Kerr, John William

John William Kerr (1812-1888) was appointed Fisheries Overseer in Upper Canada in 1864. He kept a handwritten diary of his activities and observations concerning the fish and game population of the region of southern Ontario around Lake Ontario from the Niagara River to Belleville.
He was born on June 24, 1812m and lived in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, in what is now Northern Ireland. He served in the Irish Constabulary for several years before emigrating to Canada with his wife Mary Elizabeth Winslow (1826-1907), who was also from County Fermanagh.
John and Mary crossed the Atlantic as passengers in a sailing vessel and landed in New York. From there they proceeded by the Erie Canal to Buffalo and Lake Erie. They entered Canada at Port Stanley on the north shore of Lake Erie on August 14, 1944. They spent the next five years with John’s uncle, also John William Kerr, near St. Thomas, Ontario. During the winter of 1844-1845, John taught school.
For the next five years, John worked in the Post Office in London, Ontario. He and his wife then moved to Hamilton, Ontario, where he was employed by the Great Western Railway as Chief Clerk in the Engineers’ Office. He retired from the Railway in 1854. Following his retirement from the railway, he obtained a Crown Grant of 100 acres of land on the brow of Hamilton Mountain in Barton Township, about two miles east of the ‘Jolly Cut’ and situated east of Gage Avenue at the point where Ottawa Street reached the ‘Mountain Top Road’. The point of the escarpment there was called Kerr’s point. On this tract of land he built a large house which still stands on part of the property. John and Mary raised a family of five daughters and four sons on this homestead.
In addition to establishing the farm, John Kerr was appointed first Fisheries Overseer in Upper Canada in 1864. He also undertook supervision of the control of hunting of game in this area. He continued in this appointment until near his death on May 8, 1888.
He was succeeded by his oldest living son, Frederick, who died in 1902. Following Frederick, the next oldest son, Charles John Kerr, became Fisheries Overseer and Game Warden for the County of Wentworth. Charles retired from this position several years before his death in 1942.
[written by Dr. Robert B. Kerr in 1981]

2018 (Creation)