Skip to main content

Full text of "The Talbot régime, or, The first half century of the Talbot settlement"

See other formats 


HANDBOUND 
AT  THE 


L'MVERSITY  OF 
TORONTO  PRESS 


COLONEL    THOMAS    TALBOT. 


1  D 


THE  TALBOT  REGIME 

OR  THE 

FIRST  HALF  CENTURY  OF  THE 
TALBOT   SETTLEMENT 


BY 

C.    0.    ERMATINGER,    K.    C 

JUNIOR    JUDGE.    COUNTY    OF    ELGIN 
SPECIAL    EDITION 


ST.      THOMAS:          THE     MUNICIPAL 
WORLD,    LIMITED,  MDCCCCIV 


D 


:i  n 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Parliament  of  Canada,  in  the  year  Nineteen  Hundred  and  Fo 
by  CHARLES  OAKES  ERMATINGER,  in  the  Office  of  the  Minister  of  Agriculture. 


AUTHOR'S  NOTE. 

A  SUGGESTION  was  made  some  years  ago  that  I  should 
publish  a  new  edition  of  the  book  entitled  "The  Life  of 
Colonel  Talbot,"  written  and  published  by  my  father  in  1859,  and 
now  long  since  out  of  print.  Facts  and  documents  since  come 
to  light,  the  different  aspect  in  which  many  occurrences  and 
characters  are  regarded  after  the  lapse  of  almost  half  a 
century,  with  other  reasons,  combined  to  render  such  a  course, 
in  my  view,  both  impossible  and  inadvisable.  I  have 
nevertheless  quoted  from,  and  made  free  use  of  much  of 
the  material  in,  my  father's  book,  including  a  good  part  of 
what  is  contained  in  my  chapter  of  Anecdotes.  I  aimed  rather 
at  a  history  of  the  Settlement  than  a  biography  of  the  man 
alone,  and  at  first  contemplated  covering  the  events  of  the  entire 
century  from  1803  to  1903  in  one  volume.  Before  I  had 
completed  one-half  of  my  task  I  saw  that  to  accomplish  this 
satisfactorily  would  be  impracticable.  Having  devoted  this 
volume  to  the  first  half  century  of  the  Settlement,  I  have  still 
had  to  cultivate  the  art  of  condensation  to  an  extent  which  may 
not  be  apparent  to  most  readers.  In  consequence  the  names  of 
many  worthy  settlers — worthier  probably  than  many  whose  names 
appear — will  be  missed  from  these  pages.  This  would,  however, 
be,  in  any  case,  inevitable,  especially  as  to  those  whose  quiet, 
unostentatious  though  industrious  and  useful  lives  have  not 
brought  them  into  prominence.  A  valued  correspondent 
expressed  the  hope  that  fac  similes  of  the  original  township 
maps,  with  Colonel  Talbot's  entries  upon  them,  might  be  included 
in  this  volume.  I  find  this  impracticable,  but  hope  they  may 
yet  appear  in  the  Domesday  Book  announced  to  be  in  course  of 
compilation  by  the  Provincial  Archivist — or  in  other  permanent 
form. 


iv  AUTHOR'S   NOTE. 

I  have  quoted  freely  from  books  written  by  participants  in 
the  scenes  depicted  and  not  readily  accessible  to  casual 
readers,  and,  in  preference  to  attempting"  to  paraphrase  what 
has  been  better  said  than  I  could  hope  to  say  it,  have  given 
the  language  of  the  writers  to  an  extent  which  may  give  this 
volume  the  appearance  rather  of  a  compilation  than  a  history — 
though  histories  are  of  necessity  but  compilations  to  a  greater  or 
less  extent.  Contemporary  correspondence  I  have  quoted  or 
given  entire,  wherever  I  have  thought  it  would  lend  vividness  to 
the  text — while  much  more  is  contained  in  the  appendices.  While 
much  that  is  recorded  may  seem  local  or  trivial,  I  have  thought 
it  all  essential  to  a  faithful  picture  of  the  scenes  and  period 
dealt  with,  especially  in  what  must  be  regarded  as  largely  a  book 
of  local  annals. 

I  have  deemed  it  neither  necessary  nor  fitting  to  refer  in  the 
text  to  certain  reports  given  wide  currency  in  Canada  regarding 
the  parentage  of  Colonel  Talbot,  such  as  that  in  the  Scottish 
Canadian  a  year  or  two  since,  wherein  it  was  suggested  that  he 
was  of  royal  blood— a  son  of  George  III. — through  a  morganatic 
marriage,  and  presumably  adopted  into  the  Talbot  family.  While 
most  improbable  on  their  face,  I  have  found  no  evidence  to 
support  such  tales  and  have  therefore  passed  them  over.  When 
mentioned  to  the  present  Lord  Talbot  de  Malahide,  he  said  there 
was  not  a  word  of  truth  in  them  and  he  considered  them  unworthy 
of  notice. 

To  mention  all  those  to  whom  I  am  indebted  for  information 
and  kind  assistance  would  be  almost  impossible,  but  special 
acknowledgments  are  due  to  Judge  Macbeth  of  London,  Ontario, 
and  Mr.  James  H.  Coyne  of  St.  Thomas  for  giving  me  access  to 
the  Talbot  papers  and  correspondence  and  to  the  latter  for  use  of 
his  valuable  library  of  Canadian  books  as  well,  to  Mr.  E.  H. 
Tiffany  of  Alexandria  for  copies  of  and  extracts  from  the  Colonial 
Advocate  and  to  Lord  Talbot  de  Malahide  for  permitting  the  use 
of  his  family  crest  to  adorn  the  title  page  and  cover,  as  well  as 
for  information  afforded  me. 

Since  the  foregoing  lines  were  penned  I  have,  through  the 
kindness  of  Dr.  A.  V.  Becher  of  London,  Ontario,  been  afforded 


AUTHOR'S   NOTE.  v 

the  opportunity  to  peruse  and  make  extracts  from  a  number  of 
letters  received  by  his  grandfather,  the  late  H.  C.  R.  Becher, 
Q.C.,  from  Colonel  Talbot  and  Mr.  George  Macbeth.  These 
extracts  will  be  found  in  Appendix  G.  The  omitted  portions 
relate  chiefly  to  details  of  business.  This  correspondence,  which 
I  have  added  to  the  already  lengthy  appendices,  will  be  of  special 
interest  to  those  who  may  wish  to  know  more  of  the  Colonel's 
last  two  journeys  to  England — the  days  of  ill-health  and  haunting, 
baseless  fears  of  impending1  poverty  In  his  old  age,  of  self-imposed 
exile  from  his  "dear  country,  "as  he  termed  Canada — of  his  increas- 
ing fondness  for  his  companion  in  exile,  of  their  life  in  London,  their 
wanderings  in  England  and  France  and  the  people  they  met,  of 
his  unhappy  difference  with  his  nephew,  the  late  Lord  Airey, 
which  was  never  healed.  The  handwriting  and  contents  of  the 
Colonel's  letters  exhibit  plainly  his  failing  powers.  The  well- 
written,  lively  letters  of  Mr.  Macbeth  fill  in  the  sad  picture,  in 
which  touches  of  humour  are  nevertheless  not  wanting. 

Letters  and  documents  in  the  Appendices  are  given  as  nearly  as 
possible  verbatim  et  literatim. 

One  noticeable  error  has  crept  into  the  book.  Through  no 
fault  of  the  printers  the  name  of  Joseph  Pickering  has  been 
given  as  James  Pickering. 

If  the  author's  share  in  the  production  of  this  volume — a 
product  typographically  and  otherwise  of  the  Talbot  Settlement — 
meets  with  approval  equal  to  that  which  I  feel  sure  its  mechanical 
excellence  will  be  found  to  deserve,  I,  though  deeply  sensible  of 
my  imperfections  as  an  author,  shall  be  rewarded  for  my  labour. 

C.  O.  E. 

November  zist,  1904. 


ERRATA. 

CHAPTER  XIX. — For  James,  read  Joseph  Pickering. 
On  p.  176 — For  Mayor  Nevills,  read  Major  Nevills. 
On  p.  292 — For  Mary  Fraser,  read  Jane  Fraser. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 
CHAPTER  I.—"  THE  FINEST  FOREST  IN  THE  WORLD."  i 

CHAPTER  II.—  TALBOT'S  FAMILY  AND  EARLY  LIFE 5 

CHAPTER  III.— TALBOT  AND  GOVERNOR  SIMCOE.  to 

CHAPTER  IV.— DETROIT  AND  SITE  OF  LONDON  VISITED.  16 

CHAPTER  V.— TALBOT'S  MILITARY  CAREER.— ROYAL  DUKES'  FRIEND- 
SHIP.— "SKITTEEWAABAA." 22 

CHAPTER  VI.— SIMCOE'S  LETTER. — LORD   HOBART'S  ORDER.— DUN- 

WICH  SELECTED 30 

CHAPTER   VII.— SETTLEMENT    BEGUN.— EARLY   SETTLERS. — TALBOT 

ROAD. — HARDSHIPS  AND   DIFFICULTIES.        .        .      35 

CHAPTER  VIII.— SIMON  ZELOTES  WATSON.— GOVERNOR  GORE.— WAR 

BEGINS 44 

CHAPTER  IX.— HULL'S  INVASION.— WESTBROOK  AND  WATSON.— FALL 

OF  DETROIT 49 

CHAPTER  X.— PROCTOR'S  WESTERN  CAMPAIGN.— BATTLES  OF  LAKE 

ERIE  AND  MORAVIANTOWN.— TECUMSEH'S  DEATH.      57 

CHAPTER  XL— THE  ROLPHS'  HOSPITALITY.— MILITIA  SERVICES  AND 

PAY. — COMMISSARIAT  TROUBLES 66 

CHAPTER  XII.— MILITIA  EXPLOITS.— RAIDS  ON  PORT  TALBOT.— MILLS 

BURNED. — WESTBROOK  AT  OXFORD.       .        .  71 

CHAPTER  XIII.— PORT  DOVER  BURNED.— MARAUDING  DESPERADOES. 

— MCARTHUR'S  RAID.— CLOSE  OF  THE  WAR.    .      .      79 

CHAPTER  XIV.— COLONEL  TALBOT  AND  THE  PROVINCIAL  GOVERN- 
MENT.—ATTENDS  COLONIAL  OFFICE  AND  THE 
RESULT 88 

CHAPTER  XV. — ANNUITY  TO  COLONEL  TALBOT. — FURTHER  VISITS  TO 
COLONIAL  OFFICE.— THE  NORTH  BRANCH  TALBOT 
ROAD. — ORIGINATOR  OF  SETTLEMENT  DUTIES  AND 
GOOD  ROADS. 94 


viii  TABLE   OF   CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XVI.— SCOTCH  IN  ALDBOROUGH  AND  DUNWICH.— BEES  AND 

BALLS.— OPPOSITION  TO  COLONEL  TALBOT.    .        .      99 

CHAPTER  XVII.— DR.  JOHN  ROLPH. — COLONEL  BURWELL.— ELEC- 
TIONS.—Two  SCOTCH  BARONETS 108 

CHAPTER  XVIII. — THE  TALBOT  ANNIVERSARY.— ST.  THOMAS.— A 
TALBOT  SETTLEMENT  IN  LONDON  TOWNSHIP. — 
COURTS  AND  OFFICIALS  MOVED  TO  LONDON.  .  117 

CHAPTER  XIX.— EARLY  THRESHING  MACHINES.— JOSEPH  PICKERING. 

—FARMING  IN  1825-6 125 

CHAPTER  XX.— ST.  THOMAS  IN  1830.— REV.  M.  BURNHAM.        .         .133 

CHAPTER  XXL— THE  NEW  DISTRICT  CAPITAL.— LONDON'S  FIRST 
DECADE,  1826-1836.— EARLY  SETTLERS.— OFFI- 
CIALS, LAWYERS,  DOCTORS 138 

CHAPTER  XXIL— LETTERS  FROM  COLONEL  TALBOT  TO  HON.  PETER 

ROBINSON  1830-1834. — THE  CHOLERA.    .        .        .     150 

CHAPTER    XXIIL— ST.    GEORGE'S    DAY,    '32.— COLONEL    TALBOT'S 

SPEECH 162 

CHAPTER  XXIV.— TALBOT  ANNIVERSARY  IN  1832.— SOME  NEW 
ARRIVALS.— ST.  THOMAS  IN  THE  THIRTIES.— 
EARLY  SETTLERS.— NEWSPAPERS  AND  BARRACKS 
IN  BOTH  TOWNS 170 

CHAPTER  XXV. — MRS.  JAMESON  IN  THE  SETTLEMENT.        .        .        .     178 

CHAPTER  XXVI. — POLITICAL  AFFAIRS  OF  THE  PROVINCE.— REBELLION 

OF  1837. — DR.  CHAS.  DUNCOMBE 188 

CHAPTER  XXVIL— DUNCOMBE'S  RISING  AND  FLIGHT.— THE  "ELE- 
GANT EXTRACTS  "  AND  THE  CAROLINE.  .  .  .  202 

CHAPTER  XXVIII.— INVASION  OF  WESTERN  FRONTIER.— ST.  THOMAS 
CAVALRY. — SCHOONER  ANNE. — FIGHTING  ISLAND. 
— BATTLE  OF  PELEE  ISLAND.— INVASION  AT 
WINDSOR 209 

CHAPTER  XXIX.— PORT  STANLEY  THREATENED.— BELA  SHAW.— 
HON.  E.  LEONARD. — DISAFFECTION  IN  SOUTH 
YARMOUTH. — EXECUTIONS  AT  LONDON.  .  .  224 

CHAPTER  XXX. — THE  MACBETHS. — COLONEL  AIREY'S   REGIMENT. — 

ST.  THOMAS  IN  THE  40*5 231 

CHAPTER  XXXI.— LONDON  IN  THE  4o's.— KILLALY  BANQUET.— FIRES. 

— LORD  ELGIN 242 


TABLE   OF  CONTENTS.  ix 

CHAPTER  XXXII.— PROGRESS  OF  SETTLEMENT,  MUNICIPALLY,  MA- 
TERIALLY, ETC.— TOWNS,  VILLAGES  AND  TOWN- 
SHIPS DESCRIBED. — CHATHAM  AND  WINDSOR  IN 
THE  40*8. 253 

/CHAPTER    XXXIII.— MORAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  CONDITION.— CHURCH 
V                                       PROGRESS.  —  THE    VARIOUS    CHURCHES.  —  DR. 
STRACHAN'S   VISIT    TO    CHATHAM    AND    TALBOT 
ROAD 269 

CHAPTER  XXXIV.— EARLY  SCHOOLS  AND  EDUCATIONAL  PROGRESS.    .     284 

CHAPTER  XXXV.— COLONEL  AIREY'S  RETURN.— LETTERS  TO  JUDGE 
SALMON.— LADY  EMMELINE  WORTLEY'S  VISIT. — 
COLONEL  TALBOT'S  LAST  VISIT  TO  ENGLAND. — His 
DEATH 291 

CHAPTER  XXXVI.— ANECDOTES  OF  THE  COLONEL 300 

CHAPTER  XXXVII.— ESTIMATE  OF  COLONEL  TALBOT.— PIONEERS  AT 

REST 3u 


APPENDICES. 

APPENDIX  A— THE  TALBOT    PAPERS,    PREVIOUS    TO    WAR    OF 

1812. — See  Schedule  on page  321 

"          B— PAPERS    RELATING    TO    WAR    OF    1812,    MILITIA 

MUSTER  ROLLS,  ETC.— See  Schedule  on  .        .     "      327 

"  C — LISTS  OF  PERSONS  PLUNDERED  IN  LONG  POINT  AND 
TALBOT  SETTLEMENTS  DURING  THE  WAR, 
ETC. — See  Schedule  of  Documents  on  .  .  "  340 

"  D — TALBOT  PAPERS  SUBSEQUENT  TO  THE  WAR, 
LETTERS  TO  MAJOR  SALMON  AND  FROM  DR. 
JOHN  ROLPH  AND  SIR  P.  MAITLAND. — See 
Schedule  on "  346 

"          E — THE  TALBOT  ANNIVERSARY  CORRESPONDENCE. — 

See  Schedule  on "      353 

"  F — LETTERS  AND  DOCUMENTS  RELATING  TO  REBELLION 
1837-8. — LIST  OF  ST.  THOMAS  CAVALRY. — See 
Schedule  on "  356 

"  G — MISCELLANEOUS,  RELATING  TO  COLONEL  TALBOT'S 
VISITS  TO  ENGLAND,  ETC.,  IN  1848  AND  1850. — 
LISTS  OF  JUDGES,  MAGISTRATES,  TEACHERS, 
INSPECTORS,  ETC.— See  Schedule  on  .  .  "  364 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


COLONEL  TALBOT Frontispiece 

MALAHIDE  CASTLE page      4 

OAK  ROOM,  MALAHIDE  CASTLE "         6 

JOHN  GRAVES  SIMCOE,  LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR "       16 

THE  TALBOT  RESIDENCE. "34 

FRANCIS  GORE,  LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR. "46 

SIR  PEREGRINE  MAITLAND,  LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR        .        .  "       46 

FORT  MALDEN. "60 

COLONEL  MAHLON  BURWELL. "114 

COLONEL  JOHN  BOSTWICK "114 

DR.  JOHN  ROLPH "114 

DR.  CHAS.  DUNCOMBE "114 

TEMPORARY  COURT  HOUSE  AND  DISTRICT  SCHOOL,  LONDON.  .        .  "      138 

LONDON  COURT  HOUSE  AS  REMODELLED "138 

COLONEL  J.  B.  ASKIN "148 

FREEMAN  TALBOT "148 

JOHN  HARRIS "      148 

SHERIFF  HAMILTON. "      148 

FAC  SIMILE  RECEIPT  FROM  COLONEL  TALBOT "152 

TALBOT  HOMESTEAD "176 

ST.  THOMAS,  FROM  AN  OLD  PAINTING "      176 

SIR  FRANCIS  BOND  HEAD,  LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR.         ..."      190 

SIR  JOHN  COLBORNE,  LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR "190 

THE  EARL  OF  ELGIN. "      242 

LAWRENCE  LAWRASON "242 

HON.  G.  J.  GOODHUE "      242 

HON.  JUSTICE  JOHN  WILSON "242 

EARLY  VIEW  OF  LONDON "250 

WHARNCLIFFE  ROAD  ABOUT  1850 "      250 

ELGIN  COURT  HOUSE  AND  GAOL "      254 

OLD  TOWN  HALL,  ST.  THOMAS "      254 

RT.  REV.  BENJ.  CRONYN. "270 

OLD  ST.  THOMAS  CHURCH .        .  "      270 

ST.  PETER'S  CHURCH,  TYRCONNEL "      270 

CHRIST  CHURCH,  AMHERSTBURG "      270 

MODERN  VIEW  NEAR   PORT  TAI.EOT.         .         .        .        .        .  "      292 


THE   TALBOT    REGIME 


CHAPTER   I. 

"THE  FINEST  FOREST  IN  THE  WORLD." 

A  CENTURY  AND  A  HALF  of  almost  unbroken  solitude,  followed  by 
a  century  of  busy  settlement — such  is  a  brief  epitome  of  the 
history  of  the  last  two  hundred  and  fifty  years,  of  the  favoured 
region  bordering-  Lake  Erie  on  the  north. 

A  territory  the  most  southerly  in  all  Canada,  in  the  latitude  of 
southern  France  and  northern  Italy  ;  a  soil  producing  wheat, 
maize  and  tobacco  among  its  staple  crops,  with  peaches,  grapes 
and  all  the  hardier  fruits  in  exuberant  abundance  ;  a  land  flowing 
almost  literally  with  oil,  wine  and  honey — blessed  with  a  climate 
varying  from  melting  summer  heat  to  winter's  keen  frost  and 
snow  in  alternating  seasons,  yet  healthful  and  invigorating — such 
a  region  may  without  exaggeration  be  termed  a  highly  favoured 
one. 

The  possibilities  of  the  land  as  an  agricultural  country  were  not 
put  to  the  test,  however,  until  the  white  man's  coming,  save 
where  patches  of  maize,  or  Indian  corn,  pumpkins,  beans  or 
tobacco  were  sometimes  grown  in  the  cleared  spaces  around  their 
villages  by  the  aboriginies,  who  were  known  as  the  Neutral 
Nation,  because  they  maintained  neutrality  between  the  two  great 
warring  peoples  to  the  north  and  east  of  them — the  Hurons  and 
their  insatiable  foes  the  Iroquois,  the  former  the  friends  of  the 
French,  the  latter  of  the  English.  Yet  the  Neutrals  were  them- 


2  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

selves  a  fierce  and  cruel  people,  who  confined  their  warlike 
operations  to  the  western  regions  where  dwelt  their  own  special 
enemies,  whom  they  treated  with  barbarous  cruelty  whenever  the 
fortunes  of  war  brought  them  within  their  power.  Meantime 
they  cultivated  friendly  relations  with  their  neighbours  to  the 
north-east  and  east,  keeping  an  ''open  door"  for  trade  and 
barter  with  both  and  dwelling  in  numerous  villages  or  fortified 
camps  whose  palisaded  earthworks  afforded  protection  to  thei- 
families  alike  from  prowling  bands  of  hostile  nations  and  from  t 
wild  beasts  of  the  forest.  Traces  of  some  of  these  villages  at . 
still  decipherable  in  various  places,  the  best  preserved  being 
probably  that  situate  in  the  township  of  Southwold,  within  some 
three  miles  of  Port  Talbot.  Trees  and  tree  trunks  within  and 
upon  its  earthworks,  whose  growth  must  have  been  subsequent 
to  the  day  when  it  was  inhabited,  speak  of  that  day  as  more  than 
two  centuries  ago,  and  corroborate  the  accounts  of  French 
missionaries,  who  visited  the  Neutrals  in  the  seventeenth  century 
and  place  the  date  of  their  expulsion,  or  rather  extermination  as  a 
nation,  at  some  time  between  the  middle  and  close  of  that  century. 

Champlain  had  information  of  the  Neutrals  and  their  country  in 
1616.  The  Recollet  father,  De  Laroche-Daillon,  visited  and 
wintered  with  them  in  1626-7,  as  did  the  Jesuit  missionaries 
Brebeuf  and  Chaumonot  in  1639-40  and  in  1640-41.  They  were 
described  as  numerous  and  fierce  in  war,  living  in  villages  and 
cultivating  fields  of  maize,  pumpkins  and  tobacco.  Naked, 
superstitious,  easily  influenced  by  other  nations,  to  whom  their 
trade  was  tributory,  to  regard  the  Gospel  messengers  as  evil 
wizards  and  turn  them  from  their  villages,  they  fell  at  last  before 
the  conquering  Iroquois,  the  remnant  escaping  to  the  west,  and 
their  land  became  the  Conquerors'  hunting  ground. 

A  noble  hunting  ground  it  was — two  hundred  and  fifty  miles 
from  east  to  west — a  wavy,  green  sea  of  forest,  beside  the 
billowy  azure  sea  of  fresh  water.  Its  surface  rose  and  fell  in 
gentle  undulations,  unbroken,  save  where  a  gleam  of  water  or  a 
valley  marked  the  winding  of  a  river  or  smaller  stream  to  its  exit 
into  the  lake,  or  a  forest  fire  or  the  site  of  some  deserted  village 
of  the  Neutrals  made  an  oasi£  in  the  leafy  expanse.  Beech  and 


"THE   FINEST   FOREST    IN   THE   WORLD."  3 

maple,  oak,  ash  and  stately  elm,  walnut  and  butternut,  chestnut 
and  hickory,  with  many  other  mighty  jostling-  brethren  of  the 
forest  were  decked  in  the  autumn  with  the  hues  of  the  rainbow, 
while  vast  patches  of  pine,  spruce,  tamarac  and  hemlock  preserved 
their  more  sombre  colouring  throughout  the  year.  Vast  herds  of 
deer  and  flocks  of  wild  turkey  roamed  the  forest,  bears  enjoyed 
the  small  fruits  and  berries  which  abounded,  the  industrious 
v>eaver  felled  trees  and  built  dams  where  required  for  their  pur- 
ges. Myriads  of  pigeons  darkened,  at  times,  the  sky,  and  duck 
.^numerable  covered  the  waters  of  the  bays,  rivers  and  ponds, 
whose  depths  teemed  with  all  kinds  of  fresh  water  fish. 

During  the  latter  half  of  the  seventeenth  century  a  number  of 
French  travellers,  explorers  and  missionaries,  skirted  the  lake 
front  of  the  country,  but  seldom  traversed  the  interior.  Joliet  in 
1669  passing  down  from  the  upper  lakes  landed  at  or  near  Kettle 
Creek  and  crossed  overland  to  Burlington  Bay,  meeting  en  route 
La  Salle,  who  returned  with  him  to  the  East,  and  the  Sulpician 
priests,  Dollier  de  Casson  and  Galinee,  who  descended  the  Grand 
River  to  Lake  Erie  and  wintered  at  the  site  of  Port  Dover,  where 
on  Passion  Sunday,  1670,  they  erected  a  cross,  affixing  to  its  foot 
the  arms  of  the  King  of  France,  as  a  formal  act  of  possession. 
Thence  they  continued  their  journey  westward  along  the  shores  of 
the  lake  and  up  the  Detroit  River.  La  Salle  was  the  first  to 
navigate  Lake  Erie  in  a  ship.  Having  in  1679  built  his  vessel, 
the  Griffon,  on  Cayuga  Creek,  he,  accompanied  by  Friar  Hennepin, 
launched  and  sailed  her  up  the  lake  and  on  to  Lake  Michigan. 
She  was  lost  on  the  return  voyage,  laden  with  furs.  Tonty, 
Du  L'hut,  and  Cadillac  were  among  the  other  early  explorers  of 
this  shore. 

To  say  that  the  country  bordering  Lake  Erie  pleased  these  early 
travellers  is  but  faintly  to  express  their  admiration,  judging  from 
the  rhapsodies  in  which  some  of  them  indulged.  To  Galinee  it 
was  "  the  terrestrial  paradise  of  Canada,"  and  Charlevoix,  who 
passed  up  the  lake  in  1721,  wrote  :  "In  every  place  where  I 
landed  I  was  enchanted  with  the  beauty  and  variety  of  landscape, 
bounded  by  the  finest  forest  in  the  world  ;  besides  this,  waterfowl 
swarmed  everywhere." 


4  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

For  a  century  and  a  half  the  country  slumbered.  Of  its  former 
proprietors  many  were  massacred,  many  carried  off  as  captives  by 
the  Iroquois,  while  those  who  escaped,  pursued  by  famine,  were 
scattered  abroad.  All  were  gone.  The  country  reposed  in 
desolation.  Occasional  hunting-  parties  of  Senecas  or  other 
Iroquois,  from  their  villages  east  of  the  Grand  River,  penetrated 
the  forest  to  the  west  in  pursuit  of  game.  A  transient  trader  now 
and  then  passed  along  the  shore  or  followed  the  forest  paths  and 
Indian  trails  between  the  French  posts  now  established  at  Niagara 
and  Detroit.  But  for  the  most  part  solitude  and  silence  reigned, 
broken  only  by  the  twittering  of  birds  by  day,  the  howling  of 
wolves  and  the  weird  hoot  of  the  owl  by  night — until  the  wood- 
man's axe  rang  out  along  the  Niagara  and  the  Long  Point 
settlements,  where  the  U.  E.  loyalists,  and  the  Detroit  River, 
where  Franco-British  subjects  were,  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  hewing  out  new  homes — then  again  in  the 
intervening  wilds  to  the  west  of  Long  Point,  at  the  dawn  of  the 
new  century,  when  Talbot  and  his  settlers  began  their  battle  with 
the  forest. 


CHAPTER    II. 

TALBOT'S  FAMILY  AND  EARLY  LIFE. 

CASTLE  MALAHIDE,  the  ancient  seat  of  the  Talbots  de  Malahide, 
as  well  as  the  sleepy  village  of  the  same  name,  which  signifies 
"  on  the  brow  of  the  sea,"  lie  on  the  sea  coast  nine  miles  north  of 
Dublin  and  form  a  charming  resort  whose  sandy  downs  and 
historical  features  attract  alike  the  golfer  and  the  antiquarian. 

The  Talbots  de  Malahide  were  one  of  the  nine  great  houses 
which  survived  the  wars  of  the  Roses  and  are  said  to  now  present 
the  only  instance  in  the  United  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland,  if  not  the  whole  of  Europe,  of  a  family  who  have  retained 
for  some  seven  hundred  years  their  ancestral  estate  in  the  direct 
male  lineage  and  name  of  him  on  whom  the  estate  was  originally 
conferred — by  King  Henry  II.  The  family  crest  appears  on  the 
title  page  of  this  volume. 

Richard  Talbot,  the  founder  of  the  house,  who  crossed  the 
Irish  Channel  in  1172  in  the  suite  of  Henry  II.,  a  son  of  Lord 
Talbot  of  Eccleswell,  is  mentioned  in  Domesday  Book,  and 
obtained  for  his  services  to  the  cause  of  Plantagenet  the  lordship 
of  Malahide  as  a  fief  of  the  crown — the  only  estate  so  held  in 
Ireland— and  by  Edward  IV.  the  admiralship  of  the  adjacent  seas 
was  conferred  upon  his  successor — both  held  by  the  family  to  the 
present  day.  A  copy  of  the  patent  to  Thomas  Talbot  from  King 
Edward  IV.  was  found  among  the  late  Colonel  Thomas  Talbot's 
papers,  in  Canada.  It  confers  many  privileges  upon  the  "faithful 
and  well  beloved  Thomas,"  such  as  the  exclusive  right  to  execute 
all  writs,  make  arrests,  levy  customs  duties,  etc.,  at  "Mullaghide" 
and  adjacent  territory,  besides  the  command  of  the  waters,  and 
provides  a  long  tariff  ot  customs.  It  bears  date  :8th  March,  1475. 

The  house  of  Shrewsbury  in  England  is  a  collateral  branch  of 


6  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

the  same  family,  and  the  earls  of  Shrewsbury  are,  in  case  of  failure 
of  heirs  to  the  Talbot  estates,  the  heirs  in  remainder. 

Malahide  Castle,  built  on  an  eminence  commanding1  a  .view  of 
the  bay,  is  a  stately  building,  whose  vine-clad  walls  and  towers 
present  a  most  picturesque  effect,  while  its  hall  of  purest  Norman 
architecture,  and  oak  room,  lined  with  antique  carving"  of 
Scriptural  subjects,  are  justly  celebrated,  and  its  numerous  art 
treasures,  both  old  and  precious.  Many  of  these  works  of  art 
came  to  the  Talbot  family  from  its  alliance  with  the  Wogans  of 
Rathcoffey,  who  are  descended  from  Sir  John  Wogan,  chief 
governor  of  Ireland  in  1295  and  1310. 

The  nobly  wooded  grounds  contain  ancient  oaks,  chestnuts  and 
sycamores,  whose  lives  extend  back  to  Tudor  days.  Beneath  two 
of  the  latter  and  close  to  the  castle  are  the  ruins  of  the  ancient 
chapel  and  burying  ground,  within  which,  among  other  interesting 
monuments,  is  the  sixteenth  century  tomb  of  Maud  Talbot,  of 
whom  was  sung  : 

The  joy  bells  are  pealing  in  gay  Malahide, 

The  fresh  wind  is  sighing  along  the  sea  side  ; 

The  maids  are  assembling  with  garlands  of  flowers 

And  the  harpstrings  are  trembling  in  all  the  glad  bowers. 


Before  the  high  altar  young  Maud  stands  array'd, 
With  accents  that  falter  her  promise  is  made — 
From  father  and  mother  forever  to  part, 
For  him  and  no  other  to  treasure  her  heart. 

But  the  wedding  feast  being  interrupted  by  tidings  of  the 
approach  of  foemen,  the  bridegroom  has  perforce  to  leave  his 
bride  and  lead  the  wedding  guests  to  battle.  Toward  evening", 
when  news  of  victory  comes,  Maud  joyously  sets  forth  to  welcome 
her  valiant  bridegroom,  whose  corpse  borne  home  on  a  shield  she, 
alas,  meets.  Broken  hearted,  she 

Sinks  on  the  meadow,  in  one  morning  tide 
A  wife  and  a  widow,  a  maid  and  a  bride. 

The  present   Lord  Talbot  de  Malahide  is  Richard  Wogan,  the 


TALBOT'S    FAMILY   AND    EARLY   LIFE.  7 

fifth  baron,  his  son,  the  Hon.  James  Boswell,  being"  heir  to  the 
title  and  estates.  Auchinlock,  in  Ayrshire,  is  another  seat  of  the 
present  baron. 

Here  at  Malahide,  on  igth  July,  1771,  was  born  Thomas 
Talbot,  one  of  a  family  of  seven  sons  and  five  daughters  born  to 
Richard  Talbot  and  Margaret,  daughter  of  James  O'Reilly, 
Esquire,  of  Ballinlough,  County  Westmeath,  of  the  Milesian 
princely  house  of  Breffney.  This  lady  was  created  Baroness 
Talbot  of  Malahide  in  1831. 

Of  the  six  brothers  of  Thomas  Talbot,  two  were  peers  in 
succession,  one,  Sir  John  Talbot,  G.C.B.,  an  admiral  in  the  Royal 
Navy,  one  a  barrister,  while  another,  Neil  Talbot,  was  the  gallant 
Lt.-Colonel  of  the  i4th  Light  Dragoons,  who  was  killed  at  Ciudad 
Rodrigo  in  1810.  Richard  Talbot,  the  father,  died  in  1788, 
leaving  his  widow,  the  mother  of  this  large  family  of  twelve  sons 
and  daughters,  surviving. 

That  their  future  welfare  was  looked  after  as  well  as  was 
possible  in  a  family  so  numerous,  the  record  of  Burke's  peerage 
indicates — the  younger  sons  provided  with  an  education  and 
commissions  in  army  and  navy,  and  a  profession  ;  the  youngest, 
William— who  seems  to  have  been  the  least  ambitious  and 
possibly  the  least  deserving — the  only  apparent  exception  ;  all  the 
daughters  but  one,  apparently  well  married,  the  two  younger 
twice  over.  Barbara,  the  eldest,  became  the  wife  of  Sir  William 
Young,  baronet  and  member  of  Parliament,  and  governor  of 
Tobago.  The  second  daughter  became  a  countess  of  the  Austrian 
Empire,  while  the  third  married  Lt-.General  Sir  George  Airey, 
several  of  whose  family  of  nine  children  subsequently  visited  their 
uncle,  Colonel  Talbot,  in  Canada.  The  fourth  daughter,  Eliza, 
had  for  a  second  husband  Ellis  Cunliffe  Lister  Kaye,  whose  family 
name  is  now  a  familiar  one  in  western  Canada. 

The  widowed  mother,  Margaret  Talbot,  enjoyed  only  for  some 
three  years  the  honours  of  her  peerage,  for  while  in  May,  1831, 
she  was  created  Baroness  Talbot,  in  September,  1834,  she  died. 

Such  was  the  birthplace  and  family  from  which  sprang  the 
Honourable  Thomas  Talbot,  the  founder  of  the  Talbot  Settlement, 
in  the  then  remote  wilderness  of  Canada.  Born,  as  already  stated 


8  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

on  i  gth  July,  1771,  he  is  said  to  have  received  a  commission  in  the 
army,  at  the  early  age  of  eleven  years,  followed  almost  at  once  by 
his  retirement  on  half  pay.  This  mark  of  favour — by  no  means 
uncommon  in  those  days* — would  seem  to  have  been  intended  to 
enable  him  to  obtain  a  liberal  education.  He  was  educated  at  the 
Manchester  Public  Free  School.  His  school  days  were  not 
protracted,  yet  his  correspondence  shows  that  he  profited  by  his 
opportunities. 

In  1787  and  1788,  while  still  little  more  than  a  lad,  he  was  an 
aide-de-camp  to  his  relative,  the  Marquis  of  Buckingham,  then 
Lord  Lieutenant  of  Ireland.  His  brother  aide  was  Arthur 
Wellesley,  who  afterwards  became  the  renowned  Iron  Duke  of 
Wellington.  Maxwell,  in  his  life  of  Wellington,  says  he  was 
appointed  aide  to  Lord  Westmoreland  in  1792,  Gleig  says  to 
Camden,  which  would  be  much  later.  Colonel  Talbot  in  his  life- 
time spoke  of  Wellesley  and  himself  as  aides  to  Buckingham 
between  1787  and  1790.  It  is  probable  that  Wellesley  acted  in 
advance  of  Westmoreland,  who  succeeded  Buckingham  in  1790, 
the  year  in  which  Talbot  stated  he  joined  the  24th  regiment  at 
Quebec. 

The  Court  at  Dublin  was  at  this  time  one  of  lavish  splendour. 
Wellesley's  purse  scarcely  allowed  of  his  keeping  pace  with  his 
surroundings  and,  though  he  became  a  member  of  the  Irish 
Parliament,  fortune  would  seem  to  have  presented  at  this  time  a 
more  smiling  face  to  the  debonair  "Tom  Talbot"  than  to  the 
serious  young  officer,  two  years  his  senior,  who  lodged  with  a 
boot-maker  and  whose  finances  were  so  straightened  as  to 
necessitate  his  accepting  a  loan  from  his  humble  landlord,  who  it 
is  scarcely  necessary  to  say  was  subsequently  remembered — and 
recompensed  by  a  good  appointment. 

The  subsequent  widely  divergent  careers  of  these  two  remark- 
able men  have  been  the  subjects  of  frequent  comparison  and 

*Sir  Charles  Napier,  born  in  1782,  in  1794  obtained  a  commission  in  the 
4th  regiment,  at  12  years  of  age.  Col.  Talbot  is  stated  to  have  received  his 
first  commission  as  ensign  of  the  66th  reg-iment  of  Foot  on  24th  May,  1783, 
and  a  lieutenancy  on  27th  September  of  the  same  year,  followed  by  his 
retirement  on  half  pay  from  1784  to  1787. 


TALBOT'S   FAMILY   AND   EARLY   LIFE.  9 

comment.  How  Wellesley  mounted  rung-  after  rung  of  the  ladder 
of  fame  until  as  the  renowned  Iron  Duke  he  stood,  a  world's 
hero,  at  the  top,  is  universally  known.  His  young  colleague  at 
the  Vice-Regal  Court,  on  the  other  hand,  plunged  into  the  then 
wilds  of  Canada,  whence  he  seldom  emerged.  Born  two  years 
later  than  the  Duke,  Colonel  Talbot  survived  him  scarcely  five 
months.  It  is  said  that  as  octogenarians  they  met  and  conversed 
at  Apsley  House,  calling  one  another  still  by  their  familiar  names 
— "Arthur"  and  "Tom."  Over  what  divergent  vistas  of  inter- 
vening years  of  war  and  statecraft,  of  sanguinary  battlefields  and 
splendour  of  Courts,  on  the  one  hand — on  the  other,  of  lonely 
sombre  solitude,  of  battles  with  the  giants  of  the  forest  and  its 
wild  denizens,  of  lake  and  river  travel,  of  ice  and  snowstorms  and 
blazing  log  fires — until,  the  long  intervals  spanned,  their  minds 
focussed  and  tongues  wagged  over  happy  youthful  days  in 
Dublin — in  "  dear  dirty  Dublin  "  as  it  was  once  called. 

When  Wellesley  became  a  member  of  the  Irish  Parliament  in 
1790,  Talbot  joined  the  24th  regiment  at  Quebec.  In  1791 
Wellesley  obtained  his  captaincy  two  years  ahead  both  in  age  and 
rank  of  Talbot,  who  obtained  his  company  on  2ist  November, 
1793,  in  the  85th  foot,  his  Majority,  6th  March,  1794,  and  in 
January,  1796,  his  Lt. -Colonelcy  of  the  5th  regiment  of  foot.* 


*Lord  Roberts,  in  his  "Rise  of  Wellington,"  says  of  Arthur  Wellesley  : 
"  Being-  looked  upon  as  the  dunce  of  the  family  and  described  by  his  mother 
as  food  for  powder  and  nothing  more,  it  was  determined  according  to  the 
custom  in  those  days  to  provide  him  with  a  livelihood  in  the  army,  and  at  the 
age  of  17  he  obtained  an  ensigncy  in  the  4ist  foot.  His  family  influence  being 
powerful,  he  was  rapidly  promoted,  being  a  lieutenant  after  nine  months' 
service,  a  captain  after  three  and  a-half  years'  service  as  lieutenant,  a  major 
after  less  than  two  years'  service  as  captain,  a  lieutenant-colonel  after  five 
months'  service  as  major,  and  a  colonel  at  the  age  of  27,  after  less  than  three 
years'  service  as  lieut. -colonel. 


CHAPTER    III. 

TALBOT  AND  GOVERNOR  SIMCOE. 

EARLY  on  the  morning-  of  the  nth  November,  1791,  the  good  ship 
Triton  arrived  at  Quebec,  having  on  board  Colonel  John  Graves 
Simcoe,  the  recently  appointed  first  Lieutenant-Governor  of  Upper 
Canada.  This  province  had  been  set  apart  from  the  former 
enormous  Province  of  Quebec  by  Great  Britain  and  it  became 
necessary  to  establish  a  separate  government  in  this  hitherto  wild 
and  sparsely  inhabited  region  to  the  west,  to  which,  however, 
increasing  numbers  of  settlers  of  British  origin  were  migrating, 
while  many  more  were  awaiting  the  opening  up  of  the  country  for 
further  settlement — large  numbers  of  United  Empire  loyalists  in 
particular — and  a  province  distinctively  British  as  compared  with 
the  French  Province  of  Quebec  was  now  in  embryo. 

Prince  Edward,  since  better  known  as  the  Duke  of  Kent  and 
father  of  Queen  Victoria,  was  now  at  Quebec,  and  to  him  Simcoe 
was  the  bearer  of  a  letter  from  his  father,  the  King.  Lieutenant 
Talbot  was,  as  already  stated,  also  there  with  his  regiment,  the 
24th,  and,  as  an  officer  of  the  garrison,  naturally  saw  a  good  deal 
of  his  Royal  fellow-soldier  as  well  as  the  new  Lieutenant-Governor 
of  the  Upper  Province,  with  whom  he  was  destined  to  spend 
several  years  at  the  formative  period  of  his  life,  for  unlike  most  of 
his  brother  officers,  the  young  Irish  lieutenant  speedily  turned  his 
attention  toward  administrative  work  in  the  west,  in  a  sphere  for 
which  his  court  life  at  Dublin  had  to  some  extent  fitted  him. 

Simcoe  passed  the  winter  at  Quebec  informing  himself  as  to  his 
new  duties,  preparing  plans  for  military  defence,  the  fur  trade, 
education  and  other  subjects,  which  he  submitted  to  the  home 
authorities  and  in  April  was  impatiently  awaiting  despatches  to 
enable  him  to  proceed  to  Upper  Canada.  Even  at  this  time  he 


TALBOT  AND  GOVERNOR  SIMCOE  11 

had  already  recommended  that  the  capital  of  the  new  province  be 
upon  La  Tranche,  subsequently  known  as  the  Thames,  and  the 
chief  places  for  settlement  there  and  at  Toronto  and  the  vicinity 
of  Long-  Point.  The  early  arrival  of  the  Queen's  Rang-ers  under 
Captain  (afterwards  major-general)  Aeneas  Shaw  by  a  long1'  snow- 
shoe  march  from  New  Brunswick,  the  regiment  formerly  com- 
manded by  Simcoe  in  the  American  revolutionary  war  reorganized, 
enabled  him  to  exercise  military  as  well  as  civil  authority.  He 
desired  the  local  rank  of  major-general  to  give  him  necessary 
military  status,  and  also  to  have  the  water  force  of  the  upper 
lakes,  and  the  appointment  of  its  officers  made,  under  his 
authority.  He  favoured  the  appointment  of  lieutenants  of  counties 
— some  such  appointments  were  subsequently  actually  made — as 
in  England,  the  gradual  formation  of  an  aristocracy,  large  grants 
of  land  to  retired  officers  in  localities  where  their  presence  and 
influence  would  insure  the  people's  loyalty  and  security  from 
foreign  influence  or  attack,  and  the  promotion  of  immigration  of 
those  who,  still  resident  in  the  United  States,  were  dissatisfied  with 
their  status  there. 

In  short,  Simcoe  was  a  man  of  action,  of  a  robust  loyalty  to  the 
crown  and  government  of  England,  suspicious  and  watchful  of 
the  motives  and  actions  of  the  American  authorities,  with  conser- 
vative and  even  aristocratic  ideas  with  regard  to  the  policy  to  be 
adopted  in  the  new  province,  desirous  of  having  an  honest  and 
pure,  as  well  as  efficient,  administration  of  affairs  and  of  being 
entrusted  with  sufficient  authority,  men  and  means  to  carry  his 
views  into  effect  and  especially  to  render  this  province  secure  to 
the  British  crown.  It  may  be  added  that  his  wife  was  an 
accomplished  partner,  whose  skill  as  an  artist  has  preserved  to  us 
a  number  of  scenes  of  the  early  days  of  the  province. 

Under  the  influence  and  into  the  household  of  this  couple  came 
Lieutenant  Talbot,  at  the  impressionable  age  of  20  or  21,  in  the 
capacity  ot  a  private  and  confidential  secretary — and  it  may  well 
be  surmised  that  to  his  sojourn,  travels  and  intercourse  with 
Governor  Simcoe,  during  the  following  few  years,  were  due  in 
some  measure,  not  only  his  taste  for  a  life  in  the  wilds,  but  the 
motives  which  actuated  him  in  seeking  to  found  a  settlement  and 


12  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

build  up  an  estate,  as  well  as  some  of  his  plans  for  procuring  and 
selecting  settlers  and  instilling-  in  their  minds  loyalty  to  the  crown 
as  a  cardinal  principle — while  retaining  in  his  own  hands  power 
sufficient  to  maintain  his  influence. 

After  the  governor  and  his  council  had  been  sworn  in  at 
Cataraqui,  or  Kingston,  whither  he  had  sent  on  the  first  division 
of  the  Queen's  Rangers,  he  purposed  hutting  the  regiment  at 
the  new  landing  (Queenston)  on  the  Niagara,  occupying  a  post 
near  Long  Point  and  another  at  Toronto,  and  settling  himself  on 
the  river  La  Tranche  (Thames).  He,  however,  established  his 
capital  for  the  time  being  at  Niagara,  or  Newark  as  it  was  then 
named  ;  Navy  Hall,  a  wooden  building  near  the  landing,  and  a 
short  distance  above  the  mouth  of  the  river,  being  his  head- 
quarters. Here  on  iyth  September,  1792,  the  first  Provincial 
Parliament  for  Upper  Canada  was  opened  with  all  the  customary 
formalities. 

Navy  Hall,  though  an  unpretentious  place,  soon  became  some- 
thing of  a  social  centre,  at  which  even  balls  were  not  unknown. 
At  one  given  during  the  visit  of  the  American  commissioners  who 
came  in  connection  with  the  Indian  negotiations  then  in  progress, 
some  twenty  well-dressed  handsome  ladies  and  about  thrice  that 
number  of  gentlemen,  with  the  brilliant  uniforms  of  the  military 
officers,  formed,  for  those  days,  quite  a  brilliant  scene.  At  one  or 
more  of  these  festive  gatherings,  the  daughters  of  Sir  William 
Johnson,  the  superintendent  of  Indian  affairs  and  officer  com- 
manding the  British  force  when  the  French  lost  Fort  Niagara, 
were  present.  One  of  these  handsome  and  accomplished  young 
ladies,  nieces  of  Joseph  Brant  (Theyendanegea),  was  the  only  lady 
with  whom  Talbot  was  ever  reported  to  have  been  in  love  in 
Canada,  and  that  report  rests  upon  a  few  words  jestingly  spoken 
by  himself  in  after  years.*  No  doubt  the  handsome  young  Irish 

*John  Brown,  who  accompanied  Colonel  Talbot  on  one  of  his  subsequent 
voyages  to  Canada,  is  authority  for  the  statement  that  the  Colonel  had  in 
early  life  been  a  suitor  for  the  hand  of  Lady  Ellesmere,  before  her  marriage 
to  the  Earl  of  Ellesmere,  at  whose  seat  the  Colonel  was  a  guest  while  in 
England,  and  Mr.  Brown  an  employee. 

L.  C.  Kearney,  in  his  brochure  on  Col.  Talbot's  life,  says  that  when  he  left 
Simcoe's  staff  he  went  to  England  "  to  commit  matrimony,"  but  the  lady  in 
the  case  did  not  reciprocate  his  affection,  so  he  returned  alone. 


TALBOT   AND  GOVERNOR  SIMCOE.  13 

officer  was  a  gay  figure  in  these  scenes,  and  perhaps  enjoyed 
many  a  dance  with  the  young  lady  in  question,  though,  as  the 
story  goes,  he  complained  that  she  did  not  favour  his  suit,  adding 
in  rough  jest,  "those  who  would  have  me,  the  devil  himself 
wouldn't  have  them  !  " 

Even  before  he  had  entered  the  upper  province,  as  has  already 
been  stated,  Simcoe  had  planned  to  have  his  capital  on  the 
Thames,  which  he  expected  shortly  to  visit,  with  military  posts 
and  settlements  at  Toronto  and  Long  Point  ;  and,  anticipating  a 
little,  it  may  here  be  observed  that  he  adhered  to  this  idea  to  the 
last,  time  after  time  recommending  it  in  despatches  with  great 
tenacity  of  purpose  and,  even  so  late  as  1796,  almost  at  the  close 
of  his  career  in  Canada,  in  a  despatch  to  Lord  Portland,  he 
suggested  that  in  the  event  of  the  seat  of  government  being 
transferred  to  the  Thames,  "the  proper  place,"  the  buildings  and 
grounds  at  York  (Toronto),  where  he  was  placing  the  seat  of 
government  "  for  the  present,"  could  be  sold  to  lessen  or  liquidate 
the  debt  for  their  construction. 

Lord  Dorchester,  the  Governor-General  and  commander  in 
chief,  and  Lieutenant-Governor  Simcoe  could  seldom  see  eye  to 
eye.  Simcoe  wished  the  capital  at  the  site  of  London,  Dorchester 
at  Kingston.  Dorchester  approved  of  the  establishment  of  a  post 
and  town  opposite  Bois  Blanc  Island  at  the  mouth  of  the  Detroit 
River.  Simcoe  considered  it  indefensible.  The  Lieutenant- 
Governor  desired  a  military  force  strong  enough  to  occupy  and 
attract  settlers  to  the  posts  which  he  designed  establishing  at 
London,  Turkey  Point  and  Toronto,  and  to  have  naval  stations 
at  Turkey  Point  and  Penetanguishene  and  a  shipyard  at  Chatham, 
and  to  employ — as  in  fact  he  did  to  some  extent,  with  great 
advantage — the  Queen's  Rangers  in  the  erection  of  buildings  and 
the  building  of  roads  to  make  these  various  points  accessible. 
Dorchester  condemned  the  policy  of  incurring  expense  or  leaving 
troops  in  Upper  Canada  to  increase  the  growth  and  prosperity  of 
the  colony,  as  not  only  impolitic  but  wrong  in  principle.  Simcoe 
regarded  the  administration  of  the  Indian  department  under 
Dorchester  as  injudicious  and  considered  that  the  latter's 
erroneous  principles  and  limited  ideas  tended  to  retard  the 


14  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

prosperity  of  Upper  Canada,  which  he  (Simcoe)  regarded  as  the 
most  valuable  of  His  Majesty's  foreign  possessions.  Simcoe  him- 
self believed  in  making  it  a  powerful  addition  to  the  British 
Empire  by  nursing  up  a  great  people.  His  own  ideas  were  not  of 
a  limited  kind.  He  was  farsighted  and  zealous  for  the  maintenance 
and  extension  of  British  influence  and  trade,  even  to  the  verge  of 
appearing  to  magnify  his  own  office.  He  was  in  communication 
with  Mackenzie  and  other  explorers  from  Slave  Lake  to  the 
Pacific  Ocean.  He  hoped  for  trade  and  even  closer  relations  with 
Vermont  and  Kentucky  and  for  the  retention  by  Spain  of 
Louisiana  and  the  Illinois.  Dorchester  was  for  reducing  the 
military  force  in  Upper  Canada. 

In  fact  these  two  officers,  who  each  ascribed  to  the  other 
"  erroneous  principles  "  as  to  colonization,  whose  terms  of  office 
practically  terminated  together,  seem  to  have  been  a  constant 
counterpoise  and  check  on  each  other's  plans,  with  one  notable 
exception.  This  was  the  erection  of  a  fort  upon  the  Miami  in  the 
Indian  country  to  the  west  of  the  United  States  by  Simcoe,  under 
the  direction  and  authority  of  Dorchester,  for  the  ostensible 
purpose  of  protecting  British  traders  and  keeping  a  check  upon 
the  Indians,  pending  the  settlement  of  the  boundary  dispute, 
which  was  assuming  the  appearance  of  a  protracted  war  between 
the  Americans  and  the  western  Indians.  This  post  and  those  to 
be  abandoned  by  Great  Britain  under  the  treaty  of  peace  with  the 
United  States  were  still  held  by  the  British  for  the  purposes 
already  mentioned.  The  erection  and  occupation  of  the  new  post 
was  denounced  by  Mr.  Randolph  as  the  "  invasion  of  General 
Simcoe,"  and,  though  the  latter's  general  policy  and  ideas  lend 
some  colour  to  the  view,  prevalent  in  the  United  States  at  the 
time,  that  he  had  ulterior  designs,  it  is  certain  that  Simcoe 
earnestly  desired  to  maintain  a  permanent  peace  with  the  United 
States  and  he  consoled  himself,  when  the  storm  had  blown  over, 
with  the  reflection  that  his  act  in  securing  the  fort  of  the  Miamis 
"  had,  in  all  probability,  averted  war." 

In  these  various  enterprises  of  Governor  Simcoe  young  Talbot 
played  a  part,  especially  with  regard  to  Indian  affairs.  He  saw 
the  opening  of  the  first  session  of  the  first  provincial  legislature. 


TALBOT  AND   GOVERNOR   SIMCOE.  15 

That  over,  he  had  time  no  doubt  for  reading-  and  reflection,  and 
we  can  imagine  him  by  the  Governor's  fireside  at  Newark  passing 
many  a  pleasant  half  hour  during  that  Christmastide  of  1792, 
perusing  with  delight  Charlevoix's  account  of  his  travels  through 
these  regions,  his  imagination  led  captive  by  the  narrative,  which 
Simcoe  himself  sometimes  quoted  as  an  authority. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

DETROIT  AND  SITE  OF  LONDON  VISITED. 

THE  Christmas  holidays  over,  the  Governor  made  preparations  to 
explore  the  country  to  the  west  and  visit  Detroit,  which  was  still 
in  the  hands  of  the  British,  as  well  as  the  site  of  his  proposed 
capital  on  the  Thames,  and  on  Monday,  February  4th,  1793,  his 
party  left  Navy  Hall  in  sleighs.  This  party  consisted,  in  addition 
to  Governor  Simcoe,  of  the  following"  :  Major  Littlehales — 
afterwards  Lt.-Col.  Sir  E.  B.  Littlehales,  secretary  of  war  for 
Ireland — the  Governor's  official  secretary  and  brigade-major, 
whose  diary  supplies  details  of  the  trip  ;  Captain  Fitzgerald  ; 
Lieutenant  D.  W.  Smith,  the  first  surveyor-general  of  the 
Province,  afterwards  created  a  baronet,  and  Lieutenants  Talbot, 
Gray  (afterwards  solicitor-general  of  the  Province,  who  in  1804 
perished  in  Lake  Ontario  in  the  schooner  Speedy]  and  Givens, 
afterwards  Colonel  Givens,  superintendent  of  Indian  affairs  at 
York. 

On  the  6th  they  reached  Nelles',  on  the  Grand  River,  or  Ouse, 
and  on  the  yth  they  arrived  at  the  residence  of  Captain  Brant 
(Theyendanegea)  at  the  Mohawk  village,  where  a  feu  de  joie  was 
fired  and  flags  and  trophies  of  war  displayed.  The  now  venerable 
but  well  built  church,  the  product  of  the  Indians'  skill  as  builders, 
a  school  and  an  excellent  house  of  the  great  Chieftain  Brant  were 
then  in  existence.  Captain  Brant  and  some  twelve  of  his  followers 
here  joined  the  party. 

At  noon  of  the  loth  February  the  party  set  out  from  the 
Mohawk  village,  under  the  skilful  guidance  of  Brant  and  his 
Indian  escort,  who  built  wigwams  each  evening  for  the  night's 
encampment,  shot  game  for  the  mess  and  initiated  the  party  into 
that  form  of  Canadian  national  sport,  the  coon  hunt. 


JOHN    GRAVES   SIMCOE,    LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR. 
Reacts  "  Lieutenant  Governors  of  I'pper  Canada,"  by  permission. 


DETROIT  AND    SITE   OF   LONDON   VISITED.  17 

During  the  next  four  days  the  party  traversed  a  section  of  that 
tract  of  country  which,  under  the  superintendence  of  Talbot,  was 
destined  to  become  well  populated  and  to  be  known  far  and  wide 
as  the  Talbot  Settlement — for  their  route  lay  from  the  vicinity  of 
Brantford  on  the  Ouse,  or  Grand  River,  to  La  Tranche,  or  the 
Thames,  which  they  crossed  on  the  afternoon  of  the  i2th  and 
proceeded  down  the  river,  partly  on  the  ice,  to  the  vicinity  of  the 
Delaware  village,  where  they  were  cordially  received  by  the  chiefs 
of  this  people,  who,  driven  from  their  former  homes  in  the  United 
States,  had  settled  along  the  Thames.  Captain  Brant  having  to 
return  to  a  council  of  the  Six  Nations,  the  party  spent  a  day  here. 
The  "  Delaware  Castle  "  Major  Littlehales  describes  as  pleasantly 
situated  upon  the  banks  of  the  Thames,  the  meadows  at  the 
bottom  being  cleared  to  some  extent,  and  in  summer  planted  with 
Indian  corn.  Twelve  or  fourteen  miles  below  they  came  to  a 
Canadian  trader's,  and,  a  little  beyond,  in  proceeding  down  the 
river  the  Indians  discovered  "  a  spring  of  an  oily  nature,  which 
upon  examination  proved  to  be  a  kind  of  petroleum."  The  riches 
of  the  land  were  already  being  fast  unfolded  to  them,  for  they 
next  saw  an  encampment  of  Chippewas  engaged  in  making  maple 
sugar,  the  mildness  of  the  winter  having  compelled  them  in  a 
great  measure  to  abandon  their  annual  hunting.  At  the  new 
settlement  of  the  Moravian  missionaries,  Zeisberger,  Senseman, 
Edwards  and  Young,  they  found  the  Delawares,  under  the  direc- 
tion and  control  of  their  Christian  instructors,  in  a  progressive 
state  of  civilization,  beiug  taught  different  branches  of  agriculture 
and  having  already  cornfields.  At  a  fork  of  the  river — at  or  near 
the  site  of  Chatham — a  mill  "of  curious  construction"  was 
in  course  of  erection.  The  settlement  where  Dolson*  then  resided 
they  found  very  promising,  with  some  respectable  inhabitants  on 
both  sides  of  the  river.  "  Behind  it  to  the  south,"  wrote 
Littlehales,  "  is  a  range  of  spacious  meadows.  Elk  are  continually 
seen  upon  them — and  the  pools  and  ponds  are  full  of  cray  fish." 

*Presumably  the  "Dolsen's,"  or  Dover,  frequently  mentioned  in  the 
histories  of  the  War  of  1812,  a  few  miles  below  Chatham.  John  Dolsen  was 
a  captain  in  the  Kent  militia  in  1812,  but  Mathew  Dolsen  acted  as  guide  to 
General  Harrison,  after  deserting  to  the  United  States,  leaving  his  wife  and 
five  children  in  Canada  until  after  Proctor's  defeat. 


18  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

From  Dolsen's  they  went  to  the  mouth  of  the  Thames  in 
carioles  and  thence  along-  the  borders  of  Lake  St.  Clair  to  the 
Detroit  River,  which,  after  being  honoured  with  Sifeu  de  joie  from 
the  Canadian  militia,  they  crossed  and  entered  the  garrison, 
which  was  under  arms,  to  receive  Governor  Simcoe,  upon  whose 
landing  a  royal  salute  was  fired.  The  Governor  reviewed  the 
24th  regiment — Talbot's  former  corps— examined  the  garrison, 
Fort  Lejioult  and  the  rest  of  the  works,  drove  in  a  "calash"  to  the 
River  Roug-e,  where  he  saw  a  sloop  ready  to  be  launched,  and 
visited  the  bridge  at  Bloody  Run,  where  so  many  British  soldiers 
were  slain,  after  the  failure  of  Pontiac's  attempt  to  surprise  and 
capture  the  fort  by  treachery. 

On  the  23rd  February  the  Governor  and  party  left  Detroit  and 
reached  Dolsen's  the  same  nig-ht — where  they  spent  Sunday, 
Lieut.  Smith  reading-  prayers.  Colonel  McKee,  Mr.  Baby  and 
several  of  the  principal  inhabitants  accompanied  them  to  the  point 
where  they  had  been  met,  on  their  journey  down  the  river,  and 
here  they  resumed  their  knapsacks  and  walked  to  the  Moravian 
village,  where  two  of  the  missionaries  performed  service,  thence 
on  to  the  Delaware  village,  where  the  chiefs  congratulated  the 
Governor,  gave  presents  of  venison,  etc.,  followed  by  a  dance  in 
the  evening. 

On  the  ist  March  they  left  their  former  path  and  turned  north- 
ward, apparently  with  the  intention  of  examining  the  site  of  the 
proposed  capital  at  the  forks  above.  On  the  2nd  March  wrote 
Major  Littlehales,  "  we  struck  the  Thames  at  one  end  of  a  low, 
flat  island,  enveloped  with  shrubs  and  trees  ;  the  rapidity  and 
strength  of  the  current  were  such  as  to  have  forced  a  channel 
through  the  mainland,  being  a  peninsula,  and  to  have  formed  the 
island.  We  walked  over  a  rich  meadow  and  at  its  extremity  came 
to  the  forks  of  the  river.  The  Governor  wished  to  examine  this 
situation  and  its  environs  ;  and  we  therefore  remained  here  all 
day.  He  judged  it  to  be  a  situation  eminently  calculated  for  the 
metropolis  of  all  Canada.  Among  many  other  essentials  it 
possesses  the  following  advantages  :  command  of  territory  ; 
internal  situation;  central  position;  facility  of  water  communica- 
tion up  and  down  the  Thames  into  Lakes  St.  Clair,  Erie,  Huron 


DETROIT   AND   SITE   OF   LONDON   VISITED.  19 

and  Superior  ;  navigable  for  boats  near  its  source  and  for  small 
crafts,  probably  to  the  Moravian  settlement  ;  to  the  northward 
by  a  small  portage  flowing"  into  Lake  Huron  ;  to  the  south- 
east by  a  carrying  place  into  Lake  Ontario  and  the  River  St, 
Lawrence  ;  the  soil  luxuriantly  fertile,  the  land  rich  and  capable 
of  being  easily  cleared  and  soon  put  into  a  state  of  agriculture  ;  a 
pinery  upon  an  adjacent  high  knoll,  and  other  timber  on  the 
heights,  well  calculated  for  the  erection  of  public  buildings  ;  a 
climate  not  inferior  to  any  part  of  Canada.  To  these  natural 
advantages  an  object  of  great  consideration  is  to  be  added,  that 
the  enormous  expenses  of  the  Indian  Department  would  be 
greatly  diminished,  if  not  abolished  ;  the  Indians  would  in  all 
probability  be  induced  to  become  the  carriers  of  their  own  peltries 
and  they  would  find  a  ready,  contiguous,  commodious  and 
equitable  mart,  honourably  advantageous  to  government  and  the 
community  in  general,  without  their  becoming  a  prey  to  the 
monopolizing  and  unprincipled  trader." 

Such  was  the  site  of  London  in  1792,  and  such  its  advantages  in 
the  eyes  of  Governor  Simcoe,  as  the  place  for  the  capital,  or — as 
Littlehales  puts  it — "  for  the  metropolis  of  all  Canada."* 

Lieutenant  Talbot,  too,  no  doubt  noted  all  these  advantages, 
though  it  was  not  until  thirty-four  more  years  elapsed  that  the 
town  was  laid  out  upon  the  site  reserved  for  that  purpose  and  for 
some  years  after  it  was  but  a  straggling  village,  though  ultimately 
it  has  grown  to  be  the  largest  and  most  important  city  of  the 
Talbot  Settlement. 

Major  Littlehales'  diary  of  this  date — March  ist — contains 
some  interesting  incidents  :  "  The  young  Indians  who  had 
chased  a  herd  of  deer  in  company  with  Lieutenant  Givens, 
returned  unsuccessful,  but  brought  with  them  a  large  porcupine, 
which  was  very  seasonable,  as  our  provisions  were  nearly 

*"  An  incident  not  recorded  in  Major  Littlehales'  journal  was  the  order  of  a 
grand  parade  (of  ten  men)  and  a  formal  discharge  of  musketry,  issued  in 
jocose  mood  by  the  Governor  to  Lieut.  Givens,  which  was  duly  executed  as 
a  ceremony  of  inauguration  for  the  new  capital." — Dr.  Scadding's  Toronto  of 
Old,  p.  352.  The  Doctor  also  records,  on  the  same  page,  the  fact  that  the 
Governor  at  one  time  intended  that  the  future  capital  should  be  named 
"  Georgina"  in  compliment  to  King  George  III. 


20  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

expended.  This  animal  afforded  us  a  very  good  repast  and  tasted 
like  a  pig.  The  Newfoundland  dog  attempted  to  bite  the 
porcupine,  but  soon  got  his  mouth  filled  with  the  barbed  quills, 
which  gave  him  exquisite  pain.  An  Indian  undertook  to  extract 
them,  and  with  much  perseverance  plucked  them  out,  one  by  one, 
and  carefully  applied  a  root  or  decoction,  which  speedily  healed 
the  wound.  Various  figures  were  delineated  on  trees  at  the  forks 
of  the  Thames,  done  with  charcoal  and  vermilion  ;  the  most 
remarkable  were  the  imitation  of  men  with  deers'  heads.  We 
saw  a  fine  eagle  on  the  wing,  and  two  or  three  large  birds, 
perhaps  vultures." 

It  may  be  here  mentioned  that  a  son  of  the  Lieutenant  Givens 
who  took  part  in  the  chase  of  the  herd  of  deer  over  the  site  of 
London,  was  subsequently  the  resident  county  judge  there  for 
many  years. 

Quitting  their  wigwam,  whose  hemlock  couches  they  found 
unusually  damp  on  the  morning  of  the  3rd  March,  the  Governor's 
party  ascended  the  heights  somewhere  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
present  London  waterworks  and  striking  across  country  descried 
their  old  path  to  Detroit,  coming  at  noon  to  their  encampment  of 
1 4th  February,  where  they  were  agreeably  surprised  by  meeting 
Captain  Brant  and  a  numerous  retinue.  A  buck  and  doe,  killed 
by  one  of  the  Indians,  furnished  a  savoury  breakfast  next  morning. 
Proceeding  eastward,  the  party  were  much  amused  during  their 
journey  by  the  chase  of  lynx  by  Brant  and  his  Indians  with  dogs 
and  guns,  the  sight  of  several  more  porcupines  and — at  the 
Mohawk  village — with  the  customary  Indian  dances,  most  of  the 
Governor's  suite,  equipped  and  dressed  in  imitation  of  the  Indians, 
being  adopted,  according  to  Littlehales,  as  chiefs.  On  Sunday, 
March  loth,  the  Governor  and  party  arrived  at  Navy  Hall  once 
more. 

In  August  of  the  same  year  Talbot  attended  a  council  of  the 
Confederated  Indians  at  the  Miami  River.  In  fact,  he  was 
especially  employed  by  the  Governor  in  delicate  negotiations  with 
the  Indians,  who  felt  that  the  peace  had  been  made  between  the 
United  States  and  Great  Britain  without  regard  to  their  interests 
and  were  bent  upon  excluding  the  Americans  from  what  they 


DETROIT   AND   SITE   OF   LONDON   VISITED.  21 

regarded  as  their  own  territories  in  the  west.  Britain's  chief 
interest  was  to  maintain  peace  and  at  the  same  time  preserve  the 
confidence  of  the  red  men,  by  seeing"  that  they  were  fairly  dealt 
with.  Talbot  no  doubt  assisted  the  Governor  in  establishing  the 
outpost  on  the  Miami,  which  occasioned  so  great  an  outcry  from 
the  Americans. 

One  of  the  difficulties  of  those  early  days  was  the  transmission 
of  despatches  by  safe  means.  To  hear  from  England  was  then  a 
matter  of  months  and  special  messengers  had  not  infrequently  to 
be  sent  as  bearers  of  despatches  and  even  to  obtain  intelligence  of 
matters  of  public  importance.  In  April,  1793,  for  instance, 
Governor  Simcoe  having  received  word  from  Philadelphia  that  a 
rupture  between  Great  Britain  and  France  was  imminent,  sent 
Lieutenant  Talbot  to  that  city  to  await  European  news.  Before 
his  return,  however,  the  Governor  had  received  through  other 
channels  Lord  Grenville's  speech,  leaving  no  doubt  on  his  mind 
of  war,  and  from  it  he  anticipated — as  he  wrote — "  the  atrocious 
murder  of  the  King  of  France." 

In  June,  1794,  Talbot  prepared  to  rejoin  the  army,  and  in  the 
latter  part  of  that  month,  after  the  meeting  of  the  provincial 
legislature,  furnished  with  letters  and  recommendations  from 
General  Simcoe,  he  proceeded  to  England. 


CHAPTER  V. 

TALBOT'S   MILITARY   CAREER — ROYAL   DUKES'    FRIENDSHIP— 
SKITTEEWAABAA. 

TALBOT  was  at  the  period  of  his  service  with  Simcoe  a 
young  gentleman  of  handsome  appearance  and  polished  and 
engaging  manners — in  every  way  calculated  to  make  a  favourable 
impression  in  governmental  and  Court  circles.  That  he  did  so  is 
evidenced  by  his  rapid  promotion  until  at  the  comparatively  early 
age  of  twenty-four  and  one-half  years  he  became  a  lieutenant- 
colonel  in  the  regular  army.  His  family  influence  probably  aided 
him,  as  it  undoubtedly  had  in  the  earlier  days,  when  he,  a  boy  of 
eleven  years,  obtained  his  first  commission. 

The  5th  regiment  of  foot,  in  which  Talbot  was  appointed 
lieutenant-colonel  in  1796,  had  been  at  Niagara  during  the  whole 
of  the  period  he  had  been  on  the  staff  of  Governor  Simcoe  there. 
In  1797  the  officers  and  sergeants  proceeded  to  England  from 
Quebec,  the  rank  and  file  having  been  drafted  into  the  24th 
regiment. 

In  1799  the  5th  foot  proceeded  to  Holland,  being  divided  into 
two  battalions,  the  second  of  which  was  commanded  by  Lieut. - 
Colonel  Talbot.  These  battalions  with  the  35th  regiment  formed 
the  8th  brigade.  This  formed  part  of  the  British  force,  which, 
with  the  other  allied  armies,  was  9perating  upon  the  continent 
against  the  French. 

On  the  loth  October,  1799,  the  5th  was  attacked  by  the 
French  in  front  of  Winkle.  The  second  battalion,  under  Colonel 
Talbot,  maintained  its  position  until  ordered  to  retreat  by  Prince 
William,  who,  in  his  general  order  of  the  i2th,  thanked  Lieut.- 
Colonels  Talbot  and  Lindsay  of  the  2nd  battalion  for  their 
exertions  on  the  loth. 


TALBOT'S    MILITARY   CAREER.  23 

The  campaign,  however,  was  an  inglorious  one  for  the  British 
and  equally  so  apparently  for  our  ambitious  colonel,  who  either  in 
this  or  the  equally  inglorious  campaign  of  1794,  is  said  to  have 
upon  one  occasion  disobeyed  orders  by  taking  a  different  route 
from  that  directed,  to  save  his  men,  as  he  said,  from  unnecessary 
fatigue  and  harassment,  and  so  incurred  the  mild  displeasure  of 
the  Duke  of  York,  under  whom  he  was  serving.  The  Duke, 
however,  in  a  friendly  note  to  him,  good-naturedly  referred  to  this 
breach  of  orders  as  simply  a  "  freak  "  of  the  Colonel's. 

Unlike  his  brother  Neil,  lieutenant-colonel  of  the  i4th  dragoons, 
who,  in  1 8 10,  fell  gallantly  leading  a  charge  against  the  enemy  at 
Ciudad  Rodrigo,  Thomas  Talbot  seems  to  have  passed  unscathed 
the  few  remaining  years  of  his  service  in  the  army  and  then 
sought  a  life  of  peace,  retirement  and  solitude  in  the  wilderness — 
though  that  peace,  as  it  turned  out,  was  not  to  remain  unbroken. 

The  5th  foot  returned  in  1799  to  England,  and  in  1800  both 
battalions  were  ordered  to  Gibraltar,  where  they  continued  till  the 
peace  of  Amiens,  when  they  again  returned  home.  The  second 
battalion  was  disbanded  in  1803,  the  first  going  to  Guernsey.  In 
1801,  however,  Col.  Talbot  was  again  in  Canada,  as  will 
presently  appear,  presumably  on  leave. 

Before  leaving  the  army  and  Great  Britain,  which  he  finally  did 
on  the  disbandment  of  the  second  battalion  of  the  5th  foot,  in 
1803,  Colonel  Talbot  had  ample  opportunities  for  observing  and 
participating  in  the  fashionable  life  of  the  period.  That  it  was 
dissolute  and  profligate  to  an  alarming  extent  is  a  matter  of 
history.  The  strict  morality  and  exemplary  private  life  of  King 
George  III.  had  no  attractions  for  his  sons,  who,  it  is  said  by 
some,  were  driven  by  the  austerity  of  his  home  life  to  excessive 
debauchery.  Gambling,  drunkenness  and  profligacy  were  com- 
mon in  all  fashionable  circles,  and  especially  in  those  frequented 
by  the  Prince  of  Wales  and  other  sons  of  the  King.  With  some 
of  the  latter  Colonel  Talbot  was  on  terms  approaching  intimacy. 
He  had  served  with  the  Duke  of  Kent — Queen  Victoria's  father — 
in  Canada  and  under  the  Dukes  of  York  and  Clarence  (afterwards 
William  IV.)  in  Holland.  With  the  Duke  of  Cumberland,  after- 


24  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

wards  King  of  Hanover,   who  was  just  his  own  age,  he  was  on 
intimate  terms,  as  will  presently  appear. 

Talbot  had  had  a  draught — perhaps  even  drank  deeply — of  the 
fashionable  dissipations  of  the  period,  and  that,  too,  at  a  time  of 
life  when  ordinarily  such  things  are  most  alluring,  and  it  is  to  his 
credit  that  he  was  able  to  turn  his  back  upon  them. 

His  thoughts  reverted  to  Canada,  and  early  in  1801,  before  even 
the  negotiations  for  that  peace  which  the  treaty  of  Amiens  con- 
firmed were  begun,  he  was  back  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Erie,  axe 
in  hand,  seeking  a  place  where  he  might  carve  out  a  home  and 
establish  a  settlement. 

Allotments  of  large  tracts  of  land  and  even  of  entire  townships 
had  been  made  to  men  who  purposed  to  induce  large  numbers  of 
settlers  to  people  the  wilderness.  Incidentally,  or  as  a  chief 
object — according  to  individual  aims — they  no  doubt  hoped  to 
build  up  large  estates  for  themselves.  Governor  Simcoe's  plan  of 
settlement  for  the  province  included  such  modes  of  gathering 
loyal  settlers  with  leaders  or  chief  men  whose  undoubted  loyalty 
to  British  institutions,  and  military  knowledge,  would  be  a  guar- 
antee of  peace  to  the  country  and  attachment  to  the  British 
crown.  Army  officers  were  to  receive  large  grants  according  to 
their  rank  and  he  had  begun  making  appointments  of  lieutenants 
of  counties.  At  Navy  Hall  there  had  been  discussions  as  to  the 
cultivation  of  hemp,  whose  products  would  be  used  by  the  navy 
and  Talbot  had  already  experimented,  apparently  with  consider- 
able success,  in  its  growth.  The  young  officer,  if  not  a  leading 
advocate  of  these  various  ideas  while  with  the  Governor,  had 
imbibed  them,  while  the  descriptions  of  Charlevoix  and  his  own 
travels  in  the  wilderness  had  given  him  a  taste  for  a  pioneer  life. 
.  The  intervening  period  during  which  he  had  mingled  in  alternate 
scenes  of  war,  garrison  and  fashionable  life  had  not  served  to 
change  his  inclinations.  It  would  rather  seem  to  have  confirmed 
them.  Possibly  the  pace  set  by  his  associates  was  too  fast  for  the 
young  colonel — or  for  his  purse.  Disappointed  military  ambition, 
unrequited  love,  the  mild  disapprobation  of  his  commanding 
officer  in  Holland,  disgust  at  the  profligacy  of  the  age — all  and 
many  more  supposed  reasons  have  been  canvassed,  to  account  for 


TALBOT'S   MILITARY   CAREER.  25 

his  turning-  his  back  upon  society  and  seeking  a  home  in  the 
solitude  of  the  forest. 

The  Colonel  himself  gave  little  satisfaction  to  those  who  sought 
a  clue  to  his  motives,  apart  from  his 'confessed  admiration  for 
Charlevoix's  descriptions,  and  his  jesting  allusion  to  an  unrequited 
attachment. 

Perhaps  the  opening  and  closing  paragraphs  of  a  letter  to  the 
Duke  of  Cumberland  may  afford  the  best  evidence  as  to  his 
mental  attitude  at  this  time  and  serve  to  strengthen  the  theory 
that  society,  from  its  profligacy,  had  completely  lost  its  charm  for 
"  the  once  gay  Tom  Talbot,"  as  he  called  himself.  Indeed  it 
contains  a  manly  expression  of  steadfastness  of  purpose  which 
shows  that  he  had  turned  his  back  upon  the  allurements  of  St. 
James'  ere  it  was  too  late.  This  letter,  which  is  worthy  of 
reproduction  here  in  full,  reads  as  follows  : 

SKITTEEWAABAA,  UPPER  CANADA, 

May  i6th,  1801. 
SIR  : 

Althoug-h  I  am  separated  from  England  by  some  thousands  of  miles,  Your 
Royal  Highness  will  find  that  I  am  not  beyond  reach  of  proving  troublesome, 
to  which  intrusion  I  am  led,  by  command  of  Your  Royal  Highness,  when  you 
condescended  so  far  to  interest  yourself  in  my  welfare  as  to  desire  that  in 
whatever  manner  I  could  find  your  influence  necessary  to  solicit  it.  I  am  now 
to  have  the  honor  to  acquaint  Your  Royal  Highness  of  my  safe  arrival  in  my 
favourite  settlement  after  the  most  propitious  passage,  and  as  I  am  persuaded 
that  Your  Royal  Highness  will  be  satisfied,  I  will  add,  I  find  my  situation 
quite  what  I  could  have  wished — but  I  have  one  request  to  make  which,  if 
Your  Royal  Highness  will  have  the  goodness  to  exert  yourself  in  carrying 
into  effect,  will  complete  my  happiness  in  this  world. 

Owing  to  some  neglect  of  General  Simcoe's,  I  find  that  the  necessary 
warrants  for  my  lands  were  not  issued  previous  to  his  quitting  the  Govern- 
ment of  this  Province,  and  since  then  there  have  been  new  regulations 
adopted  which  renders  the  possession  of  lands  more  expensive  and  difficult 
of  obtaining  than  when  I  left  the  Province  in  1794,  and  as  I  flatter  myself  that 
Your  Royal  Highness  will  admit  that  I  am  as  loyal  a  subject  and  equally 
entitled  to  the  Degree  of  Hidalgo  as  other  adventurers  in  a  new  country,  I 
throw  myself  on  Your  Royal  Highness's  power  to  have  it  confirmed  and  to 
prevent  its  producing  discontent,  I  will  beg  leave  to  point  out  a  mode  for  its 
execution.  There  are  parcels  of  land  under  the  name  of  Townships  granted 
in  this  country  to  Heads  of  Societies,  which  possibly  may  in  time  prove 
beneficial  to  the  proprietor.  Now  what  I  have  to  petition  of  Your  Royal 


26  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

Highness  is  that  you  will  have  the  goodness  (I  may  add  charity)  to  ask  of  the 
King  the  grant  of  a  Township  in  the  Province  of  Upper  Canada  for  yourself, 
exempt  from  the  fees  to  government  and  obligations  of  location,  for  instance 
the  Township  of  Houghton  in  the  County  of  Norfolk  on  Lake  Erie,  or  any 
other  adjacent  one,  which  may  not  be  already  granted,  which  when  Your 
Royal  Highness  has  procured  His  Majesty's  patent  for,  it  must  be  transmitted 
through  the  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Home  Department  to  the  Governor  and 
Council  of  the  Province  of  Upper  Canada,  in  order  that  the  necessary 
Provincial  deeds  may  be  made  out  for  possession.  Your  Royal  Highness 
can,  on  receiving  the  Royal  Patent,  make  a  legal  transfer  of  the  grant  to  me, 
and  permit  me  to  request  that  you  will  have  the  goodness  to  cause  duplicates 
to  be  made  of  the  transfer.  As  the  conveyance  of  letters  to  this  country  is 
irregular  and  uncertain,  my  sister  Barbara  will  take  charge  of  them  or  any 
other  communication  Your  Royal  Highness  may  honor  me  with,  she  having 
my  directions  how  to  forward  them. 

I  have  pointed  out  the  Township  of  Houghton,  as  it  is  situated  near  to  my 
place  of  residence.  Should  Your  Royal  Highness  succeed,  I  will  have 
infinite  happiness  in  paying  my  duty  personally  to  express  my  very  great 
obligation  for  the  protection  afforded  to  the  once  gay  Tom  Talbot.  It  will 
materially  assist  me,  Your  Royal  Highness's  managing  so  that  the  grant  is 
exempted  from  the  usual  fees  to  government,  which  there  cannot  be  any 
difficulty  in  effecting,  it  being  a  Royal  Patent. 

I  promise  myself  the  enjoyment  of  every  comfort  in  this  country,  excepting 
that  material  one  of  seeing  those  I  most  respect  and  love.  A  small  income 
provides  the  necessary  luxuries  in  this  Province  to  a  settler,  as  his  own 
industry  and  labour  procures  him  provisions.  I  am  out  every  morning  at 
sunrise  in  my  smock  frock  and  burning  the  forest  to  form  a  farm  ;  could  I  but 
be  seen  by  some  of  my  St.  James's  friends  when  I  come  home  to  my  frugal 
supper — as  black  as  any  chimney-sweeper — they  would  exclaim,  "  What  a 
dam'd  blockhead  you  have  been,  Tom  !  " — but  I  say  "  No,"  as  I  actually  eat 
my  homely  fare  with  more  zest  than  I  ever  did  the  best  dinner  in  London.  It 
is  time  that  I  should  beg  a  thousand  pardons  for  this  intrusion,  but  I  am 
satisfied  of  the  goodness  of  Your  Royal  Highness's  heart,  and  sincerely 
praying  that  you  may  experience  every  blessing  of  this  life,  I  have  the  honor 
to  be,  with  the  most  unfeigned  gratitude, 

Your  Royal  Highness's 

Most  dutiful  and  faithful  servant, 

THOMAS  TALBOT. 

To  H.  R.  H.  the  Duke  of  Cumberland. 

Where  "  Skitteewaabaa  " — Ojibway  for  whiskey  or  firewater — 
was  is  now  a  matter  of  speculation.  Either  Port  Bruce  or  Port 
Stanley  would  satisfy  the  condition  as  to  proximity  to  the  town- 
ship of  Houghton,  they  being  at  the  east  and  west  boundaries 


TALBOT'S    MILITARY   CAREER.  27 

respectively  of  the  then  adjoining"  township  of  Yarmouth,  whose 
capabilities  for  the  growth  of  hemp  General  Simcoe  afterwards 
certified  that  Colonel  Talbot  knew,  presumably  from  personal 
experience ;  for  Simcoe  stated  further  that  Talbot  had  been  very 
successful  in  the  cultivation  of  this  product,  and  to  a  greater 
extent  than  perhaps  any  other  settler,  and  that  it  was  his  object 
"to  extend  this  cultivation  through  the  whole  township  "- 
Yarmouth.  It  will  be  observed  that  Talbot  in  the  above  letter 
refers  to  Skitteewaabaa  as  his  "  favourite  settlement"  and  his 
"  place  of  residence,"  to  which  Houghton  was  conveniently  near. 
From  this  the  presumption  is  strong  that  Talbot  had  some  time 
previously,  and  probably  during  his  service  with  Simcoe,  pitched 
upon  Yarmouth  as  a  desirable  place  both  for  settlement  and 
residence  and  for  the  cultivation  of  hemp,  and  that  now  he  was, 
during  an  interval  in  the  period  of  his  active  service  in  the  army, 
performing  still  more  active  work  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Erie,  near 
one  or  other  of  its  natural  harbours,  clearing-  the  land  and  testing 
its  capabilities  for  hemp  raising,  by  putting  in  the  crop  which 
Simcoe  may  have  referred  to  when  he  wrote  in  1803  of  the 
Colonel's  success  in  that  branch  of  agriculture. 

Colonel  Talbot's  sister  Barbara  (Lady  Young)  did  not,  as  the 
sequel  shows,  receive  the  deed  from  the  Duke  of  Cumberland,  as 
it  was  never  made. 

The  Duke  of  Cumberland  transmitted  the  letter  quoted  to  his 
brother,  the  Duke  of  Kent,  who  made  application  for  him  to  Lord 
Hobart,  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Colonies,  by  the  following 
letter,  in  which  he  speaks  in  high  terms  of  Colonel  Talbot : 

CASTLE  HILL  LODGE,  MIDDLESEX, 

nth  October,  1801. 
Mv  LORD  : 

It  is  at  the  request  of  my  brother,  the  Duke  of  Cumberland,  that,  as 
Secretary  of  State  for  the  Colonies,  I  trouble  Your  Lordship  with  the  enclosed. 
It  is  a  letter  to  him  from  Colonel  Talbot,  late  of  the  5th  regiment  of  foot,  who 
was  very  useful  to  General  Simcoe,  when  that  respectable  officer  was 
Lieutenant-Governor  of  the  Province  of  Upper  Canada.  Your  Lordship  must 
understand  that  he  is  now  retired  from  the  service  and  is  busily  occupied 
establishing  himself  as  a  settler  in  Upper  Canada.  It  appears  he  had  a 
promise  from  General  Simcoe  of  lands,  at  the  time  they  were  together  in  that 


28  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

country,  but  from  some  oversight  the  warrants  for  putting  him  in  possession  of 
them  were  not  made  out,  previous  to  the  General's  leaving  North  America,  in 
consequence  of  which,  instead  of  obtaining  the  lands,  as  would  have  then 
been  the  case,  exempted  from  fees  to  government,  and  the  obligation  of 
location,  he  will  now  be  compelled,  unless  there  is  a  special  order  in  his 
favour  from  the  Secretary  of  State  to  the  contrary,  to  incur  a  considerable 
expense,  in  order  to  get  possession  of  his  grant.  To  obviate  this,  from  his 
ignorance  of  the  difficulty  there  is  for  any  of  His  Majesty's  sons  to  address 
him  with  a  request  of  any  sort,  but  more  especially  of  the  nature  of  that  which 
he  points  out,  he  has  made  an  application  to  my  brother  to  ask  for  a  township 
in  his  own  name,  to  be  hereafter  transferred  to  him.  But  this  is  quite  out  of 
the  question,  for  the  Duke  of  Cumberland  by  no  means  wishes  that  his  name 
should  appear  in  this  transaction  any  farther  than  that  Your  Lordship  should 
know,  he  is  extremely  anxious  that  whatever  indulgence  can  be  shown 
Colonel  Talbot  should  be  afforded  him  and  that  he  will  consider  himself 
personally  obliged  to  you  by  anything  done  in  his  favour.  The  object,  there- 
fore, of  this  application  is  to  solicit  your  Lordship's  good  offices,  that  an 
instruction  may  be  sent,  if  not  contrary  to  established  rules,  to  the  Lieutenant- 
Governor  of  the  Province  of  Upper  Canada  to  make  a  grant  of  a  Township  to 
Colonel  Talbot  and  preferably  of  that  which  he  himself  has  pointed  out, 
exempted  from  government  fees.  The  grounds  on  which  such  an  application 
is  made  in  his  favour  are,  in  the  first  place,  that,  had  General  Simcoe  not 
omitted  doing  what  was  necessary  to  complete  his  promise  before  he  left 
Canada,  the  Colonel  would  then  have  become  possessed  of  his  lands  on  these 
terms,  and  in  the  second,  that  the  services  he  rendered  General  Simcoe  while 
in  that  country,  and  the  opinion  entertained  of  him  by  that  excellent  officer 
render  him  very  deserving  of  this  small  indulgence. 

I  have  now  only  to  add  that  in  meeting  my  brother's  wishes  upon  this 
subject,  Your  Lordship  will  also  oblige  me,  and  therefore  flatter  myself  that, 
as  far  as  in  your  power  lays,  you  will  be  good  enough  to  attend  to  this 
application  in  behalf  of  Colonel  Talbot.  With  sentiments  of  high  regard  and 
esteem,  I  remain, 

My  dear  Lord,  ever  yours, 

Most  faithfully  and  sincerely, 

EDWARD. 
The  Right  Honourable  Lord  Hobart,  etc.,  etc.,  etc. 


From  these  letters  it  will  be  seen  that  King  George  III.'s  sons 
knew  better  than  to  approach  him  with  the  Colonel's  proposition, 
which,  however,  they  hoped  to  have  effected  through  the  ordinary 
governmental  channels. 

It  may  be  observed  in  justification  of  Colonel  Talbot's  proposal 
that,  while  it  bears  the  appearance  of  a  cunningly  devised  job  to 


TALBOT'S    MILITARY   CAREER.  29 

deprive  the  province  of  its  legitimate  revenue,  had  General 
Simcoe,  before  leaving-  Canada,  authorized  a  grant  to  Colonel 
Talbot,  which  the  latter  says  he  neglected  to  do,  the  grantee 
would  have  obtained  his  lands  free  of  the  fees  and  expenses  sub- 
sequently imposed,  which  he  deemed  onerous  ;  and,  although  the 
grant  of  a  whole  township  would  have  largely  exeeeded  the 
quantity  to  which,  under  Simcoe's  policy  he  would  have  been,  as 
a  field  officer,  entitled,  yet  this  would  have  been  a  favour  by  no 
means  unprecedented  in  the  early  days  of  the  province. 

In  after  years  when  controversies  arose  between  the  Colonel  and 
the  provincial  authorities  regarding  patent  fees,  he  had  ample 
time  for  reflection  upon  what  "  might  have  been,"  had  he  obtained 
his  grant  before  these  were  imposed. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  the  Duke  of  Kent  referred  to  Talbot  as 
already  ''retired  from  the  service"  and  "busily  occupied  in 
establishing  himself  as  a  settler  in  Upper  Canada  "—in  1801. 

The  Colonel's  "favourite  settlement"  of  1801  was  not  the 
Talbot  Settlement  as  subsequently  developed — though  afterwards 
perhaps  embraced  within  it.  With  the  latter  neither  Prince 
Ernest  Augustus — either  as  Duke  of  Cumberland  or  King  of 
Hanover — nor  Prince  Edward,  Duke  of  Kent,  had  any  connection, 
save  that  the  recollection  of  their  letters  may  possibly  have  added 
weight  to  Colonel  Talbot's  subsequent  application  to  Lord  Hobart 
through  General  Simcoe. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

SIMCOE'S  LETTER — DUNWICH  SELECTED. 

BALKED  in  his  attempt  to  develop  his  "  favourite  settlement  "  by 
royal  favour,  through  the  instrumentality  of  the  royal  dukes,  in 
1801,  Colonel  Talbot  once  more  repaired  to  England. 

In  1803  he,  nothing  daunted,  sought  and  obtained  the  active 
assistance  of  General  Simcoe,  who  had  left  Canada  in  1796.  The 
General  waited  upon  Lord  Hobart,  and,  at  his  request,  wrote  a 
gracefully  worded  letter  detailing  Colonel  Talbot's  services  to  the 
country  and  himself — without  any  salary  or  emolument — and  out- 
lining his  plan  of  settlement.  This  letter  so  fully  explains  both 
Simcoe's  policy  and  Talbot's  plans  that  it  is  here  reproduced  in 
full  : 


MY  LORD  : 


SOMERSET  STREET,  PORTMAN  SQUARE, 
nth  February,  1803. 


In  consequence  of  Mr.  Talbot  having  acquainted  me  that  Mr.  Sullivan,  on 
his  presenting  a  request  for  a  grant  of  land  in  Upper  Canada,  had  intimated 
it  would  be  proper  I  should  inform  Your  Lordship  of  Mr.  Talbot's  special 
services,  I  took  the  earliest  opportunity  of  waiting  upon  Your  Lordship,  and 
in  consequence  of  the  interview  which  I  had  the  honour  to  hold  with  you 
yesterday,  I  obey  Your  Lordship's  commands  in  detailing  Mr.  Talbot's  views 
and  the  nature  of  his  claims  to  the  protection  of  His  Majesty's  government. 

Upon  my  arrival  in  Canada,  to  carry  the  constitution  which  had  been 
granted  to  that  colony  into  effect,  Mr.  Talbot  accompanied  me  as  my  private 
and  confidential  secretary  into  Upper  Canada.  He  remained  in  my  family 
four  years,  when  he  was  called  home,  as  major  of  the  5th  regiment,  then 
ordered  to  Flanders.  During  that  period  he  not  only  conducted  many 
details  and  important  duties,  incidental  to  the  original  establishment  of  a 
colony,  in  matters  of  internal  regulation,  to  my  entire  satisfaction,  but  was 
employed  in  the  most  confidential  measures  necessary  to  preserve  that 
country  in  peace,  without  violating  on  the  one  hand,  the  relations  of  amity 


SIMCOE'S   LETTER.  31 

with  the  United  States  ;  and,  on  the  other,   alienating  the   affection  of  the 
Indian  nations,  at  that  period  in  open  war  with  them . 

In  this  very  critical  situation,  I  principally  made  use  of  Mr.  Talbot  for  the 
most  confidential  intercourse  with  the  several  Indian  tribes  ;  and  occasionally 
with  His  Majesty's  Minister  at  Philadelphia — these  duties,  without  any  salary 
or  emolument,  he  executed  to  my  perfect  satisfaction. 

I  consider  these  circumstances,  my  Lord,  as  authorizing  me  in  general 
terms  to  recommend  Mr.  Talbot  to  your  consideration  and  protection.  Mr. 
Talbot's  specific  application,  which  I  beg  leave  to  support  to  the  utmost  of 
my  power,  consists  of  two  points.  The  first  is  the  grant  of  five  thousand 
acres  of  land  as  a  field  officer,  actually  and  bona  fide,  meaning  to  reside  in 
the  Province  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  himself  therein.  The  King's 
bounty  having  been  extended  to  the  field  officers,  who  had  served  during  the 
American  war,  in  grants  to  a  similar  extent  (exclusive  of  an  allotment  of  land 
for  every  individual  which  their  families  might  consist  of)  it  was  judged 
expedient  by  myself,  Mr.  Chief  Justice  Osgoode  and  other  confidential 
officers  of  the  Crown  in  that  colony,  to  extend  the  provision  of  five  thousand 
acres  to  any  field  officer  of  character,  who,  bona  fide  should  become  a  settler 
therein,  it  being  obvious  that  it  was  for  His  Majesty's  interest  that  a  loyal  set 
of  European  gentlemen  should,  as  speedily  as  possible,  be  obtained  to  take 
the  lead  in  the  several  districts.  This  principle,  my  Lord,  was  acted  upon  at 
the  time  of  my  departure  from  the  country,  and  should  I  to  this  moment  have 
remained  in  the  government  thereof,  I  could  have  seen  no  reason  whatever 
for  departing  from  it.  In  consequence  had  Mr.  Talbot  been  totally  unknown 
to  me,  except  by  his  character  and  the  high  rank  he  had  borne  in  the  King's 
service,  I  should  have  thought  him  a  most  eligible  acquisition  to  this  Province, 
and  on  this  public  ground,  without  hesitation,  have  granted  him  5,000  acres 
on  the  same  principles  that  had  been  laid  down  and  acted  upon — this  is  the 
first  part  of  Mr.  Talbot's  request.  The  second  request  of  Mr.  Talbot  is  that 
these  5,000  acres  may  be  granted  in  the  Township  of  Yarmouth  in  the  County 
of  Norfolk,  on  Lake  Erie,  and  that  the  remainder  of  that  township  may  be 
reserved  for  such  a  period  as  may  appear  advisable  to  government,  for  the 
purpose  of  his  settling  it  on  the  following  specific  plan,  namely  :  that  200 
acres  shall  be  alloted  to  him  tor  every  family  he  shall  establish  thereon — 50 
acres  thereof  to  be  granted  to  each  family  in  perpetuity,  and  the  remaining 
150  acres  of  each  lot  to  become  his  property  for  the  expense  and  trouble  of 
collecting  and  locating  them. 

Mr.  Sullivan  in  a  conversation  had  suggested  to  Mr.  Talbot  the  possibility 
of  procuring  settlers  in  this  country,  but  many  reasons  oppose  themselves  to 
that  idea,  in  which  I  have  the  honour  of  perfectly  agreeing  with  Your 
Lordship  ;  but  should  it  be  practicable  to  turn  the  tide  of  emigration,  which 
government  cannot  prevent  from  taking  place  to  the  United  States,  ultimately 
to  rest  in  this  Province,  I  beg  to  consider  it  as  an  object  of  the  greatest 
national  importance,  and  that  will  speedily  fulfil  the  idea  with  which  I  under- 


32  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

took  the  administration  of  that  government,  under  my  Lord  Granville's 
auspices  of  elevating  this  valuable  part  of  His  Majesty's  dominions  from  the 
degrading  situation  of  a  petty  factory,  to  be  a  powerful  support  and  protection 
to  the  British  Empire ;  in  some  instances  such  a  plan  in  the  infancy  of  the 
government  had  great  success,  as  I  had  the  honour  of  pointing  out  to  Your 
Lordship,  and  Mr.  Talbot  from  habit,  observation  and  nature,  in  my  judg- 
ment, is  well  suited  to  give  it  a  wider  extent. 

His  plan  is  to  introduce  himself  amongst  a  large  body  of  Welsh  and  Scotch 
families,  who  arrived  at  New  York  in  the  summer  of  1801,  and  who  have 
temporarily  fixed  themselves  in  the  interior  of  that  State,  many  of  whom  are 
already  disgusted  with  the  dissolute  principles  of  the  people  there,  and  feel  a 
strong  inclination  to  return  under  the  government  of  England,  but  do  not 
possess  the  means  of  purchasing  land,  or  paying  the  fees  demanded  by  the 
Province  on  grants.  It  remains  only  for  me  to  add,  that  Mr.  Talbot  having 
been  very  successful  in  the  cultivation  of  hemp,  on  proper  principles  and  to  a 
greater  extent  perhaps  than  any  other  settler  in  the  Province,  is  induced  to 
prefer  the  distant  Township  of  Yarmouth,  as  the  soil  is  well  adapted  to  the 
growth  of  this  valuable  commodity.  It  is  his  object  to  extend  this  cultivation 
through  the  whole  township,  and  by  precept  and  example  to  enforce 
principles  of  loyalty,  obedience  and  industry,  amongst  those  with  whom  he 
will  be  surrounded.  I  cannot  but  hope  that  Your  Lordship  will  be  struck  with 
the  manhood  with  which  Mr.  Talbot,  whose  situation  in  life  cannot  be 
unknown  to  Your  Lordship,  after  having  with  great  credit  arrived  at  the  rank 
of  Lieutenant-Colonel,  has  preferred  the  incessant  and  active  employment 
which  he  has  undertaken,  and  that  under  Your  Lordship's  patronage  may 
lead  to  the  highest  public  advantage.  On  this  public  ground,  abstracted 
from  my  personal  affection  and  regard  for  him,  I  hope  that  Your  Lordship 
will  give  direction  to  the  Lieutenant-Governor,  or  person  administering  the 
government  of  Upper  Canada,  that  the  prayer  of  his  petition  be  immediately 
granted  (embraced  in  4th  paragraph  of  this  letter)  and  I  further  entreat  from 
Your  Lordship's  goodness  and  benevolence  that  Mr.  Talbot  may  have  the 
honour  of  being  the  bearer  of  your  despatches  on  this  subject,  as  he  has  for 
some  time  taken  his  passage  on  board  of  a  vessel  that  will  sail  without  fail  on 
Tuesday  next  for  New  York. 

I  have  the  honour  to  be,  etc., 

J.  G.  SIMCOE. 
To  the  Right  Hon.  Lord  Hobart,  etc.,  etc.,  etc. 


The  following  points  in  this  letter  are  worthy  of  special  notice  : 
i.  That  Simcoe  regarded  Talbot,  upon  the  grounds  of  character 
and  military  rank  alone,  as  "a  most  eligible  acquisition  to  the 
Province."  2.  His  application  was  made — and  apparently  acceded 
to — with  the  design  and  object,  not  of  encouraging  emigration 


DUNWICH    SELECTED.  33 

from  the  mother  country,  but  of  turning"  the  tide  already  flowing 
to  the  United  States,  "ultimately  to  rest  in  this  Province" — an 
object  regarded  "as  of  the  greatest  national  importance"  by 
Simcoe  and  apparently  so  regarded  by  the  home  government  also. 
3.  That  Talbot  had  "with  great  credit  arrived  at  the  rank  of 
lieutenant-colonel."  4.  Yet,  though  his  services  had  been  such 
as  to  justify  his  rapid  promotion,  he  was  not  apparently  content 
with  the  life  of  an  officer  not  on  active  service  (as  his  previously 
leaving  it  for  administrative  work  with  Simcoe  and  again 
abandoning  in  turn  the  latter  when  active  service  was  called  for, 
had  already  shown),  preferring  "  the  incessant  and  active  employ- 
ment "  of  a  pioneer  in  the  forest,  as  a  career  tending  to  become 
of  "  the  highest  public  advantage."  6.  That  Simcoe  had  personal 
"  affection  and  regard  "  for  Talbot,  but  recommended  him  solely 
on  public  grounds. 

Simcoe  was  not  a  man  to  place  his  views  and  recommendations 
lightly  upon  paper  and  the  foregoing  may  be  regarded  as  opinions 
sincerely  entertained  by  him.  He  had  had  ample  opportunity  for 
forming  a  just  opinion  of  Talbot's  character,  ability  and  aims, 
which,  it  has  been  already  suggested,  he  had  himself  influenced. 
How  far  his  young  friend  and  former  confidant  justified  his 
estimate  and  predictions  in  after  life  will  be  an  interesting  subject 
for  future  observation. 

This  time  the  Colonel  was  content  to  ask  for  the  usual  grant  to 
a  field  officer — 5,000  acres — with  the  reservation  of  the  remainder 
of  the  township  for  the  purpose  and  on  condition  of  his  receiving 
200  acres  for  every  family  he  established  thereon — 50  acres  for 
each  family  and  150  acres  for  himself  for  the  trouble  and  expense 
he  might  be  put  to.  The  Township  of  Yarmouth  was  now  the 
object  of  his  desire  in  place  of  the  Township  of  Houghton 
mentioned  to  the  Duke  of  Cumberland.  Colonel  Talbot  had 
already  received  a  grant  of  1,200  acres — the  customary  grant  to 
officers  settling  in  the  Province. 

Colonel  Talbot  sailed  for  Canada  again,  armed  with  a  letter 
from  Lord  Hobart  to  the  Provincial  Governor,  Lieut. -General 
Hunter,  containing  the  authority  of  His  Majesty  for  a  grant  of 
5,000  acres  in  Yarmouth,  or,  if  the  same  should  have  already  been 


34  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

appropriated,  in  any  other  township  which  he  might  select. 
The  additional  reservation  of  200  acres  for  each  family  settled  was 
also  to  be  made  in  the  same  township. 

In  consequence  of  the  large  grants  already  made  in  the  Town- 
ship of  Yarmouth  to  members  of  the  Baby  family  of  Detroit  and 
Sandwich,  Talbot  was  constrained  to  locate  his  land  elsewhere. 
He  selected  the  Township  of  Dunwich,  the  next  township  but 
one  to  Yarmouth  on  the  west. 

The  5,000  acres  selected  by  the  Colonel  were  in  the  south- 
western part  of  the  township  and  were  comprised  in  two  grants — 
the  one  comprising  lots  14  to  24,  inclusive,  and  lots  A  and  B,  in 
the  nth  and  i2th  concessions  of  Dunwich — the  other,  lots  22,  23 
and  24  in  the  Qth,  and  broken  lot  5  and  lots  21  to  24  inclusive  and 
lot  A,  in  the  loth  concession — the  whole  forming  (exclusive  of  lot 
5,  which  is  now  under  water)  a  solid  block  of  land. 

It  may  be  observed  that,  according  to  the  terms  of  Lord 
Hobart's  despatch,  the  additional  grant  of  200  acres  per  family,  to 
Colonel  Talbot,  was  to  be  made  only  upon  his  having  surrendered 
50  acres  of  his  original  grant  to  each  family  for  whom  he  might 
claim  and  that  such  family  should  at  the  time  be  actually  in 
possession  of  such  fifty  acres.  This  condition  was  the  subject  of 
much  future  controversy. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

SETTLEMENT   BEGUN. 

IT  WAS  on  the  2ist  May,  1803 — just  when  war  between  Great 
Britain  and  France  was  being-  resumed — that  Colonel  Talbot 
landed  at  Port  Talbot  and  actually  began  his  settlement  on 
the  spot  where  he  continued  to  live,  with  but  brief  intermissions, 
for  the  remainder  of  his  days.  He  had  already,  as  we  have  seen, 
essayed  to  commence  in  1801,  at  some  point — probably  at  either 
Kettle  or  Catfish  Creek — but  had  been  obliged  to  desist  and 
return  to  the  old  country  to  secure  his  grant,  which  now  lay  in 
Dunwich. 

