The Simcoes Make A Map
- kmabel6
- Jan 30
- 13 min read
Updated: Feb 6
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 her husband.[2] Her dog Trojan was less enthusiastic. While she was away at dinner one night, Trojan shredded her “best map” of Canada and the United States, which she lamented that she had “taken great pains to draw.”[3]
While only one of these maps appears to have survived (no thanks to Trojan), the efforts of Lt. Gov. and Mrs. Simcoe were otherwise indelibly marked on the map of Canada. Their penchant for naming and re-naming places for people and locales that were personally meaningful can be seen (of course) as a classic case of imperialist arrogance. But it has also given us a legacy that, if considered thoughtfully, provides a glimpse into their world of patronage webs and social connections. Indeed, when I began work on the story of Elizabeth Simcoe’s life, I discovered that the fastest way to situate her in England was to look at the map of Ontario. Towns, townships, counties, rivers, and bodies of water named by the first lieutenant governor gave me a very useful list of names.
A map of Upper Canada believed to have been drawn by Elizabeth Simcoe.
Among other things, it shows the routes taken by the lieutenant governor on his various expeditions
across his fiefdom from 1793 to 1795.
Source: Archives of Ontario, Simcoe family fonds F47 (available on Wikimedia Commons)
Of course, many of the Simcoe choices were merely imitations of British place names – hence the counties of Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Middlesex, Kent, and Oxford. Northern outliers Durham and Northumberland had connection to John Graves Simcoe’s family. The eldest children of the Royal Family were honoured with townships: Frederick, Charlotte, Edward, Augusta, and Elizabeth. The name George, for the king, was saved for the intended capital city. Apparently, Simcoe wanted to call it “Georgina” in some sort of garbled Latin that was actually the feminine form of the name in use at the time. Simcoe does not appear to have been much of a Latin scholar during his days at Eton.
However, there were two other categories of names that were far more important to the Simcoes. The first were names of patrons or potential patrons. Their names and stories give us insight into how the elaborate network of patronage worked to support the business of crown, country, society, and empire in the eighteenth century.
The second category consisted of names that would perpetuate the memory of family and friends. These names and stories provide an entrée into the Simcoes’ personal lives.
We will explore each category in a separate blog entry. A third blog will be devoted to uncovering names that existed before the Simcoes redrew the map. It is not possible to explore the stories behind every county and township that Simcoe named (as there are over 130), so we shall focus on a few of the more important and revealing.
This blog entry is about the names that were added to the map as bold flattery while the Simcoes sought favour from potential patrons or paid obeisance to those who had already helped in the Colonel’s elevation to his important new post. As a relatively young man (he was not yet forty when appointed) and of modest origins, he clearly had mastered the art of making connections to promote himself and his interests. His young wife Elizabeth had provided the money and the social finesse. The fact that some of the men honoured on the map held opinions that were an anathema to the Simcoes shows just how important the currying of favour and patronage really was in their world.
Exhibit A is CHARLES LENNOX, the 3rd Duke of Richmond and Lennox (1734/5-1806). Lennox was an army officer who served mostly in what is now Germany during the Seven Years’ War. After the war, he was appointed Secretary of State for the Southern Department as part of the 2nd Marquess of Rockingham’s government. Lennox played a prominent part in opposing the British war in the Thirteen Colonies (much to John Graves Simcoe’s fury) and was a proponent of parliamentary reform (to Simcoe’s disgust), earning him the nickname “the Radical Duke.”
But in 1784, he metaphorically crossed the floor and joined the first government of William Pitt. Pitt made Lennox his Master General of the Ordnance (in charge of military supplies and related services); it was in this capacity that the lieutenant governor solicited his co-operation in supplying the military ordnance Simcoe wanted for Upper Canada. Lennox offered Simcoe “every assistance” although (like a good politician) he suggested that the real decisions lay with the Treasury and the “King’s ministers.”[4] Since Simcoe’s military plans were central to his aspirations for Upper Canada, Lennox might be a crucial ally. How unfortunate that Lennox “distinguished himself by his incapacity and his ridiculous orders,” in the words of historian John Holland Rose.[5]
Somewhat more to Simcoe’s taste was the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in Pitt’s government when Simcoe was appointed to Canada: Francis Godolphin Osborne, the 5th DUKE OF LEEDS (1751-1799). Leeds was a promoter of British interests after the American Revolution and drew the ire of then-diplomats Jefferson and Adams for his hostility to their new nation, which undoubtedly pleased Simcoe mightily.
