Toronto of Old Part 44

Simon Menno, the founder and prophet of the Mennonists, was a native of Friesland in 1496. He advocated the utmost rigour of life. Although there are, as we are informed, modernized Mennonists now in Holland, at Amsterdam, for example, who are distinguished for luxury in their tables, their equipages and their country seats, yet a sub-section of the community known as Uke-Wallists, from one Uke Walles, adhere to the primitive strictness enjoined by Menno. Their apparel, we are told, is mean beyond expression, and they avoid everything that has the most distant appearance of elegance or ornament. They let their beards grow to an enormous length; their hair, uncombed, lies in a disorderly manner on their shoulders; their countenances are marked with the strongest lines of dejection and melancholy; and their habitations and household furniture are such as are only fitted to answer the demands of mere necessity. "We shall not enlarge," Mosheim adds, "upon the circ.u.mstances of their ritual, but only observe that they prevent all attempts to alter or modify their religious discipline, by preserving their people from everything that bears the remotest aspect of learning and science; from whatever, in a word, that may have a tendency to enlighten their devout ignorance."

The sympathies of our primitive Tunkers beyond the Ridges, were, as we may suppose, with this section of the fatherland Mennonists.

Thus, to get the clue to social phenomena which we see around us here in Canada, we have to concern ourselves occasionally with uninviting pages, not only of Irish, Scottish and English religious history, but of German and Netherlandish religious history likewise. Pity 'tis, in some respects, that on a new continent our immigrants could not have made a _tabula rasa_ of the past, and taken a start _de novo_ on another level--a higher one; on a new gauge--a widened one.

Though only a minute fraction of our population, an exception was early made by the local parliament in favour of the Mennonists or Tunkers, allowing them to make affirmations in the Courts, like the Quakers, and to compound for military service.--Like Lollard, Quaker and some other similar terms, Tunker, _i. e._ Dipper, was probably at first used in a spirit of ridicule.

_Digression to Newmarket and Sharon._

When Newmarket came in view off to the right, a large portion of the traffic of the street turned aside for a certain distance out of the straight route to the north, in that direction.

About this point the ancient dwellers at York used to take note of signs that they had pa.s.sed into a higher lat.i.tude. Half a degree to the south of their homes--at Niagara, for example--they were in the land, if not of the citron and myrtle, certainly of the tulip-tree and pawpaw--where the edible chestnut grew plentifully in the natural woods, and the peach luxuriantly flourished.

Now, half a degree the other way, in the tramontane region north of the Ridges, they found themselves in the presence of a vegetation that spoke of an advance, however minute, towards the pole. Here, all along the wayside, beautiful specimens of the spruce-pine and balsam-fir, strangers in the forest about York, were encountered. Sweeping the sward with their drooping branches and sending up their dark green spires high in the air, these trees were always regarded with interest, and desired as graceful objects worthy to be transferred to the lawn or ornamental shrubbery.

A little way off the road, on the left, just before the turn leading to Newmarket, was the great Quaker meeting-house of this region--the "Friends' Meeting-house"--a building of the usual plain cast, generally seen with its solid shutters closed up. This was the successor of the first Quaker meeting-house in Upper Canada. Here Mr. Joseph John Gurney, the eminent English Quaker, who travelled on this continent in 1837-40, delivered several addresses, with a view especially to the re-uniting, if possible, of the Orthodox and the Hicksites.

Gourlay, in his "Statistical Account of Upper Canada," took note that this Quaker meeting-house and a wooden chapel at Hogg's Hollow, belonging to the Church of England, were the only two places of public wors.h.i.+p to be seen on Yonge Street between York and the Holland Landing--a distance, he says, of nearly forty miles. This was in 1817.

Following now the wheel-marks of clearly the majority of vehicles travelling on the street, we turn aside to Newmarket.

Newmarket had for its germ or nucleus the mills and stores of Mr. Elisha Beaman, who emigrated hither from the State of New York in 1806. Here also, on the branch of the Holland river, mills at an early date were established by Mr. Mordecai Millard, and tanneries by Mr. Joseph Hill.

Mr. Beaman's mills became subsequently the property of Mr. Peter Robinson, who was Commissioner of Crown Lands in 1827, and one of the representatives of the united counties of York and Simcoe; and afterwards, the property of his brother, Mr. W. B. Robinson, who for a time resided here, and for a number of years represented the County of Simcoe in the provincial parliament. Most gentlemen travelling north or to the north-west brought with them, from friends in York, a note of commendation to Mr. Robinson, whose friendly and hospitable disposition were well known:

"Fast by the road his ever-open door Oblig'd the wealthy and reliev'd the poor."

