York was a town and the 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 Upper Canada, while he made plans to build a capital near today's London, Ontario. Simcoe renamed the location York after Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, George III's second son. Simcoe gave up his plan to build a capital at London, and York became the permanent capital of Upper Canada on February 1, 1796. That year Simcoe returned to Britain and was temporarily replaced by Peter Russell.
View of York from the harbour looking north, in 1803
Depiction of the Queen's Rangers of York cutting trees down during the construction of Yonge Street, 1795.
A depiction of the Battle of York in April 1813. The battle saw an American force supported by a naval flotilla land on the lake shore to the west, and advanced against York.
View of King Street, c. 1829. The settlement's courthouse, jail, and St. James Anglican Church are visible to the left of King Street.
The Province of Upper 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 Province of Quebec since 1763. Upper Canada included all of modern-day Southern Ontario and all those areas of Northern Ontario in the Pays d'en Haut which had formed part of New France, essentially the watersheds of the Ottawa River or Lakes Huron and Superior, excluding any lands within the watershed of Hudson Bay. The "upper" prefix in the name reflects its geographic position along the Great Lakes, mostly above the headwaters of the Saint Lawrence River, contrasted with Lower Canada to the northeast.
The third Parliament Building in York, built between 1829 and 1832 at Front Street
Sir Allan Napier MacNab, 1st Baronet of the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada
Second market in York (Toronto)
Robert Fleming Gourlay