Captain Fitz

by Enid Mallory

  Nothing was done until Monday morning, when FitzGibbon was summoned by Sir Francis and handed a militia general order appointing him adjutant-general of militia. As that post was already filled by Colonel Coffin, Fitz consented to be “acting adjutant-general.”

  On Monday night, FitzGibbon and friends kept an all-night vigil at his office in the Parliament Buildings, reporting events to Bond Head, who kept going back to bed. Fitz obtained definite information that the rebels had assembled 11 kilometres north on Yonge Street to march on the city. Three loyal Tories from Richmond Hill decided to risk riding through their pickets. Colonel Moodie was shot dead, Captain Hugh Stewart was captured, but the third man, named Brooke, got through and brought the news to the city.

  The Moodie-Strickland-Trail Connection

  FitzGibbon became acquainted with Susanna (Strickland) and her husband, Dunbar Moodie, when Fitz lived with his son William, in Belleville. In 1850, Fitz’s son Charles married the Moodie’s daughter Agnes. Agnes was an artist who would work with her aunt, Catharine Parr (Strickland) Traill, to produce the beautiful Canadian Wild Flowers in 1868, and Studies of Plant Life in Canada, 1885.

  Mary Agnes FitzGibbon was the daughter of Charles and Agnes. She would write the first biography of her grandfather, A Veteran of 1812, the Life of James FitzGibbon.

  While living in England, Fitz got to know the four Strickland sisters who had remained in England. While Sara was not a writer, Elizabeth, Agnes, and Jane were all literary celebrities. Agnes was famous for her Lives of the Queens of England series. Elizabeth had a cottage at Bayswater, where Charles often visited, and letters suggest that he and the sisters became close friends.

  Fitz had no time for Head now. One of his rifle corps was sent post-haste to ring the college bells. Fitz jumped on a horse and galloped through the west end of Toronto, shouting out to the men to assemble at the Parliament Buildings. Then he rode to the church, because the bells were not yet ringing.

  Next he went back to City Hall, giving directions that the arms be distributed to the men as they arrived. He and two students then rode up Yonge Street as far as Rosedale (the estate of Sheriff Jarvis) and saw no sign of rebels. Fitz decided to turn back and arranged for a picket to be posted there. The boys, one a son of Major Brock of the 49th Regiment, wanted to ride on to reconnoitre Montgomery’s Tavern. FitzGibbon let them go, but he was nervous for their safety. Suddenly, out of the night rode John Powell and a Mr. McDonald, also rebel hunting. FitzGibbon urged them to overtake the two boys.

  When Fitz got back into Toronto he went to Government House. Head was actually up and Fitz was amazed to find him talking to John Powell, red in the face and out of breath, with a remarkable story to tell. Before he and McDonald could reach the boys, the two had been taken prisoners by Mackenzie, a Captain Anderson, and three other rebels. Powell and McDonald soon ran into the party and became prisoners too.

  Mackenzie had left Anderson and Sheppard to take their prisoners to Montgomery’s Tavern while he rode toward Toronto. But, nearing Montgomery’s, Powell, who was forced to ride in front, suddenly delved for a pistol hidden in his coat, wheeled his horse, and shot Anderson in the neck. Anderson fell dead from his horse and Powell rode pell-mell for Toronto. Afraid he was being pursued, the portly Powell abandoned his horse at Davenport Road and ran, puffing, across Queen’s Park and down College (now University) Avenue to Government House, where he had great trouble getting Mrs. Dalrymple to awaken her brother. But by the time Fitz arrived, Sir Francis was convinced — in fact, was close to panic.

  It was a wild night in Toronto. Judge Jones had formed a picket and marched it out Yonge Street to the tollgate. At City Hall, Fitz had a mob from which to make an army, and he had no way to know who was friend or foe. Many of these men clamouring for arms might join Mackenzie with their weapons. But by Tuesday morning, the men were formed in platoons in the market square. A 6-pounder gun stood loaded in front of City Hall and men were working to barricade the windows of City Hall, the Bank of Upper Canada, the Parliament Buildings, Osgoode Hall, and Government House, with two-inch planks loopholed for musketry.

