By Lisa Terech, Community Engagement
Like many other streets found in the city, McGrigor takes its name from early landowners, John & Eunice McGrigor. A note on spelling – it has been spelt as McGrigor and McGregor. To keep with consistency in the spelling of the street name, McGrigor will be used.
John McGrigor was born around 1784 in Perth County, Scotland. He arrived in Upper Canada before the start of the War of 1812 and settled here around 1817. According to Samuel Pedlar, it was “while guarding military stores being transported from Kingston to Toronto [that McGrigor] formed a favourable opinion of East Whitby and especially the land he afterwards purchased.” Pedlar claims service during the War of 1812 wasn’t the only time he took up arms, for “in the Rebellion of 1837 he likewise was to the front in the service of his country.” This seems to imply that he assisted the British army in stopping the rebels. While military and militia records exist for this time, John McGrigor/McGregor was a common name, and it cannot be determined with certainty if, when, and where he served. Muster rolls from the 1830s have information regarding ages and wages paid for time served.
By 1837, McGrigor owned well over 100 acres of Lot 11, Concession 1, and it appears shortly afterwards he began selling building lots. Author M McIntyre Hood, in his 1968 book Oshawa: Canada’s Motor City, claims that McGrigor and JB Warren both saw potential in taking their large acreages, subdividing and creating a village around the Oshawa Creek.
John married a woman named Eunice, born c. 1803, and together they had a sizable family before John’s passing on September 17, 1846 in his 62nd year. In the 1850s, Eunice’s name appears on land records, registering a plan of subdivision, continuing what was started with John with creating and selling building lots from their original 100+ acreage. She died in 1890, and both John and Eunice are buried in Union Cemetery.
McGrigor is also credited by J. Douglas Ross, as helping to establish one of the first schools in the Village of Oshawa, donating land towards to building a log schoolhouse at the southwest corner of King and Simcoe.
As aforementioned, McGrigor Street is named for the family. In a letter written to the archives, a descendant from the family suggests that Athol was named by the family after the area in Scotland from which they emigrated. John & Eunice’s son, Royal Gregor McGrigor also registered a plan with town, and Royal Street is located within the limits of the RG McGrigor Plan, so perhaps the street has been named for him.
Oshawa Museum Blog 
My family owned one of those lots on McGregor(McGrigor) St. at Monk St. I have a picture of 66 McGrigor St. from the 1900’s. There were only 2 houses on the north side of the street below Centre St. Is there a way to find out when William Clark bought that property and built the house that is still standing ?? I no longer live in Oshawa and am trying to do a family history for my grandsons. How can I trace this back??
Hi Ted, thanks for the question. There are certainly ways to research house history even from the comforts of your home. I’m going to leave two links below; one is our ‘How to research your house’ booklet, and the second is a link to Ontario’s land registry website. It is a little tricky to navigate, but it is very helpful once you get the hang of it. In the booklet, this website serves the same function as going to the land registry website, without having to actually go in person.
If you have other questions, please email at membership@oshawamusem.org
Click to access researching-your-house.pdf
https://www.onland.ca/ui/