Belleville

Belleville: city hall

Belleville, city, seat (1792) of Hastings county, southeastern Ontario, Canada, situated on the Bay of Quinte, an inlet of Lake Ontario, at the mouth of the Moira River.

The site was first visited by the French explorer Samuel de Champlain in 1615; it was settled after 1776 by loyalists from the United States and named Meyers’ Creek for John Meyers, an early gristmill operator. In 1816 the city was renamed Belleville in honour of Arabella Gore, wife of Francis Gore, lieutenant governor of Upper Canada. Reached by the railroad in 1855, it soon became an important terminal and service centre.

Economic activities include food processing, warehousing, and the manufacture of automotive parts, plastics, and packaging, along with metals. The biotechnical industry also has a presence in the city. Belleville is the home of Albert College (founded in 1854), Loyalist College, and the Sir James Whitney School for the Deaf. Both national transcontinental railroads and the Macdonald-Cartier Freeway, which links Windsor, Toronto (113 miles [182 km] west), and Montreal (232 miles [373 km] east), serve the city. Inc. town, 1850; city, 1877. Pop. (2006) 48,821; (2011) 49,454.