of Upper Canada (Ontario): A Loyalist Settler’s Account

“The Settlement of Upper Canada (Ontario)” is an American Loyalist’s description of how the province of Upper Canada was founded. Upper Canada was a British colony in what is now the province of Ontario.

Upper Canada was founded by the British in the late 18th century as a result of an influx of American Loyalist refugees from the United States. During the American Revolutionary War, some of the colonists in the British-ruled American colonies sided with Great Britain against the American rebels. The pro-British Anglo-American colonists were known as Loyalists.

In 1781 British forces suffered a catastrophic defeat at Yorktown, at the hands of an American-French force. This defeat paved the way for Great Britain to negotiate peace and recognize American independence. As a result of the British defeat, the Americans who had sided with Britain were forced to leave their homes. The British government sought to provide new homes for the American Loyalists in their remaining colonies. Some of the Loyalists went to the British West Indian colonies, such as the Bahamas. Many others, however, went north, into what is now Canada, which was still ruled by Britain.

Britain had conquered French-ruled Canada (New France) in the 1750s, during the Seven Years’ War. Until the 1780s, most non-indigenous people in Canada were people of French descent, living in what is now southern Quebec. What is now Ontario had almost no permanent white settlers.

The arrival of the American Loyalists after the American Revolution changed that. Southern Ontario experienced an influx of English-speaking Anglo-American settlers. The British government began to purchase large parcels of land from indigenous chiefs in order to set up settlements and to distribute land to the soldiers and officers who had fought for them in the Revolutionary War.

As the population of what is now Ontario grew, the British government decided to create a new province in Canada. Ontario had previously been considered part of the province of Quebec. But after 1791, Britain divided the colony into two parts- the mainly French-speaking Lower Canada (now Quebec), and mostly English-speaking Upper Canada (now Ontario).

John Graves Simcoe, a British military officer who had fought in the Revolutionary War, became the province’s first Lieutenant-Governor. Today Simcoe is remembered as the founding father of Ontario.

The early provincial capital was at Newark- now known as Niagara-on-the-Lake. But it was decided that this town was too close to the border, and too vulnerable to a potential American attack. Simcoe wanted to establish a new capital at the site of what is now London, Ontario. But the imperial government rejected this choice because that area was considered too remote. At the time the London, Ontario area was inaccessible wilderness in the centre of southern Ontario, at a time when there were no roads, and waterways were the main means of travel. Instead the new town of York (modern-day Toronto), on Lake Ontario, was chosen to be the capital of the new province.

The author of this text was William Dummer Powell (1755-1834), a Boston, Massachusetts-born Loyalist settler, judge, and politician in Upper Canada. During the American Revolution, Powell remained loyal to Great Britain, and practiced law in Quebec. The US property of his Loyalist family was confiscated after the American Revolution, and he settled permanently in British-ruled Canada. He spent much of the rest of his life as a judge in Upper Canada, living in York (Toronto).