United Province, but its liege lord pronounced it to be "too far and out
of the way;" though at the same time he gives it as his opinion that
"Kingston or Bytown would do." Thus in 1840, and in July, 1841, he
writes: "I have every reason to be satisfied with having selected this
place (Kingston) as the new Capital. There is no situation in the
Province so well adapted for the seat of Government from its central
position; and certainly we are as near England as we should be anywhere
else in the whole of Canada. My last letters reached me," he says, "in
fifteen days from London! So much for steam and railways." Being in very
delicate health, it had been Lord Sydenham's intention to return to
England in September, 1841. On the 5th of June he writes at Kingston to
a friend: "I long for September, beyond which I will not stay if they
were to make me Duke of Canada and Prince of Regiopolis, as this place
is called." But he was never more to see England. On the 4th of the
September in which he had hoped to leave Canada, he suffered a fracture
of the right leg and other injury by a fall from his horse. He never
rallied from the shock. His age was only 42.
The Park lot which follows that occupied by Chief Justice Powell was
selected by Solicitor-General Gray, of whom fully already. It afterwards
became the property of Mr. D'Arcy Boulton, eldest son of Mr. Justice
Boulton, and was known as the Grange estate. The house which bears the
name of the "Grange," was built at the beginning of the brick era of
York, and is a favourable specimen of the edifices of that period.
(Beverley House, just noted, was, it may be added, also built by Mr.
D'Arcy Boulton.)
The Grange-gate, now thrust far back by the progress of improvement, was
long a familiar landmark on the line of Lot-street. It was just within
this gate that the fight already recorded took place between Mr. Justice
Boulton's horses, _Bonaparte_ and _Jefferson_, and the bears. A
memorandum of Mr. G. S. Jarvis, of Cornwall, in our possession, affirms
that Mr. Justice Boulton drove a phaeton of some pretensions, and that
his horses, _Bonaparte_ and _Jefferson_, were the crack pair of the day
at York. As to some other equipages he says: "The Lieut. Governor's
carriage was considered a splendid affair, but some of the Toronto cabs
would now throw it into the shade. The carriage of Chief Justice Powell,
he adds, was a rough sort of omnibus, and would compare with the jail
van used now." (We remember Bishop Strachan's account of a carriage sent
up for his own use from Albany or New York; it was constructed on the
model of the ordinary oval stage coach, with a kind of hemispherical
top.)
To our former notes of Mr. Justice Boulton, we add, that he was the
author of a work in quarto published in London in 1806, entitled a
"Sketch of the Province of Upper Canada."
John Street, passing south just here, is, as was noted previously, a
memorial, so far as its name is concerned, of the first Lieutenant
Governor of Upper Canada. On the plan of the "new town," as the first
expansion westward, of York, was termed,--while this street is marked
"John," the next parallel thoroughfare eastward is named "Graves," and
the open square included between the two, southward on Front Street, is
"Simcoe-place." The three names of the founder of York were thus
commemorated. The expression "Simcoe-place" has fallen into disuse. It
indicated, of course, the site of the present Parliament Buildings of
the Province of Ontario. Graves Street has become Simcoe Street, a
name, as we have seen, recently extended to the thoroughfare northward,
with which it is nearly in a right line, viz., William Street, which
previously recorded, as we have said, the first Christian name of Chief
Justice Powell. The name "John Street" has escaped change. The name
sounds trivial enough; but it has an interest.
In the minds of the present generation, with John Street will be
specially associated the memorable landing of the Prince of Wales at
Toronto in 1860. At the foot of John Street, for that occasion, there
was built a vast semi-colosseum of wood, opening out upon the waters of
the Bay; a pile whose capacious concavity was densely filled again and
again, during the Prince's visit, with the inhabitants of the town and
the population of the surrounding country. And on the brow of the bank,
immediately above the so-called amphitheatre, and exactly in the line of
John Street, was erected a finely designed triumphal arch, recalling
those of Septimus Severus and Titus.
This architectural object, while it stood, gave a peculiarly fine finish
to the vista, looking southward along John Street. The usually
monotonous water-view presented by the bay and lake, and even the
common-place straight line of the Island, seen through the frame-work of
three lofty vaulted passages, acquired for the moment a genuine
picturesqueness. An ephemeral monument; but as long as it stood its
effect was delightfully classic and beautiful. The whole group--the arch
and the huge amphitheatre below, furnished around its upper rim at equal
intervals with tall masts, each bearing a graceful gonfalon, and each
helping to sustain on high a luxuriant festoon of evergreen which
alternately drooped and rose again round the whole structure and along
the two sides of the grand roadway up to the arch--all seen under a sky
of pure azure, and bathed in cheery sunlight, surrounded too and
thronged with a pleased multitude--constituted a spectacle not likely to
be forgotten.
