John Graves Simcoe, 1752-1806

by Mary Beacock Fryer

  Although his letter to McGill has not been found, Simcoe revealed his motive in a letter to William Walcot:

  I have a poney [sic] come fr. America, an old servant. I ordered it to be led to a grave with all its trappings & then shot rather than the American Chiefs, the miscreants of the Earth, should ride him OR that it should be sent home for when I allotted £40 the latter was effected to my joy. He is not worth 10 — but I love an old servant.4

  The Simcoes continued enlarging their domain. When Christopher Flood discovered that the “Percy Estate” was for sale at £1,670, Simcoe purchased it.5 He still sought advancement in the military field — and in politics. The best way to achieve the first was to become involved in the second. On 1 January 1784, the Exeter Flying Post published his letter “To the GENTLEMEN, CLERGY, FREEMEN and FREEHOLDERS of the City of EXETER.” He claimed to have left retirement owing to the “alarming Situation of Public Affairs” and he would offer himself as a candidate to represent them, should Parliament suddenly be dissolved. On the 8th the Flying Post published a second letter. When he learned that the present Member, John Baring, would seek re-election, Simcoe withdrew his offer, … “for the tranquility of the City.” This last was perhaps an excuse; as a relatively new figure in the district, he risked a humiliating defeat by the well-known Baring. Coincidentally, on the very day of Simcoe’s “withdrawal” he was apparently enjoying a drink or two with friends in the Globe Tavern. An Exeter gentleman named Samuel Poole was in the habit of recording what he described as “Remarkable Occurrences” that took place in Exeter. Poole noted an incident:

  1784 8th Jany Died Mr. John Rice Fuller of this City he was making merry with Lieut Colonel Simcoe and some other Gentlemen at the Globe Tavern he fell down dead & never spoke again.

  Was Simcoe drowning his sorrows with supporters of his candidacy, or simply attending a meeting of his Masonic Lodge? Perhaps he was merely enjoying a quiet pint of ale with friends.6

  On the domestic front, Simcoe was a worried man, anxiously awaiting the birth of a child. Elizabeth was in good health, but he could not forget how her mother had died.7 On 28 January 1784, a daughter, the first of their eleven children was born. She was baptized on 1 September by Reverend John Land, at the parish church of St. Nicholas, the event set down in the Dunkeswell Parish Register: “Eliza, Daughter of Lt. Col. John Graves Simcoe and Elizabeth Posthuma, his Wife, born at Exeter January 28th 1784, baptized at Dunkeswell.”

  Work on Wolford Lodge continued. When finished it would have two storeys and forty rooms. It was set on a knoll, about 800 feet (250 metres) above sea level, with superb views across the Vale of Honiton towards the south coast at the Sidmouth Gap. On either side of the valley, below the house, wooded hills framed a view that has altered very little with time.

  Simcoe embarked on a large-scale landscaping project. As well, the Simcoes were establishing relationships with the local gentry, farmers and villagers in Dunkeswell and the surrounding parishes. They continued their fascination with prehistoric sites. During this period, the Scadding family became involved with the Colonel and his lady. The Scaddings were a local family who had been living in southeast Devon for generations. One branch had been at the village of Hemyock since the early 17th century. They were of good yeoman stock, the backbone of agricultural England. Although mainly farming folk, some in Hemyock worked in the cloth making industry. In the 1780s two Scadding brothers, John and Thomas, lived in the Dunkeswell area. John became estate manager for the Simcoes, and in ensuing years he was as close to them as any man in his position could be. He played a vital part in helping the Simcoes create their estate, making it one of the most delightful in the area. Simcoe introduced species of trees and shrubs alien to the neighbourhood, a practice popular in the 1780s, but now out of favour as a threat to native flora.

  On 18 August 1785, a second daughter was born, and she was baptized Charlotte at St. Nicholas, Dunkeswell, on 3 September. When Charlotte was a few months old, both girls contracted smallpox. This was no accident. Eliza and Charlotte had been inoculated.8 Each girl was given material from someone suffering a mild form of the disease. As a result, most children so inoculated developed a mild form of smallpox and were immune thereafter. The parents had taken a calculated risk. Occasionally a child would develop a severe form, and would die or be badly scarred for life. Already the English physician, Edward Jenner, had begun his experiments with a vaccine made from cowpox material, but he did not inoculate his first patient, an eight-year-old boy, until 1796. Both girls made a good recovery, to the satisfaction of their relatives.

