Having been comrades in arms they desired to occupy a block of
contiguous lots. Whilst there was yet almost all western Canada to
choose from, by some chance these Oak Ridges, especially difficult to
bring under cultivation and somewhat sterile when subdued, were
preferred, partly perhaps through the influence of sentiment; they may
have discovered some resemblance to regions familiar to themselves in
their native land. Or in a mood inspired and made fashionable by
Rousseau they may have longed for a lodge in some vast wilderness, where
the "mortal coil" which had descended upon the old society of Europe
should no longer harass them. When twitted by the passing wayfarer who
had selected land in a more propitious situation, they would point to
the gigantic boles of the surrounding pines in proof of the intrinsic
excellence of the soil below, which must be good, they said, to nourish
such a vegetation.
After all, however, this particular locality may have been selected
rather for them than by them. On the early map of 1798 a range of nine
lots on each side of Yonge Street, just here in the Ridges, is bracketed
and marked, "French Royalists: by order of his Honor," _i.e._, the
President, Peter Russell. A postscript to the _Gazetteer_ of 1799 gives
the reader the information that "lands have been appropriated in the
year of York as a refuge for some French Royalists, and their settlement
has commenced."
On the Vaughan side, No. 56 was occupied conjointly by Michel Saigeon
and Francis Reneoux; No. 57 by Julien le Bugle; No. 58 by Rene Aug.
Comte de Chalus, Amboise de Farcy and Quetton St. George conjointly; No.
59 by Quetton St. George; No. 60 by Jean Louis Vicomte de Chalus. In
King, No. 61 by Rene Aug. Comte de Chalus and Augustin Boiton
conjointly. On the Markham side: No. 52 is occupied by the Comte de
Puisaye; No. 53 by Rene Aug. Comte de Chalus; No. 54 by Jean Louis
Vicomte de Chalus and Rene Aug. Comte de Chalus conjointly;--No. 55 by
Jean Louis Vicomte de Chalus; No. 66 by le Chevalier de Marseuil and
Michael Fauchard conjointly; No. 57 by the Chev. de Marseuil; No. 58 by
Rene Letourneaux, Augustin Boiton and J. L. Vicomte de Chalus
conjointly; No. 59 by Quetton St. George and Jean Furon conjointly; No.
60 by Amboise de Farcy. In Whitchurch, No. 61 by Michel Saigeon.
After felling the trees in a few acres of their respective allotments,
some of these emigres withdrew from the country. Hence in the Ridges was
to be seen here and there the rather unusual sight of abandoned
clearings returning to a state of nature.
The officers styled Comte and Vicomte de Chalus derived their title from
the veritable domain and castle of Chalus in Normandy, associated in the
minds of young readers of English History with the death of Richard
Coeur de Lion. Jean Louis de Chalus, whose name appears on numbers 54
and in 55 Markham and on other lots, was a Major-General in the Royal
Army of Brittany. At the balls given by the Governor and others at York,
the jewels of Madame la Comtesse created a great sensation, wholly
surpassing everything of the kind that had hitherto been seen by the
ladies of Upper Canada. Amboise de Farcy, of No. 58 in Vaughan and No.
60 in Markham, had also the rank of General. Augustin Boiton, of No. 48
in Markham and No. 61 in Vaughan, was a Lieutenant-Colonel.
The Comte de Puisaye, of No. 52 in Markham, figures conspicuously in the
contemporary accounts of the royalist struggle against the Convention.
He himself published in London in 1803 five octavo volumes of Memoirs,
justificatory of his proceedings in that contest. Carlyle in his "French
Revolution" speaks of de Puisaye's work, and, referring to the so-called
Calvados war, says that those who are curious in such matters may read
therein "how our Girondin National forces, _i.e._, the Moderates,
marching off with plenty of wind music, were drawn out about the old
chateau of Brecourt, in the wood-country near Vernon (in Brittany), to
meet the Mountain National forces (the Communist) advancing from Paris.
How on the fifteenth afternoon of July, 1793, they did meet:--and, as it
were, shrieked mutually, and took mutually to flight, without loss. How
Puisaye thereafter,--for the Mountain Nationals fled first, and we
thought ourselves the victors,--was roused from his warm bed in the
Castle of Brecourt and had to gallop without boots; our Nationals in the
night watches having fallen unexpectedly into _sauve qui peut_."