Turning down John Street a few chains, the curious observer may see on
his left a particle of the old area of York retaining several of its
original natural features. In the portion of the Macdonell-block not yet
divided into building-slips we have a fragment of one of the many
shallow ravines which meandered capriciously, every here and there,
across the broad site of the intended town. To the passer-by it now
presents a refreshing bit of bowery meadow, out of which towers up one
of the grand elm-trees of the country, with stem of great height and
girth, and head of very graceful form, whose healthy and undecayed limbs
and long trailing branchlets, clearly show that the human regard which
has led to the preservation hitherto of this solitary survivor of the
forest has not been thrown away. This elm and the surrounding grove are
still favourite stations or resting-places for our migratory birds.
Here, for one place, in the spring, are sure to be heard the first notes
of the robin.
At the south-west angle of the Macdonell block still stands in a good
state of preservation the mansion put up by the Hon. Alexander
Macdonell. We have from time to time spoken of the brick era of York.
Mr. Macdonell's imposing old homestead may be described as belonging to
an immediately preceding era--the age of framed timber and
weather-board, which followed the primitive or hewn-log period. It is a
building of two full storeys, each of considerable elevation. A central
portico with columns of the whole height of the house, gives it an air
of dignity.
Mr. Macdonell was one more in that large group of military men who
served in the American Revolutionary war, under Col. Simcoe, and who
were attracted to Upper Canada by the prospects held out by that officer
when appointed Governor of the new colony. Mr. Macdonell was the first
Sheriff of the Home District. He represented in successive parliaments
the Highland constituency of Glengary, and was chosen Speaker of the
House. He was afterwards summoned to the Upper House. He was a friend
and correspondent of the Earl of Selkirk, and was desired by that
zealous emigrational theorist to undertake the superintendence of the
settlement at Kildonan on the Red River. Though he declined this task,
he undertook the management of one of the other Highland settlements
included in the Earl of Selkirk's scheme, namely, that of Baldoon, on
Lake St. Clair; Mr. Douglas undertaking the care of that established at
Moulton, at the mouth of the Grand River.
Mr. Macdonell, in person rather tall and thin, of thoughtful aspect, and
in manner quiet and reserved, is one of the company of our early
worthies whom we personally well remember. An interesting portrait of
him exists in the possession of his descendants: it presents him with
his hair in powder, and otherwise in the costume of "sixty years since."
He died in 1842, "amid the regrets of a community who," to adopt the
language of a contemporary obituary, "loved him for the mild excellence
of his domestic and private character, no less than they esteemed him as
a public man."
Mr. Miles Macdonell, the first Governor of Assiniboia, under the
auspices of the Hudson's Bay Company, and Alexander Macdonell, the chief
representative in 1816 of the rival and even hostile Company of the
North-West Traders of Montreal, were both near relations of Mr.
Macdonell of York, as also was the barrister, lost in the _Speedy_, and
the well-known R. C. Bishop Macdonell of Kingston. Col. Macdonell, slain
at Queenston, with General Brock, and whose remains are deposited
beneath the column there, was his brother. His son, Mr. Allan Macdonell,
has on several occasions stood forward as the friend and spirited
advocate of the Indian Tribes, especially of the Lake Superior region,
on occasions when their interests, as native lords of the soil, seemed
in danger of being overlooked by the Government of the day.
On Richmond Street a little to the west of the Macdonell block, was the
town residence of Col. Smith, some time President of the Province of
Upper Canada. He was also allied to the family of Mr. Macdonell. Col.
Smith's original homestead was on the Lake Shore to the west, in the
neighbourhood of the river Etobicoke. Gourlay in his "Statistical
Account of Upper Canada," has chanced to speak of it. "I shall describe
the residence and neighbourhood of the President of Upper Canada from
remembrance," he says, "journeying past it on my way to York from the
westward, by what is called the Lake Road through Etobicoke. For many
miles," he says, "not a house had appeared, when I came to that of
Colonel Smith, lonely and desolate. It had once been genteel and
comfortable; but was now going to decay. A vista had been opened through
the woods towards Lake Ontario; but the riotous and dangling undergrowth
seemed threatening to retake possession from the Colonel of all that had
once been cleared, which was of narrow compass. How could a solitary
half-pay officer help himself," candidly asks Gourlay, "settled down
upon a block of land, whose very extent barred out the assistance and
convenience of neighbours? Not a living thing was to be seen around. How
different might it be, thought I, were a hundred industrious families
compactly settled here out of the redundant population of England!"
