Peter Matthews (rebel)

Peter Matthews (1789 - April 12, 1838) was a farmer and soldier who participated in the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837.

He was born in the Bay of Quinte region of Upper Canada around 1789, the son of Thomas Elmes Matthews and Mary Ruttan, United Empire Loyalists with both Dutch and French (including Huguenot) as well as English ancestry. In 1799, the family moved to Pickering Township. Peter served with Isaac Brock as a sergeant in the local militia during the War of 1812. In 1837, Matthews was active in the political union movement pressuring the British government to grant reforms, and in December of that year, was persuaded to lead a group from Pickering Township to join William Lyon Mackenzie's uprising.

Matthews' group of 60 men arrived at Montgomery's Tavern on December 6 and, on the following day, were assigned to create a diversion on the bridge over the Don River. They killed one man and set fire to the bridge and some nearby houses before they were driven off by the government forces.

Matthews was arraigned on March 26, 1838 before Sir John Robinson, 1st Baronet, of Toronto after having been held through the winter in jail. He pleaded guilty to treason on the advice of his counsel Robert Baldwin, who provided a less than robust defense given his views on reform. Against the advice of Charles Grant, 1st Baron Glenelg, Robinson and Sir George Arthur, 1st Baronet, as Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, wished to set some examples of the rebels, even though the evidence in the case was not clear. Matthews and Samuel Lount were hanged in the courtyard of the new King Street Gaol on April 12, 1838. Joseph Sheard was the foreman for the jail and was expected to share in the work of building the scaffold. However, he refused saying, 'I'll not put a hand to it,' said he; 'Lount and Matthews have done nothing that I might not have done myself, and I'll never help build a gallows to hang them."

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