John Graves Simcoe, 1752-1806

by Mary Beacock Fryer

  The British Indian Department had been established mainly to control trade with the tribes, and to forge alliances, first, in the tug-of-war between the interests of Britain and France, and later to retain the loyalty, particularly of the Iroquois nations, during the Revolution. The department had a military function, and the subordinates to the superintendents held officer ranks. Thus Alexander McKee, deputy at Detroit, was a colonel; Matthew Elliott, whose home overlooked the Detroit River, was a captain. Among the more intriguing residents was Simon Girty, an interpreter who had been the brains behind important Ranger and native successes during the late war, a man the “Kentuckers” hated. The absent Sir John Johnson was the superintendent, but Colonel Butler was in charge of the department at Niagara. Simcoe would have much to do with the department during his years in Upper Canada.8

  When the Simcoes reached Newark, no house such as they had found at Kingston awaited them. They had to make do with four rundown wooden government buildings called Navy Hall, once the headquarters for the navy on Lake Ontario. These were being prepared for occupancy, although they would not make a proper, even comfortable, dwelling. As a temporary shelter, Simcoe had three large tents erected on the hillside overlooking the Niagara River. One would be for themselves, one for the children and their nurses, and the other for the servants. The site was high enough to catch the cool breezes, much less stifling than Navy Hall, which stood on low ground beside the water. Elizabeth Russell was particularly distressed to find only a two-room cabin for herself and the receiver general, her brother Peter. Simcoe was unperturbed. His councillors and civil servants would build houses and a lovely town would spring up almost overnight. Nevertheless he was not enchanted by Navy Hall. He wrote to James Bland Burges:

  I am fitting up an old hovel, that will look exactly like a carrier’s ale-house in England when properly decorated and ornamented; but I please myself with the hopes that some future “Gentleman’s Magazine” will obtain drawings of the first Government House, the first House of Assembly, etc., and decorate it with the “Aude, Hospes, Contemnere opes” of old Evander.9

  He was planning a journey to Detroit without delay, and he wanted Elizabeth to accompany him. She would sketch the countryside while he inspected the post’s defences. Afterwards they would follow the La Tranche River to its forks, where he hoped to find a site for the future capital of Upper Canada, central and at a safe distance from attack. On their return he would establish his provincial government. Thus far the only form of government was the district court where appointed magistrates presided. He would also get rid of the German names Dorchester had imposed on them. Luneburg would become the Eastern District, Mecklenburg the Midland, Nassau the Home, and Hesse the Western. He decided not to interfere with the townships along the St. Lawrence and Bay of Quinte that Dorchester had named after the numerous progeny of the King.

  High on their agenda was the Falls of Niagara. They set out in caleches for their first view. They breakfasted at the fine stone home of Robert Hamilton, merchant and legislative councillor. Hamilton was a former partner of Richard Cartwright, who had remained in the Niagara area after the Revolution. The Hamilton house stood at what was called The Landing, or Queenston, below the Falls. There, goods had to be removed from boats and carried up the steep mountain, above the cascade to an upper landing for transport in other vessels along Lake Erie. A firm friendship began between Elizabeth and Mrs. Hamilton, the former Catharine Askin, a daughter of the Detroit fur trader, John Askin. After viewing the great work of nature, they continued on to Fort Chippawa, close to the upper landing above the Falls. They spent the night with the Hamiltons. When they reached Navy Hall the next day, a message awaited Simcoe. Prince Edward was about to set out to inspect the garrison and defences of Upper Canada, and he expected to be at Newark in three weeks’ time.10

  Normally the Simcoes dined under a tree, which was cooler than inside the tents. On the evening of 16 August, Elizabeth was out for a drive when a thunderstorm blew in suddenly. Most of her blue and white Nankin china was broken when an oak bow above their temporary kitchen caught fire and servants hurriedly tried to save the delicate pieces. Meanwhile, the Queen’s Rangers had been endeavouring to finish the work on Navy Hall. Even with extra help, by 19 August the place was hardly habitable. It smelled atrociously of fresh paint and damp plaster. They had no choice but to surrender the tents to His Royal Highness and make do with Navy Hall for themselves. The Prince and his entourage arrived the next day. From Navy Hall, Elizabeth wrote:

  we came here on a cold and blowing night. I sat by myself in a miserable, unfinished, damp room, looking on the lake, where it blew a gale, the Bear, a gunboat tossing about terribly, and not a cheerful thought passing through my mind …

