HANDBOUND AT THE
UNIVERSITY OF
TORONTO PRESS
Ontario Historical Society
PAPERS AND RECORDS
VOL V.
TORONTO PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY
1904
oo
OFFICERS, 1903-04.
Honorary President:
THE HONORABLE THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION.
President :
C. C. JAMES, M.A., Toronto.
1st Vice-President :
GEORGE R. PATTULLO, Woodstock.
2nd Vice-President:
TALBOT MACBETH, K.C. , London.
Secretary :
DAVID BOYLE, Toronto.
Treasurer :
FRANK YEIGH, Toronto.
Councillors :
MRS. E. J. THOMPSON, Toronto. ALFRED WILLSON, C.E., Toronto.
LIEUT. -CoL. E. B. EDWARDS, Belleville. H. B. DONLY, Siracoe.
nonuments Committee:
MRS. E. J. THOMPSON. Miss JANET CARNOCHAN.
ALFRED WILLSON, C.E. LIEUT. -CoL. H. C. ROGERS.
Flag and Commemoration Committee :
MRS. CLEMENTINA FESSENDEN. BARLOW CUMBERLAND, M.A.
Miss M. A. FiTzGiBBON. SPENCER HOWELL.
CONTENTS.
x I. Discovery and Exploration of the Bay of Quinte. James H. Coyne,
B.A. 7
II. The Origin of Our Maple Leaf Emblem. J. H. Morris, Q.C. 21 III. ' The Count de Puisaye — A Forgotten Page of Canadian History.
Miss Janet Carnochan 36
XIV. Historical Notes on Yonge Street. Miss L. Teefy 53
VV. Presqu'isle. I. M. Wellington, with Notes by C. C. James 61
VI. Genealogical List of the Bull Family. Dr. A. C. Bowerman 77
VII. A Record of Marriages and Baptisms in the Gore and London Dis- tricts, by the Rev. Ralph Leeming, from 1816-1827. With Intro- duction by H. H. Robertson, Barrister, Hamilton, Ont. 91
•/VIII. Ancaster Parish Records, 1830-1838, from the Register of the Rev.
John Miller, M. A. - - - t'::: . -. .-; - v 102
/ IX. Sketch of the Rev. Wm. Smart, Presbyterian Minister of Elizabeth- town. Holly S. Seaman 178
J X. Record of Marriages and Baptisms from the Registers of the Rev. Wm.
Smart, Elizabeth town, 1812-1842 - - "'.;../ - - - - 187
ILLUSTEATIjONS
PJMUU
Count de Puisaye - - - 44
The de Puisaye House - - 50
John Bull, Son of Josiah 77
Rev. William Smart 179
First Edifice - - 181
First Presbyterian Church, Brockville 183
Rev. William Smart - 184
DISCOVERY AJSTD EXPLORATION OF THE BAY OF
QUINTE.*
BY JAMES H. COYNE, B.A.
The first reference to the Trent River system is by Champlain in 1603. On his return from Montreal he met some Algonkins off the island of Orleans, and questioned them about the source of " the great river." After describing the course of the St. Lawrence as far as Lake Ontario, they added : " Some four or five leagues at the entrance of this lake there is one river, which goes to the Algonkins toward the north, and another which goes to the Iroquois; whereby the said Algonkins and Iroquois make war on each other." This is clearly a reference to the Bay of Quinte on the north, and the Black River on the south side of the Lake. His large map of 1612 shows an attempt to delineate the former with its large peninsula. It is, no doubt, based entirely on reports of natives. A village Ganon tha hongnon is depicted right across the neck of land above the present Murray Canal. This is the first appearance of the Quinte region on any map.
Champlain was the first European on record who navigated the Trent River and the Bay of Quinte. In September, 1615, he led an expedition of Hurons and Algonkins from Lake Couchiching to nor- thern New York for the purpose of attacking the Iroquois in their stronghold. After portaging from Lake Simcoe a distance of about ten leagues to Balsam Lake, they began the descent to Lake Ontario. The explorer noted the interesting features of the route, the agreeable scenery, the fine land, the fishing and hunting, the beautiful lakes and streams. The trees along the bank seemed for the most part to have been planted for oranment.t The region had been inhabited by
* From the address delivered by the President at the Annual Meeting of the Ontario Historical Society, in Belleville, on June 5th, 1901.
t This park-like appearance of the banks is still noticeable. Between Stony and Balsam Lakes it is quite striking as seen from the steamer.
7
8 ONTARIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Indians, but fear of their enemies had forced them to abandon it. He mentions the abundance of vines and walnut trees. The wild taste of the grapes is noted, producing astringency of the throat when eaten. Bears and stags were plentiful, and he describes the Indian method of hunt- ing them by forming a cordon and driving them with great clamor to a projecting point, where the warriors on the land shot them easily, or from their canoes stabbed them when they took to the water. The French used their arquebuses with extraordinary effect. It is no wonder that the savages and their European allies were equally diverted from the main object. Interested in the chase, they made slow head- way to the Lake of the Entouhonorons (Ontario), which they crossed by a traverse of about fourteen leagues (thirty-five miles) " where there are fine large islands in this passage."
This is not the place, nor is there time, to discuss whether the crossing was made from Kingston, as claimed by General John S. Clark and Dr. John Gr. Shea, or from Point Pleasant, as contended by Marshall and others, and doubted by Laverdiere. It is an interest- ing question which the Belleville and Bay of Quinte Historical Society might well consider in the light of the arguments of these eminent authorities. ISFor need we follow the ill-starred expedition to its des- tination. Disappointed in the expectation of reinforcements from the Carantouanais of the Susquehanna, and foiled in their attempt to storm the Iroquois fortress, notwithstanding their arquebuses and Champlain's engineering skill, the invaders were obliged to retreat, carrying their wounded, including Champlain himself.
Arriving at the place where they had hidden their canoes and find- ing them safe, the savages disbanded. Some returned home; others went fishing. A portion betook themselves to the woods in pursuit of deer, bear or beaver. One of the principal Huron chiefs, Durantal, had made up his mind to join the deer hunters. Champlain, who had been promised an escort to Quebec, soon ascertained that the promise would not be kept. The excuse given was that no one could spare a canoe from the fishing or hunting.* He was glad to accept Durantal's hospitality for the winter. His account is so full of topographical detail relating to the country along the north side of the Bay of Quinte, that it is well to use, as far as practicable, his own language, whilst necessarily abbreviating the narrative:
* It was nearly forty years afterwards that the first European descended the St. Law- rence from Lake Ontario.
DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION OF THE BAY OF QUINTE. 9
" After crossing the end of the lake from the said island* we entered a river some twelve leagues in length. Then they carried their canoes overland about half a league, at the end of which we entered a lake of about ten or twelve leagues in circumference, where there was a great quantity of game, such as swans, white cranes, bustards, ducks, teal, thrushes, larks, snipe, geese, and several other kinds of fowl beyond all computation, a good number of which I killed, which served us well while waiting to kill a stag, at which place we proceeded to a certain spot some ten leagues distant, where our Indians judged there were stags in abundance."
Here two or three log huts were erected and covered with bark, the interstices being filled with moss. There was a small pinery near by, where, in less than ten days, they constructed a palisade eight or nine feet high, forming two sides of a triangle, each nearly fifteen hundred paces in length. At the angle, an open passage five feet wide led into a strongly fenced enclosure. Into this the deer were driven, with clat- tering of sticks, and imitation of the barking of wolves. Meanwhile others of the party who were fishing caught trout and pike of monstrous size. The deer pound worked to perfection. In thirty-eight days they took one hundred and twenty stags, on which they feasted well, " pre- serving the fat for the winter, using it as we do butter, as well as a lit- tle meat that they carry home for their feasts." " I assure you," says Champlain, " that there- is a singular pleasure in this hunting, which was carried on every other day." The country was marshy, and they were waiting for the frost to harden the trail before returning. It was here in the Quinte country that the explorer met with an adventure which Parkham has described with his usual felicity and charm. Let us take Champlain' s own words:
" As soon as they had left for the hunting, I got far into the woods, following a certain bird that seemed strange to me. It had a beak resembling a parrot's, was of the size of a hen, all yellow, except the head, which was red, and the wings blue, and it went in short flights like a partridge. My wish to kill it caused me to pursue it from tree to tree for a long time, until it flew away in earnest. Losing all hope, I wished to retrace my steps . . . going straight, as I supposed, towards the enclosure above-mentioned. I found that I was lost in the woods, going now to one side, now to another, unable to
* There is a hiatus in the text. Champlain had not mentioned an island. The edition of 1632 makes him enter the river some twelve leagues.
10 ONTARIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
know where I was. The night coming on forced me to pass it at the foot of a large tree. Next day I began to walk on until towards three o'clock in the afternoon, when I came to a small stagnant pond (or lake), where I perceived some game, which I followed up. I killed three or four birds, which were of great service, as I had eaten nothing. Un- fortunately for me, there had been no sun for three days — nothing but rain and cloudy weather, which added to my discomfort. Tired and worn out, I began to rest, and to cook the birds to relieve the hunger, which was beginning to affect me cruelly, had not God sent the remedy.* Kesigning myself to His mercy, I took heart again, going here and there all day, without finding track or path, except of wild beasts, of which I saw generally a great many. I was obliged to pass that night [in the woods] and unfortunately for me I had forgotten to bring with me a small compass, that would have soon set me on the right track. Day having dawned, after eating a little breakfast, I began to journey on, until I should find some rivulet and follow it, judging that it must empty into the river, or pass the bank where our hunters were camped. Having decided on this course, I carried it out so successfully that towards 110011 I found myself on the bank of a little lake of about (comme de) a league and a half, where I killed some game, which came in very opportunely in my need, and had eight or ten charges of powder left, which was a great comfort to me. I followed the shore of this lake to see where it emptied, and found a rivulet of considerable size, when I heard a great noise, and, listening attentively, was unable to understand just what it was, until I heard it more clearly, and judged it to be a rapidf of the river I was looking for. I proceeded at a faster pace, and observed a clearing, on reaching which I found myself in a large and spacious meadow, where there were a large number of wild beasts, and looking to the right, I perceived the river wide and turbu- lent. I began to look whether I could recognize the spot, and walking in the meadow, perceived a narrow path used by the Indians in portag- ing their canoes; and at last, after observing carefully, I recognized that it was the same river, and that I had passed that way. I passed the next night more contentedly than before, and did not fail to sup on my scanty supply. When morning came, I reconsidered the place where I was, and recognized by certain hills (montagnes) on the river
* The edition of 1632 adds the detail that the weather had been for three days nothing but rain, mingled with snow. t Or falls.
DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION OF THE BAY OF QUINTE. 11
bank that I had not been mistaken, and our hunters must be four or five leagues down stream,* which I made at my ease, keeping along the river bank, until I perceived our hunters7 smoke. Here I arrived with much joy on both sides, as they were still searching for me, and had about given up all hope of seeing me again. They begged me not to wander away from them any more, or else always to take my compass with me, and not forget it. And they said to me, ' If you had not come, and we had been unable to find you, we should not have gone to the French any more, for fear they should accuse us of having caused your death.7 After that he (Durantal) was very careful of me when I went hunting, always giving me an Indian for company, who knew so well how to find the place he started from, that it is a strange thing to see."
" On the 4th December we left this place, walking on the frozen river, and on the icy lakes and ponds, and sometimes journeying through the woods, for nineteen days."
On the 23rd December, 1615, they were back at Cahiague in the Huron country, the village of Durantal.
These topographical details should be of special interest to the inhabitants of the Quinte district. Their local knowledge may enable them to follow, step by step, almost in the tracks of the first white man who ever penetrated its forests and swamps, its lakes and rivers.
It is unnecessary to remind you that Champlain was one of the greatest of the early explorers, the first Governor of "New France, and the founder of Quebec.
For more than half a century after Champlain's expedition there is no record of any white man having entered the Bay. Father Simon Le Moyne was the first to ascend the St. Lawrence in 1654. But he and his brother missionaries who followed him had their eyes fixed on the Five Nations to the south. They admired the Lake of the Thou- sand Islands, while they shuddered at the loneliness and dangers of its labyrinthine passages. They fished for eels, and observed the amaz- ing number of deer and other large game swimming from point to point. But there was nothing to tempt them to the now long uninhab- ited wilderness that lay on the north shore.
But the Iroquois discovered its advantages for settlement, antici- pating the Loyalists of more than a century later, and partly influ- enced by like motives. Themselves the terror of the remotest northern,
* "Above me," in the edition of 1632, instead of "down stream."
12 ONTARIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
eastern and western tribes, they lived in constant fear of their im- mediate neighbors, the Andastes of the Upper Susquehanna, who slew, scalped and plundered without mercy. Moreover, the north shore pos- sessed a rich soil and famous hunting and fishing grounds, to which the Five Nations regularly resorted. What more natural, then, than that a current of migration should set in, transporting portions of the confederated tribes to permanent abodes beyond their enemies' reach, where life should be free from anxiety, and their kettles always filled with toothsome venison, trout and sagamite. Nor would the emigrants be permitted to forget the old home ties ; for the north shore was visited regularly in the hunting and fishing seasons by portions of all the tribes, and there would be plenty of opportunities for interchanging their rude hospitalities north and south of the dividing lake.
And so we find in the year 1668 a village of Cayugas at a place called Kente, and within a year or two a line of villages of Senecas and other Iroquois nations at Ganeyout, Tanawate, Kentsio, Ganer- aske, Gandaseteiagon, Teyagon, and Tanawawa or Tina-wa-toua, along the north shore from end to end of Lake Ontario. Kente, Tanawate and Ganeyout were in what is now known as the " Quinte " region.
It is the first mention of the name on the pages of history. And this perhaps is a favorable opportunity for dealing with two questions which naturally arise.
What does the name Kente mean, and where was the village situated ?
First, as to the origin of the name, the authorities leave us in uncer- tainty. It may be assumed that all names of persons, as well as of places, had at first definite significations, but in the gradual trans- formation of language, words frequently lose their identity to such a degree that their best friends fail to recognize them. This is the case in all languages alike, Iroquois as well as English. Whilst one person scrutinizing closely sees, or thinks he sees, a resemblance to one primitive form, his neighbor, equally skilled, repudiates it altogether, and discovers another which to his mind is more reasonable.
And so it is with Kente under its various forms of Kente, Kante, Keenthee, Kenthe, Quente, Quintay, Quintie, Quintee and Quinte. Fanciful etymologies have been suggested, of which I may be pardoned for naming two or three, as being at least ingenious.
One derivation is from quintus, the Latin word for fifth. There were five townships numbered from Kingston. The last was on the
DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION OF THE BAY OF QUINTE. 13
Bay, which was therefore called Quinta. Or there were five points or smaller bays — hence again Quinta.
Another is from a supposed French officer named Quinte, in 1759, who retreated along the north shore toward Montreal, after the capture of Niagara by the British. He died and was buried on a hill overlook- ing the Bay, which accordingly was named after him. It would pro- bably be a difficult matter to trace in the French army lists this mythi- cal hero eponymous!
A more plausible, but equally imaginary, etymology is from a French name for the Bay \vhich appears in some maps, Baie des Coins, or Bay of Corners — an appropriate name in its way. This would almost appear to be a simple misspelling of an Indian name, given on various maps, Baie des Couis. There are also Isles des Couis, shown in old charts, off the east end of Prince Edward County.
The name is, of course, of Indian origin. Kenta or Kahenta is Iroquois for a meadow or prairie. Hence Kentucky., as also the name given by the Indians of Caughanawaga to the adjoining parish of Laprairie, Kentake. The authority on the Iroquois language, the late Abbe Cuoq, thinks Kente perhaps owes its origin to Kenta. But he presents other theories that have been put forward. One is from Kento (here), another from Khente (to precede or go ahead), another from ota. But he frankly admits, " For my own part I would rather confess my ignorance." Where the learned Abbe feared to tread, we, unlearned in Iroquois lore, may perhaps be excused if we refrain from further intruding. The word would seem to have some connection with the name given in Champlain's map of 1612, Ganon tha Jiongnon.
The spelling varied, as already stated. In 1671 Dollier de Casson, Superior of the Seminary at Montreal, mentions the mission as Quente, whilst Trouve, in his account of its establishment, prefers the older form, Kente. In 1672 Frontenac spells it Quintay. In 1697 we meet with the modern spelling, Quinte. It also occurs in an undated map by Raffeix in the National Library, Paris (Portfolio 40, 37). In 1721 the former priest of Fort Frontenac, John Durant, uses the same form, referring to the post built by the Sieur d'Agneau at the bottom of the bay called the Bay of Quinte to trade with the Ottawas. In 1758 Pouchot uses the same form. On the other hand, D'Anville's maps of 1746 and 1755 have Kente.
So much for the name for the present. Where was the place known as Kente or Quinte? The investigation is a somewhat bewildering
14 ONTARIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
one, for the name is used for a variety of locations, extending all the way from Whitby or Port Hope to the eastern extremity of Prince Edward County, including a point, a portage, various islands, a lake, a river, villages, the peninsula, the bay and the region; and sometimes in such a way that it is difficult to say which is intended. The village was undoubtedly in the Prince Edward peninsula, and its location can be arrived at approximately. Perhaps the earliest map of the region, after Champlain's, is GalineVs, of 1670, made from information given by the missionaries and Pere. A dotted circle is intended to show Weller's Bay. The Morin copy, in the Library of Laval University, has the name Kente on the south side of the circle, with a pair of wigwams indicating a village. The indentations of the Bay of Quinte show Hay Bay, the Napanee River, the Moira and the Trent. The Moira is called Riv. du Barbu, or Catfish River, but this is the only name given east of the present canal. The attention of the mapmaker had been called, on the southern side of the peninsula, more particularly to Weller's Bay, indicating that the portage was known, but not the rest of the south shore. A map from the Depot de la Marine, given in Fail- Ion, is perhaps the first to give names with any attempt at fulness. A village of Kentzio appears on the north side of Rice Lake, Ganeraske near Port Hope, Ganeyout at Hay Bay. The peninsula is largely taken up with a lake named Lac de Kente (Weller's Bay). The village of Kente appears centrally situated in the peninsula. A close examination, however, shows that it is near the narrowest part of the portage and midway between two indentations of the lake of Kente. Apparently it was intended to be placed just opposite Bald Head on the east side of Weller's Bay. The rivers are in confusion. Two streams discharge just west of the isthmus, joining near their mouths. The west one, unnamed, is the Trent. The other is named Elver and lake of Tana- wate, widening considerably near the mouth. The Bay of Quinte is named at its western extremity Tontiarenhe lake, and runs north- west at right angles from its previous course. Two rivers flow into it at the west end, the easterly of which is called OJiate. Two islands are shown off the Sandy Bays. The easterly is apparently Nicholson's, the westerly called Gagonion (now " The Bluff ") is off Presqu'isle Harbor.
This map (now in the Depot de la Marine) was made .after Galinee's, but not long. In 1674 Joliet's larger map shows Kente on the shove of Lake Ontario, just east of the isthmus and of a small narrow island
DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION OF THE BAY OF QUINTE. 15
running parallel with the shore. In 1684 Franquelin's map, intended to show La Salle's journeys, represents Prince Edward as an island, Kente being at the south-west end, with three small islands opposite.
In 1688 Kaffeix's map calls it Quinse (a blunder of the engraver, no doubt), and places it at the bottom of a bay just east of an island off the south side of the portage. In his undated map above referred to, the village is shown at the point at the south side of the entrance to Weller's Bay. The early maps agree in placing Kente on Weller's Bay, and not on the Bay of Quiiite.
In the Journal of Count de Frontenac's voyage to Lake Ontario in 1673, Cataraqui is called twenty leagues below Kente; Father Durant, in 1721, says " about thirty leagues" — a fairly accurate estimate. But in the itinerary of Denonville's expedition against the Senecas in 1687, we have a definite statement of distances along the north shore of Lake Ontario from end to end. He makes it sixty-eight or sixty- nine leagues from the traverse near Burlington, where it was four leagues across, to Fort Cataraqui. Two leagues below Graneraske (or Port Hope) was a place where salmon were abundant. Twelve good leagues farther, they encamped, twTo leagues below Kente. Then they advanced fifteen good leagues, and the next day brought them to Fort Cataraqui, nine leagues. This would make the distance from the latter place to Kente twenty-four leagues, or from sixty miles upward, according to the meaning of the term " good " leagues. As compared with the whole north shore from west to east, Kente was situated, according to the record, at two-thirds of the distance. Upon the whole, therefore, it is a reasonable conclusion, agreeing substantially with all the data mentioned, that the original Kente was situated on or near Weller's Bay, between the Murray Canal and the latter, the location being changed from time to time in accordance with the Indian cus- tom. And this conclusion is confirmed by D'Anville's maps of 1746 and 1755, and Bellin's of 1755.
Archaeological researches ought to settle the exact location, and there is here a promising field for local talent to investigate. The opinions expressed by Kingsford and Verreau seem to have been formed from inadequate premises. Dr. Canniff mentions the finding of Indian relics, including silver crosses, in a burying place at Bald Bluff. This would seem to establish one site of Kente. In the course of time the name was extended to numerous places. For example, in Labroquerie's map, made at Frontenac on the 4th October, 1757, wo
16 ONTARIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
find going east from Ganaraski, Isle le Quintee, then near the isthmus two more Illes le Quintee, with reefs or shoals running east and west from the larger, then portage le Quintee, and presquisle de Quintee, while the Bay itself is called Bay des Coins (Bay of Corners). In Bew's early map of 1780 this becomes Baye des Couis. Pouchot's map of 1758, however, uses Bale de Quint e, whilst he calls Presqu'isle Harbor Presquisle de Quinte, and has Grande Presquisle de Quinte, as well as Isle de Quinte.