"The road was miserable," he continues; "a little way beyond the
President's house it was lost on a bank of loose gravel flung up between
the contending waters of the lake and the Etobicoke stream." He here
went astray. "It was my anxious wish," he says, "to get through the
woods before dusk; but the light was nearly gone before the gravel bank
was cleared. There seemed but one path, which took to the left. It led
me astray: I was lost: and there was nothing for it but to let my little
horse take his own way. Abundant time was afforded for reflection on the
wretched state of property flung away on half-pay officers. Here was the
head man of the Province, 'born to blush unseen,' without even a
tolerable bridle-way between him and the capital city, after more than
twenty years' possession of his domain. The very gravel-bed which caused
me such turmoil might have made a turnpike, but what can be done by a
single hand? The President could do little with the axe or wheelbarrow
himself; and half-pay could employ but few labourers at 3s. 6d. per day
with victuals and drink." He recovers the road at length, and then
concludes: "after many a weary twist and turn I found myself," he says,
"on the banks of the Humber, where there was a house and a boat."
Col. Smith did something, in his day, to improve the breed of horses in
Upper Canada. He expended considerable sums of money in the importation
of choice animals of that species from the United States.
The house which led us to this notice of President Smith is, as we have
said, situated on Richmond Street. On Adelaide Street, immediately south
of this house, and also a little west of the Macdonell block, was a
residence of mark, erected at an early period by Mr. Hugh Heward, and
memorable as having been the abode for a time of the Naval Commissioner
or Commodore, Joseph Bouchette, who first took the soundings and
constructed a map of the harbour of York. His portrait is to be seen
prefixed to his well-known "British Dominions in North America." The
same house was also once occupied by Dr. Stuart, afterwards Archdeacon
of Kingston; and at a later period by Mrs. Caldwell, widow of Dr.
Caldwell, connected with the Naval establishment at Penetanguishene. Her
sons John and Leslie, two tall, sociable youths, now both deceased, were
our classmates at school. We observe in the _Oracle_ of Saturday, May
28, 1803, a notice of Mr. Hugh Heward's death in the following terms:
"Died lately at Niagara, on his way to Detroit, after a lingering
illness, Mr. Hugh Heward, formerly clerk in the Lieutenant-Governor's
office, and a respectable inhabitant of this town (York)."
Just beyond was the abode of Lieut. Col. Foster, long Adjutant General
of Militia; an officer of the antique Wellington school, of a fine type,
portly in figure, authoritative in air and voice; in spirit and heart
warm and frank. His son Colley, also, we here name as a congenial and
attached schoolboy friend, likewise now deceased, after a brief but not
undistinguished career at the Bar.
A few yards further on was the home of Mr. John Ross, whose almost
prescriptive right it gradually became, whenever a death occurred in one
of the old families, to undertake the funeral obsequies. Few were there
of the ancient inhabitants who had not found themselves at one time or
another, wending their way, on a sad errand, to Mr. Ross's doorstep. On
his sombre and very unpretending premises were put together the
perishable shells in which the mortal remains of a large proportion of
the primitive householders of York and their families are now reverting
to their original dust. Almost up to the moment of his own summons to
depart hence, he continued to ply his customary business, being favoured
with an old age unusually green and vigorous, like "the ferryman austere
and stern," Charon; to whom also the "inculta canities" of a plentiful
supply of hair and beard, along with a certain staidness, taciturnity
and rural homeliness of manner and attire, further suggested a
resemblance. Many things thus combine to render Mr. John Ross not the
least notable of our local dramatis personae. He was led, as we have
understood, to the particular business which was his usual avocation, by
the accident of having been desired, whilst out on active service as a
militiaman in 1812, to take charge of the body of Gen. Brock, when that
officer was killed on Queenston Heights.
