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[1] Foster’s Alumni Oxonienses, Oxford, 1888, Vol. 2, p. 1297, has the entry:—

“Simcoe, John Graves, S. John, of Cotterstock, Northants arm. Merton Coll. matric., 4 Feb., 1769, aged 16: Major-General in the Army, the first Governor of Upper Canada, etc., M.P. St. Maws, 1790-2, died 26 Oct., 1806”. The Warden of Merton during Simcoe’s residence was the Revd. Dr. Henry Barton, Royal Chaplain. Foster’s Oxford Men and their Colleges, Oxford, 1893, pp. 90, 91. Merton had by this time outlived its earlier supremacy.

[2] John Ross Robertson, The Diary of Mrs. John Graves Simcoe, Toronto, 1911, p. 16. It is known that notwithstanding, and in some degree because of, his profession and active habits, Simcoe suffered from ill-health in later years. I have not been able to obtain any information from the Exeter School or Merton College as to Simcoe. The Warden of Merton says that the College possesses no records of its members other than Wardens and Fellows in the 18th century, and the Head-master of Exeter School at Exeter says there are no registers of that school extant prior to 1817, and it is not even known how and when the former registers were destroyed.

In an admirable work, The Eton College Register, 1753-1790, edited by R. A. Austen Leigh, published at Eton by Spottiswoode, Ballantyne & Co., 1921, which gives biographical notices as far as possible of every boy attending Eton and appearing on the lists of the College from 1753-1790, appears the following entry:

“Simcoe 1765-68 (tutor Heath) John Graves entered 16 Sept. 1765 (Bagwell) o.s. John S. of Cotterstock, Co. Northampton, Capt. R.N. by Katharine Dau... Stamford, b. 25 Feb. 1752; educated at Exeter before going to Eton; Matric. at Oxford from Merton College 4 Feb. 1769. Admitted student Lincoln’s Inn 10 Feb. 1769. Ensign 35th Regiment 27 Apr. 1770; Major-General 1798; Lieut.-Gen. 1801; Commanded the Queen’s Rangers in the American War; M.P. for St. Mawes 1790-92; Governor of Upper Canada 1792-96; m. 30 Dec. 1782 Elizabeth Posthuma, Dau. Col. Gwillim of Old Court, Hereford; appointed Commander-in-General in India 1806, but being taken ill on his way out came home and d. at Exeter 26 Oct. 1806 (Dict. Nat. Biog., Lincoln’s Inn Reg., The World 7 Apr. 1787)”.

The latest entry of Simcoe’s name in the actual school lists of Eton is in “A Bill of Eton College, August, 1768”, in which Simcoe appears among the 5th Form Oppidans.

“Bagwell” means that he entered the Dame’s House of Miss Bagwell who lived at Gulliver’s.

[3] This was the usual course pursued by those intending to join the army who desired to be competent officers—the College of Sandhurst was not incorporated until 1863—we find the Earl of Chatham placing his eldest son under the tutorship of Captain Kennedy for instruction in fortification in the view of entering the Army. See Letters to Thomas Hollis from Chatham, dated, Burton-Pynsent, April 13 and 18, 1773. John Heneage Jesse’s Memoirs of the Life and Reign of King George the Third, London, 1901, Vol. III, pp. 504 sqq., 507.

Before Simcoe left for America he was made a Mason: particulars need not here be gone into—it is sufficient now to say that he was proposed at the Union Lodge of Free Masons meeting at the Globe Tavern in Exeter, November 2, 1773, and was admitted to the first two degrees at a meeting of the same lodge at the same place December 7, 1773, and to third at a meeting of the same lodge at the same place Jan. 18, 1774. See Chap. XXIX, post.

