Mr. Wm. R. Riddell allso gives a good biography of
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William Macomb, of Irish descent, was perhaps the largest land owner at Detroit and a merchant highly respected. His famiiy, like the Babys, is olosely connected with the history of Detroit and Sandwich.
Besides the [members of the Législature, four officiais deserve a mention in this paper : Littlehales, Small, Jarvis and Bnrns.
Brigade Major E. B. Littlehales was aide-de-camp and secretary to Governor Simcoe. The Duke of LaRoehefoucault who visited Upper Canada at that time says : “I must make particnlar mention of the eivility shewn us by Major Littlehales, ad jutant and finst secretar}r to the Govemor, a wellbred, rnild and amiable man, who has the charge of the whole corresp ondence of govemment, and acquits hfcmlself with spécial ability and application. He appears to possess the confidence of the country. This is not unfrequently the case with men in place and power; but his worth, politenese, prudence and judgjment give this officer peculiar daims to the confidence and respect which he universally enjoys” (16). As a writer Major Littlehales is the author of an interestdng journal of an exploring excursion from Niagara to Detroit in 1793. It is presumed that he left the country with general Simcoe as the Oiiicle (17) of Newark of Peb. 24 1798 states that Colonel Littlehales is in England. In 1801 he was appointed under-secretary for Ireland and he held this office
him in the Thirteemth Report of the Bureau of Archives of the Province of Ontario.
16. La Bochefoucault-Liancourt’s Trwcels in Canada (1795), with annotations by Sir David William Smith, published in the Thirteenth Report of the Bureau of Archives of the Province of Ontario.
17. The TJpper Canada Gazette or American Oracle, published from 18th April 1793 to 25 April 1807 (Fourth Report of the Bureau of Archives of the Province of Ontario, 1906).
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for nineteen years. He was created a baronet in 1802. The park-lot he owned at York or Toronto became the property of Oaptain John Denison and from him descended to his heir Colonel George Taylor Denison of military and literary famé, president of the Royal Society of Canada in 1904 (18).
John iSmall, Clerk of the Crown, of the Executive Council, an Englishman, a perfect picture of a cheerful, benevolent minded man. His next neighbour in Toronto was John White, attorney-general of the province. There arose between them a difficulty, and in a duel, on the 3rd January 1800, White was killed. John Smaill afterwards lived in Toronto for many years and, in 1818, was still a pewholder in St. James Church of that place.
Of William Jarvis, isecretary of the council and registrar for the province we know very little except that he was a man of great note in his day and that he serve under Governors Simeoe, Hunter and Gore. His cousin Stephen Jarvis was long the registrar of Hpper Canada. They came from a family of very good standing in Connecticut. Both were officers in the Militia and both left for Canada as TJ. E. Loyalists.
David Burns, first clerk in the governor’s office died in 1806. His administrator was Mr. Secretary Alexander Burns. One of them might hâve been the same as Edward Burns appointed clerk of the Crown in 1792.
We might see now what had became of Governor Simeoe after the close of the first session of the Législature. The winter of 1792-93 was in HppeT Canada a favorable one for explorers. Lake Erie was not frozen over, and there were very little ice on Lake Ontario. Governor Simeoe accompanied by Oaptain Fitzgerald, Lieutenant Smith of the 5th
18. In 1817. Littlehales assumed Che name of Baker instead of Littlehales and became ®oon after Sir Edward Baker.
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Régiment, M.P.P., Lieutenants Talbot, Grey and Givins, also Major Littlehales, sitarted from Newark on the 4th February, arriving at Detroit on the 18th by a route whdch was 270 miles in llength. The return began on the 23rd and was completed on the lOth of the foHowing month.
It was in this expédition that the site of London, on the Thames, was first examined and judged to be “a situation eminently oalculated for the metropolis of ail Canada5’. The intention of the Govemor was that the future capital should be named Georgina, in compliment to George III. We may believe, also, that the large subdivision of Lake Huron, known as Georgian Bay, had for its name a like loyal origin.
There was no printing establishment in the province. The first press probably came from Philadelphia during the winter of 1792-93 and Louis Roy, the printer, may hâve been from Québec (19). On the 18th of Aprii 1793 was issued at ISTewark the first number of the Upper Canada Gazette or American Oracle , which was transferred to Toronto in 1800.
The Govemor left Newark on the 3rd May 1793 and on the 4th inspected the site where Toronto now stands1. He directed Joseph Bouehette to survey the place and ordered the érection of several buildings (20). On the 13th May the Govemor was back again in safety at Newark. The second
19. Louis Roy came from the printing office of John Neilson, Quebec. Soon a fier he enlarged his operations as a printer and no doufot that such an establishment was oonsidered a wonderful institution in Little York, until the days when the place having prospered took the name of Toronto.
20. The Archives were txansported from Newark to York in Augnist 1793 just at the moment were a battery of artillery was firing a sainte in honor of a snpposed victory of the Duke of York — but it turned to be a defeat. On this occasion the place was named York officially and in the popular saying Little York.
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session of the Législature opened in that town on the 31st of same month and closed on the 9th of July.
The Oracle of the 6th Jnne contains a very interesting article: “Tuesday last being the anniversary of His Majesty’s birthday, His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor had a Levee at Navy Hall. At one o’clock the troops in garnison and at Qneenston fired three volleys ; the field-pieces above ISTavy Hall, nnder the direction of the Royal Artillery, and the guns of the Garnison fired a Royal Salute. His Majesty’e schooner, the Onondago, at anchor in the river, likewiise fired a Royal Salute. In the evening His Excellency gave a Bail and élégant Supper in the Council Chamber, which was most numerously attended.”