REMEMBER THIS: Family Compact founder had many ties to Newmarket

The Family Compact was a political institution that shaped many aspects of our local history, which quite frankly was unclear back in my high school history lessons. The Family Compact ruled Upper Canada with a firm hand, exercising absolute power, and setting the political and social rules when our country was in its infancy. It is now in the forefront given the revelations about residential schools.

I have chosen to highlight a man whose life epitomized everything for which the Family Compact stood. Rev. John Strachan was a leading figure within the Family Compact who had many connections to our growing community. He was also the consummate politician of the day, part of an elite group who ruled with an iron hand. He was ruthless, a bit of a rogue and extremely self serving.

Strachan started life in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1778 as the youngest son of a stone cutter who worked in local quarries. He was an excellent student, qualifying for King’s College at the tender age of 15. After the death of his father in a quarry accident, he took a job as a private tutor while continuing his education at night.  

One of his professors, Dr. James Brown, heard of a tutoring position in Kingston in Upper Canada working with the children of the leading families of the area and Strachan accepted the position as a steppingstone into the higher echelons of British society. He took up his position just after New Year's 1799 at the age of 21.

Strachan was a master manipulator, succeeding in convincing the leading citizens in Kingston to use their influence with the Bishop of Quebec to secure his ordination even though he had no religious training. Strachan’s philosophy was to use any means at his disposal to secure his future, choosing to associate only with those who could help him you move forward with his ambitions. It was clear early that he was not at all “a man of the people.”

To enhance his profile, he persuaded his alma mater, King's College, to grant him the honorary title of Doctor of Divinity. His plan appears to have worked as with this new title he was soon appointed rector of the Church of England in Cornwall. He was to further solidify his social status by marrying the widow of a wealthy fur trader, Andrew McGill, and acquiring needed family wealth.

He was soon a man more powerful than the lieutenant governor himself, now known as the Very Rev. John Strachan, M.A.D.D. He was to hold nine government posts, he was known as arrogant, vitriolic, ambitious and a master manipulator. The political and social machine he created, essentially an oligarchy, was dubbed by the opposition as the Family Compact. Their goal was quite simply to permit no deviation from their established policies and would continue a long-term fight with the opposition, who had recently gained control of the Legislative Assembly.

Bishop Strachan complied with all the instructions issued from the colonial office and made it his mantra to impose a divine right of class upon the people of Upper Canada. This was the beginning of his historic political career.

He founded the Upper Canada Society, and for over two generations taught the children of the ruling classes, the elite if you will, in his own school. Through his private school he succeeded in establishing a whole group of elitist graduates who would dominate the political and social life of Upper Canada for well over 60 years. One of those elite was John Beverly Robinson, part of the Beman / Robinson Newmarket based dynasty who played such a huge role in the political life of Upper Canada.

In 1803, Elisha Beman, a leading member of the local community encouraged his 12-year-old stepson, John Beverly Robinson, to attend Strachan’s private school in Cornwall, having recognized that Strachan was a powerful force who could open doors for the young man. This would prove critical for young Robinson as through these arrangements, his fortunes were to be firmly consolidated with those destined to play a leading role in the political drama of Upper Canada, and it certainly paved his way as a key member of the Family Compact.

From the time Strachan arrived in Upper Canada wilderness right up to his death in 1867, he systematically solidified his position. He literally badgered the British government into establishing King’s College in Toronto in 1840 and when he became convinced that it had become ‘a godless institution,’ then lobbied for the establishment of Trinity College in 1852. Both institutions would have Strachan presiding at its head, of course. He was also instrumental in having his brother-in-law establish McGill University in Montreal.

By 1812, he had moved his operation to York (Toronto), the capital of Upper Canada. Somehow, he successfully had himself installed as rector of St. James Anglican Church in addition to being named chaplain of the Fort York garrison.

