14 Maintaining Capability

14

MAINTAINING CAPABILITY

by eArly october 1817, commissioner robert hAll developed A chest ailment, his condition waxing and waning. At times, he was able to return to his duties, but by late December, he was unable to work. In his absence, storekeeper Edward Laws acted for Hall with the help of the clerk, Samuel Christie. Hall was soon confined to the Admiralty House, and by the end of the year, probably spent much of his time in bed.1 Upstairs, there was a large bedroom with doors that opened onto a west-facing balcony. From the deck, Hall could have watched the front road traffic that moved between the ferry landing and dockyard gate. From inside, with the curtains pulled back, he had a pleasant view of the harbour, stone-pebble beach, and his wharf, complete with flagpole and pennant. He would have seen the muted wooden vessels and warehouses on the Kingston waterfront, the ships without rigging and tied down for the winter.

Hall was attended by surgeon George Colls, who had arrived at Point Frederick in 18162 as the naval surgeon of HMS Montreal, likely the ship under construction.3 Colls succeeded surgeon Richard Tobin, who had taken over from Thomas Lewis when the latter left in the spring of 1817.4 Colls probably occupied the new surgeon’s house5 nearby, a short walk past the commodore’s gardens. To attend his patient, Colls made his way past the stone cookhouse and wooden frame hospital, taking the footpath to the front road.

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At the end of 1817, the Point Frederick naval hospital ceased operations. With fewer patients, the decision was made to close it. John Marks, whose duties as agent victualler included administering the hospital, closed the facility at the end of December 1817. John Marks kept an office in the old hospital, which remained in use, while Colls continued to practise medicine on Point Frederick. There is an indication that he shared quarters with Marks in the surgeon’s house. The dwelling was described later as a dispensary, suggesting that Colls ran his practice there and may have had a few in-patients. An old story had it that the RMC Commandant’s Residence was once the naval hospital. While this assertion was disproved several years ago, there is some truth that the residence was linked to the naval medical service and patient care.

After nearly six weeks of confinement, Hall appeared not to be improving and hope for his recovery dimmed. On the night before his death on February 7, 1818,6 he summoned Lieutenant John Underhill and attendant Michael Spratt to assist him in preparing a will. In the will, Hall left his small fortune to his mother and a son who had been born in Kingston in 1817 to Mary Ann Edwards. The son, also named Robert Hall, was baptized on November 2, 1818, by Reverend George Stuart at Saint George’s Church in Kingston. Years later, in 1882, the younger Robert Hall achieved high command in the Royal Navy, becoming a vice-admiral and the naval secretary to the Admiralty.7

Sir Robert Hall was buried in the Lower Burial Ground of St. George’s Church in Kingston five days later. The funeral was officiated by dockyard chaplain Reverend John Wilson. While the associated disease condition is not known, a measure of what Hall endured can be gleaned from the contemporary treatments for pleurisy, an end stage in the progression of pneumonia or tuberculosis. Treatment of pleurisy usually began with the surgeon opening a vein and removing 20 ounces of blood and inducing skin blistering at the location of pain. Epsom salts and castor oil were given by mouth. The bleeding and blistering could be repeated twice before resorting to more aggressive measures.8

Like other wartime commanders, Hall had probably acquired wealth from “prize money,” funds received from the government for vessels and property he had seized in war on behalf of the Crown. A few weeks after Hall’s death, in mid-March, there was an estate auction. The list of items for sale at the

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auction would have attracted prominent citizens, some who would have welcomed the chance to explore the square two-floor Admiralty House. Included in the auction were Hall’s home furnishings, a sleigh and robes, an “excellent London made double harness,” two gig harnesses, and saddles and bridles.9

While Edward Laws waited for Hall’s replacement, work in the yard continued. Although the Rush-Bagot Agreement limited the Royal Navy on Lake Ontario to one small military vessel with only one cannon restricted to 18-pound shot, there was no requirement that the existing vessels or armaments be scrapped or removed. To preserve any advantage gained by the vigorous shipbuilding program, the Royal Navy policy became one of demilitarization on the lake but preservation of existing resources.

