I've continued my research into a series of events leading up to the firing of the entire police force, from Chief Samuel Sherwood on down to the lowliest constable. Once again, I've been looking into the murder of Matthew Sheedy and its aftermath. I'm starting to feel as though I have a decent grasp of the material. Not enough to say who did it. No one can say that. The inquest, ironically, made sure of that. The testimony there was just too confused and contradictory. I don't think this is entirely due to lying, though that played a part. It's just the nature of the event. It happened during a riot. Everybody's eyes were distracted, and seemingly no one was looking in the right direction at the right time. The aftermath, though is a little different.
The story, which I've told before, is relatively simple: Catholics in Toronto were celebrating St. Patrick's Day with a procession through the town. They came to a stop in the Protestant heart of Toronto, in front of St. Lawrence Hall, to hear patriotic speeches given by leading members of their community, including one by the most famous Irish Canadian of the day, future Father of Confederation Thomas D'Arcy McGee. The event was disrupted when a carter coming up from the North St. Lawrence Market tried to force his way through the crowd. He was turned back with a hail of stones and mud. He turned and headed down a laneway near Colborne Street, and others followed. A series of localized fights broke out. Police were present, but their involvement was debatable. Eventually there was some sort of fray happening in the stable yard of a tavern keeper and Alderman by the name of William Lennox. Lennox arrived at the fight as he was coming back from a butcher's at the North Market. One witness testified that he demanded to know what was happening, and when told the Catholics were rioting, he swore he would not see the end of the day till he waded through Papist blood. He denied saying this. However, he carried pistols on him, claiming that he had been threatened by Catholics on the previous July 12th, (the big anniversary for members of the Orange Lodge, of which he was a prominent one) and had carried the pistols with ever since. He produced the pistols and began threatening to shoot any Papist who came near him. Soon a group surrounded him. The Deputy Chief of Police came to him and demanded the pistols. Lennox would say he meekly handed them over. The Deputy said he had to wrestle them from Lennox. Lennox was knocked down. Some of his stable hands, carrying their tools- shovels and pitchforks- came out of the stables and rushed to his aid. Lennox, now accompanied by his wife, made his way to a nearby wagon, still pursued by the mob and the Deputy Chief,. He mounted the wagon, grabbed a yoke and began shouting threats to brain any Catholic who came near to him or his wife. The Deputy tried to calm the situation. Lennox was knocked down again from a blow to the head. Order was nearly restored when another Orangeman entered the stable yard, punching any who came within his reach as he rushed to Lennox's aid.
Some minutes earlier, Sheedy had heard that his brother in law was in the laneway, and he told his wife he was going to get him out of there. The Deputy would report that, during the fight before the wagon, Sheedy stood behind him protecting his back. Others caught glimpses of him here and there. Shortly after the fight was over, Sheedy staggered into a nearby druggist shop, stabbed in the groin, and asked to have his wound dressed. He would die two days later. He was 23, with two small children. Neither would be old enough to remember him.
The inquest into his death was a shambles. There were no forensics to speak of in that era, so the entire investigation rested on testimony. Many claimed to have spoken to Sheedy after he was wounded. Those who were Orangemen, such as, say, the druggist, the doctor who treated him at the hospital and the entire police force, would say that he claimed to have been stabbed accidentally by a friend, and refused to name them. The Catholics, on the other hand, all claimed he had been stabbed by an Orangeman. They even wrote it on his burial record, under cause of death. The testimony at the inquest, including that of the police, went entirely down religious and party lines.
Their thinking at the time was very direct. Nearly everyone who spoke to Sheedy before his death asked him who had stabbed him. Almost no one, and no police officer, asked him how he had been stabbed, or where, or what lead up to it. From the inquest we are left with a gap between the time he left his wife to when he staggered into the druggist's shop.
The other testimony does not help. Most of the testimony had to do with Lennox and his actions that day. Understandable, as everyone would have been looking at him, watching him. His actions would have held the attention and therefore have been the strongest memory of almost all who were there. But it shed little light on the case at hand. One of the jurors at the coroner's inquest even stood up during the proceedings and asked if they were looking into the murder or into the riot itself. No decision could be reached, because no incontrovertible evidence had been presented.
But there was a second act to this tragedy. On the evening of March 17th, while Sheedy fought for his life, Irish Catholics gathered to have a feast in honour of their patron at the National Hotel, down on Colborne and Church Street, yards from where Sheedy had been stabbed hours earlier. Nearby at the Albion Hotel was another feast, this of Irish Protestants. The Catholics, upon hearing of the nearby Protestant feast, sent a delegation over to the Protestants with a message stating that though they may be separated by creed, an Irish heart beat within them all, and they invited the Protestants to join them. the Protestants found the invitation agreeable, and went to join the feast at the National. They would not make it.
