This fonds contains a single document, officially granting Lot 82 in Sandwich, Ontario (located near present-day Moy Avenue and Hall Avenue, abutting the Detroit River) to William Gaspe Hall in 1852.

This fonds contains records related to the life and work of 19th century Upper Canadian shipwright Shadrach Jenking. The records are primarily original legal documents related to the sale, acquisition, and boundaries of land in the Township of Sandwich, but also included are original papers relating to Jenking’s training as a shipwright and copies of his descendants’ genealogical research. The fonds is arranged into three series. Series I: Labour Agreements contains documents relating to Jenking’s apprenticeship. Series II: Land Agreements includes deeds and assignments of mortgage, as well as one property sketch and one blueprint. Many are tied to families of Jenking or his wife Margaret Maisonville. Series III: Genealogical Research and Fragments contains bits of unidentified original documents and a variety of correspondence, notes, and photocopied resources relating to the family history of Shadrach Jenking and his descendants.

This fonds contains original records documenting 19th and early 20th century land ownership for several parcels of land in rural Essex County, including deeds of land, affidavits, and mortgages. There are also handwritten notes tracking the chain of ownership for a specific parcel. The lands documented are (1) Lot 16 South of Middle Road, Rochester Township, and (2) Lots 17 and 18 in the Ninth Concession of Sandwich South Township (formerly Sandwich East Township). These transactions involve farmers, farmwives, and bankers, as well as single, widowed, and married people, neighbours, and relatives.

This fonds consists of a single land grant document on parchment with a very large wax seal attached. The document, signed on 10 March 1804, grants 314 acres of land from the Province of Upper Canada to “Jean Baptiste Tourneaux.” The land was designated as lot 78 in the first, second, and third concessions of the Parish of L’Assomption (Assumption) in the Township of Sandwich. This lot extended from present-day Salter Avenue in the west to Bruce Avenue in the east, from the Detroit River in the north down to the Roseland Golf Course in the south. Janette Avenue, which runs through the lot, was named for Jean Baptiste Le Tourneaux dit Jeannet, the grantee.

This fonds consists of a large document (40cm x 35cm; handwritten text on a printed form) officially granting land in the British colony of Canada West (which would become Ontario in 1867), to the Great Western Railway Company. The grant outlines the location and cost of this land in the Township of Harwich in Kent County (an area that encompassed the villages of Blenheim, Erieau, Erie Beach, and Shrewsbury).

This fonds contains financial records of Assumption College and University, ca. 1856-1999. These include general cash books, financial statements, correspondence, and records of accounts, as well as real estate acquired, constructed, maintained, or sold by Assumption and/or the Basilian Fathers in the vicinity of the present-day campus, from Tecumseh Road north to the Detroit River. Included are land deeds, contracts, and other legal documents, as well as architectural or schematic drawings and specifications for campus buildings. Notably, this includes records of property acquired in the early days of the college, and campus properties sold by Assumption in the 1960s to the University of Windsor. Of special note: a small number of 1950s-1960s records relating to Essex College, the non-denominational affiliated college that helped secure provincial government funding for the campus.

This fonds principally contains records connected with the Congregation of St. Basil (Basilian Fathers) whose members administered Assumption College and Assumption University from 1870 onward. Secondarily, it contains varied records that document the history of Assumption and its evolution over time. Included are legal documents, memos, correspondence, ephemera, constitutions and rules, historical narratives and memoirs, reports, and a variety of Basilian publications and formal histories of Assumption. Some items pertain to Catholic education broadly, or to the history of the Catholic Church in Southwestern Ontario. Of special note are Assumption fight songs and a victory song, and the Second World War war diary of Rev. Mike Dalton, a military chaplain.