Since large vessels were not allowed, work on the two first-rate ships was stopped. Those portions of the ships that were built were maintained. The partly constructed vessels were planked and sealed, which helped protect hulls and inner structures. Stabilized on their blocks and slips and supported by stanchions and braces, the partially built ships would remain — for many years — symbols of a former threat.

The use of unseasoned timber in construction ensured that keeping the vessels afloat was a difficult task. As seen in Fig. 13.1, at first, the St. Lawrence, the Burlington (Princess Charlotte), and the Psyche were tied alongside the St. Lawrence Wharf. The Montreal (Wolfe) was moored nearby, while the Kingston (Prince Regent) was tethered near the Provincial Marine wharf. The Star (Lord Melville), the Netley (Beresford), and the Niagara (Royal George) were tied to the Provincial Marine wharf. The Duke of Kent remained next to the Navy Bay sandspit. The vessels were soon roofed over to protect decks and interiors, then stripped of all rigging, masts, sails, and armaments, which were collected and stored, likely in the mould and rigging loft. Cannons and shot were stored outside in neat, sorted groups.

John Howison has provided a concise description of the dockyard after he arrived in the summer of 1818. His account suggests the vessels may have been moved again:

Kingston Bay was for some time concealed from our sight by a projecting point of land; but when we had cleared this, the dockyard and shipping came into view all at once. In one direction, the great warship St. Lawrence, and several

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frigates, floated at anchor, as if guardians of the town, which rose in distinctively behind them, and in another, two unfinished seventy-fours lay on the stocks. The wind whistled drearily through the chinks in their sides, which had long since ceased to vibrate under the hammer of the carpenter. The whole scene was magical in its effect. We had seen nothing but rocks, forests, and uninhabited islands, during two days everything appearing to indicate that we had passed the confines of civilization….10

Howison found that the St. Lawrence had been built in a plain style, yet strongly and beautifully made. Tied next to the St. Lawrence was the Kingston (Prince Regent), which he thought elegant in appearance and proportions, gaining the admiration of the “best judges of naval architecture.” The other frigates were moored in the harbour.

Observing the guns, masts, yardarms, and rigging for each vessel, Howison perceived they were arranged judiciously in a way that enabled preparation for sailing in a few hours. He also noted that the mould loft had been appropriated for receiving gun carriages, masts, cables, tops, et cetera. The armoury, or magazine, contained all the small arms of the St. Lawrence and other vessels. The weapons were arranged individually and separately around the walls of a large apartment interior in an “ingenious and fanciful manner” designed to take up the least space.11

Acting Commissioner Edward Laws, helped by Mr. Christie, continued the process of maintaining the fleet in ordinary until Sir Edward Hall’s successor, Captain Robert Barrie, arrived on July 22, 1819. Barrie soon moved into the Admiralty House. He had resisted the appointment at first, then carefully negotiated the conditions.12 Although his title would be acting commissioner, he was granted the authority of a commander.13 The Navy Board instructed Barrie to maintain the vessels in a manner that kept them serviceable without attracting the attention of the Americans.14

Barrie’s career had been spectacular. As a midshipman, he had served with Captain George Vancouver on his 1791 four-year voyage of discovery, which included mapping much of the West Coast of North America. Barrie returned to England as a lieutenant. Subsequently, he saw action against the French, seizing many vessels; this culminated in the capture of Lucien

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Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon, who was attempting an escape with much of his pirated wealth.

During the War of 1812, Barrie was a commander on the East Coast of America. He gained notoriety with the Americans as captain of the 74-gun HMS Dragon during the successful blockade of Chesapeake Bay. Barrie ascended the Patuxent River and got to within 18 miles of Washington, D.C. After a refit of the Dragon in Halifax, in September 1814, he returned to sea for the remainder of the war.15

Like Hall, Barrie did not have a good impression of the Point Frederick yard. He did not find a single boat there suitable for official travel and had to move around Upper Canada by steamers, canoes, and small boats.16 In his characteristically succinct way, Barrie summarized what he found: “Our dockyard is very confined and full of little dry wooden Houses thrown up without any order just as they were wanted for immediate purposes. If this is to be supported as a Naval Station now is the time to get rid of these dangerous wooden buildings and where they are wanted to substitute Stone or Brick.”17