There was a third gathering that evening. News made its way through the city and its environs that Alderman Lennox had been beaten at the riot earlier in the day, and many friends and members of the Orange Lodge made their way to Lennox's tavern to call on him and inquire after his health. What happened inside the tavern is unknown, but by 11:00 p.m., a large mob believed to have originated in Lennox's tavern, surrounded the National Hotel.
The first trouble began when D'Arcy McGee left the feast. As he climbed into his coach a cry went up of 'Get the Griffintown Papist!' (Griffintown was an Irish enclave in Montreal, legendary amongst Toronto Protestants as representing the absolute worst of Catholic abuses). Several members of the mob chased after the cab, the it escaped them. They returned, and the mob turned into a riot. Police were summoned. According to many observers, they did nothing and looked the other way, except for some who actively joined in the attack on the Hotel. More police were summoned. Stones were thrown and every window in the National Hotel was smashed. Shots were fired. Eventually, peace was restored and, miraculously, no one was killed.
Once again there was an inquest. Several Protestants were charged for the attack on the Hotel, including Lennox and a police officer. As was the case with the Sheedy inquest, testimony was contradictory. Protestants said it was Catholics who threw the first stone from the hotel at the crowd. Catholics said the Protestants three the first stone. The police showed their loyalty to the Orange Lodge once again at this inquest. Every police officer who testified at the hearing into the attack on the Hotel testified on behalf of the defense. And whereas it was difficult to tell who lied at Sheedy's inquest, here it was a little easier. Many witnesses contradicted themselves, and in particular the police. Take, for instance, Police Sergeant James Hastings, who, under cross examination by prosecutor Mr. McMichael, claimed that the mob was peaceful and all the trouble came from the Catholics within the Hotel. despite all evidence tot he contrary, including his own:
Hastings: When I got there, there was a crowd on the street. There were about a hundred persons on the street. The crowd was peaceable. The Chief ordered the armed force to be sent for. (Note: The armed force was a group of officers held in reserve for emergencies.)Mr. McMichael- There was a peaceable crowd on the sidewalk, and the Chief thought it necessary to send for his ‘reserve’ armed force to disperse them. Is that your answer?
Witness- Yes, sir.
Hastings would also testify that he had been seven years on the force and thirteen years in the city, yet he could not recognize or name any of the people from the riot. Neither could any other police officer. The Judge would complain that it seemed that the very people charged with upholding justice were trying to stifle the inquiry. The Prosecutor complained that Chief Sherwood was constantly communicating with the defendants. Sherwood denied this. The Judge wondered that the Chief had not been called to testify. The Chief claimed he had presented himself as willing to disclose all that happened that night, but had not been asked. McMichael denied this. Sherwood denied McMichael's denial.
Sherwood did testify, but his testimony, predictably, cast himself in a good light. It was Alderman Moodie's fault that the riot had not been quenched earlier, as he had asked the Aldermen, who was on hand, to read the Riot Act, but the Aldermen refused. As was common amongst the Orangemen who testified, the first missiles were thrown and first shots fired came from the National Hotel. The evening was mostly quiet until then. He recounted how he briefly stuck his head into the National Hotel, and he told the name of every individual he saw there along with where they worked and who their employers were. Yet he could not recall the faces or names of anybody associated with the riot which was right in front of him for over an hour. However, he was absolutely certain that he did not see Lennox at the riot, and the only place he saw Lennox that night was in his tavern- even though at no point in his account of the evening did he mention going into Lennox's tavern.
Unlike Sheedy's trial, however, the judge here managed to find a way through the case. In his decision he pointed out that the question of who threw the first missile was oddly irrelevant. All the testimony indicated that the trouble began when the mob gave chase to McGee's cab. He ordered the defendants, including Lennox, to stand trial at the next assizes.
I haven't been able to find the records of the assizes yet, but it may be interesting. I don't believe any charges would have stuck, but it was interesting that at least someone tried.
This was yet another example of the bias and general incompetence of the Toronto Constabulary at the time. It had already been amply demonstrated, and change had been in the air since the 1855 Fireman's Riot and Circus Riot. Soon, control of the police would be taken from city council and given to an independent board. But the threat of reform and removal of police officers did not seem to encourage the police to at least pretend to be fair minded. Instead, they seemed to double down on their self interest and their bigotry, and Sherwood was the worst. But that's a story for another day.
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