LOYALIST LIEUTENANT GOVERNORS

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The oldest official viceregal house in Canada was commissioned by a Loyalist, Sir John Wentworth.   Government House, located on Barrington Street, in Halifax, Nova Scotia was built between 1799 and 1805 and has served as the official residence of Lieutenant Governors for over 200 years.


Government House, Halifax, NS. 

Sir John Wentworth (1737 - 1820) was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and was the British colonial Governor of New Hampshire at the time of the American Revolution. Due to the concern for safety he was forced to flee and in 1778 sailed to England. He was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia in 1792 and served in that role until 1808. The Wentworth Valley in Cumberland County, Nova Scotia and several other locations within the province were named for him. On his death he was buried in the crypt underneath St. Paul's Church in Halifax. 

In Ontario,  then known as Upper Canada,  John Graves Simcoe (1752 - 1806) who had commanded the Queen's Rangers, became Lieutenant Governor in 1791 and served until 1796.  He facilitated the settlement of United Empire Loyalists. Simcoe County in the province carries his name.   He issued a Proclamation on 6 April 1796 that solidified the status of United Empire Loyalists which built upon the UE designation initially proclaimed by Lord Dorchester in 1789. When he died he was buried in Wolford Chapel, Dunkeswell, near Honiton, Devon in southwest England. The Chapel and grounds were donated to the Province of Ontario and are maintained by the Ontario Heritage Trust.

Lower Canada,   now Quebec,  also had a veteran military officer from the American Revolution as Lieutenant Governor.  Alured Clarke (1744 - 1832) was appointed from 1791 to 1796. He was an officer in the 7th Fusiliers and led troops in Georgia. He had responsibility for implementing the Constitutional Act of 1791 which divided the province of Quebec into Upper and Lower Canada and established an elected assembly while retaining French civil law and protection for the Roman Catholic Church. 

Edmund Fanning  (1739 - 1818), born in New York, a Colonel who raised and commanded the King's American Regiment in the American Revolution,  became Lieutenant Governor in two provinces.  He served first in the role from 1783 to 1786 in Nova Scotia and subsequently as the Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island, then called St. John's Island,  from 1786 to 1804. Fanningbank , the location of Government House in the capital city of Charlottetown is named after him.

When the Maritimes received some 30,000 Loyalist refugees and the province of New Brunswick was created in June 1784 its first Lieutenant Governor was Colonel Thomas Carleton (1735 - 1817).  He served as a British military officer during the conflict. In 1775 he was appointed Quartermaster General to his brother, Sir Guy Carleton, who was then Governor of Quebec.  After helping relieve the siege of Quebec in 1776 he was made Lieutenant - Colonel in the 29th Foot Regiment.  At the Battle of Valcour Island on Lake Champlain in 1776 he was wounded. Carleton Street in the city of Saint John was named for him.

During the celebration of the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia, the Honourable Arthur J. LeBlanc, ONS, K.C., took part in a ceremonial tree planting in the Great Hall Garden at the Cathedral Church of All Saints in Halifax which I filmed in the video below.



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