Colonel Connell James Baldwin (1777-1861) was one of the highest-ranking officers from the British army to settle in historic Mississauga. What was rather remarkable, given the era in which he served and the rank he attained, Connell James Baldwin was Irish Catholic, and it was somewhat rare for Irish Catholics to attain higher ranks within the British army.

Baldwin was born at Clogheneagh (Cloheena), County Cork, Ireland, likely the son of Dr. James Baldwin and Mary O’Connell. Connell was a member of a distinguished Irish family which included such military men as Daniel O’Connell of the Irish Brigade of the French army. Connell’s brother Herbert became MP for Dublin, and Daniel O’Connell, “the Liberator,” was his cousin. In Canada, the Upper Canadian Reform leader Robert Baldwin was also a relative.

At the age of 14, Baldwin joined the Royal Navy, and at 16 he joined the army. He served with distinction in many of the major battles of the Peninsular War against Napoleon, including battles at Talvera, Busaco, Fuentes d’Onor, Badajoz, Salamanca, Vittoria, Nive, Nivelle, Orthes and Toulouse, for which he received a Military General Service Medal with ten clasps, identifying the battles he was in. He was also reportedly engaged at the Battle of Trafalgar. He was wounded four times during the Peninsular War and gained the position of aide-de-camp to General Thomas Picton, the rank of captain, and a pension because of wounds. Connell was later promoted to Brigade-Major in the British West Indies and Brazil, where he served between 1820 and 1826.

In 1828, now a Lt-Colonel but retired on half-pay, Baldwin immigrated to Canada, where he was granted 400 acres near Peterborough. In 1833 he received a Crown Grant for 200 acres in Toronto Gore Township. It was here, within what is now part of the City of Mississauga, where he chose to make his home. He built a substantial log “lodge”, that he dubbed “Clogheneagh” after his birthplace. In 1830 he established a school, a church and an Irish Catholic cemetery on his property, and was considered an established gentleman and “country squire.”

He was married to Mary Sprague (1814-1877), and the couple had seven children: Thomas Henry, Celinie (Celine), Cecilia, Roxana (Anna), Frances (Francesse Leonora), Louisa and Madeline.

Baldwin served as a justice of the peace and had a reputation for fair-mindedness. As a matter of pride, Baldwin refused any compensation. He also served as a commissioner of roads and was also the Lieutenant-Colonel for provisional militia battalions from 1835 to 1851. Politically he was a moderate Reformer strongly identified with Irish Catholic interests.

When rebellion broke out in 1837, however, Baldwin remained loyal to the government. He raised a corps of 1,200 men at his own expense for the defense of the Niagara frontier, which placed him under considerable financial difficulties.

In 1847, when cholera swept Toronto, Baldwin turned his home into a private hospital and cared for many of the destitute Irish immigrants. He worked closely with the Catholic Bishops in Toronto, Alexander Macdonell and Michael Power. He is also known to have financially supported new Irish Catholic settlers upon their arrival to assist in settlement efforts.

Colonel Connell James Baldwin died on December 14, 1861 after visiting Toronto, reportedly after suffering from pneumonia contracted after a long ride on horseback to the fever sheds of Toronto during a cold and rainy night. He had served in many capacities, particularly for the Reform party, the Catholic Church, and destitute and struggling Irish Catholic immigrants. Yet when he died, and after the death of his only son in 1862, his wife and daughters were left with heavy debts and no support. Only a strong campaign by some of his friends secured Mary Baldwin a small pension. With the sale of the family property in 1864, all references to Clogheneagh here within historic Mississauga disappeared. In terms of placing Clogheneagh on the Mississauga landscape today, the closest modern intersection would be Airport Road and Northwest Drive in Malton.

Many of our early Catholic institutions here in Mississauga connect back to Irish immigrants, including St. Mary Star-of-the-Sea Roman Catholic Church in Port Credit, St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church in Streetsville, and St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church in Dixie, amongst others. Many early congregational members trace their roots back to ancestral emigration from Ireland during the Potato Famine years and followed the settlement path that was laid by Connell Baldwin through Clogheneagh and the nearby community of Elmbank here within what is today Mississauga.

Colonel Connell James Baldwin is buried at St. Michael’s Catholic Cemetery in Toronto, alongside his wife, Mary, and two of his children: son Lt. Thomas Henry Baldwin died in 1862, and daughter Cecilia E. Baldwin died in 1908.

Perhaps when tipping a Guinness back on St. Patrick’s Day this year, we can also give a quick slainte to Colonel Connell James Baldwin and his efforts to support Irish settlers so many years ago, and through that assistance, helped many who would come to call historic Mississauga home.