"Pirates" at Port Oshawa and Elsewhere, 100 Years Ago: Schooner Days CCLXXXIII (283)

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MYSTERIOUS visitants to these Oshawa shore-ponds include one which came into Hall's Marsh, the first one east of Bluff Point, where the Caledonia was wrecked in September, 1881. Farewell's Marsh is the one just east of this again. The visit was during the scare which preceded the Fenian raid, when at sunset on the hot, misty evening of June 26th, 1865, a small schooner crept into the marsh or pond and anchored. A man in a scarlet cloak was reported to have sculled ashore in a yawlboat from the anchored vessel and to have disappeared into a farmhouse. Quaking ith their own temerity, a hastily gathered posse closed in on the farmhouse, and there found a red-shirted sailor trying to buy some milk, eggs and butter from the farmer's wife. Both the sailor and the vessel from which he had come anchored below the farm, were well known to the investigating committee, and they blamed the furore they had created upon the early mist and the setting sun, instead of on their own very jumpy nerves.

The Fenian Raid had all Ontario at tension, and in the neighboring harbor of Whitby the report spread that the local schooners Trade Wind and Enterprise had sailed from the south shore port of Rochester "full of armed men." Believing Whitby was going to be attacked some citizens urged the harbormaster to put out the harbor light and stretch chains across the piers, so as to blockade the port against the enemy. Sailors pointed out that this might lead to the destruction of their own vessels, entering harbor in the dark. Their protests prevailed. The two schooners arrived soon afterwards, with their usual crews, each man in full possession of his usual pair of arms — which were waved very vigorously when the proposed reception was described.

The late Thomas Conant left this vigorous picture of the Oshawa scare in his Upper Canada Sketches:

"We were all summoned by the Colonel, John McGill, to assemble at the town hall. My father shouldered his double-barreled fowling piece, and I grasped a green shillelagh in default of a gun and repaired with many others to the rendezvous. In Oshawa town the consternation was too great and genuine to be ludicrous, at least just then. Not a few persons loaded wagons with all they could put on them, and climbing to the top of the furniture and bedding drove away northward crying: 'No Fenians shall catch us!'

"We prepared to march, men with guns in front, those with forks next, and those with clubs in the rear. We stood upon our arms, forks and clubs, waiting for the word - which was never given. Another horseman came from Port Oshawa, and told us a boat's crew had come ashore for milk and provisions, as well as to get their reckoning, not knowing where they were. Inoffensive fellow enough, but they deserved a drubbing for giving us needless alarm."

It is only amusing now to hear now people behaved seventy or a hundred years ago under the fear of death and destruction of their property, but the good folk of their property, but the good folk of Whitby and Oshawa, at the time of e the Fenian Raid were familiar, from their father's stories, with what had happened in the Mackenzie rebellion of 1837. In the Oshawa district the suffering then seems to have been on the part of the rebel sympathizers. A few miles farther east, around Cobourg, the fright had been on the other side, but it was equally real.

Mr. Edwin C. Guillet, author of "Early Life in Upper Canada" and much important historical material, has contributed an interesting paper to the Canadian Historical Review on The Cobourg Conspiracy, which sheds a light on the maritime terrors of "skulking," as practiced by Hunters Lodges and Rebels from the lake, when the land got too hot to hold them after the rebellion of 1837.

From this it appears that after John Montgomery's tavern was burned here north Toronto, John hied him to Rochester and went into the same business there, his hostelry becoming a rendezvous for expatriated Patriots.

Here Samuel P. Hart, Belleville printer, whose office had been destroyed by Loyalists, met Henry J. Moon and planned to get a schooner and put "two pieces of cannon on it and go skulking."

Hart went to Oswego, to find a suitable vessel and Moon went to Cobourg. Hart saw Captain Terry of the schooner Guernsey of Genesee. Later nine men came on board, including the notorious Ben Lett and American members of the Patriots' Hunters Lodges. The Guernsey left Oswego with another schooner, commanded by one Anderson. She was bound for the Niagara frontier to "skulk" there, but the Guernsey went to Cobourg. The gang on board her had a trunk full of weapons and spent the time of the voyage in practice with pistols and bowie knives, which they secured in their military belts. They had also bundles of matches and bottles of turpentine and talked of burning Cobourg down after robbing the bank, murdering Sheppard McCormick, whom they thought to be still customs officer, for his part in cutting-out the Caroline, and plundering two or three wealthy individuals.

At midhight Saturday, July 27th, 1839, the Guernsey lay to five or six miles east of Cobourg, and landed six men, Hart, Lett, Edward Kennedy, Henry Wilson, William Baker, Peter Wilkins, at a lonely farm. She sailed on to Whitby and landed there four passengers, who appear to have had nothing to do with the "skulking" job. The Cobourg crowd came ashore with belts loaded with arms, and hid other weapons on the beach. They then went to a farm two miles east of the town, and on the following Sunday had a rendezvous at the "Blue House," being admitted by the secret Patriot rap.