Carlyle alludes again to this misadventure, when approaching the subject
of the Quiberon expedition, two years later, towards the close of La
Vendee war. Affecting for the moment a prophetic tone, in his peculiar
way Carlyle proceeds thus, introducing at the close of his sketch de
Puisaye once more, who was in command of the invading force spoken of,
although not undividedly so. "In the month of July, 1795, English
ships," he says, "will ride in Quiberon roads. There will be debarkation
of chivalrous _ci-devants_, (_i.e._ ex-noblesse), of volunteer prisoners
of war--eager to desert; of fire-arms, proclamations, clothes chests,
royalists, and specie. Whereupon also, on the Republican side, there
will be rapid stand-to arms; with ambuscade-marchings by Quiberon beach
at midnight; storming of Fort Penthievre; war-thunder mingling with the
roar of the mighty main; and such a morning light as has seldom dawned;
debarkation hurled back into its boats, or into the devouring billows,
with wreck and wail;--in one word, a _ci-devant_ Puisaye as totally
ineffectual here as he was at Calvados, when he rode from Vernon Castle
without boots."
The impression which Carlyle gives of M. de Puisaye is not greatly
bettered by what M. de Lamartine says of him in the _History of the
Girondists_, when speaking of him in connexion with the affair near the
Chateau of Brecourt. He is there ranked with adventurers rather than
heroes. "This man," de Lamartine says, "was at once an orator, a
diplomatist, and a soldier,--a character eminently adapted for civil
war, which produces more adventurers than heroes." De Lamartine
describes how, prior to the repulse at Chateau Brecourt, "M. de Puisaye
had passed a whole year concealed in a cavern in the midst of the
forests of Brittany, where, by his manoeuvres and correspondence he
kindled the fire of revolt against the republic." He professed to act in
the interest of the moderates, believing that, through his influence,
they would at last be induced to espouse heartily the cause of
constitutional royalty.
Thiers, in his "History of the French Revolution," vii. 146, speaks in
respectful terms of Puisaye. He says that "with great intelligence and
extraordinary skill in uniting the elements of a party, he combined
extreme activity of body and mind, and vast ambition:" and even after
Quiberon, Thiers says "it was certain that Puisaye had done all that lay
in his power." De Puisaye ended his days in England, in the
neighbourhood of London, in 1827.--In one of the letters of Mr. Surveyor
Jones we observe some of the improvements of the Oak Ridges spoken of as
"Puisaye's Town."
It is possibly to the settlement, then only in contemplation, of emigres
here in the Oak Ridges of Yonge Street, that Burke alludes, when in his
Reflections on the French Revolution he says: "I hear that there are
considerable emigrations from France, and that many, quitting that
voluptuous climate and that seductive Circean liberty, have taken refuge
in the frozen regions, and under the British despotism, of Canada."
"The frozen regions of Canada," the great rhetorician's expression in
this place, has become a stereotyped phrase with declaimers. The reports
of the first settlers at Tadousac and Quebec made an indelible
impression on the European mind. To this day in transatlantic
communities, it is realized only to a limited extent that Canada has a
spring, summer and autumn as well as a winter, and that her skies wear
an aspect not always gloomy and inhospitable. "British despotism" is, of
course, ironically said, and means, in reality, British constitutional
freedom. (In some instances these Royalist officers appear to have
accepted commissions from the British Crown, and so to have become
nominally entitled to grants of land.)
There are some representatives of the original emigres still to be met
with in the neighbourhood of the Oak Ridges; but they have not in every
instance continued to be seised of the lands granted in 1798. The Comte
de Chalus, son of Rene Augustin, retains property here; but he resides
in Montreal.
An estate, however, at the distance of one lot eastward from Yonge
Street, in Whitchurch, is yet in the actual occupation of a direct
descendant of one of the first settlers in this region. Mr. Henry
Quetton St. George here engages with energy in the various operations of
a practical farmer, on land inherited immediately from his father, the
Chevalier de St. George, at the same time dispensing to his many friends
a refined hospitality. If at Glenlonely the circular turrets and pointed
roofs of the old French chateau are not to be seen,--what is of greater
importance, the amenities and gentle life of the old French chateau are
to be found. Moreover, by another successful enterprise added to
agriculture, the present proprietor of Glenlonely has brought it to pass
that the name of St. George is no longer suggestive, as in the first
instance it was, of wars in La Vendee and fightings on the Garonne and
Dordogne, but redolent in Canada, far and wide, only of vineyards in
Languedoc and of pleasant wines from across the Pyrenees.
