Document generated on 09/29/2021 12:07 p.m. Ontario History The Capture of York Charles W. Humphries Special Issue: The War of 1812 Volume 104, Number 1, Spring 2012 URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1065389ar DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1065389ar See table of contents Publisher(s) The Ontario Historical Society ISSN 0030-2953 (print) 2371-4654 (digital) Explore this journal Cite this article Humphries, C. W. (2012). The Capture of York. Ontario History, 104(1), 71–95. https://doi.org/10.7202/1065389ar Copyright © The Ontario Historical Society, 2012 This document is protected by copyright law. Use of the services of Érudit (including reproduction) is subject to its terms and conditions, which can be viewed online. https://apropos.erudit.org/en/users/policy-on-use/ This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ * The Capture of York by Charles W. Humphries Originally published in Ontario History, 51:1 (1959) York Barracks, Upper Canada, May 13, 1804, as painted by Lt. Sempronius Stretton (Couresty of Library and Archives Canada). s afternoon yielded to dusk certain day, as if no untoward cir­ on April 26, 1813, two fig­ cumstance could intervene.”2 Aures could be discerned In town, the rector of York, the tramping the two­mile stretch of Reverend Dr. John Strachan, hav­ road that ran from York to the ing earlier performed the pleas­ fort. They were Quartermaster ant ministerial chore of marrying Finan, of the Royal Newfound­ a young couple,3 busied himself land Regiment, and his son, who with the task of writing a letter to had been in York for the day.1 A James Brown, a fellow clergyman. third person, Captain McNeale He complained that: of the Grenadier Company of the owing to the mismanagement of our 8th (King’s) Regiment, hastened little Navy we lost the command of to catch up with them, and the the Lake last summer, and shall trio continued toward the fort as not regain it till we procure good of­ the shadows lengthened. McNeale ficers from England, those we have spoke of his plans for the next day do not belong to the Royal Navy and and talked “confidently of being in not having seen service are with­ Fort George, the next town, on a out experience.”4 [He continued:]... *Based on chapter II of the writer’s thesis “Upper Canada in 1813”, completed January 1959 as a requirement for the Master of Arts degree in the Department of Modern History, University of Toronto. Ontario History / Volume CIV, No. 1 / Spring 2012 2 ONTARIO HISTORY this country cannot be defended, First Regiment of York Militia.10 if we possess not the command of Behind him, Saunders left a wife the Lakes. The weakness and im­ and six children.11 becility of our Commander in Chief Ely Playter, a lieutenant in the has produced all our defeats. We Third Regiment of York Militia, had might have destroyed the enemies just arrived home from the fort. [sic] ships last winter but misera­ He was soon summoned from his ble forbearance and not vigour was farm near the Don at the request at that time the order of the day. If of Major William Allan of the Third this country fall Sir George Prevost and he only is to blame.5 York Regiment, otherwise a leading merchant and postmaster of the In a bedroom of his large frame capital. He hurried down to York dwelling on the west side of Freder­ to find both the troops and mili­ ick Street, just south of King,6 Pri­ tia busy preparing—and sending deaux Selby, the Receiver General out—guards and patrols.12 He set of Upper Canada, lay mortally ill. out to find Major Givins—the local John Hunter, the messenger of the official of the Indian Department— House of Assembly, was occupied in order to obtain the assistance with the job of stoking up the stove of the Indians in preparing the de­ in the office of the Clerk of the As­ fences. Playter located him with sembly. Before long, Hunter would Maj.