Ottawa History Hub

Thomas MacKay was a Scottish mason, industrialist, politician, and founder of New Edinburgh, among other things. He helped to build the Rideau Canal and invested his earnings in transforming Bytown from a work camp into a town. The significance of his legacy rivals that of his old boss, John By.

George Ramsay, the ninth Earl of Dalhousie and former Governor General of the Canadas played an important role in the development of Ottawa, by patronising John By, feuding with John LeBreton, and making space for turning the Bytown camp into a proper settlement.

The land of the Rideau River and the Ottawa once belonged exclusively to the Algonquin, though several other Anishinaabe traders would travel through the area as well. But a price was paid for the land, and it was opened for white settlement. Now, who bought and who sold the land, and for how much, represents the details in which the Devil might hide. For more details about the two treaties that governed the Rideau Purchase, click here.

There are few if any individuals who have had a greater impact on the settlement that would become Ottawa than Lt. Col. John By. This episode is a biography of the English engineer who is credited with the creation of the Rideau Canal and of Bytown, the seed that germinated into Ottawa. While his life ended in isolation and disgrace, history remembers him much more fondly.

The War of 1812 was a central event in the foundation of the Canadas. It also served to settle the American War of Independence and bring a political norm to North America that there were two distinct countries, rather than Free and Occupied sections.

In this episode, we look at the circle of settlement closing in around what would become Ottawa. In the south by Loyalists, and from the east by way of Montreal.

The Crown was selling land and giving it away throughout the late 1700s, and some hearty settlers went beyond the Saint Laurence and Great Lakes, north of Kingston and west of Montreal. Roger Stevens becomes the first settler in what would become Ottawa city limits.

So... About 1776 and all that... We've all heard about the American Revolution, but what did that mean for those who didn't think it was such a great idea at the time? Loyalist people and Loyalist colonies had different experiences than those celebrated by our Yankee neighbours on the 4th of July. The American Revolution created a refugee crisis that we'll be looking at for the next couple of episodes.

This episode looks at the relationship between the Crown, the French subjects, the Anglo-American subjects, and the Indigenous nations of the newly expanded British holdings in North America

So far, New France has been at the heart of our narrative, but that came to an end with the Seven-Years War. This episode discusses the war, the 1759 Fall of Quebec, and the 1763 Treaty of Paris that brought Nouvelle France to an end and closes the first part of the narrative.

Also known as the French-Iroquois Wars, the Beaver Wars were fought across the Great-Lakes region and created a refugee crisis, spread plagues and reformed alliances from 1609-1701. The future of the European-North American alliance system was recast and this marks a catastrophic decimation of the Indigenous population.

Samuel de Champlain was the famed military man, explorer extraordinaire, founder of Quebec City, and governor of New France in all but official title. He navigated the Ottawa River, and was the first European to chronicle the experience, naming the Rideau River, Chaudière Falls, and putting the site on paper for the first time.

This episode introduces the Algonquin, an Anishinaabe people who've inhabited the Ottawa area for more than two thousand years. It includes elements of their language (Anishinaabemowin), religion (Midewiwin), and relationships with other Anishinaabe people (Ojibwe,Montagnais-Innu, and Odawa), as well as allied or rival Iroquoian peoples (Haudenosaunee, Huron-Wendat).