  While Fitz was forming a Yonge Street picket for Tuesday night, Bond Head forbade him from sending a man out, and gave FitzGibbon a positive order not to leave the building. Seizing Fitz by the arm with both hands, the governor exclaimed, “If you go through the city as you have heretofore done, you will be taken prisoner! If we lose you, what shall we do?”[5]

  FitzGibbon ignored him, took Sheriff Jarvis with a picket up Yonge Street, then came back and told Head what he had done. That night, the picket stopped a motley force of rebels who had been sent toward the city for the purpose of setting it on fire.

  When it was almost midnight, Sir Francis suddenly decided they should remove the spare arms to the Parliament Buildings, which were farther away and less liable to be burned. Fitz was horrified. In the darkness of night, the governor wanted each man to lay down his loaded weapon and march with a half-dozen unloaded arms to the Parliament Buildings. If a spy informed Mackenzie what was going on, the situation could quickly get out of control. The night was saved by the arrival of Allan MacNab, speaker of the House of Assembly, with 60 men from Hamilton. MacNab’s men could guard all approaches and the arms would be safe where they were until morning.

  By noon on December 7, 1837, Fitz had his grand army ready to march. There were 920 men. The main body, 600 strong, was led up Yonge Street by FitzGibbon, MacNab, and Sir Francis. A left wing of 200 men moved up College Avenue and on to the north, using side roads. A right wing, led by Colonel Jarvis, marched along east of Yonge Street. It was a fine bright day, and two bands raised the spirits of the soldiers. Many townspeople joined the parade and marched out to the scene of battle.

  These rebels marching down Yonge Street were intent on burning the Parliament Building.

  Jefferys, Vol. 3, 18.

  That battle was one of the shortest in history. The rebel force that met FitzGibbon’s 920 men was somewhere between 400 and 600 men. Only one man, Ludwig Wideman, was killed in the fray, although 11 Patriots were wounded and at least four died later. Fitz’s army suffered five wounded.

  Within minutes the rebels were fleeing in all directions. The one FitzGibbon desired most to catch had abandoned his horse and disappeared into the woods. (In the December cold with the entire Tory countryside hunting him, Mackenzie would manage to hide and slide his way to Niagara and cross into the United States.)

  When FitzGibbon turned back to Montgomery’s he found the tavern in flames. He had already met a party of 40 men heading north with orders to burn the house of David Gibson, one of Mackenzie’s supporters. Not believing the order, he hurried ahead to catch Sir Francis. The governor’s words to Fitz were, “Stop, hear me — let Gibson’s house be burned forthwith, and let the militia be kept here until it be burned.” Then the governor galloped away, leaving Fitz with the burden of the cruel order.

  FitzGibbon’s granddaughter says that had the order been given him in private, he would not have obeyed. But his military training made it imperative that an order given by his commander-in-chief in front of his men be obeyed. Fitz first ordered his field officer to carry out the governor’s command, but the man implored him, “For God’s sake, Colonel FitzGibbon, do not send me to carry out this order.”

  “If you are not willing to obey orders, you had better go home and retire from the militia.”

  “I am very willing to obey orders, but if I burn that house, I shall be shot from behind one of these fences, for I have to come over this road almost every day in the week.”[6]

  Fitz let the man go and took the party himself to burn the house.

  This should have been FitzGibbon’s finest hour. He had just saved the city of Toronto. But thanks to the machinations of Sir Francis Bond Head he had come to his lowest performance. David Gibson would be fleeing to the States so that he would not end up in jail facing a death sentence. Mrs. Gibson and four young children would be alone to face the C
anadian winter. And there he stood burning their house.

  By the time Fitz reached his own house that night, he was so exhausted that his children had to help him dismount. His mental state was even worse. The sleepless days and nights, the anxiety and frustration of dealing with Head, and the final meanness of having to burn Dave Gibson’s house, had left him sick in body, mind, and soul. Nor was there any comfort in his home. Mary was sick. His youngest child was dying. Fitz himself was unable to get out of bed, but he sent a message to Sir Francis resigning his appointment as adjutant-general.

  Farewell to Francis Bond Head

  At the Mansion House Hotel in Watertown, New York, a strange little drama took place in March 1838. Patriot refugees, including Mackenzie, were staying there. But so was Sir Francis Bond Head. Convinced that he might be murdered en route, Head had left Canada furtively, like a criminal. He had travelled with Judge Jones, who posed as a gentleman from Kingston; Head was his valet. He and Jones had crossed at Kingston, paddling a small boat from one ice floe to another.

