Of Spadina Avenue, which we crossed in our approach to Col. Fitzgibbon's old home, and of Spadina house, visible in the far distance at the head of the Avenue, we have already spoken in our Collections and Recollections, connected with Front Street.
In passing we make an addition to what was then narrated. The career of Dr. Baldwin, the projector of the Avenue, and the builder of Spadina, is now a part of Upper Canadian history. It presents a curious instance of that versatility which we have had occasion to notice in so many of the men who have been eminent in this country. A medical graduate of Edinburgh, and in that capacity, commencing life in Ireland—on settling in Canada, he began the study of Law and became a leading member of the Bar.
On his arrival at York, from the first Canadian home of his father on Baldwin's Creek in the township of Clarke, Dr. Baldwin's purpose was to turn to account for a time his own educational acquirements, by undertaking the office of a teacher of youth. In several successive numbers of the Gazette and Oracle of 1802-3 we read the following advertisement: "Dr. Baldwin understanding that some of the gentlemen of this Town have expressed some anxiety for the establishment of a Classical School, begs leave to inform them and the public that he intends on Monday the first day of January next, to open a School in which he will instruct Twelve Boys in Writing, Reading, and Classics and Arithmetic. The terms are, for each boy, eight guineas per annum, to be paid quarterly or half-yearly; one guinea entrance and one cord of wood to be supplied by each of the boys on opening the School. N.B.—Mr. Baldwin will meet his pupils at Mr. Willcocks' house on Duke Street. York, December 18th, 1802." Of the results of this enterprise we have not at hand any record.
The Russell bequest augmented in no slight degree the previous possessions of Dr. Baldwin. In the magnificent dimensions assigned to the thoroughfare opened up by him in the neighbourhood of Petersfield, we have probably a visible expression of the large-handed generosity which a pleasant windfall is apt to inspire. Spadina Avenue is 160 feet wide throughout its mile-and-a-half length; and the part of Queen Street that bounds the front of the Petersfield park-lot, is made suddenly to expand to the width of 90 feet. Maria Street also, a short street here, is of extra width. The portion of York, now Toronto, laid out by Dr. Baldwin on a fraction of the land opportunely inherited, will, when solidly built over, rival Washington or St. Petersburg in grandeur of ground-plan and design.
The career of Dr. Rolph, another of our early Upper Canadian notabilities, resembles in some respects, that of Dr. Baldwin. Before emigrating from Gloucestershire, he began life as a medical man. On arriving in Canada he transferred himself to the Bar. In this case, however, after the attainment of eminence in the newly adopted profession, there was a return to the original pursuit, with the acquisition in that also, of a splendid reputation. Both acquired the local style of Honourable: Dr. Rolph by having been a member of the Hincks-ministry from 1851 to 1854; Dr. Baldwin by being summoned, six months before his decease, to the Legislative Council of United Canada, while his son was Attorney-General.
Mr. William Willcocks, allied by marriage to Dr. Baldwin's family, selected the park-lot at which we arrive after crossing Spadina Avenue. A lake in the Oak Ridges (Lake Willcocks) has its name from the same early inhabitant. In 1802 he was Judge of the Home District Court. He is to be distinguished from the ultra-Reformer, Sheriff Willcocks, of Judge Thorpe's day, whose name was Joseph; and from Charles Willcocks, who in 1818 was proposing, through the columns of the Upper Canada Gazette, to publish, by subscription, a history of his own life. The advertisement was as follows (what finally came of it, we are not able to state):—"The subscriber proposes to publish, by subscription, a History of his Life. The subscription to be One Dollar, to be paid by each subscriber; one-half in advance; the other half on the delivery of the Book. The money to be paid to his agent, Mr. Thomas Deary, who will give receipts and deliver the Books. Charles Willcocks, late Lieutenant, City of Cork Militia. York, March, 17th, 1818."
This Mr. Charles Willcocks once fancied he had grounds for challenging his name-sake, Joseph, to mortal combat, according to the barbaric notions of the time. But at the hour named for the meeting, Joseph did not appear on the ground. Charles waited a reasonable time. He then chipped off a square inch or so of the bark of a neighbouring tree, and, stationing himself at duelling distance, discharged his pistol at the mark which he had made. As the ball buried itself in the spot at which aim had been taken, he loudly bewailed his old friend's reluctance to face him. "Oh, Joe, Joe!" he passionately cried, "if you had only been here!"
Although Joseph escaped this time, he was not so fortunate afterwards. He fell, as we have already noted in connexion with the Early Press, "foremost fighting" in the ranks of the invaders of Upper Canada in 1814. The incident is briefly mentioned in the Montreal Herald of the 15th of October, in that year, in the following terms: "It is officially announced by General Ripley (on the American side, that is), that the traitor Willcocks was killed in the sortie from Fort Erie on the 4th ult., greatly lamented by his general and the army." Undertaking with impetuosity a crusade against the governmental ideas which were locally in the ascendant, and encountering the resistance customary in such cases, he cut the knot of his discontent by joining the Republican force when it made its appearance.
The Willcocks park-lot, or a portion of it, was afterwards possessed by Mr. Billings, a well-remembered Commissariat officer, long stationed at York. He built the house subsequently known as Englefield, which, later, was the home of Colonel Loring, who, at the time of the taking of York, in 1813, had his horse killed under him; and here he died. Mr. Billings and Colonel Loring both had sons, of whom we make brief mention as having been in the olden times among our own school-boy associates, but who now, like so many more personal contemporaries, already noted, are, after brief careers, deceased. An announcement in the Montreal Herald of February 4th, 1815, admits us to a domestic scene in the household of Colonel, at the time Captain, Loring. (The Treaty of Peace with the United States was signed at Ghent, on the 24th of December, 1814. Its effect was being pleasantly realized in Canada, in January, 1815). "At Prescott," the Herald reports, "on Thursday, 26th January, the lady of Capt. Loring, Aide-de-Camp and Private Secretary to His Honor Lieut.-Gen. Drummond, was safely delivered of a daughter." The Herald then adds: "The happy father had returned from a state of captivity with the enemy, but a few hours previous to the joyful event." Capt. Loring had been taken prisoner in the battle of Lundy's Lane, in the preceding July.
The first occupant of the next lot (No. 16) westward, was Mr. Baby, of whom we have spoken in former sections. Opposite was the house of Bernard Turquand, an Englishman of note, for many years first clerk in the Receiver-General's department. He was an early promoter of amateur boating among us, a recreation with which possibly he had become familiar at Malta, where he was long a resident. Just beyond on the same side, was the dwelling-place of Major Winniett,—a long, low, one-storey bungalow, of a neutral tint in colour, its roof spreading out, verandah-wise, on both sides.