Wellesley Township Heritage & Historical Society
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History of Wellesley Township

The Township of Wellesley is located in the northwest corner of what is now the Region of Waterloo. It was settled later than the other townships in Waterloo County because it was part of “The Queen’s Bush,” a vast tract of land set aside as Clergy Reserves. The area stretched north to Georgian Bay and west to Lake Huron, between the developed lands to the south-west and the lands of the German Company to the east.  

Clergy Reserves were areas set aside for the maintenance of the Protestant church in Canada. Proceeds from the sale or rent of land provided income for the church. The usual practice was to set aside every seventh lot, but in Wellesley the entire township was set aside.  There was some controversy about this system and by 1840 the creation of new Clergy Reserves was abolished.

The township was surveyed by William Walker in 1842-1843 in order to open the area for settlement, but there were already several groups of "squatters," mostly in the areas that became the villages of St. Clements, Heidelberg and Wellesley, as well as along the eastern and southern boundaries.

These squatters were both White and Black, the latter in the area around the present-day villages of Hawkesville and Wallenstein.  Squatters leased or obtained unsurveyed land from the Commissioner of Crown Lands to whom management of Clergy Reserves was given in 1830.  After Walker’s survey was complete, squatters were allowed to keep their cleared lands provided they lived on the lots, had made substantial progress in clearing the land and made a proper formal purchase of the lands.

When the land was opened for settlement, settlers poured into the Township from the east and south as well as further afield. “Location tickets” were issued to settlers and when all the necessary requirements, including payment, had been fulfilled on the property, they were given their deeds.


Read more about settlement patterns here.