Barrie inherited an experienced and competent civilian staff. All had served in the yard during the war, understood its capabilities, and knew the ships they would try to preserve. Edward Laws was still the naval storekeeper. Master shipwright Robert Moore would handle the intricacies of preserving and maintaining the fleet. Master attendant Michael Spratt was still on staff and would remain until his job ended in 1831. George Colls continued as the yard surgeon under Barrie. Colls was frequently described in Barrie’s letters in friendly and familiar tones, with frequent comments about his abundant drinking.

In addition, Barrie soon discovered that John Marks, the Anglo-Spanish War veteran and purser who had come out with Sir James Yeo in 1813, was a gifted administrator with a benign and engaging personality. Marks had been Yeo’s purser of the whole fleet, at first, and later the purser of the St. Lawrence. He had just gone on half pay when Barrie asked him to be his secretary. Marks accepted and was a leading person on Point Frederick and in the village of Barriefield for many years.18

On March 20, 1820, when news of the death of King George III reached Point Frederick, Barrie directed Reverend Wilson to “cause the pulpit and Clerks’ reading desks in the dockyard church to be covered with black cloth

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178

Fig. 14.1A:

The upper image is a 1792 plan and elevation of the Present Use Storehouse in Portsmouth, which still exists. Fig. 14.1B: This

1910 photograph shows Commodore Robert Barrie’s storehouse, also known as the Stone Frigate. While larger than the Portsmouth storehouse, the architectural influence is unmistakable.

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till further orders.”19 There is no evidence of the presence of a stand-alone church or chapel building on Point Frederick. But the presence of naval chaplain Reverend Wilson, and Barrie’s order, indicates there was a place of worship. A small detail in an 1815 painting by E.E. Vidal indicates that a chapel may have been located in the mould loft. In 1820, a chapel was identified as being within the victualling store.20 Reported damage to the victualling store during a storm in 1833 included description of a church.21

Despite Barrie’s misgivings about the yard, he found signs of progress. The dockyard gate was completed, with an overhead arch and yard bell. The stone perimeter wall was almost finished, and the stone blacksmith building and new stone magazine were done. North of the dockyard gate was an impressive hospital building, surgeon’s house, cookhouse, and modern rerouted roads.

Although Barrie still had the authority to build a large storehouse of stone, he delayed moving forward until he could learn more about the plans

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for a new Fort Henry. By August 1819, soon after his Point Frederick arrival, Barrie was putting out tenders for a scaled-down version of Hall’s storehouse. But it would still be grander than any building then existing along the Lake Ontario shores.

A contract was awarded in October 1819 to Archibald Fraser to act as the supervising architect,22 with clearing of the site beginning soon after. The storehouse would be 172 by 40 feet and constructed according to Royal Navy plans.23 Although the plans have not been discovered, there is little doubt that it was very similar to other storehouses in Royal Navy yards. Fig. 14.1A shows an elevation view of a Portsmouth Naval Yard storehouse built in 1792, smaller in size but nearly identical in appearance to the Kingston dockyard storehouse.

In listing the requirements of the storehouse, Barrie added two steam engines and iron plate for the windows, shutters, and doors, with tin for the roof. Barrie stipulated that the wood for construction be taken from “well-seasoned” wood in the dockyard.24 Evidently, a method of seasoning it had finally been established, and the product of that effort is found in the RMC Stone Frigate today. Barrie directed yard carpenters to do much of the work, which explains details in the building seen today that resemble those of wooden ships of the time. In 2002, during an interior renovation of the Stone Frigate, wooden beams were discovered that had the unmistakable marks and iron fasteners employed by shipwrights.

Work finally began late in 1819, with the excavation of a basement. During construction, rock and earth debris from the site was thrown forward onto the shoreline and into Navy Bay to form the square wharf present today. The floor of the basement was limestone bedrock.

