Читать книгу The Life of John Graves Simcoe - William Renwick Riddell - Страница 5

Table of Contents

John Graves Simcoe who was to become the first Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of Upper Canada, was born, February 25, 1752, at Cotterstock, a hamlet in Northamptonshire^[1], about ten miles from Peterborough and a mile and a half from the old town of Oundle.

His father was Captain John Simcoe^[2], whose ancestry has given trouble to some biographers; it may now be stated with certainty that he was the only son of the Reverend William Simcoe, Vicar of Woodhorn, Northumberland, who had been Curate of South Shields, Durham.

Born in 1710, John Simcoe was a man of the highest character, well read in the classics and general literature and specially skilled in mathematics. He obtained an appointment as Midshipman in the Royal Navy through the influence of his father in 1730: the name of the ship is unknown.

In 1737, he was appointed Lieutenant and in 1743, Captain. We find him in 1746 in command of H.M.S. Falmouth, employed about Jamaica in the unnecessary war with France which Pelham had declared in 1743; he was ordered by Vice-Admiral Thomas Davers of the Red Squadron, June 20, 1746, to take to England in his ship certain Spanish Privateers who had been captured by British ships in the Caribbean Sea^[3]. He was placed in command of the second of the two divisions into which the home-bound fleet was divided, and arrived in due time at the Downs^[4]. In the following year, 1747, we find him in command of H.M.S. Prince Edward in King Road, a roadstead in the estuary of the Severn^[5]; and in the same year he was granted a coat of arms by the Garter and Clarencieux Kings of Arms—he was then described as of Chelsea, Middlesex.

In 1747, August 8, while still Commander of H.M.S. Prince Edward, he married Catherine Stamford; and after the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, settled in Cotterstock, where four sons were born to them, Pawlett William, John, John Graves and Percy William: the first and second died in infancy and the youngest was drowned in 1764. In 1749, he was involved in litigation arising out of his conduct as officer in the Navy; but he received the commendation of Chief Justice Willes at a trial at Guildhall^[6]. He was an intimate friend of Samuel Graves, afterwards (1770) Vice-Admiral, and later (1778) Admiral; and the infant son received his second name in honour of this friend who became his godfather^[7]. Simcoe hoped to be sent as Engineer in charge of the Forts and Settlements on the Coast of Africa, but the Committee of Merchants to whom was entrusted the choice selected another; he remained for a time in command of the Prince Edward, stationed at King Road, but in 1755 was looking for a command with little prospect of success; he applied to be permitted in case of war to serve as a volunteer with Sir Edward Hawke, and his request was granted by the Admiralty. But he almost immediately received the command of the St. George at Portsmouth—the Seven Years’ War, which broke out in 1756, demanded the services of all men so well qualified as John Simcoe. It was on board the St. George that the Court Martial for the trial of Admiral Byng was held, Simcoe being a member of the Court^[8].

An expedition to North America being in prospect, Simcoe applied for and received the command of the Pembroke, a new 60-gun ship launched in April, 1757; he said that he had the seizure of Quebec so much at heart that he could “almost resolve to go as a volunteer”^[9]. He was ordered by the Admiralty, November, 1757, to put himself in command of a number of ships and proceed with them and the Pembroke to join Sir Edward Hawke; he had sealed orders, but the Fleet was to join the Rochefort expedition, which proved unsuccessful.

H.M.S. Pembroke

From a Monument in St. Andrew’s Church, Cotterstock

The following year finds him at Halifax under the command of Admiral Edward Boscawen and later at Louisbourg, in the siege and capture of which he took part^[10].

There has been some confusion as to the movements of Simcoe during the winter of 1758-9: it seems now clear that being on the Pembroke he was attached to Rear-Admiral Durell’s Squadron which wintered at Halifax.

This Squadron was intended to cruise off the mouth of the St. Lawrence, to block the entrance and cut off all aid from and intercourse with France. Durell, however, remained at Halifax and gave as an excuse when Wolfe and Saunders arrived, April 30, that he was waiting to hear if the ice would permit him to sail up the St. Lawrence. Saunders ordered him to sea, and Simcoe went with the Squadron with his ship, but he did not reach Quebec, as he died, apparently of pneumonia, on board the Pembroke, off Anticosti, May 15, 1759^[11].

He had strong views of the importance of the conquest of Canada, and its incorporation in the British Empire. In a letter, June 1, 1755, to Lord Barrington, Secretary at War, he points out the insolence and aggressiveness of the French and adds:—“Such is the position of Quebec that it is absolutely the key of French America, and our possession of it would forever lock out every Frenchman, be the signal of revolt to the Indians—Our seizure of Canada would undeniably ....... give us the monopoly of the fur and fishery trades, open to us so many new and vast channels of commerce as would take off our every possible manufacture especially of woollen and linen, whilst it poured in every growth and every material at so cheap a rate as would make us necessarily the mart of foreign exportation and most amply compensate for even the extinction of all our other foreign trade of importation—a circumstance ....... to be wished as it would reunite and fortify all our colonists and the exclusive possession of that continent will fill each ocean with British shipping without depopulating this Country .......” He recommends a plan of campaign and future conduct in considerable detail, and urges again and again the ease and importance of the conquest^[12].