"  Here  will  I  roost  !  "  he  is  reported  to  have  exclaimed  to 
Governor  Simcoe,  on  the  occasion  of  a  previous  visit  to  the  spot, 
in  the  humourous  way  habitual  with  him.  "  Here  will  I  roost 
and  will  soon  make  the  forest  tremble  under  the  wings  of  the  flock 
I  will  invite  by  my  warblings  around  me  !  " 

He  set  to  work  with  a  will  and  energy  characteristic  of  him, 
and  soon  had  erected  a  log  house  on  the  hill  facing  the  lake  to  the 
south  and  overlooking  the  valley  of  Talbot  Creek  to  the  north  and 
north-east.  Here  with  a  few  men  servants  he  lived  in  his  embryo 
Canadian  "  Castle  Malahide,"  a  humble  log  abode  of  three  rooms, 
store-room,  sitting-room  and  kitchen,  which  was  afterwards 
enlarged  into  a  rambling  collection  of  one-storied  buildings,  not 
inconsiderable  in  extent,  but  with  no  pretensions  to  architectural 
beauty. 

What  the  buildings  lacked  in  beauty,  however,  their  site 
supplied  ;  for  no  fairer  spot  is  there  along  the  whole  extent  of  Lake 
Erie's  shore,  from  Turkey  Point  westward.  Its  beauties  were 
enhanced  at  the  season  of  the  Colonel's  arrival  by  the  fresh 
verdure  and  newly  awakened  life  of  the  forest,  the  swollen  stream 


36  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

and  the  blue  waters  of  the  lake,  now  free  of  ice. 

The  Colonel's  "  warblings"  were,  however,  lost  in  the  density 
of  the  forest  for  several  seasons,  during  which  he  had  ample  time 
for  perfecting  himself  in  the  several  menial  occupations  so  indis- 
pensible  to  a  successful  backwoods  settler,  for  servants  were 
often  lacking,  or  otherwise  employed. 

Jmnes^_FJeming,  who  is  said  to  have  accompanied  Governor 
Simcoe,  Talbot,  and  others,  in  the  capacity  of  boatman,  on  one  of 
their  early  expeditions  to  the  West,  formed  then  a  predilection  for 
the  country  and  had  settled  in  1796  on  lot  6  on  the  river  front  of 
Aldboro',  not  far  from  the  settlement  of  the  Moravian  mission- 
aries, who  came  in  1792.  Fleming  was  thus  the  earliest  known 
white  settler  within  the  confines  of  what  is  now  the  county  of 
Elgin.  His  sons  afterwards  took  up  lands,  through  Colonel 
Talbot,  in  the  township  of  Mosa,  and  his  descendants  are  now 
respected  citizens  of  the  district.  Below,  along  the  river  Thames, 
as  we  have  seen,  there  were,  besides  the  Moravian  mission,  other 
settlers  at  rare  intervals — Carpenter,  a  sailor,  the  Dolsens  and 
others — who  had  come  in  even  before  the  advent  of  Governor 
Simcoe,  access  from  the  older  settlements  about  Detroit  being 
comparatively  easy  and  the  route  for  traders  and  others,  who 
passed  overland  between  Detroit  and  Niagara,  being  usually  along 
the  river. 

But  of  settlers  brought  in  by  or  following  Talbot  there  was  but 
one  for  the  first  three  years  or  more.  This  one  was  George 
Crane,  a  discharged  soldier,  who  came  with  the  Colonel.  He 
remained  with  Colonel  Talbot  three  years  and  then  settled  about 
four  miles  to  the  west.  His  son  Anthony  has  spent  a  long  life  in 
the  same  vicinity. 

The  townships  though  blocked  out  were  for  the  most  part  as 
yet  unsubdivided.  Roads  were  of  course  unknown. 

John  Bostwick  is  reported  to  have  first  blazed  the  line  of  what 
was  afterwards  the  Talbot  Road,  in  1804,  the  year  in  which  he 
obtained  the  grant  of  the  first  two  lots  on  the  Yarmouth  lake  front 
at  the  mouth  of  Kettle  Creek,  now  Port  Stanley.  He  was  the 
son  of  the  Rev.  Gideon  Bostwick,  rector  of  Great  Barrington, 
Massachusetts,  where  John  and  the  other  children  of  the  family 


SETTLEMENT   BEGUN.  37 

were  born.  John  was,  however,  reared  by  Mr.  Hambly,  a  well- 
known  surveyor,  who  laid  out  Aldborough  and  other  townships,  and 
evidently  imparted  to  the  young"  man  some  of  his  professional 
knowledge.  John  Bostwick  was  in  1800  appointed  high  constable 
and  in  1805  sheriff  of  the  London  district — succeeding  his  father- 
in-law,  Colonel  Joseph  Ryerson,  the  first  occupant  of  this  office, 
who  was  appointed  in  1800.  John,  as  well  as  a  brother, 
Henry,  were,  as  militia  officers,  destined  to  play  somewhat  con- 
spicuous parts  in  the  settlement  in  the  war  of  1812-14.  Colonel 
John  Bostwick,  as  he  was  afterwards  styled,  was  a  man  of  high 
character  and  undoubted  bravery,  though  of  retiring-  disposition, 
simple  manners  and  even  temper.  His  wife,  whom  he  married  in 
1808,  was  a  daughter  of  Colonel  Joseph  Ryerson  of  Long  Point 
settlement,  and  it  was  not  until  later  that  they  took  up  their 
permanent  residence  as  the  first  settlers  of  Port  Stanley. 

Between   the  years   1808  and   1812  a  number  of  families  were  ! 
"located."     John  Barber  and  James  Watson  came  from  Pennsyl- 
vania and  settled  to  the  north-east  of   Port  Talbot,  in  Southwold. 
The  Pearces,  Storeys  and  Pattersons  skirted  the  shores  of  the  lake 
by  boat,  from  the  same  state,  and  landed  at  Port  Talbot  in  1809 — 
thirteen  souls  in  all,  with  looms  and    wheels  for  the  manufacture 
of  woollen  and  linen  goods,  and  cattle,  driven  along  the  shore. 
Stephen  Backus  followed  in  1810.     These  were  settlers  after  the  •', 
Colonel's  own  heart,  and  soon  formed  a  settlement  in  Dunwich  to 
the  west  of  Port  Talbot,   known  as   "Little    Ireland."      Daniel 
Rapelje,  of  Huguenot  descent,  and  David  Mandeville,  came  from   j 
Long  Point  and  built  on  the  site  of  St.  Thomas  (then  only  known  I 
as  Kettle  Creek)  their  log  houses,  the  former  at  the  top  of  the  hill 
on  the  first  lot  in  Yarmouth,  the  latter  just  below,  in  the  valley  on 
the   Southwold  side  of  the  townline.        David    Secord,    Garrett 
Oakes,  Benjamin  Wilson  and  Moses  Rice  were  among  those  who 
settled  about  this  time  along  Talbot   road.      In  Delaware,   Bird, 
Brigham,    Springer,    Westbrook    and     Sherick     had     established 
themselves. 

So  slow  had  been  the  influx,  however,  up  to  this  that  in  1809' 
twelve  families  are  said  to  have  formed  the  whole  number  I 
scattered  along  the  line  of  the  Talbot  road  throughout  Dunwich,' 


38  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

Southwold,  Yarmouth  and  Malahide.  In  that  year  that  portion 
f  the  road  from  the  east  line  of  Middleton  to  Port  Talbot  was 
surveyed  by  Mahlon  Burwell,  a  native  of  New  Jersey  and  a 
gentleman  who  became  a  conspicuous  figure  in  the  life  of  the 
ettlement  for  the  rest  of  his  life — as  colonel  of  militia  and  member 
)f  parliament,  as  well  as  in  his  capacity  of  surveyor  of  many 
>ortions  of  the  township  lands  and  of  the  town  of  London.  He 
was  moreover,  in  1811,  appointed  registrar  of  land  titles  for 
Middlesex,  and  was  elected  to  represent  Middlesex  and  Oxford  in 
parliament  first  in  1812.  He  settled  near  Colonel  Talbot,  where 
the  townline  between  Southwold  and  Dunwich  is  crossed  by  the 
Talbot  road,  and  here  the  first  registry  office  for  the  county  of 
Middlesex  was  established,  at  what  was  afterwards  known  as 
Burwell's  Corners  or  Burwell  Park.  Thomas  Horner  had,  how- 
ever, been  registrar  since  1800  for  the  counties  of  Oxford  and 
Middlesex.  Colonel  Burwell's  name  will  frequently  appear  in 
succeeding  pages. 

Little  work  was  there  for  a  registrar  as  yet,  however.  Colonel 
Talbot  performed  all  the  duties  of  that  office  so  far  as  the  settlers 
were  concerned  with  pencil  and  map  ;  entering  the  settler's  name 
upon  his  lot,  after  the  latter  had  passed  inspection  and  satisfied 
the  head  of  the  settlement  of  his  loyalty,  moral  character  and 
general  fitness.  In  case  a  transfer  of  the  land  for  failure  to 
perform  settlement  duties  or  other  cause  became  necessary,  a  piece 
of  India  rubber  cleared  the  title  of  its  encumbrance  and  a  fresh 
name  took  its  place.  For  the  first  few  years  these  office  duties 
were  but  light,  though  the  entertainment  of  the  incomers  who  had 
perforce  to  pay  a  visit  to  Port  Talbot,  whether  they  came  by  water 
or  on  foot,  was  at  times  no  light  tax  upon  the  Colonel's  patience, 
as  well  as  his  resources.  Some  of  those  who  came  from  across 
the  ocean  a  few  years  later  were,  indeed,  so  unaccustomed  to 
pioneer  hardships  as  to  require  schooling. 

"We  never  made  a  bed,"  said  one  of  a  numerous  party  one 
night,  when  the  Colonel,  handing  them  a  pile  of  blankets, 
requested  them  to  make  their  own  beds  on  the  floor.  Forthwith 
the  Colonel  took  the  mattress,  placed  it  on  the  floor,  turned  over 
three  chairs  so  that  the  backs  would  serve  as  bolsters,  spread 


SETTLEMENT   BEGUN.  39 

one  blanket,  then  turned  round  and  said  :  "  Spread  the  rest  of 
the  blankets  fairly  on  top  of  that  and  learn  to  help  yourselves  in 
Canada,"  adding  as  he  again  assisted  their  awkward  hands,  "  I 
have  often  made  my  bed  of  hemlock  boughs  and  considered  it  no 
hard  work." 

While  they  dined,  he  paced  the  room  giving  them  instructions 
how  to  build  houses,  clear  land,  plant  corn  and  potatoes  and  do 
other  necessary  work,  exhorting  them  to  industry,  patience  and 
sobriety — at  the  same  time  not  omitting  the  customary  courtesy 
of  a  glass  of  good  whiskey. 

The  settlers  on  the  prairie  lands  of  Western  Canada,  where  the 
virgin  soil  awaits  only  the  plow  and  seed  to  awake  it  to  produc- 
tiveness, escape  the  initial  difficulty  which  faced  the  pioneers 
of  this  region — the  clearing  of  the  land  to  render  it  fit  for  crops, 
the  endless  chop-chop-chopping  of  the  giant  trees,  the  first  of 
which  had  of  course  to  be  cut  into  lengths  and  used  for  the  con- 
struction of  the  early  rough,  though  often  comfortable  bouse, 
with  its  broad,  rough,  plastered  fireplace,  its  rude  settle-beds  and 
benches.  In  this  fireplace  were  consumed  huge  logs  of  timber, 
sometimes  of  black  walnut  or  other  now  priceless  kinds,  roaring 
up  the  chimney  in  sparks  and  smoke  and  giving  oftimes  the  only 
light  to  be  obtained — or  indeed  required — by  the  family  in  the  long 
winter  evenings.  Sometimes  a  tallow  "  dip  "  or  a  rag  in  a  dish 
of  grease  added  to  the  general  illumination.  Bread  was  baked  in 
a  Dutch  oven  or  a  bake  kettle.  The  kettle  was  sometimes  hung 
on  an  iron  crane,  but  usually  set  on  hot  coals,  with  coals  on  lid  or 
cover  also.  "  Bread  thus  baked,"  remarked  an  old  settler 
recently,  with  a  smack,  "  was  as  sweet,  if  not  sweeter,  than  bread 
now  baked  in  fancy  ranges." 

But  to  bake  bread,  flour  was  required,  or  at  least  some  coarse 
substitute.  A  stump  hollowed  at  the  top  by  fire,  and  a  rough 
wooden  pestle,  formed  the  ordinary  means  for  grinding  the 
grain  into  coarse,  but  not  unwholesome  flour  or  meal,  from  which 
bran  and  shorts  were  not  extracted.  Sometimes  a  hollowed 
pair  of  stones  in  the  hollowed  stump,  the  upper  one  fitted  with ' 
a  handle,  produced  a  superior  brand  of  home-made  flour.  In 
a  neighborhood  where  a  hand  mill  was  owned,  it  did  duty  for 


40  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

all  its  owner's  neighbours. 

Colonel  Talbot  erected  the  first  water-mill  in  the  settlement  at 
his  own  expense,  a  short  distance  above  the  mouth  of  Talbot 
Creek,  and  it  is  said  to  have  been  in  working  order  as  early  as 
1808,  but  was  burned  by  American  marauders  during  the  war  of 
1812-14. 

To  obtain  flour,  however  ground,  grain  was  required.  Seed, 
usually  supplied  by  Colonel  Talbot  at  first,  was  sown — wheat, 
barley,  peas,  oats.  While  the  land  was  virgin,  it  was  not  worked, 
the  grain  being  hand-sown,  raked  or  harrowed  (sometimes  a  tree 
top  or  branch  doing  duty  for  harrow)  and  covered  with  leaves, 
roots  and  loose  earth — indian  corn  being  planted  with  an  axe  or 
hoe.  The  crops  were  reaped  with  sickles — in  some  cases  with 
only  knives  or  scissors. 

In  this  laborious  work  the  settlers'  wives  were  at  times  forced 
by  circumstances  to  participate — nor  did  they  shrink  from  the 
task.  An  instance  or  two  of  the  hardships  of  the  pioneers  and 
their  wives  in  Aldboro'  township  at  a  later  date,  when  intermittent 
fevers  were  devastating  their  young  settlement,  may  be  given. 

Finlay  McDiarmid,  an  early  settler,  (grandfather  of  the  present 
member  of  the  Legislature  for  West  Elgin) ;  was  confined  to 
the  house  by  ague,  while  his  entire  crop  of  wheat,  an  acre  and  a 
half,  was  ready  for  harvesting*.  His  winter's  bread  depended  upon 
its  being  saved,  and,  in  the  absence  of  even  a  sickle,  his  faithful  wife 
not  only  cut  it  all  with  a  butcher  knife,  but  threshed  the  grain  and 
ground  it  in  a  hand-mill  to  feed  her  two  infant  children  and  sick 
husband.  It  is  a  satisfaction  to  know  that  this  heroic  woman 
lived  to  within  one  month  of  a  full  century  of  years,  passing  away 
in  September,  1878. 

Another  settler,  Gregor  McGregor,  was  taken  down  with  the 
same  complaint,  after  having  planted  a  newly  cleared  field  with 
corn  and  potatoes,  and  before  he  had  had  time  to  fence  it  in.  His 
wife  split  rails  enough  to  fence  the  field — a  four-acre  one — and, 
having  no  oxen,  carried  the  rails  on  her  back  and  erected  the 
necessary  fence,  to  secure  the  family's  food — her  husband  being 
unable  to  do  more  than,  in  intervals  of  his  complaint,  indicate  to 
her  where  to  drive  the  wedges. 


SETTLEMENT   BEGUN.  41 

It  may  be  added  that  these  are  but  two  instances,  out  of  very 
many,  of  extraordinary  fortitude  and  perseverance  exhibited  by  the 
mothers  of  the  settlement  of  Highland  Scotch  in  Aldborough,  while 
the  wives  and  daughters  of  settlers  of  other  nationalities  at  times 
showed  themselves  equally  ready  and  courageous  in  time  of  need. 

Before  sheep  were  brought  in,  coarse  linen  cloth  made  from  the 
home-grown  flax,  by  the  settlers  themselves,  was  the  only  kind 
obtainable.  Later  the  spinning  wheel  was  busy  in  every  house 
and  the  hand-loom  also,  with  the  product  of  the  imported  sheep, 
which  were  gradually  brought  in. 

Colonel  Talbot  was  an  especial  admirer  of  the  sheep  and  its 
warm  fleece.  It  is  rarely  one  obtains  a  description  of  his  appear- 
ance except  as  clad  in  his  sheepskin  coat  and  cap — the  sheep's 
tail  forming  both  tassel  to  the  cap  and  muffler  for  the  neck. 

The  Colonel  did  not  shrink  from  any  work  his  hands  found  to 
do,  however  menial,  during  these  first  years.  In  the  words  of  an 
old  settler  he  "  baked  his  own  bread,  milked  his  own  cows,  made 
his  own  butter  and  cheese,  washed  his  own  clothes,  ironed  and 
dressed  his  own  linen."  Indeed  he  is  said  to  have  taken  special 
pride  in  his  skill  as  a  bread-maker.  He  set  an  example  of  self- 
reliance  and  independence  to  the  settlers  by  using,  when  at  home, 
no  clothing  but  home-made,  from  the  wool,  hemp  and  flax  grown 
on  his  own  farm. 

"  You  can  have  the  land,  if  you  promise  always  to  wear  such 
clothes  as  you  now  do,"  he  is  reported  as  saying  to  an  applicant 
in  homespun — "  instead  of  the  dandy  suit  you  wore  before  " — 
referring  to  a  previous  unsuccessful  visit  of  the  same  young  man, 
clad  in  broadcloth,  when  the  Colonel  had  declared  he  would  grant 
no  land  to  anyone  dressed  "  in  the  rotten  refuse  of  the  Manchester 
warehouses." 

The  early  settlers  had  to  supply  themselves  as  best  they  could 
with  shoes,  as  well  as  stockings,  of  home  manufacture,  for  winter 
wear.  Indian  moccasins  were  useful,  but  only  at  certain  seasons. 
In  summer  such  superfluous  luxuries  as  footwear  of  any  kind  were 
not  much  in  evidence.  The  straw  hat  for  summer,  the  coonskin 
cap  for  winter — in  fact  all  clothes  for  both  bed  and  body  were 
home-made.  For  tea  the  fragrant  spicewood  and  aromatic 


42  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

sassafras  answered  well  enough — roast  peas,  and  even  toast,  made 
1  coffee.  The  maple  produced  sugar,  molasses,  vinegar,  soap. 
Salt,  the  chief  desideratum,  was  imported  at  infinite  cost  and 
trouble.  Prices  paid  for  it  seem  utterly  fabulous  at  the  present 
day.  Iron  could  only  be  procured  with  equal  difficulty  at  first, 
though  in  later  years  bog  iron  was  found  in  Bayham  and  South 
Norfolk  sufficient  for  the  chief  needs  of  that  day — while  salt  is 
now  among  the  chief  exports  of  the  prolific  county  of  Essex. 
--  Commerce  took,  of  necessity,  the  form  of  barter.  Money  was 
at  first  a  thing  almost  unknown.  The  root  of  all  evil  did  not  then 
grow  in  the  soil — though  later  on  the  soil  produced  it  in  abund- 
ance— at  first  by  the  sale  of  "  black  salts,"  a  product  of  the 
leached  ashes  of  burnt  logs  and  timber,  rendered  into  potash  and 
pearl  ash  and  bought  by  the  early  merchants  for  export— thus 
supplying  the  means  for  payment  of  taxes,  one  of  the  few  things 
for  which  cash  was  ere  long  required.  These  black  salts  are  thus 
humourously  referred  to  by  an  old  settler — Freeman  Talbot, 
formerly  of  London  township — who  .wrote,  "  What  is  black 
salts  ?  It  is  the  father  of  potash,  the  grandfather  of  pearl  ash, 
the  great  grandfather  of  saleratus,  the  great,  great  grandfather  of 
soda  and  a  distant  relation  of  the  baking  powder  of  the  present 
day." 

The  labours,  difficulties  and  privations  of  the  first  settlers  have 
been  thus  roughly  sketched.  They  suffered  other  hardships  from 
external  foes.  The  Indians  as  a  rule  were  peaceable  when  met 
with,  though  an  occasional  prowling  red  man  gave  trouble — one 
Dunwich  pioneer  was  murdered  by  such  a  one.  But  the  settler 
fortunate  enough  to  possess  a  cow  had  to  keep  her  within  sight 
while  he  chopped  in  the  woods  by  day,  and  tie  her  to  the  house 
door  by  night,  if  he  would  keep  her  secure  from  wolves.  Even 
then  he  must  be  in  readiness  to  come  to  her  assistance  if  attacked. 
The  oxen,  which  did  duty  for  horses,  would  defend  themselves 
against  wolves — but  sheep  when  abroad  were  completely  at  their 
mercy.  The  racoons  and  squirrels  devoured  the  wheat  and  other 
grain — the  foxes  and  weasels,  the  poultry.  The  bears,  like  the 
Indians,  were  peaceable  if  not  interfered  with  and  not  too  hungry, 
but  dangerous  when  roused  or  ravenous.  The  rattlesnake  was 


SETTLEMENT   BEGUN.  43 

the  only  reptile  to  be  much  feared  and  soon  the  settler  learned 
from  the'  Indian  the  herbs  and  roots  which  served  as  antidotes  for 
the  poison  of  its  bite — and  ere  long"  the  sovereign  antidote, 
whiskey,  became  both  plentiful  and  cheap  throughout  the 
settlement. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

SIMON  ZELOTES   WATSON — GOVERNOR   GORE — WAR  BEGINS. 

MEANTIME  settlement  was  proceeding  slowly  in  several  town- 
ships placed  under  Colonel  Talbot's  charge  by  the  provincial 
government.  Talbot  road,  as  has  been  seen,  had  been  surveyed 
to  Port  Talbot,  and  in  1811  the  survey  was  continued  west  to  the 
west  line  of  Howard,  and  the  road  was  being  constructed,  after 
a  rough  fashion,  by  the  settlers  as  part  of  the  settlement  duties 
imposed  upon  them  as  conditions  of  their  obtaining  grants — each 
settler  having  to  clear  one-half  the  road  in  front  of  his  lot. 

A  road  was  projected  to  connect  Talbot  road  with  the  township 
of  Westminster,  where  already  a  settlement  was  (in  1811)  begun 
by  a  certain  person  bearing  the  name  of  Simon  Zelotes  Watson, 
who  aspired  to  become  a  sort  of  partner  with  Colonel  Talbot  in 
obtaining  settlers — his'apparent  design  being  to  bring  a  number 
of  settlers  from  Lower  Canada  to  Westminster,  settle  them  upon 
crown  lands  there,  obtain  the  government's  sanction  to  their 
reporting  to  Colonel  Talbot — as  indeed  all  in  the  district  did — 
instead  of  to  the  government  at  York,  and  collect  from  each 
settler  a  fee  of  $100  to  cover  patent  fees  and  for  his  own  trouble. 

This  latter  part  of  his  programme  neither  commended  itself  to 
Colonel  Talbot  nor  to  the  government  at  York,  and  the  Colonel 
notified  the  settlers  that  their  grants  would  not  be  withheld  to 
further  Watson's  pecuniary  demands — an  action  which  the  gov- 
ernment promptly  ratified.  "  His  Excellency  desires  me  to  say," 
wrote  his  secretary,  "  he  approves  entirely  of  what  you  have  done 
and  requests  you  will  continue  rigidly  to  enforce  his  orders  as 
contained  in  your  letters."  Taken  literally  this  language  seems 
to  imply  that  Colonel  Talbot  both  issued  and  enforced  the  orders 
and  was  de  facto  governor  within  the  settlement. 


SIMON   ZELOTES   WATSON.  45 

Thereupon  Simon  Zelotes,  accompanied  by  two  friends,  Bird 
and  Brig-ham  of  Delaware,  called  at  Port  Talbot  and  bearded  the 
lion  in  his  den. 

"  How  dare  you  go  among-  my  settlers  and  desire  them  not  to 
pay  me  my  demands  on  them  of  $100?"  he  exclaimed  to  the 
Colonel.  "  I'll  take  out  a  warrant  and  compel  you  to  pay  me 
$100  for  every  person  who  refuses  to  pay  me  that  sum  in  conse- 
quence of  your  advice.  Neither  governor,  government  nor  any 
individual  has  a  right  to  interfere  with  my  private  contracts.  The 
lands  were  assigned  me  to  settle  and  I'll  show  the  world  that  I 
will  make  such  bargains  as  I  see  fit,  regardless  of  consequences — 
and  any  honest  jury  will  support  me  !  " 

He  waxed  so  warm  that  the  Colonel  ordered  him  out  of  the 
house. 

McMillan,  a  settler  who  had  been  several  years  on  his  lot,  came 
the  same  day  and  paid  his  government  fees  to  Talbot.  Watson 
heard  of  it  and  was  wroth.  He  memorialized  the  government. 
He  wrote  the  Colonel  threatening  him  with  exposure — offering 
him  at  the  same  time  the  hand  of  friendship,  "  from  a  retro- 
spective view,"  as  he  put  it,  "  of  your  hospitality  and  friendship 
to  me  when  I  was  a  stranger  in  the  province  " — hinted  at  a  prior 
mutual  agreement  to  promote  settlement  by  bringing  in  loyal  and 
industrious  settlers — and  wound  up  by  a  somewhat  obscure 
challenge  to  mortal  combat,  should  his  overtures  be  spurned. 

Talbot  refused  any  retraction  or  satisfaction,  "  for  believe  me," 
he  added,  "  I  value  my  life  too  highly  to  hazard  it  in  your 
speculations.  Should  you  further  intrude  yourself  personally  upon 
me  with  threats,  I  will  employ  the  constable  to  deliver  the 
necessary  reply  " — and  the  executive  council  at  York  six  weeks 
later  ordered  measures  to  be  taken  to  bind  Mr.  Watson,  with 
sureties,  to  keep  the  peace  towards  the  Colonel.  So  Simon 
Zelotes  lost  both  the  money  he  hoped  to  collect  from  the  settlers 
and  the  satisfaction  he  considered  his  due  from  Colonel  Talbot. 

Yet  a  few  weeks  before  this,  Mr.  Selby,  writing  to  Colonel 
Talbot  from  York,  added  the  following  postscript  to  his  letter  : 
"John  McDonell  and  Dr.  Baldwin  crossed  the  ice  this  morning  to 


46  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

the  Point  and  amused  themselves  with  a  brace  of  pistols,  but  no 
harm  was  done.  Some  expression  in  court  was  the  cause." 

If  two  leading  lawyers — one  the  attorney-general  and  the 
other  head  of  the  new  Law  Society  of  the  province — could  adjourn 
from  the  court  room  to  the  island  to  settle  their  little  differences, 
or  finish  their  legal  arguments,  with  pistols  ;  why  should  the 
government  have  denied  poor  Simon  Zelotes  Watson  the  right  to 
exchange  shots  with  Colonel  Talbot  ?  Apparently  not  altogether 
on  legal  grounds  was  it  done. 

Watson  appears  to  have  been  either  an  arrant  scoundrel  by 
disposition  or  to  have  become  such  by  stress  of  the  circumstances 
in  which  he  found  himself  now  involved.  He  harrassed  Governor 
Gore  and  his  council  with  petitions  and  lengthy  interviews,  and 
seemed  at  times  to  impress  the  governor  favourably,  while  at 
other  times  he  was  "that  rascal  Watson."  Talbot's  firm  hand 
evidently  guided  the  ship  of  state  in  this  instance. 

"  I  am  much  gratified  to  find  that  our  proceedings  meet  with 
your  approbation,"  wrote  the  genial  governor  to  him,  referring  to 
his  government's  disposition  of  Watson's  memorial,  "  As  your 
friend,  the  chief,  says  '  we  mean  to  do  well.'  "  The  chief  referred 
to  was  Chief  Justice  Scott,  chairman  of  the  executive  council,  and 
an  intimate  friend  of  Colonel  Talbot's. 

If  the  governor  was  at  times  imposed  upon  by  Watson,  others 
do  not  seem  to  have  been  similarly  impressed. 

"  I  regret  very  much  the  conduct  of  my  friend  Zelotes,"  wrote 
Major  Halton,  the  governor's  secretary.  "  He  seems  to  be  rather 
more  attached  to  the  concerns  of  this  world  than  the  original 
person  from  whom  he  took  his  name" — while  Lieut. -Colonel 
Nichol  wrote  also  to  Talbot  concerning  him  : — "  The  governor 
says  you  are  in  part  mistaken  in  Watson's  business  and  that  he  is 
still  to  have  the  recommending  and  settling  of  the  Lower  Canada 
settlers.  By  the  bye,  he  is  a  most  infamous  rascal.  He  repre- 
presented  you  at  York  as  concerned  with  him  in  the  speculation 
and  dwelt  much  on  a  letter  which  he  had  induced  you  to  write  to 
him  which  of  course  was  merely  to  show  that  he  was  not  an 
imposter." 

Watson    appears    from    the    correspondence    to    have    been    a 


GOVERNOR  GORE.  47 

surveyor.  He  will  be  heard  of  presently  again,  under  changed 
circumstances* 

Not  only  had  Colonel  Talbot  much  influence  with  both  the 
British  government  and  the  government  of  the  province,  about 
this  time,  but  he  was  on  terms  of  intimate  friendship  with  the 
governor — as  indeed  has  already  appeared — Francis  Gore  and  his 
wife  and  staff.  The  governor  was,  at  this  time,  becoming 
contemptuous  of  his  House  of  Assembly — which  contained  his 
opponents,  Judge  Thorpe  and  Wilcocks. 

"  I  am  sorry  to  say  the  rascals  have  given  nothing  towards  the 
culture  of  hemp,"  he  wrote  to  Colonel  Talbot,  who  had  intended 
embarking  largely  in  hemp  culture  in  his  new  settlement,  "but 
have  appropriated  ^3,500  for  roads  and  ^400  for  printing  the 
Laws.  The  latter  sum  is  waste,"  he  naively  adds.  He  was 
about  to  pay  a  visit  to  England  for  the  benefit  of  his  wife's 
health.  "  When  I  am  gone,"  the  genial  governor  charged 
Talbot,  "for  God's  sake  look  occasionally  upon  the  chief,  and 
take  care  of  the  surveyor-general  and  clerk  of  the  council."  Mrs. 
Gore,  he  adds,  would  not  permit  him  to  say  all  "the  pretty 
things "  to  the  bachelor  of  Port  Talbot  which  the  latter's 
"prettier  deeds  towards  her"  deserved,  but  would  write  him 
herself. 

Before  Christmas  of  18 1 1  Governor  Gore  and  Mrs.  Gore  were 
in  England  and  Colonel  Brock  was  left  as  administrator  of  the 
government  of  the  province.  The  legislature  had  meantime  made 
two  appropriations  for  the  purchase  of  hemp,  of  which  Colonel 
Talbot  had  a  quantity  in  store. 

But  now  the  clouds  began  to  darken  for  an  impending  storm. 

"  We  are  making  fortifications  at  all  the  posts  and  building 
armed  ships  on  both  the  lakes  as  if  war  was  expected,"  wrote 
Selby  to  Colonel  Talbot  in  April,  "  but  my  own  opinion  is  that  all 
Jonathan's  blustering  will  end  in  nothing  of  that  sort." 

Meanwhile  lists  of  commissions  were  forwarded  to  the  Colonel 
for  his  ist  Middlesex  regiment. 

"  The  Duke  of  Northumberland  writes  Selby  that  strong 
reinforcements  are  ordered  for  this  country,"  Brock  informs 


48  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

Talbot  ;   "the  public  papers  mention  the  same  thing",  but   I  hear 
nothing-  officially." 

At  length  the  storm  bursts,  and  Lieut. -Colonel  Nichol  on 
"June  28th,  1812,  12  p.  m.,"  sends  a  despatch  to  Major  Salmon 
of  the  2nd  Norfolk  militia,  at  Woodhouse,  to  be  forwarded,  after 
being1  shown  to  Lieut. -Colonel  Ryerson,  to  Colonel  Talbot,  by 
express,  as  follows  : 

"  DEAR  SALMON  :  We  have  at  last  the  printed  intelligence  of  the 
Declaration  of  War  and  are  now  at  work  throwing  up  batteries  to  attack 
Fort  Niagara.  Our  fire  will  commence  to-morrow  morning  early  and  I  hope 
that  before  dinner  time  we  shall  give  a  good  account  of  it.  Exert  yourself 
therefore  to  carry  into  effect  the  General's  intentions  for  your  assistance  may 
be  required  on  very  short  notice." 

Enclosed  was  an  extract  from  a  g-eneral  order  of  the  same  date 
appointing  Colonel  Talbot  to  the  command  of  the  militia  in  the 
London  district  and  requiring1  him  to  be  "  pointed  in  his  directions 
to  the  militia  of  Oxford  and  Middlesex." 


CHAPTER    IX. 


HULL'S  INVASION — WESTBROOK  AND  WATSON — 
FALL  OF  DETROIT. 

EVENTS  marched   rapidly   all  around  the  borders  of  the  Talbot 
Settlement  and  adjacent  parts  in  the  summer  of  1812. 

General  Hull  with  his  army  crossed  the  Detroit  River,  occupied 
Sandwich  and  issued  a  bombastic  pro- 
clamation to  the  inhabitants  of  Canada 
on  July  1 2th.  Five  days  later  Captain 
Roberts,  having  with  his  small  force  of 
regulars  and  Canadians  scaled  the  heights 
overlooking  Fort  Michillimackinac,  ob- 
tained its  surrender  as  readily  and  with 
like  freedom  from  loss  as  did  his  nephew, 
Lord  Roberts,  occupy  Pretoria  nearly 
eighty-eight  years  later. 

Hull's  now  celebrated  proclamation — 
to  which  Brock  replied  in  a  spirited 
address  on  the  2oth— had  some  effect, 
chiefly  upon  the  western  border,  where 
the  French  and  American  settlers  were 
connected  by  family  and  other  ties  with 
those  across  the  river,  while  their  pro- 
perty was  at  the  mercy  of  the  invaders. 

Traitors  there  were  who  were  anxious  to  lead  parties  into  the 
interior.  Among  those  who  had  found  their  way  into  the  enemy's 
lines  were  Andrew  Westbrook  of  Delaware  township — who  it  was 
afterwards  claimed  was  an  American  citizen  by  birth— and  Mr. 
Simon  Zelotes  Watson.  General  Hull  was  naturally  very 
suspicious  of  them,  but  both  were  subsequently  employed,  though 


North  Block  House,  B 
Blanc  Island 


50  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

Westbrook's  recorded  expeditions  were  of  a  later  date  than 
Watson's,  who  had  speedily  ingratiated  himself,  to  judge  from 
the  following-  extract  from  General  Brock's  despatch  to  Sir  George 
Prevost  of  the  26th  July,  1812  : 

"  The  enemy's  cavalry  amounts  to  about  50.  They  are  led  by  one  Watson, 
a  surveyor  of  Montreal,  of  a  desperate  character.  This  fellow  has  been 
allowed  to  parade  with  about  20  men  of  the  same  description  as  far  as  West- 
minster, vowing  as  they  went  along-  the  most  bitter  vengeance  against  th,e 
first  characters  of  the  province." 

Woe  betide  Colonel  Talbot  had  this  force  fallen  in  with  him, 
unprepared,  on  their  way  to  the  scene  of  Watson's  unsuccessful 
efforts  of  a  year  before  !  It  was  perhaps  fortunate  for  the  Colonel 
and  his  loyal  settlers  that  General  Hull,  with  an  army  of  2,300  or 
2,500,  was  so  weak  in  cavalry. 

Westbrook,*  there  is  reason  for  believing,  accompanied  this 
first  expedition,  though  Watson  would  appear  to  have  been  the 
leader.  Captain  Daniel  Springer,  of  Delaware,  a  former 
neighbour  of  theirs,  reported  in  September  to  Colonel  Talbot 
that  he  had  found  persons  in  Detroit  of  respectability  willing  to 
depose  that  Westbrook  requested  50  men  from  General  Hull  to 
return  back  to  Delaware  and  take  his  property,  and  that  Simon 
Z.  Watson  was  to  be  one  of  the  number.  Hull  doubted  his 
integrity,  asked  of  those  acquainted  with  him  what  kind  of  a  man 
he  was — whether  or  not  he  could  be  trusted.  He  was  in  Detroit 
at  the  time  of  the  capitulation.  No  magistrate  having  been 
appointed  to  take  the  depositions  as  to  these  facts,  Captain 
Springer  obtained  Colonel  Nichol's  promise  to  take  and  forward 
them  to  Niagara.  These  probably  formed  part  of  the  evidence  on 
which  Westbrook's  outlawry  and  the  forfeiture  of  his  property 
were  subsequently  based. 

Westbrook    had    in    1814    the    satisfaction    of    accompanying- 

*  Major  John  Richardson,  the  author  of  a  History  of  the  Right  Division 
in  the  War  of  1812  (in  which  he  was  a  participant  and  taken  prisoner 
at  Moraviantown),  "Wacousta,"  the  "Canadian  Brothers,"  etc.,  wrote  a 
book  entitled  "  Westbrook  the  Outlaw."  Believing  it  based  upon,  if  not  a 
history  of,  the  life  of  Andrew  Westbrook,  the  present  writer  has  searched  in 
the  parliamentary  library  at  Ottawa,  the  British  museum,  where  a  number  of 
Richardson's  other  works  are  preserved,  as  well  as  other  libraries,  for  a  copy 
of  the  book  in  question,  but  so  far  without  success. 


WESTBROOK   AND   WATSON.  51 

another  detachment  to  Delaware,  destroying  his  own  house,  after 
the  removal  of  his  family,  and  carrying  off  as  prisoners  Captain 
Springer  and  Mr.  Brigham,  as  well  as  Colonel  Baby,  as  we  shall 
see  later  on. 

July  was  an  anxious  month  for  General  Brock.  He  was  given 
to  understand  that  Hull's  proclamation  had  produced  a  consider- 
able effect  on  the  minds  of  the  people  and  that  a  general  senti- 
ment prevailed  that,  with  the  present  force,  resistence  would  be 
unavailing.  The  militia  were  reported  supine,  officers  inefficient. 
He  despatched  Colonel  Proctor  to  Amherstburg,  where  Colonel 
St.  George  was  in  command  of  200  of  the  4ist  regiment,  a  weak 
detachment  of  Royal  Newfoundland  Fencibles,  a  subaltern's  com- 
mand of  artillery,  with  the  Kent  and  Essex  militia  regiments 
reduced  to  less  than  500  men.  Brock  would  have  gone  himself, 
but  had  to  wait  to  meet  the  legislature  on  the  27th.  The  raids 
up  the  Thames  continued  and  he  despatched  Captain  Chambers 
with  about  50  of  the  4ist  regiment  to  Moraviantown,  directing 
200  militia  to  join  him  there.  The  Indians  on  the  Grand  River, 
it  was  said,  with  the  exception  of  about  50,  decided  to  remain 
neutral  and  refused  to  join  Chambers'  detachment.  This  news 
ruined  Brock's  plan  for  a  diversion  westward  with  the  militia,  for 
the  time  being. 

The  Hon.  James  Baby  on  his  way  from  Sandwich  to  the  meeting 
of  the  legislature  coasted  the  lake  to  Colonel  Talbot's  settlement, 
meeting  Colonel  Proctor,  weather  bound,  about  six  or  seven  miles 
above  Port  Talbot.  Baby  arrived  at  Dundas  street  at  a  point 
thirty  miles  from  York  on  the  evening  of  the  27th,  and  sent  on  a 
letter  reporting  that  the  Long  Point  volunteers  had  refused  to 
march  with  Chambers  and  it  was  feared  those  of  Oxford  would 
follow  their  example.  He  had  parted  from  Colonel  Talbot,  then 
on  his  way  to  Burford,  the  evening  before.  There  was  a  want 
of  balls  for  the  Indians,  whom  the  Hurons  had  done  all  they  could 
to  dissuade  from  joining  the  British.  There  were  but  230  Indians 
with  the  British  at  Amherstburg.  The  militia  had  become  reduced 
to  between  three  and  four  hundred,  through  the  withdrawal  of 
many  to  the  harvest  fields. 

Brock,  who  was  on  the  verge  of  despair,  but  showed  no  sign  of 


52  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

faltering,  met  the  legislature  and  delivered  a  stirring  address  to 
them.  The  House  of  Assembly,  however,  refused  to  repeal  the 
Habeas  Corpus  Act,  and  the  reinforcements  he  had  repeatedly 
applied  for  failed  to  come. 

"  My  situation  is  getting  each  day  more  critical,"  he  wrote  the 
commander-in-chief  on  the  28th,  "  I  still  mean  to  try  and  send  a 
force  to  the  relief  of  Amherstburg,  but  almost  despair  of  succeed- 
ing." He  sent  a  copy  of  his  speech,  of  which,  however,  he 
seemed  to  think  little  good  would  come.  "  I  implore  your 
Excellency's  advice,"  wrote  this  brave  man  in  his  hour  of  need  to 
Sir  George  Prevost — an  infinitely  weaker  man. 

The  next  day  the  news  of  the  fall  of  Michillimackinac  came,  yet 
before  the  news  arrived  the  militia  at  York  had  volunteered 
without  the  least  hesitation  their  services  to  any  part  of  the 
province — the  result  apparently  of  Brock's  inspiring  appeal  and 
his  self  depreciated  efforts  and  example. 

Brock's  spirit  now  rose  to  a  height  to  bear  down  all  opposition. 
He  had  closed  his  address  at  the  opening  of  the  session  with  the 
words  : 

"We  are  engaged  in  an  awful  and  eventful  contest.  By  unanimity  and 
despatch  in  our  councils  and  by  vigour  in  our  operations,  we  may  teach  our 
enemy  this  lesson,  that  a  country  defended  by  free  men,  enthusiastically 
devoted  to  the  cause  of  their  King  and  constitution,  cannot  be  conquered." 

Having  in  vain  waited  for  eight  days  for  some  manifestation  of 
the  required  "  unanimity  and  despatch,"  the  President  now  sub- 
mitted a  spirited  minute  to  his  executive  council  and  prorogued 
the  legislature  on  August  5th — though  not  before  they,  fired  at 
length  by  his  spirit,  had  passed  an  address  to  the  people  couched 
in  language  most  patriotic  and  inspiring. 

The  immediate  effect  was  that  Hull  and  his  army  retreated 
across  the  Detroit  River,  leaving  only  250  men,  who  also  retreated 
before  Brock  arrived  on  the  scene. 

Brock  now  made  up  for  lost  time  in  July,  by  proceeding  with 
the  utmost  despatch  to  Long  Point,  accompanied  by  a  detachment 
of  York  and  Lincoln  volunteers,  with  Messieurs  Hatt,  Heward  and 
John  Beverly  Robinson  (subsequently  Chief  Justice)  as  officers, 
and  his  provincial  aide-de-camp,  Attorney-General  Macdonell. 


WESTBROOK  AND   WATSON.  53 

Macdonell  had,  with  the  warm  impulsiveness  of  his  race,  attached 
himself  to  the  president's  staff,  transforming"  himself  with  alacrity 
from  attorney-g-eneral  to  aide,  in  which  latter  capacity  he  con- 
ducted the  subsequent  negotiations  with  General  Hull  at  Detroit, 
with  ability  and  discretion.  He  accompanied  the  General  through- 
out the  campaign  until  they  both  fell  gloriously  at  Queenston, 
where  their  mortal  remains  have  since  reposed  together  under  a 
noble  monument,  placed  on  an  incomparably  beautiful  site  by  a 
grateful  people. 

At  Port  Dover  the  General  met  the  loyal  Norfolk  militia, 
previously  formed  into  two  flank  companies,  commanded  by 
Colonel  Nichol,  whose  despatch  announcing  the  commencement  of 
hostilities  to  Major  Salmon  and  Colonel  Talbot,  has  been  quoted. 
Colonel  Nichol  subsequently  lost  his  property  here  at  Dover  to  the 
value  of  £5,000  at  the  hands  of  the  enemy,  and  his  life,  after  the 
war,  by  falling  from  the  cliff  at  Queenston,  while  superintending  the 
erection  of  the  monument  just  referred  to,  to  the  memory  of  his 
friend  and  patron,  Brock,  who  had  meantime  made  him  his 
quartermaster-general.  Major  Salmon,*  Captain  John  Bost- 
wick  (his  brother-in-law),  Lieutenant  George  Ryerson  (son  of  the 
veteran  U.  E.  loyalist,  Colonel  Joseph  Ryerson),  Lieutenant  Titus 
Williams  and  others  joined  Brock's  force,  regardless  of  harvesting 
and  other  duties,  save  the  defence  of  their  country. 

Colonel  Talbot,  too,  was  at  hand  and  had  evidently  not  been 
neglectful  of  his  duty  of  mustering  the  forces  of  the  sparsely 
inhabited  district  placed  under  his  command,  as  will  appear  from 
the  following  letter  written  by  Attorney-General  Macdonell,  from 
Port  Talbot,  August  loth  : 

"  We  left  Dover  on  the  8th  between  3  and  4  o'clock  p.  m.  and  got  to  this 
place  about  six  this  morning,  when  the  wind  blew  so  strong  upon  the  shore 
that  we  found  it  would  be  quite  impracticable  to  weather  the  point  about 
thirty  miles  ahead,  and  between  which  and  this  place  there  is  no  possibility 
of  landing,  so  we  were  forced  to  beach  and  haul  our  boats  into  a  fine  creek, 
where,  from  present  appearances  it  is  probable  they  will  remain  till  to-morrow 
morning  and  how  much  longer  I  cannot  say.  It  has  rained  almost  con- 

*Major  Salmon  commanded  the  detachments  of  the  ist  and  2nd  Norfolks 
5th  Lincoln  and  York  regiments,  during  this  expedition. 


54  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

stantly  since  we  encamped  last  night,  and,  although  the  men  have  been 
completely  drenched,  they  continue  in  excellent  spirits  and  behave  in  the 
most  orderly  and  obedient  manner.  Peter  Robinson,  with  his  riflemen, 
joined  us  about  twelve  o'clock  to-day,  and  our  fleet  now  consists  of  twelve 
sail  of  all  kinds,  in  one  of  which  is  a  six-pounder  (dismounted)  with  ammuni- 
tion, etc.  The  want  of  boats  obliged  the  General  to  send  a  detachment  of 
the  Oxford  and  Norfolk  militia  in  a  small  vessel  which  happened  to  be  at 
Dover,  which  must  have  reached  Amherstburg  this  morning. 

Upon  our  arrival  at  Dover  it  was  said  that  a  sufficient  number  of  boats  to 
embark  the  whole  of  the  force  assembled  there  had  been  got  ready,  but  upon 
examination  we  found  that  hardly  one  was  in  a  state  for  service,  and  it  was 
not  till  about  four  o'clock  next  day,  with  every  exertion,  that  we  got  ten 
boats  under  way.  Many  of  these  are  in  so  bad  x  state  that  we  are  constantly 
delayed  and  detained  by  them,  and  will  no  doubt  prevent  our  arriving  so  soon 
as  we  otherwise  would.  Had  there  been  boats  enough  we  probably  would 
have  had  with  us  about  100  men  more  than  we  have.  Our  force  at  present, 
including  the  men  sent  in  the  vessel,  will  be  upwards  of  350,  besides  twenty 
Indians  under  Cadotte,  who  has  fallen  behind.  There  will  be  sixty  men  of 
the  4ist  sent  from  Fort  Erie,  which  will,  I  trust,  be  found  sufficient  reinforce- 
ments to  the  garrison  of  Amherstburg  to  enable  us  to  effect  the  desired  object. 

I  am  sorry  to  say  that  poor  Chambers  was  taken  so  ill  just  as  we  were 
about  to  embark,  that  Mr.  Rolph  thought  it  necessary  to  detain  him.  Robin- 
son, however,  says  that  Colonel  Talbot  and  he  were  to  leave  Rolph's 
yesterday  morning,  so  that  we  look  out  for  him  every  moment.  Such  a 
disappointment  to  him  would  be  most  distressing — I  mean  being  left  behind. 
I  hope  he  may  arrive,  not  only  on  his  account,  but  for  the  good  of  the  service, 
which  I  think  would  materially  suffer  from  his  absence.  Every  one  else 

perfectly  well Chambers,  I  am  glad  to  tell  you,  has  arrived, 

apparently  perfectly  recovered — but  from  his  fear  of  being  left  behind,  which 
I_believe  gave  him  more  uneasiness  than  all  his  other  complaints." 

From  this  it  would  appear  that  Colonel  Talbot  had  collected  a 
considerable  number  more  men  than  transportation  could  be 
obtained  for  and  that  the  reinforcements  were,  with  the  exception 
of  the  60  men  of  the  4ist  regiment  from  Fort  Erie  and  the  twenty 
Indians,  composed  entirely  of  militia.  Peter  Robinson  was  the 
brother  of  John  Beverly,  afterwards  Sir  John  Beverly  Robinson. 
Captain  Chambers  has  been  referred  to  before.  He  was  an  officer 
of  the  regulars  and  he  and  Colonel  Talbot  would  appear  to  have 
remained  over,  presumably  under  the  hospitable  roof  of  Dr. 
Thomas  Rolph,  father  of  Dr.  John  Rolph. 

At  Amherstburg  Brock  and  the  brave  Tecumseh  met,  each 
being  most  favourably  impressed  with  the  other  at  this  their  first 


THE    FALL   OF   DETROIT.  55 

meeting".  They  were  of  one  mind  as  to  the  advisability  of  taking 
the  offensive  and  attacking  Detroit. 

Bostwick  and  Ryerson's  company  of  militia,  which  had  arrived 
in  advance  of  the  General,  had  been  employed  in  constructing  a 
masked  battery  behind  some  large  trees  on  the  river  bank 
opposite  Detroit,  under  the  direction  of  Captain  Dixon  of  the 
Royal  Engineers.  They  worked  only  when  the  shades  of  night 
had  fallen  and  by  the  time  Brock  arrived  the  battery  was  in 
readiness,  while  the  enemy  across  the  river  were  ignorant  of  its 
existence.  During  the  night,  previous  to  the  crossing  of  the 
British,  the  trees  were  cut  down.  The  crossing  was  effected 
some  two  miles  below — the  militia  company  referred  to  being  with 
the  force.  The  guns  on  the  Canadian  side  opened  fire  to  the 
great  surprise  of  the  enemy,  while  Brock's  little  army  of  scarce 
700  men  quietly  breakfasted,  in  concealed  positions,  preparatory 
to  the  expected  assault  upon  the  fort  into  which  British  shot  and 
shell  were  now  being  poured  from  across  the  river. 

While  General  Hull  was  holding  a  council  of  war  to  decide  upon 
an  answer  to  General  Brock's  demand  for  the  surrender  of  the 
fort,  a  shell  from  the  battery  opposite  fell  into  the  fort  carrying 
death  to  several.  Four  officers  are  said  to  have  been  killed, 
Lieutenant  Hancks,  who  surrendered  Michilimackinac  to  Captain 
Roberts,  and  Surgeon  Reynolds  of  the  Ohio  volunteers,  among 
the  number.  These  were  the  only  persons  killed  during  the 
action.  This  brought  the  council  to  an  abrupt  close  and  the 
General  to  a  prompt  decision.  Some  accounts  are  silent  as  to 
any  deaths  resulting  from  the  shell  fire  and  state  that  Hull  con- 
sulted no  one  as  to  the  surrender.  A  flag  of  truce  was,  however, 
despatched,  proposing  a  cessation  of  hostilities  with  a  view  to  a 
capitulation,  which  was  speedily  arranged  by  Lieut. -Colonel 
Macdonell  and  Captain  Glegg,  General  Brock's  aides  for  the 
British — and  the  gallant  flank  companies  of  militia  in  homespun 
and  buckskin,  but  with  joyous  hearts  and  countenances,  entered 
the  fort  and  took  charge  of  the  prisoners. 

The  net  result  cannot  be  summed  up  more  succinctly  than  in 
the  words  of  Major-General  Brock's  despatch  of  the  same  day 
(i6th  August,  1812,)  to  Sir  George  Prevost  : 


56  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

"  I  hasten  to  apprise  your  Excellency  of  the  capture  of  this  very  important 
post.  Two  thousand  five  hundred  troops  have  this  day  surrendered,  prisoners 
of  war,  and  about  25  pieces  of  ordnance  have  been  taken  without  the 
sacrifice  of  a  drop  of  British  blood.  I  had  not  more  than  700  troops,  includ- 
ing- militia  and  about  400  Indians,  to  accomplish  this  service.  When  I  detail 
my  good  fortune  your  Excellency  will  be  astonished.  I  have  baen  admirably 
supported  by  Colonel  Proctor,  the  whole  of  my  staff,  and  I  may  justly  say 
every  individual  under  my  command." 

By  a  general  order  the  Major-General  also  acknowledged  the 
services  of  the  militia  officers  and  men,  his  staff  officers  and  the 
Indians, whose  conduct  was  most  exemplary,  in  the  following  terms: 

"  The  Major-General  cannot  forego  this  opportunity  of  expressing-  his 
admiration  at  the  conduct  of  the  several  companies  of  militia,  who  so  hand- 
somely volunteered  to  undergo  the  fatig-ues  of  a  journey  of  several  hundred 
miles  to  go  to  the  rescue  of  an  invaded  district  ;  and  he  requests  Major 
Salmon,  Captains  Heward,  Bostwick  and  Robinson,  will  assure  the  officers 
and  men  under  their  respective  command  that  their  services  have  been  duly 
appreciated  and  will  never  be  forgotten.  The  Major-General  is  happy  to 
acknowledge  the  able  assistance  he  has  derived  from  the  zeal  and  local 
information  of  Lieut. -Colonel  Nichol,  acting  quartermaster-general  to  the 
militia. 

To  tiis  personal  staff  the  Major-General  feels  himself  under  much  obligation, 
and  he  requests  Lieut. -Colonel  Macdonell,  Majors  Glegg  and  Givens  will  be 
assured  that  their  zealous  exertions  have  made  too  deep  an  impression  on  his 
mind  ever  to  be  forgotten. 

The  conduct  of  the  Indians  under  Colonel  Elliott,  Captain  McKee  and 
other  officers  of  that  department,  joined  to  that  of  the  gallant  and  brave 
chiefs  of  their  respective  tribes  has  since  the  commencement  of  the  war  been 
marked  with  acts  of  true  heroism,  and  in  nothing  can  they  testify  more 
strongly  their  love  to  the  King,  their  great  father,  than  in  following  the 
dictates  of  honour  and  humanity,  by  which  they  have  been  hitherto  actuated. 
Two  fortifications  have  already  been  captured  from  the  enemy  without  a  drop 
of  blood  being  shed  by  the  hands  of  the  Indians  ;  the  instant  the  enemy 
submitted  his  life  became  saved." 

By  order  of  the  General,  Captain  Bostwick  and  his  brother-in- 
law,  Lieutenant  Ryerson,  were  mounted  on  the  fleetest  horses  to 
be  had  from  those  captured,  and  set  out  with  despatches  to 
Colonel  Talbot  at  Port  Talbotand  to  General  Vincent  at  Burlington 
Heights.  One  of  them  travelled  two  days  and  two  nights,  the 
other  two  nights  and  three  days,  without  sleep,  to  accomplish  this 
as  promptly  as  possible. 


CHAPTER  X. 


PROCTOR'S    WESTERN   CAMPAIGN — BATTLES    OF    LAKE    ERIE    AND 
MORAVIANTOWN TECUMSEH'S  DEATH. 

COLONEL  PROCTOR  was  now  left  in  command  of  the  right  division 

and  had  charge  of  Detroit  and  Michigan.     On  the  22nd  January, 

1813,  he  met  and  defeated  General  Winchester,  then  advancing 

upon    Detroit,   at  the   River  Raisin,  and 

f^^,^  took  the  American  commander  and  some 

JU    Ik--*  ^ve  hundred  of  his  force  prisoners,  most 

Mvi  W  \  of  the  remainder  being  slain.      For  this 

decisive   victory    Proctor   was    advanced 
to  the  rank  of  brigadier-general. 

He,  however,  soon  found  his  position 
by  no  means  an  enviable  one,  occupying, 
as  he  did,  in  part  a  hostile  territory  with 
a  ridiculously  small  force.  He  decided — 
probably  with  wisdom — not  to  arm  the 
conquered  inhabitants,  and  was  con- 
stantly haunted  by  fears  of  the  defection, 
under  stress  of  want  of  supplies  and  want 
of  success,  of  his  Indian  allies.  Though 
bearing  testimony  to  their  courage  he 
distrusted  their  steadfastness  —  which, 
however,  so  far  as  Tecumseh  and  his  fol- 
lowers were  concerned,  he  was  soon  to  see 
vindicated. 

The  spring  and  summer  of  1813  were  spent  by  the  American 
General  Harrison  in  gathering  together  a  large  force  at  the 
Miami  River  and  by  General  Proctor  in  unavailing  requests  for 
reinforcements  and  supplies,  and  in  completing  a  ship,  which, 


s  of  Flagstaff  of  old 
Ft.  Maiden 


58  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

however,  he  had  no  sailors  to  man.  In  the  latter  part  of  April 
Proctor  crossed  the  lake  and  on  May  ist  began  an  attack  upon 
the  enemy's  entrenchments.  An  unsuccessful  sally  by  the  enemy 
on  the  5th  May  resulted  in  a  loss  to  General  Harrison  of  some 
1,200  men,  in  killed  and  prisoners.  As  usual  the  Indian  allies 
under  Tecumseh  contributed  largely  to  the  British  success.  Two 
further  attempts  to  dislodge  the  enemy  or  draw  him  into  battle 
were  made  in  July  and  August — the  latter  ending  in  a  precipitate 
retreat  of  Proctor  from  the  point  of  attack.  It  is  not  to  be 
wondered  at  that  he  achieved  no  greater  success  in  these  attempts, 
when  it  is  considered  that  Harrison  had  almost  as  many  thousands 
as  he  had  hundreds. 

Both  commanders  now  awaited  the  settlement  of  the  question 
of  the  naval  supremacy  on  Lake  Erie,  and  that  question  was 
settled  on  loth  September.  Despairing  of  the  arrival  of  expected 
blue  jackets,  Captain  Barclay  set  sail  with  his  fleet  of  six  sail  and 
63  guns  (with  but  60  experienced  men  out  of  the  whole  number  on 
board),  which  were  captured  and  in  part  destroyed  by  the  American 
fleet  of  nine  sail  and  59  guns,  under  Captain  Perry,  after  a  desperate 
battle  of  some  four  hours'  duration  near  Put-in-Bay.  A  change 
of  wind — an  important  matter  in  those  days — is  said  to  have 
changed  victory  into  defeat.  Captain  Barclay's  only  remaining 
arm — for  he  had  lost  the  other  at  the  battle  of  Trafalgar,  fighting 
under  Nelson — was  rendered  useless  and  he  himself  was  a  prisoner. 
Captain  Finnis,  the  officer  second  in  command,  was  killed. 
Indeed,  all  Barclay's  officers  and  three-fourths  of  his  men  were 
either  killed  or  wounded.  Sir  James  Yeo  afterwards  reported 
to  the  commander-in-chief,  "  His  Majesty's  squadron  was  deficient 
in  seamen  and  in  weight  of  metal  and  particularly  long  guns  ;  yet 
the  greater  misfortune  was  the  loss  of  every  officer,  particularly 
Captain  Finnis,  whose  life,  had  it  been  spared,  would,  in  my 
opinion,  have  saved  the  squadron." 

Retreat  up  the  Thames  was  now  decided  on  by  Proctor  as  his 
only  alternative — cut  off  as  he  would  now  speedily  be  from  all 
sources  of  supply  and  reinforcement.  Tecumseh  protested  in  a 
speech  of  much  power,  irony  and  pathos — for  the  great  Shawnee 
chief  was  an  orator  as  well  as  a  warrior.  A  large  boulder  from 


PROCTOR'S   WESTERN  CAMPAIGN. 


59 


which  he  was  wont,  it  is  said,  to  address  his  followers,  is  still 
pointed  out  in  the  grounds  of  Mr.  Simon  Fraser  in  Amherstburg. 
Captain  Glegg,  Brock's  aide,  wrote  of  Tecumseh  as  he  appeared 
when  the  latter  first  met  the  Chief. 

"  His  appearance  was  very  prepossessing-, 
his  figure  light  and  finely  formed,  his  age,  I 
imagine,  to  be  about  five  and  thirty  ;  in 
height,  five  feet  nine  or  ten  inches  ;  his  com- 
plexion, light  copper  ;  countenance  oval,  with 
bright  hazel  eyes,  beaming  with  cheerfulness, 
energy  and  decision.  Three  small  silver 
crowns  or  coronets  were  suspended  from  the 
lower  cartileg-e  of  his  aquiline  nose,  and  a 
large  silver  medallion  of  George  III.,  which 
I  believe  his  ancestor  had  received  from  Lord 
Dorchester,  was  attached  to  a  mixed  coloured 
wampum  string-,  and  hung  round  his  neck. 
His  dress  consisted  of  a  plain,  neat  uniform — 
trimmed  deerskin  jacket,  with  long  trousers 
of  the  same  material,  the  seams  of  both  being 

covered  with  neatly  cut  fringe.     He  had  on 

Tecumseh's  Stone 
his  feet  leather  moccasins,   ornamented  with 

work  made  from  dyed  quills  of  porcupine." 

Such  in  appearance  was  the  chieftain  who  now  pointed  his 
irony  at  Proctor  and  taunted  him  with  want  of  courage,  declaring 
his  own  wish  and  that  of  his  braves  to  be,  to  remain  and  fight  the 
enemy  should  he  appear,  when,  if  defeated,  he  would  then  join 
in  the  proposed  retreat. 

"Father!"  he  finally  cried,  "you  have  got  the  arms  and 
ammunition  which  our  great  father  sent  for  his  red  children.  If 
you  intend  to  retreat  give  them  to  us  and  you  may  go,  and 
welcome  for  us.  Our  lives  are  in  the  hands  of  the  great  Spirit. 
We  are  determined  to  defend  our  lands,  and  if  it  be  His  will,  we 
wish  to  leave  our  bones  upon  them."* 

There  was  not  much  in  this  to  indicate  that  the  friendship  of 
the  red  men  was  dependent  upon  success.  In  the  face  of  defeat 

*This  speech,  according  to  Major  Richardson,  who  was  then  with  Proctor's 
division,  was  delivered  in  the  council  room  where  officers  and  chiefs  were 
assembled. 


60  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

Tecumseh  wished  to  stay  and  fight  it  out.  Yet  the  noble  Shawnee 
chief  and  his  followers,  to  a  number  which  varying  reports  place 
at  from  500  to  1,200,  were  constrained  to  follow  and  cover  the 
retreat  of  their  "father,"  Proctor,  up  the  Thames. 

Notwithstanding-  Tecumseh's  vehement  protests,  there  is  no 
doubt  that  a  retreat  and  junction  with  the  centre  division  at 
Burlington  was  now  the  only  course  open  to  Proctor,  if  his  force 
was  not  to  be  annihilated.  The  fleet  was  in  the  enemy's  hands, 
his  supplies  scanty,  and  his  communications  threatened.  All  hope 
of  reinforcements  was  gone.  The  enemy's  superiority  in  numbers 
was  overwhelming.  General  de  Rottenburg,  on  whom  the  chief 
command  in  this  province  had  but  just  devolved,  had,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  at  last  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  right  and  centre 
divisions  should  be  brought  together. 

Colonel  Talbot  was  able  at  this  juncture  to  so  far  meet  the 
necessities  of  Proctor  as  to  provisions,  as  to  send  him  150  barrels 
of  flour,  which,  however,  arrived  safely  at  Amherstburg  only  the 
day  before  the  troops  were  moved  to  Sandwich.  Colonel  Talbot 
asked  in  return  for  boats  for  transport  service,  a  request  which 
subsequent  events  prevented  Proctor  complying  with.  In  the 
following  letter  to  Colonel  Talbot,  Proctor -outlined  his  position 
and  plans  for  the  retreat  and  gave  a  somewhat  pathetic  picture  of 
his  situation  and  the  disposition  of  his  family  : 

SANDWICH,  September  23,  1813. 
MY  DEAR  COLONEL  : 

I  have  to  thank  you  for  your  letter  by  Captain  Blackhouse*.  As  our  ill- 
fated  fleet  has  certainly  been  all  taken  or  destroyed,  it  would  be  almost 
certain  loss  of  any  boats  to  send  them  to  you  by  the  lakes  ;  though  the  150 
barrels  of  flour  you  sent  by  Mr.  Smith  have  fortunately  arrived  safe  at 
Amherstburg.  It  boats  can  be  sent  you  from  the  Thames  it  shall  be  done.  I 
hope  Sir  James  Yeo  may  be  able  to  effect  something  to  counterbalance  our 
disaster  on  this  lake.  He  was  at  anchor  on  the  i6th  inst.  in  the  Bay  of 
Quinte.  He  was  to  sail  next  morning  to  meet  the  enemy.  You  are  aware 
that  I  cannot  remain  in  my  present  position  without  the  risk  of  being  cut  off 
from  supplies.  I  have  with  much  difficulty  brought  the  principal  part  of  the 
Indians  to  reason.  I  have  much  to  say  to  you,  but  I  am  much  pressed  for 
time,  and  Captain  Blackhouse  is  very  desirous  of  being  off.  The  state  of  the 
roads  and  bridges  are  a  primary  consideration  at  present,  especially  those 

*No  doubt  Backhouse  of  Long  Point  settlement  was  here  referred  to. 


PROCTOR'S  WESTERN   CAMPAIGN.  61 

through  the  wilderness.  I  conceive  that  a  couple  of  good  huts,  two  rooms  in 
each,  should  be  constructed  in  the  wilderness,  also  cover  for  a  few  horses  at 
the  14-mile  trees,  where  there  is  a  creek  of  tolerable  good  water.  If  you  will 
cause  it  to  be  done  I  shall  sanction  the  expense,  and  the  public  and  I  will  be 
much  obliged  to  you.  Many  would  be  glad  of  such  a  situation  to  keep  a 
house  of  accommodation.  The  bridges  are  bad,  some  of  them  on  this  side  of 
the  wilderness,  and  also  between  Delaware  and  Dorchester.  Our  principal 
depot  of  wheat  should  be,  I  conceive,  at  Delaware.  I  shall  direct  accord- 
ingly, if  you  see  no  reason  to  the  contrary.  Pray,  let  me  often  hear  from 
you.  I  shall  feel  obliged  to  you  for  any  suggestions  you  may  favour  me  with 
for  the  forwarding  the  service  or  the  public  good.  My  sick  are  on  the 
Thames,  as  are  my  women.  I  have  also  removed  the  little  heavy  ordnance  I 
have  left.  It  was  taken  on  board  the  unfortunate  Detroit.  Poor  Barclay  ! 
I  have  sent  Mrs.  Proctor  off  and  fear  she  will  have  much  to  encounter.  My 
eldest  daughter  was  ill,  and  but  little  recovered  when  she  set  off,  three  days 
since.  What  a  sudden,  what  a  complete  reverse  !  If  poor  Barclay  and  I  had 
been  attended  to,  our  reverse  would  not  have  happened.  Believe  me,  with 
much  esteem  and  regard.  Faithfully  yours, 

HENRY  PROCTOR. 

The  request  made  for  two-roomed  huts  at  the  wilderness  and 
the  suggestion  as  to  a  wheat  depot  at  Delaware  seem  to  indicate 
that  Proctor  intended  making  a  stand  of  some  duration  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Moraviantown. 

The  events  which  succeeded  Proctor's  determination  to  retreat 
can  be  best  understood  by  reference  to  the  accounts  given  by 
himself  in  his  detailed  reports  made  afterwards. 

On  the  24th  September  he  concentrated  his  forces  at  Sandwich, 
having  previously  sent  off  to  the  Thames  his  remaining  ordnance 
and  stores  of  every  description  for  which  transport  could  be  found 
and  destroyed  the  small  portion  that  remained,  as  well  as  the 
public  buildings,  etc.,  etc.,  at  Amherstburg.  On  the  26th  the 
enemy  appeared  in  the  offing,  sounding  in  every  direction,  and  on 
the  2yth*  landed  nine  miles  below  Amherstburg  in  considerable 
force.  On  the  same  evening  the  public  buildings  at  Detroit  were 

*Mr.  C.  C.  James,  Deputy-Minister  of  Agriculture,  in  an  interesting 
pamphlet  cites  dispatches  of  Harrison  and  Perry  as  proving  that  the  U.  S. 
army  marched  into  Amherstburg  between  4  and  5  o'clock  p.  m.  on  23rd  Sep- 
ten.Ler.  Dates  in  text  are  as  given  by  Proctor  subsequent ly.  Mr.  James 
also  presents  data  to  show  that  the  fort  was  first  named  Fort  Amherstburg 
and  the  town  and  township  Maiden,  and  not  until  after  1826  were  the  names 
of  fort  and  town  interchanged. 


62  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

destroyed  and  Proctor  commenced  his  retreat  and  by  easy  marches 
arrived  on  the  2gth  at  the  river  Thames.  A  considerable  number 
of  Indians  remained  behind,  but  not,  Proctor  thought,  from  want 
of  attachment  to  the  British.  He  had  abandoned  all  idea  of 
occupying"  the  narrows  of  the  St.  Clair  River  to  prevent  the 
enemy's  vessels  passing  into  Lake  Huron.  He  at  first  determined 
to  make  a  stand  at  Dover,  where  he  had  had  ovens  constructed, 
three  miles  below  the  forks  at  Chatham — a  measure  necessary  to 
protect  the  craft  laden  with  stores  which  had  ascended  the  river 
as  far  as  navigation  allowed.  While  he  was  reconnoitering  in  the 
rear,  the  troops  were  moved  to  the  forks.  This  was  apparently 
contrary  to  the  wishes  of  both  the  General  and  the  Indians — one 
of  the  unfortunate  consequences  of  the  former's  continued 
absences,  reconnoitering  the  country  beyond.  The  Indians  there- 
upon, in  the  absence  a  second  time  of  the  General  on  an  inspection 
ot  the  country  in  the  rear,  retreated  to  Moraviantown,  while  the 
troops  under  Lieut.-Colonel  Warburton  the  General  found  on  his 
return  already  retiring  to  the  same  point,  with  vessels  and  stores 
left  behind,  which  had  therefore  to  be  destroyed.  One  of  these 
vessels  has  been  recently  raised  after  having  lain  nearly  90  years 
under  water.  In  the  attempt  to  save  provisions  and  ammunition 
the  force  became  encumbered  with  boats  not  suited  to  the  state  of 
navigation.  The  Indians  and  troops  retreated  on  different  sides 
of  the  river,  and  the  boats,  to  which  sufficient  attention  had  not 
been  given,  became  particularly  exposed  to  the  fire  of  the  enemy, 
who  were  advancing  on  the  side  on  which  the  Indians  were 
retiring,  and  most  unfortunately  fell  into  the  possession  of  the 
enemy,  and  with  them  several  of  the  men,  provisions,  and  all  the 
ammunition  that  had  been  issued  to  the  troops  and  Indians.  This 
disastrous  circumstance  afforded  the  enemy  the  means  of  crossing 
and  advancing  on  both  sides  of  the  river.  The  want  of  ammuni- 
tion was  unknown  to  the  men  and  to  but  few  of  the  officers. 

Finding  the  enemy  approached  too  near  the  General  determined, 
he  said,  to  meet  and  give  him  battle  in  a  wood  below  the 
Moraviantown,  as  he  (the  enemy)  was  in  considerable  force,  and 
particularly  strong  in  mounted  infantry  and  cavalry.  The  posi- 
tion Proctor  had  taken  he  also  conceived  to  be  favourable,  as  it 


BATTLE  OF  MORAVIANTOWN.  63 

reduced  the  enemy  to  a  small  front,  while  it  secured  his  own 
flanks,  his  right  being  on  an  impenetrable  swamp  and  his  left  on 
the  river.  The  4ist  regiment  occupied  the  space  between  the 
river  and  the  Indians,  who  were  on  the  right  with  their  right 
thrown  up.  The  troops  had  a  reserve  and  marksmen  near  the 
six-pounder  on  the  road,  for  its  further  security.  It  was  under 
the  direction  of  Lieutenant  Gardner  of  the  4ist,  who  on  a  former 
occasion  had  been  found  very  useful  when  attached  to  the 
artillery.  The  gun,  when  taken,  was  "  loaded  with  canister  and 
a  sphente  case  shot,  laid  and  the  port  fire  light  " — the  gun  did  not 
fire  a  shot.  A  plan  of  co-operation  was  cordially  established  with 
the  Indians,  who  were  to  turn  the  left  of  the  enemy  and  executed 
their  part  faithfully  and  courageously.  "  If  the  troops  had 
acted,"  wrote  the  General,  "  as  I  have  ever  seen  them,  and  as  I 
confidently  expected,  I  am  still  of  opinion,  notwithstanding  their 
numerical  superiority,  the  enemy  would  have  been  beaten.  All 
ranks  of  officers  exerted  themselves  to  rally  the  men — though 
ineffectually.  Though  retreating  was  furthest  from  my  thoughts,  I 
had  caused  as  far  as  time  and  circumstances  would  admit  every 
impediment  to  a  retreat  to  be  removed  and  had  also  placed  the 
field  ordnance  under  the  orders  of  Lieutenant  Thornton  of  the 
Royal  Artillery,  so  as  to  defend  an  important  point  by  which  the 
Indians  had  retreated  to  us  and  also  to  cover  the  retreat  of  the 
troops,  whilst  order  was  retained  by  them.  The  Indians,  after 
the  troops  were  broken,  retired  through  the  woods,  and  brought 
with  them  those  who  escaped  in  that  direction.  On  the  evening 
of  the  5th  of  October,  provision  was  made  for  the  feeding  of  the 
Indians  and  troops  who  should  arrive  at  Delaware  ;  the  com- 
missariat were  also  stationed  on  the  route  to  Ancaster  for  the  same 
purpose,  as  well  as  parties  of  dragoons  to  aid  and  assist  those 
who  had  effected  their  retreat.  I  proceeded  to  the  Grand  River, 
and  endeavoured  to  prevent  individuals  proceeding  who  might 
create  false  alarms,  and  immediately  communicated  with  the 
officers  in  command  at  Long  Point,  Burlington  and  General 
Vincent  commanding  the  centre  division." 

The  foregoing  account,   which  is  in  the  main  that  of  Proctor 
himself,  was  not  supported  by  the  statements  of  his   officers  nor 


64  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

that  of  Major  Richardson,  then  a  young  volunteer  accompanying 
the  force,  in  his  history.  It  was  charged  that  the  General  left  the 
officer  second  in  command  (Warburton)  of  the  troops  in  the  dark 
as  to  his  intentions  and  without  proper  orders,  the  enemy  being 
close  at  hand,  while  he  went  on  long  distances  in  advance — some 
26  miles  towards  the  last — and  that  so  great  was  the  dissatisfac- 
tion at  Proctor's  conduct  in  this  regard  that  a  council  of  war  to 
deprive  him  of  his  command  was  talked  of  and  Lieut. -Colonel 
Warburton  was  censured  for  not  assuming  the  command  ;  that 
his  account  of  the  action  itself  was  incorrect  in  several  respects  ; 
that  his  object  in  selecting  the  battle  ground  in  the  wood  was  to 
cover  the  departure  of  his  family  and  personal  effects  from 
Moraviantown  ;  that  the  infantry  made  as  determined  a  stand  as 
was  possible  under  the  circumstances  and  considering  their  lack 
of  ammunition  ;  that  there  was  not  a  single  round  of  ammunition 
for  the  gun  and  that  the  other  guns  were  misplaced — and  finally 
that  the  General  having  taken  his  position  in  rear  of  the  second 
line,  mounted  and  fled  as  soon  as  the  first  line  retreated  and  the 
second  opened  fire,  accompanied  by  his  staff. 

It  is  claimed  by  some  that  Proctor  began  his  flight  in  a  carriage 
which  he  was  forced  to  abandon,  and  that  his  carriage,  together 
with  a  hat,  a  sword,  and  Mrs.  Proctor's  letters  to  him,  fell  into 
the  hands  of  an  American  officer  named  Sholes,  who  drove  back 
to  Detroit  in  the  carriage.  It  is  possible  that  this  carriage  had 
conveyed  the  members  of  his  family  as  far  as  Moraviantown,  but 
was  abandoned  before  the  wilderness  beyond  was  entered. 

In  spite  of  Proctor's  efforts  to  prevent  the  spread  of  unofficial 
accounts  of  the  disaster,  Staff  Adjutant  Reifenstein,  in  defiance  of 
his  orders,  proceeded  forthwith  to  York,  where  he  regaled  a  large 
dinner  party  with  an  account  of  the  affair,  and  proceeded  eastward 
spreading  reports  disparaging  to  his  general. 

According  to  General  Harrison's  report  he  had  above  3,000  men 
at  his  disposal  in  the  battle — of  whom  seven  were  killed  and  22 
wounded,  five  of  the  latter  dying  subsequently  of  their  wounds. 
According  to  Lieut.  Bullock  of  the  4tst,  the  senior  and  only 
officer  of  the  regiment  who  escaped,  the  British  force  consisted  of 
the  ist  battalion  of  that  regiment,  367  of  all  ranks,  18  or  20  men 


TECUMSEH'S    DEATH.  65 

of  the  loth  Veterans,  some  artillery  and  800  Indians — about  1,200 
in  all.  Of  the  troops  12  were  killed,  36  wounded  and  the  greater 
number  of  the  remainder  taken  prisoners.  Of  the  Indians  33 
were  slain,  including"  the  gallant  Tecumseh — distinguished  alike 
for  his  bravery  and  humanity,  his  eloquence,  and  his  influence  over 
the  Indian  tribes.  The  story  of  his  secret  burial  place  has  found 
wide  credence  since,  but  there  is  but  too  much  reason  to  believe 
that  the  story  of  the  mutilation  of  his  remains  by  the  Kentuckian 
militia  after  the  battle — in  a  most  inhuman  way— is  in  accordance 
with  the  facts. 

General  de  Rottenburg  considered  Proctor's  first  report 
"  unsatisfactory  and  subject  to  further  explanations."  Sir  George 
Prevost,  whose  dilatory  methods  and  neglect  of  Proctor's  demands 
for  relief  led  to  the  series  of  disasters  of  which  this  was  the 
culmination,  issued  a  general  order  of  unparalelled  severity 
regarding  the  unfortunate  General,  and  a  court  martial  was  after- 
wards held,  by  which  Proctor  was  adjudged  to  be  publicly 
reprimanded  and  suspended  from  rank  and  pay  for  six  months. 
All  the  findings  of  the  court  martial  were  subsequently  set  aside 
by  the  Prince  Regent,  except  that  as  to  the  ground  chosen  to 
meet  the  enemy,  which  the  highest  military  authority  decided 
should  have  been  the  heights  above  the  Moravian  village  to 
which  the  ordnance,  with  the  exception  of  the  six-pounder,  had 
been  removed.  The  sentence  was  changed  to  one  of  reprimand 
only. 

Tecumseh,  whose  death  Proctor  reported  "  with  deep  concern  " 
is  the  one  name  which  shines  out  brightly  from  this  gloomy  page. 
He  did  his  part  and  fell  in  the  doing  of  it.  Who  can  say  that  the 
General  did  not  live  to  envy  him  his  fate  ?  The  one  died  and  his 
remains  disappeared  from  mortal  eyes  forever — and  yet  even  the 
manner  of  his  death  added  to  that  fame,  which  has  endured  and 
will  endure  for  generations.  The  other  lived  and  suffered 
anguish — one  cannot  read  his  pleading,  though  not  unmanly 
words,  without  believing — more  poignant  perhaps  to  him  than 
death.  The  one  received  laudations  and  his  son  a  sword  from  the 
Prince  Regent— the  other  a  reprimand  from  the  same  authority, 
which  posterity  has  since  approved. 


CHAPTER    XI. 

THE  ROLPHS'  HOSPITALITY — MILITIA  SERVICES  AND  PAY — 
COMMISSARIAT  TROUBLES. 

WHAT,  it  may  be  asked,  was  Colonel  Talbot  about,  while  the 
memorable  events  narrated  in  the  two  previous  chapters  were 
transpiring  all  around  the  confines  of  his  settlement  ? 

It  will  be  remembered  that  he  was  appointed  to  command  the 
militia  of  the  London  district.  He  at  once  on  receiving  the  com- 
mission set  about  his  duties.  He  was  in  the  Long  Point  country 
when  Brock's  force  left  for  Amherstburg  in  the  summer  of  1812. 
We  have  seen  that  boats  were  not  available  to  transport  more 
than  one-half  the  men  who  had  been  collected  at  Port  Dover,  and 
that  Colonel  Talbot  and  Captain  Chambers  of  the  4ist  caught  up 
to  the  main  body  at  Port  Talbot  on  August  loth. 

Dr.  Thomas  Rolph's,  where  Chambers  had  been  detained  by 
illness,  was  in  those  days  an  attractive  household  for  young 
bachelors.  Mrs.  Amelia  Harris,  in  her  memoirs,  indeed  suggests 
that  the  pleasure  of  an  extra  day  and  dinner  there,  in  company 
with  the  pretty  widow  of  an  officer  of  rank,  whom  Captain 
Barclay  had  gallantly  escorted  in  his  ship  from  Amherstburg,  on 
her  way  to  York,  was  too  great  for  even  that  gallant  officer  to 
withstand,  and  that  he  thus  afforded  the  Americans  the  needed 
opportunity  to  get  their  new  fleet  out  of  Erie  harbour — and  that 
thus  the  whole  of  the  disasters  of  the  upper  part  of  the  province 
lay  at  his  door.  In  short,  the  daughters  of  the  Rolph  household 
were  accomplished  and  attractive  young  ladies.  Colonel  Talbot's 
brother  William,  who  was  visiting  Port  Talbot  in  1811,  was 
credited  at  Government  House,  in  York,  with  aspiring  for  the 
hand  of  one  of  them.  "  Should  your  brother,"  wrote  Major 
Halton  to  the  Colonel  in  March  of  that  year,  "marry  into  the 


MILITIA   SERVICES.  67 

honourable  family  of  the  Rolphs  " — the  newly  appointed  surrogate 
would,  he  intimated,  be  displaced  to  make  room  for  him,  if 
Colonel  Talbot  so  desired.  John  Rolph,  the  son  of  Dr.  Thomas 
Rolph,  became  a  closer  neighbour  to  Colonel  Talbot  subsequently, 
as  we  shall  see,  but  never  became  allied  to  him  by  marriage. 

Colonel  Talbot's  home  at  Port  Talbot  was  the  half-way  house 
between  the  Niagara  and  Long  Point  settlements  in  the  east,  and 
Amherstburg  and  Sandwich  in  the  west — for  those  travelling  by 
the  lake  especially — and  to  some  extent  a  base  of  supplies  for  the 
latter  posts.  As  may  be  supposed  supplies  were  not  too  plentiful 
in  the  new  and  sparsely  settled  community.  The  settlers  were 
still  battling  with  the  forest,  and  when  the  men  turned  out  for 
military  service,  the  women  had  to  "  keep  the  wolf  from  the  door," 
not  only,  metaphorically  speaking,  by  keeping  their  families  fed 
and  clothed,  but  literally  also,  by  protecting  them  as  well  as  their 
flocks  and  herds  from  the  hungry  denizens  of  the  forest. 

"  The  inhabitants  are  now  in  the  midst  of  their  planting,  and  it 
will  be  like  drawing  their  eye  teeth  to  call  them  out  until  they 
have  done  it,"  wrote  Colonel  Burwell  to  Colonel  Talbot  on  May 
2ist,  1813. 

Major-General  Brock,  ever  anxious  to  study  the  comfort  and 
convenience  of  the  militia  and  impressed  by  the  conduct  of  the 
detachments  which  accompanied  him  to  Detroit,  had  taken 
advantage  of  the  cessation  of  hostilities  in  August,  1812,  to  issue 
an  order  permitting  four-fifths  of  the  whole  of  the  flank  companies 
to  return  home.  A  general  inspection  was,  however,  ordered  in 
the  different  districts  and  commanding  officers  were  to  call  out  the 
men  of  their  regiments  or  companies  for  drill  once  a  week.  The 
oath  of  allegiance  was  to  be  administered  and  lists  of  persons  • 
refusing  to  take  the  oath  kept. 

The  men  thus  relieved  from  duty  had  but  a  short  respite.  Of 
the  Norfolk  militia,  indeed,  almost  the  same  number  remained 
out  until  the  latter  part  of  September  as  were  on  duty  in  July  and 
August.  In  Middlesex  comparatively  few  turned  out  until  after 
the  invasion  of  the  Niagara  frontier  and  the  death  of  Brock,  when 
by  order  of  i6th  October  of  Major-General  Sheaffe  two-thirds  of 
the  whole  establishment  of  the  ist  and  2nd  Norfolk  were  directed 


68  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

to  repair,  with  the  greatest  possible  dispatch,  to  Chippawa,  and 
the  same  proportions  of  the  Oxford  and  Middlesex  regiments  to 
Queenston.  This  disposition  of  the  forces  was,  however,  changed 
on  the  igth  to  a  distribution  of  the  regiments  named  between 
Long  Point  and  Point  Abino.  Strong  detachments  were  to  be 
stationed  at  or  near  Long  Point,  Dover  Mills,  Grand  River, 
Sugar  Loaf,  with  a  small  party  distributed  between  the  latter 
place  and  Fort  Erie,  with  headquarters  at  the  most  convenient 
point  for  communication  with  Long  Point. 

The  largest  number  of  non-commissioned  officers  and  privates 
on  duty  at  any  one  time  in  1812  was  of  the  ist  Norfolk  74,  of  the 
2nd  Norfolk  80,  during  parts  of  July  and  August — when  about 
100  from  the  district  accompanied  Brock  to  Detroit,  as  many 
more,  however,  being  available — while  of  the  Middlesex  men, 
who  were  in  a  newer  and  at  that  time  more  sparsely  settled 
region,  few  turned  out  until  October,  when  84  served  from  the 
25th  of  that  month  till  24th  November,  and  64  for  two  months 
longer.  The  service  rolls  show  that  more  than  double  the  number 
who  served,  of  Norfolk  militia,  in  1812,  turned  out  in  the  autumn 
of '13,  while  the  largest  number  of  Middlesex  men  out  was  from 
22nd  May  to  24th  July  of  1814,  when  172  responded.  These 
numbers  look  small,  but  cannot  be  so  regarded  when  the  state  of 
the  settlements  and  their  meagre  population  is  considered. 

The  proportion  of  officers  to  men  on  the  pay  lists  during  a  good 
portion  of  the  war  seems  a  little  high,  especially  in  Middlesex, 
and  it  may  be  surmised  that  officers'  pay  formed  an  inducement  to 
turn  out,  while  the  pittance  of  the  private  militiamen  required  the 
patriotic  zeal  inspired  by  the  near  approach  of  the  enemy  to  cause 
them  to  make  the  sacrifice,  in  the  absence  of  compulsion — which 
had  never  to  be  resorted  to.  Colonel  Talbot  no  doubt  exercised 
a  wise,  if  possibly  somewhat  paternal,  discretion  in  placing  officers 
on  duty  from  time  to  time — and  was  taken  to  task  in  true  military 
fashion  therefor  by  Major-General  Sheaffe. 

"  Lieutenant-Colonel  Burwell  I  ordered  on  duty,"  Colonel 
Talbot  replied  to  the  complaint  in  December,  1812,  "in  con- 
sequence of  necessary  information  of  parties  from  General  Hull's 
army  having  penetrated  into  the  province " — Simon  Zelotes 


COMMISSARIAT    TROUBLES.  69 

Watson's  force  no  doubt — "  to  within  a  few  miles  of  Port  Talbot, 
being  myself  on  duty  at  Long  Point  and  Fort  George,  with 
General  Brock,  to  whom  I  reported  the  particulars.  Lieut. - 
Colonel  Bostwick  was  put  on  duty  by  a  verbal  order  to  me  from 
Major-General  Brock  on  the  day  of  his  sailing  with  the  expedition 
from  this  place  for  Detroit,  and  the  last  time  I  had  the  pleasure  of 
seeing  that  lamented  General  he  expressed  to  me  his  desire  that 
Lieut. -Colonel  Bostwick  should  be  continued  on  duty.  Major 
Salmon  was  likewise  placed  on  duty  by  Major-General  Brock  and 
was  ordered  to  proceed  down  the  river  Thames  under  Captain 
Chambers  of  the  4ist,  and  afterwards  served  in  the  expedition 
against  Detroit.  Major  Bowen,  from  being  an  exceedingly  good 
drill  officer,  was  ordered  to  be  stationed  at  Turkey  Point  for  the 
purpose  of  instructing  the  quotas  of  militia  that  were  assembled 
at  that  station,  and  I  can  with  great  justice  assure  you  that  Major 
Bowen  has  been  indefatigable  in  his  attention  and  exertions  to 
form  the  militia  for  service.  Adjutant  Eakins  was  also  put  on 
duty  by  Major-General  Brock.  Should  those  deserving  officers  be 
refused  pay  after  devoting  their  time  to  the  good  of  the  province, 
much  to  the  prejudice  of  their  private  affairs  and  exposed  to  con- 
siderable expense,  I  am  confident  it  would  have  a  very  unfavour- 
able tendency  in  lessening  the  unquestionable  loyalty  and  ardour 
at  the  present  manifested  and  destroy  all  faith  and  confidence  in 
the  government  for  the  future." 

The  pay  was  allowed,  though  not  without  the  intervention  of 
the  indefatigable  and  bustling  little  Quartermaster-General 
Nichol — himself  Colonel  of  the  2nd  Norfolk  militia — who  burst  out 
in  an  indignant  postscript,  "  I  have  got  the  General  to  pass  your 
estimates — Couche  should  be  hanged  " — this  last  in  reference  to 
the  Deputy  Commissary-General,  who  had  in  the  previous  July 
adopted  a  paper  currency  for  the  militia. 

It  may  be  added  that  regard  for  red  tape,  or  zeal  for  the  public 
service — according  as  it  may  be  viewed — caused  further  friction 
not  only  with  regard  to  militia  pay,  but  also  with  regard  to  pay- 
ment for  provisions  and  forage  supplied  by  settlers  throughout  the 
London  district,  for  military  purposes.  Deputy  Commissary- 
General  Turquand,  after  consultation  with  Colonel  Nichol,  had 


70  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

fixed  the  same  prices  which  ruled  in  the  Niagara  district — fourteen 
dollars  per  barrel  for  flour,  among  other  articles — but  a  change  of 
subordinate  officers  led  to  a  refusal  to  pay  the  prices  previously 
fixed,  and  great  dissatisfaction  resulted.  Indeed  so  late  as 
March,  1814,  General  Drummond  stated  that  in  a  visit  to  the 
West  he  was  met  in  almost  every  house  with  claims  for  cattle  and 
provisions,  taken  or  destroyed  by  the  troops  and  Indians  in  the 
retreat  from  Detroit,  as  well  as  for  provisions  furnished,  in  the 
neighbourhoods  of  Long  Point  and  Port  Talbot — on  the  authority 
of  General  Brock  andColonel  Talbot,  still  unpaid  for — the  cause  of 
the  greatest  discontent.  It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  he 
found  a  scarcity  of  flour  at  Burlington  in  the  commissariat 
magazine  at  that  date — a  lack  for  which  he  unsparingly  con- 
demned the  commissariat  officer  at  that  point. 

Doubtless  the  150  barrels  of  flour  supplied  by  Colonel  Talbot 
for  General  Proctor  on  the  eve  of  his  retreat  formed  the  basis  of 
some  of  the  complaints  alluded  to.  Much,  if  not  all,  of  this  flour 
must  have  either  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  Americans  or  have 
been  sunk  with  those  of  Proctor's  boats  which  went  down  in  the 
Thames.  Yet  Colonel  Talbot  and  his  settlers  were  not  to  blame 
for  this,  and  two  thousand  dollars  or  more,  the  value  of  this  flour 
at  the  prices  fixed,  was  a  large  sum  for  them  to  stand  out  of  at 
that  dav. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

MILITIA  EXPLOITS — RAIDS   ON   PORT   TALBOT — MILLS    BURNED — 
WESTBROOK  AT  OXFORD. 

THE  early  settlers'  services  to  the  country,  during  the  years  of  the 
war  subsequent  to  1812,  were  not  by  any  means  confined  to 
drawing  pay — or  trying  to  draw  it — and  furnishing  supplies  for 
which  they  looked  in  vain  for  payment.  Many  and  varied  were 
their  exploits  in  the  field  and  experiences  at  home,  a  few  of  the 
more  notable  of  which  may  be  referred  to. 

Lieutenant  Titus  Williams  of  the  2nd  Norfolks,  a  son  of  the 
veteran  Captain  Jonathan  Williams  of  Woodhouse,  has  been 
mentioned  as  one  of  those  who  was  of  Brock's  force  at  Detroit  in 
1813.  He  accompanied  Hull's  army,  after  they  became  prisoners 
of  war,  from  Detroit  to  Fort  George.  He  subsequently  served 
with  distinction  on  the  Grand  River  and  Niagara  frontier,  and 
surprised  and  took  as  prisoners  thirty  Americans  under  Captain 
King  between  Fort  Erie  and  Chippawa,  but  on  June  iyth,  1813, 
when  endeavouring  to  secure  some  buried  arms  and  ammunition 
at  Sugar  Loaf  hill,  he  with  nine  privates  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
enemy.  He  suffered  many  vicissitudes  while  a  prisoner  on  the 
other  side  of  the  line.  He  is  said  to  have  resented  the  treatment 
of  himself  and  other  prisoners  by  seizing  an  axe  and  chopping 
down  a  Liberty  pole,  which  did  not  increase  his  chances  of  liberty, 
which  nevertheless  he  subsequently  regained,  though  not  before 
he  and  other  prisoners  had  been  threatened  with  death  at  the 
hands  of  the  Americans  in  reprisal  for  an  alleged  grievance  of 
theirs  against  the  British.  Williams  subsequently  served  as 
adjutant  at  Turkey  Point  and  rose  to  the  rank  of  lieutenant- 
colonel. 

In  December  of  the  same  year  Lieutenant  Medcalf  of  the  same 


72  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

regiment  undertook,  with  more  fortunate  results,  a  hazardous 
enterprise,  which  showed  the  determination  and  courage  of  the 
pioneer  militia.  Pursuant  to  orders  he  set  out  with  a  party  con- 
sisting of  twelve  volunteers  from  Port  Dover,  and  a  sergeant  and 
six  men  of  Captain  Coleman's  provincial  dragoons,  for  the  West, 
to  secure  some  cattle  reported  to  be  at  the  Rondeau.  At  or  near 
Port  Talbot  he  was  joined  by  Lieutenant  Rice  and  Ensign  Wilson 
and  seven  volunteers  from  the  Middlesex  militia,  among  whom 
were  McQueen  and  Nevills  (both  afterwards  militia  majors).  At 
Rondeau  Medcalf  heard  of  a  party  of  the  enemy,  consisting  of 
three  officers  and  thirty-six  men  of  the  U.  S.  infantry  posted  at 
McCrea's,  about  15  miles  from  the  mouth  of  the  Thames,  who 
were  engaged  in  collecting  the  resources  of  that  part  of  the 
country  and  compelling  the  inhabitants  to  take  the  oath  of 
neutrality.  He  at  once  determined  on  attacking  this  party. 
Having  been  joined  by  Lieutenant  McGregor  and  seven  men,  he 
advanced  in  the  night  with  all  possible  expedition  and  arrived  at 
the  place  about  an  hour  before  day,  some  of  the  party  in  so 
exhausted  a  condition  from  the  long  and  rapid  march  as  to  be 
unable  to  stand.  Nevertheless  the  house  was  at  once  surrounded 
and  an  attack  opened  upon  it,  resulting  in  the  wounding  of  five  of 
the  enemy  and,  after  a  feeble  resistance,  the  capture  of  the  entire 
party,  which  numbered  more  than  Medcalfs  force.  Lieutenants 
McGregor  and  Rice,  Ensign  Wilson,  Sergeant  Douglas  of  the 
dragoons  and  Roderick  Drake  shared  the  honours  of  their  leader, 
whose  zeal  and  discretion  were  soon  after  rewarded  by  his  promo- 
tion to  a  captaincy  by  General  Sir  Gordon  Drummond. 

Less  fortunate,  because  more  ill-judged,  was  the  attempt  of 
Captain  Basden  of  the  8gth  regiment  of  regulars  to  dislodge 
Captain  Holmes  of  the  24th  regiment  of  U.  S.  infantry,  who  with 
1 60  rangers  and  mounted  infantry  (according  to  his  own  account, 
though  estimated  at  500  by  the  British,)  had  penetrated  as  far  east 
as  the  Longwoods.  On  the  approach  of  Captain  Basden  and  his 
force  of  about  240 — composed  of  the  light  companies  of  the  Royal 
Scots  and  of  the  8gth,  and  a  detachment  of  loyal  Kent  volunteers 
and  about  50  Indians — Holmes  retreated  to  the  Twenty-mile 
Creek,  some  distance  below  Delaware.  Here  he  protected  himself 


RAIDS   ON    PORT  TALBOT.  73 

with  an  abattis  on  three  sides,  on  the  bank  of  the  ravine,  and  on 
the  4th  March,  1814,  at  about  five  o'clock  in  the  afternoon, 
received  the  frontal  attack  of  Basden  and  his  regulars  with  a 
succession  of  volleys  which  forced  the  British,  who  had  charged 
with  great  gallantry  across  the  ravine  and  up  an  ascent  covered 
with  deep  crusted  snow,  down  again,  toboggan  fashion,  over  the 
frozen  surface,  after  an  hour  and  a  halPs  struggle.  Basden  had 
detached  the  militia  and  Indians  to  the  right  and  left,  to  turn  the 
enemy's  flanks,  but  had  disregarded  the  offers  of  men  acquainted 
with  the  locality  to  lead  him  by  a  circuit  to  the  enemy's  rear,  and 
had  neglected  to  occupy  a  height  of  land  opposite,  which  would 
have  commanded  the  American  enclosure.  For  his  error  of  judg- 
ment his  force  suffered  a  loss  of  two  officers  (Captain  Johnston, 
Royal  Scots,  and  Lieutenant  Grame,  Sgth,)  and  twelve  rank  and 
file  killed,  and  two  officers — one  of  whom  was  Basden  himself — 
five  sergeants  and  43  men  wounded,  one  volunteer  wounded  and 
a  bugler  missing — a  total  casualty  list  of  66.  Of  the  wounded, 
five  or  six  of  whom  died  within  a  few  days,  Lieutenant  McGregor, 
one  sergeant  and  five  men  were  of  the  Kent  volunteers.  Holmes 
at  once  retreated  to  Detroit,  and  the  British  post  then  established 
at  Delaware,  was  moved  east  to  Oxford  (Ingersoll),  the  volunteers 
halting,  however,  at  Putnam's. 

The  American  force,  under  Holmes,  had  come  over  with  the 
intention  of  proceeding,  it  was  supposed,  to  Port  Talbot.  They 
had  destroyed  the  settlement  at  Point  au  Pins,  and,  having  left  at 
Rondeau  three  field  pieces  they  had  brought  with  them,  made  a 
diversion  to  the  Thames  settlement,  with  the  result  already  stated. 
Two  guns  were  afterwards  discovered  in  the  woods  near  Point  au 
Pins  by  a  Mr.  Bell  and  two  other  men,  who  had  escaped  from 
Fort  Maiden,  on  their  way  to  Port  Talbot.  They  hid  them  care- 
fully. Two  gun  carriages  and  two  ammunition  carts,  discovered 
at  the  same  time  and  place,  Colonel  Talbot  sent  a  party  to 
destroy. 

Port  Talbot  and  its  mill  formed  the  objective  point  for  a  number 
of  the  enemy's  expeditions,  several  times  under  the  guidance  of 
Andrew  Westbrook,  already  mentioned.  One  of  these  parties 
had  appeared  on  3ist  January,  1814,  at  Delaware,  where  Captains 


74  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

Springer  and  Brigham,  loyalist  residents  of  the  same  locality, 
were  made  prisoners,  and  Westbrook,  who  accompanied  the  party, 
burned  his  own  buildings  there.  Lieut. -Colonel  Baby,  assistant 
quartermaster-general,  had  already  been  captured  by  the  same 
party.  It  was  charged  that  these  three  staunch  loyalists  were 
tied  with  cords,  the  two  former  having  been  taken  from  the  bosom 
of  their  families,  and  that  all  were  shamefully  treated — a  charge 
which  Lieut. -Colonel  Butler  of  the  U.  S.  army,  then  in  command 
of  Michigan,  warmly  denied.  Colonel  Baby  and  Captain  Springer 
were,  as  prisoners  known  to  hold  commissions  in  the  British 
service,  sent  to  General  Harrison's  headquarters.  Brigham  was 
held  for  exchange  for  an  American  said  to  have  been  taken  by  the 
British  under  similar  circumstances.  The  discrimination  between 
the  cases  of  Springer  and  Brigham  seems  to  have  been  unjust,  as, 
nearly  a  year  and  a  half  before,  the  former  had  waxed  indignant 
and  complained  in  writing  to  Colonel  Talbot  of  Brigham  for 
having  mustered  his  (Springer's)  company,  during  his  absence  at 
Detroit,  and  selected  a  number  of  men,  under  authority  from 
Colonel  Bostwick,  to  fill  up  his  (Brigham's)  rifle  company, 
preparatory  to  service  on  the  Niagara  frontier.  Springer  returned 
to  the  country  in  time  to  take  part  in  the  closing  scenes  of  the 
war,  and  took  part  in  the  sanguinary  engagement  at  the  Falls  in 
October,  1814.  His  family  had  in  the  meantime  suffered  great 
privation  during  his  enforced  absence. 

In  the  spring  (1814)  the  Americans  again  made  a  demonstration 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  Port  Talbot.  Colonel  Talbot  had  gone 
to  Long  Point  and  Colonel  Burwell  was  much  concerned  to  find 
he  had  taken  Huntley's  skiff,  which  he  (Burwell)  depended  upon 
to  remove  his  family  from  Port  Talbot  to  a  place  of  greater  safety. 
It  will  be  remembered  that  Proctor  had  promised  to  send  boats 
from  the  Thames,  if  he  could,  which  he  was  obviously  unable  to 
do.  So  that  the  skiff  alluded  to  was  probably  Colonel  Talbot's 
only  means  of  reaching  his  military  headquarters.  Burwell,  who 
was  then  at  Otter  Creek  (Port  Burwell),  forthwith  proceeded  to 
Kettle  Creek  (Port  Stanley)  to  send  word  to  Wilson  and  Patterson 
at  Port  Talbot,  ascertain  further  particulars  as  to  the  enemy's 
approach,  and,  if  necessary,  muster  the  militia  at  Port  Talbot. 


RAIDS   ON   PORT  TALBOT.  75 

Captain  Secord  had  meantime  gone  to  Schram's  on  the  north 
branch  for  a  box  of  arms.  It  was  not  until  2oth  May*  at  about  6 
p.  m.  that  the  enemy  actually  appeared  at  Port  Talbot,  half  an 
hour's  notice  of  their  approach  having-  been  given  to  Colonel 
Burvvell  by  McLemans.  Instantly  messengers  were  despatched 
to  the  settlers  in  the  neighbourhood  and  a  party  of  seven  men  was 
rapidly  moving  toward  Port  Talbot,  while  a  second  party  of  a 
like  number,  warned  by  Jesse  Page,  was  in  readiness  to  co-operate, 
but  through  some  misunderstanding  the  two  parties  failed  to  meet 
and  Burwell's  plan  of  attack  was  frustrated.  Meantime  he 
ordered  the  first  mentioned  party  to  retire  to  Neal's  place  to  await 
reinforcements  and  despatched  messengers  to  the  settlers  and 
militia  officers  at  a  greater  distance.  Another  party  of  seven 
were  at  the  town  line  by  daybreak.  Daniel  Rapelje  of  Yarmouth 
(St.  Thomas)  and  a  company  of  20,  including  himself  and  Ensign 
B.  Wilson,  warned  in  the  night,  were  at  Ross's  by  10.30  on  the 
morning  of  the  2ist.  Captain  Secord  receiving  chance  intelligence 
of  the  invasion  that  morning  had  another  party  of  fourteen, 
including  Lieutenant  Rice  and  himself,  at  Rapelje's  (St.  Thomas) 
by  noon,  ready  to  move  against  the  enemy. 

Meantime  the  American  force,  which  included  about  thirty 
riflemen  under  the  leadership  of  Andrew  Westbrook,  having 
swept  down  on  Port  Talbot,  made  prisoners  of  Captain  Wilson 
and  Walter  Galbraith  at  the  mill,  Captain  Patterson  at  the 
blacksmith's  shop  and  Thomas  Matthews  on  his  way  to  oppose 
them.  Having  failed  to  find  Colonel  Talbot  at  home,  they  retired, 
with  such  loot  as  they  could  hurriedly  gather,  being  apprehensive 
that  Galbraith,  the  miller,  who  had  meantime  escaped,  would 
spread  the  alarm  and  cut  off  their  retreat.  The  other  prisoners 
were  obliged  to  take  an  oath  of  neutrality  similar  to  that  admin- 
istered elsewhere,  under  pain  of  their  houses,  as  well  as  all  others 
in  the  neighbourhood  being  immediately  burned.  The  party  came 
from  the  westward,  and  in  their  haste  did  but  little  damage, 


*3oth  May,  according  to  General  Drummond's  lettter  to  Sir  George 
Prevost  of  7th  June,  as  given  in  the  Michigan  Pioneer  Collections,  vol.  15,  p. 
89.  The  names  of  the  militia  officers  and  men  who  turned  out  on  this  occasion, 
59  in  number,  are  given  in  an  appendix  hereto. 


76  THE   TALBOT    REGIME. 

though  returning"  later  in  much  greater  force  they  did  much 
damage.  Anticipating  a  little  the  course  of  events  elsewhere, 
the  subsequent  raids  on  Port  Talbot  may  be  here  referred  to. 

In  July  a  party  of  about  200  infantry  and  80  horsemen  were 
reported  at  Port  Talbot,  where  they  did  a  great  deal  of  injury  to 
the  crops  of  the  settlement  and  threatened  to  advance  further  for 
a  similar  purpose.  Lieut.-Colonel  Hamilton  sent  the  Oxford 
regiment  of  militia  and  some  Indians  in  that  direction  from  the 
Forty-mile  Creek  to  check  this  advance. 

