Nevertown Chronicles - Escaped the SPEEDY to Be Killed in Duel: Schooner Days DCCCLXXXVIII (888)

by C. H. J. Snider

WHEN in 1804 His Excellency Peter Hunter, Major-General, Commander in Chief and Lieutenant Governor of the Province of Upper Canada, decreed at Toronto (then York, U.C.), that a new District Capital should be inaugurated at Presquisle with a murder trial, those who could not find accommodation in H.M. Provincial Marine schooner Speedy, which he despatched thither, fared forth on foot or horseback.

A considerable company trudged the rough-hewn Danforth road and the bush paths along the lake shore for ninety miles in the wake of the Speedy, too "indigent" (to quote the Gazette) or too independent, to take passage in the unseaworthy government vessel. William and Abram M. Farewell of Oshawa, trappers and fur traders whose factor's death at Lake Scugog, was the basis for the murder trial, expected to join the vessel off their creek-mouth with some Indian witnesses. But finding her already so crowded, when she arrived off Port Oshawa on Monday morning after sailing from York the evening before, they continued the journey to Presquisle in their own trading canoe, camping on the shore when necessary.

They reached the projected capital ahead of the Speedy, although they had kept her in sight all day, and had been alongside and talked with those on board from time to time. When she was becalmed they could paddle faster than she could move. When they reached Presquisle, they were surprised to find her not moored in the Cove, but, instead, the whole population anxiously searching for her.

Eleazer Lockwood, settler on the shores of Scugog, had seen the prisoner going through the motions of killing someone before a crowd of drinking Indians before the band left the lake to go to York. He had hurried after them and notified Col. Givens, the Indian Superintendent. Although an important witness his name did not appear in the passenger list. It is probable that he was being taken to Presquisle by the Farewells in their canoe.

Another who took the shore track and reached Presquisle ahead of the schooner was Mr. William Weekes, barrister-at-law, rival for Angus McDonell's seat at the last hotly contested election and destined to fill it with unexpected ease at the next. To the Free and Independent Electors of East York he had declared: "I stand unconnected with any party, unsupported by any influence, and unambitious of any patronage other than the suffrages of ... men who may be inclined to think with freedom and act with independency." With such a declaration it seems unlikely that Mr. Weekes was the counsel obligingly provided by the Crown for the defendant Indian; the successful Mr, McDonell was, more probably, voyaging to Presquisle for that purpose. If he had been offered passage in the Speedy, Weekes would have declined, for he was fond of solitary journeys on foot or on horseback, living on his saddlebags and rehearsing his speeches to an appreciative audience, himself and his steed. On one of these he was away so long that Peter Ernest, a settler with whom he had disputed, was arraigned for murdering him. Bones had been discovered under Ernest's logpile. On the day of the trial Weekes walked into the courtroom, bowed to the bench, and said: "I appear for the defendant, my Lord." So he was not popular with authority. Perhaps he was suspected of planning something like this for Ogetonicut, and left to ride alone,

After his election in 1806, poor Weekes became embroiled with a: Niagara lawyer of "Right" sentiments, the Hon. Wm. Dickson. In a case tried with political fury before Judge Thorpe at Newark, Mr. Dickson accused his learned friend Weekes of "using seditious expressions." Weekes' wit failed him for once and he challenged his tormentor to the stupid field of honor. They crossed the Niagara river and fought a duel near the ancient French - British - American fort. Weekes died of his wound that night in the house of Robert See, a sutler. His constituents of York, Durham and Simcoe thought so much of him that they gave him a fine funeral and elected his friend Judge Thorpe in his place; and Governor Gore thought so much of his slayer that he appointed him a member of the Legislative Council when the time came.

By grim coincidence Angus McDonell, one of the seconds in the duel in which Attorney General John White was killed at York in 1801, was Weekes' opponent in the election of August, 1804, and was drowned in this Speedy disaster two months later, leaving vacant the seat in the House of Assembly which proved fatal to Weekes so soon.

OLD-TIME 'SQUILER' ENTERING PORT—The schooner WANDERER sailed by Capt. Wm. Corson out of Presquile at the time the BELLE SHERIDAN was lost at Wellers Bay, 1880. Here she is shown lowering her foresail preparatory to "coming to." The Wanderer was built at Oakville in 1866. She ended her days in Lake Huron, where she was owned and sailed by Capt. Spence of Southampton. It was Cat Hollow sailors who coined the name 'Squiler for Presquile or Presqu'isle vessels, and it is perpetuated in a bright little summer colony newspaper published by Margaret Lapp at Brighton.