Middlesex County, Ontario

Middlesex County is a primarily rural county and census division in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Landlocked, the county is bordered by Huron and Perth counties on the north, Oxford County on the east, Elgin County on the south, and Chatham-Kent and Lambton County on the west.

The county seat is the city of London, although the city is politically independent from the county. The Middlesex census division, which consists of the county together with the City of London and three First Nations reserves, had a population of 500,563 in 2021. Part of the county is also included in the London census metropolitan area.

Administrative divisions

Middlesex County is composed of eight incorporated municipalities (in order of population):

* Strathroy-Caradoc, Township of
**Population centres: Strathroy and Mount Brydges. Other communities: Cairngorm, Campbellvale, Caradoc, Christina, Falconbridge, Glen Oak, Longwood, Melbourne (part) and Muncey.
* Middlesex Centre, Municipality of
**Population centre: Ilderton. Other communities: Arva, Ballymote, Birr, Bryanston, Coldstream, Delaware, Denfield, Duncrief, Elginfield, Ettrick, Ivan, Kilworth, Komoka, Littlewood, Lobo, Lobo Siding, Maple Grove, Melrose, Poplar Hill, Sharon, Southgate, Southwold, Telfer and Vanneck.
* Thames Centre, Municipality of (township)
**Population centres: Dorchester and Thorndale. Other communities: Avon, Belton, Cherry Grove, Crampton, Cobble Hill, Derwent, Devizes, Evelyn, Fanshawe Lake, Friendly Corners, Gladstone, Harrietsville, Kelly Station, Mossley, Nilestown, Oliver, Plover Mills, Putnam, Salmonville, Silvermoon, Three Bridges and Wellburn.
* North Middlesex, Municipality of (township)
**Population centre: Parkhill. Other communities: Ailsa Craig, Beechwood, Bornish, Bowood, Brinsley, Carlisle, Corbett, Greenway, Hungry Hollow, Lieury, Moray, Mount Carmel, Nairn, Sable, Springbank, Sylvan and West McGillivray.
* Southwest Middlesex, Municipality of (township)
**Population centre: Glencoe. Other communities: Appin, Ekfrid, Lewis Corners, Macksville, Mayfair, Melbourne (part), Newbury Station, North Appin Station, North Ekfrid, North Glencoe Station, Riverside, Strathburn, Tate Corners, Wardsville and Woodgreen.
* Lucan Biddulph, Township
**Population centre: Lucan. Other communities: Biddulph, Clandeboye and Granton.
* Adelaide Metcalfe, Township
**Communities: Adelaide, Crathie, Dejong, Kerwood, Keyser, Mullifarry, Napier, Napperton, Springfield, Walkers and Wrightmans Corners.
* Newbury, Village

First Nations reserves are located within the Middlesex census division but separate from Middlesex County:
* Chippewas of the Thames 42
* Munsee-Delaware 1
* Oneida 41.

History

The area was originally organized as Suffolk County, created in July 1792 by Governor John Simcoe by his first proclamation issued at Kingston, which also defined it as a constituency for the purposes of returning a member to the new Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada, and was described as having the following territory:

Simcoe toured the southwestern portion of the province's territory in early 1793 and concluded that the lower forks of the Thames would be best suited as the future site of the provincial capital. The names London in Middlesex were considered more appropriate for this. Suffolk County was reorganized as Middlesex County, as part of the London District, in 1798 by the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada, consisting of the townships of London, Westminster, Dorchester, Yarmouth, Southwold, Dunwich, Aldborough and Delaware.

Middlesex County was expanded several times thereafter, starting in 1821 with the addition of the townships of Moza, Ecfrid ''(sic)'', Carradoc ''(sic)'' and Lobo. Adelaide Township came from the Huron Tract in 1835, and Williams Township was withdrawn from Huron County and annexed to Middlesex in 1845. In 1837, Bayham and Malahide Townships were transferred to Middlesex from Norfolk County. Metcalfe Township was formed from the north part of Ekfrid and the south part of Adelaide in 1845.

Upon the abolition of the London District in January 1850, Middlesex County was constituted for municipal purposes. The County was reorganized as the United Counties of Middlesex and Elgin in 1851, with its townships divided thus:

Elgin County was separated from Middlesex in September 1853.

The townships of Biddulph and McGillivray were withdrawn from Huron County and annexed to Middlesex in 1862. There was a village at Ekfrid Station that had a blacksmith's shop, a gristmill and a store that was created by the Grand Truck railroad. Today it is ghost town as the post office closed on 31 January 1914 and the railroad station in 1950. Another settlement existed at Mayfair that was founded in 1854. Mayfair had by the 1880s a tavern, two cheese factories, a sawmill, a blacksmith, a painter, a tailor, and a large house called Mayfair Castle that had marble imported from Italy. Mayfair Castle costed $7000 to build at a time when the average brick house costed $1000 to build. The post office closed in 1914 and today Mayfair is a ghosttown with only the former Baptist Church and Mayfair Castle still standing. In 1829, a hamlet was founded at Strathburn that had a school by 1840. A church was founded in 1844 and a post office opened in 1852. By 1963, Strathburn had become a ghost town with only home inhabited and all the rest abandoned..

The historic townships of the County (including those originally part of Huron County marked in red) are shown below:

Withdrawal and evolution of the City of London

London, when it became a city in 1855, separated from Middlesex County, and it expanded later in stages:

Demographics

As a census division in the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Middlesex County had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Middlesex County has 38,231 people over the age of 15, with 45% of them working in the same municipality as the one they live in. That implies that more than 50% of them commute to other municipalities.

Municipal government

Members of the County Council are the mayors (or reeves) of the municipalities of Adelaide Metcalfe, Lucan Biddulph, Middlesex Centre, North Middlesex, Southwest Middlesex, Strathroy-Caradoc and Thames Centre as well as the Village of Newbury. Centres with a population exceeding 5,000 also get an additional seat for their deputy mayors. The head of council is one of its members who is elected as reeve for a one year term by the councillors.

See also

* List of municipalities in Ontario
* List of townships in Ontario
* List of secondary schools in Ontario#Middlesex County

References

External links

*

{{Authority control

Counties in Ontario
Southwestern Ontario