[4] To the philosophic student of history this result seems to have been inevitable unless the statesmen in London made a radical and revolutionary change in their conception of the status of Colonies and Colonists; and that was still far in the future. The chief cause of the conflict was the determination of England to control the Colonies, and the determination of the Colonies to govern themselves. “England was an oligarchy; each Colony was inevitably a democracy. The Englishmen who crossed the seas to found new homes were the most resolute and independent of all their countrymen. They wielded real authority in their new communities and however loyal in spirit to the mother land they might seem, they deemed themselves self-governing. In founding such states through her own sons, England had sown profusely the dragon’s teeth of democracy, and yet endeavored to check it by the weakest and clumsiest application of aristocratic government”. Prof. Wrong in 4 The Canadian Historical Review (December 1923), p. 338; cf. passim Egerton’s The Causes and Character of the American Revolution, Oxford, 1923.

[5] Letter Chatham to Hollis from Burton-Pynsent, February 3, 1775, 3 Jesse, p. 502.

[6] A Journal of the Operations of the Queen’s Rangers From the End of the Year 1777 to the Conclusion of the late American War. By Lieutenant-Colonel Simcoe, Exeter. Printed for the Author, 4to, Introduction: Simcoe’s Military Journal ..... New York, Bartlett & Welford, 1844, 8vo., p. 13. See Chapter III, Note 13, post.

W. R. Givens in an article, Unpublished Letters of Governor Simcoe, The Canadian Magazine, Vol. 30, (March, 1908), at p. 404, says that the words used by Simcoe in a letter, Exeter, January 2, protesting against “the anarchy and tyranny in which the selfish and disgraceful factions of this country has betrayed” his correspondents Loyalists in America are “a clear evidence it would seem that Mr. (Duncan Campbell) Scott errs in his statement that the Governor (Simcoe) believed the war was forced on Great Britain. Rather, it would seem, the Governor felt that Great Britain forced the war herself”. But Mr. Givens has misunderstood Simcoe’s meaning; he was referring not to the War of Independence, but to the Peace of 1783 which had not sufficiently provided for the Loyalists in Simcoe’s view and in that of most, if not all, of the Loyalists—they are the “deserving and much injured friends”. Mr. Givens is also in error as to the date: it must have been January, 1784, not 1782: the letter of Mr. Arnott sufficiently fixes the date of Simcoe proposing to enter Parliament. See Chapter IV, post. It will be remembered that North had been dismissed only on December 18, 1783, that he had as a colleague Lord Carlisle, mentioned by Simcoe, and that Pitt was not yet firm in the saddle. Simcoe makes clear his view of the proper relation of Colony to the Mother State in a letter of July 26, 1763, referred to more particularly in note 16, Chapter XIII; he considers the American Commissioner, Timothy Pickering, “a violent, low, philosophic, cunning New Englander” as “he held out to our gentry of the same stamp .... the doctrine that assimilates States to private families, and deduces from the child growing up into manhood and being capable to take care of himself that it is right and natural for a son to set up for himself and by a just inference that such is the disposition and tendency of all States.”

[7] In a work by Captain R. H. Raymond Smythies, Historical Records of the 40th (2nd Somersetshire) now First Battalion The Prince of Wales Volunteers (South Lancashire Regiment), Devonport, 1894, cr. 8vo., at p. 79, note, it is said that “at the age of nineteen he received an ensign’s commission in the 53rd Regiment”; but the reference given to Simcoe’s Military Journal shows 53 to be a misprint for 35. The Historical Record of the Fifty Third or the Shropshire Regiment of Foot, by Richard Cannon, London, 1849, does not contain Simcoe’s name.

[8] In a letter to his mother, written from Boston shortly after his arrival, Simcoe says:—

“Boston, 22nd June, 1775.

Dear Madam:—We arrived here on the 19th, being the last ship of the fleet. Two days before our arrival the dreadful scene of civil war commenced, for at a distance we saw the flames of Charlestown and steered into the harbour by its direction.

On our arrival we learned that the rebels had taken possession of the heights on the opposite side, from whence the town at that time blockaded by numbers was endangered. To force this was absolutely necessary and it was done in the most glorious manner—an action by the confession of veteran jealousy that exceeds whatever had before happened in America and equalled the legends of romance. It proves to me how very narrow are the limits of experience.

