In 1791 the constitution act separated the colony of Quebec into Upper and Lower Canada. The first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada and a was John Graves Simcoe.

John Simcoe was educated at Eton and Oxford but before he earned a degree he had begun a career in the military by obtaining his commission as an ensign in the 35th regiment in 1771 at the age of 19. He purchased a commission as a  Captain and in 1775 participated in the initial conflict with the colonists in Boston. By the time he turned 25, he  had assumed command of the Queen's Rangers as a Major. During the American Revolution opportunities for promotion were many and came quickly In 1778 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel but after the war it took until 1794 to gain the rank of Major General and 1798 to Lieutenant General. He fought throughout the revolutionary war and at the end he surrendered with Cornwallis and was paroled home to England. Upon returning to England he fell in love with a rich heiress Elizabeth Gwilliam. His position as a squire and a gentleman enabled the two to be married

Simcoe entered Parliament in 1790 from the borough of St. Maws and sat as an MP where he campaigned to be given a position of authority in a colony. In 1792 he was given the colony of Upper Canada which was placed in the heart of North America. He took on the job with gusto and initiated many plans and projects intended to build up the population, infrastructure industry and agriculture of the colony. Simcoe believed that the formed American colonies might still be induced to rejoin the British Empire and he encouraged immigration form the United States to Upper Canada in the belief that this would somehow improve relations to the degree that some sort of union or alliance might be formed.

He believed in a ruling class and a working class and maintained the rigid class structure in way he ran the colonial government and managed the poser of Lieutenant Governor. The governing council was appointed by him and an elected assembly was formed to offer advice to the council and Simcoe. Simcoe held on to power  tenaciously and his ideas of how the system should operate was to evolve into the Family Compact which boiled over in 1837 when William Lyon Mackenzie led a rebellious population in armed rebellion against the privileged council and Lieutenant Governor.

After his duties finished in America he was brought back to prepare the southeast coast of England for an expected invasion by Napoleon and his army in 1801. In 1806 he was given the position of Commander in Chief of India but died enroute at Torbay at the age of 54.