Leeds as a young man by Benjamin West (National Portrait Gallery)
Source: Wikipedia
Leeds was a valuable patron to close Simcoe friend James Bland Burges, who was elected to parliament in 1787 for the borough of Helston (Cornwall) in the family interest of Leeds’ Godolphin relatives. Two years later, Leeds hired Burges as his assistant in the role of Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. The two men worked closely and well together for two years before Leeds resigned as Secretary.[6] Burges considered Leeds a friend, admiring his “brilliant and acute talents,” his amazing memory, and his wit – as well as his ability to “charm” and “dazzle” all whom he met.[7]
On the other hand, Leeds did not share Simcoe’s anti-slavery ideas and once chastised Burges (who also opposed slavery) with the wish “that he should cease from troubling the merchants of Bristol and Liverpool.”[8] And Burges later observed that the Duke’s talents were “unsupported by discretion and uncontrolled by principle.”[9] Horace Walpole concurred. The Duke of Leeds was “a light, variable young man of very moderate parts and less principle,” he once wrote, dubbing him “the weathercock Marquis.”[10] For a man like Simcoe, who stood firm on the necessity of principle (at least as he defined it), the duke’s inattention to consistency must have grated.
Nor was Leeds’ personal life to the Simcoes’ tastes. In 1778, Leeds’ wife (Amelia D’Arcy,
9th Baroness Conyers) had a wild affair with one Captain John Byron, nicknamed “Mad Jack.” She ran away with him, and a celebrated divorce case ensued, much to the care and feeding of the baser instincts of the reading public. In one of the curious twists of the Simcoe story, Mad Jack’s son, the (in)famous poet, would later play an unpleasant role in Elizabeth Simcoe’s life. Fortunately, Leeds’ second wife was rather more respectable; she would later serve as mistress of the robes to Queen Adelaide.
If the abolition of slavery and personal morality were vital to the Simcoe world view, patronage must have been very important to the lieutenant governor to convince him to name a county after Leeds.
Now the united counties of Leeds-Grenville (left from Wikipedia) and on an 1853 map (right)
A different kind of favour/reward was Simcoe’s choice for Stormont County. David Murray, 7th VISCOUNT STORMONT (1727-1796), was on the wrong side of Simcoe’s political fence and in no position to do him any favours. Stormont had been a highly successful diplomat in Austria and France before being appointed Secretary of State for the Northern Department in 1779, making him essentially the foreign secretary in the final years of the American Revolutionary War in the government of Lord North. Simcoe disapproved of both Lord North and his government’s dealings with the colonial revolutionaries. And in the House of Lords, after North’s government fell to Simcoe’s favoured William Pitt, Stormont was “a stalwart of opposition” and “at times an important critic of government policy,” in the words of historian Hamish Scott.[11]
Then in May 1792, Stormont rose in the House of Lords to contribute to a debate about the King’s proclamation against seditious meetings and political libel (in response to the formation of the London Corresponding Society that was calling for universal suffrage and parliamentary reform). Stormont declared, apparently very clearly and effectively, that he and “every man who had everything to lose” was most “anxious to preserve our constitution, under which we enjoyed so many blessings, rather than to run any risk, by venturing on a reform suggested by wild theories and speculations.”[12]
David Murray, Viscount Stormont by Sylvester Harding
(Collection of the British Museum)
Source: Wikipedia
Simcoe learned of the speech and heartily approved. He decided to reward Stormont, explaining to friend James Bland Burges, “A constitutional speech of Lord Stormont’s, though in opposition, made me celebrate his name…”[13] One wonders what Stormont thought of the honour, if he ever knew of it!
Now Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry counties (left from Wikipedia) and on an 1853 map (right)
Perhaps the most famous of the Simcoe naming projects was the choice of York, even to the extent of replacing an existing place name (Toronto Bay). Prince Frederick, the DUKE OF YORK and Albany (from 1784) was the second and allegedly favourite son of George III and Queen Charlotte. According to an oft-repeated story, Simcoe mandated the new name for the settlement at Toronto to honour the duke for his military victory at the siege of Valenciennes in Flanders (28 July 1793) during an otherwise disastrous campaign.[14]
Unfortunately, the story doesn’t hold up because Simcoe proclaimed the County of York along with the others a full year before the famous battle. And he referred to Toronto as “York” in correspondence a few months later. Then, two months before York’s victory, Simcoe told his counterpart in Lower Canada (Alured Clarke), “… I offer you some Observations upon the Military Strength and naval Conveniency of Toronto (now York).” Again, four days before York’s victory, Simcoe informed Clarke that it was “probable” he would temporarily seat his government at “York,” dropping Toronto altogether.[15]
Obviously, more research is needed to determine exactly why Simcoe sought to curry the Duke of York’s support. Certainly, the duke’s favour was also of interest to Simcoe’s close friend, Francis Rawdon-Hastings (Lord Moira), whose story we will note in the second blog entry on mapping.
