John Graves Simcoe was a British Army general and the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada from 1791 until 1796, in modern-day southern Ontario and the watersheds of Georgian Bay and Lake Superior. He founded York (now Toronto) and was instrumental in introducing institutions such as courts of law, trial by jury, English common law, freehold land tenure, and the abolition of slavery.
Background
John Graves Simcoe was born on February 25, 1752 in Cotterstock, England, the only surviving son of John (1710-1759) and Katherine Simcoe (d. 1767). His parents had four children, but he was the only one to live past childhood (Percy drowned 1764; Paulet William and John William died as infants). His father was a captain in the Royal Navy who commanded the 60-gun HMS Pembroke, with James Cook as his sailing master, during the 1758 siege of Louisbourg. Simcoe's father died of pneumonia on 15 May 1759 on board his ship in the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River, a few months prior to the siege of Quebec. The family then moved to his mother's parental home in Exeter. His paternal grandparents were William and Mary (née Hutchinson) Simcoe.
Education
Simcoe was sent to Eton at the age of fourteen, and three years later entered Merton College, Oxford. After two years of college life, he became ensign in the 35th regiment, first seeing active service at Boston in 1775, and remaining in America during the greater part of the Revolutionary War.
Career
Simcoe entered the British army as an ensign in 1770. He served during the American Revolution (1775-1783) and was promoted to captain in 1775. In 1777-1781 he commanded the newly formed Queen’s Rangers and was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1778. Taken prisoner in 1779, he was subsequently released and, in 1781, invalided back to England, where he married and settled on a country estate in Devon that had been purchased by his wealthy wife.
Simcoe entered politics as member of Parliament for St. Mawes, Cornwall, in 1790. After passage of the Constitutional Act of 1791, which gave representative government to Canada, he was appointed the first lieutenant governor of Upper Canada. As lieutenant governor, he encouraged immigration and agriculture and supported defense and road building, but he was in frequent conflict with the governor in chief, Lord Dorchester. Simcoe was made a major general in 1794.
Simcoe left Canada in 1796. He served briefly as governor and commander in chief of Santo Domingo (now Hispaniola) in 1797 and was promoted to lieutenant general. Back in England he took command of the Western District at Exeter. He was appointed commander in chief in India in 1806, but he fell ill on his way there; he returned to England, where he died.
Achievements
Simcoe was a British soldier and statesman who became the first lieutenant governor of Upper Canada (present-day Ontario).
Membership
Member of Parliament
Connections
Simcoe convalesced at the Devon home of his godfather, Admiral Samuel Graves. In 1782, Simcoe married Elizabeth Posthuma Gwillim, his godfather's ward. Elizabeth was a wealthy heiress, who acquired a 5, 000 acre estate at Honiton in Devon and built Wolford Lodge. Wolford was the Simcoe family seat until 1923.
The Simcoes had five daughters prior to their posting in Canada. Son Francis was born in 1791. Their Canadian-born daughter, Katherine, died in infancy in York. She is buried in the Victoria Square Memorial Park on Portland Avenue, Toronto. Francis returned with his father to England when his tenure expired and joined the army. He was killed in an infantry charge during the Peninsular Campaign in 1812.
Father:
John Simcoe
Mother:
Katherine Simcoe
Spouse:
Elizabeth Posthuma Simcoe
She was a British artist and diarist in colonial Canada.
Grandson:
Philip Francis Simcoe
Grandson:
Paul Creed Guillim Simcoe
Grandson:
Henry Walcot Simcoe
Daughter:
Katherine Simcoe
Daughter:
Charlotte Simcoe
Daughter:
Caroline Simcoe
Daughter:
Sophia Jemima Simcoe
Daughter:
Eliza Simcoe
Daughter:
Henrietta Maria Simcoe
granddaughter :
Anne Eliza Marke Simcoe
Son:
Henry Addington Simcoe
Son:
John Cornwall Simcoe
Son:
Francis Gwillim Simcoe
godfather:
Admiral Samuel Graves
He was a British Royal Navy admiral who is probably best known for his role early in the American War of Independence.
