John Scadding (1754 – March 1, 1824) was an early settler in

York, Upper Canada York was a town and second capital of the colony of Upper Canada. It is the predecessor to the old city of Toronto (1834–1998). It was established in 1793 by Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe as a "temporary" location for the capital ...

(now

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, Canada). He is remembered for constructing the Scadding Cabin, which is now the oldest surviving building in Toronto. He served as a clerk to

John Graves Simcoe John Graves Simcoe (25 February 1752 – 26 October 1806) was a British Army general and the first lieutenant governor of Upper Canada from 1791 until 1796 in southern Ontario and the watersheds of Georgian Bay and Lake Superior. He founded Yor ...

, the first

Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada The following is a list of lieutenant governors of Ontario and the lieutenant governors of the former colony of Upper Canada. The office of Lieutenant Governor of Ontario was created in 1867, when the Province of Ontario was created upon Confed ...

Life and career

Scadding arrived in Upper Canada from England in 1791, along with Simcoe, and he was granted a lot on the east side of the Don River in 1793. He built a

log cabin A log cabin is a small log house, especially a less finished or less architecturally sophisticated structure. Log cabins have an ancient history in Europe, and in America are often associated with first generation home building by settlers. Eu ...

(now known as the Scadding Cabin) in 1794, in order to fulfill his settlement duties to

the Crown The Crown is the state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies, overseas territories, provinces, or states). Legally ill-defined, the term has differen ...

. In 1796, Scadding left York for England with Simcoe and did not return until 1818. While in England, Scadding managed Simcoe's estate. Around 1806, Scadding married Melicent Triggs (1768 – February 26, 1860), and they had three sons – John Scadding (March 5, 1807 – June 18, 1845), Charles Scadding (October 10, 1809 – June 19, 1892) and Henry Scadding (July 29, 1813 – May 6, 1901). His son Henry became a prominent figure in Toronto and a well-known

historiographer Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians h ...

of York and early Toronto. Simcoe died in 1806, and Scadding continued to manage the estate for a few years afterwards, during which time his sons were born. Scadding returned to York in 1818. He built a larger log house and numerous other buildings farther north on his property (near what is now Broadview and Gerrard), including a large barn. He sold the southern portion of the lot and the original log cabin to William Smith. The rest of the Scadding family followed in 1821. Scadding died on March 1, 1824, after a large tree fell on him while it was being cut down. The remaining portion of Scadding's original land grant, located north of Gerrard, was purchased by the City of Toronto in 1856, and the later buildings were demolished for the Industrial Farm and subsequently the

Don Jail The Don Jail was a jail in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located to the east of the Don River, on Gerrard Street East in the Riverdale neighbourhood. The original building was completed in 1864 and was reopened in 2013 to serve as the administrativ ...

. The original log cabin was dismantled in 1879 by the

York Pioneers The York Pioneer and Historical Society (YPHS) is Ontario's oldest historical society, and the second-oldest historical society in Canada. It is located in Toronto and operates Scadding Cabin during the Canadian National Exhibition, publishes the ...

and re-erected on the grounds of

Exhibition Place Exhibition Place is a publicly owned mixed-use district in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located by the shoreline of Lake Ontario, just west of downtown. The site includes exhibit, trade, and banquet centres, theatre and music buildings, monuments, ...

Life and career

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