opposite side of Queen Street, was a Brewery of local repute: it was a
long, low-lying dingy-looking building of hewn logs; on the side towards
the street a railed gangway led from the road to a door in its upper
storey. Conspicuous on the hill above the valley on the western side was
the house, also of hewn logs, but cased over with clap-boards, of Mr.
Farr, the proprietor of the brewery, a north-of-England man in aspect,
as well as in staidness and shrewdness of character. His spare form and
slightly crippled gait were everywhere familiarly recognized. Greatly
respected, he was still surviving in 1872. His chief assistant in the
old brewery bore the name of Bow-beer. (At Canterbury, we remember, many
years ago, when the abbey of St. Augustine there, now a famous
Missionary College, was a Brewery, on the beautiful turretted gateway,
wherein were the coolers, the inscription "Beer, Brewer," was
conspicuous; the name of the brewer in occupation of the grand monastic
ruin being Beer, a common name, sometimes given as Bere; but which in
reality is Bear.)
The stream which is here crossed by Queen Street is the same that
afterwards flows below the easternmost bastion of the Fort. A portion of
the broken ground between Farr's and the Garrison was once designated by
the local Government--so far as an order in Council has force--and
permanently set apart, as a site for a Museum and Institute of Natural
History and Philosophy, with Botanical and Zoological Gardens attached.
The project, originated by Dr. Dunlop, Dr. Rees and Mr. Fothergill, and
patronized by successive Lieutenant-Governors, was probably too bold in
its conception, and too advanced to be justly appreciated and earnestly
taken up by a sufficient number of the contemporary public forty years
ago. It consequently fell to the ground. It is to be regretted that, at
all events, the land, for which an order in Council stands recorded, was
not secured in perpetuity as a source of revenue for the promotion of
science. In the Canadian Institute we have the kind of Association which
was designed by Drs. Dunlop and Rees and Mr. Fothergill, but minus the
revenue which the ground-rent of two or three building lots in a
flourishing city would conveniently supply.
Capt. AEneas Shaw, the original locatee of the park-lot next westward of
Colonel Shank's second lot, was afterwards well known in Upper Canada as
Major General Shaw. Like so many of our early men of note he was a
Scotchman; a Shaw of Tordorach in Strathnairn. Possessed of great vigour
and decision, his adopted country availed itself of his services in a
civil as well as a military capacity, making him a member of the
legislative and executive councils. The name by which his house and
estate at this point were known, was Oakhill. The primitive domicile
still exists and in 1871 was still occupied by one of his many
descendants, Capt. Alex. Shaw.--It was at Oakhill that the Duke of Kent
was lodged during his visit to York in his second tour in Upper Canada.
The Duke arrived at Halifax on the 12th of September, 1799, after a
passage from England of forty-three days, "on board of the Arethusa."
Of Col. Joseph Bouchette, whose name is read on the following allotment,
we have had occasion already to speak. He was one of the many French
Canadians of eminence who, in the early days, were distinguished for
their chivalrous attachment to the cause and service of England. The
successor of Col. Bouchette in the proprietorship of the park lot at
which we have arrived, was Col. Givins.--He, as we have already seen,
was one of the companions of Gov. Simcoe in the first exploration of
Upper Canada. Before obtaining a commission in the army, he had been as
a youth employed in the North-West, and had acquired a familiar
acquaintance with the Otchibway and Huron dialects. This acquisition
rendered his services of especial value to the Government in its
dealings with the native tribes, among whom also the mettle and ardor
and energy of his own natural character gave him a powerful influence.
At the express desire of Governor Simcoe he studied and mastered the
dialects of the Six Nations, as well as those of the Otchibways and
their Mississaga allies.--We ourselves remember seeing a considerable
body of Indian chiefs kept in order and good humour mainly through the
tact exercised by Col. Givins. This was at a Council held in the garden
at Government House some forty years since, and presided over by the
then Lieutenant-Governor, Sir John Colborne.
Col. Givins was Superintendent of Indian Affairs down to the year 1842.
In 1828 his name was connected with an incident that locally made a
noise for a time. A committee of the House of Assembly, desiring to have
his evidence and that of Col. Coffin, Adjutant General of Militia, in
relation to a trespass by one Forsyth on Government property at the
Falls of Niagara, commanded their presence at a certain day and hour. On
referring to Sir Peregrine Maitland, the Lieutenant-Governor at the
time, and also Commander-in-Chief of the Forces, permission to obey the
mandate of the House was refused. Col. Givins and Col. Coffin were then
arrested by the Sergeant-at-arms, after forcible entry effected at their
respective domiciles, and were kept confined in the common gaol until
the close of the session.
