Samuel Lount
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Samuel Lount (September 24, 1791 – April 12, 1838) was a businessman and political figure in the province of Upper Canada. He participated in the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837.
He was born in Catawissa, Pennsylvania, United States, in 1791 and he came to Whitchurch Township in Upper Canada in 1811 with his family. He returned to Pennsylvania during the War of 1812, returning to Whitchurch in 1815. He briefly kept a tavern in Newmarket while doing work as a surveyor, but spent most of his adult life as a blacksmith in Holland Landing. As blacksmith, he helped to build the first steamboat on Lake Simcoe.
In 1834, he was elected to the 12th Parliament of Upper Canada representing Simcoe County, where he became a supporter of William Lyon Mackenzie. After he was defeated in the election of 1836, he joined the movement pressing the British government for reforms.
In the winter of 1837, Lount helped organize people from the Simcoe area to join a planned march on Toronto and joined the rebel group gathered at Montgomery’s Tavern.
When the rebellion fell apart, Lount attempted to flee to the United States, but was arrested and accused of treason. He was hanged on April 12, 1838 in the courtyard of the King Street Gaol at King and Toronto Streets in Toronto. Peter Matthews, another public-spirited farmer who participated in the rebellion, was executed along side him.
Lount had intervened to try to get medical aid for loyalist Lieutenant Colonel Robert Moodie and had stopped Mackenzie from burning the house of sheriff William Botsford Jarvis. However, the Executive Council of the province had felt that they needed to set an example. Lount was accompanied by Matthews.
Lount's last words were recorded: "Be of good courage boys, I am not ashamed of anything I've done, I trust in God, and I'm going to die like a man."[1] These words are replicated on a historical plaque near the site of the jail where he was executed.
[edit] In popular culture
Samuel Lount, a 1985 film by Laurence Keane and Elvira Mary Lount (a great-great-grandniece of Samuel), portrayed the life of Samuel Lount (R. H. Thomson).[2]
[edit] Notes
[edit] External links
- 1791 births
- 1838 deaths
- Members of the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada
- Executed politicians
- People from Pennsylvania
- American emigrants to pre-Confederation Canada
- Upper Canada Rebellion people
- Executed Canadian people
- American people executed abroad
- People executed for treason against the United Kingdom
- People executed by hanging
