John Graves Simcoe - Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada

Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada

The Province of Upper Canada was created under the Constitutional Act of 1791, within several years of the end of the American Revolutionary War. The area had been newly settled mostly by Anglo-American and other Loyalists from the Thirteen Colonies, as well as the Six Nations of the Iroquois, who had been allies during the war. The Crown had purchased land from the Mississaugas and other First Nations to given the Loyalists land grants in partial compensation for property lost in the United States, and to help them set up new communities.

Simcoe was appointed lieutenant governor and made plans to move to Upper Canada with his wife Elizabeth and daughter Sophia, leaving three daughters behind with their aunt. They left England in September and arrived on November 11. As this was too late in the year to make the trip to Upper Canada because of severe weather, the Simcoes spent the winter in Quebec City. The next spring they moved to Kingston and then Newark (now Niagara-on-the-Lake).

The Constitutional Act stipulated that the provincial government would consist of the Lieutenant-Governor, an appointed Executive Council and Legislative Council, and an elected Legislative Assembly. The first meeting of the nine-member Legislative Council and sixteen-member Legislative Assembly took place at Newark on September 17, 1792.

Simcoe's first priority was dealing with the effects of the Northwest Indian War, in which American Indians warred with the United States over encroachment in their territory west of the Appalachian Mountains. War broke out between Britain and France in 1793. Although the United States pledged neutrality, its sympathies were with France, an ally during the Revolution. Simcoe was instructed to avoid giving the US reason to mistrust Britain, but at the same time to keep the Native Americans on both sides of the border friendly to Britain.

Simcoe essentially denied the boundary defined in the Treaty of Paris (1783) on the grounds that the Americans had nullified the treaty. The British wanted the Indians to form a buffer state between the two countries. Tribes pushed into the area by the Iroquois and colonists allied with existing regional tribes. Together, groups of Ottawa, Ojibwa, Pottawatomi, and Huron; from eastern Illinois Country: the Miami, Wea, Kickapoo, Mascouten, and Piankashaw; and from the Ohio Country: the Delawares (Lenape), Shawnee, Mingo, and Wyandot, engaged in scattered warfare with the United States, trying to end Anglo-American encroachment. The conflicts were called the Northwest Indian War. The Indians asked the British for military support, which they initially refused. They did supply the Indians with weapons in 1794.

In February 1794, the Governor-in-Chief Lord Dorchester, anticipating that the Americans would honour their treaty with France, said that war was likely to break out between the United States and Great Britain before the year was out. His statement encouraged the Indians in their war. Dorchester ordered Simcoe to rally the Indians and arm British vessels on the Great Lakes. He also built Fort Miamis (in present day Maumee, Ohio) to supply Indians in the upcoming war. Simcoe expelled Americans from a settlement on southern Lake Erie which had threatened British control of the lake. George Washington denounced the "irregular and high-handed proceeding of Mr. Simcoe." While Dorchester planned for a defensive war, Simcoe urged London to declare war: "Upper Canada is not to be defended by remaining within the boundary line." Lord Dorchester was given an official reprimand for his strong speech against the Americans in 1794.

Simcoe realized that Newark made an unsuitable capital because it was on the United States border and subject to attack. He proposed moving the capital to a more defensible position in the middle of Upper Canada's southwestern peninsula between Lake Erie and Lake Huron. He named the new location London and renamed the river as the Thames in anticipation of the change. Lord Dorchester rejected this proposal, but he accepted Simcoe's second choice of Toronto. Simcoe moved the capital to Toronto in 1793, renaming the settlement York after Frederick, Duke of York, George III's second son.

Simcoe began construction of two main routes through Ontario to aid in the defence of Upper Canada; they would also help encourage settlement and trade throughout the province. Yonge Street, named after the Minister of War Sir George Yonge, was built north-south between one of the two portages fur trade routes between Lake Ontario and Lake Simcoe. Soldiers of the Queen's Rangers began cutting the road in August 1793, reaching Holland Landing in 1796. Another road, Dundas Street named for the Colonial Secretary Henry Dundas, was built east-west between London and York.

The Northwest Indian War stuttered to a stop after the United States defeated the Indians at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. They made peace under the Treaty of Greenville. While still at war with France, the British could not afford to antagonise the Americans. In the Jay Treaty of 1794, they agreed to abandon the frontier forts and to relocate on their side of the border defined in the Treaty of Paris (1783). Their plan for an Indian buffer state failed. After the British surrendered Fort Niagara in November 1796, they confronted the United States from Canada over the Niagara River.