1826–1846: Alfred T. Jones, One of London's First Thousand
In 1833 a young man in Kentucky wrote himself a pass. A pass was a note that let an enslaved person travel. The spelling was wrong, but it did not matter. As he said years later, "nobody there supposed that a slave could write at all."
His name was Alfred T. Jones. His enslaver had agreed to let him buy his freedom for $350. Then Jones learned that the man was planning to sell him to someone else for $400. So he wrote the pass and left. He had to show it only once on the way north.
He made his way to London, in what is now Ontario. London was just seven years old.
His name was Alfred T. Jones. His enslaver had agreed to let him buy his freedom for $350. Then Jones learned that the man was planning to sell him to someone else for $400. So he wrote the pass and left. He had to show it only once on the way north.
He made his way to London, in what is now Ontario. London was just seven years old.
Two centuries of newcomers
Since 2013, I Am London has celebrated the immigrants who choose our city and make it home. London turns 200 this year. To mark it, we are telling the city's story through ten newcomers. There is one for each 20-year period, from 1826 to today. Alfred T. Jones is the first.
How could anyone be an immigrant before Canada existed?
Canada became a country in 1867. Canadian citizenship began in 1947. Before then, people here were British subjects. A British subject was a person who belonged to the British Empire. People from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland were British subjects when they arrived. In the eyes of the law, they were moving inside one empire.
People from other countries were different. The law called them "aliens." An American who settled in Upper Canada, the colony that became Ontario, could become a British subject. First they had to live here for seven years and swear an oath.
For our first two periods, 1826 to 1866, this campaign follows that line. We count people who came from outside the British Empire as immigrants. In London's early years, many of them came from the United States. From 1867 on, we count everyone who came here from another country.
This choice leaves many people out. Most newcomers to the London area in these years came from Britain and Ireland. They were newcomers too, and their stories are part of London's story.
How could anyone be an immigrant before Canada existed?
Canada became a country in 1867. Canadian citizenship began in 1947. Before then, people here were British subjects. A British subject was a person who belonged to the British Empire. People from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland were British subjects when they arrived. In the eyes of the law, they were moving inside one empire.
People from other countries were different. The law called them "aliens." An American who settled in Upper Canada, the colony that became Ontario, could become a British subject. First they had to live here for seven years and swear an oath.
For our first two periods, 1826 to 1866, this campaign follows that line. We count people who came from outside the British Empire as immigrants. In London's early years, many of them came from the United States. From 1867 on, we count everyone who came here from another country.
This choice leaves many people out. Most newcomers to the London area in these years came from Britain and Ireland. They were newcomers too, and their stories are part of London's story.
London, 1826 to 1846
The land where London stands is covered by the London Township Treaty. It was made between the British Crown and the Chippewa Nation in 1796. For 30 years after that, the site stayed mostly undeveloped.
Then, in 1826, the government chose London as the centre of the London District. Here the district would hold its court and keep its jail. Workers built a courthouse from 1827 to 1829. With its towers, it looked like a small castle. Around it, the town grew.
By 1834 more than 1,100 people lived in London. Rebellion broke out in the colony in 1837, and British soldiers were stationed in London from 1838. London kept growing. It became a city in 1855.
Most of its newcomers came from Britain and Ireland. Some came from the United States. George Jervis Goodhue, an American merchant, arrived in 1826, the year the town began. Americans like him were aliens in law until they took the oath. Until then, they could not vote or hold public office, and their right to keep their land could be challenged.
A small number of Black people lived in London too. Museum London estimates that about 64 people who had escaped slavery lived here in the 1830s. One of them, Benjamin Miller, arrived in 1836. He served as a Methodist pastor.
Other Black newcomers built a community of their own nearby. In 1829, free Black families from Cincinnati, Ohio, started the Wilberforce settlement, in what is now Lucan. By 1832 it had a sawmill and two schools. Many of its leaders left by the 1840s, after the Canada Company would not sell the settlers more land.
Slavery in the British Empire ended in August 1834. Britain's Parliament had passed the law in 1833, the same year Jones escaped.
Then, in 1826, the government chose London as the centre of the London District. Here the district would hold its court and keep its jail. Workers built a courthouse from 1827 to 1829. With its towers, it looked like a small castle. Around it, the town grew.
By 1834 more than 1,100 people lived in London. Rebellion broke out in the colony in 1837, and British soldiers were stationed in London from 1838. London kept growing. It became a city in 1855.
Most of its newcomers came from Britain and Ireland. Some came from the United States. George Jervis Goodhue, an American merchant, arrived in 1826, the year the town began. Americans like him were aliens in law until they took the oath. Until then, they could not vote or hold public office, and their right to keep their land could be challenged.
A small number of Black people lived in London too. Museum London estimates that about 64 people who had escaped slavery lived here in the 1830s. One of them, Benjamin Miller, arrived in 1836. He served as a Methodist pastor.
Other Black newcomers built a community of their own nearby. In 1829, free Black families from Cincinnati, Ohio, started the Wilberforce settlement, in what is now Lucan. By 1832 it had a sawmill and two schools. Many of its leaders left by the 1840s, after the Canada Company would not sell the settlers more land.
Slavery in the British Empire ended in August 1834. Britain's Parliament had passed the law in 1833, the same year Jones escaped.
Alfred T. Jones
Jones was about 23 when he escaped. He spent a month in St. Catharines, in the Niagara region. Then he came to London. Museum London dates his arrival to 1833.
Few records of his first years here have been found. By the late 1840s he was running a fruit store. By the 1850s he ran an apothecary, a shop that made and sold medicines. Researchers at Western University place it at the corner of Ridout and Dundas Streets, across from the courthouse.
