Toronto of Old / Collections and recollections illustrative of the early settlement and social life of the capital of Ontario

by Henry Scadding

here Yonge Street crosses King Street, forming at the present day an unusually noble carrefour, as the French would say, or rectangular intersection of thoroughfares as we are obliged to word it, there was, for a considerable time, but one solitary house—at the north-east angle; a longish, one-storey, respectable wooden structure, painted white, with paling in front, and large willow trees: it was the home of Mr. Dermis, formerly superintendent of the Dock-yard at Kingston. He was one of the United Empire Loyalist refugees, and received a grant of land on the Humber, near the site of the modern village of Weston. His son, Mr. Joseph Dennis, owned and commanded a vessel on Lake Ontario in 1812. When the war with the United States broke out, he and his ship were attached to the Provincial Marine. His vessel was captured, and himself made a prisoner of war, in which condition he remained for fifteen months. He afterwards commanded the Princess Charlotte, an early steamboat on Lake Ontario.

To the eastward of Mr. Dennis' house, on the same side, at an early period, was an obscure frame building of the most ordinary kind, whose existence is recorded simply for having been temporarily the District Grammar School, before the erection of the spacious building on the Grammar School lot.

On the opposite side, still passing on towards the east, was the Jail. This was a squat unpainted wooden building, with hipped roof, concealed from persons passing in the street by a tall cedar stockade, such as those which we see surrounding a Hudson's Bay post or a military wood-yard. At the outer entrance hung a billet of wood suspended by a chain, communicating with a bell within; and occasionally Mr. Parker, the custodian of the place, was summoned, through its instrumentality, by persons not there on legitimate business. We have a recollection of a clever youth, an immediate descendant of the great commentator on British Law, and afterwards himself distinguished at the Upper Canadian bar, who was severely handled by Mr. Parker's son, on being caught in the act of pulling at this billet, with the secret intention of running away after the exploit.

The English Criminal Code, as it was at the beginning of the century, having been introduced with all its enormities, public hangings were frequent at an early period in the new Province. A shocking scene is described as taking place at an execution in front of the old Jail at York. The condemned refuses to mount the scaffold. On this, the moral-suasion efforts of the sheriff amount to the ridiculous, were not the occasion so seriously tragic. In aid of the sheriff, the officiating chaplain steps more than once up the plank set from the cart to the scaffold, to show the facility of the act, and to induce the man to mount in like manner; the condemned demurs, and openly remarks on the obvious difference in the two cases. At last the noose is adjusted to the neck of the wretched culprit, where he stands. The cart is withdrawn, and a deliberate strangling ensues.

In a certain existing account of steps taken in 1811 to remedy the dilapidated and comfortless condition of the Jail, we get a glimpse of York, commercially and otherwise, at that date. In April, 1811, the sheriff, Beikie, reports to the magistrates at Quarter Sessions "that the sills of the east cells of the Jail of the Home District are completely rotten; that the ceilings in the debtors' rooms are insufficient; and that he cannot think himself safe, should necessity oblige him to confine any persons in said cells or debtors' rooms."

An order is given in May to make the necessary repairs; but certain spike-nails are wanted of a kind not to be had at the local dealers in hardware. The chairman is consequently directed to "apply to His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor, that he will be pleased to direct that the spike-nails be furnished from the King's stores, as there are not any of the description required to be purchased at York." A memorandum follows to the effect that on the communication of this necessity to His Excellency, "the Lieutenant-Governor ordered that the Clerk of the Peace do apply for the spike-nails officially in the name of the Court: which he did," the memorandum adds, "on the 8th of May, 1811, and received an answer on the day following, that an order had been issued that day for 1500 spike-nails, for the repair of the Home District Jail: the nails," it is subjoined, "were received by carpenter Leach in the month of July following."

Again: in December, 1811, Mr. Sheriff Beikie sets forth to the magistrates in Session, that "the prisoners in the cells of the Jail of the Home District suffer much from cold and damp, there being no method of communicating heat from the chimneys, nor any bedsteads to raise the straw from the floors, which lie nearly, if not altogether, on the ground." He accordingly suggests that "a small stove in the lobby of each range of cells, together with some rugs or blankets, will add much to the comfort of the unhappy persons confined." The magistrates authorize the supply of the required necessaries, and the order is marked "instant." (The month, we are to notice, was December.)

At a late period, there were placed about the town a set of posts having relation to the Jail. They were distinguished from the ordinary rough posts, customary then at regular intervals along the sidewalks, by being of turned wood, with spherical tops, the lower part painted a pale blue: the upper, white. These were the "limits"—the certi denique fines—beyond which, détenus for debt were not allowed to extend their walks.

Leaving the picketted enclosure of the Prison, we soon arrived at an open piece of ground on the opposite (north) side of the street,—afterwards known as the "Court House Square." One of the many rivulets or water-courses that traversed the site of York passed through it, flowing in a deep serpentine ravine, a spot to be remembered by the youth of the day as affording, in the winter, facilities for skating and sliding, and audacious exploits on "leather ice." In this open space, a Jail and Court House of a pretentious character, but of poor architectural style, were erected in 1824. The two buildings, which were of two storeys, and exactly alike, were placed side by side, a few yards back from the road. Their gables were to the south, in which direction were also the chief entrances. The material was red brick. Pilasters of cut stone ran up the principal fronts, and up the exposed or outer sides of each edifice. At these sides, as also on the inner and unornamented sides, were lesser gables, but marked by the portion of the wall that rose in front of them, not to a point, but finishing square in two diminishing stages, and sustaining chimneys.