HomeMy WebLinkAbout2102MORDEN-WATTERS HOUSE
1095 Concession 2 Road
Concession 2, Lot 1
Town of Uxbridge
Ex-Watters
PIN 182
March 2003
by
John W. Sabean
Historical Consultant
Morden-Watters House
1095 Concession 2 Road
Concession 2, Lot 1
Town of Uxbridge
PIN 182 Ex Watters
PROPERTY HISTORY
The patent for Lot 1, Concession 2, Uxbridge Township was given to John Willson, 13
March 1805. David Willson, probably John’s brother, purchased the entire 200 acres four
and a half years later.1 David kept the land for another 20 years and then began to sell the
lot in parcels. Peter Sebodo purchased the southwest quarter in 1834, and sold the same
land to Joseph Brown three years later.
Brown disposed of his land to John Nigh in 1841, who also purchased the southeast quarter
lot in 1841. Abraham Stouffer then purchased 91 acres from Nigh in 1849, and turned them
over to his son Christian. Christian sold off a number of lots, including 1 1/2 acres to Eliza
Picket in 1842, 3 7/10 acres plus another acre in two parcels to William Cooper in 1850,
and an acre to Andrew Lindsay in 1855. Andrew Lindsay bought 3 1/2 acres from William
Cooper in two parcels in 1855.
In 1852, George Morden began to buy up a number of connected lots in the southwest
corner of Lot 1. He purchased Picket’s acre and a half in 1852, 64 rods from William
Cooper in 1853, an another 9/10 of an acre from Andrew Lindsay in 1858. This nearly three-
acre property Morden kept together until his death in 1887. At his death the property went to
his widow, and by the terms of his will after her death it was to go to their daughter Maria
Millard.
The executors of George Morden’s will turned over the property to Maria Millard in 1900. In
1906 she and her husband sold the land (3 acres) to George Irwin for $800. After Irwin’s
death the estate was inherited by his son Weyman E. Irwin in 1929. When Weyman Irwin
died the land was sold to Myrtle Hill for $4 400 in 1953. Hill sold to Angelo and Ernest
Dimonte in 1955 and the Dimonte’s sold to John L. and Agnes Watters in 1961. The
Watters were the owners at the time of expropriation by Her Majesty the Queen.
PERSONAL HISTORY
Willson
Most of the patentees of the southwest corner of Uxbridge Township—Bostwick, Winn,
Hazard, Millard, and Evans—were Quakers. None, however, except Millard, settled in
Uxbridge.2
John Willson, the patentee of Lot 1, Concession 2, took the Oath of Allegiance before
William Willcocks in York on 11 March 1805:
JOHN WILLSON of Gwilingbury Yeoman Twenty three Years Old a Protestant, Dark brown
Hair and Hazel Eyes five feet six Inches high, having taken the Oaths prescribed by Law do
Subscribe the same at York the 11th Day of March 1805.3
John was not a Quaker, as evidenced by his swearing an oath, but David (his brother?), who
purchased the land from him, became a noted Quaker after converting from his former
Presbyterian faith. It was David Willson who founded the Children of Peace in 1812 and was
the inspiration behind the building of Sharon Temple in the 1820s. Neither John nor David
settled Lot 1, Concession 2 in Uxbridge, but about 1829 David began to sell the lot off in
parcels— perhaps to help finance the building program in Sharon and to defray the
expenses of Sharon Temple’s costly festivals.4
Cooper and Lindsay
There is no record of any building having been erected in the southwest corner of Lot 1,
Concession 2 before 1850. In that year William Cooper, already 60 years old, came to
Altona and built an inn at a strategic location mid-way between Claremont and Stouffville.
With his son James, Cooper ran the Altona Inn for five years, then retired and sold the
business to Andrew Lindsay.5 Lindsay carried on with the hotel until his death about 1859.
Not needing all of the land to run the business, Lindsay sold off several parcels north of the
inn—most notably to George Morden and James Forsyth.
Morden and Forsyth
The Mordens and Forsyths were the earliest families to settle in southwest Uxbridge
Township. David Morden brought his family up from Pennsylvania and shortly thereafter
James Forsyth arrived in the same area on his own, having set out from Georgia. Forsyth
married David Morden’s daughter, Eleanor. Their son, David, born in 1808, may well have
been the first immigrant child born in Uxbridge Township. Nine more children were to follow
—all being raised in what later became the hamlet of Glasgow.6
George Morden, the builder of the house on this lot, was a farmer for most of his life; the
usual designation for him in the Assessment Rolls is yeoman, but the Censuses call him
farmer.7 Through much of the 1860s, however, he served as the local Constable.8 A couple
of the Assessment Rolls refer to him as a general dealer.9 He died in 1887.
Irwin
Weyman Irwin was a watch repairer. He owned this property and the one next door at what
is now numbered as 1065 Concession 2 Road. Long-time residents in the area
remembered him as living in the house on this property.10
BUILDING HISTORY
The Township of Uxbridge Heritage Inventory assigns the erection of this one-and-a-half-
storey frame house to about 1860.11 The town’s computerized assessment database puts
it a decade later.12
According to the first available Assessment Roll in 1859, the value of George Morden’s
property was set at $420. The assessed value only increased slowly thereafter to $550 by
1874—in fact, it fluctuated over those years from a low of $400 to a high of $600.13 The
house therefore had probably been erected by the time of the 1859 assessment. The
Census of 1861 describes the Morden house as a frame dwelling, one-storey, on three
acres of land.14 The description fits our house, and dates its erection to 1858 by which time
Morden had accumulated three acres of land on lot 1.
The compilers of the North Pickering Project in 1974 failed to include this house in their
inventory.15
Notes
1 All land transactions as per the Abstract Indices of Deeds. John Willson appears on
Wilmot’s Survey Plan of 1805. David Willson’s purchase was dated 14 November 1809,
but was not registered until June 1825.
2 Wilmot (1805); Sabean (2002), p. 8; York Pioneer (1961), pp. 28, 32, and (1963), p. 23.
3 York Pioneer (1961), p. 31, #64.
4 Sabean (2002), pp. 8-9.
5 Sabean (2002), pp. 11-12.
6 Todd (1980), p. 10.
7 Uxbridge Township Assessment Rolls, MS 648 (8), 1859-1874. Censuses of 1851, 1861,
1871.
8 Uxbridge Township Assessment Rolls for 1863-1867; Conner and Coltson (1869).
9 Uxbridge Township Assessment Rolls for 1861, 1869.
10 Mary Elson. Pers. com.
11 Woods (1991).
12 Michael Klose, Pers. com.
13 Uxbridge Township Assessment Rolls.
14 Census of 1861.
15 Yost (1974).