According to the Kingston Chronicle of December 24, 1819,

On Friday last, as some labourers were excavating the ground for the foundation of a new store about to be built in the dock yard, they found the remains of three Indians several feet from the surface. They were incased in Birch bark, which, we are informed, was still sound, and led to a supposition that the bodies had been deposited in that place more recently than was indicated by the decayed and pulverized state of the bones.25

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It was not long before the contractors realized the project was beyond their capabilities. By July 1820, with work underway, they made an urgent request to Barrie for release from their contract. The contractors had miscalculated and were unable to fund the work and realize a profit. Barrie conceded, and the yard officers took greater control.26

By the end of October, the storehouse was roofed in and tinned. The window frames were made, but the glass had not yet arrived. The door and window openings had to be boarded up for the winter when the floors would be laid. Care was taken to select the best wood for construction of the beams and roof, while the stone for the building was quarried on Point Henry near a later military hospital.27

The storehouse was completed in 1821 after a delay in December due to the threat of a strike. The final invoices were paid for stonecutters, masons, quarrymen, joiners, and labourers.28 By the winter, the storehouse was filling with dockyard stores. A distinguished Dutch soldier who fought at Waterloo, Prince Bernhard, Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, left this description of the storehouse a few years later in 1825:

Within a few years they have erected a magazine, three storeys high and 192 feet long, with iron doors and shutters, for the preservation of sails and cordage. The partitions in the inside are made of wood. Immediately on our entrance into the magazine the large iron door was locked and kept so, inasmuch as they greatly mistrust the Americans. Beneath the building is a cellar, which is also occupied as a magazine, and the floor of which consists of limestone, which serves for the foundation of the whole building. The stairs are of stone, and are built into a tower; they intend also at some future period, to make the different floors fireproof, like the magazine at Plymouth, by covering them with iron. In a distinct massy building are the forges, and in a third the offices. By the sides of the offices is a large room, which contains the different articles used in shipbuilding.

Behind the dockyard, on a small height, stood a number of tents. We were informed that about four hundred Irish immigrants had encamped there, who had been sent to this

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country at the expense of the English government, to settle a piece of land on the north-western bank of Lake Ontario, whither they were soon to go. The town of Kingston contains about 2,000 inhabitants, and is built in the usual style.29

Barrie’s desire to build in stone included his personal quarters, although permission to do so was not forthcoming. He was disappointed with the wooden building Hall had left him, finding it confining. After spending the winter in the house without his family, on March 1, 1820, Barrie ordered, without authority, the construction of a north wing addition to the house. He termed it a “temporary addition.”30 The north wing annex provided Barrie with much more space for entertaining and became a centre of celebration and gaiety among the high society of Kingston. The enlarged house is shown in Fig. 14.2, with the extra section to the left of the main structure. The additions also included a new kitchen (attached to the east side) and an icehouse at the shore of Navy Bay.31

In expanding the house, Barrie undoubtedly had his family in mind, especially his wife, Julia Wharton Ingilby. She had grown up in privilege at Ripley Castle in England. Barrie was married later in life to Julia, the youngest daughter of Sir John Ingilby,32 but they soon had children. The north addition was partly finished when the 26-year-old Julia arrived in May 1820

Fig. 14.2: This

detail of a drawing of Admiralty House depicts its appearance in 1848. The north addition, added by Commodore Robert Barrie, is to the left of the centre tree. The second-storey veranda, which provided the view of Kingston, is to the right of the tree. In the foreground is the stern of HMS Cherokee.

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Fig. 14.3: A

panoramic view of the approximate location of Admiralty House, where the commodores resided, starting with Sir Robert Hall. Today’s Hewett House is visible in the background. The area of poor lawn growth in the foreground right is close to the front area of the house.

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with three-year-old William and baby Julia (“Young Juno”). Julia had delayed the trip until Juno was old enough to travel. Soon, Julia was pregnant again, with their third child.

Although Barrie disparaged the house with comments like, “at times our wooden home rocks like a ship at sea,”33 the addition to the house of a picket fence, the front roadway, and gardens to the south provided enough dignity that Kingston citizens referred to it as the Admiralty House. On the modern landscape, the residence was located just south of Memorial Arch and on the west lawn of Hewett House (see Fig. 14.3). It was here that the Barrie children made their first memories and grew up.

