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Talbot Papers: Strachan Papers, 1812-1834
- Museum / Archive
- Elgin County Archives
- Part Of
- Guy St-Denis Collection: Colonel Thomas Talbot Research Papers
- Description Level
- File
- GMD
- textual records
- Date Range
- ca. 1985-2003
- Accession Number
- 2017-42
- Storage Location
- R12 S1 Sh5 B8 F18
- Museum / Archive
- Elgin County Archives
- Part Of
- Guy St-Denis Collection: Colonel Thomas Talbot Research Papers
- Description Level
- File
- Accession Number
- 2017-42
- Storage Room
- Archives Storage Rm. 110
- Storage Location
- R12 S1 Sh5 B8 F18
- GMD
- textual records
- Date Range
- ca. 1985-2003
- Physical Description
- 1 cm of textual records
- History / Biographical
- John Strachan (1778–1867) was a figure in Upper Canada and the first Anglican Bishop of Toronto. He is best known as a political bishop who held many government positions and promoted education from common schools to helping to found the University of Toronto.
- Born 12 April 1778, Strachan was the youngest of six children born to the overseer of a granite quarry in Aberdeen, Scotland. He graduated from King's College, Aberdeen, in 1797. After his father died in an accident in 1794, Strachan tutored students and taught school to finance his own education.[2]
In 1799 he emigrated to Kingston, Upper Canada, to tutor the children of other British and United Empire Loyalist immigrants. In Kingston one of his students was John Beverley Robinson, future attorney general of Upper Canada. At the same time, he studied to become ordained.
In 1803 Strachan was ordained as a priest in the Church of England. He moved to Cornwall, Ontario, where he taught at a grammar school and married Ann McGill née Wood, widow of Andrew McGill, in 1807.Together they had nine children, some of whom died young.
He moved to York, Upper Canada, just before the War of 1812, where he became rector of St. James' Church (which would later become his cathedral) and headmaster of the Home District Grammar School. This school, also known as "The Blue School" taught students from five to seventeen and emphasized a practical means of learning. Students recited abridged speeches from the House of Commons, learned Latin, and were encouraged to ask questions of their fellow pupils. A conservative, Strachan supported his nation during the War of 1812, using his sermons to support the suspension of civil liberties. Upon hearing that of the fall of Fort Detroit to British forces, Strachan declared in a sermon: "The brilliant victory...has been of infinite service in confirming the wavering & adding spirit to the loyal". Strachan had the young women of York knit flags for the militia regiments in which their menfolk were serving in and organized fundraising drives to give the militiamen serving on the Niagara frontier shoes and clothing. In December 1812, Strachan founded the Loyal and Patriotic Society of Upper Canada which raised £21,500 to support the families of militiaman and care for the wounded. During the Battle of York in 1813, along with senior militia officers Strachan negotiated the surrender of the city with American general Henry Dearborn. The Americans violated the terms by looting homes and churches while locking the wounded British soldiers and Upper Canada militiamen into a hospital without food or water for two days. Strachan went to meet to complain in person to Dearborn about the violation of the terms of surrender and shamed Dearborn into imposing order on his troops.He is credited with saving the city from American troops eager to loot and burn it. After the sack of York, Strachan sent his wife Anne and their children to Cornwall because he believed they would be safe there.
- Custodial History
- These papers were collected as part of a comprehensive study into the life and career of Colonel Thomas Talbot, the early nineteenth-century settlement agent whose authority extended over much of what is now southwestern Ontario. The research was conducted by Guy St-Denis in various archival repositories with the intention of publishing a new biography of Talbot. After the project was discontinued, the photocopied documents were preserved in hopes of being useful to future scholars of Talbot and his settlement. The files were compiled ca. 1985-2003.
- Scope and Content
- Photocopies of the Strachan Papers Letter Book, 1812-1834.
- Name Access
- Talbot, Thomas
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