War of 1812 - The Bloody Assize
1814 – Ancaster
The Assizes were a series of trials held mainly in Ancaster that resulted in treasonous convictions and executions of Upper Canada residents who were found to have violently aided the enemy, the invading U.S.A.
During the War of 1812 the towns were small, the roads were few and rumours abounded. We, in and around the Grand River area, were right in the middle of ‘war’ activity all the way from the Detroit Frontier down to the Niagara Peninsula. The ‘military highway’ and a network of roads meandered along the Pt. Dover lakeshore and the Thames River.
After the American Revolution, ending in 1783, 10’s of 1000’s of Americans migrated to the ‘Canadas’ in order to take advantage of exceptional land deals and start a new life. However, some American politicians felt that the colonials fight with Great Britain never ended. The Napoleonic Wars in Europe heightened the frenzy of the ‘manifest destiny’ among American ‘war hawks’ who felt that this distraction gave them the opportunity to invade the ‘Canadas’. The population of Upper Canada around 1812 was about 6% of that of the U.S.A. near 7 million. The Americans military potential and strength greatly outweighed that of Great Britain.
War was declared by the United States in June 1812 stating that they would conquer the ‘Canadas’ by December of that year, however, two years later, December 1814, they were signing a peace treaty because they lost. The Americans who settled in the ‘Canadas’ were a considered a potential threat. Their loyalty came into question. Some American sympathizers turned spy, marauders, abductors, and even fought against the British soldiers, militia and First Nations warriors. For example, Canadian Volunteers, American sympathisers, formed a unit, led by Willcocks, and joined the Americans in the Fort Erie area.
Loyalists thwarted the beligerants in different parts of the Upper Canada and in 1813 several groups were taken prisoner. The Assizes started in 1813 and in 1814 proceedings finished at the Rousseau Hotel in Ancaster. From a list of nearly 400 named ‘traitors’, most of home fled to the United States, the court found 19 guilty and exiled 11 while 8 were dispatched at the British military encampment at Burlington Heights.
The ‘Treason Act of 1814’ stated clearly that those sentenced be hanged, drawn and quartered. Yet a Christian Monk, Brother Denke, who was with the 8 prisoners until the end wrote in his diary that the hanging and beheading did take place but nothing else. John Ryckman, a 16 year old boy in 1814, was quoted in the Hamilton Spectator in 1880, that he witnessed the hanging and the beheading as well. Apparently their remains are in the cemetery nearby.
These eight executed: Aaron Stevens, Adam Crysler, Dayton Lindsey, Noah Payne Hopkins, George Peacock, Jr., Isaiah Brink, Benjamin Simmons and John Dunham. Others convicted included Jacob Overholser, Garrett Neil and Isaac Petit, died of typhus.
My ‘Ole’ Ancaster High School friend, The Reverend Canon Robert Lloyd Brownlie, and I had the opportunity to explore the ‘Old Mill’ on many occasions in the 60’s and we saw the original stone ‘cellar’ where the prisoners were apparently held. Bob and I have been smitten by the ‘bug of history’ and even we have wonderful discussions and our opinions may vary a slightly. Being a man of the ‘clothe’ I know that he forgives me for being right all the time. We pray for the souls of those that died on that day.