The locations of the other Iroquois villages are equally worthy of study. There is not time here to consider at length the question of identification. Suffice it to say that as to Ganeyous, while the Denon- ville journal places it ten leagues, and Hennepin nine leagues, from Cataraqui, our other sources of information are limited to the maps, and the earliest maps agree in placing it on Hay Bay. The map from D'Anville's collection, attributed to La Salle, shows a portage crossing from the lake shore to the southern extremity of Hay Bay, with the words Portage de Ganeious 3-4 de lieue (Ganeious portage, 3-4 league). This would make it a trifle less than two miles across. It defines the portage beyond all doubt, but not the precise location of the village. Franquelin's map of 1684 places it clearly on Hay Bay, but the copy in Burrows' " Jesuit Relations " does not indicate the exact location. In 1688, however, Raffeix places it on the north side between the inner bay and the mouth, and he is followed by eighteenth-century maps, such as D'Anville's in 1746, Bellin's in 1755, and a map in the London Magazine in 1758. Of course, the village may have been moved, as was common with Indian villages, every few years. Here again archae- ology will probably settle the question.
Abbe Verreau follows Broadhead in placing the village at or near Napanee, but apparently on insufficient authority. In several early maps Rice Lake is called Quentio or Kentsio, and the head of the Bay of Quinte Lac 8. Lyon. The Trent River is sometimes called Tqna- wate, but the name appears at times as that of a village at the mouth, sometimes as that of the first narrows east therefrom, and at other times perhaps as that of the Moira. Tontiarenlie Lake and Ohati River repre- sent the Napanee. Amherst Island was called by the Indians Katanesgo. La Salle changed it to Tonti, after his famous lieutenant, the man of the iron hand.
And now we approach the brief history of the Quinte mission. The Cayugas of Kente applied to the Seminary of Montreal for " black
DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION OF THE BAY OF QUINTE. 17
robes " to dwell among them. The new Superior, the Abbe de Queylus, acceded to their wishes, the more readily as the king desired the semin- arists to undertake their share of the missions, instead of leaving them entirely to the Jesuits. The Abbes Trouve and Fenelon were young priests just arrived from France, and eager to devote themselves to the work of their calling. They gladly obeyed the order to begin a new mission in a new and unknown region. On October 2nd, 1668, they embarked in a canoe with the Kente chief and another Indian. Full of youthful vigor, they eagerly shared in the adventures and hardships of the voyage. The ascent of the St. Lawrence was in those days a formidable task. In some places they plunged in the waters up to the middle to drag their laden canoes through the rapid current. Priests and Indians alike carried their canoes and heavy packs over the portage trail. Replacing them in the river, they paddled slowly up stream to the next carrying place. They stopped from time to time to hunt, in order to provide themselves with food. Death and danger lurked not only in the rocky and rapid river, but in every thicket on shore. It was necessary to be ever on the alert for " the shaven head and the painted face, and the shot from behind the tree." Twenty-six days were occupied in the voyage. At last they reached the village, where a hospitable and joyous reception awaited them. It was, perhaps, the first donation party and tea-meeting in Ontario. Nothing was too good for the honored guests. One savage brought half a moose's carcase. A second regaled them with squashes fried in grease. Hunger is the best of sauces, and the appetizing viands were pronounced excel- lent. A third had been fishing a long time with little success. He presented his entire catch, a small pickerel. Salt was a rare luxury in the early days. One good old woman, in a fervor of lavish and reckless hospitality, sprinkled a little of the precious article in the priest's sagamite, or corn-mush. It was her mite. Then the missionaries settled down to the work of teaching and baptizing the children. The following year Fenelon descended to Montreal and Quebec to procure the wherewithal to recompense the natives for the support of himself and his colleague. On his return the Senecas of Gandatsetiagon (near Darlington or Whitby) desired a " black robe." He at once responded to the call, and spent the winter in their village. Other villages of the northern Iroquois required missionaries. Ganeraske, Ganeyous, Tina- watoua were supplied by Trouve or D'TJrfe, who joined them in 1669.
Trouve assured Galinee that he had heard the distant roar of 2
18 [ONTARIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Niagara from the opposite shore. Galinee may have misunderstood. Possibly Trouve only saw the spray from Toronto or Whitby. But sounds carried farther before the country was settled. Galinee in 1669 was the first European to place on record a personal knowledge of the great cataract.
These missionaries were of distinguished families. Fenelon was the brother, elder by ten years, of the famous Bishop of Cambrai, the author of " Telemaque." They belonged to the noblesse of France. Francis, the elder brother, had renounced all the advantages and pro- spects of his splendid station to devote himself to rough mission work among the savages. But he quarrelled with Frontenac, was sent home to France in 1674, and the king refused to permit him to return.
For ten years the gentlemen of the Seminary struggled in vain to secure some tangible result. At last they closed their Quinte mis- sion in despair, resigning it to the Recollets, and turned their atten- tion to the new mission of the Mountain on the Island of Montreal. Fenelon established a school for Indian boys and girls on the small islands then called Courcelles, now Dorval, near the City. The first Kecollets in charge of the Indian mission, near Fort Frontenac, were the famous Father Hennepin and Father Buisset. Hennepin visited the Iroquois south of the lake, and made a copy of Bruyas' dictionary. .Returning to Fort Frontenac, he joined La Salle after a brief period, and accompanied him on his voyage of discovery. Other missionaries followed of more or less note. But the mission appears to have been abandoned in 1687 It is not clear that the Recollets' mission ever was at Kente. We know only that it was near Fort Frontenac.
But while the Sulpitians remained at Kente, the Seminary sent thlem from Montreal a provision of cattle, swine, and fowls, which were transported from Montreal with much difficulty. Whether the quadrupeds were sent by canoe or along the river trail we are not in- formed, but in either case it was a difficult undertaking. Earlier in the century (in 1646 and 1648) some cattle had been brought in to Matche- dash Bay, doubtless by the Nipissing route. As far as is known, these were the first domesticated animals imported into Ontario.
The Seminary of Paris sent laborers also to clear land, and others " to build a farm," with a large house, and supplied it with instru- ments of agriculture, furniture, and other necessaries.
The little that is known of the old Kente mission is mostly from a letter written by Trouve to his Superior, Dollier de Casson, in 1672.
DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION OF THE BAY OF QUINTE. 19
The writer tells why so little is known. It was a foundation principle of the Sulpitians not to blow their own trumpet. The great Bishop Laval asked Fenelon for information about the Kente mission, in order that it might be put into the " Jesuits' Relation " for the year. " Mon- seigneur," the missionary replied, " the greatest favor you can bestow upon us is to say nothing about us." Moreover, the Seminary regarded missionary operations as foreign to their special objects, which were teaching the young savages, and ordinary parochial supervision.
The rest of the history of the Bay in the seventeenth century is merely part of that of Fort Frontenac. The Bay was part of the regular canoe route from Cataraqui to the North-west. The Trent River route is not often referred to, but there were portage trails to Rice Lake from Ganeraske, near Port Hope, to Lake Scugog from Ganatskiagon, near Darlington, and to the two southern arms of Lake Simcoe from Teiagon (or Toronto) and Ganatskiagon respectively. Fur traders, explorers, missionaries and military parties alike were in the habit of following the north shore of Lake Ontario, passing on either side of the Quinte peninsula, as might be deemed prudent.
Fort Frontenac became the headquarters of exploration. Here the interests of La Salle, its lord and governor, were centred, and from here the Recollets set out to their remote missions beyond the great lakes and southward to the Gulf of Mexico. They were the precur- sors of Losee and Dunham, of Stuart and Langhorn, of McDowall and Macdonell.
La Salle and his great lieutenant, Tonti, their assistants La Foret and Cauchois, Pere, Joliet and Perrot, Graysolon DuLut and Duran- taye, with their followers, passed up and down the lake. Hennepin, Buisset, Membre, Ribourbe, Menard, and other famous ecclesiastics, met in the mission house to concert plans for carrying the gospel to the remotest west and south. Denonville's army, fresh from destroy- ing the Seneca villages, cornfields, and forts, came sailing along the shores covered with virgin forest, pausing at creeks or islands for shelter and food. At their bivouacs officers in plumed hats and shin- ing coats of mail contrasted strangely with the sober garb of the Jesuit or the Recollet. The airs of Brittany floated on the evening air across the summer waters to the setting of some quaint Canadian rhyme.
From Fort Frontenac were made La Salle's successive attempts, culminating in the exploration of the Mississippi to its mouth. Long processions of birch canoes indicated the arrival of the Ottawas with
20 ONTARIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
furs from the Sault or Mackinac. Coureurs de bois plied their lawless trade with the French of Fort Frontenac or the English of Oswego, as their interests lay for the moment.
But more than a century was to elapse after the building of Fort Frontenac before the shores of Lake Ontario were to show signs of permanent settlement. The old regime was not of the soil. The schemes of Louis XIV. and his great minister, Colbert, of Talon, and Frontenac and La Salle, for the control of the St. Lawrence and Mis- sissippi valleys, discovered and explored by French enterprise, were brilliant in conception, but lacked the essential element of success, national genius for colonization.
The expansion of England has been from the first a popular move- ment. Governments have vainly striven to restrict, and to control it. No barriers have availed. The instinct of the race has become part of its religion. The average Briton believes that it was part of the divine plan that he should discover, colonize, civilize, and control. If it was not, then he has some ground for imagining that he has circumvented Providence, for those are the very things he has accomplished.
The very opposite was the case with the French. The fur-trade was always the predominating influence. Its interests were opposed to settlement. The missionaries, eager for the conversion of the savages, dreaded, and with some reason, the effect of French contact upon their proselytes, and they, too, discouraged immigration. When the king assumed control of the government, and Champlain's abortive immi- gration policy was renewed, the opposing forces were too strong. Im- migration was checked, and the French-Canadians are descended virtually from the scanty immigration of a period of less than ten years. Thus it was that, when the Loyalists came, nearly a century and three quarters after Champlain first passed through the Bay of Quinte, its shores were still covered with the primeval forest, without a single settler.
II.
THE ORIGIN OF OUK MAPLE LEAF EMBLEM.
It would probably be very difficult, if not impossible, to discover who first suggested the maple leaf as our floral, or vegetal, emblem, or even to say when the idea began to take shape. During the first half of last century something may have been done in this direction, other- wise it is not easy to account for the popular, although wholly unorgan- ized, feeling which manifested itself in Upper and Lower Canada between 1850 and 1860. From this time what may be called the nebulous condition of sentiment rapidly took form, and something approaching consolidation resulted from the meeting, an account of which follows.
Enquiries are frequently made, more especially by the younger Canadian, and by Canadians abroad, respecting the origin of the maple leaf as Canada's emblem, and it was owing to an attempt to supply authoritative information on the subject through correspondence with the late Mr. J. H. Morris, that the accompanying newspaper quota- tions were supplied by that gentleman.
Mr. Morris's letter on " National Sentiment," in The Sun, in 1875, and a brief editorial on the same subject from The Empire, are also thought worthy of reproduction at this time, expressing, as they do, the " national sentiment " of Canadians.
The editor makes no apology for having, in all the quotations, taken the liberty of changing the words " England " and " English " into the correct forms, " Britain," or " United Kingdom " and " British," when they refer to our great and beloved Empire.
MY DEAR MR. BOYLE,
I enclose you the copy of the proceedings which took place at a meeting held at the City Hall on the 21st August, 1860, in connection with the approaching visit of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. All the newspapers previous to, and after, the meeting referred to it. A leading article in the Leader, of the 18th August previous, is worth reading. The ball which took place in the Exhibition Buildings will, no doubt, have been accurately described.
Yours faithfully,
J. H. MORRIS. 21
22 ONTARIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
THE FORMAL ADOPTION OF THE MAPLE LEAF AS THE NATIONAL EMBLEM OF CANADA.
COPY OF PROCEEDINGS which took place 21st August, 1860. in St. Lawrence Hall, together with two letters written subsequently, one by the late Col. Jarvis, and the other by J. H. Morris, Esq., of Toronto.
NATIVE CANADIANS.
(Retried for the Globe.)
A meeting was held last night in the St. Lawrence Hall, to take measures with a view to native Canadians taking part with distinctive badges in the procession on the occasion of the arrival of the Prince of Wales in Toronto. The meeting was a large one — very nearly filling the hall. The greater proportion of those present were young men, natives of Canada, but there were also not a few well advanced in years, born in Upper Canada soon after its first settlement. Among the latter class was Mr. Nott, the first white child born in York, now Toronto.
On motion of Col. R. L. Denison, Hon. W. B. Robinson was called to the chair. Mr. W. P. Andrews was appointed secretary of the meeting. Surrounding the chair- man on the platform were the following gentlemen : — D. Reesor, Esq., Warden of York and Peel, Rev. Dr. Ryerson, Rev. Saltern Givens, Col. Denison, Col. Jarvis, Mr. J. H. Morris, Mr. W. H. Boulton, Mr. R. P. Crooks, Mr. T. G. Ridout, Dr. Wright, Dr. Richardson, Mr. F. H. Heward, Mr. Isaac White, Mr. Allan Macdonald, Mr. Geo, Munro, Mr. Lewis Moffatt, Mr. M. R. Vankoughnet, Mr. Thos. Bright, Mr. Emanuel Playter, Mr. W. Gamble, Mr. D. K. Feehan, etc.
The Chairman briefly stated the object of the meeting, and in calling upon Mr. J. H. Morris to move the first resolution, complimenting that gentleman on the zeal he had displayed in originating this movement, and enlisting on its behalf the co- operation of the large number of gentlemen now assembled.
Mr. J. H. Morris moved the first resolution, as follows : —
' ' That the Committee on the Programme having assigned to native Canadians a place in the procession in honour of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, it is desirable to take such steps as may be necessary for the effective organization of that part of it."
Mr. Morris, in supporting the resolution, said that on application the Committee on Programme for the reception of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales had made arrangements, and appointed a place in the procession for the Native Canadians of Toronto. (Cheers.) The present meeting had, therefore, been called in order that the Native Canadians of Toronto might have an opportunity of expressing their opinions on the subject, and also that arrangements might be made by them for giving the Prince a hearty reception on his arrival in Toronto. It was necessary, he thought, that on such an auspicious occasion that those born on the soil should be well represented. (Cheers.) The national societies— St. George's, St. Andrew's and St. Patrick's — were to take part in the procession at the reception of His Royal Highness, and he was of opinion that on such an occasion the Native Canadians should be well represented, and put in a good appearance. (Hear, hear.) It was not intended at the present time to form any distinctive society, nor did they wish in any way to interfere with the three national societies. They wished simply by wearing the " Maple Leaf," on the day of the arrival of the Prince, to show that they were Native Canadians — (loud applause) — to be knoivn to the world as such and as loyal subjects of
THE ORIGIN OF OUR MAPLE LEAF EMBLEM. 23
Her Majesty. (Cheers). An erroneous impression had gone abroad that they intended to form an exclusive society, something on the "Know Nothing" principle ; but he would assure the meeting that such was not the case, as everything that had been done or would be done would be open to the public ; and, in fact, it was not intended at the present time to form any society at all. (Hear.) The movement, however, might form the basis of a nationality, and he hoped the time would soon come when those to the "manor born" would be recognized at home and abroad as Native Canadians. At present when a Canadian visited the neighboring States he was simply recognized as an Englishman, Scotchman or Irishman from Canada ; while, on the other hand, when he visited the Mother Country, he was acknowledged only in the light of an American. This was not as it ought to be, and, in his opinion, Cana- dians should have a nationality of their own, and be known to the world as Cana- dians. (Cheers.) He contended that the recognition of this nationality was necessary to the progress of our common country. But while speaking relative to this nation- ality, he wished it to be understood that he approved of the national societies which had been established in the country. They had been instituted for benevolent purposes, and for keeping up a praiseworthy recollection of the Fatherland. (Cheers.) They served as land-marks for the British emigrant on his arrival and pointed out his place of destination, and cheered up his heart as he wended his weary way through the path of life. (Loud cheering. ) He would not attempt to estimate the amount of good which these societies had performed. (Applause.) But while these societies were nourishing, it often had been remarked that there was no "Native Canadian Society. " It was therefore determined that on such an auspicious occasion as the visit of the Heir Apparent to the British Throne, that the Native Canadians should turn out in a body and render him a hearty welcome. (Cheers.) While the sons of St. George, St. Andrew and St. Patrick were marshalled under their respective banners, it was sincerely to be hoped that the Sons of Canada would also appear in large numbers in the procession with the maple leaf on their breasts, and give His Royal Highness a spontaneous reception on his arrival in Toronto. The Prince came to see Canada, and surely it was necessary that he should be welcomed by Canadians as well as by the Englishmen, Scotchmen and Irishmen residing among them. (Hear, hear.) On such an occasion he might refer to the many occasions on which the fathers of the present Native Canadians had evinced their loyalty to the British Crown. When the war for Independence was going on in the neighboring States, a number of brave men, known as the U. E. Loyalists, had left what was now known as the United States, and had entered Canada to fight the battles of Britain. (Cheers.) Their lands had been confiscated and their homes destroyed, but their love of country made them forget all. (Cheers.) These brave men were the fathers of Native Canadians. (Loud cheers.) In the war of 1812 the Native Canadians again dis- played in a striking manner their loyalty to the throne of Great Britain. Many of these heroes were now present at the meeting, and if need be, assisted by the present generation, were ready to fight the battles of their country o'er again. (Applause.) He hoped that to-night they might be laying the keel of a national ship which would be built up by the aspirations and deeds of the Sons of Canada ; that this ship would visit every clime under the sun and become known in the remotest parts of the earth. (Cheers.) He trusted that the sentiment of nationality would take root in the bosom of every one of our people, and that they would all be able to see the beneficial effects which would result from it, and concluded by moving the resolution.
24 ONTARIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
The resolution was seconded by T. G. Ridout, Esq., and was adopted by acclamation.
Rev. Dr. Ryerson moved the second resolution as follows :
"That all Native Canadians in Toronto at the time of the Prince's arrival, are earnestly invited to join in the procession in the place assigned for that purpose by the Committee."
In supporting this resolution, the Rev. Dr. said he would have no favor for any movement, analogous to that of the Know Nothings in the United States — any movement to shut out from offices of honor and emolument in this country subjects of Her Majesty who did not happen to be native-born Canadians. But he was in favor of the present movement, because he believed it would have a tendency to blend the whole population of Canada in one deep, universal, unanimous feeling of devotion to the best interests of their common country. (Cheers.)
Mr. Lewis Moffatt seconded the resolution, which passed by acclamation.
Mr. Richardson moved the third resolution :
"That all Native Canadians joining the procession, whether identified with the National Societies or not, should wear the maple leaf as an emblem of the land of their birth. "
He said he expressed his own personal feeling, when he regretted that native-born Canadians were to a certain extent identified with National Societies, instead of having a society of their own. With the kindest feeling towards those good and benevolent societies, he was of opinion that Native Canadians, in identifying them- selves with them, pursued a course that was detrimental and suicidal. Were he «n Englishman by birth, it would be his pride to belong to the St. George's Society. Or, were he an Irishman or a Scotchman, he should feel proud to belong to the Society which continued the remembrance of the Emerald Isle or of Scotland. But he had always objected to the descendants of Englishmen, Scotchmen, and Irishmen joining the National Societies, and from his youth it had been an object with him dearly cherished to take part in establishing a Canadian Society, which should strengthen a Canadian feeling, and gather together the descendants of Englishmen, Irishmen, and Scotchmen, making them feel they were one brotherhood, and had one common interest — without a thought, however, of seeking out any new political combination. God forbid !' He looked upon our connection with Great Britain as the greatest political blessing we could enjoy. (Cheers.)
Mr. R. P. Crooks suggested that this meeting should appoint a committee to prepare resolutions. He did not think they should be called upon to adopt resolutions prepared by a conclave.
Mr. F. H. Heward seconded the resolution moved by Dr. Richardson. He said* if accepted by the meeting, it would have the effect of placing Canadians before the world, wearing upon their breasts the emblem which was an acknowledgment of their origin. The Englishman gloried in his rose, the Irishman in his shamrock, and the Scotchman in his thistle. Why should not Canadians, their descendants, wreathe around their brows a chaplet of the maple leaf. If this resolution were adopted, he hoped that hereafter the Native Canadian, wherever he went abroad from his native soil, in whatever part of the wide world he might be, would wear in his bosom the maple leaf as the emblem of the land of his birth. (Cheers.) And no better oppor- tunity could be afforded of adopting this national emblem than we would shortly wear it in the presence and with the sanction of His Royal Highness the Prince of
THE ORIGIN OF OUR MAPLE LEAF EMBLEM. 25
Wales. (Cheers.) The first public act of His Royal Highness having been the presenta- tion of their banners to our noble Hundredth Regiment, he would doubtless also have the pleasure of sanctioning the adoption of the maple leaf as our national emblem. (Cheers.)
The resolution was then put to the meeting and carried.
Dr. Wright moved the next resolution : "That on the day of the arrival of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales at Toronto, the Native Canadians do rendezvous on Front Street, between the Bank of Montreal and Ellah's Hotel."
The Chairman here remarked that he had heard with great satisfaction that much interest was taken in this movement by Native Canadians in all parts of the country, and he hoped many residing out of Toronto would join their great gathering on the occasion of the Prince's visit. (Cheers. )
Mr. D. Reesor seconded the resolution. He said he was much pleased to see this movement commenced with the view of having recognized something like a Canadian nationality. He looked upon the present of Canada as something of which they need not be ashamed, and on its future as something of which they might be proud in anticipation. (Cheers.) At the present time Great Britain and the United States were almost the only two free countries in the world, the only great countries enjoying free constitutions, but as Canadians they might feel proud to anticipate the time when the British Provinces of North America would be recognized as a great country, added to the number of the great and free civilized countries of the world. (Cheers.)
The resolution was put to the meeting and carried.