Strachan wrote a treatise on the American Revolution from the British perspective in which he pointed to the “the all too active democratic general assemblies which had grown up within the thirteen colonies as the root of all the problem.” This was a mistake he and the Family Compact had no intention of seeing reoccur in Upper Canada. He stated that unfair taxes, and the burdensome import duties were not a factor in the push for statehood south of the border.

The model he put forward for Upper Canada was one that saw the Compact maintain firm control of all purse strings. The local assemblies would be prevented from holding any real power. The populous, he maintained, could not handle any political power and the pursuit of democracy was a tool that led to the downfall of society.

He established the Anglican Church as the only established religious institution under the Crown with the intention of the church keeping the masses in check. Finally, he maintained that the British landed gentry was essential to keep the democratic fringe in check.

When John Graves Simcoe was appointed the first governor of Upper Canada, he was instructed to establish a government along British lines with Simcoe representing the Crown and an Executive Council and Legislative Council being established, populated by the “upper classes” who would be appointed for life. They would answer to no one, and they would be beyond the authority of the General Assembly.

We, of course, had all the makings of a rebellion and in 1837 we saw the people, including my kin in Newmarket, revolt against the tyranny of this arrangement. If you were a member of the General Assembly and you were silly enough to suggest democratic reform, you were swiftly banished to Van Diemen’s land on the grounds of seditious libel against the state.

Under Strachan’s guidelines, one-seventh of all Crown lands were set aside for the Clergy Reserves (Church of England). In 1815, he was appointed an honorary member of the Executive Council and, in 1820, became a member for life of both the Executive and Legislative Councils of Upper Canada. It is said that Strachan was the most powerful person in the government, akin to today’s provincial premier.

It was Strachan who coined the name Family Compact having recruited his former students to fill all the high positions around him.

I can well understand why the Family Compact was so unpalatable to my Newmarket ancestors. He believed that authority must flow from social position, rank and experience being the only worthy criteria for power. He would write that power must be held by the few over the many as power was meant to be welded by those who were chosen by God. His motto was ‘Duty before Right and Order Before Liberty’. He was a strong believer in corporal punishment for those who dared to disturb the order and question their place within the state.

This was apparent when the warrant for the execution of Peter Matthews and Samuel Lount was place in front of John Beverly Robinson, Strachan’s attorney general. Petitions bearing 30,000 signatures, of which 5,000 were obtained in the Newmarket area alone and farther north, were presented the day before the execution, by John Ryerson.

He has told us in his letters that he travelled through the districts of Upper Canada to obtain these signatures in the hope that "a true tragedy" might be averted. He conversed with many classes of people, numbers of whom were passively in agreement with the Family Compact and the Constitution, but with few exceptions they asked that no blood be shed.

Robinson and the members of the Compact ignored the petition. There were strong suspicions that the execution was hurried even though instructions had been received from England that no extreme measures be taken against any who had been active in the uprising. The response from Strachan was clear, “clemency could never be extended to anyone who challenged the Family Compact less anarchy and democracy break out.”

In 1839, Archdeacon Strachan was named Bishop of the new diocese of Toronto, which included most of Upper Canada. During the years leading up to his death on Nov. 1, 1867, he would travel the length and breadth of Upper Canada preaching the word and administrating the social structure of his territory. This territory included the fledgling village of Newmarket to which he was to make frequent visits.

I spoke above of his mentorship of John Beverly Robinson, who was to become a key member of the Family Compact and Strachan’s attorney general. Strachan’s connections to our local history can be seen on so many levels. You will remember that in previous articles I spoke of how the Beman-Robinsons group were about to abscond with the titles to the land around Fairy Lake, including the mills and a general store from Joseph Hill through the manipulation of the court system and government intervention. It has been suggested that the close relationship between Beman and Strachan (Family Compact) made this legal theft possible.  

The Cawthra house, known for its high standard of refinement and culture locally served as host to all passing through on government affairs, governors, commodores, commanders-in-chief, church dignitaries and that included Strachan, who found welcome and a hospitable resting place on multiple occasions.

