On the grounds of the Rose House Museum, Waupoos Road, off County Road 8, Waupoos, Rose House Museum
Commemoration
Following the American Revolution, Marysburgh Township was established for the settlement of Loyalists and discharged soldiers of regular regiments. Surveyed in 1784 by the Honourable John Collins, Deputy Surveyor-General, the township was named in honour of Princess Mary, a daughter of King George III. Among its earliest settlers was a small group of disbanded German mercenaries under Baron von Reitzenstein. By October 1784, this party, numbering about 40 persons, had settled in this vicinity and begun to clear and cultivate that land. Shortly after, they erected a log chapel just west of here, and were ministered to by Lutheran missionaries. This was one of the earliest German-speaking groups to settle in Ontario.
Background
John Collins was appointed to the job of Surveyor-General of Quebec in 1764, only a year after the Treaty of Paris saw France cede these lands to Britain. It was he who determined the border between Quebec and the state of New York. In 1783, he was sent to survey the lands on the north shore of Lake Ontario.
A number of German mercenaries fought for King George during the revolution. This reflected his role as a Duke and Prince-elector of Brunswick-Luneberg and King of Hanover.