Governors, Commodores, and Commanders-in-chief, on their tours of pleasure or duty, were glad to find a momentary resting-place at a refined domestic fireside. Here Sir John Franklin was entertained for some days in 1835: and at other periods, Sir John Ross and Capt. Back, when on their way to the Arctic regions.

In 1847, Mr. W. B. Robinson was Commissioner of Public Works; and, at a later period, one of the Chief Commissioners of the Canada Company. Mr.

Peter Robinson was instrumental in settling the region in which our Canadian Peterborough is situated, and from him that town has its name.

At Newmarket was long engaged in prosperous business Mr. John Cawthra, a member of the millionaire family of that name. Mr. John Cawthra was the first representative in the Provincial Parliament of the County of Simcoe, after the separation from the County of York. In 1812, Mr. John Cawthra and his brother Jonathan were among the volunteers who offered themselves for the defence of the country. Though by nature inclined to peace, they were impelled to this by a sincere sense of duty. At Detroit, John a.s.sisted in conveying across the river in scows the heavy guns which were expected to be wanted in the attack on the Fort. On the slopes at Queenston, Jonathan had a hair-breadth escape. At the direction of his officer, he moved from the rear to the front of his company, giving place to a comrade, who the following instant had a portion of his leg carried away by a shot from Fort Gray, on the opposite side of the river. Also at Queenston, John, after personally cautioning Col. Macdonell against rashly exposing himself, as he seemed to be doing, was called on a few minutes afterwards, to aid in carrying that officer to the rear, mortally wounded.

With Newmarket too is a.s.sociated the name of Mr. William Roe, a merchant there since 1814, engaged at one time largely in the fur-trade. It was Mr. Roe who saved from capture a considerable portion of the public funds, when York fell into the hands of General Dearborn and Commodore Chauncey in 1813. Mr. Roe was at the time an employe in the office of the Receiver General, Prideaux Selby; and by the order of General Sheaffe and the Executive Council he conveyed three bags of gold and a large sum in army-bills to the farm of Chief Justice Robinson, on the Kingston road east of the Don bridge, and there buried them.

The army-bills were afterwards delivered up to the enemy; but the gold remained secreted until the departure of the invaders, and was handed over to the authorities in Dr. Strachan's parlour by Mr. Roe. The Receiver General's iron chest was also removed by Mr. Roe and deposited in the premises of Mr. Donald McLean, Clerk of the House of a.s.sembly.

Mr. McLean was killed while bravely opposing the landing of the Americans, and his house was plundered; the strong chest was broken open and about one thousand silver dollars were taken therefrom.

The name of Mr. Roe's partner at Newmarket, Mr. Andrew Borland, is likewise a.s.sociated with the taking of York in 1813. He was made prisoner in the fight, and in the actual struggle against capture he received six severe rifle wounds, from the effects of which he never wholly recovered. He had also been engaged at Queenston and Detroit.

In the Report of the Loyal and Patriotic Society of Upper Canada, we have an entry made of a donation of sixty dollars to Mr. Andrew Borland on the 11th June, 1813, with the note appended: "The committee of the Loyal and Patriotic Society voted this sum to Mr. Borland for his patriotic and eminent services at Detroit, Queenston and York, at which latter place he was severely wounded."

We also learn from the Report that Mr. D'Arcy Boulton had presented a pet.i.tion to the Society in favour of Mr. Borland. The members of committee present at the meeting held June 11th, 1813, were Rev. Dr.

Strachan, chairman, Wm. Chewett, Esq., Wm. Allan, Esq., John Small, Esq., and Alex. Wood, Esq., secretary: and the minutes state that "The pet.i.tion of D'Arcy Boulton, Esq., a member of the Society, in favour of Andrew Borland, was taken into consideration, and the sum of Sixty Dollars was voted to him, on account of his patriotic and eminent services at Detroit, Queenston and York, at which latter place he was most severely wounded." Mr. Borland had been a clerk in Mr. Boulton's store. In the order to pay the money, signed by Alexander Wood, Mr.

Borland is styled "a volunteer in the York Militia." He afterwards had a pension of Twenty Pounds a year.

In 1838 his patriotic ardour was not quenched. During the troubles of that period he undertook the command of 200 Indians who had volunteered to fight in defence of the rights of the Crown of England, if there should be need. They were stationed for a time at the Holland Landing, but their services were happily not required.

From being endowed with great energy of character, and having also a familiar knowledge of the native dialects, Mr. Borland had great influence with the Indian tribes frequenting the coasts of Lakes Huron and Simcoe. Mr. Roe likewise, in his dealings with the aborigines, had acquired a considerable facility in speaking the Otchibway dialect, and had much influence among the natives.

