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"By M. Mclatyre Hood. I How often; + going from place to |pige@din Ontario it is found that the nam counties, of ei and villages and tow; , of of the pl which given, "found which were bo: men § igreat in the early days of Canada' 1 others with names which {shows the origin of the settlers who founded them, and others ~ (mind the ancestors of the present eration of the country or the n from which their forefathers in the piomeer days. So much ue that the Ontario Histariesl ety has for some time been mak- a special study of the origin and ry of place names, and. gh | one named W. J. Wintemberg, rec-| Sere Ani Toon idee A ndi way i aehives Ey vist &, i 'W counties of Ontario contain So many names which are o al et Ithe naval and military aris 'England and by 'United (Loyalists and others, the oF jie various communities of this : show a diversity af origins ; 1s interesting not of 18 lent of local history, § 4 know these places, to those who live in 8 few of the places in the ¥ named after the tow } they aré situated. i This is to be g iy Pear have beenfeuicient of prominent men, members parliament, wardens, or | illors and others who ecanld hava! been honored by having a J Lomed after them BRL ed ' ing interesting story of, the ir gua istry of the names fre ni ig ent places in Oxford c , much (of the eredit is due to MreWintem- ! who has done a considerable |@mount of research work for the | Ontario. Historical Society, and has kindly. made bly rene : a i SXFO! COUNTY. | Although most of the ownshins. |eoniprising it had been n earl. | Oxford county did 'come into | Kk nce il 1 it was en acted that "The tomeeemater. Eo the ee OE i Thames, Bl d and [Blenheim do constitute the count; of eT in rao 4 e ct of B; which | cluded the townships of Zorra, heck. ri, Blandford, Blenheim, North, ast and West Oxford, Burford, Oak. aad, Norwich and Tecate d, Cal, Em an i 'and ¥ again named, and, by tion of 1851, po] {gain referred to as Oxford, the fol-| ; townships constituted =the it and West Zorra North, East and West Oxfo ° | Blandford, Senha, 7 v 5 orn a P ern iL Oxford, except that Nor- Nissouri have been divided oe two townships, and that the west The county, according r to Hube . P. Gardner, of 1c 4 a 'Toronto, who com- Mrty years ago, "Take from Oxford city, oo Fag CBee wa LL oi rom a ford of the i Ouse-no-ford, altered to: Qxnaford and Oxford, henee the: azmis show ar, ox crossing a river. Oxford was called Pusalory by the Saxonsjand in the mesday Book, it is Oxeneford. In the € of Chaucer, the name i , ped ae Oxenford, which in 2 was sha i Osten amvened and shrilied 1842. HOW OXFORD COUNTY PLACES FIRST RECEIVED THEIR NAMES 1178; Sn arith fisonedp : FRET td eo = /: z Le vx oT) 1937 - Diotaieh of Broek. 19571 = fy J J TI BLANDFORDITI 7 Blandford township from #he second title of oo Dikaes Marl- thorough, "Marquis of Blandford," conferred on him in 1792, about the [time that the township was given its name, RRS ~. BLENHEIM. 'The township of Blenheim, ac- cording to Gardiner, is named af Blenheim House which is ait near Oxford, England. 4 (ful place was bestowed mation on John Chur Marlborough, for his vi French and Bavarians a (of Blindheim-Hochstadt, August 13, 1704. Blenhe; ruption of the name Blind] ing "dull home." Accordi | What THE OXFORDS. » are now 'hast, West and North Oxford, in all the ol acts of | parliament were collectively referred to as Oxford-on-the-Thames, and acl the first terr formation of the |county the, thus described, Hast Oxford became detached from West Oxford between the years 1820 and 1822, and North Oxford became a separate township on January 1, dh {rents Rr. [ an ed a. | nt town of Dereham, ii gh Thenam | iw to the township befor Oxford and Norfal d. The name is said t [were sepa : a] |signify "the home of wild beasts, jus ins Derby, formerly Deorby, signifie "the village of wild beasts, deer, or perhaps wild. animals generally." | 3 NISSOURIL When the first division of Ontar. { {was made in 1792 the township © jNissourd was not known, and it first alluded to in an act passed 1821. Nissouri is generally thoug. ! 