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Joseph Willcocks

Joseph Willcocks (1773-1814) was an Irish émigré who became a controversial political figure and publisher in Upper Canada.

He was appointed Sheriff of the Home District, later to be stripped of that appointment, as well being a twice-elected member of the Legislative Assembly. He also founded the first political newspaper in Canada, The Upper Canada Guardian or Freeman’s Journal, in which he published his radical British and Irish Whig-influenced criticisms of appointed officials. However, he is perhaps best known for his actions in the War of 1812, when he deserted Upper Canada and served for the Americans, and was killed during the conflict in 1814.

Early career in Upper Canada

Joseph Willcocks left Ireland for Upper Canada in December 1799, due to his family's financial decline, his own garnering of debts, and lacking career prospects. He arrived in York (Toronto) in March 1800, where he stayed with his relative William Willcocks, who had encouraged him to emigrate. Through William's connections, he acquired a position as a private clerk for a very influential man Peter Russell, who was then the chief administrator of Upper Canada.. Willcocks moved in with his patron Russell in October 1800, and a year later was awarded a position in the Surveyor General’s Office. He enjoyed a very comfortable lifestyle under Russell's patronage, however it would not last long as he was dismissed in August 1802 upon Russell's discovery that Willcocks had been pursuing a courtship with Russell's half-sister Elizabeth, who was also living with him. Finding himself fallen out of favour with his patron, jobless, and homeless, Willcocks quickly turned to the Chief Justice Henry Allcock for help. While Allcock couldn’t change Russell’s decision about Willcocks, he did offer him a position as a steward of his household and manager of his farm, and invited Willcocks to live with him in October 1802 . Allcock’s connections got him a job with the provincial secretary, and later in 1804 he was appointed to the very respectable office of Sheriff of the Home District (present-day Niagara area).

Willcocks originally enjoyed these positions gained through the influence of his powerful acquaintances, and prided himself in the supposed “security” of his appointed position. The Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada Peter Hunter, who was close with his patron Allcock, held Willcocks in high esteem, though he may have taken this for granted when he claimed that, “No Governor or King can dismiss me without [my] having committed some high offence” and bragged “I have the good fortune to be always at the strongest side.” However once again, this seemingly stable position would not last for Willcocks. Allcock returned to England in 1804 to attempt to secure the appointment of Chief Justice of Lower Canada, a position he strongly desired. When he did return, it was with the new appointment in Lower Canada where he could be of no aid for Willcocks. Later in 1805, Lieutenant Governor Hunter died unexpectedly, leaving the security and direction of Willcocks' political career up in the air.

Political Influences and Career

Shortly after Allcock's absence, Willcocks became involved with the legislative assembly through his recently arrived neighbour in York and fellow Irishman Judge Robert Thorpe, who became for Willcocks a political and intellectual mentor and very close friend. With his sudden appearance into Upper Canadian society and politics, Thorpe brought a number of ideas of Whiggism to the public sphere, which were incredibly influential on Willcocks. John B. Lee described Thorpe's political presence as having, "managed to alienate the established authority and bring into Upper Canada a brand of "Whig" politics that flew in the face of aristocratic elitism and unquestioned executive power." Willcocks was likely enticed by Thorpe's political philosophies considering his unstable experiences of being dependent on patronage in Upper Canadian society: with Peter Russell, his dismissal due to his private behaviour almost left him destitute because of a personal quarrel, completely ignoring his loyal service. The reliance on patronage in society also had significant effects on the success or failure in Upper Canadian politics, and Willcocks knew just how quickly one could fall out of favour. After Chief Justice Henry Allcock left for England, the patronless Willcocks was left quite vulnerable without anyone to help direct his career, until he found a mentor in Thorpe and began acting as an increasingly critical political and public figure in his own right.

Whiggism asserted that governing power should belong to Parliament rather than belonging to an absolute reigning monarch. Willcocks had never been opposed to British Rule (even during the Irish Rebellion of 1798) and remained of that opinion. His political ideology however developed with his understanding of the potential for misuse of power through appointed officials acting on behalf of the Crown, given the great amount of distance between the ruling power and its colony with almost no supervising body present. Willcocks, among several others, believed that “the only solution to the problem of misrule was to recognize the legitimate legislative independence of the colony and to ensure that executive councilors considered themselves responsible to the legislature rather than to the governor.” With the support of Willcocks, Thorpe established a kind of opposition group within the legislative assembly. Some of the initial success of their opposition came from their critical stance on the recently introduced reforms to land policy that put many farmers and lower class citizens at a disadvantage due to staggering fees on land grants, and so Thorpe and Willcocks had many supporters from common citizens. The problem of these land policy reforms was an issue that pertained to Thorpe's and Willcock's cause as an example of the governing aristocratic elite's ability to abuse their power over the citizens. However, despite the great amount of support both Thorpe and Willcocks gained in the various elections they ran in, popular election did not keep them safe from their political enemies in higher, more secure appointed positions.