The following is Col. Coffin's letter to Major Hillier, private
secretary to the Governor, on the occasion: "York, March 22nd, 1828.
Sir,--I beg leave to request that you will state to the Lieutenant
Governor that in obedience to the communication I received through you,
that His Excellency could not give me permission to attend a Committee
of the House of Assembly for the reason therein stated, that I did not
attend the said Committee, and that in consequence thereof, I have been
committed this evening to the common gaol of the Home District, by order
of the House of Assembly. I have therefore to pray that His Excellency
will be pleased to direct that I may have the advice and assistance of
the Crown Officers, to enable me take such steps as I may be instructed
on the occasion. I have the honour, &c., N. Coffin, Adjt. Gen. of
Militia."
No redress was to be had. The Executive Council reported in regard to
this letter that upon mature consideration they could not advise that
the Government should interfere to give any direction to the Crown
Officers, as therein solicited. Sir Peregrine Maitland was removed from
the Government in the same year. Sir George Murray, who in that year
succeeded Mr. Huskisson as Colonial Secretary, severely censured him for
the line of action adopted in relation to the Forsyth grievance.
Colonels Givins and Coffin afterwards brought an action against the
Speaker of the House for false imprisonment, but they did not recover:
for the legality of the imprisonment, that is the right of the House to
convict for what they had adjudged a contempt, was confirmed by the
Court of King's Bench, by a solemn judgment rendered in another cause
then pending, which involved the same question.
Although its hundred-acre domain is being rapidly narrowed and
circumscribed by the encroachments of modern improvement, the old family
abode of Col. Givins still stands, wearing at this day a look of
peculiar calm and tranquillity, screened from the outer world by a dark
grove of second-growth pine, and overshadowed by a number of acacias of
unusual height and girth.
Governor Gore and his lady, Mrs. Arabella Gore, were constant visitors
at Pine Grove, as this house was named; and here to this day is
preserved a very fine portrait, in oil, of that Governor. It will
satisfy the ideal likely to be fashioned in the mind by the current
traditions of this particular ruler of Upper Canada. In contour of
countenance and in costume he is plainly of the type of the English
country squire of a former day. He looks good humoured and shrewd;
sturdy and self-willed; and fond of good cheer.
The cavalier style adopted by Gov. Gore towards the local parliament was
one of the seeds of trouble at a later date in the history of Upper
Canada. "He would dismiss the rascals at once." Such was his
determination on their coming to a vote adverse to his notions; and,
scarcely like a Cromwell, but rather like a Louis XIV., though still
not, as in the case of that monarch, with a riding-whip in his hand, but
nevertheless, in the undress of the moment, he proceeded to carry out
his hasty resolve.
The entry of the incident in the Journals of the House is as follows:
"On Monday, 7th April, at 11 o'clock a.m., before the minutes of the
former day were read, and without any previous notice, the Commons, to
the great surprise of all the members, were summoned to the bar of the
Legislative Council, when his Excellency having assented, in his
Majesty's name, to several bills, and reserved for his Majesty's
pleasure the Bank bill, and another, to enable creditors to sue joint
debtors separately, put an end to the session by the following
speech:--'Honourable Gentlemen of the Legislative Council, and Gentlemen
of the House of Assembly,--The session of the provincial legislature
having been protracted by an unusual interruption of business at its
commencement, your longer absence from your respective avocations must
be too great a sacrifice for the objects which remain to occupy your
attention. I have therefore come to close the session and permit you to
return to your homes. In accepting, in the name of his Majesty, the
supply for defraying the deficiency of the funds which have hitherto
served to meet the charges of the administration of justice and support
of the civil government of this province, I have great satisfaction in
acknowledging the readiness manifested to meet this exigence.'"
Upper Canadian society was, indeed, in an infant state; but the growing
intelligence of many of its constituents, especially in the non-official
ranks, rendered it unwise in rulers to push the feudal or paternal
theory of government too far. The names of the majority in the
particular division of the Lower House which brought on the sudden
prorogation just described are the following:--McDonell, McMartin,
Cameron, Jones, Howard, Casey, Robinson, Nellis, Secord, Nichol,
Burwell, McCormack, Cornwall. Of the minority: Van Koughnet, Crystler,
Fraser, Cotter, McNab, Swayze, and Clench.
