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Milburn Tavern / Brewers
Hollow
Milburn Tavern, built in 1829 west of Yonge Street at John
(formerly Milburn Rd.), was a meeting place for the local rebels of
1837. As a result the owner, Joseph Milburn, a Quaker, was arrested
and banished to Van Diemen's Land in Australia in 1837 until his
pardon by
Queen Victoria in 1843.
A tavern and inn under various names such as the White Horse
Tavern, Lemon's Inn and Queen's existed at this location until
1905. It was at Lemon's Inn on Friday, June 2, 1848, at 10:00am
that the trustees of the bankrupt estate of Thornhill's most
prominent citizen, Benjamin Thorne, held an auction of his smaller
possessions - horses and colts, sleighs, wagons, hogs, and ox cart.
He was a wealthy owner of a number of mills who was financially
ruined by the repeal of the Corn Laws in England in 1846. One month
later, Thorne, aged 54, went to a rocky knoll behind his home (near
Thornhill Country Club), and shot himself. He left behind a wife
and eight children.
Brewers Hollow A
tributary of the Don that ran southeast of this location, currently
under John Street, was known as Brewers Hollow because of the
existence of at least two breweries
and a distillery in this area from 1820 to 1880.
Breweries were located close to water, near grist mills, from which
the "tailings" and damaged grain were used in the brewer's
mash.
Erected by the Society for the Preservation of Historic
Thornhill
on the occasion of Thornhill's Bicentennial,
1994.
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