The replacement of the late Lieutenant Governor Hunter, Francis Gore, arrived in 1806. He was determined to thwart Thorpe and his political allies in order to eliminate their opinions from gaining any further ground; it was likely the assumption that their intention was to eventually overthrow the Crown that fueled his actions. Gore used his governing power to oust as much opposing criticism as possible, proving to Willcocks and Thorpe the very flaws in Upper Canada's government they had been criticizing. Gore stripped Willcocks of his office of Sheriff in April 1807, followed by the suspension of Thorpe from his elected office in the legislative assembly, as well as removing him from his position on the Court of King's Bench. Thorpe left for England, as did others whose careers Gore ruined, leaving Willcocks alone and with many enemies in Upper Canada.

Publishing Career: The Upper Canada Guardian or Freeman's Journal 1807-1812

After being forced out of his shrievalty, Willcocks immediately left York and traveled to New York to buy a printing press with the intention of starting a political newspaper. He moved to Newark (now Niagara) and began publishing The Upper Canada Guardian, or The Freeman’s Journal in July 1807, the first opposition newspaper in Canada. Willcocks announced in an issue of the Guardian in 1807, "Mr. Joseph Willcocks begs leave to inform the Public that he is no longer Sheriff of the Home District of the Province of Upper Canada, but has undertaken (at the Particular Request of a large number of Respectable Persons) to publish a weekly newspaper..." He established his platform as publisher to scrutinize the actions of governing officials, with additional special attention paid to "Agricultural and Commercial improvements," recalling his earlier efforts to fight land policy reform. It was not surprising then that in its first issue Willcocks wrote a scathing editorial about Gore—Gore had gone out of his way to silence Willcocks, and The Upper Canada Guardian was Willcocks’ defiant outlet for his Whig-influenced opinions to be heard. Willcocks continued to criticize Gore and a handful of other inept appointed officials in an attempt to make his point evident to citizens that those in the position of appointed power by the Crown had no obligation to act in anyone's best interest but their own, given that immediate consequences from the Crown were of no concern. The effect the exposure of Willcocks' Whiggist attitudes on citizen readers of The Upper Canada Guardian is not known, but the paper did enjoy a wide readership throughout Upper Canada and was supported entirely by subscriptions, so Willcocks' audience was indeed significant. Willcocks himself was certainly a popular figure with the public; while publishing his newspaper, he won an election in January 1808 to the Legislative Assembly as a representative for the riding of West York, placing him back in the political ring.

However Gore was determined to eliminate Willcocks' influence in the public (as well as put an end to the numerous personal attacks Willcocks had written of Gore in his paper), Gore found Willcocks' publication to be inflammatory and had him thrown in jail for a short period for libel in February 1808, just after he had taken his seat in the Legislative Assembly, effectively keeping him out of the assembly for the rest of the session. Willcocks nonetheless later chose to reprint one of its most critical pieces addressing the Lieutenant-General, claiming that numerous readers had requested it be reprinted. Publication decisions like these would continue to get Willcocks into trouble with the law: he was charged again with libel in 1810, which he was later acquitted. The Upper Canada Guardian was not immune to citizen criticisms as there were those who agreed with Gore that the publication was anti-Loyalist. One woman named Abigail who wrote a reproachful letter to the Editor subtly accusing him of libel and possibly treacherous intentions, to which Willcocks published a response that stated he and his publication were not in fact opposed to British rule. Regardless of whether Willcocks was or was not out of line with his persistent criticism of Lieutenant-Governor Gore, Gore did indeed have to answer to the Crown, leaving his position to sail back to England in 1811 to defend himself (and conveniently avoiding the events of the War of 1812, only returning after the conflict had subsided).

