here were emigrants chiefly from Pennsylvania. Coming from a
•quarter where large tracts had been rapidly transformed by human
toil from a state of nature to a condition of high cultivation, they
brought with them an inherited experience in regard to such
matters ; and on planting themselves down in the midst of an
unbroken wild, they regarded the situation with more intelligence
perhaps than the ordinary emigrant from the British Islands and
interior of Germany, and so, unretarded by blunders and by doubts
as to the issue, were enabled very speedily to turn their industry
to profitable account.
The old Gazetteer of 1799 speaks in an exalted sentimental strain
of an emigration then going on from the United States into Canada.
" The loyal peasant," it says, " sighing after the government he lost
by the late revolution, travels from Pennsylvania in search of his
former laws and protection ; and having his expectations fulfilled
by new marks of favour from the Crown in a grant of lands, he turns
his plough at once into these fertile plains [the immediate reference
is to the neighbourhood of Woodhouse on Lake Erie], and an
abundant crop reminds him of his gratitude to his God and to his
king."
We do not know for certain whether the Quaker settlers of the
region north of the Ridges came into Canada under the influence
of feelings exactly such as those described by the Gazetteer of
1799. In 1806, however, we find them coming forward in a body
to congratulate a new Lieutenant-Governor on his arrival in Upper
Canada. In the Gazette of Oct. 4, 1806, we read : " On Tuesday,
the 30th September (1806), the following address from the Quakers
residing on Yonge Street was presented to his Excellency the
Lieutenant-Governor : " The Society of the people called Quakers,
§ 27.] Yonge St., (Bond's Lake to Holland Landing. 477
to Francis Gore, Governor of Upper Canada, sendeth greeting.
Notwithstanding we are a people who hold forth to the world a
principle which in many respects differs from the greater part of
mankind, yet we believe it our reasonable duty, as saith the Apostle,
'Submit yourselves unto every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake,
whether it be the king as supreme, or unto governors as unto them
that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers, and for the
praise of them that do well :' in this we hope to be his humble
and peaceful subjects. Although we cannot for conscience sake
join with many of our fellow-mortals in complimentary customs of
man, neither in taking up the sword in order to shed human blood
— for the Scripture saith that ' it is righteousness that exalteth a
nation, but sin is a reproach to any people ' — we feel concerned for
thy welfare and the prosperity of the province, hoping thy admin-
istration may be such as to be a terror to the evil-minded and a
pleasure to them that do well : then will the province flourish and
prosper under thy direction j which is the earnest desire and prayer
of thy sincere friends. — Read and approved in Yonge Street
monthly meeting, held the 18th day of the ninth month, 1806.
Timothy Rogers and Amos Armitage are appointed to attend on
the Governor therewith. Signed by order of the said meeting,
Nathaniel Pearson, clerk."
To this address, characteristic alike in the peculiar syntax of its
sentences and r£ the well-meant platitudes to which it gives
expression, his Excellency was pleased to return the following
answer : " I return you my thanks for your dutiful address and for
your good wishes for my welfare and prosperity of this province.
I have no doubt of your proving peaceful and good subjects to his
Majesty, as well a§v industrious and respectable members of
society. I shall at all times be happy to afford to such persons
my countenance and support. Francis Gore, Lieut-Governor.
Government House, York, Upper Canada, 30th Sept., 1806."
The Timothy Rogers" here named bore a leading part in the
first establishment of the Quaker settlement. He and Jacob
Lundy were the two original managers of its affairs. On the
arrival of Governor Peter Hunter, predecessor to Gov. Gore,
Timothy Rogers and -Jacob Lundy with a deputation from the
settlement, came into town to complain to him of the delay which
they and their co-religionists had experienced in obtaining the
patents for their lands.
478 Toronto of Old. [§ 27.
Governor Hunter, who was also Commander-in-Chief and a
Lieut. -General in the army, received them in the garrison, and
after hearing how on coming to York on former occasions they
had been sent about from one office to another for a reply to their
inquiries about the patents, he requested them to come to him
again the next day at noon. Orders were at the same instant
-despatched to Mr. D. W. Smith, the Surveyor-General, to Mr.
Small, Clerk of the Executive Council, to Mr. Burns, Clerk of the
•Crown, and to Mr. Jarvis, Secretary and Registrar of the Province
{all of whom it appeared at one time or another had failed to
reply satisfactorily to the Quakers), to wait at the same hour on
the Lieut.-Governor, bringing with them, each respectively, such
papers and memoranda as might be in their possession, having
relation to patents for lands in Whitchurch and King.
