MEMORIALS TO
SAMUEL LOUNT AND PETER MATTHEWS
In
the Necropolis, 200 Winchester St. at Sumach St. east of Parliament
St., facing the Don Valley Parkway, Toronto
A
fifteen-foot column rises over the grave, severed to show that the
lives of these two martyrs, Samuel Lount and Peter Matthews, were cut
off. It is at the western end of the Toronto Necropolis and can be
viewed from Sumach St. They were executed 12 April 1838 for their
part in the Rebellion of 1837.
Matthews was a Pickering area farmer. Lount was a blacksmith who also
farmed at Holland Landing. His wife, Elizabeth Lount, sought his
freedom from the gallows, and helped with the mass petition calling
for clemency, that was circulated throughout Upper Canada.
Originally
the executed men were buried in the Strangers’ Burying Ground
at the
northwest corner of Bloor and Yonge Streets. Years later, on
28
November 1859, friends and sympathizers, including William Lyon
Mackenzie, removed their bodies and both were buried in a common
grave and the marker placed in position is still present. On 28 June
1893 the present column of granite with a motif of maple leaves was
unveiled, “erected by their friends and
sympathizers”. One
hundred years later on 28 June 1993 friends and family of Peter
Matthews and Samuel Lount gathered to honour their memory and placed a
new plaque correcting a genealogical error on the original stone.