John Graves Simcoe, 1752-1806

by Mary Beacock Fryer

  I very contentedly eat my dinner of the (I believe stolen) mutton of the forest. We were there told we could not go on to Linton [sic] without a guide owing to the dangerous bogs; a man of the name of Lock who was going home to Linmouth [sic] offered to guide us if we could wait until 4 o’clock, but being not willing to wait until that time we boldly set out alone and in a mile or two found ourselves involved in a bog where our horses sunk so deep were obliged to get off in the middle of it, that they might extricate their legs.

  At that point they saw Mr. Lock riding towards them. He guided them safely to Lynton on the north coast of Devon, “tho thro’ many unpleasant, but not dangerous bogs.” That they should ignore advice and set out without the recommended guide was typical of both John Graves and Elizabeth Simcoe. (On Exmoor the danger was quicksand — sloughs; in Upper Canada they would not be deterred by heavy snow or rotting ice.)

  Earlier during their explorations of Exmoor, Elizabeth told Miss Elliott that they had steered clear of Mole’s Chamber, a famous bog called after a man named Mole who had been “lost” in it. In his book An Exploration of Exmoor, John Page explained the source of the name. Exmoor did not furnish as exciting if sometimes apocryphal stories “supplied by the more grim neighbour Dartmoor”:

  The only loss of life recorded — save for Lorna Doone and there are doubts even about that, is placed to the credit of Moles Chamber, in which a farmer is said to have perished many years since, on his way home from Barnstable market. The unbelieving, however, trace the name to the River Mole, a tributary of the Taw, which takes its source hereabouts.

  The slough, Page added, was no longer a menace to the traveller because it had been drained10

  At Lynton they could not find decent accommodation. The hospitable Mr. Lock offered to give them a bed at his house. They went to the Lock house after supping at a Lynton ale house. The proprietor had nothing but bread, butter and herrings, “but they were so excellent that an epicure might well go a hundred miles” for the delight of enjoying such fare.

  Elizabeth observed that the herrings had only a back bone, a discovery in “natural history which I have made …” She was delighted with Lynton and with “Linmouth” (Lynmouth). The latter was “the most romantic and charming situated village” she had ever seen. It stood close to the sea at the foot of high cliffs, some bare, others covered with woods, and with “two mountain torrents pouring over vast stones with a prodigious noise” as they ran into the sea. Lynton Church, also “romantically placed,” overlooked the sea from one of those immense cliffs. “I could have stayed there a month, I never took sketches so ill, being on so much a larger scale that I was accustomed to.”

  You may travel for miles on Exmoor without seeing a man, house or tree, but the vast falls and precipitous risings of the mountains together with the unity and simplicity of colouring give a grandeur which is very fine, we returned next day thro’ Countesbury, to Porlock and Minehead sleep there and then passed to Dunkery Beacon [also made famous by R.D. Blackmore].

  They rode to Winsford on the Ex, and saw Bampton Castle and some ruins of an abbey at Cannon’s Lee as they turned their horses towards home. “If you have a map of Somersetshire” she advised Miss Elliott, her friend could trace their excursion. She found a book in “Exmore dialect” which she found perfectly horrible and unintelligible, although three inhabitants of the moor spoke better English than any common people she had met in Devonshire.

  The Sheep on the Moor are perfect beauties, white as driven snow their wool very silky; they are very small, there are likewise numbers of ponies like Mrs. Graves’ quite wild, who inhabit the Moor.

  A friend, Mr. Leman, who was in Honiton when they returned home, told them that Lynmouth was nothing compared to Ilfracombe, but Elizabeth was skeptical because they had not gone that far and could not judge for themselves. She was pleased that she had not caught cold, although her feet were wet through ten times a day, while dismounting on the hills. She was miserably fatigued the first day, but the stiffness wore off with continued riding. They had gone thirty miles a day for the first two days, very demanding rides indeed.

