John Strachan was a notable figure in Upper Canada and the first Anglican Bishop of Toronto.
39 Facts About John Strachan
2.
John Strachan is best known as a political bishop who held many government positions and promoted education from common schools to helping to found the University of Toronto.
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Craig argues that Strachan "believed in an ordered society, an established church, the prerogative of the crown, and prescriptive rights; he did not believe that the voice of the people was the voice of God".
4.
John Strachan built his home in a large yard bound by Simcoe Street, York Street, and Front Street.
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John Strachan emigrated to Kingston, Upper Canada, to tutor the children of Richard Cartwright.
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John Strachan applied to the pulpit of a Presbyterian church in Montreal but did not receive the position.
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John Strachan then became an Anglican minister and became a minister for a church in Cornwall, Ontario.
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John Strachan married Ann McGill nee Wood, widow of Andrew McGill, in 1807.
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John Strachan moved to York, Upper Canada, just before the War of 1812, where he became rector of St James' Church and headmaster of the Home District Grammar School.
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John Strachan had the young women of York knit flags for the militia regiments in which their menfolk were serving in and organized fundraising drives to give the militiamen serving on the Niagara frontier shoes and clothing.
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John Strachan is credited with saving the city from American troops, eager to loot and burn it.
12.
John Strachan was a member of the Executive Council of Upper Canada from 1815 to 1836 as well as the Legislative Council from 1820 to 1841.
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John Strachan was an influential advisor to the Lieutenant-Governors of Upper Canada and the other members of the Councils and Assemblies, many of whom were his former students.
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John Strachan was a leader of anti-American elements, which he saw as a republican and democratic threat that promised chaos and an end to a well-ordered society.
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John Strachan invented the "militia myth" to the effect that the local militia had done more to defend Canada than the British Army, which has been rejected by Canadian historians.
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John Strachan supported a strict interpretation of the Constitutional Act of 1791, claiming that clergy reserves were to be given to the Church of England alone, rather than to Protestants in general.
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John Strachan wanted Upper Canada to be under Church of England control to avoid American influence.
18.
In 1827 John Strachan chartered King's College, an Anglican university, although it was not actually created until 1843.
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John Strachan founded Trinity College in 1851 after King's College was secularized as the University of Toronto.
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John Strachan continued to influence his former students although the Family Compact declined in the new Province of Canada.
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John Strachan helped organize the Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops in 1867 but died that year before it was held.
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John Strachan was buried in a vault in the chancel of St James' Cathedral.
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John Strachan was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1846.
24.
John Strachan was concerned with the Natives and called on people to embrace the "sons of nature" as brothers.
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John Strachan claimed that the United States desired Upper Canada primarily to exterminate the indigenous tribes and free up the West for American expansion.
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John Strachan defended the autonomy of the Natives, the superiority of British governance, and the centrality of Upper Canada in the theatre of war against the US.
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John Strachan rejected the prevalent assumption at the time that Natives were simply pawns in the contest and gave an original and influential explanation of why Upper Canada was vital to both Native and Imperial concerns.
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John Strachan was intensely devoted to the promotion of the Anglican position in Canada.
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John Strachan was born a Presbyterian in Scotland, but he never fully accepted it and first received communion at an Anglican church in Kingston.
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John Strachan was strongly influenced by the high-church bishop of New York, John H Hobart.
31.
John Strachan preached that the Anglican Church was a branch of the universal church and that it was independent of both pope and king.
32.
John Strachan defended the Church of England from opponents who wanted to reduce its influence in Upper Canada.
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John Strachan published a sermon that said a Christian nation needs a religious establishment, referring to the Anglican church as the establishment.
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John Strachan rejected the notion that clergy reserves were intended for all Protestant denominations and appealed to the Colonial Office to maintain that Anglican Church's monopoly on these plots of land.
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John Strachan rejected the revivalism of the Methodists as an American heresy and stressed the ancient practices and historic liturgy of his church.
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John Strachan wanted more funds disseminated to build church infrastructure in rural Upper Canada.
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John Strachan actively promoted missionary work, using the Diocesan Theological Institute at Cobourg to train clergy to handle frontier conditions.
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John Strachan faced external attacks from political reformers and rival denominations.
39.
John Strachan Avenue, running from the original site of Trinity College to Lake Shore Blvd.