­Gen. Sir Roger Hale Sheaffe, be asleep in this office where he Brock’s successor as commander had spent every night during the of the forces in Upper Canada and winter months.7 as civil administrator at the Gov­ The normal routine of the lit­ ernment House. Sheaffe, refusing tle town was soon shattered by to be overly alarmed by the appear­ an alarming discovery. From the ance of the enemy, was confident Scarborough bluffs, someone had that they would wait till sunrise sighted the American fleet to the before commencing any action. He east of York.8 By the time McNeale told Playter to sleep at the Govern­ and his friends reached the fort, ment House until morning, when all was bustle and activity.9 The there would be sufficient time to signal gun was fired to summon organize to resist the attack.13 the militia to York and to battle. In the dark of that night, the At his home in Markham town­ pace of activity quickened in the ship, Matthias Saunders, some­ little town. Donald McLean, the time ship builder and owner, knew Clerk of the House of Assembly, that something was amiss in York made a hurried trip to John Mc­ when he heard that gun booming Gill’s home. He removed from there, out its alarm across the farms in its owner’s absence, the papers and fields. He quickly set out for pertaining to the office, which the fort and his place, as a private McGill held: Inspector General of in John Willson’s company of the Public Provincial Accounts.14 the capture of york Map of York in Benson J. Lossing’s Pictorial Field-Book of the War of 1�12 (1869). At Sheaffe’s behest Chief Justice suspect the Clerk of the Assembly Thomas Scott and Justice William of having much ready cash.18 The Dummer Powell—like Selby and larger strong­box was secreted McGill members of the Executive elsewhere. Council—hastened to the house William Warren Baldwin, York’s where Prideaux Selby lay in a state practitioner in both law and medi­ of insensibility. The public mon­ cine, fretted about what would ey, amounting to £3.109.1.83/4,15 happen to his valuables should which was at the Receiver Gen­ the Americans land. His home at eral’s, was uppermost in their the corner of Frederick and Front minds.16 Determined that the Streets, was next to the dockyards Americans should have none of where a 30­gun ship was on the it, they counselled Mrs. Derenzy, stocks; consequently his property Selby’s daughter, to remove this was a likely mark for any pillager.19 sum to a safer place. Mrs. Deren­ Having hit upon a plan, he bundled zy agreed to this. However, before up his silverware and someone’s sending off an iron chest, contain­ black silk gown and sent them out ing the government funds, to a of town to a friend’s barn. There, place of safe­keeping, Mrs. Deren­ he was confident, they would be zy removed a portion of it, suppos­ out of danger.20 edly six hundred dollars.17 This To the east of the town, at the she put in a smaller iron container head of the bay of York, were quar­ along with the public papers. The tered Captain Eustace’s company latter receptacle was then trun­ of the 8th (King’s) Regiment and dled off to Donald McLean’s, since some of the York militia. They were it was supposed that no one would left there to forestall any American ONTARIO HISTORY attempt on that flank.21 The bal­ mand of Major­General Henry ance of Sheaffe’s regulars, slightly Dearborn. Some 4,000 men had over two hundred in number, were been assembled at Sackett’s Har­ at the fort located on the triangu­ bour for an attack upon Kingston lar knoll which rose between Garri­ and York, the hope being that the son Creek and the lakeshore; thus capture of the two British naval situated across from the western bases on Lake Ontario would also tip of the peninsula, it effectively allow Chauncey to win control of commanded the entrance to the that vital body of water. The origi­ harbour. Yet though its location nal plan had been to direct the at­ may have been ideal its defences tack against Kingston, but early in were not. Despite Brock’s com­ April Dearborn had become con­ plaint about the state of the post vinced that Prevost had reinforced in 1811 only a stone magazine had the Kingston naval base with sev­ been constructed in the interim, eral thousand British regulars—a lack of supplies preventing further completely unfounded belief. Con­ improvements. And the number sequently he had decided to shift of troops was never large; even his attentions to York, a far less the chance arrival of some of the formidable enterprise but one that 8th Regiment only increased the was not without its merits. If the strength of the regulars at York to vessel under construction in the 300 men. dockyards could be destroyed and Uneasily the troubled town if the Prince Regent, the vessel of waited for the dawn. By four a.m. the Provincial Marine stationed at John Strachan was out of bed York, could be captured, the ef­ and, getting dressed, he was soon fect upon the British lake squad­ mounted up and almost eagerly ron would be most serious.