If Simcoe was generous to York, history certainly has not been. As one of Queen Victoria’s “wicked uncles,” he was a notorious gambler and womanizer[16] who ran up astronomical debts and nearly bankrupted Lord Moira who could always be counted on to pitch in some cash or guarantee a note. Other than being the potential heir to the throne, it is not entirely clear what Moira and Simcoe hoped to obtain from the duke, although it is quite possible that both men hoped to use him to further their military ambitions. And eventually, Simcoe would come to believe that York was to blame for many of his disappointments and thwarted ambitions. Perhaps in the end, Simcoe would not have been displeased that the name Toronto soon returned to blot out at least one appearance of York on the map.
One of James Gillray’s many satirical cartoons featuring the Duke of York: “The Accommodating Spouse” from 1789. Here, Lord Tyrconnel obligingly leaves as York gets into bed with Lady Tyrconnel.
(British Museum Collection)
York County in 1885
And finally, we have HENRY DUNDAS, a controversial figure in both his lifetime and ours, albeit for different reasons.[17] Although Dundas is frequently identified as a “friend” of John Graves Simcoe, their relationship was actually a difficult and adversarial one.
Dundas was a Scot, educated as a lawyer, who moved in the circles of men whom we now count as members of the Scottish Enlightenment. He was elected to the House of Commons in 1774 and quickly established a reputation as an effective speaker.
In 1791, William Pitt brought Dundas into cabinet as Secretary of State for the Home Department; it was in this capacity that Simcoe required his support. As secretary, Dundas was responsible for the administration of domestic and colonial affairs, one of the most senior government positions. He was the primary official conduit for Simcoe’s instructions. Simcoe wrote lengthy memoranda to Dundas about his plans for Upper Canada; Dundas transmitted the correspondence to others as appropriate and communicated the responses. But Dundas’s letters also seem to suggest that he had strong ideas of his own.
There were clear differences of opinion from the beginning. Dundas objected to Simcoe’s plan to encourage Americans to settle in Upper Canada (“as may turn out not to be bona fide Loyalists”).[18] Dundas dismissed Simcoe’s idea of establishing a university in Upper Canada (“the Country must make the University, and not the University the Country”).[19] Dundas declined to support Simcoe’s plan to establish a port and customs house. He dismissed Simcoe’s ongoing requests for a promotion to more senior military rank. He wanted to base the defence of Upper Canada in a naval force while Simcoe preferred an army, in part because Simcoe wanted the soldiers to work at clearly roads and building infrastructure, as well as becoming permanent settlers. And Dundas tended to favour Governor General Lord Dorchester’s ideas about Indian policy over Simcoe’s.
Above all, Dundas and Simcoe butted heads over anything that might light a fire under the restless Americans. Dundas did not want to do anything that the American government might consider “offensive” while relations with the former colonies were still in a tenuous state. Simcoe thought that building a strong bulwark in Upper Canada would do more to defend British interests against the Americans than policies of appeasement. And so, Simcoe’s scheme to settle Americans on British soil was one flashpoint.
Dundas was even more concerned about Simcoe’s elaborate military plans. As American colonists began to move aggressively into the Ohio country, Simcoe seems to have proposed a significant increase in the numbers of British troops and other arrangements in Upper Canada in case of war. As historian Paul David Nelson put it, Dundas “rebuked Simcoe for his belligerence” in a “scolding letter.” Simcoe wrote back expressing “great astonishment and Anxiety” and provided a long, whining memorandum in his own defence.[20]
Certainly, Dundas praised Simcoe from time to time, but it seems that the lieutenant governor was building a wall of grievance, brick by brick, against what he saw as Dundas’s role in thwarting some of his dearly held dreams. It also likely did not help that Dundas was no friend of William Grenville whose family was an important part of Simcoe’s social rise, as we will see in Part 2 of our mapping project. But Dundas had to be kept mollified; Simcoe grovelled and wheedled in his increasingly obsequious letters to the man.
The relationship between Dundas and Simcoe deteriorated further after the Upper Canada years when Simcoe was appointed to lead a military expedition to St. Domingue (Haiti) in 1796/7, as explored in Mrs. Simcoe, chapter 5. It was a thankless task that ended in a flurry of recriminations against Simcoe. Simcoe blamed Dundas for much of it.
Now Stormont, Dundas, and Glengarry counties (Wikipedia, left) and Dundas County on an 1853 map.
