John Graves Simcoe, 1752-1806

by Mary Beacock Fryer

  An account of the whole incident was subsequently written by Jeremiah Milles, who was then in the sixth form. (Milles’ account was a source for Lyte’s.) Whether Simcoe was involved is a matter of debate. Certainly, events of his later life imply that if he stood up for himself as an adult, would he have done any less as a youth? On 27 November 1768, Vicary Gibbs wrote, “I have a particular reason for not saying anything of the rebellion. If I see you in the hollidays [sic] I will give you a full account. Don’t mention this to anyone.”14

  This letter, addressed to Simcoe at Exeter, tends to indicate that he was away from Eton at the time, or that Gibbs preferred not to discuss in writing Simcoe’s role. Perhaps Gibbs’ legal instincts were already coming to the fore. He enquired whether Simcoe intended returning to Eton, or going to Oxford sooner than he had expected.

  William Boscawen’s poem to “Colonel Simcoe” suggests that both he and Simcoe were deeply involved:

  With you [Simcoe] rebellion’s chance I tried

  Old Foster’s threats, his arm defied

  And dar’d his empire mock

  But oh, how short our glory’s fate

  How few escaped The Block.15

  The rebellion occurred over 2–3 November, and Gibbs’s letter was dated the 27th. This allowed time for Simcoe to have returned to Eton and, like many other rebels, taken Foster’s flogging at the birching block, and to have arrived in Exeter before Gibbs was writing to him. Had he simply gone home unpunished, Foster would undoubtedly have expelled him, a disgrace he could not afford because it would damage his future prospects. He probably decided not to return to Eton because, never a happy place, it had become intolerable to him.

  Simcoe matriculated at Merton College, Oxford, on 4 February 1769. According to Alumnii Oxonienses, Simcoe was a “Commoner” under Warden Henry Barton during what turned out to be a brief stay at Oxford University. Many sixteen-year-olds are undecided over which career to pursue. Close friends such as Gibbs and Milles, already contemplating the legal profession, were not following in their fathers’ footsteps. At first, Simcoe, too, was leaning towards the law. On 10 February 1769, only days after matriculating at Oxford, he enrolled as a law student at Lincoln’s Inn, one of London’s Inns of Court.16 These Inns are voluntary societies that have the power to call law students to the English Bar to become barristers. Enrollment was the extent of Simcoe’s aspirations.

  He might well have chosen a naval career, out of respect and admiration for the father he scarcely knew. Never very strong, he may have decided, with his mother’s help, that life at sea might prove too strenuous for him. Evidence indicates that he suffered from asthma and bronchial difficulties later on, and in their letters his friends often enquired about his violent headaches. On the other hand, an overwhelming desire to make his own mark might have led him to an allied profession rather than into direct competition with Captain John Simcoe. Whatever his reasoning, his mother purchased an ensign’s commission for him in the 35th Regiment of Foot. The commission was dated 27 April 1770, when he was eighteen years of age.17

  Some secondary sources recount that Simcoe spent time with a military tutor after he left Oxford. He may have done so, or filled the fifteen-month gap studying history, his favourite subject. Equally well his choice of the army may have been influenced by a somewhat older man and close friend. Edward Drewe was already serving as a lieutenant with the 35th. Some records of this regiment are missing, but it was stationed at Plymouth, Devon, in December 1769, four months before Simcoe received his first commission. When, on 12 March 1774, Simcoe was promoted to lieutenant, again by purchase of the commission, Drewe was promoted to captain.18 Drewe’s father, also named Edward, was a brother of another friend, Francis Drewe (1712-1773) of the Grange and Broadhembury.19 Edward Jr. was an outspoken critic of certain absurd aspects of the training stressed in military manuals, and of the inappropriate uniforms designed by some of the wealthy colonels. Such officers purchased their commissions and designed and paid for the regimental dress from their own pockets. Somewhere, Simcoe learned, field uniforms at least should be chosen for practicality and safety, ideas which Drewe advocated.

