John Graves Simcoe, 1752-1806 Page 24

  Give us whatever quantity the stocks in hand will afford and at a price by which we can obtain it, and we shall be satisfied. We will not accept any Subscription from the gentry, because it enhances the price and is a hardship on them.

  He blamed the trouble at Exmouth on “Hucksters” from Honiton, who had bought at a low price on the market, owing to threats from the mob, and would sell at a higher price in Exmouth. Many of the Volunteers agreed to support civil power. He wanted to believe them.28

  To curb the unrest in Honiton, the local magistrates issued a declaration because they had heard of the “riotous Proceedings of the People tending to awe the Farmers, and by those Means to prevent them from bringing their provisions to market in the usual Manner”:

  We are determined to the utmost of our Power, according to Law, to prevent any Force or Compulsion from being used to induce them to sell their Grain but at their own Choice; and that we will attend to give them the Protection which the Law affords.

  However, they recommended to those who had been prevailed upon to join “any Riotous Proceeding of the Nature above stated” to cease such conduct, thus avoiding the consequences of such actions. The signatures of the magistrates read like a list of Simcoe friends: John B. Cholwich, Francis Rose Drewe, William Tucker, Reymundo Putt, Richard Graves, J. [John] Kennaway, J.G. Simcoe, Edward Honywood, and H. [Herman] Drewe.29

  A troop of dragoons en route to Somerset would halt in Honiton on market day. Simcoe informed Cholwich: “Gentlemen were also going to be in attendance.” They did not succeed; “with all our endeavours butter was sold to the mob for 8d” a pound, a result of intimidation. He wrote Fortescue that Devon and Somerset were in a state of anarchy. Yet hardly anybody seems to have been seriously hurt in all the disorderly behaviour. The lord lieutenant, and Simcoe, had their informers who reported that in Plymouth, dock workers were demanding higher wages and collective action over food prices. In Totnes the mobs turned on the corn merchants, one of whom, Giles Welsford, demanded prosecution of the alleged ringleaders. The riots began to subside in April. When Lord Fortescue sent a county justice, the Reverend Thomas Kitson, to investigate allegations in Totnes, he found that witnesses no longer wished to testify. Some felt intimidated, but others thought their grievances were being rectified.

  In coastal Brixham, where John Underhay commanded, certain fishermen and townsmen, with some Volunteers, planned to pressure farmers to lower their prices. Underhay called a meeting where Volunteer officer Lieutenant Pridham produced an agreed price list for goods that he claimed had come from Dartmouth. The majority decided to put these prices to local farmers, traders and merchants as though they had been recommended. Three Volunteer officers, Pridham, Captain Sanders (Underhay’s deputy) and William Collier, accompanied deputations to the farmers, traders and merchants, claiming they went to prevent violence. Simcoe then learned of a plot for the Brixham men to join forces with sailors of the fleet when it anchored in Tor Bay. The action was supposedly foiled by a change in the wind that sent the fleet down the channel.

  Lord Fortescue ordered the Volunteer officers prosecuted for rioting. Sanders, Pridham and Collier were tried and acquitted. The Brixham Volunteers were disbanded. Underhay, who had played no part in the riots, lost the command Simcoe had never wished him to have in the first place.30

  TWENTY

  A BRIEF PEACE

  As the spring of 1801 progressed, Simcoe was groping for ways of curbing the unrest. He wrote to Lord Forestcue:

  I trust under Your Lordship’s recommendation Gentlemen of spirit and distinction will readily and universally stand forth on especial occasions and execute and enoble the Constitutional office of Constable.1

  Such men should unite with the military to bring about good order. Yet he sympathised with the plight of the common people. Their grievances were not against the Crown and State. They were not planning a French-style revolution, but they were vulnerable to professional agitators. He relayed to the Duke of Portland, the home secretary, an opinion Lord Somerville had sent him:

  The loyalty of our common people is meritorious. I can trace nothing like subversion in their riots. Their condition is truly pitiable. Not a loaf of bread at any bakers, not a loaf of bread to be seen in the markets …2