A large group of superior farm buildings, formerly seen on the right
just after the turn which leads to Glenlonely, bore the graceful name of
Larchmere,--an appellation glancing at the mere or little lake within
view of the windows of the house: a sheet of water more generally known
as Lake Willcocks--so called from an early owner of the spot, Col.
Willcocks, of whom we have spoken in another section. Larchmere was for
some time the home of his great grandson, William Willcocks Baldwin. The
house has since been destroyed by fire.
Just beneath the surface of the soil on the borders of the lakelets of
the Ridges, was early noticed a plentiful deposit of white shell-marl,
resembling the substance brought up from the oozy floor of the Atlantic
in the soundings preparatory to laying the telegraph-cable. It was, in
fact, incipient chalk. It used to be employed in the composition of a
whitewash for walls and fences. It may since have been found of value as
a manure. In these quarters, as elsewhere in Canada, fine specimens of
the antlers of the Wapiti, or great American stag, were occasionally dug
up.
The summit level of the Ridges was now reached, the most elevated land
in this part of the basin of the St. Lawrence; a height, however, after
all, of only about eight hundred feet above the level of the sea. The
attention of the wayfarer was hereabout always directed to a small
stream, which the road crossed, flowing out of Lake Willcocks: and then
a short distance further on, he was desired to notice a slight swale or
shallow morass on the left. The stream in question, he was told, was the
infant Humber, just starting south for Lake Ontario; while the swale or
morass, he was assured, was a feeder of the east branch of the Holland
River, flowing north into Lake Simcoe.
Notwithstanding the comparative nearness to each other of the waters of
the Holland and the Humber, thus made visible to the eye, the earliest
project of a canal in these parts was, as has once before been observed,
for the connection, not of the Holland river and the Humber, but of the
Holland river and the Rouge or Nen. The Mississaga Indians attached
great importance to the Rouge and its valley as a link in one of their
ancient trails between Huron and Ontario; and they seem to have imparted
to the first white men their own notions on the subject. "It apparently
rises," says the _Gazetteer_ of 1799, speaking of the Rouge or Nen, "in
the vicinity of one of the branches of Holland's river, with which it
will probably, at some future period, be connected by a canal." A
"proposed canal" is accordingly here marked on one of the first
manuscript maps of Upper Canada.
Father St. Lawrence and Father Mississippi pour their streams--so
travellers assure us--from urns situated at no great distance apart.
Lake Itaska and its vicinity, just west of Lake Superior, possess a
charm for this reason. In like manner, to compare small things with
great, the particular quarter of the Ridges where the waters of the
Humber and the Holland used to be seen in near proximity to each other,
had always with ourselves a special interest. Two small lakes, called
respectively Lake Sproxton and Lake Simon, important feeders of the
Rouge, a little to the east of the Glenlonely property, are situated
very close to the streams that pass into the east branch of the Holland
river; so that the conjecture of the author of the _Gazetteer_ was a
good one. He says, "apparently the sources of the Rouge and Holland lie
near each other."
After passing the notable locality of the Ridges just spoken of, the
land began perceptibly to decline; and soon emerging from the confused
glens and hillocks and woods that had long on every side been hedging in
the view, we suddenly came out upon a brow where a wide prospect was
obtained, stretching far to the north, and far to the east and west.
From such an elevation the acres here and there denuded of their woods
by the solitary axemen could not be distinguished; accordingly, the
panorama presented here for many a year continued to be exactly that
which met the eyes of the first exploring party from York in 1793.
As we used to see it, it seemed in effect to be an unbroken forest; in
the foreground bold and billowy and of every variety of green; in the
middle distance assuming neutral, indistinct tints, as it dipped down
into what looked like a wide vale; then apparently rising by successive
gentle stages, coloured now deep violet, now a tender blue, up to the
line of the sky. In a depression in the far horizon, immediately in
front, was seen the silvery sheen of water. This, of course, was the
lake known since 1793 as Lake Simcoe; but previously spoken of by the
French sometimes as Lake Sinion or Sheniong; sometimes as Lake
Ouentironk, Ouentaron, and Toronto--the very name which is so familiar
to us now, as appertaining to a locality thirty miles southward of this
lake.