On  the  26th  August  Colonel  Talbot  arrived  at  the  camp  of 
Lieut. -General  Sir  Gordon  Drummond  before  Fort  Erie  and  laid 
before  the  General  a  fresh  tale  of  rapine  at  Port  Talbot.  A 
party  of  militia,  accompanied  by  some  white  people  painted  and 
dressed  as  Indians,  headed  by  a  man  named  Walker,  came  to 
Port  Talbot  to  plunder  the  Colonel's  property  and  seize  him.  The 
Colonel  was  in  the  house,  but  fortunately  made  his  escape.  He 
stated  that  the  whole  of  his  property  had  been  carried  off  or 
destroyed — though  in  this  he  appears  to  have  been  mistaken,  as 
will  presently  appear — and  all  his  horses  taken  away.*  Colonel 
Burwell  and  several  other  respectable  inhabitants  were  carried  off. 
This  was  the  occasion  when  Captain  Patterson,  having  been 
captured  and  parolled  by  the  enemy  in  the  spring,  advised  the 
Colonel  to  slip  away,  on  the  enemy's  approach  becoming  known. 
When  the  Colonel,  accepting  this  advice  and  disappearing  down 
the  hill,  was  crossing  the  bar  at  the  mouth  of  the  creek,  one  of 
the  pseudo  Indians  levelled  his  rifle  at  the  retreating  figure,  at  the 
same  time  inquiring  who  he  was.  Patterson  replied  that  he  was 
a  poor  man,  who  attended  to  the  sheep,  whereupon  the  rifle  was 
lowered  and  the  Colonel's  life  in  all  probability  saved  by  the  state- 
ment, which  may  be  said  to  have  been  literally  true,  since  the 
Colonel  shrank  not  from  the  most  menial  work  in  times  of  peace 
and  had  been  reduced  to  poverty,  as  he  afterwards  asserted  to  the 
government,  by  the  war.  His  dress  at  all  times,  when  at  home, 
would  scarcely  belie  Patterson's  words.  Colonel  Burwell  was 

*  Captain  Patterson  was  given  as  authority  for  a  statement  that  two  quart 
pots  of  gold  and  some  plate,  concealed  under  the  front  wing  of  the  house, 
escaped  notice. — E.  Ermatingers  "  Life  of  Talbot,"  p.  49. 


WESTBROOK   AT   OXFORD.  77 

confined  to  his  bed  with  fever  and  ague  when  taken,  but  was 
nevertheless  dragged  forth,  carried  off  and  sent  as  a  prisoner  of 
war  to  Chilicothe. 

On  the  gth  September  Westbrook  and  a  band  of  men,  including 
some  Indians,  re-visited  Port  Talbot  to  complete  the  work  of 
destruction.  They  burned  down  the  grist  and  saw  mills  and 
several  houses  and  barns,  including  those  of  Colonel  Burwell, 
destroyed  all  Colonel  Talbot's  flour,  killing  several  of  his  cattle. 
They  then  proceeded  eastward  along  the  Talbot  road,  plundering 
and  parolling  the  inhabitants  as  they  went.  They  destroyed  all 
the  weapons  they  could  get  hold  of  and  could  not  conveniently 
carry.  One  ot  their  number,  in  endeavouring  to  smash  a  loaded 
weapon  in  Yarmouth,  accidentally  shot  himself,  whereupon,  to 
the  relief  of  the  neighbourhood  for  the  time  being,  his  companions 
retired  to  Moraviantown  to  await  reinforcements  from  Detroit, 
preparatory  to  completing  the  work  of  destruction  of  the  mills 
throughout  this  and  the  Long  Point  settlements. 

Before  this  last  visit  to  Port  Talbot,  Westbrook  had  on  3oth 
August  guided  a  body  of  about  70  of  the  enemy  to  Oxford,  where 
they  made  prisoners  of  Captains  Curtis,  Hall  and  Carroll,  and 
Sergeant  Dowland,  of  the  militia,  capturing  likewise  and  parolling 
the  greater  part  of  the  inhabitants  from  Delaware  to  Oxford  on 
their  way.  Mr.  Bonnell  and  Mr.  Palmer,  who  were  purchasing 
cattle  for  the  government  at  the  time,  were  taken  together  with 
cattle  to  the  value  of  $270  and  $600  in  cash.  On  Mr.  Burdock's 
house  being  attacked,  he  fired  on  the  enemy,  wounding  one  of 
them,  but  receiving  a  wound  himself  in  return.  On  ist  September 
a  party  of  militia  under  Lieutenant  Rapelje  lay  in  ambush  for  them 
near  Delaware.  As  they  were  passing  along  the  Thames  valley 
near  the  point  now  known  as  Springbank,  below  London, 
Rapelje's  party  opened  fire  on  them  from  the  heights  above.  The 
commander  of  the  enemy's  force  was  reported  to  have  been  slain 
and  the  rest  of  the  party  to  have  escaped  under  the  guidance  of 
Westbrook.  It  unhappily  transpired,  however,  that  the  cautious 
commander  in  question  had  placed  the  prisoners  in  the  front  of 
the  force  and  had  mounted  Captain  Carroll  upon  his  (the  com- 
mander's) own  horse,  which  was  a  white,  and  consequently 


78  THE    TALBOT   REGIME. 

conspicuous,  one.  Captain  Carroll  was  shot  dead  in  mistake  for 
the  owner  of  the  white  horse  by  the  British  militiamen's  volley, 
directed  at  the  enemy  while  ignorant  of  the  presence  among  the 
latter  of  the  prisoners.  Captain  Carroll's  body  was  interred  at 
Beachville  and  subsequently  removed  to  a  burial  ground  nearer 
Ingersoll. 

Colonel  Talbot  detached  Captain  John  Bostwick  with  60 
militiamen  to  assist  the  settlers  in  checking  further  inroads  of  the 
enemy. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

PORT   DOVER   BURNED. — MARAUDING   DESPERADOES. — 
MCARTHUR'S    RAID. — CLOSE    OF   WAR. 

WHILE  Port  Talbot  and  the  settlers  in  that  vicinity  were  being- 
threatened  and  finally  plundered  by  marauders  from  the  west,  as 
already  narrated,  a  worse  fate  had  already  befallen  Port  Dover 
and  its  vicinity. 

On  the  i4th  May,  1814,  a  force,  variously  estimated  at  from 
300  to  800  men,  under  Colonel  Campbell,  landed  from  six  war 
vessels  of  the  enemy,  which  had  come  over  from  Presque  Isle  or  ]  ; 
Erie.  They  applied  the  torch  to  not  only  the  building-  used  as  a 
militia  barrack,  but  to  every  private  house  and  other  building, 
together  with  Ryerse's  and  Finch's  mills.  In  fact  but  one  house  ,. 
was  left  standing  between  Patterson's  Creek  and  Turkey  Point — 
the  house  occupied  by  the  widow  and  family  of  Samuel  Ryerse,  at* 
Port  Ryerse.  The  court  house  and  public  buildings,  very 
unpretentious  log  structures,  at  Turkey  Point,  were  only  saved 
by  the  appearance  of  the  militia.  It  is  probable  that  their  situa- 
tion, on  the  crest  of  the  precipitous  heights,  overlooking  the  bay 
and  Turkey  Point,  had  much  to  do  with  their  escape  from 
destruction,  though  General  Drummond,  on  information  derived 
from  Colonel  Talbot,  commanding  the  militia,  reports  that  they 
were  only  saved  by  the  appearance  of  the  militia  and  a  detachment 
of  the  igth  Light  Dragoons.  Mrs.  Harris,  one  of  the  daughters 
of  Mrs.  Ryerse  above  referred  to,  says,  in  her  interesting  memoir, 
that  Colonel  Talbot  and  the  militia  only  reached  Port  Norfolk  or 
Turkey  Point,  the  day  after  the  enemy  had  set  sail  for  their  own 
shores— the  militia  having  been  concentrated  at  Brantford,  thirty 
miles  distant,  by  Colonel  Talbot,  the  day  after  the  invasion,  and 
thence  marched  to  Turkey  Point.  Mrs.  Harris  states  that  many  of 


80  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

both  officers  and  men  went  to  Brantford  with  great  reluctance, 
thinking  that  some  effort  should  have  been  made  to  prevent  the 
enemy's  landing. 

The  enemy,  after  visiting  the  Ryerse  home,  which  they  were 
prevailed  upon  to  spare,  it  being  a  widow's  dwelling,  proceeded 
to  Newport,  now  known  as  Fisher's  Glen,  where  they  completed 
their  work  of  destruction  and  reaped  a  rich  harvest  in  the  form 
of  forty  barrels  of  the  Canadian  nectar  of  that  day — whiskey — the 
property  of  Silas  Montross.  Their  ships  then  moved  up  to 
Turkey  Point  where  local  tradition  has  it  that  at  least  one  militia 
officer,  in  the  person  of  Captain  Backhouse,  had  arrived,  whose 
figure  in  uniform  appearing  and  re-appearing  on  the  heights  above 
gave  the  impression  that  the  Fort  was  garrisoned  by  a  strong 
force,  which,  coupled  with  its  apparently  impregnable  situation, 
caused  them  to  set  sail  again  without  attempting  to  land  their 
forces.  Thus  the  first  public  court  house  building  of  the  London 
district  escaped  destruction,  though  it  fell  a  prey  to  the  flames 
but  two  years  later — not  a  vestige  of  any  kind  remaining  to  mark 
the  site  of  the  district's  first  capital  and  its  military  headquarters 
— as  desolate  and  as  beautiful  in  its  desolation  as  the  site  of 
ancient  Carthage. 

General  Drummond  reported  the  detachment  of  dragoons  and 
militia  as  having  "  evinced  the  strongest  anxiety  to  come  in 
contact  with  the  enemy,"  though  Lieutenant  Charles  Ingersoll,  in 
a  letter  written  on  May  2Oth,  said:  "I  have  this  morning 
returned  from  Long  Point.  The  Americans  all  left  that  place 
after  burning  three  grist  mills  and  the  little  village  of  Dover.  A. 
Markle  and  young  Green  were  the  principal  leaders.  They  were 
permitted  to  land  very  quietly  in  sight  of  the  igth  dragoons  and  a 
small  party  of  militia.  The  number  could  not  have  been  very 
great.  The  dragoons  were  ordered  to  retire  and  had  reached  the 
crossing  of  the  Grand  River  before  they  were  countermanded." 

Twenty  dwelling  houses,  three  flour  mills,  three  saw  mills, 
three  distilleries,  twelve  barns  and  a  number  of  other  buildings 
were  destroyed,  while  cows  and  hogs  were  shot  and  left  to  rot  on 
the  ground.  These  wanton  and  barbarous  acts  were  the  ground 
of  strong  representations  to  the  American  authorities,  who  went 


PORT    DOVER   BURNED.  81 

through  the  form  of  holding"  an  enquiry  into  the  conduct  of 
Colonel  Campbell,  who  was  found  guilty  of  an  error  of  judgment. 
The  destruction  subsequently  of  the  capitol  at  Washington  by  the 
British  was  in  retaliation  for  the  conduct  of  the  enemy  at  Port 
Dover,  as  we}l  as  at  Newark  and  York  previously,  and  at  St. 
David's  in  July  following — though  private  property  was  left  intact 
by  the  British. 

It  may  be  here  mentioned  that  Turkey  Point  was  selected  in 
1814  as  a  naval  station  on  the  recommendation  of  Lieut. -Colonel 
Nichol,  approved  by  General  Drummond,  and  a  ship  was  to  have 
been  constructed  during  the  winter,  but  the  want  of  guns  and 
stores  to  complete  a  vessel  of  the  class  designed  and  the  scarcity 
of  provisions  consequent  on  the  raid  of  McArthur's  force  in 
November,  which  will  be  presently  referred  to,  caused  the 
abandonment  for  the  time  being  of  the  plan  ;  though  the  military 
proceeded  to  erect  cover  and  defences  for  the  troops  and  naval 
artificers  and  a  detachment  of  the  37th  regiment  and  roo  militia 
were  on  permanent  duty  there  as  late  as  February,  1815,  and  Sir 
James  Yeo  in  that  month  visited  Long  Point  in  company  with 
Colonel  Talbot.* 

During  the  spring  and  summer  of  1824  the  two  Norfolk  and  ist 
Middlesex  regiments  to  the  number  of  about  600  officers  and  men, 
as  well  as  the  Oxford  militia,  were  on  active  duty  under  the  com- 
mand of  Colonel  Talbot,  largely  on  the  Niagara  frontier,  during 
the  period  in  which  the  sanguinary  battles  at  Chippawa  Creek  and 
Lundy's  Lane  took  place  ;  and,  while  their  comparative  freedom 
from  serious  casualties  indicates  that  their  duties  were  chiefly 
confined  to  guard,  outpost,  convoy,  and  the  like  services,  for 
which  in  their  comparatively  untrained  condition  a  large  propor- 
tion of  them  were  best  fitted,  they  acquitted  themselves  with 
credit. 

The  war  cloud  which  had  with  fitful  flashes  and  occasional 
outbursts  been  moving  up  and  down  the  Niagara  frontier,  burst 
forth  in  all  its  fury  on  the  evening  of  the  25th  July  at  Lundy's 
Lane.  So  much  has  been  written  of  this  most  hotly-contested 

*See  letter  Colonel  Talbot  to  Major  Salmon  in  appendix. 


82  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

and  sanguinary  battle  of  the  war  that  it  is  only  necessary  to  say 
here  that  during  the  conflict  the  Norfolk,  Oxford,  Kent  and  Essex 
rangers  and  Middlesex  militia  arrived  upon  the  scene  and  merited 
and  received  the  warmest  thanks  of  Lieut. -General  Sir  Gordon 
Drummond  in  his  general  order  issued  next  day.  By  the  same 
order  the  General  dismissed  the  whole  of  the  sedentary  militia  to 
the  homes  where  they  were  so  much  needed. 

Both  sides,  as  is  well-known,  claimed  the  victory  at  Lundy's 
Lane.  Yet  the  fact  remains  that  the  Americans  retreated  after 
the  battle.  "  Our  victory  was  complete,"  bitterly  wrote  the 
American  Major-General  Porter  on  the  2gth,  "but,  alas,  this 
victory,  gained  by  exhibitions  of  bravery  never  surpassed  in  this 
country,  was  converted  into  defeat  by  a  precipitous  retreat,  leav- 
ing the  dead,  the  wounded  and  captured  artillery,  and  our  hard- 
earned  honour  to  the  enemy." 

The  withdrawal  of  the  detachment  of  the  looth  regiment  from 
Turkey  Point  after  Proctor's  defeat,  the  subsequent  absence  of 
the  militia  from  their  homes  and  the  general  lack  of  arms  and 
adequate  means  of  protection,  encouraged  many  marauders  and 
disaffected  inhabitants  to  plunder,  commit  depredations  and  in 
some  cases  to  murder  and  to  endeavour  to  disorganize  the  militia 
by  carrying  off  militia  officers — usually  under  the  leadership  of 
some  desperate  character,  such  as  Corbett,  who  had  escaped  from 
York  jail,  or  John  Dixon,  a  former  resident.  Benajah  Mallory, 
the  member  for  the  London  district  in  the  Legislative  Assembly, 
and  his  fellow-member,  Joseph  Wilcox,  had  gone  over  to  the 
other  side  and  raised  a  so-called  "Canadian  regiment,"  but  the 
interior  settlements  suffered  chiefly  from  the  marauding  bands 
alluded  to. 

In  one  instance  a  number  of  settlers  banded  themselves 
together,  obtained  arms  and  ammunition  supplied  to  the  Oxford 
militia,  and  marched  under  Lieut. -Colonel  Bostwick  to  the 
rendezvous  of  the  plunderers,  who  were  in  much  superior  force, 
but  were  nevertheless  defeated  and  a  large  number  taken  prisoners, 
and  held  for  trial  under  special  commission  which  sat  at  Ancaster, 
opening  on  23rd  May.  Seventeen  were  brought  to  trial  out  of 
upwards  of  seventy  from  the  Western,  London  and  Niagara 


MARAUDING  DESPERADOES.  83 

districts,  but  chiefly  from  the  London  district,  and  of  these  fifteen 
were  convicted  and  sentenced  to  death,  seven  of  whom,  as  the 
least  guilty,  being"  reprieved. 

Several  prowling  armed  desperadoes  and  former  residents 
appeared  also  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Dover  towards  the  autumn, 
and  the  house  of  John  Muckle  of  Townsend  was  broken  into  by 
two  men  named  Dickson  and  Simon  Mabee,  who  broke  open  a 
chest  and  carried  off  $200.  The  culmination  of  the  outrages  com- 
mitted by  this  gang,  which  was  led  by  John  Dickson,  was  the 
murder  by  him,  in  conjunction  with  Henry  Dockstader  and  John 
Robinson,  of  old  Captain  Francis,  who  was  shot  in  cold  blood  as 
he  looked  out  of  his  own  window,  having  been  aroused  from  his 
bed  by  them  at  dead  of  night  in  October.  Dickson  was  born  in 
the  United  States,  but  had  lived  in  Canada,  and  married  the 
daughter  of  a  U.  E.  loyalist.  The  gang  of  which  he  was  a  leader 
consisted  of  more  than  a  dozen  former  residents  of  Canada,  who, 
during  the  war,  made  incursions  from  the  neighbourhood  of 
Buffalo.  Their  intention  was  to  murder  Colonel  Talbot,  Thomas 
Francis  and  William  Drake,  but  Dickson  himself  survived  the 
murder  of  Captain  Francis  but  a  few  days,  having  received  a 
mortal  wound  from  some  militiamen  near  Sugar  Loaf. 

It  was  stated  at  the  close  of  the  last  chapter  that  Colonel 
Talbot  had  detailed  Captain  John  Bostwick  with  60  men  to  assist 
in  checking  further  inroads  from  the  west. 

In  the  afternoon  of  3rd  November  two  men  arrived  at  Captain 
Bostwick 's  quarters,  on  the  Talbot  road  in  Yarmouth,  from  the 
Thames  below  Moraviantown,  with  intelligence  that  the  enemy, 
numbering  from  800  to  1,000  mounted  men,*  with  two  three- 
pounders  and  a  howitzer,  had  left  Moraviantown  the  previous 
Monday,  intending  to  camp  that  night  at  Fleming's.  Their 
march  was  so  secretly  made  that  it  was  not  known  they  were  on 
the  Thames  until  they  had  been  more  than  a  day  at  Moravian- 
town.  They  had  marched  up  the  river  St.  Clair,  circulating  a 
report  that  they  were  going  to  Saginaw,  then  crossed  the  river  to 
Belledoon,  proceeded  up  Bear  Creek  till  they  were  opposite 

*6oo  volunteers,   50  U.  S.  rangers  and  70  Indians,   according-  to  General 
McArthur's  report  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  of  i8th  November,  1814. 


84  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

Moraviantown,  and  crossed  over  to  that  place  carrying  their  field 
pieces  on  horses.  They  were  chiefly  Kentuckians,  undisciplined, 
under  command  of  Brigadier-General  McArthur.  They  professed 
to  be  heading  for  Burlington.  At  Oxford  they  burned  the  house 
and  barn  of  George  Nichol  for  having  given  notice  to  Colonel 
Bostwick  of  their  approach,  while  Freedom  Burdick  suffered  also 
some  loss  of  property.  They  proceeded  thence  to  Burford  on  5th 
November,  where  the  militia  were  said  to  have  been  embodied  in 
anticipation  of  their  approach,  but  found  the  latter  had  fallen  back 
to  Malcolm's  Mills,  ten  miles  distant.  At  the  Grand  River  they 
found  the  waters  swollen,  while  Major  Muir,  who  was  present 
with  some  militia  and  Indians  to  dispute  their  passage,  had 
destroyed  the  scow  which  did  duty  as  ferry.  In  consequence  of 
this  and  the  approach  of  Lieut. -Colonel  Smelt  with  a  detachment 
of  regulars  and  three  guns  and  the  further  intelligence  that 
General  Brown  had  quitted  the  Canadian  side  of  the  Niagara, 
McArthur  abandoned  his  intention  of  advancing  on  Burlington, 
and  moved  towards  Malcolm's  Mills,  twelve  miles  from  the  river 
on  the  west  side,  leaving  a  detachment  to  engage  the  attention  of 
the  British  at  the  crossing,  His  intention  now  was  to  destroy 
the  mills  of  the  Grand  River  and  Long  Point  settlement  and 
return  to  American  territory  either  by  way  of  Fort  Erie  or  by 
Talbot  street.  The  latter  route  was  followed,  after  some  skirm- 
ishing with  the  militia  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Malcolm's  Mills 
and  the  destruction  of  all  the  mills  of  the  settlements,  with  the 
exception  of  two — Tisdale's  and  Backhouse's — spared,  according 
to  Colonel  Talbot,  by  the  entreaties  of  the  American  marshal 
(Long)  who  had  remained  at  Long  Point  to  deliver  over  British 
prisoners* — though,  according  to  Captain  Chambers,  the  rapidity 
of  his  pursuit  and  pressure  of  the  enemy  with  a  detachment  of  the 
igth  dragoons  and  a  body  of  militia  under  Major  Salmon,  saved 
these  mills  from  sharing  the  fate  of  the  rest. 

According  to  Chambers  the  enemy  were  guilty,   not  only  of 

*The  prisoners  taken  on  Lake  Erie  and  at  Moraviantown  had  been  landed 
in  detachments  at  Long-  Point,  from  Kentucky,  in  the  most  deplorable  condi- 
tion— nearly  naked,  sick,  and  some  even  in  a  dying  condition  from  neglect, 
exposure  and  want  of  proper  food  during  their  many  weeks'  journey  home- 
ward— women  and  children  as  well  as  men. 


McARTHUR'S  RAID.  85 

plundering  the  country  in  a  most  shameful  manner,  stealing- 
horses  and  clothing  as  well  as  firing  mills,  but  of  butchery  and 
scalping — the  bodies  of  Sergeant  Collins  of  the  regulars  and 
Private  Barto  of  the  militia  affording  evidence  of  this  barbarous 
treatment. 

In  fairness  it  may  be  stated  that  General  McArthur's  report  of 
the  whole  expedition  presents  it  in  a  very  different  light  to  that  in 
which  it  was  regarded  by  the  sufferers.  He  represents 
the  Malcolm's  Mills  skirmishes  as  a  victory  of  considerable 
magnitude*  though  apparently,  according  to  his  own  figures,  he 
was  opposed  by  a  force  of  militia  considerably  less  than  his  own 
strength.  He  states  that  "of  private  property  no  more  was 
destroyed  than  was  absolutely  necessary  for  the  support  of  the 
troops,  for  which  regular  payments  or  receipts  were  given."  He 
admits  some  abuses  by  the  Indians,  but  considered  their  correct 
and  gallant  conduct  before  and  during  battle  as  some  excuse  for 
these.  In  all  cases  of  horses  taken  receipts  were,  according  to 
McArthur,  given.  If  receipts  only  were  given — and  no  record 
of  their  redemption  appears — the  settlers  might  be  excused  for 
regarding  the  transactions  as  robbery  and  spoliation.  As  to  the 
statement  that  no  more  private  property  was  destroyed  than 
sufficed  to  subsist  the  troops  it  may  be  mentioned  that  a  prisoner 
named  Bazley  taken  by  Captain  Caldwell  stated  his  belief  that  the 
enemy  "  only  destroyed  and  carried  off  250  horses,  200  sheep,  100 
oxen  and  100  hogs  " — besides  burning  the  houses  of  several  loyal 

*McArthur's  account  of  the  affair  is  as  follows  :  "We  found  the  enemy, 
consisting -of  four  or  five  hundred  militia,  with  a  few  Indians,  fortified  on  a 
commanding-  ground  beyond  a  creek  deep  and  difficult  of  passage,  except  at 
a  bridge  immediately  in  front  of  their  works,  which  had  been  destroyed. 
Arrangements  were  made  for  a  joint  attack  on  the  front  and  rear.  The  Ohio 
troops,  with  the  advance  guard  and  Indians,  were  accordingly  thrown  across 
the  creek  under  cover  of  a  thick  wood,  to  approach  the  enemy  in  the  rear, 
while  the  Kentucky  troops  were  to  attack  in  front,  as  soon  as  the  attention  of 
the  enemy  was  engaged  by  the  attack  in  the  rear.  The  enemy  would  have 
been  completely  surprised  and  captured  had  not  an  unfortunate  yell  by  our 
Indians  announced  the  approach  of  the  detachment  destined  to  attack  their 
rear.  They  were,  however,  defeated  and  dispersed  with  the  loss  in  the 
skirmishes  on  that  day  of  one  captain  and  seventeen  privates  killed,  nine 
privates  wounded,  and  three  captains,  five  subalterns  and  one  hundred  and 
three  privates  made  prisoners,  whilst  our  loss  was  only  one  killed  and  six 
wounded.  Early  on  the  yth  instant  the  enemy  were  pursued  on  the  road  to 
Dover,  many  made  prisoners  and  five  valuable  mills  destroyed." 


86  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

subjects  in  the  vicinity  of  Oxford  and  all  the  mills  but  two  west  of 
the  Grand  River — by  the  time  they  left  the  province. 

The  force  camped  for  a  night  on  the  site  of  St.  Thomas — a  little 
to  the  west  of  the  present  St.  Andrew's  market.  "  The  products 
of  Daniel  Rapelje's  new  farm  had  all  been  gathered  in  joy  and 
gladness,"  wrote  one  of  his  children,  "  that  which  had  been 
waited  for,  toiled  for  in  patience,  had  been  reaped."  He  had  seen 
the  troops  at  a  distance  at  Malcolm's  Mills,  but  they  had  reached 
Kettle  Creek  before  him.  "  In  the  morning  that  which  had  been 
given  was  all  destroyed  and  gone,  the  wheat  and  hay  scattered 
over  the  fields,  and  corn  taken  out  of  the  crib — the  sheep  were  all 
slaughtered."  It  is  further  narrated  that  Colonel  Talbot,  a  short 
time  before,  had  left  a  box  full  of  valuable  papers  at  Rapelje's, 
with  instructions  that  they  were  to  be  kept  safe  at  all  hazards. 
Mrs.  Rapelje  took  the  box  and  placed  it  on  the  ground  between 
some  beehives  which  were  in  the  "hemp  patch" — where  it 
remained  unmolested — thanks  to  the  busy  bees  and  a  woman's 
ready  wit. 

McArthur's  force  reached  Detroit  on  lyth  November.  Among 
their  "just  claims  to  the  gratitude  ot  their  country,"  put  forth  by 
their  commander,  were  the  facts  "  that  they  have  penetrated  two 
hundred  miles  into  the  enemy's  territory,  destroyed  two  hundred 
stand  of  arms,  together  with  five  of  their  most  valuable  mills, 
parolled  or  dispersed  the  greater  part  of  the  efficient  militia  of  that 
part  of  Upper  Canada  west  of  the  Grand  River,  and  the  whole 
detachment  has  returned  to  this  place  (Detroit)  with  the  exception 
of  one  killed." 

This  raid  was  the  last  act  in  the  war  of  1812-14.  From  the  day 
of  Hull's  invasion  nearly  two  years  and  a  half  before,  until 
McArthur's  passage  across  the  Detroit  at  the  same  point,  the 
settlers  of  the  Western  and  London  districts  had  suffered  the 
ravages  of  war — crops  devastated,  homes  burned,  flocks  and 
herds,  meagre  enough  before,  now  gone,  heads  of  families  here 
and  there  carried  into  captivity  or  slain.  And  yet  this  scourge  of 
war,  with  all  its  horrors,  proved  not  an  unmixed  evil.  It  was, 
as  it  were,  the  baptism  of  a  new  young  nation.  It  taught  lessons 
of  self-reliance  and  strength  of  purpose,  necessary  to  the  upbuild 


THE   CLOSE   OF   WAR.  87 

ing  of  a  nation  of  freemen.  The  U.  E.  loyalists  had  given  up 
all,  rather  than  renounce  their  allegiance,  and  hewed  out  new 
homes  in  the  wilderness.  They  had  now  found  themselves  capable 
of  defending  them. 

The  country,  too,  had  been  rid  of  a  good  deal  of  bad  blood,  the 
loss  of  which  was  necessary  to  its  health.  The  traitors  Wilcox 
and  Benajah  Mallory,  the  latter  of  whom  had  been  member  of 
parliament  for  the  London  district  for  two  terms,  Watson  and 
Westbrook,  and  many  others  were  gone,  some  slain — as  were 
Wilcox  and  John  Dickson — others  fled  to  more  congenial  climes. 
Canada  could  well  spare  them  all. 

The  Loyal  and  Patriotic  Society  of  Upper  Canada  did  good 
work.  Some  three  thousand  dollars  were  sent  Colonel  Talbot  to 
supply  the  pressing  necessities  of  his  settlers,  beside  many 
individual  grants  to  special  sufferers.  The  Nova  Scotia  legisla- 
ture made  a  grant  to  assist  sufferers  in  this  province,  a  large 
number  of  whom,  especially  in  the  Long  Point  settlement,  had 
come  from  the  Maritime  province.  The  war  chronicles  of  this 
latter  settlement  are  so  interwoven  with  those  of  the  Talbot 
settlement  proper — the  militia  of  both  being  commanded  by 
Colonel  Talbot  (with  a,  to  a  certain  extent,  common  judicial  and 
municipal  history)-^that  it  has  been  found  necessary  to  follow  the 
course  of  events  in  both  settlements  to  some  extent.  No  attempt 
has,  however,  been  here  made  to  follow  the  events  of  the  war 
throughout  the  wider  theatre  of  its  operations,  outside  those 
settlements  and  their  immediate  surroundings. 

This  war,  undertaken  by  the  enemy  at  a  time  when  Britain  was 
believed  to  be  too  much  occupied  with  Napoleon  in  Europe  to 
defend  Canada,  was  now  happily  ended,  without  the  loss  of  a  single 
foot  of  Canadian  or  British  territory. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

COLONEL  TALBOT   AND   THE    PROVINCIAL   GOVERNMENT — ATTENDS 
COLONIAL  OFFICE  AND  THE  RESULT. 

DURING  the  war  the  settlement  had  remained  practically  at  a 
standstill,  while  its  resources  were  depleted  and  much  property 
laid  waste.  Colonel  Talbot — as  he  stated  some  years  after  in  a 
memorial  to  the  Secretary  of  State — on  the  restoration  of  peace, 
found  a  large  farm  which  he  had  cleared  and  brought  into  cultiva- 
tion, completely  laid  waste  by  the  enemy  ;  his  grist  and  sawmills, 
erected  by  him  at  a  very  heavy  expense  for  the  accommodation  of 
the  surrounding  settlers,  burnt  to  the  ground — all  his  effects 
carried  off  or  destroyed  and  his  people  reduced  to  the  utmost 
distress  and  poverty.  Nevertheless  he  did  not  despair,  but 
diligently  set  himself  to  repair  the  damages  he  had  sustained  in 
the  best  manner  he  was  able. 

He  had  many  difficulties  to  contend  with.  A  large  number  of 
immigrants  began  to  flock  in,  who  were  very  poor,  and  relied 
upon  his  hospitality  at  the  start.  His  house  was  ever  open  to 
such.'  Prices,  too,  fell  ;  and  both  the  Colonel  and  the  settlers 
began  to  feel  the  pinch,  until  a  few  years  later  he  found  himself 
unable  to  continue  his  usual  aid  to  settlers,  without  some  assist- 
ance from  government. 

But  while  he  always  found  a  sympathetic  ear  open  to  his  repre- 
sentations at  the  colonial  office  in  England,  he  had  numerous 
controversies  with  the  provincial  government  at  York. 

By  the  terms  of  Lord  Hobart's  despatch  he  was  to  have  200 
acres  of  adjacent  lands  granted  to  him  for  every  family  of  actual 
settlers  to  whom  he  had  surrendered  fifty  acres  of  his  original 
grant.  His  original  grant  was  5,000  acres,  exclusive  of  1,200 
acres  he  had  been  granted  before  his  settlement  began. 


COL.  TALBOT  AND  THE    PROVINCIAL   GOVERNMENT        89 

The  provincial  government  in  1817  took  the  view  that  this 
order  "  was  predicated  upon  a  project  to  benefit  the  colony  by  the 
culture  of  hemp,  and  it  was  submitted  to  a  reasonable  trial." 
They  contended  that  the  reservation  of  adjacent  lands  was 
temporary  and  to  be  limited  by  the  discretion  of  the  provincial 
government,  but  as  to  quantity  that  it  was  limited  by  the  order 
itself,  and  the  Surveyor-General  having  reported  grants  to  the 
Colonel  of  15,800  acres  under  the  order,  they  were  "  of  one 
opinion  that  a  further  reserve  of  4,200  acres  is  all  that  can  be 
claimed  by  Colonel  Talbot  under  the  most  liberal  construction  of 
the  order  in  his  favour." 

This  interpretation  was  so  entirely  different  from  what  the 
Colonel  conceived  to  be  meant  by  His  Majesty's  ministers  that  he 
made  immediate  preparations  to  proceed  to  England  ascertain  His 
Majesty's  pleasure  on  the  subject — only  asking  of  the  provincial 
government  that  no  locations  be  meantime  made  on  the  land 
placed  under  his  superintendence. 

The  winter  of  1817-18  accordingly  found  Colonel  Talbot  in 
London,  whither  also  the  provincial  government  had  sent  their 
views  embodied  in  a  report  of  Chief  Justice  W.  D.  Powell,  in 
which  the  importance  of  a  change  in  "the  course  heretofore 
tolerated  in  respect  of  settling  the  waste  land  in  this  province 
without  the  immediate  and  direct  participation  of  the  council  and 
Surveyor-General,  the  regular  organs  of  the  first  location,"  was 
urged.  The  report  went  on  to  refer  to  the  cultivation  of  hemp  as 
the  chief  consideration  which  secured  the  original  order  in  Colonel 
Talbot's  favour,  and  the  subsequent  abandonment  of  that  industry, 
also  to  a  recent  order  prohibiting  indiscriminate  settlement  from 
the  United  States  and  to  the  slow  progress  up  to  that  time  of  the 
settlement.  "  In  fourteen  years,"  it  was  stated,  "  compensation 
had  been  required  for  little  more  than  fifty  settlers,  whilst  many 
thousand  acres  of  surveyed  land  remain  unappropriated." 

We  have  seen  how  the  war  had  stopped  settlement  and  how  it 
afterwards  became  accelerated.  In  this  particular  the  report 
seems  somewhat  disingenuous. 

The  case  against  Colonel  Talbot  was,  however,  stated  with  all 
Chief  Justice  Powell's  accustomed  vigor,  clearness  and  ability. 


90  THE   TALBOT    REGIME. 

"  His  Majesty's  government,"  he  said,  "  had  prohibited  the 
inundation  of  settlers  from  the  United  States,  and  had  authorized 
the  consul  of  New  York  to  grant  certificates  to  emigrants  from 
the  United  Kingdom,  for  one  hundred  acres  of  land  in  Upper 
Canada.  When  these  people  discovered  that  the  soil  and  climate 
near  to  Colonel  Talbot's  settlement  were  favourable,  many  flooded 
there  without  even  presenting  themselves  to  the  government,  and 
these  were  found  either  a  location  of  50  acres  as  Colonel  Talbot's 
settler,  for  which  he  in  return  claimed  a  grant  of  200  acres  ;  or 
they  found  a  location  of  one  hundred  acres  in  certain  lands  sub- 
mitted to  the  superintendence  of  that  gentlemen,  as  will  be 
presently  explained,  and  in  either  case  the  interests  of  the  colonial 
government  are  implicated.  When  the  emigrant  possessing  an 
authority  to  receive  one  hundred  acres  of  land,"  he  added,  "finds 
himself  limited  to  the  possession  of  fifty,  and  that  the  government 
actually  bestows  on  a  stranger  200  acres  on  that  account,  no 
reasoning  can  remove  the  impression  of  something  worse  than 
mere  absurdity."  The  word  "  stranger,"  as  applied  to  Colonel 
Talbot,  rankled. 

Colonel  Talbot's  settlement  in  Dunwich  and  Aldborough  being 
separated  from  the  Long  Point  settlement  by  a  large  tract  of 
forest  land,  a  road  of  communication  had,  on  Talbot's  representa- 
tion, been  laid  out  from  the  Long  Point  settlement  to  his,  the 
reserves  for  crown  and  clergy  removed  from  the  road  and  lots 
granted  to  actual  settlers,  on  conditions,  the  great  object  of  which 
was  to  render  the  road  practicable  with  the  greatest  expedition. 

This  road  soon  became  known  as  the  Talbot  road,  and  the  con- 
ditions referred  to  included  its  actual  clearing  and  construction  by 
the  settlers  themselves  under  the  direction  of  Colonel  Talbot. 

To  quote  again  from  the  Chief  Justice's  report  : 

"  The  interest  Mr.  Talbot  had  in  this  road  induced  Lieutenant-Governor 
Gore  to  confide  to  him  the  superintendence  of  this  actual  settlement,  and 
gradually  he  retained  the  nomination  and  location  of  the  settlers  as  well  as 
the  supervision  of  their  labours  and  the  fulfilment  of  their  engagements.  The 
settlers  should  each  have  received  an  order  in  council  for  his  land,  and  the 
location  of  it  should  have  been  made  by  the  surveyor-general,  the  fee  for  the 
survey  and  patent  being  first  paid.  By  relaxation  of  this  orderly  process 


COL.  TALBOT  AND  THE   PROVINCIAL  GOVERNMENT.         91 

with  respect  to  all  settlement,  the  government  remained  ignorant  of  the 
quality  of  the  settler,  the  surveyor-general  ignorant  of  his  location  and  the 
receiver-general  was  unpaid.  By  these  means  a  partiality  was  operated 
amongst  the  new  emigrants,  which  could  not  fail  to  produce  an  injurious 
effect.  The  emigrant  applying  to  the  governor-in-council  received,  it  is  true, 
an  order  for  one  hundred  acres  of  land,  but  he  could  not  take  possession  till 
the  survey  money,  if  not  the  patent  fee,  was  paid,  when  if  he  passed  by  the 
Talbot  school  township  road,  etc.,  found  100  acres  to  enter  upon  without 
advance.  Such  as  did  not  receive  that  advantage  felt  the  distinction  and 
that  was  an  injury.  At  the  time  when  fresh  surveys  were  called  for  to 
accommodate  emigrants,  and  the  want  of  money  withheld  the  order  for  them, 
it  appeared  that  large  tracts  of  surveyed  land  on  the  road  and  adjacent  town- 
ships of  Bayham  and  Malahide,  which  Lieutenant-Governor  Gore  had  also 
subjected  to  the  exclusive  location  by  Colonel  Talbot,  were  left  apart,  and 
that  a  large  arrear  of  survey  money  and  fees  had  accumulated  to  the  amount  of 
upwards  of  ^4,000.  His  Excellency,  Lieutenant-Governor  Gore,  called  upon 
Mr.  Talbot  for  the  deposit  of  fees  and  survey  money  on  all  locations  made  by 
him,  not  only  in  the  Talbot  school  township  road,  but  in  the  townships  of 
Bayham  and  Malahide,  and  restored  those  townships  to  the  ordinary  course 
of  location,  which  it  is  the  object  of  Colonel  Talbot's  memorial  to  continue  to 
withhold." 

It  was  therefore  recommended  that  actual  locations  in  Bayham 
and  Malahide  and  on  the  road,  the  state  of  improvements,  and  of 
the  road,  and  the  defaulters  as  to  survey  money  and  patent  fees, 
be  ascertained  in  order  that  after  six  months  the  lots  for  which 
payment  had  not  been  made  or  settlement  duties  in  progress, 
should  be  re-opened  for  settlement  by  the  surveyor. 

From  all  this  it  will  be  seen  that  while  the  Provincial  Govern- 
ment were  insisting"  upon  the  payment  of  survey  money  and  patent 
fees  as  a  pre-requisite  to  settlement,  Colonel  Talbot  was  chiefly 
anxious  to  secure  actual  settlers  and  open  up  the  country,  both  in 
his  own  and  the  province's  interest — and  that  he  was  becoming 
increasingly  successful  in  both  respects.  Settlers  "flocked"  to 
his  district  and  the  Talbot  road  was  already  acquiring  the  reputa- 
tion of  being  one  of  the  best,  as  well  as  one  of  the  longest,  roads 
in  the  province.  He  located  the  settlers  by  means  of  his  map  and 
lead  pencil — or,  with  the  aid  of  an  india-rubber  eraser,  transferred 
them — without  the  necessity  of  a  journey  to  York,  which  was  out 
of  the  usual  routes  of  entry  to  the  country.  He  concerned  himself 
not  about  survey  money  or  patent  feesv  but  saw  that  the  settler 


92  THE   TALBOT    REGIME. 

cleared  his  piece  of  road  and  performed  his  other  settlement 
duties — believing  these  the  more  important  preliminaries — before 
he  gave  him  his  certificate,  leaving  the  government  to  collect 
their  fees  when  the  patent  was  applied  for,  and  manage  the 
finances  as  best  they  might.  The  settlers  were  mostly  poor  and 
required  all  they  had  to  maintain  themselves  and  their  families 
at  first. 

Earl  Bathurst,  Chief  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Colonies,  disposed 
of  Colonel  Talbot's  appeal  in  February  (1818),  concurring  in  the 
opinion  expressed  by  the  provincial  government  that  the  utmost 
grant  to  him,  authorized  by  Lord  Hobart's  letter,  did  not  exceed 
20,000  acres,  though  he  had  reason  to  believe  that  the  Colonel 
had,  previous  to  his  departure  from  England,  been  induced  to 
entertain  expectations  of  a  larger  grant. 

"  But  the  successful  exertions  which  Colonel Talbot  has  made," 
continued  Lord  Bathurst,  "for  the  improvement  of  the  lands 
under  his  charge  and  for  the  settlement  of  the  townships  with 
which  he  has  been  connected,  entitle  him  to  the  most  liberal 
consideration  of  government,  and  I  have  therefore  to  signify  to 
you  the  pleasure  of  His  Royal  Highness,  the  Prince  Regent,  that 
you  should,  for  the  next  five  years,  and  no  longer,  reserve  at 
Colonel  Talbot's  disposal,  under  the  conditions  stated  in  Lord 
Hobart's  despatch  of  February  (1803),  such  further  proportions  of 
the  townships  of  Aldborough  and  Dunwich,  as  were  vacant  at  the 
time  of  Colonel  Talbot's  commencing  his  settlement." 

The  provincial  government  was  further  informed  that  no  other 
restrictions  than  those  imposed  by  acts  of  parliament  having 
reference  to  settlement  in  North  America,  were  to  apply  as  to  the 
class  of  settlers  whom  Colonel  Talbot  might  select,  and  a  previous 
examination  of  settlers  at  York  before  they  could  receive  locations 
from  Colonel  Talbot,  was  unnecessary.  Instructions  were  also 
given  that  the  fees  on  grants  of  land  should  not  be  demanded 
until  the  completion  of  settlement  duties  and  that,  immediately 
upon  their  completion,  the  deeds  should  be  delivered  without 
further  difficulty,  delay  or  restriction. 

It  may  be  here  remarked  that,  while  Colonel  Talbot  appears  to 
have  made  complaint  of  delays  and  difficulties  imposed  by  the 


ATTENDS  COLONIAL   OFFICE   AND   THE   RESULT.  93 

provincial  officials  in  issuing1  deeds,  they  in  turn  made  complaints 
subsequently  of  the  number  of  patents  which  remained  in  their 
hands  for  many  years  uncalled  for  and  unpaid  for — a  remissness, 
by  the  way,  which  was  not  chargeable  only  against  the  Talbot 
settlers,  but  against  many  who  were  much  better  able  to  pay,  as 
well.  Colonel  Talbot  was  able  in  reply  to  point  out  that  his 
duties  were  confined  to  supplying  the  settler  with  a  certificate 
when  he  had  complied  with  all  conditions  as  to  actual  residence 
and  performance  of  settlement  duties,  entitling  him  to  receive  his 
patent,  but  that  he  had  no  power  to  compel  the  settler  to  proceed 
to  York  to  get  it  sooner  than  he  felt  disposed — though  he 
promised  to  issue  a  circular  to  settlers  notifying  them  to  take  out 
their  patents  with  as  little  delay  as  possible  after  having  become 
entitled  to  do  so. 

In  his  Life  of  Colonel  Talbot,  the  present  writer's  father  quoted 
the  well-known  Dr.  Dunlop,  a  friend  of  Colonel  Talbot's,  as 
authority  for  the  statement  that  the  officials  at  Little  York  gave 
Colonel  Talbot  trouble  and  annoyance  from  a  desire  to  acquire  a 
portion  of  the  lands  under  his  control  for  themselves,  their  kith 
and  kin — with  which  object  also,  the  doctor  said,  they  desired 
the  tract  to  remain  "  a  howling  wilderness."  A  letter  to  the 
author  of  the  Life  of  Colonel  Talbot,  in  the  present  writer's  pos- 
session, from  Chief  Justice  Sir  John  Beverly  Robinson,  a  personal 
friend  also  of  Colonel  Talbot  (whose  side  of  the  story  only  he  says 
he  had  heard),  states  that  he  believed  any  of  the  gentlemen 
referred  to,  much  above  the  feelings  ascribed  to  them,  and  parti- 
cularized Chief  Justice  Powell  as  being  "  as  free  from  all  imputa- 
tion of  acting  corruptly  from  selfish  motives  as  any  man  I  know. 
He  was  by  disposition  liberal,  and  regarded  money  little.  He 
might  by  other  considerations,  however,  be  led  to  take  a  part 
which  brought  him  unpleasantly  into  collision  with  Col.  Talbot." 


CHAPTER   XV. 

ANNUITY  TO  COLONEL  TALBOT  —  FURTHER  VISITS  TO  COLONIAL 
OFFICE — THE  NORTH  BRANCH  TALBOT  ROAD — ORIGINATOR 
OF  SETTLEMENT  DUTIES  AND  GOOD  ROADS. 

HAVING  obtained  an  extension  of  time  within  which  to  complete 
his  settlement,  Colonel  Talbot  returned  to  Canada  where  so  great 
was  the  influx  of  settlers  to  his  territory  and  so  active  was  he  in 
locating-  them  that  we  find  him,  in  less  than  four  years  later,  again 
visiting  Downing  street,  this  time  the  bearer  of  a  fresh  memorial 
stating  that  "his  project  was  fully  realized."  Among  other  things 
he  set  forth  that  by  his  exertions  in  opening  and  settling  roads 
east  and  west  and  along  the  Thames,  what  was  then  called  the 
Talbot  settlement,  had  "now  become  the  most  populous  and 
flourishing  settlement  in  Upper  Canada,  containing  as  it  does  a 
population  of  at  least  12,000  souls  and  establishing  an  uninter- 
rupted communication  between  the  eastern  and  western  extremi- 
ties of  Lake  Erie,  and  the  settlements  to  the  northward." 

The  colonial  administration  had,  he  said,  become  so  thoroughly 
impressed  with  his  mode  of  settlement  over  that  heretofore 
practised,  that  it  had  endeavored  to  introduce  the  system  employed 
by  him,  generally,  throughout  the  province. 

Setting  forth  his  losses  during  the  war  and  his  struggles  and 
expenses  in  assisting  incoming  settlers  since — as  stated  at  com- 
mencement of  the  last  chapter — which  had  completely  exhausted 
his  capital  and  reduced  him  to  great  straits,  he  asked  government 
aid.  This  was  in  1822. 

In  1826,  Colonel  Talbot  renewed  his  application  to  Lord 
Bathurst,  by  memorial  transmitted  by  Sir  Peregrine  Maitland, 
Lieutenant-Governor,  stating  that  after  twenty-three  years  entirely 
devoted  to  the  improvement  of  the  western  districts  and  estab- 


ANNUITY   TO   COLONEL  TALBOT.  95 

lishing  on  their  lands  about  20,000  people,  without  any  expense 
for  superintendence  to  the  government  or  the  persons  immediately 
benefited,  but  on  the  contrary,  at  a  sacrifice  of  ^20,000,  in 
rendering  them  comfortable,  he  found  himself  entirely  straitened 
and  now  wholly  without  capital. 

"  I  gratefully  acknowledge,"  he  wrote,  "a  very  considerable 
grant  of  land  from  the  Crown,  but  my  agricultural  labours  have 
been  unprofitable  and  must  continue  so,  while  the  settlements  are 
in  progress,  as  the  provisions  I  raise  are  chiefly  applied  to  the 
support  of  new  comers,  and  although  they  may  promise  to  pay,  it 
seldom  happens  that  they  are  able,  and  neither  my  situation  nor 
inclination  will  permit  me  to  resort  to  the  usual  method  of  com- 
pulsion— indeed,  to  do  so  would,  in  many  cases,  be  to  destroy  the 
fruit  of  my  labour  and  to  plunge  them  into  greater  distress  than 
that  from  whence  I  had  rescued  them." 

This  application  was  successful  to  the  extent  that  Colonel  Tal- 
bot  was  granted  by  Earl  Bathurst's  order,  from  ist  January,  1826, 
^400  per  annum  out  of  the  Crown  revenues  derived  from  the 
Canada  Company. 

It  was  not,  however,  part  of  Talbot's  plan  to  become  a  mere 
pensioner  under  government.  He  was  too  restlessly  active  for 
that  and  was  constantly  looking  about  for  fresh  lands  to  people. 
In  the  spring  of  1828,  the  Colonel,  having  sailed  from  New  York 
for  Liverpool,  in  the  packet  ship  William  Thomson,  early  in 
February,  was  accordingly  in  Mount  Street,  in  London,  England, 
busily  engaged  with  a  map,  obtained  from  Mr.  Hay,  Under  Secre- 
tary of  State,  whereon  he  coloured  in  red — like  a  modern 
imperialist — the  tract,  the  whole  of  which  he  was  desirous  should 
be  considered  as  the  Talbot  settlement,  and  placed  under  his 
superintendence — which  map  was  duly  transmitted  through  Down- 
ing Street  to  the  Provincial  Government,  who,  as  might  be 
expected,  did  not  view  it  with  favour. 

The  Colonel  was  again  in  Mount  Street  in  the  early  spring  of 
1829 — having  presumably  spent  a  twelvemonth  in  Great  Britain — 
applying  now  for  two  assistants  at  salaries  of  ^"150  each  and  a 
salary  of  £200  to  cover  his  own  expenses  of  superintending  the 
settlement  of  the  extensive  tract  of  land  "proposed  to  be  placed" 


96  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

under  his  superintendence.  Presumably,  this  request  was  not 
granted,  as  the  Provincial  Governor,  Sir  J.  Colborne,  in  September 
(1829),  reported  against  the  tract,  coloured  red  by  Colonel  Talbot, 
being  taken  out  of  the  control  of  the  Commissioner  of  Crown 
Lands. 

The  district  under  the  Colonel's  control  was,  however,  suf- 
ficiently vast.  His  distance  from  the  Provincial  capital,  as  well 
as  his  spirit  of  independence,  strengthened,  no  doubt,  by  the 
consciousness  that  he  had  the  sympathy  of  the  home  authorities, 
tended  to  render  him  impatient  of  the  red  tape  methods  of  Pro- 
vincial Government  officials,  though  it  must  be  said  that  his 
communications  were  ever  couched  in  respectful  language  and  he 
seems  to  have  always  endeavoured  to  fortify  himself  beforehand 
with  official  sanction  for  all  he  did. 

As  an  instance,  however,  of  his  method  of  sometimes  putting 
red  tape  to  an  extreme  tension,  may  be  mentioned  the  survey  of  a 
road  from  Westminster  to  Port  Talbot. 

Under  an  informal  order  of  Governor  Gore,  it  seems,  a  road  was 
to  be  laid  out  to  connect  the  road  through  Westminster  with  the 
Talbot  road  "so-called" — to  use  Surveyor-General  Ridout's 
expression — and  also  a  road  from  Southwold  to  Amherstburg,  and 
lots  to  be  laid  out  thereon.  Colonel  Burwell  made  the  survey  of 
the  connecting  road  in  1811,  under  the  direction  of  Colonel 
Talbot.  Governor  Gore,  who  was  on  intimate  terms  with  Colonel 
Talbot  and  visited  him  at  Port  Talbot,  having  gone  to  England, 
and  President  Brock  being  installed  in  his  place  ad  interim,  there 
would  seem  to  have  been  a  disposition  on  the  part  of  the  officials 
at  headquarters  in  York  to  have  matters  put  in  more  regular 
form  ;  and  the  Surveyor-General  in  March,  1812,  finding  Governor 
Gore's  order  as  to  the  road  unconfirmed  by  order-in-council,  wrote 
Talbot  not  to  place  any  settlers  on  the  lots  surveyed  on  the  road. 
In  the  following  month  he,  "  to  his  extreme  surprise  discovered' 
— to  quote  his  own  language — "that  Mr.  Burwell,  instead  of 
running  a  line  for  a  road  from  the  road  through  Westminster  to 
join  Colonel  Talbot's  road,  as  the  ground  may  best  suit  for  that 
purpose  " — as  ordered  by  Lieut. -Governor  Gore,  and  agreeably  to 
Mr.  Ridout's  instructions  of  June  previous — had  begun  his  survey 


THE  NORTH  BRANCH  TALBOT  ROAD.          97 

in  the  limits  between  Dunwich  and  Southwold,  at  the  distance  ot 
200  chains  in  rear  of  Talbot  road,  and  had  run  the  road  since 
known  as  the  North  branch  of  the  Talbot  road,  or  more  familiarly 
"  the  Back  street,"  parallel  to  the  main  Talbot  road,  surveyed  two 
years  before  (1809),  through  nearly  the  whole  township  of  South- 
wold,  and  also  a  road  connecting"  both  these  parallel  roads  with 
the  road  through  Westminster,  at  the  same  time  laying  off  lots 
along-  the  whole  extent  of  the  newly  surveyed  roads. 

As  the  township  of  Southwold  was  particularly  reserved  for 
schools,  it  was  pointed  out  that  any  surveys  or  locations  to  be 
made  therein  required  the  special  interference  of  council.  Had 
the  line  of  road  been  the  most  straight  and  direct  line  from  the 
Westminster  road  to  the  Talbot  road,  the  difficulty  would  prob- 
ably have  been  less,  according  to  the  Surveyor-General,  but,  as  it 
was  he  could  not  give  the  smallest  hope  that  the  parallel  new  road 
would  be  confirmed  by  the  government,  etc.,  etc. 

Some  ten  days  later  (2oth  April,  1812,)  President  Brock 
enclosed  in  a  friendly  letter  to  Colonel  Talbot  the  report  of  council 
in  the  matter,  regretting  it  was  not  more  satisfactory  and  saying 
that  not  an  idea  existed  of  any  survey  having  been  made  of  the 
land  parallel  to  Talbot  road  and  no  document  could  be  found 
authorizing  the  service.  If  the  Colonel  by  any  means  could  make 
it  appear  that  Governor  Gore  was  privy  to  and  sanctioned  the 
measure,  Brock  still  had  hopes  of  the  council  meeting  the  Colonel's 
wishes.  However  premature  the  latter  may  have  been,  the 
president  was  satisfied  he  acted  from  the  best  of  motives. 

That  Southwold,  on  the  borders  of  which  both  he  and  Colonel 
Burwell  lived,  should  be  closed  to  settlement,  was  by  no  means  in 
accordance  with  Colonel  Talbot's  ideas,  and  that  the  quietest 
way  to  open  it  was  by  a  new  road  with  lots  along  it,  running 
parallel  with  the  former  road  and  giving  better  access  from  the 
more  northerly  parts  to  Port  Talbot — the  Mecca  of  all  early 
settlers — was  no  doubt  his  view.  With  Talbot  action  followed 
thought  more  rapidly  than  with  the  York  officials. 

The  outbreak  of  the  war  within  a  few  weeks  no  doubt  put  the 
subject  out  of  all  minds  for  the  time  being — but  the  Colonel's 
policy  in  the  end  prevailed.  The  North  branch  or  Back  street 


98  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

exists  to-day,  flanked  by  some  of  the  fairest  farms  in  the  county  of 
Elgin. 

Colonel  Talbot  justly  prided  himself  on  the  policy  of  settlement 
duties  and  good  roads,  which  he  inaugurated.  In  the  course  of  a 
lengthy  letter  to  Sir  John  Colborne,  written  in  1831,  he  said  : 

"  I  was  the  first  person  who  exacted  the  performance  of  settlement  duties, 
and  actual  residence  on  the  land  located,  which  at  that  time  was  considered 
most  arbitrary  on  my  part,  but  the  consequence  now  is  that  the  settlers  that 
I  forced  to  comply  with  my  system  are  most  grateful  and  sensible  of  the 
advantage  they  could  not  otherwise  have  for  a  length  of  time  derived  by  the 
accomplishment  of  good  roads,  and  I  have  not  any  hesitation  in  stating  that 
there  is  not  another  settlement  in  North  America  which  can,  for  its  age  and 
extent,  exhibit  so  compact  and  profitably  settled  a  portion  of  the  new  world 

as  the  Talbot  Settlement My  population  amounts  to 

40,000  souls." 

This  population  was  spread  over  28  townships,  comprising 
more  than  half  a  million  acres. 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

SCOTCH    IN    ALDBOROUGH    AND    DUNWICH — BEES    AND    BALLS — 
OPPOSITION  TO  COLONEL  TALBOT. 

IN  1816  and  succeeding  years  a  considerable  number  of  Highland 
families  found  their  way  into  the  Talbot  settlement  and  took  up 
land  from  Colonel  Talbot  in  Dunwich,  Aldborough  and  other 
townships.  Some  fifteen  families  who  had  previously  settled  at 
Caledonia,  in  the  State  of  New  York,  migrated  to  Aldborough 
in  1816  and  1817 — those  of  Archibald  Gillies,  John  Menzie, 
Thomas  Ford,  Donald  McEwen,  Finlay  McDiarmid  and  Alexander 
Forbes  among  the  number.  In  the  autumn  of  1817  they  were 
joined  by  Peter  McKellar  (father  of  the  late  Sheriff  McKellar,  of 
Hamilton),  his  brother-in-law,  McNab,  and  sisters,  and  John 
Macdougall  (grandfather  of  the  late  Colin  Macdougall,  Q.C.,  of  St. 
Thomas),  who  came  direct  from  Scotland.*  In  1818  thirty-six 
families — among  them  the  Munro's  and  Leitch's — from  Mull  and 
other  parts  of  Argyleshire,  followed  in  1819  by  upwards  of  35, 
and  in  1820  by  25  more  families  from  Argyleshire,  landed  at  the 
same  place  where  their  predecessors  had  disembarked — the 
Sixteen  Creek  in  Aldborough,  so-called  from  its  being  16  miles 
west  of  Port  Talbot. 

In  addition  to  these  there  came  Angus  McKay,  George  Gunn, 
Bannerman  and  others  from  Lord  Selkirk's  settlement  in  the  Red 


*The  following'  persons,  most  of  whom  had  families,  were  in  the  settlement 
when  Geo.  Munro  arrived  in  1818  :  Gregor  McGregor,  Thomas  Ford, 
Duncan  Stewart,  Thomas  Dewar,  Alex.  Forbes,  Archie  Gillies,  John 
Douglas,  James  McKindley  (three  brothers  and  two  sisters),  Peter  McKellar, 
John  McDougall,  John  McEwen,  John  Gillies,  Finlay  McDiarmid,  Donald 
McNaughton,  Malcolm  Robinson,  Angus  McKay,  Thomas  and  Samuel 
McColl,  Dugald  Campbell  and  three  sons,  John  Kerr,  Neil  Haggert  and 
one  Rider.  These  came  in  1816  and  1817.  Donald  McGugan  came  in  1819. 


100  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

River  country,  which  hardships,  privations  and  the  warfare  waged 
between  the  rival  fur  companies  had  caused  them  to  quit.  They 
found  hardships  enough  in  their  new  homes. 

Some  of  these  Highland  settlers  made  their  homes  in  Lobo  and 
Caradoc,  but  most  of  them  settled  in  Dunwich  and  Aldborough, 
where  the  Gaelic  was  for  a  long  time  the  chief  tongue  spoken, 
outside  the  limits  of  "  Little  Ireland  "  and  the  region  of  "  Coyne's 
Corners,"  where  Henry  Coyne,  a  native  of  Belfast,  Ireland,  had 
established  himself  in  1817,  having  followed  his  brothers-in-law, 
Thomas  Gardiner — said  to  have  been  the  first  school  master  in 
what  is  now  the  county  of  Elgin — and  Singleton  Gardiner  into  the 
Talbot  settlement. 

Talbot  road  west  of  Port  Talbot  was  at  this  time  little  better 
than  a  blazed  line,  but  along  this  line  most  of  the  first  comers 
settled,  and  gradually  the  road  was  evolved. 

Colonel  Talbot's  mill,  destroyed  during  the  war,  had  not 
been  re-built,  and  whole  families  were  without  even  bread  to  eat 
for  months  at  a  time.  Eventually  the  saw  mill  was  re-built.  To 
obtain  flour,  however,  wheat  had  to  be  grown — a  question  of  time 
and  toil  and  propitious  weather — and  a  journey  of  weeks  made 
upon  the  often  tempestuous  lake  in  open  boats — or  with  hand- 
sleighs  upon  the  ice  in  winter.  To  buy  the  flour  meant  some  $16 
per  barrel,  when  procurable  at  all  in  the  settlement,  or  $12  at 
Buffalo. 

The  well-known  George  Munro,  of  Aldborough,  told  how  that 
in  November,  1818,  four  men  went  in  a  small  boat  to  Long  Point 
for  flour  to  be  divided  among  the  settlers — fifty-four  families, 
thirty-six  of  whom  had  but  recently  arrived.  The  families  who 
had  come  previously  in  1816  and  1817  had  barely  raised  enough 
corn  and  potatoes  for  their  own  use,  but  with  true  Christian  spirit 
held  all  in  common  with  the  new  arrivals.  The  boat  was 
expected  back  in  ten  days,  but  three  weeks  elapsed  and  yet  no 
sign  of  boat  or  men.  By  this  time  all  the  food  in  the  infant 
settlement  was  consumed,  with  the  exception  of  some  turnips, 
upon  which,  with  chestnuts,  providentially  abundant  that  season, 
the  settlers  were  obliged  to  subsist  for  almost  ten  days.  Four 
weeks  from  the  time  they  had  set  out  the  boatmen  returned. 


SCOTCH    IN   ALDBOROUGH   AND   DUNWICH.  101 

They  had  been  storm-stayed  on  the  return  journey  for  two  weeks 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Otter.  Proceeding'  west  about  thirty  miles, 
they  were  met  by  a  sou'-west  storm,  which  drove  them  ashore 
and  wrecked  the  boat,  while  they  with  difficulty  saved  half  the 
provisions,  which  they  piled  beyond  reach  of  the  surf  about  twenty 
miles  east  of  the  settlement.  There  was  no  snow  and  no  roads 
existed  there  as  yet.  The  rescued  flour  had  perforce  to  be  carried 
by  the  young"  men  of  the  settlement  on  their  backs,  and  this  they 
set  out  to  do,  distributing  it  among  the  suffering  families.  Before 
this  supply  was  exhausted  a  party  with  hand-sleighs  made  the 
journey  to  and  from  Long  Point  on  the  ice,  procuring  sufficient 
flour  for  the  following  summer. 

"  There  was  not  a  mill  within  many  miles  in  the  beginning  of 
1819,"  added  Mr.  Munro  ;  "  before  the  end  of  the  year  there  was 
one  in  almost  every  house,  but  they  were  hand-mills  " — the  joint 
production  of  Peter  McKellar  and  John  Menzie. 

In  1820  McKellar,  an  ingenious  man,  though  he  had  never 
served  a  day's  apprenticeship  at  any  trade,  erected  a  mill  on  the 
Sixteen  Creek.  All  the  wheels  and  gearing  were  made  by  him- 
self, though  the  irons  were  contributed  by  Colonel  Talbot  from  the 
ruins  of  his  Port  Talbot  mill.  The  settlers  aided  in  making  a 
dam  or  raceway,  and  the  hand-mills  had  a  rest,  except  in  times  of 
drought  or  severe  frost.  The  creek  was  not  a  living  stream  for  a 
great  portion  of  the  year,  so  that  the  season  for  grinding  was 
from  March  to  June.  To  do  the  grinding  for  the  settlement  in  so 
short  a  time,  Mr.  McKellar  ran  the  mill  all  alone,  day  and  night. 
"  He  would  start  the  mill,"  said  Sheriff  McKellar,  "  at  2  a.  m.  on 
Monday  morning  and  never  leave  it  until  9  p.  m.  Saturday 
evening.  I  have  seen  women  come  to  the  mill,  each  carrying  a 
bag  of  grain  on  her  back.  When  the  grain  was  ground,  they 
carried  the  bags  of  meal  home  again.  Meantime  the  husbands 
were  at  home  preparing  the  land  for  a  spring  crop."  For  pro- 
viding this  mill,  the  Sheriff  claimed  that  his  father  was  to  have 
received  from  Colonel  Talbot  an  additional  50  acres  of  land, 
besides  the  irons  before  mentioned,  but  he  did  not  get  the  land. 

Deer  and  wild  turkeys  abounded  at  times,  and,  though  some- 
times destructive  to  the  settlers'  crops,  were  more  welcome  than 


102  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

the  omnipresent  wolves  or  the  marauding"  raccoons,  which  stole 
the  corn  by  night — as  did  the  black  squirrels  by  day. 

The  forest — for  it  was  pretty  much  all  forest — tempered  the  bit- 
ing winter  winds  to  those  Highland  lads,  who  had  no  other  pro- 
tection below  the  middle  than  their  kilts.  In  1820  there  were  but 
150  acres  under  cultivation  in  the  whole  township  of  Aldborough 
— Archie  Gillies  being  the  proud  possessor  of  20  of  them. 

"  Bees  "  in  this,  as  in  all  other  new  settlements,  afforded  the 
chief  opportunities  alike  for  social  enjoyment  and  for  co-operation 
in  work  requiring  more  than  the  hands  at  each  family's  command. 
After  the  work  was  done,  the  piper  was  installed  on  the  table — a 
fiddler  in  most  other  settlements  did  similar  duty — and  the  merry 
dance  was  kept  up  till  morning- — Highland  reels  and  jigs  without 
dress  suits  and  ceremony.  Only  those,  we  are  assured,  who  have 
attended  a  bee  in  a  log  house  in  pioneer  days  know  the  genuine 
fun  and  pleasure  enjoyed  by  the  participants.  Absence  of  crime 
or  immorality  formed  matter  for  congratulation,  but  the  early 
chronicler  was  forced  to  confess  to  the  too  liberal  use  of  whiskey 
at  the  "  bees."  Total  abstinence  was  too  much  to  expect,  how- 
ever, of  Scotchmen,  or  indeed  any  settlers,  in  those  days  of 
hardship  and  cheap  untaxed  whiskey. 

"  When  I  became  a  magistrate,"  said  Squire  George  Munro, 
"  I  used  to  go  away  to  the  woods  when  I  heard  there  was  a  fight 
at  a  bee,  and  keep  away  till  the  blood  cooled  down,  and  that 
generally  ended  the  matter." 

In  later  days,  when  advancing  age  made  it  more  difficult  for  the 
good  "  Squire"  to  conveniently  absent  himself  when  his  magis- 
terial services  were  required,  he  was  accustomed  to  deliver  a 
preliminary  homily  at  the  inception  of  all  trials  upon  the  necessity 
of  "  reconceeliation "  between  neighbours  desirous  of  dwelling 
together  on  terms  of  amity,  which  often  produced  the  desired 
peace. 

Evidence  is,  however,  extant  to  show  that  even  "  Squire 
Munro  "  was  not  above  indulging  in  a  frolic  in  those  earlier  and 
ruder  days  when  a  frolic  and  a  fracas  might  be  deemed  inter- 
changeable terms. 

The  New  Year's  ball  was  in  those  days  the  event  of  the  year — 


BEES   AND    BALLS.  103 

and  the  largest  house,  possessing-  a  good  floor,  the  scene  of  the 
festivities.  When  the  settlement  had  spread  a  few  miles  from  the 
lake  a  rivalry  among  the  young  people  resulted  in  two  balls  being 
arranged  for  the  same  New  Year's  night,  the  one  on  Talbot  street 
and  the  other  on  the  Back  street,  George  Munro  being  manager 
of  the  latter.  The  settlement  possessed  but  one  piper,  Patterson, 
skilled  in  the  requisite  dance  music — hence  his  presence  was  a 
sine  qua  non  to  the  success  of  either  event.  Munro  secured  the 
piper  for  five  shillings.  Archie  Gillies,  for  Talbot  street,  went  a 
shilling  better  in  his  offer,  but  the  piper  declined  to  break  his 
contract  with  Munro  ;  whereupon  Archie,  a  powerful  man,  seized 
and  carried  him  to  John  Gillies'  tavern,  where  the  piper  remained 
a  prisoner  several  days,  awaiting  the  advent  of  the  New  Year. 
When  this  became  known  to  the  youth  of  the  Back  street,  they 
held  a  council  of  war  to  devise  a  way  of  obtaining  possession  of 
the  piper  and  his  pipes.  As  a  result  twenty  of  the  northern 
clansmen  met  and  marched  to  the  vicinity  of  the  tavern,  where 
the  greater  number  hid  in  the  woods,  while  George  Munro  with 
three  others  walked  into  the  bar  and  called  for  drinks,  which 
Munro  paid  for,  with  an  additional  coin  for  a  drink  for  the  piper, 
whom  he  asked  should  be  allowed  to  drink  with  them.  Archie 
Gillies  and  several  others  of  his  party  being  present,  the  landlord 
granted  the  request,  the  piper  was  produced  and  his  thirst 
quenched.  Another  call  for  drinks,  coupled  with  a  request  that 
the  piper  be  allowed  to  enliven  their  departure  by  a  skreel  of  the 
pipes  was  also  acquiesced  in,  and  the  room  being  small  for  a  piper 
to  march  to  the  music  with  becoming  dignity,  he  was  allowed 
outside  for  the  purpose.  Now  stealthily  crept  the  clansmen  from 
their  hiding  places  toward  their  prey,  the  shades  of  evening  and 
the  shrill  notes  of  the  pipes  preventing  their  approach  being  either 
seen  or  heard.  A  moment  and  it  was  all  over,  and  victory  was 
theirs  !  The  piper,  seized  by  two  strong  men,  was  lifted  to  their 
shoulders  and  borne  swiftly  into  the  forest,  while  the  pipes,  with 
a  parting  wail,  became  silent.  Munro,  jubilant  at  the  success  of 
his  strategy,  quickly  followed,  while  Gillies  and  his  friends, 
recognizing  the  odds  against  them,  held  back — and  there  was  no 
dance  on  Talbot  street  that  New  Year's  night.  Most  of  the  lads 


104  THE  TALBOT   REGIME. 

and  lasses  followed  the  piper  to  the  Back  street  ball  and  Munro's 
victory  was  complete. 

George  Munro  succeeded  Peter  McKellar  as  the  second  self- 
taught  doctor  of  the  neighbourhood.  McKellar's  sovereign 
remedy  for  the  fevers,  which  were  very  prevalent,  was  an  incision 
of  his  knife  to  bleed  the  patient — and  little  wonder  is  it  that  14 
deaths  in  one  week  in  1820  are  recorded — but  Munro  lived  to  the 
days  of  quinine  and  acknowledged  no  superior  in  medicine,  save 
Dr.  Travers  of  Fingal.  At  harvest  time,  when  fevers  were 
prevalent,  so  busy  was  he  in  visiting  the  sick  by  day  that  he  is 
said  to  have  cradled  his  wheat  by  moonlight.  Munro  was  one  of 
the  early  school  teachers  also,  receiving  two  bushels  of  wheat  per 
scholar,  which  he  sold  at  thirty-seven  cents  per  bushel ;  in  addition 
to  which,  he  received  a  government  grant  of  $50,  which  munificent 
grant  was  subsequently  reduced  as  schools  increased — and  to 
draw  it,  he  had  to  walk  to  Long  Point,  a  distance  of  90  miles. 

Colonel  Talbot  had  not  a  more  loyal  and  staunch  friend  among 
the  settlers  and  their  descendants  than  George  Munro,  who  spoke 
and  wrote  of  the  founder  of  the  settlement  in  terms  of  the  deepest 
reverence  and  admiration.  These  feelings  were,  however,  by  no 
means  shared  by  all  the  Scotch  settlers.  That  the  Colonel  was 
an  aristocrat  and  an  arbitrary  ruler  was  enough  to  arouse  the 
prejudices  of  some.  That  he  sold  them  lands  which  had  cost  him 
little  or  no  money  ;  or  if,  having  received  a  free  grant  of  fifty 
acres,  the  settler  was  obliged  to  purchase  what  further  land  he 
was  able  to  acquire,  while  the  Colonel  drew  150  acres  for  every 
settler  upon  50  acres,  appeared  to  them  unjust  and  embittered 
their  minds. 

The  case  appears  to  have  stood  as  follows  :  By  the  terms  of 
Lord  Hobart's  order  Colonel  Talbot  was  to  receive  a  grant  of 
5,000  acres  in  Yarmouth,  or  such  other  unappropriated  township 
as  he  should  select.  The  5,000  acres  were  granted  him  at  Port 
Talbot,  in  Dunwich.  A  proportion  of  the  townships  immediately 
contiguous  was  to  be  reserved  to  enable  him  to  draw  200  acres 
for  every  family  he  might  induce  to  settle  there — provided  he 
should  have  surrendered  50  acres  of  his  original  grant  to  each 
family  for  which  he  might  claim,  and  that  such  family  should  at 


OPPOSITION   TO   COLONEL   TALBOT.  105 

the  time  be  established  in  the  actual  possession  of  the  said  fifty 
acres.  Now  this  at  first  sight  would  seem  to  contemplate  the 
breaking  up  of  the  Colonel's  original  grant  of  5,000  acres  into 
50-acre  lots  upon  each  of  which  a  family  would  be  established,  he 
then  to  be  entitled  to  draw  at  the  rate  of  200  acres  for  each  such 
family,  as  his  reward,  from  the  adjacent  townships.  One  hundred 
would  thus  be  the  maximum  number  of  families,  to  be  settled 
in  one  compact  settlement  about  Port  Talbot,  and  20,000  acres 
the  maximum  of  the  grants  to  be  made  to  the  Colonel  from  the 
adjoining  townships. 

This  was  not  Colonel  Talbot's  construction  of  the  order,  nor  his 
scheme  of  settlement.  His  idea  appears  to  have  been  to  retain  a 
considerable  proportion,  if  not  the  whole  of  his  original  5,000 
acres,  as  an  estate  where  he  might  dwell  in  comparative  seclusion, 
while  the  settlers  might  be  placed  throughout  the  adjacent  town- 
ships upon  5o-acre  lots,  thus  opening  up  the  country  and  providing 
roads  for  travel  and  commerce,  and  incidentally  enhancing  the 
value  of  the  remaining  150  acres  of  each  aoo-acre  lot,  which  he 
would  be  entitled  to  retain  for  himself.  From  the  standpoint  o 
the  general  public  interest,  apart  from  that  of  either  Talbot  or  of 
the  individual  settler,  the  Colonel's  arrangement  would  seem  best 
for  the  needs  of  the  country,  inasmuch  as  a  settlement  spread 
throughout  the  townships,  with  connecting  roads,  would  be  more 
beneficial  to  the  country  at  large  than  one  compact  isolated 
settlement.  This  probably  accounts  for  the  provincial  govern- 
ment's not  appearing  to  have  objected  to  the  manner  in  which  the 
Colonel  located  his  settlers,  after  it  was  decided  by  Earl  Bathurst 
that  he  was  restricted  to  20,000  acres  of  free  grants.  These  free 
grants,  as  has  been  seen,  were  to  be  made  entirely  from  the  town- 
ships of  Dunwich  and  Aldborough.  In  the  other  townships  the 
Colonel  acted  merely  as  government  agent,  though  with  well  nigh 
absolute  powers. 

It  was,  however,  to  the  fact  that  Colonel  Talbot  received  free 
grants  at  all  for  forming  the  settlement,  rather  than  the  mode  of 
locating  them,  that  the  Scotch  settlers  objected.  It  was  but 
natural  that  they  should  regard  it  as  anomalous  that  he  should 
have  150  acres  for  every  50  acres  bestowed  on  an  actual  settler, 


106  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

and  that  their  labour  should  inevitably  have  the  effect  of 
enhancing"  the  value  of  his  unimproved  lands.  They  overlooked 
the  fact  that  they  might,  by  going  into  any  of  the  other  town- 
ships, have  received  a  free  grant  of  100  acres.  It  has  by  some 
been  said  that  the  Colonel  refused  them  this  privilege.  Talbot 
himself  gave  as  one  reason  for  placing  them  together  in  a  settle- 
ment by  themselves,  their  common  language  and  the  inconvenience 
to  themselves  which  would  arise  from  separation. 

Colonel  Talbot  has  by  some  been  thought  to  have  been 
prejudiced  against  the  Scotch,  but  the  only  evidence  of  it  which 
the  writer  has  found  is  contained  in  a  letter  to  Commissioner 
Robinson,  written  in  1831,  in  which,  speaking  of  a  projected  new 
road,  he  said  :  "  My  advice  is  that  you  should,  as  much  as 
possible,  avoid  placing  Highland  Scotch  settlers  upon  it,  as  of  all 
descriptions  they  make  the  worst  settlers  on  new  roads — English 
are  the  best."  His  own  countrymen,  it  will  be  observed,  are  not 
placed  in  the  front  rank.  The  fact,  however,  appears  to  have 
been  that,  through  the  British  Consul  at  New  York,  Mr.  Buchanan, 
and  Andrew  McNab,  civil  engineer,  and  brother-in-law  of  Peter 
McKellar,  Colonel  Talbot  sought  for  and  obtained  an  influx  of 
Highland  Scotch  settlers  into  Dunwich  and  Aldborough. 

That  the  Colonel  was  looked  upon  as  an  autocrat  and  a  Tory 
was  enough  to  arouse  the  resentment  of  some,  and  when  a  Mr. 
Black,  presumably  for  political  purposes,  persuaded  many  that 
Colonel  Talbot  was  withholding  from  them  150  acres,  which  really 
belonged  to  themselves,  they  became  his  active  opponents  and 
marched  to  the  poll,  headed  by  a  piper,  to  record  their  votes 
against  Burwell  and  Bostwick,  the  candidates  the  Colonel  was 
supposed  to  favour. 

Henry  Coyne,  the  Belfast  Irishman  already  mentioned,  was 
also  one  of  the  Colonel's  leading  opponents  in  Dunwich,  and  con- 
tinued a  consistent  opposition  to  his  administration  throughout 
his  life.  He  had  five  sons,  who  naturally  imbibed  his  Liberal 
principles,  which  have  indeed  continued  to  the  third  and  fourth 
generation. 

Leslie  Patterson  and  his  brother-in-law,  John  Pearce,  and  the 
other  earliest  settlers  of  "  Little  Ireland  "  were,  however,  as 


OPPOSITION   TO   COLONEL   TALBOT.  107 

staunch  and  true  to  the  interests  of  Colonel  Talbot  and  to  the 
Tory  party  as  others  were  inimical.  It  was  Patterson  who 
covered  the  Colonel's  retreat  down  the  hill  and  across  the  creek 
when  one  of  the  marauding1  parties  of  Americans  and  Indians 
visited  Port  Talbot,  and  saved  him  being  fired  upon,  as  already 
mentioned,  and  guarded  the  place  for  some  time  in  its  owner's 
absence.  Patterson  was  a  militia  captain  then,  but  was  promoted 
to  a  Colonelcy  at  the  time  of  the  rebellion  of  1837.  He  and  his 
friends  and  neighbours,  the  Backus's,  the  Pearces  and  Storys  and 
others  of  "  Little  Ireland,"  gave  no  uncertain  sound  at  election 
times — though  Colonel  Talbot  himself  being  a  legislative  coun- 
cillor, who  never,  however,  took  his  seat — never  voted,  nor  did 
he,  except  on  one  occasion  hereafter  referred  to,  address  political 
meetings. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

DR.  JOHN  ROLPH   AND   FAMILY — COLONEL    BURWELL — ELECTIONS 
— Two  SCOTCH  BARONETS. 

ACROSS  Kettle  Creek,  upon  the  rolling'  uplands  of  Southwold,  just 
west  of  St.  Thomas,  lies  a  succession  of  fine  farms,  commanding 
beautiful  views  of  the  neighbouring  city  and  country.  One  of 
these  farms,  lot  forty-one,  south  of  Talbot  road,  now  owned  and 
occupied  by  the  Treadwell  family,  was  originally  settled  by  John 
Rolph,  the  eldest  son  of  Dr.  Thomas  Rolph,  to  whose  hospitable 
home  in  the  township  of  Charlotteville  reference  has  already  been 
made.  Abraham  King,  an  employee,  who  accompanied  the 
family  from  England,  settled  on  the  adjoining  lot  to  the  west,  in 
Southwold,  where  his  son,  David  King-,  still  resides — a  venerable 
man. 

The  Rolphs  came  from  Thornbury,  in  Gloucestershire,  England, 
where  the  father  had  been  a  surgeon,  when  John,  the  eldest  of 
four  sons  and  several  daughters,  was  born  on  4th  March,  1793. 
The  family  came  to  this  country  previous  to  1810,  and  made  their 
home  at  first  in  Lower  Canada,  and  afterward  near  Vittoria,  in 
Charlotteville  in  the  Long  Point  settlement.  Of  the  other  sons 
Romaine  became  a  clergyman  of  the  Chnrch  of  England  in  Cana- 
da ;  Thomas,  a  clergyman,  lived  and  died  in  England,  while  George 
became  a  lawyer,  practising  at  Dundas.  One  daughter,  Sarah, 
became  the  wife  of  George  Ryerson,  and  another,  Emma,  married 
William  (afterwards  Judge)  Salmon,  son  of  Colonel  Salmon — who 
came  from  the  same  part  of  England  as  the  Rolphs — after  the 
family  made  their  home  in  the  Long  Point  country.  The  first 
mentioned  match  being  opposed  by  the  young  lady's  parents — 
either  owing  to  the  youthfulness  of  the  couple  or  what  not — an 
elopement  down  a  ladder,  if  not  of  ropes,  of  good  Long  Point 


DR.   JOHN   ROLPH   AND    FAMILY.  109 

timber,  took  place,  the  upper  window  of  exit  being  still  pointed 
out  as  an  object  of  historic  interest — at  least  it  was  a  few  years 
since,  to  the  writer's  knowledge. 

A  day  came  before  the  close  of  the  war,  in  1814,  when  the 
spirit  of  the  elder  Dr.  Rolph  took  its  flight  as  he  reposed  quietly 
on  his  sofa,  and  the  care  of  a  large  family  devolved  upon  the 
eldest  son  and  his  brothers.  A  desire  to  bring  about  an  alliance 
by  marriage  between  Colonel  Talbot  and  some  one  of  the 
daughters  of  the  family  has  been  attributed  to  Dr.  John  Rolph, 
but  this  conjecture  seems  to  rest  on  no  more  solid  foundation  than 
the  fact  that  the  Colonel,  a  bachelor  of  more  than  forty  years  of 
age,  while  in  command  at  Long  Point  in  1812  had  been  brought 
into  close  contact  with  the  Rolphs — and  no  doubt  had  enjoyed 
their  hospitality  ;  for  there  is  ample  evidence  that  the  Colonel, 
though  a  confirmed  bachelor,  was  by  no  means  unappreciative  of 
cultivated  female  society.  John  Rolph,  it  is  true,  had  taken  up 
land  subsequently  at  no  great  distance  from  Port  Talbot,  and  was 
a  frequent  visitor  there,  but  all  this  may  be  attributed  to  other 
motives  than  that  referred  to — though  a  desire  to  promote  the 
welfare  of  one's  family  by  an  advantageous  marriage  has  never 
been  regarded  as  reprehensible. 

We  have  seen,  however,  that  gossip  had  associated  the  name 
of  the  Colonel's  brother  William  with  the  Rolphs  and  that  the 
possibility  of  an  alliance  had  been  canvassed,  even  at  so  great  a 
distance  as  York,  and  that  Governor  Gore's  secretary,  Major 
Halton,  had  offered  to  promote  such  alliance  by  dispossessing 
Sovereen  of  the  office  of  surrogate  and  conferring  it  upon  the 
anticipated  bridegroom — Sovereen  having,  to  the  secretary's 
disgust,  failed  to  return  thanks  when  his  commission  was  handed 
him.  William  Talbot,  it  may  be  observed,  was  the  only  one  of 
the  Colonel's  brothers  unprovided  with  either  a  profession  or 
commission  in  the  army  or  navy.  He  was  then  on  a  visit  to 
Canada,  which  he  soon  left,  proceeding  subsequently  to  Australia, 
where,  after  getting  into  some  trouble  with  a  governor  of  that 
colony,  he  died. 

Though  evidence  of  any  design  upon  the  part  of  John  Rolph  as 
a  matchmaker  is  lacking,  he  without  doubt  ingratiated  himself 


110  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

both  with  the  Colonel  and  the  settlers  with  other  objects  in  view, 
in  some  of  which  he  ultimately  succeeded.  He  was  a  young"  man 
of  smooth  and  persuasive  tongue  and  manner,  and  though  not  tall 
in  stature,  possessed  a  handsome  and  engaging  countenance.  His 
letter  to  Colonel  Talbot  announcing  his  father's  death,  the  corres- 
pondence and  documents  regarding  the  establishment  of  the 
Talbot  anniversary,  to  be  presently  referred  to,  and  his  letter 
regarding  the  establishment  of  the  "Talbot  Dispensatory"  (all  to 
be  found  in  the  appendices)  afford  evidence  at  once  of  his  some- 
what florid  style  and  of  his  reverence — whether  actual  or  assumed 
—for  Colonel  Talbot. 

It  was  in  1817  that  the  Talbot  anniversary  was  inaugurated. 
By  that  time  the  settlers  had  sufficiently  recovered  from  the 
ravages  of  the  war  to  be  able  to  indulge  themselves  and  their 
families  with  a  festival.  The  idea  once  mooted,  it  was  not 
unnatural  that  they  should  concur  in  fixing  upon  the  2ist  May, 
the  anniversary  of  the  commencement  by  Colonel  Talbot  of  his 
settlement,  as  the  day  when  they  should  meet  together  to  show 
their  respect  and  gratitude  to  its  founder  and  for  social  enjoyment. 

No  better  illustration  of  the  adroitness  and  astuteness  of  John 
Rolph,  the  budding  politician  of  24  years  of  age,  could  probably 
be  given,  than  the  clever  manner  in  which  he  managed  to  take 
the  lead  in  a  popular  movement — originated  no  doubt  by  himself 
— to  please  Colonel  Talbot  and  most  of  his  friends,  and  at  the 
same  time  draw  the  Colonel's  confidential  friend,  Colonel  Burwell, 
the  member  of  parliament,  into  a  position  of  apparent  hostility  to 
his  friend  and  chief  supporter  and  his  loyal  settlers,  and  incite  the 
latter  to  pass  a  vote  of  censure  publicly  upon  their  member. 
Though  Major  Nevills  was  the  nominal  secretary,  the  hand  of  John 
Rolph  is  apparent  throughout  the  correspondence  and  proceedings 

The  preliminary  meeting  was  held  in  March,  1817,  an  address 
adopted  and  forwarded  to  Colonel  Talbot,  a  gracious  reply 
received,  and  on  2ist  May  of  the  same  year,  the  first  Talbot 
anniversary  was  held  at  Dr.  Lee's  hotel  in  Yarmouth,  close  to  St. 
Thomas,  attended  by  seventy-five  persons — a  large  gathering  in 
those  days  of  small  things,  when  the  state  of  the  settlement  and 
the  difficulties  of  travel  are  considered. 


COLONEL   BURWELL  111 

Colonel  Mahlon  Burwell  had  represented  the  electoral  district  of 
Oxford  and  Middlesex  since  its  first  election  of  a  member  in  1813. 
Prior  to  that  time  the  greater  part  of  the  Talbot  settlement  had 
been  embraced  in  the  London  electoral  district,  of  which  Mr. 
(afterwards  Sir)  D.  W.  Smith  and  the  notorious  Benajah  Mallory 
had  been  the  representatives  successively. 

Mr.  Burwell,  who  was  a  native  of  New  Jersey,  was  employed, 
as  has  been  seen,  in  much  of  the  early  surveying  of  the  district 
and  had  settled  near  Port  Talbot  at  the  point  known  as  Burwell's 
Corners,  on  the  town  line  of  Dunwich  and  Southwold,  where  the 
Registry  office  was  established  in  1811.  Mr.  Burwell  was  a  man 
of  integrity,  tall  and  of  dignified  appearance,  and  was  valued  by 
Colonel  Talbot  for  his  professional  knowledge  and  general  useful- 
ness. He  possessed  little  of  the  suavity  which  characterized  John 
Rolph,  but  was  naturally  imperious,  self-willed  and  opinionated. 
He  had  begun  to  suspect  Rolph  of  designs  to  supplant  him  and 
this  no  doubt  led  to  his  writing  the  apparently  impolitic  address 
which  he  issued  "  to  the  people  of  Talbot  road  "  in  opposition  to 
the  Talbot  anniversary  (see  appendix.)  When  the  anniversary 
took  place  a  month  later,  resolutions  were  unanimously  adopted 
condemning  Colonel  Burwell's  interference  as  "unbecoming," 
"indelicate,"  "  obtrusive  "  and  "disrespectful,"  both  to  Colonel 
Talbot  and  the  people. 

It  is  to  Colonel  Talbot's  credit  that  he  seems  to  have  taken  no 
notice  of  Colonel  Burwell's  part  in  this  matter.  While  he  was  on 
friendly  terms  with  Rolph  and  gratified  by  the  settlers'  desire  to 
.do  him  honour  and  joined  annually  in  the  festival  with  evident 
zest  and  enjoyment,  he  continued  his  former  relations  with 
Colonel  Burwell  and  lent  him  all  his  accustomed  support  in 
succeeding  elections.  If  Rolph's  design  was  to  create  a  breach 
between  them,  it  was  apparently  not  successful.  Colonel  Burwell 
was  re-elected  for  Oxford  and  Middlesex,  as  was  Colonel  Nichol 
for  Norfolk,  in  1817,  and  the  former  for  Middlesex  alone  in  1820. 
It  was  not  until  1824  that  he  was  defeated  by  Dr.  Rolph  and 
Captain  Matthews,  who  was  called  forth  by  an  act  passed  on 
motion  of  Burwell  himself,  under  which  the  representation  of 
Middlesex  was  doubled. 


112  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

Shortly  after  the  inauguration  of  the  Talbot  anniversary,  John 
Rolph  had  proceeded  to  England,  and  during  1818  and  1819 
pursued  his  studies  there  at,  Cambridge,  and  subsequently  at 
London,  where  he  resumed  his  law  studies  in  the  Inner  Temple, 
where  he  had  been  admitted  a  student  in  1809.  He  was  called  to 
the  bar  of  the  Inner  Temple  ist  June,  1821.  His  father's  example 
and  training,  no  doubt,  induced  him  to  pursue  the  study  of 
medicine  and  surgery  as  well,  which  he  did  under  Sir  Astley 
Cooper.  The  practice  of  law  and  medicine  or  surgery  by  one 
and  the  same  practitioner  was  not  an  unknown  combination 
in  the  province  of  Upper  Canada  in  that  day,  when,  as  one 
writer  has  put  it,  leading  counsel  were  sometimes  called 
from  the  court-room  in  York  to  attend  at  the  ushering  into 
the  world  of  some  one  of  the  province's  leading  citizens  of  a  later 
day.  That  Dr.  Rolph  attained  some  distinction  at  the  bar  and 
enduring  fame  as  a  teacher  of  medical  jurisprudence  is  a  tribute  at 
once  to  his  versatility  and  pre-eminent  ability.  He  had  also  at 
one  time  studied  for  the  church  in  England.  Sir  John  Colborne, 
when  governor  of  the  province,  who  could  have  had  little  sympathy 
with  Rolph's  political  views,  nevertheless  recognized  his  ability 
and  attainments  by  seeking  to  place  him  at  the  head  of  a  college 
at  the  capital,  while  Mr.  (afterwards  Sir  Francis)  Hincks  once 
wrote  of  him,  "  he  was  the  most  talented  and  highly  educated 
man  in  the  province  and  there  was  never  a  man  less  likely  to  be 
influenced  by  pecuniary  considerations."  The  Rolph  School  of 
medicine,  affiliated  wirh  Victoria  University,  and  subsequently 
merged  in  Toronto  University,  rose  to  eminence  and  great 
usefulness  under  his  superintendence.  Of  his  career  at  the  bar 
not  so  much  is  known,  as  it  terminated  in  1828,  when  he  and  the 
two  Baldwins  are  described  as  having  thrown  off  their  gowns  and 
retired  from  court,  owing  to  the  view  they  took  of  the  treatment 
of  Mr.  Justice  Willis  by  Mr.  Justice  Sherwood — Rolph  never  to 
return — but  that  he  had  at  one  time  an  extensive  practice  in  the 
west  the  records  of  the  courts  affirm. 

Doubtless  it  was  the  gracious  reception  given  by  Colonel 
Talbot  to  the  proposition  for  the  inauguration  of  the  Talbot 
anniversary  and  the  success  of  that  annual  festival  which  led  Dr. 


THE   TALBOT    DISPENSATORY.  113 

Rolph  to  hope  for  a  like  reception  and  similar  success  for  his 
proposal  of  a  Talbot  Dispensatory,  or  school  for  medical  instruc- 
tion at  St.  Thomas,  to  be  combined  with  a  hospital,  where  free 
medical  advice  was  to  be  given  weekly.  In  fact  the  doctor  cited, 
in  his  letter  to  the  Colonel  outlining'  his  scheme,  the  former 
success  as  a  precedent  for  the  latter. 

"  Everything  that  is  great  and  useful  should  begin  in  the 
Talbot  settlement  under  your  auspices,"  wrote  Rolph  in  com- 
mencing his  letter  to  Colonel  Talbot  (see  Appendix  D)  detailing 
the  plans  of  Dr.  Charles  Duncombe  and  himself  regarding  the 
"  Talbot  Dispensatory  " — and  again  :  "This  institution,  like  the 
Talbot  anniversary,  will,  under  your  patronage,  be  supported  with 
equal  zeal." 

Remembering  that  all  is  considered  fair  in  politics,  as  in  love  or 
war,  it  is  difficult  to  withstand  the  impression,  notwithstanding 
protests  to  the  contrary  contained  in  the  letter,  and  the  fact  that 
the  Conservative  candidates  and  some  of  their  friends  were  named 
in  it  for  office,  that  the  two  astute  Liberal  doctors  had  in  view,  as 
part  at  all  events  of  their  scheme,  the  conciliation  of  the  Colonel 
and  his  settlers  for  the  advantage  of  Rolph  in  the  election 
then  coming  on — for  the  reference  toward  the  close  of  the  letter 
to  the  "  concourse  of  the  election  "  as  a  fitting  time,  under  the 
patronage  of  the  Colonel  and  the  conjunction  of  the  candidates,  to 
commence  the  movement  for  the  school  and  Dispensatory  with 
advantage,  give  an  impetus  to  public  feeling  and  receive  subscrip- 
tions in  kind,  clearly  points  to  the  election  of  1824  as  approaching. 
Colonel  Burwell,  it  is  true,  was  suggested  for  president,  but 
without  visitorial  power  and  "  with  privileges  ascertained  by  the 
by-laws,"  which  privileges,  it  may  be  surmised,  would  be  few. 
Dr.  Duncombe  was  to  call  and  learn  Colonel  Talbot's  pleasure, 
and  the  latter  seems  to  have  been  gracious  enough  to  comply  with 
the  request  for  his  patronage — for  the  opening  course  of  lectures  of 
the  "  medical  school  at  St.  Thomas  in  the  Talbot  settlement  and 
under  the  immediate  patronage  of  the  Hon.  Colonel  Talbot,"  by 
Charles  Duncombe,  on  "  The  Theory  and  Practice  of  Medicine," 
and  John  Rolph  on  "  Anatomy  and  Physiology,"  was  announced 
by  advertisement  in  William  Lyon  McKenzie's  paper,  the  Colonial 


114  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

Advocate^  in  August  immediately  following  the  election,  which  was 
held  in  July.  This  announcement  possibly  indicates  that  Dr. 
Rolph  had  more  than  political  advantage  in  his  thoughts — if 
the  latter  was  contemplated  at  all — in  launching  this,  the 
first  medical  college  in  the  province,  of  which  unfortunately 
nothing  further  is  recorded.  It  was  but  the  precursar  of  the 
Rolph  school  already  referred  to  as  merged  in  Toronto  University. 
Its  functions,  no  doubt,  were  chiefly  confined  to  the  free  weekly 
medical  advice  spoken  of  in  the  letter  to  Colonel  Talbot. 

William  Lyon  McKenzie  was  present  on  the  nomination  day  at 
this  election  and  wrote  a  graphic  description  of  the  proceedings. 
The  hustings  were  on  a  high  and  well  chosen  spot  near  the  church 
(then  being  erected)  in  St.  Thomas.  Mr.  Warren,  the  returning 
officer,  "  a  genteel  youth,"  cut  a  fine  figure,  dressed  in  blue,  with 
his  sword  appended  to  his  side.  Colonel  Talbot  and  the  candi- 
dates were  with  him  on  the  hustings,  while  five  or  six  hundred 
people  listened  to  the  reading  of  the  writ  and  subsequent  speeches 
— and  McKenzie  wound  up  the  proceedings  by  addressing  the 
electors  from  his  waggon  at  considerable  length.  Burwell's 
address,  but  for  an  ebulition  of  temper  toward  the  close,  and  of 
course  those  of  Dr.  Rolph  and  Captain  Matthews,  were  com- 
mended. Rolph  was  still  the  lawyer,  as  well  as  doctor,  for, 
waxing  warm  at  one  point,  he  began  a  sentence  with  "  gentlemen 
of  the  jury,"  but  quickly  recollected  himself  and  concluded  with 
"  some  handsome  and  well  merited  compliments  to  the  Honourable 
Colonel  Talbot,  the  noble  founder  of  the  settlement."  Bostwick 
did  not  speak. 

Colonel  Talbot,  soon  after  the  business  of  the  day  began,  retired 
from  the  hustings,  mounted  his  horse  and  remained  among  the 
multitude.  "  He  could  not  but  be  highly  gratified,"  wrote 
McKenzie,  "  with  the  delicate  compliments  that  were  paid  him  as 
the  founder  and  father  of  the  country,  as  its  friend  and  liberal 
benefactor.  The  honourable  gentleman  is  in  general  well  beloved 
by  the  people,"  he  added,  referring  to  the  last  Talbot  anniversary, 
at  which  300  or  400  persons  had  been  addressed  by  the  Colonel, 
Mr.  Rolph  replying  for  the  company. 

Mr.  McKenzie's  impressions  of  Colonel  Talbot  at  this  time  will  be 


COLONEL    MAHLON    BURWELL. 

From  "  Illustrated  London  "  (Copyrighted)  by  p  -rinixsi 


COLONEL  JOHN    BOSTWICK. 


Dk.    JOHN    KOLPH. 
l'~>-om  a  fainting  in  l8j6. 


DR.    CHAS.    IH'NCOMBE. 
at  the  age  of  Jo. 


ELECTIONS.  115 

of  interest  and  justify  the  following  further  extract  from  his  article : 

"  He  is,  without  doubt,  a  man  of  eccentric  habits,  but  many  of  the  stories 
that  are  current  in  the  country  respecting  his  manner  of  living  have  no 
foundation  in  truth.  He  was,  when  I  saw  him,  dressed  in  a  plain  blue  surtout 
coat  and  trousers  ;  there  was  nothing  fanciful  about  his  dress  or  horse 
furniture,  save  an  Indian  blanket,  which  was  wrapped  up  like  a  horseman's 
cloak  and  fastened  behind  the  saddle ;  his  air  is  that  of  a  military  officer  of 
distinction,  insomuch  that  had  he  not  been  pointed  out  to  me,  I  should  have 
set  him  down  in  my  own  mind  as  a  person  of  some  consequence.  In  youth 
he  must  have  possessed  a  handsome  person  and  well  formed  features  ;  for 
even  now,  and  he  is  nearly  sixty  years  of  age,  his  features  have  nothing 
harsh,  and  his  appearance  is  prepossessing.  I  have  seen  him,  I  like  him, 
and  I  hope  his  children,  for  so  may  he  call  the  settlers  in  Middlesex,  will  teach 
their  little  ones  to  revere  him  as  Pater  Patrice,  the  father  of  his  country." 

Alas  !  when  McKenzie  re-published  this  article,  some  ten  years 
years  or  so  later,  in  England,  in  his  book  of  Sketches  of  Canada, 
the  last  sentence  and  many  of  the  complimentary  references  to 
Colonel  Talbot  preceding  it  were  omitted.  He  liked  him  no  longer. 

Captain  Matthews,  who  was  with  Rolph  elected,  was  a  retired 
officer  of  artillery,  who  settled  at  first  at  Queenston  and  subse- 
quently migrated  to  the  bush  in  Lobo,  with  a  retinue  of  nearly  30 
persons,  family  and  servants,  "  with  six  waggons,  one  cart,  24 
horses,  a  flock  of  sheep  and  some  cows."  After  the  election  he 
was  escorted  to  his  residence  in  Lobo  (a  distance  of  20  or  30 
miles)  by  the  members  elect  of  Oxford,  by  his  fellow-member,  Dr. 
Rolph,  by  the  chairman  of  the  Court  of  Quarter  Sessions,  and, 
according  to  a  correspondent  of  McKenzie's,  "  by  as  gallant,  as 
numerous  and  independent  a  troop  of  honest,  honourable  and 
loyal  men  as  perhaps  ever  travelled  that  distance  together." 
Matthews  became  of  dissipated  habits,  was  somewhat  of  a 
demagogue  and  got  into  trouble  at  York  in  consequence,  as  here- 
after mentioned.  His  residence  was  on  a  height  on  the  north  side 
of  the  Thames  in  Lobo,  and  on  both  sides  of  the  river  he  had  an 
estate  of  some  two  thousand  acres.  He  possessed  what  was  then 
considered  an  extensive  library. 

Rolph   and    Matthews   were  re-elected  in   1828,*   but  in    1830 

*Burwell,  in  a  letter  to  Hon.   T.   Ridout,  wrote  of  this   election  :     "  Our 


116  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

Colonel  Mahlon  Burwell  was  once  more — and  for  the  last  time — 
returned  for  Middlesex,  in  company  with  Roswell  Mount.  He 
was  defeated  again  in  1834  and  in  1836  became  the  first  repre- 
sentative of  the  town  of  London  in  parliament. 

Colonel  Burwell's  ambition  may  be  judged  by  the  names  he 
conferred  upon  his  sons — Alexander,  Hercules,  Isaac  Brock, 
Hannibal,  Leonidas,  John  Walpole  and  Edward — as  well  as  by 
his  application  in  1829  to  government  to  exchange  10,000  acres 
in  detached  parcels  for  a  grant  en  bloc  on  Lake  Huron  of  10,000 
acres,  to  be  an  entailed  estate  for  his  own  family.  The  exchange 
was  not  effected.  Hercules  succeeded  him  as  registrar  at  London, 
to  which  place  the  Registry  office  was  removed  about  1842  from 
Burwell's  Corners.  Leonidas,  a  quiet  and  unobtrusive  though 
popular  member,  was  the  only  one  of  the  sons  who  entered  public 
life.  He  represented  East  Elgin  for  some  ten  years  in  the  Liberal 
interest  in  the  united  parliament  of  Canada,  and  lived  at  Port 
Burwell.  A  church  at  that  village,  endowed  by  Colonel  Burwell 
with  600  acres,  in  addition  to  a  gift  of  100  acres  to  the  diocese  of 
Toronto,  testify  to  his  generosity  and  his  attachment  to  the 
Church  of  England. 

Dr.  John  Rolph  in  1832  sold  his  farm  in  Southwold,  and  in 
1834  Mr.  (afterwards  Sir  James)  Innes,  a  Scotch  gentleman, 
brother-in-law  to  James  Blackwood,  well-known  in  St.  Thomas 
and  Dunwich,  purchased  it.  The  old-fashioned,  homelike,  low 
brick  building,  now  upon  the  property,  replaced  Rolph's  original 
log  house  at  this  period.  Having  succeeded  to  a  Baronetcy  in 
Scotland,  Sir  James  Innes  in  1839  sold  the  property  and  returned 
home.  His  case  had  a  parallel  in  that  of  another  Scotchman, 
who  some  twenty  years  later  purchased  a  neighbouring  farm  on 
the  London  and  Port  Stanley  road  in  Yarmouth,  which  he  named 
"  Glenbanner,"whereon  he  resided  with  his  mother  and  sisters 
until  they  returned  to  Scotland,  where  Mr.  George  Bannerman 
became  Sir  George  Bannerman,  Baronet. 

election  lasted  six  days.  When  the  poll  closed  the  votes  stood  :  For  Rolph, 
340  ;  Matthews,  317;  Burwell,  305;  Hamilton,  275;  Matthews  12  over  me, 
and  many  of  my  friends  not  allowed  time  to  vote,  although  returned  to  the 
poll  two  or  three  times  for  that  purpose." 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

THE    TALBOT    ANNIVERSARY — ST.    THOMAS — A     FRESH     TALBOT 
SETTLEMENT — COURTS   AND   OFFICES   MOVED   TO   LONDON. 

THE  Talbot  anniversary,  established,  as  has  been  seen  in  1817, 
continued  an  annual  event  of  prime  importance  in  the  settlement 
for  more  than  twenty  years.  Held  at  first  in  Yarmouth,  it  was 
after  the  first  year  or  two  always  celebrated  at  St.  Thomas,  except 
at  the  last,  when  it  was  held  in  London. 

The  fullest — indeed  it  may  be  said  almost  the  only — account 
extant  of  the  festivity,  as  it  was  celebrated  year  after  year,  is 
contained  in  Edward  Ermatinger's  Life  of  Colonel  Talbot,  from 
which  the. following  extract  is  taken  : 

"  In  the  first  years  of  this  celebration,  the  Talbot  anniversary  was  com- 
memorated in  a  style  of  rustic  conviviality,  the  company  being  composed 
almost  exclusively  of  men  who  had  chopped  out  their  own  fortunes  and  of 
women  fit  to  rear  their  hardy  sons  and  daughters.  Among  these  the  Colonel 
never  failed  to  appear  to  share  in  the  joy  of  the  occasion,  and  invariably  led 
off  the  first  dance,  even  at  the  advanced  age  of  three  score  and  ten  years. 

