Matthews, Peter

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Ronald J. Stagg, “MATTHEWS, PETER,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 7, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/matthews_peter_7E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Militiaman, farmer, and rebel; b. 1789 or 1790 in the Bay of Quinte region (Ont.), son of Thomas Elmes Matthews and Mary Ruttan (Rutan, Rattan); m. in the early 1830s Hannah Major, and they had eight children; hanged 12 April 1838 in Toronto.
    • About 1799 the family moved to Pickering Township, where Thomas obtained 350 acres and Mary 200 acres. In Pickering the Matthews family was quite public-spirited, contributing to the building of a school and working to improve the major road in the area, the Brock Road. Thomas was active as a local official, and he and two or three sons served in the militia during the War of 1812, Peter being a sergeant. Peter pledged a donation to the Methodist college to be built at Cobourg, but died before it could be honoured.
    • It was this desire to serve others that apparently caused Peter’s death. The family was unhappy with the services provided to the rural inhabitants by the government at Toronto. Matthews’s party of about 50 left Pickering on 5 December and arrived at Montgomery’s Tavern on Yonge Street north of Toronto the next day. On the morning of the 7th, Matthews and about 60 men were sent by Mackenzie to the bridge across the Don River east of the city. There they were to create a diversion which Mackenzie hoped would prevent government forces from attacking Montgomery’s until the reinforcements he was expecting had arrived there. Matthews’s party killed one man and set the bridge and some houses on fire before being driven off by loyalist forces.
    • The rebellion failed that day and Matthews fled, but he was captured in a farmhouse in York Township. Despite appeals for clemency signed by thousands, Matthews was executed with Samuel Lount on 12 April 1838.
  • Grandson of United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=7233
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6360/peter-matthews