Toronto of Old: Collections and recollections illustrative of the early settlement and social life of the capital of OntarioScadding, Henry
History
Toronto of Old: Collections and recollections illustrative of the early settlement and social life of the capital of Ontario
Scadding, Henry
Toronto (Ont.) -- Description and travel; Toronto (Ont.) -- History
experienced his goodness, that he has refused taking fees, and
discharged suits at law, by recommending to the parties, and assisting
them with friendly advice, to an amicable adjustment of their
differences: and this is the man whom we have lost!"
For his share in the duel Mr. Small was, on the 20th January, 1800,
indicted and tried before Judge Allcock and a jury, of which Mr. Wm.
Jarvis was the foreman. The verdict rendered was "Not Guilty." The
seconds were--Mr. Sheriff Macdonell for Mr. Small, and the Baron DeHoen
for Mr. White.
(In 1871, as some labourers were digging out sand, for building
purposes, they came upon the grave of Attorney-General White. The
remains were carefully removed under the inspection of Mr. Clarke
Gamble, and deposited in St. James' Cemetery.)
Mr. White's park-lot became afterwards the property of Mr. Samuel
Ridout, sometime Sheriff of the County, of whom we have had occasion to
speak already. A portion of it was subsequently owned and built on by
Mr. Edward McMahon, an Irish gentleman, long well known and greatly
respected as Chief Clerk in the Attorney General's office. Mr. McMahon's
name was, for a time, preserved in that of a street which here enters
Queen Street from the North.
Sherborne Street, which at present divides the White park-lot from Moss
Park commemorates happily the name of the old Dorsetshire home of the
main stem of the Canadian Ridouts. The original stock of this family
still flourishes in the very ancient and most interesting town of
Sherborne, famous as having been in the Saxon days the see of a bishop;
and possessing still a spacious and beautiful minster, familiarly known
to architects as a fine study.
Like some other English names, transplanted to the American continent,
that of this Dorsetshire family has assumed here a pronunciation
slightly different from that given to it by its ancient owners. What in
Canada is Ri-dout, at Sherborne and its neighbourhood, is Rid-out.
On the park-lot which constituted the Moss-Park Estate, the name of D.
W. Smith appears in the original plan. Mr. D. W. Smith was acting
Surveyor-General in 1794. He was the author of "A Short Topographical
Description of His Majesty's Province of Upper Canada in North America,
to which is annexed a Provincial Gazetteer:"--a work of considerable
antiquarian interest now, preserving as it does, the early names,
native, French and English, of many places now known by different
appellations. A second edition was published in London in 1813, and was
designed to accompany the new map published in that year by W. Faden,
Geographer to the King and Prince Regent. The original work was compiled
at the desire of Governor Simcoe, to illustrate an earlier map of Upper
Canada.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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