Every Canadian schoolchild learns about the Rebellion of Upper Canada in 1837—William Lyon Mackenzie, Montgomery’s Tavern, the Family Compact—but one chapter is often overlooked: the Western Uprising, led by a respected Oxford County doctor who set out to support Mackenzie, only to see his hopes dashed.
Charles Duncombe was no ordinary rebel. Born in Stratford, Connecticut, in 1792, he trained as a physician in New York before settling in Delaware, Upper Canada. There, alongside Dr. John Rolph, he helped establish Upper Canada’s first medical school in St. Thomas and earned a reputation for his progressive views on health, education, and responsible government.
In 1830, Duncombe was elected to the Legislative Assembly with Thomas Ingersoll, representing Oxford County. Initially a moderate reformer, similar to Robert Baldwin, Duncombe gradually aligned himself with the more radical reformers led by William Lyon Mackenzie. In 1836, he traveled to England on behalf of the Constitutional Reform Society to petition against alleged electoral corruption and interference by Lieutenant Governor Francis Bond Head—but Colonial Secretary Lord Glenelg refused to meet the delegation.
Compounding the setback, Duncombe’s 14-year-old son had died in a tragic accident, thrown from a horse. The grief and political disappointment drove him into seclusion for nearly a year. When he returned, the mild-mannered reformer had been replaced by a determined radical.
When news of Mackenzie’s December 1837 rebellion reached him, Duncombe mobilized a force of roughly 200 armed supporters, including Robert Always, Finlay and Eliakim Malcolm, and Joshua Doan, intending to march east to aid Mackenzie. Along the way, through Brantford, Dundas, and Oakland (Malcolm’s Mills), their numbers swelled—perhaps doubling or even tripling—as sympathizers joined the cause.
Five days into the march, they learned devastating news: Mackenzie had been defeated. Worse, a militia under Colonel Allan MacNab was advancing to crush the Western Uprising. MacNab’s force swelled from 300 men to nearly 2,000 by the time it reached Brantford. Facing overwhelming odds, Duncombe—disguised as a woman, with help from his sister Huldah, a friend named Charles Tilden, and a young boy, Richard Shenick—escaped across the border to Detroit. Eliakim Malcolm also fled, but many were captured; 500 rebels were taken prisoner, and key figures, including Joshua Doan, would face harsh punishments, with Doan executed in 1839.
Duncombe did not give up. In November 1838, he led a raid on Upper Canada that culminated in the Battle of the Windmill near Prescott. Yet he never returned to Canada. Settling in the United States, he continued practicing medicine and engaging in politics, eventually moving west to Sacramento, California. He died there in 1849 of complications from sunstroke.
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