Person Page - 331

Col. Samuel Peters Jarvis. who was second of the name, the first having died in youth, born Newark, Upper Canada. He was noted, even when quite young, having been adopted as a Missisaga Indian; he was a famous shot. He practised law; was Clerk of the Crown in Chancery; and Chief Superintendent of Indian affairs. He served in the war of 1812, and was present at the taking of Detroit (medal and clasp) and at the battles of Queenston Heights, Lundy's Lane, and Stony Creek. After Stony Creek he was in command of the escort of the captured American General Winfield Scott, he saved the latter from being killed by the Indians. During the Rebellion of 1837, he raised and commanded another regiment of Queens Rangers, and was present at the affair of Montgomery's Tavern, and at the cutting out of the "Caroline" on the Niagara River. He was Judge Advocate in the trial of the Fenian prisoner General Sutherland. As a youth he shot a son of Surveyor General Ridout in a duel, near the N. W. corner of Yonge and College Sts, Toronto, but was exonerated on the field. He attacked William L. Mackenzie's printing office and threw the type into Toronto Bay, because of an article in the latter's paper on the "Family Compact," in which the female members of his family were introduced. Jarvis Street was named after him. He had five sons and four daughters.⁶

General Samuel Peters Jarvis was educated for the law, but, owing to his being instrumental in saving the life of Lord Morpeth, while bathing in the Georgian Bay, he obtained through the latter, and by the help of Lord Wellington, a commission as Ensign in the Royal Canadian Rifle Regiment, but later exchanged to the 82d at Halifax, and served with it through the Indian Mutiny, He was at the Relief of Lucknow and many other engagements (medal, clasp, and brevet majority); was sometime Adjutant of the Staff college at Sandhurst. Retired from his regiment and accepted appointment as Assistant Adjutant General of the Militia in Canada with rank of Lieutenant Colonel. In the first Riel Rebellion he took command of the Ontario Battalion, and was in supreme command until the arrival of Lord Wolseley; was Commandant of the garrison at Fort Garry until the withdrawal of troops from Manitoba, when he was created a C.M.G. and gazetted, 1875, Colonel in the Imperial Army; in 1878 was sent on a special service to South Africa and was in command of the Colonial troops in the Kaffir War (medal and clasp); later retired with rank of Major General.⁵

William (Mr. Secretary) Jarvis, the founder of the family in Upper Canada. He served as cornet in the first (American) Regiment or Queens Rangers Dragoons under Lieut. Col. John Graves Simcoe; he was wounded at Brandywine. On the withdrawal of the British troops from the American Colonies, he went to England, and took a commission in the Army; in 1792 was appointed Secretary and Registrar of Upper Canada - hence his appellation. He and his family sailed in the troopship Henicker to Sorel, Quebec, and were nearly wrecked. He settled at the new capital, Newark (Niagara-on-the-Lake). He was Grand Master Mason; all the early Masonic warrants in Ontario bear his signature and are known as the "Jarvis Warrants."²