A story connected with the War of 1812 had a young William Roe who was in the employ of the receiver general, Prideaux Selby, entrusted with safeguarding the government treasury upon the advance of the Americans on Toronto. It was reported that Roe hid in a cart three bags of gold and a large sum in army bills. When the battle was over, it was delivered by Roe to Strachan’s parlour.

Robinson was born in 1791 and after his education under Strachan, he became a student apprentice in the office of attorney-general McDonell, who was to be killed in the Battle of Queenston Heights. This led, in 1818 to Robinson being appointed attorney-general of Upper Canada. Then in 1829, he became chief justice and was knighted in 1854.

From the memoirs of Nelson Gorham, we know that Bishop Strachan had conducted service in the Methodist Church, first located on Prospect Street. It is also worth noting Rev. John Ryerson also preached there. You will remember that the policy of residential schools was hatched at this time and Strachan and Ryerson can be considered the fathers of the residential school system in Upper Canada.

Until 1830, their work in these parts was almost entirely supported from England. Then, on Oct. 29, the Society for Civilizing and Christianizing the Indians and Propagating the Gospel among the destitute settlers in Upper Canada was organized. This would constitute our first evidence of the Compact’s plans for us and our Indigenous neighbours.

Though the welfare of the native population was the responsibility of the government at York, Strachan had allotted the Christianizing of the Indigenous peoples to the Methodist Society. From his reports and journals, we see how we came to believe the story of the government concerning their efforts in the alleviation of the distress and ignorance of the Indians in the Newmarket-Holland Landing district. We now know both the true intentions of the government and the vision of Strachan. It is now apparent that much of the history we gleamed from his writings was tainted and self serving.

Strachan oversaw the religious life of Newmarket and area. Rev. Isaac Fidler was sent to Newmarket by Archdeacon Strachan in 1832 to take up the ministry here. Unfortunately, many of the early records of the churches in the home district were destroyed when the original Church of St. James at York was burned, but it is confirmed by many sources that Strachan held service in Newmarket.

The Loyal and Patriotic Society of Canada, established by Strachan during the War of 1812 to mitigate the horrors and sufferings of the conflict and to help the widows and orphans, held meetings in Newmarket to receive contributions to assist this new effort. At the same time, as the result of the war, the economy of Canada was inflated, and fortunes were made from the fantastic prices of market commodities, those fortunes resting with Compact members.

The establishment of grammar schools in Upper Canada was an important contribution toward better educational facilities, and Sir John B. Robinson, speaking at the opening of King’s College in 1843, paid tribute to Strachan.  

“In laying the foundation of the system of Common Schools twenty years ago, your Lordship, it is well known, took a prominent part; and at a still earlier period, as I well remember, it was at the suggestion and upon the earnest insistence of your Lordship  that the Statute of 1807 was procured to which we are indebted for the District Grammar Schools throughout Upper Canada in which schools alone, for more than twenty years, the means of obtaining a liberal education were to be found.”  

There is little doubt that the grammar or high school system that we enjoy today in Ontario grew out of the efforts of Strachan and Ryerson.

I have tried to paint a picture of the times by profiling the life of a man revered in his time who was also the epitome of all the ills that plagued his time. Newmarket was simultaneously a hotbed for reform and a staunch supporter of the Family Compact. Both factions could look to Strachan as the key figure, historically, in this area and so an examination of his life is also an examination of our struggles and experiences, his history is our history.

Remember, if you have an idea for an article, feel free to email me at [email protected].

Sources: Early Life in Upper Canada by Edwin C. Guillet; The Archives of Ontario Collection; Stories of Newmarket – An Old Ontario Town by Robert Terence Carter; The Newmarket Era; The History of Newmarket by Ethel Trewhella; John Strachan - Article by Jason Ridler – Canadian Encyclopedia; History of St. Paul’s Church by Rev. A. J. Patstone

Newmarket resident Richard MacLeod — the History Hound — has been a local historian for more than 40 years. He writes a weekly feature about our town's history in partnership with NewmarketToday, conducts heritage lectures and walking tours of local interest, and leads local oral history interviews.