John and Martha Cosford arrived in Upper Canada in about 1817 with two sons and a daughter. They first lived in York where John plied his trade as saddler and leather-maker for seven years. Six additional children and several emigrating leather tradesmen forced John to find another way to feed his family. They next lived near the Quaker Settlement, which became Aurora, then farmed in Tecumseh Township and Blanchard Township. When the Queen's Bush opened for settlement, they moved to Peel Township.

John and Martha had twelve children. Ties with their neighbours in Peel Township were cemented with marriages to sons or daughters of the Bettison, Mellis, Garbutt, Tyack, Mitchell, Cunningham, Bradley, Wood and Simpson families.

The land registry indicates that John Cosford gave one acre of his land to the Trustees of the Springhill Congregation of the Wesleyan Methodist Church. The "neat brick building with a basement story tastefully finished" on this site was formally inaugurated in June 1862 by guest minister Rev. Thomas Cosford, who was one of John's sons. John Cosford died one week later and was buried in the church grounds which became Springhill Cemetery. John and Martha's headstones are preserved in a roadside memorial that marks the location of this long-abandoned cemetery.

Although the Cosford name remained in Peel Township until the mid-1920's, most of the clan began to relocate shortly after the death of the family patriarch.

LAND REGISTRY
Lot 1, Concession 4, Peel Township (50 acres)
1873 - Reynolds (sold south half, 25 acres, to O. G. Hughs for taxes)
1877 - Crown to Richard T. Crosford
1887 Thomas and Mary Armstrong
Land is now under Lake Conestogo, which was created by damning the Conestoga River in about 1954

Lot 2, Concession 4, Peel Township (200 acres)
1856 - Crown to John Cosford
1861 - Springhill Wesley Methodist Church - 1 acre
1861 - Martha Cosford
1863 - James Cosford
1864 - John Garbutt
1878 - John G. Garbutt
1881 - Henry Hagey ($5000)