Our light infantry was commanded by Drewe, whose behaviour was such as outdoes all panegyrick by every confession. He was wounded in three places, but fortunately neither to endanger life, limb or disfiguration. This I assure you upon my sacred honour, nor could I write in such case was the friend of my soul in the least danger. Massey was wounded and Bard, to my great regret, killed, having as ever, remarkably distinguished himself. Of our other company, the Grenadiers, they have equalled the misfortunes and gallantry of the others. The able and generous Lym is wounded almost past recovery; B. Campbell is slightly hurt, and by the consequence of this action we are free from any anxiety; we have strongly fortified it, and I suppose shall wait till we have at least 5,000 men from England before we commence operations which then I doubt not will be decisive—Would to God, Lord Chatham, Richmond—who have inflamed to rebellion, would lead on these infatuated wretches to their inevitable destruction. I have much to do—am now going to sup with Mrs. Graves. All well there—nor should I have written but to assure you that we are safe and shall be for some time, and by my sacred honour to confirm Drewe’s letter should it not be satisfactory; perhaps his wound may be his preservation. Into the hands of God we commend our cause, nor do I doubt but this severe check they have received may cause an effectual reconciliation. The reason we lost so many officers is on account of their dress. This is altered as we now dress like soldiers. God bless you. I will write as often as possible. Adieu.

I am ever your affect. son,

J. G. Simcoe.”

To understand this letter fully it must be borne in mind that the Americans had taken possession of the Peninsula of Charlestown on the north shore of the Charles River opposite to Boston; and the left wing of the British Force in advancing at the Battle of Bunker’s Hill (fought chiefly be it said on Breed’s Hill) had to contend with a body of Americans posted in the houses in Charlestown, and in the conflict the town was set on fire and burned to the ground. This was June 17, 1775. See Stedman’s The History of the ..... American War, London, 1794, Vol. I, pp. 124-127. This battle has been absurdly enough, claimed as a victory for the Revolutionary Troops.

D. B. Read in his Life and Times of Gen. John Graves Simcoe .... says at p. 11, “Simcoe did not embark from England with his regiment, but he landed at Boston on the memorable day of the Battle of Bunker’s Hill, 17th June, 1775”. Dr. Duncan Campbell Scott in his John Graves Simcoe (Makers of Canada Series) says, p. 18: “He .... reached Boston only on June 17th, 1775, in time to hear the roar of guns on Bunker Hill and see the town streets filled with wounded and dying”. No authority is given for the statements as to the day of his arrival at Boston, and his own statements to his mother would seem to conclude the question.

[9] Simcoe naturally enough speaks of Admiral Graves as a “most upright and zealous officer”; and probably with truth. Graves had the bad fortune to be sent on a most ungracious duty, that of carrying out the “Boston Port Bill”, (1774), 14 George III, c. 19, which was an Act “to discontinue .... the landing and discharging, lading or shipping of goods, wares and merchandise at the Town and within the Harbour of Boston in the Province of Massachusetts Bay in North America” from and after June 1, 1774. This Act was in retaliation for the “Boston Tea Party”. Graves had an inadequate force and he undoubtedly failed, probably not by his own fault; while no charge was laid against him, he was superseded, January, 1776. His advance in rank to Admiral of the Blue and Admiral of the White, however, was not checked. See D. N. B., Vol. XXII, pp. 437-8.

[10] Simcoe’s own words, Journal, p. 14, in the Exeter edn. at second page of Introduction.

The real objection to the enlistment of the negroes was the same as that taken to the enlistment of negro troops by the North in the Civil War and to their use in Africa as well as in Europe, because it was not well to allow them to feel that they might fight against any white man. It was the same feeling that influenced many Englishmen to deprecate the use by Britain of French-Canadians against the revolting North American Colonies: amongst those who so objected was Maseres, a former Attorney-General of Quebec, who said:—“I should be sorry to see the (French) Canadians engaged in this quarrel .... if they were to subdue the other Americans, I should not like to see a Popish army flushed with the conquest of the Protestant and English Provinces”, Canadian Archives, Shelburne Papers, Vol. 66, p. 53. James Wallace went out to America in 1774 as Captain of the Rose, a 20 gun Frigate, and at this time was “actively engaged in those desultory operations against the coast towns which were calculated to produce the greatest possible irritation with the least possible advantage.” He was knighted in 1777 and subsequently became an Admiral. See D. N. B., Vol. LIX., pp. 100, 101.

