Newmarket, Ontario lies
near the origin of four river
watersheds - the Humber, the
Don, the Holland and the
Rouge, a key location which
evolved as a community
because of decisions by two
men, one an important
aristocrat, the other a
Quaker immigrant.

   What was to become
Newmarket had always been a
well-traveled location, a
natural junction of the fur
trade routes aboriginals used
to paddle from Lake Ontario
right up to Georgian Bay. In
1794, John Graves Simcoe,
Lieutenant Governor of Upper
Canada, dispatched his Deputy

Surveyor, Augustus Jones to
map a trail along the course
of the Don River, a land
route more suitable for
settlers.
   Seven years later,
Timothy Rogers, a Quaker from
Vermont and Pennsylvania,
traveled the trail along the
Don, finding an inviting

location for a Quaker
settlement on 40 200-acre
lots he secured along the
East Holland River.
   Timothy Rogers reserved
lots 92, 93, 94 and 95 west
on the Yonge trail for the
Roger family members and lot
95 on the east side of the
Yonge Trail for himself,