  Mary Anne Burges, living in Bath in 1786, had become a close neighbour. She had leased Tracey, a large country house in the parish of Awliscombe, adjacent to Dunkeswell and only three miles from Wolford Lodge. Mary Anne and Elizabeth were now seeing each other almost daily. The distance made a pleasant walk or ride either way. The two young women pursued their interests in sketching, improving their Spanish, studying botany, and playing with the little girls when it suited them. At Wolford Lodge an army of servants obeyed the instructions of a nursemaid in the remote part of the upper floor that was reserved for the children. Elizabeth enjoyed doing embroidery, but Mary Anne, who had to watch her pennies, used her needle to repair mundane items such as gowns and bedsheets.

  Among the Simcoes’ dearest friends were the Hunts. Mrs. Mary Ann Hunt was the widow of a naval captain who had served with Admiral Graves. She had three children, Mary, Caroline and Edward, the latter a future curate of Benefield, near Oundle, the home of William Walcot.9

  Mary was probably the elder daughter, because she was addressed as Miss Hunt; Caroline was referred to as Miss Caroline. Mother and daughters had been frequent guests of Mrs. Graves at Hembury Fort House. They lived in lodgings in Exeter, and Mary worked as a tutor to well-to-do families.

  Following the birth of Charlotte, Simcoe had written to Miss Hunt, who was with the Graves at the time:

  I return your book. We are delighted with the sweet lines you have sent Charlotte and as she cannot at present express her approbation and thanks gives me leave to do it for her and when you favour us with a visit she should give you some kisses extraordinary. It’s with great pleasure we expect you here and hope Mrs. Hunt will give us as much time as she can with convenience to herself. I am

  Yours affectionately

  J. Simcoe10

  Towards the children Simcoe was playful, especially when they were very young. He possessed a light touch, which children adored. In contrast, Elizabeth, the orphaned only child, was often puzzled by their actions and reactions. She loved them, but she was more reserved in responding to them.

  Letter writing was ingrained. Miss Hunt was only five minutes away, at Hembury Fort House, yet etiquette demanded the Colonel’s charming letter. Farther away was Admiral Elliot[t], who lived with his wife and daughters near Colchester in the eastern county of Essex. Elliott was probably another old friend of Captain John Simcoe. In a letter to Admiral Elliott, Simcoe said he hoped they would soon have the opportunity of meeting Mrs. Simcoe for the first time. The Colonel also issued an invitation to the Admiral’s son:

  I would be happy if you could spare Luther to visit Devonshire on his approaching Holy Days; the coach is no longer in coming from Colchester to Honiton than it is to Colchester and I apprehend you are not, in the least fearful of his travelling. We should be most happy in his company.

  Before closing he had a request of one of Elliott’s daughters, either Frances Anne or Mary:

  I beg my kindest comps to Miss Elliot and that you will tell her if she will send me a few lines which when I was a good little boy, I wrote to my mother; my wife is an admirable copyist will send her some others which I edited when I left all childish things.11

  Simcoe was still making frequent visits to London, to maintain contacts with influential people. Lord Rawdon, now elevated to Baron Rawdon of Rawdon, was still his principal social contact as he sought a military appointment. William Pitfield was a r
egular visitor to Wolford Lodge and Hembury Fort House. When too busy with his duties at Exeter Hospital, Pitfield turned to letters. On one occasion he wrote, “Be pleased to send the boy to me on Thursday next before eleven and trust me for his admission to hospital.”12 The unidentified boy would have been a village lad or a son of a family friend who was in need of special attention.

