John Graves Simcoe

Exeter Memories John Graves Simcoe - first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada

"Due to Simcoe, slavery was abolished in Ontario, Upper Canada in 1793, during the second legislative assembly, and was the first place in the British Empire to introduce a ban, despite opposition from the British Government. He also campaigned, unsuccessfully, to ban slavery in Haiti, encountering fierce opposition from the British Government."

http://www.exetermemories.co.uk/em/_people/simcoe.php

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ColonelSimcoe.jpg

Wikipedia John Graves Simcoe (25 February 1752 – 26 October 1806) was a British Army general and the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada from 1791 until 1796 in southern Ontario and the watersheds of Georgian Bay and Lake Superior. He founded York (now Toronto) and was instrumental in introducing institutions such as courts of law, trial by jury, English common law, and freehold land tenure, and also in the abolition of slavery in Canada.

His long-term goal was the development of Upper Canada (Ontario) as a model community built on aristocratic and conservative principles, designed to demonstrate the superiority of those principles to the republicanism and democracy of the United States. His energetic efforts were only partially successful in establishing a local gentry, a thriving Church of England, and an anti-American coalition with select Indigenous nations. He is seen by many Canadians as a founding figure in Canadian history, especially by those in Southern Ontario. He is commemorated in Toronto with Simcoe Day.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Graves_Simcoe

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Canadian Encyclopedia John Graves Simcoe, army officer, lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada (born 25 February 1752 in Cotterstock, Britain; died 26 October 1806 in Exeter, Britain). Simcoe served as an officer with the British army in the American Revolutionary War, but is best known to Canadians as the first lieutenant-governor of the new British colony of Upper Canada, which later became Ontario.

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/john-graves-simcoe