The Saint Lawrence River got its name from explorer Jacques Cartier's arrival in the gulf on August 10, 1535, the feast day of the martyred Roman Christian, Saint Lawrence. In 1785, the first Loyalist to take up land where Brockville is now located was William Buell Sr. (1751–1832), an ensign disbanded from the King's Rangers from the state of New York. Residents commonly called the first settlement Buell's Bay. Around 1810, government officials of Upper Canada assigned the name Elizabethtown to the developing village.
The Saint Lawrence River got its name from explorer Jacques Cartier's arrival in the gulf on August 10, 1535, the feast day of the martyred Roman Christian, Saint Lawrence. In 1785, the first Loyalist to take up land where Brockville is now located was William Buell Sr. (1751–1832), an ensign disbanded from the King's Rangers from the state of New York Residents commonly called the first settlement Buell's Bay. Around 1810, government officials of Upper Canada assigned the name Elizabethtown to the developing village.