Heritage York Research Guide
Humber River, showing William Gamble mill, in background, Toronto, Ontario. Photograph by William james Loudon, 1889. Baldwin Collection of Canadiana, TPL. Public domain.
William Gamble
of Milton Mills, on the Humber River
b. 1802, Kingston, ON., d. 1881, Etobicoke
Miller, importer/exporter, postmaster, auditor, reeve, magistrate, bank director, and Justice of the Peace.
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For more information on mills along the Humber, please click here.
For more information on on businesses and services, please click here.
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To view a full list of the primary sources found on William Gamble during research for this guide,
please click here.
Milton Mills, Etobicoke
On the Humber
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One of 13 children of Dr. John Gamble and Isabella Elizabeth Gamble (née Clarke), William came to York with his mother and at least one sibling in about 1820. He married his wife Elizabeth Bowles Brenchley in 1833, and had one daughter.
The first record of William being a business owner dates to 1827, when he is licensed to sell "spirituous liquors," likely at the general store he owned with his brother John William. He would later sell this store, and open another with business partner Thomas Birchall on King St W.
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After selling his share of that store to Birchall, William would purchase the King's Mill in the mid 1830s from Thomas Fisher, renaming it "Milton Mills". The village on this side of the Humber would become the namesake of these mills until the mid-1800s when it would adopt the name of "Lambton Mills" as an extension of the town on the York side of the river.
Gamble would soon open a depository for the products of the mill in York, and a general store in Etobicoke on Dundas St. W (image above). His Milton Mills business would burn down in 1849, but was quickly rebuilt. In fact, William would expand the mills, adding various buildings and products to his business.
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William acted as the postmaster for Etobicoke, as well as a Reeve, a Justice of the Peace, a hotel proprietor, a pathmaster, and a magistrate for the town. He was also a director at the Bank of Canada, a Home District Council Member, and an Education Committee Member.
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In the late 1850s and into the 1860s, William would suffer financial losses that would result in the seizure and auctioning of his assets, including his mills.
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Gamble, William, shop, Dundas St. Artist William James Thomson, 1913, Baldwin Collection of Canadiana, TPL. Public domain.