David and Mary Thomson were Scottish immigrants from Westerkirk,

Dumfrieshire Dumfriesshire or the County of Dumfries or Shire of Dumfries (''Siorrachd Dhùn Phris'' in Gaelic) is a historic county and registration county in southern Scotland. The Dumfries lieutenancy area covers a similar area to the historic county. ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, and they were the first official

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

an settlers in what later became Scarborough,

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 ...

. David Thomson (1760–1834) and Mary Glendenning Thomson (1767–1847) arrived in

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

in 1796, landing in

Newark, Upper Canada Niagara-on-the-Lake is a town in Ontario, Canada. It is located on the Niagara Peninsula at the point where the Niagara River meets Lake Ontario, across the river from New York, United States. Niagara-on-the-Lake is in the Niagara Region of O ...

, then went to

York, Upper Canada York was a town and second capital of the colony of Upper Canada. It is the predecessor to the old city of Toronto (1834–1998). It was established in 1793 by Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe as a "temporary" location for the capital of ...

. David Thomson worked as a stonemason, but they moved to Scarborough in 1799 by acquiring farmland. He and his brother Archibald (who arrived in Canada in 1773) expanded their land holdings in Scarborough, becoming one of the most important families in the area. The Thomsons are buried at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church near their Thomson Settlement, in what is now known as

Thomson Memorial Park Thomson Memorial Park is a midsize park at 1005 Brimley Road in the Scarborough district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the site of the Scarborough Historical Museum and includes historical houses from the 1790s that once belonged to the f ...

. Descendants of Archibald Thomson include the late Roy Thomson, 1st Baron Thomson of Fleet, his son Kenneth Thomson, 2nd Baron Thomson of Fleet and grandson

David Thomson, 3rd Baron Thomson of Fleet David Kenneth Roy Thomson, 3rd Baron Thomson of Fleet (born 12 June 1957) is a Canadian/British hereditary peer and media magnate. Upon the death of his father in 2006, Thomson became the chairman of Thomson Corporation and also inherited his fa ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomson, David and Mary 1760 births 1767 births 1834 deaths 1847 deaths Thomson family Canadian people of Scottish descent Canadian people of English descent People from Dumfries and Galloway People from Scarborough, Toronto Pre-Confederation Ontario people

See also

References