Page 17 - Oundle Life January 2024

TALE OF
TORONTO
John Graves Simcoe
Left top: ‘©Plate 102: Mid 17th-Century House’, in An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the County of Northamptonshire, Volume 6, Architectural Monuments in North Northamptonshire (London, 1984), British History Online.
Lying just two miles north of Oundle, Cotterstock is a tiny village with a population of just over 150, but if it wasn’t for a man who was born there, the sprawling metropolis of Toronto would not exist. And there
wouldn’t be a national day in his
honour every year in Canada.
John Graves Simcoe was born at Cotterstock Hall in 1752. His father (also John Simcoe) was a famous naval captain who had sailed with Captain Cook. By 1756 Simcoe Senior and all three of young John’s brothers were dead and the remainder of the family moved to Exeter.
Upper Canada and resigned from Parliament to take up his new post.
The province of Upper Canada was settled after the American Revolution, mostly by
After attending Eton and Oxford,
Simcoe pursued a military career and saw action during the American Revolution. After serving for eleven years and attaining the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, he was invalided back to England where he became MP for St Mawes in Cornwall. In 1792, after just two years in politics, he was made Lieutenant Governor of
moving the capital to the present site of Toronto and, when his suggestion was accepted by
the Lord Governor, Simcoe named the new capital York and set about transforming the underdeveloped town.
Importing politicians, builders, and skilled tradesmen in their hundreds, Simcoe embarked
After attending Eton and Oxford, Simcoe pursued a military career
English speakers (the French controlled Lower Canada), and Simcoe was well thought of by most of them – not least because he played a leading part in passing the Act Against Slavery in 1793 (the first legislation to limit slavery anywhere in the British Empire).
Following the Revolutionary War, Simcoe realised that the then capital of Upper Canada, Newark, was too close to the American border and, as such, was vulnerable to attack. He proposed
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