Samuel Lount
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Samuel Lount (September 24, 1791 – April 12, 1838) was a businessman and political figure in Upper Canada. He participated in the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837.
He was born in Catawissa, Pennsylvania in 1791 and he came to Whitchurch Township in Upper Canada in 1811 with his family. He returned to Pennsylvania during the War of 1812, returning to Whitchurch in 1815. He briefly kept a tavern in Newmarket while doing work as a surveyor, but spent most of his adult life as a blacksmith in Holland Landing. As blacksmith, he helped to build the first steamboat on Lake Simcoe.
In 1834, he was elected to the 12th Parliament of Upper Canada representing Simcoe County, where he became a supporter of William Lyon Mackenzie. After he was defeated in the election of 1836, he joined the movement pressing the British government for reforms.
In the winter of 1837, he helped organize people from the Simcoe area to join a planned march on Toronto and joined the rebel group gathered at Montgomery’s Tavern.
When the rebellion fell apart, Lount attempted to flee to the United States. He was arrested and accused of treason. He was hanged on April 12, 1838 in the courtyard of the Toronto jail. Peter Matthews, another public-spirited farmer who participated in the rebellion, was also executed on the same day.
Lount had intervened to try to get medical aid for loyalist Lieutenant Colonel Robert Moodie and had stopped Mackenzie from burning the house of sheriff William Botsford Jarvis. However, the Executive Council of the province had felt that they needed to set an example.
According to a historical plaque located near the site of Lount's execution, his last words were "Be of good courage boys, I am not ashamed of anything I've done, I trust in God, and I'm going to die like a man".
A 1985 film by Laurence Keane portrayed the life of Samuel Lount.