In addition to Point Frederick, Barrie’s responsibilities included the administration of naval stations at Quebec, Île aux Noix, Montreal, Lachine, Penetanguishene (on Lake Huron), and Grand River (on Lake Erie). Of those, the station at Île aux Noix on the Richelieu River in Lower Canada was most important. It was commanded by Captain Henry Dilkes Byng, the great-grandson of Admiral George Byng, First Viscount Torrington, a notable figure in the history of the Royal Navy.34 Byng was also Barrie’s second-incommand on the lakes and replaced him at Point Frederick during his two lengthy periods of leave in England.

Barrie was also responsible for direction to and support of the hydrographic service, which was surveying the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River.

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With Lieutenant Bayfield resolutely in charge of the survey as it moved west into Lake Superior, Barrie enjoyed his occasional visits and the chance to live on board ship. Given Barrie’s earlier experience charting the West Coast under Captain George Vancouver, he was informed and interested in the survey. His summer visits later involved his son, William.

During his regular visits to the dockyard, whether on foot or riding, Barrie passed the spread of shanties, many still perched in odd lines along the hill north of the yard gate. Built to solve the crushing problem of accommodation during the war, most remained scattered around the three larger barrack buildings. Many were occupied, as were the barracks. One of the barracks served as a canteen.

With a ready supply of whiskey, crime remained a problem. Civil authorities in Kingston were not interested in the trouble, since it was not in their jurisdiction. The nearest civil authority might have been to the east in Pittsburgh Township, but the area was sparsely populated and had no law enforcement. Barrie noted there were 38 “huts” in a “most wretched condition”35 and that many were “occupied by people in no way attached to the services — for the most part a very disorderly set — some keeping boarding and lodging houses in the present acceptance of the term.”36 Crime was not generally a problem among French Canadians, who were usually industrious and efficient, but English workers of the civil establishment, on the other hand, were a rough lot.37 Thefts were common, and advertisements appeared in the Kingston Gazette offering rewards for the recovery of stolen articles.

There had been at least three murders. One involved Joseph Bevir, a man living incestuously with his daughter and their children. Literate, he wrote a small book of his life as a sailor and shipwright while awaiting execution in Kingston. He described a rough dockyard life of drinking and violence while living with his family on board the Duke of Kent hulk. Bevir shot his daughter, who was planning to marry another man.38 The second concerned an “old Indian” killed in a quarrel,39 while the third instance featured a man in a drunken state who was killed at Fort Frederick with an axe.40 And there were numerous threats made to people and personal property, as well as thefts of a boat and a horse.

The 38 huts that were occupied reportedly included dozens of children. One of those, the Canadian poet Charles Sangster, was delivered to his mother on July 16, 1822. Charles was the youngest of five children. His

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Fig. 14.4: Commodore Robert Barrie’s schoolhouse was situated near the intersection of Front (Highway 2), Barriefield, and Fort Henry Roads. The bridge in the background is the Penny Bridge, completed in 1829 along the line of the modern LaSalle Causeway. The flag in the background marks the wharf of Admiralty House. The picket fence on the left indicates the northern boundary of the Admiralty property.

father, James, a shipwright in the yard, died when Charles was two.41 A single mother, Mrs. Sangster was permitted by Robert Barrie to remain in the shanty and raise her children after the death of her husband.

While there is no contemporary census of children on Point Frederick, there were enough that in 1821 Barrie ordered the establishment of a school. In one of his typically unorthodox but practical moves, Barrie had a surplus naval building moved to the north side of Front Road near the intersection with Fort Henry Road,42 making the school accessible to children from the village of Barriefield, Point Frederick, and Fort Henry.43 As a child, Charles Sangster would have walked along the back road from his home on the hill to this school. The education he received was sufficient to raise him to high literary achievements. The school eventually had a public board of trustees and sent at least one scholarship student to grammar school.44 The building stood just outside today’s Kingston Military Community Sports Centre (see Fig. 14.4) and was demolished in May 1849.45

To solve the problems associated with the shanty village, Barrie repurposed and downsized Robert Hall’s 1816 plan to build stone residences for

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workers on the west shore. Barrie asked the Navy Board for 40 houses, explaining that there was no lodging on the Point Frederick side of Kingston Harbour and renting houses in Kingston was too expensive. Barrie also wanted to fence off the Admiralty lands on Front Road to discourage the army from encroaching, and the board approved.46 In response, in January 1821, the Navy Board authorized Barrie to build 16 cottages.

