James Peter Woods was one of the first judges to serve the City of Stratford

Woods Street was laid out by surveyor William Gordon and named by him in honour of James Peter Woods, Queen’s counsel and a Perth County judge from 1886 to 1897.

James Peter Woods was born in 1840 in Devonshire, England. He was the first child of James Woods, a wheelwright, and Ann Vanstone. In 1842, they emigrated to Canada and settled in the newly born community of Stratford.

James Peter Woods Jr. was only two years old when he arrived here. He had been named for his father, James, and his father‘s brother, Peter Woods, who also settled in Stratford. They built the Albion Hotel on Ontario Street in 1855.

James Jr. was a student in the small 20-by-30-foot log school built in 1841 on what is now the lawn in front of the Stratford Public Library. Alexander McGregor, his........

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