John Graves Simcoe
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John Graves Simcoe (February 25, 1752 – October 26, 1806) was the first lieutenant governor of Upper Canada (modern-day southern Ontario plus the shoreline of Georgian Bay and Lake Superior) from 1791-1796. He founded York (now Toronto) and was instrumental in introducing British institutions such as the courts, trial by jury, English common law, freehold land tenure, and for abolishing slavery in Upper Canada long before it was abolished in the British Empire as a whole (it had disappeared from Upper Canada by 1810, but wasn't abolished throughout the Empire until 1834).
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[edit] Military career
Simcoe was born in Cotterstock, Northamptonshire, England to Captain John and Katherine Simcoe. He was named for both his father, and for his god-father, Admiral Samuel Graves.
In 1770, after graduating from Eton College and Oxford, he entered the British army as the son of the captain of the royal marine. He obtained a commission in the 35th Regiment of Foot, and was sent to Boston to fight in the American Revolution. He purchased a majority in the 40th Regiment of Foot, but then in 1777 was made commanding officer of the 1st American Regiment (the Queen's Rangers) of loyalist volunteers. Simcoe was one of the army's most successful commanders during this war. He achieved the rank of lieutenant-colonel and was wounded three times before being captured in 1779. He returned to Britain two years later.
[edit] Political Career
Prior to being posted to Canada, Simcoe was elected as a British MP for St. Mawes in Cornwall from 1790 to 1791.
[edit] Appointment as Lieutenant-Governor
The Province of Upper Canada was created under the Constitutional Act of 1791. This law stipulated that the provincial government would consist of the Lieutenant-Governor, an appointed Executive Council and Legislative Council and an elected Legislative Assembly. Simcoe was selected as the Lieutenant-Governor, and made plans to move to Upper Canada with his wife Elizabeth and daughter Sophia, leaving three other daughters behind with their aunt. They left England in September and arrived on November 11. This was too late in the year to make the trip to Upper Canada and the Simcoes spent the winter in Quebec City. The next spring they moved to Kingston and then Newark (now Niagara-on-the-Lake).
Simcoe's first priority was to establish a provincial government. The first meeting of the nine-member Legislative Council and sixteen-member Legislative Assembly took place at Newark on September 17, 1792.
Simcoe soon realized that Newark made an unsuitable capital because it was right on the US border and subject to attack. He proposed moving the capital to a more defensible position in the middle of Upper Canada's southwestern peninsula between Lake Erie and Lake Huron. He named the new location York and renamed the river as the Thames in anticipation of the change.
The Governor-General, Lord Dorchester, rejected this proposal but accepted Simcoe's second choice of Toronto. Simcoe moved the capital to Toronto in 1793 and renamed the location York after Frederick, Duke of York, George III's second son.
Simcoe started to sell strips of Canadian land to American settlers, in the hopes that they would become loyalists and aid Canada if there were ever a war between them and the United States.
Simcoe's other children and descendents included:
- son Lieutenant Francis Gwillim Simcoe (born 1801), died 1812 in Trinidad Breach at Badajoz, Spain
- Daughter Eliza Simcoe (died 1865)
- son Reverend Henry Addington Simcoe
- grandson John K. Simcoe, R.N and son of Henry Addington Simcoe
[edit] Later career
In July 1796 poor health forced Simcoe to return to Britain. He was unable to return to Upper Canada and resigned his office in 1798. He later served briefly as governor of St. Domingo (Haiti) and commander of the Western District in Britain. In 1806, he was appointed commander-in-chief of India but died in Exeter before assuming that post. A plaque placed by the Ontario Heritage Foundation in Exeter's cathedral precinct commemorates his life. He was buried in Wolford Chapel on the Simcoe family estate near Honiton, Devon. The Ontario Heritage Foundation acquired title to the chapel in 1982.
[edit] Legacy
The town of Simcoe in southwestern Ontario and Simcoe County to the west and north of Lake Simcoe are named for him, Lake Simcoe itself was named by John Graves Simcoe for his father). A provincial holiday held on the first Monday in August is known as Simcoe Day in Toronto [1]. Simcoe's regiment still exists as the Queen's York Rangers, an armoured reconnaissance regiment of the Canadian Forces reserves. A school in St. Catharines, Ontario, Governor Simcoe Secondary School, was also named after him. Simcoe Street and Simcoe Place (office tower) in Toronto are both located near the fort where Simcoe lived during his early year in York.
[edit] External links
- Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
- Ontario Plaques - Lieutenant-General John Graves Simcoe 1752-1806
| Preceded by new title under Governor General of British North America Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester |
Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada 1791–1798 |
Succeeded by Peter Russell |
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Lieutenant-Governors of Ontario |  |
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| Post-Confederation (1867-present)
Stisted | Howland | Crawford | D.A. Macdonald | J.B. Robinson | Campbell | Kirkpatrick | Gzowski | Mowat | Clark | Gibson | Hendrie | Clarke | Cockshutt | Ross | Mulock | H.A. Bruce | Matthews | Lawson | Breithaupt | MacKay | Rowe | W.R. Macdonald | McGibbon | Aird | Alexander | Jackman | Weston | Bartleman Canada West (1841-1866) Clitherow | Jackson | Bagot | Metcalfe | Cathcart | J. Bruce | E.W. Head | Monck Upper Canada (1791-1841) Simcoe | Russell | Hunter | Grant | Gore | Brock | Sheaffe | de Rottenburg | Drummond | Murray | F.P. Robinson | Smith | Maitland | Colborne | F.B. Head | Arthur | Thomson |
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