Upper Canada

Upper Canada was a British territory in what is now the Canadian province of Ontario. Upper Canada officially existed from 1791 to 1841 and covered generally present-day Southern Ontario.

Political History

The area of present day Southern Ontario first came under European control as part of New France. It passed from French control into British control with the Treaty of Paris (1763). It was incorporated into the Province of Quebec by the Quebec Act of 1774. Upper Canada became a political entity on 26 December 1791 with the passage, in 1790, of the Constitutional Act by the Parliament of Great Britain. The Act divided the Province of Quebec into Upper and Lower Canada. The division was effected so that Loyalist American settlers and British immigrants in Upper Canada could have British laws and institutions, and the French-speaking population of Lower Canada could maintain French civil law and the Catholic religion.

The colony was administered by a lieutenant-governor, legislative council, and legislative assembly. The first lieutenant-governor was John Graves Simcoe. On February 1, 1796 the capital of Upper Canada was moved from Newark (now Niagara-on-the-Lake) to York (now Toronto), which was judged to be less vulnerable to attack by the Americans.

Local government in Upper Canada was based on districts. In 1788, four districts were created:

Lunenburgh District, renamed to Eastern in 1792
Mecklenburg District, later Midland
Nassau District, later Home
Hesse District, later Western

Additional districts were created from the existing districts as the population grew until 1849, when local government mainly based on counties came into effect. At that time, there were 20 districts; legislation to create a new Kent District never completed. Up until 1841, the district officials were appointed by the lieutenant-governor, although usually with local input. A Court of Quarter Sessions was held four times a year in each district to oversee the administration of the district and deal with legal cases.

War of 1812 (1812-1815)

The War of 1812 with the United States. Upper Canada is the chief target of the Americans, since it is weakly defended and populated largely by American immigrants. However, division in the United States over the war, a lacklustre American militia, the incompetence of American military commanders, and swift and decisive action by the British commander, Sir Isaac Brock, keep Upper Canada part of British North America.

Detroit is captured by the British on August 6, 1812. The Michigan Territory is held under British control until it was abandoned in 1813.

Major battles (or attacks) fought on territory in Upper Canada included;

Burning of York April 27, 1813
Fort George May 27, 1813
Battle of Stoney Creek June 5, 1813
Battle of Beaver Dams 1813
Battle of Lake Erie September 10, 1813
Battle of the Thames October 5, 1813
Battle of Crysler's Farm November 11, 1813
Burning of Newark December 10, 1813
Battle of Chippewa July 5, 1814
Battle of Lundy's Lane July 25, 1814

Many other battles were fought in American territory bordering Upper Canada, including the Northwest Territory, upstate New York and naval battles in the Great Lakes.

The Treaty of Ghent (ratified in 1815) restored the status quo ante bellum between the combatants.

Dissidents and 1837 Rebellion

After 1800 there emerged a dissident faction that questioned the direction and handling of the colony by the Tories, including both colonial and imperial officials. The leaders were Robert Thorpe, Joseph Willocks, Robert Gourlay, and, especially , William Lyon Mackenzie. They challenged the establishment about taxes, land policy, the privileges of the Anglican Church and the Family Compact, appropriations, and freedom of the press. They claimed that all citizens and not just the enfranchised were entitled to a voice, but they did not form a political party; there were no parties. In 1831 the Tories expelled MacKenzie from the Assembly, and the conflict escalated. Their brief armed rebellion in 1837 failed. Officials blamed American influence, "In this country unfortunately the settlement of American citizens has been too much permitted and encouraged, and thus in the bosom of this community there exists a treacherous foe ... in many parts of the Province the teachers are Americans.... These men are utterly ignorant of everything English and could not if they tried instruct their pupils in any of the duties which the connection of the Province with England casts upon them." The oligarchic Family Compact was defended by Tories who explained, "The Radicals, Revolutionists or Destructives was composed of all the American settlers and speculators in land, some of the more simple and ignorant of the older class of farmers, and the rabble of adventurers who poured in every year from the United States or from Britain, to evade the laws of their respective countries." [Rea Lord Durham's support for "responsible government" undercut the Tories and gradually led the public to reject what it viewed as poor administration, unfair land and education policies, and inadequate attention to urgent transportation needs. Finally there emerged responsible government under Robert Baldwin and Louis LaFontaine by the late 1840s.

Land settlement

Land had been settled since the French regime, notably along the Detroit River and the Saint Lawrence River. However, impetus to land settlement came with the influx of Loyalist refugees and military personnel in 1784 after the American Revolution. As a result, prior to the creation of Upper Canada in 1791 as a separate colony, much land had been ceded by the First Nations to the Crown in accordance with the Royal Proclamation of 1763. This land was surveyed by the government of the Province of Quebec, particularly in eastern Ontario along the Saint Lawrence River, as the Western Townships, while the Eastern Townships were in Lower Canada.

