How Newcastle Became a Town John Grave Simcoe was the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada. In 1792, he and his wife, Elizabeth, travelled from Montreal to Newark, the capital of Upper Canada, near the mouth of the Niagara River. While they travelled on a schooner out in the lake, Simcoe studied the available maps and quickly saw the value of Presqu'ile Bay as a Harbour or Refuge, where ship captains making that long sail from Kingston to Newark could take refuge in a storm. During the 1790s, George Gibson and Charles Selleck were working as contractors for the new government. George Gibson was a shipwright who had apprenticed at Woolwich Shipyards in England before coming to the Americas. Charles Selleck was an American ship captain from a long-established nautical family in Connecticut. These two were earning a living by utilizing their skills and experience in the very early days of the transportation system on Lake Ontario. One document shows that George Gibson was involved in building a boat that could be used to transport material for work on “Government House” at York. In other words, for the building of the first parliament buildings at the new capital that Simcoe had established across the lake from Newark in 1794. It is also documented that Charles Selleck married Elizabeth Gibson, George Gibson’s eldest daughter, at Newark in 1797.
Survey of Newcastle In 1796, Simcoe left the colony and went back to England. At that time, he appointed Peter Russell as the Administrator of Upper Canada. The next year, Russell ordered a survey of the site of a proposed new town on Presqu’ile Point. The report from that survey included this sketch which is labelled “Projection for the Town of Newcastle in acre lots.” This projection demonstrates the ambitions of the government, showing locations for the normal facilities such as a hospital, burying ground, school, market and prison. There was great hope for the town of Newcastle.
Cramahe and Murray By the end of the 1790s, the townships north of Presqu’ile Bay had been surveyed for the first time. Cramahe Township was to the west and Murray Township to the east. The border between them ran, in today’s terms, from the bay, up Cedar Street, along Prince Edward Street and then Young Street and then north, a little east of No. 30 highway. We should make note that Presqu’ile Point was considered part of Murray Township at this time.
Early Settlers Around the Bay The most prominent settlers living close to Presqu’ile Bay were Obediah Simpson, up on the second concession of Cramahe and Alexander Chisholm, who had already built saw and grist mills near the mouth of the creek that would later be called Butler Creek. Farther afield, to the west, Joseph Keeler and his group of settlers had spread out from their first landing place at what we call Lakeport. Several families had already taken lots along the lakeshore toward Presqu’ile Bay. North and east of the bay, John Drummond Smith was settled in Murray Township, on the creek that would take his name and where the village of Smithfield would develop. To the east, Asa Weller was well established at the head of the Bay of Quinte, at the Carrying Place. He operated a trading post and general store as well as a batteaux portage service which used a team of oxen to drag each boat across the peninsula between Weller’s Bay and the Bay of Quinte. He charged $4.00 for each boat taken across. The number of people settling around Presqu’ile Bay would grow slowly, but, in those early days, there were long stretches of dense forest between cabins.
Newcastle Becomes a County Town In 1802, the government created Newcastle District which stretched from the Trent River in the east, to present‐day Oshawa in the west, including Presqu’ile Bay and Point. In today's terms, it would be the counties of Northumberland and Durham. At that time, every district needed a county town where a jail and courthouse was built. In the case of Newcastle District, it was natural to establish the county town on the best protected harbor, at Presqu’ile Bay. While investors scrambled to get land grants or to purchase prime lots on the bay shore, George Gibson and Charles Selleck moved their families to live permanently on Presqu’ile Point. Their motivation may have been to establish a permanent location for their shipping business, with the expectation of plenty of government work.
Newcastle Grows Later in 1802, the government provided resources for the building of a large, three‐story structure to act as a jail and court house. It was located on the bay shore, west of Salt Point. George Gibson and Charles Selleck participated in the building of this structure and the Selleck family became custodians of the facility, living in the upstairs level. In 1803, Charles Selleck received a Crown Grant for one acre of land on the bay shore at the town of Newcastle. However, the grant clearly stipulates that the land is mostly under water at the shore and it was to be used to build a wharf for the general use of the community. Selleck had three years to complete this task, but he and his father‐in‐law, George Gibson, set right to work and had the new wharf ready by the early summer of 1804. Then, later in 1804, events would occur to dramatically change the course of history for the fledgling town of Newcastle.
