"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 congé 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.
General Hunter was very peremptory in his dismissals occasionally. In a Gazette of July 16, 1803, is to be seen an ominous announcement that the Governor is going to be very strict with the Government clerks in regard to hours: "Lieut.-Governor's office, 21st June, 1803. Notice is hereby given that regular attendance for the transaction of the public business of the Province will in future be given at the office of the Secretary of the Province, the Executive Council office, and the Surveyor-General's office, every day in the year (Sundays, Good Friday, and Christmas day only excepted) from ten o'clock in the morning until three in the afternoon, and from five o'clock in the afternoon until seven in the evening. By order of the Lieutenant-Governor, Jas. Green, Secretary."
Soon after the appearance of this notice, it happened one forenoon that young Alexander Macnab, a clerk in one of the public offices, was innocently watching the Governor's debarkation from a boat, preparatory to his being conveyed up to the Council-chamber in a sedan-chair which was in waiting for him. The youth suddenly caught his Excellency's eye, and was asked—"What business he had to be there? Did he not belong to the Surveyor-General's office? Sir! your services are no longer required!"
For this same young Macnab, thus summarily dismissed, Governor Hunter, we have been told, procured subsequently a commission. He attained the rank of captain and met a soldier's fate on the field of Waterloo, the only Upper Canadian known to have been engaged or to have fallen in that famous battle. (We have before mentioned that so late as 1868, Captain Macnab's Waterloo medal was presented, by the Duke of Cambridge personally, to the Rev. Dr. Macnab, of Bowmanville, nephew of the deceased officer.)
Two stray characteristic items relating to Governor Hunter may here be subjoined. The following was his brief reply to the Address of the Inhabitants of York on his arrival there in 1799:—"Gentlemen, nothing that is in my power shall be wanting to contribute to the happiness and welfare of this colony." (Gazette, Aug. 24, 1799)—At Niagara, an Address from "the mechanics and husbandmen" was refused by him, on the ground that an address professedly from the inhabitants generally had been presented already. On this, the Constellation of Sep. 10 (1799), prints the following "anecdote," which is a hit at Gov. Hunter. "Anecdote.—When Governor Simcoe arrived at Kingston on his way here to take upon him the government of the Province, the magistrates and gentlemen of that town presented him with a very polite address. It was politely and verbally answered. The inhabitants of the country and town, who move not in the upper circles, presented theirs. And this also his Excellency very politely answered, and the answer being in writing, is carefully preserved to this day."
Among the patents carried home by Mr. Timothy Rogers, above named, were at least seven in which he was more or less personally interested. His own lot was 95 on the west or King side of Yonge Street. Immediately in front of him on the Whitchurch or east side, on lots 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, and 96, all in a row, were enjoyed by sons or near relatives of his, bearing the names respectively of Rufus Rogers, Asa Rogers, Isaac Rogers, Wing Rogers, James Rogers, and Obadiah Rogers.
Mr. Lundy's name does not appear among those of the original patentees; but lots or portions of lot in the "Quaker Settlement" are marked at an earlier period with the names of Shadrach Lundy, Oliver Lundy, Jacob Lundy, Reuben Lundy, and perhaps more.
In the region just beyond the Ridges there were farmers also of the community known as Mennonists or Tunkers. Long beards, when such appendages were rarities, dangling hair, antique-shaped, buttonless, home-spun coats, and wide-brimmed low-crowned hats, made these persons conspicuous in the street. On the seat of a loaded country-waggon, or on the back of a solitary rustic nag, would now and then be seen a man of this community, who might pass for John Huss or John á Lasco, as represented in the pictures. It was always curious to gaze upon these waifs and strays from old Holland, perpetuating, or at least trying to perpetuate, on a new continent, customs and notions originating in the peculiar circumstances of obscure localities in another hemisphere three hundred years ago.
Simon Menno, the founder and prophet of the Mennonists, was a native of Friesland in 1496. He advocated the utmost rigour of life. Although there are, as we are informed, modernized Mennonists now in Holland, at Amsterdam, for example, who are distinguished for luxury in their tables, their equipages and their country seats, yet a sub-section of the community known as Uke-Wallists, from one Uke Walles, adhere to the primitive strictness enjoined by Menno. Their apparel, we are told, is mean beyond expression, and they avoid everything that has the most distant appearance of elegance or ornament. They let their beards grow to an enormous length; their hair, uncombed, lies in a disorderly manner on their shoulders; their countenances are marked with the strongest lines of dejection and melancholy; and their habitations and household furniture are such as are only fitted to answer the demands of mere necessity. "We shall not enlarge," Mosheim adds, "upon the circumstances of their ritual, but only observe that they prevent all attempts to alter or modify their religious discipline, by preserving their people from everything that bears the remotest aspect of learning and science; from whatever, in a word, that may have a tendency to enlighten their devout ignorance."