During the capital years, with the impending loss of Fort Niagara to the Americans, the strategic importance of the military installations on the Military Reserve increased dramatically. There was great activity in the Navy Hall complex by the river; the Rangers’ barracks, vacated by the Rangers who had been disbanded, was used by the militia and the Indian Department and the site was fortified; and the new Fort George garrison site was staked out. Despite this activity there were still some civilian encroachments on the reserve. Widow Murray maintained a farm in the middle of the reserve. Several merchants had shops and wharves along the marshy riverfront.[30] William Dickson, in one of his petitions for land,[31] claimed title for a “small House and Lott” on the reserve (approximate site of present St. Mark’s Rectory). He stated that since 1783, the property had been occupied successively by Surgeon Guthrie, silversmith John Bachus,[32] merchant Crooks, and then himself. The claim was disallowed because “it was land reserved for the purpose of fortification.”
By 1796 the extent of the Fort George Military Reserve was greatly reduced. The southern and western boundaries of the reserve ran parallel but slightly south of present-day John Street East to the river. Simcoe granted the land now excluded from the reserve south to Due-West Line primarily to “potential Canadian aristocrats.”[33] The large acreage between the western border and Four Mile Creek was granted to several Loyalist settlers in addition to those settlers who had been exempted previously.[34] The King Street boundary between the town site and the reserve remained unchanged.
Without any official provision in the town’s plan for a commons, green, public square, or park, it is understandable why the local townspeople and visitors alike began to consider the Military Reserves, primarily the large section to the south of King Street and to a lesser extent the smaller Reserve at Mississauga Point, as their commons. Such common lands had been enjoyed and indeed taken for granted back in the former American Thirteen Colonies as well as Great Britain. The commons was a place to graze your cows and sheep, to tether your horses and perhaps till a little garden, to gather firewood or mushrooms, or to provide a venue for various sports and other recreational activities, including a rendezvous for lovers. In the case of Niagara, venturing onto the Commons was always done with a watchful eye on the military installations and personnel, keeping in mind that it was officially a military reserve. It was often an uneasy truce: military officials complained of encroachment on their land and the locals objected to unnecessary high-handed military regulations. But as we will see later, in practice there was also an ongoing symbiotic relationship between the military and the townspeople.
The year 1796 was an important milestone for Newark (Niagara), and the Commons in particular. Construction of Fort George, although laid out as early as 1790, finally began on the high ground above Navy Hall chosen because it was approximately fourteen feet higher than the opposing Fort Niagara — an important consideration when lobbing artillery shells onto one’s enemy. The mere presence of this military garrison would have a lasting influence on the town’s history and that of the Commons.[35]
With the last session of the First Parliament of Upper Canada prorogued in June 1796, the capital of the infant colony officially moved to York (Toronto). Government officials and many military officers reluctantly left Niagara. The mercantile, social, and cultural epicentre of the colony gradually shifted across the lake as well. If the capital had remained at Niagara, the Commons as we know it today would certainly not have survived into the twenty-first century. Moreover, as previously mentioned, with the Crown grants along John Street officially approved in 1796, the boundaries of the Military Reserve were now finalized … or were they? Within one year, two local citizens had requested a grant of a portion of the “Commons or Lands now used as such.”[36] This was the first of what was to become a seemingly never-ending succession of proposals (many successful) to nibble away at the edges of the Commons.
Fort George Military Reserve, 1800. This map illustrates the full extent of the Fort George Military Reserve with its Navy Hall Complex, probable site of the Rangers’ Barracks, the newly completed Fort George, and the buildings of the British Indian Department. Note the original contour of the Queenston Road is closely followed by today’s Queen’s Parade and Picton Street. Although this map is based on diligent research, the various trails, creeks, and other landmarks should not be interpreted as their exact original location.
If you couldn’t purchase a piece of the Commons, at least you could buy a view of the Commons. By 1796 the two most substantial homes in Niagara — D.W. Smith’s elegant home and formal gardens on town lots 65, 66, 103, and 104, and William Dickson’s Georgian mansion on Lot 64 — both looked out onto the Commons. Moreover, Administrator Russell’s home, known as Springfield, was beautifully situated in the midst of the Commons.
The relative tranquility and picturesque green expanse of the Fort George Military Reserve/Commons at the end of the eighteenth century would soon be violently disrupted.
Chapter 3
The Captain Cook Connection
With the impending arrival of Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe and his wife at Niagara in the summer of 1792, the original building at Navy Hall was renovated to serve as the residence and offices of the viceregal couple. However, the Simcoes found the accommodation dark and dingy and much preferred to live in “the canvass houses,” even through the long, cold Canadian winter. These were not the simple canvas tents that would later be pitched on the Commons by the thousands during the Camp Niagara days. British military officers and government officials during military campaigns or exploratory expeditions throughout the world often lived “under canvas” outfitted with specially designed campaign furniture.[1] The Simcoes’ canvas houses, however, were quite unique. Shortly after Simcoe’s appointment as Lieutenant Governor, he purchased at a sale of Captain James Cook’s effects[2] in England one or two canvas houses. The famous explorer had used these during his three circumnavigating expeditions in the 1760s and 70s. Sketches taken during these voyages illustrate the canvas houses in use.[3] By strange coincidence, at the British conquest of Louisbourg in 1758 John Graves Simcoe’s father Captain John Simcoe was commander of HMS Pembroke, under whom a young James Cook had served admirably as master.
An itemized account from a Mr. Nathan Smith lists upgrades to the canvas houses commissioned by Simcoe:
Improvements in the Canvas House … made in frames, 38 feet 4”long by 12 feet wide and 7 feet 2 inches high at the side with 6 glazed windows and a partition to each room, also a cosy iron stove, fender, shovel, poker, and tongs, the inside of the rooms papered complete, the outside painted in oil colour and properly packed, marked and numbered.[4]
A later invoice refers to camp tables and chairs “packed with the canvas houses.”[5]
The canvas was apparently applied over a wooden framework and could be boarded up from the outside when necessary for warmth.
Mrs. Simcoe recorded in her diary that upon their arrival in July 1792 they lived in three simple canvas tents, or “marquees,” pitched on the hill above Navy Hall that “command a beautiful view of the river and garrison [Fort Niagara] on the opposite side.”[6]