Gamble, John William

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Barrie Dyster, “GAMBLE, JOHN WILLIAM,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 10, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/gamble_john_william_10E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Manufacturer and politician; b. 5 July 1799, in the garrison at York (Toronto), U.C., eldest son of John Gamble, loyalist and army surgeon, and Isabella Elizabeth Clarke of Connecticut; m., in 1822, Mary, daughter of James Macaulay* of York, by whom he had five children; in 1834, Matilda Atkinson, by whom he had three daughters; and thirdly the widowed Minerva Anne Niles; d. 12 Dec. 1873 at Pine Grove, Ont.
    • John William Gamble was brought up in Kingston but returned to York about 1815 because the family lands were concentrated in Etobicoke Township. He kept a store, first with his brother-in-law William Allan and, from about 1822, with his own brother, William, to whom he left most of the responsibility until the arrangement was dissolved in William’s favour in 1827.
    • In 1843 Gamble moved up the Humber to Pine Grove in Vaughan Township. Here he resided the rest of his life and built up a manufacturing complex: grist and flour mill, sawmill, distillery, and a cloth factory. He served 14 active terms on the district (later county) council as reeve of Vaughan Township from 1846, but, a Tory among Reformers, was only twice warden of York County.
    • Gamble entered politics in 1838 when he ran as a “Constitutional” Tory and defeated George Duggan to represent the 1st riding of York in the assembly; his electorate, despite later changes, always included both Mimico and Woodbridge, and his political stronghold was Etobicoke. He opposed the union of the Canadas as threatening to extend Catholic influence, and stood in the election of 1841 for “attachment to the Throne and reverence for the Altar.”
    • Gamble saw himself the squire of a god-fearing parish, a thriving village, to which his own industries were crucial, and a trusty yeomanry. He looked the squire too, broad and tall with a strikingly handsome head and a decisive manner. By the 1860s, however, Gamble had lost his last election, some of his chief causes had been overthrown or bypassed, and various family enterprises had crumpled in the depression of the late 1850s. He turned to genealogy for solace and compiled Family records. Its epigraph revealed a retreat to hard-shelled Toryism : “My son, fear thou God and the King, and meddle not with them that are given to change.”
  • Son of Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory –https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=3071
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/65163588/john-william-gamble