Let us not omit to record, too, that at Newmarket, not very many years since, was successfully practising a grandson of Sir William Blackstone, the commentator on the Laws of England--Mr. Henry Blackstone, whose conspicuous talents gave promise of an eminence in his profession not unworthy of the name he bore. But his career was cut short by death.

The varied character of colonial society, especially in its early crude state, the living elements mixed up in it, and the curious changes and interchanges that take place in the course of its development and consolidation, receive ill.u.s.trations from ecclesiastical as well as civil annals.

We ourselves remember the church-edifice of the Anglican communion at Newmarket when it was an unplastered, unlathed clap-board sh.e.l.l, having repeatedly officiated in it while in that stage of its existence. Since then the congregation represented by this clap-board sh.e.l.l have had as pastors men like the following: a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, not undistinguished in his University, a protege of the famous Archbishop Magee, a co-worker for a time of the distinguished Dr. Walter Farquhar Hook, of Leeds, and minister of one of the modern churches there--the Rev. Robert Taylor, afterwards of Peterborough here in Canada. And since his inc.u.mbency, they have been ministered to by a former vicar of a prominent church in London, St. Michael's, Burleigh Street, a dependency of St. Martin's in Trafalgar Square--the Rev.

Septimus Ramsay, who was also long the chief secretary and manager of a well-known Colonial Missionary Society which had its headquarters in London.

While, on the other hand, an intervening pastor of the same congregation, educated for the ministry here in Canada and admitted to Holy Orders here, was transferred from Newmarket first to the vicarage of Somerton in Somersets.h.i.+re, England, and, secondly, to the rectory of Clenchwarden in the county of Norfolk in England--the Rev. R. Athill.

And another intervening inc.u.mbent was, after having been also trained for the ministry and admitted to orders here in Canada, called subsequently to clerical work in the United States, being finally appointed one of the canons of the cathedral church at Chicago, by Bishop Whitehouse of Illinois: this was the Rev. G. C. Street, a near relative of the distinguished English architect of that name, designer and builder of the New Law Courts in London.

As to the name "Newmarket"--in its adoption there was no desire to set up in Canada a memorial of the famous English Cambridges.h.i.+re racing town. The t.i.tle chosen for the place was an announcement to this effect: "Here is an additional mart for the convenience of an increased population: a place where farmers and others may purchase and exchange commodities without being at the trouble of a journey to York or elsewhere." The name of the Canadian Newmarket, in fact, arose as probably that of the English Newmarket itself arose, when first established as a newly-opened place of trade for the primitive farmers and others of East Anglia and Mercia in the Anglo-Saxon period.

It deserves to be added that the English church at Newmarket was, a few years back, to some extent endowed by a generous gift of valuable land made by Dr. Beswick, a bachelor medical man, whose large white house on a knoll by the wayside was always noted by the traveller from York as he turned aside from Yonge Street for Newmarket.

Proceeding onwards now from Newmarket, we speedily come to the village of Sharon (or Hope as it was once named), situated also off the direct northern route of Yonge Street.

David Willson, the great notability and founder of the place, had been in his younger days a sailor, and, as such, had visited the Chinese ports. After joining the Quakers, he taught for a time amongst them as a schoolmaster. For some proceeding of his, or for some peculiarity of religious opinion, difficult to define, he was cut off from the Hicksite sub-division of the Quaker body. He then began the formation of a denomination of his own. In the bold policy of giving to his personal ideas an outward embodiment in the form of a conspicuous Temple, he antic.i.p.ated the shrewd prophets of the Mormons, Joseph and Hiram Smith.

Willson's building was erected about 1825. Nauvoo was not commenced until the spring of 1840.

In a little pamphlet published at Philadelphia in 1815, Willson gives the following account of himself: "I, the writer," he says, "was born of Presbyterian parents in the county of Dutchess, state of New York, in North America. In 1801 I removed with my family into this province (Upper Canada), and after a few years became a member of the Society of the Quakers at my own request, as I chose a spiritual people for my brethren and sisters in religion. But after I had been a member thereof about seven years, I began to speak something of my knowledge of G.o.d or a Divine Being in the heart, soul or mind of man, all which signifies the same to my understanding,--but my language was offensive, my spirit was abhorred, my person was disdained, my company was forsaken by my brethren and sisters. After which I retired from the society and was disowned by them for so doing; but several retired with me and were disowned also, because they would not unite in the disowning and condemning the fruits of my spirit; for, as I had been accounted a faithful member of the society for many years, they did not like to be hasty in condemnation. Therefore we became a separate people, and a.s.sembled ourselves together under a separate order which I immediately formed. After I retired from my former meetings--as our discipline led to peace with all people more than any one in my knowledge--we called ourselves Children of Peace, because we were but young therein."

