On a different note, does anyone know of a good website or source of
information regarding Wiliam Lyon Mackenzie's Rebellion? In Toronto
this weekend, I found a great book called "The Pioneers of Old Ontario"
W.L.Smith. In speaking of the area near "Boston Mills" (near Toronto,
and I think also called "The Scotch Block")
"When the Rebellion came, it was real civil war, one neighbour watching
another......
There were no actual conflicts in thes neighbourhood between the rival
factions, but fighting was narrowly averted on some occasions. CAPTAIN
SINCLAIR had a party of Mackenzie's partisans in his home at Cheltenham,
when they were surprised and taken prisoners by the company under
command of my father. Most of the arms of Sinclair's men were stacked
in the middle of the room...
Certain it is, at least, that nowhere in the Upper Canada of that day
did the champions of responsible government receive stouter support than
in The Scotch Block, and when hope of securing redress by agitation
seemed at an end, The Block contributed its quota to those who stood
ready with Lyon Mackenzie to give the final proof of fidelity to a cause
held more important than life itself. It is not sprprising that a son
of the man who gave the site for "Old Boston" was among the prisoners
confined in Fort William Henry after the collapse of the rising of
'thirty-seven. "
Its an interesting part of history that I probably missed while
daydreaming through my schoolday history classes. I know Mackenzie was
a newspaper publisher who strongly rebelled against the "Family
Compact", and their governance of Upper Canada by
absolute rule in the early 1800s. I have some family stories that say
that our Neil Sinclair's eldest son John was for some time a captive
after the Rebellion. He came to Canada in '33, and although he later
settled elsewhere, he did have family in the area of Boston Mills.
Any help out there?
Toni S.
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