While in this quarter we should pause too for a moment before the former
abode of Mr. Robert Stanton, sometime King's Printer for Upper Canada,
as noted already; afterwards editor of the _Loyalist_; and subsequently
Collector of Customs at York:--a structure of the secondary brick
period, and situated on Peter Street, but commanding the view eastward
along the whole length of Richmond Street. Mr. Stanton's father was an
officer in the Navy, who between the years 1771 and 1786 saw much active
service in the East and West Indies, in the Mediterranean, at the siege
of Gibraltar under General Elliott, and on the American coast during
the Revolutionary war. From 1786 to 1828 he was in the public service in
several military and civil capacities in Lower and Upper Canada. In 1806
he was for one thing, we find, issuer of Marriage Licences at York. From
memoranda of his while acting in this capacity we make some extracts.
The unceremoniousness of the record in the majority of cases, is
refreshing. The names are all familiar ones in Toronto. The parties set
down as about to pledge their troth, either to other, had not in every
instance, in 1872, passed off the scene.
1806, Nov. 26, Stephen Heward to Mary Robinson. Same date, Ely Playter
to Sophia Beaman. Dec. 11, same year, Geo. T. Denison to C. B.
Lippincott. 1807, Feb. 3, Jordan Post to M. Woodruffe. July 13, Hiram
Kendrick to Hester Vanderburg. Dec. 28, Jarvis Ashley to Dorothy
McDougal. 1808, Jan. 13, D'Arcy Boulton, Jun., to Sally Ann Robinson.
March 17, James Finch to M. Reynolds. April 9, David Wilson to Susannah
Stone. May 2, John Langstaff to Lucy Miles. May 30, John Murchison to
Frances Hunt. August 8, John Powell, Esq., to Miss Isabella Shaw. Sept.
12, Hugh Heward to Eliza Muir. 1809, April 14, Nicholas Hagarman to
Polly Fletcher. May 18, William Cornwall to Rhoda Terry. June 19, John
Ashbridge to Sarah Mercer. June 21, Jonathan Ashbridge to Hannah Barton.
July 15, Orin Hale to Hannah Barrett. Aug. 5, Henry Drean to Jane
Brooke. Dec. 14, John Thompson to Ann Smith. 1810, March 8, Andrew
Thomson to Sarah Smith. March 30, Isaac Pilkington to Sarah McBride.
June 2, Thomas Bright to Jane Hunter. July 3, John Scarlett to Mary
Thomson. Sept. 10, William Smith to Eleanor Thomson. June 22, William B.
Sheldon to Jane Johnson. July 30, Robert Hamilton, gent., to Miss Maria
Lavinia Jarvis. 1811, Sept. 20, George Duggan to Mary Jackson.
In one or two instances we are enabled to give the formal announcement
in the _Gazette and Oracle_ of the marriage for which the licence issued
by Mr. Stanton was so curtly recorded. In the paper of Jan. 27, 1808, we
have: "Married, on the 13th instant, by the Rev. G. O. Stuart, D'Arcy
Boulton, jun., Esq., barrister, to Miss Sarah Robinson, second daughter
of the late C. Robinson, Esq., of York."
And in the number for August 13, in the same year we read: "Married by
the Rev. G. O. Stuart, on Monday the 8th instant, John Powell, Esq., to
Miss Shaw, daughter of the Hon. AEneas Shaw, of this place (York)." To
this announcement the editor, as we suppose, volunteers the observation:
"This matrimonial connexion of the amiable parties we think replete
with, and we wish it productive of, the most perfect human happiness."
A complimentary epithet to the bride is not unusual in early Canadian
marriage notices. In the _Gazette and Oracle_ of Dec. 29, 1798, we have
a wedding in the Playter family recorded thus: "Married last Monday, Mr.
James Playter to the agreeable Miss Hannah Miles, daughter of Mr. Abner
Miles of this town." In the same paper for Feb. 24, 1798, is the
announcement: "Married in this town (Niagara), by the Rev. Mr. Burke,
Captain Miles Macdonell of the Royal Canadian Volunteers, to the amiable
Miss Katey Macdonell." (This union was of brief duration. In the
_Constellation_ of Sept 6, 1799, we observe: "Died lately at Kingston,
Mrs. Macdonell, of this town (Niagara), the amiable consort of Captain
Miles Macdonell of the Canadian Volunteers.")
Again: in the _Gazette and Oracle_ for Saturday Oct, 26, 1799: "Married,
last Monday, by the Rev. Mr. Addison, Colonel Smith, of the Queen's
Rangers, to the most agreeable and accomplished Miss Mary Clarke." (This
was the Col. Smith who subsequently was for a time President of Upper
Canada.)
