The Innocent. Lynne Golding

the next two years, Jesse worked tirelessly with Nelson as they built custom houses for the new settlers or for farmers just outside of the village who were ready to replace the log cabin homes, built when their land was first cleared. Nelson’s instincts about young Jesse’s talents were confirmed within a day of seeing him work. Nelson was impressed by the boy’s knowledge not just of masonry and carpentry but all trades involved in the construction of a house. His work ethic was obvious from the start, but Nelson could quickly see that Jesse was also conscientious about the quality of his work. Over the course of those two years, Jesse rose from being one of Nelson’s crew of regular or occasional labourers to his second-in-command.

      Nelson’s credo was to build to his customer’s specifications. As most of his customers were English immigrants, most wanted Georgian English country-style homes, albeit on a smaller scale. Though his customers were well off enough to pay for a home a British squire may have occupied, they were generally not affluent enough to have a home such as that of a British lord. Accordingly, Jesse and Nelson built one or one-and-a-half-storey mini-Georgian-style homes, each covered in a plaster-like mixture called “roughcast,” with a front door centred below a peaked roof and two large first-floor windows, one on each side and each equidistant from the door.

      Though he worked hard by day, Jesse spent most of his evenings in his small room above the local tannery. He had only two pastimes aside from attending and singing in the choir of the Wesleyan Methodist Church: writing and drawing.

      On Jesse’s arrival in Brampton in 1857, he sent two letters to England. The first was to his mother, letting her know where he was settled. That letter was easy to write. The second letter was to Louisa, apologizing for the way in which he left (he hadn’t even said goodbye) and wishing her well in her life with Jack. That letter was hard to write, and though he knew he should not do so, he added in a hastily written postscript: if she ever wanted to see him again, she need only write, and he would come for her.

      Within two months he had a reply from his mother, advising him that a wedding date had been set for Jack and Louisa and that the two had decided to immigrate to Australia following their marriage. His mother begged Jesse to return to England to resume business with his father, the cause of his dissociation soon to be removed. Jesse’s reply was immediate and firm: he would not return to England, and he begged his mother never again to mention to him either Jack or Louisa. With that behind them, mother and son engaged in a monthly exchange of letters that would carry on until her dying days.

      When not writing to his mother once a month, Jesse spent most of his evenings drawing pictures of the homes he dreamed of building. He had a strong hand and could make a piece of lead flow like ink. A blank page could be brought to life with his swift strokes, hard lines, and soft shading. Within minutes the intricate ideas in his mind became a picture, with every detail clear for those who might look on. Unfortunately, at least initially, few did. His drawings stacked up one on top of the other in various piles in the room he rented above the tannery.

      The homes Jesse drew were not mansion homes, like that of George Wright, the successful flour miller and retailer whose palatial home known as the Castle was near the village’s centre. No, Jesse dreamed of building homes for families of more modest means. Each had three bedrooms, a kitchen at the back, numerous large windows to let in the sun’s warming rays, and various roof lines, abandoning the confining design limitations of the symmetrical houses he and Nelson built. Each had a front door a full four feet off the ground, far above the snow in all but the worst winters. Most importantly, each front door was accessed from a wide verandah, which ran all the way across the front of the house. Jesse envisaged a Brampton where families would have leisure time they could spend in these outdoor parlours, watching their children play and socializing with their neighbours. He envisaged houses of brick with distinguishing characteristics, turrets, and small towers.

      Jesse knew that his dream could only become a reality if these houses were affordable. To accomplish that, he proposed to build his houses fairly close together and to build them in unison so that efficiencies could be realized in the purchase of supplies and in the construction process. He also proposed that each house have similar, though not identical elements.

      Nelson suggested that Jesse’s time would be better spent looking for a woman with whom to share a house of his own than dreaming of houses for others. But since he could not convince Jesse to abandon his dreams, Nelson listened cheerfully as Jesse shared his development ideas. Nelson promised that one day, when they had met the demand of all of those who had money to purchase custom-built houses, they would look at building in the less conventional way that Jesse suggested. But Nelson chuckled as he said this. The way the little village was growing, he didn’t think that Jesse would be building the houses of his designs anytime soon. Only the death of Nelson in 1859 by a massive heart attack meant that he did.

      Nearly immobilized with grief over the loss of his closest friend and mentor, Jesse took stock of his situation. In the two years he had been in Brampton, he had developed a name for himself as an excellent builder. He was known and liked by the local tradesmen and suppliers. He had a vision of what he sought to build. Though he was just twenty-four years of age, he resolved to turn down all offers to work for other builders and to forge his own path. With the small amount of funds he had accumulated, he could afford to spend a few months seeking the land and the capital to build the homes of which he dreamed.

      His first task was to buy a piece of property. The property had to be within easy walking distance of the centre of the village. It had to be on an existing road with at least two hundred feet of frontage. In short order, he found a perfect lot just beyond the developed area of the village, the southernmost end of a larger farm property. The one-acre fallow lot was being promoted as an ideal mansion property. Jesse walked back and forth along the road fronting the property, picturing the eight homes he could build on it when he collided with another man similarly absorbed. Their collision, mild physically, was cataclysmic from a business and community perspective.

      The Duke—as the other distracted walker was known—was a native of Wales, about twenty years Jesse’s senior. He had come to Brampton in the hope of assisting in the development of a sustainable, productive, prosperous community that would be home to his children (of which he then had seven), grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Though entirely unpretentious in his bearing, his genteel background quickly garnered him his nickname, and he eventually stopped objecting to the regal mantle he would wear for the rest of his life.

      Soon the Duke knew of Jesse’s plans and vision. It was a vision for a developed community that the Duke shared. The men quickly formed a partnership. There were only two matters on which the men disagreed. The Duke thought no man—even a man of modest means—having travelled to North America would ever agree to live on a piece of land with less than fifty feet of frontage. Further, he dismissed the notion that a working man would ever have the leisure time to sit on a verandah. Thus, on the condition that Jesse reduce the number of houses to be built from eight to four and on the further condition that he eliminate the verandahs and for a fee equal to thirty percent of Jesse’s profits, the Duke agreed to act as Jesse’s financier.

      As part of the arrangement, it was determined that the Duke would buy the land from the selling farmer. After it had been acquired, it would be subdivided into five lots. Four of the lots would be equally sized and front onto the road on which the Duke and Jesse had collided. The fifth lot would be the remainder of the land acquired behind the first four lots, backing onto a less travelled road. That fifth lot would either be developed later or sold. The Duke approached the farmer and offered him an amount twenty-five percent less than he was willing to pay. The farmer feigned great shock over the offer.

      Over a month that Jesse could only describe as agonizing, the Duke and the farmer negotiated a price that in the end was ten percent more than what the Duke had originally offered. They resolved to complete the transaction in a further month’s time. The Duke was delighted at the low price he had negotiated, since it would make Jesse’s homes even more affordable to the intended purchasers. The farmer too was overjoyed at the price, boasting to all who would listen how much more he had realized selling his land for use as a mansion than in using it himself for farming.

      Having arranged the financing and the acquisition of the