this marriage.], Deputy Provincial Surveyor, was entrusted the laying out
of the various roads in the neighbourhood. The great thoroughfare to the
north called Yonge street, was surveyed and laid out for the most part
under the personal supervision of Governor Simcoe himself, who named it
in honour of his friend, Sir George Yonge, Secretary of War in the home
government. In the course of the following summer, the Governor began to
make his home in his new capital. The village, composed of a few Indian
huts near the mouth of the Don, had theretofore been known by the name
of Toronto, having been so called after the old French fort in the
neighbourhood. Discarding this "outlandish" name, as he considered it, he
christened the spot York, in honour of the King's son, Frederick, Duke of
York. By this name the place continued to be known down to the date of its
incorporation in 1834, when its former designation was restored.
At the date of the founding of York, the public press of Upper Canada
consisted of a single demy sheet, called the _Upper Canada Gazette_,
published weekly at Newark. Its circulation varied from 50 to 150
impressions. It was printed on Thursday, on a little press--the only one in
the Province--which also printed the Legislative Acts and the Govermental
proclamations. From the issue of August 1st, 1793, we learn that,
"On Monday evening," which would be July 29th, "His Excellency the
Lieutenant-Governor left Navy Hall and embarked on board His Majesty's
schooner the _Mississaga_, which sailed immediately with a favourable
gale for York, with the remainder of the Queen's Rangers." From this time
forward, except during the sitting of the Legislature, Governor Simcoe make
York his headquarters. The Queen's Rangers referred to in the foregoing
extract were a corps which had recently been raised in Upper Canada by the
royal command, and named by the Governor after the old brigade at the
head of which he had so often marched to victory during the war of the
Revolution. The first Government House of Toronto was a somewhat remarkable
structure, and deserves a paragraph to itself. When Colonel Simcoe was
about to embark from London to enter upon the duties of his Government
in this country, he accidentally heard of a movable house which had been
constructed for Captain James Cook, the famous circumnavigator of the
globe. This house was made of canvas, and had been used by its former owner
as a dwelling in various islands of the southern seas. Governor Simcoe
learned that this strange habitation was for sale, and upon inspecting it
he perceived that it might be turned to good account in the wilds of Upper
Canada. He accordingly purchased it, and brought it across the Atlantic
with him. He found no necessity for using it as a dwelling at Newark, where
the storehouse furnished more suitable accommodation; but upon taking up
his quarters at York, Captain Cook's pavilion was brought into immediate
requisition.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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