Elizabeth Simcoe
{{Short description|English artist (1762–1850)}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2016}}
{{Infobox artist
| name = Elizabeth Simcoe
| image = Elizabeth Simcoe.jpg
| caption = Portrait by Mary Anne Burges, 1790
| birth_name = Elizabeth Posthuma Gwillim
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=y|1762|09|22}}
| birth_place = Aldwincle, Northamptonshire, England
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|1850|01|17|1762|09|22}}
| death_place = Honiton, Devon, England
| nationality =
| spouse = {{marriage|John Graves Simcoe|1782|1806|reason=died}}
| children = 11
| field =
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Dame Elizabeth Posthuma Simcoe (22 September 1762 – 17 January 1850) was an English artist and diarist in colonial Canada. Her husband, John Graves Simcoe, was the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada. Her diary gives an account of Canadian life.
Biography
She was born Elizabeth Posthuma Gwillim to Lt Col. Thomas Gwillim and Elizabeth Spinckes in the village of Aldwincle, Northamptonshire, England.[https://www.freereg.org.uk/search_records/5f04dd41f493fdc3162a5662/elisabeth-posthuma-gwilliam-baptism-northamptonshire-aldwincle-1762-09-22?locale=en Baptism record on FreeReg]. The exact date of her birth remains unknown. Her mother's burial took place one day later at the same church. Her father died before her birth and her mother shortly afterwards. After her baptism, on the same day as her mother's burial, she was taken into the care of her mother's younger sister, Margaret. In commemoration of her posthumous birth, Elizabeth was given the middle name Posthuma. Her aunt and adoptive mother, Margaret, married Admiral Samuel Graves on 14 June 1769 and Elizabeth grew up at Graves's estate, Hembury Fort near Honiton in Devon. Gwillim was one of a group of friends that included Mary Anne Burges in Honiton.[http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=7191921134&searchurl=sgnd%3Don%26amp%3Bsortby%3D3%26amp%3Btn%3Dpilgrims%2Bprogress The Progress of the Pilgrim Good-Intent, in Jacobinical Times], Mary Ann Burges, AbeBooks. Retrieved 2 August 2014.
Image:York Harbour, looking west from the mouth of the Don River, c. 1793.jpg before settlement. York would become the city of Toronto]]
On 30 December 1782, Elizabeth married John Graves Simcoe, Admiral Graves's godson. Between the years 1784 and 1804, they had eleven children, among them Francis Simcoe, after whom they named Castle Frank. Nine survived to adulthood; Katherine, their only child to be born in Upper Canada, and John Cornwall Simcoe died in infancy. Katherine is buried at Fort York Garrison.
Elizabeth was a wealthy heiress, who acquired a 5,000-acre (2025 ha) estate near Honiton, Devon, and built Wolford Lodge, which remained the Simcoe family seat until 1923.Dictionary of Canadian Biography [http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio.php?id_nbr=2659 SIMCOE, JOHN GRAVES] She is buried at Wolford Chapel.
Legacy
File:Portion of Elizabeth Simcoe's Diary, pages 6-7 (I0032531).jpg at the Archives of Ontario ]]
File:Cascade in Wolfe's Cove (I0006888).tif
Elizabeth Simcoe's diary provides a valuable impression of life in colonial Ontario. First published in 1911, there was a subsequent transcription published in 1965 and a paperback version at the turn of the 21st century, over 200 years after she wrote it. She also left a series of 595 watercolours that depict the town of York, Upper Canada. She proposed the naming of Scarborough Township, an eastern Toronto district, after Scarborough, North Yorkshire. The townships of North, East and West Gwillimbury, just south of Lake Simcoe, Ontario, are also named after her family. The Township of Whitchurch, today the town of Whitchurch–Stouffville, Ontario, honours her ancestral home, Whitchurch, Herefordshire.Jean Barkey, et al., [http://www.ourroots.ca/page.aspx?id=2871735&qryID=0eb09b9a-c844-41ad-8105-9f81bdb11bd3 Whitchurch Township]{{Dead link|date=February 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} (Toronto: Stoddart, 1993), p. 14.
In December 2007, a statue of Elizabeth Gwillim Simcoe was raised in the town of Bradford West Gwillimbury, when it commemorated the 150th anniversary of its incorporation. The statue stands in a small park in front of the Bradford post office, at the corner of John Street West and Barrie Street.
File:Barracks at Queenston (I0006924).tif from the Simcoe Family Fonds]]
In 2015, her work was included in The Artist Herself: Self-Portraits by Canadian Historical Artists, an exhibition co-curated by Alicia Boutilier and Tobi Bruce who also co-edited the book/catalogue.{{cite book |last1=Wall |first1=Erin|title="Elizabeth Simcoe". The Artist Herself |date=2015 |publisher=Agnes Etherington Art Centre/ Art Gallery of Hamilton |location=Kingston and Hamilton|p=38-39 |isbn=978-1-55339-407-5|url=https://library.gallery.ca/search~S1?/abruce%2C+tobi/abruce+tobi/1%2C1%2C16%2CB/frameset&FF=abruce+tobi+++++1965&1%2C%2C16 |access-date=6 April 2025}}
References
{{Reflist}}
{{refbegin}}
- {{Cite book |title=Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. VII |chapter=Elizabeth Posthuma Gwillim |chapter-url=http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?BioId=37540 |last=Firth |first=Edith G. |year=1988 |location=Toronto |isbn=0-8020-3452-7}}
- {{Cite book |title=The Canadians: Elizabeth Simcoe, First Lady of Upper Canada |last=Bassett |first=John M. |year=1974 |publisher=Fitzhenry & Whiteside Ltd |location=Don Mills |isbn=0-88902-204-6}}
- {{Cite book |title=Elizabeth Posthuma Simcoe, 1796–1850: A Biography|last=Frayer |first=Mary Beacock |year=1989 |publisher=Duncan Press |location=Toronto}}
- {{Cite book |title=Mrs. Simcoe's Diary |last=Innis |first=Mary Quayle |year=1965 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |location=New York}}
- {{Cite book |title=The Diary of Elizabeth Simcoe |last=Robertson |first=J. Ross |year=1934 |publisher=The Ontario Publishing Company Limited |location=Toronto}}
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20121106103813/http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/english/on-line-exhibits/simcoe/index.aspx Travels With Elizabeth Simcoe]. Archives of Ontario.
{{refend}}
External links
{{Commons category}}
- {{FadedPage|id=Simcoe, Elizabeth|name=Elizabeth Simcoe|author=yes}}
- [http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/en/explore/online/simcoe/index.aspx Travels with Elizabeth Simcoe: A Visual Journey Through Upper and Lower Canada], online exhibit on Archives of Ontario website
- [https://aims.archives.gov.on.ca/scripts/mwimain.dll/144/DESCRIPTION_WEB/WEB_DESC_DET?SESSIONSEARCH&exp=sisn%20841 Simcoe family fonds], Archives of Ontario
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Simcoe, Elizabeth}}
Category:People from Aldwincle
Category:Pre-Confederation Ontario people
Category:Canadian women painters
Category:Canadian watercolourists
Category:Canadian women watercolourists
Category:18th-century Canadian artists
Category:18th-century Canadian non-fiction writers
Category:18th-century Canadian women artists
Category:18th-century Canadian women writers