David Willson (1778–1866) was a religious and political leader who founded the Quaker sect known as, 'The Children of Peace' or 'Davidites,' based at Sharon (formerly Hope) in York County, Upper Canada in 1812.

As the primary minister to this group, he led them in constructing a series of remarkable buildings, the best known of which is the Sharon Temple, now a National Historic Site of Canada.

A prolific writer, sympathizer and leader of the movement for political reform in Upper Canada, Willson, together with his followers, ensured the election of William Lyon Mackenzie, and both "fathers of Responsible Government", Robert Baldwin and Louis LaFontaine, in their riding.

[2] Following his father's death David Willson lived for a time in New York City and sailed on the Farmer, a sloop in which his family had invested.

During this period, Willson did not minister, but served as an active overseer and record keeper, as well as donating the land for a meeting house (church) on his farm.

Willson was particularly concerned to take up the Society's peace testimony "from where George Fox (the founder of Quakerism) left it, and raise it so high, that all the Kingdoms of the Earth should see it.

"[6] He established 'The Children of Peace,' which espoused ideas and doctrines at odds with orthodox Quaker beliefs; in particular, he was accused of denying the divinity of Christ.

Willson's refusal to accept a salary as a minister stood out against the Anglican control of the funds from the Clergy Reserves, the special grant of one seventh of all land in the province rented out for the support of the "official" Church.

[8] Willson was a homespun preacher: a man of the people and defender of their interests against the tightly knit establishment of merchants, official clergy and government.

[10] Many of the new settlers in the province, immigrants from the south infused with republican idealism, found in Willson a palatable, if somewhat eccentric, alternative to the aristocratic pretensions of the British Colonial administration and the closely associated Church of England.

He, in common with the whole of the sect, wears a homespun blueish mixture: his walk is peculiar, - he appears to move as if he were pulling his legs after him; his speech has a strong nasal twang.

This was a source of loans for pioneer farmers hard pressed to meet expenses in bad years; its inspiration lay with the credit union formed by the Children of Peace in 1832.

As several members of Willson's sect, including two of his sons, participated in the armed rebellion in 1837, there was some discussion of destroying the community's meeting houses and its iconic Sharon Temple.

In Canada East, gerrymandering and Orange Order violence were used to prevent the election of Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine, leader of the French reformers in Terrebonne, outside Montreal.

[16] On 3 September 1841, Willson and the Children of Peace held a campaign rally for Baldwin and LaFontaine in their Temple, where they rejoiced "to say that we have it in our power to show our impartial respect to the Canadian people of the Lower Province."

His replacement, Sir Charles Bagot, was not able to form a mixed cabinet of Reformers and Tories, and so he was forced to include the "French party" under LaFontaine.

Lacking the scale of the American Revolution, it nonetheless forced a comparable articulation and rethinking of the basics of political dialogue in the province.

As an offshoot of the Society of Friends, the Children of Peace shared most Quaker belief, especially in the innate presence of God (the "inner light") in every person.