  Head was recognized at the Mansion House, but treated with great courtesy by the rebel leaders, and left the hotel in a coach and four with the Patriots cheering him on his way.

  In January 1838, the House of Assembly passed a resolution to reward Fitz for saving the city and possibly also the province, with a grant of 5,000 acres of Crown land. He got nothing until 1845 and then received £1,000 instead of land. It was September 1847 before any money was actually paid. He used it to pay off debt, but it had come too late to save his health. Financial anxiety, coupled with worry over Mary’s health, had worn away at the old Green Tiger spirit. Mary had died on March 22, 1841, and was buried in St. James Churchyard.

  After Mary’s death, Fitz followed the government to Kingston. The Union Act of 1840 had created a single Province of Canada, uniting Upper and Lower Canada. Later, when the government was to move to Montreal, FitzGibbon was unable to go. He handed in his resignation in May 1846 with a certificate and letter from Dr. Widmer. The letter drew a tragic picture of the one-time hero of Beaver Dams, now a victim of the times he lived in, caught between the tides of reaction and reform. Widmer explained that his expectation of “release from pecuniary embarrassments …” and the frustrations that followed “had a powerful effect in destroying the healthy tone of his mind, and has rendered him incapable of performing the active duties of his office, and almost unfitted him for the social intercourse of his friends and acquaintances.”[7]

  But there was fight left in the old Green Tiger yet. His son, William, was clerk of the County of Hastings and his residence in Belleville became home to Fitz while he recovered. If his mind was in poor, confused state, he took care that his body be kept in good condition. Mary Agnes FitzGibbon wrote:

  The spectacle of a man turned of sixty-five years of age, clad in jerseys swinging himself from a bar fixed across the supports of the verandah, doubling himself up into a ball, jumping through his hands, or hanging by his feet, drawing his body up by sheer strength of muscle, and anon leaping over chairs arranged in rows, was quite sufficient to obtain him a certificate of insanity from the majority of his neighbours.[8]

  By the beginning of 1847, FitzGibbon felt well enough to go to England. He received his pension, his mental health improved, and he never returned to Canada. He found old friends and made new friends, among them the sisters of Susanna Moodie and Catharine Parr Traill.

  In 1850, FitzGibbon was appointed one of the Military Knights of Windsor, an order founded in the 14th century for the support of 24 soldiers “who had distinguished themselves in the wars, and had afterward been reduced to straits.” He lived within the walls of Windsor Castle, opposite St. George’s Chapel, received a small salary, and was required to attend services at St. George’s.

  There, his final years were passed sharing with the other knights a lively interest in worldly affairs both present and past. In the first year he starved himself to pay off debts, determined to die owing no man. His debt made it impossible for him to return to Canada, although he wrote to one of the young militiamen he had trained in 1837 of his longing for Canada. “Its future seems to me more full of promise than that of any other section of the human family. I long to be among you.”

  James FitzGibbon, seen here wearing his Military Knight of Windsor uniform.

  FitzGibbon, A Veteran of 1812.

  By far the happiest days were when a friend from the far distant past came to visit him. Fitz’s association with the family of Sir Isaac Brock lasted all his life. The hero worship he felt for Brock stayed with him always. In a letter written late in life he refers to the Battle of Beaver Dams:

  When I brought in those five hundred prisoners and delivered them up to General Vincent, I then thought I would have given the world’s wealth to have General Brock there alive to say to him, “Here, sir, is the first installment of my debt of gratitude to you for all you have done for me. In words I have never thanked you, because words could never express my gratitude for such generous protection as you have hitherto unceasingly extended to me.”[9]

  James died on December 10, 1863. He was 83 years old. His children, William, Mary, and James had died in the 1850s; only Charles survived him.

  In his last year, when almost unable to leave his bed, he questioned his doctor about the possibility of an ocean voyage home. There he could lie by his wife Mary, in the churchyard of St. James in Toronto. Instead, he was to die in London and lie in the catacombs of St. George’s Cathedral, a long way from Niagara where the Green Tiger had fought so well in the war, a long way from Toronto where the public servant had fought the longer, devastating battles of the peace.