Kingston contractors agreed to construct a single row of attached stone cottages along the west shoreline, each consisting of a basement, a single storey, and an attic section with pitched roof. The cottages would include brick chimneys and stoves, and their walls were to be 18 inches thick and made of solid rubble stone quarried from an unspecified government site.47 However, confusion concerning the money allocation prevented a start until the next year.

The construction was reported by the Upper Canada Herald in the spring of 1822. The newspaper noted that 16 government cottages were being built on Point Frederick and that they would greatly improve the area’s appearance.48 A painting by Henry O’Brien in Fig. 14.5 shows a Kingston view of Point Frederick soon after completion, documenting the dramatic change in the look of the peninsula.

Each of the 16 cottages was to accommodate one navy member and his family during peacetime. In case of war, two families, or six single men with a room each, could be lodged in each cottage. Of the 25 to 30 workers then

Fig. 14.5: This

painting detail from August 1822 depicts the 16-cottage terrace soon after completion. The sheers for raising masts at the Provincial Marine wharf are visible above the centre of the cottage complex. The Wolfe and the Montreal are seen in their unfinished state on the far right.

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employed, about 20 families were eligible to occupy a cottage. This would have represented a great improvement for them, and the cottages were likely filled right away. If Barrie then had his way, most of the shanties would have been pulled down. Despite a late attempt by the Navy Board to cancel the project, construction had proceeded far enough that Barrie was able to have the work completed.49

The naval cottages remained standing for the rest of the 19th century and into the early 20th, often unoccupied. Their image can be seen in the background of old Kingston photographs of the downtown or waterfront. A ghostly presence is still discerned through the vague outlines of buried foundations along the shoreline. Visible in dry seasons, they endure as silent markers of where men and women lived and children played next to the shore.

For those who lived in the cottages, shanties, or barracks, the yard routine was regulated by the bell mounted on the tall mast pole inside the yard gate. Barrie ordered the bell to be rung according to the following schedule:

At 10 minutes before 6:00 a.m. Cease five minutes after 6:00 a.m. At precisely 8:00 a.m. At 10 minutes before 9:00 a.m. Cease five minutes after 9:00 a.m. At precisely 12:00 p.m. At 10 minutes before 1:00 p.m. Cease five minutes after 1:00 p.m. At precisely 6:00 p.m.

Barrie also directed: “Immediately the Bell ceases ringing, the gates are to be closed and no artificers or labourers belonging to the regular establishment of the Yard is to be admitted after the gates are closed. P.S. The bell is to be rung on Saturday afternoons at 5 o’clock.” Contractors’ vessels alongside the yard were not allowed to have any fires or lights on board. Their crews were not permitted to walk through the yard. When the six o’clock bell rang, they were to depart from the yard and not return until the next morning when the bell rang again.50

The work in the yard persisted in an unremitting effort to preserve the vessels in the face of continuing deterioration. Barrie described some of the

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many activities necessary to keep the ships afloat while protecting their rigging, yards, and sails during summer and winter conditions, using few shipwrights. The tasks included tarring the ships inside, overhauling beams, sawing planks, maintaining roof structures, storing masts, yards, and sails, repairing wharfs, fixing yard boats, and overhauling and mending sails. Other tasks addressed repairs to the stone wall, buildings, and mortar, as well as whitewashing dwellings. As a transshipment and storage depot, the staff had to manage forwarding supplies to Montreal and Quebec and the upper lake stations. For Barrie and his diminishing staffing and funding, it was an endless task of supporting his workers and their families while juggling priorities aimed at stretching the life of an aging and unused fleet.

