James Doble

James Doble whose parents had emigrated from Mayo County, Ireland to Canada in 1822, was born in Brock Township in 1825.

James Doble was a capital venturist and entrepreneur. At the turn of the 20th century, he was a co-founder of the Doble & Company Bank on Albert Street in Sunderland, an enterprise later taken over by the Home Bank of Canada. In 1906, recognizing that Sunderland was establishing itself as a commercial center and attracting new residents, Doble developed a plan for a subdivision bounded by River Street to the south, the highway to the east and Albert Street to the west. The plan established two new roads, Doble Street along the north boundary and James Street dividing the subdivision.

This astute businessman acquired a wealth of land in and around Sunderland. When he died in 1907, he left many farms and building lots to his many relatives. James Doble was a great supporter of St. James West Brock Anglican Church and willed it a parcel of land near the church called “The Grove”. He hoped the area could be used for community picnics after functions like the cemetery’s Decoration Day.

Perhaps, symbolic of this man’s business acumen, in 1972, an iron safe labelled Doble & Company Bank was reported to still have been in the living room of James Doble’s former home at the south-east corner of River and Cedar Streets.