  At Wolford Lodge a letter from Mary Anne Burges awaited Elizabeth. Her friend was then visiting her uncle, Colonel Hugh Somerville, at Fitzhead Court, his home near Taunton in Somerset. Elizabeth hoped that Miss Elliott had had a comfortable journey home to Copford, and had found Admiral and Mrs. Elliott well and in good spirits. Miss Elliott’s elder brother, Elizabeth finished her letter, had sent the Simcoes a brace of very fine pheasants, for which they were grateful.11

  Many a modern tourist would envy the Simcoes’ opportunity to see the moor and the north coast while the land was so primitive, the tracks ancient or non-existent, and hardly any bridle paths. The countryside, as Elizabeth found, is in mountainous contrast to Tracey (now St. Cyres) Hill or Hembury Fort. Dunkery Beacon is twice their height. The Blackdown Hill region is much gentler than the high windswept wild moor, with its deep coombes and high coastal cliffs. A valley such as Blackmore conceived, concealing the outlaw Doones’ habitation, would be impossible in the Blackdowns. (In later life, a friendship developed between the Simcoe family and author Blackmore’s father, who in the 1820s was curate in the parish of Culmstock, only five miles from Wolford Lodge.)

  Over the years, John Graves Simcoe saw the hand of the Romans in virtually all buildings and sites of any antiquity. He was often mistaken, but he did not have the benefit of knowledge gained from later years of archaeological excavation and research that would have proved or disproved his “theories.” At Huntsham Castle there never was a Roman camp; the castle is, in fact, like Hembury Fort, a fine example of an Iron Age hill fort, predating the Romans by several hundred years.

  By 1790, Simcoe found new hope, but also new setbacks. Among the members of parliament and friends, the future of Canada was an important issue. Something had to be done about the 8,000 or more Loyalists who had been resettled to the west of the French seigneuries of the lower St. Lawrence River. Under the terms of the Quebec Act of 1774, Canada had French civil law and feudal land tenure, and Roman Catholicism as the established religion. The Loyalists were petitioning for a separate colony, where they could have English civil law and freehold land tenure — their rights as British subjects. They resented being forced to fit into a foreign system. To Simcoe, a separate province held out hope for a new British Empire in the interior of North America.

  On 3 June, William Wyndham Grenville, brother of the Marquis of Buckingham, President of the Board of Trade and cousin of then Prime Minister William Pitt (the younger) wrote to Lord Dorchester. Formerly Sir Guy Carleton, Dorchester was now the governor in chief of Canada, His Lordship had requested, when the province was partitioned, that the lieutenant governor of the upper (western) portion be Sir John Johnson. Sir John was the son and heir of Sir William Johnson, the 1st Baronet of New York and the influential Superintendent of Indian Affairs in the northern colonies until his death in 1774. Sir John, the 2nd Baronet, had commanded the largest Provincial Corps that had served in the Northern Department, the King’s Royal Regiment of New York, which consisted of two battalions. The other Provincial Corps of the Northern Department had only one each. Dorchester was certain that the choice of Sir John would find favour with the Loyalist settlers he would govern.

  Grenville informed Dorchester that he had recommended John Graves Simcoe for this important post, rather than Johnson.12 Although never spelled out, opinion favoured an outsider over a man who might have too many vested interests in the new province. As the only Brigadier General of Provincials in Canada, Sir John Johnson was entitled to vast acreages in the new province and he might not make an impartial ruler. Dorchester, who had already formed a poor opinion of Simcoe as leader of the now demobilised Queen’s Rangers, was far from pleased when his recommendation was refused.

  ELEVEN

  THE GREAT EMPIRE BUILDER

  On 22 June 1790, Mrs. Simcoe wrote to Mrs. Hunt informing her of recent events in th
e lives of her family. Although the Colonel’s appointment as the lieutenant governor of the new province, to be named Upper Canada, had not been officially confirmed, everyone knew that the job was his. Elizabeth expressed doubts about going owing to the unsettled nature of conditions on the European continent, especially the situation in revolutionary France:

  I am under great uneasiness about the war. If that does not take place I shall go to Canada with Coll. Simcoe next Spring. He has had a very desirable civil government … in that country offered to him which he accepted but if the war happens it will certainly prevent my quitting England & everybody says a war is inevitable. Our children are quite well. I am glad to have the small pox over. I was much alarmed in the coming out of that disorder but they had it very favourably.

