Capt. Thomas Sinclair GORE

  General Notes:

FAMILY:
-- Thomas' son William Sinclair Gore (1842-1919) moved from Ontario, Canada to British Columbia, Canada in 1875 (at age 35) while a dominion land surveyor working on the westward railroad surveys. At the age of 38 William was appointed Surveyor-General for the Province of British Columbia, Canada, a position he held twice for 20 years, the record for this post in the British Columbia government. William was responsible for preliminary land surveys conducted at the north end of Vancouver Island and for several years was the Minister of Lands and Words. It was he who prepared the specifications for the present legislative buildings in Victoria. In 1891, William was appointed Deputy Minister/Commissioner of Lands & Works for the Province of British Columbia. William's many interests included bicycling, golf and canoeing. He was Commodore of the Victoria Yacht Club and designed and built class winning yachts. In his later years, he was secretary of the Corporation of British Columbia Land Surveyors.
-- Thomas' grandson by the same name, Thomas Sinclair Gore (1869-1955), was an architect who designed, built and owned the renowned Hotel Geneve in the historic "Zona Rosa" district of Mexico City (see: www.hotelgeneve.com.mx/en/).
-- Thomas' grandson Arthur Sinclair Gore (1879-1976), was a draftsman who started the Electric Blueprint and Map Company in 1907 (at age 28), one of the first engineering supply and blueprint firms, with branches in both Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia. Arthur Gore's home in Victoria, British Columbia (built in 1912 by famed Canadian artichitect Samuel Maclure) eventually became a designated Heritage Site in 1988.

NOTEWORTHY: Migrated from Ireland to Canada in 1841 - founder of the town of Gore's Landing at Rice Lake, Ontario, Canada
OCCUPATION: Civil Engineer (Chief Surveyor and Building Superintendent for the new road from Cobourg to Rice Lake, completed in 1848, now Route 18)
AGRICULTURE: In 1851, Thomas owned 8 cows, 3 horses, 21 sheep, 11 pigs, and made 200 lbs. of butter
RELIGION: Member of the Church of England
DEATH: Died at the age of 38 of unknown circumstance

Used by kind permission, photograph and excerpts from "Gore's Landing and the Rice Lake Plains", by Norma Martin, Catherine Milne, Donna S. McGillis; 1986, printed by Haynes Printing of Cobourg, Ontario, Canada:

From page 17:
The village of Gore's Landing is situated on Clergy Reserve lot 15, concession 9. In 1840 the Hon. George Boulton, a Cobourg land speculator and legislative councillor, purchased this glebe land at public auction for £71, 7-1/2p. On 18 July 1844 Boulton sold this lot, at double the price, to Thomas Sinclair Gore, founder of the village.

From page 125:
When Thomas Gore died at age thirty-eight he had accumulated considerable wealth and left his widow, Harriette, $12,000 plus valuable real estate holdings in the village. She lived a comfortable life and was able to hire domestic servants, farm workers and a governess for her young children. Harriette raised six children, some of whom were educated in Europe. The male Gores pursued successful careers as engineers and architects in Western Canada, Mexico and the United States.

From page 213:
Thomas Sinclair Gore House 1844 -- Pictures show the original home of Thomas Gore to be a cottage style with steep gabled roof and end chimneys, probably roughcast over planks. It featured a facade verandah, a bellcast roof supported by wooden posts and enclosed by a simple railing. It was set amidst well-tended gardens and afforded a magnificent view of Rice Lake. The house was destroyed by fire in 1862, four years after the death of Thomas Gore. His widow, Harriette, and children then moved to the Agnes Heath House.

