In the heart of the town that bears her family’s name stands a bronze statue of Elizabeth Simcoe, commissioned and unveiled in December 2007 for the 150th anniversary of the town’s establishment. It depicts Simcoe in 18th-century clothes, walking and holding her diary. On the rock behind her, statues portray the meeting of the Simcoes with the Objigway Chief, Great Sail, holding Francis Simcoe; the other side features the Georgina Church, circa 1796. Elizabeth Posthuma Gwillim Simcoe was born in England in 1762. She married John Graves Simcoe in 1782, and two years later, she purchased the Wolford estate near Honiton with her inheritance money. The Simcoes had 11 children, nine of whom lived to adulthood. In 1791, her husband got nominated as the first lieutenant governor of the new province of Upper Canada. The family sailed to the new world and arrived in Quebec City in November, where they spent the winter before continuing the inland journey to York (now Toronto). Simcoe started to record her adventures and life in the new world in her diary from the first days of the voyage. Simcoe traveled in Upper and Lower Canada and documented her surroundings, flora, fauna, and native peoples in her dairy alongside hundreds of watercolor paintings she drew. Her talent for painting and attention to detail enabled her to create maps for her husband and his crew members. After five years in Canada, her husband’s mission ended, and the family returned to their estate in Wolford. While the family prepared for relocation to India in 1806 due to her husband’s new position as commander-in-chief, he got ill and passed away several weeks later. Simcoe remained at Wolford with her seven daughters and occasionally conducted sketching trips to West Country and Wales. She passed away in 1850. She always said that the time she spent in Canada was the best years of her life. The first edition of her diary was published in 1911; a transcription appeared in 1965, and a paperback edition appeared at the start of the 21st century. It provided a lively, detailed record of life in Canada in the 1790s and is especially rare since was is told from a female point of view. Read more...