Thomas Baskerville was born in Tipperary county, Ireland in 1829. He came to Canada with his parents, Benjamin Baskerville and Sarah Martin, when he was about ten years old and settled in Kingston. As a young man he was a sailor and in 1847 moved to Beverly Township where he farmed the north half of Lot 34 on the 7th Concession. He married Charlotte Shaver of Westover. They had six daughters, Mahala, Mary Ann, Hortence, Agness, Margaret, and Louise. The family moved to Dundas in 1867 where he was a butcher for 28 years. He served three different terms as councilor for Valley Ward. The family resided in the home at the corner of King and Napier (Block 13, Lot 12) which is still there. His shop was located on the same property. Charlotte died in 1892 and Thomas in 1895 at the age of 65. His eldest daughter, Mahala, married James McEwan of Dundas. They resided in the Baskerville home after the death of Thomas. James worked as a machinist at Bertrams for 54 years having started as an apprentice at age 14. His family are also early pioneers of Wentworth County having come to Dundas in 1841. Mary Ann married T.J. Statham of Chicago and they took up residence in Strathroy where she died in 1938. Agness was a school teacher in Dundas. At a young age she went to India as a Baptist missionary for over forty years where she operated a school for girls. Louise died young, at the age of 19, in 1891 of Tuberculosis. She, along with her father, mother and sisters Agness and Mahala are buried in the family plot in the Grove Cemetery, Dundas.
