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John Graves Simcoe
Statesman, Soldier and Freemason
by Nekon King, MPS

We Canadians are normally very re-
served about our heroes, but we do have
our Daniel Boones and our George
Washingtons. We have our quiet heroes,
who were Statesmen, Soldiers, and Free-
masons. One such man Metropolitan
Toronto, and several other Ontario
Communities honour on the first Mon-
day in August, by proclaiming that day
a Civic Holiday, Simcoe Day.

John Graves Simcoe was born on the
25th of February 1752, at Cotterstock,
Northamptonshire, the son of Captain
John Simcoe, R.N., and Catherine
Stamford. Captain Simcoe and his wife
had moved to Cotterstock shortly after
their marriage on the 8th of August,
1747. It was in Cotterstock that their
four sons were born. The first two, Pau-
let William andJohn died in infancy and
the fourth, Percy William, was drowned
in 1764. John Graves was the third son,
was named after his father and his god-
father, Admiral Sir Thomas Graves. In
1757 Captain Simcoe joined H.M.S.
Pembroke, as Commander, with the fa-
mous explorer Captain James Cook as
Master, and in 1759 sailed for Canada in
the fleet under the command of Admiral
Saunders. Captain Simcoe was not to
reap the rewards of his years of service,
for on the 15th of May 1759, while
H.M.S. Pembroke was nearing the is-
land of Anticosti, he died of pneumonia.
Mrs. Catherine Simcoe then moved to
Exeter, where she had many friends and
where she would be better able to edu-
ciate her two sons.

The future Lieutenant-Governor of
Upper Canada received his primary ed-
ucation at the Free Grammar School in
Exeter, and in 1766, his fifteenth year,
he entered Eton. In 1769 he went to
Merton College, Oxford, but does not
appear to have graduated, for in the
years 1770-1771 he was at his mother's
home in Exeter under the guidance of a
tutor. These years were spent in acquir-
ing a general knowledge, and especially
in studying military tactics, for he had
been promised an ensign's commission
from friends of his mother in the War
Office.

The muster rolls of the 35th Foot show
that Simcoe entered the army soon after
his eighteenth birthday, for on the 27th
of April 1770 he was gazetted an Ensign
in Captain William Gaull's company
and stationed at Plymouth. In 1773
while back in Exeter, Adjutant Simcoe
was initiated into Union Lodge No. 307
E . R. [M] . The Lodge record reads as
follows.

Towards the end of 1773, several fresh
candidates were admitted. Amongst them
was Peter Davis Foulks, Esq., Sir
Wilmot Prideaux, Mr. Savery and Mr.
John Graves Simcoe ; also Henry Brown,
Esq., 20th Regiment, was proposed, bal-
loted for and accepted, and being a
case of emergency was made E.A. and
F.C. &c.

As a matter of interest this Lodge is
the oldest Lodge in the Province of
Devonshire, and has worked since 1732.
The Lodge has had various names, Union
Lodge, St. John Lodge, and its final
and pres- ent name, which it has held
since 1821, St.John the Baptist Lodge,
No. 39. As a matter of fact, our Past
and Master, M.W. Bro. John Ross
Robertston secured the gavel that was
used at Bro. Simcoe's initiation, and
it was used by M.W. Bro. Augustus T.
Freed, when he opened our Grand Lodge
at Niagara in 1909.

Simcoe now progressed steadily
through the ranks of the military until
the 27th of December 1775, when he
was promoted to the rank of Captain and
permitted to purchase command of the
Grenadier Company of the 40th Foot;
with it he sailed for Halifax in
March of 1776. Early in July 1776 he
landed on Staten Island, New York, and
with his Regiment took part in the
military operations in Long Island and
the Jerseys, winning many commenda-
tions for his services.

