Manuscript Collection MS COLL 00073 - De Grassi Family Papers

Philip De Grassi, soldier, was born in Rome, Italy, in 1793. He became an officer in Napoleon’s army, and saw service in the Peninsular war. He was taken prisoner by the British; and in England he obtained a commission in the British army. He was in the British West Indies with his regiment from 1812 to 1815; and he was then placed on half-pay. After eking out a living in England by teaching languages, he emigrated, with his family, to Canada in 1831, and settled near York (Toronto), Upper Canada. In the rebellion of 1837, two of his daughters, Cornelia (d. 1885) and Charlotte (d. 1872), played a romantic and adventurous part; and he himself served with the loyalist forces. He died at Lindsay, Ontario, in 1877.