Simon Ebenezer Washburn was born in 1794 in Fredericksburgh Township, Upper Canada. He served in the Canadian militia during the War of 1812 and then studied law under William Baldwin at York [Toronto] and was called to the bar in January, 1820. He practiced law with Baldwin until he opened his own law office in 1825. He was Clerk of the Peace for the Home District from October 1828 until his death in 1837. In May, 1829 he became reporter to the Court of King’s Bench, a position that he resigned from just six months later because his law practice was too busy for him to devote time to the job.

In 1830 there was a scandal in York when it was alleged that Washburn had bribed a customs officer by paying him seventy-five pounds to release a shipment of pork which had been allegedly smuggled into the city by one of his clients, William Bergin. The payment had been arranged by Washburn’s brother-in-law, James Fitzgibbon, clerk of the House of Assembly who was charged with bribery. Washburn managed to come out of the affair with his reputation intact.

In 1830 and 1832 he ran against William Lyon Mackenzie in two elections for the House of Assembly seat in York County but lost each time. Despite this Washburn was one of the Orangemen who managed to keep open the lines of communication between Mackenzie and his arch-rivals, the Orangemen. In 1837 he was elected as an alderman for St David’s Ward in Toronto, and by 1835 he had been appointed as the colonel of the 2nd Regiment of West York militia. He was active in St James Anglican Church and served as churchwarden.

William Lyon Mackenzie had a soft spot in his heart for Washburn and in one of the few times that he praised a political opponent he said that Washburn had been "kind and generous" and referred to his public actions on behalf of blacks and those accused of minor crimes in which cases he provided his services as a lawyer for free. He died in Toronto on September 29, 1837 in Toronto.

John Huston was born in Ireland in 1790 and although no documentation exists as to his actual place of birth, his wife Martha’s brother William wrote to the family in 1818 from Coraghy which may well have been his birthplace. Huston and his wife emigrated to New York State around 1812 and after a short stay there they moved on to Upper Canada in 1813 and settled in Cavan Township, Upper Canada.

Huston quickly became an important figure in the Township and surrounding areas due to his education which seems to have been very good for the times and his Orange Lodge membership. Cavan Township, which was almost solidly settled by Protestant Irish, most of whom had connections with Orangeism was a place well suited to Huston. He was licensed as Deputy Provincial Surveyor in October, 1820 and he was kept busy surveying roads and bridges in the Newcastle district. He was also appointed as the Surveyor of Highways for Newcastle District and laid out the main roads between Port Hope and Peterborough and Peterborough and Lindsay.

In December, 1821 the residents of Cavan and Emily Townships petitioned the Lieutenant Governor Sir Peregrine Maitland to appoint Huston as Justice of the Peace and this office seems to have kept Huston quite busy in settling many local minor infractions. In November 1843 he was appointed as the Inspector of Clergy Reserves for Colborne District.

He was commissioned as Adjutant of the 2nd Company, Durham Volunteers in June, 1826 and eventually rose to the rank of major. He was the person responsible for the raising of the militia in Cavan, Emily, and Ops Townships. In addition to the above offices he also held the office of Coroner.

As leader of the local militia he was under the command of Colonel George S. Boulton of Cobourg, a fellow Orangeman and member of the House of Assembly. Huston did most of Boulton’s campaigning for him during elections as he could always be relied on to deliver the Orange vote to Boulton. It was in this capacity that Huston received much of his criticism. He was accused several times of using Orangemen to keep Boulton’s opponents away from the polls at election times. In all probability he did just that. Both sides practiced it quite freely in Canadian elections in the 19th century before the secret ballot came into effect, Huston just happened to be more efficient than most.

John Huston, the unofficial leader of Orangemen and Cavan Blazers died in Cavan on May 18, 1845.