While in winter quarters at Brunswick,
inl776-1777,he went to New York to see
Sir William Howe, to ask for the com-
mand of the Queen's Rangers, then va-
cant. Unfortunately his ship was driven
off course by a severe storm and was
delayed, and on his arrival in New York
he found that the post had been filled.
With his ambition for an independent
command unsatisfied, he wrote to Gen-
eral Grant under whom he was serving,
and asked if Grant would use his influ-
ence to secure for him a command sim-
ilar to that of the Queen's Rangers,
should such another corps be raised.
Shortly afterward he led his company at
the Battle of Brandywine and received a
wound from which he never fully recov-
ered, although he was able to resume his
duties .

At last his ambitions were realized, for
on the 15th of October 1777, Captain
Simcoe was appointed Major-Comman-
dant of the Queen's Rangers and on the
18th joined his new command, then en-
camped near Germantown, just to the
north of Philadelphia. In June 1778, he
was granted the provincial rank of Lieu-
tenant-Colonel and on the l9th of De-
cember 1781, his rank was made perma-
nent in the Army.

At about this time, an advertisement
was printed in Rivington's Royal Ga-
zette, which read:

All aspiring Heroes.

Have now an opportunity of distin-
guishing themselves by joining The
Queen's Rangers Huzzars, commanded
by Lieutenant-Colonel Simcoe. Any
spirited young man will receive every
encouragement, be immediately
mounted on an elegant horse, and fur-
nished with clothing, accoutrements,
&c. to the amount of Forty Guineas, by
appiying to Cornet Spencer at his quar-
ters, 1033 Water Street, or his rendez-
vous Hewitts Tavern, near the Coffee
House, and the depot at Brandywine on
Golden Hill.

Whosoever brings a Recruit shall in-
stantly receive Two Guineas.

Vivant Rex et Regina.

In December 1781, Lieutenant-Colo-
nel Simcoe returned to England and on
the 30th of December 1782 married Eliz-
abeth Posthuma Gwillim, then in her
seventeenth year, at the church of St.
Mary and Giles in the parish of Buck-
erall, Devon. On the 14th of January
1783, Simcoe was released from his pa-
role given to the United States in 1781,
by Benjamin Franklin, the Minister
Plenipotentiary from the United States,
to the Court of France.

On the 1 8th of November 1790, Simcoe
was granted the rank of Colonel in the
Army, and during the same year was
elected to Parliament as member for the
borough of St. Mawes in Cornwall. Dur-
ing his brief political career, he was able
to take an important part in the debates
culminating in the passage of the Consti-
tutional Act of 1791, which divided Can-
ada into the two provinces of Upper and
Lower Canada. In the same year he re-
ceived a commission as Lieutenant-Gov-
ernor of the new province of Upper Can-
ada, and in accepting the post of Lieu-
tenant-Governor, he asked that troops
be allotted to the new province. He was
then instructed to reorganize The
Queen's Rangers. Lieutenant-Gover-
nor Simcoe, accompanied by his wife
and two of their children sailed for Que-
bec, on the 26th of September 1791 on
board H.M.S. Triton. Before sailing he
was offered by the War Office the rank
of Brigadier-General, but for various
reasons he declined; one reason was his
disinclination to have seniority over the
King's son, the Duke of Kent, then in
command of the 7th Fusiliers at Quebec.

H.M.S. Triton arrived at Quebec on
the 11th of November 1791, and on the
following day Lieutenant-Governor
Simcoe delivered the various commis-
sions with which he had been entrusted,
to the acting Governor-General, Major-
General Alured Clarke. Major-General
Clarke was acting as administrator dur-
ing the absence of Lord Dorchester, who
was in England. The official proclama-
tion and the text of the Act dividing the
old province of Canada, into the new
provinces of Upper and Lower Canada
was issued on the 18th of November
1791, and was published in the Quebec
Gazette of December 1 st .

ln December of 1791 Simcoe had paid
a short visit to Montreal but he went no
farther west. On the 8th of June 1792
with his wife and children he left Quebec,
Lower Canada, for Kingston, Upper
Canada, in a bateau. They arrived in
Montreal on the 17th, left on the 27th,
and reached Kingston on the 1st of July.
On the 8th ofJuly, Lieutenant-Governor
Simcoe was sworn into office by Chief
Justice William Osgoode.

