50 On June 8th, Lieutenant - Governor Simcoe , with his family and party, left Quebec for Canada in three batteaux. They arrived in on June 13th, remained there until the 22nd, when they embarked at Lachine for Kingston , then a town of fifty houses, where they arrived on Sunday, July 1st. On July 8th Simcoe took the necessary oaths of office and the first meeting of the Executive Council was held in the Protestant Church (afterwards St . George's). Three Councillors were present, William Osgoode , James Baby and Peter Russell . On Monday, July 23rd, Simcoe and party sailed for on the Onondago, arriving on the 26th . Major John Smith was then com¬ mandant of , at the east side of the mouth of the river. His son, D. W. Smith , was shortly afterwards appointed Surveyor- General for Canada , and at the same time he received the appointment of Deputy Quarter ¬ master General and Secretary to the commandant . In 1790 he had been appointed Secretary of the Land Board for Hesse and also held several military and civil offices at Detroit . He was deputy judge advocate, member of all Land Boards and Vice-President of the Agricultural Society. In 1793 he became articled to the Attorney-General and was called to the bar in the following year. When Simcoe was at Quebec , William Chewett was recommended to him as a suitable, qualified person to take charge of the surveys in Canada , and he was ordered to report at Quebec , where he arrived in February. He waited on Governor Simcoe and dined with him on March 7th. From this date until Mr. Chewett left Quebec on May 23rd he was employed in collating the plans of surveys that had been performed in the . Mr. Chewett had been employed in the Surveyor- General's office at Quebec in 1774 and served as military engineer during the siege of the city by the Americans in 1775-76. He was afterwards paymaster of works at various points, but in 1783 he resumed his position in the Surveyor- General's office and three years later was placed in charge of the surveys in the eastern part of what was later known as Canada . The Surveyor- General and his Deputy appear to have been dilatory in getting the information required by the new governor, but the delay may have been due to the fact that the survey notes for the surveys in Canada had not been mapped. Chewett was disappointed in not receiving the appointment of Surveyor- General for the , but loyally attended to his duty as deputy at Newark and afterwards at York , to which point the Government offices were removed in 1795. Early in the year 1796 Simcoe had determined to return to England ; on June 16th he crossed from Newark to York ; on July 21st embarked with his family in the Onondago for Kingston , and on September 10th sailed for England on the Pearl, arriving there on October 15th after an exciting voyage. Hon . Peter Russell , President of the Executive Council, was then appointed administrator of the Province. This year he built a house for himself in York , on the bay shore at the foot of Princess street, which was destroyed by fire early in 1797. He rebuilt it immediately on the same site, and it was known for years thereafter as " Russell Abbey ." On June 1, 1799, the Provincial Parliament met for the first time at York , in the Parliament Buildings that stood on the site of the present Consumers' Gas Company property between