"  On  the  2ist  of  May  in  each  year  the  back  woodsman  abandoned  his  toil, 
threw  by  his  axe,  and  took  his  partner  under  his  arm  to  the  anniversary.  The 
ample  board  groaned  under  such  substantial  fare  as  the  settlement  could 
afford,  and  after  the  cloth  was  removed,  a  hundred  rustic  voices  responded  to 
the  King's  health.  'The  day  and  all  who  honour  it'  elicited  a  stentorian 
shout,  which  made  the  welkin  ring,  and  the  '  Hon.  Thomas  Talbot,  the 
founder  of  the  Talbot  settlement,'  was  drowned  in  bumpers  amidst  deafening 
cheers. 

"When  the  storm  of  voices  had  subsided,  the  honoured  guest,  Colonel 
Talbot,  rose  amidst  the  rattle  of  the  table,  the  jingling  of  bottles  and  glasses, 
startled  by  such  vigorous  thumps  as  men  daily  exercised  in  wielding  the  axe 
only  could  give,  and  with  manly  pride  peering  through  his  bright  eyes, 
returned  thanks  in  a  neat,  short  speech,  always  concluding  in  the  most 
affectionate  and  emphatic  manner  '  God  bless  you  all.' 


118  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

"  After  the  dinner  was  concluded  and  all  the  loyal  toasts  had  been  gone 
through  with,  the  ball  commenced.  Then  it  was  that  the  rustic  youth  bowed 
to  the  blooming-  lass  whom  he  selected  for  his  partner,  and  soon  the  lightsome 
reel,  the  country  dance  or  the  cotillion  employed  the  legs,  while  the  arms 
enjoyed  a  holiday  ;  the  lads  amusing  themselves  ever  and  anon,  clipping 
something  in  the  style  of  the  Spanish  fandango  to  cheer  up  the  dance.  But 
in  progress  of  time,  as  the  population  became  less  homogeneous,  and 
strangers  to  the  feelings  of  the  early  settlers  became  more  numerous,  the 
spirit  of  the  anniversary  was  lost.  The  peasantry  found  themselves  elbowed 
out  of  society,  by  their  consumers,  and  home-spun  grey  and  blue  stockings 
had  to  give  place  to  silks,  scarlet  and  gold,  and  every  variety  of  fashion  ! 
Instead  of  showing  their  partners  how  to  cut  the  figure  of  eight,  crossing 
hands  without  gloves,  casting  them  off  to  dance  outside  and  then  inside  the 
row,  down  the  middle  and  back  again,  catching  a  glance  of  each  other 
through  a  long  line  of  broad  shoulders,  and  all  this  to  the  inspiring  music  of 
the  '  Soldier's  Joy,'  '  Greig's  Pipes'  or  the  '  Triumph,'  now  they  had  to  look 
on  with  astonishment  at  the  labyrinth  of  quadrilles,  and  fill  the  corners  of  the 
ball-room  to  avoid  being  run  through  by  a  gallopade,  to  '  stand  round,'  as  the 
phrase  goes  among  farmers,  for  fear  of  a  soft  thump  from  some  charming  dear 
creature,  or  of  a  poke  from  some  moustached  Son  of  Mars,  who  formed  one 
pair  of  a  long  chain,  rapidly  whirling  each  other  round  to  the  music  of  Strauss. 
This  is  no  fancied  picture.  The  anniversary  was  celebrated  last  during  the 
two  years  of  the  rebellion,  when  the  military  had  been  introduced  into  the 
woods,  with  a  degree  of  splendour  unknown  to  the  Omnium  gatherums  of 
former  days.  At  first  the  admixture  of  scarlet  and  gold  and  blue  and  red, 
with  a  corresponding  display  in  the  dress  of  the  ladies  of  the  settlement,  and 
a  full  military  band,  discoursing  sweet  music,  dazzled  the  eye  and  delighted 
the  ear.  But  it  was  observed  that  the  old  settlers  dropped  off,  the  anniver- 
sary had  become  too  refined  for  them.  The  display  of  military  uniforms, 
interlaced  and  surrounded  by  all  the  votaries  of  fashion  which  the  settlement 
could  produce,  were  indeed  novel  sights  for  them,  but  the  gee  and  hawing  of 
quadrilles,  waltzing,  etc.,  they  had  no  taste  for — and  they  were  better  pleased 
to  see  their  wives  and  mothers  smoking  a  pipe  than  the  fashionable  belle 
sniffing  a  vinaigrette.  The  original  purpose  of  the  anniversary  was  in  a 
measure  lost  sight  of,  it  languished  in  consequence,  and  after  being  kept  up 
for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  was  discontinued." 

St.  Thomas  at  the  time  of  the  inauguration  of  the  festival  in 
1817  was  no  more  than  a  hamlet,  chiefly  under  the  hill  at  the 
extreme  west  end  of  the  present  city.  The  hamlet  in  the  valley 
was  at  one  period  called  Stirling,  but  as  the  village  crept  up  the 
hill  and  along  the  crest  of  the  heights  immediately  above  Kettle 
Creek,  it  acquired  the  name  of  St.  Thomas,  after  Thomas  Talbot 


EARLY   ST.  THOMAS.  119 

— who  has  never  been  otherwise  held  up  as  either  saint  or 
doubter. 

As  the  village  grew  eastward  buildings  were  erected  along 
Talbot  street — which  had  to  be  slightly  diverted  here,  to  give 
them  any  foothold — those  on  the  north  side  of  the  road  clinging' 
to  the  top  and  side  of  the  hill  by  means  of  timber  supports, 
robbing-  the  traveller  of  a  view  of  great  natural  beauty,  while 
presenting  anything  but  a  sightly  appearance  from  the  London 
road  or  the  valley  below  them.  Almost  all  these  buildings  have 
been  destroyed  by  fire  or  removed,  till  but  few  traces  of  them 
remain.  Daniel  Rapelje,  the  original  settler  on  lot  one,  on  the 
south  side  of  Talbot  street,  in  Yarmouth — the  militia  captain 
already  mentioned  as  having  served  in  the  war  of  1812 — gave  a 
piece  of  land  for  church  purposes,  and  on  this,  in  1824,  was  erected 
the  old  St.  Thomas  church,  which  for  many  years  formed  the 
chief  architectural  ornament  of  the  village  and  town,  as  well  as 
the  oldest  church  edifice  in  the  settlement.  The  bricks  which 
formed  its  walls  were  made  in  the  valley  below  and  still  stand  a 
monument  to  the  stable  character  of  the  pioneer  work  of  those 
early  days — the  brick  transepts  and  chancel,  less  permanently 
built,  as  well  as  the  wooden  tower,  with  its  steeple,  being  added 
some  years  later.  The  picturesque  situation  of  the  church  and 
churchyard,  on  a  jutting  hilltop,  where  "the  rude  forefathers  of 
the  hamlet  sleep  " — Daniel  Rapelje  and  members  of  his  family 
among  the  earliest  ones — have  made  the  time  honoured  building 
a  prominent  object  in  the  view  from  the  west  and  south  of  the 
town,  to  the  present  time. 

Benjamin  Drake  owned  the  next  township  lot,  and  east  of  him 
again  came  Archibald  McNeal,  who  gave  the  land  for  the  Roman 
Catholic  church  and  burial  ground,  then  the  lots  of  Jonas  Barnes 
and  Benjamin  Wilson,  the  militia  ensign,  captain  and  ultimately 
colonel,  whose  figure  on  his  white  mare  was  a  familiar  object  on 
the  4th  of  June — the  militia  training  day.  Part  of  Leslie  Pearce's 
farm  forms  the  most  easterly  portion  of  the  present  city  south  of 
Talbot  street — though  it,  as  well  as  the  Barnes  and  Wilson  farms 
until  more  recent  years,  reached  far  beyond  the  confines  of  the  old 
town.  North  of  Talbot  street,  Garret  Smith  was  the  owner  of  the 


120  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

first  lot  in  Yarmouth,  part  of  which  now  forms  the  suburb  of 
Lynhurst,  beyond  Kettle  Creek.  Thomas  Curtis  and  George 
Lawrence,  and  subsequently  George  Scott,  were  the  land  owners 
upon  whose  lands  the  northern  part  of  the  town  was  built,  while 
upon  the  farms  of  Jacob  and  Samuel  Thompson  and  John  Miller 
ultimately  grew  up  the  police  village  of  Millersburg,  now  forming, 
with  a  part  of  the  Mann  farm,  the  north-easterly  part  of  the  city. 

West  of  Rapelje's  lot,  that  of  his  fellow-settler  and  neighbour, 
David  Mandeville,  extended  across  the  valley  of  Kettle  Creek  and 
over  the  hill  to  the  west — the  first  lot  in  Southwold  south  of 
Talbot  street.  Captain  Richard  Drake — a  militiaman  of  1812 — 
had  been  allotted  by  Colonel  Talbot  the  lot  on  the  north  side  of 
the  street  in  Southwold,  and  upon  the  crest  of  the  hill,  long  known 
as  Drake's  hill,  he  built  his  dwelling — near  the  spot  where  the 
west  end  of  the  Michigan  Central  railway  bridge  now  rests — and 
here  the  earliest  born  native  white  child  of  this  vicinity,  who  still 
survives,  Daniel  Drake,  first  saw  light  in  1819.  Having  served 
the  town  meantime  for  four  successive  years  as  mayor,  he  is,  at 
the  present,  an  erect  octogenarian,  whose  appearance  speaks 
volumes  for  the  healthfulness  of  St.  Thomas. 

Among  the  earliest  business  and  professional  men  of  St. 
Thomas  were  Mr.  (afterwards  the  Honourable  George  J.) 
Goodhue,  Dr.  J.  C.  Goodhue,  Drs.  Charles  and  Elijah  Dun- 
combe,  Hamilton  and  Warren,  the  Bigelows  and  Bela  Shaw.  Of 
these  Hon.  G.  J.  Goodhue,  who  removed  to  Westminster  and 
subsequently  to  London,  amassed  the  largest  fortune  ;  Dr.  Charles 
Duncombe  became  a  leader  in  the  rebellion  of  '37  ;  James  Ham- 
ilton— a  brother  of  the  Hon.  John  Hamilton  of  Queenston — 
became  sheriff  of  Middlesex.  Bigelow,  the  elder,  was  the  pioneer 
in  the  black  salts  and  potash  trade,*  that  early  industry  which 
enabled  the  settler  to  obtain  his  first  cash  or  merchandise  ;  while 
Bela  Shaw,  his  successor  in  business,  an  amiable  American,  with 
republican  ideas,  became  in  the  rebellion  years  a  suspect,  and, 

*So  important  had  this  industry  become  that  William  Lyon  McKenzie  was 
in  1826  preparing-  for  publication  a  "Treatise  on  Pot  and  Pearl  Ashes," 
materials  for  which  work  he  advertised  he  had  been  collecting  for  two  years, 
and  for  which  he  was  still  inviting  information. 


A  FRESH  TALBOT  SETTLEMENT.  121 

after  haying*  been  prosecuted — or,  as  some  thought,  persecuted — 
finally  left  the  country. 

"  The  Jews  of  merchants  of  the  Talbot  settlement  will  make 
their  fortunes  at  the  expense  of  my  industrious  farmers,"  wrote 
Colonel  Talbot  to  the  Hon.  Peter  Robinson  in  1830,  "  having- 
given  but  four  Yorkers  a  bushel  for  wheat,  and  Hamilton  and 
Warren  have  taken  in,  I  am  told,  near  20,000  bushels,  most  part 
of  which  for  old  debts,  on  which  they  no  doubt  had  a  profit  of  700 
per  cent." — all  which  goes  to  illustrate  the  possibilities  of  trade  in 
the  early  days.  This  wheat  was  no  doubt  all  delivered  at 
Selborne  or  at  Port  Stanley,  which  was  then  becoming  a  shipping 
port  for  a  considerable  commerce. 

A  reservation  for  the  town  of  London  was  made  at  an  early 
date,  but  it  remained  a  town  on  paper  and  only  partially  surveyed 
until  1826,  when  the  survey  of  the  town  plot  was  ordered,  and 
carried  out  by  Colonel  Burwell.  The  surrounding  country  had  in 
a  measure  been  settled  for  some  years.  There  had  been  settlers, 
as  has  been  seen,  in  Delaware  and  Westminster  before  the  war. 
About  1818  a  Talbot  settlement  within  the  Talbot  settlement — an 
Imperium  in  Imperio,  so  to  speak — had  been  begun  in  London 
township  by  Richard  Talbot,  a  countryman,  though  not  a  relative 
of  Colonel  Talbot's,  who  brought  with  him  from  Tipperary 
County,  Ireland,  some  thirty  settlers,*  including  his  own  two 
sons,  one-half  the  number  being  married  men.  Having  obtained 
from  Colonel  Talbot  a  location  ticket  for  i  ,000  acres  in  a  solid 
block  in  the  5th  and  6th  concessions,  and  400  acres  more  at  no 
great  distance,  the  settlement  of  London  township  began  in 
earnest.  Thomas  Carling,  father  of  Sir  John  Carling,  settled  on 
lot  14,  in  the  8th  concession,  in  the  year  1819.  His  marriage  to 

*Their  names  were  as  follows,  those  in  italics  being-  unmarried  :  Ed-ward 
Allen  Talbot,  John  Talbot,  William  Geeris,  Thomas  Brooks,  Peter  Rodgers, 
Thomas  Guest,  Frank  Lewis,  Benjamin  Lewis,  William  Haskett,  William 
Mooney,  William  Evans,  William  O' Neil,  Edmunds  Stoney,  Joseph  O'Brien, 
George  Foster,  Thomas  HoTvey,  James  Ho-wey,  John  Phalen,  Joseph  Hardy, 
Toseph  N.  Hardy,  John  Gray,  John  Gray,  Jr.,  Foilet  Gray,  Robert  Keys, 
Charles  Gooding,  Robert  Ralph,  John  Gumes,  John  Sifton,  Charles  Sifton  and 
Thomas  Howard.  They  found  a  Mr.  Applegath,  who  had  settled  in  the 
township  near  the  river  below  the  forks,  in  1816.  Freeman  Talbot  was  a 
younger  son  of  Richard  Talbot. 


122  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

Miss  Rutledge  is  said  to  have  been  the  first  celebrated  in  the 
township.  Sir  John,  who  was  born  in  1828,  stated  on  a  recent 
occasion  that  owing  to  the  lack  of  mechanics  his  father  had  to 
make  his  boots  and  his  mother  to  card  the  wool,  spin  the  yarn 
and  make  his  clothes,  and  that  until  he  was  more  than  ten  years 
old  he  had  worn  nothing-  on  his  back  but  that  which  his  father 
and  mother  made.  The  long  and  distinguished  career  of  the  son 
of  these  industrious  old  settlers,  who  happily  still  survives  them, 
belongs  chiefly  to  the  last  half  century,  rather  than  the  period 
dealt  with  in  these  annals.  Other  parts  of  the  country  about 
London  contained  scattered  settlers,  but  the  town  itself  was  not 
begun.  The  coming  of  the  courts,  however,  gave  it  its  first 
impetus.  This  leads  to  a  few  words  of  retrospect. 

The  courts  for  the  western  district  (originally  the  district  of 
Hesse)  were  held  at  Detroit,  where  the  land  board  also  sat,  and 
after  the  evacuation  of  Detroit  by  the  British,  at  Sandwich,  until 
1800,  when  the  district  of  London  was  formed  of  the  counties  of 
Norfolk,  Oxford  and  Middlesex,  with  certain  other  territory.  A 
Commission  of  the  Peace  was  issued  and  courts  held  for  the  first 
three  or  four  years  at  the  house  of  James  Munro  in  Charlotteville, 
after  which  a  frame  two-story  building  was  erected  at  Turkey 
Point  as  a  court  house,  and  here  the  courts  were  held  until  the 
war  of  1812,  when  the  place  was  occupied  for  military  purposes. 

Many  interesting  facts  appear  in  the  court  records  of  this 
period.  Moveable  stocks  and  whipping  post  were  erected  for  the 
district  the  very  first  year  (1800)  and  the  records  indicate  that 
both  were  made  use  of.  But  it  was  not  until  after  the  erection 
of  the  court  house  at  Turkey  Point  that  "  in  order  to  maintain  the 
dignity  of  the  court  it  was  decided  to  procure  12  staves  for  the 
constables  of  the  district,  the  staves  to  be  seven  feet  in  length  and 
one  and  three-quarter  inches  in  thickness,  with  the  name  of  each 
township  on  each  staff  in  plain  legible  letters."  Samuel  Ryerse 
as  chairman  of  Quarter  Sessions,  William  Spurgin,  Peter  Teeple, 
John  Beemer,  John  Backhouse  and  Wynant  Williams  are  the 
magistrates,  whose  names,  with  those  of  Thomas  Welch,  Clerk  of 
the  Peace,  most  frequently  occur  in  the  court  records  of  those 
days.  Colonel  Talbot  attended  once  only,  in  1806. 


COURTS   REMOVED   TO   LONDON.  123 

After  the  war  a  brick  court  house  was  erected  at  Vittoria  at  a 
cost  of  ^9,000,  which  was  occupied  until  1826,  when  it  was 
partially  destroyed  by  fire,  through  the  carelessness  of  a  school- 
master, who  held  his  school  in  the  building.  Being  compelled  to 
cut  the  cordwood  supplied  him — probably  in  payment  of  his  pupils' 
fees — he  preferred  reducing  it  by  a  gradual  process  of  burning 
over  night,  the  sticks  being  inserted  into  the  stove  with  the  door 
left  open.  This  was  more  in  accord,  he  considered,  with  the 
dignity  of  his  profession  than  sawing  it  himself,  while  to  hire  some- 
one to  do  it  was  probably  beyond  his  means.  The  result,  unfor- 
tunately, he  did  not  foresee.  A  log,  having  burned  through,  the 
protruding  brand  dropped  out  during  the  night  on  the  wooden 
floor  and  set  fire  to  the  building — a  costly  one  for  those  days. 

A  fine  site  for  a  court  house  and  gaol  had  been  laid  out, 
between  the  church  and  present  court  house  square,  at  St. 
Thomas,  *but  the  district  capital  was,  by  statute,  passed  in  1826, 
removed  to  London.  The  passing  over  of  St.  Thomas  was 
charged  against  Colonel  Burwell,  who  had  suffered  defeat  at  the 
election  of  the  previous  year,  chiefly  through  the  votes  of  con- 
stituents along  the  Talbot  road.  However  this  may  have  been, 
the  statute  authorized  ^"4,000  to  be  raised  for  the  erection  of 
necessary  buildings,  at  London  and  Colonels  Talbot  and  Burwell, 
James  Hamilton,  Charles  Ingersoll  and  John  Matthews,  of  Lobo, 
the  commissioners,  met  at  St.  Thomas  the  first  Monday  in  March, 
to  organize  and  carry  out  the  new  arrangements,  and  in  the  same 
month  plans  and  estimates  were  advertised  for,  to  be  received  by 
Hon.  Thomas  Talbot  by  ist  June.  A  square  or  space  of  not  less 
than  four  acres  was  directed  to  be  laid  out  in  the  town  plot  of 
London,  surveyed  the  same  year  by  Colonel  Burwell.  A  tempor- 
ary court  house  was  at  first  erected. 

"  The  building  was  constructed  of  flat  logs,"  said  Garrett  Oakes, 
of  Yarmouth,  in  his  pioneer  sketches,  in  reference  to  this  tem- 
porary building,  "  and  on  the  ground  floor  was  a  log  partition  to 
separate  the  gaol  from  the  gaoler's  room.  The  court  room  above 
was  reached  by  stairs  outside.  As  soon  as  the  house  was  roofed, 


*Mr.  Tiffany  had  also,   by   1825,   laid  out  the  village   of  Delaware    for   a 
district  capital. 


124  THE   TALBOT    REGIME. 

William  Parke,  the  old  Vittoria  gaoler,  removed  to  London  to 
assume  his  office  in  the  new  building,  and  I  assisted  him  to 
finish  the  court  room  in  a  rough  manner,  as  a  makeshift  until  the 
new  court  house  should  be  ready  for  occupation.  In  the  year 
1828  I  attended  court  in  London." 

Meantime  the  district  possessed  a  duly  appointed  judge,  James 
Mitchell,  a  former  schoolmaster  of  the  Long  Point  district,  while 
J.  B.  Askin  had  become  the  Clerk  of  the  Peace  in  succession  to 
Thomas  Welch,  and  John  B.  Harris,  the  treasurer,  Dan  Millard 
having  been  the  first  occupant  of  that  office.  These  officials  for 
some  time  perambulated  to  and  from  Vittoria  and  London,  when 
the  courts  were  first  held  at  the  latter  place,  but  Mr.  Askin  and 
Mr.  Harris  at  length  removed  their  families  to  the  new  district 
capital. 

The  new  permanent  court  house,  which  was  and  still  is,  though 
somewhat  remodelled,  so  familiar  a  feature,  upon  the  bank  over- 
looking the  forks  of  the  Thames  in  the  west  end  of  the  town,  was 
said  to  have  been  designed  in  imitation  of  Castle  Malahide, 
Colonel  Talbot's  birthplace — similarity  of  style  and  outline  lending 
the  colour  of  truth  to  the  tradition,  while  the  fact  that  the  other 
commissioners  authorized  Colonel  Talbot  to  procure  the  plans, 
further  confirms  it. 

While  St.  Thomas,  where  the  Talbot  anniversary  was  still  held, 
was  laid  out  upon  the  lands  of  the  original  settlers  already 
mentioned,  who  disposed  of  the  town  lots — London,  in  which  the 
civil  offices  were  now  placed — to  be  followed  ere  many  years  by 
the  military  headquarters  and  by  the  anniversary  itself — was  laid 
out,  as  has  been  seen,  by  government  and  the  lots  disposed  of  by 
Colonel  Talbot  as  government  agent.  This  was  all  in  accordance 
with  Governor  Simcoe's  original  idea,  though  in  a  modified  form. 
Henceforth  London  began  to  grow  apace. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

EARLY  THRESHING  MACHINES — JAMES  PICKERING- 
FARMING  IN  1825-6. 

THAT  Colonel  Talbot  was,  from  the  earliest  years  of  the  settle- 
ment, desirous  of  promoting  farming-  operations  after  the  most 
approved  advanced  methods,  is  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  as  early 
as  the  year  1810  he  was  in  correspondence  with  friends  at  home 
with  reference  to  certain  threshing-  machines  then  in  use  in 
England.  The  Colonel  was  desirous  of  obtaining  a  drawing  of 
one  of  the  machines  so  that  he  might  have  one  constructed,  if 
possible.  He  was  advised  that  it  was  rather  too  complicated  for 
a  drawing  to  sufficiently  explain,  and  a  model  would  be  too 
expensive,  and  that  his  best  plan  would  be  to  purchase  a  threshing 
machine,  to  be  worked  by  hand,  "  which  are  to  be  had  exceed- 
ingly good  for  20  guineas  at  Mr.  McDougal's,  in  Coventry  Street, 
Haymarket,  London,"  wrote  his  informant.  "  One  of  these  will 
thresh  at  the  rate  of  twenty  bands  of  oats  and  eight  bands  of 
wheat  per  day,  and  though  made  to  be  worked  by  men,  can  at  a 
trifling  expense  be  made  to  go  by  horses  or  by  water.  From  one 
of  these  small  ones  one  of  the  largest  size  can  be  readily  made." 

It  was  deemed  either  impracticable  or  too  expensive,  and  the 
flail  continued  to  be  used  on  the  Colonel's  farm,  though  another 
less  laborious  method  was  practised  by  some  of  the  settlers,  as 
will  presently  appear. 

Though  the  Colonel's  desire  to  introduce  threshing  machines  in 
the  very  early  days  was  not  fulfilled,  nevertheless  in  1848,  within 
a  few  miles  of  Port  Talbot,  at  Fingal,  one  of  the  most  extensive 
manufactories  of  threshing  machines  in  Canada  in  its  day,  was 
established  and  carried  on  for  half  a  century  and  yielded  handsome 


126  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

competences  to  Messrs.  MacPherson,  Glasgow  and  Hovey,*  its 
proprietors,  until  its  destruction  by  fire  some  years  since,  when, 
owing  to  want  of  shipping  facilities  at  Fingal,  and  other  causes, 
it  was  not  re-built,  but  the  business  transferred  to  a  branch 
factory  already  established  at  Clinton. 

In  October,  1824,  James  Pickering,  an  intelligent,  experienced 
and  observant  English  farmer  from  Buckinghamshire,  having  met 
with  reverses  at  home,  sailed  for  America  to  better  his  fortunes. 
Landing  at  Baltimore,  after  a  sixty-five  days'  voyage,  he  sought 
employment  there,  as  also  at  Philadelphia,  New  York  and 
Albany,  but  failing  to  obtain  such  a  situation  as  he  looked  for, 
and  having  heard  in  Pennsylvania  and  elsewhere  of  people  going 
to  Upper  Canada  to  take  up  land,  he  proceeded  by  the  Erie  Canal 
to  Buffalo,  and  thence  into  Canada.  On  returning  to  England 
five  years  later,  Pickering  published  an  emigrant's  guide  book,  in 
which  he  recorded  his  observations  in  Canada  in  the  form  of  a 
diary.  As  the  book  is  now  rare,  and  the  author's  observations 
are  close  and  often  shrewd,  some  extracts  from  those  parts 
relating  to  the  Talbot  settlement  and  Colonel  Talbot,  in  whose 
employment  he  was  during  a  great  part  of  the  time  he  remained 
in  the  settlement,  will  be  of  interest,  especially  to  farmers. 

Pickering  had  been  directed,  he  said,  to  Colonel  Talbot  with  a 
view  to  having  a  "  lot,"  and  at  the  close  of  July,  1825,  he  reached 
Talbot  street,  which  he  described  as  having  houses  on  each  side, 
at  about  one-fourth  of  a  mile  distance  from  each  other,  or  about 
eight  in  a  mile,  one  on  each  lot  of  200  acres. 

"  This  lower  part  of  Talbot  street,"  wrote  Pickering,  who,  it 
may  be  observed,  was  punctilious  as  to  the  proper  use  of  the 
English  language,  "  is  on  a  bank  of  sand  or  pine  ridge,  of  barren 
soil.  There  is  some  good  land  on  each  side  of  this  ridge,  but 
rather  flat  and  swampy.  Three  parts  of  the  houses  are  empty, 
the  inhabitants  having  '  cleared  out ' — for  better  land  I  '  guess  ' — 
but  those  that  remain  say  in  consequence  of  '  sickness  '  (illness). 
Stop  often  to  get  a  drink  of  water  or  buttermilk,  and  inquire 

"Matthias  Hovey,  the  last  surviving'  member  of  this  firm,  died  at  St. 
Thomas  in  1903,  at  the  advanced  age  of  87  years.  He  brought  the  art  of 
making  separators  originally  from  Lockport,  N.  Y. 


JAMES   PICKERING.  127 

about  the  country.  A  person  is  always  welcome  in  every  house 
to  rest  himself  and  need  not  hesitate  to  ask  any  question,  as  he 
will  be  answered  generally  without  reserve.  A  stout,  jovial  and 
rather  liberal  Yankee  working  miller,  who  had  been  in  the  province 
three  years,  overtook  me  to-day,  going  to  "draw"  land  of  the 
Colonel,  so  we  travelled  on  together.  On  first  coming  into  the 
wilderness  it  is  rather  depressing  to  the  spirits  ;  but  the  mind  soon 
recovers  by  the  cheerfulness  and  absence  of  discontent  in  the 
settlers,  and  the  prospect,  although  at  first  perhaps  slow,  yet 
certain,  of  growing  prosperity.  From  the  two  Otter  Creeks  and 
the  Catfish  to  Kettle  Creek  the  land  appears  pretty  good,  of 
sandy  and  clayey  loams,  but  in  some  places  is  much  broken  by 
ravines  and  gulleys.  We  arrived  at  the  new  small  village  of  St. 
Thomas,  rather  pleasantly  situated  on  the  banks  of  Kettle  Creek  ; 
it  has  a  church,  two  taverns,  a  mill,  two  stores,  and  an  academy, 
etc.  ;  and  on  July  3Oth  we  arrived  at  Colonel  Talbot's.  As  the 
Colonel  takes  no  fee  for  his  trouble  in  giving  out  government 
land,  and  people  are  continually  going  to  him  for  information 
respecting  new  lots  to  draw  (choose),  as  well  as  exchanging  them 
(sometimes  repeatedly)  for  others,  it  cannot  be  surprising  that  he 
should  sometimes  assume  a  severity  of  manner  not  natural  to  him, 
to  prevent  vexatious  applications.  The  house  in  which  the 
Colonel  lives  is  situated  on  the  banks  of  the  lake,  upwards  of  100 
feet  high,  and  commands  a  fine  view  of  the  banks  and  shore  of 
Lake  Erie  for  twenty  miles  down,  and  also  the  Colonel's  creek, 
winding  through  the  '  flats  '  below.  The  Colonel  was  not  at  home 
when  we  arrived,  but  soon  returned,  and  after  procuring  a  list  of 
some  vacant  lots  of  land  thirty  miles  above,  we  proceeded 
forward  from  Port  Talbot." 

After  prospecting  in  the  townships  of  Orford,  Howard  and 
Harwich,  Pickering  returned  to  Port  Talbot  and  was  recommended 
to  await  the  return  of  the  survey  of  Orford  from  the  land  office 
at  York,  and  in  the  meantime  was  engaged  as  Colonel  Talbot's 
foreman,  or  farm  overseer.  Here  are  some  of  his  observations 
as  to  the  state  of  the  Colonel's  farm,  etc.  : 

"The  Colonel's  wheat  and  oat  crops  fair,  the  peas  good,  but  too  dry  for 
potatoes  and  corn. 


128  THE   TALBOT    REGIME. 

"  Aug.  14 — '  Hauling'  peas,  that  is,  drawing  them  on  waggons  to  the  stack. 

"  Aug.  16 — Rain  all  day  with  the  wheat  in  the  field  for  want  of  hands,  the 
harvest  in  the  neighbourhood  being  nearly  all  finished  for  the  year.  The 
Colonel  has  about  150  sheep,  shut  up  in  a  pen  at  night  to  preserve  them  from 
the  wolves  (this  is  not  done  in  old  settlements)  ;  they  are  of  various  breeds, 
some  with  and  some  without  horns  ;  twenty-five  milch  cows  ;  four  yoke  of 
oxen,  broken  in,  besides  one  yoke  killed  this  fall ;  fifty  or  sixty  head  of  young 
cattle,  which  run  in  the  woods  all  summer ;  twenty-three  weanling  calves  ; 
four  horses,  of  the  nag  kind,  with  uncut  long  tails,  the  only  sort  in  this 
country,  and  are  generally  pretty  good,  but  want  a  little  more  blood  ;  four 
sows  and  a  number  of  store  pigs,  which  also  get  their  living  in  the  woods 
through  the  summer,  and  during  the  winter,  when  there  are  plenty  of  nuts  and 
acorns.  Fattened  forty-two  hogs  this  fall  in  an  open  pen,  with  peas  given 
them  on  the  ground  and  water  in  troughs,  in  about  eight  weeks.  Filled 
thirty-five  barrels  of  200  Ibs.  each  with  them  ;  worth  about  .£3.38  per  barrel. 
There  are  some  good  hogs  a  few  miles  from  the  Colonel's,  yet  the  Berkshire 
breed  would  be  an  acquisition,  as  also  Leicester  sheep.  All  their  stock 
might  be  improved  by  proper  selections.  A  few  good  blood  stallions  and 
two  or  three  large  cart  horses  would  probably  pay  for  importing.  Colonel 
Talbot  has  a  garden  pretty  well  stocked  with  shrubs,  fruit  trees,  etc.,  in 
better  order  than  most  in  America,  yet  not  like  a  good  common  one  in 
England.  There  are  cherries,  plums,  apricots,  peaches,  nectarines,  goose- 
berries, currants,  etc.,  also  water  or  musk  melons,  and  cucumbers,  fine  and 
plenty.  Cabbages  and  other  vegetables  thrive  very  well.  A  patch  of 
Swedish  turnips  (or  ruta-baga)  of  a  good  size,  notwithstanding  the  dry 
season.  A  few  hills  of  hops  at  one  corner  of  the  garden  look  remarkably 
well ;  they  are  gathered  at  the  beginning  of  September.  There  are  also  a 
few  bunches  of  English  cowslips,  but  none  wild  in  the  woods.  There  is  a 
species  of  violet  in  the  fields,  with  less  fragrance  than  the  English  ones.  The 
Colonel  has  likewise  extensive  orchards  ;  some  of  the  fruit  fine,  yet  the  great 
proportion  raised  from  apple  kernels,  and  remain  ungrafted ;  although  they 
bear  well,  their  fruit  is  small  and  inferior  to  those  grafted,  except  for  cider.  A 
great  portion  were  suffered  to  hang  too  long  on  the  trees,  until  the  frosts 
came  and  spoiled  them.  The  beautiful  little  humming  birds  are  numerous 
this  season.  Sowed  wheat  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  September  and 
a  little  in  October.  A  large  flock  of  wild  turkeys  seen  near  the  woods  and 
came  to  the  farm-yard,  where  the  men  shot  several  of  them  ;  one  weighed  15 
Ibs.  after  being  picked.  There  are  plenty  in  the  woods,  of  the  same  breed  as 
the  tame  black  turkey,  and  excellent  eating.  Cut  the  corn  about  the  2oth  of 
September,  which  was  much  eaten  by  the  raccoons  and  black  squirrels, 
which  are  extraordinarily  numerous,  troublesome  and  destructive,  from  the 
scarcity  of  nuts  and  mast  in  the  woods  this  season." 

In  December  Pickering  had  to  make  a  journey  to  Fort  Erie  for 


JAMES   PICKERING.  129 

his  trunk,  returning-  before  Christmas.  By  the  New  Year  there 
was  sleig-hing-,  and  he  describes  its  enlivening-  effect,  the  sleighs, 
cutters  and  the  pleasure  and  rapidity  of  travel  in  them,  and  the 
Canadian  winter,  for  the  benefit  of  his  countrymen. 

"With  warm  clothing,  a  fur  cap,  and  a  bear  or  buffalo  skin  over  the  back 
and  feet,  it  is  a  pleasant  and  a  very  easy  way  of  travelling1,  enlivened  by  the 
numerous  sleighs  and  the  jingling  of  bells,  which  the  horses  are  required  to 
wear  ;  in  this  season  many  of  the  Canadians  have  quite  a  military  appearance. 
During  the  winter  I  took  a  journey  to  the  mill  at  St.  Thomas  and  to  have  the 
horses  shod,  which  will  last  the  year,  as  the  roads  do  not  wear  them  out 
quick.  Some  wolves  made  their  appearance  about  the  premises  during  the 
foggy  nights,  after  a  dead  hog  ;  the  dogs  retreated  to  the  house  much 
frightened,  but  they  very  rarely  attack  the  human  species." 

And  in  April  : 

"  Went  to  the  village  for  whiskey,  and  for  two  new  cast  iron  ploughs  (cast 
at  Long  Point  furnace,  their  price  £2  each),  and  have  the  wrought  iron 
ploughshares  laid,  which  are  done  only  once  a  year,  the  ground  being  so  free 
from  stones  and  gravel  the  iron  wears  but  little.  A  new  furnace  and  forge 
establishing  at  Otter  Creek,  forty  miles  below  here,  where  good  hands  get 
thirteen  dollars  per  month  and  board  now,  and  fifteen  dollars  offered  for  the 
summer,  payable  chiefly  in  their  casting  ware.  Iron  ore,"  he  adds  in  a  note, 
"  plentiful  and  good  in  various  parts  of  the  province,  chiefly  found  in 
swamps,  on  sandy  land  ;  and  forges  and  furnaces  are  now  so  common  that 
iron  and  cast  ware  is  plentiful  and  moderately  cheap." 

"  The  Colonel  has  his  threshing  all  done  by  the  flail,  but  a  great  deal  of 
the  grain  in  the  province  is  trodden  out  by  either  horses  or  oxen.  A  man 
with  four  horses  will  tread  out  thirty  bushels  or  more  in  a  day,  which  does 
very  well  for  grain  that  is  used  in  the  distillery,  but  is  too  dirty,  though  often 
done,  for  flour  for  the  merchant,  and  baking  in  the  family.  When  flail 
threshing  is  hired  the  thresher  gets  one-tenth  and  his  board,  and  as  the 
dryness  of  the  climate  makes  it  thresh  well,  one  man  often  threshes  from 
eight  to  twelve  or  even  fifteen  bushels  a  day.  Millers  are  allowed  by  law  for 
grinding  one-twelfth.  It  has  been  one-tenth,  I  am  told,  but  some  wiseacres, 
who  thought  it  was  not  enough,  petitioned  for  one-twelfth  !  " 

And  on  April  8th — "  Pigeons,  in  great  flocks,  going  out  daily  north- 
ward ;  some  people,  with  nets  and  decoy  pigeons,  will  catch  several  hundred 
in  a  day,  when  they  sometimes  take  only  their  breasts  and  salt  them  down, 
and  make  beds  of  their  feathers." 

And  on  the  i$th — "Wolves  last  night  bit  a  calfs  tail  off,  and  otherwise 
lacerated  it  behind  and  would  have  killed  it,  had  not  the  oxen  been  with  them. 
Oxen  will  drive  any  number  of  wolves,  and  even  throw  down  the  strongest 
fence,  with  a  strange  noise,  to  get  at  them  when  a  calf  or  cow  is  attacked." 


130  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

April  22nd — "  This  last  week  has  been  cold,  and  the  spring-  is  later  than 
usual;  fields  hardly  look  green  yet.  Sowed  oats,  and  more  clover  and  timothy 
grass,  and  pecked  and  levelled  the  land  (a  very  uncommon  thing  in  America); 
sowed  three  bushels  of  oats  to  the  acre  (more  than  is  sown  in  general),  with 
four  or  five  pounds  of  clover,  and  as  much  timothy  grass.  Timothy,  or  cat's 
tail,  as  it  is  called  in  England,  is  not  a  good  grass  to  sow  with  clover,  as  it  is 
not  fit  to  cut  so  soon  by  a  fortnight,  and  throws  up  no  latter  or  after-math. 
Some  of  the  better  sorts  of  rye-grass,  cocksfoot,  or  sweet-scented  vernal 
grass,  I  think,  would  be  much  better  ;  but  they  are  not  introduced  into  use 
here  at  present.  Clover,  even  by  itself,  answers  admirably  on  a  clean  tilth, 
and  will  last  well  in  the  ground  for  six  or  seven  or  more  years,  yet  it  is  not 
sown  by  one  farmer  in  half  a  dozen  in  this  western  part  of  the  province  ;  even 
Colonel  Talbot,  I  am  told,  never  had  any  but  once  before,  which  was  suffered 
to  stand  till  dead  ripe  (like  all  grass  here)  before  cutting,  when  the  cattle 
would  not  eat  the  hay,  and  it  therefore  was  condemned.  It  is  getting  into 
general  use  at  Long  Point,  and  the  seed  sells  from  seven  to  eight  dollars  per 
bushel,  or  about  355.  per  cwt.  ....  Have  sixty  lambs  dropped,  which 
are  strong  and  thriving." 

May  13 — "Sent  100  bushels  of  wheat  to  the  " still  "  to  have  seven  quarts  of 
whiskey  per  bushel  for  it ;  three  to  three  and  a-half  gallons  are  made  from  a 
bushel  of  wheat,  corn,  or  rye.  Potatoes  and  pumpkins  can  be  distilled,  but 
are  seldom  used." 

And  in  the  same  month — "The  Colonel  has  been  to  the  village  of  St. 
Thomas  to  the  anniversary  dinner,  held  in  honour  of  himself  in  establishing 
the  Talbot  settlement ;  it  is  generally  well  attended  by  store-keepers  and 
people  of  various  trades  and  callings,  as  well  as  the  more  respectable  farmers. 

June  4th — "This  is  'training  day,'  when  the  militia  meet  at  appointed 
stations,  near  home,  throughout  the  province,  to  be  trained,  some  with  guns 
and  some  without.  I  need  not  say  that  they  learn  but  little  when  the 
reader  is  informed  this  is  the  only  day  in  the  year  they  meet,  and  then  not 
half  of  them  perhaps,  and  nearly  one-half  of  the  officers  know  as  little  of 
military  exercise  as  themselves  ;  it  is  merely  a  '  frolic '  for  the  youngsters  ; 
nor  is  it  necessary  to  train,  except  in  prospect  of  war  speedily  coming  on." 

Aug.  26th — "  Pigeons  again  made  their  appearance  in  large  flocks,  as  also 
wild  turkeys  ;  partridges,  larger  than  the  English  breed,  and  quails,  less  than 
those  of  Europe,  are  also  numerous." 

Sept.  8th—"  Started  on  foot  westward  to  Bear  Creek,  thirty  miles,  to  look 

at  a  lot  of  land Crossed  from  Talbot  street  to  the  "  Big  Bend  "  of 

the  river  Thames,  eight  miles  through  an  entire  wilderness  having  only  a 
slight  track,  owned  by  Colonel  Talbot ;  there  are  numerous  such  blocks  of 
land  in  the  province,  which  have  been  like  fetters  to  the  country's  prosperity. 
A  most  judicious  tax  has  since  been  laid  on  such  wild  lands,  although  violent- 
ly opposed  by  the  pretended  friends  of  the  people.  This  tax  ought  to  be  high 
enough  on  those  wild  lands  that  are  situated  in  townships  partially  settled  to 
/  compel  their  owner  to  either  improve  or  sell  them  to  those  who  would,  which 


JAMES   PICKERING.  131 

is  only  just.  ...  In  passing  through  a  new  settlement  in  the  woods,  the 
traveller  is  welcomed  in  every  house,  but  perhaps  he  may  have  occasionally  to 
sleep  on  a  straw  bed  on  the  floor  before  the  fire,  with  a  blanket  or  two  over 
him,  and  in  the  same  room  the  whole  of  the  family  live  and  sleep,  perhaps  the 
only  one  in  the  house  ;  for  eating  he  has  bread  or  cake  and  butter  and 

potatoes,  or  "  mush-and-milk,"  if  for  supper Indian  meal  is  also 

sometimes  made  into  cakes,  which  are  called  'Johnny  cakes,' and  perhaps 
some  meat ;  this  is  the  living,  generally,  of  the  first  year  or  two  by  those  who 
bring  little  or  no  property  into  the  woods  but  their  own  hands,  with  health  and 
strength,  and  with  these  they  appear  the  most  independent  and  contented 
people  in  the  world,  as 

"  No  contiguous  palace  rears  its  head 

To  shame  the  meanness  of  their  humble  shed. 

At  night  returning,  every  labour  sped, 

They  sit  them  down — the  monarchs  of  the  shed." 

Colonel  Talbot,  it  may  be  here  observed,  had  himself  gone 
through  all  the  hardships  of  a  backwoods  settler  during  the  first 
years  after  his  arrival.  He  did  not  shirk  from  the  most  menial 
occupations.  As  he  told  Mrs.  Jamieson,  the  authoress,  he 
"assumed  the  blanket  coat  and  axe,  slept  upon  the  bare  earth, 
cooked  three  meals  a  day  for  twenty  woodmen,  cleaned  his  own 
boots,  washed  his  own  linen,  milked  his  cows,  churned  the  butter, 
and  made  and  baked  the  bread.  In  this  latter  branch  of  house- 
hold economy  he  became  very  expert,  and  still  prides  himself  on 
it."  Mrs.  Amelia  Harris,  too,  described  him  as  she,  as  a  child, 
saw  him  at  Port  Ryerse,  in  front  of  a  fire,  cooking  for  a  boat-load 
of  men  whom  he  had  brought  with  him,  and  also  plucking  a  wild 
goose  for  her  mother  to  dress  for  dinner. 

Pickering  continued  his  way  to  Bear  Creek,  and  while  in  that 
vicinity,  says  he — 

"Saw  six  acres  of  new-cleared  ground  with  its  first  crop  on,  viz.:  corn, 
oats,  peas,  kidney  beans,  turnips,  cabbages,  cucumbers,  melons,  and  tobacco, 
and  all  very  fine.  The  owner  said  this  first  crop  would  pay  for  clearing  the 
land  and  all  other  expenses  attending  the  crop.  Tobacco  is  becoming  a 
staple  article  of  produce  in  these  western  parts  of  the  province.  I  am  told 
there  are  several  hundred  acres  of  land  in  tobacco  toward  Amherstburg  this 
season.  While  it  continues  to  be  used  so  generally,  and  I  fear  excessively,  it 
will  pay  the  cultivator  much  better  than  any  grain  crop,  land  here  adapted  for 
it  (rich  sand  or  loam)  producing  from  eight  to  fifteen  cwt.  per  acre,  and  selling 
to  the  merchants  at  from  £1  to  £i  125.,  or  £i  155.  per  cwt.,  according  to 
quality  and  demand  at  home.  Black  slaves,  who  have  run  away  from  their 
masters  in  Kentucky,  arrive  in  Canada  almost  weekly  (where  they  are  free), 


132  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

and  work  at  raising  tobacco  ;  I  believe  they  introduced  the  practice.  One 
person  will  attend  and  manage  the  whole  process  of  four  acres,  planting, 
hoeing,  budding,  etc.,  during  the  summer." 

It  is  remarkable  that,  while  all  that  Pickering  said  here  is  true 
as  to  the  adaptability  of  the  land  in  the  west  for  tobacco  raising, 
and  although,  as  he  stated,  it  was  becoming  a  staple  article  of 
produce,  it  was  only  at  the  close  of  the  century  and  more  than  70 
years  after  the  above  was  written  that  tobacco  had  been  exported, 
to  any  extent,  from  Canada,  or  that  even  in  other  parts  of  the 
country  the  tobacco  of  the  western  peninsula  had  come  into  use. 
On  September  i2th  Pickering  wrote  : 

"  Crossed  the  river  to  Talbot  street,  15  miles  of  wood,  to  small  settlement 
on  Howard  Ridge,  which  is  a  rich,  dry  soil,  well  watered  and  healthy  ;  but  a 
canal  or  good  road  is  wanted  from  hence  to  Rondeau,  or  Round  O,  as  it  is 
called,  a  distance  of  sixteen  miles,  which  would  save  the  present  route  often 
times  of  that  distance  to  a  market  for  produce.  Lake  Erie  has  but  few 
natural  harbours,  and  as  yet  but  few  are  made.  I  have  arrived  once  more  at 
Clear  Creek,  where  there  are  mills  standing  many  years  unfinished,  one 
belonging  to  a  land  surveyor.  That  class  get  possession  of  the  besb  lands, 
which  they  will  not  part  with  at  any  reasonable  rate.  There  are  mills 
enough,  but  they  are  frequently  without  water,  and  grist  must  be  carried 
thirty  miles  to  be  ground,  while  there  are  probably  plenty  of  springs  in  the 
immediate  neighbourhood  without  mills,  but  they  are,  in  many  cases,  on  the 
government  reserves  for  the  crown  and  clergy.  Overtook  a  "nigger"  and 
his  boy,  just  come  from  Kentucky,  where  he  took  French  leave  of  his  master 
and  brought  a  horse,  which  he  sold  near  Detroit.  There  are  some  hundreds 
of  these  people  settled  in  Sandwich  and  Amherstburg,  who  are  formed  into  a 
volunteer  militia  corps  and  trained  to  arms." 

We  must  now  bid  good-bye  to  Pickering,  who  returned  and 
soon  after  departed  from  Port  Talbot  to  travel  in  other  parts  of 
the  province,  and  afterward  sail  for  England.  He  has  given  us 
some  idea  of  the  state  of  agriculture  and  other  matters  in  the 
Talbot  settlement  in  the  years  1825  and  1826  from  the  view-point 
of  an  intelligent  English  agriculturist. 

It  may  be  added  that  other  works  of  greater  literary  pretentions, 
but  much  less  practical  value,  concerning  the  Talbot  settlement 
and  other  parts  of  the  province,  than  Pickering's  guide,  were 
published  at  about  this  period  and  earlier.  Among  these  may  be 
mentioned  "  Dr.  Howison's  Upper  Canada,"  and  a  work  by  E.  A. 
Talbot,  son  of  the  pioneer  of  London  township,  Richard  Talbot. 


CHAPTER   XX. 

ST.  THOMAS  IN  1830 — REV.  M.   BURNHAM. 

AN  extract  from  the  diary  of  Edward  Ermatinger,  who  first 
visited  the  settlement  in  1830,  will  afford  an  idea  of  its  condition 
in  that  year.  Mr.  Ermatinger  was  born  in  1797  on  the  island  of 
Elba  in  the  Mediterranean — the  place  of  Napoleon's  first  exile — 
and  was  the  elder  of  two  sons  of  Lawrence  Ermatinger,  assistant 
commissary  general  in  the  British  army,  who  was  himself  born  in 
Canada,  where  his  parents  had  settled  at  the  close  of  the  French 
regime.  Edward  and  his  brother  Francis,  who  was  born  in 
Lisbon — where  the  father  was  quartered  after  leaving  Elba — had 
entered  the  Hudson  Bay  Company's  service  as  clerks,  in  1818. 
Having  served  ten  years  throughout  the  North-West  and  on  the 
Columbia,  Edward  resolved  to  leave  the  service  and  come  east, 
where  he  had  relatives  in  Montreal.  Francis  remained  in  the 
service,  in  what  is  now  Oregon,  twenty  years  longer,  before 
following  his  brother  and  settling  near  St.  Thomas.  Meantime 
Edward,  after  visiting  his  father  in  London,  England  (where  he 
soon  after  died),  and  his  relatives  in  Montreal,  came  to  Upper 
Canada  to  look  up  a  suitable  place  at  which  to  settle  and  begin 
business. 

After  brief  stops  at  York  and  Hamilton,  he  took  the  stage  for 
Brantford,  where  he  arrived  on  2gth  June.  His  diary  from  this 
on  may  be  quoted  : 

June  30th — "  We  are  this  morning  transferred  from  the  coach  to  a  waggon 
and  proceed  at  4  a.  m.  from  Brantford  to  Oxford.  The  roads  in  many  places 
are  very  bad.  The  town  of  Oxford  contains  only  a  few  scattered  houses. 
Made  enquiries  about  my  uncle's  half  lot  of  land.  Am  told  that  it  is  in  an 
unsettled  part  of  the  township.  In  this  township  the  land  is  of  the  first 
quality,  but  it  is  so  far  from  the  market  and  navigation  that  it  will  not  be  very 
saleable  for  many  years  to  come.  About  Oxford  we  travelled  through  a  good 


134  THE  TALBOT   REGIME. 

deal  of  country  very  little  cleared,  but  before  arriving  at  Westminster  for 
some  miles  it  is  well  settled.  Arrived  before  dark  at  that  place.  Some  rain. 

July  ist — "  Fine  warm  weather.  Took  waggon  this  morning  and  travelled 
to  St.  Thomas,  a  village  about  fifteen  miles  from  Westminster.  The  greater 
part  of  the  country  we  passed  through  to-day  is  well  settled  and  the  road 
good.  The  small  town  of  St.  Thomas  is  situated  on  the  banks  of  the  Kettle 
Creek.  The  principal  building  in  it  is  a  neat  little  Episcopal  church,  and  it 
contains  two  stores,  two  taverns,  blacksmith's  shop,  tailor,  and  I  suppose 
from  20  to  30  dwelling  houses. 

July  znd — "  Very  warm  weather.  Went  down  to  Kettle  Creek  harbour,  10 
miles  from  St.  Thomas.  The  road  part  of  the  way  very  bad.  Presented  Mr. 
MofFat's  letter  to  Messrs.  Hamilton  and  Warren.  Saw  their  new  vessel  of 
about  90  tons  burthen,  which  was  launched  three  days  ago.  Two  fine  large 
storehouses,  erected  close  to  the  harbour,  and  a  few  dwellings.  Saw  Mr. 
Thompson's  mills  and  Mr.  Fitzgerald's  small  store.  Introduced  to  Mr. 
Burnham,  parson  of  this  place,  and  Talbot.  Took  tea  at  his  house  in  com- 
pany with  my  travelling  companion,  Mr.  Crawford.  He  gives  a  very 
favourable  report  of  this  country,  as  does  everybody  I  meet  with. 

July  3rd — "  Warm  weather.  Hired  a  horse  this  morning  to  go  to  Port 
Talbot.  Proceeded  through  Talbot  street  to  Colonel  Burwell's,  where  I 
dined.  From  St.  Thomas  to  this  place,  \o%  miles,  there  is  a  good  road  and 
the  lands  are  settled  on  both  sides  of  it.  The  country  has  a  fine  appearance, 
but  the  buildings  are  wretched  for  the  most  part.  Colonel  Talbot  is  settled 
upon  a  beautiful  spot,  commanding  a  grand  view  of  Lake  Erie,  about  2% 
miles  beyond  Colonel  Burwell's.  The  road  for  this  distance  is  excellent  and 
shaded  on  both  sides  by  thick  woods,  nobody  being  allowed  to  settle  nearer 
in  that  direction.  From  Colonel  Talbot's  shaped  my  course  to  Ireland,  five 
miles  further  on.  Quartered  myself  upon  Captain  Patterson,  there  being  no 
inn  near  at  hand. 

4th,  Sunday — <l  Fine  but  very  warm  weather.  Went  to  church  morning  and 
afternoon.  This  building,  which  promises  to  be  a  very  neat  one  when 
finished,  has  been,  I  am  told,  erected  at  the  expense  of  four  individuals,  and 
does  them  great  credit.  My  host  is  one  of  them.  The  congregation  might 
amount  to  about  100  persons,  all  decent,  respectable  people.  In  the  evening 
returned  to  St.  Thomas.  Farmers  beginning  to  be  apprehensive  their  crops 
will  not  turn  out  well.  Its  appearance  not  considered  healthy. 

5th — "  Fine  weather,  but  very  warm.  Went  on  horseback  to  the  mouth  of 
the  creek.  Four  small  vessels  have  come  in  since  I  last  went  down,  and  are 
now  shipping  produce  to  return.  Took  an  involuntary  ride  to  Hamilton's 

mills,  having  followed  the  wrong  road Mr.  Chadwick  offers  his 

house  and  lot  for  1,500  dollars.  The  lot  is  situated  on  the  declivity  of  the  hill, 
about  an  acre  in  extent,  and  the  house  is  large  with  a  good  cellar,  etc.,  etc. 
.  .  .  .  Saw  a  small  deer  on  the  road  and  black  squirrels  and  doves. 
Deer  are  said  to  be  plentiful  in  this  part  of  the  country. 


ST.  THOMAS   IN    1830.  135 

6th — "Fine  weather.  Called  upon  Mr.  Warren  and  had  some  conversation 
with  him  relative  to  my  entering-  into  business  in  this  neighbourhood.  He 
seems  to  think  there  is  some  opening  here  for  business  at  some  risk,  as  credit 
must  be  given.  I  have  been  told  that  as  much  as  500  bushels  of  wheat  have 
been  reaped  off  10  acres  of  land,  but  an  old  farmer  says  that  from  34  to  35 
bushels  per  acre  is  as  much  as  was  raised  here.  Had  a  long  talk  with  the 
blacksmith  about  iron,  etc.  From  what  he  says  1%,  i^  and  2  in.  iron  is 
most  in  use.  Went  to  dine  with  the  parson  of  the  parish.  On  my  return 
home  found  Mr.  Long's  company  in  possession  of  my  bedroom,  which  served 
them  as  the  behind  the  scenes,  it  being  at  the  end  of  a  long  room  and  the  end 
of  the  stage.  Paid  12^  cents,  or  a  York  shilling,  to  see  the  performance, 
which  consisted  of  slack  wire  dancing,  balancing  tobacco  pipes,  sword  and 
plate,  hatching  chickens  in  a  hat,  the  bull  frogs  and  a  sucking  pig,  tumbling, 
etc.  How  the  niggurs  laughed  and  applauded,  said  he  was  a  slick  man  and 
deserved  to  be  flogged. 

yth — "  Fine  weather.  Spent  most  of  this  day  brooding  over  the  difficulties  I 
have  to  encounter 

8th — "  Last  evening  we  had  very  heavy  showers  with  thunder  and  lightning. 
Fine  day.  Took  my  departure  from  St.  Thomas  at  a.  m.  for  Simcoe  on  Long 
Point  in  a  hired  waggon  belonging  to  Spades.  Met  Mr.  Richards,  the  com- 
missioner from  the  treasury,  shortly  after  starting.  Travelled  10  miles  in  the 
township  of  Yarmouth,  through  which  Kettle  Creek  runs,  and  then  9  miles 
through  Malahide.  Here  we  cross  the  Big  Otter  Creek,  a  thriving  part  of 
the  country  where  much  lumber  business  is  done,  a  good  saw  mill  being  in 
operation.  This  has  been  pointed  out  to  me  as  a  good  stand  for  business. 
The  Little  Otter  Creek  is  very  near  the  big  one.  In  Bayham  there  is  a  good 
deal  of  poor,  sandy  soil.  We  are  still  in  what  is  called  Talbot  street,  which  is 
generally  well  settled.  Several  families  of  emigrants  on  the  road,  English 
and  Irish.  After  proceeding  through  Bayham  we  travel  through  Charlotte- 
ville,  and  then  enter  the  township  of  Woodhouse,  in  which  the  village  of 
Simcoe  is  situated.  Before  arriving  at  Simcoe  the  road  cuts  through  a  large 
tract  of  poor  country,  very  little  settled  upon.  Arrive  at  Simcoe  about 
8  p.  m." 

Mr.  Ermatinger  returned  later,  settled  in  St.  Thomas,  married 
the  sister  of  the  "  parson,"  Rev.  Mark  Burnham,  carried  on  a 
general  mercantile  business,  became  postmaster  and  agent 
successively  of  the  Bank  of  Upper  Canada  and  Commercial  Banks 
and  manager  at  St.  Thomas  of  the  Bank  of  Montreal  for  fourteen 
years  ;  after  which,  when  the  county  of  Elgin  was  set  apart,  he 
organized  the  Bank  of  the  County  of  Elgin,  erecting  a  com- 
modious office  for  its  accommodation  in  connection  with  a  large 
brick  block  occupied  by  his  other  businesses.  This  bank  was  in 


136  THE   TALBOT    REGIME. 

a  few  years,  owing  to  the  prevailing  depression,  wound  up  with- 
out loss  to  creditors  and  very  little  loss  to  the  shareholders,  and 
the  building  successively  occupied  by  the  Commercial  and  the 
Merchants  Banks  in  after  years. 

The  Rev.  Mark  Burnham,  already  referred  to,  was  a  familiar 
figure  in  the  settlement  for  twenty  years  or  more,  and  for  a 
portion  of  the  time  a  regular  visitor  at  Port  Talbot.  He  was  the 
only  son  of  the  Hon.  Zaccheus  Burnham  of  Cobourg,  and,  after 
studying  with  Rev.  Dr.  Strachan,  was  sent  by  his  father  to 
Oxford,  where  he  took  his  degree.  He  subsequently  entered  the 
church  and  was  sent  in  1828  to  St.  Thomas,  where  he  remained 
some  twenty-four  years,  as  already  stated.  Once  only  during  this 
term,  weary  of  his  charge,  which  was  by  no  means  a  bed  of  roses, 
he  attempted  to  break  free.  It  is  narrated  that  he  sent  his 
resignation  to  the  Bishop,  placed  his  family  in  a  waggon  and  set 
out  for  the  east.  At  Brantford  he  was  met  by  a  peremptory 
message  from  Bishop  Strachan  to  return  to  his  parish,  and  return 
he  did  forthwith,  remaining  until  1852,  when  he  removed  to  Peter- 
borough, where  he  passed  the  remainder  of  his  days,  after  accum- 
ulating one  of  the  largest  libraries  in  the  province — for  he  was 
excessively  fond  of  books.  His  favourite  attitude  in  reading  was 
to  lie  prone  upon  the  floor  or  ground,  face  downwards,  his  large 
head  propped  upon  his  hands — the  open  volume  beneath  his  eyes. 
Thus  placed  he  was  lost  to  all  else  save  the  page  before  him.  He 
was  benevolent  by  nature  and  usually  possessed  of  ample  means 
to  extend  charity  to  those  deserving  it.  Indeed  his  father's 
wealth  enabled  him  to  support  a  growing  family,  with  such  assist- 
ance as  the  church  and  his  congregations  could  afford.  An 
amusing  instance  of  the  degree  of  abstraction  which  an  interesting 
book  produced  upon  him,  as  well  as  of  his  benevolent  disposition, 
used  to  be  told — though  the  writer  cannot  vouch  for  the  truth  of 
the  anecdote.  Upon  one  occasion  a  beggar  approached  him,  as 
he  lay  stretched  in  his  favorite  position  on  the  grass  in  his 
garden  in  St.  Thomas,  and  began  a  recital  of  the  woes  and 
disabilities  suffered  by  him  from  an  explosion  in  an  "  indigo 
mine."  The  parson,  without  removing  his  eyes  from  the  page  in 
which  he  was  absorbed,  involuntarily  shoved  his  hand  into  his 


REV.   M.    BURNHAM.  137 

breeches  pocket,  and  drawing  forth  all  the  loose  change  he  had, 
thrust  it  into  the  uninjured  hand  of  the  man,  who  immediately 
withdrew.  After  finishing  his  chapter,  the  parson  began  to 
ruminate  and  the  man's  words  began  also  to  penetrate  his  con- 
sciousness. "  Indigo  mine — indigo  mine  !  "  he  repeated,  jumping 
up  with  unaccustomed  alacrity,  "  'what  is  an  indigo  mine?"- 
and  remembering  that  indigo  was  a  plant  and  not  a  mineral,  he 
looked  about  for  the  beggar,  who  had,  however,  by  this  time 
reached  the  tavern. 

Mr.  Burnham  was  for  a  long  time  a  welcome  visitor  at  Colonel 
Talbot's,  but  the  Colonel's  habit  of  indulging  at  times  at  his  own 
table  in  stronger  potations  and  language  than  suited  the  clergy- 
man's taste,  at  last,  it  is  said,  caused  the  latter  to  refrain  from 
further  intercourse  with  him. 

"  Parson  Burnham,"  as  he  was  familiarily  called  by  his  parish- 
ioners in  St.  Thomas,  Port  Stanley  and  Tyrconnel,  married  a 
daughter  of  Colonel  John  Bostwick  of  Port  Stanley,  who  lived  to 
see  the  close  of  the  nineteenth  century,  long  surviving  her  husband 
and  attaining  the  advanced  age  of  ninety-four. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

THE   NEW   DISTRICT   CAPITAL — LONDON'S   FIRST   DECADE, 
1826-1836. 

THE  original  reservation  for  the  town  of  London,  made  in 
Simcoe's  time,  was  much  more  extensive  than  the  town  plot 
surveyed  into  lots  by  Colonel  Burwell  in  1826.  The  latter  covered 
only  some  240  acres,  extending  from  the  river  on  the  west  and 
south  to  Wellington  street,  on  the  east  and  North  street — now 
Queens  avenue — on  the  north. 

The  little  Scotchman,  a  tailor  by  trade,  Peter  McGregor  by 
name,  to  whom  is  generally  conceded  the  honor  of  having  erected 
the  first  house  in  the  Forest  City,  was  blessed  with  an  energetic 
wife,  and — as  was,  indeed,  usual  with  first  settlers  in  those  days — 
they  constituted  their  house  a  place  of  entertainment  for  those 
having  occasion  to  visit  the  new  district  capital.  It  was  but  a 
shanty  at  best,  on  King  street,  a  little  west  of  Ridout  street.  The 
first  public  building,  the  temporary  court  house,  has  been  already 
described.  It  was  removed  to  the  south-west  corner  of  the 
grounds,  when  the  new  court  house  was  built.  When  the  new 
court  house  itself  was  completed,  this  building  became  a  school, 
in  which  the  first  school  master,  a  Mr.  VanEvery,  began  the 
instruction  of  the  young  villagers.  Besides  the  court  and  district 
officials  already  referred  to,  the  pioneer  lawyer,  John  Ten  Broek, 
physician,  Dr.  Chisholm,  and  merchant,  G.  J.  Goodhue,  soon 
appeared.  The  latter  came  over  from  Westminster,  obtained  a 
lot  on  the  corner  of  Dundas  and  Ridout  streets  and  established  a 
place  of  business  and  became  London's  first*  and  wealthiest 

*It  is  said  that  Patrick  McManus,  Charles  Henry  and  Dennis  O'Brien  began 
business  in  London  about  the  same  time  as  Mr.  Goodhue.  These  with  M. 
McLoughlin  and  John  Jennings,  a  brother  Irishman,  had  been  travelling  pack 


1.  Temporary  Court  House  and  District  School,  London. 

2.  London  Court  House  as  remodelled. 


THE   NEW   DISTRICT   CAPITAL.  139 

business  man.  He  was  from  Connecticut,  a  brother  of  Dr. 
Goodhue,  of  St.  Thomas,  and  was  referred  to  as  a  "  merchant, 
distiller,  pearl  ash  maker  and  dealer  in  pork,  in  Westminster,  and 
merchant  in  Ancaster"  in  1825,  by  Peter  Russell,  a  Scotch  gentle- 
man — not  the  president — who  travelled  through  the  settlement  in 
that  year,  and  described  Mr.  Goodhue's  premises  in  Westminster 
as  very  centrally  situated  for  business,  and  kept  clean  by  water 
conveyed  in  pipes  from  the  top  of  the  distillery.  McGregor's 
primitive  inn  was  soon  eclipsed  by  the  more  pretentious  "Mansion 
House,"  built  in  1828,  by  Abraham  Carrol,  on  the  north  side  of 
Dundas  street,  east  of  Ridout,  and  by  1829  the  town  was  regarded 
as  one  of  growing  importance,  though  described  as  then  "  quite 
new,  not  containing  above  40  or  50  houses,  all  of  bright  boards 
and  shingles."  The  handsome  court  house  was,  of  course,  the 
chief  architectural  feature,  the  bricks  for  which  were  manufactured 
at  two  brickyards  near  by — the  one  on  the  site  of  the  subsequent 
Robinson  Hall  hotel,  the  other  on  Walter  Nixon's  land,  in  what 
is  now  London  West.  Mr.  Edward  was  the  architect,  John 
Ewart,  of  Toronto,  the  contractor,  with  Thomas  Parke  as  partner 
or  foreman  in  charge  of  the  work.  There  are  traditions  of  a 
church  in  course  of  construction,  too,  at  this  time,  but  if  within 
the  city  boundaries  all  traces  of  it  have  long  since  vanished.*  It 
was  to  have  been  at  the  north-west  corner  of  Dundas  and  Ridout 
streets,  where  some  burials  took  place. 

In  London  township,  however,  the  Rev.  Alex.  Mclntosh,  the 
first  incumbent  of  St.  Thomas,  is  said  to  have  held  services,  and 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Stewart,  bishop  of  Quebec,  to  have  preached  as 
early  as  1822,  in  the  barn  of  William  Geary,  and  the  Hon. 
Freeman  Talbot,  already  referred  to,  is  authority  for  the  state- 
ment that  the  church,  afterwards  known  as  St.  John's,  in  that 

merchants  in  the  very  early  days,  anchored  at  London,  and  with  John  and 
Andrew  Yerex,  Levi  Merrick,  Robert  Carfrae,  Abram  Carroll  and  McGregor 
formed  the  nucleus  of  the  new  town,  Nathaniel  Yerex  being  the  earliest  inhab- 
itant born  in  the  town. 

*The  frame  of  the  church  is  said  to  have  been  put  up  in  1828  on  the  burial 
lot  opposite  the  court  house,  then  taken  down  and  re-erected  as  St.  Paul's 
church  on  the  site  of  the  present  cathedral.  The  same  authority  (W.  Horton) 
states  that  the  Methodists  built  the  first  place  of  worship,  a  frame  building  on 
the  north-west  corner  of  North  (now  Carling)  and  Ridout  streets. 


140  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

township,  was  partially  built  in  that  year,  though  not  completed 
until  some  time  in  the  forties.  The  Rev.  E.  J.  Boswell  followed 
Mr.  Mclntosh  from  St.  Thomas,  in  1829.  The  Geary  barn  was, 
moreover,  the  scene  of  many  baptisms. 

In  the  summer  of  '32,  large  numbers  of  discharged  soldiers 
were  sent  out  by  the  British  government  to  settle  in  Canada.  A 
considerable  body  of  these  was  placed  in  the  township  of 
Adelaide.  So  unfitted  and  unprepared  were  they  for  life  in  the 
backwoods  that  the  provincial  government  deemed  it  necessary 
to  come  to  their  assistance  by  erecting  huts  and  distributing 
provisions  among  them.  Mr.  Roswell  Mount,  the  local  member 
of  parliament,  superintended  the  erection  of  these  rude  houses, 
thirty-two  of  which  Freeman  Talbot  states  he  himself  built.  At 
or  about  the  same  time  came  a  number  of  retired  officers,  clergy- 
men and  other  gentlemen  with  their  families,  from  Ireland,  who 
settled  in  the  same  locality — Colonel  Curran,  the  Blakes,  Radcliffs 
and  others  among  the  number.  The  Reverend  Dominick  Edward 
Blake  was  appointed  to  a  rectory  in  Adelaide,  while  his  brother, 
William  Hume  Blake,  settled  on  a  farm,  near  the  boundary  of  the 
neighboring  townships  of  Metcalfe  and  Ekfrid.  Here  the  Hon. 
Edward  Blake,  the  distinguished  Canadian  lawyer  and  statesman, 
was  born  in  1833.  His  father  soon  tired  of  roughing  it  in  the 
bush,  went  to  Toronto,  where,  having  studied  law,  he  became  a 
leading  counsel,  a  member  of  the  government,  and  subsequently 
Chancellor.  Here  another  son  (Hon.  S.  H.  Blake)  was  born. 
His  fund  of  anecdotes  was,  however,  enriched  by  his  brief 
life  in  the  backwoods,  and  among  the  experiences  he  was 
wont  to  recall  was  his  having  gone  to  the  blacksmith's  shop  for  a 
supply  of  harrow  pins,  which,  proving  too  heavy  for  him  to  carry, 
he  had  fastened  to  a  chain  which  he  placed  round  his  neck — and 
thus  equipped  the  future  Chancellor  dragged  them  home  through 
the  woods. 

In  November  of  the  same  year  in  which  the  Adelaide  settlers 
arrived,  the  Rev.  Benjamin  Crony n  came  from  Ireland  with  the 
intention  of  ministering  to  their  spiritual  wants.  With  his  wife 
and  family  of  two  young  children  in  a  waggon,  toiling  and  bumping 
over  the  rough  track  of  the  commissioners'  road,  he  chanced  to 


THE    NEW    DISTRICT   CAPITAL.  141 

hear,  from  a  wayfarer  of  whom  he  made  enquiry  as  to  a  place  of 
shelter  for  the  night,  of  the  village  of  "  The  Forks,"  some  two  miles 
to  the  north.  Thither  he  made  his  way,  over  the  Wharncliffe  road 
and  Westminster  bridge,  to  the  Mansion  House,  then  kept  by  John 
O'Neal.  Safely  ensconced  here  in  comparative  comfort,  a  day  or 
two's  rest  was  decided  on  tor  the  wife  and  family's  sake.  Sunday 
service  naturally  followed  the  announcement  of  a  clergyman's 
arrival.  It  was  held  in  the  temporary  court  house  building 
already  mentioned,  where  a  goodly  proportion  ot  the  four  hundred 
inhabitants  the  town  then  boasted  were  gathered  together.  On 
Monday  following  a  deputation  waited  upon  the  Reverend  Mr. 
Cronyn  and  urged  him  to  remain  in  London.  This  led  to  his 
eventual  appointment  to  the  rectories  of  London  and  St.  John's, 
London  township,  and  after  many  years'  service,  to  his  election  as 
the  first  Bishop  of  the  Diocese  of  Huron.  Meantime,  the  propos- 
ed site  for  a  church  at  the  corner  of  Dundas  and  Ridout  streets 
was  abandoned  in  favour  of  that  now  occupied  by  St.  Paul's 
Cathedral,  where  the  first  church,  a  neat  one,  with  tower  and 
spire,  was  erected  in  1835.  The  church  was  a  frame  one,  facing 
south,  and  between  it  and  Dundas  street  a  dismal  swamp,  full  of 
fallen  trees  and  underbrush,  afforded  shelter  for  the  frogs,  whose 
nightly  concerts  enlivened  the  summer  evenings. 

Already  a  rough  church,  built  of  logs  with  earthen  floor,  had 
been  erected  a  little  to  the  north — on  the  corner  of  Richmond 
street  and  Maple  avenue — by  the  Roman  Catholics  of  the  city  and 
county,  Irish  and  Scotch.  It  was  dedicated  in  1834  by  the  Rev. 
Father  Downie,  and  destroyed  by  fire  as  late  as  Aug.  24th,  1851. 
There  were  long  periods  of  waiting  between  the  visits  of  priests 
to  the  mission.  When  one  sent  word  of  his  coming,  Messrs.  P. 
Smith,  Dennis  O'Brien,  James  Reid,  Hugh  McCann  and  Mr. 
Cruickshank,  the  then  leading  members,  sent  round  the  glad 
message  to  their  friends,  who  flocked  in  on  the  day  appointed  for 
mass,  while  mothers  brought  their  children  for  baptism. 

The  difficulties  in  the  way  of  those  desiring  to  marry,  where  no 
ordained  clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England  was  within  reach, 
in  the  early  days,  are  well  known.  Where  there  was  no  such 
minister  within  a  prescribed  distance,  justices  of  the  peace  were 


142  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

empowered,  by  statute,  to  perform  the  ceremony,  and  certificates 
of  marriage  are  still  preserved  by  some  whose  ancestors  were 
united  by  Colonel  Talbot. 

On  Rev.  Mr.  Cronyn's  arrival  in  London  he  was  entreated  by 
various  couples  in  the  neighbourhood,  many  of  whom  had  lived 
together  for  years,  but  had  not  had  the  opportunity  of  being 
married  by  an  ordained  minister,  to  marry  them  according  to  the 
forms  of  the  church.  Guided  by  one  Robert  Parkinson,  he 
accordingly  rode  on  horseback  for  days  through  the  bush,  stop- 
ping at  the  settlers'  shanties  and  performing  the  marriage 
ceremony,  oftimes  baptising  at  the  same  time  the  children  of  the 
parents  to  whose  union  he  gave  the  sanction  of  the  church. 

Meantime  his  friends  in  Adelaide  were  not  forgotten.  His  son, 
Verschoyle  Cronyn,  Esq.,  now  the  oldest  native  born  resident  of 
the  city  of  London,  supplies  some  interesting  particulars,  which 
are  given  in  his  own  quaintly  humourous  language,  as  to  his 
father's  early  visits  to  this  township,  together  with  other  amusing 
experiences  : 

"  During  Mr.  Cronyn's  first  winter  on  one  occasion  he,  with  his  friend 
Colonel  Curran,  started  on  foot  from  London  to  Adelaide,  carrying  a  quarter 
of  beef  strung  from  a  pole  between  them,  for  the  relief  of  friends  among  the 
settlers  there.  Soon  the  load  grew  heavy,  necessitating  frequent  stoppages 
for  rest.  Night  came  on  and  the  wolves,  numerous,  fierce  and  daring  in 
those  days,  scenting  the  raw  beef,  howled  uncomfortably  near.  To  add  to 
their  trouble  they  lost  the  trail  in  the  dark,  and  when  about  to  abandon  the 
beef  and  endeavour  to  retrace  their  steps,  discovered  a  light,  and  making  for 
it,  found  a  logger's  shanty,  where  stretched  on  the  floor,  with  feet  towards  a 
huge  fire,  the  choppers  slept.  They  hospitably  made  room  between  them  for 
the  tired  travellers,  who  laid  down  and  rested  there  for  several  hours,  but 
were  again  on  the  march  long  before  daylight,  furnished  by  the  choppers  with 
a  lantern,  which  for  a  time  showed  them  the  trail  and  kept  the  wolves  at  a 
distance,  but  soon  the  light  went  out  and  they  again  lost  their  path,  the 
wolves  howling  dangerously  near,  when  they  were  discovered  by  some  of  the 
settlers  on  the  lookout  for  the  expected  succour. 

"  Often  have  I  listened  to  strange  fireside  tales  by  my  father  and  friends  of 
their  Adelaide  experience.  How  they  used  to  sleep  on  a  straw  tick,  on  a 
heap  of  brush  for  a  bedstead  in  the  corner  of  the  shanty  ;  of  the  inconvenience 
resulting  from  fowl  roosting  overhead  ;  how  the  bed  tick  grew  thin,  and  the 
brush  underneath  becoming  painfully  present,  was  explained  by  the  fact,  that 
in  order  to  keep  life  in  the  solitary  cow,  she  was  being  fed  daily  from  the 


LONDON'S    FIRST   DECADE,    1826-1836.  143 

straw  tick — and  again  the  host  explaining  that  it  was  not  frequent  washing  of 
his  night  cap  that  necessitated  its  being  hung  out  to  dry,  but  simply  because 
it  was  in  it  the  pudding  had  been  boiled — and  how  at  night  they  were  lulled 
by  the  howling  of  the  wolves,  which  at  times  becoming  too  noisy,  the  door  of 
the  shanty  would  be  thrown  open  and  a  shot  fired  in  the  direction  of  the 
nearest  howl,  when  silence  would  follow." 

The  parson  was  a  fearless  horseman,  and  his  son  describes  him 
as  he  and  his  horse  reach  home  bespattered  with  mud,  unsaddling 
and,  throwing  off  all  but  shirt  and  trousers,  swimming  the  horse 
in  the  river  to  wash  off  the  mud. 

"  On  one  occasion,  when  driving  into  town  from  his  residence  on  the  hill, 
near  where  Mount  St.  Joseph's  Orphanage  now  stands,  with  Mrs.  Cronyn 
and  a  son  and  daughter,  aged  thirteen  and  nine  respectively,  in  the  carriage, 
the  horse  took  fright  at  a  hole  in  the  bridge  over  the  Medway,  and  backed 
the  vehicle  off  into  the  river.  He  and  Mrs.  Cronyn  leaped  out  onto  the 
bridge,  but  the  children  went  down  with  the  horse  and  carriage  into  about 
eight  feet  of  water.  The  horse  struggled  to  the  log  pier  of  the  bridge,  where 
he  was  able  to  keep  his  head  above  water,  but  the  children,  who  had  been 
thrown  from  the  carriage,  went  to  the  bottom.  Mr.  Cronyn,  without  even 
removing  his  hat,  waited  until  the  water  cleared  sufficiently  to  enable  him  to 
see  objects  in  the  bottom,  when  he  dove  down,  and,  taking  a  child  on  each 
arm,  swam  ashore  with  them.  My  sister  was  insensible,  but  soon  recovered." 

In  1836,  when  Sir  Francis  Bond  Head  toured  the  province  on 
horseback,  being  an  experienced  rider,  fond  of  following  the 
hounds,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Cronyn  and  other  leading  citizens,  while 
escorting  him  across  the  oak  plains  south-east  of  London,  sighted 
a  deer,  when  off  went  the  parson's  faithful  hound  in  full  cry, 
followed  by  the  governor,  the  future  bishop,  and  entire  cavalcade. 
Yet  the  deer,  after  an  exciting  run,  crossed  the  river  and  escaped. 

About  the  year  1832  there  arrived  by  boat  at  Port  Stanley  a 
young  Irish  barrister,  of  good  family,  Mr.  J.  W.  C.  Meredith,  who 
made  his  way  into  the  interior  and  engaged  in  farming,  married 
and  became  the  father  of  a  numerous  and  distinguished  family — 
the  eldest  of  his  sons,  born  in  Westminster  in  1840,  being  a  Chief 
Justice  (Sir  William  R.  Meredith),  and  another  (Hon.  R.  M. 
Meredith)  a  Justice  of  the  High  Court.  Mr.  Meredith  subsequently 
moved  into  London  and  was  clerk  of  the  division  court  there. 

Reference  has  been  made  to  the  removal  of  the  district  offices 


144  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

from  Vittoria  to  London,  and  it  will  be  of  interest  to  note  who 
the  early  officials  were  at  the  time  of  the  change.  Judge  James 
Mitchell,  the  first  judge  of  the  district,  appointed  in  1819,  had 
been  a  schoolmaster  at  Long  Point,  as  already  mentioned. 
Sheriff  Rapelje  had  taken  the  place  of  John  Bostwick.  John 
B.  Askin  was  clerk  of  the  peace,  with  William  King  Cornish 
as  deputy  clerk.  Mahlon  Burwell  was  registrar  ;  John  Harris, 
treasurer  ;  John  O'Neil  was  high  constable  ;  Samuel  Park,  gaoler ; 
and  Gideon  Bostwick,  court  crier.  Colonel  Burwell  continued  the 
registry  office  at  his  place  of  residence,  near  Port  Talbot,  until 
1843.  His  son,  Hercules,  succeeded  him  as  registrar.  William 
Young,  an  English  attorney,  living  on  a  farm  in  Caradoc,  was 
appointed  as  a  second  judge,  owing  to  the  increasing  infirmity  of 
Judge  Mitchell,  who,  however,  survived  him,  and  Judge  Williams, 
an  English  barrister  from  the  West  Indies,  who  had  settled 
between  St.  Thomas  and  London,  was  appointed  in  his  stead. 
Memories  of  his  handsome  Creole  wife  and  their  daughters,  one  of 
whom  became  the  wife  of  Judge  Ackland,  of  Goderich,  and  another 
Mrs.  Dixie  Watson,  still  survive  among  some  of  the  aged  settlers. 
Of  the  other  officials  named,  Mr.  Askin  and  Mr.  Harris  became 
prominent  citizens  of  the  new  district  capital.  Colonel  Askin  took 
an  active  part  in  suppressing  the  rebellion  of  1837,  while  Mr. 
Harris'  residence,  Eldon  Hall,  beautifully  situated  a  short  distance 
north  of  the  court  house  on  the  bank  overlooking  the  river, 
became  a  social  centre,  where  a  generous  hospitality  was  extended 
to  many  prominent  people  in  military  and  civil  life,  governors- 
general  and  lieutenant-governors,  and  distinguished  visitors  from 
abroad.  Mr.  Harris  had  served  in  the  navy  in  his  early  days. 
His  wife,  a  daughter  of  the  first  chairman  of  Quarter  Sessions  of 
the  district,  Colonel  Samuel  Ryerse,  was  the  handsome  and  clever 
daughter  of  a  mother  who  is  said  to  have  been  a  social  leader  in 
old  colonial  days,  before  the  Ryerse's  became  U.  E.  Loyalist 
refugees  in  Canada.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Harris'  daughters  were 
accomplished  and  attractive  young  ladies,  several  of  whom  subse- 
quently married  representatives  of  Old  Country  noble  families.* 

*Sarah  B.  Harris,  the  eldest,  married,  in  1846,  Lt.-Col.  the  Hon.  Robt.  A. 
J.  Dalzell,  C.B.,  fourth  son  of  the  seventh  Earl  of  Camwath,  and  Helen  Vidal 


LONDON'S  FIRST    DECADE,    1826-1836.  145 

The  professions  were,  of  course,  but  sparingly  represented  in 
the  early  days.  When  the  court  travelled  from  Long  Point,  some 
seventy  miles,  with  stops  at  Widow  Coltman's  and  St.  Thomas  en 
route — when  affairs  of  state  and  many  other  things  were  fully 
discussed — several  lawyers  were  usually  of  the  party.  Judge 
Mitchell,  a  fellow-student  with  Dr.  Strachan  in  their  native 
Scotland,  is  described  as  a  veteran  who  had  decided  the  case  of 
many  a  battle,  John  Harris  as  possesing  a  blunt  and  jolly  manner, 
and  John  B.  Askin  as  a  man  of  "bluff  manners  and  abundant 
chop  stuff."  With  these  were  old  Sheriff  Rapelje  and  the  lawyers 
— William  Salmon,  afterward  Judge  Salmon,  of  Norfolk,  among 
others.  He,  however,  never  remained  at  London.  John 
Ten  Broek,  already  referred  to,  did,  and  after  him  came  John 
Stuart,  whose  duel  and  litigation  with  Captain  Grogan,  of  the 
32nd  regiment,  with  accompanying  scandals,  formed  food  for  talk 
in  subsequent  days.  Stuart  Jones,  of  a  well-known  Brockville 
family,  was  another  pioneer  practitioner  of  London,  as  was  also 
William  King  Cornish,  the  deputy  clerk  of  the  peace  and  father 
of  Frank  Cornish,  a  well-known  lawyer  and  mayor  in  later  days. 

John  Wilson  came  in  1834.  Born  near  Paisley,  Scotland,  in 
1809,  he  came  with  his  parents  to  Canada  to  pass  his  early  days 
on  a  farm  in  Lanark  county,  where  he  acquired  a  knowledge  of 
farm  life  and  a  sympathy  with  the  feelings  of  the  backwoodsmen, 
which  stood  him  in  good  stead  in  the  subsequent  practice  of  the 
profession  of  the  law,  to  the  study  of  which  he  turned  when  his 
health  had  become  impaired  by  work  on  the  farm.  He  studied 
in  the  office  of  James  Boulton,  at  Perth.  Mr.  Wilson  speedily 
acquired  a  large  and  lucrative  practice  in  London,  and  became 
a  prominent  and  leading  man,  whose  power  with  juries  was 
enhanced  by  the  blunt  common  sense  and  unadorned  oratory, 
which  were  his  characteristics.  He  was  generous  and  kind 
hearted  by  nature  and  it  is,  therefore,  not  surprising  that  he 
achieved  a  large  measure  of  success,  professionally  and  politically, 
in  after  years.  He  married,  the  year  following  his  arrival  in 

Harris,  a  younger  sister,  married  in  1856,  the  Hon.  Maurice  Berkeley  Portman, 
third  son  of  the  first  Viscount  Portman.  See  Morgan's  "Eminent  Women  of 
Canada."  As  to  other  sisters  see  Chapter  xxxv. 


146  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

London,  a  sister  of  David  John  Hughes,  the  first  judge  of  Elgin 
county,  who  came  with  his  two  sisters  from  Perth  in  1835, 
(the  second  marrying  Hugh,  second  son  of  Major  Barwick,  of 
Oxford,)  and  soon  after  commenced,  in  the  office  of  his  brother-in- 
law,  Wilson,  to  prepare  for  the  practice  of  law  and  for  a  career  on 
the  bench  unexampled,  in  its  duration  of  more  than  half  a  century 
in  Canada,  if  not  the  Empire,  so  far  as  the  present  writer  is 
aware. 

John  Wilson's  office  speedily  became  the  headquarters  for  a 
coterie  of  students,  who  became  prominent  men  throughout  the 
district  in  after  days.  Foremost  among  these,  in  many  ways, 
came  in  1836,  Henry  Corry  Rowley  Becher,  a  young  Englishman 
of  good  family,  sent  out  to  seek  his  fortune  in  Canada,  who 
visited  the  Harris'  and  took  up  the  study  of  law.  In  after 
times  he  frequently  broke  a  lance  with  his  former  preceptor, 
Mr.  Wilson.  As  his  name  will  recur  in  these  pages,  it  will 
suffice  at  present  to  say  that  two  men  could  scarcely  present 
a  wider  contrast  in  appearance  and  manner  than  Wilson  and 
Becher.  Wilson,  sturdy,  inclined  to  stoutness,  with  broad, 
open,  strong  countenance,  whose  bold  expression  and  tilted 
nose  verged  on  coarseness — Becher,  tall,  slight,  straight  featured, 
with  dark,  and  even  sallow  complexion,  polished  manners  and 
gentlemanly  bearing,  which  he  never  laid  aside,  was  suave  and 
smooth  of  speech.  In  addition  to  Mr.  Becher,  Mr.  Wilson's 
students  in  the  years  now  referred  to  included  John  H.  L.  Askin, 
son  of  Colonel  Askin ;  John  Stewart,  afterward  of  Goderich  ; 
Alex.  McLean,  who  became  a  pioneer  lawyer  at  Chatham  ;  James 
Shanly,  better  known  afterward  as  Colonel  Shanly ;  and  Mr. , 
afterward  Judge,  Ackland,  of  Goderich.  Fred  Cleverly  was  a 
student  with  John  Stuart,  the  early  practitioner  already  referred 
to,  who  was  familiarly  known  as  "  Horse  Stuart,"  from  his 
partiality  for  horses,  in  contradistinction  to  John  Stewart, 
Wilson's  student,  then  known  as  "Four  Eyed  Stewart"  from 
some  peculiarity  in  his  vision,  which,  presumably,  enabled  him  to 
look  in  four  directions  at  one  time.  Cleverly,  with  young  Askin, 
Robert  S.  Woods,  afterward  Judge  Woods,  of  Chatham,  Hugh 
Barwick,  and  W.  S.  Light,  of  Woodstock,  J.  P.  Curran, 


LONDON'S   FIRST    DECADE,    1826-1836.  147 

Alexander  Drummond  and  Captain  McCormack,  of  Adelaide, 
afterward  took  part  in  the  exploit  of  cutting"  out  the  Caroline  on 
the  Niagara  river  in  '37,  of  which  mention  is  hereafter  made. 

Thomas  Kerr  also  dispensed  law  to  the  pioneers  in  London 
before  1840,  while  James  Givens,  Gideon  Ackland  and  Thomas  D. 
Warren  were  already  practising"  in  St.  Thomas.  The  former 
acted  as  solicitor  for  the  first  chartered  bank  in  London,  the  Bank 
of  Upper  Canada,  established  under  the  management  of  Richard 
Richardson  in  1835,  and  was  soon  called  over  from  St.  Thomas 
to  be  closer  at  hand,  and  to  become  Judge  Givens  eventually. 

Dr.  Chisholm  with  Dr.  Lee  and  Dr.  Donnelly  endeavoured  to 
preserve  the  health  of  the  infant  town.  The  pioneer  doctors' 
efforts  were  largely  unavailing  when  the  cholera  reached  the 
village  in  1832,  when  great  was  the  consternation  and  numerous 
the  deaths  for  a  community  so  small — not  too  small,  however,  to 
support  a  newspaper  in  the  opinion  of  E.  A.  Talbot,  who 
established  the  Sun,  London's  first  paper,  in  1831,  but  had  soon 
reason  for  believing  his  enterprise  a  little  premature — for  the 
paper  was  short-lived.  His  brother  John,  however,  for  some  time 
conducted  the  St.  Thomas  Liberal,  whose  violent  radicalism  as 
opposed  to  the  equally  violent  toryism  of  the  St.  Thomas  Journal^ 
published  by  Mr.  Hodgkinson,  was  remarked  by  Mrs.  Jamieson  in 
'37.  After  the  Liberal's  suppression  and  the  flight  of  its  pro- 
prietor across  the  border  at  the  close  of  that  year,  the  former 
editor  of  the  Sun,  E.  A.  Talbot,  launched  a  fresh  venture,  the 
London  Freeman's  Journal,  in  1839. 

John  Scatcherd,  who  had  come  in  1821  from  Wyton,  near  Hull, 
in  England,  to  become  the  pioneer  and  founder  of  Wyton  in 
Nissouri  township  in  Canada,  moved  into  the  village  of  London 
nine  years  later,  with  a  view  to  educating  the  growing  family 
with  which  his  union  with  Ann  Farley,  his  Nissouri  neighbour's 
daughter,  had  been  blessed.  He  determined  to  try  mercantile  life 
for  a  time  and  opened  a  store  on  the  north  side  of  Dundas  street, 
where  dry  goods  and  hardware  were  to  be  had— the  latter  for  the 
first  time  in  London,  it  has  been  stated.  Mr.  Scatcherd  was  the 
candidate  in  opposition  to  Colonel  Burwell  at  the  first  parlia- 
mentary election  for  London,  when  the  latter  was,  however, 


148  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

returned.  After  five  years,  having  accomplished  his  educational 
plans  for  the  children,  who  meantime  were  taught  at  Miss 
Stimson's  and  the  district  grammar  schools,  he  returned  once 
more  to  Wyton,  became  warden  of  the  county  and  member  of 
parliament  for  West  Middlesex  until  his  death.  His  son  Thomas 
was,  however,  destined  to  become  a  permanent  resident  and 
prominent  lawyer  of  the  city,  and  member  of  parliament  for  North 
Middlesex  in  after  years. 

The  Forest  City  was  gradually  emerging  from  the  forest.  Even 
the  post  office,  which  had  been  opened  in  1828  in  the  farm  house 
of  Ira  Schofield,  the  early  magistrate,  who  lived  among  the  pine 
woods  east  of  the  town,  was  found  to  be  at  an  inconvenient 
distance  from  the  business  centre,  and  was  accordingly  moved 
down  to  Mr.  Goodhue's  store.  For  the  next  few  years  it  hovered 
about  Ridout  and  Dundas  streets,  moving  up  and  down  and 
across  those  thoroughfares — if  such  they  could  be  called  in  those 
days  of  unfathomable  mire — from  building  to  building,  at  one 
time  driven  out  by  fire,  at  others  by  business  exigencies.  Mr. 
Goodhue  was  postmaster  during  most  of  the  period  from  1829 
until  the  post  office  was  established  in  its  present  situation  with 
Lawrence  Lawless  as  postmaster,  a  quarter  of  a  century  or  more 
after  that  date.  In  the  meantime  Mr.  Goodhue  had  taken  a 
partner  in  the  person  of  Mr.  Lawrence  Lawrason,  afterwards 
police  magistrate,  who  came  in  from  Hall's  Mills. 

Had  not  this  chapter  already  reached  abnormal  length,  it  might 
be  embellished  by  many  scenes  and  incidents  of  London's  first 
decade — of  the  first  court  house  and  gaol  surrounded  by  stumps, 
to  one  of  which  the  first  prisoner,  Reed,  accused  of  the  enormity 
of  stealing  neighbour  Dingman's  axe — a  settler's  most  prized 
implement — is  chained  by  day,  to  be  similarly  secured  to  a  block 
of  wood  in  an  unfinished  cell  by  night  ;  of  the  public  stocks  and 
their  occupants,  with  the  spectators  surrounding  them — of  John 
McLoughlin  striving  to  kick  out  the  wedges  and  release  some 
convicted  turkey  thieves,  drawing  forth  a  sharp  reprimand  from 
High  Constable  Peter  Schram,  endorsed  by  Sheriff  Rapelje  ;  of 
Constable  Groves  finally  consigning  the  then  disused  and  despised 
implements  to  the  river;  of  the  execution  of  Burleigh,  the  first 


FREEMAN  TALBOT. 


COLONEL  J.  B.  ASKIN,  CLERK  OF  THE  PEACE. 


tf*   . 


JOHN  HARRIS,  TREASURER.  SHERIFF  HAMILTON. 

From  Illustrated  London.      (Copyrighted.)    By  permission  of  the  London  Pig  &*  Litho.  Co. 


LONDON'S   FIRST    DECADE,    1826-1836.  149 

man  hanged  (for  murder)  in  London — twice  hanged,  it  is  said — 
mingling-  among  the  spectators  with  the  broken  rope  round  his 
neck,  after  the  first  attempt  ;  of  the  gaping  crowds  gazing  from 
below  or  from  Goodhue's  building  opposite  at  subsequent  public 
executions  and  whippings  ;  of  Dennis  O'Brien  selling  his  wares 
from  a  waggon  on  the  court  house  square,  and  later  across  a 
plank  counter  supported  by  barrels,  in  a  disused  blacksmith  shop, 
his  first  stationary  place  of  business  ;  of  the  first  court  house 
moving  off  on  a  December  night  of  '28,  on  runners  drawn  by 
oxen,  to  the  south-west  corner  of  the  square  ;  of  Robert  Carfrae 
crossing  the  first  bridge,  at  foot  of  York  street  and  inquiring  of  a 
man  at  work  putting  up  a  log  house,  "  How  far  is  it  to  London  ?  " 
and  Yerex's  prompt  reply,  "  You're  in  it"  ;  of  the  rearing  of  that 
baronial  building,  the  new  court  house,  on  which  Carfrae  worked  ; 
of  the  future  men  and  women  of  the  settlement  at  play  beneath  its 
shadow,  released  from  school  in  the  temporary  court  house  hard 
by.- 

Surveyor-General  Ridout  had  had  his  revenge  on  Colone* 
Talbot,  for  the  north  branch  Southwold  road  incident,  for  was  not 
Ridout  street  the  scene  of  most  of  the  life  of  the  town,  and  did  not 
the  court  house  look  out  upon  it — while  Talbot  street  was  as  yet  a 
back  street  ? 

*  Among  others  who  attended  the  school  in  early  days  may  be  mentioned 
the  following  names  :  The  Parkes,  Scatcherds,  Schofield,  Trowbridge,  Mc- 
Fadden,  Thos.  Robertson  (afterwards  a  Justice  of  the  High  Court),  Hugh 
Richardson  (afterwards  a  Justice  of  the  N.  W.  Supreme  Court),  Rapelje,  the 
Kents,  Rob,  Darling,  the  Harris',  Askins,  H.  Hamilton,  the  Stevens',  Lees, 
Hughes  (afterwards  Judge  of  Elgin),  Cronyns,  Travers,  Cornishes,  and 
Charles,  son  of  Dr.  Elijah  Duncombe  and  W.  C.  VanBuskirk,  the  well  known 
St.  Thomas  physician. 


CHAPTER    XXII. 

COLONEL  TALBOT  TO   HON.    PETER   ROBINSON — 1830-1834 — 
THE    CHOLERA. 

CORRESPONDENCE,  especially  that  between  friends,  often  exhibits 
the  character  of  the  writer,  and  at  the  same  time  portrays  current 
events,  as  no  ex  post  facto  description  can. 

Colonel  Talbot  seems  to  have  been  an  excellent  correspondent. 
He  wrote  many  letters  to  many  people,  and  he  had  a  terse, 
vigorous  way  of  expressing"  himself — a  dash  of  humour,  too,  and 
ever  and  anon,  in  writing  to  friends,  an  affectionate  cordiality 
which  must  have  tended  to  keep  warm  their  hearts  towards  him. 

A  bundle  of  his  letters,  covering  the  period  now  being  dealt 
with — 1830  to  1834 — written  to  the  Hon.  Peter  Robinson,  com- 
missioner of  Crown  Lands,  were  some  time  since  unearthed  from 
the  department  by  a  lady*  whose  comment  upon  them  the  present 
writer  cannot  resist  quoting  : — "  I  had  heard  and  read  a  good 
deal  of  the  Colonel,  and  had  rather  a  prejudice  against  him — on 
political  grounds,  most  likely — but  in  these  letters  the  real  man 
shows  himself,  autocratic,  choleric,  kindly,  hospitable  old  chap 
that  he  was,  in  his  anxieties  about  'his  settlers,'  his  fears  that 
some  would  not  get  their  rights,  and  that  others  would  get  more 
than  their  deserts,  his  pity  for  the  suffering  and  impoverished,  his 
intolerance  of  opposition,  his  sweeping  condemnation  of  all  who 
crossed  his  will,  his  bluntness,  his  old  world  stilted  politeness — all 
had  an  interest,  quite  apart  from  the  page  of  history  he  unfolded 
to  view." 

The  Robinsons,  both  the  Chief  Justice,  Sir  John  Beverly,  and 
the  Honourable  Peter  Robinson,  his  brother,  were  old  and  inti- 

*Kate  Westlake  Yeigh. 


COLONEL  TALBOT  TO   HON.   PETER   ROBINSON.  151 

mate  friends  of  the  Colonel.  We  have  seen  that  Peter  Robinson 
and  his  riflemen  had  been  at  Port  Talbot,  in  1812,  and  no  doubt 
his  brother,  who  was  with  Brock,  called  there  as  well.  After  that 
they  paid  the  Colonel  many  a  visit  and  he  on  the  other  hand 
received  kindly  hospitality  at  their  hands,  when  on  his  periodical 
visits  to  York.  In  a  letter  to  the  present  writer's  father  (already 
quoted  in  part),  the  Chief  Justice,  in  1850,  speaks  of  the  Colonel's 
active  exertions  in  his  settlement  as  being  "before  my  familiar 
acquaintance  with  him,  which  began  after  his  " — the  Colonel's — 
"  old  friend,  Chief  Justice  Scott's  death,  when  he  made  my  house 
his  home  during  his  short  visits  to  Toronto." 

The  Chief  Justice's  son,  the  late  Hon.  John  Beverly  Robinson, 
former  Lieutenant-Governor  of  the  Province,  has  described  to  the 
present  writer,  the  transformation  which  the  Colonel's  outward 
man  presented  on  the  occasion  of  his  annual  visit  to  the  provincial 
capital,  when  he  appeared  in  ruffled  shirt  and  evening  dress,  with 
lacquered  pumps,  after  discarding  the  sheepskin  coat  and  cap, 
with  dangling  tail,  in  which  he  was  wont  to  appear  in  winter  on 
the  roads  of  the  settlement,  and  even  on  the  streets  of  the  capital, 
in  the  early  days.*  A  round  of  festivities  in  his  honour  was 
entered  upon  at  York,  to  the  delight  of  even  the  younger  gener- 
ation at  Beverly  House,  and  the  other  hospitable  houses,  whose 
guest  he  was,  and  a  fortnight's  gaiety  enlivened  the  old  man  ere  he 
returned  to  his  lonely  bachelor  home.  So  pleasant  were  the 
memories  of  Colonel  Talbot,  his  father's  guest  and  host,  to  the 
Lieutenant-Governor,  that  he  made  a  special  pilgrimage  from 
Government  House  to  Port  Talbot,  some  years  before  his  death, 
in  order  to  revive  them,  by  looking  on  the  familiar  scene  of  his 
childhood's  visits  once  more. 

*Wm.  Baby,  son  of  the  Hon.  James  Baby,  describes  Colonel  Talbot's  ap- 
pearance as  he  (Baby),  then  a  mere  child,  saw  the  Colonel  when  a  guest  of 
Sir  Peregrine  Maitland,  at  York,  in  1820. 

"  Seated  by  the  side  of  Lady  Sarah  Maitland,  in  a  sleigh,  and  driving  along 
King  street,  in  his  sheepskin  coat  and  cap,  with  its  sheepskin  tail  of  8  or  10 
feet  long,  wound  round  his  neck  to  serve  as  a  muffler,  with  the  end  trailing 
by  the  side  of  the  sleigh.  But  when  his  garb  was  thrown  off,  and  he  made 
his  appearance  in  parlour  or  drawing  room,  how  changed  his  appearance  ! 
The  very  type  of  an  aristocratic,  handsome  and  thoroughbred  nobleman." 

To  fully  acquit  Mr.  Baby  of  having  stretched  the  tale,  one  is  forced  to 
conclude  that  the  tail  became  somewhat  lengthened  in  his  youthful  eyes. 


152  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

After  these  explanations,  we  may  return  to  the  Colonel's  letters 
to  the  Hon.  Peter  Robinson.  They  illustrate  among  other  things 
practical  methods  in  regard  to  roads  as  contrasted  with  the  more 
regular  modes  of  the  surveyors.  On  April  i2th,  1830,  he  wrote  : 

"It  has  occurred  to  me  that  clergy  and  Canada  Company's  blocks  of 
reserves  in  the  township  of  Harwich  would  be  much  advanced  in  value  by 
causing  a  line  for  a  road  to  be  surveyed  through  them,  with  lots  laid  out 
abutting  on  each  side  of  the  road,  to  connect  with  the  Middle  road  leading  to 
Sandwich.  At  the  time  I  had  the  Middle  road  surveyed  I  did  not  instruct 
Colonel  Burwell  to  run  it  through  Harwich,  as  the  whole  of  that  township  was 
locked  up  from  me  by  the  blocks  of  crown  and  clergy  reserves,  and  the 
remainder  had  been  deeded  for  many  years  to  non-residents.  Harwich  is 
composed  of  excellent  land,  and  I  am  persuaded  that  the  lots  on  the  road 
would,  in  a  short  time,  readily  sell  for  I2S.  6d.  currency  an  acre,  and  when 
the  road  lots  were  all  settled,  the  residue  of  the  blocks  would  likewise  come 
into  demand  at  the  same  price. 

"  There  is  a  ridge  which  traverses  the  township,  naturally  adapted  to  form 
an  admirable  road  and,  indeed,  it  was  that  circumstance  that  induced  me  to 
have  the  Middle  Road  established,  and  I  have  completely  settled  it  through 
Orford,  Howard  and  Raleigh  and  expect  during  the  present  year  to  have 
settlers  on  the  whole  line,  with  the  exception  of  Harwich,  which  can  only  be 

accomplished  by  the  clergy  and  Canada  Company Harwich  has 

been  and  will  continue  a  great  obstruction  to  my  labours  in  this  part  of  the 
province,  unless  relieved  by  your  exertions  and  assistance." 

It  may  be  said  125.  6d.  per  acre  appears  to  have  been  the 
general  price  paid  for  government  lands  at  this  time  in  the  settle- 
ment. The  writer  has  before  him  a  receipt  in  the  Colonel's  hand- 
writing dated  April  7th,  1831,  given  to  Joseph  Eastabrook,  sr., 
for  loo  acres  in  Yarmouth  at  that  price  per  acre.  It  is  now  in  part 
owned  by  the  city  of  St.  Thomas,  which  paid  nearly  $100  per 
acre  for  a  portion,  subject  to  occasional  floods,  in  1890,  for  water- 
works purposes,  under  arbitrators'  valuation.  In  his  next  letter 
to  Mr.  Robinson,  written  three  days  after  that  already  quoted, 
Colonel  Talbot  complains  of  a  settler  having  been  asked  143.  per 
acre  for  a  clergy  reserve  lot  in  Southwold,  instead  of  the  usual 
i2s.  6d.  rate. 

