On this site stood Montgomery's Tavern, headquarters of William Lyon MacKenzie, leader of the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837, and scene of the brief skirmish in which, on 7 December 1837, the rebels were overcome by a force of militia commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel James Fitzgibbon. Though unsuccessful in its primary objective, the uprising, by forcing the issue of unrequited grievances against the dominant "Family Compact", contributed significantly to the legislative union of Upper and Lower Canada in 1841 and to the establishment in Canada of responsible government.