Mr. W. H. Boulton said he presumed it was not the wish of the gentlemen now desirous of enlisting under the banner of Native Canadianism, to form a Society distinct and separate from the National Societies. All that was desired was to have an opportunity on the occasion of the visit of the Prince of Wales, of showing what Native Canadians were made of. They wished the Prince of Wales to see what Englishmen, Scotchmen and Irishmen coming to this country could produce, and that their descendants in this country were in no way inferior to the men who had begotten them. (Cheers.) And he did not speak of the descendants merely of Englishmen, Scotchmen, and Irishmen but the descendants of those gallant men, who, when the United States separated from Great Britain, refused to remain under the American flag, and sacrificing everything they had, had come to this country to live under the protection of the British flag. He believed they would be able to show the Prince that the Native Canadians were equal to the men of any portion of Her Majesty's dominions. (Cheers.) He begged to move — "That the following committee be appointed on banner and bands, Mr. Paul Kane, Mr. Small, and Mr. John Paterson."
Mr. W. Gamble seconded the resolution. When Mr. Morris first spoke to him about this movement, he (Mr. Gamble) remarked that, when he saw the National Societies of England, Ireland, and Scotland meeting with their bands and banners, he thought it was time that the descendants of those true men of old, the early settlers of this country, the U. E. Loyalists, who were the pioneers of refinement, civilization and material prosperity in this country, should also organize and meet in a similar manner. Some were afraid of the springing up of the feeling called " Nativism." He had no such fears, and he thought the sooner they were embodied as a National Society, with the motto "Canada and Home," the better. (Cheers.)
Mr. R. P. Crooks urged that before such a resolution was adopted, there ought to be an organization of a Society.
26 ONTARIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
The resolution being put to the meeting, was declared carried.
Mr. J. H. Morris said he thought it was to be regretted that this resolution should have been adopted. For the present they required no banner. The Maple Leaf was a sufficient badge. After remarks on the subject by various gentlemen, the resolution was withdrawn.
Col. Jarvis expressed his disappointment with the proceedings of the meeting. He regretted that the steps taken should have had reference only to persons born in Canada. After making some further remarks, Col. Jarvis took up his hat and left the hall.
Dr. Ryerson said he thought Col. Jarvis must have been laboring under a misapprehension. Under the name of Canadians it was intended to include the natives of the British Provinces besides Canada.
Mr. W. Gamble, seconded by Col. Denison, moved a vote of thanks to Mr. Morris for the exertions he had made in originating this movement.
Carried by acclamation.
On motion of Col. Denison, Mr. Robinson vacated the chair.
Mr. D. K. Feehan then moved a vote of thanks to Mr. Robinson for his conduct in the chair. He had fulfilled the duties of the chair on this occasion warmly and effectively, as a Native Canadian knew how to do. Mr. Feehan went on to say that, although President of the St. Patrick's Society, he was a Native Canadian, and he would have liked that this large meeting had resulted in something more than merely arranging to welcome the Royal personage who was shortly to honor us with his presence. He wished to have seen formed a more permanent organization of Native Canadians. (Cries of Yes ! Yes ! and No ! No !)
Mr. Crooks seconded the motion for a vote of thanks, which was carried by acclamation.
Three cheers were then given for the Queen, and the meeting separated, the proceedings having occupied about an hour and a half.
NATIVE CANADIANS.
(To the Editor of the Globe.)
SIR, — In attending the meeting which was held last night at the St. Lawrence Hall, I did so as a spectator (not being a Native Canadian), and took my seat upon one of the lower benches until I was invited by the chairman to a seat on the dais. I remarked to the chairman that I was not a Canadian by birth, but if, in the proceedings which were to take place, they intended to permit all those who from their youth up (although born in a neighboring colony) had resided in Canada, I should be most happy to assist in the arrangements which were about to be made for the reception of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales.
Finding that throughout the proceedings which followed none but Canadians by birth were expected to take any part, it was only when the chairman was about to vacate his seat that I took the liberty to mention that, being on the "Programme Committee" for the reception of the Prince, a printed plan or programme of the procession would be extensively circulated, so that every society and organization would know the place at which it was expected that they would take in the procession. I also expressed great disappointment and regret that none other than Canadians by birth would be enabled to take a place in the rendezvous opposite Ellah's Hotel.
THE ORIGIN OF OUR MAPLE LEAF EMBLEM. 27
I do regret, Mr. Editor, that this meeting has passed off with so little having been done towards the organization of a "Colonial Society ; " as the exclusion of all but native Canadians renders the more extended course a matter of necessity. Had last night's meeting been a preliminary one, for the purpose of consulting as to the best means to bring the subject under the notice of the public, I should, if invited, have given my views upon the subject ; but although after the residence of upwards of half a century in Toronto, and being perhaps more familiar with the courts which have occurred during the last fifty years than many upon the platform, I was not " qualified " to take any part in the proceedings.
It is my intention, if I should receive the countenance and assistance of my brother " colonists," to endeavor to establish in British America a " Colonial Society," to which all British subjects, whether by birth or long residence in the colony — whose ancestors were the pioneers in the settlement of the colonies (after the separa- tion of those which now form the United States of America), may be admitted ; and I propose to report and record in a book the names of those "pioneers" who, after having fought and bled, and after sacrificing whatever property which they had possessed in the mother colonies, sought an asylum in those Provinces, where they and their descendants might enjoy British laws and institutions similar to those in the parent State. It is my intention to invite the few remaining of those loyal men, and the descendants of those who have departed, to transmit to me their names and the names of their respective ancestors who joined the Royal standard, and who afterwards emigrated to the " colonies. " It is my desire to place on record the public services (whether military or otherwise) of those men, and of their descendants, up to the present time, if such information can be obtained from reliable sources, and that such "record " be open to the inspection of the public. I know that there have been men in the colonies whose services in the olden time should not be forgotten, and I believe that there are some now living who, having taken an active part in most of the prominent acts of the Province, deserve to have those services placed on record.
Hart's " Army List " gives you a full account of every action in which a military man has been engaged, and thereby forms a record to which you may resort for information. Why should not the descendants of the "old settlers " have the means of recording the deeds of their ancestors ; why should we not have a record of the offices which they respectively filled, and the position which they held in the Provinces from the beginning ?
The meeting of last night will, I hope, have the effect of bringing out the feelings of the colonists as to the necessity of contributing a certain status in the Mother Country. Disguise it as you may, it is nevertheless true, that a "colonist" is not received with the same attention in Britain as a Yankee, " as certain persons holding office in Canada" will be enabled to state, and as a learned gentleman holding a high position in Canada has openly declared.
Let us hope, however, that after His Royal Highness' visit this complaint will no longer exist, and that colonists will be looked upon as not inferior to their fellow- subjects, but as fellow-subjects, though residing in a distant portion of the empire.
During the late session of the Legislature, which was held in Toronto, the claim of the Militia to be represented at Court was brought under the notice of French members of that honorable body, and as the English, Irish, Scotch, Guernsey, and Jersey Militia were represented by aides-de-camp to the Queen it was suggested that, if brought under her Majesty's notice, the same distinction might be extended to the
28 ONTARIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Militia of Canada. During the visit of Mr. (now Sir Henry) Smith, this matter was mentioned to his Grace the Secretary for the Colonies, and it was understood that such an honor would be conferred upon the Canadian Militia, by the appointment of two or more aides-de-camp. This has been done — and Sir A. MacNab, Bart., and Sir E. Tache have been selected to wear the honor.
I must apologize for the length of this communication— but I do feel that if the course of last night's proceedings should be adopted throughout Canada, great dissatisfaction will be the result.
I am, Sir,
Your obedient servant,
W. B. JARVIS. Toronto, August 22nd, 1860.
NATIVE CANADIANS.
(To the Editor of the Globe.)
Sm, — Having read in your issue of this morning a letter from our respected townsman, Mr. W. B. Jarvis, in reference to the meeting of "Native Canadians" which took place in the St. Lawrence Hall on the evening of the 21st inst., I will thank you to find space for a few words of explanation from me. On request, the Committee on Programme assigned to Native Canadians a place in the procession to be formed on the arrival of his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales at this city, and the meeting referred to was convened "to make arrangements" for joining such procession. The Canadian Legislature having invited His Royal Highness to this country, he should be able to say, on his return to his native land, that he had seen Canadians. This he could [not] do if the people turned out in one uniform mass, with- out banners, to distinguish those who were born in Canada from those who were not ; but the three national societies and other societies not of Canadian origin, in great numbers, will occupy a prominent position on the day of the Prince's arrival, showing that they are English, Irish or Scotch, or of such descent ; in other words, that they are not Canadians. We walk in the same procession in a separate body to show that we are Canadians, and not that we love the British Isles less, but Canadians more. This step will lay the foundation of a nationality, and give to the inhabitants of Canada a distinguishing name. That name we have earlier been entitled to, but let the people of Canada make up their minds to have it, and they will have it. The term " Native Canadians " has been used in contradistinction to Canadians by adoption, who will publicly demonstrate to the Prince that they are not natives of the soil ; but we will not exclude from our ranks any of our people who choose to wear our emblem, the "maple leaf," and appear as one of us. We trust that all Canadians, whether residents of Toronto or strangers in the city on the day of the Prince's arrival, instead of congregating on the corners of the streets to be pushed aside while the grand procession passes, or gazing from the house-tops, will join our ranks, in one of the most conspicuous places, of which we hope to find your worthy Canadian corres- pondent (though not a native Canadian), Mr. Jarvis. The place of rendezvous is between the Bank of Montreal and Ellah's hotel on Front Street ; and parties will hereafter be requested to assemble there an hour before the Prince will land, to proceed thence to the place assigned to them in the procession.
Mr. Jarvis says, " I do regret, Mr. Editor, that this meeting has passed off with
THE ORIGIN OF OUR MAPLE LEAF EMBLEM. 29
so little having been done towards the organization of a Colonial Society," in reply to which I can simply say, that the object of the meeting was not for that purpose. The question as to the expediency of forming a society could not, in propriety, have been discussed on that occasion, but even had the subject, by any irregular proceeding, become a matter of discussion, I should certainly have opposed it. The same objects which induce the national societies in this and other countries to perpetuate their existence would influence me, were I residing abroad with my fellow-countrymen, to organize a "Canadian Society," but at home I see no necessity for one. I am informed that there is 110 St. George's Society in England, St. Patrick's in Ireland, nor St. Andrew's in Scotland,— that they only exist in foreign countries.
In the fourth paragraph of Mr. Jarvis' letter he says, "It is my intention, if I should receive the countenance and assistance of my brother colonists, to endeavor to establish in British America, a Colonial Society, to which all British subjects, whether by birth or long residence in the colony, whose ancestors were the pioneers in the settlement of the colonies (after the separation of those which now form the United States of America), may be admitted." I implore all who, in the exercise of a wiser judgment than I possess, are in favor of a society, to consider well its name. The title which Mr. Jarvis would give it would be destructive to the cause of nationality, and prejudicial to our importance as a race. We have too long been known as colonists, and called by that name, and consequently I am not surprised at Mr. Jarvis stating ' ' that a * colonist ' is not received with the same attention in Britain as a Yankee." The Yankee has nationality, the Colonist none. We are more than colonists, having, as was stated in the address to His Royal Highness by the Legislative Council of Canada, "freedom in the management of our own affairs."
In conclusion, I must express my regret that I feel myself compelled so to differ from Mr. Jarvis. a gentleman who has always been zealous in the cause of Canada's progress, and whose position and experience entitle his opinions to every considera- tion and respect ; and I would fain hope that he will adhere to his original intention of joining us in the procession.
I have the honor to be, Sir,
Your obedient servant,
J. H. MORKIS. Toronto, August 23rd, 1860.
When His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales landed in Toronto some days after the night of the meeting above described, Native Canadians with maple leaves on their breasts, and branches in their hands, occupied the space assigned to them by request in the procession. I headed it, having on my right Mr. W. Gamble, named in the " Pro- ceedings/' but since deceased, and on my left Mr. William Willcocks Baldwin, the eldest son of the late Hon. Robert Baldwin, C.B., "father of responsible government in Canada/'
When we reached the platform on which the Prince stood, I called on Native Canadians to give three cheers for His Royal Highness, and they did so lustily; and from that moment the Maple Leaf became
30 ONTARIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
installed as the National Emblem of Canada, and so has been regarded up to the present hour. The masses wore it wherever the Prince went. There was a Citizens' Ball given in the Exhibition Buildings, and the insignia worn by Native Canadians who attended it were imita- tions of natural maple leaves, but made of solid silver. J. H. M.
NATIONAL SENTIMENT.
(From "The Empire," My 16th, 1890.)
SIR, — On the night of the 21st August, 1860, the St. Lawrence Hall in this city was filled with gentlemen who were born in Canada, and who met on that occasion to make arrangement to join in the procession to be formed on the arrival of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales at Toronto. Neither politics nor religion was part of the programme; but all united in the hope that from that night forward it would be clearly understood in Canada, and ere long in the United Kingdom, that the Canadians intended that at some future day they would be regarded by the Mother Country as a separate and distinct nation, possessing all the requisites for usefulness to her, and prepared for all the responsibilities which she might cast upon them. It was clearly stated by nearly every speaker (as will appear by reference to the papers which issued on the following morning) that our platform was " British Connection," and, although many of them have since been followed to their graves, those who survive still stand upon it with their then fixedness and aspirations.
Reference was made to the possibility of a confederation of the British North American provinces, on the consummation of which they " would be recognized as a great country added to the number of the great and free civilized countries of the world " (quoted from the speech of Mr. D. Reesor, now senator).
Confederation has taken place, and I copy a portion of the pre- amble to the " British North America Act, 1867," to show what was the professed understanding between the Imperial Government and our own : " Whereas the provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have expressed their desire to be federally united into one Dominion under the crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, with a constitution similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom;
THE ORIGIN OF OUR MAPLE LEAF EMBLEM. 31
" And whereas, such a union would conduce to the welfare of the provinces, and promote the interests of the British Empire;
" Be it therefore enacted," etc.
The Act closes with the following form of the oath of allegiance: " I, A.B., do swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty the Queen."
The above language admits of no other interpretation than that we were to be united to Great Britain by stronger ties than previous to the passing of the Act. But if it was tacitly understood, as has been hinted from time to time, that as soon as Confederation was perfected the Canadians were to ask for and be granted their independence, then the four Governments — I mean the British, Canadian, Nova Scotian and New Brunswick — have been guilty of deceit, and of placing on the statute books the above abstracted evidence of it. I repudiate such an insinuation. The only Acts of which I am aware, and which might lead to such a conclusion, are the tenantless and forlorn condition of the immense and costly fortifications on the Point Levis side of the St. Lawrence, and the display of unrequired bunting, having on one corner the time-honored Union Jack and on another something else, which I see daily fluttering over Government House in Toronto, and occasionally, at very long intervals, in less conspicuous places. The British soldier should have never been withdrawn from loyal Ontario if Canadian gold could have kept him here, nor should a " strange flag " have been issued from Ottawa until the British Queen should have withdrawn her sovereignty from the Dominion.
But what we want to comprehend is how we really stand with re- spect to Britain, and what we intend to do as Canadians to ascertain our position.
Mr. Blake, in his speech at Aurora on the 3rd of October last year, expressed unequivocally the intentions of a portion, if not the whole, of our nation, when referring to the relations of Canada to the Empire, and in the following words : " Upon this topic I took two or three years ago an opportunity of speaking, and ventured to suggest that an effort should be made to reorganize the Empire upon a Federal basis. I repeat what I then said, that the time may be at hand when the people of Canada shall be called upon to discuss the question. Matters cannot drift much longer as they have drifted hitherto."
It occurred to me when I first perused the Confederation Act that there was a grave omission in not having had in it a provision enabling
32 ONTARIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
us to approach the throne when prepared to do so; and to pray that a place may be provided in the British House of Commons for one or more representatives from the Dominion of Canada. Then there could not be any reasonable excuse for withholding such a clause, as the Act purported to give us what it did on the express faith that we were to be " British " and were to exist " under the Crown."
Before Confederation, and for all time previously, our public men, with few exceptions, were ornaments to the provinces, and conducted the affairs of their respective countries as gentlemen ought to do and thereby many became the recipients of royal favors.
Since Confederation, the wrongdoings and utterances of many of our public men. and by whom done and said are so well known to the advisers of Her Majesty that I fear the day for our trial must be de- ferred until we shall have proved ourselves to be a people that will de- nounce ruffianism, no matter in what guise it may appear. Britain would not now admit to the council chamber at Westminster such men as our public journals have introduced to the world, and in many in- stances not [ ?] deceitfully.
Mr. Goldwin Smith, in his speech delivered at the dinner of the committee and stockholders of the National Club, on the evening of the 8th October last, in referring to Imperial Confederation, said : " Not to mention other objections to this plan, I cannot believe that Great Britain will ever part with her individual control over her foreign policy." He may yet have to believe it, just as much as he now believes that Britain recently gave to President Grant the free navigation of our rivers, simply because he asked for it. When the time arrives, and we think our " skirts are clean," then we can respectfully ask our sovereign for what Mr. Blake referred to, and our proposition may be favorably considered, but need not be reproachfully rejected. Until that day let us carry out in its literal sense " the cultivation of a national sentiment," as to which so much has been written and said, and so little done since we embraced our sister provinces on the Atlan- tic and Pacific.
I mean by " the cultivation of a national sentiment " something more substantial and enduring than the ridiculous " hurrah for the "Union," which the Irish emigrant, two days after his arrival in New York, bellowed forth in a deafening key, to the great annoyance of native and loyal Americans.
I mean by " the cultivation of a national sentiment," the considera-
THE ORIGIN OF OUR MAPLE LEAF EMBLEM. 33
tion of all those attributes of virtue which constitute its brilliancy, and the building of our nationalship thereupon.
The foundation of a national sentiment should be respect for the memory of dead heroes, and on this subject I addressed a letter in the year 1873 to the Mail newspaper, in which my views were fully em- bodied. I suggested that the time had arrived when our country should look back on the record of some of her heroes and perpetuate their memory in a suitable manner. Such a step would instil respect for us in the hearts of strangers in our midst, and be a stimulus to the young men of the country to live in the hope of deserving their country's gratitude.
On the south side of Lake Ontario, and on an eminence overlooking the country where the conflict took place in 1812 between 'Great Britain's enemy and the defenders of her and their flag, stands a stately column erected in honor of the gallant officer whose name is inscribed on it. Eastward, two hundred miles and more, on the northern bank of the River St Lawrence, is situated a town second in importance to none in the Dominion, where many of the first men in Canada passed their childhood, and which bears the name of the same deceased glorified soldier. The mere mention, therefore, of the name of General Brock produces a meditative impression on every Canadian.
During the war two young native Canadians, the sons of U.E. Loyalists, took a prominent part, and both were present at the surren- der of Detroit, one as captain on the staff of General Brock, and the other of a similar rank in the cavalry. The latter fought with General Brock at Queenston Heights, and subsequently at Lundy's Lane, when he was made a prisoner and transported into the interior of the State of !N~ew York, where he remained until peace had been proclaimed. The A.D.C. was the late Sir John Beverly Robinson, and the prisoner on parole the late Honorable William Hamilton Merritt. Their record is known to the British world, and with pride. But no column tells the passing stranger through our country that Great Britain's fame has been glistened by the heroic lives of these two gentlemen. The name of the former, before his death was added, and most deservedly so, to the scroll of fame in Britain; but the latter, although he channelled the blood-stained fields on which in his youth he had fought and enabled the British gunboats to circumvent the great cataract at Niagara, and anchor in the waters of Lake Erie, yet his country's gratitude remains to be proved. 3
34 ONTARIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Recently and unexpectedly the legal representative of the late Mr. Merritt received from the surviving British shareholders in the Welland Canal (and there are very few now living) a magnificent testi- monial, of a substantial nature, of their respect for his great and good father. An act worthy of Britons.
If the " cultivation of the national sentiment " is to mean the for- getfulness of our heroes after their usefulness shall have ceased, then we must remain as we are, in a cauldron of perpetual effervescence, and the man of the day will be the self-seeking political demagogue, or the boastful possessor of wealth, who may not be over-scrupulous as to the means whereby he acquired it.
I will close this lengthy letter by finally suggesting that if " the cultivation of a national sentiment " in reality means the adoption of such a political course as will detach us from Great Britain at as early a day as can be discovered, then if the sense of the native Canadians; and Canadians by adoption in Ontario, be taken on the question, if I am to judge by the spirit which they manifested during the Prince's visit here in 1860, there will be few supporters of the movement.
We want to rise in the manner set forth by Mr. Blake in his speech to which I have above referred, and not to fall, as must happen if our Governor-General is to be selected from our public men, and the flag of Britain lowered forever from Rideau Hall.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
JAMES HENRY MORRIS. Toronto, April 2nd, 1875.
MONUMENTS TO THE DEAD. (From " The Empire" July 16th, 1890.)
A letter written fifteen years ago by Mr. Morris, Q.C., of this city, and which we publish elsewhere, contains a suggestion that cannot be put forward too often in public attention. The wisdom and the duty of erecting monuments to perpetuate the memory of our great men has often been discussed, as often admitted, and too frequently allowed to drop without action being taken. Something, it is true, has been done since 1875, but not enough. In several cities of the Dominion statues have been raised in memory of our brave volunteers who have shown for all time the stuff that Canadian patriotism is made of. They con-
THE ORIGIN OF OUR MAPLE LEAF EMBLEM. 35
stitute enduring tokens of the sympathy of the people with courage, and the popular approval of the cause they fought for. ~Not long ago in this city at the decoration of the monument in Queen's Park the feeling was expressed that the tangible embodiment of stirring events and brave men formed a rallying point for national sentiment, and stimulated men of the present to be worthy of the past. The monu- ment to General Brock on the Queenston Heights is a fitting com- memoration of deeds that ought to stir the heart of every Canadian. Nelson's monument in Montreal, the memorial to the brave De Sala- berry and others are indications of what might be done. Who can question the right of the great Dr. Ryerson to a statue within the environments of our Education Department, and what inspiration does it not create in those who look upon it and reflect on the career of the man ? There are many great Canadians who have not been honored in this way, but whose achievements richly deserve such commemoration. It is time we were thinking more seriously of these things, for the measure of our own respect for our history and heroes is the measure of the respect of others towards us.