  There had been trouble at Plymouth docks, but the men had admitted “improper conduct” to the local commander, Richard England, a major general and another colleague from Simcoe’s Upper Canada days. Simcoe had been less understanding of the dockyard workers, who, he thought should be crushed because their work was essential. Cornwall was now quieter and the problems were subsiding in Devon and Somerset. He admitted that people were “driven by want.” Honiton Magistrate Honeywood wrote that the better off inhabitants had subscribed for the relief of “the lower orders” and the community “without the least interference with the farmers at our markets.” Simcoe approved and made a “handsome donation.”3

  Colonel James Coleridge acknowledged that professional agitators had been at work in Ottery St. Mary:

  … the Ottery mob was visited by delegates from Exeter who had come there for the express purpose of fixing the prices the name of one is Baker, he is a joiner & lives in Exe Lane, Exeter … Another person came from Chard or Ilminster by the name of Ewings. They neither of themacted openly & were disappointed in their intentions as the plan was resisted and compleatly [sic] defeated.

  People realised there was a scarcity, and rioting did no good, which would lead to the restoration of order. Coleridge also told Simcoe that young Francis, at The King’s School, had had “two more of his teeth removed by Mr. Hodge.” Reverend George Coleridge, Francis’s headmaster, wrote on 30 April, “It must give you, Sir and all Xtrian Parents great, satisfaction to find the subject of religious education in the public schools started.”4

  While Ottery and vicinity was quieter, in Plymouth strong measures were indicated. John Bastard informed Simcoe that the Volunteers had marched against the dockyard men. In ale houses the toast was “Damnation to all who will or have taken the oath of allegiance.” Simcoe asked Lord Fortescue for a list of magistrates and “Gentry” willing to act as Peace Officers, complaining of the “listlessness and want of energy in the higher classes of people.”5

  Simcoe wrote to several men of influence asking what was happening in their neighbourhoods. The Reverend T.E. Clark, of Clayhidon, in the Blackdown Hills, wrote that his parishioners had behaved well. The Reverend John Land of Hemyock found the poor suffering but they had refused to take part in “the tumultuous & disgraceful Proceedings of that Town.” Robert Russell, an Exeter carrier, offered the use of his horses and wagons.6

  Parliament had passed an act “Making better provision for the Maintenance of the poor and for diminishing the Consumption of Bread and Corn” in January, but moving through the system took time. People were to be encouraged to use cheaper substitutes for wheat, oats and barley. The Gentlemen of Exeter raised a total of £3,000 to import corn and flour from outside Devonshire, one of many schemes to alleviate the plight. Poverty now was not confined to parish poor, but embraced a wider group normally self-reliant. By 9 May the efforts of leaders of society had been effective. Simcoe’s role had been as coordinator and adviser. The overall responsibility lay with Lord Fortescue whose work Simcoe praised as a “Herculean task.” Fortescue was to visit Wolford Lodge the following day, and Simcoe was sending “a man to meet you at the Half Way House. He will guide you the Simcoe’s new way” — a route bypassing Honiton. At this time, politicians were mooting another appointment for Simcoe. He heard that he might be placed in command of Ireland. Nothing came of it, and he wrote to Lord Fortescue, “I presume I am too young.”.7 He was forty-nine years old.

  The Duke of York had lauded Simcoe’s appointment to the West Country, and he appeared quite content to leave him there. Overall command carried prestige but day-to-day chores did not. Mr. W. James of the Wellington Volunteers in Somerset complained that his corps had been issued with Prussian muske
ts that were too heavy when bayonets were attached. Where to house French prisoners was still plaguing him:

  The removing of so large a number of prisoners as are now at Plymouth would always be difficult if not impossible but the intersection of the County by the Mountains of Dartmoor will probably be the means of preventing them falling into the hands of the enemy. 8

  He had made a point of becoming familiar with many leaders of the clergy. Now he stressed the important role they must play in the event of invasion. On 30 July 1801, he wrote to the Bishop of Bath and Wells that the clergymen should stay in their parishes for as long as possible, and seeking his opinion, to relay it to the members of the Somerset Defense Committee, that would meet at Taunton Castle. In August he sent instructions for the county deputy lieutenants to follow if the French landed. Alarm posts should be set up within the Hundreds, parties of Volunteers would support local magistrates, crossroads were to be destroyed in Devon, Somerset and Cornwall, the three counties now under Simcoe’s command.

