockburn Island and Point, and Douglas Bay and Point. Capt. Thos. Hurd was Hydrographcr from 1808 to 1823, and Capt (afterwards, Admiral Sir) William Ed- ward Parry, from 1823-29, and James Horsburg Was Hydrograph- er to the East India Co. hence Cape Hurd, ; Parry Sound and Island and Horsburg Point. Barrow Bay is after Sir John Bar- row, for 38 years, 1807-45, Second Secretary to the Admiralty, and Croker Cape and Island after John Wilson Croker, First Secretary, I809-30 Dyer Bay, after John James ; Dyer, for many years Chief Clerk of the Admiralty Hay Island, after Viscount Melvil1e’s pri- ; vate secretary, and Amedroz Island after an Admiralty oflicial. PLACE-NAMES IN GEORGIAN BAY. 7 establishment on the Great As there was a considerable naval after naval officers. Bayfield named a number of features Lakes, James Lucas Yeo, com- James, Lucas and Yeo Islands, after Sir 1814 Barrie Island after Capt. mander-in—chief on the Great Lakes, ; the Navy at Kingston,- Robt. Barrie, Acting Commissioner of Clapperton Island and Channel, Hen- Bushby Inlet, Boucher Point Basin, Worsley Bay, Grant Island vey Inlet, Wingfield Point and of the Royal and Thompson Point are a1 0 named after ofiicers Navy serving on the Great Lakes. gunboat on Lake Confiance Rock was named after the Confiance, Sept. 6th, 1814. Huron, formerly the U. S. S. Scorpion, captured name. The first was This Confiance was the third hearing her privateer captured by him at Yeo‘s first command, a French Downie’s flagship on Lake Cham- Muros Bay, and the second was at Plattsburgh, Sept. Ilth, I814, plain, captured by the Americans what was, later, Con- five days after the capture by the British of after the Duchess of Bed- fiance III. Bedford Island i-s, probably, Bayfield served, or, after ‘Admiral iord, the third ship in which William Bedford. Inlet are ai- Colpoys Bay, Rous Islands, Mudge Bay and Byng being the admiral who was tcr British admirals, the last named l\Iinorca—“pour encourager shot, in 1757, for his failure to relieve Owen Channel are after Bay- les autres." Fitzwilliam~ Island and while Cape Com- field‘s former chief in the survey of Lake Ontario, Owen Sound, Point William, Campbell Clifi and Point Rich modore, Owen. commemorate Owen‘s brother, Commodore Sir E. W. C. R. Midshipmen Philip Edward Collins Bayficld's assistants were 2 Collins Inlet and Vidal, “immortalized” in Philip Edward Island, Was Bayfield’s and Vidal Island. Till his death in 1835, Collins Vidal was the assistant in his survey of the St. Lawrence, and grandfather of the late Gen. Vidal, Ottawa. Sound Franklin Inlet—noW obsolete~—and Parry Island and Portlock Harbour were named after the famous Arctic navigators; who‘ commanded a fur- probably, after Capt. Portlock, R.N., is, an account trading expedition to the Pacific Coast and published Dr. J. J. Bigsby, geologist of his voyage; Bigsby Island is after Ghent to define to the Commission .appointed under the Treaty of Lawrence and the the International boundary through the St. Great Lakes. 7 I-Ienry Island, Wolsey Lake Of the Bayfield family there are : mother, and Bajvfield Sound after himself, Elizabeth Bay after his Point after a Helen Bay after his only sister, Julia Bay and Cove proba- young lady of Quebec. I-Ionora Bay and Juliet are, his acquaintance, but nothing de bly, after other young ladies of finite is known concerning them. 8 ONTARIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY. The other names given by Bayfield are either unimportant or oi unknown derivation. As already stated, during the second period local names were given to many features. but were only known locally. When Capt. Boulton commenced his survey in 1883, the only names on the charts were those given by B-ayfield, sixty years earlier. Conse- qucntly, while there was a sec.ond “name-period," it is not pos- sible to separate it from the third, narnely, those given by Messrs.