The original townsite was a compact ten blocks near the mouth of the Don River and a garrison was built at the channel to Toronto Harbour.

As the British garrison retreated, they detonated their powder magazine, inflicting numerous casualties on the invading U.S. forces, who proceeded to loot and destroy the town.

[2] The Algonkian Mississaugas then moved into the York region, created alliances with the former Iroquoian residents, and established their own settlements; one near the former Seneca village of Teiaiagon on the Humber River.

[6] It refers to the northern end of what is now Lake Simcoe, where the Huron and preceding inhabitants had planted tree saplings to corral fish.

The first parliament in the new capital convened in June 1797, after Simcoe had returned to England and Peter Russell was named administrator of Upper Canada.

The Town of York was laid out in ten original blocks between today's Adelaide and Front streets (the latter following the shoreline) with the first church (St James Anglican), Town Hall and Wharf (named St Lawrence after the river) on the west and the first parliament buildings, blockhouse and windmill on the east.

In August 1796, Charles McCuen, a soldier in the Queen's Rangers, murdered Wabakinine, a Mississauga chief and one of the signers of the Toronto Purchase, on the waterfront.

The Mississaugas, already frustrated by the failed promises of the Toronto Purchase, considered a counterattack, either on the capital itself or on nearby pioneer farms.

An American force supported by a squadron consisting of a ship-rigged corvette, a brig and twelve schooners landed on the lake shore to the west of the garrison, defeating the British and capturing the fort, town and dockyard.

The Americans suffered heavy casualties, including Brigadier General Zebulon Pike who was leading the troops when the retreating British blew up the fort's magazine.

Although the Americans won a clear victory, it did not have decisive strategic results as York was a less important objective in military terms than Kingston, where the British armed vessels on Lake Ontario were based.

[18] The town grid was extended west and plots of land near New (Jarvis) and Church streets were set aside for public buildings.

150 acres (61 ha) of land had been purchased in 1825 to be the campus of King's College, today's University of Toronto, at the north end of the roads.

The worst was reputed to be Henrietta Lane, off King, west of Church, south to Market (Wellington today), which in 1832 was a center of a cholera epidemic.

The Family Compact was a small closed group of men who exercised most of the political, economic and judicial power in Upper Canada from the 1810s to the 1840s.

Another prominent member of the Compact was Sir John Beverley Robinson who was the Chief Justice of Upper Canada for 34 years from 1829.

The rest of the members were mostly descendants of United Empire Loyalists or recent upper-class British settlers such as the Boulton family, builders of the Grange.

First, he argues the riot illustrates how the elite's self-justifications regularly skirted the rule of law they held out as their Loyalist mission.

Second, he demonstrated that the significant damages Mackenzie received in his civil lawsuit against the vandals did not reflect the soundness of the criminal administration of justice in Upper Canada.

And lastly, he sees in the Types riot "the seed of the Rebellion" in a deeper sense than those earlier writers who viewed it simply as the start of a highly personal feud between Mackenzie and the Family Compact.

Romney emphasizes that Mackenzie's personal harassment, the "outrage", served as a lightning rod of discontent because so many Upper Canadians had faced similar endemic abuses and hence identified their political fortunes with his.

[30] See also: Mackenzie' own account The great meeting took place yesterday, and has resulted in the most signal and unequivocal defeat of the Yankee Republican party.

As they re-passed the Court House, they were joined by a group carrying an effigy of Mackenzie, who made their way to the Advocate office on Church St., which they began to pelt with stones.

After burning the effigy of Mackenzie, a general skirmish ensued when the terrified printers fired a warning shot over the mob's heads.

[31] Mackenzie returned to Toronto from his London journey in the last week of August 1833, to find his appeals to the British Parliament had been ultimately ineffective.

At an emergency meeting of Reformers, David Willson, leader of the Children of Peace, proposed extending the nomination process for members of the House of Assembly they had begun in their village of Hope north of Toronto to all four Ridings of York (now York Region), and to establish a "General Convention of Delegates" from each riding in which to establish a common political platform.

The Tory-controlled House of Assembly struggled to find a means of creating a legitimate electoral system that might, nonetheless, minimize the chances of reformers being elected.

The mayor was elected by the aldermen from among their number, and a clear barrier was erected between those of property who served as full magistrates, and the rest.

[34] However, the Family Compact - and their member for Parliament Sheriff William B. Jarvis in particular - alienated a large part of the city's construction tradesmen in late 1833.

York's population was primarily from the British Isles (from Scotland, England, Wales and Ireland) with a few other European settlers (French, German and Dutch).