III.
THE COUNT DE PUISAYE.
A Forgotten Page of Canadian History. BY Miss JANET CABNOCHAN.*
Although the population of our Province of Ontario has been mainly recruited from the Mother Land (after the first settlement of the U. E. Loyalists), there have been, at different times, groups of settlers in particular spots, as of Highlanders in Glengarry under Bishop McDonnell, of English agricultural laborers, of those who fled from the famine and fever in Ireland after the Repeal of the Corn Laws. There was, too, a German settlement in the year 1794 under Berczy, of sixty families settled near Markham ; we also read of Gov- ernor Simcoe bringing from Russia men to teach the cultivation of hemp, and in the archives is a notice of a letter from the widow of one of these, her husband having died of a broken heart, his services being rejected when he reached London. And in our own day, though not in our province, the settlement at Gimli, Manitoba, of Icelanders, some of whom were remembered by Lord Dufferin, he having met them, de- scribed in his inimitable " Letters from High Latitudes " ; and, later, the settlement of Doukhobors in the North-west. But it is not gener- ally known that, after that frightful convulsion known as the French Revolution, when heads fell and blood flowed like water, there was an attempt to bring a colony of French refugees to find a home in Upper Canada, not far from this spot. That it failed is certain, and but few traces now remain.
Many years ago, when I heard the phrase used, " near the old French count's house," referring to a building about three miles from Niagara, on the river road to Queenston, the words conveyed nothing definite, little more than a legend or myth, with slight founda- tion in fact — little imagining that, at a later date, I should be engaged
* Read at a General Meeting of the Ontario Historical Society, in Toronto, August 30th, 1901.
36
THE COUNT DE PUISAYE. 37
in tracing from various sources the history of the leader of this colon- izing scheme, and the fate of his company of Frenchmen. The sources of information are fourfold: First, tradition; which, although having a substratum of fact, cannot always be relied upon, as from an un- important circumstance a wonderful structure of mingled fact and fancy often arises. Second, actual history ; references in works of that day relating to it. Third, original letters and documents preserved in the Archives of Canada, or in the possession of private individuals. Fourth, traces left; as of houses built, or pictures of that period.
We find that the Count de Puisaye was an historical character men- tioned in Lamartine, Thiers, Carlyle, Allison, the Annual Eegister, in their account of the French Revolution, but it is from the Dominion Archives in Ottawa that we derive the most complete and accurate information of his connection with the history of our country.
When in Ottawa a few months ago, in that wonderful room, lined from floor to ceiling with bound volumes of original documents, public and private letters, containing the hidden history of our country, I found references to the Count de Puisaye, and since then found, in the voluminous reports of several years, the history of the Count. From all these sources, we see a noble, pathetic and tragic figure, a man who had suffered much — had seen his friends of noble birth and his king and queen perish by the guillotine; in his command of the army in La Vendee had seen his force scattered and defeated; worse than all, was called a traitor by his own party, his name held in execration (unjustly, as we believe), his scheme in a foreign land fail, some of his party blam- ing him with misrepresentation, his last days in England sad and lonely, embittered with controversy, and he dying in obscurity.
The youngest son of a noble family, Count Joseph de Puisaye was born in 1755, intended for the Church, but entering the army at eigh- teen, soon had a command in the Swiss Guards. In the Convention of the States General, he was the representative of the nobles of La Perche, and at first took the popular side, advocated reforms, and sup- ported the demands of the Tiers Etats, but, alarmed at the excesses of the ultras, was soon engaged in raising an army to secure the safety of the -king in 1791. In 1792 he was obliged to flee, a price being set on his head, but he was the heart and soul of the rising in Brittany, and in 1794 was in communication with the British Government, and urged the landing of 10,000 men, with which he would answer for the re- establishment of the Royalist cause. Accordingly, a French corps of
38 ONTARIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
6,000 emigres in the pay of Great Britain, with a force of artillery from London and arms and clothing for 80,000 men to be raised in France, landed; one corps under command of the Count de Puisaye. From the first this seems to have been an ill-fated expedition. The leaders quarrelled as to which was to have the chief command. On landing at Quiberon Bay, it was found that the force in the interior had received a check, orders were sent from the Royalist Commission in Paris to attempt no movement till the arrival of the fleet.
Notwithstanding the heroic bravery of the emigrants, the royal cause sustained a crushing defeat, and, after the capitulation at Qui- beron, the Convention ordered a massacre of the prisoners, which in- human order was carried out, as told most vividly in Allison's history of Europe. For this defeat De Puisaye was blamed, the absurd charge being believed that he had acted in complicity with the British Govern- ment and betrayed the cause of France, and his influence was com- pletely destroyed, and, after attempting unsuccessfully to form another force, we find that in 1797 he applied to the British Government to form a Royalist settlement in Canada. For the description of the part he took in France, we are chiefly indebted to the lucid summary of our accomplished archivist, Dr. Brymner, but a few quotations may be made from European historians. Carlyle speaks of the Count in sneering terms, but we know that the strenuous Chelsea sage was sometimes unjust and intolerant. First, in 1793, when " he was roused from his bed and galloped away without his boots" ; " and second, in 1795, at Quiberon, where " war thunder mingled with the war of the mighty main, and such a morning light as has seldom dawned, debarka- tion hurled back into its boats, or into the devouring billows with wreck and wail; in one word, a ci-devant Puesaye as totally ineffectual here as at Calvados." Lamartine, too, does scant justice, ranking De Pui- saye as an adventurer rather than a hero, yet acknowledges that he was at once an orator, a diplomatist, and a soldier, but says that " he spent a whole year concealed in a cavern in the midst of the forests of Brit- tany," but we recall that many heroes of ancient and modern days have been compelled to hide in caves, whence they sometimes issued to the dismay and loss of their pursuers. Thiers, however, in his history of the French Revolution, does him more justice, as " with great intelli- gence and extraordinary skill in uniting the elements of a party, he combined extreme activity of mind and vast ambition," and " it was certain that Puisaye had done all that lay in his power." Allison says
THE COUNT DE PUISAYE. 39
in his " History of Europe " : " Puisaye, whose courage rose with the difficulties with which he was surrounded, resolved to make an effort to raise the blockade. Full of joy and hope, he gave the signal for the assault, and the emigrant battalions advanced with the utmost intre- pidity to the foot of the redoubts." And in a letter, 30th July, 1798, from Eight Hon. Mr. Windham to President Russell, the first part of it is devoted to defending the character of the Count de Pui- saye. This he does in the strongest terms, as he had known him through all the transactions : " On the whole of his conduct I can speak with a degree of knowledge that does not admit of the possibility of my being mistaken, and I would vindicate him from every shadow of im- putation attempted to be fixed upon him, but in the strongest manner assert his merits, knowing the calumnies circulated against him are un- founded, and incurred by conduct which we must feel to be highly meritorious."
Bonnechose, in " Lazare Hoche," refers to De Puisaye, and defends his conduct at Quiberon : " Few men have shown more indefatigable activity, as much adaptability, as persevering a purpose, as great firm- ness, or were as well fitted to triumph over all obstacles. . . The most skilful was the Count, who, in London, where he had been for six months, held in his hands all the threads of the web woven so skilfully. . . His flight should not be considered as an act of treachery."
All this evidence must surely vindicate the Count, and show that he was innocent and, like many others, suffered the fate of the unsuc- cessful— to be blamed.
But we come now to his connection with Canada, and the history of his abortive attempt to found a military colony, which is little known.
Britain, that asylum of the exiles of all lands, was generous in material help, and we find this given as a reason for the colonizing scheme, that the country would thus be relieved of heavy payments to support the poor among the emigres. In the archives there is a sketch, " political and financial," of the proposed settlement, undated and un- signed, but it is believed that it was drawn up by De Puisaye. It is a well-written, business-like document, giving reasons for the formation, of what to consist, how denominated, when and by what means carried into execution, on what fund are first advances taken, how is the land to be cleared, how are requisite buildings to be constructed, where are the workmen to be found, of what number is the force to consist. " British generosity has already shown itself in a conspicuous light by
40 ONTARIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
providing, in ,a temporary manner, for the relief of those unfortunate victims of the French Revolution, to whom the British Government has granted an asylum. I am ignorant of the precise number of emi- grants now living on the generosity of Britain. I only know the sum allotted for their existence. The outline of the plan was to form in the southern part of Canada a settlement for French emigrants, suffi- cient means of subsistence granted them, and sufficient land to provide for their maintenance distributed among them, all expenses for the first three years advanced by Government, after that the proprietors to pay to the Governor of Canada one-seventh of their crops till full pay- ment of the advance was made. The fund for the maintenance of the emigrants in Britain to be called on for the first advance of fifteen thousand pounds. The work of clearing the land to be done by soldiers, the force was to consist of two battalions, two hundred men to do mili- tary service, and the rest to clear the land and construct buildings, part of the force to be sent on ahead to construct barracks. Two hundred pounds to be provided for each farm for building, tools, furniture, clearing land (twenty acres), the priests under forty years might assist in their own buildings, and in the labor least fatiguing of husbandry. The emigrants were the first year not to exceed three or four hundred. The colonel of the regiment to be at the head of the colony under thet Governor-General. ' '
This plan reads well on paper, but like many such, the realization fell far short of the anticipation, as instead of three or four hundred, only forty-four embarked, and several of these soon dropped out, and many returned the next year.
In a letter from the Duke of Portland to President Russell, July 5th, 1798, is mentioned that M. de Puisaye, with about forty French Royalists, is about to embark, land is to be given them in the propor- tions granted to the American Loyalists, M. de Puisaye to be ranked as a field officer, others in proportion, and the rest as privates, they were to be furnished in Britain with the necessary funds. Another paper gives the regulations for the colony, the corps to consist of major, commandant, two captains, two lieutenants, four sub-lieutenants, one adjutant. All to have been field officers previous 'to 1798 ; one Q.M., one chaplain, one surgeon, one surgeon's mate, six sergeants, eight corporals, one hundred privates ; the term of service to be three years. Two days' work for the officers in the colony, four days for each indivi- dual, one day for religious and military duty. The grant of lands speci-
THE COUNT DE PUISAYE. 41
fied for each, also for relatives, as father, mother, wife, child, sister, niece, nephew. The government to furnish tools, clothing, rations. Those who had served in the Royalist army to be chosen first. One object to be aimed at was to keep the settlement separate from any other body of French.
In a letter from Russell to the Duke of Portland, York, November 3rd, 1798 : " Have this day received a letter from M. Puisaye, telling of his arrival in Quebec on 7th ult, with some general, field, and sub- altern officers, a few soldiers, and two ladies, in all forty persons ; have despatched a letter to meet him in Kingston, warning him of the im- possibility of providing accommodation in this town for so large a number of respectable personages, requesting him to stop at Kingston, or send part to Newark, which, being older settlements, may lodge them better. I shall be happy to meet him here for consultation.77 In a letter from President Russell to the Duke of Portland, 21st November, 1798 : " Have selected the vacant land, with De Puisaye7s approbation, between this town and Lake Simcoe, as a situation equally distant from Lower Canada and the French settlements at the Detroit River. Have directed the Surveyor-General to lay out four townships north of Mark- ham, Pickering and Whitby.77 This region, a continuation of Yonge Street, was called Oak Ridges.
In the Archives is given:
" A list of the Royalists gone from London with Count Joseph de Puisaye for Canada: Lt-Gen. Joseph de Puisaye; Count de Chalus, Major-General; D'Allegre, Col.; Marquis de Beaupoil, Col.; Viscount de Chalus, Col. ; Coster de St. Victor, Col. ; De Marseuil, Lt.-Col. ; Bouton, Capt. ; De Farcy, Capt. ; De Poret, Capt. ; Guy de Beaupoil, Lieut. ; Lambert de la Richerie, Lieut ; Hippolyte de Beaupoil, Lieut. ; Champagne, Nathaniel Thompson, John Thompson, John Ficerel (lost in Montreal), Thomas Jones (lost in Quebec), Joseph Donavant, Abraham Berne, Pardeveux, Fauchard, Renoux, Segent, Bugle, Auguste (dead at Quebec), Polard, Letourneux, Langel, Bagot, Rene Fouquet (lost at Plymouth), Marchand, William Smithers (of the latter we shall hear hereafter). Women: Madam Marquise de Beau- poil, Viscountess de Chalus, Mrs. Smithers, Mary Donavant (lost at Quebec, replaced by Saly Robinson), Catharine Donavant (lost in Quebec, replaced by Catharina), Betsy (lost in Plymouth, re- placed by Barbe), Francoise Letourneux (lost). Total, 44. Lost 10, leaving 34. Put in place of lost men, 4. Total, 38."
42 ONTARIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
From a letter in de Puisaye's own hand we find that he reached Montreal in October, 1798, Kingston, October 29th. They had fine weather for travelling and orders had been given that every atten- tion was to be paid to the emigrants on their arrival. Left Montreal on the 18th, and Lachine on the 20th of October, with twelve bateaux loaded with furniture. They were, says Commissary-Gen. Clarke, as comfortably provided as possible, and went off, to all appearances, in good spirits and well satisfied, but they had been tampered with on their way from Quebec, being told they had better stay there, as they were going to a sickly, bad country. Some stayed at Kingston, but others sailed from there on November 16th, and a letter 17th January, 1799, dated Windham, near York, from de Puisaye, says " the land is every day being cleared of the trees and that in the course of a month a village has been built," which he hoped would become a con- siderable town, and asks the General's leave to name it Hunter. Per- mission was also asked to use the name Windham in honor of these officials. In a postscript he acknowledged the receipt of a letter from Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, the father of our late lamented Queen. Meanwhile, for those who had been left at Kingston, application for boats to carry them to York was made in March, and De Chalus re- ports the progress made by de Puisaye more fully than he himself had done : " On 14th February eighteen houses were built in Windham, but not finished inside. It was hoped twenty-five would be ready by spring, and enough land cleared to give a small crop of wheat, potatoes, etc. De Puisaye had undertaken another settlement at the head of Lake Ontario at the mouth of a small river, navigable for boats, called the Riviere de Niagara." This was put in charge of De Chalus and all de Puisaye' s letters after this are so dated. In a letter from Gen. Hunter to the Duke of Portland, 16th of October, 1799, is another reference to Niagara. " The Count de Puisaye does not remain with the emigrants, but has purchased a farm near Niagara, where he, his housekeeper, the Count de Chalus, John Thompson and Marchand, their servant, reside. The Marquis de Beaupoil, having some mis- understanding with the Count de Puisaye, or not finding the enterprise suitable to his expectations, has decided to return to England with M. St. Victor. I enclose a statement from Mr. Angus McDonnell, their friend and agent at York, from this it may be seen that only twenty- five men remain in Upper Canada, viz., five at Niagara, and twenty at Windham. The latter have cleared forty or fifty acres, but are totally
THE COUNT DE PUISAYE. 43
destitute of funds, and have asked wheat and barley to sow the land, which I have given. There are also twenty-one Canadian artificers, laborers, etc., employed by them, to whom rations are given."
A statement of the actual situation of the French emigres: — Eesiding at Niagara, 5, to wit, Count de Puisaye, Lt. -General; Count de Chalus, Major-General ; Marchand, a private ; Mrs. Smithers, house- keeper to Count de Puisaye; John Thompson, servant to Count de Puisaye.
Settled at Markham, M. d'Allegre, and Nos. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 13 of first list and Madame Viscountess de Chalus. Abandoned the enterprise, 16, among whom are Marquis de Beaupoil and Madame la Marquise de Beaupoil. Betsy, the servant girl, and William Smithers, it is said, also returned, but we find their names again as still in Canada.
Notwithstanding the cheerful prospects in the letter of De Chalus, we see all were not satisfied, as a letter from the Marquis de Beaupoil asks permission to leave and come to Lower Canada, asking leave to go to Riviere du Loup, till he would exchange his wild land for a small piece of cleared land, or obtain money to take him to Europe. A letter from Coster St. Victor, 12th May, 1799, contained similar state- ments, which explain the reference by Gen. Hunter to a misunder- standing, but it appears from the plan laid down for the settlement, that de Puisaye was not to blame. The letter is robustly frank in tone : " You are fully aware, General, that in this country the man brought up and inured to the labors of the field is assured of obtaining his subsistence by his labors ; that the rich man who brings capital may even, by paid labor, find means of support in agriculture ; but he who has neither strength nor money, if he borrow to clear the land, certain of never repaying, has no other prospect than that of losing his time, his land, his liberty, his family, and his probity. When the Count de Puisaye proposed to me to come with him to Canada, he told me that there would be a military corps in which I should command the gentlemen emigrants who were to come there; that the Eoyalists who would arrive to form it would labor in common for their officers as for themselves ; and he required from me only a letter of request to be his authority in applying to the Minister. But the military corps in which I should have found a salary, those peasants of Brittany whose arms were to assist me, are but a chimerical hope ; it is only here I have obtained proof of this. This deception places me, with my family,
44 ONTARIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
in the most heartrending situation that we have experienced since we have been emigrants." We find from the Archives that passports were applied for by Hon. Eichard Cartwright for Marquis de Beau- poil, St. Aulaire, and M. Coster de St. Victor to return to Europe.
The grants of land in Windham were: Count de Puisaye, 850 acres; Count de Chalus, 650; D'Allegre, 450; Viscount de Chalus, 350; Marseuil, 300; Quetton St. George, 400; Farcy, 350; Kenault, Capt., 150; Segent, 150; Fouchard, Feuron, Langel, Bugle, Mar- chand, 100 each.
John Eoss Eobertson, in his " Landmarks of Toronto/' gives the position of the land held by many of the emigres. On the map of 1798 a range of nine lots on each side of Yonge Street is marked " French Eoyalists," and in one of the letters of Surveyor Jones the spot is marked as " Puisaye' s Farm."
Of his life on the Niagara Eiver only a glimpse here and there from the Archives could be obtained, but by one of the strange coinci- dences that are constantly occurring in our historical work, I have quite unexpectedly, within the last few days, been fortunate enough to obtain many interesting particulars. When asked a few weeks ago to read a paper to your honorable body, I was engaged in going systematically through the printed volumes of the Archives for any- thing relating to Niagara, and finding much that was new to me relating to the Count de Puisaye, said, " Here is my subject." Thinking it would be interesting to bring the picture of the house with me, I won- dered if in any place in Canada could be found a picture of the Count. The very next day a gentleman called to say that he had seen the stone placed by our Historical Society, and had a picture of the Count and Countess, copies of which he would present to us, and by the kindness of Mr. G. S. Grifiin you now see these, they being family portraits, the Countess having been his great aunt. I cannot tell the delight with which I welcomed these pictures, coming, as they do, so opportunely, and the information emanating from this source. Sir Eichard Cart- wright has lately placed in the Library of Queen's University, the letter-book of his grandfather, Hon. E. Cartwright, who was the banker or legal adviser of the Count de Puisaye, who placed in his hands four or five thousand pounds, drawing interest at five per cent., and apparently all . his business was transacted through this agency, goods purchased, etc. These letters, by the kindness of Principal Grant, have been loaned to Mr. Justus Grifiin, Secretary of the Wentworth
THE COUNT DE PUISAYE. 45
Historical Society, and son of Mr. G. S. Griffin, and by the kindness of both of these gentlemen I am furnished with many interesting par- ticulars. The letters extend from April, 1799, to November 4th, 1801 ; there are nearly a score of letters from Cartwright to the Count, most of them in French; also a number of letters to the Count de Chalus, who seems to have acted sometimes as his secretary, and in letters to Messrs. McGill, of Montreal, and to Hon. E. Hamilton, Queenston, are references to the Count's affairs. First comes the reference to buying the property at Niagara, May 16th, 1799 : " The General, after staying for a month at the head of the lake, has bought Mr. Sheehan's place on the Niagara Eiver between Queenston and the Fort." September 16th, 1799, K. Cartwright says : " I have sent to a milliner at Montreal the models and samples with an order to send the goods as soon as possible." The milliner's materials must have been for Mrs. Smithers, the General's mother-in-law, who presided over his household. " I have also written to Messrs McGill to send for mares, donkeys, the harness and guinea hens. The sheep and turkeys I expect to get here." Another letter speaks of melon and other garden seeds, and of import- ing shrubs and trees. Again comes a reference that shows he had one or more negro slaves. Although the act of 1793 arranged for the doing away of slavery, children who were slaves were not to be free till a certain age. A letter of Cartwright speaks of having bought for him for " cent piastres," " une petite negresse." Again he thanks de Puisaye for a present of peaches which were excellent, and which Madam Cartwright pronounced delicious. In connection with this, Mr. Warren, one of the late owners of the place, informs me that there were old pear trees with most delicious fruit ; although skilled in fruit- culture, he did not know the name, and has never seen any similar varieties. The Count was very anxious to build a windmill; whether he succeeded is not known. Many passages in the letters speak of the machinery and other material, and abound in excuses for non- arrival, and difficulty of getting workmen to build it. There seems, too, to have been a great deal of difficulty about a large iron kettle, which finally arrived. One letter speaks of a young French-Canadian girl whom he had induced to go up on next ship as a servant, but next letter says she absolutely refused to go.
