[1] Founded in 1792, it immediately developed itself into one of the first significant and influential early British Upper Canada communities established during the late 18th century, eventually amalgamating with the city of Hamilton in 2001.

By 1823, due to its accessible waterpower and location at the juncture of prehistoric trading routes, Ancaster had become Upper Canada's largest industrial and commercial centre.

A highly influential geographical formation has been the Niagara Escarpment, which consists primarily of limestone formed from ancient, fossilized sea organisms that stretches from present-day New York State through Ontario to Illinois.

Thus, there was an urgency by the then Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada John Graves Simcoe to survey this new and relatively barren province for establishing military roads and for preventing settlers from clearing and settling land not legally belonging to them.

This would eventually lead to a series of defections, accusations and treasonous acts during the War of 1812 that precipitated the largest mass hangings in Canadian history, the so-called Bloody Assize of 1814 whose trial took place in Ancaster in 1814.

[5] Britain expected its colonies to purchase all essential finished goods needed for day-to-day living from the mother country in exchange for raw materials such as fur and lumber.

[7] Lastly, Ancaster also had fertile soil and abundant fresh water, which encouraged pioneer settlers to arrive in this region to clear the land and plant crops for subsistence agriculture.

This was in reference to millwright James Wilson, who, along with his affluent fur trader, entrepreneur and business partner Richard Beasley, were the primary founders of Ancaster village.

To attract workers to his mills, Wilson needed to provide the social amenities and commercial framework for an area of land that, in that period, was an isolated frontier forest with accessible waterpower situated precisely at the juncture of already well-established pre-historical indigenous transportation trails.

Again, with Beasley's financial assistance, Wilson managed to generate the impetus for a community by constructing a general store, a blacksmith shop, a distillery, and a tavern, all within walking distance of his mills.

[3][9] To this day, the main street that winds through the historical Ancaster Village that once was a section of the original aboriginal Iroquois Trail still bears the legacy of Wilson's name.

Rousseaux's Ancaster general store experienced frequent trading with Joseph Brant's Mohawks and other Iroquois people from the Six Nations confederacy located at the Grand River.

Rousseaux also became a considerable landowner, assisted significantly with native relations, was able to bridge French and English cultures successfully and was instrumental in the early development of Ancaster and old York.

[10] In 1798, the Hatt brothers Richard and Samuel from Dundas established their Red Mill downstream below Ancaster Falls at the base of the so-called "devil's elbow".

In 1826, Jacob Gabel started a tannery, Robert Douglas began a brewery, and John Galt established Ancaster as his headquarters for the Canada Company.

The Egleston's then proceeded to expand their business empire, which included building a foundry in 1843 employing 25 people and rebuilding a gristmill in 1863 at the present-day location of the Old Ancaster Mill on the old Dundas Road.

[3] Ancaster's dominant position in the region as an influential industrial, commercial, and farming community throughout the late 18th and early 19th centuries would soon be short-lived due to sudden modern transportation advancements in its neighbouring towns.

In fact, by this period, even Ancaster had started introducing steam power to its factories; however, it could no longer compete economically with Hamilton's natural shipping harbour and railway.

[14] A final contributing factor to Hamilton's dominance was the fact it was chosen to be the administrative centre for the new Gore District in 1816[7] and was voted to be the county town instead of Ancaster.

The petitioners had argued that Ancaster's advantages were its flourishing Union Mills and other industries combined with its elegant setting, which they believed would make it the most suitable candidate for building a new county courthouse.

The arrival of the B&H radial line corresponded with the inevitable process of change that Ancaster was undergoing that is recognizable today from that of a former prominent industrial and highly influential self-sufficient village to its current status as a bedroom community of Hamilton.

The evidence for this radial train is still easily visible in Ancaster village by a well-maintained gravel path behind St. John's Anglican Church on Wilson Street.

At the end of the 19th century, the townsfolk of Ancaster were indeed conscious that their town had once been a glowing star in Upper Canada that had quickly lost its lustre during the Victorian age despite its second successful wave of industrialization in the 1820s.

Fanned by the breath of electricity to spring like a Phoenix from her bed of ashes-ashes, understand, being principally the matter choking up the old place with a fire record unequalled since the days of Sodom, making her an object of terror to her friend, derision to her foes and a hoo-doo to the guileless insurance agent.

It is rather melancholy, on a summer's day, to stand on the high bridge and watch the waters slouching by like a gang of crystal dwarfs out of a job, idling and playing and painting the 'beautiful, waving hair of the dead' grass green among the fallen ruins, which a few years ago were instinct with the hum of industry, pouring forth at stated hours, with jangle of bells, a cheerful, clattering stream of bread winners, giving life and animation to the scene, in contrast to the occasional man who now meets the casual glance up street in the sunny noon hours.

Job Lodor, as well as many other prominent as well as lesser-known early Ancaster settlers, left behind sometimes still legible tombstones and grave markers in the cemeteries belonging to St. John's Anglican and St. Andrew's Presbyterian Churches located on Wilson Street.

Again, according to Dick-Lauder writing in 1897, "Ancaster saw plenty of life during the rebellion of 1837 when it was quite a frequent thing for all the inns, five in number, and many of the private houses to be full overnight of redcoats passing towards the west."

Skarica resigned in protest, and a local Flamborough Mayor, Ted McMeekin, who led the fight in opposing the amalgamation, won the Liberal party nomination, winning the by-election on an anti-amalgamation platform.

With help from the city, Province, and Federal Government, the diamond was rebuilt with proper drainage, professional-style clay base paths and warning track, a new PA system, and the construction of a new clubhouse.

Fieldcote Memorial Park and Museum showcases local history (including the area's participation in the Underground Railway), fine arts, gardens and walking paths.