  Fortunately, a letter from home eased her depression.11

  Despite having to entertain royalty, Simcoe wrote to his two eldest daughters so that the letters could be sent on the ship that would be carrying the Prince down the lake. He advised Eliza to stay outdoors as much as possible, and he stressed the importance of reading. He hoped she would pass on the benefit of her instruction to Francis. She should study the Good Book, especially Genesis and Exodus, and the classics. A particular hero was Alexander the Great, and he hoped Francis would follow a military career. He never saw an unusual flower without wishing he could show it to his girls.12

  He wrote to Charlotte in a lighter vein, as though he thought her less serious-minded:

  here I am & Mamma sitting in a very large Bower, fronting upon a fine river, & as high above it, as the sand cliff above the Shrubbery, with Sophia sitting upon the Table, little Francis with his bald Pole [sic] laughing & eating Bilberries.

  He told her he would be completely happy if only the four girls were with them. He was delighted that Charlotte loved to dance. Perhaps he should learn to play the fiddle in order to accompany her. He was pleased she was growing fond of reading, and hoped she would make Francis fond of it too, and would teach him not to destroy too many birds, sail his little boats and fire his cannon “as Boys are apt to do.” He was looking ahead since Francis was only fourteen months old.13 (The letters would reach Wolford Lodge in November 1792. Miss Burges reported on the 20th that Eliza and Charlotte were delighted with their letters, but Harriet was perturbed that there was none for her. Mary Anne explained to the now five-and-a-half-year-old Harriet that when Papa wrote his letters he was not aware that she could read.)14

  On 25 August, when Simcoe accompanied the Prince to Fort Niagara to inspect the garrison, he stood close to one of the guns when a royal salute was fired. This deafened him temporarily and left him with a searing headache that sent him to his bed for the remainder of the royal visit. The commandant of the fort, Major John Smith, was the Prince’s host until his departure, to Simcoe’s everlasting chagrin. Describing the headache Elizabeth wrote:

  [He] kept to his room for a fortnight. He had a gouty pain in his hand before & it is supposed the Shock of the Cannon firing so immediately above him fixed the disorder in his head. He has now recovered & has a pain in his foot, which perhaps would more effectually relieve his head, if it was more violent.15

  The report of the cannon was less likely to have caused Simcoe’s prolonged illness than his sleeping in Navy Hall. Paint at the time was very toxic, and the innate dampness of the building meant serious accumulations of mould. Breathing the mould each night would be sufficient to cause severe sinus pain, difficult to relieve until he was able to return to the airiness of their tents. To Elizabeth’s regret, the visit of Prince Edward meant postponing their journey to Detroit until after the legislature could meet.

  FOURTEEN

  SIMCOE THE ADMINISTRATOR

  During the summer of 1792, the residents of Upper Canada were voting in an election to send members to the first meeting of the provincial legislature. By proclamation before he left Kingston, Simcoe had divided the southern fringe of Upper Canada, where the settlements were developing, into nineteen counties. He had named
some after his friends, Northumberland, Dundas or Addington, for example. Gathering votes in such an under- populated wilderness took time, but by September sixteen members had been selected. Counties with few voters shared representatives with others, while Glengarry on the St. Lawrence had two ridings, and Lincoln, on the Niagara Peninsula, had three. Leeds and Frontenac shared John White, the attorney general. Elected for Prince Edward County and Adolphustown Township was Philip Dorland, who refused, as a Quaker, to take the oath of office. (He was replaced by Peter van Alstine in June 1793.)1 The counties were for electoral purpose; the unit of local government remained the district. Following the English pattern, Simcoe intended raising the militia as county units, and appointing a County Lieutenant in each:

  In order to promote an Aristocracy, most necessary in this country, which I mean to extend from time to time; and have given them the recommendatory Power for the Militia and Magistracy as is usual in England …2

  On 16 September, the first Parliament of Upper Canada opened, with all the pomp and ceremony Simcoe could arrange. He rode forth in his full scarlet regimentals, escorted by Major Littlehales and Lieutenants Talbot and Grey. A guard of honour of the Queen’s Rangers, and some of Colonel John Butler’s disbanded Rangers who also wore green coats, lined the route from Navy Hall to the Masonic Lodge building, where the legislature would meet. The governor’s party was followed by some Iroquois men and women of the Six Nations, and others of the Mississauga and Chippawa bands — local names for the Algonkianspeaking natives of the Eastern Woodlands.

  Elizabeth was arrayed in a gown made for the purpose in London. She watched proudly, the band of the gown cutting into her swelling waist; the Simcoe’s seventh child was due in January. She was fatigued by the evening, but she gamely attended a grand ball, and she was meticulous in seeing that she spoke to every guest — members of councils or legislature and their wives, and Simcoe’s staff of civil servants. She promised the governor to be quiet for the next few days, proud that she had been such a good hostess to so many strangers.3

  In his speech from the throne, Simcoe emphasised that Upper Canada’s was a British constitution. This implied a pyramid, with monarchy at the pinnacle, an aristocracy in support of the sovereign, and as limited a form of democracy as possible — truly high Tory principles.

  Two matters of extreme importance, the first to Simcoe, the second to his subjects, were reserved lots and legal marriages. Under the constitution, one seventh of the land in each township was to be reserved for the support of the Crown, and another seventh to provide funds for the clergy — Anglican, as far as the governor was concerned. The reserved lots were not to be allotted in blocks, but in a checkerboard pattern, so that they would be scattered throughout each township. The man who worked out the pattern was Lieutenant David William Smith, 5th Regiment, and the only son of Major John Smith. Before the 5th was rotated to Niagara from Detroit, David had been the chairman of the Western (Hesse) District Land Board. He had been elected the member of the legislative assembly for Essex and Suffolk, the most westerly counties.4 (This system was to cause aggravation, as the lots which remained unsold were a hindrance to contiguous development and a burden to roadbuilders who had to remove trees past unoccupied lands.)

  During the years of war and displacement, many Loyalists had contracted marriages of doubtful legality. Loyalists held many certificates from magistrates, and Simcoe directed Chief Justice Osgoode to draw up a bill regarding these and future marriages, to be sent to England for approval. Because getting a reply would take time, Simcoe agreed to another bill that made provision for future marriages. Only Church of England clergymen could perform marriages. Only three reverend gentlemen qualified — John Stuart at Kingston, Robert Addison, now missionary at Newark, and John Langhorn, on the Bay of Quinte since 1787. Where no clergyman resided within eighteen miles, a magistrate could continue to perform the sacrament.

  Another matter of particular concern to Simcoe was land granting. Lord Dorchester had set up a land board in each of the four districts, with a half-pay officer as chairman, to allot grants of land to Loyalists, who received their grants free of all charges, and to other settlers, who could receive permission to settle if they were thought to be of good character, and for payment of a patent fee. (At that time Captain Justus Sherwood, magistrate, was the chairman of the land board for Luneburg, now the Eastern District. Simcoe may have thought him too liberal with those whose claims as Loyalists were suspect.)

  Simcoe disliked the land boards, but for the time being he tolerated them. He was more worried about interference in Upper Canada over which he had no control. The Indian Department headquarters were in Lower Canada; a separate department he requested was overruled. The same applied to land surveying. In charge of all surveying, was the elderly surveyor general Samuel Holland, in Quebec City. Deputy surveyors working in Upper Canada were subject to Holland’s commands, not Simcoe’s. Regular troops in both provinces came under the command of Major General Clarke. Meanwhile, Lord Dorchester remained in England, which left Simcoe free to communicate directly with Henry Dundas, secretary of state for the home department (and after 1794 the secretary of state for war and the colonies).

