The wife of John Graves Simcoe, first Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, Elizabeth Posthuma Gwillim was born at Whitchurch, Herefordshire. Her diaries and sketches, compiled 1791-96 while in Canada, provide a valuable record of pioneer life in that colony. Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe, who claimed direct descendence from Lord William de Brewer, the founder, in the twelfth century, of the Abbey of St. Mary, Dunkswell, died in 1806, and thereafter Mrs. Simcoe devoted herself to charitable work. She and her daughters were responsible for the erection and decoration of this church, Holy Trinity, which was built on the site of the Abbey Church in 1842. Mrs. Simcoe is buried beside her husband at Wolford Chapel, near Honiton, Devon.

Location

In Trinity Church at Dunkeswell, Devon, England

Themes

• Arts and culture
• People
• Women's history