Philip VanKoughnet
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Colonel The Hon. Philip VanKoughnet M.L.C., M.L.A. (April 2, 1790 – May 7, 1873) Businessman and political figure in Upper Canada.
He was born in New Johnstown (Cornwall) in 1790 and was educated at John Strachan's school. He fought at the Battle of Crysler's Farm during the War of 1812. In 1816, he was elected to the 7th Parliament of Upper Canada representing Stormont & Russell. In 1833, he was part of a commission to establish a canal at Cornwall to improve transportation along the Saint Lawrence River. In gratitude, VanKoughnet Island, off the canal, was named after him.
In 1836, he was appointed to the Legislative Council of Upper Canada by Lieutenant Governor Sir Francis Bond Head. In 1838, he commanded a battalion of militia at the Battle of the Windmill. In 1870, he was appointed chairman of the Canadian Board of Government Arbitrators.
Philip VanKoughnet had inherited his Loyalist father's extensive lands (which he bought in 1783 after leaving America in favour of British Canada) adding to them over time until at his death in 1873 he owned the entirety of the district. His father had named the original settlement 'New Johnstown', after Johnstown (New York) which was named after the Colonel's grandfather, John (Johann Eberhardt) von Gochnat (1712-1770), who had founded that town in 1751 after arriving from Colmar, Alsace.
It was said of the Colonel that he had, ‘all the stubbornness of a German, with the patriotism of a Briton’. He had ‘earned the respect of his contemporaries for his sterling qualities and honest patriotism’.
On 1st April, 1819, he married Harriet Sophia (1795-1854), daughter of Matthew Scott (d.1812), a well known protestant merchant of Carrick-on-Suir, Co. Waterford. Scott had emigrated to America, but returned to Waterford where he was publicly flogged for apparently aiding the catholics during the troubles of 1798. Scott later took his own life.[1]
Philip and Harriet left thirteen children, who after his death divided Cornwall (which New Johnstown is now known as) between themselves. The eldest son, Philip Michael Matthew Scott VanKoughnet, became Chancellor of Ontario.