  Notes

  Introduction

  1. James Croil, Dundas or a Sketch of Canadian History (Montreal: Dawson, 1861).

  Chapter 1

  1. Anna Jameson, Winter Studies and Summer Rambles in Canada, 1838 (London: Saunders and Otley, 1838), 57–58.

  2. Mary Agnes FitzGibbon, A Veteran of 1812: The Life of James FitzGibbon (Toronto: William Briggs, 1898), 19.

  3. Ibid., 57.

  4. James FitzGibbon to F.B. Tupper, September 12, 1846, F.B. Tupper Papers (Ontario Archives).

  Chapter 2

  1. E.A. Cruikshank, Documentary History of the Campaign Upon the Niagara Frontier, Vol. 3 (Welland, ON: The Lundy’s Lane Historical Society, 1896–1908), 74.

  Chapter 3

  1. E.A. Cruikshank, Documents Relating to the Invasion of Canada and the Surrender of Detroit, Canadian Archives Publications, no. 7 (Ottawa: Government Printing Bureau, 1912), 197.

  2. E.A. Cruikshank, Documentary History of the Campaign Upon The Niagara Frontier, Major-General Brock to Sir George Prevost, July 28, 1812, 149.

  3. Ibid., Brock to Prevost, July 29, 1812, 152–3.

  4. Ibid., Brock to Prevost, July 12, 1812, 123.

  5. Ibid., Major-General Brock to Noah Freer, York, February 12, 1812, 42.

  6. Ibid., Extract of a Letter from ----- to Major-General Van Rensselaer, 16th Sept, 1812, 268.

  7. Ferdinand Brock Tupper, The Life and Correspondence of Major-General Sir Isaac Brock, K.B. (London: Simpkin, Marshall, 1847), 262.

  8. Cruikshank, Documents Relating to the Invasion, Brock to Lord Liverpool, 29th August, 1812, 192.

  9. Lady Matilda Edgar, Ten Year of Upper Canada in Peace and War, 1805–1815: Being The Ridout Letters (Toronto: W. Briggs, 1890), 140.

  Chapter 4

  1. Cruikshank, Documentary History, Vol. 3, 178.

  2. Ibid., 213–14, 221.

  3. Donald E. Graves, ed., Merry Hearts Make Light Days: The War of 1812 Memoir of Lieutenant John Le Couteur, 104th Foot (Ottawa: Carleton University Press, 1993), 135.

  4. Cruikshank, Documentary History Vol. IV, Narrative of Volunteer G.S. Jarvis, 49th Regiment, 116.

  5. Adolphus Egerton Ryerson, The Loyalists of America and Their Times, Vol. II (Toronto: W. Briggs, 1880), 370.

  6. Cruikshank, Documentary History, Vol. 4, 86.

/>   7. Ibid., 83.

  8. Family Herald and Weekly Star, Author Unknown.

  Chapter 5

  1. Mary Agnes FitzGibbon, A Veteran of 1812, 64.

  2. Cruikshank, Documentary History, Vol. 5, Sir George Prevost to Lord Bathurst, Kingston, May 26, 1813, 243–44.

  3. Ibid., Notes by Captain W.H. Merritt, 262.

  4. Ibid., Brigadier-General Vincent to Sir George Prevost, Fort George, May 18, 1813, 237.

  5. Ibid., Militia District General Order, Headquarters, Burlington Bay, June 4, 1813, Lieutenant-Colonel J. Harvey, 302.

  Chapter 6

  1. FitzGibbon, 99.

  2. Cruikshank, Documentary History, Vol. 5, Brigadier-General Vincent to Colonel Baynes, Bazeley’s Head of the Lake, May 31, 1813, 288.

  3. Cruikshank, Documentary History, Vol. 6, From Lieutenant James FitzGibbon to the Reverend James Somerville of Montreal, 13–15.

  4. John K. Green, Grandson of Billy Green, “Billy Green the Scout,” Hamilton Spectator, 1938.

  Chapter 7

  1. FitzGibbon, 99.

  2. Cruikshank, Documentary History, Vol. 6, FitzGibbon to Somerville, 16.

  3. FitzGibbon, 72–73.

  4. Cruikshank, Documentary History, Vol. 6, Lieutenant-Colonel Harvey to Colonel Baynes, Forty Mile Creek, June 11, 1813, 67.

  5. FitzGibbon, Appendix VI, James FitzGibbon, “Hints to a Son on Receiving His First Commission in a Regiment Serving in the Canadas.”