06/13/2026
Andrew King shares the story of Upper Canada’s last fatal duel — fought right here in the Ottawa Valley on June 13, 1833.
"The picturesque town of Perth seems an unlikely setting for a twisted love story that evolved into a tragic clash between friends who would become unwilling participants in what was to be Upper Canada’s last fatal duel.
And yet, on a rain soaked June 13 in 1833, Robert Lyon, 20, crumpled to the ground when 23-year-old John Wilson fired a bullet into his lungs.
The players in this deadly duel were part of Perth’s unusual social hierarchy at that time. Most of the town’s population comprised of civilian Scottish immigrants and War of 1812 veterans. It was a village of officers and immigrants whose social classes divided the population, creating an isolated town in the wilderness of Upper Canada that existed under semi-military rule.
John Wilson and Robert Lyon were both law students and friends who had come to Perth to study under prominent established barristers. Lyon was the son of a Scottish officer in the British army and a handsome athlete with aristocratic ideals and associations. Wilson was the opposite, a man from the country who supported himself without any establishment connections. It was in Perth that he met Lyon and a young school teacher from England by the name of Elizabeth Hughes.
According to an account by Judge Edward Shortt, Wilson was quite taken by the young Miss Hughes who apparently did not reciprocate. Deflated, Wilson left for Bytown while another suitor arrived: Henry LeLievre.
LeLievre was a gregarious pal of Robert Lyon, and the two took the young Miss Hughes on a date where it was said that Lyon put “his arms about her in a position which no woman of spirit would permit.”
An infuriated Wilson found out and wrote a letter to a friend in Perth stating that Lyon should be confronted for his actions, and as small town gossip goes, the letter’s message reached Lyon who said it was joke just to make Wilson jealous.
To Wilson, it was no joke and the two men soon met on the streets of Perth where they got into a fight, Lyon knocking Wilson to the ground. With blood pouring down his face, Wilson asked his former friend if they could work things out, but Lyon refused.
Wilson, trying to preserve his dignity and feeling a need to gain the respect of the town, challenged Lyon to a duel. Lyon accepted and the two men agreed to a pistol duel on the morning of June 13.
The duel took place across the Scotch Line on the outskirts of town with Wilson accompanied by his “second”, Simon Robertson, and Lyon accompanied by his pal LeLievre. Using a duelling pistol set acquired from a local store, the two met in a rain-soaked field by the Tay canal near what is now South Street.
According to the surgeon present, a first shot was fired but both parties had missed. Wilson and Lyon both suggested they would like to reconcile, but LeLievre would not hear of it and he re-loaded Lyon’s pistol.
Lyon levelled his pistol at Wilson who fired, his bullet piercing Lyon’s right breast, perforating his lungs and killing him. Wilson, laden with regret, turned himself in to the local authorities.
The trial was held in Brockville where Wilson acted as his own lawyer and his passionate self-defence resulted in his acquittal. After leaving Perth in 1834 to open a law practice in London, Ont., he married a young woman and started a family. Her name was Elizabeth Hughes. It seems the school teacher’s feelings for Wilson miraculously altered after the duel. Wilson would later become judge of the Superior Court and be elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Province Of Canada.
Today, the pistols of the last duel reside in a small display case at the local Perth Museum where a small card explains their significance. (In 1974, the fatal duel pistols were mysteriously stolen from the Perth Museum but were later found buried in front of the town hall.)
Lyon’s zealous pal LeLievre fled the country immediately after the incident. A search for Robert Lyon reveals his grave sits quietly in a small cemetery outside of town, metres away from where he fell almost 200 years ago. An unfortunate victim of a tragic love story, his unmarked headstone, now almost illegible, reads:
“Friendship Offering Dedicated To the Memory of ROBERT LYON, Student at law. He fell in mortal combat, 13 of June 1833 in the 20th year of his Age, Requieseat in Pace.”
(Article written by Andrew King for the Ottawa Citizen)
