Samuel Sherwood was

High Constable A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in criminal law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions. A constable is commonly the rank of an officer within the police. Other peop ...

of the

Toronto Police Department The Toronto Police Service (TPS) is a municipal police force in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and the primary agency responsible for providing law enforcement and policing services in Toronto. Established in 1834, it was the first local police ser ...

from 1852 to 1859. A tavern owner with ties to the Tory

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 ...

, his brother,

Henry Sherwood Henry Sherwood, (1807 – July 7, 1855) was a lawyer and Tory politician in the Province of Canada. He was involved in provincial and municipal politics. Born into a Loyalist family in Brockville in Augusta Township, Upper Canada, he stud ...

was

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 then

Premier of Canada West Joint premiers of the Province of Canada were the prime ministers of the Province of Canada, from the 1841 unification of Upper Canada and Lower Canada until Confederation in 1867. Following the abortive Rebellions of 1837, Lord Durham was appoin ...

in the 1840s. According to Conyngham Crawford Taylor, Samuel Sherwood was “a quiet, good-natured man, who did not insist on any strict regulations as to the dress or discipline of the men. They wore a uniform, but without uniformity, except in one respect—they were universally slovenly.” His stewardship of the police force was accordingly lax. Most officers were

Orangemen Orangemen or Orangewomen can refer to: *Historically, supporters of William of Orange *Members of the modern Orange Order (also known as Orange Institution), a Protestant fraternal organisation *Members or supporters of the Armagh GAA Gaelic foot ...

, at a time when Toronto was riven by religious sectarianism between the more affluent Protestant majority and the poorer Catholic minority, and showed favouritism to other members of the Orange Order, even to the point of joining them in brawling with Catholics in the six major instances of sectarian rioting between 1852 and 1858. In March 1858, Sherwood himself refused to testify against a fellow Orangeman implicated in rioting at the St Patrick's Day parade. Sherwood was appointed chief constable despite the fact that a provincial inquiry had implicated him in the 1841 election riot that followed his brother's electoral defeat that year. Sherwood had allegedly organized an armed gang inside the Coleraine Tavern which opened fire upon participants in the rival candidate's victory parade.Kealey, Gregory S., “Orangemen and the Corporation.”; In Russell, Victor L. (ed), Forging a Consensus: Historical Essays on Toronto, Toronto: University Of Toronto Press, 1984. pg. 67 In 1858, Sherwood let the prime suspect in the robbery of the

Bank of Upper Canada The Bank of Upper Canada was established in 1821 under a charter granted by the legislature of Upper Canada in 1819 to a group of Kingston merchants. The charter was appropriated by the more influential Executive Councillors to the Lt. Governor, t ...

go free prompting the mayor,

William Henry Boulton William Henry Boulton (April 19, 1812 – February 15, 1874) was a lawyer and political figure in Canada West. He served as Mayor of Toronto from 1845 to 1847, and in 1858. He was also a member of the Orange Order in Canada. Boulton died in ...

, to order an inquiry. Sherwood quarreled with Boulton in the press, accusing him of running a

star chamber The Star Chamber (Latin: ''Camera stellata'') was an English court that sat at the royal Palace of Westminster, from the late to the mid-17th century (c. 1641), and was composed of Privy Counsellors and common-law judges, to supplement the judic ...

proceeding against him, resulting in Boulton recommending Sherwood's suspension to city council. Council voted 14 to 10 in favour of Sherwood resulting in Boulton resigning as mayor, though he ran in the subsequent election. The scandal resulted in provincial legislation that required the appointment of an independent

police board A police board is an appointed form of local government charged with the responsibility of overseeing a local police force. In the United States, the term is used for some police departments. For example, the Chicago Police Board oversees the Chi ...

. The body, the Toronto Board of Police Commissioners was appointed in 1859 and fired Sherwood and the entire police force in order to replace them with a better trained, disciplined force. Sherwood went on to be Toronto's

harbour master A harbourmaster (or harbormaster, see spelling differences) is an official responsible for enforcing the regulations of a particular harbour or port, in order to ensure the safety of navigation, the security of the harbour and the correct operat ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sherwood, Samuel Toronto police chiefs People of pre-Confederation Canada Canadian Protestants