Several of the letters refer to the Marquis de Beaupoil, who must have visited Cartwright before leaving the country, and for whom he shows much commiseration, as " I have taken the liberty to give one
46 ONTARIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
of the boats to the Marquis de Beaupoil, so as to get down in time. The Commandant here will give us a King's boat in return, at all events the finances of the unfortunate gentleman will not admit of any other remuneration." And, " He left here several days ago with the inten- tion to return to Europe, Madame and the son to remain in Lower Canada for a time. They left in my hands a bed of feathers all new, a large mattress little used, and a good white counterpane, the wood of the bed and the curtain complete, to sell; the whole valued at fifty- six pounds." In one letter the General directs Messrs. McGill, Mon- treal, to give the Count de Chalus five hundred pounds cy. credit, having gone into keeping a general store for the use of the colony.
It is not supposed the Countess ever came to Canada, but that she died previous to 1798. Her maiden name was Susanne Smithers, and her mother, the Mrs. Smithers in the list, presided over the Count's household. The William Smithers in the list was his brother-in-law, who came out at the age of seventeen, but changed his name to William Kent, from his native county, and started business on his own account.
In a letter to Hon. E. Hamilton, Mr. Cartwright speaks of de Puisaye7 s young friend, Mr. Kent, and in another to the Count, of having supplied goods to Mr. Kent, and given instructions to him, as requested by the Count. The last of these letters to de Puisaye was written October 31st, 1801, in English, and apparently closes their business transactions, Mr. Cartwright having returned to the Count in cash and drafts all the balance due him. These letters give the little personal items which form a pleasing break in a dry historical paper.
In a letter from de Puisaye, in his own hand, dated Riviere de Niagara, May 24th, 1801, addressed to General Hunter, he says, " My plan is to leave towards the end of autumn for England; I will be occupied till then with the composition of a work of some extent which should be made public," supposed to be a history of the French Royalist party during the Revolution. Dr. Benjamin states, " The only work I can find traces of is one in six volumes published in London from 1803 to 1808, entitled " Memoires qui pourront servir a 1'histoire du parti royaliste Erangais durant la derniere revolution."
A few more traces are found in the Archives. In 1799 a proposal by the Mississagua Indians through Brant, to cede five miles along the lake to make 69,120 acres, on condition that it is granted to de Puisaye to be paid for at one shilling and three pence, Halifax cy.,
THE COUNT DE PUISAYE. 47
per acre. This proposal was not accepted by the Government. In the minutes of the House is a request from the Count for the Government tavern on the beach at the head of the lake. This had been pledged to Wm. Bates till next October, but he, de Puisaye, might deal privately with Bates or establish another tavern equally commodious, a request from Bates to extend his lease and renewed application from de Puisaye in 1799 and 1800, and later on it is seen that he bought the land on which the Government House stood, three hundred acres, on which were salt wells, from which his heirs sold salt during the war at $10.00 per barrel. Mr. Griffin remembers that on the farm at the beach was a fine orchard of apple, peach, pear and plum trees, with delicious fruit. Whether the present house there was built by the Count or Mr. Kent is not known. In 1801 some trouble arose between the Count and Angus McDonnell, and he was to attend at York with his witnesses to sustain his charges against McDonnell; evidence was taken and the dismissal of the latter was recommended.
A later letter in the Archives from de Puisaye in England, is dated 14th February, 1803, stating that two volumes of his Memoires would be published that week, of which copies would be sent. He proposes to return to Canada, but not for another year; but it is not supposed this hope was realized. He speaks of detractors, even in Canada, M. de Chains being of the number, but still begs the Government to continue its goodness to the emigrants.
Of his last days we know little. Not being allowed to return to Prance during the short peace of 1814, he became naturalized in England and died in 1827 at Blythe House, near Hammersmith, aged seventy-three. A pathetic reference is found in the Archives — the last we find from himself — dated June, 1818, to the Canadian Government: " Had waited eighteen months, so as to give time for information. At his age, and broken down in health, he had not expected to survive that time. The Government appropriated his place on the Niagara River for a hospital for the troops, and has occupied his house at York (which was burned down) as public property. For neither of these has he been paid, nor any compensation made."
His property was willed to William Smithers Kent, and another brother of the Countess, who went to India. Mr. Kent went to England several times to see the Count after his return there, the last time being in 1827, and de Puisaye then gave him his heavily gold-mounted Damascus sword, which had been presented to him by
48 ONTARIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
his friend the great statesman, William Pitt. This valuable relic bears the following inscription, " Given by Win. Pitt to General Count Joseph de Puisaye, 1794."
The sword was exhibited at the Historical Loan Exhibit of 1897, by Rev. M. S. Griffin, D.D., of Toronto. The Count must have been possessed of considerable property, as besides the land in Windham, the farm of two hundred acres near Niagara, the three hundred acres bought from Augustus Jones, Prov. Land Surveyor, including the salt- wells at the beach, he also had a house in Toronto, as in the letter- book is an acknowledgment of thirty pounds, three shillings, and three pence from the Chief Justice, as rent for his house in York. And he owned besides a house in Hammersmith, all left to William Kent, who lived for some time on the farm near Niagara, as afterwards did his son, Joseph Kent. The will of the Count is in possession of Mr. G. S. Griffin. In 1830, three years after his death, his heirs made a claim that five thousand acres had been given to the Count in 1Y98, of which only 850 acres had been received by him, and asking for the remaining 4,150 acres. Referred to H. M. Government.
In the Annual Register of 1796 is found some reference to his personal appearance:
" Count Joseph de Puisaye was still less distinguished by high birth than by those advantages which he derived from nature and education. His natural talents, of no common order, had been culti- vated with the greatest assiduity, and with a success proportioned to the care bestowed upon them. Well informed, capable of laborious application, master of a ready and powerful eloquence, full of resources, and never deserted by his presence of mind, he seemed destined to be the leader of a party. To these mental qualifications he added some corporeal ones which, though inferior, were highly useful. His manners were dignified, yet prepossessing; his person was graceful, his stature tall and commanding/7 With this description the portrait painted and engraved in Plymouth corresponds, and with the description some- times given of a fine-looking, courtly gentleman of the old school. These pictures — the Count, a steel engraving, and the Countess, an oil painting — are in the possession of Mrs. Horning, Dundas, a great-grand- daughter of William Smithers Kent.
In the Jarvis letters, published in No. 8 of the Niagara His- torical Society, there is a reference to his personal appearance. Mrs. Jarvis says : " Having entertained him at dinner in Niagara, January
THE COUNT DE PUISAYE. 49
31st, 1799, I like him very much. He is, I think, much like Governor Simcoe in point of size and deportment, and is, without exception, the finest looking man I ever saw."
A few references are found regarding some of the other members of the party. For most of these we are indebted to " Toronto of Old," by the venerated Dr. Scadding. As, " At the balls of the Governor and others at York, the jewels of Madame la Comtesse de Beaupoil created a great sensation, wholly surpassing everything of the kind that had been seen by the ladies of Upper Canada." A descendant of Count de Chalus retains property here, but resides in Montreal, and so far as known, the descendants of only one other family are now represented in Canada (besides those of Wm. Smithers). In St. Mark's Register in the Marriage notices is that of one member of the party: " December 6th, 1802, Ambroise de Farcy and Ellen Wey- mouth." Quetton St. George became a very successful merchant in York, returned to France when Louis XVIII. succeeded to the thone, and in 1869 his descendant returned to Canada, and, when Dr. Scad- ding wrote, was exercising a refined hospitality at Glen Lonely. He says Quetton St. George was of the noblesse, as all officers in France were then obliged to be. The name was originally M. Quetton, but as an exile landing in England on St. George's Day, in gratitude he added the Saint's name, making his full name M. Quetton St. George. He traded with the Indians and had a post at Orillia. In the Niagara Herald, August Tth, 1802, his advertisement reads thus : " New store at the house of the French General between Niagara and Queen- ston. Messrs. Quetton St. George & Co. have goods from New York to be sold at the lowest prices for ready money, for from the uncertainty of their residing for any time in these parts they cannot open accounts with any person. Dry goods, groceries, tools, trunks, empty barrels, etc." " A similar assortment to the above may be had at their store at the French General's House, between Niagara and Queenston." — June 18th, 1803.
The " Co." was M. de Farcy. In 1811 there is a petition of De Farcy asking to have their grants given them, also a memorial of Quetton St. George in French, and another in English, and in August, 1812, the Count de Puisaye asks Commissioners to inquire into his claims, and those of other Royalists. A special charter of denization had to be given.
An advertisement in the Upper Canada Gazette, December 15th,
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1804, unearthed by J. J". Murphy, Crown Lands Dept, to whom I am indebted for copying it.
"TAKE NOTICE.
* * On the first day of February next will be sold at Public Sale by the Subscribers who are duly authorized to dispose of the same, at the House of the Count de Puisaye, the Household furniture and books belonging to that gentleman, a list of which will hereafter be
given in this paper.
"DE FARCY.
"QUETTON ST. GEORGE."
In the issue of Upper Canada Gazette, January 12th, 1805, appears the list of furniture.
"List of Household Furniture which will be sold at the House of the Count de Puisaye at Niagara on the 1st Feb. next :
"Mahogany Chest of Drawers, Chairs, Sopha, do.; Large Look- ing Glasses, Middling size do. Pictures and Copper Plates ; Turkey Carpets, Common do. ; two clocks, one of which is a Chime Clock and plays twelve different tunes ; Kitchen Utensils, Horses, Waggons, etc., etc.
" Books.— Buffon's 'Natural History,' 54 vols. (French); Rap- pin's 'Hist, of England,' 28 vols. (Eng.) ; Salmon's * Traveller,' in folio, 2 vols., do. ; ' Dictionary of Arts and Sciences,' 2 vols. ; Pope, Shakespeare, 4- to., 2 vols.; * Modern Architecture,' 4-to., 2 vols.; 10 vols. Du President, De Thou, and a great number of Novels too tedious to mention."
We wonder who bought the Chime Clock, and if it is yet in existence.
All that remains is to give some slight description of the residence of the Count de Puisaye. What induced him to settle on the Niagara, we know not, except the beautiful situation. He certainly selected an ideal spot on which to build a house, which still stands, after a lapse of over a hundred years. To be exact, half of it stands, for some years ago half of it was taken down and the foundation stones can still be traced.
Originally a long, low building, about eighty feet in length, by twenty-four in width, with dormer windows and steep, sharply sloping roof, as seen in Norman French houses, there are now two windows on each side of the door, and above are three dormer windows, back and front; so it is likely there were eight windows below and six dormer windows above in front. There are still two old fireplaces, and there had been probably three or four. Built against one end is a curious
t THE COUNT DE PUISAYE. 51
fire-proof structure of brick, with walls three feet thick, and at one side, supported by three stone buttresses. The vaulted interior has two divisions with no connection with each other, entered from opposite sides, and with a thick division wall of brick. Various are the opinions as to the use of this — what is generally called " the vault.7' A powder magazine, wine cellar, dairy, vegetable room, all have been mentioned, as well as a storehouse for goods when the building was a store. I give all, and a choice may be made, or other suggestions offered. Per- haps later investigation may make clear its use. A loft has been put on in modern times, which was there when Dr. Scadding visited it about 1870, but previous to that, it showed the round vaulted brick roof.
Various legends float about, as of fish-ponds, and that one room of the house was literally lined with mirrors. To the mind of the plain frugal settlers of those days, the abundance of mirrors in French houses would have a dazzling appearance. The ceilings are very low, as may be shown by the stairway of only seven steps. The building itself is frame, and is in excellent preservation, many repairs having been made at different times. During the war of 1812 it was used as a hospital.
The property has had many owners, but one can trace almost, if not all, the occupants and owners — the Count de Chalus, Quetton St. George, Mr. S. Kent in the first half of the century. About 1850, it was bought by Captain Baxter, with two hundred acres of land adjoin- ing it, from Col. Allen, of Toronto, the father of Senator G. W. Allen. Every year two barrels of a special kind of apples grown there, were sent to him by Capt. Baxter. The house had previously been occupied by Mr. McPherson. It next passed into the hands of Mr. Warren, by whom it was sold to Mr. Shickaluna, the famous boat builder of St. Catherines, who erected near it a house, many said, as much resembling a boat as could be done. In his turn, it was sold to Mr. Mills, still living in Toronto, who made great improvements in the house. After- wards the property came into the hands of Cap. Geale Dickson, who erected the fine residence now standing, since improved by the present owner, Mr. Jackson, one hundred acres having been sold to Mr. Doyle. While in possession of Mr. Dickson, the half of the Count's house was taken down. This year the Niagara Historical Society has placed seven stones to mark historic spots, and one of these has been placed here with the inscription, " The building near was erected by the Count de Puisaye, a French Eefugee, about 1800."
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As we think of these exiles gradually returning to their own land, we cannot but heave a sigh when we think what must have been their feelings. Witnesses of all the horrors of the Reign of Terror ; escaping to Britain; fed by the bounty of the Government there; crossing the ocean in the late fall when Atlantic waves are boisterous ; landing in a foreign land, almost a wilderness, covered with winter snows ; felling the monarchs of the forest; building rude dwellings, and facing the cold of our winter after the pleasant land of France. Think of the mal de pays from which they must have suffered when they thought of their sunny skies, not knowing, in that first sad winter, that this country, too, has its bright skies, and balmy air as well as its bracing breezes. Was it of these exiles that Burke wrote in his " Reflections on the French Revolution " ? "I hear there are considerable emigrations from France, and that many, quitting that voluptuous climate and that seductive Circean liberty, have taken refuge in the frozen regions of Canada." Writers a century later, have not yet forgotten to make similar references to " Our Lady of the Snows."
To the patient investigator it will be found there is much unex- plored territory in our history, and that the links are lying all around us concealed, or, mayhap, open to every eye, but only those interested will be able to adapt and fit together the parts broken or separated into the complete chain.
IV.
HISTORICAL NOTES OK YOSTGE STREET.* BY Miss L. TEEFY.
In 1793 Governor Simcoe decided to fix the capital of the infant Province of Upper Canada at Toronto, which he named York, after a son of George III. Newark, or Niagara, was therefore abandoned for the safer locality, far removed fyom the American frontier. His earliest attention was turned to the necessity of good highways into the new capital, so that the few scattered settlers would find a more feasible way of bringing their produce to the market to be established there.
The most important of these was Yonge Street, running north from York to the Landing on the Holland River, a distance of thirty miles. It was so-called by Governor Simcoe in honor of his friend, Sir George Yonge, who was Secretary of War in the Imperial Govern- ment during the early part of Governor Simcoe's administration. In 1794 Wm. Berczy brought over a colony of sixty German families from the Pulteney settlement in New York State. Lands were given them in Markham Township, north of York. " In effecting this first lodgment of a considerable body of colonists in a region entirely new," says the Rev. Dr. Scadding, in " Toronto of Old," " Mr. Berczy necessarily cut out by the aid of his party and such other help as he could obtain, some kind of track through the forest." It was along the line of this track Governor Simcoe determined to build Yonge Street.
Augustus Jones was deputed to make the first survey of the road. On December 24th, 1795, he writes D. W. Smith, acting Surveyor- General of the Province : " His Excellency was pleased to direct me, previous to my surveying the township of York, to proceed on Yonge Street, to survey and open a cart-road from the harbor at York to Lake Simcoe, which I am now busy at (i.e., I am busy at the preparations for this work). Mr. Pearse is to be with me in a few days' time with a detachment of about thirty of the Queen's Rangers, who are to assist me in opening the road."
*Read at a General Meeting of the Ontario Historical Society in Toronto, August 30th, 1901.
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The survey was finished on the 16th of February, 1796, and the report handed to His Excellency the Governor at York, on the 20th of the same month. Another surveyor whose name is associated with the early survey of the street and surrounding townships is John Stegman. He had been an officer in a Hessian regiment, fighting for the British during the American Revolution, and at its close, like a great many others, came over to Canada to seek his fortune. In 1801 he was directed to report on the condition of the road by the Surveyor- General. A few extracts from his report may be interesting, as it proves, even at this early date, there were a few who did not hesitate to trifle with public funds. " Agreeable to your instructions," Mr. Steg- man writes, June 10th, 1801 : "I have the honor to report on Yonge Street as follows: That portion of the road from the town of York to the three mile post on the Poplar Plains is cut, and that as yet the greater part of the said distance is not passable for any carriage what- ever, on account of the logs which lie on the street. On Lot No. 33, West-Side, Vaughan, clearing complied with, no house and nothing done to the street. No. 93 King, four acres cut and nothing done to the street." This was its state in 1801. Mr. Stegman closes by say- ing in his slightly broken English : " Sir, — I am sorry to be under the necessity to add at the conclusion of this report that the most ancient inhabitants of Yonge Street have been the most neglectful in clearing the street, and I have reason to believe that some trifle with the requisi- tion of Government in respect of clearing the street." Berczy's settle- ment came in 1794, so that the most " ancient inhabitants " were of only some seven years' standing.
Mr. Stegman was a passenger on board the Speedy, which was lost in 1804, off the Newcastle shore, with all on board. Several of his grandchildren are living, one of whom is Mrs. O'Brien, of Rich- mond Hill.
To quote from " Toronto of Old " again : " Old settlers round Newmarket used to narrate how, in their first journey from York to the Landing, they lowered their waggons down the steeps by ropes passed round the stems of saplings, and then hauled them up the ascent on the other side in a similar way." One can scarcely imagine, in these days of easy transportation, the hardships the early settlers must have under- gone. One of the five settlers between York and a little north of what is now Thornhill, in 1797, was Nicholas Cober, who came in March of that year, unloaded his goods and chattels, and for the first night his only shelter was the friendly branches of a beech tree.
HISTORICAL NOTES ON YONGE STREET. 55
The Quaker colony emigrated from Pennsylvania in 1799, and settled in the northern part of Yonge Street. The old " Gazetteer " speaks of them with great praise, and justly so, as through their in- dustry and thrift the farms of this settlement are to this day amongst the most beautiful on Yonge Street. There had been some delay in getting patents for their lands. A deputation waited on the Governor in 1801 to make their complaints. Governor Hunter evidently was a man not to be trifled with. After calling the heads of the various departments together to meet the deputation, he said : " These gentle- men complain/' pointing to the Quakers, " that they cannot get their patents.'' Each official seemed to have some excuse or other, a regret that such was not done. Dr. Scadding says : " At last the onus of the blame seemed to settle on the head of the secretary and registrar, Mr. Jarvis, who could only say that ' Really the pressure of business in his office was so great that he had been absolutely unable, up to the present moment, to get ready the particular patents referred to/ 6 Sir,' was the Governor's immediate rejoinder, ' if they are not forth- coming every one of them and placed in the hands of these gentlemen here in my presence at noon on Thursday next (it was now Tuesday), by George ! I'll un-Jarvis you !' ' ' It is needless to say that the deputa- tion carried back to the settlement their patents and the impression of the vigor and severity of the then new Governor.
One great object of making this long road, was to open up the northern country along its route, and to shorten the distance between the commercial centres on Lake Ontario and the North-west. « D. W. Smith, in his " Gazetteer " published in 1799, refers to it thus: " This communication affords many advantages. Merchandise from Montreal to Michilimackinac may be sent this way at ten or fifteen pounds less ex- pense per ton than by the route of the Grand or Ottawa rivers, and the merchandise from New York to be sent up the North and Mohawk rivers for the North-west trade, finding its way into Lake Ontario at Oswego, the advantage will certainly be felt of transporting goods from Oswego to York, and from thence across Yonge Street, and down the waters of Lake Simcoe into Lake Erie." Another object was to avoid the Detroit and St. Clair rivers in case of seizures by the Americans, with whom we were not on the most peaceful terms.
This remained the chief route to points on the northern lakes up to the opening of the Northern Railway in the early part of the fifties. In a report of the Chief Engineer to the directors of the Ontario,
56 ONTARIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Simcoe and Huron Railroad Union Co. in 1852, it says : " The trade of this district (meaning Bradford, on the line of said railroad), and north of it, now chiefly reaches Toronto over Yonge Street, which is a well graded and macadamized road, extending from Toronto to Holland Landing."
" I am informed by persons well acquainted with the subject, that the travel in public conveyances between these two places (Toronto and Bradford) is equal to seventy-five persons each way daily, and by private conveyances as many more; and that equal to one hundred waggons, loaded with merchandise, produce, lumber, etc., often pass the toll-gate north of Toronto in one hour.
" The street, for its entire length, presents at all times a busy scene, more like a village street than a country road. Within the distance of forty-two miles there are seventy-two taverns, and the constant throng of vehicles of all kinds indicated that they are required for the accom- modation of the immense traffic. The effect of the operation of the railway when constructed, will be, at the outset, to quadruple the travel, and increase the traffic to a vast extent." As would naturally be sup- posed, the opening of this railroad (afterwards called the Northern) was the death-knell to the old stage-coach and the traffic on Yonge Street, which held it for over fifty years.
We see by this report how vastly important it had become com- mercially.
In 1800, as shown in plans, it only extended in York as far as Lot Street (the early name of Queen Street), which was the northern limit of the town. The traffic had to pass into the town by a thoroughfare, called Toronto Street; this was closed a few years afterwards, and Yonge Street was opened to the bay.
From Lot Street to the northern extremity of York at certain seasons of the year it was impassable, and waggons coming into town from the north had to turn off to the east and go down what is now Parliament Street.
Subscriptions were taken up in 1801 for the improvements and alterations made on the street. The names of a few of the subscribers, with amounts given, may be of some interest ; Hon. J. Elmsley, $80.00 ; Hon. Peter Eussell, $20.00 ; Alexander Macdonnell, Esq., the work of one yoke of oxen for four days, and several other names. Another large subscription was raised again in 1802, and the North-west Co. contributed as much as £8,000 for the purpose, from one time to another.
HISTORICAL NOTES ON YONGE STREET. 5?
