Hey there folks! Back again for another round of knowledge bombs to blow your mind! This week, we’re gonna be shaking things up a bit. We talk a lot about weed on this blog (for reasons that should be obvious) but this week I’d like to take a few paragraphs to talk about the town of Cobourg. We get asked with pretty staggering frequency where we got the name Circa 1818 from and why we’re branded the way we are. So, let’s take a relatively brief look at the history of the place we live and why Brandon –the owner of Circa 1818- was inspired to brand his cannabis retail dream after this happy slice of Ontario.
The Land
Like every corner of Canada, the land that would one day be Cobourg was once indigenous territory belonging to the Mississauga people (who are themselves a subset of the Ojibwe people). Following the American Revolutionary war, the British Empire began purchasing land from the indigenous folk who lived here and giving it to United Empire Loyalists, which is effectively just a long-winded term for people who fought on the British side in the revolutionary war.
And so, these British loyalists settled in the area that would one day become Cobourg around the year 1798. At this point, the town we know and love wasn’t called Cobourg, but was in fact a cluster of small communities. It was eventually named Hamilton.
Wait…Hamilton? What?
Yep! It wasn’t until 1818 that this town was renamed Cobourg in honor of a European royal wedding between Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales and Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. I swear those are real names, European names in the 19th century were frickan extra as heck. Anyway, these two lovebirds hooked up and it was such a big deal that the town of Hamilton changed its name in order to celebrate this royal wedding. Sadly, their wedded bliss only lasted for a year before Prince Charlotte passed away (something that led to a bit of kerfuffle in England because she was the heir apparent at the time as King George IV had no other legitimate heirs).
That’s pretty upsetting bro, not gonna lie.
Yeah, most of history is pretty upsetting stuff. A professor of mine once said that if you’re happy while reading history, you’re not reading history. Anywho, even though their marriage was short lived and tragic, their love is immortalized in the names of several towns across Europe and our happy little home here in Cobourg, Ontario. Making our hometown not only the best part of Ontario, but also an homage to true love. It’s this history and a connection to the community that gave birth to the idea that would become Circa 1818.
Awww that’s sweet.
I have my moments. So, from now on, whenever you see the name Circa 1818, you’ll know that it’s a love letter to our towns feel good energy, the amazing people who call it home and the rich history that lives and breathes all around us.
