Wilmot, Samuel

  • DCB profile notes:
    • Farmer, pisciculturist, office holder, politician, jp, militia officer, and civil servant; b. 22 Aug. 1822 at Belmont Farm, Clarke Township, Upper Canada, son of Samuel Street Wilmot and Mary Stegmann; m. 1 June 1852 Helen Matilda Clark in Cobourg, Upper Canada, and they had seven children; d. 17 May 1899 in Newcastle, Ont.
    • His farm was on Wilmot Creek, a noted spawning stream for Lake Ontario salmon; however, by the 1850s the runs of salmon in the creek, and in other salmon streams on Lake Ontario, had been greatly depleted as a result of overfishing and changes in the environment. Wilmot became interested in the possibility of restocking the stream by means of artificial propagation. In 1866 he built an experimental hatchery and succeeded in hatching the spawn from four salmon. The following year he obtained support for his efforts from the federal government, and on 1 July 1868 he was appointed to the Department of Marine and Fisheries as a fishery overseer with special responsibility for operating the hatchery.
    • Wilmot was the driving force behind the development of the hatchery system in Canada.
  • Grandson of United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=9159
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/232922243/samuel-wilmot