Beneath the quiet lawns of Victoria Memorial Square Park lies Toronto history that most never realize they’ve walked over. Long before it became a downtown park, this land served as the city’s oldest Burial Ground and cemetery.
Fort York’s original cemetery! Dating back to the late 1700s and turbulent times in Upper Canada (now Ontario). Created for the little daughter of our first Lieutenant Governor. It was the beginning of a site that held soldiers, settlers, politicians, and forgotten residents of Canada’s largest city.
An estimated 400 bodies still hide under the pathways of the park. Every step walking over lives marked by tragedy, mystery, and even ghost horses! This article features some of those stories.
by Ghost Guide Daniel
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Toronto’s First Graves | Stories of the Dead | Ghosts
* Come to Hamilton (aka “Haunted City”) for our unique tours like the Town of Dundas *
Forgotten Dead of Victoria Memorial Square in Toronto
In the heart of a peaceful downtown park lies the oldest British burial ground in the City of Toronto.
A place where most people stroll through without realizing they’re walking over history and bodies. Only a short distance from Fort York, this patch of green was once the fort’s first graveyard.
Known simply as the Garrison Burial Ground. Today, Fort York still maintains it. But its origins date back to Upper Canada and the War of 1812.
Reason for the Burial Ground
The first person buried here was a child named, Katherine Simcoe. Simcoe, like Ontario’s first Lieutenant Governor, John Graves Simcoe. This was his daughter.
Named after Simcoe’s mother. The little girl died in 1794 at fifteen months old. Sadly, her headstone vanished in the 1850s, leaving only her name in the records.
The graveyard remained active until 1863. Then abandoned and reclaimed by nature.
By the late 1800s, the city transformed the neglected plot into a public park. The birth of Victoria Memorial Square Park. And beneath the manicured lawns and pathways, they believe there are around 400 bodies.
At first, I wasn’t sure how to shape this article. Then it struck me … focus on the people still buried here! The forgotten people who are now roots of the park.
Dead of Victoria Memorial Square Park
We’ve already met Katherine Simcoe. Now allow me to introduce you to two more of the Square’s residents.
Christopher Robinson
He was a Loyalist, Politician… and Wanna-be Slaveholder! Get ready for that one.
Christopher Robinson might be the most notable person buried here.
A politician in the early days of Upper Canada. He was born in Virginia to a staunch Loyalist family. Robinson grew up surrounded by people who had chosen the British Crown over the American Revolution.
Like his uncle, Beverly Robinson. Beverly played a key role in luring a famous American traitor to his treason … Benedict Arnold. Alongside Benedict’s Loyalist wife, Peggy Shippen.
They called her a “Loyalist Spy”.
So notable, the name is still used for traitors in all facets of American life today… “you Benedict Arnold!”
Christopher Robinson rose quickly in the politics of Upper Canada. Working closely with John Grave Simcoe to establish the Law Society of Upper Canada. Which eventually moved into Toronto’s Osgood Hall in 1832.
But Robinson’s legacy is complicated. In the same year he helped found the Law Society, he also pushed for a controversial Bill.
To allow new immigrants to bring along their slaves into Upper Canada. Yes, that almost happened in Canada!
Where one of the world’s first anti-slavery laws was passed in 1793 in today’s Niagara-on-the-Lake. It didn’t pass.
And Robinson died suddenly the following year in Toronto. His story, like many here, is a reminder that history is rarely tidy, and the people who shaped it were far from perfect.
Mysterious Death of Zachariah Mudge
Another resident of the burial ground is Lieutenant Zachariah Mudge. A man whose name sounds like it belongs in Harry Potter.
Mudge served as an aide to Governor John Colborne in the early 1800s, and his death remains one of Toronto’s many mysteries.
We know the facts! In 1831, Mudge returned home from dinner at the Colborne’s residence (Elmsley House once at today’s Bay & Grosvenor Sts).
Mudge quietly excused himself from the table. And not long after … shot himself in the face with a hunting rifle!
But why?
A final witness account has been preserved by a Toronto.com article. Showing a tragic night, when during the dinner Mudge grew unusually quiet. He was troubled but nobody asked him why.
According to a former Program Officer at Fort York, Mudge had received news from Europe about the death of a beloved friend.
Why this grief pushed him to suicide remains unknown. However, at the time suicides were denied a proper Christian burial.
The Blank Line
Toronto’s first Bishop, Strachan, confirmed Mudge was interred on the grounds in Victoria Square Memorial Park. But deliberately left him of the official registry.
Many years later, another reverend attempted to honour Mudge. Not by adding his name to the registry.
But instead … inserting a blank line in the burial book. A silent (and acceptable) acknowledgment of the erased man.
Ghosts & Horses
Despite its age, Victoria Memorial Square is not known for hauntings. There’s a belief (one I share) that cemeteries are calm places. Because when bodies arrive, they are only shells. The living energy that creates ghosts has moved on.
The strangest ghost story tied to the Square involves not people, but two horses.
After the War of 1812, a key defender of York, Lieutenant Colonel Francis Battersby, prepared a return to his home in Ireland.
He owned two horses he adored. Brave animals that served him bravely during the War of 1812.
Maybe fearing they’d fall into the abusive hands of a new owner, Battersby made a heartbreaking decision.
On a spring day in 1815, he led the horses to the Garrison Burial Ground. Said tearful goodbyes, honoring them for their bravery during the war.
Then shot them both in the head with his pistol. He buried them beside the soldiers because Battersby saw them as soldiers too.
And today it’s said Battersby’s ghost haunts his former estate in Ireland. But the horses? They remain in Victoria Memorial Square!
Visitors report the unmistakable sound of hooves on stone. Echoing along the pathways to this day.
* Come to Hamilton (aka “Haunted City”) for our unique tours like the Town of Dundas *