Hamnett Kirkes Pinhey, a young London export and ship insurance broker, emigrated to Canada in 1820 with a small fortune, to develop an estate on the Upper Canadian frontier. In 1821 he returned to England to bring his wife Mary Anne (Tasker) and first two children, Horace and Constance, back with him.
Pinhey soon established himself as a leader of society in eastern Upper Canada (Ontario) and became a member of the Legislative Assembly, Reeve of March Township, Warden of Carleton County, and a member of the Legislative Council of Canada.
He developed Horaceville, on the Ottawa riverfront of March Township (now part of the City of Ottawa), as his residential estate, operating grist and sawmills and building St. Mary’s Church, which opened in 1827. Click here for a name index to the financial accounts in his diaries.