Life of Sir John Beverly Robinson, bart., C.B., D.C.L., chief-justice of Upper Canada

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Preface

The ancient and famous nations of the world have ever cherished carefully the traditions of their early history. Sometimes these traditions strike the keynote of a great destiny ; sometimes they furnish the inspiration which secures it. In either case they are among the most valuable of national assets.

A young country does well to take careful note» in like manner, of all that is best in its past. The figures in the history may or may not be of heroic stature — ^the work done may or may not be on a grand scale. But it is foundation work, the significance of which grows with the lapse of time. Fortunate the State which, looking back upon its early builders, finds their characters stamped with the unquestioned hall-mark of truth and honour — finds their actions controlled by clear purpose and high principle. As an example and an inspiration the memory of such builders cannot be too carefully preserved or too closely studied.

It is with this thought in my mind that I commend, to Canadian youth particularly, this iHography of Sir John Beverley Robinson, as that of a man whose private character and public service establish a standard to which they may aspire with boundless advantage to themselves and to their country. Never, it seems to me, could it better become our young men to hold before them so high a standard for admiration and emulation than at viii PREFACE

the present time, when the great future that lies before Canada is gradually unfolding itself, and we begin to realise how large a place, as the greatest daughter nation connected with the Empire, she is destined to take in the world.

We Canadians have reason to be content with the beginnings of our country's history. In them may be found all the charm of romance, the fervour of patriotism, the severe glory of suffering and selfsacrifice on behalf of ideals.

Over the early history of French Canada the zeal of the Jesuit missionary, the daring of the adventurous explorer, the chivalry of the French •courtier, have thrown a glamour of poetic charm which gathers depth of colour with the lapse of years, and furnishes a striking and brilliant background to the somewhat prosaic conditions of modem life and progress.

The great struggle which marked the end of this period, and led to the fall of the French power on the American Continent, was a conflict of giants: on either side leaders who were masters in war and in statesmanship; followers stamped with the stubborn coiu*age of two of the world's strongest races, and hardened by the rough life of the New World. French and British Canadian alike can read with honourable pride a page of history illuminated by the genius of Wolfe, the chivalric heroism of Montcalm, and the bravery of soldiers who held life cheap in the service of King and Country.

Under the British flag this heritage of noble tradition was immeasurably enlarged. When the Revolution of 1775-88 severed the other colonies of England in America from the mother land, Canada received most of those who in the revolted

PREFACE ix

colonies had remained loyal, amid defeat and persecution, to the old flag and to British institutions. These Loyalists, driven or self-exiled for conscience' sake from the land of their birth, kindled in Canada that passionate attachment to the idea of a United Empire which has controlled the policy of the country for more than a century, is a dominant force in its politics to-day, and has contributed more, perhaps, than any other single factor to determine the future of the Empire itself.

The war of 1812 followed to test the strength of this attachment. In this war the Loyalist of Upper Canada and the Frenchman of Lower Canada were knit together in resistance to unjustified aggression. By the unyielding courage then displayed in the face of what seemed overwhelming odds, the territorial integrity of Canada and the security of the Empire in America were honourably maintained. Again, when rebellion reared its head in 1887, and a discontented minority hoped to repeat the experience of 1775, the forces of loyalty were strong enough to assert, once for all, a superiority which has never since been questioned.

Thus two centuries of struggle and adventure lend pictiu*esqueness to the birth of Canada, and furnish ample material for an inspiring history.

But the toils and triumphs of peace are not less honourable or less important than tibose of war.

The career of Sir John Robinson links together that stirring period of 1812-14 when the fate of the coimtry was decided by force of arms, and the later constructive stage when, in Legislature and Law Court, were laid the social and political foundations of a vast and peaceftil State, self-governing and mistress of its own destiny, but yet holding firmly

X PREFACE

to the principles of national life in which it was cradled. His boyhood was one fitted to develop strength of character. His father, who had wrecked his fortunes by adherence to the British cause in Virginia, died when he was quite young. Thus he early learned those hard lessons of poverty and adversity, so common in the pioneer life of a new country — so useful in the cultivation of qualities which make for success.

A fortunate chance placed him in school days ™.der the e«« «,d guf-Unoe of Dr. SUa^%. man -whose masculine intellect has left a profound impression upon the educational, ecclesiastical, and political life of Upper Canada. It impressed the individual scholar as well. The stem disciplinarian was also the devoted friend, and the perfect candour of intercourse between the two men exhibits an almost ideal relationship between teacher and pupil. From this strong master young Robinson seems to have caught much of the deep sense of Christian duty, the unusual capacity for labour, and the habits of accurate thought, which marked his whole subsequent life.

