180 Lorne Avenue.

Architect · Civil engineer · Municipal official

John Thomas Stokes (1824–1891)

Born in Portsmouth, England, John Thomas Stokes came to Canada in 1849 and settled in Sharon, where he established a successful career in architecture, engineering and public service.

His influence on nineteenth-century Newmarket was considerable. He designed the Christian Baptist Church and St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church on Main Street, the North York Registry Offices, and several schools, including Newmarket High School and an enlargement of the old Prospect Street Public School. He is also credited with designing the substantial 1880s enlargement of Mulock House, incorporating an earlier Rogers farmhouse into Sir William Mulock's residence. His work extended throughout York County, while his public appointments included Clerk-Treasurer of East Gwillimbury and Superintendent of Public Roads for York County.

Stokes was also an accomplished artist and a founding member of the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers. In 1887 he moved to Toronto, where he worked as an assistant city engineer.

Among his seven daughters was Emily, who married Newmarket school principal William Rannie in 1877. Stokes is believed to have designed and built their house on Lorne Avenue between 1889 and 1891. He died on November 30, 1891, and was buried in Newmarket Cemetery, whose caretaker's residence he had also designed.

Education and family life in Victorian Newmarket

William & Emily Rannie

William Rannie was born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, on June 27, 1847. His family emigrated to Canada in 1854 and eventually settled in East Gwillimbury. In 1877, he married Emily Stokes, daughter of the architect John T. Stokes.

Rannie devoted much of his working life to education in Newmarket, serving as principal of Prospect Street Public School and subsequently Alexander Muir School. He was also active in the Newmarket Mechanics' Institute, where he served as a director and taught art classes to adults.

A remarkable photograph of graduating teachers at Alexander Muir School in 1898 identifies Rannie among those pictured. He retired from teaching in 1899, but his work in the community continued. In 1901, he served as a census enumerator, recording the households of his assigned district, including his own.

That census provides a glimpse of the Rannie family. William and Emily were living with their daughter Marion, aged 22 and herself a teacher, and their son J. Leslie, a 14-year-old student. Education was evidently a significant part of the family's life.

William died in Toronto on April 2, 1907, aged 59, and was buried in Newmarket Cemetery. The date when the Rannie family left Westbourne House has not yet been established.

Businessman · Municipal official · Community leader

Benjamin W. Hunter

Benjamin W. Hunter was another Newmarket resident whose interests extended well beyond his working life. Records place him in the insurance business, municipal government and several community initiatives during the early decades of the twentieth century.

In 1909, as Newmarket debated the adoption of prohibition, Hunter joined twelve other prominent citizens in a public pledge to preserve hotel accommodation for travellers and visiting farmers if the town's licensed hotels closed. The group promised to arrange the purchase of an existing hotel or, if necessary, establish a new one.

Hunter also participated in one of Newmarket's more contentious municipal debates: the question of electrical power. Following the resignation of council in 1913 over a proposed power agreement, he became deputy reeve on the replacement council, which proceeded with an arrangement involving Metropolitan Power.

In 1914, when Mayor J. A. W. Allan departed for military service, Hunter served as acting mayor from October through December.

His interests extended to the town's gardens and public spaces. A historical account published for the Newmarket Horticultural Society's 40th anniversary in 1966 identifies Hunter as the organization's first president following its formation in 1926.

Hunter was still active in municipal affairs decades later, serving as Newmarket's town assessor in 1943.

The 1931 census places him in rented accommodation on Lorne Avenue. A 1945 voters' list records his address as 45 Lorne, while the 1957 list places him at 180 Lorne Avenue. The town's street-renumbering programme of 1956 offers a possible explanation for the change, although the connection between the two addresses has yet to be conclusively established.

An archival photograph identifies Westbourne House as Hunter's residence, preserving a direct historical association between his name and the property.