In 1791 Elizabeth Posthuma Gwillim Simcoe began the diary of her Canadian experience as wife of John Graves Simcoe, a soldier, country gentleman, and member of Parliament who had just been appointed Upper Canada's first lieutenant governor. She was both an orphan and an heiress. Her father, Lt.-Col. Thomas Gwillim, had died seven months before her baptism at Whitchurch, Herefordshire, on 22 September 1762, and her mother, Elizabeth Spinkes Gwillim, died within hours after her birth. Her exact birthdate remains unknown. She was cared for by Samuel and Margaret Graves, her aunt and uncle. Admiral Graves was the godfather of John Graves Simcoe. When she was sixteen Elizabeth married Lt.-Col. Simcoe, fourteen years her senior and a veteran of the war in America, and with him lived as country gentry on a large estate, Wolford Lodge, near Honiton in Devonshire. They eventually had eleven children.

A tiny woman, no...