From Kingston Governor Simcoe and
his family sailed on the Government
Schooner Onondaga for Newark [Niag-
ara], where they arrived on the 26th of
July. Pending completion of repairs to
Navy Hall, the Governor and his party
were housed in marquees pitched on the
hill above the Hall.

In February of 1793 the Governor vis-
ited the western parts of his province.
The party proceeded to a Mohawk vil-
lage on the Grand River, [Brantford],
then to the Moravian settlement of the
Delaware Indians, [Moraviantown],
and returned by the way of the present
site of London Ontario, which at a later
date Simcoe recommended as a proper
place for the capital of the province.
However, on the 2nd of May he visited
the site of Toronto for the first time. He
returned to Navy Hall on the 13th and
spoke in praise of the harbour and "a
fine spot near it covered with large
oaks," which he intended as a site for a
town. This fine spot was on the bay front,
east of the present George Street extend-
ing as far as Berkeley Street.

The Upper Carzada Gazette of the 1st of
August, 1793, has the following.

A few days ago, the first division of His
Majesty's Corps of Queen's Rangers,
left Queenston for Toronto [now York],
and proceeded in a bateaux round the
head of Lake Ontario, by Burlington
Bay, and shortly afterwards another di-
vision of the same regiment sailed in the
King's vessels, Onondaga and Caldwell
for the same place. On Monday evening,
His Excellency, the Lieu.-Governor left
Navy Hall and embarked on board His
Majesty's schooner, Mississauga, which
sailed under a favorable gale for York
with the remainder of the Queen ' s Rang-
ers on board.

Mrs. Simcoe in her diary under the
date of the 30th of July 1793, wrote:

The Queen's Rangers are encamped
opposite to the ship. After dinner we
went on shore to fix a spot whereon to
place the canvas houses, and we chose a
rising ground divided by a creek from the
camp, which is ordered to be cleared
immediately. The soldiers have cut
down a great deal of wood to enable them
to pitch their tents. We went in the boat
two miles to the bottom of the bay, and
walked thro' a grove of fine oaks, where
the town is intended to be built. A low
spit of land, covered with wood, forms
the bay, and breaks the horizon of the
lake which greatly improves the view
which indeed is very pleasing. The water
in the bay is beautifully clear and trans-
parent.

Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe wrote on
the 23rd of August 1793:

I have determined to hut the Queen's
Rangers, and probably to remain this
Winter at this place. It possesses many
eminent advantages, which I shall do
myself the honor of expatiation on, by
the 1st opportunity, and expatiating on
such places as appear necessary to me for
permanent barracks, and fortifications
to be erected, adapted to present circum-
stances, but which may be increased, if
it shall become necessary, and, at a less
expense, be rendered more impregnable
than any place I have seen in North
America.

Later in the year, on the 20th of Sep-
tember 1793, he wrote:

Upon the first news of the rupture with
France I determined to withdraw the
Queen's Rangers from the unhealthy vi-
cinity of Niagara where they were en-
camped and to occupy York. I submitted
to the Commander-in-Chief my inten-
tions and desired his sanction to autho-
rize me to construct a block house to
defend the entrance to the Harbour.

William Jarvis, Substitute Provincial
Grand Master of Upper Canada
E.R.[A], and the first Provincial Secre-
tary of Upper Canada had previously
granted a warrant (even though he was
not authorized to do so) for Lodge No. 3
The Queen's Rangers, 1st American
Regiment and they had held meetings at
Butler's Barracks, in Newark. This war-
rant was a traveling warrant, and was
now transferred to York, with the
Queen's Rangers.

