The townships that would eventually constitute Peel were initially part of York County in the Home District, and were designated as the West Riding of York in 1845.[1]
Named, probably in honour of a loyal Chippewa chief who fought at the capture of Michilimackinac. His name was Shinguacose, "the small pine." Born to a Scottish officer and Chippewan mother, Shinguacose died around 1858. The name of the township may also be from an indigenous word meaning "the place where young pines grow."
Opened in 1834 when John Elliott laid out the lots and named the place. Incorporated as a village in 1852, and as a town in 1873. Named by settler John Eliot and likely linked to Brampton, Carlisle, Cumbria in England.
It had its beginnings about 1820. Likely named for Malton, North Yorkshire by local settler Richard Halliday.
The county was created in 1851, forming part of the United Counties of York, Ontario and Peel.[2] It was given its own provisional county council in 1856,[3] and was formally separated from York in 1860.[4]
However, disputes as to whether the county seat should be Malton or Brampton[5] prompted the provisional council to request that the separation be reversed, and an 1862 Act of the Parliament of the Province of Canada brought that into effect, reviving the United Counties of York and Peel.[6] In 1866, the counties were re-separated.[7]
In 1973, Peel County became the Regional Municipality of Peel, as a result of the Ontario provincial government's regionalization of the rapidly developing counties surrounding Toronto.[8]
Further reading
Middleton, Jesse Edgar; Landon, Fred (1927). Province of Ontario: A History 1615 to 1927. Toronto: Dominion Publishing Company.