Uncalled-for Severity: Thomas Young and Goderich

In 1839, beyond prestigious projects in Toronto, Thomas Young had commissions to design three new Upper Canada District gaols in Guelph, Barrie, and Goderich.
The story of the Goderich gaol is particularly well-documented, the Minute books and correspondence of the Building Committee filling banker’s box 487 in the archives of the Western University in London, Ontario.
As the design and construction of the gaol unfold, meeting by meeting, letter by letter, one major theme to emerge is, alas, the progressively acrimonious deterioration of the relationship between the architect and his clients.
Early correspondence is suffused with Victorian gentility. The letters are written with quill pens, payment is negotiated not in dollars, not in pounds, but in guineas.
The decline begins with concerns about the need to provide a full set of plans, proceeds through distress at the architect’s infrequent presence on site in Goderich. Issues surrounding payment cover many pages. At one point Young feels that a member of the committee may be persecuting him. Letters written by that member prove that he is persecuting Young.
Months later, frustration leads the committee to redesign the roof of the building. In anger, Young spends a week in Goderich in the fall of 1840, livid when the committee will not communicate with him, apoplectic when it does.
Resignation ensues, Young writing about “the uncalled-for severity…such that no professional man was ever subject to.” Lawsuits follow.