Читать книгу The Life of John Graves Simcoe - William Renwick Riddell - Страница 13

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[1] In a letter from Evan Nepean to Simcoe from St. James’ Palace, Saturday, September 10, 1791, the writer “is extremely sorry to hear by your letter that your indisposition has increased. It is not fitting that you should be out of condition on the eve of embarking on such an expedition. I trust that a few days sea air will set you to rights, and prepare you to encounter the gales on the American coasts”. Wolf. I, 1, 372.

Simcoe’s mother had died during his absence in America; in the Newcastle Courant of August 10, 1776, appeared the following death notice:—“Lately Mrs. Simcoe, widow of the late Capt. Simcoe of the 40th Regt., now in America”. It will be seen that the paper confused Capt. Simcoe with his son.

Early in 1782, Simcoe received the freedom of the City of Exeter—the following is an entry in the Register:—“In Chamber, January 22, 1782, Resolved unanimously that the freedom of this city be presented to Lieutenant-Colonel Simcoe for his very able and spirited conduct in America. And this body hath a particular satisfaction in showing this mark of their esteem and respect to a gentleman who spent the early part of his life in this City and has proved himself so distinguished an ornament to his profession.”

[2] Colonel Gwillim was Lieutenant of the Seventh or Royal Regiment of Foot in 1746—See Historical Record of the Seventh or Royal Regiment of Foot, Compiled at the request and with the assistance of the officers of the regiment, by W. Wheater. Printed for private circulation, Leeds, 1875. He afterwards became Lieutenant-Colonel of the 50th Foot.

Mrs. Graves did not approve of early marriages and tried to persuade her niece to “bide a wee”; the Admiral, however, who had a great fondness for Simcoe, favored the suit and quietly influenced his wife so that her objections were soon over-ruled, and plans and preparations were made for a wedding in December.

That his friends evinced interest in the event is shown by this extract from a letter in the family archives:—

“I cannot send off this letter without assuring you that you have interested all our family circle, consisting of my Father, Wife, Sister and self, (Tom being in town and Dick on his living in Cornwall). The prospect of any addition to your happiness gives a glow of animation to our spirits—We drink your health in a bumper to-day and shall remember you. in our prayers at night—for with us old-fashioned people the sober glass of friendship and real devotion are not incompatible; however, the two extremes may run wild into intemperance and Methodism. I can give you no better wish than that you may realize all those true joys which I have experienced in matrimony and a domestic life.”

As Miss Gwillim was an heiress, the matter of marriage settlement had to be arranged with her aunt’s consent. This was given. On 27th November, 1782, Simcoe wrote his solicitor that—“This concurrence Mrs. Graves is ready to give, in this or any other matter that may facilitate the affair. You will be pleased, therefore, to make out the settlements, settling as heretofore directed upon Miss Gwillim whatever legally can be done; and if by any Article or obligatory Bond, the law can bind me to fulfill what is further intended to be settled on her when of age, viz: the whole or the remainder of her portion of the Aldwinckle Estate, you will be pleased to draw them up immediately.”

Of the wedding there is no special account in the Simcoe manuscripts. It is recorded thus in the register of Buckerell Parish Church:—

“Numb. 60—Lieutenant-Colonel John Graves Simcoe of this Parish and Miss Elizabeth Posthuma Gwillim of this Parish were married in this church by Licence this 30th Day of December in the Yeare One Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighty-two by me, Thos. Roskilly, Curate. This Marriage was solemnized between Us, John Graves Simcoe, Elizabeth Posthuma Gwillim, in the Presence of Saml. Graves, Margaret Graves.”

The Gwillims were an ancient and noble family, with a genealogy extending back to the days of the Conquest—a descent from the British Lords of Brecon, from Henry Fitz Herbert, Chamberlain of Henry I, and from William the Conqueror. The archives at Wolford contained an elaborate genealogical outline by Francis Townsend, Windsor Herald in 1806, an excellent example of Heraldic art, showing about four hundred quarterings of colour.