In December of 1793, Lieutenant-Gov-
ernor Simcoe communicated the fact of
the removal of the Rangers to York. The
document, addressed to Lord Dorches-
ter, the Governor-General, is as follows:

Should I have the pleasure of seeing
your Lordship at this place, I make no
doubt but the arrangement of the log
huts for the Queen's Rangers, and the
public store I shall build the ensuing
Spring on Pt. Gibralter, will be such as,
in your Lordship's estimation, with a
due proportion of artillery and an equal
garrison, will appear to be more defensi-
ble that Detroit, and scarcely less so than
Niagara.

J.G. Simcoe

 The log huts for the Rangers were
erected on the left side of the eastern
entrance to the present fort at Toronto.
It was in one of these log huts that the
Queens Ranger's Lodge No. 3 met. It is
said Simcoe did not look with unfriendly
eyes on the meeting of Craftsmen which
took place month after month in his reg-
iment, even though he could not himself
attend the meetings, as he was a member
of the "Moderns" Grand Lodge, and
Lodge No . 3, Queen ' s Rangers was war-
ranted under the "Ancients" Grand
Lodge. It is interesting to note that this
site is where the Toronto Historical
Board has recently unearthed fragments
of clay tobacco pipe bowls. This is not in
itself unusual, but these fragments are
fragments of clay tobacco pipe bowls
with Masonic designs. On the left side of
uji bowl there is the Square and Com-
passes, with a letter G in the center, five
pointed stars, a pentagram, and laurel
leaves or acacia leaves. On the other side
of the bowl is a standing bird with either
one or two wings outstretched.

The Governor-General, Lord Dor-
chester, and Lieutenant-Governor
Simcoe, were not the best of friends, and
the friction between them did not cease
until both of them left Canada in 1796.
Indeed it looked as if Dorchester had
determined to make Simcoe's life as un-
comfortable as possible. Official corre-
spondence shows that Dorchester seized
every opportunity to clog the wheels of
Simcoe's government, and often in a
manner most mortifying to Simcoe.
Simcoe had not forgotten "the unjust,
humiliating and disgraceful" order, as
he termed it, of Sir Guy Carleton, (as
Dorchester was in 1783), concerning a
charge made against the Queen's Rang-
ers as being guilty of "plundering and
marauding" on Long Island Sound dur-
ing the War of Revolution, a charge, by
the way, that was without foundation.
The continued friction between the two
led to the resignation of both in the usual
form of "leave of absence. " The
Simcoes said farewell to Upper Canada
on the 21 st of July 1 796, and on the 10th
of September, they sailed from Quebec
on H.M.S. Pearl for England.

At this time the British Government
wanted an officer to take charge of the
forces in San Domingo. Lord Simcoe
who had been gazetted Major-General
on the 2nd day of October 1 794, and was
now offered the post if he would prefer it
to retaining his appointment in Upper
Canada. Simcoe accepted the new posi-
tion and on the 3rd of December 1796,
was appointed Civil Governor and
thought he was to be Commander-in-
Chief of the British forces in San Do-
mingo. Simcoe was disappointed for he
had expected to succeed Sir Ralph Aber-
crombie as Commander-in-Chief of all
the forces in the Island, but now found
that Abercrombie retained that office. In
a letter to the Duke of Kent, he refers to
this disappointment and also points out
that his "services in Canada had been
slighted in that as Lieutenant-Governor
he had a fair claim to the command of the
Royal Americans in preference to Gen-
eral Hunter." The same letter further
shows that he had been promised the
position of Governor-General of Canada
and also a peerage.

In 1797 General Simcoe proceeded to
his new post, with instructions to aid the
French in restoring, if possible, order to
the island. While the General did excel-
lent work in his command, he became
wearied of the kind of warfare in which
he was engaged and after eight months
he returned to England, either to pro-
cure an adequate force for the work or to
abandon the effort altogether. From the
18th of January to the 18th of June 1798,
he was Colonel ofthe 81st Regiment and
on the latter date was appointed Colonel
of the 22nd Foot, which appointment he
held until his death in 1806. Lord Simcoe
did not return to San Domingo, and on
the 26th of February 1798, he was ap-
pointed Lieutenant of the County of
Devon, and in the following October was
gazetted Lieutenant-General.

