Buckskin Pimpernel

by Mary Beacock Fryer

  That same year, Vermont was admitted to the Congress, an event Justus scarcely noticed, so busy was he, struggling to create his own version of New England in the Canadian wilderness. Yet he soon felt the effect of this change at sessions of the Luneburg District Land Board. More loyalists from Vermont made their way to Canada. Questioning them, Justus learned that they were not being persecuted. For some it was a matter of principle, allegiance to the King, while for others the appeal was cheap land. To Justus the motive was unimportant. His new province needed settlers, and frontiersmen experienced in land colonization were the best type for the life they faced.

  Before the year ended, Sarah gave birth to their last child, a daughter they named Sophia.15 The three eldest were now seventeen, fifteen and fourteen, and young adult offspring were a blessing. It was impossible to hire labourers in a community where every head of family and many single men qualified for a grant of land.

  Conditions were still primitive, but people had time for some social life. Many had built more commodious homes, and dances took place at St. John's Hall in Johnstown, a new and pleasing hostelry. For the earliest families, especially the Sherwoods, life was more than mere subsistence. That August, Dorchester sailed for England on leave of absence because he did not want to be on hand to greet Simcoe when he arrived to take up his duties. Alured Clarke, Dorchester's deputy, remained in charge of both provinces until Simcoe was ready to govern. Clarke had not forgotten Mr. Sherwood's views, and he intended to warn Simcoe of that gentleman's Yankee opinions.

  For Justus, the winter routine was enlivened by some not very serious sedition that brought him into conflict with John Munro once again. Two men were ‘Detected in treasonous conversation…a design to burn the King's garrison at Oswegatchie’. After taking evidence for the crown, Justus issued warrants and had the two apprehended, and upon hearing their side of the story released them on bail. Forcing them to part with hard cash was sufficient to curb any more such talk, and besides, there was no gaol in the settlement. Munro, who was the postmaster, wrote to his superior, the Honourable Hugh Finlay, the Postmaster-General, complaining that Sherwood had acted improperly. The two men should have been sent to Fort Oswegatchie and confined. ‘This embarrassed us greatly’, Munro confessed ‘having no Jaol’.

  Munro also had objections to Justus' conduct at the land board. Neither of the two accused of treason were loyalists, and one had been a Continental soldier, yet Sherwood had admitted the latter as a settler, and allowed him ‘100 acres’. And, Munro added, ‘Am further informed that he has admitted Several Suspicious Characters, who have not been qualified in his Neighbourhood’.16 As usual, Justus ignored Munro's prating.

  In the spring of 1792, Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe prepared to travel up the St. Lawrence to take command of his province. In advance he selected the members of his legislative council. They were William Osgoode, William Robertson, Peter Russell and Alexander Grant — appointed in England before Simcoe sailed for Canada. The others were Richard Duncan of Rapid Plat, James Baby of Detroit, Robert Hamilton of Niagara, Richard Cartwright of Kingston, and John Munro of Matilda.17 Sir John Johnson's name was not on the list published in the Quebec Gazette, but he resided at Lachine and had been placed on the council for Lower Canada. Also missing from the list was Justus Sherwood's name. When he received his copy of the Gazette Justus could hardly believe his eyes. Only two men, himself and James Baby, had been members of the old council, and Simcoe had retained Baby. What did Simcoe have against him? What had that weasel John Munro manipulated to have himself on the council while Justus was excluded?

  In June the Simcoes and their escort reached Matilda and were met by Munro with horses to take them to his house.19 The lieutenant-governor had a levee at St. John's Hall in Johnstown at which the half-pay officers and their wives were to pay their respects. Justus refused to go, and Thomas resolved to spend the evening commiserating with his cousin. The prospect of watching a jubilant Munro was more than either man could stomach. Munro host to the new governor? That honour should have fallen upon Justus.

