Murney Tower is a Martello tower in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, whose construction dates to January 1846. The Tower was built in response to the Oregon Crisis, which was a tense dispute over the border between British North America and the United States in the 1840s. The tower is one of five components of Kingston's fortifications that defended Kingston Harbour, the Naval Dockyard, military supply depot and the southern entrance of the Rideau Canal. Murney Tower complements the fortifications of Fort Henry, Ontario, Cathcart Tower on Cedar Island, Shoal Tower in the Confederation Basin and Fort Frederick on the grounds of the Royal Military College of Canada. In addition to protecting the harbour and approaches to Kingston, these fortifications were designed to concentrate fire on Gardiners Island; it being the only place to effectively land artillery at the time. History Background When the tower was first constructed they planned to call it Murray Tower after the Master General of Ordnance. The land however, was owned by the Murney family and was called Murney Point by the locals. They thus began calling the tower, Murney Tower. This name stuck. The original inscription stone above the door read ‘Murray Tower.’ An ‘N’ was affixed over the first ‘R’ so that the current sign reads ‘MURNAY TOWER’, a hybrid spelling of the two versions. Construction began on the tower on February 7, 1846. On June 15 of the same year the Oregon treaty was resolved, reducing tensions with the Americans. On June 19, the walls were built to their full height. Construction of the tower was finished on November 10, 1846. Life in the tower The tower was occupied from 1848 until 1885. The main floor (ground level) was the barracks level where the soldiers and their families lived, ate, and slept. It was manned by the Royal Canadian Rifle Regiment until 1870, then by Battery A until 1880, and Battery B until 1884. After 1885 it was watched by the Princess of Wales Own Regiment. It could house a maximum of 24 soldiers and one officer or multiple soldiers and their families. A birth was recorded in the tower in 1882. Sergeant Thomas Pugh and his wife Martha Mary lived in the tower with their seven children: William, Thomas, James, Murney May, Lillian, Bertha, and Sydney. Murney May Pugh was born in May while her family was living in the Tower. She eventually