Barrie was always interested in finding better ways to do the job. He asked the Admiralty about utilizing warm tar to preserve the vessels, a process described in 1822.51 A more widely employed method involved getting the vessels out of the water and onto land where the wood could dry out and season. The Psyche, the Star (Lord Melville), the Niagara (Royal George), the Netley (Beresford), the Kingston (Prince Regent), and most of the remaining gunboats were hauled out in the early 1820s. The Star was placed on Slip No. 4 next to the Canada and the Wolfe on Slips No. 2 and No. 3. The Niagara was left beside the Provincial Marine wharf. The other vessels were tied alongside wharves or moored in the bay.52 Some were still high and dry on their dockyard slips as late as 1837.53 Except for the Psyche, the vessels had all succumbed to rot. The largest ships, such as the Kingston (Prince Regent) and the Burlington (Princess Charlotte), were later moved from the dockyard area to waters adjacent to the Navy Bay sandspit where they were left to settle. At some point, the Netley was relocated to the base of the Provincial Marine wharf and an office was established on board, later called the “Netley office.”

Some of the yard workers and senior civil establishment moved to Richard Cartwright’s new village. John Dennis, the York shipwright who worked at Point Frederick with the Provincial Marine, bought one of the first lots, in 1814, just north along the shoreline of Cataraqui Bay. He continued on Point Frederick as late as 1817. William Baker, whose father had been a captain in the Provincial Marine and who grew up on Point Frederick, worked as a joiner in the yard. Baker bought two lots near the intersection of James and Main Streets. By 1816, he had built a great stone house, still present today.54

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Credit for naming Barriefield is given to John Marks, who in 1821 may have identified the common, or field, with Commissioner Barrie, who lived nearby.55 The section of Point Road that passed through Barriefield became Main Street in 1829.56 The south part of Main Street slopes steeply downhill to the intersection with Front Road. The low, wet area west of Main Street and south of James Street became known as the Barriefield Common. Although part of the military reserve, it was shared for animal grazing for many years.

Barrie’s personal life centred around his home. Like many men of his time, he was keenly interested in agriculture and nurtured the trees and gardens that spread around the house and south along the front road. Barrie had a hothouse built and managed, in 1824, to grow the first pineapples in Canada. He planted gorse seed, imported from England, along the shoreline to improve the look. Given the lack of gorse in the area, that experiment failed.

After one of his visits to England, Barrie returned with some farm animals, including pigs, an Arabian stallion, and a prize bull named Lyon, which he advertised for breeding. By these efforts, Barrie helped to improve the quality of farm stock in Upper Canada. The phaeton, harness, saddles, and sleighs allowed the Barries to move around the yard and travel in the countryside and into Kingston.57

The residence was lavishly decorated with varieties of furniture and rugs. Some of it was evidently purchased from Robert Hall’s estate. There was a suite of French furniture given to them as a wedding present by Napoleon’s brother, Lucien, who Barrie had captured and later befriended. There was a box made from the wood of HMS Discovery, Captain Vancouver’s ship, in which Barrie served. There were pictures of Barrie’s naval victories, two pianos, many books and paintings, and sterling silver. There was a vast wine cellar, dinner and tea sets, and quantities of glass. In the fenced field and outbuildings behind his home grazed the bull, cows, and horses.

Barrie’s upper-class pretensions were expressed clearly in the number of servants he employed. He wrote of gala dinners for 24, a number that suggests he had purchased Hall’s dinner setting. Barrie boasted of having the best wine collection in Canada but often complained about “servants,” including Dan, who was going blind. Barrie had a groom, a housemaid, a kitchen girl, a “black fellow” for a cook, a gardener, and an “old fat awkward” housekeeper

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who was honest and kept watch over the other servants. He also wanted to hire a head manservant and an upper-house maid.58 However, as a commodore, which he later became, he was entitled to only five servants.

The pomp of social life, which Barrie loved, kept him and Julia continually active. Well known and popular, they attended many dinners in Kingston, and in turn, threw great parties. On one occasion, they put on a ball for more than 100 guests, with “Champagne” flowing “in torrents.” The “festive scene” continued “well beyond the peep of day.”59 During many holidays and commemorative events, such as the coronation of George IV, Barrie’s house outshone “every other building.” His wharf and flagstaff were illuminated.

