Peter Matthews (rebel)

He was born in the Bay of Quinte region of Upper Canada around 1789, the son of Captain Thomas Elmes Matthews and Mary Ruttan, United Empire Loyalists with both Dutch and French (including Huguenot) as well as English ancestry.

In 1837, Matthews was active in the political union movement pressuring the British government to grant reforms, and in December of that year, was persuaded to lead a group from Pickering Township to join William Lyon Mackenzie's uprising.

[2] Matthews' group of 60 men arrived at Montgomery's Tavern on December 6 and, on the following day, were assigned to create a diversion on the bridge over the Don River.

Against the advice of Charles Grant, 1st Baron Glenelg, Robinson and Sir George Arthur, 1st Baronet, as Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, wished to set some examples of the rebels, even though the evidence in the case was not clear.

[7] In the 1930s a Memorial Arch was placed at the end of the Honeymoon Bridge in Niagara Falls which commemorated the arrival of United Empire Loyalists and those that participated in the Upper Canada Rebellion, included reliefs of Captains Lount and Matthews designed by Emanuel Hahn.

On December 2, 1837, neighbours asked him to lead men from the area to join an uprising against the government in Toronto planned by William Lyon Mackenzie.