Settlement of this region began in the 1780s when English and French-speaking squatters from the Detroit area moved on to the Indian lands along the lower Thames River. By the 1820s, in the nearby "Pain Court Block," one of the earliest French-speaking communities in southern Ontario had developed. Named "Pain Court" by Catholic missionaries in reference to the small loaves of bread which was all the impoverished parishioners could offer, the settlement was surveyed in 1829. In 1852, a chapel was built and two years later construction of a church commenced. It quickly became the cultural and educational centre of French-speaking Catholics in the area. By 1866, when a post office was established, a small village had developed.

Location

At the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Pain Court - west of Chatham at the intersection of County Roads 34 and 35

Themes

• Communities
• Franco-Ontarian heritage