By the time of Willcocks’ final issue of The Upper Canada Guardian, he clearly had no regrets about any of his controversial publications, saying, "I am flattered at being ranked among enemies of the king's servants in the colony. I glory in the distinction." However, with the War of 1812 looming in the near future, Willcocks problems were about to get more serious than charges of libel. His enemies had always suspected Willcocks’ disloyalty to the Crown, but with the onset of war with the Americans those suspicions would turn into charges of sedition. The time for Willcocks as publisher of a political newspaper would not last long: facing financial difficulties and legal issues, Willcocks sold his printing press in 1812 for more than it was worth to Richard Hatt, who was likely put up to the purchase by persons looking to extinguish Willcocks’ proliferation of Whig principles in his paper.

Willcocks' Political Motivations During the War of 1812

Willcocks' legacy has been greatly affected by his defection to the Americans' side during the War of 1812, though his motivation for defecting was not likely due to a suppressed hatred for British rule. Ideologically, Willcocks objected to the probable imposition of martial law, and by the time he defected the suspension of many democratic proceedings had already been imposed due to the crisis, which enabled a number of appointed officials of an increasingly powerful elite to usurp much of the power of elected representatives. Since Willcocks was more democratically inclined, and an unwanted critical presence among many of the more powerful appointed officials (who likely assumed he was disloyal to the Crown anyway), the probability of his arrest and the worst-case scenario of execution certainly would have been important factors in his decision to desert Upper Canada for the Americans.

At the outbreak of the war he was clearly on the British Empire's side. He was enlisted for help by General Isaac Brock as an envoy to the Grand River natives, with whom Willcocks had a positive relationship with since he also shared with many of the native population a great dislike for Colonel William Claus of the Indian Department (Claus was among some of Willcocks' targets in The Upper Canada Guardian for whom he was accused of libelling). Willcocks was successful in reaching an agreement with the Grand River natives to fight on the side of the British Empire, and later Willcocks went on to fight bravely in the Battle of Queenston Heights and actively recruit militia for Upper Canada's army. However it may have been that the damage to Willcocks' reputation among the elite of powerful loyalists would not be easily forgotten, as Willcocks would never be trusted enough to gain any recognition of official rank despite his efforts and capability. With the imposition of martial law in parts of Upper Canada and suspension of civil government, Upper Canada had effectively removed any consideration for citizens' voices and concerns (whose very lives were at stake), not to mention that the control of government was left in the hands of very small group of appointed officials, who almost exclusively hated Willcocks. And as someone who was no stranger to being criminally charged, his prospects in an oppressive war-torn Upper Canada looked bleak. Around late May 1813, Willcocks abandoned Upper Canada and sought to serve the Americans.

Willcocks' efforts for the American's army were quickly recognized as he moved up ranks from major to lieutenant-colonel, as well as having a leadership role in the Canadian Volunteers. This was obviously very upsetting for many of the Upper Canadians who had been his friends and supporters, as he helped set fire to his previous home of Newark and successfully helped capture and occupy Fort Erie. While in temporary command of the occupation at Fort Erie Willcocks was fatally shot, ending his life having betrayed the Crown and his former Upper Canadian countrymen.

Impact on Upper Canada

Willcocks has perhaps become best remembered for dying a traitor rather than for any of his earlier career in Upper Canada. However, he was actively engaged with the public during his career as a publisher and as a politician, offering a critical alternative perspective on the issues of arbitrary rule that had pervaded Upper Canadian colonial government. The influence of Whiggism on Willcocks, impressed upon him by his mentor Robert Thorpe, profoundly affected the direction in which he took his career: instead of submitting to continually appeasing the elite for the sake of his career's success, Willcocks chose to attack the unjust system of government that enabled individuals to abuse their power knowing the permanence of their appointment. His created his newspaper The Upper Canada Guardian, or Freeman's Journal to be the platform for his criticisms to encourage debate and discussion among citizens, fostering conversation in the public sphere about Upper Canada's government. He was a well-known and accessible public figure to the common people, especially in the Niagara region who popularly elected him twice, so evidently he was a man that a great deal of citizens identified with and listened to. Willcocks' insistence on his loyalty to the Crown whilst publishing a paper admonishing the Crown's representatives in Upper Canada fostered a conversation about whether one could still respect and remain loyal to the Crown while criticizing its appointed representatives. However, Willcocks' defecting to the Americans in the War of 1812 only affirmed to his enemies their notion of him as a seditious traitor all along, and made his supporters seriously question their opinions of Willcocks' actions and principles, leaving his efforts to incite debate and change in Upper Canadian politics to be often discounted or forgotten.