Population in 1842, 5,720

Ratable property in the township, 82,682 pounds.

There were shipped at the Humber during the year 1845; flour (54,625 barrels), potash (84 b.), pork (127 b.), Timothy seed (8 b.), bran (60 tons), lumber-sawed (20,000 feet), woolen cloths (1600 pounds), pot barley (58 b.), buckwheat flour (3 b.), peas (48 b.)" [Smith, William: Canadian Gazetteer, p 225]

..another road nearer the lake, known as Kingston Road, became the main highway. Along this road a weekly stage-coach line began winter service in 1817, taking from two to four days to make the trip between York and Kingston. By the early 1830's there was daily, and somewhat faster, service all year round. [Craig: Upper Canada-The Formative Years, p148]

"Settlers are coming in from the states yearly, and those townships (Cramahe, Haldimand, and Hamilton) promise a rapid increase of settlements." ...

"On arriving at the township of Hope you find excellent mills, and from thence there is a portage to Rice lake. From this place you pass by the fronts of Clarke, Darlington, and Whitby; and coming to Pickering, you meet with an excellent salmon and sturgeon fishery, at the river called Duffin's creek, which is generally open, and large enough to receive boats at most seasons of the year. In those townships are found good land in abundance, and pine-timber in plenty. There are saw-mills in the neighbourhood, affording an easy opportunity to settlers, to get boards, etc for building. After leaving the township of Pickering you pass under the highlands of Scarbourough, and arrive at the township of York. Scarborough is a township much admired, the land in general not only good, but so contiguous to the seat of government, that its value is greater than in the places last described." [Boulton: Sketch of His Majesty's Province (1805), p40-41 ]

Steam Engine Manufactories in York "a laudable competition has been entered into, not only amongst those who are engaged in the building of the numerous steam-boats with which our navigable waters are daily becoming more splendidly supplied, .... but also for the purpose of domestic manufactures."... "from Mr. Perry's superior Steam Engine Factory we took a turn down to a steam Saw Mill, recently erected near the Windmill for the purpose of examining its engine... The rage for Steam Saw Mills may be said to have commenced in right earnest in this neighbourhood. ... It had a high pressure engine of 20 horsepower and could easily be converted to a gristmill." [YORK, Colonial Advocate, July 4-11, 1833]
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After 1820 the population of York exploded. The amount of lumber exported from the district was negligible, yet the number of sawmills in the area increased rapidly throughout the decade. By 1830 practically the entire output of 106 mills was being consumed within the local market. [ Acheson, T.W. "The Nature and Structure of York Commerce in the 1820s" Journal of Canadian History, December 1969.]