08/29/2026
From the Baldoon Settlement to Wallaceburg: A closer look 🔍
Lord Selkirk, born Thomas Douglas in 1771 at St. Mary’s Isle near Kirkcudbright, Scotland, was the son of Dunbar Hamilton Douglas, fourth Earl of Selkirk. He saw crofters (Scottish farmers) being forced off their land, and after becoming the fifth Earl in 1799 he used his wealth to offer them a new start in Canada. In May 1804, he orchestrated the voyage of fifteen families across the ocean to Canada for a new opportunity.
The crossing was hard from the start. They spent about five weeks on the Atlantic. When they reached Lachine on July 19, they travelled by cart past the rapids and packed into bateaux up the St. Lawrence to Kingston. From there they sailed to Queenston, hauled everything around Niagara Falls, and then went on by boat along Lake Erie to Amherstburg. The last stretch was in open boats to the Chenail Ecarte (the Snye). They reached Baldoon on September 5. The land was low, wet, and flood prone. They arrived in malaria season, spent the first winter in tents, and lost many settlers to fever and disease. In July 1812, American militia raided the settlement and carried off livestock. Rising water later made that first site even harder to live on, so the families moved, not all at once and not far, upriver to higher ground at The Forks, where the east and north branches of the Sydenham meet.
That move is where present day Wallaceburg begins. Laughlin McDougall, one of the original Baldoon party, was first. In the early 1820s he built a trading post and tavern at The Forks. Other Baldoon families followed. Hugh McCallum, son of an original settler, became the first postmaster and gave The Forks a new name: Wallaceburg, after Scotland’s William Wallace!
Photo 1: Plaque at the original location of the Baldoon Settlement
Photo 2: List of names of the 15 families who came to the settlement
Photo 3: Portrait of Thomas Douglas, Lord Selkirk
