Ancaster, Ontario – My Top 6 Picks
The earliest European settlers to arrive and clear land in the mid-18th century in what would eventually become Ancaster were made up of American farmers traveling north searching for arable land, French-speaking fur traders, and British immigrants. Also arriving into this area around 1787 with the incentive of inexpensive land grants were the United Empire Loyalists loyal to the British crown who were fleeing from the United States after the 1776 American War of Independence. Britain’s promise of free land brought many people who did not exhibit the same loyalty to the crown as the Loyalists. This eventually led to a series of defections, accusations and treasonous acts during the War of 1812 that precipitated the largest mass hangings in Canadian history, the so-called Bloody Assizes whose trial took place in Ancaster in 1814.