" On January 15th, 1830, a petition was laid before the Legis- lative Assembly, signed by Seneca Ketchum, James Hogg and seventy- two inhabitants of Yonge Street, praying to be incorporated as a turn- pike company, with power to raise money by loan upon the security of their tolls, and that His Majesty would provide the loan."
" On January 30th of the same year Messrs. Ketchum, Cawthra and MacKenzie were appointed a committee upon the petition of Seneca Ketchum and others, requiring a turnpike gate to be erected on Yonge Street and a company incorporated for its improvement."
The committee, in its report to the Assembly, said : " Perhaps the greatest thoroughfare leading from York is Yonge Street: we recom- mend— i It might be worth while, at some period not far distant, as an experiment to allow a sum sufficient to macadamize four miles of that road to be expended, and afterwards to place a toll-bar, with moderate rates of toll for two years, within a mile of York, the tolls to be let by auction, and the proceeds applied to keep the road in repair under the direction of the freeholders on or near the line of road. If found not advantageous, it might be done away with at the expiration of the Act. ' The wheels of improvement moved slowly in those days.
Yonge Street was not without its romances and its tragedies in the early days. Sometimes the beginning of a romance ended in a tragedy. In a field off this street, and now in the heart of the city, was fought a duel, the principals concerned in it being members of two of the old fami- lies, whose names have been familiar about York and Toronto. It is thus gracefully alluded to in " Toronto of Old " : " The merest accident at a dance, a look, a jest, a few words of unconsidered talk, of youthful chaff, were ©very now and then sufficient to force persons who pre- viously, perhaps, had been bosom friends, companions from childhood, along with others sometimes in no wise concerned in the quarrel at first, to put on an unnatural show of thirst for each other's blood."
The story of the murder of Captain Kinnear and his housekeeper, about a mile and a half above Richmond Hill, in 1843, has been so well told in Dent's " History of the County of York," that I will only refer to it casually here. There are a few still living in the village who remember the Captain, and the excitement the tragedy created at the time.
It has been so often told that Gallows Hill received its name from the fact that the body of a man was seen hanging from a tree stretched across the ravine. This has been well sifted, and is thought
58 ONTARIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
to be the outcome of a highly imaginative brain in some individual returning from York to his home, perhaps after a day's jollification, when the evening shadows cast dark lines across his path, and the lone- liness of the surrounding woods was conducive to ghastly visions. It is most commonly believed to have received its name from a tree having fallen across the ravine, and bearing a resemblance to that horrible instrument, a gallows.
Near here the engagement took place between the Government troops and Mackenzie's men in 1837. The tale of the rebellion and its results are so familiar, and so much better described than I could possibly do, that I will not dwell on it.
All know Yonge Street has always had a large share of political excitement. It was on October 15th, 1839, a celebrated meeting of Reformers was held at Davis' Temperance Hotel, Yonge Street, about ten miles north of Toronto, and now a private residence, to consider Lord Durham's report. It was a meeting of the Reformers of the Home District, amongst the chief of whom were Dr. Baldwin and his son, the Hon. Robert Baldwin, Mr. Hincks (afterwards Sir Francis Hincks), and many other leading politicians. A large number of the opposition party, headed by Mr. Sheriff Jarvis, came out from Toronto for the sole purpose of dispersing the meeting. The latter were armed with clubs and stones. Dr. Baldwin was struck, and one young farmer was killed by a flying stone. The Reformers, who were completely unarmed, had to run across the fields, and seek refuge where they could. This gathering was derisively called the " Durham Races."
Richmond Hill was so named in 1819, in honor of the Duke of Richmond, at that time Governor-General, he and his suite having stopped to dine in the village on his way to Penetanguishene. At the time there was a large gathering of the inhabitants from the surround- ing country to assist at the raising of the Presbyterian Church, which was finished in 1821. This building was torn down a few years ago, and a fine brick edifice erected to take its place.
Thornhill received its name from Mr. Thorne, who had mills there about sixty years ago. An old gentleman in this vicinity remembers when this place was simply alive with business. He says : " It was a great pleasure to see the handsome teams of horses starting off to To- ronto from the mills with at least twenty barrels of flour on each waggon."
Sir John Franklin and his party passed up Yonge Street on their
HISTORICAL NOTES ON YONGE STREET. 59
way to the far North on one of his Arctic explorations. They were entertained by the Hon. Peter Eobinson at Newmarket.
An old landmark is the Bond's Lake Inn. This old-time hostelry was built before 1830 by one, Mac Adam, who lived there for some time, and then it passed into the hands of a man named Beach. In 1839, Thomas Steel moved there and kept it for fourteen years. A son of the latter keeps what is commonly known as the Popular House, a mile and a half south of Thornhill. Of Bond's Lake Inn, Dr. Scad- ding says : " The wayside stopping place in the vale where Yonge Street skirts the lake used to be in an especial degree of the Old Country cast in its appliances, its fare, its parlors, and other rooms." Interest in this old inn has been revived since the advent of the electric railway on Yonge Street.
There is no record of the gaieties at this place, but most naturally we suppose the Governor and his attendants, when on their way up and down Yonge Street, would find this comfortable old inn a most inviting stopping place.
Amongst the social events in the earlier days was a ball given by Mr. and Mrs. John Barwick, in the winter of '38-'39, at Thornhill, about half a mile north of the English church. The house has since been burned down, and a modern structure built in its place. It was attended by the elite of Toronto, and by many from Newmarket and intervening points. There being no musical bands of any account, except the military bands, Mr. Barwick secured the band of the 32nd Regiment, then quartered in Toronto.
Sleighing parties to Shepherd's Golden Lion were indulged in by the fashionable society of Toronto, and dancing kept up to the " wee sma' hours." The old mud stable and driving-house of this old place are now being torn down.
One of the most interesting portions of the history of Yonge Street is that connected with the Royalist refugees of France. One, whose name was most prominent in the annals of Brittany, was the Count de Puisaye, a younger son of a noble family, an officer in the famous Swiss Guard, the choice of the nobles of La Perche for- their representative at the States-General. He took the place of La Rouarie, who died from fever, in organizing the nobles of Brittany in defence of the Royalist cause. He was in communication with the British Government, and requested the aid of a British force to help in the restoration of Royalty. The nobles were always suspicious of him on account of the part he
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played in the Constituent Assembly in rendering assistance to the Girondists. They did not work in perfect accord with him at Quiberon> the expedition was a failure, and his influence weakened in Brittanv. The failure was all attributed to de Puisaye; it was reported and the charge believed, that he had acted in complicity with the British Govern- ment, and sold the cause of France. The Kt. Hon. Mr. Windham, in his letter to the Hon. Peter Russell, refers to this when he says : " The suspicions (attempted to be fixed upon him (de Puisaye) by his own countrymen, and by which they seem to have succeeded best in poison- ing against him the mind of his sovereign, have been that he was sold to the British Government, and in favor of English interests, betrayed those of his own country! It will be sufficient to say that no such sacrifice of the interests of his country was ever made, for one plain reason, that none was ever required."
In IT 9 7, he made a proposal to the British Government to form a Royalist settlement in Upper Canada. After some correspondence between the Imperial Government and the Governors here, this was effected. Grants of land were assigned them on Yonge Street, in what is now Oak Ridges. Of the struggles of this colony we have little record, but the story of its settlement relates to a most interesting epoch of our history, inasmuch as it was a link connecting us with the chain of events which were shaking the governments of the Old World to their foundations at the close of the eighteenth century, and would form a most interesting and useful paper in itself. Only one of the descend- ants of this colony of the old French regime retained until his death four or five years ago the land left him by his father — a name familiar to Torontonians, Mr. Quetton St. George.
Richmond Hill.
V.
PKESQU'ISLE.*
Presqu'isle Point has been a noted spot ever since it was first dis- covered by the French, about the year 1605. It is a peninsula on the north shore of Lake Ontario, about midway between Toronto and King- ston. Centuries ago, no doubt, it was an island, but is now connected to the mainland by a narrow sand beach about two miles in length, formerly known by the name of Milligan's Beach, hence the name of Presqu'isle. It lies on the southern boundary of the township of Brighton in the county of Northumberland, with an area of some twelve hundred acres of land. This peninsula encloses one of the largest and best harbors on the lake. It lies just in front of the village of Brighton and one mile south of the Grand Trunk Eailway station. It is a beau- tiful sheet of water some fifteen miles in circumference, with a sufficient depth of water to guarantee the safety of any vessel traversing the lake in going in and out of the harbor ; and since the completion of the Mur- ray Canal it is now the headwaters of the Bay of Quinte. A little over a century ago the aborigines of the country were the owners of the soil; they inhabited its shores and traversed its waters. Presqu'isle was first discovered by a Frenchman named Samuel Champlain, the leader of a company of fur traders, who came to this country about the year 1605, to establish trading posts and build forts where they could in safety trade with the Indians for different kinds of furs taken in this country; but the opposition he received from hostile tribes, who were constantly at war one with another, compelled him to return home without accomplishing the purpose for which he came. Two noted spots have been discovered and known as Indian battlegrounds; one of them is at the east end of the Point and just south of Salt Point Cove, which in later years was cleared up and known as Clark's Green ; the other was on a point of land at the west end of the
* This sketch of Presqu'isle was written by the late Mr. I. M. Wellington, of Brighton, and appeared in The Brighton Ensign of the following dates : Jan. 25th, Feb. 1st, Feb. 8th., and Feb. 15th, 1895. It has been transmitted to the Ontario Historical Society by Mr. W. E. Lear, of Brighton.
61
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harbor and known to this day as the Indian burying-ground, for in both these localities in after years large deposits of skulls and bones have been unearthed; and in some places spears and war implements, with which the Indians fought their enemies, have been dug up by the white man. ~No further account of any discovery by white men was known until the year 1680, when LaSalle, the great French explorer, and his comrades on leaving Quebec came up the St. Lawrence, and over the waters of the Bay of Quinte they crossed the Carrying Place and Weller's Bay and landed at Presqu'isle, where they remained for a few days before pursuing their journey to explore the lakes and country farther west.
Since then no reliable account of any permanent settlement by the white men was known until about the year IT 8 3, and after the war when the United States had gained their independence, a large number of families true and loyal to Great Britain left Uncle Sam's domains and came over to Canada and settled on the shores of the Bay of Quinte, Weller's Bay, Presqu'isle Bay, and in many other places on the shores of the lake westward to the headwaters of Ontario at the town Niagara, and at which time, four or five small log houses at some noted spot was the first formation of a town in after years. At this time three or four small houses at the mouth of the Don (better known by many at that time as Muddy Creek) was called " Little " York, which in after years took its Indian name, " Toronto." Presqu'isle, with parts of the coun- try east, west and north, soon became known to the white men, and very soon thereafter the squatter's hut might be seen, and the sound of the woodman's axe might be heard. The country then was nearly a wilderness ; there were no roads nor well beaten paths from one settle- ment or squatter's hut to another, nothing but a small blaze on the trunks of trees made by the tomahawk or the woodman's axe to mark the trail of the settler from hamlet to hamlet through the woods. In those days all the transhipment of goods and nearly all the travel up and down the country ^ was made by water and mostly in flat bottom boats called bateaux.
About one hundred years ago the Government of the day believing Presqu'isle to be the most fit and proper place for the capital or county town for the district of Newcastle, which in later years is better known as the counties of Northumberland and Durham, they there- fore brought a bill before Parliament, and in the year 1802 caused an Act to be passed to locate and survey a town plot on Presqu'isle, and
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to build a court house and gaol. Among the pioneer settlers in those days, we find the names of Colonel Peters, Rogers, Bullock, Chisholm, Wilkinson, Richardson, Burnham, Ward, Capt. Hatville and others. Very soon thereafter Capt. Selleck, an Englishman, the owner of a schooner called the Lady Murray, with his father-in- law, George Gibson, a ship carpenter, who had served an apprenticeship in the Woolwich dockyards in London, England, came with their families and settled at Presqu'isle. And, agreeable with the Act of Parliament, in the spring of 1803 a survey was made of a town, and the Government gave it the name of the town of Newcastle. The town was laid out mostly in one-acre lots, and after the choicest lot in the centre and facing the harbor had been reserved for the court- house and gaol, and one acre each for a church and a market had been located, some six or eight lots were given to settlers and friends who had rendered service to the Government. Among those receiving lots we find the names of Capt. Charles Selleck, Timothy Thompson, Thomas Ward, George Gibson, Joseph Gibson and David McGregor Rogers.
Soon after the survey, a large frame building, thirty feet in width and fifty feet in length and three stories high, on a heavy stone basement, was erected by the Government to be the court house and gaol for the district of Newcastle, and placed in care of Capt. Selleck who, with his family, moved into the building, and while the Captain was away on the lake with his schooner, his wife, assisted by her brother, kept a house of entertainment to accommodate travellers as they passed up and down the country.
In the early part of 1804 Capt. Selleck had been up to Niagara with his schooner, carrying a load of goods from Kingston ; and on his return, one very warm and beautiful day in May, the wind had lulled to almost a dead calm, and the lake shone like glass, the sailors were all sitting around — some singing songs or spinning yarns — when to his surprise one of the crew discovered something peculiarly strange just under the surface of the water. He immediately sprang to his feet and called the attention of the captain to the fact, who forthwith ordered the Lady Murray to be hove to and lower the yawl, when the cap- tain, the mate and one of the sailors went to survey the submarine monster just discovered ; and taking a spy-glass with them, they located the exact whereabouts by getting the range of three tall trees standing on the land and in range with the south end of Milligan's Beach. Capt.
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Selleck, after making a note of this in his passbook, went on board of his schooner and came into the harbor. About one week after this Capt. Paxton, with the Government schooner, came into the harbor, when Capt. Selleck made haste to apprise the captain of the Speedy of his adventures in finding and locating a large rock just below the surface of the water. The following day being very pleasant and calm, Capt. Pax- ton and Capt. Selleck, with several hands from both schooners, took two of their small boats and made their way to the west end of Presqu'isle, taking with them a spy-glass and compass, and after getting in range with the three tall trees, they rowed directly south about four miles and came immediately on the sunken rock, which was hardly three feet below the surface of the water. Capt. Paxton then took a careful measure of the diameter of the rock at the top, which was about forty feet either way; but what surprised the captains and the whole crew the most was the fact that in sounding around on every side of the rock they found about fifty fathoms of water, and that on every dropping of the lead the line went straight down to the bottom. Capt. Paxton then made a correct note of every particular and told Capt. Selleck that when he went to Niagara again he should have it put upon the chart so that in after days it would be a warning to all mariners traversing the waters of Lake Ontario; although at this time the Speedy and Lady Murray were the only schooners owned on this side of the lake.
The latter part of that summer the Speedy was lost. The facts in connection with the narrative are these: Wm. and A. M. Farewell, two brothers, whose home was on or near Oshawa Creek, were in the habit of going out to Scugog Lake every winter for the purpose of trap- ping and to trade for furs with the Indians,, and in the early part of the winter of 1804 they went out to the lake, taking with them a man by the name of John Sharp. One day they left Sharp in charge of the camp while the two brothers proceeded up the Scugog in search of the best places for trapping. On their return they found that Sharp had been murdered ; his skull had been smashed in with a club, and the camp had been robbed. They immediately returned to Oshawa and put detectives in search of the murderer, when very soon the report that an Indian, while under the influence of liquor and making flourishes with his club, showed how he had killed a white man a few days before. Soon the Indians, fearing that they were watched, left, and going west struck camp at or near York, where the murderer was arrested, and ordered to have his trial in the district where the crime was committed.
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The captain of the Government schooner was therefore ordered to Presqu'isle, with the prisoner and law officers, to hold the Court of King's Bench on the fifth day of October, 1804. The passengers on board the Speedy, leaving York on the seventh day of October, were : Mr. Justice Cochrane, Mr. Gray, Solicitor-General; Mr. Angus McDonald, solicitor for the prisoner, with the constable, the prisoner and two or three other gentlemen. On the way down they stopped at Oshawa for two or three Indian men and women, and for some white men who were witnesses in the case, after which she started for Presqu'isle. The Speedy was sighted just before dark on the eighth of October, laboring and going before a frightful storm of wind and rain just opposite Keeler's Creek (now Colborne Harbor). Fears were soon aroused for the safety of the boat and her crew, when Col. Peters and many of the settlers along the shore came rushing down on horseback to give what assistance they could to help the Speedy to make her way safely into the harbor. They went to the back of the point down near the big light- house, and built large fires to safely light her into port if possible. That night, it is supposed, the Speedy foundered upon that rock and went down with all on board, for two or three days thereafter the water-barrel and the hencoop, with the name of the Speedy on them, were picked up on Weller's Beach, and brought to Presqu'isle and placed in the care of Capt. Selleck. Very soon after that storm and the finding of the water-barrel and the hencoop belonging to the Speedy, curiosity excited Capt. Selleck and the settlers of Presqu'isle to make search and grapple about the sunken rock to see if they could discover anything further regarding the Speedy, so the first fine day that came, nearly all the men on the Point turned out to render what help they could in the under- taking. They went early to the west end of the Point, and taking their bearing from the three tall trees, they ran out to find the rock, and after searching all day long by the men in the four or five small boats they returned home late in the evening; and not feeling satisfied, they decided to try it again, so by rallying a larger brigade and getting more boats from the north side of the bay, they took an early start one fine morning and ran out and spent the whole day in making a more diligent search for the sunken rock; but no rock could be found, nor has any- thing further ever been heard respecting that sunken rock. It was a great wonderment to all, especially to those who had seen the rock before that noted storm when the Speedy was lost, of what kind of rock it must have been. The general opinion was that it must have been a 5
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large boulder loose at the bottom, and when struck by the Speedy it was forced over, taking the Speedy down with it. Immediately after the Speedy was lost, an influence was brought to bear on the Government to move the county town to the western part of Northumberland, con- sequently at the next session of Parliament an Act was passed to locate and build a court house and gaol at Amherst (now Cobourg), which was soon built, and the court house on Presqu'isle was sold to Capt. Selleck, and very soon after that the third or upper story was taken down and the building was finished into a large dwelling. In the year 1821, the writer was born in that dwelling, and many times in after years we sat and listened to our parents and uncles relate the story of the sunken rock and the loss of the Speedy, some of whom had seen the rock several times before that noted storm on the night of the 8th of October, 1807. I asked my mother why Capt. Paxton wanted a hencoop on board of his schooner, which was a curiosity to me. She told me that it was customary for ships, especially on the ocean, to carry live fowls with them so that when at sea for a long voyage they could kill a hen, or several of them, and have a fresh meal whenever they desired it.
Presqu'isle was also a noted spot because it possessed one of the best, if not the very best harbor on the lake, both for its easy access and the noble anchorage when safely entered. It was also noted for being the general camping-ground for the Indians when they came for the purpose of hunting, fishing, or killing the mink and the muskrat, which were very plentiful in those days. There was one thing very notice- able about many of the Indians of those days: how very easily their sympathy was aroused, especially when kindly treated by the white man. One kind act we wish to mention just here, took place in the latter part of the summer of 1809. Capt. Selleck had died in April, a few months before, and his widow was left with a large family of small children. Her brother, Joseph Gibson, a young man, made his home with the widow sister, and acted as guardian for the family. When their stock of provisions was low, Joseph would have to look about for a fresh supply ; so on the occasion about to be men- tioned, Joseph had gone to Napanee in a small boat, a distance of about fifty miles, to buy flour, rowing nearly the whole way down and back again. A storm came on while he was away, thus lengthening the time of his return, consequently his sister and her family had run entirely out of bread. One day, just before his return, an Indian, by name of Joe Skunk, in his birch-bark canoe paddled up to the shore
PRESQU'lSLE. 67
just in front of the widow Selleck's house, and asked the widow in broken English for some bread. The mother, considering her destitu- tion and the want of her children, burst into tears, and told him in the best language at her command that she had no bread, and that she and her papooses (children) were starving. Joe, on turning around, replied, " You very good squaw." He then walked down to the shore, and taking up his spear, he stuck it into the head of a large maskinonge lying in the boat, and throwing it out on the shore, he called to the papooses to come and get the fish, and stepping into his boat, paddled away.
At that time the waters of Presqu'isle Bay and Lake Ontario were apparently alive with untold numbers of all kinds of fresh water fish, such as the salmon, maskinonge, trout, sturgeon, white fish, pike, pickerel, bass, and a great variety of smaller fish, being one of the chief articles of food of the first settlers. It was not an uncommon thing for two men in their small boats, with torchlight and spear, in an even- ing on the lake side of the Point, to take from twenty to thirty beautiful salmon, or to paddle up towards the rush-beds at the head of the bay and catch from fifty to one hundred eels, beside other kinds of fish. In those days it was real sport to the hunter who took pleasure in shooting the wild-fowl that came for food to the waters of the bay. We often witnessed what was then called fields of the feathered tribes. Millions of all kinds of ducks and wild geese made the surface of the water look black for miles when they congregated. It was no sham, but real sport for the hunter to bag from twenty-five to thirty beautiful ducks, and often five or six large geese in one forenoon. Then he would spend the rest of the day in smoking his pipe, singing songs and telling of his sport, while other members of the family would dress some of the fowls for the evening meal.
I have often listened to my brothers telling about the Indian birch- bark canoe, that it was one of the most treacherous crafts that ever any human being dared to sail in, unless he ivas well skilled in managing it, for many a time has the unlearned been made to know by sad experi- ence how quickly the tottery shell will jump from underneath him and he be left paddling in the water. A novel story was often told me of an expert and well-skilled young Indian, how often he would step into his canoe, and with spear in hand would push out from the shore, then as quick as thought he would spring from the floor of the canoe, and in a second of time you would see him standing with one foot on
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the top of his canoe on one side and his other foot on the top on the other side, then holding his spear pole in the centre, and by dipping first the top of his pole, then the bottom in the water on either side, would paddle away to the rushes at the head of the bay, and return some hours thereafter with fifty to one hundred eels and other fish.