The French also in their own tongue sometimes designated it, perhaps for
some reason connected with fishing operations, _Lac aux Claies_, Hurdle
Lake. Thus in the _Gazetteer_ of 1799 we have "Simcoe Lake: formerly
Lake aux Claies, Ouentironk, Sheniong, situated between York and
Gloucester upon Lake Huron: it has a few small islands and several good
harbours." And again on another page of the same _Gazetteer_, we have
the article: "Toronto Lake (or Toronto): lake le Clie [_i. e._ Lac aux
Claies] was formerly so called by some: (others," the same article
proceeds to say, "called the chain of lakes from the vicinity of
Matchedash towards the head of the Bay of Quinte, the Toronto lakes and
the communication from the one to the other was called the Toronto
river:" whilst in another place in the _Gazetteer_ we have the
information given us that the Humber was also styled the Toronto river,
thus: "Toronto river, called by some St. John's; now called the
Humber.")
The region of which we here obtained a kind of Pisgah view, where
"The bursting prospect spreads immense around"
on the northern brow of the Ridges, is a classic one, renowned in the
history of the Wyandots or Hurons, and in the early French missionary
annals.
It did not chance to enter into the poet Longfellow's plan to lay the
scene of any portion of his song of Hiawatha so far to the eastward; and
the legends gathered by him
From the great lakes of the Northland,
From the mountains, moors and fenlands,
Where the heron, the Shuh-shuh-gah,
Feeds among the reeds and rushes--
tell of an era just anterior to the period when this district becomes
invested with interest for us. Francis Parkman, however, in an agreeably
written work, entitled "The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth
Century," has dwelt somewhat at length on the history of this locality,
which is the well-peopled Toronto region, _lieu ou il y a beaucoup de
gens_, of which we have formerly spoken. (p. 74.)
In the early Reports of the Jesuit fathers themselves, too, this area
figures largely. They, in fact, constructed a map, which must have led
the central mission-board of their association, at Rome, to believe that
this portion of Western Canada was as thickly strewn with villages and
towns as a district of equal area in old France. In the "Chorographia
Regionis Huronum," attached to Father du Creux's Map of New France, of
the date 1660, given in Bressani's Abridgment of "the Relations," we
have the following places conspicuously marked as stations or
sub-missions in the peninsula bounded by Notawasaga bay, Matchedash or
Sturgeon bay, the river Severn, Lake Couchichin, and Lake Simcoe,
implying population in and round each of them:--St. Xavier, St. Charles,
St. Louis, St. Ignatius, St. Denis, St. Joachim, St. Athanasius, St.
Elizabeth, St. John the Baptist, St. Joseph, St. Mary, St. Michael, La
Conception, St. Mary Magdalene, and others.
(In Schoolcraft's American Indians, p. 130, ed. 1851, the scene of the
story of Aingodon and Naywadaha is laid at Toronto, by which a spot
near Lake Simcoe seems to be meant, and not the trading-post of Toronto
on Lake Ontario.)
But we must push on. The end of our journey is in sight. The impediments
to our advance have been innumerable, but unavoidable. In spite of
appearances, "Semper ad eventum festina," has all along been secretly
goading us forward.
The farmhouses and their surroundings in the Quaker settlement through
which, after descending from the Ridges on the northern side, we passed,
came to be notable at an early date for a characteristic neatness,
completeness, and visible judiciousness; and for an air of enviable
general comfort and prosperity. The farmers here were emigrants chiefly
from Pennsylvania. Coming from a quarter where large tracts had been
rapidly transformed by human toil from a state of nature to a condition
of high cultivation, they brought with them an inherited experience in
regard to such matters; and on planting themselves down in the midst of
an unbroken wild, they regarded the situation with more intelligence
perhaps than the ordinary emigrant from the British Islands and interior
of Germany, and so, unretarded by blunders and by doubts as to the
issue, were enabled very speedily to turn their industry to profitable
account.
The old _Gazetteer_ of 1799 speaks in an exalted sentimental strain of
an emigration then going on from the United States into Canada. "The
loyal peasant," it says, "sighing after the government he lost by the
late revolution, travels from Pennsylvania in search of his former laws
and protection; and having his expectations fulfilled by new marks of
favour from the Crown in a grant of lands, he turns his plough at once
into these fertile plains [the immediate reference is to the
neighbourhood of Woodhouse on Lake Erie], and an abundant crop reminds
him of his gratitude to his God and to his king."
