Around here, Simcoe is considered a war criminal. He also burned the Dutch Reformed churches in our area, and some of the farms owned by the Dutch, on the basis that all the Dutch settlers were rebels or rebel sympathizers.
Dan On Tue, Aug 3, 2010 at 9:00 PM, frank theriault <[email protected]> wrote: > On Tue, Aug 3, 2010 at 11:38 AM, Daniel J. Matyola <[email protected]> > wrote: >> Frank, just what is Simcoe Day? >> >> Simcoe is a name in our local history in New Jersey. In 1779, >> British Lt. Colonel John Simcoe led a raiding party of "...eighty Tory >> raiders from Staten Island, crossing to Perth Amboy, seeking to >> capture Governor Livingston and to scuttle the flat-boats of the >> American army." tOn October 27th, Simcoe reached the Somerset Court >> House and burned it. As a result, the court house was moved further >> inland, to where it is now located, a block from my office. > > Well, first of all, I don't think Simcoe Day is an official holiday > yet. It's just a "Bank Holiday", an excuse to have an extra long > weekend in August. There's been a movement afoot for several years > now to give the weekend a bit of pizzazz, and naming it after John > Graves Simcoe is gaining popularity it seems. Some calendars even > call it Simcoe Day, even though it's not yet official. > > And, yes, it's the same Simcoe you talk of. From a military family, > his father fought at the Plains of Abraham (when Britain took over New > France) and for that service his family was granted land in what's now > Ontario. He followed in his dad's footsteps and became a career > soldier, fighting in the US War of Succession (or as you call it, the > American Revolution). > > When the colony of Canada was split into Upper Canada (Ontario) and > Lower Canada (Quebec) he became U.C.'s first Lieutenant-Governor, the > Crown's representative in the colony. Reformed the courts, introduced > English Common Law, trial by jury, introduced freehold land tenure, > abolished slavery. Apparently did a great job. > > So now (or at least hopefully soon) we have a holiday in our province > named after him. > > cheers, > frank > -- > "Sharpness is a bourgeois concept." -Henri Cartier-Bresson > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
