Arthur Trefusis Heneage Williams

Who was Arthur Trefusis Heneage Williams?

Lt.-Colonel The Hon. Arthur Trefusis Heneage Williams was a Canadian businessman, farmer and political figure. His statue stands in front of the town hall of Port Hope, Ontario.

Born at Penryn Park, Port Hope in Upper Canada in 1837, a member of the Williams family of Caerhays and Burncoose. He was the eldest son of John Tucker Williams and his wife Sarah, daughter of Judge Thomas Ward of Port Hope. He studied at Upper Canada College and the University of Edinburgh before travelling throughout Europe. He studied law but was not called to the bar, instead he 'delighted in calling himself a farmer', managing Penryn Park, the estate he'd inherited from his father. He was president and founder of the Midlands Loan and Savings Company and a director for the Midland Railway of Canada.

In politics he represented Durham East in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1867 to 1874 and in the Canadian House of Commons as a Conservative member from 1879 to 1885.

Williams was captain in the local militia, later becoming lieutenant-colonel. In 1885, he led the Midland Battalion which helped put down the Northwest Rebellion. Shortly after the Battle of Batoche, he became ill and died of fever on a steamboat on the North Saskatchewan River in 1885. The Dictionary of Canadian Biography writes,