village, Hastings county, in the hills of southeastern Ontario, Canada. Bancroft lies 60 miles (95 km) northeast of Peterborough. It originated as a farming settlement called York River in 1855, but later became a lumbering community and was renamed in 1878 for Phoebe Bancroft, wife of Senator Billa Flint, a prominent Canadian politician of the late 1800s. It became a centre for rock collectors, with examples of about 80 percent of Canada's minerals found in the vicinity; the annual Bancroft Gemboree attracts many rock collectors. The village's economic activities focus on woolen milling, quarrying, lumbering, dairying, and tourism. Pop. (2006) 3,838.