[projekktor id=’14060′]
The Fieldcote Museum in Ancaster is in for a busy weekend. On Saturday and Sunday, the tiny museum will host the ceremonies for more than 100 descendants of one of the most astounding trials in Canadian history. It was the first of its kind in Canadian history. A trial that held a shaky nation together — and became known as ” The Bloody Assize ” — due to the harsh verdicts handed down.
Unless you knew there was nothing on this site to give away the secret history of what happened here. One of the most spectacular court trials in Canadian history. At the site of the old Union Hotel 200 years ago.
The hotel was transformed into a makeshift courtroom to conduct a trial in which both the Attorney General of the Day, and the Chief Justice of Upper Canada played prominent roles.
The Crime: High Treason.
The Accused: 15 men charged with espionage, and giving aid to the American enemy.
Lois Corey, Fiedlcote Museum: “It really was the first of its sort for Canada, and so it held national significance.”
The fledgling nation, fighting for its life against the American invaders was not in any way the cohesive Canada we know today. In fact, it was hard to distinguish friend, from foe.
Lois Corey: “Back then, Canada was really a wilderness and a lot of the people who were living here had just migrated from the United States. They probably didn’t feel any strong allegiance to any government.”
Many of the accused, were taken in a raid by British soldiers on a farm near Chatham, where they were discovered in the company of American militiamen.
They were held in a makeshift jail, in the nearby Union mill, owned by Abraham Markle, one of the accused. Markle used his knowledge of the facility to escape both the British, and the noose. Alarmed by the flexible loyalties of their own subjects — the British decided that they had to make a point.
Lois Corey: “They wanted to ensure loyalty in the ranks among the populous of Canada so they wanted to set an example. So they held a civil trial as opposed to a military trial.”
Jean Kerfoot is a maternal descendant of Adam Crysler: “The more we read and understood the tragic events that took place, it was pretty brutal, pretty real.”
For a month the trials of the accused captivated Upper Canada, and when Justice was finally pronounced the penalties were swift, and brutal.
Convicted in the end, the men were taken on what must have been the shortest and longest journey of their lives on July 20th, 1814. From Ancaster to this spot, just across from what is now Dundurn Castle — where they were hanged. But in Adam Crysler’s death, Jean says, not one life was lost — but ten.
Jean Kerfoot: “Adam, who is our descentant was married to Elizabeth Warner, and between them they had 8 children. After he was hung and disposed of, she was separated from all her children.”
A cost of war on Canadian soil that is virtually inconceivable, after 200 years of peace — but was all too real to so many, in 1814.