Governor Hunter had a reputation for considerable severity of
character ; and all functionaries, from the judge on the bench to
the humblest employe, held office in those days very literally
during pleasure.
"These gentlemen complain," — the personages above enu-
merated having duly appeared, together with the deputation from
Yonge Street — " These gentlemen complain," the Governor said,
pointing to the Quakers, " that they cannot get their patents."
Each of the official personages present offered in succession
some indistinct observations ; expressive it would seem of a degree
of regret, and hinting exculpatory reasons, so far as he individually
was concerned.
On closer interrogation, one thing however came out very clear,
that the order for the patents was more than twelve months old.
At length the onus of blame seemed to settle down on the head
of the Secretary and Registrar, Mr. Jarvis, who could only say
that really the pressure of business in his office was so great that
he had been absolutely unable, up to the present moment, to get
ready the particular patents referred to.
"Sir !" was the Governor's immediate rejoinder, "if they are
not forthcoming, every one of them, and placed in the hands of
these gentlemen here in my presence at noon on Thursday next
(it was now Tuesday), by George ! I'll un-Jarvis you ! " — im-
plying, as we suppose, a summary conge" as Secretary and Registrar.
It is needless to say that Mr. Rogers and his colleagues of the
deputation carried back with them to Whitchurch lively accounts
§ 2J.~] Yonge St. {Bond's Lake to Holland Landing. 479
of the vigour and rigour of the new Governor — as well as their
patents.
General Hunter was very peremptory in his dismissals occasion-
ally. In a Gazette of July 16, 1803, is to be seen an ominous
announcement that the Governor is going to be very strict with
the Government clerks in regard to hours : " Lieut.-Governor's
office, 21st June, 1803. Notice is hereby given that regular atten-
dance for the transaction of the public business of the Province
will in future be given at the office of the Secretary of the Pro-
vince, the Executive Council office, and the Surveyor-General's
office, every day in the year (Sundays, Good Friday, and Christ-
mas day only excepted) from ten o'clock in the morning until
three in the afternoon, and from five o'clock in the afternoon until
seven in the evening. By order of the Lieutenant-Governor, Jas.
Green, Secretary."
Soon after the appearance of this notice, it happened one forenoon
that young Alexander Macnab, a clerk in one of the public offices,
was innocently watching the Governor's debarkation from a boat,
preparatory to his being conveyed up to the Council-chamber in a
sedan-chair which was in waiting for him. The youth suddenly
caught his Excellency's eye, and was asked — "What business he
had to be there? Did he not belong to the Surveyor-General's
office ? Sir ! your services are no longer required !"
For this same young Macnab, thus summarily dismissed,
Governor Hunter, we have been told, procured subsequently a
commission. He attained the rank of captain and met a soldier's
fate on the field of Waterloo, the only Upper Canadian known to
have been engaged or to have fallen in that famous battle. (We
have before mentioned that so late as 1868, Captain Macnab's
Waterloo medal was presented, by the Duke of Cambridge per-
sonally, to the Rev. Dr. Macnab, of Bowmanville, nephew of the
deceased officer.)
Two stray characteristic items relating to Governor Hunter may
here be subjoined. The following was his brief reply to the
Address of the Inhabitants of York on his airival there in 1799 : —
"â– Gentlemen, nothing that is in my power shall be wanting to con-
tribute to the happiness and welfare of this colony." {Gazette,
Aug. 24, 1799) — At Niagara, ah Address from "the mechanics
and husbandmen " was refused by him, on the ground that an
address professedly from the inhabitants generally had been pre-
480 Toronto of Old. [§ 27.
sented already. On this, the Constellation of Sep. 10 (1799), prints
the following " anecdote," which is a hit at Gov. Hunter. " Anec-
dote. — When Governor Simcoe arrived at Kingston on his way
here to take upon him the government of the Province, the
magistrates and gentlemen of that town presented him with a very
polite address. It was politely and verbally answered. The
inhabitants of the country and town, who move not in the upper
circles, presented theirs. And this also his Excellency very
politely answered, and the answer being in writing, is carefully pre-
served to this day."