In the mid-1850s, an American writer named Benjamin Drew came to London. He was recording the stories of Black people who had escaped slavery. Jones told him about Black workers in the city. "There are colored people employed in this city in almost all the mechanic arts," he said. Mechanic arts meant skilled trades. "Many are succeeding well," he went on, and many were "buying houses, speculating in lands."
Jones was one of them. He told Drew he would soon travel to England for a court case. It was about his claim to "a large property on Dundas street, valued at $45,000." How the case ended is not known. His brother, A.B. Jones, also settled in London. He ran a store on Dundas Street, near Talbot.
Prejudice came up too. Jones said "the people from the old country" had "some strange ideas" about Black people. He meant newcomers from Britain and Ireland. Many of them had rarely met a Black person before. He called their attitude "second-hand prejudice," a phrase he credited to a man named Ward. It was prejudice they had learned from others, not from experience.
He had also seen it change. With the years, he said, "there is an improvement perceptible." Things were getting better, and people could see it.
Jones married and raised eight children, all born in London. By the 1860s, people called him Dr. A. T. Jones. In 1863 an American government commission came to what is now Ontario. It wanted to learn how people who had escaped slavery were living. Its report names Jones as one of the Londoners who were "very useful" to its work.
Few records of his first years here have been found. By the late 1840s he was running a fruit store. By the 1850s he ran an apothecary, a shop that made and sold medicines. Researchers at Western University place it at the corner of Ridout and Dundas Streets, across from the courthouse.
In the mid-1850s, an American writer named Benjamin Drew came to London. He was recording the stories of Black people who had escaped slavery. Jones told him about Black workers in the city. "There are colored people employed in this city in almost all the mechanic arts," he said. Mechanic arts meant skilled trades. "Many are succeeding well," he went on, and many were "buying houses, speculating in lands."
Jones was one of them. He told Drew he would soon travel to England for a court case. It was about his claim to "a large property on Dundas street, valued at $45,000." How the case ended is not known. His brother, A.B. Jones, also settled in London. He ran a store on Dundas Street, near Talbot.
Prejudice came up too. Jones said "the people from the old country" had "some strange ideas" about Black people. He meant newcomers from Britain and Ireland. Many of them had rarely met a Black person before. He called their attitude "second-hand prejudice," a phrase he credited to a man named Ward. It was prejudice they had learned from others, not from experience.
He had also seen it change. With the years, he said, "there is an improvement perceptible." Things were getting better, and people could see it.
Jones married and raised eight children, all born in London. By the 1860s, people called him Dr. A. T. Jones. In 1863 an American government commission came to what is now Ontario. It wanted to learn how people who had escaped slavery were living. Its report names Jones as one of the Londoners who were "very useful" to its work.
"British subjects, as much as the whitest among you"
In November 1862, a committee of London's school trustees counted 153 Black children in the city. These trustees were the elected board that ran the city's schools. They then moved to take Black children out of the common school, the public school open to all. Their plan was a separate school. A law passed in 1850 allowed separate schools for Black children.
Black Londoners said they would resist. The commission's report says Jones was "most active among them." Speaking to the commission, he repeated what he told the people behind the plan. "I have eight children, who were all born in this town," he said. "British subjects, as much as the whitest among you."
Jones had come from outside the Empire. His children were British subjects by birth, and he said so.
To his children, he gave a clear instruction: do not leave the classroom. "If they tell you to go," he said to them, "don't go, but wait until they lay hands on you to put you out; and then you come quietly home, and I will attend to it."
Black families would leave Canada once the American Civil War was over, he warned. The head of the province's schools ruled that the trustees had the right to open a separate school. Records found so far do not show what happened next.
Jones died in the 1860s. His family stayed in London.
Black Londoners said they would resist. The commission's report says Jones was "most active among them." Speaking to the commission, he repeated what he told the people behind the plan. "I have eight children, who were all born in this town," he said. "British subjects, as much as the whitest among you."
Jones had come from outside the Empire. His children were British subjects by birth, and he said so.
To his children, he gave a clear instruction: do not leave the classroom. "If they tell you to go," he said to them, "don't go, but wait until they lay hands on you to put you out; and then you come quietly home, and I will attend to it."
Black families would leave Canada once the American Civil War was over, he warned. The head of the province's schools ruled that the trustees had the right to open a separate school. Records found so far do not show what happened next.
Jones died in the 1860s. His family stayed in London.
His London today
No photograph of Alfred T. Jones is known. His shop is gone. The courthouse he faced still stands on Ridout Street, between Dundas and King. It is a National Historic Site. His words survive too, because two visitors wrote them down.
Jones came to London when it was a small town. He built his business at its centre. The city's trustees tried to move his children out of their school. He told the children to stay in their seats. London has been a city of newcomers since its first years, and he was one of them. Over the next nine weeks, we follow that story to today.
To learn more, visit the Fugitive Slave Chapel at Fanshawe Pioneer Village. London's African Methodist Episcopal congregation built it in 1848, and it was restored in 2023. Western University's Black Londoners Project maps the lives of Jones and other Black Londoners of his time.
Next week: 1847 to 1866.
Jones came to London when it was a small town. He built his business at its centre. The city's trustees tried to move his children out of their school. He told the children to stay in their seats. London has been a city of newcomers since its first years, and he was one of them. Over the next nine weeks, we follow that story to today.
To learn more, visit the Fugitive Slave Chapel at Fanshawe Pioneer Village. London's African Methodist Episcopal congregation built it in 1848, and it was restored in 2023. Western University's Black Londoners Project maps the lives of Jones and other Black Londoners of his time.
Next week: 1847 to 1866.
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