Editing Elizabeth Simcoe (section)

==Biography==
She was born '''Elizabeth Posthuma Gwillim''' to [[Lieutenant Colonel|Lt Col.]] Thomas Gwillim and Elizabeth Spinckes in the village of [[Aldwincle]], [[Northamptonshire]], [[England]].<ref>[https://www.freereg.org.uk/search_records/5f04dd41f493fdc3162a5662/elisabeth-posthuma-gwilliam-baptism-northamptonshire-aldwincle-1762-09-22?locale=en Baptism record on FreeReg]. The exact date of her birth remains unknown. Her mother's burial took place one day later at the same church.</ref> 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.<ref>[http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=7191921134&searchurl=sgnd%3Don%26amp%3Bsortby%3D3%26amp%3Btn%3Dpilgrims%2Bprogress The Progress of the Pilgrim Good-Intent, in Jacobinical Times], Mary Ann Burges, AbeBooks. Retrieved 2 August 2014.</ref>

[[Image:York Harbour, looking west from the mouth of the Don River, c. 1793.jpg|thumb|left|220px|A 1793 watercolour painting by Simcoe of [[Toronto Harbour|York Harbour]] before settlement. [[York, Upper Canada|York]] would become the city of [[Toronto]]]]
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 {{convert|5,000|acre|ha|adj=on}} estate near [[Honiton]], [[Devon]], and built Wolford Lodge, which remained the Simcoe family seat until 1923.<ref name="DoCB">{{cite DCB |url=https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/simcoe_john_graves_5E.html |title=SIMCOE, JOHN GRAVES |volume=5 |first=S.R. |last=Mealing}}</ref> She is buried at [[Wolford Chapel]].