King’s Park is located in Ward 5 at 7185 Dixie Road. The park encompasses flood plains and valley lands with a meandering creek, and the north end of the park also has some athletic fields. The park is also adjacent to the historic King’s Cemetery, which is one of the last remnants of the lost village of Mount Charles. There is some uncertainty as to when the cemetery was established. Dates of 1822, 1828 and 1832 are suggested, but it did not come into formal existence until it was referenced on land registry in 1869 (although graves that predate 1869 indicate that the cemetery existed prior to that date).

But who was the King that the park, and the cemetery, were named for? Both the former crossroads hamlet and the park (and cemetery) were named after Charles King – we are just not sure if it was Sr. or Jr.

Mount Charles - crop from 1877 Historical Atlas of Peel County - Jackson farm - former King farm - at centre

The park, and cemetery, are located in what was the west half of Lot 11, Concession 4, EHS (East of Hurontario Street). The 100-acre property was granted by The Crown to Charles King Sr. in 1826.

Charles King Sr. (1769-1836) was from Warwickshire, England. His son, Charles King Jr. (1794-1869) received the Crown Patent to the east half of Lot 11 in 1828, meaning that father and son each had 100-acre farms beside each other. Following his father’s passing in 1836, Charles King Jr. owned both halves of Lot 11 until 1869, when he sold the property to Robert Craig. Craig then sold the property to James Jackson, excluding the small parcel of land for the cemetery which Charles King Jr. granted to trustees Henry King, Robert McLeod, James Jackson, Edward McBride, Charles Irvine and James Savage.

As for modern King Park itself, the majority of the park is located on the former King farm which was purchased by James Jackson in 1869. In 1889 the property was sold to William Baldock. The property was granted to Stanley L. Baldock in 1936. The Baldock family farmed here until 1959, and the property was sold for development purposes in 1974. King's Park was created in the early 1990s.

Charles King Jr gravestone, King's Cemetery

But back to the King family, after whom the park and cemetery are named.

Charles King Sr. and his wife, Ann Garlick (1765-1848) came to Canada in the early 1820s, together with at least one son, Charles Jr., and his wife Elizabeth Dyson (1800-1880). Charles Jr. and Elizabeth raised a large family here and had at least 12 children: Mary Ann (1819-1872), George (1821-1891), William (1823-1863), Charles III (1823-1838), Henry (1826-1888), Elizabeth (1829-1858), Harriet (1829-1854), Edward (1831-1846), Sarah (1833-1856), James (1835-1916), Rachel (1837-1904), Charles IV (1839-1901), Amelia (1842-1843), Frederick (1861-1952). Following Charles Jr. passing in 1869, his widow and younger children moved to Brampton. The older children were already established on farms of their own or had married and relocated elsewhere. Many members of the King family are buried at King’s Cemetery.

While the King family were connected to the property from 1826 until 1869, some 43 years, it is the Baldock family over three generations that have a longer association with this land, stretching 70 years, from 1889 until 1959.

Patriarch Low Walter Baldock arrived in New York from England in 1835, and by c.1840 had settled here in historic Mississauga. His son, William Baldock (1854-1928) purchased the former King farm in 1889. Together with his wife Sarah Shaw (1855-1917), they welcomed at least eight children: Everetta (1882-1949), Arthur Lancelot (1883-1887), Jethro Everilda (1885-1961), Estella Ranby (1887-1950), Stanley Lavernia (1893-1974), William Clarence (1896-1903), Ira Stewart (1897-1898), and Harold Elgin (1899-1903). The farm passed from William to his son, Stanley Lavernia Baldock, who farmed here from 1936 until 1959. Stanley and his wife Carmen retired to nearby Brampton after they sold their farm.

Walking the grounds of King's Park today, it is not hard to envisage the rural landscape of our not-so-distant past that would have been familiar to the King, Jackson and Baldock families who once called this property home.

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The History of Mississauga’s “King”

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