  The following day the Simcoe party moved on to Kingston, where the governor held his first council meeting before passing on to his capital under the guns of Fort Niagara, which he named Newark. He soon called an election, and for electoral and military purposes he set up counties. Edwardsburgh and Augusta were part of Grenville County, and entitled to elect a member to the assembly. Justus decided not to run because he might be wasting valuable time in an assembly doomed to impotence. Ephriam Jones stood and won the seat.20 Justus prayed that Simcoe would prove an able ruler. The province needed to be developed as much as its people needed a voice in their affairs. Meanwhile, he would do his share of the developing. He had timber to cut, his three little girls to enjoy, and the future of Diana and his sons to plan.

  That September, the first Parliament of Upper Canada met at Newark. In keeping with his policy of converting the wilderness into a carbon copy of England, Simcoe changed the district names to Eastern (Luneburg), Midland (Mecklenburg), Home (Nassau) and Western (Hesse). Under the Constitutional Act, one seventh of the land was reserved for the support of a Protestant clergy, and another seventh to provide revenue for the crown. Simcoe decided that the lot size for all farms would be ‘200 acres’, and the reserved lots would be scattered through the townships in a regular pattern, not set aside in blocks.

  When Justus heard this news he was livid. Thank heaven his land board had awarded lots side by side, so that the townships could be filled in, avoiding empty spaces that interfered with road building. Men were willing to work on a road past their own farms, but they felt imposed upon when chopping down trees across vacant land that had no owner to share the labour. The land board members had made certain that the farm lots were awarded to form a continuous community.21

  Simcoe delivered two more snubs to Justus Sherwood. When the governor wanted a district court judge, he appointed John Munro, despite the fact that Justus was the most experienced magistrate in the neighbourhood.22 Then when he organized the militia by counties, Simcoe followed the English practice of appointing lieutenants to raise the battalions. For his lieutenant in Grenville county he chose Peter Drummond, another half-pay captain from the Loyal Rangers.

  War had broken out between Britain and France, and Simcoe feared that the Americans might renew their alliance with the enemy. Upper Canada, thinly populated and nearly impossible to defend, was the most vulnerable part of British North America. Despite the threat, Simcoe also ignored Edward Jessup, who had commanded a regiment. Furthermore, Justus had been senior to Drummond when both men were captains in the Loyal Rangers.

  Brooding before the fire in his house, Justus wondered again what Simcoe had against him personally. He had served Governor Haldimand faithfully and was only too willing to do the same for Simcoe. Not only that, Justus was forty-six years old and working as hard as he had done all his life. He had no way of knowing that Alured Clarke and certain of John Munro's friends in Quebec City had damaged him in Simcoe's eyes.

  At the height of the alert a letter came from Ira Allen, one more typical of him than his request that Justus raise a loan for him in Montreal. He proposed a truce along the Vermont border if war broke out between the two countries, and begged Justus to use his influence.23 Justus' reply was only a matter of courtesy. He had no influence to wield now that he had been excluded from government circles. He continued living beside the St. Lawrence, improving his farmland, selling his timber rafts. The Constitutional Act and the arrival of a governor to take a real interest in his province now seemed a hollow victory. Justus Sherwood, with his Yankee political ambitions, had been set aside.

  Chapter 21

  Founding Father

  While Justus cultivated his garden, the legislature met for a second time at Newark and voted to legalize town meetings. Simcoe was horrified, but under pressure he agreed to compromise. He empowered justices of the peace to issue warrants for the election of township officers, suc
h as clerks, supervisors of highways, pathmasters and fence viewers.1 To Justus this limited form of town meeting was an improvement.

  Next, Simcoe moved his capital to the Toronto Carrying Place. Negotiations were afoot to surrender Fort Niagara to the United States, and once that occurred the legislature at Newark could be bombarded if further disturbances took place between the two powers. From York, the governor handed down a ruling distressing to the half-pay officers, the main slave-owning group. Slavery was to be abolished, which caused an uproar among the officers. Again Simcoe agreed to compromise. Owners could keep their slaves, but no more could be brought into the province. Children born to slaves were to be free at age twenty-five, all grandchildren free from birth.2 Justus' most reliable source of labour was saved.

