Hannah Jarvis
Hannah Jarvis (January 2, 1763 – September 9, 1845) was an United Empire Loyalist, whose husband was appointed to an important position in the first administration of the Province of Upper Canada, only to be reduced to poverty, through the mismanagement of her husband William Jarvis, her son Samuel Peters Jarvis, and her son-in-law, Alexander Hamilton.[1]
Biography
She was born in Hebron, Massachusetts, in 1863.[1] Her mother died, when she was two, and her father, Reverend Samuel Andrew Peters, soon placed her in a boarding school, in Boston. Due to her father's loyalty to the British crown her father returned the family to the United Kingdom, in 1774.
Her husband, William Jarvis, was another refugee from America, who had briefly been a junior officer in the British Army, where he had met John Graves Simcoe.[2]
In 1790 Simcoe was picked to be the first Lieutenant Governor of the new Province of Upper Canada.[2] Simcoe had wide influence in the selection of the administrators who would serve under him. Simcoe recommended Jarvis, who was appointed provincial secretary and registrar.
During the late 18th century administrators, practices that would be regarded as corrupt today, were routine.[2] Officials, like Hannah's husband, were entitled to collect, and keep, substantial fees from the citizens whose paperwork they processed. Up until 1795 Jarvis was collecting a substantial fee from each settler who registered a deed. In addition Simcoe had given key members of his small group of administrators 100 acre land grants, just north of the new Province's tiny capital, which greatly appreciated in value in the early 19th century. Jarvis's colleague, Peter Russell, Simcoe's deputy, was considered the richest man in the Province.
However, the Jarvises lived beyond their means, and, in 1795, the collection of that fee was passed on to registrars in each county, significantly reducing their income.
Hannah had seven children, several of whom died in childhood. One son, Samuel Peter Jarvis, and at least four daughters, survived to adulthood.
like Jarvis, routinely collected fees from citizens, when they processed their paperwork.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Edith G. Firth. "PETERS, HANNAH (Jarvis), gentlewoman and author". Dictionary of Canadian Biography. http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/peters_hannah_7E.html. Retrieved 2021-03-16.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Robert J. Burns. "JARVIS, WILLIAM, office holder and militia officer;". Dictionary of Canadian Biography. http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/jarvis_william_5E.html. Retrieved 2021-03-16. "The social tension Jarvis endured within the civil administration can perhaps be understood from Mrs Jarvis’s comment that White and Chief Justice John Elmsley 'think an American knows not how to speak.' Jarvis’s sometimes erratic behaviour may have been in part a response to the influence of his vituperative spouse, who once explained her husband’s stalled career by observing that Simcoe was surrounded by 'a lot of Pimps, Sycophants and Lyars.'"