On  April  3rd  of  the  year  1831  the  Colonel  again  gives  his 
views  on  the  advisability  of  choosing  the  elevated  ridges  for  roads 


\ 

,  V 


\ 


5* 


v 


t 

-  IR.IJ 

-    V    H  fe    4   fefv ,- , 


*  ^ 

f  I 
i  j 


;  3 

a   rt 
c.  h 


IS- 

rt  -M 

1 1 


y 


COLONEL  TALBOT   TO    HON.    PETER   ROBINSON.  153 

— presumably  from  their  dryness  and  greater  ease  and  consequent 
saving-  of  labour  in  road-making.  After  the  usual  friendly 
greetings  he  says  : 

"  I  decidedly  approve  of  your  plan  for  laying-  out  a  road  from  the  N.  E. 
corner  of  Caradoc  to  the  mouth  of  the  river  Aux  Perche,  and  am  quite 
delighted  that  such  a  measure  occurred  to  you,  as  I  know  of  no  part  of  the 
province  possessing-  greater  capability  for  forming-  a  good  settlement  than 
that  tract  affords,  situated  as  it  is  between  two  noble  rivers,  the  Sable  on  the 
north  and  Big  Bear  Creek  on  the  south,  which  can  furnish  the  settlers  with 
excellent  fish  to  feed  them  the  greatest  part  of  the  year.  Besides,  the  land  is 
of  a  very  superior  description,  and  in  fact  when  the  communication  is 
established  the  distance  from  that  part  of  Lake  Huron  to  York  will  not  be 
more  than  to  Sandwich.  The  mode  I  recommend  you  to  adopt  is  in  the  first 
place  to  employ  an  intelligent  and  enterprising  surveyor  to  explore  minutely 
the  tract,  commencing  at  the  N.  E.  corner  of  Caradoc,  not  to  take  a  westerly 
course  until  he  crossed  the  Bear  Creek,  for  it  is  evident  there  must  be  an 
elevation  or  ridge  separating  the  waters  that  run  into  these  rivers,  and  when 
he  finds  such  ridge,  to  follow  it  faithfully  until  he  gets  to  Lake  Huron.  It  is 
notorious  that  all  the  surveyors  of  the  province  have  most  corrupt  taste  and 
conceive  it  worse  than  murder  to  run  any  other  than  a  straight  line.  On  the 
contrary,  he  must  keep  the  middle  of  the  ridge,  let  it  wind  as  it  may,  and  in 
the  commencement  I  would  not  exceed  two  ranges  of  lots  on  each  side  of  the 
road,  and  when  these  are  all  settled  to  run  out  more,  and  no  deed  to  issue  till 
the  settler  had  actually  completed  his  settlement  duties  and  resided  on  his  lot 
five  years.  This  is  enough  for  the  present. 

"  My  next  scheme  is  to  endeavour  to  prevail  on  the  chief  and  yourself  to  get 
on  your  horses  the  latter  part  of  May  and  visit  Port  Talbot,  for  I  should 
despair  of  seeing  you,  if  you  put  off  the  trip  until  the  summer,  when  most 
probably  you  will  be  constantly  busy  in  receiving  and  disposing  of  emigrants. 
If  you  are  disposed  to  confer  a  compliment,  be  with  me  before  the  Talbot 
anniversary,  which  will  be  on  Monday,  the  23rd  of  May.  The  proper  day  is 
the  2ist,  which  will  be  Saturday  this  year,  consequently  the  festivity  would 
interfere  with  Sunday,  and  I  hope  that  the  roads  will  be  in  good  order  by 
that  time.  As  yet,  we  have  had  a  most  constant  rain  and  cold  weather,  such 
as  I  have  not  experienced  since  I  settled  here." 

On  May  2nd  he  recommends  Mr.  James  Nevilles,  captain 
(afterwards  major)  of  militia,  in  answer  to  a  request  for  a  person 
to  accompany  the  surveyor,  and  Mr.  Peter  Carroll  of  Oxford  as 
the  surveyor  in  case  one  had  not  been  engaged — Mr.  Mount,  the 
department  surveyor,  being  ill.  On  July  4th  he  writes  :  "Our 
surveyor  and  explorer  have  returned  from  the  new  tract  of  country 


154  THE  TALBOT   REGIME. 

and  I  am  happy  to  add  that  they  have  been  quite  as  successful  as 
I  could  have  wished  in  finding-  an  excellent  line  for  the  road  from 
the  north-east  corner  of  Caradoc  to  Lake  Huron.  A  magnificent 
settlement  may  be  accomplished  in  the  extent,  and  it  now  remains 
with  you  to  do  it,  but  I  must  caution  you,  in  the  Yankee  style,  to 
be  wide  awake  in  guarding  against  imposition  and  speculation." 
He  says  the  best  and  cheapest  route  is  by  vessel  to  Port  Stanley, 
thence  to  Lobo  or  Caradoc.  He  suggests  the  name  of  "  William 
the  Fourth's  Road  "  for  the  new  road,  which,  however,  we  need 
not  further  follow,  as  it  lies  beyond  the  Talbot  settlement. 

On  October  xoth,  '31,  he  writes  :  "Every  vessel  brings  lots 
of  Highland  Scotch,  many  of  whom  possess  the  means  of  pur- 
chasing. I  sell  the  school  land  in  Yarmouth  for  125.  6d.  currency 
the  acre,"  and  in  the  same  letter,  "  My  nephew,  Captain  Airey, 
left  me  last  Wednesday,  after  spending  nearly  a  fortnight  at  Port 
Talbot." 

Captain  Airey  was  on  the  staff  of  Lord  Aylmer,  who  had  come 
out  the  previous  year  and  succeeded  Sir  James  Kempt  as 
Governor-General.  He  was  destined  to  see  a  good  deal  more  of 
Port  Talbot  before  he  became  Sir  Richard  and  afterwards  Lord 
Airey,  adjutant-general  at  the  Horse  Guards. 

On  the  4th  December,  '31,  the  Colonel,  speaking  of  the  winter 
just  begun,  writes  : 

"  It  beats  any  season  at  an  early  stage  that  I  have  experienced  in  Upper 
Canada,  and  I  never  was  worse  prepared  for  it,  my  house  more  open  than  a 
barn,  and  the  part  I  feel  most  the  loss  of  is  the  cellar,  having  for  the  first  time 
sent  my  pears  and  apples  this  year  to  the  press,  and  after  paying  the  3d.  I 
got  ten  barrels  of  perry  and  fifty  of  cider,  and  I  now  am  aggravated  to  the 
greatest  degree  by  the  whole  thing  being  hard  frozen.  Also  my  cattle  give 

me    much    annoyance My   intention    is    at   present,    wind   and 

weather  permitting,  to  set  out  for  York  the  2nd  or  3rd  January,  and  I  feel 
impatient  to  see  and  converse  with  you." 

The  roads  were  now  improving,  so  that  it  was  no  longer 
essential  to  travel  on  horseback.  Speaking  of  a  long  promised 
visit  from  the  Commissioner,  the  Colonel  wrote  on  April  isth, 
1832  : 

"  Provide  yourself  with  a  strong  one-horse  waggon,  in  which  you  and  your 


COLONEL  TALBOT   TO   HON.    PETER   ROBINSON.  155 

servant  will  travel  more  comfortably  than  on  horseback,  and  set  off  imme- 
diately after  the  receipt  of  this  for  Port  Talbot,  where  you  must  make  up 
your  mind  to  remain  one  whole  month,  at  the  least,  and  I  promise  you  that 
you  shall  live  as  quietly  and  regularly  as  you  please  ;  I  shall  not  give  you  the 
blue  pill,  simply  my  fine  southern  air  will  do  the  needful  by  sending  you  back 

another  man The  route  I  recommend  is  :     ist  day  to  Summers', 

and  to  Brantford,  3rd  to  Wilson's  at  Simcoe  (Long  Point),  4th  to  Winan's  in 
Bayham,  or,  if  you  can,  to  Loder's  at  Little  Otter  Creek,  and  5th  day  to  Port 
Talbot.  These  are  easy  stages  and  will  not  be  too  much  for  you.  I  take  it 
for  granted  navigation  is  now  open  from  York  to  Quebec.  If  the  chief  or 
yourself  hear  of  a  safe  opportunity  to  forward  the  little  dog  to  Captain  Airey 
at  the  castle  of  St.  Louis,  pray  do,  for  every  letter  I  get  from  my  nephew 
expresses  much  impatience  to  have  it.  I  expect  some  hot  work  at  my 
benefit  on  the  23rd,  squibs  flying  in  all  directions." 

The  latter  reference  is  not  to  the  Talbot  anniversary,  but  to  a 
great  meeting-  held  at  St.  Thomas  on  St.  George's  day,  at  which 
the  Colonel  delivered  his  ever  memorable  speech,  which  event  will 
be  dealt  with  in  a  subsequent  chapter.  On  the  23rd  he  again 
wrote  : 

"  I  had  a  most  splendid  victory  on  St.  George's  day  and  nothing  could  have 
gone  off  better.  I  long  to  see  you." 


On  the  1 3th  May  he  again  writes  : 


"  This  letter  will  get  to  York  on  Saturday  next,  therefore  trust  that  the 
chief  and  yourself  will  be  ready  to  set  out  for  Port  Talbot  about  the  middle 
of  the  following  week.  Monday,  the  2ist  of  this  month,  will  be  my  anniver- 
sary, so  that  I  shall  have  recovered  from  the  pains  and  penalties  of  that 
meeting  by  the  time  you  come." 

The  Commissioner  came  to  Port  Talbot  and  paid  his  visit,  but 
the  cheerfulness  produced  by  this  visit  was  soon  dispelled  by  ill 
tidings.  On  July  2nd  the  Colonel  wrote  Mr.  Robinson  : 

"Your  letter  of  the  25th  June  gave  me  much  pleasure  so  far  as  to  assure 
me  that  you  reached  York  well  and  without  meeting  with  much  difficulty,  but 
all  public  matters  appear  to  be  in  a  most  dolesome  state,  as  relates  to 
cholera  and  the  disturbed  situation  of  England.  Dr.  Roll  was  with  me  this 
morning,  just  from  old  London,  and  informed  me  that  the  last  New  York 
papers  state  that  Lord  Grey  is  again  Premier,  and  that  there  have  been 
alarming  meetings  in  the  large  towns  of  England  addressing  the  King  in 


156  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

favour  of  reform,  100,000  in  London  expressing  a  desire  that  William  IV. 
would  abdicate,  as  he  had  not  resolution  to  create  the  Peers  required  to  carry 
the  favourite  measure.  I  am  quite  in  the  dismals  and  almost  dread  the 
arrival  of  the  post  which  probably  will  be  here  in  less  than  an  hour. 

"  His  account  also  of  the  sufferings  of  the  emigrants  between  Montreal  and 
Prescott  is  dreadful,  by  the  desertion  of  the  boatmen  and  the  cruelty  of  the 
inhabitants,  who  will  not  admit  any  of  the  emigrants  to  their  houses  or 
furnish  them  with  provisions,  so  that  in  fact  the  poor  creatures  are  dying  on 
the  banks  of  the  St.  Lawrence  by  starvation. 

"I  was  much  relieved  by  your  account  that  only  seven  deaths  had  occurred 
at  York  of  cholera  on  the  24th.  Dr.  Roll  is  a  gentlemanly  person  and 
practised  some  years  in  London.  I  am  in  hopes  that  he  and  a  Mr.  Johnston 
from  Ireland  have  made  a  purchase  between  them  of  a  lot  on  Talbot  road, 
two  miles  this  side  of  St.  Thomas.  Some  of  the  English  emigrants  arrived  at 
Port  Stanley  last  week,  and  one,  a  boy  of  10  years  old,  died  the  evening  he 
landed,  which  has  been  of  course  decided  to  be  cholera. 

"The  post  has  just  come,  but  no  letter,  therefore,  adieu." 

On  the  8th  July  the  Colonel  writes  again  in  a  somewhat 
"  dolesome  "  strain,  charging  King  William  IV.  with  want  of 
spirit  in  not  calling  in  the  Wellington  party  after  the  first 
rejection  of  the  Reform  bill,  in  which  case  "order  and  security 
might  have  been  restored,  but  as  matters  now  stand  there  is  no 
saying  the  lengths  reform  or  change  may  be  carried.  However," 
he  philosophically  adds,  "it  cannot  avail  any  good  croaking. 
The  English  emigrants  have  arrived  and  proceeded  with  Mount 
to  their  locations — I  am  told,  a  very  healthy,  well-looking  people." 
Then,  after  referring  to  matters  of  business  and  the  "  carelessness 
or  wilfulness  of  the  Surveyor-General's  office"  whereby  "a  poor 
fellow,  Lewis  Swartz  "  was  likely  to  lose  his  improvements  on  a 
lot  in  Caradoc,  the  Colonel  again  refers  to  the  cholera  : 

"  The  weather  for  the  last  week  has  been  very  hot,  and  I  am  sorry  to  say 
that  a  few  persons  have  died  after  a  very  few  hours'  sickness,  which  the 
quacks  pronounce  to  be  cholera.  However,  within  the  last  week  I  have  had 
an  addition  of  two  regular  bred  physicians,  who  are  establishing  themselves 
in  London — Dr,  Donally,  of  the  navy,  and  a  Dr.  Rolls,  a  very  gentlemanly 
young  man,  who  practiced  in  old  London  for  some  years." 

The  Colonel's  next  brief  letter  shows  his  solicitude  for  some  of 
the  Scotch  settlers.  On  i6th  July  he  writes  : 


COLONEL  TALBOT   TO   HON.    PETER   ROBINSON.  157 

"Those  Scotchmen,  Galbraith,  Graham,  and  Currie,  are  with  me,  to  enquire 
if  you  had  written  to  me  about  them.  They  are  the  men  who  were  here  whilst 
you  were  here  with  me,  and  you  took  a  memo  of  their  case — that  is,  they 
went,  by  mistake,  on  wrong  lots  in  Ekfrid,  and  the  poor  fellows  are  most 
anxious  to  hear  how  the  matter  will  be  settled.  I  have  not  a  moment  to  say 
more,  as  the  post  boy  wants  to  be  off.  I  hope  to  hear  that  the  chiefs  young 
est  child  is  recovered.  I  am  sorry  to  add  that  the  cholera  increases.  Three 
deaths  in  London,  some  at  Port  Stanley  and  St.  Thomas.  God  preserve  you." 

A  week  later  he  writes  again  a  brief  letter  telling-  of  the  ravages 
of  the  cholera. 

"  I  have  this  moment  received  a  letter  from  my  nephew,  Capt.  Airey,  telling 
me  that  he  has  been  very  dangerously  ill,  supposed  cholera,  and  is  ordered 
to  England  for  the  benefit  of  his  health,  therefore  if  you  have  not  sent  his  dog 
away  keep  him  for  me  until  I  visit  York.  I  was  much  grieved  to  hear  by  your 
last  that  the  chiefs  little  girl  was  not  recovered.  The  cholera  has  carried  off 
eight  in  London,  four  in  Port  Stanley,  as  many  at  St.  Thomas,  and  some  few 
in  the  country  parts.  I  trust  it  is  declining  with  you.  Nothing  new.  Pestered 
with  half  pay  officers.  Pray  don't  introduce  any  of  them  to  me.  God  bless 
you  and  all  my  friends  at  York." 

By  lyth  September,  having  heard  of  the  Commissioner's 
improved  health  through  his  brother,  the  Chief  Justice,  he  is  able 
to  add  : 

"This  part  of  the  province  is  also  in  a  better  state  of  health.  However,  I 
was  sorry  to  learn,  by  a  note  from  Mount,  that  one  of  the  emigrants  died  last 
week  of  cholera." 

He  adds  a  plea  for  the  Scotch  settlers,  Galbraith,  Currie,  St. 
Clair,  and  Graham,  speaks  of  August  frosts  having  killed  all  the 
corn,  and  of  carpenters  and  masons  being  at  work  for  him,  and 
has  heard  that  the  Bishop  is  to  be  up  during  the  week. 

By  January,  1833,  it  was  evident  that  the  Colonel's  great 
speech  and  "splendid  victory"  of  the  previous  St.  George's  Day 
had  not  produced  complete  political  tranquility,  for  on  the  26th  of 
that  month  he  writes  of  another  splendid  victory. 

"  My  rebels  endeavoured  to  hold  a  meeting  at  St.  Thomas  on  the  iyth,  Dr 
Franklin's  birthday,  as  I  am  informed,  but  in  which  they  were  frustrated  by 
my  royal  guards,  who  routed  the  rascals  at  all  points  and  drove  them  out  of 


158  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

the  village  like  sheep,  members  with  broken  heads  leaving1  their  hats  behind 
them — the  glorious  work  of  old  Colonel  Hickory.  In  short,  it  was  a  most 
splendid  victory.  Mr.  Fraser,  the  Westleyian  Methodist,  behaved  admirably  on 
the  occasion,  and  I  scarcely  think  they  will  venture  to  call  another  meeting, 
at  least,  not  at  St.  Thomas.  Their  object  was  to  form  a  political  union,  the 
articles  of  which  were  to  elect  the  legislative  council,  the  magistrates,  etc. 

This  meeting-  had  been  called  for  noon  of  i7th  January  by  a 
notice  in  the  St.  Thomas  Liberal  "for  the  purpose  of  forming  a 
political  union  for  the  reasons  and  for  the  same  objects  that  our 
fellow  subjects  in  Britain  have  formed  them,  and  we  look  for 
support  and  countenance  of  every  liberal-minded  man  in  an 
undertaking1  from  which  our  trans-Atlantic  brethren  have  derived 
inestimable  blessing." 

It  is  not  probable  that  any  great  harm  would  have  resulted  had 
the  right  of  free  speech  been  admitted  without  the  intervention  ot 
either  Colonel  Talbot  or  "Colonel  Hickory."  But  the  province 
was  becoming  more  and  more  excited  since  the  repeated  expulsion 
of  Mr.  McKenzie  from  the  House  of  Assembly  and  his  subsequent 
visit  to  England  to  press  the  grievances  of  the  minority  upon  the 
Home  Government. 

In  the  letter  just  quoted,  Colonel  Talbot  continues  by  assuring 
Mr.  Robinson  that  he  is — 

"  Rejoiced  to  hear  that  you  are  vastly  improved  in  strength  and  health. 
Another  visit  to  Port  Talbot  next  spring  will  complete  the  business  in  full, 
besides,  I  have  a  very  comfortable  bedroom  in  my  new  house,  which  will  not 
require  to  be  lined  with  blankets.  I  felt  almost  assured,  during  the  last  two 
months  of  unmerciful  weather,  that  visiting  was  at  an  end  for  the  season,  but 
in  which  I  was  mistaken,  for  I  have  almost  daily  visits.  The  day  before 
yesterday  two  gentlemen  came  on  foot  from  Adelaide,  a  Mr.  Alexander  and  a 
Mr.  Wills.  They  give  a  dreadful  account  of  the  roads  and  the  great  want  of 
provisions,  and  the  consequent  sufferings  of  the  emigrants.  If  weather  should 
come  so  as  to  enable  me  to  set  out  for  York,  my  journey  will  be  more 
uncomfortable  than  I  have  had  for  years,  owing  to  my  old  and  favorite 
servant,  Jeffery,  being  in  so  bad  a  state  of  health  that  he  cannot  accompany 
me,  consequently  I  shall  be  under  the  government  of  a  ploughboy.  So, 
adieu." 

Jeffery  Hunter,  referred  to  in  this  letter,  was  a  well-known  figure 
at  Port  Talbot,  of  whom  more  anon. 


COLONEL  TALBOT  TO   HON.    PETER   ROBINSON.  159 

On  April  ist  the  troubles  of  the  settlers  in  Adelaide  still 
engaged  his  attention,  a  letter  from  the  Commissioner  informing1 
him,  to  his  astonishment,  that  ^"4,000  had  been  expended  in  the 
settlement  of  that  township,  where,  it  would  appear,  huts  for  new 
settlers  were  erected  and  provisions  distributed,  notwithstanding 
which,  he  was  informed  that  a  body  of  the  settlers  had  come  to 
the  conclusion  to  break  open"  the  stores  and  take  away  all  they 
could  find.  The  Colonel  deprecated  the  expense  of  building  huts, 
believing  that  settlers  should  build  their  own,  as,  in  fact,  he  had 
to  do  himself.  Three  weeks  later  he  reports  a  large  number  of 
the  Adelaide  settlers  having  cleared  out,  some  to  Michigan.  He  is, 
at  the  same  time,  somewhat  exercised  about  an  application  of  Rev. 
Mr.  Cronyn  for  the  purchase  of  a  lot  in  the  broken  front  of  London 
township,  as  he  thinks  the  clergy  reserve  lot  of  200  acres  "  quite 
sufficient  for  a  clergyman,"  and  attributes  to  the  reverend 
gentleman  a  desire  to  acquire  an  undue  proportion  of  valuable 
property,  and  goes  so  far  as  to  warn  the  Commissioner  against 
applications  of  this  nature.  The  usual  invitation  to  "pack  up 
and  come  to  Port  Talbot "  is  also  included.  Though  the  Commis- 
sioner did  not  visit  him  in  the  spring  of  '33,  Sir  John  Colborne, 
the  Lieutenant-Governor,  did,  in  the  course  of  a  satisfactory  tour, 
with  favourable  conditions  as  to  weather  and  roads,  except  the 
day  he  left  Port  Talbot,  when  the  Colonel  was  troubled  because 
the  rain  came  down  two  hours  after  his  departure,  and  instead  of 
going  by  the  north  branch,  where  shelter  was  abundant,  he  had 
struck  through  the  woods  for  "  Monsee  Town."  In  October  he 
writes  the  Commissioner  : 

"I  am  exceedingly  disappointed  at  your  not  coming  to  Port  Talbot,  having 
much  to  consult  you  upon.  I  have  had  constant  visitors  since  the  summer 
commenced,  and  have  acquired  numerous  valuable  settlers.  Amongst  my 
distinguished  visitors,  Lord  Aylmer,  who  spent  three  days  with  me.  .  .  . 
I  am  now  in  daily  expectation  of  my  nephew,  Captain  Airey's,  arrival,  as  his 
last  letter  mentioned  the  3rd  September  as  the  time  for  his  sailing.  He  is  to 
bring  with  him  his  youngest  brother  to  me  on  trial." 

His  constant  visitors  were  causing  the  Colonel  to  furbish  up  his 
quarters,  as  the  non-arrival  of  window  curtains,  for  the  sitting 
room,  and  walnut  tops,  are  the  cause  of  messages  to  Mrs.  Robin- 


160  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

son  ;  and  in  November  he  is  sending"  for  more  wall  paper,  Mr. 
Munroe,  the  York  merchant,  having  sent  him  little  more  than  half 
enough  to  complete  his  rooms. 

"However,"  he  adds,  "with  much  ingenuity,  aided  by  good  taste,  I  have 
continued  to  finish  my  own  bed-room,  which  is  the  all-over  pattern.  .  .  . 
To-morrow  I  expect  a  large  party  of  Shore's  to  dinner." 

And  so  the  old  man  divides  his  time  and  keeps  himself  busy, 
receiving-  distinguished  visitors  and  friends,  writing  letters, 
locating  and  talking  with  settlers,  with  a  turn  at  wall  papering  to 
serve  as  recreation. 

Two  other  extracts  from  this  series  of  letters  will  be  given, 
because  they  throw  some  light  upon  Colonel  Talbot's  views  on  the 
effect  of  large  individual  grants  in  retarding  settlement.  Speaking 
of  the  college  and  school  lands  in  the  district,  which  were  under 
his  superintendence,  he  writes  the  Commissioner  in  June,  '33  : 

"You  say  that  it  is  reported  that  persons  have  made  good  bargains  by 
purchasing  those  lands  from  me.  I  don't  know  when,  for  I  have  not  sold  an 
acre  for  less  than  izs.  6d.,  currency,  per  acre,  and  some  for  £3  and  ^4,  and 
when  considering  that  the  land  lay  in  unsettled  townships,  I  think  those  prices 
quite  high  enough.  The  only  person  I  felt  differently  with  was  Mr.  Elmsley, 
who  applied  to  me  to  purchase  5,000  acres  of  the  school  land  in  Westminster. 
I  took  good  care  not  to  close  with  him  until  he  pledged  himself  to  me  that  he 
would  dispose  of  the  land  to  actual  settlers  with  as  little  delay  as  possible,  and 
to  my  great  relief,  he  came  here  a  few  days  ago  and  requested  me,  as  a 
favour,  that  I  would  allow  him  to  withdraw,  which  I  did." 

In  this  letter  he  states  that  he  has  located  (i.  e.,  placed  a  settler 
on)  every  lot  in  Howard  township  except  the  clergy  and  Canada 
Company  lands,  which  he,  of  course,  could  not  deal  with. 

In  regard  to  prices,  from  two  later  letters  it  appears  that  a  mill 
site  was  to  be  offered  by  auction,  with  28  acres,  in  London  for  an 
upset  price  of  £200,  by  the  Department.  The  Colonel  protested 
that  the  land  alone  was  worth  double  the  amount,  parts  of  lots  in 
the  village  having  been  sold,  he  wrote,  as  high  as  $25  per  foot. 
Less  than  a  month  later,  the  sale  having  apparently  been  delayed, 
he  wrote  that  Col.  Burwell  had  sold  the  site,  containing  about 
14  acres,  for  ^425. 


COLONEL  TALBOT  TO    HON.   PETER   ROBINSON.  161 

On  the  26th  January,  1834,  Colonel  Talbot  wrote  : 

"  I  got  home  safe  on  Thursday  and  feel  not  a  little  comfortable  under  the 
shelter  of  my  castle  this  severe  day.  I  found  a  letter  from  J.  B.  Baby,  apply- 
ing to  me  for  his  militia  land  as  Lieutenant-Colonel,  commanding  the  2nd 
Essex  regiment.  I  have  written  to  him  to  say  that  you  are  the  person  to 
whom  he  has  to  apply,  as  I  do  not  locate  military  grants,  and  what  land  I 
have  left  at  my  disposal  in  the  western  district  is  only  for  actual  settlers, 
which  is  absolutely  required  in  that  part  of  the  province,  where  so  injurious 
and  extensive  a  monopoly  was  made  by  persons  who  kept  the  country  in  a 
state  of  wildness.  Therefore,  I  am  to  request  that  should  Mr.  Baby  write  to 
you  on  this  subject,  that  you  will  repeat  to  him  what  I  have  remarked,  and 
that  His  Majesty's  government,  in  order  to  remedy  the  evil  as  much  as 
possible,  have  directed  that  such  parcels  of  land  as  remain  ungranted  in  the 
western  district  should  be  located  (as  circumstances  may  occur)  in  100  and  200 
acres,  to  actual  settlers  only.  This  will  save  me  further  trouble.  I  found  my 
nephew*  quite  well,  and  contented  with  his  first  trial  of  retirement.  I  mean 
the  land  between  the  river  Thames  and  Lake  Erie,  as  applies  to  Mr.  Baby." 

Had  the  Colonel  in  mind  his  own  disappointment  in  regard  to 
Yarmouth,  where  he  found  a  large  grant  to  the  Baby  family 
interfered  with  his  plans  ? 


*Young  Airey,  whom  his  brother,  Capt.   Richard  Airey,   was  bringing  to 
Port  Talbot,  when  the  Colonel  wrote  his  letter  of  October  previous. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

ST.   GEORGE'S  DAY,  '32 — COLONEL  TALBOT'S   SPEECH. 

ST.  GEORGE'S  day  of  1832  was  a  memorable  day  in  the  annals  of 
St.  Thomas.  It  was  the  day  of  Colonel  Talbot's  great  and  only 
political  speech;  the  day  of  his  "benefit,"  at  which  he  had 
anticipated  "  hot  work,"  "  squibs  flying"  in  all  directions  " — as  he 
wrote  the  Hon.  Peter  Robinson  ;  the  day  when  he  "had  a  most 
splendid  victory." 

Though  the  cholera  did  not  appear  until  later  in  the  season,  the 
political  distemper — or  rot  as  the  Colonel  tersely  put  it — had 
already  got  into  his  flock  and  threatened  to  produce  widespread 
disaffection.  To  check  the  progress  of  this  alarming  political 
disease,  Colonel  Talbot  had  called  together  his  settlers  that  he 
might  advise  and  warn  them.  An  advanced  Liberal — possibly 
McKenzie  himself — put  it  in  a  different  and  more  insulting  way 
when  he  wrote,  after  the  event  : 

"  The  Hon.  Thomas  Talbot,  a  Downing  street  pensioner  and  legislative 
councillor,  issued  the  following  hand-bill  to  his  dependents  ;  his  neighbours 
had  been  showing  signs  of  insubordination,  which  it  was  deemed  absolutely 
necessary  to  suppress. 

"  Port  Talbot,  March  1901,  1832. 
"  To  the  Editor  of  the  Journal  : 

SIR, — Having  seen  the  proceedings  of  different  meetings  held  in  the  Talbot 
settlement  on  the  subject  of  imagined  grievances,  and  finding  that  it  is  now 
necessary  to  ascertain  the  real  sentiments  of  the  inhabitants  so  as  to  at  once 
put  down  the  fever  (by  a  few  only)  manifested,  to  encourage  disaffection  to 
the  British  government,  I  give  this  notice,  recommending  a  general  meeting 
of  my  settlers  on  St.  George's  day,  the  23rd  April  next,  at  the  'King's  Arms' 
at  St.  Thomas,  at  noon,  when  I  shall  attend. 

' '  THOMAS  TALBOT, 

"  Father  of  the  Talbot  Settlement." 

The  St.  Thomas  Journal,  the  Tory  paper,  was  published  weekly 


ST.    GEORGE'S   DAY   MEETING.  163 

by  George  Hodgkinson,  and  it  is  scarcely  necessary  to  say  had  no 
affinity  with  the  present  paper  of  similar  name,  which  was  first 
established  by  Mr.  Archibald  McLachlin,  some  twenty  years 
later.  The  Liberal  organ  of  that  day  in  St.  Thomas  was  the 
Liberal,  and  it  may  here  be  remarked  that  one  of  the  evil  effects 
of  the  bad  example  set  by  the  young  hotheads  in  York  who 
wrecked  Mr.  McKenzie's  newspaper  office,  and  so  contributed 
much  to  that  gentleman's  popularity  for  the  time  being,  was  that 
a  similar  deed  was  perpetrated  about  the  year  1833  at  St.  Thomas, 
when  the  office  of  the  Liberal,  published  by  Mr.  Asahel  Bradley 
Lewis,  was  wrecked  and  its  effects  were  thrown  down  the  hill  on 
which  it  stood,  on  the  north  side  of  Talbot  street.  Mr.  Lewis  is 
said  to  have  been  ill  at  the  time,  but  after  the  occurrence  ventured 
out  to  view  the  ruins  of  his  office,  when  he  suffered  a  relapse, 
from  which  he  died.  His  tomb  in  old  St.  Thomas'  churchyard 
records  the  fact  that  he  was  at  his  death  but  28  years  of  age.  He 
was  a  young  man  of  good  literary  taste  and  attainments.  His 
father,  Barnabas  Lewis,  had  come  over  from  the  United  States 
and  settled  in  South  Yarmouth  some  twelve  years  before,  and 
his  brothers,  Lyman,  Chauncey,  Joel  and  Amasa,  became  well- 
known  men  who  lived  long  lives  in  the  same  vicinity.  The 
Liberal  was  subsequently  revived,  with  John  Talbot  as  editor,  but 
became  so  violent  at  the  rebellion  in  '37  that  its  press  was  seized 
by  Colonel  Askin  and  its  editor  fled  the  country. 

The  account  of  the  St.  George's  day  meeting,  as  given  in  the 
Journal,  is  as  follows  : 

"  Early  in  the  morning  British  flags  were  displayed  from  the  two  inns 
of  this  village  and  soon  were  seen  arriving  in  every  direction  groups  of 
yeomanry  to  attend  the  great  meeting  ;  all,  apparently,  showing  their  desire 
to  be  conspicuous  in  evincing  sound  loyalty  to  our  gracious  King  and  firm 
attachment  to  our  glorious  constitution.  After  ten  o'clock  the  throng  rapidly 
increased  ;  large  parties  on  horseback  from  the  most  distant  parts  of  the 
settlement  made  their  appearance  ;  then  came  a  noble  body  of  loyal  subjects, 
who  had  commenced  their  route  from  Middleton,  and  were  joined  by  large 
parties  on  the  Talbpt  road  from  thence  to  St.  Thomas  ;  they  arrived  on  the 
ground,  horse  and  foot,  bearing  a  beautiful  banner  inscribed  '  SIR  JOHN 
COLBORNE  AND  THE  CONSTITUTION,'  and  preceded  by  a  band  of  musick. 
Upon  their  arrival  they  were  joined  by  a  large  party  on  horseback  in  readiness 


164  THE  TALBOT   REGIME. 

to  escort  the  Hon.  Colonel  Talbot  as  soon  as  his  approach  could  be  discovered. 
About  half-past  n  a.  m.  the  venerable  father  of  the  Talbot  settlement, 
accompanied  only  by  his  servant,  was  met  by  the  escort  on  the  summit  of  the 
hill  opposite  the  village,  where  his  advance  was  greeted  by  the  most 
anthusiastic  and  continued  bursts  of  cheering.  The  sight  now  became  truly 
imposing — the  assembled  multitude  manifested  the  most  joyous  feelings  upon 
the  Hon.  Colonel's  entrance  into  the  village  ;  an  amateur  band  struck  up  the 
British  Grenadiers  ;  the  Highland  pipes,  too,  sent  forth  their  martial  notes, 
and  everything  tended  to  inspire  the  friends  of  the  constitution  with  the  fullest 
confidence  that  their  laudable  exertions  would  this  day  be  crowned  by  a 
glorious  triumph.  On  his  arrival  opposite  the  King's  Arms,  the  Hon.  Colonel 
was  again  saluted  by  the  most  deafening  and  tremendous  cheering  of  the 
whole  multitude,  and  being  handed  up  to  the  hustings  by  a  number  of  the 
oldest  and  most  respectable  settlers,  the  area  in  front  of  the  inn,  Church  street, 
and  all  the  avenue  were  filled.  Then  was  witnessed  an  interesting  moment  of 
the  most  quiet  anxiety  and  intense  feeling  ;  the  venerable  patriarch — who  had 
excluded  himself  from  the  society  in  which  he  had  been  nurtured,  and 
expended  the  prime  of  his  life  and  his  fortune  in  superintending  the  formation 
of,  and  maturing  the  settlement  which  bears  his  name — standing  for  the  first 
time  upon  a  hustings  to  offer  his  opinion  on  the  subject  of  the  agitations 
which  exist  in  the  country.  The  moment  was  truly  interesting — to  see  him 
surrounded  by  a  dense  crowd  of  intelligent,  wealthy  and  independent 
yeomanry,  deeply  sensible  that  they  were  in  the  full  possession  and  enjoy- 
ment of  all  the  proud  advantages  which  they  should  inherit  as  the  descendants 
of  Britons,  and  which  are  the  inherent  rights  of  all  who  have  the  happiness  to 
be  under  the  glorious  influence  of  the  British  constitution.  All  apparently 
were  anxious  to  hear  the  opinions  of  the  honourable  person  who  had  identified 
himself  with  the  province  at  the  commencement  of  the  constitution  ;  who 
came  to  it  as  private  secretary  to  General  Simcoe  in  1791,  to  assist  in  carry- 
ing that  constitution  into  effect,  and  who  from  that  time  to  the  present  has 
been  an  active  and  industrious  observer  of  its  wholesome  operation — a  term 
of  more  than  forty  years. 

"The  Hon.  Colonel  addressed  the  meeting  in  a  strain  both  pathetick  and 
eloquent,  and  after  briefly  explaining  the  object  for  which  he  had  called  his 
settlers  together,  and  commenting  in  strong  terms  on  the  conduct  of  those 
individuals  who  had  been  foremost  in  fomenting  the  discontent  excited  by 
artful  and  designing  men,  requested  Mr.  Ermatinger  to  read  an  address  to 
the  King,  which  he  (the  Hon.  Colonel)  approved  of." 

This  address  was  lengthy  and  similar  to  others  which  were 
being  forwarded  from  other  parts  of  the  province.  Its  general 
purport  was  an  expression  of  contentment  with  the  existing 
constitution,  non-participation  in  "  those  feelings  of  discontent  so 
recently  manifested  by  a  few  disaffected  individuals,  who,  making 


COLONEL  TALBOT'S  SPEECH.  165 

religion  subservient  to  their  political  designs,  have  by  the  most 
insidious  and  flagrant  misstatements,  endeavoured  to  eradicate 
every  true  British  feeling  from  the  breasts  of  your  Majesty's  loyal 
subjects."  "  We  are  the  more  anxious,"  the  address  went  on, 
"to  express  our  sentiments  and  testify  our  zeal  in  support  of 
your  Majesty's  government,  as  these  political  delinquents,  while 
professing  equal  attachment  to  your  royal  person  and  govern- 
ment, are  unwearied  in  their  exertions  to  implant  into  the  minds 
of  their  deluded  followers  sentiments  totally  at  variance  with  the 
principles  of  the  British  constitution  so  happily  established  in  this 
province." 

The  address  was  received  with  "  the  most  enthusiastick  and 
reiterated  cheers.  Not  one  of  the  black  sheep  adverted  to  in  the 
Hon.  Colonel's  speech  daring  to  raise  his  voice  against  it — it  was 
unanimously  adopted  !  !  !  When  the  cheering  ceased  Colonel 
Talbot  signified  to  his  settlers  that  at  certain  places  the  address 
would  be  ready  for  signatures  " — so  runs  the  report — and  indeed 
the  magnitude  of  the  gathering,  for  those  early  days,  is  evidenced 
by  the  statement  that  nearly  seven  hundred  names  were  affixed 
to  it  at  the  close  of  the  meeting — while  many  from  a  distance 
were  said  to  have  been  obliged  to  depart  before  the  opportunity  to 
sign  it  occurred.  Cheers  for  the  King  and  constitution  and  for 
Sir  John  Colborne  followed,  and  then  "the  venerable  patriarch 
gave  an  affectionate  benediction  to  his  loyal  settlers,"  and  the 
meeting  broke  up  with  a  general  burst  of  cheers  for  the  Colonel 
himself.  "  Not  an  instance  of  tumult  or  disorderly  conduct 
occurred,"  is  the  closing  boast. 

But  what,  it  may  be  asked,  of  the  Colonel's  speech  which  is 
thus  so  meagrely  reported  ? 

Fragmentary  reports  of  it  have  been  published  from  time  to 
time  by  both  friends  and  opponents  of  the  Colonel,  from  the  day 
of  its  delivery  to  the  close  of  the  century  ;  but  not  until  recent 
years  has  anything  like  a  full  report  of  it  been  forthcoming. 
What  appears  to  be  his  draft  of  the  speech,  possibly  used  by  the 
Colonel  at  the  meeting — though  it  does  not  appear  that  he  spoke 
from  manuscript — was  found  among  his  papers,  after  his  decease. 
As  the  contemporary  and  subsequent  reports  already  referred  to 


166  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

contain  some  of  the  identical  language — including  expletives  as 
well  as  benedictions — contained  in  the  manuscript,  which  is 
undoubtedly  in  the  Colonel's  own  handwriting,  though  a  portion 
towards  the  close  is  missing,  it  follows  that  it  must  contain  the 
greater  part  of  the  speech  as  actually  delivered.  There  would 
seem  to  be  no  impropriety  in  giving  it  to  the  public  in  its 
authentic  form — indeed  the  interests  of  truth  require  that  its 
author's  words,  instead  of  the  versions  handed  down  from 
memory,  be  given.  Possibly  in  preserving  it  he  may  himself  have 
had  some  such  object  in  view,  in  regard  to  this  his  only  public 
political  utterance.  It  forms  perhaps  one  of  the  most  extra- 
ordinary prepared  speeches,  both  as  to  form  and  matter,  ever 
delivered.  From  its  peremptory  military  command  to  secure  the 
audience's  attention,  at  the  beginning,  to  its  closing  benediction 
to  them,  it  is  absolutely  unique.  In  view  of  the  latter,  the 
damnatory  emphasis  of  the  reference  to  the  temperance  societies 
seems  the  more  startling,  and  throws  a  striking  light  upon  the 
manners  and  customs  of  the  day,  while  the  whole  utterance 
illustrates  the  character  of  the  man,  his  aims  and  objects  in  regard 
to  the  settlement  and  the  state  of  the  political  feeling  at  that 
epoch.  The  manuscript  reads  as  follows  : 

"SILENCE   AND   ATTENTION! 

"  I  find  it  necessary  to  begin  by  contradicting  an  assertion  that 
was  published  in  a  production  addressed  to  the  inhabitants  of  Middlesex, 
signed  'Freeholder,'  which  was  from  beginning  to  end  nothing  but 
trash,  sedition  and  lies,  which  stated  that  my  object  was  to  over-awe 
and  browbeat  rny  settlers  into  an  expression  of  my  own  choice.  That  I 
deny,  for  such  a  measure  would  have  frustrated  the  main  object  I  had  in 
view  in  calling  this  meeting,  for  I  am  too  well  acquainted  with  the  nature  of 
mankind  to  suppose  for  a  moment  that  any  sound  or  honest  man  would  allow 
himself  to  be  over-awed  or  browbeaten  as  regarded  the  question  upon  which 
we  meet,  as  they  would  naturally  be  governed  by  the  dictates  of  their  own 
consciences.  I  have  chosen  this  day  as  being  St.  George's  day — the 
champion  of  the  greatest  nation  on  earth,  and  all  who  claim  to  be  her  sons, 
either  by  birth  or  adoption,  should  feel  proud  accordingly,  and  with  hands 
and  hearts  under  the  sacred  banner  that  is  now  waving  over  our  heads, 
determined  with  our  lives  to  defend  our  King,  our  rights  and  our  glorious 
constitution  against  all  conspirators  and  rebels  of  every  nation  and  denomina- 


COLONEL  TALBOT'S  SPEECH.  167 

tion  whatsoever.  When  I  undertook  the  formation  of  this  settlement  between 
20  and  30  years  ago  it  was  in  the  hope  that  I  should  have  none  other  but 
sound  British  subjects  for  my  settlers,  so  as  to  insure  peace  and  good  fellow- 
ship amongst  us,  and  I  took  every  pains  to  select  characters  of  that 
description,  but  in  spite  of  all  my  vigilance  I  am  sorry  to  find  I  have  not  been 
successful,  for  some  black  sheep  have  slipped  into  my  flock,  and  very  black 
they  are — and  what  is  worse,  they  have  got  the  rot — a  distemper  not  known 
to  have  shown  itself  openly  until  within  the  last  six  or  eight  months — when 
these  (which  I  shall  call  for  shortness  rebels)  commenced  their  work  of  dark- 
ness under  the  cover  of  organizing  Damned  Cold  Water  Drinking  Societies, 
where  they  met  at  night  to  communicate  their  poisonous  and  seditious 
schemes  to  each  other  and  to  devise  the  best  mode  of  circulating  the  infection, 
so  as  to  impose  upon  and  delude  the  simple  and  unwary.  Although  practising 
this  game,  they  fancied  they  had  acquired  strength  and  assumed  a  more 
daring  aspect,  and  appeared  openly  under  the  mask  of  the  grievance  petition, 
which  I  have  never  seen  or  heard  the  particular  contents  of,  and  was  it  placed 
before  me  I  should  not  take  the  trouble  of  reading  it,  being  aware  that  it  was 
a  thing  of  trash  and  sedition  grounded  on  falsehood,  fabricated  for  the  pur- 
pose of  creating  discontent,  and  in  the  end  rebellion  in  this  province.  The 
only  part  that  I  paid  any  attention  to  is  that  which  prays  His  Majesty  to 
remove  Sir  John  C.  from  the  government  of  the  province — for  my  part  I 
cannot  account  how  that  gallant  and  distinguished  officer  incurred  the  dis- 
pleasure of  this  faction  otherwise  than  by  showing  himself  openly  to  the  world 
a  straightforward,  honest,  faithful  and  loyal  servant  of  his  King  and  country. 
Such  qualifications  were  indeed  sufficient  to  render  him  odious  in  the  sight  of 
rebels.  I  have  not  the  honor  of  being  intimately  acquainted  with  His 
Excellency  as  a  private  gentleman,  but  I  have  watched  his  conduct  as  a 
public  officer  during  his  administration,  and  I  solemnly  declare  that  there 
could  not  have  been  a  person  selected  who  could  have  more  indefatigably 
•xerted  himself  to  promote  the  best  interests  of  the  province  than  he  has 
done.  And  as  such  he  has  a  just  claim  to  the  respect  and  gratitude  of  every 
honest  man  and  well-wisher  to  the  well-doing  of  Upper  Canada. 

"  These  incendiaries  opened  their  campaign  judiciously,  having  their  first 
field  day  in  Malahide,  where  their  greatest  strength  prevails,  where  I  am  told 
the  old  Schoharie  line  turned  out  in  full  force,  having  a  Yankee  deserter  for 
their  drill  sergeant  and  a  long  sprout  from  a  U.  E.  for  their  flag  staff.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  they  went  through  their  manoeuvres  of  that  day  with  entire 
satisfaction  to  themselves,  and  that  they  did  not  disperse  until  they  had 
devoutly  chanted  their  patriotic  hymn,  which  they  used  to  sing  during  the  late 
war  after  every  little  advantage  the  enemy  obtained.  I  do  not  recollect  the 
words  of  the  hymn,  but  the  conclusion  of  the  chorus  after  each  verse  was 
"Hurrah  for  the  new  state."  Now  these  diabolical  wretches  were  total 
strangers  when  they  came  into  this  province  and  in  every  sense  of  the  law  as 
much  foreigners  as  Turks  would  be  that  came  into  any  part  of  the  British 


168  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

dominions — nevertheless  they  were  received  with  every  kindness,  and  as  much 
favour  conferred  on  them  as  could  be  on  British  born  subjects — and  now  that 
they  have  acquired  wealth  and  independence  and  valuable  estates  they  .  . 

so  that  whenever  any  of  you  hear  any  scoundrel  utter 

treasons  or  endeavour  to  excite  rebellion  by  act  or  deed  that  you  will  give 
him  a  keepsake  that  he  will  recollect  during  his  life.  This  day  I  hope  may  be 
kept  in  remembrance  by  you  all  as  a  day  of  salvation  and  mercy,  and  that 
you  will  implant  it  in  the  hearts  of  your  children  and  to  the  latest  posterity  as 
a  day  of  examination  of  your  actions  for  the  past  year  so  that  all  corruption 
may  be  cast  out. 

"  Now  God  in  His  infinite  goodness  and  mercy  bless  and  preserve  all  you 
that  are  true  British  subjects  and  keep  your  hearts  and  minds  untainted  by 
sedition  or  corruption." 

The  blank  represents  a  portion  which  was  upon  a  sheet,  or  part 
of  a  sheet,  which  is  missing".  Its  general  tenor  may  be  pretty 
readily  imagined,  from  the  available  context.  The  reference  to 
the  "Schoharie  line"  is  an  allusion  to  certain  settlers  who  had 
emigrated  from  that  historic  neighbourhood  in  the  United  States, 
and  the  "  long  sprout  from  a  U.  E."  is  supposed  to  refer  to  one  of 
the  numerous  descendents  of  that  staunch  U.  E.  Loyalist — a 
native  of  New  Jersey,  of  Dutch  descent — Peter  Teeple,  one  of  the 
earliest  Long  Point  Justices  of  the  Peace,  who,  though  his 
brothers  joined  Washington's  forces,  had  himself  espoused  the 
British  cause,  became  a  captain  of  cavalry,  served  through  the 
Revolutionary  war,  settled  at  first  on  the  St.  John  river,  New 
Brunswick,  where  he  married  a  member  of  the  Maybee  family, 
with  whom,  in  1792,  he  came  west,  arriving  at  Long  Point  the 
following  year.  Peter  Teeple  was  six  feet  four  inches  in  height, 
and  many  of  his  descendants  to  the  present  day  have  resembled 
him  in  physique.  His  children  were  numerous,  and  his  thirteenth 
child  and  ninth  son,  Pelham  Teeple,  took  part  in  the  rebellion  ot 
'37  and  fled  to  the  United  States. 

The  reader  of  Colonel  Talbot's  only  recorded  speech  will  be  able 
readily  to  mark  the  points  where  the  patriarch  gave  emphasis  to 
his  words  by  bringing  down  his  fist  upon  the  platform  rail.  His 
advice  as  to  the  treatment  to  be  accorded  to  inciters  to  rebellion 
suggests  that  "  Old  Colonel  Hickory,"  whose  "glorious  work"  is 
described  in  Talbot's  letter  of  the  following  January  to  Peter 


COLONEL   TALBOT'S  SPEECH.  169 

Robinson,  already  quoted,  received  his  commission  that  day. 
Cudgels  often  took  the  place  of  arguments  in  those  days  of  cheap 
whiskey,  when  the  polling-  at  elections  lasted  several  days,  during 
which  the  strongest  party  was  often  the  one  which  could  most 
effectually  hold  possession  of  the  polling  place  and  fight  off 
opposition.  The  gentler,  but  more  efficacious,  practice  of  ballot 
stuffing  and  other  modern  election  arts,  have  now  largely  taken 
the  place  of  the  ruder  methods  of  the  early  days,  but,  though 
broken  heads  are  less  numerous,  whether  the  moral  effect  of  the 
modern  practices  is  more  wholesome  is  more  than  doubtful. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

TALBOT  ANNIVERSARY  IN  1832— SOME  NEW  ARRIVALS — ST. 
THOMAS  IN  THE  *3o's. 

THE  Colonel's  great  meeting"  of  23rd  April  did  not  interfere  with 
the  customary  observance  of  the  Talbot  anniversary  on  Monday, 
2ist  May,  of  the  same  year  of  grace,  1832.  The  usual  dinner 
and  ball  were  annouuced  to  be  held  at  Miller  and  Kent's,  formerly 
Enos  Call's,  hotel,  and  the  Colonel  was  on  hand  early  in  the  day, 
prepared  to  enjoy  himself,  regardless  of  the  "  pains  and  penalties  " 
to  result  therefrom,  as  predicted  in  his  letter  to  Peter  Robinson 
of  May  1 3th.  It  turned  out  that  there  were  some  unexpected  guests 
present  on  this  occasion,  whose  coming  gave  much  pleasure  to  the 
Colonel.  How  they  happened  to  be  there  will  presently  appear. 

Samuel  Eccles,  son  of  John  and  Isabella  Eccles,  was  born  on 
5th  January,  1802,  at  North  Leach,  Colchester,  in  England.  In 
1824  he  left  home  and  before  he  returned,  in  1827,  had  visited 
New  York,  the  vicinity  of  Washington,  Kansas,  New  Orleans, 
St.  Thomas  in  West  Indies,  and  Caracas,  in  Columbia,  Central 
America.  In  1831  he  set  forth  from  home  again,  the  whole 
family,  except  two  brothers,  who  remained  in  England,  accom- 
panying him.  The  mother  was  not  destined  to  see  much  of  the 
new  world.  She  was  taken  ill  and  died  on  Staten  Island,  where 
she  was  buried.  The  father,  much  depressed  at  this  bereavement, 
wished  to  return  home,  but  the  family,  the  father  included,  finally 
decided  to  push  on,  and  proceeding  up  the  Hudson,  took  a  house 
for  the  winter  at  Newburg,  Samuel  having  a  flock  of  Cotswold 
sheep,  in  addition  to  the  family,  to  care  for.  Here,  in  less  than 
two  months,  they  were  joined  by  Mr.  Arkell  and  his  family,  who 
were  emigrating  from  the  same  part  of  England  also  and  had 
heard  of  the  Eccles  family's  whereabouts  and  followed  them  up. 
In  May  both  families  set  out  for  Canada.  St.  Thomas,  on  Kettle 


TALBOT  ANNIVERSARY  IN   1832.  171 

Creek,  instead  of  St.  Thomas,  West  Indies,  was  now  Samuel's 
destination.  He  had,  however,  to  drive  his  sheep  to  Buffalo  by 
land,  while  the  rest  of  the  party  proceeded  by  canal  boat.  At 
Buffalo  a  vessel  was  chartered  and  the  two  English  families,  as 
well  as  the  sheep,  landed  safely  at  Port  Stanley  on  igth  May, 
1832.  There  was  now  a  harbour  at  the  Port,  which  the  vessel  was 
able  to  enter,  while  a  couple  of  good  taverns  afforded  ample 
accommodation  for  the  families.  The  sheep,  however,  were  driven 
up  as  far  as  Widdifield's  on  Sunday,  the  2oth,  and  on  Monday  the 
party  proceeded  to  make  their  way  to  St.  Thomas.  Meantime,  Col. 
Bostwick,  then  harbour  master  at  the  Port,  had  proceeded  to  the 
anniversary  festivities  and  made  haste  to  announce  to  Colonel 
Talbot  the  landing  of  the  two  large  families  from  England,  with 
the  flock  of  sheep.  This  was  good  news  to  Colonel  Talbot. 
Sheep  had  been  a  desideratum  in  the  settlement  from  the  first, 
when  flax  formed  a  cold  substitute  for  their  warm  wool.  The 
Colonel  had  been  discussing  the  question  as  to  the  best  varieties 
to  import,  with  his  correspondents  at  home,  in  Pickering's  time. 

Now  he  was  all  impatience  to  see  the  new  arrivals  whose 
coming  Col.  Bostwick  heralded.  A  party  quickly  volunteered  to 
accompany  the  Colonel  to  meet  and  welcome  them,  and  soon 
Colonel  Talbot,  accompanied  by  Colonel  Bostwick,  Edward 
Ermatinger,  and  a  numerous  body  of  settlers  who  had  come  in, 
were  afoot  and  headed  for  Paul's  hill.  The  Pauls  were  then 
ensconced  in  the  valley,  their  mills,  brewery,  store,  and  dwelling 
nestling  under  the  hill,  while  the  distillery  occupied  the  hillside 
beyond.  These  were  the  first  objects  in  St.  Thomas  which  gladdened 
the  eyes  of  the  incoming  party. 

Meantime,  there  had  been  a  notable  addition  to  the  numbers  of 
the  latter.  Murdock  McKenzie,  a  Highland  gentleman,  whose 
large,  generous  form  and  rotund,  good-humored  countenance 
resembled  those  of  the  big,  benevolent-looking  Englishman, 
Samuel  Eccles,  had  landed  from  another  vessel  at  the  Port,  and 
was  also  on  his  way  to  St.  Thomas.  The  party  were  now  nearing 
their  destination,  the  sheep  bleating  as  they  climbed  the  hill, 
while  Samuel's  eye  lighted  for  the  first  time  on  the  little  church 
across  the  valley,  in  which  he  was  destined  afterwards  to  worship 


172  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

for  so  many  years.  Then,  casting-  his  eyes  to  the  right  along  the 
road,  he  saw  Colonel  Talbot  and  his  friends  rapidly  approaching 
round  "the  bend."  At  the  top  of  what  is  now  Margaret 
street  they  met,  and  warm  was  the  greeting  the  strangers 
received.  Greetings  over,  the  strange  procession  proceeded  into 
Talbot  street,  and  the  sheep  were  soon  grazing  on  Mandeville's 
hill,  while  the  festivities  of  the  day  began. 

Old  Mr.  Eccles  and  his  nephew,  William  Peacey,  attended  the 
dinner,  though  Samuel  Eccles  hung  back,  more  concerned  about 
his  sheep  than  his  dinner  as  yet.  The  Colonel  declared  it  "  one 
of  the  happiest  days  of  his  life,"  while  bumpers  were  drained 
to  the  health  of  the  new  comers.  "  He  thought  more  of  the  sheep 
than  of  me,"  Samuel  Eccles  said  in  his  modest  way,  "  though  he 
took  a  great  fancy  to  me,  too,"  he  admitted  afterwards.  Then 
followed  the  ball,  when  the  Colonel  led  off  the  dance  with  Miss 
Nevills,  daughter  of  Major  Nevills,  one  of  the  acknowledged 
belles  of  the  settlement,  who  graced  many  such  occasions  ere  she 
became  the  wife  of  Samuel  Price,  of  Port  Stanley.  By  this  time 
Samuel  Eccles,  still  wearing  the  clothes  in  which  he  had  made  his 
long  journey,  had  so  far  got  rid  of  his  natural  shyness  as  to  climb 
the  stairs  and,  leaning  on  the  bannisters,  take  a  peep  through  the 
doorway  at  the  dancers.  But  his  massive  figure  could  not  long 
be  hid.  Old  Colonel  Bostwick  soon  discried  him  and,  laying 
hands  upon  him,  dragged  him,  all  out  at  the  elbows  as  he  declared 
himself  to  be,  into  the  ball-room.  Murdock  McKenzie,  we  may 
be  sure,  was  already  there  and,  perchance,  the  glance  of  the 
stalwart  young  Highlander  sought  for  the  form  of  Elizabeth 
Arkell,  one  of  the  new  arrivals  who,  like  himself,  had  had  no 
previous  experience  of  Talbot  anniversaries.  William  Peacey's 
thoughts  were  of  the  same  young  lady,  yet  in  the  end  the 
handsome  Highlander  was  destined  to  wed  the  maid — one  of  the 
sisters  of  Henry,  William,  Tom  and  John  and  Robert  Arkell, 
afterward  so  well  known  throughout  the  settlement. 

A  few  days  after  Samuel  Eccles  walked  to  Simcoe,  "to  see  a 
party  about  a  farm,"  and  back  again,  a  matter  of  a  hundred  miles 
or  so.  The  farm  was  bought,  two  hundred  acres,  partly  in 
Southwold  and  partly  in  Westminster,  and  there  the  father,  now 


TALBOT  ANNIVERSARY  IN  1832.  173 

getting   on    in   years,   and  the  family  resided,  while  the  Arkells 
settled  also  in  the  same  neighbourhood.      Samuel  Eccles  was  a 
brewer  as  well  as  farmer,  having  served  for  two  periods  during  his 
first  absence  from  home  in  a  brewery  in  New  York.       He    had 
charge  of  the  brewery  of  his  cousin,  William  Peacey's,  on  New 
street,  in  St.  Thomas,  for  some  four  years,  when  it  was  sold  to  the 
Luke's,  a  Cornish  family,  who  subsequently  went  to  Tilsonburg. 
Meantime,  in   1834,  Samuel  Eccles  went  back  to  England  for  a 
wife,  Miss  Craddock.      In  1846  he  sold  the  farm  to  Mr.  Vail,  took 
up  brewing  again  in  London,  took  a  partner  in  the  person  of  Mr. 
Labatt,  to  whom  he  sold  his  interest  in  1855,  retiring  to  a  farm  in 
Yarmouth,  on  the  Port  Stanley  road,  where  he  continued  to  live 
a  happy,  contented  life  until  advancing  years  brought  him  into  St. 
Thomas  to  pass  the  evening  of  his  days  as  first  president  of  the 
Southern  Loan  Company.       He  was  appointed  magistrate  some 
time  before  the  rebellion,  but  did  not  act  until,  in  those  troublous 
times,   he  was   called  upon   to    organize    a    transport  system   of 
waggons  for  the  militia  then  marching  under  Colonel  Askin  and 
Captain  Shore  to  meet  Dr.    Duncombe's  force  at  Scotland.     Mr. 
Eccles  was  once  a  candidate  for  parliament  in  later  years,  but  as 
leader  of  a  forlorn  hope  against  a  popular  member,  there  was  no 
surprise  at  his  defeat.      He  was  a  complete  stranger  to  the  wiles 
of  the  politician.     Good  Samuel  Eccles,  the  writer  need  scarcely 
apologize  for  thus  briefly  outlining  his  career,  anticipating  a  little 
in    doing   so.      No    more   honourable,    upright   settler   has   ever 
entered    the    settlement.      One   glance    at   his    kindly   face,    and 
his    character    stood    revealed.       A   simple-minded,    benevolent, 
Christian  character  it  was — without  the  slightest  taint  of  greed  or 
guile.     One  loves  to  linger  on  such  names  as  his.     They  serve  as 
beacons  to  a  better  life  beyond  this  sordid  world.     Anticipating 
again  a  little,  it  may  be  mentioned  that  some  time  after  the  death 
of  his  first  wife  Mr.   Eccles  married  again,  a    Miss    Cowley,    at 
London,  a  loving,  sympathetic  helpmate.     They  were  not  divided 
in  life — nor  death — both  lives  ebbing  out,    at  an   advanced   age, 
under  the  same  roof,  almost  at  the  same  hour,  and  together  they 
were  laid  at  rest  in  old  St.  Thomas  churchyard  on  the  same  day.* 

*One  other  funeral  of  a  similar  kind  of  two  aged  partners  and  residents  of 


174  THE    TALBOT   REGIME. 

Meantime,  in  the  early  '30*5,  Murdock  McKenzie  had  settled 
down  in  St.  Thomas  and  become  a  merchant,  in  partnership  at 
first  with  his  brother,  George,  and  afterward  alone,  and  never  did 
Squire  Eccles  sleek,  well-cared-for,  grey  mare  and  spring-seated 
waggon  bring  the  ample  form  of  their  owner  into  town,  than  he 
stopped  and  tied  up  in  front  of  McKenzie's  and  the  old  friends, 
who  resembled  each  other  in  appearance  and  kind  hearted 
generosity,  though  with  differences  due  to  both  nationality  and 
habit,  passed  many  a  half-hour  in  reminiscent  talk.  Murdock 
McKenzie,  arrayed  for  his  New  Year's  calls  in  a  suit  of  McKenzie 
tartan,  with  plaid  and  bonnet,  was  worth  going  some  distance  to 
see — a  huge  but  comely  figure. 

Since  the  courts  were  established  at  London,  it  had  at  first 
rivalled  and  now  began  to  outstrip  Colonel  Talbot's  former 
"capital,"  St.  Thomas,  as  a  centre  of  business  and  population. 
The  importance  of  the  courts  is  attested  by  the  fact  that  the  stage 
between  St.  Thomas  and  London,  which  ran  three  times  a  week 
in  ordinary  times,  made  the  double  journey  daily  during  court 
weeks.  Both  towns  had  a  "King's  Arms"  and  "Mansion 
House  "  hotel — that  in  St.  Thomas  being  situate  where  the  most 
westerly  street  car  house  now  stands,  and  its  full  title  the 
"  Talbot  Mansion  House."  St.  Thomas  had  two  newspapers, 
Journal  and  Liberal,  and  London  but  one,  the  Sun,  which  was 
about  setting  in  '33,  but  another,  to  be  christened  the  True  Patriot, 
was  projected  there.  These  papers  were  devoted  chiefly  to 
politics,  long  letters  modelled  after — and  generally  a  long  way 
after — the  style  of  Junius'  letters,  directed  to  various  people,  from 
Colonels  Talbot  and  Burwell  to  the  editor  of  the  rival  news- 
paper, and  foreign  news  of  several  weeks'  vintage — local  news 
being,  doubtless,  scarce  and  stale  by  the  time  the  day  of 
publication  came  round.  St.  Thomas  was,  however,  still  a 
thriving  village  of  increasing  importance.  Hamilton  and  Warren 
were  carrying  on  business  still  under  the  hill  in  "Stirling." 
Anson  and  Eltham  Paul  had  a  rival  hamlet  at  the  foot  of  the  hill, 
and  connection  between  these  two  was  through  the  principal 

Yarmouth,  Wm.  Martin  and  wife,  who  were  both  interred  at  one  time,  in  the 
same  old  burial  ground,  the  writer  had  the  privilege  of  attending. 


ST.  THOMAS   IN   THE  THIRTIES.  175 

village  on  the  hill,  where  Chrysler,  Bela  Shaw,  and  others  did  a 
considerable  trade.  Lucius  Bigelow  was  giving  up  business. 
Thomas  L.  Lindop,  a  Welshman,  with  several  young  sons,  had 
emigrated  and  settled  in  St.  Thomas,  a  pioneer  in  the  shoe  trade, 
and  George  Wegg,  an  Englishman,  was  establishing  the  industry 
of  waggon  and  carriage  building,  which  his  sons  and  grandsons 
have  continued  to  the  present  day.  His  neighbours  in  the  then 
east  part  of  the  town,  though  west  of  St.  George  street,  were  the 
surveyor,  Daniel  Hanvey,  who  mapped  out  the  early  town  and 
spent  the  remainder  of  a  long  industrious  life  in  it,  and  John 
Walthew,  an  artistic  painter  of  no  mean  talent,  which  was  shared 
by  his  sons  who  followed  his  example,  though  in  a  wider  sphere. 
Many  branches  of  industry,  now  confined  to  large  centres,  were 
then  in  operation  in  the  smaller  places,  notably  brewing  and 
distilling,  and  even  the  manufacture  of  hats  and  bonnets — which 
James  Haight,  of  Union,  among  others,  carried  on  with  his  other 
industries — and  hat  stores  in  St.  Thomas  distributed  the  products. 
The  implements  for  these  industries  were  also  locally  produced, 
Strong  and  Wheeler,  of  St.  Thomas,  for  instance,  advertising  in  '32 
the  manufacture  and  sale  of,  among  other  things,  "copper  stills  and 
worms"  and  "clothiers'  and  hatters'  kettles,"  while  for  ordinary 
repairing  everything  the  farmer  had  to  sell  "  except  brush  fence  " 
was  taken  in  exchange,  from  wheat  and  all  other  grain,  ham  and 
shoulders,  butter,  cheese,  lard  and  tallow,  bees  wax,  feathers  and 
the  like,  to  furs  and  deer  skins,  dressed  and  undressed.  Doctors 
Goodhue,  E.  E.  Duncombe,  and  D.  J.  Bowman  were  practicing 
in  St.  Thomas  in  '32,  the  two  former  in  partnership,  though  they 
dissolved  in  '33,  and  wished  "their  friends  and  patrons  to 
remember  that  the  most  ample  patronage  must  become  a  starving 
business  without  pay."  It  is  noteworthy  that  the  members  of  the 
medical  profession  were  organizing  as  early  as  1832.  On  loth  Sep- 
tember of  that  year  a  meeting  of  the  medical  licentiates  of  the 
London  district  was  held  at  Otter  Creek,  in  Bayham,  when  a 
constitution  and  by-laws  were  adopted  and  officers  appointed  as 
follows  :  Dr.  Crouse,  president  ;  Drs.  Elam  Stimson  and  E.  E. 
Duncombe,  vice-presidents ;  Dr.  Gilbert,  treasurer ;  Dr.  J.  C. 
Goodhue,  corresponding,  and  Dr.  D.  J.  Bowman,  recording 


176  THE  TALBOT   REGIME. 

secretary.  The  latter  was  appointed  to  obtain  the  signatures  of  his 
brother  practitioners  in  Middlesex  to  the  constitution,  Dr.  Smith 
to  perform  the  same  duty  in  Oxford,  and  Dr.  Dousley  in  Norfolk, 
and  a  further  meeting  was  called  for  February  at  Mr.  Loder's  inn 
at  Otter  Creek,  in  Bayham. 

The  list  of  Commissioners  of  the  Peace,  as  published  in  the 
press,  for  the  London  district,  appointed  in  1833,  indicates 
who,  in  the  estimation  of  Sir  John  Colborne  and  his  advisers, 
were  the  chief  loyalists  of  standing  in  the  district  at  that  date. 
It  was  amended  and  added  to  after  its  first  issue.  The  amend- 
ments, as  well  as  one  or  two  of  the  original  names,  were  received 
with  strong  protests  by  the  opponents  of  the  government.  Though 
most  of  the  St.  Thomas  appointments,  as  well  as  Gilbert  Wrong 
and  Mr.  Hodgkinson  in  Malahide,  were  not  objected  to,  John 
Burwell  and  Mayor  Nevills  were  subjected  to  obloquy  by  the  St. 
Thomas  Liberal,  while  the  omission  of  the  names  of  E.  A.  Talbot, 
John  Scatcherd,  and  Duncan  McKenzie  in  the  revised  list,  and  the 
appointment  of  Bela  Brewster  Brigham  and  John  O'Neil  instead, 
were  strongly  objected  to.  E.  A.  Talbot  was  stricken  out, 
apparently  for  causes  other  than  political,  and  John  Scatcherd, 
whose  worth  was  acknowledged  as  being  too  much  under  Talbot's 
influence.  At  least,  those  were  reported  as  reasons  at  the 
time.  Brigham's  services  to  the  country  in  1812  were  not 
gainsaid,  but  his  situation  at  Delaware  was  thought  to  be  too 
remote  from  London,  where  John  O'Neil,  though  a  respectable 
high  constable  and  former  crier  of  the  court,  was  also  an  hotel- 
keeper,  and  for  that  reason  made  the  subject  of  much  scornful  wit 
from  some.  These  gentry  had  to  preside  over  the  Court  of 
Requests  in  the  several  districts  assigned  to  them,  the  court  in 
which  small  debts  were  collected  and  disputes  settled,  their 
jurisdiction  resembling,  to  some  extent,  the  present  Division 
Courts.  They  had,  of  course,  duties  connected  with  the 
administration  of  criminal  justice  as  well.  Their  powers  were 
extensive,  and  the  dignity  of  the  bench  was  upheld,  in  those  and 
the  troublous  times  which  followed,  with  much  gravity.  The 
writer's  father  used  to  tell,  with  much  amusement,  of  a  suitor  who 
appeared  before  him,  when  a  magistrate,  who,  when  judgment  was 


ST.  THOMAS   IN   THE   THIRTIES.  177 

rendered  in  his  favour,  testified  his  gratitude  by  a  "Thank  you, 
Your  Majesty." 

In  '33  it  was  the  subject  of  comment  that  seven  magistrates 
were  appointed  in  and  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  St.  Thomas, 
with  but  three  within  London  and  larger  surrounding  area. 

The  magistracy  was  ere  long  to  be  supported  by  a  garrison  of 
regulars  in  both  towns.  In  St.  Thomas  the  principal  barracks 
were-  between  Church  and  King  streets  on  Talbot  street  and 
were  subsequently  destroyed  by  fire.  The  officers  were  quartered 
in  what  was  the  old  Penwarden  house,  where  the  Iroquois  hotel 
now  is,  and  in  other  houses.  Detachments  of  the  32nd  and  85th 
regiments  were  on  duty  in  St.  Thomas  during  the  years  of  the 
rebellion,  while  the  whole  of  the  34th,  with  its  fine  band,  was 
stationed  there  in  '38,  with  Colonel  Airey  in  command. 

London,  being  subsequently  made  the  chief  military  head- 
quarters of  the  district,  extensive  wooden  barracks,  with  tall 
stockades  about  them,  were  erected  where  Victoria  Park  now  is. 
To  the  south  was  an  extensive  parade  ground  surrounded  by  that 
most  efficient  form  of  fence,  a  stump  fence.  The  stumps  guarded 
the  parade  ground  and  cricket  creases — the  scene  of  many  matches 
— and  formed  memorial  monuments  of  primeval  London  for  well 
on  toward  half  a  century.  When  the  first  regiment  arrived  in 
London — the  32nd — it  was  hard  enough  to  find  accommodation  for 
them.  A  block  of  brick  buildings,  built  by  Dennis  O'Brien,  and 
intended  for  stores,  but  uncompleted,  was  hastily  converted  into 
barracks.  It  was  on  Dundas  street,  opposite  the  court  house 
square  and  west  of  Ridout  street,  and  was  subsequently  converted 
into  an  hotel.  Besides  this,  numerous  houses  throughout  the  town 
were  utilized,  principally  for  the  officers.  Many  citizens  gave  up 
portions  of  the  houses  they  occupied  for  their  accommodation.  In 
one  of  these,  after  the  close  of  the  campaign  of  1838  in  the  west, 
Colonel  Maitland  of  the  32nd  regiment  died — and  in  a  neighbouring 
house  about  the  same  time  the  pioneer  bank  manager  of  London, 
Richard  Richardson,  of  the  Bank  of  Upper  Canada,  who  had  come 
from  London  the  old,  first  to  Toronto  and  then  to  London  the 
new,  passed  away. 


CHAPTER   XXV. 

MRS.  JAMESON  IN  THE  SETTLEMENT. 

IN  1837  the  Talbot  settlement  had  a  notable  visitor  in  the 
person  of  Mrs.  Jameson,  the  wife  of  the  first  Chancery  Judge  of 
the  province,  Vice-Chancellor  Jameson.  A  gifted  woman,  whose 
writings  possessed  a  charm  of  thought  and  style  admired  alike  in 
Europe  and  America,  she  devoted  two  months  of  her  brief  sojourn 
in  Canada  to  a  trip  through  the  western  part  of  the  province. 
Having  crossed  the  lake  by  boat  from  Toronto  to  Niagara,  she 
visited  the  Falls  and  Buffalo — not  wishing,  as  she  stated,  "  to 
see  merely  sky  and  water,  but  to  see  the  country" — and  then 
she  proceeded  by  the  ordinary  stage  and  waggon  routes  via 
Hamilton,  Ancaster,  Brantford,  Woodstock,  Oxford  or  Ingersoll 
to  London,  thence  to  St.  Thomas.  A  six-day  visit  to  Colonel 
Talbot  followed,  and  then  waggon  was  again  taken  for  Chatham, 
thence  by  steamboat  to  Detroit,  from  which  city  she  proceeded  by 
water  to  Michilimackinac  and  Manitoulin  Island,  returning  to 
Toronto  by  way  of  Georgian  Bay  and  Lake  Simcoe. 

This  very  observant  and  active-minded  lady  has  described  her 
journey  and  the  country,  the  towns  and  villages  through  which 
she  passed,  as  well  as  the  people  she  saw,  including  the 
"sovereign  de  facto,  if  not  de  jure" — as  she  described  him — 
of  the  Talbot  settlement,  with  a  rare  fidelity,  clearness  and 
literary  grace. 

Of  London  she  wrote  :  "In  size  and  population  it  exceeds 
every  town  I  have  yet  visited,  except  Toronto  and  Hamilton. 
The  first  house  was  erected  in  1827  ;  now,  that  is  in  1837,  it 
contains  more  than  two  hundred  frame  and  brick  houses  ;  and 
there  are  many  more  building.  The  population  may  be  about 
thirteen  hundred  people.  The  gaol  and  court  house,  comprised  in 


MRS.   JAMESON    IN   THE  SETTLEMENT.  179 

one  stately  edifice,  seemed  the  glory  of  the  townspeople.  As  for 
the  style  of  architecture  I  may  not  attempt  to  describe  it  ;  but  a 
gentleman  informed  me,  in  rather  equivocal  phrase,  that  it  was 
"somewhat  gothic."  There  are  five  places  of  worship  for  the 
Episcopalians,  Presbyterians,  Methodists,  Roman  Catholics  and 
Baptists.  The  church  is  handsome.  There  are  also  three  or 
four  schools  and  seven  taverns.  The  Thames  is  very  beautiful 
here  and  navigable  for  boats  and  barges.  I  saw  to-day  a  large 
timber  raft  floating  down  the  stream,  containing  many  thousand 
feet  of  timber.  On  the  whole,  I  have  nowhere  seen  such  evident 
signs  of  progress  and  prosperity."  There  was  a  good  deal  of 
drunkenness  and  profligacy  and  illicit  whiskey  selling,  as,  in  most 
new  communities. 

From  London  the  "Chancellor's  lady,"  as  she  says  she  was 
here  called,  journeyed  to  St.  Thomas.  She  had  enjoyed  travel  in 
a  baker's  cart,  with  springs,  from  Blandford  to  London,  but  there- 
after found  springs  a  luxury  which  had  to  be  dispensed  with. 
Happily,  she  found  the  leading  roads  in  the  "  Talbot  country"  a 
great  improvement  on  those  she  had  travelled,  which  were  in 
places  so  execrably  bad  that  no  words  could  give  an  idea  of 
them. 

On  reaching  the  summit  of  a  hill — between  London  and  St. 
Thomas — the  authoress  wrote  : 

"  I  found  myself  upon  the  highest  land  I  had  yet  stood  upon  in  Canada 
with  the  exception  of  Queenston  Heights.  I  stopped  the  horses  and  looked 
around,  and  on  every  side,  far  and  near,  east,  west,  north  and  south,  it  was 
all  forest — a  boundless  sea  of  forest,  within  whose  leafy  recesses  lay  hidden 
as  infinite  a  variety  of  life  and  movement  as  within  the  depths  of  the  ocean  ; 
and  it  reposed  in  the  noontide  so  still  and  so  vast  !  Here  the  bright  sunshine 
rested  on  it  in  floods  of  golden  light  ;  there  cloud  shadows  sped  over  its 
bosom,  just  like  the  effects  I  remember  to  have  seen  on  the  Atlantic,  and  here 
and  there  rose  wreaths  of  white  smoke  from  the  new  clearings  which 
collected  into  little  silver  clouds  and  hung  suspended  in  the  quiet  air. 

"  I  gazed  and  meditated  till,  by  a  process  like  that  of  the  Arabian  sorcerer 
of  old,  the  present  fell  like  a  film  from  my  eyes  ;  the  future  was  before  me, 
with  its  towns  and  cities,  fields  of  waving  grain,  green  lawns  and  villas  and 
churches  and  temples — turret-crowned  ;  and  meadows  tracked  by  the  frequent 
footpath  ;  and  railroads  with  trains  of  rich  merchandise  steaming  along  ; — for 
all  this  -will  be  !  Will  be  ?  It  is  already  in  the  sight  of  Him  who  hath 


180  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

ordained  it,  and  for  whom  there  is  no  past  nor  future  ;  though  I  cannot  behold 
it  with  my  bodily  vision,  even  now  it  is." 

Occupied  with  prophetic  visions  such  as  this — since  largely 
realized — and  the  meditations  they  awoke,  the  gifted  traveller 
descended  the  "  Hill  of  Bears  "  and  proceeded  through  a  beautiful 
plain,  sometimes  wooded,  sometimes  opening  into  clearings  and 
farms  to  Five  Stakes,  where  two  or  three  tidy  cottages  and  some 
bread  and  milk  were  found.  She  continues  : 

"  The  road  here  was  no  longer  so  good,  and  we  travelled  slowly  and  with 
difficulty  for  some  miles.  About  five  o'clock  we  reached  St.  Thomas,  one  of 
the  prettiest  places  I  have  yet  seen.  Here  I  found  two  or  three  inns,  and  at 
one  of  them,  styled  the  Mansion  House  Hotel,  I  ordered  tea  for  myself,  and 
good  entertainment  for  my  young  driver  and  his  horses,  and  then  walked 
out.  St.  Thomas  is  situated  on  a  high  eminence,  to  which  the  ascent  is 
rather  abrupt.  The  view  from  it  over  a  fertile,  well-settled  country,  is  very 
beautiful  and  cheering.  The  place  bears  the  Christian  name  of  Colonel 
Talbot,  who  styles  it  his  capital,  and,  from  a  combination  of  advantages,  it  is 
rising  fast  into  importance.  The  climate,  from  its  high  position,  is  delicious 
and  healthful  ;  and  the  winters  in  this  part  of  the  province  are  milder  by 
several  degrees  than  elsewhere.  At  the  foot  of  the  cliff  or  eminence  runs  a 
deep,  rapid  stream,  called  the  Kettle  Creek  (I  wish  they  had  giv«n  it  a 
prettier  name),  which,  after  a  course  of  eight  miles,  and  turning  a  variety  of 
saw  mills,  grist  mills,  etc.,  flows  into  Lake  Erie  at  Port  Stanley,  one  of  the 
best  harbours  on  this  side  of  the  lake.  Here  steamboats  and  schooners  land 
their  passengers  and  merchandise,  or  load  with  grain,  flour  and  lumber. 
The  roads  are  good  all  round  ;  and  the  Talbot  road,  carried  directly  through 
the  town,  is  the  finest  in  the  province.  The  population  of  St.  Thomas  is  at 
present  rated  at  seven  hundred,  and  it  has  doubled  within  two  years.  There 
are  three  churches,  one  of  which  is  very  neat,  and  three  taverns.  Two 
newspapers  are  published  here,  one  violently  tory,  the  other  as  violently 
radical.  I  found  several  houses  building,  and,  in  those  I  entered,  a  general 
air  of  cheerfulness  and  well  being  very  pleasing  to  contemplate.  There  is 
here  an  excellent  manufactory  of  cabinet  ware  and  furniture  ;  some  articles 
of  the  black  walnut,  a  tree  abounding  here,  appeared  to  me  more  beautiful  in 
colour  and  grain  than  the  finest  mahogany  ;  and  the  elegant  veining  of  the 
maplewood  cannot  be  surpassed.  I  wish  they  were  sufficiently  the  fashion  in 
England  to  make  the  transport  worth  while.  Here  I  have  seen  whole  piles, 
nay,  whole  forests  of  such  trees,  burning  together.  I  was  very  much  struck 
with  this  beautiful  and  cheerful  little  town,  more,  I  think,  than  with  any  place 
I  have  yet  seen." 

Mrs.  Jameson  appends  a  note  on  the  name  Kettle  Creek,  giving 


MRS.   JAMESON   IN   THE  SETTLEMENT.  181 

the  commonly  accepted  story  of  the  finding  of  a  kettle  by  the  first 
settlers,  which  had  been  left  by  the  Indians  on  the  bank  of  the 
stream — others  have  said  in  its  depths — not  knowing  apparently 
that  it  had  been  called  "  Chaudiere  "  by  the  French,  and  Indians, 
long  years  before. 

The  Talbot  road  between  St.  Thomas  and  Port  Talbot  was 
described  by  Mrs.  Jameson  as  then  presenting  a  succession  of 
farm  houses  and  well-cultivated  farms.  Near  the  houses  there 
was  generally  a  patch  of  ground  planted  with  Indian  corn  and 
pumpkins,  and  sometimes  a  few  cabbages  and  potatoes — though 
flower  gardens  were  lacking,  a  want  too  often  noticed  along  the 
country  roads  of  the  present  day. 

The  approach  to  Port  Talbot  through  "  the  Colonel's  woods  " 
presented  a  different  aspect,  especially  when,  as  in  this  case,  it 
was  made  late  in  the  evening,  for  the  lady  traveller  declined  all 
advice  to  stay  at  "Waters'"  and  pushed  on  through  the  dark 
woodland  avenue,  startled  occasionally  by  a  bounding  deer,  his 
large  antlers  for  one  instant  defined  against  the  sky,  then  lost — 
until  descending  and  ascending  hills,  a  snake  fence  was  opened 
and  the  door  of  the  mysterious  Colonel  at  length  reached.  Let 
the  lady  herself  describe  her  welcome  : 

"My  welcome  was  not  only  cordial  but  courtly.  The  Colonel,  taking  me 
under  his  arm,  and  ordering-  the  boy  and  his  horses  to  be  well  taken  care  of, 
handed  me  into  the  hall  or  vestibule,  where  sacks  of  wheat  and  piles  of  sheep- 
skins lay  heaped  in  primitive  fashion  ;  thence  into  a  room,  the  walls  of  which 
were  formed  of  naked  logs.  Here  no  fauteuil,  spring-cushioned'  extended  its 
comfortable  arms — no  sofa  here  insidiously  stretched  out  Its  lazy  length  ; 
Colonel  Talbol  held  all  such  luxuries  in  sovereign  contempt.  In  front  of  a 
capacious  chimney  stood  a  long  wooden  table,  flanked  with  two  wooden 
chairs,  cut  from  the  forest  in  the  midst  of  which  they  now  stood.  To  one  of 
these  the  Colonel  handed  me,  with  the  air  of  a  courtier,  and  took  the  other 

himself. With   courteous    solicitude,   he  ushered   me 

himself  to  the  door  of  a  comfortable,  well-furnished  bedroom,  where  a  fire 
blazed  cheerfully,  where  female  hands  had  evidently  presided  to  arrange  my 
toilet,  and  where  female  aid  awaited  me  : — so  much  had  the  good  Colonel 
been  calumniated  !  " 

The  Colonel's  personal  appearance  and  characteristics  at  this 
time  are  thus  referred  to  by  Mrs.  Jameson  : 


182  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

"This  remarkable  man  is  now  about  sixty-five,  perhaps  more,  but  he  does 
not  look  so  much.  In  spite  of  his  rustic  dress,  his  good-humoured,  jovial, 
weather-beaten  face,  and  the  primitive  simplicity,  not  to  say  rudeness  of  his 
dwelling,  he  has  in  his  features,  air  and  deportment,  that  something  which 
stamps  him  gentleman.  And  that  something  which  thirty-four  years  of 
solitude  has  not  effaced  he  derives,  I  suppose,  from  blood  and  birth,  things  of 
more  consequence,  when  philosophically  and  philanthropically  considered, 

than  we  are  apt  to  allow I  had  always  heard  and  read  of  him  as 

the  '  eccentric '  Colonel  Talbot.  Of  his  eccentricity  I  heard  much  more  than 
of  his  benevolence,  his  invincible  courage,  his  enthusiasm,  his  perseverance  ; 
but  perhaps  according  to  the  wordly  nomenclature  these  qualities  come  under 
the  general  head  of  '  eccentricity ' — when  devotion  to  a  favourite  object 

cannot  possibly  be  referred  to  self-interest For  sixteen  years  he 

saw  scarce  a  human  being,  except  the  few  boors  and  blacks  employed  in 
clearing  and  logging  his  land,  he  himself  assumed  the  blanket  coat  and  axe, 
slept  on  the  bare  earth,  cooked  three  meals  a  day  for  twenty  woodsmen, 
cleaned  his  own  boots,  washed  his  own  linen,  milked  his  cows,  churned  the 
butter  and  made  and  baked  the  bread.  In  this  latter  branch  of  household 
economy  he  became  very  expert,  and  still  piques  himself  upon  it.  To  all 
these  heterogeneous  functions  of  sowing  and  reaping,  felling  and  planting, 
frying,  boiling,  washing  and  wringing,  brewing  and  baking,  he  added 
another,  even  more  extraordinary  ; — for  many  years  he  solemnized  all  the 
marriages  in  his  district  !  " 

Mrs.  Jameson  describes  the  Colonel's  chateau  as  a  long"  wooden 
building  chiefly  of  rough  logs,  with  a  covered  porch  running 
along  the  south  side,  from  the  rafters  of  which  were  suspended 
among  implements  of  husbandry  a  '  cat-a-mountain,"  or  American 
panther.  The  interior  contained  among  other  comfortable  lodg- 
ing rooms,  a  really  handsome  dining-room  and  a  large  kitchen 
with  a  "  tremendously  hospitable  chimney,"  with  underground 
cellars  for  storing  wine,  milk  and  provisions.  Around  the  house 
stood  a  vast  variety  of  outbuildings  of  all  imaginable  shapes  and 
sizes,  and  disposed  without  the  slightest  regard  to  order  or 
symmetry,  one  of  which  was  the  Colonel's  original  log  hut. 
There  were  many  outbuildings  to  shelter  the  innumerable  geese 
and  poultry.  Beyond  these,  the  cliff  overlooking  the  wide  blue 
lake,  while  behind  the  house  lay  an  open  tract,  prettily  broken 
and  varied,  where  large  flocks  of  sheep  and  cattle  were  feeding, 
the  whole  enclosed  by  beautiful,  luxuriant  woods — now  unhappily 
almost  vanished — through  which  ran  the  Talbot  creek. 


MRS.   JAMESON   IN   THE  SETTLEMENT.  183 

The  farm  of  six  hundred  acres  is  described  as  somewhat 
slovenly  managed  and  unproductive,  from  want  of  an  overseer 
Sixteen  acres  of  orchard  produced  apples,  pears,  plums  and 
cherries  in  abundance  ;  while  two  acres  were  neatly  laid  out  and 
enclosed  as  a  garden,  the  first  thing  the  Colonel  showed  his  guest, 
in  which  he  took  pride  and  pleasure,  abounding  in  roses  of 
different  kinds,  which  he  had  imported  from  England.  He 
presented  her  with  a  bouquet  of  these  and  the  two  sat  down  on  a 
pretty  seat  under  a  tree,  where  he  often  came  to  meditate,  and 
here  they  conversed,  the  Colonel  describing  the  place  as  it  had 
been,  and  the  talk  gradually  drifted  into  a  discussion  of  the 
exploits  of  some  of  his  ancestors.  She  found  family  and  aristo- 
cratic pride  a  prominent  feature  of  his  character.  "  He  set,"  she 
wrote,  "  not  unreasonably,  a  high  value  on  his  noble  and  unstained 
lineage  ;  and,  in  his  lonely  position,  the  simplicity  of  his  life  and 
manners  lent  to  these  lofty  and  not  unreal  pretensions  a  kind  of 
poetical  dignity." 

She  told  him  of  the  prevalent  surmises  as  to  his  early  life  and 
his  motives  for  emigrating,  at  which  he  laughed. 

"  Charlevoix,"  said  he,  "  was,  I  believe,  the  true  cause  of  my 
coming  to  this  place.  You  know  he  calls  this  the  '  Paradise  of 
the  Hurons.'  Now  I  was  resolved  to  get  to  paradise  by  hook  or 
by  crook,  and  so  I  came  here." 

He  added  more  seriously,  "  I  have  accomplished  what  I 
resolved  to  do — it  is  done  ;  but  I  would  not,  if  any  one  was  to 
offer  me  the  universe,  go  through  again  the  horrors  I  have  under- 
gone in  forming  this  settlement.  But  do  not  imagine  I  repent  it  ; 
I  like  my  retirement." 

He  then  broke  out,  his  visitor  says,  against  the  follies  and 
falsehoods,  and  restrictions  of  artificial  life,  in  bitter  and  scornful 
terms  ;  no  ascetic  monk  or  radical  philosopher  could  have  been 
more  eloquently  indignant.  In  response  to  a  remark  from  his 
visitor,  however,  he  said:  "Why,  yes,  I  am  happy  here  "- 
though  an  accompanying  sigh  lead  her  to  some  reflections  on  the 
effect  of  his  lonely  condition,  mingled  with  a  feeling  of  commisera- 
tion for  him,  which,  she  says,  more  than  once  brought  tears  to 
her  eyes.  She  continues  : 


184  THE  TALBOT   REGIME. 

"  He  has  passed  his  life  in  solitude.  He  will  admit  no  equal  in  his  vicinity. 
His  only  intercourse  has  been  with  inferiors  and  dependents,  whose  servility 
he  despised,  and  whose  resistance  enraged  him — men  whose  interests  rested 
on  his  favour — on  his  will,  from  which  there  was  no  appeal.  Hence  despotic 
habits,  and  contempt  even  for  those  whom  he  benefited  ;  hence,  with  much 
natural  benevolence  and  generosity,  a  total  disregard,  or  rather  total 
ignorance,  of  the  feelings  of  others — all  the  disadvantages,  in  short,  of 
royalty,  only  on  a  smaller  scale.  Now,  in  his  old  age,  where  is  to  him  the 
solace  of  age  ?  He  has  honour,  power,  obedience  ;  but  where  are  the  love, 
the  troops  of  friends,  which  also  should  accompany  old  age  ?  He  is  alone — 
a  lonely  man.  His  constitution  has  suffered  by  the  dreadful  toils  and 
privations  of  his  earlier  life.  His  sympathies  have  no  natural  outlet  ;  his 
affections  have  wanted  their  natural  food.  He  suffers,  I  think,  and  not  being 
given  to  general  or  philosophical  reasoning,  causes  and  effects  are  felt,  not 
known.  But  he  is  a  great  man  who  has  done  great  things  ;  and  the  good 
which  he  has  done  will  live  after  him.  He  has  planted,  at  a  terrible  sacrifice, 
an  enduring  name  and  fame,  and  will  be  commemorated  in  this  '  brave  new 
world,'  this  land  of  hope,  as  Triptolemus  among  the  Greeks." 

She  next  relates  how  Jeffrey  Hunter,  who  had  served  him  faith- 
fully for  five  and  twenty  years — "  ever  since  he  left  off  cleaning 
his  own  shoes  and  mending  his  own  coat  " — not  sharing  his 
master's  celibate  ideas,  went  one  morning  and  took  unto  himself 
the  woman  nearest  at  hand. 

"  The  Colonel  swore  at  him  for  a  fool,"  we  are  told,  "  but, 
after  a  while,  Jeffrey,  who  is  a  favourite,  smuggled  his  wife  into 
the  house  ;  and  the  Colonel,  whose  increasing  age  renders  him 
rather  more  dependent  on  household  help,  seems  to  endure  very 
patiently  this  addition  to  his  family,  and  even  the  presence  of  a 
white-headed,  chubby  little  thing,  which  I  found  running  about 
without  let  or  hindrance." 

The  groups  of  strange  figures  lounging  round  the  door  of  the 
Colonel's  library  or  hall  of  audience,  are  described  as  : 

"  Ragged,  black-bearded,  gaunt,  travel-worn  and  toil-worn  emigrants, 
Irish,  Scotch  and  American,  come  to  offer  themselves  as  settlers.  These  he 
called  his  land  pirates  ;  and  curious  and  characteristic,  and  dramatic  beyond 
description,  were  the  scenes  which  used  to  take  place  between  this  grand 
bashaw  of  the  wilderness  and  his  hungry,  importunate  clients  and 
petitioners." 

Mrs.  Jameson  speaks  of  Colonel  Talbot's  isolation  from  the 
world  : 


MRS.    JAMESON    IN   THE  SETTLEMENT.  185 

"Dynasties  rose  and  disappeared;  kingdoms  were  passed  from  hand  to 
hand  like  wine  decanters  ;  battles  were  lost  and  won  ; — he  neither  knew,  nor 
heard,  nor  cared." 

Those  who  have  read  the  Colonel's  correspondence,  however, 
will  know  that  he  had  occasional  news  of  what  was  going-  on  in 
the  outer  world  and  took  an  intelligent  interest  in  what  he  heard. 

"The  principal  foreign  and  domestic  events  of  his  reign  are  the  last 
American  war,  in  which  he  narrowly  escaped  being  taken  prisoner  by  a 
detachment  of  the  enemy,  who  ransacked  his  house  and  drove  off  his  horses 
and  cattle  ;  and  a  visit  which  he  received  some  years  ago  from  three  young 
Englishmen  of  rank  and  fortune,  Lord  Stanley,  Mr.  Stuart  Wortley  and  Mr. 
Labouchere,  who  spent  some  weeks  with  him.  These  events  and  his  voyages 
to  England  seemed  to  be  the  epochs  from  which  he  dated.  From  these 
occasional  flights  he  returns  like  an  old  eagle  to  his  perch  on  the  cliff,  whence 
he  looks  down  upon  the  world  he  has  quitted  with  supreme  contempt  and 
indifference,  and  around  on  that  which  he  has  created,  with  much  self- 
applause  and  self-gratulation. " 

It  was  not  until  the  sixth  day  of  Mrs.  Jameson's  sojourn  at  the 
Colonel's  that  he  allowed  her  to  depart. 

The  trusty  guide  and  driver  with  whom  she  journeyed  from 
Port  Talbot  to  Chatham,  judging  from  the  description  in  the  text, 
though  his  full  name  is  not  given,  was  John  Bobier,  whose 
appearance,  dress  and  rich  brogue  seemed  out  of  harmony,  until 
he  explained  that  his  grandfather  was  a  Frenchman  but  his  father 
had  married  an  Irishwoman  and  settled  in  consequence  in  the 
south  of  Ireland,  where  he  became  a  grazier  and  cattle  dealer,  and 
having  realized  a  small  capital,  had  brought  out  his  whole  family 
and  settled  his  sons  on  farms  in  the  neighbourhood.  John  had  a 
farm  of  160  acres,  for  which,  with  log  house  and  barn  upon  it,  he 
had  paid  $800.  He  had  then  100  acres  of  cleared  land  laid  down 
in  pasture — the  first  instance,  the  authoress  tells  us,  she  had  met 
with  in  these  parts,  of  a  grazing  farm.  He  and  his  brother  had 
put  to  good  use  their  knowledge  of  the  rearing  of  live  stock  and 
he  had  now  30  cows  and  80  sheep. 

"  His  wife  being  clever  in  the  dairy,  he  was  enabled  to  sell  a  good  deal  of 
butter  and  cheese  off  his  farm,  which  the  neighbourhood  of  Port  Stanley 
enabled  him  to  ship  with  advantage.  The  wolves,  he  said,  were  his  greatest 


186  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

annoyance  ;  during  the  last  winter  they  had  carried  off  eight  of  his  sheep  and 
thirteen  of  his  brother's  flock,  in  spite  of  all  their  precautions."  ....  I 
never  heard  of  their  destroying  a  man,  but  they  are  the  terror  of  the  sheep- 
fold — as  the  wild  cats  are  of  the  poultry  yard.  Bears  become  scarcer  in 
proportion  as  the  country  is  cleared,  but  there  are  still  a  great  number  in  the 
vast  tracts  of  forest  land  which  afford  them  shelter.  These,  in  the  severe 
winters,  advance  to  the  borders  of  the  settlements,  and  carry  off  the  pigs  and 
young  cattle.  Deer  still  abound,  and  venison  is  common  food  in  the  cottages 
and  farm  houses." 

The  Talbot  road  was  found  tolerably  good  at  this  time  as  far 
west  as  the  town  line  between  Howard  and  Harwich,  where  the 
lady  traveller,  making  for  Chatham,  turned  into  the  town  line 
and  encountered  all  the  dangers  and  discomforts  of  a  primitive 
road  through  primeval  forest. 

Mrs.  Jameson  records  her  impressions  of  the  early  Highland 
settlement  along  Talbot  road  west  in  terms  not  the  most  compli- 
mentary. She  speaks  of  the  Highlanders  as  having  brought 
hither  "all  their  clannish  attachments,  and  their  thrifty,  dirty 
habits — add  also  their  pride  and  honesty."  She  found,  in  some 
cases,  change  from  abject  poverty  and  want,  which  was  their 
portion  in  the  Old  Country,  to  independence  and  plenty,  but  the 
advantages  were  all  outward,  in  her  judgment,  the  only  inward 
change  being,  apparently,  retrogradation,  not  advancement.  Her 
reflections  on  the  condition  of  primitive  society  here  resemble 
those  of  Dr.  Howison,  who  passed  some  time  in  the  settlement 
nearly  twenty  years  before,  and  published  an  account  of  his  travels 
and  impressions.  "  Gross  vice,"  "profligacy,"  "  stupidity,"  and 
"basely  vulgar  habits"  had,  apparently,  not  disappeared  since 
Dr.  Howison's  visit.  E.  A.  Talbot,  one  of  a  family  of  early 
settlers  in  London  township,  in  a  work  published  about  the  same 
period,  gives,  a  somewhat  similar  account  of  the  character  and 
habits  of  many  of  the  early  settlers  of  the  country  generally.  How 
much  in  these  harsh  criticisms  to  attribute  to  Old  Country 
training,  class  prejudices,  or  personal  disappointments,  and  how 
much  to  being  brought  into  contact  with  only  a  portion,  and  that, 
perhaps,  not  the  best,  of  the  inhabitants,  it  is  impossible,  at  this 
time,  to  say.  Mrs.  Jameson  wrote  : 

"  In  one  log  hut  in  the  very  heart  of  the  wilderness,  where  I  might  well 


MRS.   JAMESON   IN   THE  SETTLEMENT.  187 

have  expected  primitive  manners  and  simplicity,  I  found  vulgar  finery,  vanity, 
affectation,  under  the  most  absurd  and  disgusting-  forms,  combined  with  a 
want  of  the  commonest  physical  comforts  of  life,  and  the  total  absence  of 
even  elementory  knowledge." 

She  attributes  much  to  the  want  of  school-masters  and  religious 
teachers.  Yet,  a  day  or  two  later  she  writes  : 

"This  land  of  Upper  Canada  is,  in  truth,  the  very  paradise  of  hope.  It 
would  be  possible,  looking  at  things  under  one  aspect,  to  draw  such  a  picture 
of  the  mistakes  of  the  government,  the  corruption  of  its  petty  agents,  the 
social  backwardness  and  moral  destitution  of  its  people  as  would  shock  you, 
and  tempt  you  to  regard  Canada  as  a  place  of  exile  for  convicts.  On  the 
other  hand,  I  could,  without  deviating  from  the  sober  and  literal  truth,  give 
you  such  vivid  pictures  of  the  beauty  and  fertility  of  this  land  of  the  west,  of 
its  glorions  capabilities  for  agriculture  and  commerce,  of  the  goodness  and 
kindliness  and  resources  of  poor,  much  abused  human  nature,  as  developed 
amid  all  the  crushing  influences  of  oppression,  ignorance,  and  prejudice,  and 
of  the  gratitude  and  self-complacency  of  those  who  have  exchanged  want, 
servitude,  and  hopeless  toil  at  home,  for  plenty  and  independence  here,  as 
would  transport  you,  in  fancy,  into  an  earthly  elysium.  Thus,  as  I  travel  on, 
I  am  disgusted  or  I  am  enchanted,  I  despair  or  I  exult  by  turns  ;  and  these 
inconsistent  and  apparently  contradictory  emotions  and  impressions  I  set 
down  as  they  arise,  leaving  you  to  reconcile  them  as  well  as  you  can." 

Mrs.  Jameson  refers  to  Chatham  as,  at  this  time,  (1837)  a 
beautiful  little  town.  "  I  can  hardly  imagine  a  more  beautiful  or 
more  fortunate  position  for  a  new  city  than  this  of  Chatham,"  she 
wrote,  proceeding  to  recapitulate  its  advantages  at  the  head  of 
navigation  and  in  the  midst  of  a  rich  territory.  "  Freeman's 
Hotel "  had  been  described  to  her  as  one  of  the  best  in  the  district 
but  alas!  when  she  arrived,  Freeman,  in  consequence  of  the  "high 
price  of  wheat,"  she  says,  was  no  longer  able  to  afford  accom- 
modation to  travellers.  At  Chatham  she  took  a  steamer  to 
Detroit,  returning  to  Toronto  by  the  way  of  the  Upper  Lakes, 
Georgian  Bay,  and  Lake  Simcoe. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

POLITICAL  AFFAIRS   OF  THE   PROVINCE — REBELLION   OF   '37 — DR. 
CHARLES  BUNCOMBE. 

To  properly  understand  and  appreciate  the  events  to  be  narrated 
in  the  chapters  to  follow,  as  well  as  the  relation  which  many  of 
the  facts  and  allusions  recorded  in  the  preceding  chapters  bear  to 
them,  a  brief  outline  of  the  course  of  events  in  the  wider  area  of 
the  province  is  essential. 

From  the  days  of  Governor  Simcoe,  under  the  constitution  then 
inaugurated,  the  governor  of  the  province  had  remained  the  chief 
factor  in  the  administration  of  government,  if  not  in  legislation, 
though  influenced  more  or  less,  according  to  the  character  of  the 
individual  governor,  by  the  views  of  his  executive  council.  There 
was  a  legislative  council,  whose  members  were  appointed  for  life 
by  the  Crown,  and  an  assembly,  elected  by  the  property  owners' 
votes.  In  short,  the  government  was  of  the  character  now 
known  as  representative,  as  distinguished  from  that  of  a  purely 
Crown  colony  on  the  one  hand,  and  from  a  responsible 
government  on  the  other.  With  the  limitations  of  the  province 
as  to  population,  education,  and  intercommunication  in  the  early 
days,  it  was  almost  inevitable  that  the  government  should,  at 
best,. partake  of  the  character  of  an  oligarchy,  or,  if  the  governor 
so  willed,  an  autocracy. 

Lieutenant-Governor  Peter  Hunter,  after  a  two  years'  interreg- 
num of  president  Peter  Russell,  succeeded  Simcoe,  retaining  office 
until  1805,  when,  after  a  years'  presidency  of  Commodore  Grant, 
Francis  Gore  arrived  at  York  as  lieutenant-governor  in  1806.  He 
remained  in  the  province  until,  as  we  have  seen  in  the  Talbot 
correspondence,  he  went  to  England  on  account  of  his  wife's  ill 
health,  returning  in  1815,  to  retain  office  for  about  a  year  and  a 


POLITICAL  AFFAIRS   OF  THE   PROVINCE.  189 

half  longer.  During  his  absence  the  war  with  the  United  States 
was  in  progress,  and  a  succession  of  military  officers  administered 
the  government,  either  as  presidents  or  provisional  lieutenant- 
governors,  beginning  with  President  Brock  and  closing  with 
Sir  F.  P.  Robinson. 

It  was  in  the  session  of  1818  that  a  majority  of  the  House  of 
Assembly — Colonel  Burwell  among  the  number — presumed  to  form 
themselves  into  a  committee  of  the  whole  to  enquire  into  "the 
present  state  of  the  province." 

"  I  will  send  the  rascals  about  their  business,"  the  governor  is 
reported  to  have  exclaimed,  and,  suiting  the  action  to  the  word, 
he  prorogued  parliament — that  paliament  which  had,  a  few  weeks 
before,  voted  ^"3,000  for  a  service  of  plate  for  the  governor  as  a 
mark  of  their  pleasure  at  his  return  from  England.  "  The  rascals 
have  given  nothing  toward  the  culture  of  hemp,"  he  had  written 
Colonel  Talbot  in  reference  to  a  former  House  of  Assembly.  The 
epithet  should  not  be  taken  too  seriously  ;  it  was  one  of  those 
semi-jocose  expressions  which  some  otherwise  amiable  men  are 
wont  to  indulge  in — for  Governor  Gore  was  of  an  essentially 
genial  type  of  old  English  gentleman,  as  his  letters  to  Colonel 
Talbot  show,  in  England  a  member  of  the  Athenaeum  club  and  of 
Theodore  Hook's  inner  circle  of  "  Knights  of  the  Napkin."  Soon 
afrer  his  curt  treatment  of  the  legislative  assembly  he  took  his 
final  departure  for  England. 

After  a  year's  administration  by  Colonel  Samuel  Smith,  formerly 
of  Simcoe's  old  regiment  of  Queen's  Rangers,  Sir  Peregrine 
Maitland,  a  military  officer  of  distinction,  who  had  commanded  a 
brigade  at  Waterloo,  took  the  reins  of  government.  He  had 
attended  the  Duchess  of  Richmond's  famous  ball  at  Brussels  on 
the  eve  of  Waterloo,  won  the  love  of  the  Duke's  daughter,  Lady 
Sarah  Lennox,  and  married  her  without  her  father's  consent 
during  the  occupation  of  Paris  by  the  allies.  As  forgiven  children 
they  preceded  the  Duke  to  Canada,  where,  as  Governor-General, 
the  latter  was  destined  to  reign  but  a  year  and  a  half,  when,  on  his 
way  back  to  the  lower  province  from  a  visit  to  the  Maitlands,  he 
died  of  hydrophobia  at  the  present  village  of  Richmond,  the  result 
of  a  bite  received  at  Sorel  from  a  tame  fox.  Sir  Peregrine,  who 


190  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

had  been  appointed  Lieutenant-Governor  of  Upper  Canada,  took 
office  in  1818.  He  is  described  as  a  tall  man  of  fine  military 
bearing",  and,  according"  to  his  portraits,  of  handsome,  thoughtful 
face,  and  his  wife  as  graceful  and  elegant.  As  in  the  case  of 
Governor  and  Mrs.  Gore,  they  became  warm  and  even  intimate 
friends  of  Colonel  Talbot,  as  a  letter  from  Sir  Peregrine  (see 
appendix  D)  sufficiently  testifies.  On  September  i5th  after  his 
arrival  in  the  country,  he,  accompanied  by  his  suite  and  by  Colonel 
Talbot,  arrived  at  Port  Talbot  and  the  next  forenoon  was  waited 
on  by  about  three  hundred  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  settlement, 
who  presented  him  with  an  address,  to  which  he  made  a  brief 
reply,  in  which  the  flourishing  state  of  the  settlement  and  the 
Talbot  road  were  specially  referred  to.  The  address  and  reply 
will  be  found  in  appendix  D. 