The Carrying Place, which, as the crow flies, lies about five miles east of Presqu'isle, and first received its name from the Indians, who in wandering about in search of better hunting and fishing grounds, would, on arriving at the Carrying Place, pick up their bark canoes and carry them across from water to water. As we previously stated, in the early settlement of the country nearly all travel was by water. As late as the year 1812 the King's troops were brought from Quebec through the St. Lawrence in flat bottom boats to Kingston, and by way of the Bay of Quinte to that noted spot, the Carrying Place, which name it bears to this day, because their boats had to be drawn by teams of oxen on wooden sleds a distance of nearly two miles t6 the waters of Weller's Bay, crossing Weller's Bay, and a part of Lake Ontario to Presqu'isle, there to wait fair weather to continue the more dangerous part of their journey by coasting along the shore westward to Niagara and Queenston, where that memorable battle was fought by the heroic Gen. Brock and his army on Queenston Heights, when the victorious British troops, assisted by the Canadian volunteers, forced the American soldiers over those fearful heights into the rapid waters of the Niagara.
. Previous to, and during the War of 1812, were several incidents worthy of note, some of wilich we will narrate : The United States, a short time before, had got their independence, and believing that all North America should belong to the Union, with a hungry craving and a feeling of great importance, they thought to gobble up Canada, there- fore declared war. An embargo was laid on, and all commerce ceased. At this time an American schooner, loaded with salt and bound for some rport on the Canadian shore farther west, was driven into Presqu'isle harbor in a storm ; and, as winter was coming on, the captain feared to remain any longer lest his boat should be frozen in, seized, confiscated and sold by the Government. He unloaded the salt on a point at the entrance of the harbor, placing it in the care of Mrs. Selleck and her mother, and immediately left the harbor under cover of the dark. That point took its name from that incident, and bears the name of Salt Point to this day.
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In the spring following the Americans assembled in large numbers on the southern shore at Niagara, intending to cross into Canada. The country was nearly all covered with woods ; there was no telegraph, no railroad, not even a good, well-travelled road. All war news was carried in despatches on horseback. Night and day the trooper was galloping through the country from post to post with a despatch to be forwarded by the next trooper, who was ready to rush away with the coming package. Nearly all the young men of the country had enlisted in defence of their happy homes, and the British troops were sent for- ward to aid in repelling their enemies. All this time a brigade of British regulars was detained at Presqu'isle by a storm. The com- missariat being low, the widow's last cow was slaughtered for beef. However, the colonel paid her in gold about twice the price of the cow, saying, she could replace it with another one.
In continuing this narrative we will relate some incidents worthy of note. " Grandfather Gibson," as he was called by everyone that knew him, was living in a log house, standing on almost the very spot where Headly Simpson's dwelling now stands on Presqu'isle. The house of his daughter, the widow Selleck, stood ten or twelve rods to the west. His sons — all that were old enough, excepting one — were away in the service of their King and country, and Joseph, who remained at home, would frequently be pressed by the Government to take his team and be away from home for weeks together, drawing supplies for the army. During this time Grandfather Gibson was the greater part of the time alone, working and building a schooner for one of his sons just on the shore in front of his dwelling (should kind Providence spare his boys to return from the war). He had the schooner pretty nearly completed, when report being made to the American Government by spies that were continually coasting along the Canadian frontier that this vessel was being built by the Government for war purposes, consequently Bill Johnson (that notorious " land pirate," as he was called) was sent by the American Government to burn the boat. He came from Sackett's Harbor in what was then called a revenue cutter, and with oars muffled, the crew came noiselessly up to the shore at night, threw some inflam- mable substance on the vessel, ignited it, and the boat was soon wrapped in flames from stem to stern, burning her to ashes while standing on the stocks. While the boat was burning, the cutter was seen with six or eight oars on either side dipping together into the water taking her departure.
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In those days, the country being new and roads bad, the King's mail was carried on horseback. A few days after the burning of Grandfather Gibson's boat, this land pirate, with four or five comrades, waylaid the mail at a noted spot about half way between what are now the villages of Brighton and Smithfield, when one sprang from behind a tree seizing the horse by the bit, while another, with the muzzle of a musket to the mail-boy's head, demanded the mail, and when given up the boy and horse were let go. As at certain times a quantity of money was sent through in the mail to buy supplies for the army, this fact was some way made known to Bill Johnson, who thus knew that if he could seize the mail at the proper time he would secure a prize. The mail bags were found some weeks thereafter stowed away under a bridge, in a ravine just east of where Aaron Coulter's house now stands.
Grandfather Gibson, having lost his wife about twelve years after his schooner was burned, ;and living then mostly alone, generally took his meals with one of his daughters, but would sleep and remain the most of the time in his own house, which had two large rooms, with a large fireplace in each, and as he was passionately fond of little children and greatly enjoyed their company, one fine summer's day he took one of his grandsons, about four years of age, down to see a family with a lot of children that had lately moved into his house. The little boy, glad to make the acquaintance of the newcomers, ran away with grandpa to the next house, and on their arrival the little fellow rushed in to see the new folks, as he called them. He ran from room to room in search of them, and when he could not find anyone he turned around, and with great earnestness asked grandpa where the new folks were. His grand- father took him by the hand and led him to the big fireplace in the spare room, and told him to look up the chimney, where, to the great surprise of the little boy, there was a host of little chimney swallows that had built their mud nests in the chimney, and were flying in and out of the top, gathering food for their little ones ; and many a hearty laugh did grandpa have in after days when he told the story of his little grandson, how he jumped up and down, laughing and slapping his hands, to see the mother-bird come in with a worm in her mouth to feed her little babies.
About this time a novel excitement occurred. A small steamboat, said to be the first that ever sailed on Lake Ontario, was built at or near Kingston, and bore the name of the Frontenac. She had a high pres- sure engine and made a terrible noise when in motion ; and although
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grandfather had helped to build many a large ship, yet he had never seen a steamboat. One day the Frontenac came puffing into the har- bor. The old gentleman, hearing the noise, sprang to his feet, and asked what was making the noise ; but when he got sight of the boat rounding Salt Point, making her way into the harbor and dropping anchor, he raised both hands to his head, exclaiming that the world was coming to an end, when we see a ship run without sails. In after days many a hearty laugh did the young people have at grandfather's expense over his first sight of a steamboat.
Weller's Bay, previous to the year 1851, -was a fair-sized lake, aver- aging from one to two miles in width and about five miles in length. It was separated from Lake Ontario by a narrow sand beach, about three miles east of Presqu'isle, being from ten to fifteen rods in width. There was a block of land about thirty acres, with a rock bound shore, on the west side next to the lake, midway from either shore. It was known as Bald Head. This place was also a noted burying-ground for the Indians, because in after years the wind blew the sand away, leaving many Indian skeletons and war implements entirely uncovered. Nearly the whole way, from end to end, along on this beach, small cedar bushes grew up, which formed a barricade against the drifting sand, and large banks were formed around the roots of these bushes. There was a small outlet at the north end of the beach, where it connected with the mainland, just in front of Lot No. 18, Concession C, of the Township of Murray, then owned by Isaac Terry, but now owned by S. P. Clapp, of Brighton. This outlet varied both in width and in depth, caused by the wind and tide ; sometimes it would be entirely closed with the drifting dry sand.
Weller's Beach was at that time, and for many years previous, one of the largest and best fishing grounds on Lake Ontario, where white fish, salmon trout, together with other kinds of fish, were caught in great abundance, both by seine hauling on the beach, and by gill nets set several miles out into the lake.
On the 26th of October, 1840, a serious accident occurred, as fol- lows : Seven men, named Daniel Chase, Abel Church, Richard Linton, John Cutliff, Peter Harris, Alex. Roseberry, and George Terry, left Weller's Beach in their sailboat to take up their nets, about six miles south of Presqu'isle, in the lake. A terrific snowstorm came on, with wind from the north, which blew them away out of sight of land ; the boat upset three times, and at each time some were missing. The
72 ONTARIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
storm continued for several days, but the wind shifting, drove the boat back on the evening of the 28th of October, after being three days and two nights away, landing one mile west of Wellington, in Prince Ed- ward county, just in front of Mr. James Augustus' farm, with one only, George Terry, alive in the boat. George saw the light at the house, thirty rods or more from the shore. He was greatly exhausted, being so chilled by the water and the wind that he could not stand, nevertheless he crawled on his hands and knees through a field to the house. There were several friends at Mr. Augustus' house that even- ing, and George told them by signs that there was a dead body that came to the shore with him in the boat. Several went down to the shore and found the boat on its side in the water, but the dead body had been washed out by the heavy sea and was never found. Several doggerel verses were composed, referring to this unfortunate occurrence, two of which we give below :
In 1840 an accident took place ;
October 26th — this is the very case.
Seven men a fishing went— a high north wind did blow —
To take their nets out of the lake, of lake On-ta-ri-o.
There were Daniel Chase and Abel Church, and Richard Linton, too ;
John Cutliff, Peter Harris, Alex. Roseberry and George Terry were in the crew.
The boat turned o'er three times, and they all were in the deep ;
Some got in the boat again, and they then went to sleep.
On Weller's Beach there were at times about thirty large seines, and hundreds of thousands of white fish, besides thousands of other kinds, were taken annually. We visited the Beach two or three times every week during the fishing season to trade with the fishermen, and have known some seines to be hauled two or three times in one night, catch- ing from 2,000 to 5,000 beautiful white fish at each haul, employing from 150 to 200 men cleaning and packing.
In the year 1851, the waters of Lake Ontario broke through the beach into Weller's Bay, about fifty rods north of Bald Head, caused by the waters rising in the lake. It made an outlet at first about ten rods wide, but not being deep, it was easily crossed by teams, and for two years that outlet kept getting wider and also deeper, until about the 20th of October, 1853, when a heavy rain and hailstorm, with wind fiercely from the west, set in during the afternoon and evening and opened the outlet so deep that no team has crossed the beach since that time. We had driven on to the beach that morning from the north,
PRESQU'lSLE. 73
and after going to the south or lower end of the beach, on our return did a very daring and presumptuous act. The facts were these : A number of farmers from Murray had gone to the beach that day to buy fish for family use, and when we came back we found ten farmers with their double teams standing around the last shanty to the north, about forty rods from the outlet, waiting for the wind to go down so they might cross. I had a smart horse and a light market waggon ; and told them I would take the lead if they would follow. They all said no, and that if I dared to cross I would lose my life. To show them that I was brave and no coward, I sprang into my waggon and drove away to the outlet, asking them to come and see me safely over. The water caused by the wind was running like a mill race from the lake into the bay, and close at the edge of the sand the water was very deep ; so after arranging my harness and unbuckling the side straps from the thills, I started into the lake as close as I dared, on account of the heavy sea. Pretty soon I found that when the big swells would rush the foaming water under the waggon they would lift it from the sand, and my horse swimming, we would be carried from twelve to fif- teen feet before the wheels would stick to the bottom, then we would urge the horse away until the next sea came to carry us sideways again toward the deep waters in the bay; but finally by the help of kind Providence I got safely across. The men stood on the opposite shore and watched until I had safely landed, then went back to the shanty and stayed all night. The next day after the storm had abated, Mr. James Young and several others took a boat and with a spear-pole measured the depth of the water in the centre of the outlet and found it to be about six feet deep in the shallowest spot. The farmers drove around by Consecon on their way home and I could truthfully say that I was the last person that ever drove that beach from one end to the other. In the summer of 1855 we were on board of the Chief Justice Robinson, the first steamboat that ever crossed that bar, when on her way from Brighton to Consecon, to take the Sons of Temperance to a big demonstration in Oswego on the 4th day of July. Weller's Beach has since all washed away, and the bay is now part of Lake Ontario, and Bald Head is an island in the lake.
After the War of 1812, peace having been proclaimed between Can- ada and the United States, the U. E,. Loyalists, together with emigrants from Great Britain and the continent, had come to Canada. They found in all parts large forests of pine timber, as well as a large quan-
74 ONTARIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
tity of hardwood. By the pine timber a trade was soon opened up with foreign nations, and the lumbermen were soon making their way among the beautiful groves — some getting large pines for masts, others making square timber, all for the foreign market ; while others were cut into logs for the saw mills for the immediate use of the settlers. Many hundreds of thousands of masts and sticks of square timber have been brought to Presqu'isle harbor to be put into rafts and taken down to Quebec. During this time the Murray Canal was the subject of com- mon talk, especially among the lumbermen, for by that canal there would be an inland waterway from Presqu'isle harbor to Kingston, then down the St. Lawrence to the ocean.
In the year 1791 and 1792, the southern portions of the townships of Cramahe and Murray, bordering on the lake, were surveyed by a Mr. Jones ; and two years later, in 1794, a second survey was made of the front of Murray to perfect the work of 1792, at which time a survey was made for the Murray Canal. Presqu'isle was reserved entirely by the Government for military purposes. The final survey of both Cramahe and Murray was made in 1824, by Messrs. Birdsall & Walkins.
How wonderful that after the year 1794 nearly every representa- tive of the East Riding of the county of Northumberland rode into office on the sure promise of the Murray Canal ; but after securing the seat they either forgot their pledges, or for personal interest endeavored by every possible means to have the route changed ; but when they found their scheme would not work, they then purposely passed their promises by unfulfilled, until the late Joseph Keeler, Esq., M.P., know- ing the benefits to the commercial interests of the country, dared to fight it through, and assisted by the Hon. Sir Mackenzie Bo well, took this long promised and much needed canal in hand, urging it before the Government, and obtained the charter and a grant of money to com- mence the work immediately, and on the 31st day of August, 1882, the first sod was turned by Mrs. Keeler, widow of our much esteemed and lamented friend, Joseph Keeler, Esq., M.P. The canal has since been completed, and the Government report tells us that it is in length, between eastern and western pier heads, 5 1-6 miles ; breadth at bottom, 80 feet ; depth at low water, 12 */2 feet ; width on the surface of the water, from bank to bank, about 140 feet ; with riprap wall, from four feet below the water to nearly the top of bank, and about two feet thick on either bank, extending from end to end. It is perfectly straight
PRESQU'lSLE. 75
and has no locks. The maximum depth at entrance is sixteen feet. It has four swing bridges crossing the canal, built of iron, and standing on heavy masonry nicely dressed, and giving sixty feet in the bridge clear for boats to pass.
NOTES TO ACCOMPANY FOREGOING PAPER ON "PRESQU'lSLE."
BY C. C. JAMES.
1797. In the Crown Lands Department at Toronto is the original survey plan of Presqu'isle, or Newcastle, as it was originally called. It is entitled, " Plan of Newcastle in the Home District, surveyed in November, 1797, by Alex. Aitkin, Deputy Surveyor." This cancels a date given in the previous paper. The plan shows lots reserved as follows : Church in centre, Parson at S.E., Market at S.W., School at N.E., Parson at N.W., Hospital at west end, Burying Ground at east end, Clergy's Seventh in rear of Churcht Between these reserved lots were about 80 smaller building lots.
1802. On the 7th J uly, 1802, there was passed An Act to provide for the Administration of Justice in the District of Newcastle. The second section provided for the erection of a gaol and court house within the town of Newcastle. Thereby the town of Newcastle, that had been laid out in 1797, became the district town of Newcastle District, which consisted of the counties of Northumberland and Durham.
1803. On the 5th of March, 1803, An Act was passed (Chap. II.) in connection with the customs, location of lighthouses etc. By section ten of that Act the Lieutenant-Governor was authorized " to establish the office of the Collector of the District of Newcastle in any place within the harbor of Newcastle which he may judge more convenient than the town of Newcastle, until a gaol and court house be erected in the said town and no longer."
According to this the regular gaol and court house were not erected up to March, 1803, and temporary quarters must have been used.
1804. The various printed accounts of the loss of the Speedy have been more or less inaccurate, as to date, occasion and persons concerned. The contemporary account that appeared in the official government organ, the Upper Canada Gazette, should be authorita- tive and therefore we append the report that appeared in the issue of 3rd November, 1804.
1805. On 2nd March, 1805, the Act of 1802 above referred to was amended. The pre- amble begins thus :
" Whereas the place appointed for building a gaol and court house in the district of Newcastle is inconvenient for the inhabitants of the said district." The Justices of the Peace assembled in Quarter Sessions were authorized " to appoint some fit and proper place in either of the townships of Haldimand or Hamilton within the said District of Newcastle, where a gaol and court house may be built." Two years was allowed for the completion of the work (XLV. Geo. III. Chap. V.).
The plot selected was in Hamilton Township and the little settlement that grew up about the court house was called Amherst. It forms the north-west corner of the present town of Cobourg.
The loss of the Speedy thus played an important part in determining Cobourg as the county town of Northumberland and Durham.
THE LOSS OF THE "SPEEDY."
(From Upper Canada Gazette, 3rd November, 1804.)
The following is as accurate an account of the loss of the schooner Speedy, in His Majesty's service on Lake Ontario, as we have been able to collect :
" The Speedy, Captain Paxton, left this port on Sunday evening, the 7th of October last,
76 ONTARIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
with a moderate breeze from the N. W. , for Presque Isle, and was descried off that Island on the Monday following before dark, where preparations were made for the reception of the passengers; but the wind coming around from the N.E. blew with such violence as to render it impossible for her to enter the harbor, and very shortly after she disappeared. A large fire was then kindled on shore, as a guide to the vessel during the night ; but she has not since been seen or heard of, and it is with the most painful sensations we have to say we fear she is totally lost. Enquiry, we understand, has been made at almost every port on the lake, but without effect, and no intelligence respecting the fate of this unfor- tunate vessel could be obtained. It is, therefore, generally concluded that she has either upset or foundered. It is also reported by respectable authority that several articles, such as the compass box, hencoop and mast, known to have belonged to this vessel, have been picked up on the opposite side of the lake.
" The passengers on board the ill-fated Speedy, as near as we can recollect, were Mr. Judge Cochrane, Robert I. D. Gray, Esq., Solicitor-General and member of the House of Assembly ; Angus McDonell, Esq., advocate, also a member of the House of Assembly ; Mr. Jacob Herchmer, merchant ; Mr. John Stegman, Surveyor ; Mr. Geo. Gown, Indian Inter- preter; James Ruggles, Esq., Mr. Anderson, student in the law; Mr. John Fisk, high constable, all of this place. The above named gentlemen were proceeding to the District of Newcastle, in order to hold the Circuit, and for the trial of an Indian (also on board) indicted for the murder of John Sharp, late of Queen's Rangers. It is also reported, but we cannot vouch for its authenticity, that, exclusive of the above passengers, there were on board two other passengers, one in the service of Mr. Justice Cochrane and the other in that of the Solicitor-General ; as also two children of parents whose indigent circumstances necessitated them to travel by land.
" The crew of the Speedy, it is said, consisted of five seamen (three of whom have left large families), exclusive of Captain Paxton, who also had a very large family. The total number of souls on board the Speedy is computed to be about twenty.
ft A more distressing and melancholy event has not occurred to this place for many years ; nor does it often happen that such a number of persons of respectability are collected in the same vessel. Not less than nine widows and we know not how many children have to lament the loss of their husbands and fathers, who, alas, have perhaps in the course of a few minutes met with a watery grave.
" It is somewhat remarkable that this is the third or fourth accident of a similar nature within these few years, the cause of which appears worthy the attention and investigation of persons conversant in the art of shipbuilding. "
JOHN BULL, SON OF JOSIAII. Born Nov. 21st, 1777 ; died Jan. 23rd, 1859. (From a daguerreotype taken in 1*1+3.)
VI.
GENEALOGICAL LIST OF THE BULL FAMILY OF THE COUNTY OF PRINCE EDWARD, ONT.
BY DR. A. C. BOWERMAN, OF BLOOMFIELD, PR. ED. Co., ONT.
I. JOSIAH BULL, the ancestor, having been a member of the Society of Friends, is, on that account, assumed to have been descended from Henry Bull, sometime Governor of Rhode Island, who also was a Friend (or Quaker). However plausible the assumption of this relationship, it may not be amiss to mention that neither in the family of Governor Bull nor that of Josiah are there any positive data by which to establish the accuracy of the inference. It is, however, considered probable by mem- bers of both families that they belong to the same line; and much effort is being expended in the search for historical documents which will ultimately clear up the doubt.*
The wife of Josiah Bull was a woman of Dutch extraction, named Tripp, who, in harmony with the marvels of colonial tradition, was owner of no less than two hundred acres of land now occupied as the site of New York city. II. Children of Josiah Bull and Tripp :
1. Josiah, born 3rd July, 1738 — of whom later.
2. Mary, ., llth May, 1740.
3. Joseph, „ 28th , 1741.
4. Sarah, ,. 15th Dec., 1743 — mar. a man named Bloodgood.
5. Benjamin, ., 17th Jan., 1746.
6. Robert, ,, 15th July, 1748.
7. George, „ 13th Jan., 1751— of whom later (see IV. 6, Gideon
Spencer, page 80).
8. Henry, „ 5th Oct., 1752.
9. Ruth, „ 9th Sept, 1753.
*NoTE. — Nathaniel Niles Bull, of Oneonta, N.Y., says: "Josiah Bull, supposed to have been of English (or Welsh) ancestry, born probably in Rhode Island; settled in Dutchess County, N. Y. , where he resided and where he died, at an advanced age. He had a brother, Jeremy or Jeremiah, who, as early as the beginning of the French War, lived at a settlement called ' Little Rest,' about fifteen miles east of Poughkeepsie. Jeremy had children— a son, Jeremy, and a daughter, Esther, who married one Henry Tibbits ; and during my childhood I knew a good deal of the descendants of both Jeremy and Esther. Henry Bull, the ancestor, born in South Wales in 1610 ; in Boston, 1635 ; settled in Rhode Island, at Newport ; joined Friends ; and was 2nd Gov. of colony."
