The Vaughan and Gore Plank Road Company was the operator of the tollhouses and required the men to charge according to the legislation passed by Parliament. As illustrated here, tolls in 1851 on one such area road were 6 pence for every vehicle “drawn by two horses or other cattle” plus or minus adjustments for mules, asses or whatever. One tollkeeper sometimes collected tolls by extending half a coconut(!) attached to a stick out to the travellers (especially when they were sitting high up on top of bales of hay). Click on picture to enlarge
Families
We like to focus our tours of the Cottage on the life of the tollkeepers and their families. Searches of census tracts and other documents have yielded the names of some of them. They are all but one of Irish origin.
- Frances McCegue (father and son), in 1851
- John Bulman (of English origin; wife Elizabeth and seven children), in 1861
- Moses Hanna
- Thomas Brown
- Robert Billings
- Chester G. Kane
We have tried to furnish the Cottage with items from 1861 or earlier, as we know the most about the Bulman family who lived here then. We have also been in touch with some descendants of John Bulman and have incorporated some artefacts from that family into the furnishing of the Cottage. Thus, it has been restored to about 1861.