Samuel Smith (Upper Canada)
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- For other men with the same name, see Samuel Smith
Samuel Smith (December 27, 1756 – October 20, 1826) was an army officer, politician and colonial administrator in Upper Canada.
Smith was born in Hempstead, New York, the son of a Scottish immigrant. He joined the Queen's Rangers during the American Revolutionary War, surrendered to the Americans after the Battle of Yorktown and then moved to England where he rose to the rank of captain and was sent to Niagara. He was promoted to the position of lieutenant-colonel of his regiment in 1801 before retiring to 1,000 acres (4 km²) of land he had bought in Etobicoke. Later some of this land was sold to Trinity College for the original Trinity college campus, now Trinity Bellwoods Park. In 1813 Smith was appointed to the Executive Council of Upper Canada and he sat on this council until 1825.
In 1817 he was sworn in as Administrator of the province in the absence of Lieutenant Governor Francis Gore and served until 1818. He acted again as Administrator in the absence of Lieutenant Governor Sir Peregrine Maitland for three months in 1820.
As Administrator, Smith was instructed to not grant land to American immigrants until they had taken the oath of allegiance and resided in Upper Canada for seven years. He decided to follow the advice of his Executive Council and not remove title to the land from those who did not qualify.
Smith was considered a weak official and was the target of complaints by both reformer Robert Gourlay and family compact member John Strachan who thought him feeble, inept and talentless. However, in April 1818, Smith ordered Gourlay arrested when he called an illegal assembly at York (now Toronto).
External links
- Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online (http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=37260)
| Preceded by: Gordon Drummond | Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada | Succeeded by: Sir Peregrine Maitland |