Why Did Augustus Jones Cease Surveying in 1800?
Alun Hughes, Department of Geography, Brock University
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Augustus Jones, a Loyalist of Welsh-American descent, was
arguably Upper Canada’s leading surveyor prior to 1800. In
the 1780s he played a major role in laying out the original
townships in the Niagara Peninsula, and he later undertook
numerous surveys of townships, townsites and roads in the
Golden Horseshoe (among them York, Lenox and Yonge
Street). He also surveyed the boundaries of the Six Nations
Tract on the Grand River.

When he wasn’t working Jones led a very complex personal
life. He was a close friend of native leader Joseph Brant and
was married simultaneously to the daughters of two rival
Indian chiefs, one Mohawk, the other Mississauga. Then in
1800, at the height of his career, he abruptly stopped
surveying, became a farmer and spent his later years on a
6000-acre tract on the Grand River, where he died in 1836.
Why the sudden change? This paper reviews Jones’s
professional and personal lives and suggests an explanation
that is part individual choice and part government policy.