[11] He is said to have acted during this siege as Adjutant of his regiment “but there is no record of his appointment”. Diary, p. 16.

[12] The existing records of the 40th Foot indicate that this occurred during the siege; Captain Smythie’s Historical Records, ut suprâ, gives, p. 46, the Roll of Officers of the 40th at the date of the Battle of Germantown from the Army List for 1777, corrected from official sources to October 1, 1777; amongst the Captains is John Graves Simcoe as of December 27, 1775, vice Joseph Greene, who (p. 39) sold out soon after arrival in America to take the rank of Major in the Regiment of Oliver De Lancy of New York, a leading Loyalist.

The following letter to his mother bears upon the movements mentioned in the Text.

“Boston, March 13th, 1776.

My dear Madam:—

Perhaps this is the last letter I shall write to you from Boston as we have entrained all our heavy stores and baggage, and wait, I believe, only for a farewell word to evacuate it. Gen. Howe has adopted this resolution, I believe, from our being likely to want provisions and not being willing to risk anything to the uncertainty of the sea. His last despatches from England bear date upwards of 5 months past, it is said. The rebels have performed the feat of throwing several shells and more shot in the town from Phipp’s farm opposite Barton’s Point, and from the heights below Roxbury. Two shots only have done any damage, the one breaking the leg of a boy; the other taking off the legs of 6 men of the 22nd Regmt., one of whom has since died. They in one night’s time fortified the Heights of Dorchester Neck with works not unworthy the Roman Republic. Gen’l Howe determined to attack them; Regmts. (of which the 40th was one) fell down the river in ships. They were to have landed opposite the Castle; the Light Infantry and Grenadiers of the Army were to have landed from Boston. The violence of the wind prevented the execution of this design that night, and the General laid it aside and immediately determined to quit the town and, as reported, to go to Halifax.

You have here a minute detail of our proceedings since our friends of the Fort returned. I hope they had a quick and pleasant passage. I purpose writing Mrs. Graves. Should we go to Halifax, which I rather fear than hope, and should I have a fortnight’s secession from duty, I will borrow the dates and write you a kind of journal of this uncommon blockade. We are not to burn the town from motives I think of the best policy. We are paying every attention to preserve it from plunder, and daily discoveries are made of stores, which evidence clearly if any testimony was wanting, how long they have been preparing for hostilities—Had I the description of Drewe I would endeavour to paint my present situation.

It is past two o’clock in the morning. I am Capt’n of our Picquet. In one corner of the room, on one-half of my bed made (luxury indeed!) of clean straw, lies an officer asleep, with his feet towards the fire. He snores, but not in one drone, but in several modulations. My bayonet is stuck in the table, the socket of which serves as a candlestick to a night light. One half of my chair is now burning in the fire, and the other, when I shall have finished this letter, will be applied to the same use, serving rather to light the room than to warm it, there being no want of fuel from a multitude of wooden houses, and coal. Underneath me is Capt. Bradstreets; on the same floor my Company repose, almost drowning the solo of my companion with a most anti-musical concert. Scattered in the room lie many excellent and valuable books, picked up in the street by my Sergeant, where they were thrown in the trunk that contained them, to form part of a barricade. (N. B. If my Sergeant can smuggle them on board I shall not see it as they belong to Percy Morton, whose anti-Christian name bespeaks a rebel. But there is an order for no more baggage to be carried on board.) I have now been 11 days on duty. I should once have felt some inconvenience from it and been sleepy, but I am accustomed to snatch a slumber for an hour or two at a time, so that the perpetual gnaw, as I may call it, that I have been on since the 19th of June last is not the least wearisome to me nor did I ever, I thank God, enjoy a more uninterrupted state of health. Four of us have just supt upon a fowl which was stolen from a young man who had the impertinence to have possession of two at this time, when all our provisions are on board.

I go in the Spy, a remarkable fine sailor. I will now sleep, burning the legs of my chair and applying its rush bottom first as a pillow and in case of necessity as a paper. Adieu.

