John Powell (June 19, 1809 – February 24, 1881) was a Canadian politician who served as

mayor of Toronto The mayor of Toronto is the head of Toronto City Council and chief executive officer of the municipal government. The mayor is elected alongside city council every four years on the fourth Monday of October; there are no term limits. While in ...

and played an important role in the

Upper Canada Rebellion The Upper Canada Rebellion was an insurrection against the oligarchic government of the British colony of Upper Canada (present-day Ontario) in December 1837. While public grievances had existed for years, it was the rebellion in Lower Canada (p ...

. Powell was a member of the "

Family Compact The Family Compact was a small closed group of men who exercised most of the political, economic and judicial power in Upper Canada (today’s Ontario) from the 1810s to the 1840s. It was the Upper Canadian equivalent of the Château Clique in L ...

," the small group of elite families that controlled the politics of

Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada (french: link=no, province du Haut-Canada) was a part of British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of the ...

in the first half of the nineteenth century. His father, Captain John Powell, was the son-in-law of General

Æneas Shaw Aeneas Shaw ( – February 6, 1814) was a Scottish soldier and political figure in Upper Canada. Shaw was born in Pitlochry, Scotland and came to Staten Island, New York around 1770. He enlisted in the Queen's Rangers at the start of the Am ...

and his grandfather was Chief Justice

William Dummer Powell William Dummer Powell (November 5, 1755 - September 6, 1834) was a Loyalist lawyer, judge and political figure in Upper Canada. Early life and education Born at Boston, Massachusetts, he was named for his grandmother's brother William Dummer ...

. He was also a member of the

Orange Order in Canada The Grand Orange Lodge of British America, more commonly known as the Grand Orange Lodge of Canada or simply Orange Order in Canada, is the Canadian branch of the Orange Order, a Protestant fraternal organization that began in County Armagh in Ire ...

Background

A lawyer by training, in the 1837 elections Powell was elected alderman for St. Andrew's Ward, which then covered the area between King and Queen Streets west of Yonge and east of Bathurst. When former mayor

William Lyon Mackenzie William Lyon Mackenzie (March12, 1795 August28, 1861) was a Scottish Canadian-American journalist and politician. He founded newspapers critical of the Family Compact, a term used to identify elite members of Upper Canada. He represented Yor ...

attempted to foment a rebellion against the Compact and Governor Sir

Francis Bond Head Sir Francis Bond Head, 1st Baronet KCH PC (1 January 1793 – 20 July 1875), known as "Galloping Head", was Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada during the rebellion of 1837. Biography Head was an officer in the corps of Royal Engineers of ...

, Powell became an important member of the forces opposing him. On the night of December 4, Powell and companion Archibald Macdonald left the central part of town to investigate the reports of rebel activities to the north. Unbeknownst to them the rebels had captured a local armoury and were based at

Montgomery's Tavern The Battle of Montgomery's Tavern was an incident during the Upper Canada Rebellion in December 1837. The abortive revolutionary insurrection, inspired by William Lyon Mackenzie, was crushed by British authorities and Canadian volunteer units ne ...

, preparing to march south. Powell and Macdonald were captured by a rebel patrol, led by Mackenzie himself. However, before they could be brought to the rebel headquarters Powell pulled a hidden

pistol A pistol is a handgun, more specifically one with the chamber integral to its gun barrel, though in common usage the two terms are often used interchangeably. The English word was introduced in , when early handguns were produced in Europe, an ...

from his coat. He killed one of his captors, Captain Anthony Anderson,"Toronto's mayors: Scoundrels, rogues and socialists" by Mark Maloney
''Toronto Star'', January 3, 2010 and made good his escape. He shot point blank at Mackenzie but the pistol misfired and the rebel leader was unharmed. Powell returned to town and warned the government forces about the rebel preparations. This advance warning played an important role in the eventual defeat of the rebellion. Powell was proclaimed a hero for his actions and was unanimously elected as mayor by the city council at the end of the year. Powell served three years as mayor of the city. His main preoccupation was security, organizing local militias in each ward and expanding the small police force to help suppress future disorder. After his time as mayor, he served one more year on city council before retiring from local politics. In 1844 he left Toronto to become registrar of Lincoln County and he resided there until his death in 1881.

References

External links

Captain Powell's House, 'Brockamour'
{{DEFAULTSORT:Powell, John 1809 births 1881 deaths Mayors of Toronto

Background

References

Further reading

External links