  Whatever his reasons, Simcoe had chosen a profession in which he could excel. He might have made an equally competent lawyer, but he might also have found that he preferred the field of battle to that in the courtroom. Perhaps the most telling comment came from Vicary Gibbs, who wrote to Simcoe on 2 August 1775: “as it was impossible for us both to reach the highest pitch of glory in the same profession our good fortune ordained that you should alter your original intention and prefer the field to the forum.20

  TWO

  “THE FIELD, NOT THE FORUM”

  Simcoe passed the first four years of his military career in England, Wales, and Ireland. For him life was pleasant, and not too demanding, even though he was conscientious about learning his job. He was able to spend a reasonable amount of time in his home city of Exeter, enjoying a busy social life and making new friends. In 1773 he became a Freemason, joining the Union Lodge, which met at the Globe Tavern in Cathedral Close. (The Globe was destroyed by enemy action during the Second World War.) One of his proposers for the Freemasons was “Brother Cholwich,” a member of a well known and respected Devon family. A boy named Cholwich who had been at Eton with Simcoe was probably this same person. Apart from these early references, little evidence suggests that Simcoe was a particularly active member.1

  When he was travelling around the country with his regiment, he maintained a regular correspondence with friends. Extant letters, in collections, of those received by Simcoe, give much insight into the activities of his friends, as well as his own. On 18 April 1774, Jeremiah Milles wrote to Simcoe, who was then serving in Wales, outlining his ambitions to be a barrister, describing his many visits to Exeter, and bringing his friend up to date on happenings in that city. Milles also mentioned Simcoe’s forthcoming journey from Wales to Ireland.2

  By that time, Simcoe had received his promotion, by purchase, to lieutenant in the 35th Foot.3 He would be going to Ireland because his regiment had received a posting to the garrison at Dublin. In certain parts of Ireland, garrison duty meant being among hostile people, particularly in Roman Catholic areas. Dublin, however, was a popular posting because of the social life that revolved around the “court” of the lord lieutenant and the commander of British forces.

  Another friend, James White wrote, in July 1774, addressing his letter to Simcoe at Dublin Barracks. White was responding to a letter in which Simcoe outlined his military wanderings in Snowdonia, North Wales. He also reminded Simcoe of his portrait, before which White would often stand and contemplate. White did not say where the picture was located, but most likely it hung in Mrs. Simcoe’s home. The earliest known portrait of Simcoe is a full length one, showing him, at about aged twenty, as an ensign in the 35th (Royal Sussex) Regiment, hair powdered, red coat faced orange, with silver lace. The portrait was attributed to the artist Zoffany. 4 (A copy of the ensign portrait is now in the Samuel E. Weir collection at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario.)

  Vicary Gibbs wrote Simcoe on 28 April 1774. Still at Oxford and hoping to receive his Bachelor’s degree by Christmas, Gibbs also admitted contemplating Simcoe’s likeness. He recalled that it was in “Mrs. Simcoe’s room.” Gibbs mentioned his own health problems — pains in his chest, which he attributed to a “sedentary life.” He still intended to study law. If Simcoe had second thoughts about leaving Oxford, he had no cause for regrets; military leadership seemed tailored for him. Gibbs wrote again in November, complaining of having been laid up with a fever after travelling around the country on horseback. He also mentioned Simcoe’s talent for writing poetry. While some might belittle the strength of his muse, undaunted, he continued to write poems through his lifetime. Aware of Simcoe’s deep interest in military heros, Gibbs discussed the campaigns of Alexander and Caesar. In a letter Milles sent early in 1775, he made reference to his friend’s “violent headaches.” Simcoe’s healt
h worsened over the ensuing years, but it rarely prevented him zealously carrying out his duties.5

  By the time Simcoe received this letter, the vast differences between Great Britain and her Thirteen Colonies in North America were coming to a head. Difficulties were centred on Boston, the most important trading port on the Atlantic seaboard. On 5 March 1770 the Boston Massacre had inflamed feelings against British troops. The Boston Tea Party, on 16 December 1773, was a strong protest against any “taxation without representation.” Dressed as “Indians,” certain Bostonians boarded the cargo ships, removed the tea and threw it into the harbour. In response, Parliament passed the Boston Port Bill in May 1774. Boston would be shut down until the colonists had paid for the destroyed tea. In July the government dispatched a fleet under the command of Simcoe’s godfather, Samuel Graves, a rear admiral since 1772. By the time the fleet began an attempted blockade of the port, Graves had been placed in command of the American Station of the Royal Navy and promoted vice admiral.6