The Loss of HMS Speedy HMS Speedy departed York harbor on Sunday, October 7th, 1804, sailing toward its ultimate destination, the new wharf at Newcastle. We can expect that the Selleck and Gibson families were well aware of Lieutenant Thomas Paxton, who had been sailing on Lake Ontario since the early 1790s and had been captain of HMS Speedy since it was launched at Kingston in 1798. It is not a stretch to suggest that they may have been friends. The folks at Presqu’ile Point had been notified by letter that HMS Speedy was coming to Newcastle carrying about twenty passengers. There were some high rollers on board, including the Solicitor General of Upper Canada, who had been sent to Newcastle to preside over a murder trial at the court house. The rooms upstairs had to be spruced up to accommodate these visitors and the jail had to be prepared to receive the accused, a young Mississauga man named Ogetonicut. It was a very big event for the small town of Newcastle, and they prepared for their visitors as best they could. However, before HMS Speedy made it to the new wharf at Newcastle, a terrible storm came up and the ship, along with the twenty souls on board, were never seen again.
Newcastle No Longer County Town For the people of Newcastle, the most critical outcome of the loss of the Speedy was that the town of Newcastle was stripped of the status of county town of Newcastle District. The legislature in York wasted no time, passing an act on March 2, 1805. The only reason given in the document was that the location of Newcastle was “inconvenient”. By 1807, the small village of Amherst, in Hamilton Township, would gain the status of county town of Newcastle District. Asa Burnham, a wealthy land owner in the area, donated land for a court house and jail which was built north of Elgin Street and to the east side of Burnham Street, in what would become the north‐west part of the town of Cobourg. That is how Cobourg became the county seat of Northumberland County. But, what of the town of Newcastle? With the loss of county town status, the court house and jail building was sold to the Gibson family and they used it as a family home for several decades. Investors who had grabbed village lots in the town with so much optimism, soon saw their investments drop in value. Some lot owners sold at a loss but others persisted, often passing the lot on to the next generation. It is fair to say that Newcastle became a backwater.
Newcastle After The Loss of the Speedy The Gibson and Selleck families remained on Presqu’ile Point, at the town of Newcastle. They were joined by a few others, including Josiah Dix Wellington, an experienced sailor from Massachusetts. Sadly, Charles Selleck passed away in April of 1809, leaving his widow, Elizabeth, with a family of small children. Her situation improved when she married Josiah Dix Wellington in 1817. This family lived in the courthouse and jail building, although the third story was removed and it was modified to serve as a family home. Then, in 1821, Elizabeth gave birth to Isaac Maitland Wellington. Here is a photo of Mr. Wellington which was included in the archives of the Masonic Lodge of Brighton and is now on the web site of the Brighton Digital Archives. Isaac Wellington said that he had been born in the old courthouse and jail building on Presqu’ile Point, although his assertion that he was the first white child born in the area is a bit of an exaggeration. In his writings, he often alluded to his close connections to the people who were at Newcastle when the tragic loss of HMS Speedy occurred. Mr. Wellington was a trusted member of the Brighton community, for many years operating a bakery on Main Street. He also became “The History Guy” of his time. He wrote extensively about the history of Presqu’ile and area, including an article that was published by the Ontario Historical Society. His version of the Speedy story is very different from others. It is elaborate and personal, emphasizing the stories he had heard from family members. In Mr. Wellington’s telling of the story, the pinnacle rock was prominent. He mentioned it being sighted before the loss of the Speedy and explains how the people searched for it, unsuccessfully, after the big storm. Parts of his writings are included in the Tobey Book.
