1838, a major engagement was fought at Prescott, Ontario, which is commonly referred to as the Battle of the Windmill. What is left of the windmill is still on the site and Fort Wellington is open to the public.
As an interesting aside, you may want to spend some time researching William Johnson, the Thousand Island Pirate. It is claimed Johnson was responsible for the burning of the Peel and generally harassing boat traffic on the St. Lawrence River. That he was a member of a hunters’ lodge is not totally verified; that he was a pirate whom authorities would have like to apprehend is not in doubt. I don’t believe he was ever captured, nor was his base in the Thousand Islands discovered. Johnson is one of the many interesting characters who appear in Canadian history from time to time and about whom very few Canadians know.
So, what about your military ancestors who served during the rebellions? The governor of Upper Canada, Sir Francis Bond Head, upon a request from the authorities in Lower Canada, sent almost all the regular British troops then stationed in the colony to Quebec. Thus, by January 1838 the defence of the colony of Upper Canada depended on local militia units raised specifically for the duration of hostilities. Several hundred volunteers flooded into the city of Toronto in response to the December threats and it is estimated that by February there were almost two thousand militiamen available for service. They were formed into units with names like the Toronto City Guards, Queen’s Lancers, and Royal Volunteers. To counter the hunters’ lodge threat several 600-man battalions were incorporated and specifically equipped by the government for full-time service. By the end of 1838 these battalions were reorganized into thirty companies and sixteen battalions.[3]
Your ancestors would have been organized into incorporated, provisional, or sedentary militia units. The incorporated militia served for eighteen months, full-time. The provisional battalions volunteered for six months. The sedentary units and Aboriginal peoples were called out when it was felt necessary. England responded by dispatching over five thousand regulars to Upper and Lower Canada. The Great Lakes were protected by several specifically designed steamers, manned by members of the Provincial Marine.
LAC’s MG 13, WO 13, holds the nominal rolls of the “Coloured” companies raised by the British to help track down rebels. The authorities knew that they could depend on Upper and Lower Canada’s black citizens to support the government because slavery had been abolished in Upper Canada in the 1790s and in the British Empire in 1834. The British were counting on the black settlers (mostly Loyalists and escaped and freed slaves) and Native population of British North America to want no part of American republicanism. Four battalions were formed.
Muster Roll of Coloured Troops. LAC, MG13, muster rolls of militia, 1837–1850, B series.
The Durham Report resulted in the 1841 Act of Union uniting Upper and Lower Canada and changing their names to Canada East (Quebec) and Canada West (Ontario). The geographic origin of public records for these two regions from 1841 until 1867 were referred to as CE (Canada East) and CW (Canada West). Likewise the government offices for the Parliament of the United Canadas alternated between Kingston, Canada West, and Montreal, Canada East.
In 1849 the Government of the United Canadas passed into law the Rebellions Losses Bill compensating former Reformers/Patriotes for damages committed by government troops during the Rebellions. The result was riots in Montreal and the burning of the Parliament buildings in that city. In 1854, Queen Victoria decided to resolve the issue of the capital of Canada by selecting Bytown, later Ottawa, as the seat of government.
The Act of Union was designed not only to unite the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada with an equal number of seats assigned to each in the new Parliament, but also to assimilate the French Canadians and encourage them to give up their language and customs. By the early 1860s, the Parliament of the United Canadas was again in deadlock. Eventually the British North America Act would create the Confederation of Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia on 1 July 1867.
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE HUNDREDS OF INDIVIDUALS WHO WERE TRIED AND SENTENCED FOR TREASON?
If one of your ancestors was a Reformer in Upper Canada or a Patriote in Lower Canada he might have been sent to Botany Bay in Australia onboard a convict ship. The only way you will know is by checking some of the lists of individuals tried by court martial found in archival documents or online.
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On Olive Tree Genealogy you can find a list of men sentenced to death as a result of Dr. Duncombe’s rising near Brantford: Horatio Hill, Stephen Smith, Charles Walworth, Ephraim Cook, John Tufford, and Nathan Town, as well as the names of those charged in the Short Hills Insurrection: Samuel Chandler (banished), James Morreau (executed), William Reynold, Garret Van Camp, August Linus, Wilson Miller, George Cooley, Norman Mallory, Loren Hedge, George Buck, James Genmill, Murdoch McFadden, Freeman Brady, Robert Kelly, Ebenezer Rice, David Taylor, Abraham Clarke, John T. McNulty, John Grant, Street Chase, James Waggoner, Edward Seymour, Alexander McLeod, Benjamin Wait (banished).[4]
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You can find a list of the 1,048 individuals tried for treason and acquitted or either executed or transported to Australia in The Patriots and the People. There I found Louis Turcott — acquitted — in the list of names.[5] The actual document published by the Colonial Office in 1840 provides a complete return of the persons imprisoned in Lower Canada. A great deal of information about the individuals is provided, including whether or not their sentence was executed or commuted. The report, entitled “Return to an Address of the Honourable the House of Commons” and dated 27 February 1839, is available at the Toronto Reference Library.
In Upper Canada, only two individuals were hanged for their part in the rebellions: Samuel Lount and Peter Matthews. Many of those condemned to death had their sentences commuted because of general indignation amongst the people of the colonies. For instance, Joseph Sheard, architect and later mayor of Toronto, blatantly refused to build the gallows for Lount and Matthews’s execution, stating, “Lount and Matthews have done nothing that I might not have done myself, and I’ll never help to build a gallows to hang them.”[6]
WHY MIGHT MY ANCESTORS HAVE BEEN SENT TO AUSTRALIA?
It was Captain James Cook’s report that convinced the British Admiralty of the suitability of Botany Bay as a prison for convicts. Previously, Britain had been in the habit of sending undesirables convicted of a wide variety of crimes to the Thirteen Colonies. However, the end of the American Revolution and the creation of the United States put an end to the availability of this region. The first fleet of prisoners arrived at Sydney Cove on 26 January 1788, and the final group arrived in 1868. Some 150 persons convicted of treason were sent to Australia on two ships, the Canton and the Marquis of Hastings.[7]
Your ancestors who lived during this period saw some interesting changes as the colony of British North America slowly assumed more responsibility for government and military defence. By the 1850s England was beginning to distance herself from Canada, allowing the colonies to rely more on their own militia for defence. After the Aroostook War in the mid 1850s, over the boundary between New Brunswick and the State of Maine, the whole structure of our military changed. In 1855 the government enacted the Militia Act, which established an Active Militia (permanent) of 5,000 officers and men, and a Sedentary Militia (only called out in times of need to supplement the active militia) of 100,000 officers and men. The Militia Act saw the growth of many new units, each assigned a battalion number and title. These changes occurred just in time to face the challenges of the upcoming decades.[8]
Jean Baptiste Turcott must have received his land grant as his name doesn’t appear on any of the lists of individuals tried for treason; he clearly states in his application that he served in the 4th Battalion as a corporal. A relative, Louis Turcott,
