JOSEPH
SHEARD
Parkette,
just south and east of Carlton and Yonge Sts., at the corner of
Granby and Sheard Sts., Toronto
A
small parkette, easily overlooked, was the site of Joseph Sheard's
homestead. Sheard was a carpenter and foreman to Thomas Storm, who
built the scaffold for the 1838 execution of Peter Matthews and
Samuel Lount, leaders in the 1837 Rebellion. Sheard refused
instructions to help build the scaffold, saying:
“I’ll not
put a
hand to it. Lount and Matthews have done nothing that I might not
have done myself, and I’ll never help to build a gallows to
hang
them”. Public opinion was so opposed to the hanging that the
militia were called out to surround the execution site for fear of a
last minute rescue attempt.
Sheard
later became a leading alderman and in 1871-72 served as mayor of
Toronto. As a builder he helped design many fine Toronto buildings
and Canada’s first parliament.