Thomas Burrowes (1796–1866) was a Captain with the Corps of Royal Sappers and Miners who served as both a

surveyor Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is ca ...

and overseer during the construction of the

Rideau Canal The Rideau Canal, also known unofficially as the Rideau Waterway, connects Canada's capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, to Lake Ontario and the Saint Lawrence River at Kingston. It is 202 kilometres long. The name ''Rideau'', French for "curtain", ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada. Burrowes is known, however, for having documented the construction of the canal and the landscape of the surrounding area in a series of watercolour paintings, thus creating an important eyewitness record of one of the most important engineering projects of 19th century Canada.

Biography

Burrowes was born in 1796 in

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Englan ...

, England. At the age of 17, he enlisted in the Corps of Royal Sappers and Miners, and he was posted to Fort Henry in

Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada (french: link=no, province du Haut-Canada) was a part of British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of the ...

in 1815. In 1826, he joined a team assembling in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

to build a military canal linking Lake Ontario to the Ottawa River and worked for 20 years (1826 to 1846) as a civilian employee on the Rideau Canal project as overseer, surveyor and clerk. Assigned to

Bytown Bytown is the former name of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It was founded on September 26, 1826, incorporated as a town on January 1, 1850, and superseded by the incorporation of the City of Ottawa on January 1, 1855. The founding was marked by a Grou ...

(the settlement that later became

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

, the capital of Canada), Burrowes served as Assistant Overseer of Works for the Rideau Canal project. He was one of the first persons to take up land and build a home on Wellington Street, the road upon which Canada's Parliament Buildings would be built decades later. In 1829, Burrowes was posted to

Kingston Mills Kingston Mills, located approximately north of downtown Kingston, Ontario, is the southernmost lockstation and one of 24 lockstations of the Rideau Canal system. Kingston Mills is a component of the Rideau Canal National Historic Site, and alon ...

, upstream from Kingston, where he served as Clerk of the Works of the Cataraqui section of the Rideau Canal until his retirement in 1846. In 1819, he married Grace Rodgers and till 1826 had 3 sons with her. In 1826, the family moved from

. It was in Bytown that their 4th son (namely, John By Burrowes) was born but he died just after 7 months and, was later followed by his mother Grace, who died in 1827. After about 10 years, Thomas considered remarriage and married Margaret Morrision and had 7 children (6 girls, 1 boy) with her, all born at Kingston Mills. In retirement, Burrowes worked as a farmer, supplementing his income by serving both as a

postmaster A postmaster is the head of an individual post office, responsible for all postal activities in a specific post office. When a postmaster is responsible for an entire mail distribution organization (usually sponsored by a national government), ...

and

Justice of the Peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

in Kingston Mills. Burrowes died in 1866. His home, Maplehurst, still stands.

Artwork

Throughout his career, Burrowes painted watercolours documenting the construction of the canal and the landscape of Upper Canada. His paintings were discovered in 1907 in the attic of one of Burrowes' daughters in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

, and were donated to the

Archives of Ontario The Archives of Ontario are the archives for the province of Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1903 as the Bureau of Archives, the archives are now under the responsibility of the Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery. The main offices of ...

in 1948 by Burrowes' grandson. The paintings have been referred to as "some of the most famous images in Ontario history", constituting "one of the most important ever private donations to the Archives of Ontario".
A Private, Precious Gift
',

, Retrieved 21 January 2008.

References

Notes Bibliography *

External links

Eyewitness: Thomas Burrowes on the Rideau Canal
- Online exhibit of the

Osborne, B. The Artist as Historical Commentator: Thomas Burrowes and the Rideau Canal
1983 Jan 1. Archivaria nline1:17. Retrieved 2008-01-22. {{DEFAULTSORT:Burrowes, Thomas English emigrants to pre-Confederation Ontario English landscape painters 1796 births 1866 deaths Military personnel from Worcester, England Artists from Ottawa Rideau Canal Canadian surveyors Settlers of the National Capital Region (Canada) Royal Engineers officers Canadian watercolourists English surveyors English watercolourists Immigrants to Upper Canada