Hallwe'en is coming, part 7

 

Let us now turn and head a mile or two west, still on the original waterfront, and visit our old friend, Fort York. With its long history, the Battles- well, Battle- fought here, this place must have its share of gruesome tales. There is, for example, the story of Captain Neal McNeal of the 8th regiment of foot. While there is no evidence that the good captain continues to haunt us, after his death he showed an interesting propensity to not remain buried. 

 

McNeal died on April 27th, 1813 during the six hour long battle of York, which ended with the British retreat and the detonation of the Grand Magazine, and which I spoke of back in the springtime. McNeal didn’t live long enough to see the great explosion of the magazine that claimed the majority of casualties in the battle. He died fairly early on, in the first phase of the battle near Humber Bay, leading his men against the American landings. When the Americans left, Dr. John Strachan, the Anglican priest in the area, and also a strong candidate for the title of Most Important Figure From Toronto’s History Whose Name Is Never Pronounced Correctly, learned that the Americans had rather hurriedly buried the British dead close to where they fell. He and other townsfolk travelled out to Humber Bay, where they found that the British had been laid in shallow, makeshift graves. The townsfolk then dug up the bodies and reinterred them in somewhat deeper graves, this time observing the proper rites of Christian burial. So the good Captain has now been buried twice. 

 

However, in the weeks following this internment, the weather turned poor and it rained very heavily for days on end, eroding the loose soil over the new graves and exposing the bodies again. So the townspeople went back, dug the graves even deeper, heaped more earth on them, and left thinking third time must be the charm. 

 

However, the improvised graveyard was very close to the shoreline, and, as time wore on, so the shore line wore away, until, in 1829, it was reported that human remains were emerging form the soil. The remains were examined, and it was discovered that Captain MacNeale was once again coming up for the light of day. This time, major Winniett, commander of Fort York, ordered the necessary measures be taken, and this time Captain McNeale was taken from his unrestful grave near Humber Bay and carried to the burying ground in Victoria Square, Toronto’s oldest European burial ground, which today is a small park. There he was laid to rest, again, this time with full military honours, and this time permanently. At least so far