The weighty responsibilities of manhood were quickly thrust upon him. Before he was twenty-one he had served with distinction imder G^eral Brock, the especial hero of Canadian history, with whom he was present at the surrender of Detroit, and at the battle of Queenston Heights, where Brock fell He had also in the same year been named as Acting Attorney-General for Upper Canada, after the death of the Attomey-Gteneral, who fell in the same battle.

When the war was over he betook himself to England to complete his legal studies and to im-

PREFACE xi

prove his mental equipment by foreign travel To the responsible and bracing experiences of his Canadian life he now added, as these records show, familiarity with much of what was best in the social, legal, and political atmosphere of the mother land. Thus it was that the vigour and independence of thought begotten of pioneer life in the new world were supplemented in him by an old world breadth of experience and courtesy of manner which added to his power and charm, and which are said to influence even to the present day the Bench and Bar of his native province.

Returning to Canada, he was appointed Attomey- G^eneral in 1818 and elected to the House of Assembly in 1821. Rising steadily through the various stages of professional success he became in 1829 Chief- Justice of Upper Canada, and in virtue of that office. President of the Executive, and Speaker of the Legislative Council The last two positions he vacated in the course of a few years, as the system of responsible government became more clearly defined ; the Chief- Justiceship he filled for thirty-three years, imtil he became I^esident of the Coiu*t of Appeal in 1862, the year before his death. How his judicial duties were performed may be inferred from two notes in his memoranda made in 1854, the one recording the fact that in the previous twenty-four years there had only been five appeals to England from the decisions of his court, and that not one of these had been reversed ; the second mentioning that in these twenty-four years there had been absolutely no arrears in his department of the judicial business of the country. This record, noted with modest pride, has probably few parallels in the judicial history of Canada, or of Greater Britain.

xu PREFACE

Of his legislative activities only the merest outline can find place in a sketch such as this. But the references to his connection with such vexed questions as the Rebellion of 1887> Lord Selkirk's erratic government in the Hudson Bay Territory, the Clergy Reserves, Lord Durham's report, and the Union of Upper and Lower Canada, will be read with deep interest for the sake of the sidelights thrown upon Canadian history at one of its most critical periods. His influence in the decision of many Canadian questions was of a twofold kind. Sundry public missions on which he was sent to England, and a longer visit caused by ill-health, brought him much in contact with the leaders of English thought and politics. Thus while his intimate knowledge of affairs and the strength and sincerity of his convictions commanded public confidence and the respect even of opponents in Canada, his opinions had also great weight in England, where he was freely consulted by the Duke of Wellington, Colonial Ministers, and others responsible for the direction of Imperial policy. In giving advice he furnished no ground even for the suspicion that he would sacrifice for Imperial interests any just right of his colony. His example is an abiding proof that loyalty to the Empire as a whole is not inconsistent with loyalty to any of its parts.

A biography like this brings out in strongest relief the supreme value of character in public as in private life. Personal and family detail may be of limited interest : this broader teaching goes to the root of national welfare. Characters such as that of Sir John Beverley Robinson give distinction and dignity to a country's history.

GEORGE R. PARKIN.

Contents

OHAP. PAOB

I. Family and Early Life 1

II. The American War — Campaign of 1812 29

Chapter I Family And Early Life

Introdnctory — Family — Parentage — School and student life — Christoplier Robinson — Colonel Beverley Robinson and his sons — Christopher Robinson^ ''Queen's Rangers" — ^The Rev. John Sayre, Dr. Stuart^ Mr. Strachan^ Judge Boulton^ Colonel Macdonell — The United Empire Loyalists : their position after the Revolutionary War — Letter from Greneral Israel Putnam — Christopher Robinson's death : his children — Dr. Stuart's and Mr. Stracnan's kindness— John Beverley Robinson placed at school under the latter — Letters Arom Dr. Stuart — School life at Cornwall — Address of Mr. Strachan to hit pupils : their presentation of plate to him in after years — Enters Nf r. Boulton's office — Letters ot Mr. Strachan and Dr. Stuart — Mr. Boulton. taken prisoner by the French — Death of Dr. Stuart and Esther Robinson — Enters Colonel Macdonell's office — ^The Macdonells of Glengarry — Acts as Clerk of the House of Assembly instead of Mr. Donald Maclean — ^Vote of the House.

Many of those who knew my father have expressed theb regret that in Canada, where he lived and died, and with a part of whose history he was so intimately connected, no Life or very complete Memoir of him has hitherto been published.

