page_title: John Strachan
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: John Strachan / Life and work / Early life
context_page_description: John Strachan was a notable figure in Upper Canada and the first Anglican Bishop of Toronto. He is best known as a political bishop who held many government positions and promoted education from common schools to helping to found the University of Toronto.
  Gauvreau says in the 1820s he was "the most eloquent and powerful Upper Canadian exponent of an anti-republican social order based upon the tory principles of hierarchy and subordination in both church and state". Craig characterizes him as "the Canadian arch tory of his era" for his intense conservatism. Craig argues that Strachan "believed in an ordered society, an established church, the prerogative of the crown, and prescriptive rights; he did not believe that the voice of the people was the voice of God".
  Strachan built his home in a large yard bound by Simcoe Street, York Street, and Front Street. It was a two-storey building that was the first building in Toronto to use locally manufactured bricks. The gardens and grounds of the property occupied the entire square and became a local Toronto landmark, being given the name "The Bishop's Palace".
context_section_description: Born 12 April 1778, Strachan was the youngest of six children born to the overseer of a granite quarry in Aberdeen, Scotland. He graduated from King's College, Aberdeen, in 1797. After his father died in an accident in 1794, Strachan tutored students and taught school to finance his own education.
  In 1799 he emigrated to Kingston, Upper Canada, to tutor the children of other British and United Empire Loyalist immigrants. In Kingston one of his students was John Beverley Robinson, future attorney general of Upper Canada. At the same time, he studied to become ordained.
  In 1803 Strachan was ordained as a priest in the Church of England. He moved to Cornwall, Ontario, where he taught at a grammar school and married Ann McGill née Wood, widow of Andrew McGill, in 1807. Together they had nine children, some of whom died young.
  He moved to York, Upper Canada, just before the War of 1812, where he became rector of St. James' Church (which would later become his cathedral) and headmaster of the Home District Grammar School. This school, also known as "The Blue School," taught students from five to seventeen and emphasized a practical means of learning. Students recited abridged speeches from the House of Commons, learned Latin, and were encouraged to ask questions of their fellow pupils.
  A conservative, Strachan supported his nation during the War of 1812, using his sermons to support the suspension of civil liberties. Upon hearing that of the fall of Fort Detroit to British forces, Strachan declared in a sermon: "The brilliant victory... has been of infinite service in confirming the wavering & adding spirit to the loyal". Strachan had the young women of York knit flags for the militia regiments in which their menfolk were serving in and organized fundraising drives to give the militiamen serving on the Niagara frontier shoes and clothing.
  In December 1812, Strachan founded the Loyal and Patriotic Society of Upper Canada which raised £21,500 to support the families of militiaman and care for the wounded. During the Battle of York in 1813, along with senior militia officers, Strachan negotiated the surrender of the city with American general Henry Dearborn. The Americans violated the terms by looting homes and churches and locked the wounded British soldiers and Upper Canada militiamen into a hospital without food or water for two days. Strachan went to meet to complain in person to Dearborn about the violation of the terms of surrender and shamed Dearborn into imposing order on his troops. He is credited with saving the city from American troops, eager to loot and burn it.
  After the sack of York, Strachan sent his wife Anne and their children to Cornwall because he believed they would be safe there. A few months later, Cornwall was taken by the Americans, who looted the Strachan home and likely raped a then-pregnant Anne Strachan.
caption: John Strachan
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