Charles Fothergill

Charles Fothergill (23 May 1782 – 22 May 1840) was a businessman, journalist and political figure in Upper Canada.

In 1817, partly to escape his debts, he came to Upper Canada and settled near Smith's Creek (Port Hope).

The newspaper became involved in controversy when William Lyon Mackenzie claimed that a letter published in his own newspaper, which criticized Chief Justice William Dummer Powell, had been praised in Fothergill's paper; Fothergill denied that he had been referring to the same letter.

During the 1830s, he also published An essay descriptive of the quadrupeds of British North America and another paper on the situation of the salmon in Lake Ontario; these works were well received but did not provide any income.

Fothergill wrote the first nature column to appear in an Upper Canada newspaper and is considered to be Ontario's first resident ornithologist.