  Meanwhile, the army was mobilising to reinforce the British garrison at Boston, as well as major key points. Among the many troops, the 35th Regiment embarked in transports bound for Boston. On 17 June more than 2,000 British troops under Generals William Howe, Henry Clinton, and John Burgoyne set out to drive away hordes of rebels who were entrenching themselves on high points around Boston, including Breed’s Hill and Dorchester Heights. Badly mauled on Breed’s Hill, the British force retired after driving away the rebels. Part of the 35th Regiment was with the British defenders, but Simcoe was still aboard his transport and did not land until the 19th. Captain Edward Drewe, who was with the men of the 35th at Breed’s Hill, was severely wounded and soon invalided home. What became known as the Battle of Bunker Hill was in fact fought on Breed’s Hill, which the rebels had fortified by mistake; they had been ordered to place the defences on Bunker Hill.

  Admiral Graves’s efforts to close the port at Boston were being thwarted. He arrived with an inadequate fleet, too few ships for the purpose, and many of them unsuitable. The large war ships carried heavy guns appropriate to bombarding the city, but he required small maneuverable vessels to patrol the many points that allowed rebel-owned small boats, often oared, to slip through unchecked.7

  On 22 June, Simcoe wrote his first letter home to his mother and gave his own interpretation of events at Breed’s Hill. Like Britons and Loyalists, he never referred to the enemy as “Patriots” but as “rebels”:

  Dear Madam,

  We arrived here on the 19th being the last ship of the fleet. Two days before our arrival the dreadful scene of civil war commenced, for at a distance we saw the flames of Charlestown [today part of Boston] and steered into harbour by it’s [sic] direction.

  On our arrival we learned that the rebels had taken possession of the heights on the opposite side, from whence the town at that time was blockaded by numbers, was endangered. To force this was absolutely necessary and it was done in the most glorious manner — an action by the confession of veteran jealousy that exceeds whatever had before happened in America and equalled the legends of romance. It proves to me how very narrow are the limits of experience. Our light infantry was commanded by Drewe, whose behaviour was such as outdoes any panegyrick by every confession.8

  Simcoe hoped the “check” at Breed’s/Bunker Hill would lead to an “effectual reconciliation” with the rebels. Like many officers, particularly those of very senior rank, Simcoe thought the “civil war” would be of short duration.

  Edward Drewe was so moved by his experience at the battle, and by his friendship with John Graves Simcoe, that he wrote a lengthy poem about both subjects. His work was included in a collection of poems published in 1792 by their mutual friend, the West Country historian, Richard Polwhele. He described Drewe’s effort as an “Elegaic Piece.” Drewe followed with a short statement, “On the authors leaving Boston in 1775 for the cure of his wounds sustained at Bunkers Hill.” A few verses serve to show the strength of the relationship between himself and Simcoe:

  Oh Dorilas and must we part?

  Alas the fatal day

  and must I leave thee, generous youth

  and tempt the raging sea?

  Must we entwine the firmest link,

  In friendship’s golden chain?

  ‘Tis so stern Destiny decrees;

  and friendship pleads in vain.

  In infancy, ere reason dawn’d

  We felt her sacred beam

  ‘twas Love instinctive filled the spot

  Where now dwells pure esteem

  And as we ripen’d into man

  that love was still the same;

  Save that the spark, in childhood nursed

  Glow’d with a stronger flame.

  Say, had thy Edward e’er a grief

  That was not mourned by thee:

  Or hadst thou e’er a secret joy

  Which brightens not in me?

  Each thought each act, seem’d but to flow

  From one united mind;

  So close had friendship’s magic pow’r

  Our mutual hearts entwined.

