History of Kingston

The history of Kingston begins back in 1673 when Robert Cavelier de La Salle, on the behalf of the Governor of Nouvelle-France, chose Cataraqui for the building of a fortified trading post of the same name. Soon Fort Cataraqui would be renamed Fort Frontenac. Three years later the fort expanded yielding a chapel, school and various other buildings.

War erupted between the French and the Iroquios in 1687. Two years later the fort would be abandoned to the Iroquios and destroyed. It wasn’t until 1695 after peaceful relations between the two sides that the fort was reoccupied and rebuilt by the French. The fort remained under French rule for many years. During these years it was used as a key point in attacks against Iroquios and British forces on various occasions.

Then in 1758, the English under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel John Bradstreet captured Fort Frontenac. Bradstreet came across Lake Ontario with 3,000 soldiers, outnumbering the French and forcing them to surrender without a single British casualty. The Fort would remain occupied by the British only periodically for the next several years.

Finally in 1783, the commanding officer for the second battalion of The King’s Royal Regiment of New York, Major John Ross, occupied Cataraqui with a large military force. Under Ross, Fort Frontenac would be partially rebuilt. This was to prepare for the arriving British Loyalists from the south who left their homes as the American Revolution was brewing. A small group of Loyalist settlers, led by Captain Michael Grass arrived in Cataraqui in 1784, which would be renamed Kingston. The majority of those Loyalists would move on to settle in the first township, which would eventually become Kingston’s West End. Another Loyalist community also would settle in what would be named Bath two years later, in 1886.

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