Barrie loved regattas and was a steward of the Kingston races. Among Barrie’s many visitors were Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada Sir Peregrine Maitland and his family, who stayed as house guests in 1821. The Maitlands later returned the favour by arranging for the Barrie family to spend a summer holiday at their country home near Niagara Falls. Governor General George Ramsay, Ninth Earl of Dalhousie, and Lady Dalhousie also stayed as guests of the Barries later that year.60 Julia and the other wives of the senior civil officers, Mrs. Ann Marks, Mrs. Spratt, Mrs. Yarwood, and “the other ladies of the point,” were very active in the Kingston Female Benevolent Society.

Julia gave birth to a second daughter in 1821 and a third in 1823, both delivered by surgeon George Colls. The oldest child, William, was three when Julia first arrived. At age 49, Barrie was the father of a young family of one boy and three girls who were beginning their lives on Point Frederick. Juno, his older daughter, later remembered playing on the bank of the Cataraqui River near her home. She fondly recalled being in the dockyard with William, was happy, and remembered her parents always “being the leading people.” Even as a child she thought of herself as a person of importance because she was a Barrie. Juno recalled that there was no bridge across the river, only a ferry. When the steamboat Frontenac was heard “puffing,” the children would run toward it. There was always a boat at their wharf to take them where they wished to go.61

The Barrie family was often ill. Because Barrie thought the area unhealthy, he planned an authorized leave of absence to return to England with his family. He was also fed up with the hopeless task of keeping the deteriorating wooden vessels ready for deployment in the face of decreasing budgets

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190 WARRIORS AND WARSHIPS

and staff. By the mid-1820s, the warships were all roofed over, hauled up, and tied or anchored at various places along the wharfs or the Navy Bay sandspit. Barrie considered resigning, but in April 1825, he and his young family undertook the long and arduous trip to England.

Captain Henry Byng, his wife, Maria Jane, and their four children made their way from Île aux Noix to Montreal and up the St. Lawrence River to Point Frederick. They moved into the Admiralty House to fill in for Barrie, whose directions to Byng did not allow him much discretion to make decisions. The Byngs enjoyed parties and entertaining and became quite popular in Kingston during Barrie’s long absence.

Lieutenant Frederick Fitzgerald De Roos, a Royal Navy officer then stationed at Halifax, travelled through Kingston in 1826 and left this description of the yard:

We met with a kind reception from the officers of the establishment. The yard is large, in excellent order, and completely furnished with stores of every description, which, from the dryness of the atmosphere, are exempted in an extraordinary degree from the influence of decay. Here we have two three-deckers, a frigate, a sloop of war, a schooner, and eleven gunboats, all on the stocks. Their timbers are up, but they are not planked over, and the few workmen employed are occupied in keeping them in repair and replacing any unsound parts. In less than a month they could all be got ready for sea. It is remarkable that they are fastened with iron instead of copper, in consequence of the non-tendency of metals to rust in this country….

There are several old ships of war in the harbour, chiefly in a half-sunken state. On board one of them I saw what is called an ice-boat. It is about twenty-three feet in length, resting on three skates; one attached to each end of a strong cross-bar, fixed under the forepart, and the remaining one to the bottom of the rudder, which supports the stern of the vessel….

Here were anchors, chain and hemp cables, guns, and all the ponderous material of a great maritime establishment,

mAINtAININg cAPABIlIty

the greater part of which had been brought hither on sledges, from Montreal, during the winter. In the short space of two years, we had built and equipped a squadron, of which one vessel was a three-decker….

We then crossed to Fort Henry, which commands and defends the dock-yard…. As a protection to the dockyard, it is admirably situated, and from its ramparts I enjoyed a fine view of the Lake and surrounding country. The dockyard is built upon a peninsula, having a harbour on either side. Beyond the northern harbour lies the town, which, though small and scattered, is the second city in Upper Canada.62

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