  While he believed in liberty and self-determination for freeborn men, he saw no reason why men born into slavery should not remain in that condition. Pre-destination died hard. Not long after Simcoe's ruling, Justus sold Caesar Congo to Elijah Bothum.3 Caesar had been Sarah's loyal attendant, but Elijah needed him. He had recently married Molly Hurd and was working his own land in earnest. Justus had two other slaves, and two nearly grown sons to help him. He knew Elijah would be good to Caesar, and the transaction, Justus felt, was in keeping with his kindly nature.

  Little was happening near the Sherwood house on the town plot in Augusta. Although it was centrally located, as ordered by Haldimand, the water in front was shallow, unable to accommodate schooners. Since Justus knew the importance of a good harbour for the successful development of a town, he had been too obedient to Haldimand when he might have used his own judgement. At the eastern end of the township was a good harbour, and there, under the direction of Edward Jessup, a village was growing, on a dull grid plan.

  Johnstown, too, was a failure, for the harbour was shallow. That gave Justus some solace, for its plan was uninspired. He continued improving his property, serving on the land board and in the courts, preparing his sons to be successful in life. He knew that surveyors were badly needed, but neither Samuel nor Levius was taking kindly to the training. Samuel suggested he would be happier studying law, and Justus sent him to Montreal to apprentice with James Walker, a lawyer who sometimes appeared before the Court of Quarter Sessions in the Eastern District.

  For convenience, Justus built a small windmill on Lot 26 in the first concession of Augusta. The land belonged to Elijah Bothum, and lacked a stream suitable for a waterwheel. This mill was not a commercial venture, but a help in grinding grain for relatives and friends in the vicinity. At the same time, Justus was looking for a good waterfall where he could build large mills, and when he found one he intended to apply for the tract of land on which it stood as part of his military grant.

  He threw himself wholeheartedly into acquiring all the ‘3,000 acres’ his captaincy had earned him — and more. In March 1793, with Roger Stevens and two unbelievable associates, Justus petitioned for two townships on the Rideau River. Stevens was in the neighbourhood for he had moved from Montreal recently. He had explored the Rideau country and built a mill on a waterfall before any townships were surveyed there. The other partners were none other than Joseph Fay and Samuel Safford.5 Shades of the Onion River Land Company! Only two years after Vermont joined the United States, Justus was on friendly terms with Fay, who had confounded him during the Vermont negotiations, and Safford, so overtly hostile to reunion with Britain. Truly Justus was a man who could forget, or forgive, when money was to be made.

  Nothing came of this plot. Simcoe was not a governor of New Hampshire promoting real estate deals in someone else's backyard. Justus also missed the opportunity to acquire ‘800 acres’ on the Gananoque River that had a mill site.6 When he applied in 1794, this tract had been granted to Roger Stevens' brother Abel, a Baptist elder who had brought some of his flock from Vermont to Leeds County, to the west of Grenville. Not often did a man get the better of Justus, but Abel was tarred with the same brush.

  On one matter Simcoe and Justus were in accord. The province needed settlers. The governor offered extra land to inhabitants who assisted him in attracting newcomers. In June, 1794, Justus and Thomas Sherwood each received ‘200 acres’ for settling twenty-two families from Vermont in Leeds County.7 Justus' last petition for a grand scheme was sent to the governor in August, 1795, when he joined other men in petitioning for ‘30,000 acres’ on the Rideau.8 This came to nothing. More successful was a petition read on July 8, 1794, before a committee of council at York. The members recommended that Sherwood be awarded ‘whatever Military Lands may be still due to him, as a reduced Captain may be assigned to him by the Surveyor General to whom the location thereof is referred’.9

  From the land board he received a few tracts at a time. Some of his land was unsuitable for farming, but well located for timber rafts. He received some land in the broken front of Yonge Township, and some in the broken front of Escott. Both these townships were within the area Justus had deemed unfit for settlement in the autumn of 1783, but were on the waterfront where hauling logs to the shore was easy.10 His land at Chaleur Bay was a gift from Haldimand and not part of his military grant, and the land at Sorel he sold to Francis Hogel, his fellow captain in the Queen's Loyal Rangers.11

  In 1794, Simcoe abolished the land boards and decreed that all petitions were to go to his executive council. In future the governor would have the last word on who got land. Justus' only remaining public duty was as a justice of the peace, and never once did Simcoe call upon him to perform any task in the interests of the new homeland he had explored with such enthusiasm for Haldimand.