77
78 ONTARIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
This family resided in Dutchess County, N.Y., not far from the pre- sent city of Poughkeepsie, and close to the Hudson river. During the War of Independence two brothers were taken prisoners and sent to the city of New York, unknown to the rest of the family. The treatment of Quaker non-combatants in New England was not less severe than that meted out to their co-religionists in Pennsylvania, as one of the Bull brothers died from violence and privation, while the other survived only long enough to be rescued by his relations, and died soon after.
Of the above, Josiah 's family settled in the Township of Hallowell, County Prince Edward, and George (or his family) settled near Colborne, Ont. The families of these two frequently visited, and later generations intermarried.
II— 1. Josiah Bull, born 3rd July, 1738 ; mar. (1st) Mehetabel Thomas
Dutchess County, N.Y. III. Children of Josiah and Mehetabel Bull :
1. Stephen, born 18th Sept., 1765.
2. Mary, „ 15th Nov., 1766.
3. Amos, .. 4th Dec., 1768.
4. Sarah, ,. 28th Aug., 1770— died in infancy.
5. Matilda, .. 5th July, 1771.
6. Maturah, „ 21st April, 1773 — died 2nd Nov., 1846, of
whom later.
7. Joseph, „ 13th Mar., 1775.
8. John, „ 21st Nov., 1777.
9. Ruth, n 30th Oct., 1778.
10. Henry, ,. 30th July, 1780— died in infancy.
11. Phebe, „ 18th Aug., 1781.
12. Josiah, „ 10th Oct., 1783.
13. Mehetabel, „ 27th Nov., 1785.
II. — 1. Josiah Bull, mar. (2nd) Mary, dau. of Dennis and Cornelia Christy, of Dutchess County, and widow of Robert Kidney (see later IV. 1, page 89), and had : III. Children of Josiah and Mary Bull :
1. Abigail, born 25th July, 1797 (see page 89).
2. Patience, „ 26th Sept., 1799 (see page 89).
3. Content Ann, born 10th Sept., 1802. (Content Ann and
her mother Mary are buried in the old Friends' burial ground, in east end of Bloomfield) (see page 89).
NOTE. — II. Josiah Bull died in Dutchess County, N.Y. His dau. Maturah came in 1792 ; Matilda in 1793 ; Ruth, 1802 ; while his widow Mary and the three children by second marriage, came in 1817. They (the latter) were brought by William and Ruth Christy, in a covered lumber waggon. William had gone down to attend yearly meeting, no doubt prepared to bring back with him his sister Mary and her children. It will be seen that William and Mary Christy mar. father and daughter. On the return journey they reached the house of Cory Spencer (Picton), where they had a mid-day dinner, thence
GENEALOGICAL LIST OF THE BULL FAMILY. 79
proceeding to the bush farm of William Christy, about seven miles west. In 1886 " Aunt Lizzie Wallace " (see Spencers) said she was a school-girl when the Christys and Bulls came in 1817 ; and that when she came home for dinner from the school-house, which stood on the hill overlooking the Bay, behind the residence of Mr. H. S. Wilcocks (1901), she found the arrivals at dinner at her father's. It is not known when the other members of the Bull family came ; whether they all came at the same time or separately ; but there is no doubt that they came about 1802, as John was mar. in Adolphustown in 1803 (accord- ing to the McDowell Reg.).
Ill— 1. Stephen, born 18th Sept., 1765 ; mar. (?) in Dutchess County,
N.Y., leaving issue, viz. : IV. Henry, mar. (?), leaving issue, viz. :
V. — 1. Nathaniel Niles (see note, page 77).
2. Joseph.
3. Stephen— visited Pr. Ed. Co. in 1882 ; returned to
Dutchess Co. and died about 1885.
4. Martha.
5. Elizabeth.
III. — 2. Mary, born 15th Nov., 1766, mar. Simmons, near Water- town, N.Y.
III. — 3. Amos, born 4th Dec., 1768, mar. Martha, dau. of Daniel Cun- ningham and his second wife, Abigail Richmond (see Rich- mond family, by J. B. R.; 1897). Daniel Cunningham had by his first wife, in Dutchess County, a son Charles, who afterwards settled at Bloomfield and became the progenitor of the family, which for distinction is known as that of the Cunninghams of the Island (see page 87), and also a daughter Patience, who married Solomon Vermilyea and moved to the Western States.
[Daniel and Abigail Cunningham had issue : (1) William,
mar. Fanny White and had a son William (see
page 85) ; (2) Mary, mar. George Baker (see IV. 1, 2,
Caleb and Josiah Spencer, page 85) ; (3) Martha, mar.
' Amos Bull (ante.) ; (4) Sarah, mar. Benjamin Leavens
(see page 88).] 3. Martha, wife of Amos Bull, died 23rd Jan., 1842, aged 66 years.
Amos and Martha Bull had issue : IV. — 1. Abigail, mar. Hugh Robinson.
2. Jemima mar. James Lowe (buried in Hicksite ground,
Bloomfield).
3. Stephen, mar. Elizabeth (Betsy) Brewer — lived at " Hal-
lowell Crossing."
4. William, mar. Phebe Leavens, dau. of Peter, and moved
to Nebraska.
5. Phebe, mar. - — , and lived north of Kingston, Ont.
6. Maturah, mar. George Aldrich, a one-armed school teacher.
7. Sarah.
8. Mary.
9. Martha, mar. Goodmurphy, brother of Richard.
80 ONTARIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
10. George.
11. Charles.
12. Amos, mar. . dau. of David Aldrich (?).
13. John.
Ill— 5. Matilda, born 5th July, 1771, mar. 21st April, 1791, in Dutchess County, N.Y., Cory Spencer, son of Thomas Spencer and his wife Ruth, dau. of Jonathan Waite of Newport, R.I. On the 23rd May, 1793, the family of Cory Spencer landed at " Towerpoint," on the Spencer homestead on Picton Bay, then called " Grand Bay." Children of Cory and Matilda (Spencer) :
IV. — 1. Caleb, mar. Martha Baker, dau. Geo. Baker and Mary Cun- ningham (ante.). Martha, wife of Caleb Spencer, born 1st Sept., 1807, and had issue : V. — 1. Amos.
2. Gideon.
3. Martha.
4. Alva.
IV. — 2. Josiah, mar. Sarah Baker, born 2nd July, 1797 (sister of
Martha above), and had issue : V. — 1. Corey — died young.
2. Mary, mar. James Gilberts (Minneapolis, Minn.).
3. Joseph, mar. Sarah Rayner (died, leaving, VI., Fred
and Minnie).
4. David H., mar. Phebe, dau. Cornelius Clapp, of Hillier
(res. Picton).
5. Susan, mar. John D. Blakeley (res. Picton). IV. — 3. Ruth, mar. Benjamin Bristol, and had issue :
V. — 1. Almon, mar. Mary E. Hazzard.
2. Eliza Ann, mar. Thomas, son of Samuel Yarwood
(res. Picton).
3. Matilda— died.
4. Caroline, not mar.
IV. — 4. Thomas, mar. Letty Compton, and had issue :
V. — 1. John, mar. Terrill, dau. James Terrill and Doro- thea Hufccheson.
2. Cory, mar. - - Spencer, dau. Augustus Spencer, of
Adolphustown.
3. Jane E., mar. James Rogers.
4. Willet, mar. Harriet Herrington. IV. — 5. Mehetabel, mar. Calvin Pier (no issue).
IV. — 6. Gideon, mar. Betsy Bull, dau. of Josiah, son of George and
his wife Elizabeth Powell (see page 77), and had issue : V. — 1. Andrew.
2. George.
3. Emily, mar. Thomas Todd, of Belleville, Ont.
4. Charles, mar. Jane Smiley.
GENEALOGICAL LIST OF THE BULL FAMILY. 81
IV. — 7. Elizabeth W., mar., 1856, Luke Wallace (no issue). Eliza- beth died 24th Dec., 1893, aged 86 years, 4 mos., 3 days. She was generally known as " Aunt Lizzie," and was the source of much historical data concerning the early times and people of Picton and vicinity.
IV.— 8 Matilda, born 21st April, 1810 ; not mar. ; died 16th Feb., 1901, aged 90 yrs. She and her widowed sister, Eliza- beth, long lived together on the hill overlooking "Tower- point," close to the spot where the first Spencer log-house was built — doubtless where they received the Christys and Bulls on their advent in 1817.
IV.— 9. Corey, born 28th May, 1812 ; died 6th Jan., 1897 ; mar. 7th April, 1842, Eliza Ketchum.
IV.— 10. Joseph, born 2nd Aug., 1815 ; mar. Sarah B. Hill, dau. of David Hill and Abigail, dau. of Geo. Baker and Mary Cunningham (page 79).
V.— 1. Emily, born 17th April, 1843; mar., 16th Feb., 1865, Charles Wilson, of Whitchurch, Ont.
2. Priscilla, born 15th Sept., 1847; mar. J. A. Heively,
of Williarnsport, Pa.
3. David A., born 14th Feb., 1852 ; mar. Jane, dau. L.B.
Stinson, Hallowell.
III.— 6. Maturah, born 21st April, 1773 ; died 2nd Nov., 1846 ; mar. (1st) Thomas Bowerman, who brought her to Canada in 1792, and leaving the farm on west lake shore, known as the Tubbs' farm, they settled on Lot 1, First Con., Military Tract, Township Hallowell. Their first house was of logs, and stood near the low ground where they grew their flax for spinning. Before many years, however, they built a large, square two-storey frame house, which was painted white, and was for those days both commodious and palatial. Thomas died in 1810 at Kingston, en route from Quebec, with " ship fever," and was brought home for burial. Maturah married (2nd) John Stin- son (see page 84). IV. Children of Maturah and Thomas (Bowerman) :
1. Sarah (called " Aunt Sally"), mar. Townsend Garrett (son
of Caleb, a brother of Isaac), of Hillier.
2. Phebe — died, aged 10.
3. Stephen (known as " Big Stephen "), mar. Phebe Garrett,
dau. Isaac (above) and Sarah, and had issue : V. — 1. Emerson.
2. Charles.
3. Sarah Ann.
4. Zuleima.
5. Byron.
6. Milton.
7. Thomas Henry.
NOTE. — The family of Stephen moved to Battle Creek, Mich. They were mar. at the "Big White House," on the same day (Friday, 18th Sept., 1818) 6
82 ONTARIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
on which were mar. William Garrett (brother of Phebe) and Patience Bull, and Townsend Garrett and Sally Bowermaii. That was an occasion not to be overlooked; it was an early "triple-alliance," and demanded ratification by the assembled neighborhood, in the collective capacity of an old-timed charivari. That event was authentically stated by " the oldest inhabitant " never to have been surpassed for the extravagant invention of furious fun and frolic. The vestibuled Pullmans in which the newly con- tracted parties began their wedding tours consisted of heavy farm waggons without springs, and furnished with large waggon-chairs. When these had been taken apart and replaced in proper shape upon the ground — for the charivaring party had placed them astride the barn roof — they were free to pursue their journey over the corduroy roads leading to their various resi- dences near Wellington, then the Township of Ameliasburg.
Phebe died at Battle Creek, aged 87 yrs. — removed from Canada in 1863.
IV. — 4. Joseph, mar. (1st) Phebe Cronkhite, dau. Jacob and Phila- delphia (Carman) : V.— 1. Jacob.
2. Patience.
3. Willet.
4. Lydia.
5. Susannah.
6. Philadelphia, | , .
7. Maturah1, |twms'
8. Sarah.
9. Rachel.
Mar. (2nd) Phebe Upton, of Poughkeepsie, where he died.
IV. — -5. Thomas (called " Big Tommy "), who lived for the greater part of his life on the town line between Hallowell and Hillier, near a country church which still bears the family name of " Bowerman's Church." In keeping with the family proclivity for magnificent visions, Thomas offered to " give the land, grade the road, and furnish the ties " for a section of railroad, as an inducement for the Grand Trunk Railway to be built through Prince Edward. Though a great undertaking, it would have been a profit- able investment, and showed greater speculative foresight than many of his followers. He mar. (1st) Jemima Platt, who died without issue, then (2nd) Mary Platt, sister of Jemima and widow of Young :
V. — 1. James, mar. (1st) C. McCartney, of Hillier — VI. Mary Eliza ; mar. (2nd) M. C. Fraser, of Napanee — VI. Lucy, Richard Fraser ; mar. (3rd) Lydia Caton.
V. — 2. Amos, mar. Rhoda A. Babbitt, and had issue : VI.— 1. Mary.
2. Emma.
3. Henry.
4. John.
5. Benjamin.
GENEALOGICAL LIST OF THE BULL FAMILY. 83
V.— 3. Lois.
4. Hester.
5. Maturah, mar. Samuel Titus (Napinka, Man., 1897).
6. Allen, mar. Carrie Stephens, dau. George, of Cobourg.
IV. — 6. Josiah, mar. Sarah, dau. Henry and Ruth Brewer, of
Dutchess County, N.Y. :
V. — 1. Diana, mar. Dr. Geo. B. Christy, son of Henry and Maria (Dunlop, Iowa).
3 Nefson 1 live in Chica£°— the latter an editor-
4. Freeman.
5. Anise.
6. Patience.
7. Harvey.
8. Byron.
9. Lydia.
[Sarah Brewer was born in Utica, N.Y., llth June, 1811, and in 1829 came to Canada, where she mar., 25th April, 1830, Josiah Bowerman. In 1857 this family moved to the United States, finally settling at Dunlop, Iowa, where Josiah died in 1876— Sarah on 14th March, 1896.]
IV. — 7. Amos, mar. (1st) Sarah Haight, and had issue :
V. — 1. Mary, mar. William Gilroy, of " Pine Orchard," or New- market.
2. Henry, mar. Mary Ann, dau. Townsend Garrett, son of
Caleb.
3. Lydia, mar. Smith Philips. (She is buried on " Bower-
man's Hill.")
4. Eliza — not mar.
5. Melissa, mar. Walter Young.
6. George — died young.
7. James.
Mar. (2nd) Mary, dau. of Eleazer Lewis, of Yonge Street,
County York, and had issue : V. — 1. Amos.
2. Ruth, mar. Lundy, of Whitchurch.
3. Maturah — died early.
4. Lewis.
5. Phebe — died early.
6. Annie — mar. Willets, of Whitchurch, County York.
IV.— 8. Lydia (died 24th July, 1883), mar. Thomas Stinson, son of
John, son of Capt. John (below), and had issue : V. — 1. Phebe, mar. 23rd March, 1853, Cornelius Noxon, son
Samuel and R-hoda White.
2. Maturah, mar. Samuel Noxon, brother of Cornelius and late Pres't of the firm of Noxon Bros., of Ingersoll, and had: VI, 1, Herbert; 2, Olive.
84 ONTARIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
3. Freeman, mar. Eliza Spencer, and had : VI., 1, Delia —
died 18th Dec., 1900.
4. Mary Amanda, mar. Nathaniel Branscombe, and had |S^' issue: VI, 1, John.
IV. — 9. Patience, mar. Alexander Sheriff, of Picton, and had issue : y. l. John — not mar., artist — died at San Diego, Cal.
2. Phebe, mar. Thomas Higgins, and had issue :
VI.— 1. Cornelia.
2. Albert.
3. Herbert R.
3. Anna M., mar. Wm. G. Ford, and had issue :
VI. — 1. Georgiana.
2. William.
3. Edward.
4. Frank.
4. Thomas.
III. — 6. Maturah (Bull), mar. (2nd) John Stinson, son of Capt. John
S tin son (ante.), and had issue, viz. : IV. 1. Henry B. (died 14th Sept., 1894), mar. Mary Van Home,
and had issue : V. — 1. Henry (res. Butte city, Montana).
2. Ada, inar. Albt. G. McDonald, son of Greer, of Hallowell.
IV. — 2. James (died 8th April, 1843), mar. Mary, dau. Ransaeler
Burlingham and Phebe, of Hallowell (see page 88), and
died without issue — James at the age of 27, and Mary
at 21.
III. — 7. Joseph, born 13th March, 1775, mar. (?) (resided in Dutchess Co.,
N.Y.), and had issue : IV. — 1. Stephen, mar. (?), and had issue :
V. — Joseph, mar. (?), and had issue : VI., Fred.
Ill— 8. John (vide portrait front), born 21st Nov., 1777, died 23rd Jan., 1859 ; mar. June 27th, 1803 (McDowall Reg.), Mary Palen (born 14th Sept., 1783, died 2nd Jan., 1843). IV. — Children of John and Mary Bull :
1. Phebe, born 12th Nov., 1804, mar. John Cronkhite and re-
sided near Wellington Co., Prince Edward.
2. Corey, born 15th Jan., 1808, died 18th Feb., 1882 ; mar.
(1st) Clara Clarke, and had issue :
y. — i. Gilbert, born 21st Aug., 1833; mar. Lawson, and
had issue : VI., Edward M.
2. Harriet Anne, born 26th Jan., 1835 ; mar. Ichabod
Bowerman, of Exeter, Ont.
3. John, born 18th Feb., 1837 ; mar. Ella Young, dau.
George M., of Ameliasburg, Ont., and had issue : VI. — 1. George Corey.
2. Florence. Mar. (2nd) Fanny Clarke, sister of Clara, and had issue
GENEALOGICAL LIST OF THE BULL FAMILY. 85
V.— 1. Selick, born 30th March, 1838 ; mar. Elizabeth Brans- combe, and had issue : VI. — 1. Jennie.
2. Ida.
3. Estella.
2. Albert, born 18th March, 1840 ; mar., 3rd March, 1866,
Orilla, dau. Louis Winters, and had issue : VI— 1. Louis A., born 20th April, 1870. 2. Dora, born 21st Sept., 1879.
3. Cory, born 6th Sept., 1841, died 23rd July, 1864.
4. Mary K, born 26th Aug., 1843 ; mar., 8th March, 1865,
Jacob, son of Wm. Fraleigh.
5. Frances L., born 29th Oct., 1846 ; mar. Fred. Bigg.
6. Phebe, born 19th Dec., 1848; mar. (?) (res. Brandon,
Man.).
7. Alice M., born 16th April, 1854 ; not mar. (res. Chicago).
IV.— 3. John, born 31st Dec., 1815 ; mar., 7th March, 1843, Pamelia
Davis, born 30th Oct., 1821, and had issue : V.— 1. Herbert S., born 16th March, 1846 ; mar., 29th Aug., 1870, Annie, dau. David Burlingham (page 88), and had issue : VI., Norma — died March, 1896. 2. Ida Augusta, born 24th Sept., 1851 ; mar., 3rd May, 1868, Thos. H. Noxon (Noxon Bros.), and had issue : VI. Herbert.
III.— 9. Ruth, born 30th Oct., 1778 ; died, at the house of John Stinson, jr., 28th Sept., 1850; mar., in Dutchess Co., N.Y., William, son of Dennis Christy and his wife, Cornelia Stewart. (William Christy was born 5th July, 1772, died 9th Aug. 1828.) IV.— Children of William and Ruth (Christy) :
1. Stewart, born 23rd Oct., 1796, died 28th May, 1865 ; mar.
in Dutchess Co., Elizabeth Vincent, dau. Reuben and
Deborah (Bowerman), and had issue :
V. — 1. Reuben, mar. Mary Gilmore (page 87).
2. Jane, mar. David Burlingham (see page 88).
3. William, mar. Sophia Hendry.
4. Gideon, mar. Mary Cunningham (see Wm., III.,
page 79).
5. John, mar. Hannah Creeper, from Cornwall, Eng.
2. Matilda, born 30th Oct., 1797; died 10th Jan., 1881 ; mar-
ried Joseph Brown, of Whitby, originally of Monkton, Vermont (a school-teacher), and had issue : V. — 1. William, not mar.
2. Stewart, mar. (1st) Catherine Corner, (2nd) Lydia
Noxon.
3. Ruth, not mar., died 1855.
4. Elizabeth, mar. Isaac Toole, of Markham.
5. Thomas, not mar., died 1896.
6. Lydia, mar. Alfred White (no issue).
86 ONTARIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
3. Henry, born 15th April, 1799, died 20th Aug., 1881 ; mar-
ried Maria Brewer, and is buried on " Bowerman's Hill." They had issue : V. — 1. George B., mar. Diana Bowerman (see page 83).
2. Lydia, mar. Wm. Low, and moved to Iowa.
3. Patience, u Jacobs, n .,
4. , n Mathew Smith, n n
5. Henry A. n Sarah Eck, of Peterboro, Ont.
VI. Bella, mar. Dr. Sanger Brown (son of V. 2,
Stewart and Catherine, ante.), of Chicago. VII. Christy (see page 85).
4. Elizabeth, born 9th Oct., 1804, died 24th June, 1875 ; mar.
John Stinson, jr., son of John, son of Capt. John. (No surviving issue.)
5. Martha, born 9th Oct., 1806, died 9th Feb., 1861 ; mar.
James Striker, who died 28th Aug., 1855. Had issue : V. Ruth, mar. Abram B. Saylor, son of Charles. Issue : VI.— 1. Charles Henry, mar. (1st) Sarah Kelly, (2nd)
Mary Williamson, (3rd) Mary Yarwood. 2. Mary Elizabeth, mar. Alonzo Weeks.
6. Mehetabel, born 9th October, 1809; died 17th October,
1842 ; mar. Daniel Gerow, and had issue : V.— 1. Peter (?)
2. Mary. mar. Benj. Brewer (res. Oswego, N.Y.).
3. Thomas, mar. Elmira Leavens, dau. Jos. Leavens
and his wife Sarah, dau. of Seth Armitage, of Yonge Street.
7. Phebe, born 6th May, 1811, died 31st July, 1876 ; mar.
Walter H. Stickney, son of Dr. John Stickney and his
wife Rebecca Barker, and had issue :