War of 1812 Mr. Wellington writes about activities on Presqu’ile Bay during the War of 1812. The most obvious activity was the transfer of prisoners of war from the Niagara area to Montreal. This was a major undertaking that lasted months and employed thousands of men all along the route. At Presqu’ile Point, there was a staging place on the north shore of the bay, somewhere near the present location of the Whistling Duck restaurant. Hundreds of prisoners came through at a time, trudging down the Danforth Road which went through Prince Edward County and on to Bath and Kingston. While no battles occurred in this area during the War of 1812, one event at Presqu’ile Point demonstrated that there was a war going on. George Gibson had contracted with the authorities at Kingston to build a 14-gun schooner near his home on the shore of Presqu'ile Bay. By the end of June 1814, the boat was within a couple of weeks of completion, standing there on stocks near the wharf. In fact, the boat had already been sold to the commissary at Kingston. Geoge Gibson received 50 pounds on commencing the project and would get 150 pounds on delivery of the completed boat to Kingston. The Americans were well aware of the boat that George Gibson was building, and the time was right to put an end to this enterprise. Lieut. Francis Gregory received orders to take a small squad of men in two boats to the east end of Lake Ontario to monitor British schooners and transports carrying much-needed men and supplies to the army in the Niagara area. If he found no good targets after a few days, he was to consider making a raid into Presqu'ile Bay to burn George Gibson's boat. On the evening of June 30, 1814, Lieut. Gregory began the raid by entering Wellers Bay with the intent of gathering intelligence about the boat and whether it was being guarded. His men knocked on the door of the first house on the shore and John Young came to the door. Even though they were in plain clothes, he sensed they may be American soldiers and, in fact, he soon found himself their prisoner. The raiding party went to Gull Island and, in the wee hours of July 1st, a small contingent of men rowed stealthily into Presqu'ile Bay, found George Gibson's boat undefended, and set it afire. The storehouse near the boat soon caught fire as well. The raiders waited for the deck to fall in and then left the bay, taking John Young back to the shore of Wellers Bay. The outcome of this raid would not change the course of the war, but Lieut. Gregory had one more feather in his cap, the British were minus one schooner and George Gibson would struggle for years to gain compensation for his losses. Please note that this account of the events around the burning of George Gibson's boat is much different from what we see in The Tobey Book. That account was written by Isaac M. Wellington who was a grandson of George Gibson. He was writing in the 1880s and was recounting the stories he had heard as a child. He did not have the benefit of access to the vast array of archived documents we enjoy today, so we can accept his story as the best he could do with what he had. A more elaborate description of these events should be included in the History section of this web site at some point.
First Steamboat One of the most amusing anecdotes in the Tobey book from I. M. Wellington, is this one about his grandfather, George Gibson, as an elderly man in 1825. He says: "Although Grandfather had helped to build many a large vessel, yet he had never seen a steamboat. One day, the Frontenac came puffing into the Harbour. The old gentleman, hearing the noise, sprang to his feet, and asked what was making the noise; but when he got sight of the boat rounding Salt Point, making her way into the harbor and dropping anchor, he raised both hands to his head, exclaiming that the world was coming to an end, when we see a ship run without sails. In after days, many a hearty laugh did the young people have at Grandfather's expense over his first sight of a steamboat.“ I love this story. First, it shows that the Gibsons were still living at Newcastle in 1825, since he watched the ship round Salt Point. Secondly, it shows how the older generation of that day had trouble accepting the new technologies that were becoming normal for the younger generation. Of course, that theme is not unique to that time.
Newcastle To Gosport As time went by, life on Presqu’ile Point was growing less and less viable. This sketch of Presqu’ile Bay and the mainland from around 1820 is part of a petition prepared by a group of prominent local citizens who wanted the government to help them move the town of Newcastle across the bay to the mainland. A small peninsula called Freeman’s Point had been reserved by the Crown and land was available there. The reasons for moving were based on feelings of insecurity and isolation. The people who lived at Newcastle had been vulnerable to attack during the War of 1812 and they were also being left behind as settlement and development increased on the mainland. The clincher for many was the fact that the only access to Newcastle from the mainland was by boat, at a time when the York Road had been improved between Kingston and Toronto. The authorities complied, and the small number of families who still lived there were moved across the bay at some point in the 1820s. Newcastle would be there on the north side of the bay until the 1840s when the post office was trying to reduce the number of duplicate names in the system, so Newcastle became Gosport.