The 3 August 1903 edition of the Globe details how the Brotherhood of St Andrew and St Philip baseball team of St Cooke’s Presbyterian Church defeated the Fensom team 10-4 at Bayfront Park. Cooke’s was one of the most important Orange churches in the city, and its ability to field a baseball team illustrates the Order’s communal influence.
The Globe – 3 August 1903
Sources:
Article – The Globe, 3 August 1903
Order Info – William J Smyth – Toronto: The Belfast of Canada. The Orange Order and the Shaping of Municipal Culture– p. 102
John Fensom appears on Duke Street in Toronto City Directories between 1883 and 1905.
John Fensom was born in England in 1829, and he moved around the United States and Canada with his family during his youth. In 1854 Fensom married Charlotte Key, also English. Later that year Fensom helped his father operate a grist and saw mill in southern Ontario. Afterwards he attempted to operate a dock in Collingwood, Ontario, but lost his business to a fire.
By the 1870s Fensom was working as a mechanic and engineer on Terauley Street, Toronto, designing engines in his spare time.
Fensom and his family lived on Adelaide Street until 1883, when they purchased the Campbell’s former house on Duke Street, now numbered 54 Duke Street. In 1885 Fensom constructed a two-story plant behind the house, and in 1890 the plant was expanded to four floors. According to D.S. Fensom, the Fensoms were friendly with the Eaton family, who would become famous across Canada for their eponymous department stores.
According to a letter that Campbell House Museum received from John Fensom’s granddaughter in 1972, the twelve members of the Fensom family lived in the Duke Street property from 1883 till roughly 1899. During this time the house apparently had an elevator installed (most likely installed in an addition to the original 1822 structure, not within the Georgian Era brick shell. A letter received from a different grandchild was “certain” that the Fensoms kept an alligator in the house during the 1880s. The alligator allegedly escaped the garden one day, and was never recovered.
1883 Directory Cover1883 Duke Street1905 Toronto Directory Cover1905 Toronto Directory CoverJohn and Charlotte Fensom circa 1899John and Charlotte Fensom, date unknownJohn Fensom
Sources:
The Otis Bulletin, July/August 1952 – Campbell House Archives, Campbell House 1844-1972 Binder
Letter from Joyce Boyle, 21 Feburary 1972 – Campbell House Archives, Campbell House 1844-1972 Binder
Letter from D.S. Fensom, 14 March 1972 – Campbell House Archives, Campbell House 1844-1972 Binder
Images of Fensoms – Campbell House Archives, Campbell House 1844-1972 Binder
The 19 April 1850 edition of the British Colonist features an advertisement for Frobes Geddes, a local stock and produce broker. Among other notable residents, James Gordon gives his endorsement of the business.
The earliest surviving directory from the Town of York is the 1833-1834 York Commercial Directory Street Guide and Register. It lists “the elegant brick-built mansion of the Honourable Sir William Campbell.”
1833-1834 York Commercial DirectoryDirectory Cover Page
Susanna Maria Willcocks, born in 1768, was the daughter of William and Phoebe Willcocks. William had been Sherrif in Cork, Ireland in 1765. Under the advice of Peter Russell the family left Ireland and settled Whitby and Toronto in 1795. Susanna Maria is the first known owner of the Duke Street lot where Campbell House would later be built in 1822. By 1806 Susanna Maria had been appointed ‘housekeeper’ to the Executive Council of Upper Canada, a petition position typically reserved for women. She held this office until 1815. Susanna Maria inherited a large amount of land from Elizabeth Russell, wife of Peter, and her father, William Willcocks, in 1822. She lived at the original Spadina House (current Toronto address 285 Spadina Road) , dying there on 8 August 1834. After her death, much of her land went to the Baldwin family. Her sister, Phoebe, married Dr William Warren Baldwin in 1803.
The Willcocks family were heavily involved in landholding, and Susanna Maria was no exception. She is the earliest name that can be found on record as owning what became Campbell House’s original site. She most likely did not live at the Duke Street property.
York, Upper Canada – 1793
Sources:
Biographical Info – JK Johnson –In Duty Bound: Men, Women and the State in Upper Canada, 1783-1841 – 2014 – p. 67
Biographical Info – Dictionary of Canadian Biography, William Willcocks (http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/willcocks_william_5E.html)
Image – Toronto Public Library (http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDMDC-PICTURES-R-3235&R=DC-PICTURES-R-3235)
