High County Constable, King Township
October 7, 1804
The first known police officer killed in the line of duty in Canada is High County Constable John Fisk of King Township.
John Fisk was born September 24, 1752 in Wallingford, Connecticut. In 1776, he served as an Ensign in Elmore’s Connecticut Battalion, part of the Continental Army during the War of the Revolution. During this time, he was in charge of prisoners.
He resigned his commission, moved to Stockbridge Massachusetts and in February 1777 married Lavinia Higby Dean. They subsequently moved to Albany New York, and then Grand Isle in Lake Champlain Vermont and had 6 children: John Dean, Cathy, Claudius Victory, Cinthy (Cynthia), Clarissa, and Claudius Lucius. In 1801, High Constable Fisk, along with his wife and six children, moved from Grand Isle in Lake Champlain, Vermont, settling on a 210-acre farm located on what is now the area of Ransom Drive to Brookland Avenue in the Town of Aurora. He was made High Constable of the Home District in 1804, which at the time encompassed the present-day counties and regions of York, Durham, Peel, Simcoe and Toronto (then York).
On October 7, 1804, while he was escorting a prisoner to trial in Newcastle, Ontario. The men sailed aboard a schooner named Speedy. The ship sank in a storm taking High Constable John Fisk and all other passengers to their deaths. High Constable Fisk body was never recovered from the lake. There is a plaque in his honour in the Trenton area.