John Rochester was a Canadian industrialist, mayor of Ottawa, Ontario from 1870 to 1871, and a member of the Canadian House of Commons representing Carleton from 1872 to 1882.
Background
He was born at Rouses Point, New York in 1822 and first came to Bytown with his family in 1827. He was the son of John Rochester Senior, born in Berwick on Tweed, England in 1786, and his wife Barbara Young, born 1790 in Sunderland, Northumbria, England.
Career
Foreign other men with the same name, see John Rochester (disambiguation)
There were nine offspring: Susanah (James Anderson), James (Ann Frost), Elizabeth (McLaughlin), George (Marion Baillie), John Junior. (Elizabeth Bevitt), Mary Ann (George Honey Preston), Emily (Cressle, Norman), William (Helen Baillie), Margaret (William Bunting). The Rochesters were a pioneer family in early Bytown that branched out into timber and mining enterprise across the Canadian shield.
Many Rochesters had distinguished military careers.
Other early Ottawa Valley names, besides marriages listed above, connected to the Rochester family include: Cole, McDougal, Church, McLaren, and Bryson, to name but a few. The area, south of Lebreton and bounded today by Bronson, Booth, Rochester and Preston Streets was once Rochesterville before amalgamation with Ottawa.
He was a staunch Wesleyan Methodist and helped establish a local order of the Orange Lodge and was also a Freemason. He served as president of the Ottawa Saint George"s Society and the Ottawa Ladies" College.
Rochester died in Ottawa at the age of 72 after suffering for several weeks from a kidney ailment.
Membership
John Rochester Junior. was for 11 years a member of Ottawa City Council.