Ancaster is a community in the city of Hamilton in the Canadian province of Ontario. Founded in 1792, it immediately developed itself into one of the first significant and influential early British Upper Canada communities established during the late 18th century, eventually amalgamating with the city of Hamilton in 2001. By 1823, due to its accessible waterpower and location at the juncture of prehistoric trading routes, Ancaster had become Upper Canada's largest industrial and commercial centre. Additionally, Ancaster had at that time attracted the 2nd largest populace (1,681) in Upper Canada, trailing only Kingston (population 2,500), but surpassing the populations of nearby Toronto (1,376) and Hamilton (1,000).ANCASTER The Past, Present and Future, A Brief prepared by The Ancaster Township Historical Society 1972
After this initial period of prosperity in the late 18th century, sudden significant water and rail transportation advancements of the early 19th century would soon better benefit Ancaster's neighbouring towns nearer the Lake Ontario waterfront. Stationary steam engines for industries rapidly developing in the 19th century would eventually make Ancaster's water-powered industries less vital. As a result, after the 1820s, Ancaster's influence would begin to wane during the remainder of the 19th century.
From the late 19th century, Ancaster's population would remain static until 1946, when new subdivisions around the village were established. The population expanded further with the completion of the Hamilton-Ancaster section of Highway 403 in 1968 and the introduction of sewer systems in 1974. After 1970, its population has grown steadily from 15,000 residents to its present-day count of 40,557. It was a municipality until 2001, when it was amalgamated with Hamilton, Dundas, Stoney Creek, Flamborough and Glanbrook to form the City of Hamilton.
Geography, economy and population Ancaster's geography has had a very significant effect on human settlement patterns throughout its prehistory and in the present day. A highly influential geographical formation has been the Niagara Escarpment, which consists primarily of limestone formed from ancient, fossilized sea organisms that stretches from present-day New York State through Ontario to Illinois. The escarpment created the waterpower that encouraged early European settlers to gravitate to the area in the late 1700s. However, this energy source would not have been accessible if the escarpment had not been navigable. This long-meandering landform was an almost impassible transportation barrier for past indigenous cultures for thousands of years. However, a natural break in this escarpment in the precise area that would become Ancaster village had for millennia created an opportunity for people to traverse up and down the escarpment, providing a relatively easy navigable land transportation gateway from the head of the lake to the surrounding land on the escarpment and vice versa.Ancaster, A Glimpse into the Past, Ancaster Information Centre and Community Services. Andrew J.L. Barton, 1993
The former municipality had a population of 33,232 in the 2006 census, a considerable increase from the 2001 census of 27,485. Development in the historic village core has been tightly controlled. Its current population growth and building boom occur mainly on the east side of Highway 403 in such typically suburban commercial developments as the Power Centre and residential developments such as the Meadowlands. It has resided in the 905 area code since the latter's creation, and its telephone exchange prefixes are 648 and 304, the majority being 648.
History The creation of the Upper and Lower Canadian provinces (colonies) from the division of the Province of Quebec (1763–1791) colony by the Parliament of Great Britain's Constitutional Act of 1791 had a deciding influence on the timing of the founding of Ancaster. At its inception, Upper Canada was only sparsely settled (unlike the more established Lower Canada), and its land had not been officially surveyed to any great extent. Thus, there was an urgency by the then Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada John Graves Simcoe to survey this new and relatively barren province for establishing military roads and for preventing settlers from clearing and settling land not legally belonging to them. Predating Upper Canada, however, the earliest European settlers to arrive and clear land in the mid-18th century in what would eventually become Ancaster were mostly a wilderness society made up of American farmers travelling north searching for arable land and to a lesser extent French-speaking fur traders and British immigrants travelling southward. Also arriving at this area again travelling north in substantial numbers around 1787 with the incentive of inexpensive land grants were the United Empire Loyalists still loyal to the British crown who were fleeing from the United States after the 1776 American War of Independence. Britain's promise of free land brought many people from the new republic to the south and east, who did not exhibit the same loyalty to the crown as the Loyalists. This would eventually lead to a series of defections, accusations and treasonous acts during the War of 1812 that precipitated the largest mass hangings in Canadian history, the so-called Bloody Assize of 1814 whose trial took place in Ancaster in 