John BURROWS, 1789-1848, England to Bytown
Artist, Royal Engineer, Superintendent on the Rideau Canal
also Thomas BURROWES, England to Bytown -- Artist, Royal Engineer


October 31, 2020:: (added a picture of John Burrows and a text block about Thomas Burrowes)

Picture Source: The Hub and the Spokes, by Anson Gard, 1904, page 138 Picture of John Burrows, Bytown / Ottawa

It is getting confusing (to me, anyway). There was a man named John Burrows and another man named Thomas Burrowes who were both engineers and artists. See this next text block which explains their roles. This is from page 56 of Passfield's book.
Thomas Burrowes and John Burrows


October 25, 2009: Hello I was at Beechwood Cemetery and found John Burrows grave site. He is mentioned in Mary Cox's contribution to the bytown.net website. Al, if you think the information in the text below may be of interest to your readers, you may post it and the attached picture on your site. There is a coincidence here....I was not looking for his grave site but merely stumbled across it while getting a pic of my Snow ancestors headstone. As for the text below...I was not searching for information on John Burrows, I was searching for information on any of my Snow ancestors. John Burrows keeps popping up in my searches, so maybe he wants to be 'found'. ... Karen Prytula TEXT: John Burrows Headstone at Beechwood Cemetery. This stone lies flat on the ground. He was probably moved here from another Cemetery (Sandy Hill, or one in Hull) since he died before Beechwood Cemetery opened. It reads "John Burrows, Born in Plymouth, England, May 1st 1789, Died in Bytown July 27th 1848, Honored Pioneer gentleman, civic and religious leader, Royal Engineer, and Superintendent of the Rideau Canal, Came to the wilderness of Canada in 1816, From England. From "Women's Canadian Historical Society", 1901: "Mr. Burrows lived for a short time on the uncleared land he eventually sold to Mr. Nicholas Sparks, the only settler in a wilderness of forest and rugged hills. He had come out to Canada in 1818, and settled on a farm between Hull and Aylmer. After Colonel By's arrival he was appointed on the engineering staff of the Ordnance Department, where he remained until his death in 1848. He built the first Methodist Church, which had the honour of being as well the first of any creed erected in Ottawa, at his own expense. It was a little frame building on Chapel Street, just below Rideau Street and gave it's name to the former street. Unfortunately it was destroyed by fire a few months later....We are told that the first school in Nepean met at the house of Mr. Burrows."
John Burrows, Bytown / Ottawa -- Grave Marker


As an engineer on the construction of the Rideau Canal between 1826 and 1832, both John Burrows and Thomas Burrowes made the 120 mile trip between Ottawa and Kingston, Ontario, many times. As they travelled, they sketched and painted the lock stations along the route. January 30, 2021: Here is a very nice web site (part of the Museum of Ontario) for Thomas Burrowes. Here is one of the many paintings by Thomas Burrowes. His self-portrait is in the lower right in this painting.
Thomas Burrowes Painting Title, page 56 Thomas Burrowes Painting
Many of their paintings can be seen in the book Building The Rideau Canal: A Pictorial History, by Robert W. Passfield. This painting is from page 56.
November 2, 2020: The following text block is from page 70 of the book Ottawa: City of the Big Ears, by Robert Haig, 1969, Haig and Haig Publishing Company, Ottawa, no ISBN. Keywords: Captain Thomas Burrowes, Daniel O'Connor, Henry Friel
Thomas Burrowes, Daniel O'Connor and Henry Friel

================================================================================================================================= Thomas Burrowes was also an artist and an engineer who worked for Colonel By on the Rideau Canal. Check out his info on Wikipedia. Also, here he is on "Find a grave": https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/176693123/thomas-burrowes
New February 11, 2021: (The following two pictures, dated February 11, 2021, are both from the book The Rideau: A Pictorial History of the Waterway, Edited by Adrian G. Ten Cate, Besancourt Publishers, ISBN 0-920032-04-4, 1981.
Thomas Burrowes, His House in 1981, page 92. Thomas Burrowes, painter, his house in 1981 Thomas Burrowes Painting of Rideau Falls at New Edinburgh, page 37 Thomas Burrowes Painting of Rideau Falls



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