  The autumn was unusually mild. By November the Simcoes were still not heating the canvas house, although Elizabeth did not specify whether one or two houses had been erected. She described the one she occupied as thirty feet long and twelve wide, divided by a partition to make a sitting room and a bedroom, and wall papered5 She did not say where the others slept, whether the governor shared the canvas house, or used the second one, nor how Navy Hall was being used. It probably accommodated servants, aides and at times guests. Reverend Addison conducted services there on Sundays. Simcoe had a hut built for himself, above the Niagara River at Queenston. Inside he hung the tapestry, the gift from the Marquis of Buckingham. They had acquired pets, a grey and white cat that had adopted them in Kingston, and a dog named Jack Sharp. Elizabeth described him as a Newfoundland dog that had belonged to a Mr. Shane at Niagara. A hound they named Trojan joined the family circle and selected her as his special mistress, sleeping in her bedroom.6

  On 3 December she visited Captain Henry Darling at Fort Niagara, to inspect his collection of stuffed birds and animals, which were of particular interest as they were local. Then on the 9th, Captain Joseph Brant arrived to pay his respects and dine with the governor. Elizabeth thought he might be cunning:

  He wore an English Coat with a handsome Crimson Silk blanket lined with black and trimmed with gold fringe & wore a Fur Cap, round his neck he had a string of plaited sweet hay, It is a kind of grass that never loses its pleasant scent.7

  Brant, the wartime leader of the Iroquois warriors, held his captaincy in the Indian Department. He had been sent, financed by Sir William Johnson, to Rev. Eleazor Wheelock, then the headmaster of Moor’s Charity School in Lebanon, Connecticut, where the pupils were promising Indian boys. There he improved his command of English. Soon after he returned to his own people he became an Anglican.8 In 1775 Brant had made a journey to England, to seek help for the Six Nations in their struggle against the Americans. Little came of the journey; perhaps the most concrete result was his portrait that was painted by George Romney. Brant also made a striking impression on, among others, Hugh Percy, the 2nd Duke of Northumberland. His Grace was also the honorary colonel of the 5th Regiment and a general in the British Army who had served in North America during the Revolution. At that time, or when Brant came to England, Northumberland had been made an honorary Mohawk.9

  The day after Brant came to dine, at Navy Hall, Simcoe set out to walk to Burlington Bay at the head of Lake Ontario, some fifty miles. He returned a week later having been “delighted with the beauty of the Country & Industry of the Inhabitants.”10

  Meanwhile Elizabeth had drawn a map of Canada and the United States. The dog Trojan, left in her bedroom while she went to have dinner, chewed the map to pieces, and she was obliged to paste it together. “The Gov. m
ade some very pretty verses on the occasion”:

  Awful Omen, prodigy unknown,

  In mystic manner Provinces devours,

  Shakes to the center Pondiaus throne,

  Scatters the Mississippi in its course,

  An o’r Alleganny plays with unresisted force.11

  Having dealt with Trojan, Simcoe returned to one of his favourite themes, the superiority of all things British. His sense of the patriotic is typical of his other poems, and sadly, they are not memorable. Writing verses was an even more useful pastime as winter shut down navigation, and the only news from outside arrived carried by runners on snowshoes. Another pastime was endless games of whist. At first, Chief Justice Osgoode lived at Navy Hall, but by 31 December he had a house of his own. The Simcoes’ seventh child was born at Newark on 16 January, 1791. Elizabeth did not mention the event in her diary but she did in her letters to Mrs. Hunt and Miss Burges. The baby was another girl, named Katherine, after Simcoe’s mother, Katherine Stamford.12 Elizabeth wrote to Mrs. Hunt asking her to register the birth at Dunkeswell. She decried the want of a wet nurse; feeding baby Katherine herself never occurred to her. The canvas house had proved quite comfortable during the birth. It had been boarded over to keep the snow from lying on it, and was quieter than the rest of their home;