Changing foodways as a reflection of identity in a nineteenth-century Upper Canada household: the Ashbridge Estate in Toronto

Owned and operated by the Ontario Heritage Trust, the Ashbridge Estate represents the property of one of Toronto’s first founding families. It was granted to and developed by Jonathan Ashbridge in 1796, along a military road linking Fort York (Toronto) to Fort Cataraqui (Kingston). The Ashbridge family continued to inhabit the property for the following 200 years. Archaeological excavations held in the late 1990s and early 2000s permit us to investigate early rural life and investigate changes in identity over time as the city grew from a backwoods settlement into a new country’s burgeoning metropolis and economic capital. This paper presents the preliminary results of the analysis of faunal remains recovered from the site and investigates changing patterns in faunal exploitation and animal-human relationships. This case study informs us on the negotiation of dietary identities in the face of migration and urbanization in 19th-century Ontario.