Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1791 - 1814 (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
17 folders of textual material (10 cm)
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Elizabeth Posthuma Simcoe was born in 1762, the daughter of Thomas Gwillim and Elizabeth Spinkes. Her father died seven months prior to her birth, and her mother died in childbirth. She was in the care of her mother’s sister, Margaret, who was married to Admiral Samuel Graves. Through this connection, she met John Graves Simcoe. Through a sizeable inheritance from her mother and father, she was able to purchase and restore Wolford Lodge, which would serve as the Simcoe family estate. She accompanied her husband to Upper Canada in 1791, alongside her two youngest children, Sophia, aged 2, and Francis, aged 3 months.
Throughout her five years in Upper Canada, Elizabeth Simcoe maintained an active social and artistic life. She was a leader in the social life of the province and served as an unofficial secretary and cartographer for her husband. She was an accomplished artist, and the time spent in Upper and Lower Canada was well-documented through her sketches and water colours. She was also an avid diarist, recording many of her experiences in the province.
In 1796, she returned to Wolford Lodge, where she would live for the remainder of her life. She remained active as an artist, and although she maintained active correspondence with friends in Upper Canada, she never returned. She died in 1850 at the age on 87.
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
This series consists of the diaries and journals of Elizabeth Posthuma Simcoe. They include many sketches, draft maps, and small water colours detailing her experience in Upper Canada, and to a lesser extent, at Wolford Lodge. Several of the volumes overlap in the dates covered and this seems to be the result of her habit of recopying entries from earlier diaries relating to special events, such as the trips to Niagara and Quebec in 1794 and 1796. This practice was likely done to provide Simcoe’s children and friends with extracts relating to her experiences. To reflect this practice, the diaries have been arranged, first, in chronological order with those that seem to have been prepared later added on at the end. At some point after their preparation, notes were added to some of the volumes pointing out that the paper included water marks post-dating the dates of the diary.
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Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
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Script of material
Language and script notes
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Finding aids
Uploaded finding aid
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Note
Simcoe’s diary materials here have formed the basis for two published editions, for which they are most well known. These include John Ross Robertson’s 1911 The diary of Mrs. John Graves Simcoe, wife of the first lieutenant-governor of the province of Upper Canada, 1792-6 (Toronto: W. Briggs) and Mary Quayle Innis’ 1965 Mrs. Simcoe's diary (New York: St. Martin’s Press).