  In the spring of 1796, the British garrison evacuated Fort Oswegatchie, and among the other posts handed over to the Americans under Jay's Treaty was the Loyal Blockhouse. In jig time, American land speculators were buzzing up and down the south shore of the St. Lawrence. Reuben Sherwood began laying out townships to the west of the fort, acquiring knowledge of the lie of the land that he would exploit in 1812. Towards the end of July the Simcoe family passed by in a bateau. The governor had asked for a leave of absence, and Peter Russell, the receiver-general, was acting governor. Soon afterward Lord Dorchester resigned, and his successor was General Robert Prescott, for whom Edward Jessup's village at the east end of Augusta would be named.

  With Simcoe absent, young Samuel Sherwood received good news. Peter Russell allowed the legislative council to take action on the lack of lawyers in Upper Canada. Sixteen men of some education were chosen to become what Adiel Sherwood called ‘Heaven-born Lawyers’ and one was Justus’ elder son. Someone in the government knew that Samuel had trained under Lawyer Walker in Montreal, and was better qualified than others selected to practice law by divine inspiration. Samuel opened an office in Edward Jessup's village, rather than on his father's town plot. Justus had no objections, for his son had to be where merchants and traders came and went. Levius joined his brother in the winter, for Justus needed him during the busy season.

  In the spring of 1797, Diana Sherwood married Samuel Smades, a farmer with land on the Rideau.12 At Justus' suggestion Diana petitioned for Lot 16 in the first concession of Augusta. It was part of the town plot, but no town was ever going to develop. The land was more valuable than any in the back townships, and Diana's petition was successful. Her wedding was a community affair, second in importance only to a funeral.

  The family celebrated, and Samuel came from the Bay of Quinte with three children, Rachel, now nineteen, John and Samuel Harris, but without Eunice. Samuel was a widower, for his wife had died in November, 1795, after giving birth to their second son.13 Closer at hand were the Thomas Sherwoods and Elijah Bothums and their children. Thomas performed the ceremony while Justus gave the bride away. Despite the Reverend Stuart's disapproval, Simcoe had entrenched the right of magistrates to officiate at weddings where a Church of England clergyman was not resident within ‘eighteen miles’, which was the case in Augusta.

  That summer Upper Canada had a second election, and Edward Jes
sup Jr. won the seat for Grenville. Justus was tempted to stand, now that Simcoe had left, but he did not want to challenge his friend's son. For the Sherwoods, life moved along serenely, but discontent was mounting in the townships. Early in 1798, the government announced that Grenville and Leeds Counties would be separated from the Eastern District to form the new District of Johnstown, effective in 1800. The arrangement gratified Justus and his fellow Yankees. Soon they would not be outvoted by Yorkers. Whenever a group of New Englanders congregated, heated discussions took place, and the Sherwood house was the focal point for dissenters wanting to change the government. Another vocal man was William Buell of Elizabethtown, whose mother, Mercy Peters, was a cousin of John, Justus' onetime commanding officer.14

  At times the St. John's Hall in Johnstown bore a striking resemblance to the Green Mountain Tavern in Bennington. Yet caution prevailed. No one wanted the community branded a nest of wild radicals, or worse, republicans. Even Justus, the former outlaw and Green Mountain Boy, agreed that dissent must stop short of sedition. He could not risk being forced into exile a second time in his life for swimming against the tide. Most of the others insisted that the place to talk reform was in the assembly. The government must be modified, not overthrown.

  In that part of Upper Canada, the seeds of the reform movement that would soon dominate the politics of the province were being sown. Reform in the Johnstown District was destined to have its own flavour because of the strength of the Yankee componet. New Englanders believed in government by discussion, and they enjoyed argument and debate before voting and agreeing to abide by the outcome.