1814. When the United States invaded Upper Canada during the War of 1812, its occupants were primarily of American ancestry. However, after the war, the province would have a noticeably more British-centred influence. Britain expected its colonies to purchase all essential finished goods needed for day-to-day living from the mother country in exchange for raw materials such as fur and lumber. However, this 'arrangement' naturally proved to be very inefficient and impractical in practice, so waterwheels, mills and factories soon hurriedly evolved in favourable towns in Upper Canada that had abundant waterpower, fertile soil, and good transportation access, such as Ancaster that could then provide the new settlers with a good measure of self-sufficiency.A History of the Canadian People, WM. Stewart Wallace, The Copp Clark Company, Limited, Toronto: 1930
In an age before steam power, the wilderness that would become Ancaster had an early economic advantage because it existed amidst a natural break in the Niagara Escarpment. Thus, even its relatively minor water resources were valuable because they were easily accessible. Just as vital an influence in Ancaster's rapid development was that it already had access to two crucial prehistoric First Nations roads. The first European settlers to set foot in this region would have encountered the Iroquois Trail and the Mohawk Trail intersecting precisely in the area that would eventually become Ancaster Village. This aboriginal Iroquois trail had become the most critical transportation route in Upper Canada. It meandered down the escarpment from the future Ancaster into what would eventually become Hamilton, Ontario, towards present-day Lewiston, New York, eventually linking up with similar aboriginal trails in New York. In the other direction, the Iroquois trail led from present-day Ancaster to what would eventually become the town of Brantford, Ontario, at which point the trail branched off into the Detroit Path and the Long Point trail. By 1770, the 80-kilometre Mohawk Trail was essentially the escarpment accompaniment of the lakeside Iroquois trail. The Mohawk Trail ran parallel to the Iroquois Trail. It originated and diverged from the Iroquois Trail in present-day Queenston, Ontario, until finally ending and reconnecting to the Iroquois Trail in present-day Ancaster at what is now known as the intersection of Rousseaux and Wilson Street. The two trails had been interconnected in four locations along the Mohawk Trail's 80-kilometre route when favourable escarpment conditions permitted. By 1785, the Iroquois Trail passing through present-day Ancaster had been widened to accommodate horse and buggy traffic. Another influential road that intersected the Mohawk Trail very close to Ancaster Village was the Twenty Mile Road that followed the Twenty Mile Creek up to present day Smithville, Ontario, and beyond.The Origin And Development of the Road Network of the Niagara Peninsula, Ontario, 1770–1851. Andrew F. Burghardt McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario Lastly, Ancaster also had fertile soil and abundant fresh water, which encouraged pioneer settlers to arrive in this region to clear the land and plant crops for subsistence agriculture.
Ancaster was established formally in 1792, but the area now referred to as Ancaster Village had been referred to informally by local villagers by the more colourful name of Wilson's Mills. This was in reference to millwright James Wilson, who, along with his affluent fur trader, entrepreneur and business partner Richard Beasley, were the primary founders of Ancaster village. With Beasley's financial backing, Wilson built a gristmill in 1791 and a sawmill in 1792 that would be the only mills west of Grimsby for many years. To attract workers to his mills, Wilson needed to provide the social amenities and commercial framework for an area of land that, in that period, was an isolated frontier forest with accessible waterpower situated precisely at the juncture of already well-established pre-historical indigenous transportation trails. In that period, the area was populated with just a smattering of First Nations aboriginal peoples and wilderness farmers. Again, with Beasley's financial assistance, Wilson managed to generate the impetus for a community by constructing a general store, a blacksmith shop, a distillery, and a tavern, all within walking distance of his mills. As a result, Wilson's newly arrived employees began to build their homes near their place of work and thus the necessary factors were in place for the community of Wilson's Mills to thrive. Wilson's primary residence was also used as a school, a magistrate's court and a cooperage.Ancaster, A Glimpse into the Past – Ancaster Information Centre and Community Services 1993, Andrew J.L. Barton To this day, the main street that winds through the historical Ancaster Village that once was a section of the original aboriginal Iroquois Trail still bears the legacy of Wilson's name. By 1793, an area containing Wilson's Mills was finally surveyed and officially became known as Ancaster Township as chosen by John Graves Simcoe. Simcoe was apparently inspired in the name choice by Peregrine Bertie, the 3rd Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven. Thus, Wilson's Mills was indirectly renamed Ancaster after the historic village in the county of Lincolnshire, England.