The Credit Mission was an Indian Mission on the

Credit River The Credit River is a river in southern Ontario, which flows from headwaters above the Niagara Escarpment near Orangeville and Caledon East to empty into Lake Ontario at Port Credit, Mississauga. It drains an area of approximately . The total l ...

Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada () was a Province, part of The Canadas, British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of the Province of Queb ...

. Funded with the proceeds from Purchase #22 or #23, building began in 1826 under the leadership of Peter Jones. When construction began, about 200 Indians lived at the settlement in temporary structures. Thirty

log cabin A log cabin is a small log house, especially a minimally finished or less architecturally sophisticated structure. Log cabins have an ancient history in Europe, and in America are often associated with first-generation home building by settl ...

s were constructed on the of reserved land. That year

Egerton Ryerson Adolphus Egerton Ryerson (24 March 1803 – 19 February 1882) was a Canadian educator, author, editor, and Methodist minister who was a prominent contributor to the design of the Canadian public school system. Ryerson is considered to be the fo ...

was assigned to the settlement as a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

missionary. A Methodist church was soon built, as was a school. John Jones was the school's first teacher. In the spring of 1827 of land were planted with crops, mostly

corn Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout Poaceae, grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples of Mexico, indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago ...

and

potato The potato () is a starchy tuberous vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are underground stem tubers of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'', a perennial in the nightshade famil ...

es. In 1829, after the death of one of the band's three chiefs John Cameron, Peter Jones was elected to fill his position. In 1830, John Jones retired from the position of schoolteacher, as he was afflicted with

Tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

. In an 1836 inspection of the settlement, Lieutenant Governor Francis Bond Head called it the "cleanest, neatest and most civilised of all the Indian settlements he had seen." Although the provincial government had initially been favorable to the settlement, relations darkened as the Indians of the Credit clung to the Methodist faith under pressure from the province to convert to

Anglicanism Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

. During the 1830s, Lieutenant Governor Sir

Francis Bond Head Sir Francis Bond Head, 1st Baronet KCH PC (7 December 1793 – 20 July 1875) was Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada during the rebellion of 1837. Biography Head was an officer in the corps of Royal Engineers of the British Army from 181 ...

began to plan to remove the Mississaugas of the Credit Mission to

Manitoulin Island Manitoulin Island ( ) is an island in Lake Huron, located within the borders of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario, in the bioregion known as Laurentia (bioregion), Laurentia. With an area of , it is the Lake ...

. Chief Peter Jones travelled to

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, meeting with Colonial Secretary Lord Glenelg and

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

to prevent the move, as Manitoulin was too rocky to farm, and the settlers would have been forced to revert to a

hunter-gatherer A hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living in a community, or according to an ancestrally derived Lifestyle, lifestyle, in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local naturally occurring sources, esp ...

lifestyle. Although the Colonial office blocked Bond Head's plan, the Credit Band did not receive the

title deed A deed is a legal document that is signed and delivered, especially concerning the ownership of property or legal rights. Specifically, in common law, a deed is any legal instrument in writing which passes, affirms or confirms an interest, right ...

s that Victoria authorised her minister to grant them, and remained vulnerable to the encroachment of white settlers. In 1840, John Jones was elected one of the three chiefs of the Credit band. In 1847, unable to secure land rights to the mission, the Mississaugas of the Credit Mission relocated to New Credit. Title to that land was possessed by the Six Nations, who donated the land to the Mississaugas of Credit.

References

{{reflist Mississaugas First Nations history in Ontario