From the front page of the Huron Expositor
Friday, 25 September 1931
Reprinted with the permission of the Huron Expositor
Copyright: the Huron Expositor
“Your Community Newspaper Since 1860”
P. O. Box 69
11 Main Street
Seaforth, Ontario N0K 1W0
Colonel Anthony Van Egmond
and the Rebellion of 1837 in Huron County
By Wilfred Brenton Kerr, M. A., Oxon, Ph. D., Toronto; Fellow of the Royal Historical Society; Assistant Professor of History, University of Buffalo
Through the courtesy of Professor Kerr, The Expositor will be enabled to publish this history in thirteen chapters, the first of which appears in this week’s issue. (Autumn of 1931)
The author needs no introduction to The Expositor’s readers, as he is a noted graduate of the Seaforth Collegiate Institute, and a son of Mr and Mrs James Kerr, of this town, and aside from the historical value of these articles, they may be of particular interest to the people of Huron County.
Chapter 1 Anthony Van Egmond
Anthony W. I. G. Van Egmond was born in Holland in 1771. He came of a noble and wealthy family, the most famous of whom had been the Count Egmont, who was executed by orders of the Duke of Alva at the commencement of the Dutch revolt against Spain. The social and political position of the Egmonts as of most noble families in the 18th century, dictated to their younger male representatives at least a passing acquaintance with the profession of arms. Accordingly young Anthony took service as an officer with the Dutch forces in the war between revolutionary France and the European Coalition which commenced in 1793. In his first campaign or campaigns, success was not on his side; in 1795 the French, aided by the Dutch republican party, overran Holland with ease and converted it into a dependency of the French Republic. For the next eighteen years Holland was in reality a part of the French dominions and as such furnished its contingent to the French armies in their numerous campaigns. Accordingly Van Egmond took service under Napoleon. It is said that he was an aide-de-camp of the Emperor himself and that he campaigned in Italy and Spain. Whether this is so or not (and conditions render it probable), it is not to be doubted that he participated in the great march to Moscow in 1812 and that he was one of the fortunate few who returned. In this campaign his wife accompanied him, and gave birth to a son, who lived in the neighbourhood of Seaforth until the beginning of this century. All three returned safe to Holland in time to witness the great Continental revolt against Napoleon in the year 1813, the expulsion of the Emperor to Elba and the restoration of the old monarchies, including that of Holland. According to the arrangements of the Peace of Vienna the Dutch received again the House of Orange, dignified by the royal title in place of the semi-republican designation of Stadtholder. In these new circumstances Van Egmond changed sides, probably reluctantly, and accepted service in the Dutch Royal Army. In 1815 Napoleon returned from Elba to rule France for the Hundred Days and to conduct his last campaign. Against him the Prussians under Blucher were first in the field, shortly followed by the British under Wellington. In the war thus renewed, Van Egmond served with the allies; in the beginning under Blucher; later under the Duke of Wellington whose forces he joined in time to take part at Waterloo. Severely wounded in this greatest of nineteenth century battles, he was carried off the field, having thereby earned a fitting climax to a military career of twenty-two years during which he had received fourteen wounds and had attained the rank of Colonel. These facts are sufficient indication of his military qualities.
When Napoleon had been exiled to Saint Helena, peace at last returned to Europe with a fair prospect of permanence. Such a condition may not have been altogether pleasing to Van Egmond and may have impelled him to further adventures in a distant country. In 1819 he migrated with his wife and family to the United States and settled in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, where he occupied himself in farming and managing a store. But after eight years he became again dissatisfied and for reasons which we can only guess, determined to move to Upper Canada. He chose Waterloo County as his new home and proceeded to transport thither his family and his property. While at Niagara on the move he found a load of settlers especially anxious to reach their destination; and to assist them he lent them his wagons, meanwhile storing at Niagara his own property which included a large portrait of himself. The settlers presumably arrived at their destination, but when the Colonel returned to Niagara he was unable to find the portrait, which had been neglected or disposed of by the people with whom he had left it. The incident at least throws a favourable light on Van Egmond’s attitude to his fellow settlers. In Waterloo County the Colonel’s party found themselves temporarily obliged to undergo quarantine in a barn, a fate that may easily befall immigrants in a strange land. Having successfully passed this test, however, the Colonel and his family rented a farm and settled in Waterloo. He was at the time by no means a poor man; be had inherited considerable wealth and had done fairly well In Pennsylvania, thus rightedly deserving the reputation which was his, of being rich and prosperous. But he was not unready to consider further frontier adventures; and when in the course of the year 1827 he met John Galt, of the Canada Company, he was not slow to conclude a bargain which led him once more remove into the Huron Tract.