  He had heard from Robert Clifford in June, who thanked him for sketches of Alexandria. On 4 August, Clifford wrote again, from London, to discourse on continental troop movements. He had acquired books for Simcoe, gratifying for a man who loved enlarging his library. Another correspondent was William Osgoode, who had retired as Chief Justice of Lower Canada and was living at 16 Mitre Court, Paper Buildings, in London’s Temple.9

  Bishop Fisher, of Exeter, remained in regular contact with Simcoe. He was dismayed that the churches of the city were too small to accommodate the “lower orders.” Soldiers garrisoned in Exeter should be able to attend divine service, or he might provide them with a chapel. An unused church near the Fore Street might suffice. Several clergymen would, for the pay the government allowed, gladly officiate.

  Among Simcoe’s close friends was Archdeacon George Moore, whose home was in Cathedral Close, near where the General had grown up. On 26 September, Moore had written him, recalling seeing Captain John Simcoe’s death notice in the Gentlman’s Magazine: “I see by the paper that Lord Fortescue intends to honour the General Court at the hospital on Tuesday with his presence in order to dispose of Mr. [William] Pitfield’s Legacy.” Pitfield, the apothecary, would have been gratified, “had he lived to see the day.”10

  On 1 October, Britain and France signed preliminary peace terms. Now Simcoe was able to turn his mind to acquiring more land. When he had enquired about purchasing common, or waste, lands before he left for Canada, the time was not right. Now, the government had passed the Enclosure Act of 1801. Large areas of the Parish of Dunkeswell could be purchased and fenced. Commissioners had been appointed to process claims. General Simcoe’s name was on a list of applicants as “The Lord of the Manor of Dunkeswell otherwise Bowerhayes.” Of his properties, the list specified “occupiers or tenants of each.”

  These included Wolford Lodge, Little Wolford, Shaptons and Marleshayne occupied by Simcoe himself and Thomas Scadding; Bywood occupied by Henry Farant; Manleys by Richard Webber; Dunkeswell Grange by William Marks; Horwoods by William Burrough, and other smaller properties. On the list were the commissioners’ observations on timber and other trees on the waste lands. Simcoe’s claim was “Allowed, except as to the proportional Parts of the Soil claimed by several Proprietors of Lands in Right of their Lands, & allowed them by us; & except the proportional Value of the Trees on the Waste, to which such Proprietors of Lands (being allowed their claims to the Soil) will be entitled under such claims.” Simcoe was able to enlarge his already considerable estates. In addition to gains in Dunkeswell, he acquired Cleave and Moors (occupier Thomas Scadding) in Awliscombe, to the south, and in Hemyock village, where he already owned the Castle. On the 1802 Land Tax Return of Hemyock, Simcoe is shown as the occupier, although he did not reside in the Castle. In 1803 the occupier was Brian Mordan.11

  In his work General Views of Agriculture of Devon, C. Vancouver wrote that Simcoe had enclosed 1,200 acres of the Blackdown Hills, and planned to build two or three farmhouses, and annex 300 acres as holdings for each. The commissioners valued the waste at six shillings per acre. Under proper management the value would treble in a few years. The author admired the General’s “culture of exotic as well as native trees in the country.12

  Early in 1802, Elizabeth took her daughters and little Henry to Budleigh Salterton. She was unwell and hoping that the bracing air of the coast would improve her. She was back at Wolford Lodge in time for Simcoe’s fiftieth birthday, on 25 February 1802. Simcoe had asked the Reverend John Pratt, vicar of Dunkeswell, to conduct a service suitable for a Christian educated by a “most pious and excellent mother”:

  There is a text in Leviticus I believe that particularly enforces purity of heart in those who inspire to military commands, as mine in all views is a military family it may not be amiss in a more especial manner to inculcate the ‘Remembrance of a Creator’ to those who shall engage in the solemn duties of protecting their Country, at the times from enemy insurpation.

  The service was held in the drawing room. Simcoe had decided on a family chapel made from the Cistercian ruins. The burial plot, where John Cornwall Simcoe lay, would be adjacent to the chapel. Work was well under way, and he planned to have a service of dedication when it was finished.