  The younger girls had been inoculated, and again the Simcoes had been lucky that they suffered only mild cases. Elizabeth also recounted the visit to Wolford Lodge of the famous historian/antiquarian Richard Polwhele. That guest had been most interested in the poem about Dunkeswell Abbey by Miss Mary Hunt. Polwhele, a man of the cloth, wrote a history of Devonshire, and edited a work entitled Poems Chiefly by Gentlemen of Devon and Cornwall (in two volumes, published in 1792). Among these poems were some of Polwhele’s own, Major Edward Drewe’s that he dedicated to John Graves Simcoe, and Mary Hunt’s on Dunkeswell Abbey. Apparently Polwhele rated Miss Hunt as a “Gentleman” or was she covered by “Chiefly”?

  Richard Polwhele was a significant figure in the West Country, especially Devon and Cornwall. As well as a theologian, he was a topographer and writer, a man very much after John Graves Simcoe’s heart. A native of Truro in Cornwall, Richard matriculated as a “Commoner” at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1782. That same year he was ordained as a curate at Lamoran, Cornwall, and accepted a curacy at Powderham Castle, Devon, the seat of the Earls of Devon, whose family name was Courtnay. In 1793 he became a curate at Exmouth, Devon, and was vicar of Manaccan in Cornwall and later at Newlyn, Cornwall.

  He was a member of a literary society that met every three weeks in the Globe Inn, Exeter. The members recited prose and verse and “dined at three.” The efforts of these gentlemen led to the publication of the collection of poetry which Polwhele edited. Among his other literary works were a history of Cornwall and contributions to Gentleman’s Magazine, the Anti-Jacobin Review and other journals.

  Like earlier enthusiasts, Polwhele was impressed with the magnificence of the Simcoes’ “Wolford Church” estate, which he described in great detail. New was his mention of shells, by which he clearly meant fossils: “The hills rise boldly — having been former cliffs, out of which hath been dug a great variety of shells never before found in the county.” He was referring to the Greensand limestone of the Cretacious geological era, especially noted for well-preserved fossils. The Upper Greensand was overlain by clay containing flints and chert so useful to early man.1

  Simcoe was still scribbling his own poems, and searching for opportunities to enlarge his estates. Because his interest was widely known, a prominent landowner, Mr. W. Hawker of Poundisford, near Taunton, wrote offering to sell Simcoe an estate named Dunkeswell Grange, which adjoined the Wolford land. Hawker wanted to free some capital in order to purchase Cothelston Estate in the Quantock Hills of Somerset. However, the purchase of Dunkeswell Grange was not completed for some years.2 Simcoe was more preoccupied with plans to leave for Upper Canada.

  Certain of his friends and advisers regarded Simcoe’s enthusiasm for an outpost of empire in the wilds of Canada as bordering on insanity. With the danger of war so great, by staying home he would soon be sent to the Continent where promotions in the field would be quick. James Bland Burges, now under secretary of state in the foreign department, wondered why Simcoe would bury himself at the end of the earth when he could further his military career with a more convenient active command.3

  Simcoe, meanwhile, was busy making more plans for Upper Canada. First came the question of defense. He would need a strong garrison to keep the new province safe from American intruders. That peninsula lying north of the Great Lakes was vulnerable to attack by land along several narrow spots, and more so by water. He wrote to Henry Dundas, the home secretary, on 12 November 1790, recommending raising a corps of “twelve companies, each company to consist of a Captain, 2 Lieutenants and one hundred rank and file with two troops [of cavalry] of similar numbers, the whole forming 1200 rank and file with two Majors.”4 This regiment would be the third Queen’s Rangers. Most of the men would be recruited in the West Country, but Simcoe hoped that some of his favourite officers, now on half-pay in New Brunswick, would elect to serve again under him. The sole reply for months was word that Simcoe had finally been promoted full Colonel in the British Army on 18 November.5 The promotion let him feel optimistic. Now he hoped for a knighthood, so appropriate for a future lieutenant governor of a British province.