[3] We find a letter addressed to him by Mathew Robert Arnott, a warm friend, from South Audley Street, Saturday, March 20, 1784, congratulating him on the birth of a daughter (Eliza, born January 1784), and adding:

“I approve most exceedingly of your address to the Freeholders of Exeter as I think it does honour both to your head and heart and hope it will not fail of having its due effect whenever a vacancy happens which, according to the present appearance of affairs, cannot be very far distant. Indeed there never was a period in the annals of this Country when it behooved the electors of this Kingdom to be more careful in the choice of their representatives than the present .... With all the veneration and respect I have for the House of Commons as a constituent part of this Government .... I cannot help thinking that their late attempts against the just prerogative of the Crown has a violent tendency towards subverting the balance of the Constitution upon the preservation of which the Rights and Liberties of this country so entirely depend. The contest is, however, happily over for the present and the only means of preventing its renewal seems to be a speedy dissolution of Parliament .... It is now said that this event will take place on Wednesday next, .... I shall be happy to see you returned. ....” Wolf. I, 1, 231.

Arnott was a true prophet: Parliament was dissolved, Wednesday, March 24, and Pitt had a large majority.

A very fair and impartial account of this episode will be found in Jesse, Vol. IV, cap. 2, pp. 48, sqq. “If you resign, Mr. Pitt”, the King is reported to have said to him, “I must resign too.” do. do. do. p. 55.

Simcoe at this election was invited by a considerable body of the electors to become their candidate. He was about to accept the invitation and begin a canvass when he found that John Baring, Esq., who had been elected by the burgesses for the previous eight years, had announced his intention of becoming a candidate again; thereupon he withdrew from the contest “that I may, so far as is in my power, promote the tranquility of the City”, as he says in his answer to the requisitionists of January 9, 1784.

[4] It would appear that Simcoe removed to Wolford Manor in 1784, but this is not certain. Mr. Robertson, Diary, p. 31, says that “it was not until 1788 that they made Wolford their permanent residence, after improvements in the house had been made”; but we find as early as October 4, 1784, Anna Seward writing him at “Wolford Lodge near Honiton, Devon”; the same address is given in her letter to him, February 20, 1785. Wolf. I, 1, 234, 238. Apparently his first two children and perhaps the third, were born at Exeter in January 1784, August 1785, and April 1787, respectively. Diary, p. 32.

Wolford Lodge, Honiton, Devon, England

[5] The copy seems to have been made by Mrs. Simcoe who had undoubted artistic talent. The poetess thought the “kind and thrice acceptable present .... infinitely valuable in itself (and) that value doubled by the consciousness of receiving it from the beloved friend of that dear exalted martyr to whose fortitude and greatness of soul it bears such striking testimony.....” Wolf. I, 1, 238. Anna Seward’s Monody will be found with André's portrait by Hopwood in a book published in 1808: An Authentic Narrative of the Causes Leading to the Death of Major André, Adjutant-General of His Majesty’s Forces in North America, by J. H. Smith. The Monody has been reprinted in Lossing’s The Two Spies, Nathan Hale and John André, N.Y., 1886.

[6] Wolf. I, 1, 269, 270. In this letter Simcoe says: “I am the more emboldened to write to you, Sir, my father having laid that plan for the Conquest of Canada, which was afterwards adopted, to your father, and as I am in possession of authentic documents which prove that General Wolfe in London planned the landing on that very spot near Quebec where he afterwards did land and that if he had commanded the Armament against Louisbourg agreeable to your great Father’s expectations had surprised Quebec the same year”.

Wolfe’s belief, expressed in the course of a long letter to Sackville, that Quebec might that summer have fallen was justified. But Amherst did not share his belief, and the conquest of Quebec was delayed for a year.

Lieutenant Spencer of the 73rd afterwards went to India, and a loan of £100 was obtained for him on Simcoe becoming security. Simcoe paid the amount, August 6, 1791. Wolf. I, 1, 367.

It was probably about this time that Simcoe wrote his most successful poem: Cadiz and Essex seem to have been much in his mind.