It  was  in  Maitland's  time  that  Robert  Gourlay,  whose 
investigations  into  "the  state  of  the  province,"  agitations  and 
publications  had  brought  upon  him  the  wrath  of  the  executive 
council,  was  brought  twice  to  trial  for  seditious  libel  and  as  often 
acquitted,  after  being  cast  into  prison.  He  was  finally  banished 
from  the  province.  The  proceecings  against  him  were  harsh  and 
unnecessary  and  a  committee  of  the  Canadian  parliament,  more 
than  twenty  years  afterward,  reported  them  illegal,  unconstitu- 
tional and  inexcusable.  They  resulted  in  his  mental  aberration. 
His  agitations,  which  were  principally  against  the  land  policy  of 
the  government,  had  the  effect  of  arousing  public  attention  and 
inquiry.  Gourlay's  was  not  the  only  prosecution  for  libel. 
Maitland's  administration  was  marked  by  a  series  of  these 
proceedings.  Collins,  a  newspaper  writer,  attacked  Attorney- 
General  Robinson  in  a  virulent  manner,  and  was  convicted, 
heavily  fined,  and  imprisoned. 

As  has  been  seen,  Dr.  John  Rolph  and  Captain  Matthews,  of 
Lobo,  had  been  elected  in  Middlesex  in  1824.  The  treatment 
accorded  the  latter  by  the  military  authorities  for  an  indiscretion 
at  the  theatre  at  York,  where  he  was  reported  to  have  called  for 
cheers  to  "Yankee  Doodle"  at  a  performance  by  an  American 
company,  on  New  Years  night,  1826,  helped  fan  the  flame  of 
discontent;  and  though  Sir  Peregrine  took  no  official  part  in  that 


!i 


. 

OS    .« 

•A    <-> 


1 1 

a   = 

II 

H    ^ 


POLITICAL  AFFAIRS   OF  THE   PROVINCE.  191 

matter,  his  conduct  in  striking1  out  sums  voted  by  the  assembly 
for  reporting  the  debates  of  the  house  to  McKenzie  and  Collins 
was  regarded  by  opponents  of  the  government  as  unjust  and 
autocratic.  His  arbitrary  conduct  in  regard  to  Forsyth,  an 
alleged  trespasser  upon  ordnance  lands  upon  the  Niagara,  and  his 
interference  with  the  house  in  regard  to  its  inquiry  into  the  same 
matter,  drew  down  upon  him  strong  censure  from  Sir  George 
Murray,  the  Colonial  Secretary,  and  led  to  his  recall. 

The    prosecutions    and   persecutions    to    which    William    Lyon 
McKenzie  was  subjected,  in  and  out  of  parliament,   contributed 
during  this  period  not  only  to  build  up  that  gentleman's  popularity 
and  influence,  but  to  still  further  embitter  a  considerable  portion 
of  the   population    of    the    province    against    the    government. 
McKenzie  wielded  so  caustic  a  pen  and  so  aroused  the  ire  of  the 
official  party  by  his  bitter  writings  that  a  band  of  young  hotheads 
conceived  and  carried  out  the  mad  project  of  breaking  into  the 
printing  office  where  his   Colonial  Advocate  was    published    and 
casting  a  portion   of  its   contents  into   the  bay.      This,   though 
intended  as  a  crushing  blow  to  McKenzie,  proved  just  the  reverse 
and  contributed  to  the  defeat  of  the  government  party  at  the  next 
elections,   and  the  return   of  an    assembly    with    a   considerable 
Reform  majority,   in  which  McKenzie  had,   for  the  first  time,  a 
seat,   and  in  which  Rolph  and   Matthews   were  again  included. 
Sir  John  Colborne,  the  new  governor,  arrived  after  this  election. 
Colonel  Talbot,   in  one  of  his  letters,   expressed   a  feeling  of 
resentment  toward   Sir  George    Murray   which    was,    no    doubt, 
aroused  by  the  latter's  deserved  censure  of  the  Colonel's  friend, 
Sir    Peregrine.        Sir    George    Murray    is    generally     regarded, 
however,  as  having  but  done  his  duty,   and  the  Colonel's  resent- 
ment was  as  undeserved  as  it  was  natural  in  him.    The  favourable 
opinion    of  Sir  John  Colborne,  so  strongly  expressed  in  Colonel 
Talbot's  speech  at  St.    Thomas  in  April,  1832,  was,  however,  a 
deserved  compliment  to  a  governor,  who  was  placed  in  a   very 
unpleasant  position  during  a  critical  period  of  seven  years,  during 
which  he  had  to  act  under  six  successive  Colonial  Secretaries  at 
the  home  office,  while  conflict  succeeded  conflict  in  the  political 
affairs  of  the  province  he  was  called  upon  to  rule.      He,  like  Sir 


192  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

Peregrine  Maitland,  was  a  distinguished  officer  in  the  army,  but 
he  avoided  those  errors  into  which  his  predecessor  had  fallen  by 
arbitrary  exercise  of  power,  and  prosecution  for  libel  ceased.  He 
showed  a  desire  to  promote  the  interests  of  the  province  and 
advance  education,  while  at  the  same  time  he  stood  firmly  by  the 
constitution  of  1791  and  his  instructions  from  the  colonial  office. 
He  was  bitterly  attacked  after  he  had  left  the  provincetfor  having 
endowed  forty-four  rectories  of  the  Church  of  England  out  of  the 
clergy  reserve  lands  on  the  eve  of  his  departure,  but,  though 
attributed  to  the  undue  influence  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Strachan,  such 
action  was  in  accordance  with  instructions  received  from  the 
colonial  office  some  years  before.  If  he  withheld  action  so  long 
out  of  deference  to  public  opinion,  he  would  have  consulted  his 
own  popularity  had  he  witheld  it  altogether,  as  such  action  has 
been  ever  since  assigned  as  a  contributing  cause  to  the  troubles 
which  followed.  It  may  be  added  here  that  Sir  John  Colborne 
was  placed  in  command  of  the  forces  in  both  Canadas  during  the 
troublous  times  which  followed  his  vacating  the  Lieutenant- 
Governorship,  and  rendered  valuable  service,  and  that  he  was 
subsequently  created  Lord  Seaton. 

When  Mr.  McKenzie  had  taken  his  seat  in  the  house  he,  in 
1829,  brought  forward  a  list  of  thirty-one  grievances,  some  more 
or  less  fancied  and  some  very  real.  Many  of  these  were  disposed 
of  subsequently  by  Lord  Goderich,  so  that  by  1834,  criminal 
prosecutions  for  political  libels  had  ceased,  the  war  losses  had 
been  settled,  and  the  tenure  of  office  of  judges  was  no  longer 
dependent  upon  the  pleasure  of  the  Crown,  but  upon  good 
behaviour,  a  change  which  freed  them  from  interference  of  the 
executive,  and  from  a  recurrence  of  some  past  unpleasant  incidents. 
Free  grants  of  land  to  influential  favourites,  too,  had  been 
forbidden  and  sale  by  public  competition  ordered. 

Meantime  the  Reformers  had  suffered  a  reverse  in  the  elections 
held  in  consequence  of  the  death  of  George  IV.,  in  1830,  when 
neither  of  the  Baldwins  obtained  seats  and  Dr.  Rolph  was 
defeated.  Though  the  libel  prosecutions  in  the  house  had  ceased, 
the  Legislative  Assembly  in  1831  began  a  series  of  proceedings 
against  McKenzie,  whose  acrid  writings  provoked  his  opponents 


POLITICAL    AFFAIRS  OF  THE    PROVINCE.  193 

to  a  course  incompatible  with  free  institutions.  Colonel  Burwell, 
who  had  again  been  elected  for  Middlesex,  took  a  somewhat 
prominent  part  in  these  proceeding's,  which  resulted  in  McKenzie's 
repeated  expulsion  from  the  house  on  the  charge  of  having 
libelled  the  Assembly  in  his  newspaper,  and  his  re-election  by  his 
constituents  as  often  as  he  was  expelled.  With  the  Attorney- 
General,  Mr.  H.  J.  Boulton,  rests  in  a  large  measure  the  respons- 
ibility for  the  proceedings  against  Mr.  McKenzie,  and  his 
intemperate  language,  as  well  as  that  of  Solicitor-General 
Hagerman,  in  the  house,  was  quoted  in  justification  of  McKenzie's 
abusive  articles.  Sir  John  Colborne  was  blamed  for  not  inter- 
fering, but  having  been  advised  by  the  law  officers  that  the 
proceedings  were  legal  and  a  six  days'  debate  having  failed  to 
stay  the  majority  in  the  Assembly  from  carrying  out  the  first 
expulsion,  he  could  not  well  interfere  against  the  views  of  his 
advisers,  without  a  serious  stretch  of  prerogative. 

The  proceedings  taken  by  the  Assembly  tended  to  enhance  the 
importance  and  popularity  of  McKenzie  for  the  time  being,  who 
had  meantime  busied  himself  in  obtaining  petitions  from  the 
people  of  the  province  to  the  King  respecting  various  grievances, 
and  was  about  to  sail  for  England  to  press  the  petitions  he  had 
obtained  upon  the  home  government,  at  the  time  of  the  St. 
George's  day  meeting  in  St.  Thomas  in  the  spring  of  '32.  It  was 
to  meet  these  petitions  that  that  read  at  the  St.  Thomas  meeting 
was  adopted,  and  to  check  as  well  the  progress  of  dissatisfaction 
from  turning  into  dangerous  channels,  that  the  meeting  was 
called.  Lord  Goderich's  report  stated  that  McKenzie's  views 
were  supported  by  44  petitions  signed  by  12,075  persons,  while 
33  petitions  signed  by  26,854  persons  opposed  him. 

As  already  stated,  a  considerable  number  of  the  grievances 
were  remedied  by  1834,  in  which  year  the  tide  again  turned  in 
favour  of  the  Reformers  at  the  polls.  Neither  Robert  Baldwin 
nor  Dr.  Rolph  were  elected  at  this  time.  Dr.  Rolph  had 
given  up  the  practice  of  law  and  removed  to  Toronto,  where  his 
ability  and  medical  knowledge  were  recognized,  and  he  began  that 
course  of  teaching  which  in  after  years  he  carried  on  with  so  much 
success.  Sir  John  Colborne  at  this  time  proposed  to  establish  a 


194  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

medical  college,  to  be  liberally  supported  by  government,  of  which 
Rolph  should  be  placed  in  charge.  The  offer  was  declined, 
owing,  it  is  said,  to  Rolph's  not  having  decided  as  yet  to  abandon 
political  life.  Dr.  Charles  Buncombe  was  elected  both  in  1830 
and  again  in  1834  for  Oxford,*  he  having  removed  from  St. 
Thomas  to  Burford,  his  brother  Elijah  remaining  to  practice  in 
the  former  place. 

Charles  Duncombe  was  of  a  family  which  was  an  offshoot  of  a 
well-known  English  family  of  like  name.  He  bore  the  same 
Christian  name,  as  well  as  surname,  as  both  his  great  grandfather 
and  grandfather,  the  former  of  whom  came  from  England  to 
Boston  about  1730.  Dr.  Charles  Duncombe  came  from  Delaware 
county,  New  York,  to  St.  Thomas,  followed  at  short  intervals  by 
his  aged  father,  Thomas  Duncombe,  his  mother,  Rhoda  Tyrell 
Duncombe  and  his  youngest  brother,  Dr.  David  Duncombe,  and 
they  were  joined,  upon  the  death  of  the  father  in  1822,  by  the 
second  son,  Elijah,  also  a  doctor.  In  fact  the  Duncombes  of  this 
family  have  been  almost  exclusively  medical  men  from  that  day  to 
the  present  and  during  a  considerable  portion  of  the  century  have 
been  and  are  now  represented  in  that  profession  in  St.  Thomas. 
Charles,  as  has  been  stated,  left  St.  Thomas  and  settled  at 
Burford,  in  Oxford,  about  the  time  of  his  father's  death,  and  his 
brother  David  made  his  home  at  Waterford,  in  the  county  of 
Norfolk.  Dr.  Charles  Duncombe  is  described  as  a  handsome 
man,  somewhat  small  of  stature,  but  of  pleasing  and  dignified 
appearance,  much  esteemed  by  those  among  whom  he  practised 
his  profession,  and  a  forcible  speaker. 

Tn  the  first  session  of  the  new  parliament  (1835)  at  the  instance 
of  Dr.  Duncombe  a  resolution  was  passed  providing  for  a  grant 
of  ^150  for  the  expenses  of  three  commissioners  "in  obtaining 
the  best  information,  plans  and  estimates  of  a  lunatic  asylum,  and 
such  information  as  they  may  deem  necessary  relative  to  the 
management  and  good  government  of  such  institutions,  and  also 
respecting  the  system  and  management  of  schools  and  colleges, 

*Dr.  C.  Duncombe  was  blacklisted  in  the  Colonial  Advocate,  in  1833,  by 
McKenzie,  who  favoured  Dr.  John  Rolph  and  Thomas  Horner  as  candidates 
for  Oxford. 


POLITICAL  AFFAIRS   OF  THE    PROVINCE.  195 

and  such  other  matters  as  are  connected  with  the  interest,  welfare 
and  prosperity  of  this  province." 

Drs.  C.  Duncombe,  Morrison  and  Bruce  were  named  as  com- 
missioners, but  Dr.  Duncombe  was  authorized  by  his  colleagues 
to  go  to  the  "  United  States  or  elsewhere  "  in  search  of  the 
required  information.  Pursuant  to  this  wide-reaching  commission, 
he  journeyed  through  the  western,  middle,  eastern  and  some  of 
the  southern  states,  during  almost  the  whole  of  the  recess,  not 
visiting  his  own  family  from  prorogation  until  late  in  the  Fall, 
when  he  spent  a  very  few  days  at  home.  He  obtained  also  a 
large  amount  of  documentary  and  other  information  from  England, 
Scotland  and  the  continent. 

The  result  appears  in  three  reports,  one  on  lunatic  asylums,  a 
practical,  well-written  document,  containing  precise  recommenda- 
tions as  to  the  site,  plans  and  general  regulations  for  a  provincial 
asylum — another  more  elaborate  report  on  education  and  a  third 
upon  prisons  and  penitentiaries.  The  report  on  education,  while 
somewhat  discursive,  is  worthy  of  perusal  by  educationists  even 
at  the  present  day,  and  deals  in  an  enlightened  spirit  with  some 
subjects  not  yet  fully  settled,  such  as  religious  and  moral  training 
and  manual  training.  Indeed,  Duncombe  regarded  a  religious 
and  moral  training  as  of  paramount  importance  and  his  views  and 
recommendations  in  relation  to  this  and  to  female  education  and 
the  training  of  female  teachers  to  fill  the  requirements  of  an 
adequate  school  system  for  the  province,  are  among  the  salient 
features  of  the  report.  Co-education  is  not  alluded  to,  and  even 
a  separate  normal  school  for  females  is  recommended  in  addition 
to  three  for  males,  in  the  east,  centre  and  west  of  the  province 
respectively.  The  latter,  after  the  lapse  of  more  than  half  a 
century,  have  been  established,  but  open  to  both  sexes.  The  bill 
which  accompanied  the  report  provided  for  a  system  of  voluntary 
state  aided  schools.  The  doctor  was  not  in  favour  of  the 
compulsory  system  of  Prussia. 

These  reports,  with  that  of  the  committee  on  finance,*  regarding 
the  post  office  department,  of  which  Dr.  Duncombe  was  chairman, 
testify  favourably  to  the  industry,  activity,  ability  and  apparently 

*A11  contained  in  the  appendix  to  the  Journals  of  1836. 


196  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

to  the  high  moral  qualities  and  lofty  ideals  of  one  whose  name  has 
been  held  in  execration  by  a  large  portion  of  the  people  of  the 
province. 

It  may  be  here  mentioned,  though  anticipating  a  little,  that  Dr. 
Buncombe  proceeded  to  England  after  the  elections  of  1836,  to 
present  charges  against  the  Lieutenant-Governor,  Sir  F.  B. 
Head,  complaining  of  undue  influence  exercised  by  him  in  the 
elections  in  behalf  of  the  Tory  party.  Joseph  Hume  presented  the 
case  in  the  House  of  Commons  and  the  memorial  was  referred  to 
the  Lieutenant-Governor  for  his  defence  and  sent  to  the  Assembly, 
where  it  was  relegated  to  a  committee  of  which  Colonels  Prince 
and  Burwell  were  members,  and  they  exonerated  him,  as  did  the 
home  government,  Lord  Glenelg  reporting  that  he  had  "been 
governed  by  a  strict  adherence  to  the  principles  of  the 
constitution." 

McKenzie  was  once  more  in  the  house  after  the  elections  of 
1834,  and,  with  a  Reform  majority  at  his  back,  moved  for  a 
committee  on  grievances,  who,  with  himself  as  chairman,  pre- 
pared the  voluminous  report  known  as  the  "  seventh  report," 
which  was  not,  however,  adopted  by  the  house  until  February, 
1836. 

The  thirty-one  grievances  presented  by  McKenzie  in  1829  may 
be  stated  in  general  terms  to  have  been  chiefly  aimed  at  the 
irresponsible  exercise  of  power  and  patronage  and  expenditure  of 
public  revenues  by  the  governor  and  his  advisers — known  as  "  the 
family  compact " — without  regard  to  the  views  of  the  Assembly. 
A  number  of  these  grievances  were  now  remedied,  as  already 
seen.  Though  the  single  remedy  for  almost  all  the  grievances 
was  responsible  government  as  now  understood,  this  does  not 
seem  to  have  been  then  in  terms  asked  for.  In  fact  the  system, 
as  now  practised,  was  as  yet  imperfectly  understood  even  in 
England — though  Robert  Baldwin  appears  to  have  grasped  its 
meaning  at  an  early  day.  The  seventh  report,  while  it  complained 
of  want  of  an  executive  responsible  to  public  opinion,  failed  to 
point  out  the  exact  remedy,  except  that  it  urged  the  necessity  of 
the  elective  system  being  applied  to  the  legislative  council.  That 
that  was  not  a  necessity  to  popular  government,  as  we  have  it 


FRANCIS   BOND   HEAD.  197 

now,  has  been  demonstrated  by  the  reversion  to  a  nominative 
senate  at  Confederation,  after  some  years'  trial  of  an  elective 
upper  chamber.  An  elective  upper  chamber  was,  however,  much 
agitated  in  this  as  well  as  in  the  sister  province  by  Papineau, 
with  whom  McKenzie  was  now  to  some  extent  acting  in  concert. 
This  quasi  alliance  with  the  French-Canadian  agitator  did  not  add 
to  McKenzie's  popularity  in  this  province  ;  but  neither  his 
repeated  expulsions  from  the  house  nor  his  prolonged  stay  in 
England  had  taught  him  discretion  ;  while  his  conduct  in  some 
respects  as  first  mayor  of  Toronto  and  his  publication  of  a  letter 
from  Joseph  Hume,  in  which  the  latter  spoke  of  "independence 
and  freedom  from  the  baneful  domination  of  the  mother  country," 
as  the  destiny  of  Canada,  did  not  meet  with  popular  approval  and 
tended  to  alienate  Egerton  Ryerson  and  the  Methodist  body,  who 
were  still  further  incensed  by  the  grossly  abusive  language  applied 
by  Hume  to  Ryerson. 

It  was  during  this  parliament  (1834-36)  that  the  government 
and  Colonel  Talbot  were  called  upon  to  make  a  return  of  the 
official  correspondence  and  other  information  regarding  the  Talbot 
settlement,  already  sufficiently  referred  to  in  previous  pages.* 

And  now — in  1836 — appeared  in  Canada  one  of  the  most 
singular  characters  known  to  the  early  history  of  this  province. 
Francis  Bond  Head  was  a  well  educated  gentleman  of  good 
family,  who  had  seen  some  military  service,  and  had  travelled  in 
many  countries,  having  recorded  his  experiences  on  the  pampas 
of  South  America  in  a  widely  read  book,  which,  with  some  other 
published  works,  had  given  him  a  literary  reputation,  when  he 
was  appointed  a  Poor  Law  commissioner  for  a  district  in  Kent. 
He  had  a  fatal  facility  of  expression  as  a  writer,  which,  while  it 
makes  his  published  "  Narrative"  and  despatches  almost  as  enter- 
taining to  the  reader  as  a  romance,  was  one  of  the  contributing 
causes  of  his  failure  as  a  public  man. 

Pitchforked — if  a  homely  but  expressive  term  may  be  allowed — 
into  office,  almost  against  his  will  and  after  a  wholly  unexpected 
nocturnal  summons  from  the  King's  minister,  the  circumstances 
of  his  appointment  are,  if  we  may  accept  his  own  account  of  it 

*See  appendix  to  journals,  1836. 


198  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

all,  sufficiently  inexplicable.  When  he  tells  us  he  was  as  wholly 
unacquainted  with  public  affairs  as  the  horses  which  drew  his 
carriage,  and  had  never  attended  a  political  meeting  or  even 
voted,  the  enigma  becomes  the  greater.  It  was  even  suggested 
that  the  appointment  was  made  through  mistake  for  another 
member  of  the  same  family.  The  home  (Whig)  government  was 
pursuing  a  policy  of  conciliation,  without  conceding  popular 
responsible  government,  and  the  Lieutenant-Governor's  instruc- 
tions were  prepared  by  Lord  Glenelg  in  accordance  with  this 
policy. 

It  is  possible  that  the  placards  which  adorned  the  walls  of 
Toronto,  on  his  arrival,  announcing  him  as  a  "  tried  Reformer" 
may  have  spurred  the  Lieutenant-Governor  to  inform  the  Assembly 
four  days  after  his  arrival  that  he  had  "  nothing  to  promise  or 
profess,"  and  to  follow  this  up  by  sending  down  a  full  copy  of  his 
instructions,  instead  of  the  substance  of  them,  which  he  was 
authorized  to  communicate.  They  were  not  of  a  character  to 
satisfy  the  Assembly.  The  instructions  pointed  out  that  the 
executive  were  responsible  to  the  home  government,  to  whom  an 
appeal  from  their  decisions  was  always  open. 

Joseph  Hume,  the  radical  leader,  who,  with  Roebuck, 
championed  the  cause  of  the  Canadian  Reformers  in  the  British 
House  of  Commons,  had  written  a  letter  to  Mr.  McKenzie,  to  be 
sent  on  also  to  Mr.  Papineau,  counselling  both  of  them  to  accept 
whatever  concessions  should  be  offered  and  make  allowance  for 
the  governor's  instructions  from  Downing  street,  besides  extolling 
Governor  Head.  This  letter  probably  gave  rise  to  the  "  tried 
Reformer "  placards.  Within  twelve  days  after  his  arrival  in 
Toronto,  however,  the  governor,  after  interviews  with  the  Chief 
Justice  and  the  officers  of  the  Crown,  two  long  conversations  with 
Mr.  McKenzie  and  two  interviews  with  Mr.  Bidwell,  the  speaker 
of  the  Assembly,  was  able  to  come  to  the  conclusion  that  that 
house  misrepresented  the  feeling  and  interest  of  the  inhabitants — 
that  the  "  republican  party,"  as  he  persisted  from  the  first  in 
terming  the  opposition,  were  "  implacable  ;  that  no  concession 
whatever  would  satisfy  them,  their  self-interested  object  being  to 
possess  themselves  of  the  government  of  this  province,  for  the 


FRANCIS   BOND,]  HEAD.  199 

sake  of  lucre  and  emolument."  "  Under  these  circumstances," 
he  continued,  l<  I  considered  that  the  great  danger  I  had  to  avoid 
was  the  slightest  attempt  to  conciliate  any  party." 

The  governor  was,  however,  at  the  outset  constrained  to  make 
one  attempt  at  conciliation.  The  executive  council  which  he 
found  in  office  on  his  arrival  consisted  of  but  three  members,  one 
of  whom  was  Colonel  Talbot's  friend,  the  Hon.  Peter  Robinson, 
Commissioner  of  Crown  Lands.  This  council,  being  barely 
sufficient  to  form  a  quorum,  requested  that  their  number  be 
increased.  The  governor  complied,  after  inquiry,  by  offering 
seats  to  the  most  generally  popular  as  well  as  moderate  Reformer 
he  could  find,  Robert  Baldwin,  and,  on  the  latter's  recommenda- 
tion, to  Dr.  Rolph  and  Mr.  Dunn,  which,  after  some  hesitation, 
were  accepted  by  them.  Having,  as  he  conceived,  poured  oil  on 
the  troubled  waters  by  forming  this  coalition — against  the  wishes 
of  both  parties  in  the  council,  however — he  proceeded  to  govern 
according  to  his  own  conception  of  the  constitution,  making 
appointments  on  his  own  responsibility  solely,  which  accorded 
with  the  views  of  neither  the  Tories  nor  Reformers  of  his  council. 
They  having  joined  in  a  written  remonstrance  to  the  Lieutenant- 
Governor,  which  involved  the  principle  of  responsibility  to  the 
people  for  the  acts  of  the  Lieutenant-Governor — the  latter  replied 
that  they  could  not  retain  such  principles  and  his  confidence,  and, 
although  he  says  four  of  the  six  offered  to  recant — he  dismissed 
them  all. 

It  must  be  conceded  that  the  Governor  steered  his  peculiar 
course  with  a  considerable  degree  of  acumen.  The  mistake  he 
made  and  adhered  to  with  dogged  persistency  was  that  democracy 
and  British  institutions  were  implacable  enemies,  that  popular, 
responsible  government  meant  republican  government,  pure  and 
simple,  and  must  necessarily  involve  the  final  downfall  of  British 
supremacy  in  North  America.  So  believing,  he  took  up  the 
gauntlet,  which  the  assembly  speedily  threw  down.  They  accused 
him  of  misstatements,  misrepresentations,  want  of  candour  and 
truth,  among  other  things,  in  an  address  to  the  King,  and  stopped 
the  supplies.  He  reserved  all  money  bills — including  an  appropri- 
ation of  ^50,000  to  be  expended  by  members  of  the  house  as 


200  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

commissioners  for  roads — prorogued  parliament  amid  encouraging 
acclamations,  and  awaited  the  receipt  of  petitions  to  dissolve  the 
house  and  the  ripening  of  the  germs  he  had  sown,  meantime 
requesting  that  no  orders  be  sent  by  the  home  government, 
"  but,"  as  he  put  it,  "  to  allow  me  to  let  the  thing  work  by  itself; 
for  it  requires  no  argument,  as  the  stoppage  of  the  supplies,  of 
the  road  money,  and  all  other  money  bills,  will  soon  speak  for 
themselves  in  a  provincial  dialect  which  everybody  will  understand." 

The  Colonial  Minister  acceded  to  his  request  for  non-interven- 
tion by  a  silence  so  prolonged  that  when  the  elections,  which  were 
held  in  June,  were  over,  the  Governor,  who  was  expecting 
congratulations  on  a  victory  at  the  polls,  which  he  thought  had 
' '  saved  the  Canadas, "  began  to  complain  of  the  home  government's 
neglect  of  him.  In  the  autumn  he  received  a  confidential  dispatch 
(which  he  does  not  appear  to  have  made  known)  from  Lord 
Glenelg  that,  in  consequence  of  certain  representations  from  New 
Brunswick,  the  executive  councils  in  all  the  North  American 
colonies  were  to  be  increased  in  number,  and  thenceforward  to  be 
composed  of  persons  possessing  the  confidence  of  the  people — 
"which,  in  these  colonies,"  wrote  the  Governor,  "  means  that  the 
Governor's  head  is  to  be  emptied  of  its  contents  and  then  stuffed 
with  republican  brains." 

As  the  Colonial  Minister  had  already  approved  of  Head's  reply 
to  his  council  when  they  were  dismissed,  this  change  of  front, 
coupled  with  the  allowance  of  all  the  money  bills  he  had  reserved, 
gave  him  a  shock,  which  was  but  the  forerunner  of  other 
differences  with  the  colonial  office,  culminating  in  his  refusal  to 
accede  to  the  home  government's  desire  for  the  appointment  of 
Mr.  Bidwell  as  a  judge,  or  to  reinstate  Mr.  George  Ridout,  whom 
he  had  dismissed  from  the  position  of  judge  of  the  Niagara  district. 
This  latter  act  of  disobedience  led  to  his  resignation  being  accepted. 
Before  it  took  effect,  however,  the  rebellion  had  broken  out. 
McKenzie,  we  are  told  by  his  son-in-law,  had  received  so 
severe  a  shock  at  learning  the  result  of  the  general  elections,  in 
which  the  Governor  had  swept  the  province,  that  he  was  ever 
after  a  changed  man.  He  had  now  made  the  fatal  mistake  of 
taking  up  arms. 


FRANCIS   BOND   HEAD.  201 

Sir  Francis  Bond  Head — for  he  attained  that  title  before  he  left 
the  province — though  he  affected  in  his  subsequent  despatches  to 
have  foreseen  it  all,  was,  in  reality,  dwelling"  in  a  "  fool's  paradise  " 
of  fancied  security,  refusing  all  warnings  and  advice  to  prepare  for 
attack.  That  the  danger  at  Toronto  was  averted  by  the  prompt 
action  of  Colonel  Fitzgibbon  and  others  is  well  known.  The 
story  has  been  so  often  told  in  detail  that  it  need  not  be  repeated 
here.  The  Baldwins  and  the  other  moderate  Reformers  took 
no  part  in  the  outbreak,  but  Robert  Baldwin  and  Dr.  Rolph 
were  sent  by  the  Governor  to  endeavour  to  persuade  McKenzie 
and  the  approaching  rebels,  by  a  promise  of  amnesty,  to  abandon 
their  purpose  of  attacking  the  city.  Rolph  was  afterward  charged 
by  one  of  the  latter  (Lount)  with  having  covertly  encouraged  them 
to  proceed,  while  acting  as  a  messenger  of  peace.  This  he  denied, 
though  it  is  admitted  that  he  may  have  done  so  on  a  second  visit 
with  Mr.  Baldwin  to  the  rebel  outposts,  where  they  returned  to 
say  that  the  Governor  would  not  accede  to  the  rebels'  counter- 
demand  for  a  written  promise  of  amnesty.  This  conduct  of 
Rolph's  (of  which  Mr.  Baldwin  was  ignorant)  was  defended  on  the 
ground  that  he,  Dr.  Rolph,  was  no  longer  acting  as  the  Governor's 
envoy  when  he  went  the  second  time  to  the  rebel  lines.  Rolph 
was  to  have  been  administrator  of  the  provisional  government, 
pending  the  adoption  of  a  constitution,  had  McKenzie's  attempted 
capture  of  Toronto  and  the  arms  stored  there  and  the  person  of 
the  Governor  succeeded. 

As  McKenzie  failed  to  advance  that  day,  Dr.  Rolph,  finding 
himself  the  subject  of  suspicion  by  the  loyalists,  who  had  already 
arrested  his  friend,  Dr.  Morrison,  fled  across  the  border,  as  did 
McKenzie  a  day  or  so  later,  on  the  defeat  and  dispersal  of  the 
small  body  of  rebels  who  continued  with  him. 


CHAPTER    XXVII. 

DUNCOMBE'S  RISING  AND  FLIGHT — THE  "  ELEGANT  EXTRACTS  " 
AND  THE  CAROLINE. 

Up  then  !  for  Liberty— for  Right, 
Strike  home  !  the  tyrants  falter  ; 
Be  firm — be  brave,  let  all  unite, 
And  despots  schemes  must  alter. 
Our  King — our  government  and  laws, 
While  just,  we  aye  shall  love  them, 
But  Freedom's  Heaven-born,  holier  cause 
We  hold  supreme  above  them. 

— From  "  Rhymes  for  the  People  "  in  St.  Thomas 
Liberal,  August,  1837. 

INFLAMED  by  such  sentiments  as  the  foregoing  and  stirred  by  the 
agitation  produced  by  some  two  hundred  meetings  held  through- 
out the  country,  a  proportion  of  the  people  of  the  west  stood  ripe 
for  revolt. 

Dr.  Charles  Duncombe  returned  from  England  with  feelings 
embittered  against  the  Lieutenant-Governor  and  the  government 
party,  through  the  failure  of  his  mission.  It  is  said,  however, 
that  he  did  not  at  first  willingly  consent  to  participate  in 
McKenzie's  design  for  the  forcible  seizure  of  the  reins  of 
government,  though  he  was  quite  ready  to  take  part  in  a  great 
political  demonstration,  as  at  first  proposed.  When  acquainted 
with  its  real  character  he,  however,  finally  consented,  but  found 
that  the  moderate  men  of  the  district  would  not  participate.  He 
had,  in  fact,  returned  but  a  short  time*  from  England  when  the 
outbreak  occurred.  The  Upper  and  Lower  Canadian  leaders  were 
now  acting  in  concert  and  Duncombe  was  in  correspondence  with 

*His  relatives  say  he  had  just  landed. 


BUNCOMBE'S   RISING   AND   FLIGHT.  203 

them.  He  mustered  a  force  of  some  three  hundred  men,  many 
without  arms.  As  early  as  6th  December,  1837,  messengers  had 
been  despatched  to  the  doctor  from  McKenzie  and  Lount  to  bring 
on  his  forces  to  their  assistance.  They  got  no  further  than  Oak- 
land, however,  before  McKenzie  was  obliged  to  flee  the  country 
and  his  followers  were  dispersed.  On  McKenzie  establishing 
himself  with  VanRensselaer  on  Navy  Island,  the  former  expected 
to  cross  over  with  his  forces  to  the  Canadian  mainland  and  form 
a  junction  with  Duncombe,  whose  name  appeared  as  a  member  of 
the  provisional  government  in  the  proclamation  issued  from  the 
island  by  McKenzie,  dated  December  i3th. 

By  that  date,  however,  Colonel  (afterward  Sir  Allan)  McNab 
was  at  Brantford  with  a  force  of  nearly  400  men,  who  had 
accompanied  him,  supplemented  there  by  150  volunteers  and  100 
Indians  under  Captain  Kerr.  Duncombe,  having  heard  of 
McKenzie  and  Lount's  reverse,  had  retreated  to  Scotland. 
Messengers  were  sent  to  Simcoe,  Woodstock,  London  and  St. 
Thomas  to  have  the  militia  called  out  to  join  McNab's  force  at 
Oakland.  The  first  and  second  Middlesex  were  called  out  and 
volunteer^  called  for.  Men  came  in  freely  to  St.  Thomas  from  the 
surrounding  townships,  though  the  south  of  Yarmouth  and  some 
other  parts  were  almost  in  a  state  of  rebellion.  A  considerable 
party  of  volunteers,  horse  and  foot,  were  despatched.  John  B. 
Askin,  Clerk  of  the  Peace  at  London,  who  came  down  to  seize  the 
Liberal  press,  as  before  narrated,  took  the  lead.  Colonel 
Bostwick  was  entitled  to  the  command,  but  being  led  to  believe 
he  could  be  of  more  service  by  remaining  in  St.  Thomas  to  direct 
affairs  there,  remained  behind,  and  so  lost  the  command,  which 
was  given  to  Colonel  Askin  by  McNab,  who  was  in  charge  of  the 
militia  of  the  province.  The  following  particulars  as  to  their 
march  and  return  have  been  given  to  the  writer  by  George  Kerr, 
of  St.  Thomas,  then  of  Nova  Scotia  street  in  Malahide,  one  of  the 
few  survivors.  Among  those  who  went  from  the  neighbourhood 
of  St.  Thomas  were  Captain  Shore,  George  T.  Claris,  Isaac 
Riley,  Esau  Payne  and  Major  Orr,  Major  Nevill  and  Daniel 
Marlatt  of  Yarmouth,  and  from  the  Nova  Scotia  street  region  in 
Malahide,  George  Kerr,  W.  B.  Lyon,  Edward  and  Sanders 


204  THE  TALBOT   REGIME. 

Griffin,  Jesse  Learn,  Alex,  and  William  Saxton  and  David  Marr. 
From  Port  Burwell  and  Bayham,  John  Burwell  brought  up  a 
contingent  as  well.  Doyle  McKenny  of  Malahide  was  also  active 
in  gathering  men.  With  such  arms  as  could  be  collected  the 
force  of  volunteers  proceeded  by  the  Talbot  road  to  Delhi  and 
thence  through  eleven  miles  of  woods  without  a  break,  until  the 
open  plain  in  the  vicinity  of  the  village  of  Scotland  was  reached. 
The  men  were  all  anticipating  a  hot  reception  there  from  Dun- 
combe  and  his  men,  but  instead  of  Duncombe  they  found  McNab 
and  his  force  in  possession  of  the  village  and  neighbourhood. 
They  had  come  on  from  Oakland,  where  the  junction  of  the  two 
forces  was  to  have  been  made.  Duncombe  had  recognized  the 
hopelessness  of  his  position  and  ordered  his  men  to  disperse.  The 
main  body  was  reported  to  have  taken  the  direction  of  Norwich 
and  the  volunteers  were  despatched  in  that  direction.  Night 
overtook  them  in  the  woods,  and,  without  food  for  either  men  or 
horses,  with  intensely  cold  weather,  a  most  cheerless  night  was 
spent.  Fires  were  lit,  and  efforts  made  to  fight  starvation  and 
frost,  in  the  absence  of  other  enemies,  yet,  in  spite  of  all,  their 
sufferings  were  great,  and  Mr.  George  T.  Claris,  afterwards 
treasurer  of  Elgin  county,  sowed  the  seeds  of  rheumatism,  which 
lasted  him  for  the  remainder  of  his  life,  and  his  was  probably  but 
one  case  among  many. 

The  morning  brought  word  of  the  dispersal  of  Duncombe's 
followers  to  their  homes  and  the  order  was  given  to  pursue  and, 
if  possible,  head  them  off  in  all  directions.  Duncombe's  and 
Eliakim  Malcolm's  papers  were  seized  by  McNab.  Malcolm  was 
a  former  Justice  of  the  Peace,  residing  close  to  Scotland. 

The  men  from  the  west  already  referred  to  took  the  road  home- 
ward, moving  as  rapidly  as  possible,  with  a  view  to  heading  off  or 
overtaking  the  rebels  who  might  be  expected  to  retreat  in  that 
direction.  This  they  were  successful  in  doing  at  Otter  Creek, 
now  Richmond.  At  the  bridge  at  that  point  some  forty  of  them 
were  taken  without  resistance — in  fact  they  seemed  glad  to  be 
confined  in  quarters  where  warmth  and  food  could  be  obtained, 
for  they  had  suffered  even  more  severely  than  the  loyalist  party, 
since  they,  while  lying  in  concealment  or  wandering  in  the  woods, 


BUNCOMBE'S   RISING   AND   FLIGHT.  205 

were  unable  to  kindle  fires  for  fear  of  disclosing  their  whereabouts. 
Similar  captures  were  made  in  other  directions.  Some  were 
released  on  surrendering-  their  arms  and  permitted  to  return 
home,  others  retained  as  prisoners.  Of  those  taken  at  Otter 
Creek  a  considerable  number  were  conveyed  to  gaol  at  Simcoe. 

Dr.  Duncombe's  movements,  as  narrated  by  his  relations, 
formed  a  series  of  exciting  experiences.  For  three  days  he  lay 
concealed  in  the  woods,  aware  that  a  reward  of  ^500  was  offered 
for  his  capture,  subsisting  as  best  he  could  on  such  berries,  herbs 
and  roots  as  he  could  find  at  this  inclement  season — his  white 
horse,  known  as  "White  Pigeon,"  sharing  his  hardships.  He  at 
night  only  ventured  to  mount  the  steed,  which  browsed  by  day  in 
the  woods  where  he  lay.  Not  until  starvation  stared  him  in  the 
face  did  he  venture  near  human  habitation  ;  but  having  at  length 
reached  the  vicinity  of  Nilestown,  he  at  last  approached  the 
house  of  Mr.  Putnam,  a  political  friend.  The  latter  was  not  at 
home,  but  his  wife,  who  came  of  a  family  of  the  opposite  political 
faith,  admitted  him.  In  answer  to  her  enquiry  who  he  was  and 
what  he  wanted,  he  placed  his  revolver  on  the  table  before  him 
saying  at  the  same  time  "  I  am  Charles  Duncombe  and  I  must 
have  food."  Though  frightened  and  doubtful  at  first  as  to  what 
she  ought  to  do,  she  gave  him  food  and  finally  consented  to 
shelter  and  conceal  him,  which  was  successfully  accomplished  by 
allowing  him  the  use  of  a  bedroom  and  a  night  cap.  With  the 
latter  on  his  head  and  otherwise  covered  by  the  bed  clothes,  he 
represented  an  absent  grandmother  of  the  household,  supposedly 
confined  to  bed  by  illness,  so  successfully  that  a  party  of  passing 
loyalists  who  thought  they  recognized  his  white  horse  and  came 
into  the  house  to  search  for  its  owner,  were  thrown  off  the  scent 
after  a  glance  into  the  bedroom  and  at  the  recumbent  figure  of  the 
supposed  "  grandma  "  in  the  bed.  A  brother  of  his  hostess,  who 
was  suspected  of  complicity  in  the  recent  troubles,  was  also 
sought  for,  but,  concealed  in  an  outhouse,  escaped  detection. 

Dr.  Duncombe  next  under  cover  of  darkness  made  for  the 
home  of  his  sister,  Mrs.  Shenich,  near  London.  In  response  to 
a  knock  she  opened  the  door,  but  failed  to  recognize  him. 

"Is    it    possible   you    don't    know    me,     sister?"    asked    the 


206  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

unfortunate  doctor  in  amazement. 

By  way  of  reply,  Mrs.  Shenich  led  him  into  the  house  and 
before  a  looking-glass,  which  showed  to  his  astonished  eyes  that 
his  hair  had  become  grey,  not  from  age,  but  from  the  bitter 
experiences  and  anxieties  of  the  previous  few  days  !  He  remained 
in  hiding  at  his  sister's  until  a  Mr.  Tilden,  from  the  west,  who  had 
come  to  visit  a  married  sister  at  London,  Mrs.  Hitchcock, 
suggested  a  means  of  disguise,  in  which  he  offered  to  convey  him 
across  the  border  in  his  waggon.  The  suggestion  and  offer  being 
accepted,  the  sister  cut  off  a  curl  of  her  hair,  with  the  aid  of 
which  and  a  bonnet  and  female  attire,  the  doctor  was  transformed, 
to  all  appearance,  into  a  lady  traveller,  and  was  driven  without 
mishap  by  Tilden  to  the  neighbourhood  of  Sarnia,  where  a  safe 
crossing  upon  the  ice  was  effected.*  The  river  was  at  that  time 
patrolled  by  militia,  some  of  whom  are  reported  to  have  gallantly 
escorted  the  fugitive  leader  part  way  across  and  to  have  received 
from  the  (seeming)  lady,  when  she  had  got  a  safe  distance 
toward  the  other  shore,  the  astonishing  message,  shouted  in  a 
maculine  voice  : 

"  Go  and  tell  your  commander  you  have  just  piloted  Dr. 
Duncombe  across  the  river!  " 

Such  is  the  story  of  Dr.  Duncombe's  escape  as  told  by  his 
relatives,  a  daughter  of  Mrs.  Shenich's,  who  as  a  child  saw  her 
uncle  in  concealment,  being  authority  for  the  greater  part  of  it. 

Dr.  Duncombe  in  September  of  the  following  year  took  part  in 
a  convention,  held  at  Cleveland,  of  the  Hunter's  Lodges  of  Ohio 
and  Michigan,  at  which  seventy  delegates  were  present,  and  a 
republican  form  of  government  for  Upper  Canada  was  framed, 
with  a  president,  vice-president,  secretaries  of  state,  treasury  and 
war.  A  commander-in-chief,  commissary  and  adjutant-generals, 
two  brigadiers  and  a  large  number  of  majors  and  subalterns  were 
also  appointed.  The  "  Republican  Bank  of  Canada  "  was  formed. 

*In  a  letter  from  Lieutenant  Woodward  to  E.  Ermatinger,  dated  Amherst- 
burg,  January  loth,  1838,  the  following  sentence  occurs:  "Dr.  Duncombe's 
horse,  Chase  informs  me,  was  found  tied  to  a  tree  at  Bear  Creek,  and  Dr. 
Duncombe  is  supposed  to  be  drowned."  (See  appendix  F.)  Chase  had  just 
been  taken  prisoner  on  the  Schooner  "Anne,"  at  Amherstburg",  If  his  state- 
ment was  correct,  Duncombe  probably  rode  his  horse  as  far  as  Bear  Creek. 


THE  "ELEGANT  EXTRACTS."  207 

Buncombe  was  generally  regarded  as  its  father,  as  he  took  an 
interest  in  financial  subjects  when  in  the  legislature  and  subse- 
quently wrote  a  book  on  banking.  Gold  and  silver  were  to  form 
the  only  legal  money,  with  a  provision  for  paper  being  issued  in 
cases  of  emergency.  The  stock  was  to  be  capitalized  at 
$7,500,000  in  150,000  shares  of  $50  each.  Provision  was  made 
that  after  this  capital  was  placed,  it  might  be  increased  to  allow 
of  every  individual  on  the  continent  becoming  possessed  of  one 
share,  but  no  more.  Shareholders  were  to  receive  back  their 
money  and  interest  only  in  case  "the  cause" — that  is,  the  invasion 
of  Canada,  for  which  a  date  was  fixed — triumphed,  and  loans  for 
the  Patriot  service  were  to  have  precedence  of  all  others. 

So  far  as  known  Dr.  Buncombe  took  no  part  in  the  actual 
operations  of  the  subsequent  attempted  invasions — although  both 
Br.  Rolph  and  himself  were  accused  by  prisoners  taken  at 
Prescott  of  having  taken  part  in,  or  advised,  the  ill-starred 
expedition  against  that  point. 

Br.  Buncombe  subsequently  removed  to  California,  where  he 
died,  at  the  age  of  75,  in  October,  1867.  His  father  and  brother, 
Elijah,  who  continued  to  practice  as  a  respected  physician  in  St. 
Thomas,  were,  after  their  decease,  interred  in  the  churchyard  of 
eld  St.  Thomas  church. 

McNab  and  a  large  portion  of  his  force  left  the  search  for 
Buncombe  to  others,  and  proceeded  to  the  Niagara  frontier,  in 
the  vicinity  of  Navy  Island,  where  McKenzie  was  collecting  men 
and  resources.  Here,  before  the  end  of  Becember,  the  cutting 
out  of  the  steamer  Caroline,  which  was  engaged  in  conveying  men 
and  munitions  of  war  from  Schlosser,  on  the  American  side,  to 
Navy  Island,  brought  the  fifteen  days'  occupation  of  the  latter 
point  to  an  end.  The  steamer  was  set  on  fire  and  drifted  toward 
the  Falls  while  burning.  Captain  Brew,  a  retired  naval  officer 
living  in  Oxford  county,  was  placed  in  command  of  the  expedition 
across  the  river  to  cut  out  the  steamer.  With  him  were  a  party 
of  the  "  elegant  extracts,"  as  Sir  Allen  McNab  facetiously  termed 
the  body  of  young  gentlemen  volunteers  from  London,  Woodstock 
and  Hamilton,  composed  of  law  students,  clerks,  and  others.  Of 
the  seven  boatloads  who  took  part  in  the  hazardous  exploit  were 


208  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

John  Harris,  of  London,  formerly  in  the  navy  ;  Frederick  Cleverly, 
a  law  student,  of  London  ;  Captain  S.  McCormack,  of  Adelaide 
(who  received  two  wounds)  ;  Lieutenant  Battersby,  of  London  ; 
Hugh  Barwick,  W.  S.  Light,  and  Mr.  Lapenotiere,  of  Oxford  ; 
and  R.  S.  Woods,  a  law  student,  now  the  respected  veteran  Judge 
Woods,  of  Chatham,  the  only  surviving  member  of  the  expedition 
known  to  the  writer.  Lieutenant  Drew  received  his  orders 
verbally  from  McNab,  and  McCormack,  Harris,  Battersby, 
Lapenotiere,  and  Lieutenants  Elmsley  and  Breen,  R.  N.  and 
Captain  Gordon,  of  the  steamboat  Brittania,  officered  the  several 
boats.  The  affair  led  to  international  friction  with  the  United 
States,  the  Caroline  having  been  moored  to  the  American  shore 
when  cut  away — and  one  McLeod  was  arrested  and  tried  at 
Lockport  for  the  murder  of  the  only  man  killed  in  the  affair,  one 
Durfee.  The  British  government  assumed  responsibility  for  the 
act ;  Colonel  McNab  became  Sir  Allen  McNabb,  while  he  and 
Captain  Drew  were  each  presented  with  a  sword,  and  the  men  a 
vote  of  thanks,  by  the  legislative  assembly — and  McLeod  was 
acquitted,  on  an  alibi  being  proved. 

The  campaign  of  December,  1837,  or  the  rebellion  properly  so 
called,  was  followed  by  a  series  of  invasions  and  raids  from  across 
the  border  by  forces  organized  in  the  United  States,  largely  by  the 
"  Hunter's  Lodges."  So  elaborate  were  the  preparations  for  these 
various  attempts  as  to  indicate  that  had  McKenzie's  plan  for 
capturing  the  capital  not  miscarried  he  would  have  had  assistance 
within  call  which  would  have  rendered  his  emeute  a  very  formidable, 
if  not  an  entirely  successful,  affair.  The  American  officials,  too, 
were  sympathetic,  and  even  in  some  cases  prepared  to  wink  at  the 
appropriation  of  government  arms  for  the  invasion  of  Canada. 
There  was  no  lack  of  officers,  such  as  they  were. 

The  invasions  on  the  western  frontier,  which  many  men  of  the 
Talbot  settlement  were  called  out  to  protect,  must  be  dealt  with 
in  another  chapter. 


CHAPTER   XXVIII. 

INVASION  OF  WESTERN  FRONTIER  —  ST.  THOMAS  CAVALRY  — 
SCHOONER  ANNE  —  FIGHTING  ISLAND — BATTLE  OF  PELEE 
ISLAND. — INVASION  AT  WINDSOR. 

ON  McKenzie's  arrival  in  Buffalo  after  his  flight  from  Canada,  a 
man  named  Sutherland  espoused  his  cause  and  publicly  recruited 
men  to  support  him.  This  man  was,  on  28th  December,  1837, 
commissioned  by  VanRensselaer,  McKenzie's  chief  military 
commander,  as  a  "  Brigadier-General, "  to  repair  to  Detroit  and 
its  vicinity  to  promote  a  descent  upon  Canada  from  that  quarter. 

On  his  arrival  on  the  western  frontier  he  found  Henry  S.  Handy » 
of  Illinois,  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  "  Patriot  Army  of  the 
Northwest,"  with  James  H.  Wilson,  Major-General,  E.  J.  Roberts, 
Brigadier-General  of  the  first  brigade,  and  Dr.  Thellar,  Brigadier 
to  command  the  first  brigade  of  French  and  Irish  troops  to  be 
raised  in  Canada.  Thellar  had  lived  at  one  time  in  Lower  Canada, 
where  the  rebellion  under  Papineau  had  broken  out  almost 
simultaneously  with  McKenzie's  attempt  in  the  upper  province. 

Colonels  and  staff  officers  were  appointed  and  men  and  materials 
of  war  were  collected  at  Detroit,  until  the  Governor  of  the  state 
was  compelled  to  give  Handy  a  hint  to  move  on,  which  the  latter 
proceeded  to  do  by  means  of  the  steamboat  McComb  and  schooner 
Anne.  The  steamer  was,  however,  seized  by  the  United  States 
military  authorities,  and  the  schooner  with  the  arms,  ammunition 
and  provisions  was  towed  by  row  boats  to  Gibraltar  Island,  at  the 
mouth  of  the  river,  whither  the  men  had  been  marched  by  night. 
Being  still  in  the  United  States  territory,  Handy  was  notified  by 
the  complaisant  Governor  that  he  would,  by  the  i8th  January,  be 
obliged  to  disperse  the  forces.  Acting  on  this  hint,  the  troops  and 
schooner  were  ordered  to  be  removed  to  the  top  of  Bois  Blanc 


210  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

Island,  opposite  Fort  Maiden,  from  which  they  were  to  cross  to 
the  mainland  and  carry  the  fort  by  assault — but  the  troops  failed 
to  proceed  to  Bois  Blanc.  It  was  at  this  time  that  Sutherland 
arrived  from  Cleveland  with  some  200  men  from  Ohio.  The 
plethora  of  commanding"  officers  led  to  disputes,  but  Handy  was 
eventually  continued  in  the  chief  command — though  Sutherland, 
aided  by  Thellar,  assumed  the  command  for  a  time.  Sutherland 
issued  a  bombastic  proclamation  to  the  people  of  Upper  Canada, 
while  Thellar  sailed  up  and  down  the  river,  firing  both  ball  and 
canister  into  the  town  of  Amherstburg,  until,  as  will  presently 
appear,  she  ran  aground  at  Elliott's  point  and  was  captured  by 
the  militia,  among  whom  were  many  troopers  of  the  St.  Thomas 
cavalry. 

The  St.  Thomas  cavalry  troop  was  organized  by  Captain  James 
Ermatinger,  who  had  been  sent  a  short  time  previously,  by  his 
father  in  Montreal,  to  his  cousin,  Edward  Ermatinger,  of  St. 
Thomas,  with  a  view  to  the  young  man's  engaging  in  business  in 
the  west.  His  brother,  Lieutenant  Charles  Oakes  Ermatinger, 
had  received  the  first  shot  fired  in  the  rebellion  in  Lower  Canada 
when,  in  command  of  a  detachment  of  the  Montreal  cavalry,  he 
was  bringing  in  some  prisoners  from  St.  Johns,  and  was  wounded 
in  an  attack  by  a  body  of  rebels  near  Longueuil.  The  young 
Captain's  family  were  possessed  of  the  military  spirit,  his  father, 
Charles  Oakes  Ermatinger  senior,  having  led  a  party  of 
voyageurs  when  Fort  Michillimackinac  was  captured  by  the 
British,  under  Captain  Roberts — -uncle  of  Lord  Roberts — in  1812. 
His  brother,  William — best  known  as  Colonel  Ermatinger,  after- 
ward police  magistrate  of  Montreal — distinguished  himself  in  the 
field,  fighting  in  the  legion  of  Sir  de  Lacy  Evans  in  Spain. 

When  the  western  frontier  was  threatened  James  Ermatinger 
promptly  organized  his  troop  and  set  out  for  Toronto  to  obtain 
necessary  accoutrements.  The  troop  set  out  from  St.  Thomas  on 
2nd  January,  1838,  with  Lieutenant  Woodward  in  command. 
He  was  long  remembered  in  St.  Thomas  in  connection  with  the 
Agricultural  Bank,  an  ephemeral  financial  concern.  He  had  no 
military  training,  however,  and  became  the  paymaster  of  the 
troop.  At  Coyne's  Corners,  where  the  troop  halted  the  first 


SCHOONER  ANNE.  211 

night,  Samuel  Williams,  Jephtha  Wilson  and  Julius  Airey,  a 
nephew  of  Colonel  Talbot's,  then  residing  with  his  uncle  at  Port 
Talbot,  joined.  At  Morpeth,  where  the  second  night  was  spent, 
three  more  recruits,  Duck,  Richardson,  and  Ball,  fell  in. 

When  the  troop  reached  Amherstburg  on  the  6th  January, 
great  was  the  confusion  and  excitement.  An  alarm  bell  rang  to 
warn  the  citizens  of  the  enemy's  approach,  and  so  soon  as  the 
troopers  found,  with  difficulty,  accommodation  for  their  horses, 
they  were  marched  aboard  a  vessel  and  transported  to  Bois  Blanc 
Island,  where  they  met  none  of  the  enemy,  though  they  could  hear 
their  fifes  and  drums  across  the  water  almost  continuously  for  the 
four  or  five  hours  they  remained  on  the  island.  About  eight  p.m., 
at  the  suggestion  of  Colonel  Prince,  they  were  re-embarked  for 
the  mainland,  which  was  now  threatened  by  Thellar's  schooner, 
the  Anne.  As  the  troop  stood  on  Gordon's  wharf,  the  schooner 
fired  two  volleys  of  canister  at  them,  which  they  immediately 
returned  with  the  muskets  with  which  some  of  them  were  armed 
— the  bullets  sounding  in  the  darkness  on  the  canvas  and 
smoke-pipe  of  the  passing  vessel,  which  soon  rounded  the 
island  and  did  not  re-appear  until  sunrise  on  the  gth,  when 
the  Anne  and  a  scow  came  round  either  end  of  the  island. 
Then  the  cannonading  was  re-commenced  and  kept  up  inter- 
mittently during  the  day — trees,  houses,  stables,  and  finally 
the  windmill,  being  more  or  less  damaged.  Toward  evening 
the  Anne  ran  close  to  shore  and  descended  the  river,  cannonading 
as  she  went.  At  Elliott's  Point  she  ran  in  so  close  to  shore 
as  to  go  aground.  It  is  said  that  a  bullet  from  shore  had 
disabled  the  helmsman,  and  this  threw  the  vessel  out  of  her 
course.  The  troopers  and  other  militia  ran  as  fast  as  their  legs 
could  carry  them  round  the  bend  of  the  river  to  the  point,  endeav- 
ouring to  keep  up  with  the  vessel  to  prevent  a  landing.  Some 
militiamen  were  already  posted  behind  the  trees  on  the  shore  by 
Colonel  Radcliffe,  and  fired  into  the  vessel  as  she  passed.  A  call 
for  quarter  was  heard  from  the  grounded  vessel,  and  a  demand 
from  shore  to  lower  the  starred  flag  brought  a  response  that  some 
of  the  crew  had  been  shot  while  endeavouring  to  do  so.  Without 
more  ado  the  men  on  shore  stepped  into  the  river,  waded  out 


212 


THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 


— some  breast  high  in  water — and  boarded  the  vesel.  David 
Anderson,  a  tavern-keeper  of  Selborne  (alias  Suckertown),  near 
Port  Stanley,  and  Chase,  a  grain  buyer  of  the  latter  place,  were 
found  among-  those  on  board,  both  wounded,  the  former  mortally 
—in  fact,  he  died  within  a  few  days.  Anderson  was  an  Irishman 
of  desperate  character,  who  had  been  seen  by  many  of  those  now 
about  him  at  Selborne  but  a  few  weeks  before.  For  that 
neighbourhood  was  now  well  represented  at  Amherstburg. 
Besides  John  Bostwick,  son  of  the  Colonel,  a  subaltern  in  the 
troop,  and  his  brother,  Henry,  no  less  than  four  of  the  Meeks' — 
James,  John,  William,  and  Thomas — were  out  to  help  repel  the 
invasion,  as  also  Garrett  and  Light,  both  merchants  of  Port 
Stanley,  two  Tomlinsons,  father  and  son,  and  others.  Anderson's 
remains  were  brought  ashore  after  his  death  and  interred. 

In  all,  twenty-one  men  were  found  aboard  the  Anne — one  killed, 
eight  wounded,  and  twelve  prisoners,  according  to  Colonel 
Radcliffe's  return* — and  a  large  quantity  of  arms,  ammunition  and 


Guns  now  in  front  of  Municipal  Building,  Amherstburg  ;  longer  one  from  schooner  Ann*, 
shorter  one  from  Fort  Malien. 

*See  Colonel  Radcliffe's  letter  in  appendix.     Also  letter  of  J.  K.  Woodward 
to  E.  Ermatinger  of  loth  January,  1838. 


DR.  THELLAR.  213 

equipments,  with  three  pieces  of  cannon.  It  formed  a  considerable 
portion  of  the  equipment  and  munitions  intended  for  the  main 
force  of  the  invaders,  still  on  Sugar  Island,  in  American  territory. 
Among  the  prisoners  were  General  Thellarf,  Colonel  Dodge,  and 
Captain  Robert  Davis,  who  was  said  to  have  been  the  author  of 
the  Canada  Farmer,  a  publication  issued  in  Buffalo  the  previous 
summer,  and  also  to  have  been  master  of  the  schooner.  Thellar 
was  accused  of  disobedience  of  orders  in  firing  upon  the  town 
without  a  demand  for  surrender,  and  of  the  ill-fated  manoeuvres 
which  led  to  the  capture  of  the  vessel.  He  was  now  wounded 
by  a  shot  in  the  eye.  He  told  Trooper  Samuel  Williams 
next  day  that  he  had  removed  the  bullet  with  his  own  hand, 
and  without  serious  injury  to  his  sight,  though  the  eye  seemed 
in  a  dreadful  condition  to  the  trooper,  who  visited  him,  in  company 
with  another  militia  man,  at  the  guard  house  the  morning 
after  his  capture. 

Dressed  in  a  uniform  ornamented  with  two  silver  stars,  which 
were  also  conspicuous  on  the  Patriot  ensign,  Thellar  sat  and 
conversed  with  the  militiamen,  informing  them,  as  the  fact  was, 
that  he  had  had  no  intention  of  landing,  being,  as  yet,  unprepared 
to  do  so,  but  was  firing  into  the  town  by  way,  as  he  said,  of 
"waking  them  up."  Thellar,  it  may  be  here  mentioned,  was 
removed  at  first  to  London  with  the  other  prisoners,  afterward 
to  Toronto,  and  while  confined  with  Hull,  Dodge,  and  others 
in  the  citadel  at  Quebec  managed,  with  Dodge,  to  make  his 
escape.  An  interesting  account  of  this  exploit  is  given  by 
Kingsford,  the  historian,  who  states  that  he  met  Thellar 
subsequently  in  Panama,  where  he  was  keeping  an  hotel.  He  is 
described  as  a  bold  and  courageous,  though  boastful,  man. 
He  wrote  an  untrustworthy  book  on  the  rebellion  and  his  share  in 
it,  and  died  in  California  in  1859*.  Captain  Bob  Davis  died  a 
few  months  after  being  taken. 

Colonel    Radcliffe,    who    was    in    command    of    the    western 

fThellar,  it  is  said,  delivered  his  sword  to  Lieutenant  W.  L.  Baby,  of  the 
Kent  militia,  and,  being  wounded,  was  carried  ashore  on  the  back  of  the 
same  officer.  See  W.  C.  Baby's  Souvenirs  of  the  Past. 

*See  Dent's  Last  Forty  Years,  page  188,  note. 


214  THE  TALBOT   REGIME. 

frontier  at  this  time,  was  a  peninsular  officer  who  had  settled 
in  the  township  of  Adelaide.  He  had  served  with  the  2yth  Innis- 
killens,  and  had  been  in  twelve  engagements.  He  was  at  a  ball  at 
the  house  of  Dr.  Phillips  when  word  came  of  the  threatened  invasion 
of  the  western  frontier.  The  ball  was  broken  up  and  he  and  the 
officers  of  the  regiment  he  had  just  raised  left  to  call  out  their  men 
and  march  to  the  frontier.  They  could  not  get  farther  west  than 
Chatham,  however,  owing  to  a  thaw,  but  the  Colonel,  with  two 
or  three  others,  descended  the  Thames,  Lake  St.  Clair,  and  the 
Detroit  River  to  Sandwich,  and  thence  marched  at  the  head  of  a 
small  force  to  Amherstburg  in  time  to  take  command  before 
Thellar's  capture.  He  was  subsequently  appointed  a  Legislative 
Councillor  and  removed  to  Toronto,  where,  in  1841,  he  became 
Collector  of  Customs.  He  is  described  as  six  feet  four  inches  in 
height,  twenty  stone  in  weight,  and  of  great  strength  and  power 
of  endurance — yet  his  death  at  the  comparatively  early  age  of  47 
is  attributed  to  disease,  the  seeds  of  which  were  contracted  in  his 
journey  by  open  boat  from  Chatham  west,  as  just  mentioned. 

Six  companies  of  the  24th  and  32nd  regiments,  with  four  field 
pieces,  marched  to  the  frontier,  via  Chatham,  in  the  middle  of 
January.  Colonel  Maitland,  of  the  32nd,  then  assumed  command.* 

On  the  24th  February  another  Patriot  expedition  under  McLeod, 
another  General,  was  driven  from  Fighting  Island,  below  Sand- 
wich, and  a  field  piece  and  a  large  number  of  new  muskets, 
stamped  as  United  States  property,  taken,  for  which  achievement 
two  companies  of  the  32nd  and  83rd  regulars,  a  detachment  of 
royal  artillery,  and  the  gallant  body  of  volunteers  and  militia  who 
accompanied  them  were  thanked  by  the  Lieutenant-Governor — 
Colonels  Elliott  and  Askin,  of  the  2nd  Essex  militia,  Captain 
Ermatinger,  of  the  St.  Thomas  cavalry,  and  Lieutenant-Colonel 
Prince  being  specially  mentioned, as  well  as  Captain  Browne, of  the 
32nd,  Lieutenant  Kilsall,  of  the  83rd,  and  Captain  Glasgow,  R.A. 

At  the  beginning  of  March  Colonel  Bradley,  with  a  force  of  four 
or  five  hundred  men,  was  sent  from  the  American  side  to  take 
possession  of  Pelee  Island. — the  most  southerly  of  British  North 

•See  letter  of  Colonel  Askin  to  magistrates  at  St.  Thomas,  i6th  January, 
1838,  in  appendix. 


PELEE   ISLAND.  215 

American  territory,  now  famous  for  its  vineyards  and  wine.  This 
force  was  composed  entirely  of  United  States  citizens,  who, 
crossing  the  lake  from  the  south  by  means  of  boats  and  the  ice, 
succeeded  in  occupying  the  Island,  making  prisoners  of  the  few 
inhabitants  then  upon  it.  McLeod  was,  it  is  said,  to  follow  with 
a  still  larger  force.  Colonel  Maitland  had  succeeded  to  the 
command  at  Amherstburg,  and  detachments  of  the  32nd 
and  of  the  83rd  regular  regiments  had  reached  there  via  the 
Talbot  road  during  the  winter.  Two  or  three  hundred 
militiamen  had  also  come  from  the  neighbourhood  of  St.  Thomas 
and  other  parts  of  Middlesex  about  the  same  time,  but  had  since 
returned  again.  The  St.  Thomas  cavalry  were,  however,  still  on 
duty  patrolling  the  Lake  Erie  shore  from  Amherstburg  east,  as 
well  as  escorting  prisoners  to  London.  Colonel  Maitland  learned 
that  militia  officers  had  been  fired  upon  when  approaching  the 
island,  and  that  persons  who  had  gone  from  the  mainland  had 
been  detained  as  prisoners,  and  he  sent  Captain  Glasgow,  of  the 
artillery,  on  the  ist  March  to  test  the  strength  of  the  ice.  By 
noon  next  day  Colonel  Maitland  received  word  that  it  was  practic- 
able for  artillery,  and  made  preparations  for  an  attack  at  daybreak 
next  morning,  3rd  March.  His  force  was  numerically  about  equal 
to  that  of  the  enemy,  being  made  up  of  four  companies  of  the 
32nd,  one  of  the  83rd,  two  six-poumders,  21  men  of  the  St. 
Thomas  cavalry,  and  some  Essex  mounted  men. 

In  the  afternoon  of  the  2nd  March,  a  clear,  bright,  and  cold 
winter's  day,  the  men  fell  in,  and  the  order  to  march  being  given, 
the  forces  moved  down  the  river  to  the  lake,  which  was  reached 
at  sunset.  Out  upon  the  ice  moved  the  force,  turning  their  backs 
upon  the  fast-disappearing  sun  as  they  marched  down  the  lake 
over  the  frozen  surface  About  eleven  o'clock  a  halt  was  called  for 
the  rest  and  refreshment  of  man  and  beast  at  a  tavern  in  Colchester. 
At  one  o'clock  in  the  clear,  cold  morning  of  the  3rd  of  March  the 
little  army  once  more  moved  out  upon  the  ice  to  cross  Pigeon  Bay 
and  the  channel  of  the  open  lake  to  Pelee  Island.  The  winter  and 
the  frosts  had  been  exceptional,  to  admit  of  the  marching  of  such  a 
force,  with  its  artillery,  across  an  expanse  of  some  twenty  miles. 
The  cavalty  were  upon  their  horses,  but  some  without  proper 


216  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

arms  or  accoutrements.  The  artillery  had  their  horses  and  two 
six-pounders.  The  infantry  were  in  sleighs.  The  whole  force 
was  under  the  pilotage  of  Captain  Fox,  of  the  Essex  troop. 

By  sunrise  they  were  within  a  half  mile  of  the  island — the  home 
of  the  McCormacks— and  the  enemy's  sentry  having  given  the 
alarm,  the  entire  force  was  seen  to  turn  out,  the  glittering 
bayonets  in  the  rising  sunlight  showing  that  they  were  well 
equipped,  and  then  to  retreat  across  the  clearing  into  the  woods. 
Captain  Browne,  with  two  companies  of  the  3 and,  and  the  cavalry, 
was  detailed  to  intercept  the  flight  of  the  invaders  from  south  of 
the  island,  when  Colonel  Maitland  should  have  driven  them  from  it. 

When  Maitland's  force,  including  the  artillery,  reached  the 
shore,  the  enemy  had  entirely  disappeared,  leaving  a  kettle  of 
potatoes  boiling  on  the  fire,  and  other  provisions.  The  thickness 
of  the  wood  and  depth  of  snow  impeded  the  pursuit  by  land. 
Captain  Browne's  infantry  companies  proceeded  in  the  sleighs 
around  the  island  until  they  reached  the  track  across  the  ice  by 
which  the  invaders  had  come  from  the  American  side,  and  by 
which  they  expected  them  to  retreat. 

Trooper  Samuel  Williams  of  the  St.  Thomas  troop  gave  the 
writer  a  narrative  of  what  followed,  as  witnessed  by  himself. 
Mr.  Williams,  it  may  be  added,  was  a  man  of  unimpeachable 
integrity  and  truthfulness,  mild  and  gentle  in  disposition,  who 
died  in  St.  Thomas  at  a  ripe  age  some  years  ago.  His  elder 
brother,  Thomas — patron  of  the  Thomas  Williams  Home  for 
indigents  in  St.  Thomas — had  come  up  to  Amherstburg  with  a 
detachment  of  militia,  but  had  returned  home  again.  Samuel 
Williams'  account  of  the  Pelee  Island  action  is  as  follows  : 

"After  our  troops  crossed  the  point  of  the  island  we  struck  the  outlet  of  a 
marsh,  and  saw  the  enemy  crossing  the  marsh  in  retreat.  Captain  Ermatinger 
sent  successive  messages  to  Colonel  Maitland  for  reinforcements,  but  the 
Colonel  had  sent  the  troops  onto  the  island  and  they  were  out  of  reach.  The 
Captain  examined  our  arms  and  told  us  we  would  have  to  fight.  He  said  he 
hoped  every  man  who  was  spared  to  go  home  would  not  be  ashamed  of  having 
been  there.  Our  arms  were  only  such  as  we  had  taken  with  us.  Some  of 
the  enemy's  arms  were  picked  up  on  the  island  as  we  went  and  I  was  given 
one  of  these.  We  were  dismounted  while  we  waited  for  reinforcements  and 
watched  the  enemy  crossing  the  marsh.  Their  line  reached  across  the  marsh 


BATTLE   OF   PELEE   ISLAND.  217 

a  distance  of  about  two  and  a  half  miles.  The  Captain,  after  scanning  our 
arms,  ordered  us  to  re-mount,  and  having  given  us  hope  of  reinforcement,  led 
up  towards  Captain  Browne's  detachment,  whom  the  enemy  were  approaching. 
As  we  proceeded  we  saw  the  sleighs  retreat,  and  the  soldiers  were  strung  out 
in  a  long  line  across  the  ice,  like  fence  posts.  The  enemy  were  approaching 
them  at  a  quick  march.  We  could  not  see  them  just  at  first.  They 
approached  Captain  Browne's  force  in  solid  column,  and  then  spread  out  in  a 
line  about  the  same  length  as  that  of  the  British  infantry.  There  were  about 
500  of  the  enemy.  Captain  Browne  had  90  men  and  our  troop  then  numbered 
but  21.  Both  sides  fired  simultaneously.  We  got  none  of  this  volley.  We 
were  approaching  at  a  gallop.  We  heard  the  enemy  call  out,  '  There  comes 
the  cavalry  !  Fire  on  them.'  They  did  so  and  the  bullets  whistled  around 
us.  We  were  coming  on  their  flank.  We  halted  and  fired.  The  infantry 
charged  with  fixed  bayonets  at  that  moment  in  face  of  a  heavy  fire  from  the 
enemy.  When  the  infantry  were  within  about  six  rods  of  the  enemy,  the 
latter  retreated  in  disorder,  running  like  wild  turkeys  every  way,  leaving  five 
killed,  while  we  had  one  soldier  and  one  trooper,  Thomas  Parish,  slain  on  the 
spot.  The  enemy  retreated  to  the  island,  staining  the  snow  for  a  quarter  of  a 
mile  in  width  with  blood.  I  saw  Parish,  as  I  supposed,  loading.  He  was  on 
his  knees  and  was  shot.  The  Captain  put  him  on  his  horse  and  held  him 
there,  and  brought  him  up  and  called  for  help  to  take  him  off  his  horse, 
saying,  '  He's  a  dead  man.'  William  McCormack,  who  had  gone  out  as  a 
teamster,  helped  take  him  from  his  horse.  An  alarm  was  just  then  raised  that 
the  enemy  was  crossing  further  down  towards  three  other  islands  there. 
Captain  Browne  said  to  Captain  Ermatinger,  '  Captain,  take  your  men  and 
chase  them  ! '  He  did  so,  flourishing  his  sword  and  leading  us  until  his 
horse's  foot  broke  through  the  ice,  when  he  called  to  us  to  wheel  to  the  right 
and  left.  We  did  so.  We  knew  we  were  getting  on  thin  ice.  The  enemy 
appeared  to  be  crossing  on  this  and  so  made  their  escape,  though  it  is  said 
that  many  went  through  the  ice  and  perished.  We  went  back  and  followed 
their  trail  on  the  island  and  found  a  great  many  of  their  wounded,  having 
their  wounds  dressed  at  Fox's  house.  We  had  no  food  (neither  horses  nor 
men)  since  nine  o'clock  the  night  before,  and  it  was  about  that  hour  when  we 
reached  the  mainland  and  got  food  again.  It  was  reported  28  of  Browne's 
infantry  were  wounded  and  one  died  before  reaching  the  main  shore.  The 
two  infantry  men  and  Parish  were  buried  with  military  honours  on  Monday, 
the  5th  March,  1838.  The  troop  returned  to  St.  Thomas  in  June,  though  I 
with  some  others  returned  earlier.  Two  more  infantrymen  died  from  their 
wounds  before  we  left." 

Roswell  Tomlinson,  another  trooper,  wrote  an  account  of  the 
engagement  also,  in  the  main  agreeing  with  that  of  Mr.  Williams. 
He  said  the  British  fired  first,  the  enemy  returning  it  with  great 
precision,  and  spoke  of  Parish  having-  been  shot  dead  on  his  horse 


218 


THE   TALBOT    REGIME. 


while  riding  between  his  (Tomlinson's)  father  and  Thomas  Meek. 
He  said  it  was  1 1  p.m.  before  they,  tired  and  hungry,  reached  the 
mainland,  that  they  remained  there  until  next  day  (Sunday)  and 
after  a  scanty  meal  started  for  Amherstburg  and  got  there  in  the 
evening,  completely  fagged  out,  having  had  about  four  hours' 
sleep  out  of  the  48  hours  which  had  passed  since  they  had  set  out 
from  Amherstburg. 

Both  Tomlinson  and  Williams  spoke  with  much  feeling  of  the 
good  and  brave  qualities  of  their  Captain  (James  Ermatinger)  who 
is  described  as  having  been  beloved  by  all  his  men. 


On  a  neglected  lot  on  a  side  street  in  Amherstburg  the  writer  a 
few  years  ago  found  the  monument  erected  by  the  citizens  of 
Amherstburg  to  the  brave  men  who  gave  their  lives  for  the 
defence  of  the  province  against  the  foreign  force  which  invaded 
Pelee  Island.  The  inscription  reads  as  follows  : 

"  This  monument  is  erected  by  the  inhabitants  of  Amherstburg  in  memory 
of  Thomas  McCartan,  Samuel  Holmes,  Edwin  Miller  and  Thomas  Symonds, 
of  H.  M.  32nd  Reg.  of  Foot,  and  of  Thomas  Parish  of  the  St.  Thomas 


PELEE  ISLAND.  219 

Volunteer  Cavalry,  who  gloriously  fell  in  repelling  a  band  of  brigands  from 
Pelee  Island  on  the  Third  of  March,  MDCCCXXXVIII." 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that,  if  this  monument  is  still  in  the  condition 
in  which  it  was  when  seen  by  the  writer,  it  may  yet  be  restored 
and  its  surroundings  improved. 

It  may  be  stated  here  that  Mr.  Lindsay  in  his  life  of  McKenzie 
says  that  "  General  McLeod  dispatched  Colonel  Seward  with 
about  four  hundred  men  to  Point  au  Pele"  Island,"  and  that  "on 
the  4th  of  March  McLeod  was  on  the  point  of  joining"  them,  when 
he  received  a  dispatch  from  Colonel  Bradley  informing  him  that 
they  had  been  defeated,  with  the  loss  of  fifteen  or  twenty  missing, 
and  retreated  to  the  American  shore."  McLeod  placed  the 
British  loss  at  fifty  or  sixty  and  a  great  number  wounded — a 
rather  disproportionate  estimate,  considering  that  he  acknow- 
ledged a  defeat  which  was  principally  attributed  to  the  want  of 
artillery  !  Lindsay  says  nine  prisoners  were  taken  by  the  British, 
among  whom  was  General  Sutherland,  who  was  taken  on  the 
mainland  by  Colonel  Prince  under  circumstances  which  gave  rise 
to  suspicion  of  Sutherland's  fidelity  to  the  cause  of  the  rebels. 
The  legality  of  Sutherland's  arrest  was  subsequently  questioned 
and  he  was  released  from  the  citadel  of  Quebec  after  the  English 
Law  officers  had  pronounced  against  it.  Colonel  Bradley,  who  is 
said  to  have  sent  an  account  of  the  affair  to  McLeod  on  the  4th,  is 
stated  by  Kingsford,  as  well  as  by  Trooper  Roswell  Tomlinson 
above  mentioned,  to  have  been  killed,  shot  in  the  forehead  the 
latter  says,  and  killed  instantly,  by  a  sergeant  of  the  regulars, 
which  threw  the  enemy  into  a  panic.  Besides  Bradley  "  Major 
Houdley  and  Captains  Van  Renssellaer  and  McKeon  and  seven 
others  "  were  reported  to  have  been  left  dead  on  the  ground  by 
the  invaders.  Several  of  the  prisoners  taken  were  reported 
wounded,  while  40  more  wounded  men  were  said  to  have  been 
carried  off  in  sleighs  which  they  had  in  the  woods.  A  large 
tri-coloured  flag  with  two  stars  and  "Liberty"  worked  upon  it, 
and  several  U.  S.  muskets,  with  swords  and  ammunition,  were 
captured.* 

*George  Kerr  of  St.  Thomas,  the  octogenarian  veteran  already  referred  to 
in  connection  with  the  loyalist  expedition  to  meet  Duncombe  at   Scotland, 


220  THE  TALBOT   REGIME. 

In  an  appendix  will  be  found  the  names  of  those  who  composed 
the  St.  Thomas  cavalry  troop  at  that  time,  so  far  as  can  be 
ascertained. 

In  July  they  were  called  out  again.  Not  many  of  the  old 
troopers  responded,  but  new  recruits  filled  their  places.  Sixty 
strong,  they  lay  in  St.  Thomas  until  fall.  They  were  then 
ordered  to  London  and  brigaded  with  one  of  the  regular  regiments 
there.  The  Simcoe  troop,  under  Captain  Wilson,  joined  them 
there.  Carrying  dispatches  now  formed  one  of  their  chief  duties. 
There  was  also  a  local  troop  at  London,  the  captain  of  which  was 
the  father  of  Hon.  Mr.  Justice  Robertson,  lately  of  the  High 
Court  of  Ontario,  and  one  of  the  troopers  D.  J.  Hughes,  since 
Judge  of  Elgin  county.  The  St.  Thomas  and  Norfolk  troops 
spent  many  months  in  garrison  at  London — until  the  close  of  April, 
1840,  when  they  were  disbanded,  receiving  the  approbation  of 
the  commanding  officer  of  the  district,  Colonel  Love  of  the  73rd 
regiment,  on  their  improvement  in  drill  and  discipline. 

Bierce,  an  Akron,  Ohio,  lawyer,  succeeded  General  Handy  in 
command  of  the  "army  of  the  North-West. "  On  the  4th 
December,  1838,  he  crossed  from  Detroit  to  Windsor  with  a  con- 
siderable force — though  many  of  his  men  failed  to  await  the 
attempted  invasion.  They  landed  at  a  short  distance  above  the 
village  before  daylight  and  marched  down  to  the  barracks,  where 
a  detachment  of  militia  was  on  duty  under  Captain  Lewis.  These 

informs  the  writer  that  he  was  present  at  the  engagement  at  Pelee  Island. 
After  his  return  from  Scotland,  being  then  a  young  active  fellow,  he  was  sent 
with  dispatches  to  McNab's  force,  opposite  Navy  Island,  where  he  was  when 
the  Caroline  was  cut  out.  On  his  return  he  was  handed  a  dispatch  by  Mr. 
Hodgkinson  at  Aylmer  to  carry  to  Amherstburg.  On  the  way  home  he  fell  in 
at  Kingsville  with  Major  Nevill  and  other  militiamen  with  whom  he  crossed 
on  the  ice  to  Pelee  Island  on  the  morning  Maitland's  force  reached  there.  He 
says  on  his  arrival  there  the  enemy  and  their  sentries  were  all  sleeping  so 
soundly  that  his  party  passed  through  their  lines  unperceived.  He  was 
familiar  with  the  island,  having  visited  it  with  his  father,  who  came  from 
Nova  Scotia,  and  was  engaged  by  the  British  authorities  to  sail  a  vessel 
laden  with  goods  from  Chippawa  to  Mackinac,  when  they  touched  at  Pelee 
Island  en  route.  Mr.  Kerr  is  still  hale  and  hearty,  with  memory  apparently 
unimpaired,  though  somewhat  deaf,  at  the  advanced  age  of  86  years. 

A  number  of  recruits,  got  together  by  Mr.  Duck  from  Howard  township, 
joined  the  troop  on  its  return  from  the  island — Charles  Grant,  sr.,  Jos.  and  T. 
B.  Richardson,  Peter  Lampman  and  C.  Collins,  and  from  Harwich  two 
Englishmen,  Reeks  and  Baker.  Mr.  Grant  acted  as  bugler. 


BATTLE   OF  WINDSOR.  221 

opened  fire  upon  the  enemy,  killing-  one  of  their  officers  and 
wounding-  several  men.  They  continued  to  resist  the  advance  of 
the  foe,  until  their  ammunition  exhausted,  those  who  failed  to 
make  their  escape  were  obliged  to  surrender.  The  barracks 
together  with  the  house  of  Francois  Jannette  and  another  occupied 
by  Mr.  Retter  were  burned  to  the  ground  ;  a  negro  named  Mills, 
for  refusing  to  join  the  invaders,  was  shot,  and  the  Thames,  the 
pioneer  steamboat  of  the  Lake  Erie  North  Shore  route  (which,  the 
writer  is  informed  by  Mrs.  J.  H.  Wilson  of  St.  Thomas,  was  then 
the  property  of  her  father,  Geo.  Ryerson  Williams,  and  Captain 
Van  Allen — though  otherwise  stated  to  have  belonged  to  Duncan 
McGregor)  was  fired  and  burned  to  the  water's  edge.  Some 
accounts  of  this  affair  state  that  the  militia  officer  in  command, 
Captain  Lewis,  was  killed.  This  mistake  appears  to  have  arisen 
from  the  officer  in  the  invading  force  who  was  slain,  being  known 
also  as  Captain  Lewis.  The  militia  officer  in  question  was  in  civil 
life  the  deputy  clerk  of  the  crown  and  a  druggist  of  Sandwich. 
He  made  his  escape  from  the  barracks,  and  on  his  way  to  Sand- 
wich met  a  detachment  of  provincial  volunteer  militia  under 
Captains  Sparke  and  some  sixty  men  of  Colonel  Prince's  Essex 
militia  advancing  to  the  relief  of  his  garrison.  Continuing  their 
advance,  this  force  came  in  contact  with  a  considerable  party  of 
the  enemy  in  an  orchard  belonging  to  Francis  Baby  and  opened 
fire  upon  and  speedily  dispersed  them,  killing  several,  with  the 
loss  of  but  one  of  their  own  men,  of  Captain  Elliott's  company. 
Colonel  Prince  ordered  the  militia  force  back  to  Sandwich  to 
defend  that  point  from  an  anticipated  attack  and  guard  the 
ammunition,  guns  and  provisions  there.  Among  those  who  took 
an  active  part  in  this  action,  known  as  the  "  Battle  of  Windsor," 
were,  besides  the  officers  already  named,  Captains  Fox,  Elliott, 
Bell,  Thebo  and  Leslie  and  Adjutant  Cheeseman,  while  James 
Dougall,  Charles  Baby  and  W.  R.  Wood  were  active  in  giving 
intelligence  of  the  enemy's  movements.  Meantime  a  further 
detachment  of  the  enemy,  who  had  remained  with  Bierce  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  barracks,  was  advancing,  and  near  the  spot  where 
their  companions  had  been  dispersed  they  were  met  by  Commissary 
Morse  and  Dr.  Hume  of  the  regular  medical  staff,  the  latter  of 


222  THE  TALBOT   REGIME. 

whom,  while  attempting*  to  escape  from  the  force,  whom  he  and 
his  companion  had  mistaken  for  friends,  was  shot  down  and  his 
body  mutilated. 

On  the  arrival  of  a  detachment  of  Colonel  Airey's  regiment,  the 
34th,  under  Captain  Broderick,  with  a  field  piece,  from  Fort 
Maiden,  an  advance  was  made  upon  Windsor,  but  the  enemy  did 
not  await  their  arrival.  Some  succeeded  in  crossing  the  river  by 
boats  and  canoes,  one  man  being  killed  while  crossing  by  a 
shot  from  the  gun  said  to  have  been  aimed  by  Lieutenant  Airey. 
Others,  unable  to  obtain  the  means  of  crossing,  fled  into  the 
woods,  where  some  were  said  to  have  perished  miserably  from 
cold,  starvation  and  exposure.  A  considerable  number  were 
captured  as  prisoners  and  held  for  subsequent  disposal.  Bierce 
exhibited  special  regard  for  his  own  safety  throughout,  notwith- 
standing the  bombastic  proclamation  made  by  him  "  to  the  people 
of  Canada  "  on  landing. 

Four  were  killed  and  as  many  wounded  on  the  side  of  the 
defenders,  while  of  the  enemy  some  32  fell  during  the  day  and 
more  than  as  many  more  were,  then  and  subsequently,  captured. 
Of  those  who  fell,  four  were  prisoners  who  had  been  ordered  to  be 
shot  by  Colonel  Prince,  "  and  it  was  done  accordingly  " — to  quote 
his  now  famous  report. 

The  action  of  Colonel  Prince  in  ordering  the  four  prisoners  shot 
aroused  excitement  in  England  and  an  investigation  was  ordered 
and  evidence  taken  at  Sandwich.  The  Colonel  was,  however, 
acquitted.  So  exasperated  had  the  inhabitants  become  at  the 
repeated  incursions,  and  so  unsatisfactory  the  experience  with 
prisoners  from  Thellar's  capture  to  that  time,  that,  previous  to 
Colonel  Prince's  action,  a  public  meeting  in  Sandwich  had,  it 
appeared,  resolved,  that,  in  the  event  of  another  incursion  of  Ameri- 
can sympathizers,  no  more  prisoners  should  be  taken,  but  the  inva- 
ders should  be  shot  down.  A  dozen  or  more  respectable  persons 
had,  however,  signed  a  document  condemning  the  Colonel's 
conduct,  and  to  these  his  answer  was  a  challenge  to  mortal  combat. 
He  exchanged  shots  with  one,  an  Englishman  named  Wood,  whom 
he  wounded.  The  inquiry  ordered  by  the  authorities  intervened  to 
prevent  the  other  meetings. 


COLONEL   PRINCE. 


223 


Whatever  may  be  thought  of  Colonel  Prince's  summary  mode 
of  dealing  with  the  captives,  it  seems  to  have  produced  the 
salutary  effect  of  preventing  further  attempts  at  invasion  on  this 
frontier,  though  marauding  parties  crossed  the  Niagara  and  St. 
Clair  rivers  during  the  summer  and  committed  serious  depreda- 
tions before  they  retreated  or  were  captured. 


Baby  Mansion  at  Sandwich— entered  at  different  times  by  Hull,  Brock, 
Proctor,  Harrison  and  Tecumseh. 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

PORT    STANLEY    INVADED — BELA    SHAW — HON.     E.     LEONARD — 
DISAFFECTION  IN  SOUTH  YARMOUTH — EXECUTIONS  AT  LONDON. 

WHILE,  as  has  been  seen,  the  province  was  invaded  during1  the 
year  '38  at  several  points,  expected  invasions  at  others  created 
much  stir  and  alarm.  At  Port  Stanley,  for  instance,  a  descent 
was  expected  in  October,  and  a  despatch  from  Niagara  stating 
that  40,000  rebels  were  ready  to  cross  the  lake  and  land  at  three 
or  four  different  points  on  this  side,  caused  some  consternation. 
A  company  of  regulars  was  moved  from  St.  Thomas  to  the  Port, 
and  80  militiamen  mustered  there. 

"You  cannot  see  Port  Stanley  for  the  people,"  wrote  Mrs. 
Williams  (mother  of  Mrs.  J.  H.  Wilson,  of  St.  Thomas)  on  the 
last  day  of  October  to  her  husband,  George  R.  Williams,  then  at 
Chatham. 

The  night  the  rebels  were  to  have  landed,  an  alarm  was  given 
about  midnight  and  three  vessels  were  reported  off  the  harbour — 
almost  at  the  mouth  of  the  pier.  The  bugle  sounded,  and  two 
shots  were  fired,  fortunately  without  effect — for  the  approaching 
craft  which  rounded  the  pier,  carrying  a  light,  was  discovered  to 
be  a  canoe  containing  Captains  Nevills  and  Jones,  who  narrowly 
escaped  destruction  at  the  hands  of  their  friends. 

The  ladies  of  the  Bostwick  and  Williams  families — who  were 
related — were,  naturally,  alarmed,  and  had  prepared  for  flight  into 
the  interior,  but,  as  in  the  case  of  Captains  Nevills  and  Jones, 
they  found  they  had  more  to  fear  from  their  protectors  than  from 
the  enemy ;  for  the  Bostwick's  cellar  was  invaded  by  the  troops  on 
their  arrival,  and  a  quarter  of  mutton  and  sixteen  pounds  of 
butter  were  gone  in  a  flash.  The  Captain  was  informed  and  the 


BELA   SHAW.  225 

men  severely  punished,  but  as  to  the  ultimate  fate  of  the  mutton 
and  butter,  local  history  is  silent. 

The  rebellion  was  the  cause  of  many  incidents  which  would 
have  been  amusing,  were  they  not  fraught  with  serious  conse- 
quences to  the  persons  most  affected.  Americans  and  advanced 
Liberals  were  alike  regarded  with  extreme  suspicion.  Many  were 
the  victims  of  prosecutions,  some  of  petty  persecutions.  It  has 
been  seen  that  John  Talbot's  Liberal  newspaper  at  St.  Thomas 
was  suppressed.  The  inoffensive  merchant,  Bela  Shaw,  of  the 
same  place,  being  an  American,  whose  store  was  a  sort  of 
Liberal  rendezvous,  was  regarded  with  the  greatest  suspicion. 
He  was  invited  to  join  the  volunteers  who  went  to  meet  Dr. 
Duncombe  and  his  army,  and  considered  it  impolitic  to  decline  the 
invitation.  He  was  not  a  man  of  war  and,  no  doubt,  felt  very 
uncomfortable  in  witnessing  the  rough  treatment  and  spoliation 
of  some  of  his  political  friends  by  the  loyalists.  After  his  return 
Colonel  Burwell  made  an  effort  to  have  him  imprisoned,  but  could 
not  prevail  on  the  magistrates  to  do  so  on  insufficient  evidence. 
Eventually  he  sold  out  and  left  the  country  for  the  States,  where 
he  lived  to  a  good  age. 

Among  those  who  became  the  victims  of  unjust  suspicion,  as 
well  as  annoying  persecution,  was  one  who  was  destined  to 
attain  a  high  position  in  the  district.  The  Leonard  family, 
consisting  of  father,  mother,  four  sons — Lewis,  Elijah,  Lyman, 
and  Delos — and  several  daughters,  emigrated  from  the  Eastern 
States  to  this  province  in  1830,  settling  at  first  at  Normandale,  in 
Norfolk,  where,  being  workers  in  iron,  they  were  engaged  in  the 
works  then  carried  on  by  Mr.  VanNorman.  In  1834  the  family 
came  to  St.  Thomas  and  Elijah,  having  formed  a  partnership  with 
his  father  and  a  Mr.  VanBrocklyn,  began  work  as  an  ironfounder 
in  a  disused  axe  factory  leased  from  Mr.  Anson  Paul,  in  what  was 
known  as  Hog  Hollow,  near  the  New  England  mills — lately  owned 
by  the  Turvills,  but  then  by  the  Pauls,  a  New  England  family  who 
had  established  mercantile,  milling,  and  other  industries  in  that 
part  of  the  Kettle  Creek  valley. 

A  year  later  Elijah  Leonard,  who  had  succeeded  to  the  foundry 
business,  moved  up  town  and  erected  buildings  where  the  Canada 


226  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

Southern  railway  passes  the  St.  Andrews  market.  They  were 
subsequently  enlarged  to  an  establishment  of  considerable 
dimensions,  after  Elijah  Leonard's  departure  to  London,  by  his 
partner,  John  Sells.  The  works  up  town  were  only  well  started 
when  the  rebellion  broke  out,  and  business  was  practically  at  a 
standstill.  Mr.  Leonard,  in  despair,  determined  to  move  to 
Michigan,  but  after  a  trip  to  the  west,  returned  to  St.  Thomas 
and  remained. 

The  Leonards,  being  Americans,  were  subjected  to  all  kinds  of 
annoyances.  Elijah  was  arrested  four  times.  One  charge,  that 
of  having  munitions  of  war  in  his  possession,  seems  ludicrous 
enough  now,  but  illustrates  the  temper  of  the  times.  Let  Mr. 
Leonard's  own  words  tell  the  story  : 

"  One  charge  against  me  was  lodged  by  one  of  my  most  intimate  friends, 
who  laid  information  with  Squire  Ermatinger  that  I  had  cannon  balls  on  my 
premises.  Squires  Acklyn*  (a  great  big  tyrant  of  a  Scotchman),  and 
Chrystler  were  associated  with  him  on  the  bench.  I  was  summoned  to 
appear,  and  made  my  statement  as  follows  :  '  I  had  bought  a  sloop-load  of 
these  cannon  balls  from  Captain  Mallory,  who  had  purchased  them  at 
Amherstburg  from  the  condemned  military  stores  at  that  point.  The  balls 
had  accumulated  there  during  the  war  of  1812.'  After  hearing  me  the 
magistrates  retired.  To  judge  from  the  length  of  time  they  took  to  decide 
the  case,  I  had  a  narrow  escape  from  jail.  Squire  Chrystler  was  favourable 
to  my  discharge,  and  I  overheard  him  say,  'Let  the  boy  off.  There  is 
nothing  in  the  charges.  He  is  only  fulfilling  the  scripture  by  beating  swords 
into  pruning  hooks,  or  cannon  balls  into  plow  points ,'  so  I  was  finally  let  go, 
but  I  never  forgave  my  friend  for  the  trouble  and  injustice  he  meted  out  to 
me.  I  was  using  these  balls  up  as  fast  as  I  could.  They  were  hard  enough 
to  melt,  without  being  arrested  for  the  task  ;  it  required  great  care  to  keep 
them  suspended  long  enough  in  the  charcoal  to  melt." 

On  another  occasion  he  was  arrested  "for  being  on  the  street 
after  parole  time,"  and  taken  before  the  same  bench  of  magistrates 
who  discharged  him  on  its  appearing  that  the  man  who  summoned 
the  guard  and  had  him  arrested  was  intoxicated. 

As  an  indication  of  the  esteem  in  which  Mr.  Leonard  was 
afterward  held  in  the  community,  however,  it  is  only  necessary  to 

•Could  Mr.  Leonard  have  been  here  referring  to  Mr.  Gideon  Ackland,  the 
lawyer? 


DISAFFECTION   IN   SOUTH   YARMOUTH.  227 

say  here  that  he  was,  some  twenty  years  later,  elected  to  the 
Malahide  division  of  the  Legislative  Council  by  a  large  majority 
over  so  able  and  popular  an  opponent  as  Mr.  H.  C.  R.  Becher, 
and  sat  as  a  Senator  of  Canada  from  confederation  till  his  death. 
He  established  one  of  the  leading  industries  of  London,  and 
amassed  wealth.  His  brothers  and  their  families  have  been 
among  the  most  respected  citizens  of  the  settlement. 

South  Yarmouth  was  among  the  most  disaffected  of  the  parts 
of  the  west  from  which  the  rebel  forces  were  recruited.  It  was 
claimed  for  Colonel  Talbot  that  few  of  his  settlers  were  implicated 
in  the  movement,  but  that  most  of  those  who  were,  had  acquired 
their  lands  by  purchase  from  those  parties  to  whom  the  Govern- 
ment had  granted  them,  prior  to  Colonel  Talbot's  application — 
though  he  had  selected  these  lands  for  his  settlement  at  first. 
Jonathan  Doan  became  the  agent  for  the  Baby  lands.  His  sons  were 
actively  engaged  in  the  outbreak,  and  a  considerable  number  of 
their  friends  and  neighbours  also  marched  to  join  Duncombe's 
force.  Most  of  them,  presumably,  took  no  further  part,  but 
Joshua  Guillam  Doan,  one  of  the  sons  of  the  original  settler 
above  referred  to,  was  more  rash,  or  more  patriotic,  according  to 
the  light  in  which  the  whole  movement  is  viewed.  He  made  his 
way  to  Detroit,  and  joining  Bierce's  force,  crossed  to  Windsor. 
He  and  Bedford,  of  Norwich,  and  A.  Perley  were  captured,  and 
with  Albert  Clarke  and  Cornelius  Cunningham,  of  Beachville,  and 
Lynn,  an  American  sympathiser,  suffered  the  extreme  penalty  at 
London,  after  trial  by  court-martial*.  This  court  was  constituted 

*The  following  pathetic  letter  has  been  published,  of  recent  years,  by  Mr. 
William  Harrison,  of  Bayfield.  It  is  addressed  to  "  Mrs.  Fanny  Done,  at 
Mr.  Buscerk's,  London,"  and  is  said  to  have  been  found  in  the  sleigh  of  Mr. 
John  Davidson,  then  of  Port  Stanley,  who  had  overtaken  a  lady  on  the  road 
(possibly  the  wife  of  the  condemned  man)  and  driven  her  into  London,  and  it 
may  be  surmised  that  she  dropped  the  letter  before  alighting.  It  is  as 
follows  ; 

"  London,  27th  January,  1837 

"  Dear  Wife, — I  am  at  this  moment  confined  in  the  cell  from  which  I  am  to 
go  to  the  scaffold.  I  received  my  sentence  to-day,  and  am  to  be  executed  on 
the  sixth  of  February.  I  am  permitted  to  see  you  tomorrow,  any  time  after 
ten  o'clock  in  the  morning,  as  may  suit  you  best.  I  wish  you  to  think  of  such 
questions  as  you  wish  to  ask  me,  as  I  do  not  know  how  long  you  will  be 
permitted  to  stay.  Think  as  little  of  my  unhappy  fate  as  you  can,  as  from  the 
love  you  bear  to  me  and  have  ever  evinced,  I  know  too  well  how  it  must  affect 


228  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

as  follows  :  Colonel  Bostwick,  president  ;  Colonel  Perley,  of 
Burford  ;  Major  Barwick,  Blandford  ;  Major  Beale,  Woodstock, 
Judge  Advocate  ;  Colonel  James  Ingersoll,  and  George  W. 
Whitehead,  of  Burford. 

George  Lawton,  an  Englishman,  was  a  leading  and  turbulent 
spirit,  politically,  in  south  Yarmouth,  and  indeed,  throughout  the 
County  of  Middlesex.  He  possessed  strong  opinions  and  consid- 
erable power  as  an  orator,  and  when  the  outbreak  occurred,  did 
not  fail  to  respond  to  Buncombe's  call  to  arms.  Being  a  leader, 
he  was  sought  for,  but,  with  a  number  of  others,  made  his  way  to 
the  border,  and  after  suffering  many  hardships — including  it  is  said, 
fifty-two  hours  without  food — crossed  the  St.  Clair  River,  not  to 
return  until  the  lapse  of  several  years  had  calmed  the  public  mind, 
when  he  once  more  appeared  and  spent  the  remainder  of  his  days 
in  the  beautiful  township  where  his  home  was. 

Dr.  Wilson  of  Sparta  was  suspected  of  disseminating  the  seeds 
of  disaffection  throughout  South  Yarmouth  either  in  person  or  by 
means  of  his  cream-coloured  horse  and  another  rider.  The  horse 
changed  his  allegiance  and  subsequently,  bestridden  by  a  loyalist 
colonel,  took  part  in  putting  down  the  outbreak.  Not  so  the 
doctor,  however,  who,  suspected  of  complicity  in  the  acts  of  a 
large  body  of  the  disaffected  who  assembled  in  Pelham  township,* 
was  arrested  at  the  house  of  Richard  McKenny  in  the  5th  conces- 
sion of  Malahide  in  the  summer  of  1838,  and  sent  to  London  for 
trial.  He,  however,  survived  to  subsequently  make  a  claim  for 
the  horse  under  the  rebellion  losses  act.  The  family  of  McKenny 
referred  to  sold  out  and  left  for  Illinois.  They  were  not,  it  is 

you.  1  wish  you  to  inform  my  father  and  brother  of  my  sentence  as  soon  as 
possible.  I  must  say  good-bye  for  the  night,  and  may  God  protect  you  and 
my  dear  child,  and  give  you  fortitude  to  meet  that  coming  event  with  that 
Christian  grace  and  fortitude  which  is  the  gift  of  Him,  our  Lord,  who  created 
us.  That  this  may  be  the  case  is  the  prayer  of  your  affectionate  husband, 

JOSHUA  G.  DONE." 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  address  and  signature  are  not  according  to  the 
now  generally  accepted  spelling  of  the  name.  "1837"  must  have  been 
intended  for  "  1839" — otherwise  the  letter  would  bear  date  two  years  prior  to 
the  executions. 

*See  letter  of  L.  Lawrason,  Esq.,  in  appendix. 


SIR  GEORGE  ARTHUR.  229 

understood,  related  to  the  family  of  that  name  still  residing-  in 
Elgin. 

Less  fortunate,  however,  was  John  Tyrrel  of  Bayham,  who  was 
one  of  those  transported  to  Van  Dieman's  land,  whence  he 
returned  after  several  years'  exile. 

Instances  might  be  multiplied  indefinitely  of  those  who,  through- 
out the  settlement,  suffered  for  the  cause  they  had  espoused,  of 
those  whose  families  were  forced  to  suffer  obloquy,  deprivation 
and  ostracism  for  their  deeds  and  of  others  who  suffered  merely 
from  suspicion. 

Sir  George  Arthur,  who  succeeded  Sir  F.  B.  Head  as 
Lieutenant-Governor  and  was  the  last  occupant  of  that  position 
before  the  union,  adopted  a  merciless  policy  toward  those  con- 
victed ot  rebellion,  which  has  ever  since  been  severely  criticized. 
Contrasted  with  recent  British  treatment  of  political  offenders  in 
South  Africa,  this  policy  seems  now  to  have  been  most  unneces- 
sarily severe.  The  contrast  illustrates  the  progress  of  liberal  and 
humanitarian  views  during  the  sixty  odd  years  which  have  since 
elapsed,  rather  than  the  individual  severity  of  a  governor  of  that 
day. 

For  marauders  such  as  those  who  composed  the  greater  part 
of  the  invading  forces  in  the  west — the  whole  of  the  large  force 
which  crossed  to  Pelee  Island — sympathy  would  be  misplaced. 
They  were  not  inaptly  termed  "brigands,"  who  crossed  the 
border  chiefly  for  plunder  and  their  individual  aggrandisement. 

Though  feeling  ran  high  throughout  the  whole  of  the  Liberal 
ranks  at  the  time  of  the  outbreak,  it  was  a  small  minority  of  that 
party  who  were  prepared  to  go  the  length  of  taking  up  arms. 
Had  the  intention  of  the  British  administration  to  grant  respons- 
ible popular  government  been  made  known  in  time,  it  is  improbable 
that  even  a  demonstration  would  have  been  attempted.  Of  course 
there  were  a  few  here  and  there  who  preferred  republican  to 
monarchial  government,! "who  would  have  been  dissatisfied  with 
anything  short  of  a  complete  subversion  of  the  form  of  govern- 
ment, but  these  would  have  been  so  insignificant  in  number  as  to 
render  anything  like  a  popular  outbreak  impossible.  Those  who 
turned  out  to  join  Buncombe  from  Yarmouth  were  settlers 


230  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

principally  from  the  United  States  and  presumably  of  this  class. 
The  curious  feature  of  it  all  was  that  they  were  largely  Quakers 
or  of  Quaker  parentage  and  so  professedly  or  by  training,  sons  of 
peace.  The  intensity  of  their  political  feelings  on  the  one  hand  or 
of  their  preference  for  republican  institutions  on  the  other,  may  be 
judged  from  their  taking  up  arms  at  all.  Of  course  those  who  did 
so  were  by  no  means  representative  of  the  whole  body  of  the 
Society  of  Friends  even  in  that  locality.  They  are  for  the  most 
part  a  most  industrious,  peaceable  people,  who  have  been 
excellent,  law  abiding  citizens  and  good  neighbours  from  that  day 
to  the  present.  A  member  of  one  of  their  families,  Elias  Moore, 
was  twice  elected  in  the  troublous  times  of  1835  and  1836,  with 
Thomas  Park  of  London,  to  represent  the  county  of  Middlesex  in 
parliament. 

