Author! Author! Bob Lee's Book

Amigos interested in early settlements in Upper Canada, specifically those of the Canada Company, might like to read colleague Bob Lee's book on the subject:

Lee, Robert C. (2004). The Canada Company And The Huron Tract, 1826-1853. Natural Heritage Books, Toronto. ISBN 1-896219-94-2.

See parts of it online here.

It has been very well received, as these excerpts from a review in
Scots Magazine attest:

Form a company, raise money from eager investors, buy underdeveloped land at a bargain, divide it up and sell it on at a profit - surely a property developer's dream! A simplified explanation perhaps, but this wasn't too far from the thinking of the group of businessmen who founded the Canada Company in London in 1824, with a view to settling over two million acres of untouched land in Upper Canada.

And, as with many foreign ventures at that time, there were a number of Scots at the heart of it. Indeed, John Galt, the Irvine-born novelist, adventurer, historian and businessman, who claimed the initiative was his own idea, became the company's first commissioner.

[It was] an enterprise that helped shape Ontario during modem Canada's formative years.

In 1966 a young Canadian student began writing his thesis for a Master of Arts degree. For his subject he chose a topic dear to his heart, "The Canada Company: A Study In Direction, 1826-1853". For the next 35 years Robert C. lee, diplomat and historian, toured the world as a Trade Commissioner in the Canadian Foreign Office before going home and turning his attention back to his first love, the Canada Company and Huron County, Ontario. With encouragement from a number of sources, he grasped the nettle and expanded the original thesis into a book.

The Canada Company And The Huron Tract, 1826-1853: Personalities, Politics And Profits concentrates on the development of the million acres on the shores of lake Huron known as the Huron Tract, the largest settlement scheme in Upper Canada.

This book is an impeccably researched work, which includes copious notes, a bibliography, and previously unpublished illustrations. It will appeal to anyone with a specific interest in the area and the times, or in the workings of a business.