Six weeks after, Governor Gore was on his way to England, not recalled,
as it would seem, but purposing to give an account of himself in his own
person. He never returned. He is understood to have had a powerful
friend at Court in the person of the Marquis of Camden.
One of the "districts" of Upper Canada was called after Governor Gore.
It was set off, during his regime, from the Home and Niagara districts.
But of late years county names have rendered the old district names
unfamiliar. In 1837, "the men of Gore" was a phrase invested with
stirring associations.
The town of Belleville received its name from Gov. Gore. In early
newspapers and other documents the word appears as Bellville, without
the central _e_, which gives it now such a fine French look. And this,
it is said, is the true orthography. "Bell," we are told, was the
Governor's familiar abbreviation of his wife's name, Arabella: and the
compound was suggested by the Governor jocosely, as a name for the new
village: but it was set down in earnest, and has continued, the sound at
least, to this day. This off-hand assignment of a local name may remind
some persons that Flos, Tay and Tiny, which are names of three now
populous townships in the Penetanguishene region, are a commemoration of
three of Lady Sarah Maitland's lap-dogs. Changes of names in such cases
as these are not unjustifiable.
In fact, the Executive Council itself, at the period of which we are
speaking, had occasionally found it proper to change local names which
had been frivolously given. In the _Upper Canada Gazette_ of March 11th,
1822, we have several such alterations. It would seem that some one
having access to the map or plan of a newly surveyed region, had
inscribed across the parallelograms betokening townships, a fragment of
a well-known Latin sentence, "_jus et norma_," placing each separate
word in a separate compartment. In this way Upper Canada had for a time
a township of "Jus," and more wonderful still, a township of "Et." In
the number of the _Gazette_ of the date given above these names are
formally changed to Barrie and Palmerston respectively. In the same
advertisement, "Norma," which might have passed, is made "Clarendon."
Other impertinent appellations are also at the same time changed. The
township of "Yea" is ordered to be hereafter the township of "Burleigh,"
with a humorous allusion to the famous nod, probably. The township of
"No" is to be the township of Grimsthorpe; and the township of "Aye,"
the township of Anglesea.--The name "Et" may recall the street known as
"Of" alley, on the south side of the Strand, in London, which "Of" is a
portion of the name and title "George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham,"
distributed severally among a cluster of streets in that locality.
Gov. Gore was so fortunate as to be away from his Province during the
whole of the war in 1812-13-14. He obtained leave of absence to visit
England in 1811, and returned to his post in 1815, the Presidents, Isaac
Brock, Roger Hale Sheaffe, and Gordon Drummond, Esquires, reigning in
the interim.
Under date of York U. C., Sept., 30, 1815, we read the following
particulars in the _Gazette_ of the day:--"Arrived on Monday last the
25th instant, His Excellency Francis Gore, Esq., Lieutenant-Governor of
the Province of Upper Canada, to reassume the reins of government. His
Excellency was received with a cordial welcome and the honours due to
his rank; and was saluted by his M. S. Montreal, and Garrison."
We are also informed that "On Wednesday the 27th instant, he was waited
on by a deputation, and presented with the following address: To His
Excellency, Francis Gore, Esq., Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of
Upper Canada, &c., &c., &c. We, the Judges, Magistrates and principal
Inhabitants of the Town of York, in approaching your Excellency to
express our great satisfaction at beholding you once more among us, feel
that we have still greater reason to congratulate ourselves on this
happy event. Our experience of your past firm and liberal
administration, by which the prosperity of the Province has been so
essentially promoted, teaches us to anticipate the greater benefit from
its resumption; and this pleasing anticipation is confirmed by our
knowledge of that paternal solicitude which induced you while in England
to bring, upon all proper occasions, the interests of the Colony under
the favourable attention of His Majesty's Government; a solicitude which
calls forth in our hearts the most grateful emotions. We rejoice that
the blessings of peace are to be dispensed by one who is so well
acquainted with the wants and feelings of the Colony; and we flatter
ourselves that York, recovering from a state of war, (during which she
has been twice in the power of the enemy), will not only forget her
disasters, but rise to greater prosperity under your Excellency's
auspicious administration. York, September 27th, 1815. Thos. Scott,
C.J., W. Dummer Powell, John Strachan, D.D., John McGill, John Beikie,
M.P., Grant Powell J.P., W. Chewett, J.P., J. G. Chewett, W. Lee, Sam.