The  war  of  1812,  through  bitter  experience,  taught  the  people 
of  the  Canadas  self-reliance.  The  rebellion,  through  experience 
almost  as  bitter,  prepared  them  for  self-government. 


CHAPTER    XXX. 

THE  MACBETHS — COLONEL  AIREY'S  REGIMENT — ST.  THOMAS 
IN  THE  '40*8. 

MENTION  has  elsewhere  been  made  of  the  coming  to  the  township 
of  Aldborough  of  certain  settlers  who  had  crossed  the  ocean  with 
one  or  other  of  the  parties  brought  into  the  Red  River  country  via 
Hudson's  Bay  by  Lord  Selkirk.  In  1838  there  came  from  the 
north-west,  of  these  Selkirk  settlers,  another  family,  some  of  whose 
members  were  destined  to  fill  conspicuous  places  in  the  Talbot 
settlement. 

George  Macbeth  brought  with  him  from  the  Red  River  settle- 
ment to  the  township  of  Dunwich  a  family  of  five  children,  the 
eldest  of  whom,  named  after  himself,  was  then  but  twelve  years 
of  age.  His  other  children  were  Donald,  Alexander,  John  and 
Christina,  afterwards  Mrs.  McPherson.  Three  others  were  born 
in  Upper  Canada,  Robert,  Isabella  (Mrs.  Whyte)  and  Catharine. 
The  father  subsequently  moved  to  Euphemia  township,  but  the 
eldest  son,  George,  took  up  his  residence  with  Colonel  Talbot  in 
1839,  and  his  brother  Donald  did  the  same  a  year  later. 

Colonel  Talbot  was  now  growing  old.  His  long  years  of 
privation  and  hardship  in  the  wilderness  were  beginning  to  tell 
upon  him.  Mrs.  Jameson  remarked  the  somewhat  neglected 
appearance  of  his  farm,  for  lack  of  an  overseer.  Since  the  days 
of  Pickering  it  had  no  doubt  been  left  to  the  care  of  such  "  help  " 
as  could  be  secured  in  the  neighbourhood.  The  Colonel's  duties 
as  land  agent  occupied  much  of  his  time  both  at  home  and 
abroad,  while  his  advancing  years  forbade  his  adding  to  these 
duties  the  wielding  of  the  axe  or  handling  the  implements  of 
husbandry  or  even  the  oversight  of  those  engaged  in  these  occu- 
pations. Jeffry  Hunter,  too,  was  fallen  into  the  sere  and  yellow 


232  THE   TALBOT    REGIME. 

leaf,  or  absorbed  by  family  cares,  and  was  no  longer  capable  of 
acting  as  the  Colonel's  right  hand  man.  The  Colonel  in  short 
needed  an  active,  trustworthy  man  who  could  fill  the  place  at  once 
of  personal  attendant  and  business  and  farm  manager,  and  such 
an  one  he  found  in  the  sturdy  young  North-West  Highlander, 
George  Macbeth,  who,  as  he  developed  from  youth  to  manhood, 
gradually  became  not  only  the  personal  companion  and  attendant, 
but  the  trusted  adviser  of  the  Colonel  in  everything. 

Mention  has  been  made  of  the  visit  of  Colonel  Talbot's  brother 
William  to  Port  Talbot  in  the  early  days.  William  was  a  rolling 
stone  who  afterwards  drifted  to  Australia  or  Tasmania,  where, 
after  having  got  into  hot  water  with  the  governor  of  the  colony, 
he  finally  died.  The  Colonel,  as  his  estate  grew  and  the  chances 
of  his  ever  establishing  a  family  of  his  own — if  he  ever  at  any 
time  contemplated  such  a  thing — diminished,  sought  to  find  in 
another  branch  of  his  family  a  suitable  heir  to  his  estates.  With 
this  view  came  Julius  Airey,  one  of  his  sister  Catharine's  sons, 
who  spent  a  year  or  more  with  him,  and,  as  has  been  seen,  saw 
some  service  with  the  St.  Thomas  cavalry  in  the  campaign  of 
1838.  This  excitement  over,  young  Airey  soon  found  life  at  Port 
Talbot  too  dull  and  his  uncle's  habits  too  full  of  eccentricity  to  be 
endured,  even  with  the  prospect  of  ultimate  affluence.  So  he 
returned  to  the  old  country. 

His  eldest  brother,  Richard,  who,  when  on  the  staff  of  Lord 
Aylmer,  had  visited  Port  Talbot,  and  had  been  taken  ill  at 
Quebec  and  returned  for  a  time  to  England,  was  in  1838  stationed 
with  the  34th  regiment,  of  which  he  was  the  commanding  officer, 
at  St.  Thomas,  only  twelve  miles  from  his  uncle's  residence. 

The  father  of  these  nephews  of  Colonel  Talbot  was  Lieutenant- 
General  Sir  George  Airey,  the  husband  of  Talbot's  third  sister, 
Catharine.  He  died  in  1833.  His  widow,  who  had  borne  him 
six  sons  and  three  daughters,  survived  until  within  a  year  of 
Colonel  Talbot's  death. 

While  the  presence  of  his  nephew,  Col.  Airey,  pleased  Colonel 
Talbot,  the  presence  of  his  regiment  in  St.  Thomas  enlivened  the 
little  town  greatly.  When  they  turned  out  for  church  parade, 
headed  by  their  band,  Alfred  Allworth  and  other  music-loving 


THE   McKAYS.  233 

young  fellows  of  the  place  were  delighted — and  the~delight  was 
not  confined  to  the  male  sex,  one  may  be  sure.  Trade  in  the 
village  looked  up  and  such  orders  as  "  arm  racks  for  300  men," 
"  246  pegs  in  barracks,"  etc.,  gladdened  the  heart  of  Alexander 
Love,  the  furniture  manufacturer  of  that  day.  J.  K.  Woodward, 
too,  the  whilom  banker  and  paymaster  of  the  cavalry  troop,  had 
built  the  buildings  occupied  as  barracks  and  so  no  doubt  was  for 
the  time  being  equally  benefited  with  Dennis  O'Brien  of  London, 
who  was  said  to  have  made  enough  out  of  his,  from  their  occupa- 
tion by  the  military,  to  pay  for  their  erection.  The  barracks  at 
St.  Thomas  were,  however,  of  wood,  and  in  the  end  went  up  in 
smoke,  after  a  quick  conflagration.  Possibly  Woodward  had 
some  insurance.  His  Agricultural  Bank,  on  the  other  hand,  went 
down  ;  and  he  completed  his  career  in  the  settlement  as  a  miller 
at  Selborne,  near  Port  Stanley. 

The  rebellion  and  other  causes  had  brought  about  business 
changes  in  St.  Thomas.  About  the  year  1835  John  and  William 
McKay,  two  young  Scotchman,  who  had  previously  lived  a  short 
time  in  the  township  of  Plympton,  and  then  managed  the  business 
of  the  Hon.  Isaac  Buchanan  at  Clearville,  came  to  St.  Thomas 
and  commenced  a  mercantile  business  at  or  near  the  corner  of 
Talbot  and  King  streets,  where,  after  two  losses  by  fire,  a 
substantial  brick  building  was  subsequently  erected  in  which  the 
business  was  conducted,  and  in  which  John  McKay,  after  his 
marriage,  dwelt  until  the  time  of  his  death.  Meantime  the 
brothers  had  a  mother  and  sisters  to  look  after.  They  married 
sisters,  daughters  of  William  Sells.  William,  after  his  marriage, 
moved  across  Kettle  Creek  and  made  his  home  on  a  picturesque 
spot  at  the  confluence  of  Dodd's  Creek  and  Kettle  Creek — where 
the  first  Presbyterian  minister,  Mr.  McKilligan,  previously  dwelt. 
Both  McKays  became  prominent  officials  of  the  county  of  Elgin 
in  after  years,  John  having  taken  an  important  part  in  bringing 
about  the  separation  of  the  county.  Meantime  they  were  one  of 
the  leading  Reform  firms  of  the  village — for  business  and  social 
intercourse  followed  politics  pretty  closely  in  those  days  of 
political  stress  and  strain.  Another  prominent  firm  of  Reformers 
were  Hope — afterward  Hon.  Adam  Hope  of  London  and  Ham- 


234  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

ilton — and  Thomas  Hodge,  his  brother-in-law.  They  succeeded 
Bela  Shaw  in  all  except  the  post  office.  That  fell  to  Edward 
Ermatinger,  and  Alfred  J.  Allworth  claimed  to  have  transported  it 
to  its  new  quarters  at  the  corner  of  Church  street  in  a  bushel 
basket.  Hope  and  Hodge  soon  had  for  a  next  door  neighbour  in 
business,  another  firm  of  Reformers,  William  and  James  Coyne, 
sons  of  Henry  Coyne  of  "Coyne's  Corners."  William  Coyne 
continued  in  business  in  St.  Thomas  with  varying  success  for 
more  than  fifty  years — his  brother  James  going  to  London  after  a 
dozen  years  or  so  in  the  older  village.  Hope  and  Hodge  became 
agents  of  the  Gore  Bank  and  moved  to  the  corner  of  Talbot  and 
Port  Stanley  streets,  by  the  market.  Drug  stores  were  then 
adjuncts  to  almost  every  doctor's  practice,  and  that  of  Kent  and 
Southwick  had  for  junior  partner  the  handsome  young  Doctor 
Southwick,  who  studied  with  Dr.  Duncombe,  and  was  now  com- 
mencing practice — afterward  member  for  East  Elgin  in  parliament 
— while  Dr.  Rolls,  of  whom  Colonel  Talbot  spoke  so  highly  to 
Hon.  Peter  Robinson,  and  the  diminutive  Dr.  Wade  sold  drugs 
as  well— the  latter's  little  shop  hard  by  the  Talbot  Mansion  House 
hotel,  at  which  the  four-horse  stage  coach  between  London  and 
Port  Stanley  pulled  up  to  change  horses,  their  advent  heralded  by 
a  long  blast  from  the  coachman's  horn  as  they  dashed  along 
Talbot  street. 

Meantime  the  old-time  Tory  firm  of  Hamilton  and  Warren, 
whose  senior  partner  had  become  sheriff  of  the  district  and  lived 
at  London,  was  dissolved,  and  James  Blackwood,  already  men- 
tioned as  the  brother-in-law  of  Sir  James  Innes,  reigned  at 
Stirling,  in  the  valley,  in  their  stead.  Blackwood  was  a  fiery  and 
enterprising  Scot,  who  strode  down  Talbot  street  with  a  proud 
step,  a  pack  of  well-bred  dogs  at  his  heel.  He  gathered  about 
him  soon  a  number  of  young  men.  Thomas  Arkell  and  W.  K. 
Kains  were  of  the  number.  Charles  Roe  came  in  '43,  John 
Ardagh  Roe  a  few  years  later.  They  were  sons  of  Dr.  John  Hill 
Roe,  who  came  from  Ireland  to  St.  John's,  Lower  Canada,  in 
1832,  and  was  drowned  ten  years  later  in  the  river  near  Lake 
Champlain.  These  and  his  younger  brother,  Andrew,  became 
Blackwood's  business  associates  a  few  years  after.  When  his 


ST.  THOMAS   IN    THE   FORTIES.  235 

palmy  days  were  past,  his  brother  Robert,  a  more  cautious  man, 
succeeded  him,  and  traded  successfully  both  in  St.  Thomas  and 
Fingal.  The  Scottish  Lowlands,  too,  had  a  representative  in  St. 
Thomas  of  the  forties,  and  for  long  years  after,  in  the  person  of 
Joe  Laing. 

That  picturesque  part  of  the  valley  lower  down  the  Kettle 
Creek  than  Stirling",  misnamed  Hog  Hollow,  had  meantime 
become  a  hive  of  industry.  Anson  Gould  had  established  a  wool 
carding  and  cloth-dressing  mill  near  the  various  milling,  brewing 
and  distilling  industries  of  the  Pauls,  but  his  light  was 
dimmed  for  a  time  by  his  incarceration  in  London  jail  as  a 
suspect  in  the  rebellion  days.  Stephen  Comfort,  however, 
managed  the  mill  in  his  absence,  and  when  released  Gould 
resumed  his  business.  Finally  he  sold  to  James  Black  wood,  who 
erected  a  large  six-story  mill,  with  a  distillery  adjoining,  on  the 
hillside  south  of  the  small  creek  now  flowing  from  Lake  Pinafore. 
A  large  mill  pond  formed  above  the  raised  embankment  of  the 
present  gravel  road  supplied  power  to  these  several  industries. 
A  break  in  the  dam  carried  away  Paul's  mill  and  litigation  between 
Paul  and  Blackwood  ensued.  At  one  point  in  the  suit 
the  fiery  Scot  brandished  a  chair,  threatening  to  brain  the 
inoffensive  plaintiff,  but  James  Shanly,  who  was  presiding, 
intervened  to  prevent  possible  bloodshed.  In  1851  Blackwood's 
mill  was  burned.  The  woollen  mill  was  dismantled,  part  of 
the  machinery  going  to  Haight's  at  Union  and  part  to  a 
neighbouring  smaller  building,  where  Stephen  Comfort's  nephew 
Hiram,  by  years  of  patient  industry,  accumulated  wealth — while 
the  ruins  of  Blnckwood's  great  mill  became  effaced  by  time  and 
the  large  water  wheel  of  the  dismantled  woollen  mill  swung  round 
only  when  daring  youths  clambered  upon  it  from  above  to  enjoy  a 
swing  from  the  momentum  imparted  by  their  weight — and  the 
mill  pond  vanished  from  the  flat  where  now  the  cattle  graze. 

In  the  spring  of  '43  an  event  occurred  in  St.  Thomas  which 
created  a  sensation  as  great  and  memories  as  lasting  as  those 
produced  by  McArthur's  raid  or  the  advent  of  the  British  troops. 
While  Farnham,  a  corpulent  carpenter,  was  quietly  working  at 
the  bench  in  his  shop  on  the  hillside  almost  opposite  the  present 


236  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

Hutchinson  House,  he  was  suddenly  confronted  by  a  huge  bear 
which  rose,  as  if  from  the  lower  regions — whence  in  fact  it  had 
come.  The  honest  sweat  on  the  carpenter's  brow  turned  icy 
cold.  He  dropped  his  tools  and  fled.  The  bear  had  clambered 
up  the  ladder  which  led  from  the  slanting  ground  below  to  a  trap 
door  in  the  floor  of  the  shop,  having  first  crossed  the  creek  and 
climbed  up  the  hill.  Now  he  followed  Farnham  out  of  the  street 
door  #.nd  ambled  down  Talbot  street  toward  the  Mansion  House. 
John  Beaupre,  the  landlord,  stood  at  the  entrance.  He  stepped 
within  and  closed  the  door  with  celerity.  Bruin  quietly  pushed  it 
open  and  made  his  way  to  the  bar-room.  Here  he  went  behind 
the  bar  and  helped  himself  to  a  drink  from  a  small  tub  used  for 
washing  glasses,  breaking  a  glass  or  two  standing  beside  it. 
The  noise  of  breaking  glass  first  attracted  the  attention  of  the 
only  occupant  of  the  room,  Dr.  Elijah  Buncombe,  who  was 
unaware  that  any  other  than  himself  was  there.  Stepping 
to  the  end  of  the  bar,  he  took  a  glance  behind.  One  glance 
sufficed.  He  fled  to  the  kitchen,  slamming  the  doors  behind  him 
as  he  went.  Bruin,  too,  became  alarmed  at  being  thus  shut  in, 
and  making  for  the  nearest  window,  went  through  it  with  a  crash, 
carrying  the  sash  with  him,  about  his  neck,  for  half  a  block  or  so. 
Young  A.  J.  Allworth  and  the  village  barber  had  seen  the  strange 
visitor  enter  the  hostelry  and  were  peeping  through  the  window 
by  which  Bruin  made  his  exit.  They  beat  a  hasty  retreat,  but 
soon  joined  with  a  great  part  of  the  population  in  the  pursuit 
which  followed.  The  bear  made  in  the  direction  of  old  St. 
Thomas  church,  down  the  hill,  swimming  Kettle  Creek  at  a  point 
where  some  workmen  were  building  a  bridge  for  the  London  and 
Port  Stanley  plank  (now  gravelled)  road,  then  being  constructed 
under  the  superintendence  of  Mr.  (afterwards  Sir  Casimir) 
Gzowski.  One  of  the  workmen  dealt  a  blow  with  his  pick  at  the 
bear  as  he  clambered  up  the  bank.  The  latter  rose  on  his  hind- 
quarters with  outstretched  arms.  To  evade  the  preferred  hug  the 
workman  hid  in  the  brush  of  a  freshly  felled  tree — and  Bruin 
passed  on  up  Turvill's  hill,  Allworth  and  the  usually  placid,  good- 
humoured  William  McKay  in  the  van  of  his  excited  pursuers. 
On  Turvill's  hill  an  Indian,  who  had  joined  in  the  pursuit,  put  a 


A  BEAR   HUNT.  237 

bullet  into  the  beast  and  an  end  to  the  hunt.  Enterprising  David 
Parish  closed  a  bargain  with  the  Indian  for  the  carcass  on  the 
spot.  John  Dodd,  who  had  started  the  game  from  his  woods  to 
the  north  of  the  town,  is  said  to  have  set  up  a  claim  and  to  have 
secured  the  skin  as  his  share.  This  is,  however,  denied. 

Accounts  indeed  differ  as  to  many  details  of  this  memorable 
event — such  as,  whether  Bruin  entered  Talbot  street  through 
Farnham's  or  Hugh  McNeil's  shop,  whether  he  cut  across  lots 
from  the  Talbot  Mansion  House  to  Walnut  street,  his  pursuers 
seeking  to  head  him  off  by  Church  street  ;  whether  he  passed 
through  the  churchyard  or  down  by  Mr.  VanBuskirk's  distillery, 
where  Lucius  Bigelow  made  potash  in  earlier  days — when  the 
accounts  of  such  veteran  authorities  as  the  late  A.  J.  Allworth  and 
the  surviving  Ted  Langan  (albeit  then  but  10  years  old)  differ  as 
to  these  details,  the  historian  must  needs  deal  cautiously  with  the 
points  in  question.  Time  has  no  doubt  added  encrustations  to  the 
original  facts,  which  in  the  main  are,  however,  as  already  narrated. 

An  omitted  chapter  has  been  supplied  to  the  writer  by  an  aged 
lady  (Mrs.  R.  B.  Nichol)  then  living  in  St.  Thomas,  though 
unfortunately  not  an  eye  witness.  Her  account — or  rather  that 
of  current  gossip  of  that  day — is  that  the  bear  passed  beyond  the 
distillery,  and  being  hard  pressed,  entered  the  open  door  of  the 
dwelling  where  Mrs.  McKay  and  her  daughter  were  living.  He 
made  his  exit  by  a  window  in  the  rear,  but  not  before  Miss  Jean 
McKay,  overcome  by  fright,  had  fallen  in  a  faint.  Daniel  Macfie, 
a  young  Scotchman,  then  employed  in  the  business  of  the 
McKays,  had  joined  in  the  chase  and  pursued  the  bear  off  the 
premises,  but  now  remained  behind  in  the  dwelling  to  help 
resuscitate  and  comfort  the  frightened  young  sister  of  his 
employers.  Nor  did  he  join  further  in  the  hunt.  As  corroborative 
evidence  of  this  added  incident,  it  may  be  mentioned  that  Miss 
Jean  McKay  afterwards  became  Mrs.  Macfie  and  her  husband  a 
leading  business  man  and  a  respected  and  wealthy  citizen  of 
London. 

Ross  and  Mclntyre,  who  began  business  as  harness  and  leather 
merchants  in  1841,  and  White  and  Mitchell,  who  commenced  a 
general  business  as  merchants  some  ten  years  later,  enlarged  the 


238  THE   TALBOT    REGIME. 

map  of  St.  Thomas  by  laying"  out  extensive  tracts  of  building1  lots, 
the  latter  firm  in  conjunction  with  Dr.  Southwick,  on  the  Davis, 
formerly  McNeal,  farm.  The  former  firm  joined  with  M.  T. 
Moore,  the  well-known  tanner,  and  first  mayor  of  St.  Thomas,  in 
plotting  a  tract  on  the  adjoining  (Barnes)  farm  to  the  east. 
The  names  of  all  six  are  perpetuated  in  St.  Thomas  in  the 
nomenclature  of  the  streets  of  those  districts. 

The  wooden  structures  which  comprised  the  business  portions 
of  St.  Thomas  in  the  30'$  and  40*5  were  largely  swept  away  by 
successive  conflagrations,  and  business  moved  ever  eastward. 
The  three  leading  taverns,  with  their  tall  sign  posts  and  swaying 
signs,  their  lower  and  upper  galleries,  where  sometimes  hung  a 
huge  iron  triangle  which  rang  out  an  invitation  to  the  public  at 
mealtimes — the  rows  of  little  stores  and  shops  standing  as  it  were 
on  stilts  along  the  crest  of  the  hill,  the  barracks  and  the  pioneer 
Methodist  church  on  Port  Stanley  street,  in  which  the  troops  were 
housed  for  a  time  when  driven  from  the  barracks  by  fire — all 
reduced  to  ashes  save  a  few  stray  tenements,  since  torn  down, 
transformed  or  moved  away — to  disclose  to  view  again  the 
beauties  of  the  landscape  to  the  north. 

While  the  soldiers  occupied  the  church  building  just  referred  to, 
after  the  burning  of  their  barracks  west  of  Church  street,  their 
parade  ground  was  changed  from  one  in  rear  of  the  latter  to  the 
present  St.  Andrew's  market  ground  behind  the  old  town  hall. 
The  site  of  the  latter  building  was  then  occupied  by  a  house  used 
for  a  guard-house,  attached  to  which  was  a  small  shop  kept  by  a 
Mrs.  Scanlan,  who,  like  most  small  traders  in  those  days,  dealt 
in  that  cheap  and  popular  beverage,  whiskey.  Two  or  three 
anecdotes  have  been  narrated  to  the  writer  by  Ted  Langan,  the 
veteran  turnkey  of  the  St.  Thomas  gaol,  which  will  illustrate  the 
degree  of  popularity  which  the  beverage  dispensed  by  Mrs. 
Scanlan  attained  among  the  soldiery  in  those  days.  Langan, 
then  a  little  boy,  was  one  day  in  Mother  Scanlan's  little  shop, 
which  candy  tempted  the  young  to  frequent,  when  his  attention 
was  attracted  by  the  sound  of  rapping  on  the  wall  in  the  direction 
of  the  soldiers'  guard-room.  He  watched  the  proprietress  go  in 
the  direction  whence  the  sound  proceeded  and,  removing  a 


ST.  THOMAS   IN   THE    FORTIES.  239 

covering-,  disclose  the  mouth  of  a  tin  funnel  which  penetrated  the 
wall,  into  which  she  forthwith  poured  a  cup  of  whiskey.  Subse- 
quent investigation  in  the  soldiers'  guard-room  showed  the 
presence  of  a  tin  vessel,  which,  when  removed  from  the  wall, 
uncovered  the  outlet  of  the  mysterious  funnel,  and,  when  held 
beneath,  caught  the  liquid  transmitted  by  Mrs.  Scanlan.  Their 
officers  meantime  wondered  how  it  was  that  the  incarcerated 
soldiers  managed  to  preserve  their  cheerfulness  while  disgraced. 
The  sentry  box  stood  between  Hope  and  Hodge's  warehouse 
and  the  church  used  as  a  barrack.  The  sentry  paced  the  street 
in  front.  One  day  the  boy  referred  to  was  summoned  by  the 
sentry,  who  handed  him  sixpence  and  requested  him  to  bring  some 
whiskey  from  Mrs.  Scanlan's,  on  the  other  side  of  Stanley  street. 
A  request  from  such  an  authority  as  the  sentry  to  a  small  boy  was 
in  the  nature  of  a  command.  He  promptly  brought  the  whiskey, 
which  a  motion  from  the  soldier  directed  him  to  deposit  in  the 
sentry  box,  to  whose  seclusion  the  sentry  presently  retired. 
Curiosity  impelled  the  boy  to  await  developments,  when,  to  his 
surprise,  he  saw  the  soldier  remove  the  stopper  from  the  barrel  of 
his  musket  and  coolly  pour  into  the  latter  the  contents  of  the 
vessel  he  had  just  brought  and  once  more  resume  his  duty.  This 
was  all  the  boy  saw,  but  it  is  surmised  the  muzzle  of  his  gun  was 
presented  to  the  heads  of  friends — and  probably  to  his  own — 
rather  than  to  enemies,  that  day  by  the  sentry. 

An  equally  ingenious  and  more  convenient  device  was  adopted 
by  some  of  the  soldiers.  Another  boy  observed  one  of  them  pour 
a  cupful  of  whiskey  down  a  tube,  formed  of  the  intestine  of  some 
animal,  which,  wound  round  the  soldier's  body,  led  up  to  a  point 
beneath  his  tunic  just  below  the  chin,  from  which  a  sip  could  be 
taken  at  his  convenience  when  opportunity  offered.  Enquiry  at 
Parish's  slaughter  house  by  the  enterprising  youths  elicited  the 
fact  that  quite  a  number  of  these  convenient  attachments  had  been 
disposed  of  to  the  soldiery. 

Before  leaving  St.  Thomas  of  the  thirties  and  forties  it  may  be 
mentioned  that  the  Tory  and  loyalist  Journal  of  the  thirties  had 
disappeared,  and  the  Standard,  ultra-loyalist  also,  was  raised  in 
its  stead,  and  lived  for  a  few  years  as  the  local  Tory  organ.  In 


240  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

February,  1851,  another  Standard  was  announced,  chiefly  an 
advertising  medium,  and  at  about  the  same  date  Mr.  N.  W. 
Bate,  a  son  of  the  former  barrack  master,  began  the  publication 
of  the  St.  Thomas  Watchman  in  the  foundry  buildings,  corner  of 
Port  Stanley  and  Centre  streets.  It  had  not  a  long  life,  though 
Bate  was  long  a  printer  in  St.  Thomas,  and  from  time  to  time 
produced  other  publications,  the  best  known  of  which  was  a  semi- 
weekly  called  the  Rough  Notes.  Bate  was  also  a  jockey  of  great 
local  reputation,  who  usually  led  in  the  annual  Queen's  Birthday 
races  in  St.  Thomas  for  many  years.  The  light  of  the  St. 
Thomas  Liberal  had  been  extinguished,  as  has  been  seen,  in  '37. 
The  St.  Thomas  Chronicle,  published  by  Messrs.  O'Reilly  and 
Newcombe,  was  the  local  Reform  organ  in  the  early  forties. 
They  sold  out  their  press  and  type  to  the  proprietor  of  the 
Standard  in  '44  and  the  Chronicle  ceased.  In  1846  Mr.  L.  C. 
Kearney,  an  Irishman,  with  an  extremely  flowery  literary  style, 
who  had  been  connected  with  the  London  Inquirer,  began  the 
publication  of  a  new  Reform  paper  in  St.  Thomas,  called  the 
Canadian  Freeman. 

In  connection  with  the  demise  of  the  St.  Thomas  Chronicle  a 
singular  incident  occurred,  connected  with  the  development  of 
responsible  government  in  the  province.  It  has  already  been 
mentioned  that  Thomas  Parke  had  been  twice  elected  in  conjunc- 
tion with  Elias  Moore  of  Yarmouth  and  he  was  in  1841  once  more 
returned,  this  time  alone,  as  the  member  for  Middlesex  in  the  first 
parliament  after  the  union.  All  along  he  had  fought  with  the 
Liberals  for  responsible  government.  His  party  came  into  power 
and  Mr.  Parke  was  appointed  Surveyor-General.  On  Lord 
Metcalfe  taking  the  reins,  the  memorable  controversy  between  the 
Hon.  Robt.  Baldwin  and  the  governor  led  to  the  former  and  his 
friends  going  into  opposition.  Mr.  Parke,  who  retained  both  his 
office  and  seat,  wrote  a  letter  to  his  friend,  Adam  Hope,  of  St. 
Thomas,  defining  his  views,  which  Mr.  Hope  published  in  the 
Chronicle.  His  views  on  the  subject  of  patronage  were  those  of 
the  governor  and  not  of  his  former  political  associates.  The 
Toronto  Globe  and  other  Liberal  journals  denounced  him.  He 
still  held  to  his  contention  that  Baldwin  and  his  friends  were  now 


MR.   NOTMAN.  241 

fighting  for  a  policy  of  proscription,  political  and  religious,  seek- 
ing to  govern  for  the  benefit  of  one  party  only.  He  sought  for 
re-nomination  in  Middlesex.  Conventions  were  held  and  he 
fought  the  matter  out  with  the  members  of  his  party  at  St. 
Thomas.  Mr.  Hincks  brought  Mr.  Notman,  a  lawyer  of  note, 
from  Dundas,  who  at  length  received  the  party  nomination. 
Edward  Ermatinger  was  the  Conservative  candidate,  and  through 
his  paper,  the  Standard,  denounced  Mr.  Parke  as  strongly  as  did 
most  of  the  latter's  former  friends.  Parke  still  persisted  that  he 
was  in  the  right,  and  all  three  candidates  went  to  the  poll.  The 
vote  at  the  close  of  the  poll  stood  for  Mr.  Ermatinger  1,000,  for 
Mr.  Notman  993,  for  Mr.  Parke  46.  Mr.  Ermatinger  was 
declared  elected.  He  had  been  defeated  in  the  previous  election 
(1841)  by  Mr.  Parke,  the  vote  then  being  for  Parke  842,  for 
Ermatinger  602.  The  St.  Thomas  Chronicle  ceased  publication 
almost  with  the  issue  in  which  Mr.  Parke's  letter  appeared.  A 
series  of  resolutions  proposed  in  the  house  by  Mr.  Ermatinger  in 
June,  1847,  regarding  the  repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws  in  England, 
which  may  be  found  of  some  interest  in  view  of  the  political 
agitation  now  going  on  in  the  motherland,  appears  in  an  appendix. 
It  remains  to  be  said  that  St.  Thomas  became  incorporated  first 
as  a  village  in  1852,  with  David  Parish  as  its  first  reeve.  The 
old  town  hall,  which  bears  on  its  face  the  date  1851,  was  erected 
by  the  township  of  Yarmouth.  The  village  took  it  over  and  paid 
the  township  for  it. 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 

LONDON  IN  THE  '40*8 — KILLALY  BANQUET — FIRES. — LORD  ELGIN. 

LONDON,  in  the  forties,  was  enlightened  by  a  number  of  successors 
to  the  original  Sun,  whose  light  had  long  since  gone  out,  but 
whose  editor,  E.  A.  Talbot,  made  an  attempt  to  establish  the 
London  Freeman's  Journal  about  1839.  The  Gazette,  published 
by  T.  and  B.  Hodgkinson,  and  the  Canada  Inquirer,  by  C.  H. 
Hackstaff,  were,  however,  the  Conservative  and  Reform  papers, 
respectively,  of  London  in  the  early  forties.  The  former  was  in 
its  fifth  volume  in  1840,  and  the  latter  had  been  established  before 
that  year.  Both  were  weekly  papers,  and  both  were  published  in 
Ridout  street — the  court  house  square  being  still  the  chief  centre 
of  London.  By  1847  the  town  had  so  far  spread  its  business  that 
Joseph  Cowley  was  publishing  the  London  Times  "in  Richmond 
street,  near  the  English  church  and  independent  chapel."  It  was 
a  weekly  paper  too,  as  was  also  at  first  the  Canadian  Free  Press, 
established  in  1849  by  William  Sutherland.  The  latter  journal, 
however,  passed  into  the  hands  of  Josiah  Blackburn  in  1852,  who, 
in  1855,  began  the  publication  of  the  Daily  Free  Press,  the  well 
known  and  widely  read  journal  which  has  continued  down  to  the 
present  day.  The  Western  Globe,  though  purporting  to  be 
published  at  London,  where  it  was  issued  to  the  public  by  Gordon 
Brown  and  W.  H.  Niles,  successively  its  agents,  was,  in  reality, 
printed  at  Toronto. 

With  such  continuity  in  journalism,  it  is  less  difficult  to  trace 
the  local  history  of  the  rising  capital  of  the  district  than  in  the 
very  early  days. 

The  regular  troops  being  now  withdrawn  from  St.  Thomas, 
London  had  become  the  garrison  town  of  the  west,  with  usually 
more  than  one  regiment  of  infantry^  as  well  as  artillery  and 


LAWRENCE    LAWRASON, 

MAGISTRATE   OF    LONDON. 


THE   EARL   OF   ELGIN. 


HON.    JUSTICE   JOHN    WILSON.  HON.    G.    J.    GOODHUE. 

From  Illustrated  London  (Copyrighted)    bv  permission  of  London  Ptg,  &>  Litho.  Co. 


LONDON    IN   THE   FORTIES.  243 

engineers.  The  country  having  once  more  settled  down  ,  the  officers, 
by  1840,  were  catering  to  the  amusement  of  the  civilians,  as  well  as 
amusing  themselves,  by  public  dramatic  performances  at  the 
Theatre  Royal. 

There  was  an  ample  military  reserve  between  Waterloo  and 
Richmond  streets,  extending  from  Bond  street,  now  Dufferin 
avenue,  on  the  south  to  Carling's  Creek  on  the  north,  some 
twenty-four  acres.  On  this  were  erected  infantry  barracks,  the 
first  entirely  of  logs,  it  is  said,  and  east  of  Wellington  street, 
about  where  Wolfe  street  now  is  ;  then  frame  barracks  west  of 
Wellington,  and  artillery  and  commissariat  buildings  at  the  north- 
east angle  of  Wellington  and  Bond  streets.  The  parade  ground, 
with  its  stump  fence,  to  the  south  of  the  infantry  barracks,  has 
been  already  referred  to.  North  of  these  barracks  the  land  was 
subsequently,  for  many  years,  used  for  exhibition  purposes. 
Henceforth  London  was  destined  to  be  one  of  the  chief  military 
stations  in  Canada,  its  streets  gay  with  red  coats,  its  social  life 
and  habits  largely  influenced  by  their  presence. 

As  district  capital,  too,  the  town  was  of  growing  importance. 
Judge  Allen  had  succeeded  Judge  Mitchell  as  district  judge,  and 
in  1847  Judge  Givens  took  the  place  of  Judge  Allen.  Of  the 
old  officials,  Colonel  Askin  and  John  Harris  remained,  while 
James  Hamilton  was  sheriff  and  James  B.  Strathy,  district  clerk, 
Joseph  B.  Clench,  of  Delaware,  license  inspector,  and  William 
(afterward  Judge)  Elliott,  Superintendent  of  Schools.  Mr.  Henry 
C.  R.  Becher  had,  in  1840,  an  office  on  King  street,  opposite  the 
south  end  of  the  court  house.  William  Horton,  barrister,  had,  in 
January,  1840,  an  office  a  few  doors  east  of  Joyce  and  Matthews' 
store,  Dundas  street. 

Mr.  Horton,  an  Irishman  by  birth,  came  in  childhood  with  his 
father  to  the  township  of  Elizabethtown,  studied  law  in  Brockville 
and  was  called  to  the  bar  in  1839.  He  had  previously  served 
with  the  militia,  and  was  present  at  the  battle  of  the  "  Windmill  " 
at  Prescott,  when  Von  Schultz  surrendered.  He  subsequently 
rose  to  the  rank  of  Major  in  the  militia,  became  Recorder  of 
London  and  Deputy  Judge.  He  lived  to  be  the  oldest  legal 
practitioner  in  London,  as  did  his  brother  Edward  in  St.  Thomas, 


244  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

where  the  brothers  finally  united  in  partnership  and  both  died,  of 
recent  years.  They  married  sisters,  daughters  of  Richard 
Richardson,  the  pioneer  bank  manager  of  London.  Both  were 
kindly,  generous  hearted  men,  whose  practice  in  both  towns  and 
the  district  generally  was  at  one  period  very  extensive.  Thomas 
Scatcherd,  already  elsewhere  referred  to,  also  began  a  long  and 
honourable  career  at  the  bar  in  the  forties. 

One  of  the  most  notable  additions,  after  these,  to  the  legal 
profession  in  London  of  the  forties  was  Ephraim  Jones  Parke,  the 
son  of  Thomas  Parke,  the  builder  of  the  court  house  and  Surveyor- 
General  referred  to  in  the  last  chapter.  Young  Parke  was  born 
at  York  in  1823,  studied  law  with  Sir  John  A.  McDonald  and  Sir 
Alexander  Campbell  at  Kingston,  and  afterward  with  John  Wilson 
at  London,  where  he  began  practice  in  1846  at  No.  9  Dundas 
street.  He  practiced  at  Woodstock  for  a  short  time,  but  soon 
returned  to  London,  where  he  continued  in  practice  for  the  rest  of 
his  life,  which  covered,  chiefly,  the  latter  half  of  the  century.  It 
may  be  here  mentioned  that  he  married,  in  later  days,  a  daughter 
of  Dr.  Southwick,  of  St.  Thomas,  at  one  time  M.  P.  for  East 
Elgin,  and  that  he  became,  after  Mr.  Lawrason,  the  police 
magistrate  of  London. 

There  were,  in  all,  some  seven  lawyers  and  an  equal  number  of 
doctors  in  practice  in  London  in  the  middle  of  the  forties — among 
the  latter  Dr.  Henry  Going,  Dr.  Moore,  Dr.  Anderson  and  Dr. 
John  Travers.  Druggists,  too,  were  not  wanting,  the  veteran 
John  Salter's  pestle  and  mortar  being  in  evidence  opposite  the 
court  house,  and  Lyman  Moore  and  Co.'s  on  Dundas  street. 
William  Gunn  and  Co.,  Smith,  Moore  and  Co.,  Douglas  and 
Warren,  L.  Lawrason,  Lawrason  and  Chisholm,  Edward  Adams, 
Hope,  Birrell  and  Co.,  Angus  and  Birrell,  J.  and  J.  Dougall,  John 
Norvall,  bookseller — these  names  and  others  might  be  recalled  as 
evidence  of  London's  mercantile  life  in  the  forties. 

The  hum  of  industrial  enterprise,  too,  began  to  make 
itself  heard.  It  disturbed  the  serenity  of  the  Harris  family 
at  Eldon  House,  among  others.  When  Elijah  Leonard  came  over 
from  St.  Thomas,  recognizing  with  American  shrewdness  that  the 
refusal  of  an  offer  from  the  military  authorities  for  a  property  for 


THE   FIRST   STEAM   ENGINE.  245 

military  purposes  at  the  latter  town  meant  a  "  boom  "  for  London, 
he  established  his  foundry  at  the  corner  of  Ridout  and  Fullerton 
streets  and  commenced  to  manufacture  there,  on  completion  of  his 
works,  in  1839.  He  used  horse  power  at  first,  and,  among  other 
things,  a  fan  about  four  feet  in  diameter.  "  It  did  me  good 
service,"  wrote  Mr.  Leonard  long  afterward,  "but  made  such  a 
horrid  noise  that  it  proved  a  nuisance  to  the  whole  neighbourhood, 
especially  so  to  my  friend,  the  late  John  Harris,  whose  dwelling 
(the  old  Eldon  House)  was  nearly  opposite.  Mr.  Harris  declared 
that  his  wife  and  daughters  had  to  leave  the  house  when  we 
commenced  to  melt,  but  I  could  not  afford  then  to  make  a  change. 
However,  I  got  it  to  operate  with  less  noise,  and 
replaced  it  with  a  double  crank  piston  bellows."  In  '42  or  '43 
Mr.  Leonard  went  to  Cleveland,  in  company  with  Mr.  Chas. 
Hope,  who  was  taking  over  a  ship-load  of  lumber  for  sale.  There 
he  saw  a  steam  engine  cylinder  and  some  parts  unfinished.  Mr. 
Hope  could  not  dispose  of  his  lumber  to  advantage,  so  it  was 
turned  in  trade  for  the  engine  and  paid  for  by  Mr.  Leonard,  who 
soon  put  the  parts  together  and  fitted  them  in  his  works. 
Mr.  Leonard  said  : 

"This  was  the  first  steam  engine,  so  far  as  I  knew,  started  in  Western 
Canada,  and  it  did  continuous  and  good  service  until  1866,  when  it  was 

destroyed  by  fire I  well  remember  when  we  started  it  for  the 

first  time.  Not  only  did  my  fellow-townsmen  turn  out  in  good  numbers,  but 
some  came  from  St.  Thomas  to  see  this  wonderful  piece  of  machinery  start 
off.  They  nearly  filled  my  little  shop.  We  carried  the  steam  from  boiler  to 
engine  in  cast  iron  pipes,  and  the  steam  was  admitted  by  an  ordinary  stop- 
cock to  the  engine.  The  plug  of  this  cock  had  not  been  properly  secured,  and 
when  the  steam  pressure  got  up  a  few  pounds  it  blew  out  with  considerable 
noise,  immediately  filling  the  room  with  steam.  Oh,  such  a  scattering  of 
spectators !  Windows  and  doors  were  not  large  enough  to  let  my  friends 
out.  They  were  awfully  frightened,  and  tumbled  over  each  other  in  their 
excitement.  I  knew  pretty  well  what  was  the  matter,  and  crawled  under  the 
steam  and  screwed  the  plug  in  its  place.  The  engine  went  off  nicely,  but  I 
never  could  get  some  of  my  friends  nearer  than  the  door  afterward." 

By  1845  this  enterprising  manufacturer  was  advertising  the 
manufacture  of  steam  engines  at  his  own  works,  and  having 
already  built  one  for  Paul  and  Rhykert  in  St.  Thomas,  he  soon 


246  THE   TALBOT    REGIME. 

after  obtained  and  filled  orders  for  others  for  E.  W.  Hyman's  and 
Simeon  Merrill's  tanneries,  and  Mountjoy's  veneer  mill,  all  in 
London,  and  others  outside. 

In  1840  the  town  of  London  was,  by  a  special  Act,  placed  in 
charge  of  a  president  and  board  of  police.  This  government 
continued  for  seven  years.  The  seven  presidents  are  fairly 
representative  of  the  town  as  it  then  was.  They  were,  in  the  order 
of  service,  as  follows  :  George  J.  Goodhue,  James  Givens, 
Edward  Matthews,  James  Farley,  John  Balkwill,  T.  W.  Shepherd 
and  Hiram  D.  Lee.  The  names  of  the  clerks  during  the  same 
period  were  Alex.  Robertson,  D.  J.  Hughes,  W.  K.  Cornish  (two 
years),  George  Railton,  Thomas  Scatcherd,  and  Henry  Hamilton. 

In  1847,  by  reason  of  the  increase  of  population  and  commerce, 
this  government  was  found  insufficient  and  a  new  Act  was 
procured,  placing  the  town  affairs  in  the  hands  of  a  mayor  and 
council.  The  town  was  also  to  embrace  all  the  lands  comprised 
within  the  old  and  new  surveys,  together  with  the  lands  adjoining 
and  lying  between  such  surveys  and  the  River  Thames — producing 
the  northern  boundary  line  of  the  new  survey  until  it  intersected  the 
north  branch  of  the  river,  and  producing  the  eastern  boundary 
line  of  the  same  new  survey  until  it  intersected  the  east  branch  of 
the  river.  This  new  government  continued  until  the  incorporation 
of  the  city  of  London  in  1855,  the  mayors,  in  the  meantime,  being, 
in  order  of  their  election,  Simeon  Morrill,  Thomas  C.  Dixon, 
Edward  Adams  and  Marcus  Holmes. 

The  fact  has  been  already  mentioned  that  Colonel  Mahlon 
Burwell,  one  of  the  former  representatives  of  Middlesex  in  the 
provincial  parliament,  was,  in  1835,  elected  the  first  representative 
of  the  Town  of  London  in  the  House*.  He  was  succeeded  in  1841 
by  the  Hon.  Hamilton  H.  Killaly,  who  thus  became  the  member 
for  London  in  the  first  parliament  after  the  union  of  the  pro- 
vinces. Mr.  Killaly  was  one  of  a  number  of  Irish  gentry  who  had 
settled  in  London  township,  where  he  had  a  farm.  He  was  an 

*Freeman  Talbot  is  authority  for  the  statement  that  this  election  resulted  in 
a  tie,  the  candidates,  Burwell  and  Scatcherd,  receiving-  but  37  votes  each,  the 
returning  officer,  presumably,  giving  the  casting  vole.  Thomas  Cassick  is 
named  as  the  first  voter.  The  writer  has  not  been  able  to  verify,  but  has  no 
reason  to  doubt  the  statement. 


KILLALY   BANQUET.  247 

engineer  by  profession,  and  was  appointed  by  Lord  Sydenham  a 
member  of  his  executive  council  on  lyth  March,  1841,  and  was  sub- 
sequently made  president  of  the  Board  of  Works  of  the  province, 
serving-  under  Sir  Charles  Bagot  after  Lord  Sydenham's  death  in 
September. 

On  the  evening  of  Monday,  7th  March,  1842,  his  constituents 
gave  a  dinner  in  his  honour  at  the  Robinson  Hall  hotel,  to  which 
about  seventy  of  the  inhabitants  sat  down.  The  popularity  of  the 
guest  was  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  fully  one-third  of  the  seventy 
gentlemen  present,  including  several  active  members  of  the  commit- 
tee in  charge,  were  described  as  opponents  of  their  guest  at  the 
previous  election.  The  importance  of  his  department  to  London, 
in  common  with  the  rest  of  the  province,  in  the  matter  of  roads  and 
other  works,  was  frankly  recognized  in  the  speeches.  "  George  J. 
Goodhue,  Esq.,  presided  and  Dr.  Anderson  acted  as  croupier,"  to 
quote  from  the  Inquirer's  report  of  the  affair,  "  both  of  whom 
conducted  the  business  of  their  departments  with  great  good  taste 
and  to  the  perfect  satisfaction  of  the  party  assembled."  The 
arrangement  of  the  table  and  decorations  of  the  room  were 
admirable.  Though  rather  crowded,  there  was  ample  accommo- 
dation for  all  to  enjoy  the  proceedings.  "  The  beautiful  device  of 
St.  George  and  the  dragon,  supported  upon  each  side  by  the  flags 
of  St.  George  and  St.  Andrew,"  the  Scotch  thistle,  and  appropri- 
ate and  beautiful  engravings,  were  among  the  decorations.  The 
band  of  the  83rd  regiment  discoursed  music  in  the  adjoining  hall. 
The  loyal  toasts  of  the  Queen,  Prince  Albert,  the  Prince  of  Wales, 
and  the  Governor-General,  prefaced  by  a  graceful  speech,  fervently 
loyal,  containing  a  reference  to  the  recent  birth  of  an  heir  to  the 
throne,  were  proposed  by  the  chairman,  as  was  the  toast  of  the 
evening,  the  health  of  the  guest. 

Mr.  Goodhue  made  a  tactful  reference  to  the  manner  in  which 
Mr.  Killaly  had  been  secured  as  a  candidate — one  who  knew  the 
wants  of  his  constituents  and  could  urge  them  in  the  house.  A 
feeling  allusion  to  the  first  waggon  put  on  these  roads  for  the 
conveyance  of  Her  Majesty's  mail — known  as  "  the  bone  bruiser  '' 
— was  made.  "  My  bones,"  said  the  chairman,  "  to  this  day  bear 
witness  that  the  name  was  very  appropriately  given."  The  guest 


248  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

responded  in  the  happiest  manner,  saying  that  Sir  Charles  Bagot, 
the  Governor-General,  was  so  ardent  in  his  desire  to  complete  the 
public  improvements  of  the  county  that  the  blame  would  rest  with 
him  (Mr.  K.)  if  unnecessary  delay  occurred  in  their  completion. 

A  list  of  the  remaining  toasts  and  their  proposers  will  be  of 
interest  now.  Mr.  Killaly  gave  the  health  of  "Mr.  Goodhue  and 
the  constituency  of  London,"  the  vice-chairman  "the  memory  of 
the  late  Lord  Sydenham" — who  had  recently  died — drunk  in  solemn 
silence — Colonel  Askin  "The  Ministry,"  W.  W.  Street  Esq., 
*'  The  Army  and  Navy,"  the  sheriff  "The  Fair  of  Canada,"  James 
Farley  Esq.,  "England,  Scotland  and  Ireland,"  A.  Keir  Esq., 
"Colonel  Wetheral,  Col.  Trydell,  and  the  garrison  of  London," 
Dr.  Anderson  "Thomas  Parke  Esq.,  our  member  for  the 
county,"  T.  Keir  Esq.,  "The  Liberty  of  the  Press,"  A.  S. 
Armstrong  Esq.,  "Canada," — "Civil  and  Religous  Liberty," 
"The  House  of  Assembly,"  "Board  of  Police,"  "London 
Mechanics  Institute,"  and  numerous  other  toasts  and  as  numerous 
speeches  followed — from  which  it  may  be  inferred  that  the  closing 
statement  of  the  report  is  correct — "that  the  whole  business  of 
the  evening  passed  off  to  the  entire  satisfaction  of  everybody,  and 
was  kept  up  till  a  late  hour  with  spirit  and  hilarity."  A  very 
considerable  number  of  those  assembled  were  stated  to  be 
teetotallers,  who,  if  they  were  invited  to  take  wine,  took  water, 
which  became  the  subject  of  numberless  jokes.  The  belief  of  the 
reporter  is  expressed  as  being  ' '  that  the  teetotal  cause  was 
essentially  benefited  on  the  occasion,"  because  its  advocates 
could  display  at  once  their  sincerity  and  their  freedom  from 
bigotry.  It  would  be  interesting  to  know  at  this  day,  however, 
whether  the  teetotallers  all  sat  out  the  proceedings  to  the  end. 

In  1844,  Mr.  Lawrason,  who  defeated  Mr.  John  Duggan, 
succeeded  Mr.  Killaly  in  the  representation  of  London  and  during 
his  second  session  gave  place  to  the  Hon.  W.  H.  Draper  who 
had  become  government  leader  in  the  assembly,  who  held  the 
seat  until  his  elevation  to  the  Bench,  when  in  1848  John  Wilson 
became  the  town's  representative  in  parliament  on  the  Conserva- 
tive side.  Lord  Elgin  was  now  governor-general  and  the  second 
Lafontaine-Baldwin  administration  in  power.  On  the  rebellion 


ELECTIONS.  249 

losses  Bill  being-  carried,  Mr.  Wilson  denounced  the  riotous 
proceedings  which  followed,  and  was  blamed  for  showing  sym- 
pathy with  rebels  (he  had  defended  a  number  of  the  rebel  prisoners 
when  on  trial),  and  having  incurred  some  censure  at  home  for  his 
course,  resigned  his  seat  to  test  the  question,  and  was  re-elected 
without  serious  opposition.  He  continued  to  represent  London 
until  1851.  when  he  was  defeated  by  some  12  votes  by  Mr.  T.  C. 
Dixon,  a  hatter  of  the  town  and  a  Tory.  In  1854,  he,  in  turn, 
defeated  Mr.  Dixon,  and  once  more  resumed  the  representation  of 
London  in  the  House. 

Mr.  Wilson's  defeat  by  Mr.  Dixon  was  attributed,  in  some 
measure,  to  his  being  charged  with  an  indiscreet  reference  to  the 
Irish  population  on  the  floor  of  parliament.  Similarly  an 
unguarded  expression  said  to  have  been  used  by  Edward  Erma- 
tinger  at  London  in  referring  to  his  Scotch  opponents,  imme- 
diately after  his  election  for  Middlesex,  in  1844,  referred  to  in  the 
last  chapter,  was  made  use  of  against  him  at  the  next  election 
with  telling  effect.  Mr.  Notman,  whom  he  had  defeated  in  1844, 
got  his  revenge  in  1848,  notwithstanding  that  George  Lawton,  of 
Yarmouth,  having  returned  from  exile  since  the  rebellion,  pub- 
lished a  three  column  address  in  opposition  to  the  non-resident 
lawyer,  denouncing  the  nomination  convention,  from  which  he  had 
been  excluded,  as  a  packed  body  and  finally  announcing  himself 
as  a  candidate. 

As  in  St.  Thomas,  so  also  in  London,  successive  conflagrations 
changed  the  face  of  things.  The  old  frame  church,  St.  Paul's, 
was  appropriately  enough  reduced  to  ashes  on  Ash  Wednesday, 
February,  1844.  The  foundation  stone  of  the  present  edifice  was 
laid  in  presence  of  a  large  concourse  of  people  by  Bishop 
Strachan  of  Toronto  on  24th  June  following.  Meantime  the 
congregation  worshipped  in  the  old  Mechanics'  Institute,  a  frame 
building  on  the  court  house  square. 

On  8th  October,  '44,  about  2  a.  m.,  a  fire  broke  out  in  a  back 
kitchen  attached  to  a  store  then  lately  occupied  by  Mr.  John 
Claris,  then  by  McKeand  &  Bell.  Dixon's  hat  shop,  Birrell's 
extensive  dry  goods  store  and  Craig's  bookstore  were  next 
consumed.  Then  the  whole  block  in  which  they  stood  was 


250  THE  TALBOT  REGIME. 

consumed.  Every  effort  was  made  to  limit  the  fire  to  this  block. 
What  followed  will  be  given  in  the  language  of  a  correspondent 
of  the  St.  Thomas  Standard,  both  for  the  sake  of  accuracy,  and 
that  his  thrilling  style  may  be  compared  with  the  "  write  up  "  of 
similar  scenes  by  reporters  at  the  present  day  : 

All  was  done  that  human  ingenuity  could  devise,  or  human  intrepidity 
could  accomplish  ;  but  all  was  done  in  vain.  It  swept  with  unabated  fury 
from  its  eastern  bounds  across  the  street.  Five  buildings,  comprising 
Balkwill's  hotel,  Mr.  Tyas'  store,  Mr.  Gibbin's  saddler  shop,  and  three  other 
buildings,  broke  at  once  into  a  spontaneous  and  brilliant  illumination,  awfully 
in  contrast  with  the  feelings  and  faces  that  mournfully  gazed  on  the  terrific 
spectacle.  "The  town  is  gone  !  "  was  now  the  spirit-broken  cry  ;  but  it  was 
not  so  to  be.  The  awful  instrument  of  wrath,  like  an  irresistible  sister 
element,  was  held  in  check  by  the  hand  of  mercy,  and  thus  far  and  no  farther 
was  it  allowed  to  go.  A  space  between  its  present  position  and  Mr.  O'Brien's 
dwelling  house  occurring,  formed  as  it  were,  the  gap  between  the  living  and 
the  dead.  Intense  apprehensions,  however,  were  entertained  for  the 
Robinson  Hall  and  adjacent  buildings,  at  the  western  end,  but  the  brick  store 
of  Mr.  John  Grey  happening  to  terminate  the  opposite  extremity,  and  thus 
taking  off  the  intensity  of  reflecting  heat,  the  fire  did  not  communicate.  The 
brick  store,  with  indefatigable  assiduity,  was  saved,  but  it  passed  behind  and 
up  Ridout  street,  turning  at  North  street,  principally  comprising  barns  and 
stables,  which  were  all  consumed,  until  it  completed  the  devastation  of  the 
entire  block  at  the  north-eastern  corner. 

In  all  about  thirty  buildings  were  consumed.  Major  Holmes 
and  his  Fusiliers  rendered  valuable  assistance  and  the  town  fire 
company  "behaved  in  a  gallant  and  distinguished  manner." 
Happily,  no  life  was  lost. 

The  Robinson  Hall  and  adjacent  buildings  did  not  long  escape 
a  similar  fate.  On  Sunday,  i3th  April,  '45,  while  service  was  in 
progress  in  the  Mechanics'  Institute  already  referred  to,  a  fire 
broke  out  in  the  Robinson  Hall  hotel  across  the  way.  The  result 
was  the  most  disastrous  fire  in  the  history  of  London  up  to  that 
and  for  a  long  time  after.  About  150  buildings  were  consumed. 
Again  the  military — the  2nd  Royals — did  good  service  in  guarding 
property  and  preserving  order.  The  district  bounded  by  Ridout, 
Dundas  and  Talbot  streets  was  completely  swept. 

Not  alone  in  fires  did  the  history  of  St.  Thomas  repeat  itself  in 
London.  In  the  year  following  that  in  which  the  bear  invaded 


EARLY   VIEW   OF    LONDON    FROM    THE    WEST,   FROM    A    PAINTING    BY  JAMES    HAMILTON. 
From  Illustrated  London.    (Copyrighted.) 


WHARNCLIFFE    ROAD,    ABOUT    1850,    FROM    A   PAINTING    BY  JAMES    HAMILTON. 
From  Illustrated  London.     (Copyrighted.)     By  permission  of  the  London  Ptg  &*  Litho.   Co. 


LORD   ELGIN'S  VISIT.  251 

the  Mansion  House  bar  in  St.  Thomas,  a  member  of  the  same 
family — possibly  a  near  relative — visited  London  and  a  living 
witness  to  his  death  in  the  river  just  below  the  court  house  still 
survives  in  the  person  of  Verschoyle  Cronyn,  Esq. 

The  great  fires,  while  they  entailed  much  suffering,  greatly 
improved  the  character  of  the  town's  buildings  and  the  general 
appearance  of  the  place.  Handsome  streets  of  brick  buildings 
three  and  four  stories  in  height  took  the  place  of  the  old  frame 
structures.  A  new  brick  Robinson  Hall  hotel  became  one  of  the 
proud  features  and  the  leading  hostelry  until  its  proprietor,  Mr. 
Bennett,  projected  the  present  "  Tecumseh  House."  Balkwill's 
"Hope  hotel,"  the  "Western  hotel,"  the  "London  Coffee 
House"  with  "Lee's"  and  "Scott's"  meantime  furnished 
comfortable  accommodation  in  1845-6. 

The  town  now  (1846)  possessed  ten  churches  of  various 
denominations — a  daily  postal  service,  with  stages  leaving  over 
improved  roads  (thanks  to  Killaly)  daily  for  Hamilton,  Chatham 
and  Detroit,  three  times  a  week  for  Port  Sarnia  and  Port  Stanley 
and  twice  a  week  for  Goderich.  A  weekly  newspaper — they  liked  to 
call  them  "  hebdomadals  "  then — the  Times,  held  the  field  alone  for 
a  time.  The  population  numbered  3,500.  The  registrarship  was 
that  year  vacant,  but  John  H.  Caddy  continued  to  do  business  as  a 
land  agent.  The  Upper  Canada,  Montreal,  Commercial  and  Gore 
Banks  had  agencies  in  the  town. 

The  year  1849  was  memorable  in  the  history  of  London  as  being 
the  year  of  Lord  Elgin's  visit.  He  had  been  mobbed  in  Montreal 
and  the  parliament  buildings  had  been  burned  by  rioters  who  took 
that  mode  of  expressing  dissatisfaction  with  the  Rebellion  Losses 
bill,  under  which  those  who  had  suffered  loss  on  the  rebel  or 
patriot  side  in  the  rebellion  were  to  be  indemnified.  London's 
representative,  Mr.  Wilson,  though  elected  originally  as  a  Con- 
servative, had  taken  ground  against  these  actions  of  the  adherents 
of  his  party,  and  was  sustained  by  his  constituents,  as  has  been 
seen,  in  the  course  he  took.  A  large  number  of  the  Tories  in  the 
west  determined  to  mark  their  disapprobation  of  the  Governor- 
General's  course  in  not  withholding  his  assent  to  the  bill,  upon 
the  occasion  of  his  visit  to  the  west.  James  Blackwood,  of  St. 


252  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

Thomas,  headed  a  procession  of  well  nigh  100  teams  from  the 
south,  while  from  all  directions  came  hotheads  ready  for  any  mad 
project  which  would  serve  to  show  a  public  outburst  of  resentment 
against  the  Queen's  representative.  The  arches  and  other 
decorations  raised  in  honour  of  the  approaching-  visitor  were 
attacked  with  axes  and  destroyed.  William  Coyne  of  St.  Thomas 
was  one  of  those  who  suffered  from  a  blow  on  the  head  for 
attempting  to  stop  the  spoliation.  Riot  and  even  bloodshed 
seemed  imminent  and  wild  disorder  reigned.  Mayor  Dickson, 
with  Murdock  Mackenzie  of  St.  Thomes  and  Mr.  Lawrason  and 
Mr.  Mathews  of  London,  rode  out  to  intercept  Lord  Elgin  at 
Nilestown,  where  he  had  stopped  for  luncheon  at  Mr.  Niles',  and 
endeavour  to  dissuade  him  from  entering  the  town.  The  governor 
was  not  a  man  to  be  intimidated.  "  I  am  going-  into  London" 
was  his  only  response  to  the  delegation,  and  into  London  he  went, 
escorted  by  so  strong  a  phalanx  of  Liberals  and  lovers  of  law  and 
order,  that  the  rioters  saw  that  further  resistence  was  useless. 
At  the  Robinson  Hall  the  Governor-General's  procession  halted, 
addresses  were  presented  and  Lord  Elgin's  clear-toned  voice  and 
well  rounded  sentences  were  heard  by  a  large  concourse,  among1 
whom  were  many  whose  feelings  were  still  bitter  against  him. 

Lord  Elgin  was  the  guest  of  Mr.  Goodhue  during  his  stay,  and 
that  evening-  at  a  dinner  in  his  honour  given  by  his  host  met  many 
of  the  leading  men  of  all  parties.  John  Wilson,  member  for  the 
town,  was  of  course  present,  also  his  broher-in-law,  D.  J.Hughes.* 

Many  governor's  have  entered  London  since  that  day,  but  none 
whose  entry  was  made  under  circumstances  so  trying,  nor 
carried  out  with  a  better  grace  on  the  part  of  the  distinguished 
visitor,  than  was  Lord  Elgin's  in  1849. 

*The  writer  has  been  informed  by  Judge  Hughes  of  an  interesting  fact  in 
connection  with  Mr.  Wilson's  life,  illustrative  of  his  sterling  character.  His 
father  had  left  Paisley,  where  he  had  been  a  shop-keeper,  and  came  to 
Canada,  leaving  a  number  of  debts  unpaid.  On  his  son  attaining  sufficient 
means,  he  went  to  Scotland  and  paid  off  all  these  creditors,  those  who  did  not 
expressly  waive  their  claim  to  interest,  receiving  it  as  well  as  the  original 
debt  in  full.  This  action  of  Mr.  Wilson  enabled  his  father  to  return  to  his 
native  land  without  any  feeling  of  dishonour.  A  similar  course  of  conduct  on 
the  part  of  the  Hon.  Geo.  Brown,  as  regards  his  father's  Scotch  creditors,  was 
brought  out,  it  is  said,  during  a  debate  in  which  the  Reform  leader  was 
taunted  on  account  of  his  father's  having  left  unpaid  debts  in  Scotland. 


CHAPTER  XXXII. 

PROGRESS  OF  THE  SETTLEMENT,  MUNICIPALLY,   MATERIALLY,  ETC. 

A  BRIEF  survey  of  the  affairs  of  the  settlement  generally  and  of 
the  progress  made  therein  will  now  be  in  order. 

Under  an  act  passed  in  1837  the  county  of  Oxford  had  been  set 
apart  as  the  district  of  Brock,  Norfolk  as  the  district  of  Talbot, 
leaving  the  county  of  Middlesex  only  in  the  London  district. 
Kent  and  Essex  still  formed  the  Western  district.  In  these 
districts  the  magistracy  in  Quarter  Sessions  continued  to  hold 
sway,  not  only  as  to  court  business  as  now  understood,  but  as  to 
the  location  and  alteration  of  highways  and  other  civil  affairs  of 
the  districts.  Previous  to  1835  they  had  exercised  undivided 
jurisdiction  in  such  matters,  but  from  that  year  commissioners  and 
other  officers  were  directed  to  be  chosen  in  each  township 
who  performed  a  portion  of  the  duties  up  to  that  time  per- 
formed by  the  Quarter  Sessions,  including  the  assessment  of 
lands  and  collection  of  taxes — to  be  paid,  however,  to  the  district 
treasurers — the  oversight  of  highways  and  other  matters  within 
their  townships. 

In  1841  district  councils  were  provided  for,  to  be  composed  of 
one  or  two  representatives,  according  to  population,  from  each 
township,  with  a  warden,  clerk  and  treasurer  appointed  by  the 
governor — all  by-laws  to  be  approved  by  the  provincial  authorities. 
This  system  prevailed  down  to  1849.  In  1841  Division  Courts  to 
be  presided  over  by  the  district  Judges  were  substituted  for  the 
former  courts,  known  by  the  rather  polite  title  of  "  Courts  of 
Request,"  held  by  two  magistrates  in  each  division,  for  the 
collection  of  small  debts. 

The  first  appointed  warden  of  the  London  district — or  Middlesex 
— after  the  act  of  1841  came  into  force  was  John  Wilson.  Among 


254  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

his  earlier  duties  was  the  pleasant  one  of  signing-  an  address  to 
"the  Queen's  Most  Excellent  Majesty,"  congratulating  her  upon 
the  birth  of  a  prince  and  heir  apparent  to  the  throne — though  sixty 
years  were  to  elapse  before  his  coronation. 

By  the  act  of  1849  appointed  wardens  gave  way  to  wardens 
elected  by  the  county  councils,  which  took  the  place  of  the  old 
district  councils — and  the  municipal  system  was  in  other  respects 
assimilated  to  that  prevailing  in  the  province  since. 

Before  leaving  this  subject  it  will  be  convenient  to  follow  up  the 
movement  for  the  partition  of  Middlesex  and  organization  of  the 
county  of  Elgin.  It  began  in  1846.  In  August  official  notice 
was  given  of  an  application  to  parliament  for  the  separation  of  the 
townships  now  forming  the  county  of  Elgin,  for  the  formation  of  a 
new  district,  and  on  the  morning  of  the  2yth  of  the  same  month 
St.  Thomas  was  the  scene  of  a  meeting  in  furtherance  of  the 
project.  The  St.  George's  Band  made  a  circuit  of  Yarmouth, 
passing  through  Sparta  and  New  Sarum  and  returning  to  St. 
Thomas  at  noon,  the  hour  appointed  for  the  meeting.  This  was 
held  on  the  balcony  of  the  Talbot  Mansion  House  hotel,  which 
was  gaily  decorated.  Flags  were  flying  and  a  diagram  of  the 
old  district  and  banners  inscribed,  "  Our  Queen  and  country,  a 
division  of  the  district,"  presented  by  Mr.  J.  Walthew,  (the  father 
of  the  present  St.  Thomas  decorator,  and  painter  of  the  handsome 
coat-of-arms  and  emblematic  picture  in  St.  Thomas  court  house,*) 
were  displayed.  Murdock  Mackenzie  presided  and  Thomas 
Hodge  acted  as  secretary.  Resolutions  approving  the  proposition 
for  a  division  were  passed  unanimously  amid  great  applause. 
Mr.  Benjamin  Drake  offered  gratuitously  a  site  for  a  market 
place,  court  house  and  gaol,  where  the  two  latter  were  subse- 
quently placed.  A  large  executive  committee  was  appointed  and 
meetings  arranged  to  take  the  sense  of  the  other  townships. 
Kearney's  Canadian  Freeman  of  St.  Thomas  and  the  Western 
Globe  advocated  the  change. 

It,  however,  took  half  a  dozen  years  of  agitation  before  the 
separation  was  effected.  Several  alternative  proposals  were  put 

*The  painting  escaped  destruction,  though  somewhat  damaged  by  the  fire 
at  the  court  house  in  1898.  It  was  restored  by  the  son,  James  Walthew. 


ELGIN    COURT    HOUSE    AND   JAIL    AS    ORIGINALLY   CONSTRUCTED. 


OLD   TOWN    HALL,    ST.    THOMAS. 


COUNTY  OF  ELGIN   FORMED.  255 

forward  for  other  divisions  east  and  west  in  the  meantime  ;  but 
at  length  the  arguments  that  the  district  as  then  existing-  was 
unwieldy,  that  injustice  was  done  the  southern  part  in  the  matter 
of  improvements,  that  the  southern  representatives  had  to  pass 
through  St.  Thomas  to  reach  the  district  capital  at  London, 
which  was  unduly  benefited,  prevailed.  In  1851  legislative 
authority  for  the  setting  apart  of  the  new  county  was  obtained. 
By  proclamation  under  the  hand  and  seal  of  Sheriff  Hamilton, 
the  provisional  council  was  called  to  meet  at  the  town  hall,  St. 
Thomas  at  12  (noon)  on  i5th  April,  1852.  David  Parish  was 
appointed  chairman.  Elisha  S.  Ganson,  reeve  of  Yarmouth,  was 
elected  warden,  who  gave  place  to  Thomas  Locker,  reeve  of 
Malahide,  when  the  first  regular  county  council  met  on  8th 
November,  1853,  in  the  new  and  handsome  county  buildings, 
with  cut  stone  front,  which  had  meantime  been  erected  on  the  site 
commanding  a  charming  view  of  Kettle  Creek  valley  to  the  west, 
presented  by  Mr.  Benjamin  Drake.  Mr.  John  McKay  is  under- 
stood to  have  taken  an  important  part  in  bringing  about  the 
separation  of  the  new  county.  He  became  its  first  Registrar  of 
Deeds  and  his  brother  William,  some  time  after,  its  clerk. 

Thus  it  came  about  that  the  oldest  portion  of  the  Talbot  settle- 
ment, in  which  its  founder  had  cut  the  first  tree,  made  his  home 
for  fifty  years,  and  in  which  his  remains  had  then  but  a  few 
months  before  been  laid  at  rest,  now  constituted  the  youngest 
county  in  the  settlement,  bearing  the  name  of  that  Governor- 
General,  whom,  on  his  entry  into  London  in  1849,  the  successors 
of  Col.  Talbot's  old  ally,  "  Col.  Hickory,"  had  failed  to 
intimidate. 

With  the  municipal  development  of  the  settlement  thus  briefly 
outlined,  a  glance  may  be  taken  at  its  general  progress  and  at 
that  of  the  various  townships,  towns  and  villages  comprised 
within  it. 

The  two  townships,  specially  reserved  for  Colonel  Talbot's 
settlers  and  his  own  land  grants,  had  not  made  progress  at  the  same 
rate  as  other  parts,  owing  largely  to  the  Colonel's  having  placed 
incoming  settlers  upon  government  lands  in  other  townships, 
holding  his  own  meantime,  presumably  for  better  prices  than  that 


256  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

at  which  he  was  authorized  to  sell  the  government  lots — or 
perhaps  as  a  heritage  for  that  beneficiary  whom  he  might  choose 
to  fill  the  place  of  heir.  Aldborough  in  1845  had  about  3,500 
acres  under  cultivation  with  a  population  of  a  few  more  than  700, 
chiefly  Highland  Scotch.  Furnival's  road  had  been  cut  through 
the  township  from  lake  to  river  and  there  were  four  saw  mills. 
Dunwich  had  about  the  same  number  of  inhabitants  as  Aid- 
borough,  with  some  3,200  acres  under  cultivation  and  two  grist 
and  two  saw  mills.  A  footpath  only  had  been  cut  through  from 
Talbot  road  to  the  river.  The  Irish  were  as  yet  predominant  in 
Dunwich  and  in  both  townships  the  settlers  were  reported  as  being 
as  yet  poor.  Mention  of  a  number  of  the  pioneers  and  their  early 
trials  and  struggles  has  been  made  in  a  previous  chapter. 

On  the  other  hand,  Southwold,  the  adjoining  township  to  the 
east  of  these,  had  at  the  same  period  some  16,000  acres  under 
cultivation,  many  thoroughly  cleared  and  well  cultivated  farms, 
two  grist  and  three  saw  mills  and  a  population  of  about  2,300, 
the  Scotch  now  predominating.  It  contained  three  villages, 
Fingal,  Talbotville  Royal  or  Five  Stakes,  and  Selborne  or  Talbot 
Mills,  with  a  part  of  Port  Stanley  also  within  its  borders. 
Richard  Williams  and  his  English  family  had  in  1817  been  added 
to  the  early  settlement  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Watson's  Corners, 
where  dwelt  from  early  days  Barber,  Watson,  Best,  Swisher, 
Waters,  the  Benedicts  and  James  Burwell.  The  latter  was  a 
kinsman  of  Colonel  Mahlon  Burwell  and  father  of  Samuel,  who 
was  Colonel  Talbot's  foreman  or  farm  overseer  for  ten  years 
subsequent  to  1809,  and  grandfather  of  the  present  Fingal 
postmaster.  George  Elliott  had  come  from  Ireland  at  the  same 
time  as  the  Williams'  from  England  and  was  engaged  in  his 
small  store  east  of  Fingal  in  amassing  that  fortune  which 
descended  later  to  his  only  daughter,  the  mother  of  the  late 
George  Elliott  Casey,  M.  P.*  Samuel  Garnsey,  Ira  Gilbert,  John 

*Colonel  McQueen  at  this  time  kept  the  only  other  store  in  Southwold,  on 
his  farm  a  short  distance  west  of  Elliott's.  With  him  a  young  half  brother  of 
his  wife's,  Amasa  Wood,  had  his  early  business  training.  In  1830  Wood 
purchased  a  tavern,  built  by  William  Burwell  at  the  corner  of  Talbot  and 
Union  roads,  and  set  up  as  a  hotel  keeper.  Levi  Fowler,  whose  sister  Wood 
married,  opened  a  store  near  by  in  '32,  and  became  postmaster  of  the  village 


YARMOUTH    IN   THE   FORTIES.  257 

Philpott,  the  brothers  Harris,  Jacob  Decow  and  Daniel  Mclntyre 
were  settlers  in  the  "  Back  street"  region  from  ante  bellum  days, 
while  Ferguson,  Meek,  Campbell  and  Ewen  Cameron  were 
pioneers  of  the  Union  and  Lake  roads.  Joseph  Silcox,  the 
progenitor  of  the  now  numerous  Southwold  family  of  that  name, 
had  settled  in  1817  in  the  neighbourhood  which  bears  the  name 
of  the  place  near  which  he  was  born  in  England,  Frome.  The 
Smiths,  Millards,  Bowlbys,  Boughners  and  others  had  formed  the 
Talbotville  settlement  about  1818,  while  west  of  them  David 
Gilbert,  William  Sells,  the  Berdans,  Knights,  Wade,  John 
Boughner,  the  Staffords,  Suttons,  Orchards,  Hamiltons,  Hortons, 
Paynes,  and  others  peopled  the  land  to  the  townline  near  which  in 
later  years  Dugald  Brown,  father  of  the  present  sheriff,  as  well  as 
the  father  of  the  late  Sheriff  Munro,  Nicol  McColl,  M. P. P., —and 
his  son  Dugald,  also  an  M.P.  P.  of  later  years — made  their  homes. 
The  region  north  of  this  to  the  river  was  an  unbroken  wilderness 
of  forest  land,  until  still  later  days,  when  the  Turners  and  other 
Scottish  families  arrived  and  hewed  out  their  homes  therein. 
Mention  has  elsewhere  been  made  of  some  few  of  the  early 
settlers  in  the  North  street  and  other  regions.  To  name  all  the 
worthy  pioneers,  who  had  made  Southwold  the  fair  township  it 
had  become  at  the  close  of  its  first  half  century,  would  require 
more  space  than  can  be  accorded  here. 

Yarmouth,  in  the  forties,  was  the  most  thickly  settled  township 
in  the  London  district.  It  had  at  this  period  nearly  twenty-four 
thousand  acres  under  cultivation.  Well  cultivated  farms,  with 
good  orchards,  were  numerous,  and  five  grist  and  ten  saw  mills 
were  in  operation.  The  villages  of  St.  Thomas  and  Port  Stanley 
were  upon  its  west  border,  with  Sparta  and  Jamestown  in  the 
south-eastern  portion  of  the  township.  The  latter  was  formed  by 

named  Fingfal.  Wood  in  '41  joined  him  in  his  business,  which  throve,  and 
was  continued  by  Mr.  Wood  after  Mr.  Fowler  had  retired.  Mr.  Wood  had 
succeeded  McQueen  as  a  contractor  for  supplies  to  the  Indian  reserve  near  by 
and  soon  laid  the  foundation  of  a  large  fortune.  He  many  years  after  moved 
to  St.  Thomas  and  founded  the  Amasa  Wood  Hospital  there  and  made  many 
benefactions  to  his  Indian  friends  of  the  reserve,  before  his  death.  A  number 
of  merchants  have  since  accumulated  considerable  wealth  in  Fingal,  among" 
whom  may  be  named  Robt.  Blackwood,  William  Arkell,  his  nephew,  George 
McKenzie,  and  J.  P.  and  Philip  Finlay. 


258  THE  TALBOT   REGIME. 

James  Chrysler  Esq.,  the  St.  Thomas  merchant,  after  whom  it 
was  named,  who  established  here,  a  short  distance  above  Port 
Bruce  on  Catfish  Creek,  about  1835,  a  distillery,  grist  and  saw 
mills,  and  a  store.  Scows  were  employed  to  convey  its  exports 
and  imports  to  and  from  the  lake  at  Port  Bruce.  A  considerable 
sum — loaned  from  the  funds  of  the  Church  Society  at  Toronto,  it 
is  said — was  sunk  at  this  picturesque  site,  but  the  village  did  not 
long  survive,  and  now  scarce  a  vestige  remains  to  prove  its  former 
existence.  To  this  class  of  extinct  villages  belongs  Selborne,  or 
Talbot  Mills,  about  a  like  distance  above  the  mouth  of  Kettle 
Creek,  where  Hamilton  and  Warren  had  built  mills.  Beside 
these,  two  distilleries,  a  foundry,  two  physicians  and  surgeons,  a 
druggist,  two  stores,  two  taverns,  as  many  blacksmiths,  with  a 
waggon-maker,  shoemaker,  and  tailor,  helped  to  make  up  a 
thriving  village,  which  can  now  scarcely  be  termed  a  hamlet. 

These  mills  and  villages  at  short  distances  from  the  mouths  of 
streams  navigable  for  light  craft  were  not  uncommon  in  the  days 
before  harbours  at  the  lake  were  constructed,  after  which  their 
decay,  if  not  extinction,  became  inevitable.  At  a  later  date  a  like 
effect  resulted  from  the  diversion  of  travel  from  the  old  stage  and 
waggon  roads  to  railways,  as  many  a  decayed  hamlet  along  the 
former  routes  will  testify. 

Already  Port  Stanley,  in  the  forties,  had  outstripped  the  neigh- 
bouring village.  Beside  a  large  number  of  stores,  taverns,  and 
tradespeople,  with  a  mill  and  tannery,  it  possessed  two  churches, 
and  agencies  of  the  "Montreal"  and  "Commercial"  banks. 
It  was  the  chief  port  of  entry  to  the  settlement,  with  a 
good  harbour,  and  a  grain  market  which  drew  processions  of 
laden  sleighs  and  waggons  from  far  and  near.  After  Colonel 
Bostwick,  who  died  in  '49,  the  best  known  citizen  of  Port 
Stanley — and  indeed  one  of  the  most  widely  known  and 
respected  men  in  the  settlement — was  Samuel  Price,  who  came 
from  Ireland  to  Canada  in  '32  and  three  years  later  settled  in 
Caradoc — where  lived  the  Rev.  Richard  Flood,  who  had  known 
him  from  his  infancy  in  his  old  Irish  parish.  To  this  township  he 
brought  out  his  parents  and  his  brothers  and  sisters.  After 
engaging  in  business  with  Mr.  Ermatinger  in  St.  Thomas  for  a 


"  EDGEWARE   ROAD."  259 

few  years — during-  which  he  took  part  in  the  expedition  to 
Oakland  to  meet  Duncombe — Mr.  Price  came,  in  1840,  to  Port 
Stanley,  where  he  spent,  the  remainder  of  his  life,  which  ended  in 
1888.  Mention  could  hardly,  during  that  period,  be  made  of  Port 
Stanley  without  mention  of  Samuel  Price,  both  from  his  long 
residence  in  the  village,  his  pre-eminent  abilities  and  high 
character,  and,  when  excited,  somewhat  ungovernable  temper, 
which  latter  was  often  played  upon  by  his  political  opponents  to 
his  disadvantage.  Mr.  Price's  long  continued  prominence  in  the 
settlement,  in  which  he  was  several  times  a  candidate  for  parlia- 
ment on  the  Conservative  side,  renders  essential  this  mention  of 
him.  He  was  a  merchant  and  a  most  efficient  magistrate  during 
his  long-  residence  at  "  the  Port,"  and  for  a  long  time  postmaster. 
He  was  another  victim  of  rheumatism,  probably  first  contracted  at 
Oakland,  and  his  stiffened  gait  and  oaken  stick  seemed  to  have 
natural  counterparts  in  those  of  another  stalwart  tory  of  Port 
Stanley,  Major  John  Ellison,  whose  voice,  though  somewhat 
husky  withal,  gave  no  uncertain  sound  when  communicating  the 
word  of  command  to  the  Port  Stanley  company  of  "marines"  of 
a  later  day.  He  and  his  brothers,  Richard  and  Freeman  Ellison, 
of  St.  Thomas,  were  of  the  third  generation  of  a  family  of  early 
settlers. 

The  settlers  in  South  Yarmouth  were  now  enjoying  a  period  of 
tranquility,  and  that  section  was  assuming  the  appearance  of  rural 
beauty,  peace  and  plenty,  which  has  ever  since  distinguished  it. 
The  early  settlements  of  the  Mills's,  the  Turrils,  and  the  Quaker 
families  all  about  the  Sparta  region  had  begun  to  possess  the 
pastoral  charm  which  has  characterised  them  since.  North 
Yarmouth  was  now  peopled  by  a  considerable  number  of  Highland 
Scotch  families — the  Campbells,  Fergusons,  Buchanans  and  others 
— while  along  the  "Edgeware  Road"  dwelt  the  colony  which 
accompanied  Richard  Gilbert,  of  Holdesworth,  Devonshire,  to 
Canada  in  1831 — namely,  his  wife  and  five  sons,  Richard,  John, 
William,  Matthew,  and  Marwood,  with  Duncan  Westlake, 
Richard  Penhale,  and  Richard  Andrew,  their  wives  and  families. 
Between  the  north  and  south  were  the  farms  of  many  old  settlers 
along  the  Talbot  road,  while  the  cross-roads  where,  about  1816, 


260  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

three  Johns — John  Caughell,  John  Marlatt,  and  John  Hess — had 
taken  up  their  cornering  farms,  came  to  be  known  as  Johnstown, 
as  it  is  to  this  day.  New  Sarum,  on  Talbot  road,  at  this  period 
promised  to  become  a  large  village — a  fate  subsequently  denied  it. 
Malahide,  the  township  named  after  Colonel  Talbot's  old  home 
in  Ireland,  had,  in  the  early  forties,  some  twelve  thousand  acres 
under  cultivation  and  a  considerable  population.  Mention  has 
already  been  made  in  a  former  chapter  of  a  number  of  settlers 
having  come  from  Nova  Scotia,  who  took  up  land  along  the  first 
concession  road,  since  known  as  Nova  Scotia  street.  They  were 
preceded  by  Captain  John  Saxon,  who,  in  1816,  came  from  New 
Brunswick.  Among  these  Nova  Scotia  families  were  the  Marrs, 
McConnells,  Chutes,  Mclntyres  McDermands,  and  others,  who 
came,  for  the  most  part,  between  1820  and  1830.  James  and 
Andrew  McCausland — father  of  Elgin's  present  respected  treasurer 
—had,  a  year  or  so  after  the  advent  of  Captain  Saxton,  taken  up 
land  to  the  north.  This  locality  became  the  home  of  the 
Doolittles,  VanPatters,  Benners,  Schooleys,  Westovers,  and 
other  settlers,  and  with  Nova  Scotia  street,  gives  a  rural  charm  to 
South  Malahide,  resembling  that  of  the  neighbouring  south  part 
of  Yarmouth.  Previous  to  1826  Colonel  Backhouse  had  erected 
grist  and  saw  mills  at  the  mouth  of  Silver  Creek,  in  Malahide.  As 
the  Colonel  is  a  somewhat  historic  figure  whose  name  has  appear- 
ed several  times  on  previous  pages,  the  following  glimpse  of  him, 
as  given  by  Peter  Russell,  the  Scotch  traveller  already  quoted  on 
a  previous  page,  will  give  some  idea  of  the  Colonel,  as  well  as  of 
prevalent  customs.  Mr.  Russell  made  his  way  ten  miles  through 
the  forest  on  a  moonlight  night  to  visit  the  Colonel,  who  warmly 
•welcomed  him  on  his  arrival,  within  an  hour  and  a  half  of 
midnight.  He  says  : 

"The  Colonel  is  a  jolly  Yorkshireman,  and  emigrated  to  Canada  thirty 
years  ago.  He  is  senior  magistrate  and  chairman  for  the  quarter  sessions 
for  the  London  district.  His  principal  seat  is  at  Walsingham,  near  Vittoria, 
but  he  has  been  here  occasionally  for  a  year  or  two  superintending  improve- 
ments on  the  Silver  Creek  Estate,  which  have  already  cost  him  upwards  of 
$12,000.  He  has  built  a  grist  and  saw  mill  and,  at  much  expense,  has  erected 
a  huge  mill  dam  on  the  sand  banks  and  cleared  150  acres  of  forest.  Mrs- 
Backhouse  and  his  youngest  son,  Mr.  Jacob,  were  at  Silver  Creek  when  ' 


AYLMER.  261 

arrived.  The  next  morning1  we  had  a  choice  breakfast,  but  by  way  of 
anticipation  the  Colonel  helped  himself  to  his  morning  cup  of  new  milk  two 
parts,  whiskey  one  part,  no  stinting.  I  pledged  him,  but  used  the  latter  liquid 
in  greater  moderation.  During  our  dejeuner  a  green  bottle  filled  with 
excellent  aqua  vita:  was  placed  in  the  centre  of  the  board,  and  mine  host 
qualified  each  cup  of  Mrs.  H.'s  hyson  with  about  an  equal  proportion  of  the 
clear  liquid  from  the  aforesaid  bottle.  I  attempted  in  my  last  cup  to  follow 
his  example,  but  it  was  not  pleasant  to  my  taste.  I  am  strongly  inclined  to 
believe  that  the  worthy  Colonel  could  lay  the  Dean  and  the  whole  chapter  of 

C under  the   table,  for,  notwithstanding  that  he  indulged  himself  thus 

freely,  I  perceived  not  the  least  alteration  in  his  conversation  during  the 
day." 

Gilbert  Wrong  and  Nathan  Lyon  settled  on  adjoining  farms  at 
the  place  now  known  as  Grovesend  about  1830.  At  the  period 
now  being  dealt  with — the  forties — the  township  exported  a  large 
quantity  of  lumber  and  possessed,  beside,  three  grist  mills  and  no 
less  than  seventeen  saw  mills. 

Aylmer,  near  the  centre  of  the  township  on  Talbot  road,  was 
formerly  known  as  Troy,  but  had  been  re-christened  in  honour  of 
Lord  Aylmer,  then  Governor  General,  and  was  becoming  an 
important  village,  the  forerunner  of  the  progressive,  well-built 
town  it  has  since  become.  It  was  laid  out  principally  on  the  land 
of  Nathan  Wood  and  Charles  Gustavus  Adolphus  Tozer.  Though 
credited  with  something  less  than  three  hundred  inhabitants  in  the 
early  forties,  the  village,  nevertheless,  possessed  a  Baptist  chapel, 
a  physician  and  surgeon  (Dr.  Williams),  two  tanneries,  three 
taverns,  as  many  stores,  a  number  of  trades-people,  such  as 
cabinet  makers,  saddlers,  waggon  makers,  blacksmiths,  tailors, 
shoemakers,  a  watchmaker  and  a  tinsmith,  with  "one  ashery  and 
saleratus  factory,"  the  pioneer  industry  of  the  present  manufac- 
turing town.  The  village  of  Temperanceville,  some  two  miles 
west  of  Aylmer,  boasted,  at  this  period,  a  population  of  one 
hundred,  with  taverns,  store,  and  the  customary  tradesmen — all 
long  since  vanished. 

East  of  Aylmer  the  Lanes,  Bakers,  Cascaddens,  Hutchisons, 
Pounds,  and  other  early  settlers  had  long  since  settled  upon  fine 
farms,  now  well  cultivated.  Malahide  was,  in  1842,  credited  with 
a  population  of  about  twenty-four  hundred  people. 


262  THE  TALBOT   REGIME. 

Bayham,  to  the  east  of  it,  possessed  in  the  same  year  a  popula- 
tion almost  as  large,  with  less  than  eight  thousand  acres  under 
cultivation.  The  Otter  Creek  and  the  large  quantity  of  pine  on 
its  banks  rendered  Bayham,  however,  at  this  period,  one  of  the 
busiest  townships  in  the  settlement.  No  less  than  twenty-five 
saw-mills,  in  addition  to  three  grist  mills,  kept  up  a  buzz  of 
industry,  and  produced  an  annual  export  of  three  million  feet  of 
sawn  lumber.  The  lumber  trade  was  the  main  support  of  the 
villages  of  Vienna  and  Port  Burwell,  both  then  about  ten  years 
old.  The  former  possessed  about  three  hundred  and  the  latter 
about  two  hundred  inhabitants.  Both  villages  had,  as  now,  an 
English  church,  and  Vienna  had  two  Methodist,  with  a 
Baptist  place  of  worship  nearby.  A  physician  at  Vienna  looked 
after  the  health  of  both  villages.  No  less  than  eight  stores,  with 
grist,  carding  and  saw  mills,  the  usual  distillery  and  tannery  and 
mechanics,  with  the  "  Red  Lion  "  and  another  inn,  made  the  larger 
village  something  of  a  metropolis  in  those  days,  while  the  Port 
two  miles  below,  to  which  its  lumber-laden  scows  were  floated 
down  the  Otter,  boasted  a  lighthouse  and  a  Collector  of  Customs. 
Shipbuilding  soon  began  and  a  large  number  of  vessels  of  various 
sizes  were  built  at  Port  Burwell.  A  tannery,  stores,  taverns,  and 
artizans  were  to  be  found  there  also.  Richmond,  also  in 
Bayham,  was  one  of  the  numerous  places  perpetuating  the 
deceased  Governor-General's  memory,  while  Sandytown,  to  the 
east,  has  since  disappeared,  being  succeeded  by  Straffordville, 
a  village  a  little  farther  east,  where  the  plank  road  from  Ingersoll 
to  Port  Burwell,  constructed  in  1850,  crossed  Talbot  street. 

Some  forty  years  had  then  elapsed  since  the  pioneers,  Joseph 
Defields  and  James  Gibbons,  had  begun  the  settlement  of  the 
township  by  establishing  themselves  on  Talbot  street  between  the 
big  and  the  little  Otter  Creeks.  After  the  war  of  1812,  in  which 
several  of  them  took  an  active  part  at  the  front,  the  Howeys, 
Hatches,  Highs,  Houses,  Bowes,  Mitchells,  Franklins,  and 
many  others  had  followed,  settling  along  Talbot  street.  Henry 
Stratton  had  come  in  time  to  be  "out  in  "37."  Along  the  lake 
shore  and  the  southern  parts  the  Burwells,  Edisons,  (relatives  of 
the  celebrated  inventor  and  scientist,  Thomas  A.  Edison)  and 


PROGRESS   OF   THE   SETTLEMENT.  263 

many  more,  while  in  the  north  George  and  Andrew  Dobbie, 
Samuel  Livingstone,  the  Crossett's,  Bests,  Haleys,  the  Bor- 
bridges,  and  others  had  made  their  homes.  Samuel  Edison,  John 
Saxton,  John  Ault,  Asa  Teal,  Hollywood,  Smith,  Purdy,  Hawkes- 
worth — these  were  pioneer  names  in  Vienna,  a  number  of  them 
still  represented  there.  George  Suffell  and  Thomas  Jenkins  came 
somewhat  later. 

The  six  townships  just  described  formed  the  oldest  and  best 
settled  part  of  the  Talbot  settlement.  Fronting  on  the  lake  and 
traversed  throughout  from  east  to  west  by  Talbot  road,  they  were 
the  most  accessible  to  the  outside  world  and  settlers  from  London 
township  and  other  inland  parts  for  many  years,  in  the  early  days, 
found  it  necessary  to  come  to  the  front  townships  and  villages  for 
their  supplies,  as  well  as  to  sell  their  products. 

Middleton  and  Houghton  to  the  east  were  within  the  Talbot 
district  (Norfolk)  and  not  that  of  London,  but  were  also  within 
the  Talbot  settlement,  Talbot  road  beginning  at  the  east  boundary 
of  the  former  township.  At  the  period  now  referred  to  they  were 
very  sparsely  settled.  Middleton  had  only  some  2,000  acres  under 
cultivation  and  a  population  in  1841  of  less  than  600,  while  in 
Houghton  the  quantity  of  land  under  cultivation  was  somewhat 
less  and  the  population  in  the  year  mentioned  less  than  300. 

South  Dorchester,  the  only  township  within  the  present  county 
of  Elgin  not  already  referred  to,  had  in  the  early  forties  little 
more  than  1,000  acres  cultivated  and  about  400  people.  Most  of 
these  had  taken  up  their  land  but  a  few  years  before,  Peter  J. 
Neff,  the  Woolleys,  Weeden  Walker  and  Mathew  Fullerton 
among  the  earlier,  joined  a  few  years  later  by  the  Sherks,  Stokes, 
Pritchards,  Gunns,  Clunas',  Charltons  and  Clines.  North 
Dorchester  had  at  the  same  time  between  four  and  five  thousand 
acres  under  cultivation  and  more  than  1,000  inhabitants,  among 
whom  was  Jacob  Cline,  the  father  of  family  above  named. 

London  township  at  this  period  was  flourishing.  By  1842  it 
had  furnished  homes  for  some  4,000  people,  who  had  brought 
under  crop  about  twenty  thousand  acres.  Good  farms,  flourishing 
orchards,  distinguished  it  then,  as  now,  to  a  far  greater  extent. 
Its  fine,  rolling  lands  were  inhabited  by  a  large  accession  of 


264  THE  TALBOT   REGIME. 

settlers  from  Ireland,  since  the  coming  of  the  Tipperary  Talbots 
referred  to  in  a  previous  chapter,  while  other  parts  of  the  United 
Kingdom  were  represented  there.  It  was  a  township  of  British 
immigrants,  a  list  of  whose  names  would  disclose  so  many  now 
familiar  in  London  and  its  vicinity — and  some  known  throughout 
the  Province  and  Dominion  as  well — as  to  preclude  their  being 
given  here. 

Westminster,  too,  was  an  old  settled  township,  whose  early 
settlement  dated  back  to  the  time  of  Simon  Zelotes  Watson. 
The  quantity  of  cultivated  lands  and  the  population  approached 
those  of  London  township,  though  the  people  are  described  as 
then  (1842)  chiefly  Canadians,  Americans*  and  Pennsylvania 
Dutch.  To  these  in  later  years  were  added  a  sprinkling  of  such 
sturdy  Highlanders  as  the  brothers  Duncan  and  Hugh  McPherson 
and  a  good  many  Irish,  especially  in  the  southern  part.  Hall's 
Mills  and  the  Junction  or  Lambeth  were  its  villages. 

The  range  of  townships  settled  by  Colonel  Talbot  north  of  the 
Thames  included,  besides  London  township,  Lobo,  Caradoc,  Ek- 
frid,  Mosa  and  Zone.  In  1842  to  1845  each  had  more  than  5,000 
acres  cultivated  with  a  population  averaging  about  1,200  in  each. 
In  Zone  was  the  site  of  the  old  Moraviantown  and  the  battle 
ground  where  Tecumseh  was  killed,  when  the  village  was  also 
destroyed  and,  after  the  war,  re-built  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
river  in  Orford.  "Zone  Mills,"  "Van  Allen's  Mills"  and 
"Smith's  Mills"  were  on  Bear  Creek.  Captain  Ward  had 
founded  Wardsville  in  Mosa.  Caradoc  contained  the  Indian 
village  of  the  Munceys  and  the  well-known  Caradoc  Academy  of 
which  Mr.  Livingstone  was  principal,  whose  vigorous  discipline 
prominent  men  looked  back  upon  with  mingled  feelings  in  after 
days.  It  was  burned,  it  was  said,  by  the  hands  of  exasperated 
pupils  of  the  school  after  the  period  now  spoken  of. 

*  Among  these  was  John  McClary,  who  settled  on  lot  2,  in  the  ist 
concession,  at  about  1817,  an  American  of  Scotch  descent,  who  came  from 
Pennsylvania,  though  born  in  New  Hampshire.  His  wife  was  related  to  the 
Adams'  family  from  which  the  two  United  States  Presidents  of  that  name 
came.  Their  sons,  Peter,  William,  Oliver  and  John  became  prominent  and 
wealthy  citizens  of  London  and  neighbourhood — the  latter  the  head  of  the 
immense  manufacturing  company  bearing  the  family  name. 


PROGRESS  OF  THE  SETTLEMENT.  265 

Delaware,  the  remaining-  township  south  of  the  Thames,  as  yet 
unmentioned,  with  its  well-known  village  of  Delaware  (already 
referred  to  as  laid  out  for  the  district  capital  by  Mr.  Tiffany)  even 
in  the  forties  presented  the  appearance  of  an  English  village  and 
countryside.  Its  first  settlement  was  prior  to  the  war  of  1812,  as 
already  seen.  In  fact  there  were  a  few  settlers  at  various  points 
along"  the  Thames,  one  of  the  ancient  routes  from  the  east  to 
Detroit,  prior  to  Col.  Talbot's  commencing  his  settlement.  A 
bridge  900  feet  in  length  across  the  Thames  at  Delaware  was 
considered  the  finest  work  of  the  kind  in  Canada  in  "  the  forties." 
The  Oneida  Indians  emigrated  from  the  States  and  bought 
land  and  established  themselves  in  Delaware,  near  the  Munceys  of 
Caradoc.  The  settlement  of  the  township,  however,  was  not  as 
yet  extensive,  and  it  contained  but  four  or  five  hundred  whites, 
though  the  village  had  some  300  inhabitants,  with  the  luxury  of  a 
daily  mail  and  "  Bullen's  "  well-known  tavern.  The  names  of 
several  of  its  earliest  families  have  appeared  in  former  chapters. 
Kilworth  was  the  second  village  in  Delaware,  near  which,  but  in 
Lobo,  the  Earl  of  Mountcashel  had  a  residence. 

The  townships  already  referred  to  comprise  those  in  the  London 
(Middlesex)  and  Talbot  (Norfolk)  districts — as  well  as  Zone  in  the 
western  district — placed  in  the  hands  of  Colonel  Talbot  for 
settlement.  He,  however,  appears  to  have  taken  no  part  in  the 
settlement  of  Delaware,  though  he  had  in  regard  to  all  the  town- 
ships surrounding  it.  Of  those  north  of  the  river  London 
township  was  the  only  one  in  which  he  had  exercised  anything 
like  an  exclusive  jurisdiction  as  to  locations.  In  the  other  four 
townships  of  Middlesex — Mosa,  Ekfrid,  Caradoc  and  Lobo — the 
northern  parts  had  been  granted  to  non-residents  before  the  plans 
were  furnished  to  Colonel  Talbot,  with  the  exception  of  a  few 
actual  settlers  in  Lobo.  The  southern  parts  of  the  first  three  of 
these  townships  between  the  Longwoods  road  and  the  Thames 
were  reserved  for  sale  by  the  government,  so  that  his  duties  were 
confined  chiefly  to  locating  settlers  along  the  Longwoods  road,  or 
"  Talbot  road,  long  woods,"  as  he  termed  it.  He  located  the 
northern  part  of  Zone,  which  was  in  the  Western  district,  the 
southern  part  being  the  Moravian  Indian  reserve. 


266  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

The  northern  parts  of  Dunwich  and  Aldborough,  though  the 
latter  contained  some  of  the  very  earliest  settled  land  in  the 
district  as  already  mentioned,  had  also  been  deeded  in  early  days 
chiefly  to  non-residents — the  southern  parts,  with  the  exception  of 
the  crown  and  clergy  reserves,  being  Colonel  Talbot's  own 
property,  granted  to  him  under  the  arrangement  originally  made 
by  Lord  Hobart. 

In  the  Western  district,  south  of  the  river  Thames,  thirteen  town- 
ships, some  of  which  have  been  since  sub-divided,  were  returned 
by  Col.  Talbot  in  1835  as  being  within  the  Talbot  settlement. 

In  Orford  and  Howard  crown,  clergy  and  Indian  reserves  and 
prior  deeds  to  non-residents  confined  the  Colonel's  locations  to 
the  Talbot  and  Middle  roads.  Yet  some  Scotch  and  other  settlers 
were  early  located.  Among  others  John  Blue,  from  Argyleshire, 
father  of  Archibald  Blue,  the  Dominion  Census  Commissioner, 
(who  was  born  in  Orford  in  1840).  Nathaniel  Mills  came  from 
Nova  Scotia  to  the  same  township  as  early  as  1817,  where  his 
son,  the  Hon.  David  Mills,  late  Minister  of  Justice  and  Supreme 
Court  Judge,  was  born  in  1831.  William  Bury,  an  Irishman  who 
had  emigrated  to  Pennsylvania,  came,  in  1808,  to  Canada  and, 
about  1815,  settled  at  Clearville,  where  he  built  one  of  the  first 
grist  mills  in  the  settlement.  Harwich  had  been  all  deeded  by 
government  to  non-residents,  with  the  exception  of  the  lands  of  a 
few  actual  settlers  on  the  Thames.  In  the  remainder  of  the  town- 
ships to  the  Detroit  river,  with  the  exception  of  Anderdon  and 
Maiden,  the  Colonel  seems  to  have  had  large  tracts  of  land  under 
his  charge  to  locate,  in  addition  to  those  located  along  the  Talbot 
and  Middle  roads. 

By  1845  the  population  and  cultivated  lands  in  these  townships 
had  largely  increased,  though  here  and  there  large  tracts  of  wet 
land  remained  unfit  for  settlement,  as  in  Gosfield  and  Colchester, 
in  the  south  parts  of  which  townships  large  quantities  of  iron  ore 
were  found,  which  was  melted  in  a  furnace  and  foundry  in 
operation  since  1834  in  the  former  township.  As  in  all  the  town- 
ships of  the  settlement  in  early  days,  there  were  of  course  large 
quantities  of  timber,  which  formed  a  chief  article  of  export.  Yet 
by  1845  other  valuable  products  were  raised.  For  instance  from 


CHATHAM   AND   WINDSOR.  267 

Howard  and  two  adjoining  townships  there  were  exported  that 
year  10,500  bushels  of  wheat  and  169  barrels  of  pork  in  addition 
to  114,000  pipe  staves.  In  some  previous  seasons,  too,  as  much 
as  100  hogsheads  of  tobacco  had  been  shipped  from  Howard 
alone.  Its  cultivation  in  this  and  other  townships  had,  however, 
been  discontinued  owing,  it  was  said,  to  the  diminution  of  the 
duty  on  tobacco  from  the  United  States — not  to  be  revived  until 
towards  the  close  of  the  century.  Morpeth  or  Jamesville  in 
Howard  was  a  two-taverned  village,  with  the  inevitable  distillery, 
three  stores  and  a  number  of  artizans  in  '45  ;  while  Blenheim,  in 
Harwich,  having  been  then  recently  laid  out  by  Colonel  Little, 
contained  simply  a  tavern,  though  lots  were  sold  at  from  ^5  to 
£7  *  os. 

Chatham  at  the  period  just  spoken  of  was  a  growing  town  of 
importance,  though  its  barracks  were  now  unoccupied.  It  con- 
tained about  1,500  people  and  property  had  so  increased  in  value 
that,  as  a  gazetteer  of  that  day  puts  it,  "a  small  town  lot,  which 
at  the  first  settlement  could  have  been  worth  but  a  mere  trifle, 
was  sold  a  short  time  since  to  a  merchant  at  the  enormous  advance 
of  seven  hundred  and  fifty  dollars."  The  new  road  from  London 
to  Amherstburg  passed  through  the  town  and  four-horse  stages 
went  eastward  and  westward  daily.  Captain  Ebert's  steamboat 
Brothers  left  thrice  a  week  for  Detroit  and  Amherstburg,  connect- 
ing with  Captain  Van  Allen's  London,  the  fastest  steamer  on  the 
upper  lakes.  Chatham  already  possessed  four  places  of  worship, 
a  weekly  newspaper,  the  Gleaner,  a  theatre  which  was  well 
attended,  the  performers  being  amateurs,  a  cricket  club,  five 
physicians  and  surgeons  and  a  lawyer  (by  1850  Robt.  S.  Woods 
— subsequently  the  esteemed,  and  now  retired,  Judge — came.)  It 
had  a  liberal  supply  of  breweries  (two)  and  distilleries  (three), 
that  customary  industry  in  those  days,  a  tannery,  and  a  large 
number  of  tradesmen  and  artizans,  with  agencies  of  the  Upper 
Canada  and  Gore  Banks,  and  last,  but  not  least  frequented,  the 
"  Royal  Exchange,"  principal  tavern  and  stage  house,  with  its 
reading  and  news  room. 

Windsor  at  the  same  time  contained  about  300  inhabitants  and 
had  but  one  brewery,  one  distillery  and  one  physician  and 


268  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

surgeon,  but  its  barracks  were  occupied  by  a  battalion  of  Rifles 
and  two  steam  ferry  boats  were  constantly  crossing  to  and  from 
Detroit. 

In  1831  Colonel  Talbot,  writing  of  the  settlement,  said,  "  My 
population  amounts  to  40,000  souls."  In  1851  they  numbered 
more  than  70,000,  of  whom  the  town  of  London  contained  more 
than  5,000  and  the  newly  formed,  but  old  settled,  county  of  Elgin 
some  25,000. 

If  Colonel  Talbot's  estimate  in  '31  was  not  too  high,  the 
increase  in  the  twenty  years  since  was  proportionately  about  the 
same  as  in  the  three  first  decades  of  the  settlement.  The  rebellion 
and  its  aftermath  of  "Patriot"  invasions  had  had  an  effect  in 
checking  progress  in  the  settlement  proportionately  greater 
perhaps  and  of  quite  as  long  duration  as  the  war  of  1812.  The 
continued  bitterness  of  party  strife  in  the  following  decade  no 
doubt  tended  to  retard  the  country's  progress. 