Lord Barrington recognized the importance of the project, for we find him writing to Simcoe, “desiring to know what force of ships and troops would be sufficient”^[13]. Simcoe’s answer does not seem to have been preserved; but it is known that his son, the Lieutenant-Governor, always considered that it was his father’s plans which were followed in the conquest of Canada, 1759-1760, and that the conquest was undertaken by reason of his representations. Later in the year 1755 or in 1756, Simcoe sends to a Lord of the Admiralty, an elaborate scheme “for forming a body of seamen into a regular disciplined corps to answer all occasions of service in peace or war”—“a marine brigade”^[14]. The Admiralty in 1755 revived the Marine force which had disappeared after the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748: it has been continuously sustained since the revival and for many years without change from Simcoe’s scheme.

In 1756, he urges the formation of a “well regulated national militia”: he urges the repeal of the Game Laws, and permission to the people to shoot game—saying to the “Freeholder” whom he supposed to object, that “it is better to participate with a good grace your monopoly of wild birds to those whose labour feeds and clothes you and whose bravery ....... will defend you, your wife, your children, your estate and your real property, civil and religious, than have with a very bad grace your all exposed to be ravished from you by every merciless, rapacious invader ....... Let the destruction of game be but by fire arms ....... of the militia and its sale be absolutely prohibited and the contraveners impartially punished and the game will rapidly increase”. He points out that the “Buccaneers, the Negroes and the Indians who carry their guns for subsistence are the best marksmen and most dangerous partisans in the world and only want to be broken to the art of war to be the best regulars. So will the English prove when allowed the exercise of firearms, the prohibition of which by the Game Laws has broken that British spirit, and extinguished that bravery heretofore the terror of the French nation”^[15]. A National Militia was indeed organized in 1757 to continue with little change until 1908; but the Game Laws remained practically the same.

In 1757, he urges the possession by British of a fortified harbour on each side of the Isthmus of Panama—the advantage “would be immense and surprising; nothing less ....... than the entire trade and dominion of the South Sea would be the natural consequence—here would be a vent for all the woollen, linen and silk manufactures of Great Britain ....... with an advanced price, we could sell every commodity infinitely cheaper than the Spanish Merchant could afford .......”^[16].

His last extant letters are insistent upon the necessity of conquering France by way of Quebec; he had, when Braddock was appointed in 1755 to carry on the war in America, pointed out to Hugh Percy, Earl (later Duke) of Northumberland “that France could not be advantageously attacked in America but by a direct seizure of Quebec”. This he repeated in 1759 to Northumberland; and also that “a peace on any other terms but the absolute dominion of North America will destroy us ...... a peace which leaves an inch of ground in North America to France will undo Great Britain ....... We have now in our power by a vigorous attack on Quebec to become masters of all North America at one blow.”

To Admiral Boscawen about the same time he wrote: “The reduction of Quebec will at a blow give us the dominion over North America”; and to Lord Ravensworth: “Another war will ruin Great Britain ...... in a few years if any temporary delusive peace now leaves an inch of Canada in the possession of France. We have it in our power now to ruin her there forever if we take Quebec this next year”^[17].

In 1754 he wrote for the guidance of young officers in army and navy an admirable paper, “Maxims of Conduct”, or “Rules for Your Conduct”^[18].

Captain John Simcoe was evidently well educated. He had read and could aptly quote Cicero in the original and was familiar with Plutarch (perhaps in Bryan’s Latin version of 1729): his style was clear, his logic convincing, his terminology accurate, his conclusions generally sound and always plausible—his writings were admirable in their vigor and force; if we cannot always agree with him we must at least recognize his candor, persuasiveness, utter loyalty to King and country, and devotion to their interests as he saw them.

It has been thought worth while to give the foregoing particulars of Captain Simcoe to indicate that many of the best traits of the Lieutenant-Governor were inherited. Of his wife, Catherine Stamford, little is known except that she was a model wife and mother.

On the death of her husband, Mrs. Simcoe removed from Cotterstock to Exeter, devoting her life to her two boys until the younger was drowned in the River Exe in 1764, and then to her sole surviving child, John Graves Simcoe. In 1766, her death took place at Newcastle.

Leeside House

The Birthplace of Captain John Simcoe, R.N., Hilton, Durham, England.

Where Governor Simcoe Was Born, Cotterstock, Northampton County, England