In the _Constellation_ of Nov. 23, 1799, in addition to the
complimentary epithet, a poetical stanza is subjoined: thus: "Married at
the seat of the Hon. Mr. Hamilton, at Queenston, on Sunday last, Mr.
Thomas Dickson, merchant, to the amiable Mrs. Taylor, daughter of
Captain Wilkinson, commanding, Fort Erie.
For thee, best treasure of a husband's heart;
Whose bliss it is that thou for life art so;
That thy fond bosom bears a faithful part
In every casual change his breast may know."
But occasionally the announcement is almost as terse as one of Mr.
Stanton's entries. Thus in the _Constellation_ of Dec. 28, 1799, Mr.
Hatt's marriage to Miss Cooly appears with great brevity: "Married at
Ancaster, Mr. Richard Hatt to Miss Polly Cooly."
A magistrate officiates sometimes, and his name is given accordingly. In
the _Gazette and Oracle_ of March 2, 1799, we have: "Married on Tuesday
last, by William Willcocks, Esq., Sergeant Mealy, of the Queen's
Rangers, to Miss M. Wright, of this town."
(Somewhat in the strain of the complimentary marriage notices are the
following: "We announce with much pleasure an acquisition to society in
this place by the arrival of Prideaux Selby, Esq., and Miss
Selby.--_Gazette_, Dec. 9, 1807. The York Assembly which commenced on
Thursday the 17th instant, was honoured by the attendance of His
Excellency and Mrs. Gore. It was not numerous. We understand that Mrs.
Firth, the amiable Lady of the Attorney General, lately arrived, was a
distinguished figure."--_Gazette_, Dec. 23, 1807.)
The family of Mr. Stanton, senior, was large. It was augmented by twins
on five several occasions. Not far from Mr. Stanton's house, a lesser
edifice of brick of comparatively late date on the north side of
Richmond Street, immediately opposite the premises associated just now
with the memory of President Smith, may be noted as having been built
and occupied by the distinguished Admiral Vansittart, and the first
example in this region of a cottage furnished with light, tasteful
verandahs in the modern style.
We now return from our digression into Richmond and Adelaide Streets,
and again proceed on our way westward.
The grantee of the park-lot which followed Solicitor-General Gray's, was
the famous Hon. Peter Russell, of whom we have had occasion again and
again to speak. A portion of the property was brought under cultivation
at an early period, and a substantial farm-house put up thereon--a
building which in 1872 was still in existence. The name attached to this
house and clearing was Petersfield.
Human depredators prowled about a solitary place like this. At their
hands in 1803, Mr. Russell suffered a serious loss, as we learn from an
advertisement which about midsummer in that year appeared in several
successive numbers of the _Oracle_. It ran as follows: "Five Guineas
Reward. Stolen on the 12th or 13th instant from Mr. Russell's farm, near
this town, a Turkey Hen, with her brood of six half-grown young ones.
Whoever will give such information and evidence as may lead to the
discovery of the Thieves shall receive from the subscriber the above
reward upon conviction of any of the delinquents. Peter Russell, York,
Aug. 15th, 1803." Another advertisement has been mentioned to us,
issuing from the same sufferer, announcing the theft of a Plough from
the same farm.
Similar larcenies were elsewhere committed. In the _Gazette_ of June 12,
1802, we read: "Forty dollars reward.--Mr. Justice Allcock offers a
reward of forty dollars to any one who will give information of the
person or persons who stole and carried away from his farm near the
Garrison a number of iron teeth from two harrows. The same reward will
also be given to any one who will give such information as will convict
any person or persons of having bought such iron teeth, or any part of
them, knowing the same to be stolen. If more than one was concerned, the
same reward will be given to any accomplice upon his giving such
information as will convict the other party or parties concerned with
him, and every endeavour used to obtain a pardon. Note. It has been
ascertained that two blacksmiths in the town did, about the time these
teeth were stolen, purchase harrow-teeth from a soldier, since deserted,
and that another soldier was in company when such teeth were offered for
sale. 28th May, 1802."
Again, in the same paper we have:--"Twenty dollars reward will be paid
by the subscriber to any person who will discover the man who is so
depraved and lost to every sense of social duty, as to cut with an axe
or knife, the withes which bound some of the fence round the late Chief
Justice's Farm on Yonge Street, and to throw down the said Fence.
Independent of the above inducement, it is the duty of every good member
of society to endeavour to find out who the character is that can be
guilty of such an infamous act, in order that he may be brought to
justice. Robert J. D. Gray, York, June 28th, 1803."