Title of our fashionable native lake truly honours the life and repair of Captain John Simcoe of the British Royal Navy
John Graves Simcoe is a towering determine within the historical past of early Ontario. He was the primary Lieutenant-Governor of Higher Canada. He was chargeable for shifting the provincial capital from Newark (now Niagara-on-the-Lake) to Toronto.
He started building of Yonge Avenue. And he moved to abolish slavery in Higher Canada (although it didn’t apply to everybody, and a few slaves continued to be held for some years after).
He was, briefly, a defining character.
Domestically, he left a mark by naming Lake Simcoe. Most individuals assume that John Graves Simcoe named it after himself, cementing his legacy if you’ll. However that’s not the case.
When French explorers arrived within the area and made contact with the native Huron/Wyandot individuals, they realized the lake was referred to as Ouentironk (“Lovely Water”). The primary map of the lake, crafted in 1675 by Pierre Raffeix, referred to it as Lac Taranto. This identify didn’t actually stick, nevertheless, and by the early 18th century it was referred to as Lac aux Claies, which implies “Lake of Grids”, in reference to the quite a few First Nations fishing weirs within the lake.
Throughout the five-year interval from 1791 that he occupied the place of Lieutenant Governor of Higher Canada (Ontario), John Graves Simcoe left a mark by naming, or renaming, many areas. He noticed to it that Lac aux Claies was renamed Lake Simcoe.
However not in his personal honour.
As a substitute, Lake Simcoe honours the life and repair of his father, Captain John Simcoe of the British Royal Navy.
Born in 1710, he entered the navy as an adolescent and quickly rose up the ranks. When the Seven Years Struggle broke out between France and Britain in 1754, Simcoe was accountable for the 60-gun warship HMS Pembroke. He was current through the siege of Louisbourg in 1758, when British forces captured this important Nova Scotia fortress. With out its seize, the British fleet couldn’t sail up the St. Lawrence to assault Quebec Metropolis.
Simcoe would miss the seize of Quebec, nevertheless, as he died of pneumonia on Could 15, 1759, 4 months previous to the Battle of the Plains of Abraham.
Forty years later, Captain Simcoe’s sole surviving baby sought to memorialize his father’s service by naming Ontario’s fifth largest physique of water in his honour.
As a focal point, Simcoe named Cook dinner’s Bay as nicely. It honours famed explorer James Cook dinner, who as a comparatively younger officer served beneath Captain John Simcoe through the Seven Years Struggle and mentored a younger John Graves Simcoe within the absence of his father.
