The Country of the Neutrals / (As Far As Comprised in the County of Elgin), From Champlain to Talbot

by James H. Coyne

In consequence of this unfavorable report, townships were directed to be laid out on the River Thames, instead of the lake shore.

LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR SIMCOE.

In the year 1791 the Quebec Act was passed, dividing Quebec into two provinces, and Colonel John Graves Simcoe became the first lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada. Before the Bill was introduced into parliament, it was understood that Simcoe had been selected by Pitt to govern the new province, direct its settlement and establish constitutional government after the model of the British system. As early as January, 1791, he had written a letter to Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society,[16] ] in which after mentioning his appointment, he explained his own plans as to the administration, and stated his desire to profit by the ideas of his correspondent whom he would wait upon for that purpose.

"For the purpose of commerce, union and power, I propose that the site of the colony should be in that Great Peninsula between the Lakes Huron, Erie and Ontario, a spot destined by nature, sooner or later, to govern the interior world."

"I mean to establish a capital in the very heart of the country, upon the River La Tranche, which is navigable for batteauxs for 150 miles—and near to where the Grand River, which falls into Erie, and others that communicate with Huron and Ontario almost interlock. The capital I mean to call Georgina—and aim to settle in its vicinity Loyalists, who are now in Connecticut, provided that the Government approve of the system."

As a member of the House of Commons, Simcoe spoke in support of a provision in the bill for the establishment of an hereditary nobility, which Fox had moved to strike out. The report states that Colonel Simcoe "having pronounced a panegyric on the British constitution, wished it to be adopted in the present instance, as far as circumstances would admit." The provision was in the bill as finally passed.

Having proceeded to Quebec to enter upon the performance of his duties, he appears to have utilized every opportunity for informing himself of his new domain. He writes to Hon. Henry Dundas from Montreal, December 7, 1791, in a letter marked "secret and confidential," as follows:—

"I am happy to have found in the surveyor's office an actual survey of the River La Tranche. It answers my most sanguine expectations, and I have but little doubt that its communications with the Ontario and Erie will be found to be very practicable, the whole forming a route which, in all respects, may annihilate the political consequences of Niagara and Lake Erie. * * * My ideas at present are to assemble the new corps, artificers, etc., at Cataraqui (Kingston), and to take its present garrison and visit Toronto and the heads of La Tranche, to pass down that river to Detroit, and early in the spring to occupy such a central position as shall be previously chosen for the capital."

On the 16th July, 1792, the name of the River La Tranche was changed to the Thames by proclamation of the Governor, issued at Kingston. In the spring, he had written that "Toronto appears to be the natural arsenal of Lake Ontario and to afford an easy access overland to Lake Huron." He adds: "The River La Tranche, near the navigable head of which I propose to establish the Capital, by what I can gather from the few people who have visited it, will afford a safe, more certain, and I am inclined to think, by taking due advantage of the season, a less expensive route to Detroit than that of Niagara."

At Quebec Simcoe had met the Hon. Thomas Talbot, who had joined the 24th Regiment as Lieutenant in the previous year. Talbot was then a young man of twenty, whilst Simcoe was in his fortieth year. A strong attachment sprang up between these two remarkable men, and Talbot accompanied the lieutenant-governor to Niagara, in the capacity of private and confidential secretary. After meeting the first Legislature elected in Upper Canada during the fall of 1792 Simcoe decided to make a journey overland to Detroit. He left Navy Hall on the 4th February, 1793, and returned on the 10th March. His travelling companions were Capt. Fitzgerald, Lieutenant Smith (previously Secretary to the Detroit Land Board, subsequently the first Surveyor General of Upper Canada, an M.P.P., Speaker of the House, etc., and afterward created a baronet), Lieutenants Talbot, Gray, Givens and Major Littlehales. All of these were prominent afterward in the history of the Province. Talbot became the founder of the Talbot Settlement. Gray was appointed Solicitor General; he perished in the schooner 'Speedy' on Lake Ontario in 1804 with Judge Cochrane, Sheriff Macdonell and others. Givens was afterward the well-known Colonel Givens, Superintendant of Indian Affairs at York. Littlehales was afterward Sir E. B. Littlehales, Secretary of War for Ireland, during the Lord-Lieutenancy of the Marquis of Cornwallis; he married in 1805 the Lady Elizabeth Fitzgerald, daughter of the Duke of Leinster and sister of the unfortunate Lord Edward Fitzgerald.[17] ]