  The threat of invasion was receding. On 27 March 1802, Britain and France signed the Treaty of Amiens, which bought a temporary peace. About the same time a twelve-year-old boy named John Bailey became a member of the domestic staff at Wolford Lodge, rising from cleaner of cutlery to coachman. Literate, although his spelling reflects the broad Devonshire he spoke, he left a memoir invaluable in telling the Simcoe family story from 1802 to 1850.13 The original Bailey manuscript is the property of Margaret Partridge, a descendant of John Graves Simcoe:

  … now genral Simcoe when living foloed the same plan by early rising he formly very ofton would be ether out riding or walking at 5 or 6 o clock in the morning with mr. scading planing about the planting of the plantacions and ofton genral and mrs. simcoe would be out taking a ride in the canadia snow slides when the snow wase deep thoos canadia sno slides as aney one may supoze do not go on hevey and dead byt slip on the snow that a poney fold very well draw it …

  Bailey recalled that when Simcoe stopped to speak to a labourer, the man, as was expected, removed his hat. Simcoe asked him to put his hat back on but the labourer felt he could not wear it while talking with the General, whereupon Simcoe took off his own hat while he and the worker had their chat. Bailey thought Simcoe “a very liberal gentleman.” However, when trades people called at Wolford Lodge, Simcoe, fond of military precision, had them march to the house two by two, with fife and drum. They received their orders and marched off in the same fashion.

  The day the Treaty of Amiens was signed, a gentleman, John Voss, wrote enquiring about the history of Hemyock Castle. Simcoe was convinced, no surprise, that it was of Roman origin. It resembled a drawing he had seen of a Roman fortification near Cairo. Voss, who had been certain the castle was of 11th-or-12th century origin, diplomatically agreed with Simcoe. (In fact, the castle was a manor house of Norman origin. A licence to “crenellate” (fortify) was granted by King Richard II at the close of the 14th century.)

  On 3 April, from 5 Edwards Street, Portman Square, London, Robert Clifford wrote that he had obtained books his friend wanted. He could not find Kirwam’s two works on manure (part of the Agricultural Revolution had been applying this fertiliser, rather than depending on fallow of fields). Robert was sending Barnel in four volumes “to complete your set on Forsyth’s War (unbound).” He had found Claireux on Geometry for Miss [Eliza] Simcoe, and two copies of The Battle of Culloden. The books had cost two pounds, which he asked Simcoe to send to his sister, Laura, at Ugbrooke House.14

  Command of the Western District ceased on 24 May. Simcoe’s letter of gratitude appeared in the Exeter Flying Post on the 20th. He thanked Major General Richard England, at Plymouth, for the “support and assistance he has uniformly received fr
om him during its continuance …” and he extended his appreciation to the staff officers, the Royal Artillery, the Cavalry and Infantry for their “spirit and discipline … seconded by the Militia, yeomanry and Volunteers … any army of France … would speedily have been destroyed, and all apprehension of invasion would for ever have been at rest.”15

  His success in Devon in May was undermined by word that his beloved Queen’s Rangers were to be disbanded, to take effect by 25 October. The lieutenant colonel commandant was now David Shank, while Samuel Smith was the major. Shank would return to Britain, but Smith and most of the other officers would remain in Upper Canada, with substantial land grants to give them a stake in the province’s future. John McGill, on the Legislative Council, was particularly effective in handling accounts and as an administrator.16

  Now that England was at peace, Simcoe was able to look to his estates, and take a holiday. In July at the invitation of the Royal family, he went with Elizabeth to Weymouth for a regatta. He went riding with the King and the Duke of Gloucester, while Elizabeth visited Maiden Castle, an Iron Age fort and the largest prehistoric monument in England. Miss Mary Hunt joined them for dinner. She was now a tutor in the household of Princess Charlotte, the only child of the Prince of Wales and his hoyden wife, Caroline of Brunswick The Prince and his daughter were also at Weymouth, the reason Miss Hunt was there.17

  Simcoe had a talk with the King about being appointed Commander in Chief in Ireland, where, he informed Elizabeth’s cousin William Walcot, Henry Addington had told him he would only be sent if Ireland was in danger:

  … be it so, no man has more prosperously attained the object of his public life than myself, and I thank God, without bestowing a thought on the unworthy treatment I have met with from Ministers.18