Sir James Lake, Baronet: The Firs, Edmonton (Edmonton, England‪)‬

In 1795, Fort Edmonton, on the North Saskatchewan River, was named after Edmonton, Middlesex, where Sir James Lake, Deputy Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, owned an estate. (1) The history of Edmonton--from Saxon times when it was a Hundred in the County of Middlesex, to a Parish in the Deanery and Archdeanery of Middlesex in the Diocese of London, then to a Borough in Middlesex until its submergence in the London Borough of Enfield in 1965--extends over a thousand years. The Lake family estate can be precisely located in this community. Contemporary gossip and documents about Sir James sketch an image of a baronet, not wholly preoccupied with the affairs of the Hudson's Bay Company. In 1713, according to historian Graham Dalling, the Stamford Hill & Green Lanes Turnpike Trust was formed to control "the main road from Shoreditch through Hackney, Stoke Newington, Tottenham, Edmonton and Enfield ... plus Green Lanes, Church Street, Edmonton and Bush Hill. The Trust took over the maintenance of these roads from the parishes and recovered the cost in tolls. The result was a dramatic improvement in road maintenance and greatly improved communications." (2)