Editing Elizabeth Simcoe

{{Short description|English artist (1762–1850)}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2016}}
{{Infobox artist
| name          = Elizabeth Simcoe
| image         = Elizabeth Simcoe.jpg
| caption       = Portrait by [[Mary Anne Burges]], 1790
| birth_name    = Elizabeth Posthuma Gwillim
| birth_date    = {{Birth date|df=y|1762|09|22}}
| birth_place   = [[Aldwincle, Northamptonshire]], England
| death_date    = {{Death date and age|df=y|1850|01|17|1762|09|22}}
| death_place   = [[Honiton]], Devon, England
| nationality   = 
| spouse        = {{marriage|John Graves Simcoe|1782|1806|reason=died}}
| children      = 11
| field         = 
| training      = 
| movement      = 
| works         = 
| patrons       = 
| influenced by = 
| influenced    = 
| awards        = 
}}
'''Dame Elizabeth Posthuma Simcoe''' (22 September 1762 – 17 January 1850) was an English [[artist]] and [[Diary|diarist]] in [[Canada under British Imperial control (1764-1867)|colonial Canada]]. Her husband, [[John Graves Simcoe]], was the first [[Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada]]. Her diary gives an account of Canadian life.

==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]].

==Legacy==
[[File:Portion of Elizabeth Simcoe's Diary, pages 6-7 (I0032531).jpg|alt=Pages 6 and 7 of Elizabeth Simcoe's diary. Page 6 is a textual entry into her diary and page 7 a drawing of trees and two small buildings.|thumb|262x262px|Pages 6-7 of Elizabeth Simcoe's diary created between 1795 and 1796 from the Simcoe Family [[Fonds]] at the [[Archives of Ontario]] ]]
[[File:Cascade in Wolfe's Cove (I0006888).tif|alt=A cascade surrounded by trees.|left|thumb|A watercolour painting by Elizabeth Simcoe created in [April 1792?] depicting a cascade in Wolfe’s Cove from the Simcoe Family Fonds]]
Elizabeth Simcoe's diary provides a valuable impression of life in colonial Ontario. First published in 1911, there was a subsequent transcription published in 1965 and a paperback version at the turn of the 21st century, over 200 years after she wrote it. She also left a series of 595 [[Watercolor painting|watercolours]] that depict the town of [[York, Upper Canada]]. She proposed the naming of [[Scarborough, Toronto|Scarborough Township]], an eastern Toronto district, after [[Scarborough, North Yorkshire]]. The townships of [[Georgina, Ontario|North]], [[East Gwillimbury|East]] and [[Bradford West Gwillimbury, Ontario|West Gwillimbury]], just south of [[Lake Simcoe]], Ontario, are also named after her family. The Township of Whitchurch, today the town of [[Whitchurch–Stouffville]], [[Ontario]], honours her ancestral home, [[Whitchurch, Herefordshire]].<ref>Jean Barkey, et al., [http://www.ourroots.ca/page.aspx?id=2871735&amp;qryID=0eb09b9a-c844-41ad-8105-9f81bdb11bd3 Whitchurch Township]{{Dead link|date=February 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} (Toronto: Stoddart, 1993), p. 14.</ref>

In December 2007, a statue of Elizabeth Gwillim Simcoe was raised in the town of [[Bradford West Gwillimbury]], when it commemorated the 150th anniversary of its incorporation. The statue stands in a small park in front of the Bradford post office, at the corner of John Street West and Barrie Street.
[[File:Barracks at Queenston (I0006924).tif|alt=A watercolour painting that includes a body of water with a boat on it, barracks, and trees.|thumb|264x264px|[Ca. 1792] watercolour painting by Elizabeth Simcoe depicting the barracks at [[Queenston]] from the Simcoe Family Fonds]]

In 2015, her work was included in ''The Artist Herself: Self-Portraits by Canadian Historical Artists'', an exhibition co-curated by [[Alicia Boutilier]] and [[Tobi Bruce]] who also co-edited the book/catalogue.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wall |first1=Erin|title="Elizabeth Simcoe". The Artist Herself |date=2015 |publisher=Agnes Etherington Art Centre/ Art Gallery of Hamilton |location=Kingston and Hamilton|p=38-39 |isbn=978-1-55339-407-5|url=https://library.gallery.ca/search~S1?/abruce%2C+tobi/abruce+tobi/1%2C1%2C16%2CB/frameset&FF=abruce+tobi+++++1965&1%2C%2C16 |access-date=6 April 2025}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{refbegin}}

*{{Cite book |title=The Canadians: Elizabeth Simcoe, First Lady of Upper Canada |last=Bassett |first=John M. |year=1974 |publisher=Fitzhenry & Whiteside Ltd |location=Don Mills |isbn=0-88902-204-6}}
*{{Cite book |title=Elizabeth Posthuma Simcoe, 1796–1850: A Biography|last=Frayer |first=Mary Beacock |year=1989 |publisher=Duncan Press |location=Toronto}}
*{{Cite DCB |title=GWILLIM, ELIZABETH POSTHUMA (Simcoe) |volume=VII |url=https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/gwillim_elizabeth_posthuma_7E.html |last=Firth |first=Edith G.}}
*{{Cite book |title=Mrs. Simcoe's Diary |last=Innis |first=Mary Quayle |year=1965 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |location=New York}}
*{{Cite book |title=The Diary of Elizabeth Simcoe |last=Robertson |first=J. Ross |year=1934 |publisher=The Ontario Publishing Company Limited |location=Toronto}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20121106103813/http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/english/on-line-exhibits/simcoe/index.aspx Travels With Elizabeth Simcoe]. Archives of Ontario.
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
*{{FadedPage|id=Simcoe, Elizabeth|name=Elizabeth Simcoe|author=yes}}
*''[http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/en/explore/online/simcoe/index.aspx Travels with Elizabeth Simcoe: A Visual Journey Through Upper and Lower Canada]'', online exhibit on Archives of Ontario website
*[https://aims.archives.gov.on.ca/scripts/mwimain.dll/144/DESCRIPTION_WEB/WEB_DESC_DET?SESSIONSEARCH&exp=sisn%20841 Simcoe family fonds], Archives of Ontario

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Simcoe, Elizabeth}}
[[Category:1762 births]]
[[Category:1850 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Aldwincle]]
[[Category:Scarborough, Ontario]]
[[Category:Pre-Confederation Ontario people]]
[[Category:Canadian diarists]]
[[Category:Canadian women painters]]
[[Category:Canadian watercolourists]]
[[Category:Canadian women watercolourists]]
[[Category:18th-century Canadian artists]]
[[Category:18th-century Canadian non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:18th-century Canadian women artists]]
[[Category:18th-century Canadian women writers]]
[[Category:Canadian women non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:Women diarists]]