The following account of the Temple erected by Willson at Sharon is by a visitor to the village in 1835. "The building," says Mr. Patrick s.h.i.+rreff in his "Tour through North America," published in Edinburgh in 1835, "is of wood painted white externally, seventy feet high; and consists of three storeys. The first is sixty feet square, with a door in the centre of each side and three large windows on each side of the door. On two sides there is a representation of the setting sun and the word 'Armageddon' inscribed below. The second storey is twenty-seven feet square with three windows on each side; and the third storey nine feet square with one window on each side.

"The corners of each of the storeys are terminated by square lanterns, with gilded mountings; and the termination of the building is a gilded ball of considerable size. The interior was filled with wooden chairs placed round sixteen pillars, in the centre of which is a square cabinet of black walnut with a door and windows on each side. There was a table in the centre of the cabinet covered with black velvet, hung with crimson merino and fringe, in which was deposited a Bible. On the four central pillars were painted the words Faith, Hope, Charity, and Love; and on the twelve others, the names of the Apostles. The central pillars seemed to support the second storey; and at the foot of each was a table covered with green cloth. The house was without ornament, being painted fawn, green and white; and had not a pulpit or place for addressing an audience. It is occupied once a month for collecting charity; and contains 2,952 panes of gla.s.s, and is lighted once a year with 116 candles."

The materials of the frame-work of the Temple were, as we have been told, prepared at a distance from the site, and run rapidly up as far as possible without noise, in imitation of the building of Solomon's Temple. By the side of the princ.i.p.al edifice stood a structure 100 feet by 50 feet, used for ordinary meetings on Sundays. On the first Friday in September used to be an annual feast, when the Temple was illuminated. In this was an organ built by Mr. Coates of York.

David was an illiterate mystic, as his writings shew, in which, when the drift of his maundering is made out, there is nothing new or remarkable to be discerned.

At the close of the war of 1812-13-14, he appears to have been under the impression that the Government designed to banish him as a seditious person, under c. 1. 44 Geo. III. He accordingly published a doc.u.ment deprecating such action. It was thus headed: "Address to thy Crown, O England, and thy great name. I write as follows to all the inhabitants thereof." In the course of it he says: "After I have written, I will leave G.o.d to judge between you and me; and also to make judges of you, whether you will receive my ministry in your land in peace, yea or nay.

. . . Ye are great indeed. I cannot help that, neither do I want to; but am willing ye should remain great in the sight of G.o.d, although I am but small therein, in the things thereof. Now choose whether I should or might be your servant in these things, yea or nay. As I think, it would be a shame for a minister to be banished from your nation for preaching the gospel of peace therein. I am a man," he continues, "under the visitation of G.o.d's power in your land; and many scandalous reports are in circulation against me. The intent of the spirit of the thing is to put me to flight from your dominions, or that I should be imprisoned therein. For which cause I, as a dutiful subject, make myself known hereby unto you of great estate in the world, lest your minds should be affected and stirred up against me without a cause by your inferiors, who seek to do evil to the works of G.o.d, whenever the Almighty is trying to do you good."

In some verses of the same date as this address to the home authorities, viz., 1815, he refers to the peril he supposed himself to be in. A stanza or two will suffice as a specimen of his poetical productions, which are all of the same Sternhold and Hopkins type, with the disadvantage of great grammatical irregularity. Thus he sings: (The tone of the _ci-devant_ Jack-tar is perhaps to be slightly detected.)

The powers of h.e.l.l are now combin'd-- With war against me rage: But in my G.o.d my soul's resigned-- The rock of every age, &c.

Some thou doth set in king's estate, And some on earth must serve; And some hath gold and silver plate, When others almost starve, &c.

The earth doth hunger for my blood, And Satan for my soul; And men my flesh for daily food, That they may me control, &c.

If G.o.d doth give what I receive The same is due to thee; And thou in spirit must believe In gospel liberty, &c.

It's also mine, by George our king, The ruler of my day; And yet if I dishonour bring, Cut short my feeble stay, &c.

For this is in your hearts to do, Ye inferiors of the earth; And it's in mine to do so too, And stop that cursed birth, &c.

The style of a volume ent.i.tled "Impressions"--a kind of Alcoran, which used formerly to be sold to visitors in the Temple--does not rise much above the foregoing, either in its verse or prose.

What Mosheim says of Menno's books, may be said with at least equal truth of Willson's: "An extensively diffuse and rambling style, frequent and unnecessary repet.i.tions, an irregular and confused method, with other defects of equal moment, render the perusal of the productions highly disagreeable." Nevertheless, the reduction of his solitary meditations to writing had, we may conceive, a pious operation and effect on Willson's own spirit; and the perusal of them may, in the simple-minded few who still profess to be his followers, have a like operation and effect, even when in the reading constrained, with poor monk Felix, to confess that, though believing, they do not understand.