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( Brockville, Ontario)
Brockville is located in the Thousand Islands region on the St. Lawrence River in Leeds & Grenville County, Eastern Ontario, Canada. Known as the "City of the 1000 Islands", Brockville is located on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River, directly opposite Morristown, New York, about half-way between Cornwall in the east and Kingston in the west and a little over an hour's drive south of the nation's capital, Ottawa. Brockville is one of the oldest cities in Ontario and is named after the British general Sir Isaac Brock. This area of Ontario was first settled in 1785 by hundreds of American refugees who later became known as United Empire Loyalists for their political position on the side of King George III during the American War of Independence. This struggle between Britain and the 13 American colonies took place in the years 1776 to 1783 and seriously divided loyalties in some colonies such as New York and Vermont. During the 6-year war, which ended with the capitulation of the British forces in 1782, many of those colonists who remained loyal to the crown were frequently subject to harsh reprisals and unfair dispossession of property. Many "Loyalists" chose to flee north to the then British colony of Quebec. Later this western region of Canada was opened and settled by English-speaking refugees of the past American war. The St. Lawrence River, which flows between Brockville and Morristown, New York, was named by French explorers in the 1700s to commemorate the martyred Roman Christian, Saint Laurentis. The small inlet on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River had been a natural resting point for French voyageurs in the past. In 1785 the first U.E. Loyalist to take up land here on the site of Brockville was a disbanded ensign with the King's Rangers from the state of New York, William Buell Sr. (1751-1832). The initial settlement on this site was commonly referred to as "Buell's Bay". Around 1810 the village was designated as Elizabethtown by government officials of Upper Canada. Leading residents of the small village decided, about 1812, that it might be appropriate to suggest a name which differed from the surrounding township of Elizabethtown.
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