  Among the more impressive visitors to Wolford Lodge was the Reverend Samuel Badcock, who “attended on” the Simcoes in the autumn of 1786. Born in South Molton, Devon, to dissenting parents, Badcock had been sent to a school at Ottery St. Mary (about six miles south of Wolford Lodge) for the sons of people opposed to the Church of England. He was educated for the dissenting ministry, but about the time of his visit to Wolford Lodge, Badcock was seeking service within the established church. In 1787 he was ordained as a curate by the Bishop of Exeter and sent to serve at Broadclyst near the cathedral city.13

  The word “Dissenter” is revealing. Evangelicals such as the Wesleys were still within the Anglican Church; Methodism as a separate denomination lay in the future. Although Badcock gives no hint, here may have been the influence that turned Simcoe into an Evangelical Anglican. Methodism would find fertile ground in the West Country. Simcoe’s motive could have been to counter any movement that might interfere with the unity of the church.

  Reverend Badcock was a theological and literary critic, and a prolific writer who contributed to many journals, including the very popular Gentleman’s Magazine. In the latter, in 1788, Badcock described his visit to Wolford Lodge two years before:

  I have spent a fortnight with my old friend Col. S. at his charming retreat near Honiton, and there truly enjoyed the feast of reason and the flow of souls. The Colonel divides his time between his studies and the improving of his estate. His studies are also divided between tactics and antiquities, Arrian and Dugdale. The former he was about to give a new translation of, illustrated with remarks founded on the examples of modern heros, particularly the Duke of Marlborough and the King of Prussia.

  If Simcoe ever completed his translation of Arrian, his work has not been found. Sir William Dugdale (1605-1687) prepared, in liaison with Roger Dodsworth, “Monastican Anglicum” (a compilation of records of monastic property) and he wrote two classical works of historical importance, The Baronetage of England and Antiquities of Warwickshire. Badcock’s journal continues:

  He is also engaged in tracing out the Roman Camps in the West of England; and is exploring, with great zeal, the remains of Monastic antiquity. He hath promised to communicate his collection … The Colonel’s house lies in the Parish of Dunkeswell; and near it are the remains of the ancient abbey of that name. We went one morning to visit it, and my mind was much impressed with the recollection of that period when monastic institutions flourished in this kingdom.

  He was very taken with a young lady also staying at Wolford Lodge, who wrote lovely poetry. This same young lady had been for some months at Hembury Fort House. “The Colonel proposed a trial of poetic skill: I wisely declined the contest with superior genius.”14

  The lady, never mentioned by name, could be Mary Hunt, who wrote a poem about Dunkeswell Abbey that was published some years later.15 Among Simcoe’s own poems was a long one about the Earl of Essex’s raid on Cadiz for good Queen Bess:

  Essex! ye Muse bless his name! thy flight

  Nor shall mischance nor envious clouds obscure

  Thou the bold Eaglet, whose superior height,

  While Cadiz towers, forever shall endure.

  O, if again Hope prompts the daring song,

  And Fancy stamps it with the mark of truth,

  O, if again Brittania’s [sic] coasts should throng

  With such determined and heroic youth,

  Be mine to raise her standards on that height,

  While thou, great Chief! thy envied trophies bore!

  Be mine to snatch from abject Spain the state,

  Which in her mid-day pride, thy valour tore!

  And oh! to crown my triumph, tho no Queen,

  Cold politician, frown on my return,

  Sweetly adorning the domestic scene,

  Shall my Eliza with true passion burn,

  Or smile amid her grief, at fame, who hovers o’er my urn.16

  Was Simcoe taking liberty with the name of the Virgin Queen, or did he really mean his own wife or small daughter?

  By October he was again negotiating to increase his holdings. Agent Robert Gidley advised him that Lawyer Christopher Flood found that Mr. Harrison expected £1,100 for his estate, which he could acquire by “Lady Day next” — 25 March, Annunciation Day. Whether Simcoe bought at that time is uncertain.