Owing to the fear of invasion by Napo-
leon, the forces of England were
strengthened in 1799, and on the 21st of
November of that year Lieutenant-Gen-
eral Simcoe was appointed to the com-
mand of Plymouth. On the 1st of Janu-
ary 1801, he was appointed to serve on
the Staff of the Army in Great Britain,
and in the same month was commis-
sioned to command the Western Dis-
trict, which included the Counties of
Somerset, Devon and Cornwall. On the
14th of May 1803, he was again ap-
pointed to the Army Staff in Great Brit-
ain.

In July, 1806 General Simcoe was ap-
pointed Commander-in-Chief of the
British forces in India, and at once began
preparations for departure to his distant
command. While in the middle of pack-
ing, an entire change of plan came from
the authorities in London. Information
had been received that Napoleon was
contemplating an invasion of Portugal.
The fleet under Earl St. Vincent, then
cruising off Brest, was ordered to the
Tagus, while Lord Rosslyn and General
Simcoe were ordered to join the Earl at
Lisbon.

Simcoe had been in poor health for
some time, and it was only by exercising
the greatest care that he was able to cover
the great amount of work assigned to him
in the Western District. He was so con-
fident of his physical strength that he did
not hesitate to accept the command in
India when it was offered. Indeed it was
expected that after completing the nego-
tiations he was to carry out in Lisbon, he
would return to England and then sail for
India.

He took ill on the voyage to Lisbon and
had to return to England. After some
delay he sailed on 26th of September,
1806, on H.M.S. Illustrious, and on the
21st of October, landed at Topsham.
The next day he was carefully driven to
the house of his friend, Archdeacon
Moore in Exeter. He was too ill to make
the journey to Wolford, and the follow-
ing Sunday the 26th the General passed
to the Grand Lodge above.

The body was embalmed and kept in
Exeter until the 4th of November, in
order that the funeral arrangements
might be perfected. It was an imposing
funeral and every mark of respect was
paid by the civil and military authorities
alike. Along the fourteen miles between
Exeter and Wolford the cortege passed
between lines of the militia of Devon. At
the third mile a squadron of Dragoons
was drawn up and escorted the remains
to Wolford. At six o'clock in the evening
the burial took place by torchlight in the
presence of his widow and family and the
leading men of the country. The remains
were interred at the east end of the pri-
vate chapel, erected by the General on
his estate. The inscription on his monu-
ment reads:

Sacred to the memory of John Graves
Simcoe, Lt. Gen. in the Army and Col.
of the 22nd Regt. of Foot, who died on
the 26th day of October, 1806 aged 54.

In whose life and character the virtues
of the Hero, the Patriot and the Chris-
tian were so eminently conspicuous, that
it may be justly said he served his King,
and his Country, with a zeal exceeded
only by his piety towards his God.

I can find no record of Masonic Funeral
Honours being paid to our Lieutenant-
Governor.

Thus ended the life of this great man,
hero of the Revolutionary War, the
Founder of Ontario, Lieutenant-Gover-
nor John Graves Simcoe, Statesman,
Soldier and Freemason. We do well to
recall his exploits in loving memory
every August.

.

The Editor's Quarry

We have dug almost through our backlog
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We need manuscripts which will contrib-
ute to a better knowledge and understand-
ing of Freemasonry. Historical articles are
especially welcome, with sharp black and
white photographs or line drawings if pos-
sible.

Contributors should always give their
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Color slides are needed for the covers.

From time to time I receive letters ex-
pressing various opinions on articles pub-
lished or on other matters. Most of these
are too long, and regrettably, some are in
poor taste.

I propose to start a column of letters,.and
give the following as guidelines for those
who want to write:

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The Philalethes, October 1992