Among the patents carried home by Mr. Timothy Rogers, above
named, were at least seven in which he was more or less personally
interested. His own lot was 95 on the west or King side of Yonge
Street. Immediately in front of him on the Whitchurch or east
side, on lots 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, and 96, all in a row, were enjoyed
by sons or near relatives of his, bearing the names respectively of
Rufus Rogers, Asa Rogers, Isaac Rogers, Wing Rogers, James
Rogers, and Obadiah Rogers.
Mr. Lundy's name does not appear among those of the original
patentees; but lots or portions of lot in the "Quaker Settlement"
are marked at an earlier period with the names of Shadrach Lundy,
Oliver Lundy, Jacob Lundy, Reuben Lundy, and perhaps more.
In the region just beyond the Ridges there were farmers also of
the community known as Mennonists or Tunkers. Long beards,
when such appendages were rarities, dangling hair, antique-shaped,
buttonless, home-spun coats, and wide-brimmed low-crowned hats,
made these persons conspicuous in the street. On the seat of a
loaded country-waggon, or on the back of a solitary rustic nag,
would now and then be seen a man of this community, who might
pass for John Huss or John a Lasco, as represented in the pictures.
It was always curious to gaze upon these waifs and strays from old
Holland, perpetuating, or at least trying to perpetuate, on a new
continent, customs and notions originating in the peculiar circum-
stances of obscure localities in another hemisphere three hundred
years ago.
Simon Menno, the founder and prophet of the Mennonists, was
a native of Friesland in 1496. He advocated the utmost rigour of
life. Although there are, as we are informed, modernized Men-
nonists now in Holland, at Amsterdam, for example, who are
distinguished for luxury in their tables, their equipages and their
§27.] Yonge St. ; (Bond's Lake to Holland Landing 481
country seats, yet a sub-section of the community known as Uke-
Wallists, from one Uke Walles, adhere to the primitive strictness
enjoined by Menno. Their apparel, we are told, is mean beyond
expression, and they avoid everything that has the most distant
appearance of elegance or ornament. They let their beards grow
to an enormous length j their hair, uncombed, lies in a disorderly
manner on their shoulders ; their countenances are marked with
the strongest lines of dejection and melancholy; and their habita-
tions and household furniture are such as are only fitted to answer
the demands of mere necessity. " We shall not enlarge," Mosheim
adds, " upon the circumstances of their ritual, but only observe
that they prevent all attempts to alter or modify their religious dis-
cipline, by preserving their people from everything that bears the
remotest aspect of learning and science ; from whatever, in a word,
that may have a tendency to enlighten their devout ignorance."
The sympathies of our primitive Tunkers beyond the Ridges,
were, as we may suppose, with this section of the fatherland Men-
nonists.
Thus, to get the clue to social phenomena which we see around
us here in Canada, we have to concern ourselves occasionally with
uninviting pages, not only of Irish, Scottish and English religious
history, but of German and Netherlandish religious history likewise.
Pity 'tis, in some respects, that on a new continent our immigrants
could not have made a tabula rasa of the past, and taken a start
de novo on another level — a higher one ; on a new gauge — a
widened one.
Though only a minute fraction of our population, an exception
was early made by the local parliament in favour of the Mennonists
or Tunkers, allowing them to make affirmations in the Courts, like
the Quakers, and to compound for military service. — Like Lollard,
Quaker and some other similar terms, Tunker, /*. e. Dipper, was
probably at first used in a spirit of ridicule.
Digression to Newmarket and Sharon.
When Newmarket came in view off to the right, a large portion
of the traffic of the street turned aside for a certain distance out of
the straight route to the north, in that direction.
About this point the ancient dwellers at York used to take note
of signs that they had passed into a higher latitude. Haifa degree
EE
482 Toronto of Old. [§ 27.
to the south of their homes — at Niagara, for example — they were
in the land, if not of the citron and myrtle, certainly of the tulip-
tree and pawpaw — where the edible chestnut grew plentifully in the
natural woods, and the peach luxuriantly nourished.
Now, half a degree the other way, in the tramontane region north
of the Ridges, they found themselves in the presence of a vegeta-
tion that spoke of an advance, however minute, towards the pole.
Here, all along the wayside, beautiful specimens of the spruce-pine
and balsam-fir, strangers in the forest about York, were encountered.
Sweeping the sward with their drooping branches and sending up
their dark green spires high in the air, these trees were always
regarded with interest, and desired as graceful objects worthy to
be transferred to the lawn or ornamental shrubbery.