From pages 231-233:
Thomas Sinclair Gore, the founder of Gore's Landing, had a distinguished genealogy. In 1621 his Anglo-Irish ancestor, Sir Paul Gore, became the first baronet of Manor Gore, County Donegal, Ireland. Sir Paul's brother, Sir John Gore, was Lord Mayor of London in 1624. Five generations later Thomas Sinclair Gore was born at Gore Mount, in the parish of Glenavy, County Antrim, to William and his second wife, Anna Sinclair Pollock. (William's first wife was his cousin, Harriett Gore, heiress of Gore Mount.) Thomas Sinclair Gore married Harriette Hitchcock (1818-1893) of Glenavy around 1840 and they emigrated to Canada in 1841.
In 1844 Thomas and Harriette Gore moved to Rice Lake and literally had to chop their way out to their properties, lot 15 in concessions 8 and 9. What brought the Gores to Rice Lake is only speculation. It is possible that through his work as a surveyor, Gore heard about plans for a new road from Cobourg to Rice Lake and saw an opportunity not only for employment but also for investment. Gore was the chief surveyor and building superintendent for the new road which he directed through his lakeshore property to his landing on rice Lake. When the road was completed in 1848, he began to sell lots along the route and thus founded the village of Gore's Landing.
Little has been recorded about the character of Thomas Gore. Catharine Parr Traill described him as 'the spirited proprietor of the village'. He was casual and enjoyed the out-of-doors. He enjoyed convivial company at the hotel and was one of the organizers of the early Rice Lake Gore's Landing Regattas [Gore's boat was called the Gannett]. Political matters interested him and he was a member of the executive committee of the British America League. The first issue the group examined was the recall of Lord Elgin and the disallowance of the Rebel Awarding Bill.
Gore was a founding member of St. George's Church at Gore's Landing although he later had a falling-out with the vestry and defaulted on his annual pew rent of two pounds. According to records at the Registry Office for the Counties of Northumberland and Durham, Gore donated the two acres on which the church was erected.
Thomas Gore died at the age of thirty-eight and is buried in St. George's Cemetery [Gore's Landing]. Although none of the children of Thomas and Harriette Gore remained in the Rice Lake area, a grandson, Thomas Sinclair Gore [1869-1955], a hotel owner in Mexico City, was intensely interested in Gore's Landing and his ancestors who are buried in St. George's cemetery. Each year until his death in 1955 he sent a generous donation at Christmas to St. George's Church and the public library. Other descendants have been occasional visitors.

GORE'S LANDING HISTORICAL MARKER: Named after Thomas S. Gore, an Irishman who settled in this vicinity in 1845. The village of Gore's Landing prospered for a time as the terminal point of a plank road constructed from Cobourg to Rice Lake 1847-48. Among the well known residents of Gore's Landing were: Archibald Lampman (1860-1899), noted poet; Derwyn T. Owen (1876-1947), Anglican Primate of All Canada from 1934-1947; J.D. Kelly (1862-1958), historical artist; and Gerald S. Hayward (1845-1926), a painter of miniatures who won acclaim in the U.S. and Britain. Hayward contributed to the building of the present St. George's Anglican Church, constructed of stone in 1908 to replace the wooden church erected 1846-48, and is buried in the adjacent cemetery. (Archeological and Historic Sites Board of Ontario)

  Research Notes:

-- "A History, British Columbia", by R. Edward Gosnell, pages 358-359
-- Scots, Irish, English and a few Welsh ancestors (http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=SHOW&db=jenniemacfie)
-- Tom Gore (http://listsearches.rootsweb.com/th/read/GORE/2009-02/1235411562)
-- Township of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada (www.hamiltontownship.ca/index.php?page=hamlets)
-- Marriage: Dublin, Ireland, Probate Record and Marriage Licence Index, 1270-1858
-- Religion: Information 1851 Census of Canada East, Canada West, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia Record
-- Agriculture: 1851 Agricultural Census of Canada East, Canada West, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia Record
-- Gore's Landing and the Rice Lake Plains; by Norma Martin and Catherine Milne and Donna S. McGillis (Cobourg, Ontario, Canada: Haynes Printing, 1986)

Thomas married Harriette Sarah HITCHCOCK, daughter of John HITCHCOCK and Catherine NAYLOR, in 1841 in Ireland. (Harriette Sarah HITCHCOCK was born in 1818 in Dublin, Ireland, christened in 1818 in St. Peter's Church, Dublin, Ireland and died in Apr 1893 in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada.)

  Marriage Notes:

Although it appears the marriage license was recorded in Dublin, Ireland, it is much more likely that Thomas & Harriette were married in County Antrim, Ireland, where they had both been born and raised.