With only one exception, all the children of William Jarvis were enrolled in the Home District Grammar School during its first year. Two daughters were present at the beginning in June of 1807, with three more Jarvis children showing up in August. Only Samuel, aged 15, was sent elsewhere, east to Cornwall, where John Strachan had set up a school in his parish church. Strachan was already earning the reputation for strictness, high standards, and vehement Britishness that would soon make him one of the movers and shakers of Upper Canada.
      With Samuel at school were two neighbour boys, George and Thomas Ridout. Some years later Samuel would kill their younger brother, John Ridout, in a duel.
      Samuel did well as a student in Strachan’s school. Thomas Ridout wrote to his mother that “Sam Jarvis learns his lessons well, and he and Stanton are almost always head of their class.”

The Brawl

In 1808, however, Samuel and some of his school friends became embroiled in a very ugly street brawl with some indigenous youths, nearly killing one of them. Stephen Jarvis, a relative of William, happened to be passing through Cornwall at the time on his way from New Brunswick to York and mentions the incident in his memoirs: “I forgot to mention that at Cornwall I met with Samuel Peters Jarvis, a son of my relation, Mr. Secretary Jarvis. He was then at school at Cornwall, and with some others had been engaged in a fray with some Indians. They had nearly killed one of them and the magistrates of Cornwall were making an examination of the matter when I passed through the town.”

Reminiscences of a Loyalist

      Who was to blame? Most likely it was Samuel and his friends, since the indigenous peoples in the Cornwall area had a reputation for being peaceful. As the wife of John Graves Simcoe wrote, “They never quarrel with White People, unless insulted by them.”
      It was not the last violent incident in which Samuel Jarvis would be involved. The next, a duel, resulted in his opponent being shot to death.
      No criminal charges were laid against the students. Perhaps John Strachan spoke to the magistrates and persuaded them to allow the disciplining of the boys to be his responsibility.

More stories about the history of Jarvis Collegiate, early Toronto and William and Samuel Jarvis.