Wellesley, Ontario that much of the land had been "Queen's Rush, crown land, where fifty acre lots were given away to actual settlers". The Population of the entire township in 1841, was only 254. The area now the village of Wellesley on the Nith River was first settled in 1847, by John Smith and was originally called "Schmidtsville". The post office opened in 1851 and the village was renamed "Wellesley" after Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley, the eldest brother of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. The community quickly grew to be the largest economic centre in rural Waterloo County, with a
Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley for many years with Hyacinthe-Gabrielle Roland, an actress at the Palais Royal. She had three sons and two daughters by Wellesley before he married her on 29 November 1794. He moved her to London, where Hyacinthe was generally miserable, as she never learned English and she was scorned by high society: Lady Caroline Lamb was warned by her mother-in-law, Elizabeth Milbanke, a noted judge of what was socially acceptable, that no respectable woman could afford to be seen in Hyacinthe's society. Their children were: Through his eldest daughter Lady Charles Bentinck, Wellesley is a great-great-great grandfather to Queen Elizabeth II.