York!!!

Dear You,

          Greetings from York!!! I somehow ended up here after going to the United States on vacation. This all happened because of a man named John Graves Simcoe. Mr. Simcoe led a Loyalist unit (the Queen's Rangers) during the American Revolution. He visited Newark (the capital of the colony). He believed it was unsuitable as a capital due to fear of conflict with the Americans. He then wanted to turn York into a military stronghold and in 1793, they moved there with his wife, servants and members of the Loyalist unit. He then had to convince the other government officials to move to York and to make York the colony's capital. This is where I come in. 

          He needed settlers but there was yet ANOTHER war in Europe so this prevented Europeans from going to York. Simcoe then recognized that the United States were a potential source of new settlers even though he distrusted them. He bribed the Americans into coming to Upper Canada with land. I, going on vacation/getting scoop in America, happened to receive one of those offers. So here I am! In York! I really do miss modern Toronto though. I can’t be too sad because this is Toronto in the future anyways. I must look forward!

          Mr. Simcoe (have to show him respect. He gave me land of course!) wanted to make an 'upper class' so they (wealthy people with business government and military connections) get up to 5000 acres of land! I may not be upper class but I got a good chunk of land which is about 1200 acres of land. It really does not matter to me how much land I get though. I am planning on selling all of the land I received anyways. I will sell it to one of my wealthy neighbours and use about a quarter of the profit to buy a horse and ride my way home. The rest of the money will be for me to spend back in Quebec. I am really excited to go but I want to spend a little more time in York before I go back from my vacations.

          That’s all of the latest news for now. I’ll update you all soon!

Love,

Catherine