Smith, W. Claus, Benjamin Gale, D. Cameron, D. Boulton, jun., George
Ridout, And. Mercer, Thomas Ridout, J.P., W. Jarvis, Sec. and Reg., S.
Jarvis, J.P., John Small, J.P., W. Allan, J.P., J. Givins, E. MacMahon,
J. Scarlett, S. Heward, Thos. Hamilton, C. Baynes, John Dennis, P. K.
Hartney, Jno. Cameron, E. W. McBride, Jordan Post, jun., Levi Bigelow,
John Hays, T. R. Johnson, Lardner Bostwick, John Burke, John Jordan, W.
Smith, sen., W. Smith, jun., J. Cawthra, John Smith, Alex. Legge, Jordan
Post, sen., Andrew O'Keefe, S. A. Lumsden, John Murchison, Thomas Deary,
Ezek. Benson, A. NcNabb, Edward Wright, John Evans, W. Lawrence, Thos.
Duggan, George Duggan, Benjamin Cozens, Philip Klinger, and Sheriff
Ridout. To which His Excellency was pleased to make the following
answer: Gentlemen: After so long an absence from this place it is
particularly gratifying to find the same sentiments of cordiality to
me, and of approbation of my conduct, which I experienced during my
former residence in this Province. It is but doing me justice to say
that, while in Europe, I paid every attention in my power to promote
your prosperity; and such, you may be assured, shall be my future
endeavour when residing amongst you; earnestly hoping that, under the
fostering care of our Parent State, and under that security which Peace
alone can bestow, this Colony will speedily become a valuable, though
distant part of the British Empire. York, 27th September, 1815."
On the 7th of the following month, it is announced that "His Royal
Highness, the Prince Regent acting in the name and on the behalf of His
Majesty, has been pleased to appoint Thomas Fraser, Esquire, of
Prescott, Neil McLean, Esquire, of Cornwall, Thomas Clark, Esquire, of
Queenston, and William Dickson, Esquire, of Niagara, to be members of
the Legislative Council; Samuel Smith, Esquire, of Etobicoke, to be a
member of the Executive Council, and Doctor John Strachan, to be an
Honorary Member of the same Council."
By one of the acts passed during the administration of Gov. Gore, the
foundation was laid of a parliamentary library, to replace the one
destroyed or dispersed during the occupation of York in 1813. In the
session of 1816, the sum of L800 was voted for the purchase of books for
the use of the Legislative Council and House of Assembly.
The sum of L800 for such a purpose contrasts poorly, however, with the
L3,000 recommended in the same session, to be granted to Gov. Gore
himself, for the purchase of "Plate." The joint address of both Houses
to the Prince Regent, on this subject, was couched in the following
terms: "To his Royal Highness, George, Prince of Wales, Prince Regent of
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, &c., &c., &c.: May it
please your Royal Highness: We, his Majesty's most dutiful and loyal
subjects, the Legislative Council and House of Assembly of the Province
of Upper Canada, in Provincial Parliament assembled, impressed with a
lively sense of the firm, upright, and liberal administration of Francis
Gore, Esq., Lieutenant-Governor of this Province, as well as of his
unceasing attention to the individual and general interests of the
Colony during his absence, have unanimously passed a bill to appropriate
the sum of three thousand pounds, to enable him to purchase a service
of plate, commemorative of our gratitude. Apprized that this spontaneous
gift cannot receive the sanction of our beloved Sovereign in the
ordinary mode, by the acceptance of the Lieutenant-Governor in his name
and behalf; we, the Legislative Council and Assembly of the Province of
Upper Canada, humbly beg leave to approach your Royal Highness with an
earnest prayer that you will approve this demonstration of our
gratitude, and graciously be pleased to sanction, in His Majesty's name,
the grant of the Legislature, in behalf of the inhabitants of Upper
Canada. Wm. Dummer Powell, Speaker, Legislative Council Chambers, 26th
March, 1816. Allan Maclean, Speaker, Commons House of Assembly, 25th
March, 1816."
To which, as we are next informed, his Excellency replied: "Gentlemen: I
shall transmit your address to His Majesty's Ministers, in order that
their expression of your approbation of my past administration may be
laid at the feet of His Royal Highness, the Prince Regent. Government
House, York, 26th March, 1816." The Bill which suggested this allowance
was popularly spoken of as the "Spoon-bill." The House that passed the
measure was the same that, a few weeks later, was so abruptly dismissed.