Rudimentary municipal administration began with the creation of districts, notably Western (including present day Brantford), Eastern, Gore (including present day Hamilton) and Home (including present day Toronto).

The Act Against Slavery passed in Upper Canada on July 9, 1793.

Organized settlement tracts were laid out with portions set aside for the clergy reserves, one exception was the Talbot Settlement on the north shore of Lake Erie which was set up in 1804.

These land tracts expanded in reach well beyond the St.Lawrence-Lake Ontario-Lake Erie shores after the war of 1812. British regiment soldiers who were veterans of the war were offered free land, some remained despite the harsh winters. Unlike the period prior to the war, immigration was now directed at Europe and more specifically to the British Isles, not from the US, which was the largest source of immigration before the war. Very cheap or even free land was offered with advertizements to entice immigrants to settle there, even those in financially meager circumstances. Passage could be obtained across the Atlantic on returning empty lumber ships for little fare. During the early 1830s, the population increased more than 10% of its total each year. In the 1820s many German speaking Mennonite immigrants came to the Grand River region of Upper Canada from Pennsylvania, they were joined as well by many German speaking Amish immigrants from Alsace, Lorraine, Bavaria and the Palatinate. This region was even referred to in its early days as "Little Pennsylvania", however this term is no longer used today. Many of their descendants continue to speak a form of German called Pennsylvania German.

It is estimated that upwards of 30,000 escaped slaves entered Upper Canada from the US, most notably the Cincinnati, Ohio area.

Upper Canada ceased to be a political entity with the Act of Union (1840), when, by an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, it was merged with Lower Canada to form the Province of United Canada. This was principally in response to the Upper and Lower Canada rebellions of 1837 and 1837-38, respectively. At Confederation in 1867, the Province of Canada was re-divided along the former boundary as the provinces of Ontario and Quebec.

The name 'Upper Canada' lives on in a few fossilized forms, most notably the Law Society of Upper Canada, Upper Canada Lumber, Upper Canada College and the Upper Canada Brewing Company. When the capital was first moved to Toronto from Newark (present-day Niagara-on-the-Lake) in 1796, the Parliament of Upper Canada was located at the corner of Parliament and Front Streets, in a building that was eventually abandoned. In 2001, some remnants of the original Parliament building were found during preparations to build a car dealership on that site. Today, there is an ongoing fight by preservationists and historians who propose the government turn over the into a publicly funded historical site. Currently the government leases most of the site.

Population

Population of Upper Canada, 1806—1840
Year	Census estimate
1806	70,718
1811	77,000
1814	95,000
1824	150,066
1825	157,923
1826	166,379
1827	177,174
1828	186,488
1829	197,815
1830	213,156
1831	236,702
1832	263,554
1833	295,863
1834	321,145
1835	347,359
1836	374,099
1837	397,489
1838	399,422
1839	409,048
1840	432,159

(see Province of Canada for population after 1840)
Source: Statistics Canada website Censuses of Canada 1665 to 1871.

Numismatic History

See Coins of Upper Canada.

Bibliography

Armstrong, Frederick H Handbook of Upper Canadian Chronology Dundurn Press, 1985. ISBN 0-919670-92-X
Craig, Gerald M Upper Canada: the formative years 1784-1841 McClelland and Stewart, 1963, the standard history
Dieterman, Frank Government on fire: the history and archaelogy of Upper Canada's first Parliament Buildings Eastendbooks, 2001.
Dunham, Eileen Political unrest in Upper Canada 1815-1836 McClelland and Stewart, 1963.
Errington, Jane The lion, the eagle, and Upper Canada: a developing colonial ideology McGill-Queen's University Press, 1987.
Edward Grabb, James Curtis, Douglas Baer; "Defining Moments and Recurring Myths: Comparing Canadians and Americans after the American Revolution" The Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology, Vol. 37, 2000
Johnston, James Keith. Historical essays on Upper Canada McClelland and Stewart, 1975.
Lewis, Frank and Urquhart, M.C. Growth and standard of living in a pioneer economy: Upper Canada 1826-1851 Kingston, Ont. : Institute for Economic Research, Queen's University, 1997.
McCalla, Douglas Planting the province: the economic history of Upper Canada 1784-1870 University of Toronto Press, 1993.
McNairn, Jeffrey L The capacity to judge: public opinion and deliberative democracy in Upper Canada 1791-1854 University of Toronto Press, 2000.
J. Edgar Rea. "Rebellion in Upper Canada, 1837" Manitoba Historical Society Transactions Series 3, Number 22, 1965-66 online, historiography
Winearls, Joan Mapping Upper Canada 1780-1867: an annotated bibliography of manuscript and printed maps. University of Toronto Press, 1991.
Carol Wilton. Popular Politics and Political Culture in Upper Canada, 1800-1850 McGill-Queen's University Press, 2000

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