14th. The wind and other matters unfavourable, so that we are not embarked and possibly may not for some days.

Yesterday’s order was “The troops that are to embark at the Long Wharf to march in two columns, the right column to be composed of 22nd, 65th, 52nd, 23rd, and 44th Regmts. Left column 17th, 45th, 63rd, 35th and 38th Regiments. Brigadier-Gen’ls Robinson and Grant.

The troops to embark at Hancock Wharf to march in one column. The 43rd, 47th, 40th, 10th and 55th—Brigadier Gen’ls Jones and Smith.”

15th. The wind against us. Though the rear guard took the ...... which consists of the light infantry, Grenadiers 4th and 5th Regiments. The Jonathans very quiet.

16th. Rainy weather, probably changing. We are ordered to be in readiness at the ..... to-morrow morning. A very great fire in the camp last night. Their barracks appear to have been on fire.

17th. About 7 this morning the whole column embarked, fell down the river, evacuated Charlestown and the lines in sight of the enemy, entrained, none daring to molest us.

18th. At anchor, the wind being not fair—the glass—it is much too long—a glass in a ..... case with screws made by Adams in Fleet Street ..... strong. If I have time I will write again. If not ...

Believe me, &c.,

J. G. Simcoe.”

The following letter was almost certainly to Mrs. Graves.

“Kings Road, Boston, March 19th, 1776.

My dear Madam:—You will suppose that I have made the proper wishes for your safe arrival in England with more than the sincerity of a compliment. I will then hasten to communicate to you the very material intelligence of our having evacuated Boston, and waiting now for a fair wind to proceed to Halifax. The rebels having completed their fortification at Phipps Farm, cannonaded us from thence, and threw some shells into the town from Cobb Hill, without the least damage but what some windows sustained. They also cannonaded us from Roxbury, and bombarded the lines with as little effect, except one unlucky shot which took off the limbs of six of the 22nd. This they continued for a few days. On the 4th of this month they increased their fire on our lines, which we returned with great spirit, but early the next morning when the curtain of the fog was drawn up, we discovered two redoubts nearly finished on the two high hills of Dorchester Neck, and two others with a wall of trussed hay to keep up the communication with their works to the left of Roxbury.

By twelve o’clock 5 Reg’ts, of which the 40th was one, received orders to fall down below the Castle, to land from thence. The wind however, proved so violent that we could not possibly land the next morning as was intended, so we disembarked in the evening and on our arrival on shore were informed that the General was determined to quit Boston, on account of the small quantity of provisions in the garrison.

It is said we were to have landed on one side, the Grenadiers, Light Infantry and some Regiments on the other, and that a diversion was to have been made at Roxbury. By two deserters who came in the day before yesterday it is reported that 15,000 men were at Dorchester, and in case that we had attacked it, that 5,000 men from Cambridge were to have attempted a landing on the Common; a disposition that I believe as it seems marked with the same ability that has characterized all their attempts. If true, I congratulate myself on the lucky escape. If spirit could have succeeded we had won the redoubts, as the personal attachment each individual of the officers bears to General Howe would have influenced them to have trod in his steps, who seemed to expect to die rather than to conquer, and when did the British soldiers ever leave their officers? It would have been dreadful to have met with as great a loss at an unimportant outwork as need not be sustained in carrying a point of the greatest consequence.

On the 17th the whole army embarked; the main body between seven and eight in the morning, the rear guard and troops at Charlestown about ten, and fell down to our present station, the enemy not firing a shot at us. By my glass I could discover them taking possession of Charlestown about an hour after we left, as they did of Boston. I forgot to mention that for some days we fired upon Foster Hill to prevent their raising a works there, and that this morning at daybreak it appeared four feet above the hill, with such wonderful expedition they construct their works. You may remember, at least the Admiral does, a little knoll in the centre of the curve that Foster’s Hill and the point near the Castle form, that I used to say was the spot, which if ships could come near, would still demolish a first rate. The rebels placed two 24 pounders in the manner I had formed in my own mind; on them from whence we threw a shot that took the top off the fusilier barracks and lodged in one of your late outhouses.

