Person Record

Metadata

Name

Ainslie, Adam

Born

Apr. 13, 1807

Birthplace

Scotland or England?

Places of residence

Scotland
Gibraltar
Galt area, Upper Canada
Leith area, Sydenham Twp., Grey County
Owen Sound, Ont.

Titles & honors

"Ainslie Woods" placename (by the shore)
There is an "Ainslie Street" in Cambridge area (formerly Galt)
A memorial plaque was placed at the Leith cemetery in 2015 to honour the Ainslie family.

Notes

Adam Ainslie was a settler in Sydenham Township, Grey County, previously having lived at or near Galt. He was born in Scotland on April 13, 1807, and married Isabella Miller at Galt in 1846.

Andrew Armitage mentioned him in his article "Dock a Relic of Busy Village", SUN-TIMES, Owen Sound, Friday August 7, 2009, Page A5: "Born in Haddingtonshire, England in 1807, Ainslie became a lawyer at the age of 19. He practiced his profession at Gibraltar for a decade before quitting the Rock to come to Canada in 1834. Galt was his first stop and there he prospered. The very model of a Canadian gentleman, an actor, poet, politician and barrister." Armitage mentions how Ainslie oversaw the building of a wharf at Leith in Sydenham. It was completed in the summer of 1861.

In June, 1862, Adam Ainslie advertised a town property for sale in Owen Sound that July, and also had an advertisement (placed Dec. 31, 1861) that the Leith Distillery was "to Let", as well as the grist mill if required. Attached to the distillery were pig pens and a cattle shed. He also had a stock of pigs and a thoroughbred Berkshire boar for sale.

The Ainslies generously provided some land that allowed the building of the Leith Presbyterian Church in 1865. It had its first services in 1866. It is now known as the historic Leith United Church.

In the late 1880s (c.1888), Mr. and Mrs. Ainslie moved to Owen Sound and lived with their daughter Helen's family.

Mr. Ainslie died at his son-in-law's residence (Mr. & Mrs. Henry Rixon's) at Owen Sound in 1896, when he was 89 years of age.

The Rixon burial plot is at Leith Cemetery, in the former Sydenham Township, and includes the following:
William Augustus Rixon (b. 1869-d. 1892)
Henry Rixon (father) 1838-1920
Helen Rixon (mother) 1847-1913
Ada A. Rixon 1874-1894
Ella A. Rixon 1871-1918
Alex A. Ainslie 1850-1887
Adam Ainslie 1807-1897
Isabella Ainslie 1828-1918
John Ainslie 1858-1923
Laura Rixon 1876-1963
Eleanor Rixon Dec. 27, 1973
William M. Burr 1861-1931
Frank Broderick 1856-1915
J. Jane Broderick 1867-1933
F. Rixon Broderick 1895-1958

Archival Items in the Grey County Archives:

1968.061.010 Letter to Adam Ainslie near Galt, Upper Canada, from his uncle at Gibraltar, 1835

Occupation

Barrister (Lawyer)
Politician
Militia Officer
Distiller
Distillery at Leith
Gristmill (Proprietor of the Leith Mills) Milling Flour

Publications

Ross, Allan, REMINISCENCES OF NORTH SYDENHAM, 1924, has several references to Mr. Ainslie. See pages 88-109.
THE OWEN SOUND TIMES, June 27, 1862 advertisements