Brockville, formerly Elizabethtown, is known as the “City of the 1000 Islands”, Brockville is located on the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River opposite Morristown, New York about half-way between Cornwall to the east and Kingston to the west and roughly a 50-minute drive south of the national capital of Ottawa. It is one of Ontario’s oldest communities and is named after the British general Sir Isaac Brock.

This area of Ontario was first settled by English speakers in 1785, when thousands of American refugees arrived from the American colonies after the American Revolutionary War. They were later called United Empire Loyalists because of their continued allegiance to King George III.  In 1785 the first U.E. Loyalist to take up land in Brockville was William Buell Sr. (1751–1832) an ensign disbanded from the King’s Rangers, from the state of New York. Residents commonly called the first settlement “Buell’s Bay”. Around 1810 government officials of Upper Canada designated the village as Elizabethtown.  About 1812 leading residents of the village suggested that the village be renamed to differentiate it and the township of Elizabethtown. The commanding British General in Upper Canada and temporary administrator of the province was Major-General Isaac Brock. He was celebrated as the “Hero and Saviour” of Upper Canada because of his recent success in securing the surrender of Fort Detroit. Perhaps to curry favour with Gen Brock certain leading citizens of the village including Charles Jones proposed the name of Brockville.  Brockville became Ontario’s first incorporated self-governing town on January 28, 1832, two years before the town of Toronto.

The community is dominated by the St. Lawrence River and is known as The City of the Thousand Islands. St. Lawrence River tour boats offers scenic trips on the river. The Brockville area is the launching point for some of the best fresh-water wreck diving in the world. Numerous sunken ships have been discovered below the waters of the St. Lawrence and a number of dive operators with fully equipped boats are ready to take divers to these sites.

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