Undoubtedly, when a Commission of Inquiry was launched into financial irregularities under Dundas’s watch as treasurer of the Admiralty, ultimately forcing Dundas to resign, Simcoe felt a little smug vindication. And he likely agreed with his friend Burges who wrote of Dundas that he “commenced his English career as the parliamentary prosecutor of our alleged peculator [Warren Hastings], and ended it by becoming himself the object of a parliamentary prosecution for peculation.”[21]
Or, in the description of Dundas in a famous satirical poem called The Rolliad:
His ready tongue with sophistries at will,
Can say, unsay, and be consistent still;
This day can censure, and the next retract,
In speech extol, and stigmatize and act…
He like some Angel, sent to scourge mankind,
Shall deal forth plagues, — in charity designed.[22]
[1] Maria Campbell, Revolutionary Services and Civil Life of General William Hull (NY: D. Appleton & Co., 1848), p. 289. Hull was en route to an Indian conference.
[2] La Rochefoucald-Liancourt, Travels through the United States of America (etc.), (London: R. Phillips, 1799), vol.1, p. 431.
[3] 23 December 1792 at Niagara, in Mary Quayle Innis (ed.), Mrs. Simcoe’s Diary (Toronto: Macmillan, 1965), p. 83. Her husband was mightily amused and wrote a very silly poem to mark the event.
[4] Duke of Richmond and Lennox to Simcoe, Goodwood [his seat], 15 September 1791, in E.A. Cruikshank, The Correspondence of Lieut. Governor John Graves Simcoe (Toronto: Ontario Historical Society, 1923), vol. 1, pp. 64-66.
[5] Quoted by Cruikshank in ibid., p. 66, footnote 1. From Rose’s William Pitt and the Great War (1911).
[6] Leeds also nominated Burges’s brother-in-law for the prestigious post of Lord of the Bedchamber.
[7] Burges, notes prepared in 1818 about people he had known, in James Hutton (ed.), Selections from the Letters and Correspondence of Sir James Bland Burges… (London: John Murray, 1885), pp. 62-3.
[8] Ibid. p. 129.
[9] Ibid., p. 63.
[10] Quoted in Oscar Browning (ed.), The Political Memoranda of Francis fifth Duke of Leeds (Camden Society, 1884), p. 451.
[11] In “The Rise of the House of Mansfield: Nobility in the Emerging British State,” in G. Haug-Moritz, H.P. Hye, and M. Raffler (eds.), Adel im ‘langen’ 18.Jahrhundert (Vienna, 2009), p. 137.
[12] The Parliamentary Register, series 2, vol. 33 (1792), p. 489.
[13] Simcoe to Burges, Niagara, 21 August 1792, in Hutton, op. cit., p. 221.
[14] See, for example, William Renwick Riddell, The Life of John Graves Simcoe (Toronto: McClelland & Steward, 1926), p. 221, and D. B. Read, The Life and Times of Gen. John Graves Simcoe (Toronto: George Virtue, 1890), p. 200.
[15] Simcoe to Clarke, Navy Hall, 31 May 1793, and 24 July 1793, in Cruickshank, vol. 1, op. cit., p. 339 and p. 396.
[16] See historian Donald B. Smith’s wonderful observations on the duke in a column for the Globe and Mail, 23 August 1995.
[17] Space does not permit a discussion of Dundas’s position on slavery. Suffice to say that Dundas has been falsely accused of being pro-slavery (he was a gradual abolitionist). See Nicholas Rogers, “Toronto’s Dundas Imbroglio,” Canadian Historical Review, 106/2 (June 2025): 193-214.
[18] Dundas to Simcoe, Whitehall, 20 October 1793, in Cruikshank, op. cit., vol. 2, p. 80.
[19] Dundas to Simcoe, Whitehall, 12 July 1792, in Cruikshank, op. cit., vol. 1, p. 179.
[20] Nelson, General Sir Guy Carleton, Lord Dorchester (Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2000), p. 225 and Simcoe’s response dated York (Upper Canada), 28 February 1794, in Cruikshank, op. cit., vol. 2, p. 166.
[21] Quoted in an essay on the 5th Duke of Leeds in The Westminster Review, ns 68 (July & October 1885), footnote on p. 466.
[22] [Joseph Richardson et al], The Rolliad (London: J. Ridgeway, 1795), 4th rev. ed., p.13. The “epic” poem was originally published as a serial in the Morning Herald. Its name was drawn from Devon MP John Rolle, another of John Simcoe’s nemeses. They were only narrowly prevented from a public fist fight at one point.
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