The name on the allotment following that occupied successively by Col.
Bouchette and Col. Givins, is "David Burns." Mr. Burns, who had been a
Navy surgeon, was the first Clerk of the Crown for Upper Canada, and one
of the "Masters in Chancery." He died in 1806. In the _Gazette and
Oracle_ of Saturday, Feb. 15th, in that year, we have verses to the
memory of the late David Burns, Esq. We make the following extract,
which is suggestive:--
"Say, power of Truth, so great, so unconfined,
And solve the doubt which so distracts my mind--
Why Strength to Weakness is so near allied?
Perhaps 'tis given to humble human pride.
At times perchance frail Nature held the sway,
Yet dimm'd not it the intellectual ray:
Reason and Truth triumphant held their course,
And list'ning hearers felt conviction's force:
No precept mangled, text misunderstood,
He thought and acted but for public good:
His reasoning pure, his mind all manly light,
Made day of that which else appear'd as night.
In him instruction aim'd at this great end--
Our fates to soften and our lives amend.
Yet he was man, and man's the child of woe:
Who seeks perfection, seeks not here below."
From the paper of September, 1806, it appears that numerous books were
missing out of the library of the deceased gentleman. His administrator,
Alexander Burns, advertises: "The following books, with many others,
being lent by the deceased, it is particularly entreated that they may
be immediately returned:--Plutarch's Lives, 1st volume; Voltaire's
Works, 11th do., in French, half-bound; Titi Livii, Latin, 1st do.;
Guthrie's History of Scotland, 1st and 2nd do.; Rollin's Ancient
History, 1st do.; Pope's Works, 5th do.; Swift's Works, 5th and 8th do.,
half-bound; Moliere's, 6th do., French."
Of Col. W. Chewett, whose name appears next, we have made mention more
than once. His name, like that of his son, J. G. Chewett, is very
familiar to those who have to examine the plans and charts connected
with early Upper Canadian history. Both were long distinguished
_attaches_ of the Surveyor-General's department. In 1802, Col. W.
Chewett was Registrar of the Home District.
Alexander Macnab, whose name occurs next in succession, was afterwards
Capt. Macnab, who fell at Waterloo, the only instance, as is supposed,
of a Canadian slain on that occasion. In 1868, his nephew, the Rev. Dr.
Macnab, of Bowmanville, was presented by the Duke of Cambridge in person
with the Waterloo medal due to the family of Capt. Macnab.
Alexander Macnab was also the first patentee of the plot of ground
whereon stands the house on Bay Street noted, in our account of the
early press, as being the place of publication of the _Upper Canada
Gazette_ at the time of the taking of York, and subsequently owned and
occupied by Mr. Andrew Mercer up to the time of his decease in 1871.
Of Messrs. Ridout and Allan, whose names are inscribed conjointly on the
following park lot, we have already spoken; and Angus Macdonell, who
took up the next lot, was the barrister who perished, along with the
whole court, in the _Speedy_.
The name that appears on the westernmost lot of the range along which we
have been passing is that of Benjamin Hallowell. He was a near
connection of Chief Justice Elmsley's, and father of the Admiral, Sir
Benjamin Hallowell, K.C.B. We observe the notice of Mr. Hallowell's
death in the _Gazette and Oracle_ of the day, in the following
terms:--"Died, on Thursday last (March 28th, 1799), Benjamin Hallowell,
Esq., in the 75th year of his age. The funeral will be on Tuesday next,
and will proceed from the house of the Chief Justice to the Garrison
Burying Ground at one o'clock precisely. The attendance of his friends
is requested."
Associated at a later period with the memories of this locality is the
name of Col. Walter O'Hara.--In 1808 an immense enthusiasm sprang up in
England in behalf of the Spaniards, who were beginning to rise in
spirited style against the domination of Napoleon and his family. Walter
Savage Landor, for one, the distinguished scholar, philosopher and poet,
determined to assist them in person as a volunteer. In a letter to
Southey, in August, 1808, he says: "At Brighton, I preached a crusade to
two auditors: _i. e._, a crusade against the French in Spain:
Inclination," he continues, "was not wanting, and in a few minutes
everything was fixed." The two auditors, we are afterwards told, were
both Irishmen, an O'Hara and a Fitzgerald. Landor did not himself remain
long in Spain, although long enough to expend, out of his own resources,
a very large sum of money; but his companions continued to do good
service in the Peninsula, in a military capacity, to the close of the
war.