Moon was at this meeting and they planned to rob Maurice Jaynes, a wealthy farmer living some 2 1/2 miles north, and to plunder Squire Henry's private bank, opposite St. Peter's Church, Cobourg.

Lett came downstairs during this meeting and told Moon he "had already cost the province about £6,000" and introduced Wilkins as a captain at the Battle of Prescott "for whose head the government would give a good deal." Wilkins had every appearance of a desperado and the loss of his right eye gave his face a peculiarly sinister appearance. Lett had four pistols and a bowie knife in his belt. They planned to seize a schooner lying in Cobourg, owned by a man named Downer, and carry her out to sea, and then put her crew overboard in a small boat and sail to the United States.

Jaynes was said to keep his money in a pail in a churn in the inner room. They discussed whether the Jaynes family should be forced to lie down or be called out one by one. Lett preferred this latter plan, and Baker said that at Taylor's this had been done, but Mrs. Taylor had concealed the money in her bosom and so they got far less than they expected.

Two members of the Boulton family, the Hon. George S. and D'Arcy Boulton, were marked for destruction in Cobourg, their dogs having been poisoned to facilitate entry to their homes. Robert Henry, said Lett, might have to be killed, for he always kept the keys of the bank about his person. Lett and Hart were busy in the kitchen at the work of "running bullets by the stove."

Moon, later described by his brother-in-law as "first a Methodist, then a Baptist, next an Infidel and now a Traitor," got cold feet and tipped off the plot. A Loyalist posse composed of Messrs. Manners, Tremaine, Benjamin and Chas. Clark, Capt. J. C. Boswell, Charles Ruttan, D'Arcy Boulton, Kenneth Mackenzie, John Brady and R. D. Chatterton, raided the "Blue House" and gathered up part of the gang with their pistols and bowie knives. All were tried at Cobourg on Friday, Sept. 13th, 1839, before Mr. Justice Jones and a jury. The charge was conspiracy.

Hart's grievance, according to letters produced, appeared to be that "the villains" had destroyed his Belleville printing office, and he was seeking compensation of £50 from the brother of the owner of the steamer Traveller because he claimed that he had persuaded Pirate Bill Johnson to give up his plan to seize and burn this steamer as she lay at anchor at the mouth of the Genesee. There were other letters stating that "some M.P.P.'s were to be assassinated in order to create disorder in Toronto at the opening of Parliament," and all the Canadian steamboats were to be destroyed. But "if the Canadian Government wishes my services they must forward me £300 before I leave here" (Lewiston).

D'Arcy Boulton, one of those marked for destruction by the conspirators, was the counsel for the defense.

Hart got seven years in the penitentiary, Ash, Sr., six months in jail and a fine of £100, Ash, Jr., 12 months in jail and a fine of £50. Lett, Wilkins, Kennedy and others had fled. The Cobourg Star printed a description "of the pirates Lett and Kennedy," which said Lett was about 25, rather slim, sandy hair and whiskers, very red face and freckled, light skin, very large muscular hands, with round, long, and very white fingers, eyes light blue and remarkably penetrating. Had on a black fur hat, rather high in the crown and broad brim; blue coat, with black velvet collar; mixed pantaloons and laced boots; dark colored vest, with light spots on it, and figured metal buttons; common cotton shirt. "Kennedy is about 23 to 25 years old, slender figure, full face, dark hair, clear complexion, dark eyes, and altogether a handsome-looking man. Wears generally a dark frock coat, dark pantaloons and vest, white full-bosomed shirt, and black stock."

The Guernsey went from Whitby to the River Credit, where she load-j ed a cargo of lumber and came back to Oswego. Here she was seized by the American authorities. On August 11th, a fortnight after the discovery of the plot, a company of militia "consisting of 80 men, rank and file," was sent to Cobourg on the steamer Commodore Barrie, and remained there until the trial was over.

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OLD PIER AT PORT OSHAWA, showing the runway from which the grain was loaded in the barley days. Capt. John Williams was telling the other day how he once loaded 27,000 bushels of barley at this pier for Kingston in the Sir C. T. Van Straubenzee—a remarkable load for an "Old Canaller," one seldom or never exceeded. Those vessels were designed for 20,000 bushels.

Cresting the hill are the spruces and poplars of the ancient cemetery, with graves over a hundred years old, beautifully kept to this day. The earliest gravestone is that of Capt. Wilson, pioneer trader, who was buried there in 1831.

BURNING CAROLINE TAKING THE PLUNGE OVER NIAGARA FALLS Dated Feb. 21st, 1865, in the library of the late James O. Guy, of Oshawa.