Archival sources: treasures from Ontario's Archives.(Lumbers family papers)

Lumbers Family Papers

(Harriett Stabback Series)

City of Toronto Archives

(fonds 93)

The Lumbers family fonds is a unique accumulation of financial records, correspondence, and photographs that documents four generations of the family of William Lumbers, a Toronto businessman who settled in Toronto in 1842. The father of ten children, Lumbers operated a large cattle and dairy business near the Gooderham and Worts Distillery just south of Front Street, and, after 1881, a firm that sold natural medicines. The majority of the records in this fonds pertain to the children of William's son John Lumbers and his wife Matilda. The Harriett Stabback series (Series 452) is a fascinating exception. It contains the correspondence of Harriett Ayre Stabback (1810-1862), the mother of Matilda Lumbers, who immigrated to Canada from England in 1835 to join her brother James Stabback and his wife Mary (Pengelley), and who opened a dressmaking business under her own name shortly thereafter [Toronto City Directory, 1835].

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Comprising eighteen letters dated between 1833 and 1835, Harriet Stabback's correspondence documents the period just before and after the immigration of James and Mary Stabback. Harriett's brother James came to Canada in 1833 and quickly found a favourable situation in the city of York. After obtaining leave from his workplace, James travelled back to England in the spring of 1834 to wed Mary Pengelly, with the intention of returning to Canada with his wife and sister. Harriett, however, did not accompany them.