We expect to sail the first fair wind from Halifax. We have not heard from England or the southward since you sailed. Dawson has distinguished himself in driving off 20 privateers and taking two ships in spite of them.

I forgot to mention that before the ice broke up we had an alért as it is termed, to Dorchester Neck. We burnt the houses there, took six prisoners, 70 others of the guard hiding themselves, and returned home. Four of these fellows Gen. Howe sent back; the other two were sent on board in charge of Bourmaster, from whom they escaped, stealing his boat. It is said he was informed of it while at the Admiral’s, and just as he was boasting what care he had taken of them.

I hope the Admiral has the proper opportunities of * conduct, and that a generous public, however it has been * artifices and falseholds is a length undeceived. I doubt it * still think it happy for him that he was recalled, yet cannot but wish he may return whenever we attempt the Delaware. This might be a service not unworthy of him. At present I see nothing but dishonor; perhaps to you the scene may be less gloomy. You may know the support Great Britain intends to assist us with, and may perceive the nation has not yet lost all regard to its dignity. I have hopes that we are not destined for Halifax, but for some more active operations. As a soldier I will venture to affirm that no posts they had taken could be of sufficient force to drive us from the town, the heights of it and our artillery being considered, Noddle Island in our power and the harbour capable of containing our hospital, our women in the ships secure from all danger. No private store was searched for provisions, a measure I think that would have been taken had the want of them been the real cause of our retreat. Early the next morning after our retreat the rebels had assembled on Fort Hill. We left about 12, spiked a tempory Exp *. Capt. Banks has hoisted his flag as Commodore. He had my * forgot it. I gave it to Dick and kept the Admiral’s, to whom I beg every wish that the utmost affection and gratitude can inspire, and beg leave to subscribe myself, dear madam,

Your most obliged,

(Signature torn)

——————————

* Letter torn here.

[13] Journal, p. 14. The command had been given to Captain James Wemyss of the 40th Regiment, who had joined in 1771. Later Simcoe wrote General Grant, under whom he had served, “requesting his good officers in procuring a command like that of the Queen’s Rangers if any other corps intended for similar employment should be raised in the country to which the expedition was destined.”

[14] Washington, in his Report to the President of Congress, said: “We found Princeton with only three regiments and three troops of light horse in it, two of which were on their march to Trenton. These three regiments, especially the two first, made a gallant resistance and in killed, wounded and prisoners must have lost 500 men”. 3 Jesse, p. 125.

The 40th lost one lieutenant, one ensign, three sergeants, one drummer and eighty-eight rank and file killed, wounded and missing—of the latter, however, several rejoined afterwards at Brunswick.” Capt. Smythie’s Historical Records, ut suprâ, p. 48, (n).

[15] do. do. do. p. 49 (n). This work is very inaccurate as regards Simcoe—it makes him born “about 1753”, receiving a commission as Ensign in the 53rd, and becoming “Governor of Canada”.

The Queen’s Rangers were highly commended for their gallant conduct at the Battle of Brandywine. The General Orders of September 13, contained the following:—

“The Commander-in-Chief desires to convey to the officers and men of the Queen’s Rangers his approbation and acknowledgment for their spirited and gallant behaviour in the engagement of the 11th inst., and to assure them how well he is satisfied with their distinguished conduct on that day. His Excellency only regrets their having suffered so much in the gallant execution of their duty.”

In a Pennsylvania newspaper of 3rd December, 1777, the following complimentary notice appeared:—

“No regiment in the army has gained more honour in the campaign than Major Wemyss’ Rangers; they have been engaged in every principal service and behaved nobly; indeed most of the officers have been wounded since we took the field in Pennsylvania. General Knyphausen, after the action of the 11th September at Brandywine, despatched an aide-de-camp to General Howe with an account of it. What he said was short but to the purpose. ‘Tell the General I must be silent as to the behaviour of the Rangers, for I want even words to express my own astonishment, to give him an idea of it’ ”.

[16] Journal, p. 1.

The Life of John Graves Simcoe

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