A little way off the road, on the left, just before the turn leading
to Newmarket, was the great Quaker meeting-house of this region
— the " Friends' Meeting-house" — a building of the usual plain
cast, generally seen with its solid shutters closed up. This was
the successor of the first Quaker meeting-house in Upper Canada.
Here Mr. Joseph John Gurney, the eminent English Quaker, who-
travelled on this continent in 1837-40, delivered several addresses,
with a view especially to the re-uniting, if possible, of the Orthodox
and the Hicksites.
Gourlay, in his " Statistical Account of Upper Canada," took
note that this Quaker meeting-house and a wooden chapel at
Hogg's Hollow, belonging to the Church of England, were the
only two places of public worship to be seen on Yonge Street
between York and the Holland Landing — a distance, he says, of
nearly forty miles. This was in 181 7.
Following now the wheel-marks of clearly the majority of vehi-
cles travelling on the street, we turn aside to Newmarket.
Newmarket had for its germ or nucleus the mills and stores of
Mr. Elisha Beaman, who emigrated hither from the State of New
York in 1806. Here also, on the branch of the Holland river,
mills at an early date were established by Mr. Mordecai Millard,
and tanneries by Mr. Joseph Hill. Mr. Beaman's mills became
subsequently the'property of Mr. Peter Robinson, who was Com-
missioner of Crown Lands in 1827, and one of the representatives
of the united counties of York and Simcoe ; and afterwards, the
property of his brother, Mr. W. B. Robinson, who for a time
resided here, and for a number of years represented the County of
§ 27.] Yonge St., (Bond' sLake to Holland Landing. 483
Simcoe in the provincial parliament. Most gentlemen travelling
north or to the north-west brought with them, from friends in York,
a note of commendation to Mr. Robinson, whose friendly and hos-
pitable disposition were well known :
" Fast by the road his ever-open door
Oblig'd the wealthy and reliev'd the poor."
Governors, Commodores, and Commanders-in-chief, on their tours
of pleasure or duty, were glad to find a momentary resting-place
at a refined domestic fireside. Here Sir John Franklin was enter-
tained for some days in 1835 : and at other periods, Sir John Ross
and Capt. Back, when on their way to the Arctic regions.
In 1847, Mr. W. B. Robinson was Commissioner of Public
Works ; and, at a later period, one of the Chief Commissioners of
the Canada Company. Mr. Peter Robinson was intrumental in
settling the region in which our Canadian Peterborough is situated,
and from him that town has its name.
At Newmarket was long engaged in prosperous business Mr.
John Cawthra, a member of the millionaire family of that name.
Mr. John Cawthra was the first representative in the Provincial
Parliament of the County of Simcoe, after the separation from the
County of York. In 181 2, Mr. John Cawthra and his brother
Jonathan were among the volunteers who offered themselves for
the defence of the country. Though by nature inclined to peace,
they were impelled to this by a sincere sense of duty. At Detroit,
John assisted in conveying across the river in scows the heavy guns
which were expected to be wanted in the attack on the Fort. On
the slopes at Queenston, Jonathan had a hair-breadth escape. At
the direction of his officer, he moved from the rear to the front of
his company, giving place to a comrade, who the following instant
had a portion of his leg carried away by a shot from Fort Gray, on
the opposite side of the river. Also at Queenston, John, after per-
sonally cautioning CoL Macdonell against rashly exposing himself,
as he seemed to be doing, was called on a few minutes afterwards,
to aid in carrying that officer to the rear, mortally wounded.
With Newmarket too is associated the name of Mr. William Roe y
a merchant there since 18 14, engaged at one time largely in the
fur-trade. It was Mr. Roe who saved from capture a considerable
portion of the public funds, when York fell into the hands of Gene-
ral Dearborn and Commodore Chauncey in 18 13. Mr. Roe was
484 Toronto of Old. [§ 27.
at the time an employe in the office of the Receiver General, Pri-
deaux Selby j and by the order of General Sheaffe and the Execu-
tive Council he conveyed three bags of gold and a large sum in
army-bills to the farm of Chief Justice Robinson, on the Kingston
road east of the Don bridge, and there buried them.
The army-bills were afterwards delivered up to the enemy ; but
the gold remained secreted until the departure of the invaders, and
was handed over to the authorities in Dr. Strachan's parlour by
Mr. Roe. The Receiver General's iron chest was also removed by
Mr. Roe and deposited in the premises of Mr. Donald McLean,
Clerk of the House of Assembly. Mr. McLean was killed while
bravely opposing the landing of the Americans, and his house was
plundered ; the strong chest was broken open and about one thou-
sand silver dollars were taken therefrom.