This has led to my putting these pages together, but I am very sensible of the disadvantages which must, in some respects, attend their being written by a son.

I have, therefore, preferred to let the story of his life be told, as far as practicable, either in his

A own words — through his writings, speeches, and journals ^— or in those of others, through their letters to or notices of him.

He left behind him, partly for the information of his children, a memorandum, written in the later years of his life, and touching upon certain portions of it. It was in no sense an autobiography, and it must be borne in mind that it was not intended by him for publication in any shape. This I have largely quoted from, placing usually near the beginning of each chapter what he himself has written respecting the events referred to in it, and adding to that whatever may seem of interest in connection with his accoimt, and tend to bring the whole into a continuous narrative. Some matters more of purely family than of general interest, but which it may be convenient for his descendants to have a record of, I have placed apart in Appendix B.

To enter into every event affecting Canada in which he bore a part has not been attempted or possible in the space of these pages ; and, in alluding to those principal questions which in their day aroused strong feeling and controversy, I have endeavoured to write in the spirit which he would have approved.

A man of deep and consistent convictions himself, and for many years in Canada the leader of a party in Parliament, he was necessarily often in opposition to others. What I think he would have wished his descendants to claim for him is that, when he was so, he believed that he was in the right, and that, throughout his Ufe, he never deviated, by word or

1 When away from home^ he was in the habit of regularly keeping a journal^ but not at other times.

I FAMILY AND EARLY LIFE 8

act, from what his conscience dictated to be his duty towards his country. But, while I do claim this, I willingly concede to his political opponents convictions as sincere as his own.

My Father's Account of his Family and Early Life.

The first of our family to come to America was Christopher Robinson, who was Private Secretary to the Governor of Virginia, Sir William Berkeley, and continued in that colony till his death about 1693. He was the son of John Robinson of Cleasby, in Yorkshire, and elder brother of Dr. John Robinson, Bishop of Bristol and afterwards of London, who was the British Plenipotentiary at the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, and for some years British Minister to Sweden, of which coimtry he wrote an account. I believe he was the last ecclesiastic who was so employed.^

Christopher Robinson had a son John, who became President of the Council of Virginia, and married Catherine, daughter of Robert Beverley, by whom he had many sons. One of these was well known in Virginia as Speaker of the House of Burgesses, as it was then called.

Another, the youngest, was Beverley, who, having sought his fortunes in New York, became a merchant there, and married a daughter of Frederick Philipse, with whom he acquired a large property, situated on the Hudson River, that would now have been a possession of immense value, but which he forfeited by his adherence to the Crown in the Revolutionary War.*

He raised a regiment of his tenantry called " The King''s Loyal Americans,'* which he commanded during the war, and the officers and men at the peace settled in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Canada. Some account of him is given in the GentlemarCs Mctgaztrie for the year 1792, in the obituary of

^ Some furtheraocount of Christopher and Dr. John Robinson is given in Appendix R^ I. and II. The former died as Secretary for the Colony of Virginia.

' His house, Beverlev House on the Hudson, was the scene of some interesting events in the war^ and at one time the headquarters of Washington (see Appendix B., IL).

May in that year. He himself died at Bath, having removed to England after the war.

A more particular account of him is to be found in Sabine^s " History of the American Loyalists.*"

The late General Sir Frederick, and Commissary-General Sir William Robinson^ were both sons of Colonel Beverley Robinson, and he had others, who removed to New Brunswick, where their descendants now are numerous.

My father (Christopher), bom and brought up in Virginia, was the son of one * of the many brothers of Colonel Beverley Robinson, and being a youth at William and Mary College in Williamsburg, the capital of Virginia during the Revolutionary War, he left college and made his way to the British army, and afterwards to his uncle, Colonel Beverley Robinson, in whose family he resided until he received a commission from Sir Henry Clinton in Colonel Simcoe^s Legion,' as it was called.

He served in this corps till the peace, and then removed with other Loyalists to New Brunswick. He w€is the only one of his own branch of the family who adhered to the royal cause, and he became in consequence entirely estranged and separated from them. In New Brunswick he married, in 1784,* the daughter of the Rev. John Sayre, one of two brothers who had been sent as missionaries to the American Colonies by the Society for Propagating the Gospel, and of whom Mr. Stokes, his Majesty's Chief Justice of Georgia, thus speaks in his book upon the constitution of the British Colonies in North America and the West Indies at the time of the breaking out of the Civil War on the continent of America.^

^ See Appendix B., HI.

* William Robinson, bom aboat 1763, of the county of Spotsylvania in Virpnia.

