Joseph Cawthra
Canadian politician
Joseph Cawthra (14 October 1759 – 15 February 1842) was a Canadian merchant and politician. Cawthra arrived in York, Upper Canada, (now Toronto) from Yeadon, Yorkshire, England, in 1802. He was granted a 400 acres (162 ha) tract of land in Mississauga, Ontario (which at the time was undeveloped rural property) by the Crown, provided he built a home on it within four years. The land remained in the hands of the Cawthra Family up until the 1970s, and much of it is now retained by the City of Mississauga as parkland.
Cawthra married Mary Turnpenny in 1801 and they had at least 9 children, 6 sons and three daughters, including:
William Cawthra (1801–1880) - Toronto City Alderman 1836, merchant and philanthropist
John Cawthra (1789–1851) - Newmarket merchant and member for Simcoe County in the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada (1828–1830)
twins Henry (1787-1854) and Joseph (1787-1790)
Jonathan Cawthra (1791-1868) - Private in Captain Cameron's Company of the 3rd Regiment of York Militia during the War of 1812
Business and Wealth
Cawthra founded and ran several businesses in Yorkshire and New York before opening Toronto's first apothecary shop, which would establish the base for his family's great wealth. Joseph's wealth grew enormously as a result of his involvement in profiteering during the War of 1812. Eventually Cawthra money was invested in other enterprises throughout the city, especially real estate. When he died, he left the bulk of his great estate and business interests to one of his sons, William Cawthra.
Politics and philanthropy
Cawthra served one term as the Alderman for St. Lawrence Ward on the inaugural 1834 Toronto City Council before being defeated by conservative candidates.
“Joseph Cawthra” enters the record as canadian politician. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Joseph, Cawthra and Canadian can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Joseph Cawthra” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.