  When late fell Discord, rear’d her torch

  O’er Boston’s hapless land;

  Unmov’d we left our weeping friends

  At Honour’s high Command.9

  More of the same followed. Theirs was indeed a close relationship. Fortunately, the two lived in an age where such words dedicated by one man to another did not imply anything other than true and loyal friendship.

  While Drewe was returning home, Simcoe remained in Boston. He was full of suggestions for the conduct of the war. In the journal he later published, writing in the third person, he advocated, among other innovations, recruitment of “negroes” and making full use of the loyal colonists:

  His intimate connection with that most upright and zealous officer the late Admiral Graves who commanded at Boston in the year 1775 and some services which he was pleased to entrust him with, brought him acquainted with many of the American Loyalists; from them he learned the practability of raising troops in the country whenever it should be opened to the King’s forces; and the propriety of such a measure appeared to be self evident. He therefore importuned Admiral Graves to ask General Gage that he might enlist such negroes as were in Boston and with them put himself under the direction of Sir James Wallace, who was actively engaged in Rhode Island, and to whom that colony had opposed negroes: adding to the Admiral who seemed surprised at his request, “that he entertained no doubt he should soon exchange them for whites.” Gen. Gage, the Admiral’s application informed him that the negroes were, not sufficiently numerous to be servicable and he had other employments for those at Boston.10

  By the autumn of 1775, Admiral Graves’s recommendations did not carry much weight. He was discredited when he failed to stop traffic in and out of Boston harbour, even though the fault lay with the inadequacy of his fleet. London bureaucrats rarely understood the exigencies of conditions in the field. However, the War Office was making plans to recruit white-skinned loyal colonials and copper-skinned aboriginal tribes. The British Indian Department would strive to keep the native warriors on the side of the Crown. Loyalists would be recruited to serve in Provincial Corps of the British Army. Four military departments would be established in places where the army could be in firm control, a safe haven for provincials when not operating against the rebels.

  New York City, on Manhattan Island, as well as Long island and Staten Island, would form the Central Department, which would be in command of the other departments. The Northeastern would be Nova Scotia, headquarters in Halifax. The Northern Department would be the Province of Canada, headquarters Quebec City. The Southern would be Florida, headquarters Saint Augustine. Provincial Corps would be attached to each department. The first task facing the British Army would be capturing and securing New York. In October, General Gage resigned. He had never liked fighting against the people whom he regarded as his own. The new commander in chief in North America
was General William Howe.

  On 27 December 1775, Simcoe purchased a captaincy in the 40th Foot. He required alterations to his uniform. His facings would now be buff, his lace of gold.11 He would command the Grenadier Company, a post that usually went to the senior captain. The Grenadiers were the tallest and strongest men in the regiment, intended to be sent in wherever a position needed to be strengthened. Minimum height for a grenadier was five feet, nine inches, and where possible all commissioned officers would be that tall. However, in the Britain of the late 18th century rules could be broken owing to corruption within the system. Having the funds, or knowing the right people, could override the rules. Admiral Graves may have been the one to help out, as Simcoe may not have met the height requirements. Boot heels and a tall bearskin cap would, of course, mask a certain shortcoming.

  News soon arrived from Jeremiah Milles, who wrote from London’s Inner Temple. He informed Simcoe that Edward Drewe had been made a Freeman of the City of Exeter for his exploits at Bunker/Breed’s Hill. Milles wrote again in March, by which time his father had purchased him a set of chambers in Lincoln’s Inn, heartland of the legal profession. Milles had decided to call a spare room in his chambers “Simcoe’s apartment.” Simcoe had certainly inspired loyalty in his friends. He himself, despite supervising the training of his grenadiers, had considerable time for letter writing.

  In January 1776, Admiral Graves was recalled, owing to his failure to carry out orders from London. The fault still lay with the home government, who were blind to his problems, and had never allowed him enough equipment to perform adequately. The new naval commander was Admiral Richard Howe, the commander in chief’s brother. In Boston the British Army had reached a stalemate. With land routes firmly in rebel hands, General Howe began making plans to evacuate the army by sea. The evacuation of the army was accelerated when the rebels brought guns from the recently captured Fort Ticonderoga, and seized Dorchester Heights that overlooked the city.