' His commission is dated June 26, 1781, and it appears in a letter* from hia widow to Sir John Wentworth that he was then eighteen years of age. See Appendix A., IV., for some further particulars as to the corps of ''Queen's Rangers" (or Colonel Simcoe's ''Legion"). Its proper designation was "The Ist American Regiment or Queen's Rangers."

* At Maugerville, near Fredericton. The Rev. John Sayre died there in the same year.

* " A View of the Constitution of the British Colonies in North America and the West Indies/' by Anthony Stokes, p. 200. London, 1783.

I FAMILY AND EARLY LIFE 5

After describing some of the clergy, whom he says he had heard with great edification in America, as men who delivered themselves with that zeal which distingubhes those who feel what they preach to others, Mr. Stokes says: ** Amongst men of this primitive stamp I should mention Mr. Learning and the two Sayres from Connecticut, were it not that good men are dead to the applause of the world, and look for their reward in another Country, where merit will not be mistaken or overlooked.^

In 1788 Christopher Robinson (then on half-pay of the Queens's Rangers) removed to Lower Canada, and in 1792 came to Upper Canada with his family, and lived at Kingston till 1798. He was called to the Bar, and practised there, and held also the situation of Deputy Ranger of his Majesty^s Woods and Forests in Upper Canada, under a deputation from Sir John Wentworth of Nova Scotia — an office of very trifling emolument.

In October 1798 he removed to York (now Toronto), which had not long before been made the seat of Government, and died there three weeks after his arrival, leaving a family of young children ^ (for he lived to be but thirty-four years of age), and not having a relation of any degree in Canada.

He became a Bencher of the Law Society, and was, at the time of his death, a Member of the House of Assembly, representing the Counties of Lennox and Addington, having been elected to the second Parliament that sat in Upper Canada.

Three years ago (in 1851), when I went to Richmond, I spent ten days in Virginia. It was the first visit that any of my father's family had made there in the seventy years which had passed since he forsook his home to joii^ the British standard.

When my father died at York m 1798, the Rev. Dr. Stuart, who had been an intimate friend of his, proposed that I should go with him to Kingston, and attend the Grammar School there kept by Mr. Strachan, who afterwards moved to Cornwall, of which he had been appointed Rector.

So at that early period of life, I had two excellent

1 Sir John Beverley Robinson was the second son.

examples. One, Dr. Stuart, universally esteemed and respected, in whose family it was impossible to be — even as a child, as I was — attending constantly to his remarks as to what an honest man could do, and could not do, without benefiting by it.

The other, Mr. Strachan — ^to the inestimable advantage of receiving instruction under whom I feel perfectly certain I owe the success I had at an early period of life.

I learnt from him what generosity of character and conduct meant, and saw in him constantly exemplified all that it was most important a young man should see.

I was fortunate also in the next step I took. If I have any merit in getting on harmoniously with my brethren at the Bar fimd on the Bench, I owe it in a certain degree to having been at an early period of life, when I commenced my legal studies, under the care of the late Judge Boulton, who was then Solicitor-General of the province.

On a journey to England he was taken prisoner by the French, and it became necessary for me to complete under some one else the period for which I was articled as a law student.

I then placed myself under Colonel Macdonell — Acting Attorney-General and Aide-de-Camp to General Brock — who fell at Queenston, a most honourable and high-minded man.

The foregoing sketch passes over in few words the circumstances of privation and difficulty in which the United Empire Loyalists, of whom Christopher Robinson of the Queen's Rangers was one, were placed at the conclusion of the War of American Independence.

In Canada the history of these pioneers of the Upper Province is well known, but for others than Canadians it may be necessary to say that the United Empire Loyalists were those who endeavoured to preserve the unity of the Empire when the American Colonies — ^now the United States — rose in arms against the Crown.

I UNITED EMPIRE LOYALISTS 7

From conviction they adhered to the royal cause, and fought for it. When it was lost some returned to England, and many settled in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Upper Canada.

There they contributed largely to build up again the ELmpire as it exists to-day in the Canadian Dominion.

The people of Canada — many of them descendants of these men — have now lived for more than a century along an extended border-line of hundreds of miles side by side with those of the very prosperous Republic of the United States; and some occasionally, both in England and elsewhere, have pointed out that it would be to their interest to join it. But the people generally have never thought so ; their attachment to British institutions is deep-rooted, and it is not too much to say that this is due, next to the intrinsic value of these institutions in themselves, to the principles and traditions handed down by the United Empire Loyalists.

