John Lade

Norfolk pioneer John Lade, the third of this name, brought a Baptist influence from his English home in Chartham, Kent County to South Middleton Township, Norfolk County, Ontario. John Lade served as a Deacon in the South Middleton Baptist Church on the Bell Mill Road southwest of the town of Delhi. John Lade’s birthplace Chartham is a rural English village about four miles west of the Cathedral city of Canterbury. The family attended the Eythorne Baptist church on the road from Canterbury to the port of Dover on the English Channel. He married Jane Fenner in 1826 and the couple lived in Chartham and in the villages of Petham and Ashford to the south.

John and Jane emigrated from London, England on the ship Quebec with their six children and arrived in New York City on 17 May 1841. On the passenger list their name is recorded as “Ladd.” Their daughter Jemima died on the voyage.

John and Jane left New York and traveled to Ontario, at that time officially called Canada West. For several years they lived in several different areas of the county. According to the death notice of their daughter Rachel, the Lade family lived first in Port Ryerse, Woodhouse Township. They lived next in the village of Vittoria, Charlotteville Township, Norfolk County where their daughter Hannah was born on 6 Dec 1842.

John and Jane Lade lived next on a 50-acre farm in Lot 15, Concession 13, Townsend Township, Norfolk County by 1850. This was located about a mile east of the hamlet of Tyrell. In 1852 they were living on Lot 11, Concession 14, Townsend Township just west of the hamlet of Renton along the Woodhouse Township line on the north side of present Highway 3 east of the town of Simcoe.

The couple settled finally on a farm Lot 18, Concession 3, South of Talbot Road Concession, Middleton Township. This is located along the town line of North Walsingham Township east of the hamlet of South Middleton and lived there for the rest of the lives, John until 1874 and Jane until 1879.

Bostwick/Bell Mill Cemetery

John and Jane Lade and other family members were buried in Bostwick Cemetery, also called Bell Mill Cemetery located at 87 Bell Mill Road in Middleton Township. This was the location of the South Middleton Baptist Church to the west of the Lade family farm. The Baptist Church building where John Lade served as Deacon was removed to the village of Langton in North Walsingham Township about 1940.