He was born in Ottawa, the son of Ira Honeywell and Sarah Nelson, the former one of the first settlers in Nepean Township.
[2] According to the first settler plaque installed by the National Capital Commission, Ira Honeywell bought Lot 26, Concession I, Ottawa Front, Nepean Township in 1809.
In 1810, Ira Honeywell came overland from Prescott County, Upper Canada (later Ontario) and built a log cabin near the site of the current plaque near the Ottawa River and present day Woodward Avenue.
In 1811, Ira Honeywell brought his wife Mary (Polly) Andrews and three children to the site, where they became the first settlers in Nepean Township.
Ira Honeywell was the son of Rice Honeywell, an entrepreneurial farmer and businessman from the Mohawk Valley of New York who immigrated to the Augusta area of Grenville County, Upper Canada with his wife Ruth Allen, daughter of Loyalist Weston Allen, who also migrated to the Augusta Township region in 1784 at the end of the American Revolution.