The name of Mr. Roe's partner at Newmarket, Mr. Andrew
Borland, is likewise associated with the taking of York in 18 13.
He was made prisoner in the fight, and in the actual struggle
against capture he received six severe rifle wounds, from the effects
of which he never wholly recovered. He had also been engaged
at Queenston and Detroit.
In the Report of the Loyal and Patriotic Society of Upper
Canada, we have an entry made of a donation of sixty dollars to
Mr. Andrew Borland on the nth June, 1813, with the note
appended : " The committee of the Loyal and Patriotic Society
voted this sum to Mr. Borland for his patriotic and eminent ser-
vices at Detroit, Queenston and York, at which latter place he was
severely wounded."
We also learn from the Report that Mr. D'Arcy Boulton had pre-
sented a petition to the Society in favour of Mr. Borland. The mem-
bers of committee present at the meeting held June 1 ith,i8i3, were
Rev. Dr. Strachan, chairman, Wm. Chewett, Esq., Wm. Allan, Esq.,
John Small, Esq., and Alex. Wood, Esq., secretary : and the mi-
nutes state that " The petition of D'Arcy Boulton, Esq,, a member
of the Society, in favour of Andrew Borland, was taken into con-
sideration, and the sum of Sixty Dollars was voted to him, on
account of his patriotic and eminent services at Detroit, Queenston
and York, at which latter place he was most severely wounded."
Mr. Borland had been a clerk in Mr. Boulton 's store. In the order
to pay the money, signed by Alexander Wood, Mr. Borland is styled
"a volunteer in the York Militia." He afterwards had a pension
of Twenty Pounds a year.
§ 27.] Yonge St., (Bond's Lake to Holland Landing. 485
In 1838 his patriotic ardour was not quenched. During the
troubles of that period he undertook the command of 200 Indians
who had volunteered to fight in defence of the rights of the Crown
of England, if there should be need. They were stationed for a
time at the Holland Landing, but their services were happily not
required.
From being endowed with great energy of character, and having
also a familiar knowledge of the native dialects, Mr. Borland had
great influence with the Indian tribes frequenting the coasts of
Lakes Huron and Simcoe. Mr. Roe likewise, in his dealings with
the aborigines, had acquired a considerable facility in speaking the
Otchibway dialect, and had much influence among the natives.
Let us not omit to record, too, that at Newmarket, not very
many years since, was successfully practising a grandson of Sir
William Blackstone, the commentator on the Laws of England —
Mr. Henry Blackstone, whose conspicuous talents gave promise
of an eminence in his profession not unworthy of the name he
bore. But his career was cut short by death.
The varied character of colonial society, especially in its early
crude state, the living elements mixed up in it, and the curious
changes and interchanges that take place in the course of its
development and consolidation, receive illustrations from ecclesi-
astical as well as civil annals.
We ourselves remember the church-edifice of the Anglican
communion at Newmarket when it was an unplastered, unlathed
clap-board shell, having repeatedly officiated in it while in that
stage of its existence. Since then the congregation represented
by this clap-board shell have had as pastors men like the following :
a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, not undistinguished in his
University, a protege of the famous Archbishop Magee, a co-worker
for a time of the distinguished Dr. Walter Farquhar Hook, of
Leeds, and minister of one of the modern churches there — the
Rev. Robert Taylor, afterwards of Peterborough here in Canada.
And since his incumbency, they have been ministered to by a
former vicar of a prominent church in London, St. Michael's,
Burleigh Street, a dependency of St. Martin's in Trafalgar Square
— the Rev. Septimus Ramsay, who was also long the chief secretary
and manager of a well-known Colonial Missionary Society which
had its headquarters in London.
While, on the other hand, an intervening pastor of the same
486 Toronto of Old. [§ 27.
•congregation, educated for the ministry here in Canada and
admitted to Holy Orders here, was transferred from Newmarket
first to the vicarage of Somerton in Somersetshire, England, and,
secondly, to the rectory of Clenchwarden in the county of Norfolk
in England — the Rev. R. Athill. And another intervening incum-
bent was, after having been also trained for the ministry and
admitted to orders here in Canada, called subsequently to clerical
work in the United States, being finally appointed one of the