The choice which the Loyalists had made, and never regretted having made, had led to great hardships, to the forfeiture of fortune, the loss of home, and, in many cases, to the complete rupture of close family ties. To be compelled, with slender resources, to begin life anew in England or the British provinces, involving in many cases building their log houses in the imcleared forest in the depth of winter, must have severely tested that fortitude which enabled them to rise superior to their trials.

The feeling between those members of a family who had taken opposite sides in the American War of Independence was frequently bitter in the extreme.

Hundreds of miles of wilderness then intervened between Canada and Virginia, and from the day on which Christopher Robinson joined the Queen's Rangers no communication of any sort seems to have been kept up by him with his relations in Virginia. The only private letters of his which have been preserved (as far as I have been able to ascertain) are to his cousin, Robert Robinson,^ who had settled in Nova Scotia, and who, like himself, had served on the side of the Crown, and to Colonel Simcoe, his old commanding officer.

When he first went to Lower Canada, he lived at L'Assomption, afterwards moving to Berthier, where my father was bom, and it was on account of Colonel Simcoe coming out as Governor to Upper Canada that he removed to Kingston in 1792, and afterwards to York (Toronto), where he had previously arranged for a log house to be built for him a little east of where the river Don enters Lake Ontario. He died November 2, 1798, and was buried in the garrison burial-ground.

His name appears in records as mover or seconder of several public measures in the House of Assembly in York, such as for the establishment of a market, for laying down boundary lines between townships, and for revising the Act 84 Geo. III., regulating the practice of the Coiut of King's Bench.

His early death (when my father was seven years of age) was caused by an acute attack of gout, aggravated, I have heard, by cold and exposure while travellmg.

My father, alluding to him in one of his memo-

^ A son of John Robinson of Hewick, Middlesex County, Virginia, » first cousin of Colonel Beverley Robinson.

I CHRISTOPHER ROBINSON 9

randa, says, " I can just recollect that he was very tall, and had fair hair and a light complexion."

I have heard him say also that he could well recollect walking with his mother to the funeral along the Indian path, and through the forest, which then intervened between the Don and the cemetery, and which is now the city of Toronto.

Christopher Robinson, writing to Robert Robinson on July 6, 1798, tells him of the distress which Colonel Simcoe, "the first and best fiiend I ever met with since I left my Virginia connections," had found him in, when he came out as Governor; and how comparatively happy he was then with his half -pay, "a salary of 7s. 6d. a day as Deputy Surveyor-G^eneral of Woods and Forests, Is. 8d. for a ration, and 2000 acres of wild land."

Later on, in 1795, writing to Colonel Simcoe, he speaks of having no connections or relations to apply to " were I so disposed, having forfeited their £riendship by my political principles " ; and he adds, " I was bom to better prospects."

After his early — ^perhaps imprudently early — marriage in 1784,^ when he first moved with his young family to Lower Canada, he was entirely dependent upon his half-pay as a subaltern, and his own exertions.

It is interesting for any descendant of the United Empire Loyalists to read the official reports filed in the Record Office, Treasury, &c., in England, of the Conunissioners appointed by Parliament to inquire into the losses and services of the American

^ He was not quite twenty-one years of age. Colonel Beverley Robinson, writing from England in July 1784 to his daughter, says that he has ''heard of Kit Robinson's marriage/' and adds, "1 am sorry for and vexed with him for being so imprudent"

10 SIR JOHN BEVERLEY ROBINSON cir.

Loyalists. The delay in awarding them compensation, pending the investigation of their claims, must have caused, in some cases, much distress to them ; and their services and sacrifices were in many instances no doubt inadequately recognised, and too soon forgotten.

The British Government was not, however, as has been sometimes asserted, ungrateftil, and did not neglect their claims — ^which amounted to millions sterling — but it did not do more, and could not reasonably, perhaps, have been expected to do more, than indemnify them partially for their losses.

Colonel Beverley Robinson is an instance of the very heavy losses sustained by some. He, his wife, and his eldest son had aU been attainted by name of treason, and banished by an Act of the Legislature of New York, for ha\ang been active adherents of the King of Great Britain, and their whole real and personal estate confiscated. Four sons fought with him on the side of the Crown — ^three in his own regiment.

Sir Henry Clinton, Commander-in-Chief of the British forces during the war, bore the following high testimony before the Commissioners to his services : —

Colonel Beverley Robinson was appointed to the command of a regiment composed chiefly of his own tenants, at the head of which he distinguished himself upon several occasions, and particularly at the storming of Fort Montgomery on October 6, 1777, the command of that attack having devolved upon him after Lieutenant-Colonel Campbell was killed.