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THE EARLY SETTLER WHO uAME AND WENT - FRANCIS WILLIAMS It is generally accepted that the first white settler in West Vancouver was Navvy Jack Thomas at the foot of 17 Street. That Navvy Jack had a neighbour in 1891 is not so well known. An account of that neighbour, written by his grandson, Lloyd Williams, follows. Lloyd Williams is now a resident of West Vancouver, and, to demonstrate what a small world this can be, he lives at 1768 Argyle - and that is the house in which Navvy Jack Thomas himself once lived. What follows is Mr. Williams' letter. I am remiss in not bringing to the attention of the W.V. Historical Society my family's early history in W.V. My grandfather, Francis Williams, brought his wife, two sons, Claud Alfred,and daughter Miriam to homestead at property he had purchased near the creek that enters Burrard Inlet at 28 Street. This was in 1891. Apparently there was a forest fire surrounding the cottage they lived in on Beach Avenue, which caused Grandfather to move their belongings onto a barge and bring them across the inlet to the aforementioned property. I can recall my father telling us that their nearest neighbour was "Navvy Jack" (John Thomas). Thomas was married to the daughter of one of the chiefs of the Cap-ilano Indians. They had two children (at least). One was a daughter, Christine, who lived her last years in Vancouver with Major J.S. Matthews and his wife. The son would be about two years older than my father who was born in 1883. My uncle Albert, who died in California Last year [1985] at the age of 99, told me some years ago that Navvy Jack's son was a good boatman and saved Uncle from drowning in the mouth of the Capilano River. These are the only people I can remember both my father and his brother ever talked about, maybe for the year they lived there, there were no others. This information was documented by J.S. Matthews of the Vancouver Archives. It is quite a co-incidence that a son of the second family in West Vancouver is living in the original home of the first family. Yours truly Lloyd Williams, dated 23 January 1986. Note from Mr. Edward McKay Mr. Lloyd Williams has accurately located grandfather Francis Williams' 12 acre lot. The house stood back from Rogers Creek on higher groundctothe west. His understanding, from several visits he made back to the site with his father, Claude, was that the property was all west of Rogers Creek. Within 12 months of his occupying the land, Claude was to learn that the land had been fraudulently sold to him by Mr. Brown [No Mr. Brown is included in the list of the 16 men who owned West Vancouver in 1887].Not possessing legal title to the land, Mr. Williams had to move off. He apparently moved to Point Atkinson in 1892, and later returned to Vancouver, living on Sixth or Seventh Avenue. An Exerpt of a Conversation between J.S. Matthews and Mrs. Percy Nye, 639 W. 11 Ave. Francis Williams was a tailor working in Clubb and Stewarts's men's furnishing store. He resided at his little cottage and used to go over to the Indian Reserve in False Creek, but we used to call across the water "Jericho"; it was all Jericho on the other side of English Bay, not just a little piece of it as it is now. Mr. Williams, his wife and sister-in-law, Mrs. Clarke used to go over and preach to the Indians, and the way they used to let the Indians know they had arrived was that they would start singing on the beach and the Indians would come and join them. There was a man named Brown; he was a real estate man, and he started selling acreage over the First Narrows; back of the lighthouse on the north shore; up Howe Sound a bit, and Mr. Williams bought some acreage there. What made him move from English Bay was that the timber all caught fire around his house, so he got a scow and moved his furniture onto the scow, and saved it from the fire, and decided that he would take his furniture over to the north side.