Elizabeth Posthuma Simcoe 1762-1850 by Mary Beacock Fryer

Author:Mary Beacock Fryer [Fryer, Mary Beacock]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781554881536
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Dundurn Press
Published: 1989-09-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

END OF THE TOUR OF DUTY

1796

York now seemed a substantial settlement. Most of the civil servants and officers in the Queen’s Rangers had each been awarded 200 acre lots in the vicinity, and nearly all had town lots as well. The town plot for York had been laid out under the supervision of Surveyor Alexander Aitkin, a neat grid plan that echoed those of the Romans, and which suited Simcoe’s military mind. January 18 was the Queen’s birthday, and marked by the firing of a salute and a ball. Elizabeth went visiting — to Skinner’s mill, to the Ashbridges, who were a new family, to the McGills, where she met Miss Rachel Crookshank, Mrs. McGill’s sister, to Captain David Shank’s lot, and to the Macaulays. There they found four-year-old John Simcoe Macaulay cutting through large chunks of wood with an axe. Francis was envious, and banishing reservations at the sight of the sharp blade, she agreed to let him learn to handle an axe since that would be useful.

If her son was content, her husband’s complaints were legion. Lord Dorchester would not permit him a separate quartermaster-general for Upper Canada, and disapproved of any fortifications for York because he thought that reinforcing the province would be too costly. Most of the lake vessels came under Dorchester’s command, on the excuse that he had to be able to move troops, military stores, and provisions at will. Both the Indian and Commissariat Departments were subordinate to Dorchester, while Simcoe wanted to have separate ones for Upper Canada. Requests for more troops were met by Dorchester with the assertion that Upper Canada was “too far away” in time of war. Dorchester considered Upper Canada too difficult and costly to defend, and the province could be abandoned in the interest of retaining only Lower Canada. Dorchester disapproved when Simcoe allowed William Berczy’s workers government rations. Provisions were only for troops. Simcoe had ordered the men to return to their clearings, and had sent some Queen’s Rangers under Lieutenant David William Smith to complete Yonge Street to Lake Simcoe.1

The governor dreamed of founding a university, and in each district a grammar school to prepare boys to enter it. He had not been permitted enough funds to open even one grammar school. Some parents had banded together, hired teachers of indifferent education and opened schools, but the state, he believed, should be giving leadership. Teachers ought to be Church of England clergymen, to ensure proper instruction.

While Elizabeth was a sympathetic listener, she busied herself with matters at hand. Many were complaining that the fishing was poor through holes in the ice of the Don River and the bay, but they had better luck in the Humber River. Elizabeth concluded that the noise of carrioles being driven on the ice was frightening the fish away. Fish were biting in the Humber because no sleighs were there. The dormeuse, which they had had to leave near Johnstown during their journey back, was now in York, and Simcoe found it comfortable when the weather was bitterly cold.

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