  He revealed much of his imperialistic ambitions for Upper Canada in a letter he wrote to Joseph Banks, the botanist who had sailed with Captain James Cook, onetime navigator aboard Captain John Simcoe’s ship Pembroke. In 1778, Banks was appointed President of the Royal Society, and he was well known as a liberal patron of science and literature. Because he was a man of influence in society, Simcoe resolved to court him as a useful ally. His letter, a very long one, is dated 8 January 1791:

  Sir,

  I was much disappointed that the variety of business in which my good friend Sir George Yonge was engaged, and by my own avocations, prevented me from having the honour of being introduced to you, as soon as it was generally made known that I was to be appointed to the Government in Upper Canada.

  Fearful that he would not have the time for an introduction, Simcoe had resolved to put his thoughts in writing. He wanted to procure advantages for the community he was to govern, and to encourage in “this Nation [Upper Canada] those Arts and Sciences which at once support and embellish our Country…” He asked Banks for his assistance and hoped to be in frequent communication with him. He was willing to undertake “this species of banishment” because the new province could become such a valuable asset to the Empire.

  As one who saw the consequences of the loss of “our late American Dominions” Simcoe feared calamity in case of war. He longed to restore his King and family “to their just inheritance” and to form a new union that would be permanent. A renewal of Empire would be desirable to His Majesty, and the sooner this task was begun the better:

  I mean to prepare for whatever Convulsions may happen in the United States, the Method I propose is by establishing a free, honourable British Government, and a pure Administration of its Laws which shall hold out to the solitary Emigrant, and to the several States, advantages that the present form of Government doth not and cannot permit them to enjoy.

  Of the inherent defects in the congressional form of government, “the absolute prohibition of an order of Nobility is a glaring one.” The true New England Americans, he claimed, had as strong an “Aristocratical spirit” as that to be found in Great Britain, nor were they “Anti-Monarchial.” Simcoe hoped to have an hereditary council at the core of the nobility. For commerce, union and power, he proposed to site the colony “in that Great Peninsula between Lakes Huron, Erie and Ontario, a Spot destined by Nature sooner or later, to govern the interior World.”

  His capital would be in the very heart of this country, upon the River LaTranche (the Thames), navigable by bateaux for 150 miles. He would lure Loyalists still in Connecticut to settle, if the home government approved. He would have a bishop, an English chief justice, among other appointed officers. He meant an established church and English civil law. Narrow-thinking individuals and self interested “monopolists” might find his plan ahead of its time, “not what this Country is yet prepared for” though he expected that the New England provinces might be receptive.

  He would seek to demonstrate that Upper Canada, having all the advantages of British protection, would have a better government than the United St
ates could ever attain. Important to achieving the kind of civilised society he envisaged, there must be a place for the arts and sciences and like embellishments, to make the statement that his form of government would be more polished. “I would not in its infancy have a Hut, nor in its Maturity, a palace built without this Design.”

  The Marquis of Buckingham had suggested a sum of money for a pubic library, and had donated an encyclopedia, extracts from which might be published in newspapers. With respect to “Botanical Arrangements” Simcoe suggested introducing plants into Upper Canada, hemp and flax, for example, which Great Britain then bought from other nations. Education was so far shamefully neglected. The province would need schools, and a “College of a higher Class would be eminently useful …”6

  Simcoe knew nothing about the traditions of Connecticut, the most democratic of any American state. It was founded as a charter province; under the terms of the charter, all officials were elected, even the governor. Although the franchise was restricted to males who met a stiff property qualification, nevertheless Simcoe’s notion of a nobility and appointed officers would have been repugnant to such highly individualistic folk as Connecticut Yankees. Whether Joseph Banks gave Simcoe any assistance is unknown. When he began his letter to Banks he was feeling let down by Sir George Yonge, who had been less helpful than Simcoe felt he had a right to expect.

  Simcoe also turned his attention to acquiring accommodation. Since he had no hope of finding a suitable government house, on 24 December 1790 he told William, now Lord Grenville, that he intended taking a portable house with him:

  My Lord,

  Having in a former conversation mentioned to Your Lordship that a CANVASS HOUSE similar to that sent with the Governor of Botany Bay, might be highly convenient if not necessary, in the various expeditions t’will be proper that I should make in order to be an eye witness to the situation of the new proposed Government & a faithful reporter of your Lordship thereon … I shall be obliged to you to give instructions accordingly to Mr. Nepean, as the advancing Season admits of little delay.7