  A third daughter, Henrietta Maria, nicknamed Harriet, was baptized at St. Nicholas Church on 24 April 1787. Like her older sisters, Harriet would be inoculated early, and again the Simcoes were lucky. By the time she arrived, the family was settled into Wolford Lodge. On 8 March 1787, Admiral Graves died at Hembury Fort House. Aunt Margaret then moved into Wolford Lodge. The Admiral had left his own house to his nephew, Richard Graves, a Captain in the Royal Navy.17 About the same time, Simcoe became one of the twenty-six original subscribers to the formation of the Exeter Free Grammar School Old Boys’ Society. In time he would become one of the society’s four Stewards. Both events were published in the Exeter Flying Post.18

  The Simcoes followed a set routine. “The Colonel,” as Elizabeth and most others called him, rose early and rode over the estate, often in the company of John Scadding. He conducted prayers for the family, guests and staff, morning and evening in the new drawing room. That the house was so large was a blessing. Aunt Margaret was a spoiled old lady, accustomed to having her own way, and Elizabeth had to become adroit at coping with her.19 In the meantime, Simcoe was pursuing some literary efforts. As a result he published two books, both printed in Exeter, before the end of the year.

  The first, rather trivial, was Remarks on the Travels of the Marquis de Castellux in North America. It was a short critique of the Marquis’s own book and the anti-British comments it contained. The second and by far the more significant was Simcoe’s record of his time with his Rangers, A Journal of the Operations of the Queen’s Rangers from the end of 1777 to the conclusion of the late American War. Using his own records, he wrote this work to counter charges of his conduct during the war, and that of his regiment. The main body of the journal is impersonal, but he added an appendix where he displayed more of his own feelings.20 He incorporated plans for many of the encounters with the rebels. Lieutenant George Spencer, rescuer of the British Legion’s trophies and other exploits, was the mapmaker who supplied some of them.21

  As Simcoe was enjoying the comforts of home and family life, he remained concerned about events in the triumphant colonies that had been granted their independence. Through the Treaty of Separation of September 1783, the tie that bound the Americans to Britain was broken. The war had been successful, partly through French aid, and partly because Britons themselves had no stomach for continuing after Yorktown. At New York, Sir Guy Carleton, Sir Henry Clinton’s successor, had sent some 40,000 Loyalists to the Maritimes.

  By September 1787, a Constitutional Congress meeting in Philadelphia had resolved to create one country, the United States of America. The Continental Congress that had directed George Washington’s Continental Army, had been a loose coalition to conduct the war. Following the peace treaty, thirteen vulnerable independent little republics went their various ways. As time passed, states’ rights remained an issue, but strength through union was obvious. The congress passed a constitution, and the federation was born.

  What, Simcoe pondered, would be the fate of the remaining provinces of British North America? Might the victorious Americans cast eyes on Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick (established in 1784), Cape Breton Island, Isle Saint John (Prince Edward Island) or Newfoundland? Canada, he recognised, would be the most vulnerable because it was the most accessible overland. Loyalist troops who had se
rved in the Northern Department had been resettled, with their dependents, along the shores of the upper St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes, places easy to attack. Thirteen republics had united, but not the little Republic of Vermont that had been neutral territory since 1781. Then legally part of New York, the people of the Green Mountains had declared their independence and set up their own government. Simcoe had never been in Vermont, but during the war he had envisaged those Green Mountains as a fine place to have a home.

  In 1788 he sent a copy of his military journal to Sir Henry Clinton, who was preparing his own memoirs of the history of the American war, although they were never published. By that time Elizabeth had presented the Colonel with a fourth daughter, who was baptized Caroline at St. Nicholas, Dunkeswell, on 27 November.22

  Clinton was feeling neglected since his return to England, and because of his many fruitless trips to London in search of a job, Simcoe was haunted by thoughts of Vermont:

  I wonder not at the sensibility you shew at the unworthy treatment you have met with; yet I doubt not but in the course of events, ample reparation awaits you, & you will be universally justified; for me the cold neglect even I humble as I am, have met with, weighs so strongly on my mind, that were my Four Girls Boys, I have little doubt but I should adjure England & become a citizen of Vermont; and this Idea has gained force since my last residence in London. Eton, Oxford & the Army has almost furnished me with the measurement of the Capacities of most of our Rulers & I fear their Hearts are not much better than I believe their heads to be, there is scarce a Statesman among them, trifling politicks and low pursuits govern all their Ideas — nor is our military Line much better; had I been Aid de Camp to the Prince, I heard resignations were threatened by men who could not prove one Enterprize & who would have it difficult to say where they were ever in the personal hazard of a musket ball.23