The Simcoe mapping project was not simply a game of marking places on a blank paper.  It was also the process of creating mental and metaphorical maps that have lasted over two centuries, shaping how we see the places in which we live.  We seldom pause to consider that part of identity-making.  In this post, I will think about what Simcoe’s place names contribute to our sense of place and community.   When Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe marked out counties and townshi

Residents of Belleville, Ontario, have inherited a forest of Simcoe names.  Here, a single friend provided a full list: Hastings County, the Moira River, and the townships of Rawdon, Huntingdon, and Hungerford.  While the 2 nd  Earl Moira may have had more places named for him in Upper Canada than any other in the Simcoe circle, Ontarians today are surrounded by Simcoe family and friends.  Some are well-known and remembered as the Simcoes wished, while others are less familia

When American General William Hull visited Niagara en route  to the Ohio country in February 1794, he was mightily impressed by “the rare accomplishments of Mrs. Simcoe” and in particular, her maps, which he considered so finely drawn that they looked like copperplate engravings. [1]   Another visitor, Frenchman François-Alexandre la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, also admired her “talents for drawing … maps and plans,” which he favoured because they made her “extremely useful” to

While John Graves Simcoe has been a figure for derision in Canada to all but late-nineteenth century imperialists, his wife has always been given much more positive press.  Why?  In this little essay, I want to explore how Elizabeth Simcoe's life has been represented and used over time.  Changing ideas about who she was and why she mattered tell us as much about the historical context of each observer-historian as they do about the woman herself.   Possibly Charlotteville on

Toronto newspaperman John Ross Robertson presented Victorian and Edwardian Canadians with an image of Elizabeth Simcoe that endures to this day.  Why?  What purpose did his project serve then and now?  In part one of a two-part posting, I ponder where our ideas about Mrs. Simcoe came from and how both their persistence and change tell us something about ourselves.   Born in Toronto in 1841, Roberston was the eldest child of Scottish immigrants who came to Canada to start thei

There never was a Lady Simcoe.  Nor was there a Lord Simcoe.  Yet the belief that Upper Canada’s first imperial couple were titled...

Most Canadians know the Simcoe name – if only as a place on a map.  Far fewer know about the people behind the name.  And many might ask...