William King

William King (November 11, 1812 – January 5, 1895) was an Irish-born minister and abolitionist. He founded the Elgin settlement, a community of former African-American slaves, in southwestern Ontario.

In 1844, King travelled to Edinburgh to study divinity at the Free Church College. Later that year, he returned to the United States to bring his family to Scotland. His son died before they had left the United States. His wife gave birth to a daughter the following year but both his wife and daughter died in 1846. In August 1846, King became a licensed minister; he was sent to Canada as a missionary. Because his father-in-law died in 1845, he inherited the family estate which mostly consisted of slaves. King decided that he would bring his fifteen slaves to Ohio, where he could set them free.

During the American Civil War, about seventy men from the settlement served in the Union Army. In 1873, the Elgin Association was officially dissolved. King left the settlement in 1887 and moved to Chatham, where he died eight years later.

In 1999, the Buxton area was recognized as a National Historic Site. King was named a Person of National Historic Significance by the Canadian government in 2011.