There is a wooded area near the Iceland Arena at the intersection of Kennedy Road and Matheson Boulevard that is a relic from a past landscape – or even of many past landscapes. It is quite possible that these woods, known today as Britannia Woods Community Forest, are a remnant of an ancient landscape, and it is also possible that in these woods have never been cleared.

This area was part of the lands ceded by the Indigenous Mississaugas to The Crown in Treaty 19 (Ajetance Treaty, signed 1818). Following the Bristol Survey in 1819, the land was granted to Kings College in 1828. In 1844 the 200-acre property, identified as Lot 3, Concession 2, EHS (East of Hurontario Street) was sold to Charles Doherty (also recorded as Dougherty, Dogherty and Docherty). The Doherty family, under patriarch Bernard Doherty, had been on the property since in 1835. In 1858, the property passed from Charles to William Doherty, and in 1913 it was purchased by Manning and Antoinette Doherty.

In 1923 the property was sold to Joseph Darlow, who a year later sold it to Joseph Quinn. In 1943 the 200-acre property was acquired by Toni and Frances Kri, and in 1965 the property was purchased by Glen Cove Development Limited, excluding a small parcel along Kennedy Road which was granted to Stanley Leibel, who built a house in the clearing within the woods. From aerial images, this house remained until the early 2000s, after which the house was demolished and the woods have once again grown in, obscuring most physical traces of the small clearing.

But back to the overall property. For the Doherty family this wooded area was the back of their farm – their woodlot. The farm “fronted” onto the next line (road) to the east of what is now Kennedy Road – now known as Tomken Road. From Tomken Road a long laneway led to the Doherty house and farm – the site of the house and barns are now under Highway 403. Paramount Fine Foods Centre and Iceland Arena are also located on part of what was the Doherty Farm between 1844 and 1923. A portion of the farm, closer to the surviving woods, was also used historically as a quarry, as depicted on the 1877 Historical Atlas of Peel County.

Bernard Doherty (1761-1851) was from County Donegal, Ireland, and brought his family to Canada around 1812. His son, Patrick Doherty (1794-1869) likely leased the land here from Kings College, and his brother, Charles Frederick Doherty (1801-1885) purchased the property in 1844. Together with his wife Winnifred, they welcomed at least four children into their family: William Frederick, Jane, Anne and Catherine. The family helped to establish, and for several generations attended, School Section #11 (Hanlan Public School). Charles built a substantial home for the family in 1845, which they dubbed “Clontarf”. The house stood until 1982.

Charles Doherty’s son, William Frederick Doherty (1831-1908), was the next in line to oversee the property. Together with his wife Annie Marie Henley (1848-1913), they raised 8 children at Clontarf: Annie Josephine (1872-1944), Charles Edward (1873-1920), Manning William (1875-1938), Frederick Jerome (1877-1937), Louisa (1879-1892), Francis Edward (1882-1903), Marguerite Evelyn (1884-1929) and Mary Agatha (1887-1965). Perhaps the loss of several of the family members at young ages inspired two of the siblings to study medicine.

Frederick Jerome Doherty was the first to follow medicine. His wife was Mary Claire de la Haye, whose father was Toronto physician Alcide de la Haye, and whose grandfather was Jean du Petit Pont de la Haye (the founder of nearby Claireville). Frederick and Claire later moved to Michigan where he worked as a physician at the Northern Hospital for the Insane.

Mary Agatha Doherty, after graduating from the Loretto Academy enrolled in the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Medicine and graduated on 1910. Here career path took her to London, England, and for several years she served as the house surgeon at the Samaritan Hospital in London, and after her marriage to William Myatt in 1921, Dr. Agatha Myatt worked at the Queen Charlotte Hospital, also in London, England.

Clontarf - Doherty House and Farm, looking west from Tomken Road

Notwithstanding the medical careers of Frederick and Agatha, it was perhaps their brother Manning who shone the brightest, at least here in Canada. Manning Doherty was a farmer, businessman and politician, who served as Ontario's Minister of Agriculture during the United Farmers of Ontario-Labour government of 1919 to 1923. At the time of his death in 1938, he was Vice-President of the Toronto Stock Exchange.

One can imagine several generations of children from the Doherty family wandering and playing in the woods at the back of their farm.

As for Britannia Woods Community Forest, the forest was transferred to the City of Mississauga in 1981, whereas the surrounding subdivision was built in the 1990s. Britannia Woods Community Forest is a remnant woodlot that was not cleared by the Doherty family, and is most likely a remnant of a much larger forested terrain that predates colonial settlement. It is located within the Cooksville Creek watershed and is home to number of floral and faunal species, offering a unique natural area within our city.

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Mississauga’s Britannia Woods – A Brief History

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