'to be an Indian name, my to po | | fouri, which means "mud river," ¢ | €ouri, which I, : \Mriver of the big canoe |however, are inclined to \ithe game is a corruption 158 Pn i a," that is, near Zorra, | Ls was sometimes a by settler in referring to the township. | : NOR! e view th to North and South Norwielf;, until | 1798 formed part of the county of Nozfolk. Thus it received the, name of a city in Norfolkshire, England. {The mame is derived from the Anglo- Saxon "nord" the north, and tie! meaning OWN, EEE THE ZORRAS. ¥ When the first territorial division of the province of Ontario was made in 1792, the township of Lorre was unsurveyed and unknown. The first reference made to it by an act iofy parliament was in 1821, in which act, it was with Nitsouri added = fo Lad county of Oxford, Bast Zorrd Sais detached from West Zorra in 1845. There are various reasons giveil for, the origin of the name of Zorra, | Some people. claim that it is derived from a Biblical source, "Zorxah," the birthplace of Samson, and try to sub stantiate this by pointing that, ned township was first settled by ft Scotch highlanders who were extreme | ly religious. This derivation 1s inter= esting, but a more likely ome' is "Zorra'! the Spansh word for & fe- male fox. Whoever named the older townships; probably some SULVEyOuS { \shaohad served in the Spanish avera, | had a great liking for Spanish names. il Thus, besides Zorra, we have Oro, (gold), Lobo, (woli), Rama (branch), Mariposa, (butterfly), Mone, (men- | key), Oso (bear), and Sombra (shadow or shade) as township names | in Ontario. "WOODSTOCK. The city. of Woodstock was long {known simply by the name of the {| "town plot." Governor Simcoe, on a | visit to the district in 1792, wrote back to the secretary of state that he | {had marked out Oxford (Woodstock) for a town site. Woodstock was nam- ed after the town of the same name in Oxfordshire, England. The name probably means "the dwelling in the wood." An interesting fact is that the venerable old city hall of Weod- stock is an almost exact replica of the town hall of Woodstock, in Ox- fordshire, England. That part of Woodstock which lies north of Inger- | soll Avenue, and bounded by Riddell | and | Tecumseh streets, was called | Brighton in the early thirties. It was | named after Brigaton, England, | Henry Perrin, one of the settlers of | the village, and possibly others, hav- | ing come from there. | INGERSOLL. i Ingersoll, for a long time known as \Ingersollville, was, as has been relat- ed in previous articies, mamed by Charles Ingersoll in memory of his |Tawier, Major Thomas Ingersoll whol came to this country from Massachu- setts in 1793. The Ingersolls original | ly came from Bedfordshire, England, | two brothers, John and Richard, set- | tling in Massachuset{s in 16: a name is sometimes spelt Inger some of the early records. In 1488 p the name occurs as Hynkersell. The name is believed to be derived from: Inkersale, a locality in Derbyshire, | England. 4 © TILLSONBURG. ELE BN The town of Tillsonburg was orig- inally called Dereham Forge on az- count of bog iron ore from the neigh- borhood having been smelted and!! manufactured there. It was after-i! wards called Dereham, The name ap-} | pears as Tillsonburg on a map pre-{| pared by George C. Tremaine, i Kingston, in 1867, and the northern; go of the town was called Camp-! belltown. The town was incorporated! at Tillsonburg in 1869. The name wasy given on the suggestion of the private bills committee of the legislature. Through a clerical error in preparing; the bill, one of the "I's" was dropped,' and the name had to struggle along} with a single "1" until 1902, riien)) several public-spirited citizens of the! town, ir consideration of the many! valuable and endurng seryices! zor) dered the fown by the late B.D, Till- | son, asked the Ontario legislature tog have the name changed from Tilson-': burg to Tillsonburg. The act was giv | en assent to on March 24, 1902. It is doubted whether the annals of the! province can furnish a similar in-| stance where the name of a munici-| pality had its spelling changed by act) of pe eorge Tillson, the founder of the | place, was born in Massachusetts in ! 1782 and settled in the township in [1625. He died on March 15, 1864 mes of the villeges and seams of he county will he dealt with in another article next week. | Leh SS Es J i | |