We do not know for certain whether the Quaker settlers of the region
north of the Ridges came into Canada under the influence of feelings
exactly such as those described by the _Gazetteer_ of 1799. In 1806,
however, we find them coming forward in a body to congratulate a new
Lieutenant-Governor on his arrival in Upper Canada. In the _Gazette_ of
Oct. 4, 1806, we read: "On Tuesday, the 30th September (1806), the
following address from the Quakers residing on Yonge Street was
presented to his Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor: "The Society of the
people called Quakers, to Francis Gore, Governor of Upper Canada,
sendeth greeting. Notwithstanding we are a people who hold forth to the
world a principle which in many respects differs from the greater part
of mankind, yet we believe it our reasonable duty, as saith the Apostle,
'Submit yourselves unto every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake,
whether it be the king as supreme, or unto governors as unto them that
are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers, and for the praise of
them that do well:' in this we hope to be his humble and peaceful
subjects. Although we cannot for conscience sake join with many of our
fellow-mortals in complimentary customs of man, neither in taking up the
sword in order to shed human blood--for the Scripture saith that 'it is
righteousness that exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any
people'--we feel concerned for thy welfare and the prosperity of the
province, hoping thy administration may be such as to be a terror to the
evil-minded and a pleasure to them that do well: then will the province
flourish and prosper under thy direction; which is the earnest desire
and prayer of thy sincere friends.--Read and approved in Yonge Street
monthly meeting, held the 18th day of the ninth month, 1806. Timothy
Rogers and Amos Armitage are appointed to attend on the Governor
therewith." Signed by order of the said meeting, Nathaniel Pearson,
clerk."
To this address, characteristic alike in the peculiar syntax of its
sentences and in the well-meant platitudes to which it gives expression,
his Excellency was pleased to return the following answer: "I return you
my thanks for your dutiful address and for your good wishes for my
welfare and prosperity of this province. I have no doubt of your proving
peaceful and good subjects to his Majesty, as well as industrious and
respectable members of society. I shall at all times be happy to afford
to such persons my countenance and support. Francis Gore,
Lieut.-Governor. Government House, York, Upper Canada, 30th Sept.,
1806."
The Timothy Rogers here named bore a leading part in the first
establishment of the Quaker settlement. He and Jacob Lundy were the two
original managers of its affairs. On the arrival of Governor Peter
Hunter, predecessor to Gov. Gore, Timothy Rogers and Jacob Lundy with a
deputation from the settlement, came into town to complain to him of the
delay which they and their co-religionists had experienced in obtaining
the patents for their lands.
Governor Hunter, who was also Commander-in-Chief and a Lieut.-General in
the army, received them in the garrison, and after hearing how on coming
to York on former occasions they had been sent about from one office to
another for a reply to their inquiries about the patents, he requested
them to come to him again the next day at noon. Orders were at the same
instant despatched to Mr. D. W. Smith, the Surveyor-General, to Mr.
Small, Clerk of the Executive Council, to Mr. Burns, Clerk of the Crown,
and to Mr. Jarvis, Secretary and Registrar of the Province (all of whom
it appeared at one time or another had failed to reply satisfactorily to
the Quakers), to wait at the same hour on the Lieut.-Governor, bringing
with them, each respectively, such papers and memoranda as might be in
their possession, having relation to patents for lands in Whitchurch and
King.
Governor Hunter had a reputation for considerable severity of character;
and all functionaries, from the judge on the bench to the humblest
employe, held office in those days very literally during pleasure.
"These gentlemen complain,"--the personages above enumerated having duly
appeared, together with the deputation from Yonge Street--"These
gentlemen complain," the Governor said, pointing to the Quakers, "that
they cannot get their patents."
Each of the official personages present offered in succession some
indistinct observations; expressive it would seem of a degree of regret,
and hinting exculpatory reasons, so far as he individually was
concerned.
On closer interrogation, one thing however came out very clear, that the
order for the patents was more than twelve months old.
At length the onus of blame seemed to settle down on the head of the
Secretary and Registrar, Mr. Jarvis, who could only say that really the
pressure of business in his office was so great that he had been
absolutely unable, up to the present moment, to get ready the particular
patents referred to.
"Sir!" was the Governor's immediate rejoinder, "if they are not
forthcoming, every one of them, and placed in the hands of these
gentlemen here in my presence at noon on Thursday next (it was now
Tuesday), by George! I'll un-Jarvis you!"--implying, as we suppose, a
summary conge as Secretary and Registrar.
It is needless to say that Mr. Rogers and his colleagues of the
deputation carried back with them to Whitchurch lively accounts of the
vigour and rigour of the new Governor--as well as their patents.