Simcoe, Elizabeth Posthuma, 1762-1850

Elizabeth Simcoe was born Elizabeth Posthuma Gwillim in 1762, the daughter of Thomas Gwillim and Elizabeth Spinkes. Thomas Gwillim died seven months before the birth of Elizabeth; her mother died in childbirth. Elizabeth was raised by her mother's sister, Margaret, and her husband, Admiral Samuel Graves. She met John Graves Simcoe through this connection; Simcoe was the godson of Admiral Graves, and stayed with the Graves family on his return to England from America in 1781. In 1782, Elizabeth and Simcoe married and with her inheritance purchased an estate in Honiton, Devonshire, where Simcoe built the family home, Wolford Lodge.


In 1792, she and their then two youngest children, Sophia and Francis, accompanied her husband to Upper Canada. Their four eldest children remained in England. The Simcoe's seventh child, the first they named Katherine, was born in Upper Canada, though she died in infancy.


During the time Elizabeth Simcoe was in the Canadas, she maintained an active social and artistic life. As wife of the Lieutenant-Governor, she was a leader in the social life of the province; she also served as an unofficial secretary and cartographer for her husband. She was an accomplished artist, and completed hundreds of drawings and watercolours during their travels, which ranged from Niagara Falls to Quebec. She was an avid diarist, recording many of her experiences in the province.


The family returned to England in 1796. She maintained her residence at Wolford Lodge for the remainder of her life. Between 1798 and 1804, another four children were born. She remained active as an artist and in her community's social life until her death in 1850.

Dame Elizabeth Posthuma Simcoe (22 September 1762 – 17 January 1850) was an English artist and diarist in colonial Canada. Her husband, John Graves Simcoe, was the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada. Her diary gives an effective account of Canadian life.
She was born Elizabeth Posthuma Gwillim to Lt Col. Thomas Gwillim and Elizabeth Spinckes in the village of Aldwincle, Northamptonshire, England,[1] Her father died before her birth and her mother shortly afterwards. After her baptism, on the same day as her mother's burial, she was taken into the care of her mother's younger sister, Margaret. In commemoration of her posthumous birth, Elizabeth was given the middle name Posthuma. Her aunt and adoptive mother, Margaret, married Admiral Samuel Graves on 14 June 1769 and Elizabeth grew up at Graves's estate, Hembury Fort near Honiton in Devon. Gwillim was one of a group of friends that included Mary Anne Burges in Honiton.[2]
On 30 December 1782, Elizabeth married John Graves Simcoe, Admiral Graves's godson. Between the years 1784 and 1804, they had eleven children, among them Francis Simcoe, after whom they named Castle Frank. Nine survived to adulthood; Katherine, their only child to be born in Upper Canada, and John Cornwall Simcoe died in infancy. Katherine is buried at Fort York Garrison.

Elizabeth was a wealthy heiress, who acquired a 5,000-acre (2025 ha) estate near Honiton, Devon, and built Wolford Lodge, which remained the Simcoe family se
at until 1923.[3] She is buried at Wolford Chapel.
Elizabeth Simcoe's diary provides a valuable impression of life in colonial Ontario. First published in 1911, there was a subsequent transcription published in 1965 and a paperback version at the turn of the 21st century, over 200 years after she wrote it. She also left a series of 595 watercolours that depict the town of York, Upper Canada. She proposed the naming of Scarborough Township, an eastern Toronto district, after Scarborough, North Yorkshire. The townships of North, East and West Gwillimbury, just south of Lake Simcoe, Ontario, are also named after her family. The Township of Whitchurch, today the town of Whitchurch–Stouffville, Ontario, honours her place of birth.[4]

In December 2007, a statue of Elizabeth Gwillim Simcoe was raised in the town of Bradford West Gwillimbury, when it commemorated the 150th anniversary of its incorporation. The statue stands in a small park in front of the Bradford post office, at the corner of John Street West and Barrie Street.