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Lake, John Neilson, Stock Broker, Toronto, was born on the fourth concession of the township of Ernesttown, county of Addington, Ontario, on the 19th August, 1834. His great-grandfather and grandfather owned part of Staten Island, New York state, and when the war of independence broke out they took sides with the British, and with sons and sons-in-law fought for their king and country. The family removed to Upper Canada about 1782, and as U. E. loyalists received a grant of 15,000 acres of land, and settled near the village of Bath, west of Kingston. James Lake, the father of the subject of our sketch, was born near Bath in 1791, and with the exception of a short period, he resided, until his death, in the township of Ernesttown. His mother was Margaret Bell, daughter of John Bell, of Ernesttown, who, though a U. E. loyalist, did not remove to Canada until 1810. John, until his sixteenth year, attended school, when he joined his brothers in the carriage business, and at the same time he learned drafting and architecture. At twenty-one he gave up this profession and entered the ministry of the Wesleyan Methodist church as a probationer, and spent the years 1855-6 in the town of Picton; 1857 in Aylmer; 1858 in Ingersoll; 1859 in Hullsville; 1862 in Markham; 1865 in Pickering, followed as stations in succession; but in 1866, in consequence of a peculiar affection of the eye producing double vision, and preventing all study, he was compelled to relinquish the ministry for awhile. In 1869, his health being somewhat improved, he again attempted the ministerial work, and was stationed at the town of Niagara; but in less than twelve months thereafter it became evident that this mode of usefulness could not be continued, and he was reluctantly compelled to abandon the ministry. He moved to Toronto, and in 1870 opened a real estate and loan office, just at the time when the value of property was beginning to improve, and when there were only two real estate brokers in the city. In 1875 he was joined by J. P. Clark, of the town of Brampton, and soon the firm of Lake & Clark became widely known and highly trusted. In 1882 Mr. Lake retired from the firm, and four years later Mr. Clark gave up business, when the firm of Lake & Clark ceased to be longer known as dealers in real estate. During all these years Mr. Lake was very intimately associated with church work, and the Sherbourne Street Methodist Church owes not a little of its success to his labours and generous contributions. In 1881 he was induced by his numerous friends to permit himself to be put in nomination as alderman for St. Thomas ward, and having surrendered his standing as a minister, he consented, and was elected a member of the city council. One year in the council seems to have satisfied Mr. Lake, for although next year he was strongly urged by his St. Thomas ward constituency to again act as their representative, he refused to concede to this request, and retired from municipal politics. Politically Mr. Lake has always been a Reformer, but he is not a person who would support a party without a good and sufficient reason. He has been a member of the Toronto Stock Exchange, and of the Toronto Board of Trade, for many years, and is president of the American Watch Case Company; secretary of the Ontario Folding Steel Gate Company; director of the North American Life Assurance Company, and chairman of the agency committee. He is also treasurer of the Union Relief Fund, and of the Church and Parsonage Aid Fund of the Methodist church; has been treasurer from the beginning of the Sherbourne Street Methodist Church, and was organizer and superintendent of its Sunday school for the first eleven years. Mr. Lake was lately elected chairman of the committee on plans for the new Victoria College buildings to be erected in the Queen’s Park, Toronto, for the Methodist Church, at a cost of about $200,000. We may add that Mr. Lake has done a good deal to improve Toronto during the past fifteen years, having built residences worth about $200,000, in the most improved style of architecture, and his own residence,—286 Sherbourne street—is a model of completeness and convenience. In June, 1859, he was married to Emily Jane, youngest daughter of S. V. R. Douglas, of Burford, Brant county, and granddaughter of the Rev. Thomas Whitehead, a gentleman who occupied a prominent position in the Methodist church from 1790 to 1840.