After we had felled the first tree, I proceeded pretty much according to the plan in which Mr. Lawrie Todd and his friend Mr. Hoskins did with Judeville; but our location was not so fortunate. Our stream less considerable, was more a continued rapid, and was no where broken by such cataracts as have so essentially contributed, by their favourable situation, to the prosperity of that town. But still there was enough of similarity between the two places, to enable me to profit by the hints I had received from that gentleman.

In fixing the site of the town, a curious omission seemed accidentally to take place; it was, however, on my part, predetermined. I gave the town no name, although perfectly convinced that nothing conduces so much to the establishment of permanent ideas as that apparently trivial circumstance. I left the name to be given by the settlers themselves, and in the course of the day heard that they had fixed on one; both appropriate, as it referred to themselves, and agreeable to me, as applied to a new place. In Glasgow there is an old well-known street called “The Stockwell,” and after various discussions among the emigrants, Andrew Gimlet came to me, and said, as the town had not been named, they would be gratified if I would let them call it “Stockwell,” and thus it came to be so denominated; and so may be seen on the maps since published, especially on those of that intelligent body, to whom names have been among the most important topics of their wisest deliberations.