The  population  it  will  be  seen  embraced  many  nationalities. 
The  old  French  settlements,  on  the  western  border,  kept  pretty 
well  by  themselves.  The  influx,  at  first,  was  chiefly  of  U.  E. 
Loyalists,  of  people  both  British  and  Dutch,  who  had  lived  in  the 
States  but  were  not  satisfied  to  remain  there,  and  of  Americans 
born.  After  the  war,  came  emigrants  from  the  British  Isles, 
Scotch,  Irish,  English  and  Welsh,  with  fresh  accessions  from  the 
Maritime  Provinces,  from  Eastern  Canada  and  the  States,  a  few 
from  the  Red  River,  with  a  sifting  of  various  other  nationalities. 
The  earlier  settlers  had  been  carefully  sifted  and  distributed  by 
Colonel  Talbot  himself.  Almost  all  were  well  fitted  to  face  the 
realities  of  life  in  a  new  country.  Early  hardships  passed,  the 
dangers  and  distress  of  war,  foreign  and  civil,  over,  political 
grievances  settled  or  in  process  of  settlement,  self-government 
established,  a  new  era  was  dawning  of  increased  prosperity,  not 
unmixed  with  fresh  temporary  reverses. 


CHAPTER  XXXIII. 

MORAL  AND  RELIGIOUS  CONDITION — CHURCH  PROGRESS. 

THE  moral,  religious  and  educational  advancement  of  the  settle- 
ment must  always  be  of  at  least  as  much  interest  to  posterity  as 
its  municipal  and  material  progress.  The  somewhat  unattractive 
picture  drawn  by  Dr.  Howison  of  the  condition  of  at  least  a 
portion  of  the  people  when  he  visited  the  settlement  about  1820, 
publishing  his  experiences  the  following  year  in  England,  is 
probably  not  overdrawn,  though  the  book  published*  by  E.  A.Talbot 
about  the  same  time,  in  which  serious  reflections  were  made  upon 
the  moral  condition  of  the  settlers,  was  considered  so  unwarranted 
in  some  of  its  statements  that  the  publisher  of  the  St.  Thomas 
Liberal,  R.  Colton,  advertised,  in  1833,  the  publication  of  a  bookf 
to  consist  of  extracts  from  and  a  review  of  Talbot's  work,  with 
the  evident  intention  of  calling  down  the  wrath  of  the  people  of 
the  settlement  upon  its  author,  whose  work,  it  was  charged,  had 
been  carefully  suppressed  from  them,  but  widely  circulated 
throughout  Europe. 

If  the  moral  condition  of  the  people  were  not  high  in  the  very 
early  days,  it  would  not  have  been  matter  for  wonder.  However 
it  may  be  in  occasional  individual  cases,  the  standard  of  a  people 
without  religion  and  religious  observances  is  ever  a  low  moral 
standard.  Religion  in  a  community  without  religious  teachers 
and  observances  is  in  danger  of  dying  out,  and  we  may  be  sure 
the  Talbot  settlement  would  have  formed  no  exception  to  the  rule, 
had  it  been  left  without  the  ministrations  of  the  gospel.  As  it 

*A  Five  Years'  Residence  in  Upper  Canada,  by  Edward  Allen  Talbot  Esq., 
of  the  Talbot  settlement,  two  volumes 

\The  Beauties  of  Talbotism,  or  Libels  upon  Upper  Canada,  forty-eight  pages, 
as.  per  copy. 


270  THE   TALBOT  REGIME. 

was,  there  was  a  dearth  in  this  respect,  such  as  is  felt  in  most 
new  settlements.  The  widely  scattered  population,  without  roads 
or  means  of  travel  except  on  foot,  tended  to  make  collective 
worship  almost  impossible  at  first. 

Colonel  Talbot,  it  is  said,  read  the  service  himself  to  his 
assembled  settlers  for  the  first  few  years  of  the  settlement. 
Whatever  effect  it  had  on  himself,  this  practice,  no  doubt,  served 
a  good  purpose  as  regards  the  settlers  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
Port  Talbot.  After  the  coming  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Mclntosh  to  St. 
Thomas  he  and  succeeding  missionaries  of  the  Church  of  England 
there  continued  to  hold  services  at  Colonel  Talbot's  and  at 
neighbouring  settlers'  homes.  Bishop  Stewart,  of  Quebec,  in 
1827  confirmed  17  persons  in  the  house  of  Leslie  Patterson,  and 
in  the  following  year  St.  Peter's  church  nearby  was  built  upon 
land  donated  by  Mrs.  Mary  Storey,  —  John  Pearce  senior, 
Colonel  Leslie  Patterson,  Stephen  Backus  senior,  and  Walter 
Storey  being  the  chief  promoters  and  builders.  Governor  Simcoe's 
daughter  bequeathed  the  means  of  procuring  a  solid  silver 
communion  service  for  the  church,  which  was  subsequently 
consecrated  by  Bishop  Strachan.  Around  it  has  grown  up  a 
substantial  congregation  of  earnest,  self-denying  Christian  men 
and  women,  who  are  regarded  as  such  throughout  the  large 
diocese  of  which  they  form  a  part.* 

The  pioneer  church  of  the  Talbot  settlement  proper,  however, 
was  that  for  which  Daniel  Rapelje  provided,  in  1821,  the  site  and 
burial  ground  at  St.  Thomas,  the  church,  built  in  1824,  having 
subsequently  for  outstations  St.  Peter's  before  mentioned  and  Port 
Stanley,  where  Christ  Church  was  erected  through  the  instrument- 
ality of,  and  on  land  supplied  by  Colonel  Bostwick,  in  1841. 
The  establishment  of  the  church  at  St.  Thomas  was,  no  doubt, 
due  to  the  Hon.  and  Rev.  Charles  Stewart,  brother  of  the  Earj 
of  Galloway,  who  came  as  far  west  as  Sandwich  in  1820,  who 
administered  sacrament  in  June,  1825,  in  St.  Thomas  church,  and 

*St.  John's  church,  Sandwich,  whose  first  rector  was  Rev.  Richard  Pollard 
was  in  existence  before  the  Talbot  settlement  was  begun.  An  interesting- 
centennial  address  on  its  early  history  by  Judge  Woods,  of  Chatham,  was 
published  last  year,  (1903)  and  a  similar  one  previously  on  the  Moravian 
mission  by  the  same  gentleman. 


CHRIST  CHURCH,  AMHERSTBURG. 
Originally  erected  about  1800. 


RT.    REV.    BENJ.    CRONYN, 
FIRST  BISHOP  OF  HURO.V. 

Prom  Illustrated  London.      (Copyrighted.) 


ST.  PETER'S,  TVRCONNEL. 
Erected  in  1828. 


OLD    ST.    THOMAS    CHURCH. 

Erected  in  18*4. 


THREE    OLD    CHURCH    EDIFICES. 


CHURCH    PROGRESS.  271 

in  1827  held  a  confirmation  there  of  forty-four  persons,  after  his 
consecration  as  the  second  Bishop  of  Quebec  in  1826.  He  was 
a  most  zealous  missionary  Bishop,  and  procured  from  England  the 
means  for  erecting  a  considerable  number  of  churches  in  this  pro- 
vince. Rev.  Mr.  Mclntosh  also  held  occasional  services,  as 
already  mentioned,  in  the  Geary  barn  in  London  township,  where 
St.  John's  church  was  erected,  though  not  completed  until  after 
1840.  It  is  a  sad  commentary  on  the  times  that  this  pioneer 
missionary,  Mclntosh,  fell  a  victim  of  intemperance  in  the  end, 
though  the  good  seed  sown  in  the  early  days  of  his  ministry  has, 
nevertheless,  resulted  in  much  good  fruit.  That  he  was,  in  those 
days,  held  in  high  regard  not  only  for  his  zeal,  but  for  his  scholar- 
ship, by  the  saintly  Bishop  Stewart,  the  writer  was  assured  by  the 
late  Crowell  Wilson,  then  a  member  of  his  congregation,  after- 
ward member  of  parliament  for  Middlesex  and  Elgin,  and  all  other 
evidence  is  to  the  same  effect. 

The  Church  of  England  had  churches  at  both  Vienna  and  Port 
Burwell  at  an  early  day,  the  latter  built  and  endowed  by  Colonel 
Burwell,  whose  fidelity  to  his  church  has  already  been  remarked. 
Dr.  Cronyn's  advent  in  London  and  the  consequent  development 
of  the  church  there  have  already  been  described.  Dr.  Strachan 
found  a  church  in  a  picturesque  situation  in  the  midst  of  a  thin 
grove  of  pines  and  "  a  decent  country  congregation,"  at  Chatham 
in  1828.  "The  horses  tied  to  the  branches,  and  the  group  of 
waggons  and  carts  in  different  places  pointed  out  the  religious 
edifice.  Preaching  in  a  wilderness,"  wrote  the  Archdeacon,  "  to 
a  congregation  collected  from  a  great  extent  of  country,  which, 
on  a  cursory  view,  seems  almost  uninhabited,  arriving  by  one, 
two  or  three,  from  all  sides,  through  paths  almost  undiscernible, 
cannot  fail  of  producing  solemn  reflection  ;  and  when  we  see  them 
thus  assembled  to  worship  God  through  the  merits  of  a  crucified 
Redeemer,  we  become  sensible  of  the  power  of  the  Gospel. 
Several  persons  of  colour  composed  part  of  the  congregation." 
The  account  by  the  much-attacked  Archdeacon  of  his  journey  to 
Talbot  road  is  worth  quoting  in  full  as  illustrative  of  the  difficulties 
of  a  church  dignitary  travelling  by  waggon  in  those  days  ;  as  also 
of  the  inmost  thoughts  and  feelings  of  the  man. 


272  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

"Monday,  ist  September. — About  eight  o'clock,  the  weather,  which  had 
been  rainy,  cleared  up,  and  we  set  out  for  Talbot  street,  to  the  commence- 
ment of  which  it  was  only  sixteen  miles  across  the  country  from  Chatham. 
We  had  not  proceeded  far  before  we  found  the  sloughs  frightful.  Every 
moment  we  expected  to  stick  fast  or  break  down.  A  thunder  storm  came  on 
and  the  rain  fell  in  such  torrents  as  greatly  to  increase  the  difficulty.  After 
labouring  nine  hours  we  stuck  fast  about  five  o'clock,  when  within  half  a  mile 
of  Talbot  road.  At  length  taking  out  the  horses,  we  left  the  waggon,  with 
the  baggage,  in  order  to  go  to  the  nearest  house  for  the  night,  distant  nine 
miles.  By  this  time  it  was  six  o'clock.  The  horses,  almost  killed  with 
straining  and  pulling,  could  hardly  walk.  Another  storm  of  thunder  and 
lightning  came  on,  and  the  narrow  path,  overhung  with  branches,  became 
suddenly  dark.  The  rain  fell  in  vast  quantities,  and  at  length  we  could  see 
no  path,  but  were  striking  against  the  trees  and  each  other.  We  continued 
to  wander  till  nine  o'clock,  when  we  were  forced  to  halt,  completely 
drenched  with  the  continued  rain. 

Unfortunately  we  had  no  means  ot  lighting  a  fire,  notwithstanding  the  cold 
and  wet,  and,  expecting  to  get  to  a  house,  we  had  nothing  to  eat  or  drink. 
There  was  no  remedy  but  to  sit  quietly  under  the  trees  till  morning. 
Although  there  was  something  gloomy,  and  from  the  high  wind  which  arose 
in  the  morning,  dangerous,  in  being  in  the  midst  of  a  vast  forest  without 
light  or  shelter,  there  was  likewise  something  pleasing,  or  at  least  soothing, 
to  the  soul.  I  was  led  naturally  to  serious  thoughts,  and  the  Gospel 
promises  arose  before  me  in  unextinguishable  light.  There  was  something 
different  in  the  conceptions  which  I  formed  of  heaven  and  eternity  than  when 
in  the  midst  of  society.  The  truths  appeared,  if  I  may  so  express  myself, 
more  palpable.  There  was  darkness  without  and  light  within.  Till  I  fell  into 
a  serious  train  of  thought,  the  time  seemed  very  long  ;  but  after  I  became 
absorbed  in  meditation,  time  flew  rapidly  and  the  cold  was  forgotten  !  At 
4  a.  m.,  convinced  that  we  had  passed  the  house,  we  retraced  our  steps,  and 
found  it  about  a  mile  from  our  dreary  encampment.  We  had  passed  it  in  the 
dark  ;  but  there  being  no  window  towards  the  road,  and  the  family  having  no 
dog,  a  thing  very  unusual  in  this  country,  we  plunged  on  from  one  slough  into 
another,  without  knowing  that  we  were  near  a  human  habitation. 

"  We  despatched  the  farmer  with  his  oxen  for  our  waggon,  and  proceeded 
a  mile  farther  to  breakfast.  Notwithstanding  the  coldness  of  the  night  and 
the  wet  state  of  our  clothes,  we  took  no  harm,  which  was  a  singular  blessing, 
as  more  sickness  prevailed  at  this  time  in  the  Province  than  ever  before. 

"  Tuesday,  2nd  September. — After  breakfast  we  set  out  for  Storer's  Inn,  the 
place  at  which  I  had  promised  to  preach.  A  great  concourse  had  assembled  on 
the  previous  evening,  but  hearing  that  I  was  to  pass  across  in  a  waggon,  they 
were  convinced  that  I  had  found  difficulty  in  the  attempt  and  were  not 
surprised  at  my  not  appearing.  We  advertised,  as  far  as  we  could,  that  there 
would  be  public  worship  this  evening  ;  and  notwithstanding  the  shortness  of 


CHURCH    PROGRESS.  273 

the  notice,   I  had  a  very  good  congregation The  people 

expressed  a  strong  desire  to  have  a  minister  settled  among  them.  Occasional 
visits  might  be  made  by  Mr.  Morley  ;  for  although  the  road  may  be 
considered  impracticable  for  waggons,  it  is  passable  for  horses." 

This  bit  of  road,  as  we  have  seen  in  a  previous  chapter,  when 
Mrs.  Jameson  passed  over  it  some  nine  years  afterwards,  was  not 
much,  if  at  all,  improved.  Most  missionaries,  however,  at  this 
period  had  perforce  to  go  long  distances  on  horseback,  their 
saddlebag's  constituting"  their  only  "  baggage." 

The  Church  of  England  was  not,  however,  an  aggressively 
missionary  church  at  this  period.  Waiting  in  vain  for  the  settle- 
ment of  the  clergy  reserve  question  in  her  favour  was  not 
conducive  to  missionary  effort.  Her  churches  and  congregations 
were  mostly  confined  to  the  larger  centres  and  localities  where 
her  own  people  were  numerous  and  to  places  where  some  zealous 
churchman  gave  the  land  to  build  or  endow  a  church.  Her 
clergy  in  the  Talbot,  London  and  Western  districts  in  the  early 
"  forties,"  including  three  travelling  missionaries  in  the  London 
district,  numbered  some  nineteen,  and  by  1850  were  about  the 
same  in  number,  with  the  same  churches  and  parishes.  As  they 
are  not  numerous  it  will  be  of  interest  to  note  here  who  and  where 
they  were.  About  1842  in  the  Talbot  district  there  were  but 
two,  the  Revs.  Francis  Evans  and  George  Salmon  at  Simcoe  ;  in 
the  London  district  Revs.  Benjamin  Cronyn,  London  ;  C.  C. 
Brough,  A.  B.,  London  township;  Mark  Burnham,  B.  A.,  St. 
Thomas;  Arthur  Mortimer,  Adelaide;  Richard  Flood,  A.  M., 
Caradoc  ;  T.  Bolton  Read,  Port  Burwell,  with  three  travelling 
missionaries,  Geo.  Petrie,  James  Stewart  and  John  Hickie.  In 
the  Western  district,  Revs.  Wm.  Ritchie,  Sandwich  ;  Frederick 
Mack,  Amherstburg  ;  F.  Gore  Elliott,  Colchester  ;  W.  H.  Hobson, 
Chatham  ;  Alex.  Pyne,  A.  B.,  Moore  ;  Andrew  Jamieson,  Wai- 
pole  Island  ;  John  Gunne,  Dawn,  and  F.  Wm.  Sandys.  To  these 
by  1851  were  added  Revs.  R.  C.  Boyer,  B.  A.,  Mersea  ;  Charles 
Brown,  Malahide  ;  John  Flood,  Richmond  ;  Henry  Holland, 
Tyrconnel ;  James  Mockridge,  Warwick  ;  Geo.  Chas.  Street,  Port 
Stanley,  while  the  travelling  missionaries  were  now  Rev.  Arch. 
Lampman — father  of  the  poet — for  the  London  and  E.  R.  Stimson 


274  THE  TALBOT   REGIME. 

for  the  Talbot  district.  Rev.  St.  George  Caulfield  was  at  this 
time  in  Burford,  but  succeeded  Mr.  Burnham  as  rector  of  St. 
Thomas  in  1852. 

Among  the  foregoing  some  names  became  familiar  as  house- 
hold words  in  the  settlement  as  years  went  on — while  they  spent 
a  lifetime  labouring  in  the  same  localities.  The  devoted  Bishop 
Stewart  of  Quebec  had  ridden  along  Talbot  road  and  visited  the 
widely  separated  stations.  Dr.  Strachan,  both  as  Archdeacon 
and  Bishop  of  Toronto,  had  also  visited  the  settlement.  Ere 
many  years  a  new  diocese  in  the  west  was  to  be  set  apart  with  a 
bishop  of  its  own. 

As  the  Roman  Catholic  missionaries  were  the  first  Christians  on 
the  ground  in  the  days  of  the  Neutral  Indians  and  had  established  a 
mission  among  the  Hurons  of  the  Detroit  River  as  early  as  1728, 
it  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  missions  of  the  same  church 
were  established  in  early  days  among  the  white  population.  Out 
of  the  Jesuit  mission  begun  by  Father  Armand  de  la  Richardie  at 
the  date  just  mentioned,  which  in  1835  is  said  to  have  numbered 
six  hundred  Christian  Indians,  was  developed  the  parish 
L'Assumption,  after  the  settlers  sent  from  France  in  1749,  I75I 
and  1754  had  colonized  both  sides  of  the  river.  In  1761  the  old 
Jesuit  mission  came  under  the  charge  of  the  Bishop  of  Quebec 
and  was  merged  into  the  Parish  of  the  Assumption.  Commencing 
with  the  baptism  of  a  Campeau  in  1761  the  records  of  this  parish 
are  unbroken  to  the  present  time.  The  missions  of  St.  Peter's 
on  the  Thames  and  St.  John's,  Amherstburg  sprang  from  that  of 
JL' Assumption. 

Colonel  Talbot,  in  1827,  informed  the  Right  Rev.  Alexander 
Macdonell,  Bishop  of  Kingston,  that  he  had  within  his  settlement 
settlers  of  his  church,  and  invited  the  Bishop  to  visit  them.  The 
Bishop  accepted,  and  was  entertained  by  the  Colonel  at  Port 
Talbot,  the  spot  where  his  illustrious  kinsman,  the  Attorney- 
General  and  aide-de-camp  to  Brock,  had  stopped  on  his  way  to 
Detroit  in  1812,  and  from  which  he  had  written  the  letter  quoted 
in  a  former  chapter.  Bishop  Macdonell  was  thus  the  first 
clergyman  of  his  church  to  officiate  in  St.  Thomas.  As  a  result  of 
this  visit  the  Rev.  James  W.  Campion,  then  stationed  at  Dundas, 


THE    ROMAN   CATHOLIC    CHURCH.  275 

was  directed  to  visit  St.  Thomas  and  London  once  a  year.  Rev. 
John  Cullen,  who  succeeded  him,  increased  these  visitations  to 
four  times  a  year. 

Archibald  McNeal,  who  had,  in  1816,  obtained  lot  three  in 
the  eighth  concession  of  Yarmouth,  on  account,  it  is  said,  of  his 
previous  service  in  the  navy,  was  a  Roman  Catholic.  From 
McNeal,  who  was  not  to  be  outdone  by  his  neighbour,  Daniel 
Rapelje,  who  had  conveyed  the  site  for  the  English  church  to 
Bishop  Mountain,  of  Quebec,  in  1821,  Father  Cullen  obtained,  on 
3ist  May,  1831,  a  deed  to  Bishop  Macdonell  and  himself  of  three 
acres  of  land  for  five  shillings.  On  this  lot,  now  in  the  heart  of 
the  City  of  St.  Thomas,  soon  after  was  built  the  original  wooden 
church,  which  is  now  about  to  be  replaced  for  the  second  time  by 
a  handsome  edifice.  McNeal  had  deeded  the  south  half  of  his  two 
hundred  acre  farm  to  his  son,  Hugh,  who  parted  with  it  before 
many  years,  since  which  time  it  has  been  connected  by  Wilson's 
bridge  with  the  north  and  brought  into  the  present  city.  The 
north  part  McNeal  deeded  to  his  daughter,  the  wife  of  John 
Davis,  an  Orangeman,  and  it  was  subsequently  laid  out  in  town 
lots,  as  already  mentioned  in  a  former  chapter,  by  Messrs.  White 
and  Mitchell. 

Father  Downie,  who  succeeded  Father  Cullen  in  1831,  and 
Father  Burke  (1836)  attended  the  missions  until  1838.  Rev'ds 
Mills,  O'Flynn,  and  O'Dwyer  had  charge  of  St.  Thomas  and 
London  until  1850,  when  Rev.  T.  D.  Ryan  was  appointed  to  St. 
Thomas  parish,  which  was  thenceforth  separated  from  London. 
Father  Ryan  continued  in  St.  Thomas  for  seven  years,  built  the 
time-honoured  brick  house  which  is  still  doing  duty  as  a  priest's 
residence,  and  opened  a  mission  church  at  Port  Stanley. 

The  earlier  of  the  above  named  priests  had  immense  distances 
to  traverse  and  many  scattered  stations  to  visit.  Father  Downie, 
for  instance,  had  charge  of  the  faithful  in  St.  Thomas,  London, 
Adelaide,  Goderich,  and  intervening  stations  and  country.  Father 
O'Flynn  had  a  farm  a  mile  or  two  south  of  St.  Thomas,  where  his 
relatives,  the  Butler's,  lived,  and  on  which  he  introduced  into  the 
province  the  anomaly  of  a  "Welsh  mortgage"  for  the  edification 
of  the  lawyers  of  a  future  generation. 


276  THE  TALBOT   REGIME. 

Mention  has  already  been  made  of  the  building  of  the  first 
Roman  Catholic  church  in  London  in  1834.  From  that  time  the 
congregation  continued  to  grow  until,  in  1851,  Bishop  de 
Chan^onel  confirmed  one  hundred  and  thirty  persons  in  the 
Forest  City.  Fathers  Carroll  and  Crinnon,  in  addition  to  the 
priests  already  named,  fostered  the  growth  of  their  church  in 
London,  and  paved  the  way  for  the  establishment  of  a  bishopric 
there,  while  missions  and  parishes  were  being  established  in 
various  parts  of  the  settlement. 

Though  there  were  many  Presbyterians  among  the  settlers  who 
had  made  their  homes  in  the  settlement  in  the  early  days, 
especially  in  the  townships  of  Aldboro'  and  Dunwich,  they  were 
without  the  full  ministrations  of  their  church  until  sbout  1830. 
Young  couples  desirous  of  marrying  trudged  on  foot  through  the 
forest  to  Port  Talbot  to  be  married  by  Colonel  Talbot,  in  his 
capacity  of  magistrate,  and  then  home  again,  over  what  would 
have  been  many  a  weary  mile  of  wilderness,  were  the  occasion  a 
less  joyful  one,  their  friends  frequently  accompanying  them  on 
their  wedding  journey.  A  church  building  was  erected  in  the 
early  days  near  New  Glasgow,  in  Aldboro',  and  here  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Ross  preached  the  gospel  to  many  willing  hearers  seated  on  its 
rude  benches — the  first  elders  being  Angus  McKay,  James 
McKinlay,  John  McDougall,  D.  McNaughton,  George  Henry,  and 
D.  Patterson.  Not  until  1830  did  Mr.  Ross  and  Rev.  Donald 
Mackenzie  qualify  under  the  then  recent  provincial  statute  to 
perform  marriages  for  their  people,  a  function  theretofore 
exercised  only  by  the  magistrates,  unless  a  clergyman  of  the 
Church  of  England  happened  to  reside  within  eighteen  miles  of 
the  contracting  couple. 

From  1833  Presbyterianism  showed  signs  of  expansion  in  the 
settlement,  and  from  that  year  on  the  records  show  that  the 
Rev'ds  William  Proudfoot,  James  Skinner,  and  William  Fraser, 
in  addition  to  the  two  ministers  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  already 
named,  performed  a  considerable  number  of  marriage  ceremonies. 
Of  other  early  ministers  in  the  settlement,  may  be  named  Rev'ds 
John  Scott,  W.  McKellican  (1833),  Daniel  Allen,  Duncan 
McMillan,  and  Dugald  McKellar,  whose  ministrations  all  began 


FEAR   OF   THE   SCOTCH   SETTLEMENT.  277 

previous  to  1840,  and  William  R.  Sutherland  and  Lachlin 
McPherson  somewhat  later.  Mr.  McKellican  was  the  first 
resident  Presbyterian  minister  of  St.  Thomas.  It  is  narrated  that 
when  the  rebellion  of  '37  began  the  government  sent  word  to  one 
of  the  St.  Thomas  magistrates  that  it  was  reported  that  the  Scotch 
in  the  north  of  Yarmouth  were  disaffected  and  might  join  the  rebels. 
The  reply  sent  back  was  "The  Scotch  are  all  right ;  all  they 
require  is  a  minister," — and  Mr.  McKellican  forthwith  came.  In 
1838  Alexander  Love  built  for  the  congregation  the  plain, 
unpainted  wooden  edifice  at  the  head  of  New  Street,  in  which  they 
worshipped  for  so  many  years.  A  small  place  of  worship  was  also 
erected  in  North  Yarmouth.  Rev.  Mr.  McKinnon  succeeded  Mr. 
McKellican  and  about  1849  or  '5°  ^e  Rev.  John  Eraser  began  to 
occupy  the  pulpit  of  Knox  church  on  the  Sabbaths  and  was  sole 
master  of  the  grammar  school  on  Stanley  street  during  the  week. 
London  possessed  two  Presbyterian  churches  in  the  early 
forties,  Chatham  a  Presbyterian  and  a  "secession"  place  of 
worship.  An  enumeration  of  the  places  of  worship  in  London  at 
this  period  will  serve  to  indicate  not  only  the  increase  in  religious 
services,  but  the  diversity  of  faith  and  doctrine  among  the 
religious  bodies  of  those  days.  There  were  Episcopal,  two 
Presbyterian,  Roman  Catholic,  British  Wesleyan,  Canadian 
Wesleyan,  Episcopal  Methodist,  Congregational,  Baptist  (for 
coloured  people),  and  Universalist  churches  credited  to  the  town  by 
the  Gazetteer  of  1846.  These  bodies,  with  the  exception  of  the  last 
named,  were  now  represented  in  many  outlying  parts  of  the 
settlement.  The  English,  the  Presbyterian,  and  the  Roman 
Catholic  churches  were  the  only  religious  bodies  which  received 
assistance,  prior  to  1840,  from  the  clergy  reserves  of  the  crown. 
The  other  bodies  had  to  rely  upon  their  own  Christian  zeal  and 
the  assistance  of  the  settlers  to  carry  on  their  missionary  work. 
Handicapped  as  they  thus  were,  it  must  be  acknowledged  that 
Methodist,  Baptist  and  Congregationalist  soldiers  of  the  cross  did 
a  wide-spread  work  and  penetrated  into  regions  and  habitations 
where,  but  for  them,  the  preaching  of  the  gospel  would  have  been 
unheard  for  many  a  year.  The  three  recognized  churches 
provided  ministrations  chiefly  at  such  places  as  their  regularly 


278  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

ordained  and  educated  ministry  could  reach,  and  the  scant  number 
of  clergy  prevented  their  doing"  much  more  than  providing"  services 
in  localities  where  settlers  of  their  own  communion  were 
sufficiently  numerous  to  form  congregations. 

The  Methodist  circuit  riders,  on  the  other  hand,  penetrated 
every  part  of  the  settlement.  They  waited  not  till  congregations 
were  ready  to  hand,  but  held  meetings  in  the  settlers'  log  houses 
where,  if  the  discourses  were  couched  in  less  learned  language, 
the  voices  raised  in  praise  were  as  lusty,  and  the  prayers  no 
doubt  as  fervid  and  heartfelt  as  in  town  or  village  church.  They 
went  in  and  possessed  the  land  and  local  preachers  and  class 
leaders,  with  an  occasional  revival  or  camp-meeting,  enabled  them 
to  hold  it.  They  feared  neither  the  sons  of  Anak  nor  even 
Colonel  Talbot,  who  thought  the  Sunday  psalm  singing  did  not 
always  correspond  with  the  week-day  practices  of  the  singers. 
Emotional  religion  suited  a  large  proportion  of  the  country  folk 
and  the  times,  and  Methodism  spread  until  in  time  every  town, 
village  and  hamlet  had  its  Methodist  meeting  house.  It  obtained 
a  hold  upon  the  people  which  it  has  ever  since  been  able  to 
maintain,  until  now  it  has  become  the  leading  Protestant  church 
in  point  of  numbers,  not  only  throughout  the  Talbot  settlement, 
but  throughout  the  Province  and  the  Dominion  as  a  whole. 

The  Methodists,  however,  were  not  then  the  united  church  they 
now  are.  The  British  Wesleyan,  American  or  Canadian  Wes- 
leyan,  New  Connexion,  Methodist  Episcopal  and  Bible  Christian 
bodies  have  since  become  welded  into  one  great  body,  the 
Methodist  church  of  to-day. 

Methodism  took  root  in  Westminster  township  at  a  very  early 
date.  In  1816  the  establishment  of  the  Westminster  circuit  of 
the  Wesleyan  church  is  recorded,  with  John  Hamilton  as  a 
minister,  and  in  1817  David  Youmans  and  Caleb  Swazey,  1818 
Daniel  Shepherdson,  1819  Alvin  Tovey,  1820  Isaac  B.  Smith  and 
S.  Belton,  1821  James  Jackson,  George  Ferguson  and  Wm. 
Ryerson.  The  last  named  was  one  of  the  six  sons  of  the  veteran 
U.  E.  loyalist,  Colonel  Joseph  Ryerson — himself  an  English 
churchman — of  Long  Point  settlement.  Five  of  the  six  sons 
became  ministers,  namely,  George,  William,  John,  Egerton — 


WESTMINSTER  AND  ST.  THOMAS  CIRCUIT.  279 

afterwards  chief  superintendent  of  education — and  Edwy  M. 
Assuredly  no  one  family  did  more  for  the  spread  of  Methodism 
throughout  the  Talbot  settlement,  or  indeed  the  province.  Space 
will  not  permit  an  enumeration  of  all  the  succeeding'  ministers  of 
this  pioneer  Wesleyan  circuit  of  Westminster,  though  some  of  the 
names  would  be  recognized  as  subsequently  of  provincial  celebrity. 
In  1835  Westminster  was  attached  to  St.  Thomas,  with  Van- 
dusen  and  Williston  as  ministers.  A  brief  reference  to  the  early 
history  of  the  Wesleyans  in  St.  Thomas  will  illustrate  their 
struggles  in  obtaining  a  foothold  in  some  of  the  chief  centres  and 
their  subsequent  successes.  In  March,  1834,  William  Drake 
deeded  to  H.  E.  Collins,  Thomas  Allen,  Enos  Call,  James  Nevills 
and  Garrett  Smith  as  trustees  for  a  "  Canadian  Wesleyan 
Methodist  Chapel "  a  lot  on  the  east  side  of  Stanley  street, 
reserving  a  right  to  other  Christian  denominations  to  use  it  for 
religious  purposes.  The  consideration  expressed  was  £$o  and 
the  property  was  to  be  the  "joint  stock  property  of  all  who  may 
think  to  assist  in  raising  funds."  Up  to  this  time  the  Methodists 
as  well  as  the  Roman  Catholic  missionaries  had  held  their 
services  in  the  seminary  or  school  on  the  west  side  of  Stanley 
street,  south  of  Walnut  street.  Now  they  set  to  work  to  erect  a 
place  of  worship  more  suitable  than  the  school  room  and  James 
Dodd  soon  reared  the  chapel  on  the  newly  acquired  lot.  In  1836 
St.  Thomas  was  detached  from  Westminster  and  made  a  circuit 
centre,  with  Conrad  Vandusen  and  John  K.  Williston  still  in 
charge.  The  chapel  was  made  use  of  by  Congregationalists  and 
other  denominations,  and,  after  the  burning  of  the  barracks, 
served,  as  has  been  already  related,  as  the  soldiers'  quarters 
until  the  withdrawal  of  the  garrison  in  1842  or '3.  By  1838-9  the 
Wesleyans  apparently  desired  a  meeting  place  of  their  very  own 
and  began  to  raise  the  necessary  funds.  A  lot  on  the  Curtis  farm 
was  bargained  for  and  a  chapel  finally  erected  on  the  site  of  the  pres- 
ent First  Methodist  church,  which  was  opened  on  loth  January, 
1841,  by  the  Revs.  Wm.  Ryerson,  Thomas  Berett  and  Samuel 
Rose,  upon  which  rested,  after  the  opening  collections  were  made, 
a  debt  of  ^239  is.  3d.  This  would  seem  to  have  been  wiped  out 
ere  long,  for  in  April  '42  the  deed  of  the  lot  was  made  for  the 


280  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

expressed  consideration  of  ^37  IDS.  by  Jas.  T.  Curtis  to  the 
trustees,  James  Coyne,  Samuel  Ferrin,  John  Edmondson,  John 
Sutton,  Jr.,  of  Southwold,  Philo  Wood,  John  Sutton  of  West- 
minster and  Israel  Thayer  of  Malahide,  in  presence  of  William 
Coyne  as  a  witness.  With  James  Coyne  leading  the  singing,  the 
congregation  struggled  bravely  on,  building  a  parsonage  and 
otherwise  improving  their  position,  until  1848  when  a  rift  in  the 
harmony  of  the  old  St.  Thomas  Episcopal  church  choir  lead  to 
discord  and  final  disruption  in  the  choir  loft,  which  spread  to  the 
pews  as  well,  and  the  trouble  was  not  stayed  until,  despite  the 
efforts  of  Parson  Burnham  and  his  churchwardens,  some  90  of 
the  congregation  had  joined  the  Wesleyans.  Thenceforth  the 
latter  flourished  apace.  The  Staceys  and  others  of  the  new- 
comers added  their  voices  and  instruments  to  the  choir  and 
harmony  and  progress  prevailed.  Meanwhile  the  abandoned 
church-barrack  lacked  a  congregation  and  the  heirs  of  the  original 
land  owner,  Wm.  Drake,  apparently  without  the  formality  of  a 
foreclosure  or  other  resumption  of  title,  deeded  the  pioneer  chapel 
lot  to  James  Nevills,  James  Dodds,  Wm.  Crawdon,  WTm.  Webb 
and  Wm.  H.  Lock  as  trustees  for  the  St.  Thomas  circuit  of  the 
New  Connexion  Canadian  Wesleyans  for  the  expressed  purpose  of 
"  building  a  chapel  thereon."  Though  the  chapel  was  already 
built  the  new  tenants  seem  not  to  have  flourished.  The  building- 
fell  into  disuetude,  one  minister  (a  son  of  Ogle  R.  Gowan,  the 
noted  Orangeman,)  and  family  are  reported  to  have  even  reached 
almost  the  point  of  starvation,  and  the  building  itself,  after  having- 
sheltered  various  congregations,  both  white  and  black,  fell  a  prey 
to  the  flames  in  the  50*5. 

London  possessed  a  comfortable  Methodist  church  in  the  30*5 
and  by  '46  one  each  for  both  British  and  Canadian  branches  of  the 
Wesleyans  and  the  Methodist  Episcopal  body  as  well,  while  the 
settlement  was  almost  everywhere  provided  with  Methodist 
places  of  worship. 

The  pioneer  Congregationalist  of  the  settlement — and  of  the 
province  it  is  said — was  the  Rev.  Joseph  Silcox,  who  had  settled 
in  Southwold  in  1817,  giving  the  name  of  the  place  near  which  he 
was  born  in  Somersetshire,  England  (Frome),  to  the  locality  where 


JOSEPH   SILCOX.  281 

he  settled.  He  was  a  rugged  Christian  of  the  Calvinist  type  with 
an  iron  frame,  who  made  the  forest  resound  with  both  his  axe 
and  his  exhortations.  In  1819  the  Congregational  church  at 
Frome  was  formed,  of  which  he  took  the  pastoral  oversight.  The 
fifty-two  members  of  his  congregation  were  scattered  throughout 
Dunwich,  Southwold  and  Westminster  and  in  these  townships,  as 
well  as  in  Oxford,  at  "the  Forks,"  before  London  was  known, 
and  on  "the  plains"  near  Union,  he  is  said  to  have  preached, 
covering  the  wide  stretches  of  country  on  his  horse.  He  returned 
to  England  for  his  wife  and  family  in  1821,  remaining  there  for 
seven  years  to  arrange  business  affairs,  after  which  he  returned  to 
resume  his  labours  in  the  settlement.  Not  till  after  the  rebellion 
was  the  church  building  erected  on  the  front  of  Mr.  Silcox's  farm, 
the  site  for  which  he  gave.  He  gave  in  time  a  goodly  congrega- 
tion, too,  for  it  is  stated  that  a  few  years  since,  of  a  congregation 
of  400  gathered  to  hear  his  grandson,  Rev.  J.  B.  Silcox  of 
Winnipeg  (now  of  Lansing,  Michigan,)  preach  at  the  neigh- 
bouring village  of  Shedden,  nearly  one-fourth  were  descendants  of 
Joseph  Silcox,  who  died  in  1873  at  the  age  of  84.  Two  of  his 
grandsons  are  eminent  Congregationalist  ministers  of  the  present 
day,  the  one  just  named  and  his  brother,  Rev.  Edwin  Silcox,  of 
Toronto.  Of  other  Congregationalist  ministers  may  be  named 
W.  P.  Wastell,  Southwold,  1843  ;  Edward  Ebbs,  London,  1846  ; 
John  Durrant,  London,  1847  ;  W.  H.  Allworth,  Port  Stanley, 
1848,  and  W.  F.  Clarke,  London,  1849. 

Among  the  earliest  Baptist  settlers  were  a  numerous  party  from 
South  Wales,  who  settled  in  1821  in  the  north  part  of  London 
township,  who,  with  others  of  the  same  faith  in  Lobo,  formed  a 
Baptist  church  in  the  latter  township  in  1829,  incited  thereto  by 
the  preaching  of  Elder  McDermond.  A  few  years  later  a  church 
was  erected  in  the  Welsh  settlement  at  Denfield  in  London  town- 
ship. A  decade  later  there  were  Baptist  places  of  worship  not 
only  in  London,  St.  Thomas,  Blenheim  and  other  towns  and 
villages,  but  in  Bayham,  Malahide,  Yarmouth,  Aldborough, 
Southwold,  Westminster,  Dorchester  and  other  townships,  and 
the  names  of  Elders  Pickle,  Merrill,  Vining,  Harris,  Laridon, 
Baker,  Sloot,  Sinclair,  Mills,  Crandall,  Wilkinson,  Wilson,  East- 


282  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

wood,  Williams,  Bray,  Hopkins,  Marsh,  Boyd,  Rouse  and  Chute 
were  known  throughout  these  townships,  while  those  of  Richard 
Andrews  of  Yarmouth,  Shook  McConnell  in  Malahide,  D.  W. 
Rowland  in  St.  Thomas  were  as  household  words  in  those 
localities. 

In  1831  the  Baptists  shared  in  the  privilege  accorded  them  in 
common  with  other  dissenting  bodies  of  qualifying  to  perform 
marriage  services.  To  journey  to  the  magistrate's  court  and  take 
the  necessary  oath  of  allegiance,  though  an  onerous  condition, 
was  not  the  only  difficulty  encountered  in  the  early  days.  The 
experience  of  Elder  Dugald  Campbell  of  Aldborough  in  joining  a 
couple  from  the  north  of  the  Thames  may  be  instanced  to  show 
that  the  want  of  license  to  marry  was  not  always  the  only  barrier. 
Arrived  at  the  river  the  elder  stood  on  one  side  of  the  stream,  the 
young  couple  on  the  other,  the  boat  used  as  a  ferry  gone.  The 
river  was  deep  at  this  point  and  apparently  the  would-be  bride 
and  groom  were  as  far  from  a  consummation  of  their  bliss  as 
ever.  The  elder  was  not  to  be  thus  balked,  however.  He 
shouted  to  the  couple  to  join  hands  on  the  river  bank,  went 
through  the  ceremony  in  the  same  tones,  tied  the  marriage  lines 
to  a  stone  and  hurled  it  across  the  broad  waters, and  went  his  way 
and  the  happy  couple  theirs. 

The  Baptists,  consistent  opponents  of  anything  like  a  state 
aided  church,  have  worked  perseveringly  and  flourished  through- 
out the  settlement. 

The  Moravians  of  the  Thames,  like  the  Quakers  of  South 
Yarmouth,  though  in  the  Talbot  settlement,  were  not  of  it.  The 
latter  were  largely  settled  on  lands  which  were  granted  to  the 
Baby  family  before  Colonel  Talbot's  settlement  commenced,  whose 
beauties  have  been  referred  to  in  previous  pages.  The  formers' 
occupation  of  their  lands  upon  the  Thames  began  in  1792,  when 
Zeisberger,  Senseman,  Edwards,  Michael  Jung  and  others,  with 
their  band  of  Christian  Delaware  Indians,  driven  for  many  years 
from  place  to  place  on  the  other  side  of  the  border,  crossed  over 
and  built  their  little  town  of  Fairfield,  which,  being  burned  by 
Harrison's  army  after  the  battle  of  the  Thames,  was  subsequently 
re-built  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  river  in  Orford,  and  has  been 


MORAVIANTOWN.  283 

since  known  by  the  name  of  Moraviantown.  The  semi-centennial 
of  this  peaceful,  happy  settlement  was  celebrated  in  a  becoming 
manner  in  1842.  Their  mission  is  the  oldest  in  the  Talbot 
settlement,  as  their  church  also  is  the  oldest  Protestant  church, 
preceding  by  many  years  Luther's  Reformation.  Their  reserve  is 
some  six  miles  square. 

A  perusal  of  the  foregoing  brief  and  imperfect  account  of  the 
various  denominations  of  Christians  in  the  settlement,  and  their 
early  struggles,  may,  to  some,  suggest  doubts  as  to  the  good 
accomplished  in  a  young  and  scattered  population  by  so  many 
divided  and  sub-divided  bodies  working  rather  in  rivalry  than 
harmony  in  their  common  Master's  service.  Yet  the  eye  of  faith 
may  discern  a  divine  purpose  in  it  all.  Each  body  doubtless 
appealed  to  those  of  the  mixed  population  of  many  nationalities 
whom  it  best  could  influence  for  good.  Their  very  rivalries 
tended  to  increase  their  zeal,  and  remote  settlements  and  isolated 
settlers  were  reached  who  would  otherwise  have  been  left  without 
religious  guidance.  It  was  a  period  of  division  but  not  of  doubt. 
The  next  half  century,  with  a  more  homogeneous  population,  was 
to  witness  the  drawing  together  and  consolidation  of  a  good 
many  of  these  rival  bodies,  strengthened  by  union  to  face  new 
foes.  With  the  evangelization  of  the  world  completed  according 
to  divine  command,  may  it  not  be  hoped  that  all  division  may 
disappear  and  a  united  church  be  prepared  to  greet  her  Lord  ? 

Meantime  let  those  who  doubt  the  good  accomplished  by  the 
various  churches  in  the  first  half  century,  ask  themselves  what 
would  have  been  the  moral,  not  to  say  religious,  condition  of  the 
settlement  without  them. 


CHAPTER   XXXIV. 

EARLY  SCHOOLS  AND  EDUCATIONAL  PROGRESS. 

THAT  education  was  attained  by  children  of  the  early  settlers 
under  difficulties  was  a  necessary  consequence  of  their  isolated 
position.  Many  a  worthy  citizen  of  the  first  half  century 
struggled  with  the  rudiments  by  the  light  of  the  log  fire,  a  pine 
knot,  or,  at  best,  a  tallow  dip,  in  a  pioneer  home  in  the  winter 
evenings — some  without  other  assistance  than  that  of  their  hard 
worked  parents,  if,  happily,  these  had  any  education  to  impart  to 
their  offspring.  Where  a  school  was  within  reach  at  all  it  was 
usually  kept  open  for  but  six  months  of  the  year,  while  many 
pupils  who  could  be  of  use  in  clearing  the  land  had  the  advantage 
of  only  the  half  of  this  term  at  school. 

At  first  the  home  of  some  settler  afforded  necessary  accommo- 
dation for  the  class  until  a  log  or  other  rough  schoolhouse  could 
be  built  by  the  settlers.  The  first  of  the  log  schoolhouses  was, 
probably,  that^>uilt  by  the  settlers  upon  an  acre  of  land  given  for 
the  purpose  by  James  Watson,  at  Watson's  Corners,  in  1816. 
Most  of  the  logs  were  cut  upon  the  spot  to  form  the  building  of 
twenty  by  eighteen  feet  dimensions.  The  first  teacher  was 
William  Hannah,  and  the  first  trustees  John  Barber,  James 
Watson,  and  Colonel  Burwell.  This  schoolhouse  was,  about 
1820,  destroyed  by  fire  caused,  it  was  supposed,  by  the  "back 
log  "  from  the  open  fire  place  rolling  out  on  the  floor  after  school 
hours.  An  interval  of  teaching  by  Ewen  Cameron  in  the  settlers' 
homes  succeeded,  before  a  frame  school  house  took  the  place  of 
this  pioneer  school.  Among  other  early  teachers  at  this  school 
was  Crowell  Wilson,  afterward  the  well-known  member  of 
parliament  for  Middlesex  and  Elgin,  whose  home  was  then  just 
east  of  St.  Thomas. 


EARLY  SCHOOLS.  285 

On  the  other  side  of  the  townline,  in  Dunwich,  the  first  school 
in  the  pioneer  settlement,  "little  Ireland,"  was  held  in  1822  in  the 
house  of  Mr.  John  Pearce,  Mr.  Thomas  Gardiner  being  the 
teacher  and  six  months  being  the  term.  This  was  succeeded  by 
a  similar  school  at  the  house  of  John  Miles  Farlane  in  1824,  in 
which  year  a  schoolhouse  was  erected  on  Mr.  Backus'  farm,  of 
which  three  teachers  of  the  name  of  Ladd,  their  several  Christian 
names  being  Alvro,  Lemuel  and  Phural,  were  among  the  masters 
at  different  times. 

The  interior  furnishings  of  most  of  the  pioneer  schoolhouses 
were  similar — a  large  open  fireplace — for  which  a  stove  was 
substituted  in  later  buildings — a  long  slab  or  board  desk  along 
two  and  sometimes  three  of  the  walls,  slab  benches  pierced  with 
auger  holes  in  which  the  supports  were  inserted.  A  small  desk  and 
chair  for  the  teacher  completed  the  furniture.  Quill  pens  and  ink 
from  the  bark  of  maple  and  copperas,  with  some  whiskey  as  a 
preventative  against  freezing,  were  used.  Economy  in  window 
glass  was  the  rule.  Three,  or  at  most  four,  windows  formed  the 
light  allowance.  The  walls  were  unplastered,  and  sometimes  the 
ground  was  the  only  floor. 

The  teachers  were  boarded  and  lodged  by  the  patrons  of  the 
school  in  turn  and  obtained,  usually,  from  them  a  small  per  capita 
allowance  in  cash  for  the  pupils  taught  from  their  families,  who 
supplied  also  each  a  proportion  of  the  wood  consumed.  In  some 
schoolhouses  where  a  married  teacher  presided,  he  and  his  wife 
lived  in  the  school,  the  pupils  enjoying  free  instruction  in  certain 
branches  of  domestic  science  while  pursuing  their  other  studies. 
This  was,  for  instance,  at  one  time  the  case  in  the  school  near 
Coyne's  Corners  (S.  S.  No.  3,  Dunwich,)  and  in  this  school  house 
the  soldiers  on  the  march  to  the  western  frontier  were  able  to 
cook  a  comfortable  meal  in  1838. 

The  school  houses  were  frequently  used  for  religious  services 
by  the  several  denominations  and  for  various  meetings  of  a  social, 
literary  and  political  character. 

District  grammar  schools  were  established  by  law  at  a  very 
early  day — in  1807.  That  for  the  London  district  was  placed  in 
charge  of  James  Mitchell,  who  had  been  educated  at  Edinburgh 


I 


286  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

University  and  had  come  to  the  country  as  tutor  to  the  family  of 
Colonel  Hamilton.  He  taught  the  school  on  his  farm  in 
Charlotteville  until  in  1819,  when  the  capital  was  established  at 
Vittoria,  and  Mr.  Mitchell  became  the  district  Judge,  while  the 
school  was  removed  to  the  same  place,  and  Egerton  Ryerson, 
one  of  his  former  pupils — afterwards  chief  superintendent  of 
education  for  the  province — succeeded  the  Judge  as  school 
master. 

After  the  survey  and  establishment  of  the  district  capital  at 
London,  one  VanEvery  opened  the  first  school  in  the  new  town  in 
the  temporary  gaol  and  court  house  building  first  erected  there. 
This  was  in  1828.  On  this  building  being  removed  to  the  south 
side  of  the  court  house  square  to  make  way  for  the  new  court 
house,  it  was  occupied  in  the  upper  part  by  the  district  school, 
which  was  removed  from  Vittoria  to  the  new  district  capital. 
The  names  of  Francis  Wright,  T.  C.  D.,  its  first  master,  James 
C.  Thompson  and  the  Rev.  Benjamin  Bayley  are  associated  with 
this  school.  The  latter  continued  in  charge  of  it  and  its 
successors  for  thirty-seven  years.  The  names  of  some  of  the 
pupils  who  attended  this  old  pioneer  grammar  school,  some  of 
whom  sat  at  an  early  age  upon  the  judicial  bench  of  the  former 
court  room,  then  occupied  by  the  more  advanced  scholars,  have 
been  given  in  a  previous  chapter. 

The  late  Sheriff  Glass  wrote  of  the  early  private  schools  of 
London  about  this  period,  as  remembered  by  himself  : 

"  The  first  school  was  opened  in  1833,  on  Dundas  and  Richmond,  by  one 
Taylor,  an  asthmatic,  consumptive  person,  who  could  scarcely  master  '  the 
three  R's.'  He  was  assisted  by  his  wife,  a  tough,  wiry  little  woman,  with 
less  education,  but  greater  energy.  They  combined  lath-making  with  their 
educational  duties  ;  the  male  teacher  cleaving  the  large  bolts  of  oak  and 
cedar  until  quite  exhausted,  when  his  wife  would  take  up  the  work,  and,  with 
drawing-knife  in  hand  and  astride  the  draw  horse,  she  would  thin  down  the 
thick  ends  and  prepare  the  lath  for  market.  Then  followed  in  rapid  succes- 
sion the  opening  and  closing  of  other  schools.  Miss  Stimson,  Mr.  Busbee, 
Miss  Dyer  (a  resident  in  1877),  John  Talbot  and  Rev.  Mr.  Wright,  all  taught 
private  schools  between  1833  and  1836.  Most  of  these  teachers  were  but 
poorly  educated.  They  were  strong  believers  in  the  doctrine  '  to  spare  the 
rod  is  to  spoil  the  child  '  and  enforced  most  lessons  with  a  liberal  application 
of  blue  beech  gads,  which  were  then  found  in  a  swamp  at  or  near  the  corner 


THE   TALBOT  SEMINARY.  287 

of  Richmond  and  King-  streets.  The  total  number  of  children  at  this  time  of 
suitable  age  for  school  did  not  exceed  ten  or  twelve.  The  schools  were 
opened  by  the  persons  named  as  a  private  enterprise,  without  government  or 
municipal  aid.  The  usual  charge  was  from  $1.25  to  $1.50  per  quarter.  It 
will  be  readily  seen  that  the  probable  return  was  not  such  as  to  command  the 
best  talent,  and  this  will  also  account  for  the  rise  and  fall  of  so  many  schools 
in  so  short  a  time.  Mr.  Taylor  (father  of  William  Taylor,  who  died  in 
1876-7),  who  taught  for  many  years  subsequently  in  London  township,  opened 
a  school  on  Horton  street  in  1838.  He  was  far  in  advance  of  the  others 
educationally  and  taught  for  many  years  afterwards  in  the  same  place.'  " 

V  As  early  as  1825  a  school  house  had  been  erected  in  St. 
Thomas.  A  few  individuals,  chiefly  farmers,  had  guaranteed  the 
payment  of  ^"100  a  year  for  three  years  for  the  maintenance  of  a 
school  therein,  and  in  the  year  mentioned  the  school  was  reported 
to  be  "  in  operation  under  the  superintendence  of  a  young  gentle- 
man from  the  lower  province,  sent  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Stewart" — 
presumably  the  Rev.  Alexander  Mclntosh.  His  name  and  that  of 
a  Mr.  Randall  have  been  since  associated  with  this  early  seat  of 
learning  in  St.  Thomas  which  came  to  be  known  as  the  Talbot 
Seminary,  while  the  school  house  grew  to  be  a  two-storied  one. 
Other  teachers  in  the  seminary  in  the  "  twenties  "  were  James 
Lee,  "  Dandy  "  Smith — so  called  from  his  tendency  to  foppishness 
in  those  days  of  homespun — and  John  Alexander.  Holton 
Bennett,  who  subsequently  became  the  leading  hotel  proprietor  of 
London,  and  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Crane  were  also  among  the  early 
teachers  of  St.  Thomas.  Richard  Andrews,  who  had  been  a 
school  teacher  in  Holdsworth,  Devonshire,  England,  and  is 
described  as  having  been  master  of  seven  languages,  arrived  with 
the  Gilbert- Westlake-Penhale  party  from  that  place  in  1831.  He 
at  once  took  up  teaching.  Among  his  pupils  of  the  early  thirties 
may  be  mentioned  James  W.  Drake,  afterwards  for  many  years  a 
school  master  of  the  village  ;  Daniel  Drake,  the  first  white  child 
born  in  the  neighbourhood,  and  Thomas  Arkell,  a  newly  arrived 
English  boy — the  two  latter  becoming  mayors  of  St.  Thomas  and 
the  last  named  a  member  of  parliament  in  later  years. 

On  4th  May,  1832,  the  strip  of  land  on  the  west  side  of  Stanley 
— more  correctly  Port  Stanley — street,  on  the  east  border  of  the 
lot  originally  laid  out  as  the  gaol  and  court  house  block,  was 


288  THE  TALBOT   REGIME. 

deeded  by  Colonel  Mahlon  Burwell  to  King  William  IV.  "  for  the 
uses  and  purposes  of  the  Talbot  Seminary  and  no  other."  In  the 
two-storied  building  placed  upon  this  lot  a  somewhat  more 
advanced  education  was  imparted  than  in  the  ordinary  country 
schools,  and  here  the  Roman  Catholic  missionaries  said  mass  and 
baptised  children  and  the  Methodists  held  services  before  their 
respective  places  of  worship  were  ready  for  occupation. 

It  must  not  be  imagined,  however,  that  anything  so  pretentious 
as  a  two-storied  school  building  was  erected  all  at  once  for  the 
seminary,  or  even  within  a  year  or  two.  The  upper  story,  when 
reared,  remained  unfinished  for  many  a  day,  its  sides  unsheeted 
and  the  interior  exposed  to  the  weather.  Here  free  tuition  in 
physical  culture  was  afforded  the  youths  of  the  village  occasionally, 
when  some  soldier  of  the  garrison  had  a  score  to  settle  with  a 
civilian.  The  upper  story  of  the  seminary  afforded  a  convenient 
place  for  settling  these  disputes,  out  of  school  hours,  and  beyond 
the  reach  of  officers'  eyes.  Big  Levi  Simpson,  who  worked  a 
spike  threshing  machine,  after  harvest,  was  a  "  thresher  "  in 
more  ways  than  one,  and  he  and  Isaac  Buchanan  of  North 
Yarmouth,  a  powerful  Scotchman,  were  usually  ready  to  accom- 
modate the  red-coats  on  short  notice,  by  meeting  them  at  the 
above  rendezvous  for  a  sparring  match  without  gloves.  Those 
not  privileged  to  mount  the  stair  to  this  improvised  gymnasium 
of  the  Talbot  Seminary,  by  standing  at  some  distance  from  the 
building,  could  mark  how  the  tide  of  battle  was  turning,  as  seen 
through  the  open  studding. 

A  modest  frame  one-storey  building  was  erected  in  rear  of  the 
older  seminary  for  a  grammar  school,  wherein  the  well  known 
Scotch  dominie  and  rigid  Presbyterian,  John  Walker,  first  taught, 
succeeded  by  James  C.  Thompson,  formerly  of  the  London 
grammar  school,  and  the  Rev.  John  Fraser,  who  was  also  the 
minister  of  the  old  Knox  church. 

The  name  of  Mr.  Thompson  recalls  a  play-ground  tragedy  of 
those  days.  Ed.  and  Arthur  Sydere  were  step-sons  of  his.  The 
former,  in  a  scuffle  on  the  green  in  front  of  the  seminary,  received 
a  kick  in  the  abdomen  from  a  lad  named  Green,  which  resulted  in 
young  Sydere's  death.  The  affair  created  a  great  stir,  but  young 


CARADOC   ACADEMY.  289 

Green  was  not  held  responsible  for  the  unhappy  event. 

Vienna,  about  1850,  added  a  grammar  school  to  the  primary 
school  it  had  possessed  since  1828. 

The  Caradoc  Academy,  opened  by  William  Livingstone  in  1833, 
was  the  chief  residential  school  of  the  London  district  for  about  a 
quarter  of  a  century  from  that  date.  It  was  situate  on  the 
Chatham  road  some  five  miles  from  Delaware,  and  boasted  a  con- 
siderable staff  of  teachers,  while  the  Rev.  R.  Flood  preached  to 
the  faculty  and  students  once  a  fortnight.  Here  the  scions  of 
such  families  as  the  Givens,  Broughs,  Eccles,  Labatts,  Blakes, 
Burwells,  Wards  of  Mosa,  Seabrooks  of  Caradoc,  and 
Bullens  of  Delaware,  with  many  others  from  various  parts  of  the 
settlement,  and  even  more  distant  parts  of  the  province,  received 
their  early  training.  The  Academy  was  destroyed  by  fire  in  '57 — 
its  destruction  being  attributed  to  some  revengeful  students,  smart- 
ing under  the  severity  of  the  discipline  to  which  they  were 
subjected  there. 

Mrs.  Jameson,  when  passing  through  the  settlement  in  1837, 
remarked  upon  the  incompetency  of  the  teachers  in  some  of  the 
more  remote  parts  of  the  settlement.  The  character  and  attain- 
ments of  those  of  a  decade  or  more  before  that  time  can  only  be 
surmised,  or  gathered,  from  the  traditions  and  documentary 
fragments  still  preserved,  from  the  remote  past  before  the 
newspaper  era.  The  peripatetic  dominies  of  the  days  of  the 
earliest  log  schoolhouses  were  of  various  classes  and  nationalities 
— Scotch,  Irish,  and  Americans  for  the  most  part.  Some  were, 
no  doubt,  worthy  men,  some  were  mighty  with  the  rod,  while 
some  indulged  freely  in  the  prevailing  and  inexpensive  beverage  of 
the  day — whiskey.  Of  the  latter  class  was  probably  the  writer  of 
the  following  receipt  given  to  his  trustee,  by  whose  family  it  has 
been  carefully  preserved  as  a  sample  of  the  manners  of  the  day — 

"  Received  of  David  Caughell  one  pound  ten  shillings,  by  the  hands  ot 
Charles  Conrad,  in  full  of  accounts,  debts,  dues,  demands,  controversies, 
quarrels,  broils,  bickerings,  hearsays,  whosays,  and  all  other  kinds  of  old 
wives'  says,  from  the  beginning  of  the  world  until  this  very  day,  March,  1827. 
St.  Patrick's  day  in  the  morning,  1827,  £i — 10.  JOHN  LESLIE. 

A   copy   of  an    agreement   made  at  a  later  date,   engaging  a 


290  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

teacher  for  the  same  locality — in  Yarmouth — in  which  Mr.  Leslie 
taught,  in  which  is  shown  the  prevalent  rate  of  remuneration  and 
modes  of  apportionment  thereof,  with  other  interesting-  particulars, 
is  still  preserved  by  the  Caughell  family. 

Over  the  somewhat  improved  common  schools  of  the  district  of 
London,  in  the  forties,  John  Wilson — afterward  Hon.  Justice 
Wilson — and  William  Elliott — afterward  County  Judge  of  Middle- 
sex— were  successively  placed  in  charge,  as  district  superintendents, 
and  doubtless  to  their  zeal  and  energy  was  attributable  a  good 
deal  of  the  improvement  in  the  schools  during  that  decade. 

In  1850  a  Board  of  Public  Instruction  for  Middlesex  was  formed, 
of  which  Messrs.  French,  Bishop  Cronyn,  John  Wilson  of  London, 
Silcox  of  Southwold,  and  Edmund  Sheppard  were  members. 

Ladies'  private  schools  were  more  in  vogue  in  those  early  days 
than  at  present  Some  of  those  in  London  have  been  already 
referred  to.  In  St.  Thomas  the  Misses  Bostwick  were  among  the 
earliest  teachers.  Miss  Campbell,  the  daughter  of  a  retired  British 
officer,  who  had  herself  been  educated  in  France,  a  high  authority 
on  deportment  and  good  manners,  kept  a  ladies'  school  at  the  top  of 
the  hill  on  Talbot  street,  assisted  by  Miss  Low,  an  English  young 
lady.  Those  were  the  days  when  to  curtesy  gracefully,  work  a 
sampler  or  fancy  muslin  frill,  were  counted  of  more  importance 
than  proficiency  in  the  various  "oligies."  Miss  Edmunds  was 
another  of  the  early  lady  teachers  of  the  town — the  successor  of 
the  Misses  Campbell  and  Low. 

In  the  Western  district  the  grammar  school  had  been  established 
at  Sandwich,  and  the  Church  of  England  clergymen  had  charge 
of  it. 

The  foregoing  imperfect  sketch  of  the  various  classes  of  schools 
and  teachers  in  the  settlement  may  serve  to  show  upon  what  sort 
of  foundation  Egerton  Ryerson  was  to  rear  his  elaborate  school 
system  throughout  the  province,  in  the  years  to  come.  Many  of 
the  old  log  school  houses  survived  until  late  in  the  century. 


CHAPTER    XXXV. 

COLONEL  AIREY'S  RETURN — LETTERS  TO  JUDGE  SALMON — LADY 
EMMELINE  WORTLEY'S  VISIT — COLONEL  TALBOT'S  LAST  VISIT 
TO  ENGLAND — His  DEATH. 

THE  band  of  the  34th  was  no  longer  heard  in  St.  Thomas  and 
Colonel  Airey  was  once  more  in  England.  He  had  not,  however, 
parted  finally  with  his  uncle  nor  visited  Port  Talbot  for  the  last 
time.  He  was  married  and  the  father  of  a  family,  and  could 
appreciate  better  than  his  brother  Julius  the  importance  of 
conciliating  his  uncle  and  conforming  to  his  wishes.  Colonel 
Talbot's  estate  was  now  increasing  annually  in  value,  and  his 
heir,  whosoever  he  might  be,  would  be  a  man  of  wealth.  In 
consequence  therefore  of  a  correspondence  between  them,  Colonel 
Airey  conditionally  relinquished  his  post  at  the  Horse  Guards,  to 
bring  his  family  to  Canada,  in  the  autumn  of  1847. 

Meantime  Colonel  Talbot  was  living  in  the  old  bachelor  quarters 
he  had  inhabited  so  long,  and  continued  to  entertain  his  friends 
there,  after  his  own  fashion,  with  generous  hospitality.  In  June, 
1847,  in  a  letter  to  Judge  Salmon,  the  son  of  his  old  friend, 
Major  Salmon  of  Norfolk,  he  wrote  : 

"  I  have  had  Mrs.  Harris  and  three  of  her  daughters  with  two  of  the 
officers  of  the  82nd  regiment  at  Port  Talbot  for  the  last  week,  and  I  think 
that  they  intend  remaining-  another  week.  It  will  give  me  sincere  pleasure  to 
receive  a  visit  from  your  brother  George  whenever  it  may  be  convenient  to 
him  to  come.  The  Aireys  are  not  to  leave  England  before  September.  lam 
more  than  disappointed  that  Mrs.  Salmon  and  yourself  could  not  pay  me  a 
visit  this  summer.  Pray  remember  me  most  kindly  to  your  mother  and  I  am 
rejoiced  to  hear  so  good  an  account  of  her  health.  Believe  me,  my  dear 
William,  ever  yours  faithfully,  Thomas  Talbot." 

The  Mrs.   Harris  referred  to  was,   of  course,   the  wife   of  John 


292  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

Harris,  of  London,  and  daughter  of  Colonel  Samuel  Ryerse.  Of 
their  seven  daughters  the  larger  number  married  officers  of  the 
different  regiments.  The  preliminary  courtships  of  two  of  them 
were  now  doubtless  taking  place  under  the  chaperonage  of  their 
mother  and  the  now  venerable  Colonel,  their  host. 

The  reader  of  previous  chapters  will  recall  the  Colonel's 
announcement  of  an  intended  visit  in  1815  of  himself  accompanied 
by  Sir  James  Yeo  and  the  latter's  first  lieutenant,  Mr.  Scott,  en 
route  to  Long  Point,  to  Major  and  Mrs.  Salmon.  "  I  long  to  see 
you  all  again,"  the  Colonel  then  wrote  to  Major  Salmon,  with 
greetings  "to  Mrs.  Salmon  and  George  and  Bill."  The  latter 
had  now  become  "  William,"  the  Judge  of  the  Talbot  district, 
whose  first  wife  was  Emma,  sister  of  Dr.  John  Rolph,  and  his 
second  Mary  Fraser,  daughter  of  a  well-known  Scotch  family  who 
had  settled  at  Perth  and  at  Long  Point. 

Another  letter  from  Colonel  Talbot  to  Judge  Salmon,  of  the 
following  year,  shows  that  the  Aireys  had  meantime  arrived,  adn 
the  aged  writer's  thoughts  of  a  visit  to  England,  and  his  further 
hospitalities  : 

"  PORT  TALBOT,  27th  March,  1848. 

"  MY  DEAR  WILLIAM, — Perhaps  you  may  be  somewhat  shocked  at  my 
addressing-  a  learned  Judge  in  so  familiar  a  style,  but  I  cannot  depart  from 
old  habits,  having  known  and  esteemed  you  from  so  early  an  age.  I  have 
thoughts  of  visiting  England  during  this  spring  should  the  old  world  last,  but 
all  appears  convulsed.  I  should  like  of  all  things  that  you  could  find  time  to 
come  to  Port  Talbot  when  the  roads  will  admit,  as  I  am  anxious  to  make  you 
and  Colonel  and  Mrs.  Airey  acquainted  before  I  start. 

"  It  has  been  a  most  extraordinary  winter,  no  sleighing,  but  to-day  it  feels 
genial  and  springlike.  I  have  had  Amelia  and  Eliza  Harris  for  the  last  ten 
days,  and  I  had  the  Chief  Justice  with  Captain  LeFroy  three  days  last  week. 
They  brought  me  the  first  account  of  the  revolution  in  France.  Louis 
Phillip  may  now  shut  up  shop  for  the  remainder  of  his  life.  I  was  delighted 
to  hear  that  Mr.  Harris  gave  so  flourishing  news  of  you  and  my  excellent 
friend,  Mrs.  Salmon,  your  mother.  The  most  of  my  land  labours  are  at  an 
end  and  I  have  to  abdicate  like  other  Sovereigns.  Pray  let  me  hear  from  you 
soon,  and  with  kindest  regards  to  your  mother  and  your  Mrs.  Salmon  and 
George,  etc.,  believe  me,  my  dear  William,  ever  affectionately  yours, 

"THOMAS  TALBOT." 

Amelia   Harris  subsequently  married  Mr.   Gilbert  Griffin,  well- 


LETTERS   TO  JUDGE  SALMON.  293 

known  as  a  Canadian  post  office  inspector,  for  many  years  resident 
in  London,  while  Eliza  became  the  wife  of  Colonel  (afterwards 
General)  Crutchley  of  the  23rd  Royal  Welsh  Fusiliers.  The 
Chief  Justice,  who,  with  his  relative  Captain  LeFroy,  had  brought 
the  news  which  presaged  the  annihilation  of  the  old  world,  was  of 
course  Chief  Justice  Robinson.  The  Colonel  evidently  had  begun 
to  think  that  his  day  as  autocrat  of  the  settlement,  like  those  ot 
Louis  Phillip  and  the  well-known  Sovereign  or  Sovereen  of  the 
Long  Point  region,  was  drawing  to  a  close — though  his  quaint 
humour  had  not  deserted  him,  as  the  pun  on  the  latter's  name 
and  the  allusion  to  the  unhappy  French  King  show.  The  news 
by  no  means  deterred  him  from  preparing  for  his  trip,  however, 
as  the  following  letter  written  to  Judge  Salmon  six  weeks  later 
shows  : 

"  PORT  TALBOT,  8th  May,  1848. 

"  MY  DEAR  WILLIAM,— I  hope  that  this  will  find  yourself  and  all  friends  of 
your  family  enjoying-  good  health,  and  that  it  may  be  in  your  power  to  pay 
me  a  visit  within  10  days  from  the  present,  as  I  shall  endeavour  to  start  for 
England  on  the  iQth  or  2Oth  of  this  month.  The  road  will,  I  think,  be  good. 
I  should  have  sooner  thanked  you  for  your  letter  of  the  ist  of  April  and  its 
contents,  £12,  but  have  been  troubled  with  gout  in  my  right  hand  which 
made  it  painful  to  write— besides  I  have  been  as  busy  as  a  bee  building  a  log 
den  for  myself  and  servants,  being-  obliged  to  give  up  my  old  house  to 
Colonel  Airey  and  family.  The  weather  is  now  delightful  and  I  sincerely 
wish  that  my  old  dear  friend,  your  mother,  is  enjoying  it  in  her  garden. 
Now  believe  me,  my  dear  William,  ever  affectionately  yours, 

"  THOMAS  TALBOT." 

The  attack  of  gout  was  the  forerunner  of  more  serious  physical 
ailments,  as  the  building  of  the  "den"  was  evidence  of  lack  of 
harmony  in  the  newly  formed  household,  the  prelude  of  a  wider 
breach. 

Colonel  Airey  and  his  family,  after  their  arrival,  had  at  first 
taken  up  their  residence  in  the  former  home  of  Colonel  Burwell, 
at  Burwell's  Corners.  Subsequently  they  moved  to  Port  Talbot. 
The  Colonel's  log  castle  was  re-organized  and  added  to,  so  as  to 
render  it,  in  some  degree,  a  comfortable  residence  for  a  gentle- 
man's family.  The  uncle,  it  is  said,  had  intended  that  his  nephew 
should  reside  on  another  part  of  his  estate,  at  a  convenient 


294  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

distance  from  his  own.  Colonel  Harwell's  residence  would  seem 
to  have  fulfilled  this  requirement  as  to  distance,  but  for  some 
cause  it  was  abandoned  by  Colonel  Airey.  Colonel  Talbot's 
fondness  for  and  increasing"  dependence  upon  young  George 
Macbeth,  who  humoured  his  whims  or  recognized  the  folly  of 
opposing  them,  may  have  had  something  to  do  with  this  change. 

For  a  time,  it  is  said,  Colonel  Talbot  was  nominally  head  of  the 
house,  the  households  being  united  ;  but  his  long  bachelor  life  and 
freedom  from  the  restraints  of  society,  his  eccentricities,  and  the 
unfortunately  increasing  habit  of  over-indulgence  in  stimulants — a 
habit  engendered  in  the  days,  even  then  not  altogether  passed 
away,  when  occasional  and  even  frequent  intoxication  was 
considered  in  the  light  of  a  social  duty — these,  among  other 
causes,  rendered  a  break  in  the  household  inevitable.  The  old 
Colonel  had  become  accustomed  to  an  early  midday  dinner.  To 
the  younger  man  dinner  before  seven  in  the  evening  was  a  social 
departure  of  an  impossible  kind.  In  short,  as  it  has  been 
expressively  put,  "the  old  bird  had  been  disturbed  in  his  nest  and 
could  not  be  reconciled,"  even  after  the  "den"  was  completed, 
adjoining  the  main  building  on  the  west.  Upon  one  occasion,  it 
is  narrated,  the  Hon.  James  Crooks,  an  acquaintance  of  fifty 
years'  standing,  travelling  through  the  neighbourhood,  called  in 
to  see  his  old  friend,  Colonel  Talbot,  while  the  Aireys  were  at 
church.  Colonel  Talbot  wished  to  observe  his  usual  custom  of 
offering  some  refreshment  to  his  visitor,  but  found  everything  in 
the  shape  of  liquor  under  lock  and  key.  Such  incidents  did  not, 
of  course,  tend  to  preserve  harmony  in  the  combined  household. 

The  Lady  Emmeline  Stuart  Wortley  paid  a  visit  to  Port  Talbot 
in  the  summer  of  1849,  and  published  an  account  of  her  travels, 
which  extended  over  parts  of  North,  Central,  and  South  America. 
In  an  interesting  account  of  her  sojourn  at  Port  Talbot,  which  she 
reached  after  coming  from  Buffalo  by  the  steamer  London  to  Port 
Stanley,  she  gives  a  glimpse  of  the  adjoining  establishments  there. 
Of  that  of  Colonel  Airey  she  said — 

"Colonel  and  Mrs.  A.  have  made  this  house  delightfully  comfortable,  and 
there  is  an  air  of  true  English  comfort  and  of  that  indescribable  refinement 
which  the  gorgeously  furnished  saloons  and  chambers  of  the  hotels  we  have 


LADY  EMMELINE  WORTLEY'S  VISIT.  295 

lately  been  at  in  New  York  and  other  places  did  not  possess.  Everything  is  in 
the  perfection  of  good  taste.  The  drawing  room  is  a  most  charming  apart- 
ment, with  large  windows  reaching  down  to  the  ground,  presenting  a  lovely 
view  of  that  fresh-water  sea»  Lake  Erie. 

Her  own  room  she  described  as  "  luxuriously  appointed  in  some 
particulars,"  being-  draped  with  beautiful  old  Greek  lace  brought 
by  Mrs.  Airey  from  the  Ionian  islands,  where  she  had  resided  for 
some  time,  and  where  one  or  more  of  her  charming  children  were 
born — "little  Greeks"  she  calls  them.  "Colonel  Talbot,"  Lady 
Emmeline  continued,  "does  not  live  in  this  house,  but  in  a  sort 
of  shanty,  which  agrees  extremely  with  my  idea  (probably  a  very 
imperfect  one)  of  an  indian  wig-warn,  close  by.  He  is  going-, 
almost  immediately,  to  rebuild  it  and  make  a  good-sized  comfort- 
able house  of  it." 

Some  account  of  Colonel  Talbot's  adventures,  achievements, 
and  domestic  accomplishments,  with  some  personal  anecdotes,  are 
added. 

Colonel  Talbot,  it  is  said,  always  aimed  at  making  a  visit  to  the 
Old  Country  once  in  every  decade.  In  his  two  last  visits  he  was 
accompanied  by  George  Macbeth,  and  it  was  during  the  latest  of 
these  that  the  meeting  at  Apsley  House  with  his  early  comrade, 
the  Duke  of  Wellington,  already  referred  to  on  a  previous  page, 
took  place. 

It  was  in  1850  that  Colonel  Talbot,  having  made  over  to  Colonel  / 
Airey  thirteen  thousand  acres  of  land  in  Aldboro',  set  out  on  what 
was  to  prove  his  last  journey  to  England.  He  purposed  settling 
himself  there  or  on  the  continent,  it  was  supposed,  for  the 
remainder  of  his  days.  He  got  as  far  as  the  district  capital, 
London,  where  he  was  overtaken  by  an  illness  which  lasted 
several  weeks,  during  which  he  was  the  guest  of  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Harris,  at  Eldon  House.  Being  now  nearly  eighty  years  of 
age,  it  was  hardly  expected  that  he  would  recover,  but,  to  the 
surprise  of  everyone,  he  rallied  and  again  set  out  on  his  journey, 
accompanied  by  George  Macbeth.  The  old  land,  from  which  the 
Colonel  had  now  exiled  himself  for  close  on  half  a  century,  was 
at  length  reached,  and  the  great  exhibition  of  1851  visited,  and 
the  visit  already  referred  to  paid  to  Apsley  House,  where  Arthur 


296  THE  TALBOT   REGIME. 

Wellesley  and  Tom  Talbot  once  again  exchanged  greetings,  as 
both  neared  the  farther  shore  of  the  river  of  life. 

It  may  be  added  that  Donald  Macbeth  was  despatched  to  join 
Colonel  Talbot  and  his  brother,  George,  in  England.  This  he 
accomplished,  but  on  the  return  journey  he  was  accidentally 
drowned  at  Buffalo. 

John,  the  youngest  of  the  Macbeth  boys  (the  present  genial 
Deputy  Clerk  of  the  Crown  at  London,  Colonel  Macbeth),  had  now 
taken  up  his  abode  with  Colonel  Airey  at  Port  Talbot,  and  assisted 
him  in  laying  out  the  village  of  Tyrconnel,  the  surveyor  being 
Benjamin  Springer. 

In  1852  Colonel  Airey  received  orders  to  return  to  England,  and 
having  already  got  all  of  the  Talbot  estate  which  he  was  likely  to 
receive,  he  left  Port  Talbot,  with  his  wife  and  family,  forever.* 
Those  who  had  known  them  when  there  always  spoke  of  them  in 
terms  of  the  highest  respect  and  esteem.  On  their  departure,  the 
Port  Talbot  property  was  rented  to  Mr.  Sanders,  an  Englishman, 
who,  with  his  family,  occupied  it  for  many  years,  his  sons  and 
daughters  becoming  well-known  residents  of  the  district. 

The  relations  of  Colonel  Talbot  with  his  nephew,  Colonel  Airey, 
had  turned  out  most  unfortunately.  Both  were,  no  doubt,  to 
some  extent  responsible  for  this.  Colonel  Airey  was  understood 
to  have  claimed  that  he  had  come  on  the  invitation  of  his  uncle, 
and  with  the  promise  of  obtaining  his  entire  estate.  Colonel 
Talbot  is  said  to  have  denied  having  held  out  inducements  to  his 
nephew  to  come,  but  admitted  a  reluctant  assent  to  the  latter's 
own  proposition  to  come  in  the  character  of  expectant  inheritor  to 

*On  his  return  to  England,  Colonel  Airey,  became  Military  Secretary  to 
Lord  Hardinge,  the  Commander-in  Chief.  In  1854  he  received  the  command 
of  a  brigade  in  the  expedition  against  Russia.  At  the  moment  of  embarking 
he  was,  on  ist  September,  appointed  Quarter-Master  General  to  the  expedi- 
tion in  place  of  Lord  de  Ros,  and  acted  in  that  capacity  throughout  the  most 
critical  period  of  the  Crimean  war.  He  was  the  strongest  man  on  the  staff. 
He  was  the  right-hand  man  of  Lord  Raglan,  who  followed  his  advice  in 
most  things,  and  at  whose  order  Colonel  Airey  wrote  the  order  for  the  famous 
charge  of  the  Light  Brigade.  He,  however,  as  Quarter-Master  General, 
suffered  much  hostile  critic-ism  on  account  of  the  bad  condition  before 
Sebastopol,  unjustly  as  it  turned  out.  He  became  a  Major-General  and  K.  C. 
B.  in  1854,  and  in  November,  1855,  was  appointed  Quarter-Master  General  at 
the  Horse  Guards.  He  demanded  a  military  enquiry  into  his  conduct  in  the 
Crimea,  and  a  board  of  officers,  presided  over  by  Sir.  A.  Woodford,  found 


COLONEL  TALBOT'S  RETURN  AND  DEATH.       297 

the  estates.  The  nephewVassumption  of  management,  whether 
real  or  fancied,  and  the  restraints  placed  upon  his  uncle's  old-time 
freedom  of  action,  the  latter's  habits  and  fondness  for  George 
Macbeth,  no  doubt  all  tended  to  widen  the  misunderstanding. 

The  obligation,  however  it  may  have  been  arrived  at,  Colonel 
Talbot  apparently  felt  that  he  had  discharged  by  dividing  his 
estate  and  giving  to  Colonel  Airey  the  portion  already  mentioned, 
before  the  aged  uncle's  departure  for  England.  He  is  reported  to 
have  been  greatly  enraged  to  find,  on  his  return  to  Port  Talbot, 
that  his  old  home  was  in  the  hands  of  strangers,  and  his  nephew 
and  his  family  departed.  Mr.  Sanders  is  said  to  have  offered 
to  vacate  the  house,  but  Colonel  Talbot  refused  to  again 
live  in  it,  and  betook  himself  to  the  abode  he  had  provided 
for  the  family  of  his  old  retainer,  Jeffry  Hunter,  where  the  latter's 
widow  still  lived,  and  there  passed  the  remainder  of  his  sojourn  at 
Port  Talbot — chafing,  no  doubt,  within  himself  as  he  looked  out 
upon  the  property  which  he  had  acquired  and  improved  with  so 
many  years'  toil  and  privation,  which  had  now  passed  out  of  his 
control. 

Mr.  George  Macbeth,  however,  having  no  such  cause  for 
repining,  made  the  acquaintance  of  the  present  inmates  of  the 
Colonel's  former  home,  and  woed  and  won  one  of  the  daughters 
of  the  family.  He  purchased  a  property  in  London  and  there  took 
his  bride  and  with  them  the  aged  Colonel  Talbot  found  a  home 
for  the  remainder  of  his  days,  which  ended  on  6th  February,  1853. 

The  circumstances  of  the  removal  of  the  body  of  the  founder  of 

that  the  trouble  was  due  to  the  officers  of  the  commissariat,  and  Colonel  Airey 
exonerated  himself  on  the  testimony  of  Sir  J.  Simpson,  who  had  been  sent  to 
report  on  the  staff  officers  in  the  Crimea,  and  not  only  reported  favourably  on 
Sir  Richard  Airey,  but  maintained  him  in  his  office  when  he  succeeded  Lord 
Raglan.  Sir  Richard  was  made  a  Lieutenant-General  in  1862,  was  Governor 
of  Gibralter  1865  to  1870,  G.  C.  B.  in  1867,  Colonel  of  the  7th  regiment  in 
1868,  General  in  1871,  Adjutant-General  at  the  Horse  Guards  from  1870  to 
1876,  and  on  his  retirement  from  office  after  fifty-five  years'  service  was  created 
Lord  Airey  in  1876.  His  last  service  to  the  army  was  as  president  of  the  well 
known  Airey  commission,  appointed  in  1879,  to  enquire  as  to  the  result  of  the 
short  service  system.  He  died  I4th  September,  1881,  at  the  Grange,  Leather- 
head,  the  seat  of  Lord  Wolseley.  He  is  described  as  bred  in  ihe  school  of 
Wellington,  and  as  forming  the  best  link  between  him  and  Lord  Wolseley, 
and  his  ability  as  never  having  been  denied.—  (Vide  Dictionary  of  National 
Biography,  and  Lord  Wolseley's  recent  work.) 


298  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

the  settlement  from  London  to  Port  Talbot  were  such  as  to  give 
rise  to  a  feeling  on  the  part  of  many  old  settlers  that  proper 
respect  was  not  shown  the  remains — a  feeling  which  has  not  been 
completely  obliterated  even  at  the  present  day.  The  late  Sir 
George  Bannerman,  baronet,  of  East  Hill,  Brackley,  Northants  in 
England — formerly  of  Glenbanner,  near  St.  Thomas — in  a  letter 
to  a  friend  (the  late  Edward  Horton),  written  in  1898,  said  :  "  I 
saw  the  hearse  pull  up  in  front  of  Smith's  tavern,  opposite 
Blackwood's  store  " — at  the  foot  of  the  hill  at  the  west  end  of  St. 
Thomas — "  and  left  standing  without  anyone  near  it,  till  the 
driver  had  drinks.  When  it  got  to  Fingal  it  was  run  into  the 
barn." 

"  Great  was  the  indignation  and  horror  of  many  of  the  old 
settlers  " — wrote  the  present  writer's  father  in  his  biography  of 
Colonel  Talbot — ''when  they  learnt  that  the  remains  of  their  old 
benefactor  had  been  so  unworthily  disposed  of,  for  the  last  night 
they  were  to  remain  above  ground.  One  old  settler,  or  rather  a 
son  of  one  of  the  old  settlers,  Mr.  Samuel  Burwell,  a  faithful 
adherent  of  Colonel  Talbot's,  with  tears  in  his  eyes,  we  are  told, 
begged  to  have  the  body  removed  to  his  own  house  close  by,  and 
Mr.  Partridge,  a  worthy  settler,  would  have  cheerfully  done  the 
same  ;  but  this,  it  appears,  would  have  disturbed  the  order  of 
previous  arrangement.  It  is  even  said  that  Mr.  Lewis,  the 
innkeeper,  would  willingly  have  afforded  the  best  room  in  his 
house  ;  but  no,  the  undertaker  was  inexorable,  and  answered  to 
all  remonstrances  that  he  had  carried  bigger  men  than  Colonel 
Talbot,  and  it  was  only  after  great  excitement  had  arisen  in  the 
village  that  the  corpse  was  allowed  to  be  removed  from  the  hearse 
and  secured  for  the  night  under  lock  and  key  in  the  granary." 
This  granary,  Mr.  Lewis'  son  has  informed  the  writer,  was  a 
room  attached  to  the  rear  of  the  house.  The  undertaker  and  his 
men  were  no  doubt  to  blame,  for  they  are  reported  to  have  been 
in  a  state  of  intoxication.  That  the  remains  were  unaccompanied 
by  friends  gave  occasion  to  the  unpleasant  incident,  though  no 
disrespect  was  intended. 

On  the  following  day — gth  February  —the  corpse  was  removed 
to  Port  Talbot,  resting  for  a  short  time  within  the  house  where 


COLONEL  TALBOT'S   FUNERAL.  299 

nearly  half  a  century  of  the  Colonel's  life  had  been  passed.  The 
funeral  was  here  formed,  and  the  hearse,  followed  by  sleighs 
containing  George  Macbeth,  H.  C.  R.  Becher,  Hon.  J.  G. 
Goodhue,  L.  Lawrason,  James  Hamilton,  J.  B.  Askin,  and  other 
leading  men  from  London  and  other  parts  of  the  settlement, 
proceeded  to  St.  Peter's  church,  Tyrconnel,  where  the  funeral 
service  was  read  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Holland,  the  rector,  and  the 
remains  lowered  into  the  grave,  over  which  a  massive  stone  slab 
is  inscribed  with  the  name  of  "  The  Honourable  Thomas  Talbot, 
Founder  of  the  Talbot  Settlement." 

By  his  will,  read  by  Mr.  Becher,  co-executor  with  Mr.  Macbeth, 
at  the  grave,  his  estate  not  already  disposed  of,  then  estimated  to 
be  worth  the — for  those  days — large  sum  of  ^50,000,  was,  with 
the  exception  of  an  annuity  of  £20,  to  Jeffry  Hunter's  widow, 
devised  and  bequeathed  to  George  Macbeth. 


CHAPTER   XXXVI. 

ANECDOTES  OF  THE  COLONEL. 

THOSE  who  desire  only  the  dry  facts  and  details  of  history  may 
pass  this  chapter  by,  unread  ;  but  to  those  readers  who  may  wish  to 
know  more  of  Colonel  Talbot  and  what  manner  of  man  he  was,  as 
well  as  of  the  people  among'  whom  he  lived,  a  few  characteristic 
anecdotes  will  give  a  better  idea  than  can  be  obtained  in  any 
other  way.  While  the  incidents  which  follow  may  not  all  be 
regarded  in  the  light  of  history,  they  are  all  believed  to  be  at 
least  based  upon  fact. 

Colonel  Talbot  possessed  a  keen  sense  of  humour,  an  Irishman's 
readiness  in  repartee,  great  powers  of  sarcasm,  coupled  with  keen 
observation  and  insight  into  character.  Few  men  in  Canada  have 
been  represented  in  so  many  different  and  conflicting  lights,  the 
reason  being  partly  that  his  manner  differed  according  to  the 
company  he  was  in,  and  in  part  because,  with  a  biting  tongue 
and  often  gruff  manner,  he  possessed  a  kind  heart  and  generous 
spirit.  With  those  who  were  his  intimates — and  they  were  the 
few — and  those  whom  he  liked,  he  was  gentle  and  kindly  ;  with 
those  he  disliked,  those  who  his  quick  perception  told  him  were 
lazy  or  insincere,  and  those  who  crossed  him,  or  endeavoured  to 
over-reach  or  to  thwart  him,  he  was  rough  mannered  and  even 
abusive. 

More  anecdotes  of  Colonel  Talbot  are  associated  with  the 
celebrated  audience  window  at  Port  Talbot  than  with  any  other 
spot,  because  it  was  there  that  the  eccentric  Colonel  and  the 
settler  in  most  cases  first  met  face  to  face,  and  the  interview  was 
usually  of  a  character  and  the  appearance  of  the  Colonel  such  as 
to  impress  themselves  on  the  applicant  for  land  for  the  remainder 
of  his  days — to  be  retailed  to  his  children  and  grandchildren  as 
they  sat  by  the  fireside  in  the  long  winter  evenings. 


THE  AUDIENCE  WINDOW.  301 

Owing-  to  the  Colonel's  isolated  position  at  Port  Talbot,  rough 
characters  were  tempted  at  first  to  extort  by  force  what  they 
could  not  otherwise  obtain.  One  of  the  Colonel's  "  land  pirates," 
as  he  was  wont  to  call  them,  upon  one  occasion,  it  is  said,  laid 
hands  on  him  and  threw  him  down,  and  to  prevent  further 
encounters  of  the  kind  the  audience  window  was  constructed  by 
making-  one  of  the  panes  of  glass  open  and  shut  from  within. 
The  applicant  for  land  approached  this  window  just  as  he  would  a 
post  office  wicket,  but  often  in  fear  and  trembling.  The  "  what 
do  you  want?"  with  which  the  Colonel  seems  invariably  to  have 
opened  the  interview  was  somewhat  disconcerting  to  a  stranger 
and  impressed  itself  on  his  memory  with  all  that  followed. 
The  forenoon  was  the  portion  of  each  day  which  the  Colonel,  in 
later  years,  assigned  to  the  land  business.  He  made  it  a  rule  to 
take  no  spirits  before  his  mid-day  dinner,  so  that  he  was  always 
fresh  for  business  in  the  forenoon,  whatever  his  condition  might 
be  later  on. 

"  D — n  your  calomel,  pills,  opium  and  blisters  !  "  the  Colonel  is 
reported  to  have  exclaimed  on  one  occasion  to  Dr.  Goodhue,  who 
had  complimented  him  on  his  good  health  and  looks  during  the 
cholera  outbreak.  "  There  is  my  morning  doctor" — pointing  to 
a  cold  bath  in  the  corner  of  the  room — "  and  there  is  my  afternoon 
physician " — indicating  a  bottle  of  his  favourite  old  Canadian 
whiskey.  "  At  night  I  sleep  soundly  owing  to  a  clear  conscience, 
for  I  throw  politics  and  temperance  lectures  to  the  d — 1,"  he 
added,  the  doctor  being  a  temperance  lecturer. 

Once  when  Colonel  Talbot  was  walking  with  Colonel  Burwell 
in  the  woods  before  breakfast,  the  latter,  after  they  had  proceeded 
some  distance,  pulled  out  a  flask,  took  a  sip,  and  handed  it  to  his 
companion,  who  declined,  saying  with  an  oath,  "Burwell,  if  you 
continue  to  drink  before  dinner,  you'll  be  a  drunkard  before  you're 
forty  years  old  !  " 

To  return  to  the  audience  window.  If  the  applicant  impressed 
the  Colonel  favourably  Jeffry  Hunter  was  called  upon  to  hand 
down  the  map,  and  the  applicant's  name  being  pencilled  upon  it — 
subject  to  erasure  if  the  settler  failed  to  settle  upon  the  lot  or  to 
make  an  honest  attempt  to  fulfil  his  settlement  duties — a  memor- 


302  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

andum  was  handed  out  and  both  the  interview  and  the  window 
closed.  But  Jeffry's  duties  did  not  end  here.  He  acted  as  butler 
and  waited  at  table  and  not  infrequently  when  a  land  seeker  from 
a  distance  arrived  over  night  to  be  ready  for  the  morning"  recep- 
tion, Jeffry,  who  understood  his  master's  humours  thoroughly, 
made  an  opportunity  to  slip  in  a  word  of  business  for  the  wayfarer 
in  the  kitchen — to  the  amusement  of  the  guests  at  the  Colonel'i 
table. 

Jeremy  Crandell,  a  would-be  settler,  was,  however,  according 
to  report,  ushered  in  one  time  by  Jeffry,  contrary  to  rule,  when 
the  Colonel  turned  a  flushed  and  angry  countenance  and 
demanded  his  name.  The  man  was  so  terrified  that  he  could  not 
reply,  whereupon  the  Colonel  demanded  his  money,  which  was 
immediately  handed  over.  Jeffry  now  escorted  the  unhappy  man 
to  the  kitchen.  In  the  morning  the  Colonel  did  business  with  him 
and  returned  him  his  money,  but  it  was  a  standing  joke  against 
Crandell  that  he  had  lost  both  name  and  money  on  his  first 
appearance  at  Port  Talbot. 

The  man  just  referred  to  had  at  first  intended  to  take  with  him 
John  Barber,  one  of  the  Colonel's  earliest  settlers,  to  introduce 
him,  Mr.  Barber  having  performed  a  like  service  for  others  with 
good  effect — but  Crandell  was  too  impatient  to  await  Mr. 
Barber's  convenience.  It  is  narrated  of  John  Barber  himself  that 
when  he  first  arrived  he  was  so  rigid  a  Presbyterian  that  he  kept 
the  Sabbath  strictly  from  sunset  on  Saturday  to  sunrise  on 
Monday,  reading  his  bible  and  lodging  meanwhile  at  Port  Talhot, 
whence  he  sallied  out  each  Monday  morning  to  work,  with  a 
week's  provisions  prepared  by  the  Colonel  and  himself.  One 
Saturday  night  the  Colonel  became  alarmed  at  the  non-arrival  of 
Johnny,  as  he  called  him,  and  himself  set  out  in  search  of  him, 
with  some  food,  which  he  carried  through  the  woods  to  the 
settler's  shanty,  where  he  found  him.  "To  my  question,"  said 
the  Colonel,  "  why  he  did  not  come  home  as  usual,  I  received  for 
reply,  that  he  had  worked  till  sunset  on  the  Saturday  and  of 
course  would  not  break  the  Sabbath  by  walking  to  Port  Talbot. 
I  cursed  him  for  his  prejudice,  threw  down  the  provisions, 
entreating  him  not  to  work  any  more  on  the  Saturday,  as  he  was 


A  WOLF   IN  SHEEP'S   CLOTHING.  303 

fool  enough  to  starve,  in  preference  to  coming-  home  as  he  ought 
to  do."  Mr.  Barber  became  a  prosperous  settler  on  a  valuable 
farm — on  which  his  son  Phineas,  a  nonogenarian,  now  lives — and 
in  after  years  was  again  the  subject  of  the  Colonel's  kindness, 
when  having  during  the  war  been  pillaged  by  American  marauders, 
Colonel  Talbot  supplied  him  and  his  family  with  blankets  and 
other  necessaries. 

Colonel  Talbot  had  an  aversion  to  Yankees  of  a  speculative 
turn.  One  such,  on  his  way  to  Port  Talbot,  fell  in  with  an 
Englishman  fresh  from  the  home"  land,  clad  in  smock  frock,  small 
clothes  and  gaiters,  and  wearing  a  low-crowned  hat.  Amos,  the 
Yankee,  was  in  appearance  his  antithesis,  clad  in  a  blue-gray 
short  coat,  with  swallow  tails,  and  "pants"  to  match.  Halting 
at  "  Waters',"  they  conferred  with  their  host  and  others,  and  it 
was  arranged  that  Amos  should  first  go  and  try  his  luck  at  Port 
Talbot,  while  John  remained  at  Waters'.  The  following  colloquy 
at  the  well-known  window  is  reported  as  the  result  :  "  Well, 
what  do  you  want  ?  "  "I  guess,  Colonel,  I  should  like  to  draw 
a  lot  of  land."  "  Well,  I  guess  I  have  got  none  for  you." 
Window  closed.  Amos  returned  to  Waters',  vowing  vengeance 
on  the  "old  coon"  at  Port  Talbot,  who  had  taken  him  for  a 
Yankee.  "  But  I  say,  friend  John,"  he  said,  "  let  us  change 
coats  and  old  Beelzebub  won't  take  me  for  a  Yankee  then,  I 
guess."  Not  long  after  he  approached  the  window  once  more,  in 
John's  smock  frock  and  hat,  and,  feigning  his  manner  and  speech, 
said,  "  I's  com'd,  Colonel,  to  axe  yer  honour  could  give  me  a  lot 
of  land,  'cause  missus  and  the  fam'ly  want  to  become  zettlers." 
The  Colonel  looked  him  full  in  the  face,  then  turning  his  head 
called,  in  a  husky  voice,  "  Jeffry,  Jeffry,  set  on  the  dogs  ;  here's  a 
wolf  in  sheep's  clothing  !  " 

Jeffry  and  the  dogs  settled  more  than  one  applicant's  case  it 
seems.  An  Irishman,  who  found  he  could  not  make  headway 
with  the  Colonel  on  the  score  of  their  common  nationality,  grew 
truculent  and  boasted  of  his  pedigree,  declaring  it  as  honourable 
and  his  coat-of-arms  as  ancient  as  those  of  the  Talbots  of 
Malahide.  "  My  dogs  don't  understand  heraldry,"  was  the 
Colonel's  response,  "  and  if  you  don't  take  yourself  off,  they'll 


304  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

not  leave  a  coat  to  your  back  !  " 

Of  another  shrewd  American  named  Thurston,  the  Colonel, 
contrary  to  his  usual  custom,  asked  if  he  had  any  recommenda- 
tions, and  on  his  replying  in  the  affirmative,  the  Colonel  asked 
"From  whom?" — "From  the  Almighty,"  was  the  answer. 
"And  what  does  He  say?"  was  next  asked.  "  He  recommends 
me  to  take  care  of  myself  and  get  as  much  land  as  I  can."  The 
reply  so  pleased  the  Colonel  that  he  forthwith  gave  him  a  lot. 

An  independent  Scotchman  once  essayed  to  appeal  from  the 
Colonel's  decision  refusing  him  a  lot.  "  I'll  gang  to  your 
betters,"  he  exclaimed.  "  Go  and  be  d — d,"  the  Colonel  retorted, 
"for  you  can't  find  them."  The  would-be  settler  journeyed  to 
York,  and  after  an  unsuccessful  application  to  the  Colonel's  friend, 
Governor  Gore,  to  whom  the  latter  had,  meantime,  given  a  hint  by 
letter,  he  returned  to  the  settlement  and  the  Colonel  sent  for  him. 
"  Well,"  he  demanded,  "  have  you  found  my  betters,  or  yet  a  lot 
of  land,  after  your  long  tramp  ?  "  On  which  the  proud  Scot  drew 
himself  up  and  answered  "neither  of  them,"  whereupdn  the 
Colonel  invited  him  to  have  a  glass  of  whiskey  and  water  and 
entered  his  name  on  a  choice  lot,  which  he  said  he  had  intended 
reserving  for  himself. 

After  an  unusually  warm  interview  with  a  County  Wexford  man 
the  Colonel  is  reported  to  have  called  him  "  a  Papist."  "  I  am," 
was  the  response.  "  I'll  fix  you,"  replied  the  Colonel  ;  "  I'll  send 
you  among  the  Orangemen,  and  they'll  kill  you."  "The  very 
thing  I  want,"  retorted  the  applicant,  nothing  daunted.  He  was 
given  a  lot  in  London  township,  and  Colonel  Talbot  never  went 
that  way  afterward  without  enquiring  after  his  welfare. 

The  interview  of  another  Irishman  with  the  Colonel  is  chronicled 
as  follows  :* 

A  Patlander  who  had  heard  of  Colonel  Talbot's  reputed  eccentricities, 
thought  he  would  take  him  in  his  own  humour,  and  accordingly  made  his  way 
to  the  well-known  window,  where  the  cackling  and  fluttering  of  poultry  soon 
announced  his  arrival  and  brought  the  Colonel  to  the  spot,  and  "  what  do  you 
want,"  the  first  invariable  salutation,  convinced  our  adventurer  that  he  was  in 
the  right  place.  "I  have  come,  Colonel,  to  see,  as  I  have  a  large  rising 

*E.  Ermatinger's  Life  of  Colonel  Talbot,  page  96,  quoting  Dr.  Dunlop. 


THE   MAN  FROM    MULL.  305 

family,  whether  you  couldn't  give  me  two  or  three  hundred  acres  of  land." 
"Devil  a  sod,"  was  the  reply.  "Well,  I  was  thinking,  Colonel,  if  I  got  a 
grant  of  land  I  could  make  some  improvement  in  the  settlement."  "  I  dare 
say  you  could,  but  I  have  got  no  land  for  you."  "Well,  I  always  heard, 

Colonel,  that  you  were  a  good  friend  to  the  poor,  and  "     "  I  want  none 

of  your  blarney  ;  you  can  have  one  hundred  acres  in  Tilbury  West."  "  Faith 
Colonel,"  rejoined  Pat,  "  I  think  I've  come  far  enough  west  already.  Perhaps 
y'er  Honour  could  give  me  two  or  three  lots  in  the  Town  of  London." 
"They  are  all  giren  out  already  ;  I  have  none  in  it  to  give — but  stop  !  here, 
Jeffry,  hand  me  the  map."  Jeffry,  who  was  the  Colonel's  shadow  on  these 
occasions,  soon  spread  the  town  out  before  him,  and  after  conning  over  it  for 
some  time,  "Yes,"  said  the  Colonel,  "here  are  two  lots  on  Simcoe  street;  you 
can  have  them."  "Simcoe  street !  where'll  that  be?  Maybe  it's  in  the  woods 
yet.  I'm  a  bit  of  an  ould  soldier,  d'ye  see,  Colonel,  and  always  like  to  face 
the  enemy,"  said  Rogers,  with  an  arch  look,  "and  would  thank  you  to  give 
me  the  lots  as  convanient  as  you  can  to  the  Gaol  and  Court  House."  But  the 
Colonel  had  no  other  lots  to  give,  and  Rogers  was  about  to  depart  when  the 
thought  struck  him,  he'd  try  the  Colonel's  patience  a  little  further,  come  what 
might.  So  he  turned  as  the  audience  window  was  about  to  close,  and  "  what 
do  you  want  "  again  struck  his  ear.  "  I  was  thinking,  Colonel,  that  there  are 
some  settlement  duties  to  be  done  on  the  lots  in  Simcoe  street,  and  some  sort 
of  houses  to  be  put  on  them."  "Yes,"  was  the  reply.  "  If  I  may  be  so  bold 
then,  at  whose  expense  will  this  be  done?  At  yours  or  mine,  Colonel?" 
This  was  enough  ;  the  Colonel  merely  replied  "  at  yours,  to  be  sure,  and  you 
may  take  yourself  off."  The  window  closed  and  the  interview  terminated. 
Rogers  settled  at  St.  Thomas. 


A  Highlander  from  the  island  of  Mull,  who  had  been  remiss  in 
the  performance  of  his  settlement  duties,  and  stood,  consequently, 
in  danger  of  losing  his  land,  set  out  for  Port  Talbot,  it  is  said, 
with  the  intention  of  saving  his  lot  from  confiscation.  Stopping 
by  the  way  at  Waters',  where  he  had  a  glass  of  brandy,  he  boasted 
that  he  was  going  to  scold  Colonel  Talbot  for  having  taken  his 
land  and  given  it  to  an  Irishman.  Such  sayings  often  reached  the 
Colonel's  ears  soon  after  their  utterance.  It  was  so  in  this 
instance,  and  next  day  when  the  Mullman  was  approaching,  the 
Colonel,  who  had  accompanied  some  departing  guests  outdoors, 
greeted  him  with  "Halt,  you  rascal;  did  you  not  threaten 
yesterday  to  break  every  bone  in  my  skin  ?  " — then  turning, 
quickly  entered  the  house.  The  Mullman  walked  to  the  kitchen 
and  sat  down  with  the  servants  at  the  dinner  table  and  enjoyed  a 


306  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

hearty  meal.  He  stayed  for  the  night,  ensconcing  himself  in  one 
of  the  men-servants'  beds.  Next  morning  and  noon  he  repeated  his 
table  performance  of  the  previous  day,  and  stretched  himself 
between  meals  on  a  settee.  Jeffry  thought  it  time  to  report  to 
the  Colonel  the  presence  of  a  "strange  sort  of  man  in  the 
kitchen."  "Well,  what  does  he  want?"  demanded  the  Colonel. 
"Why,  he  helps  himself,  seemingly,  to  everything  he  wants.  I 
know  what  he  don't  want."  "What's  that,  Jeffry?"  asked  the 
Colonel.  "A  good  appetite,  sir, — eats  as  if  he  had  been  used  to 
it  all  his  life."  "Call  him  here,"  said  the  Colonel.  When  he 
appeared,  Colonel  Talbot  asked  what  he  meant  by  quartering 
himself  on  him  so  unceremoniously.  "I  will  na  gang  awa'  the 
year — nor  never,  until  you  gie  me  my  land  again,"  he  replied. 
"Take  it,"  responded  the  Colonel,  "and  go  to  the  deil  with  it, 
and  if  ever  I  see  you  back  here  it  will  be  my  turn  to  break  bones." 
The  man  now  raised  the  siege  and  departed,  satisfied  with  the 
success  of  his  plan  of  campaign. 

The  Colonel's  goodness  of  heart  is  illustrated  by  the  case  of 
a  young  hired  man  who  had  a  strong  prejudice  against  doctors 
and  medicines,  and  was  doctored  and  nursed  through  a  serious 
illness  by  the  Colonel  himself,  who,  moreover,  paid  him  his  full 
wages  at  the  end  of  his  term. 

The  ready  wit  and  sarcastic  humour  of  Colonel  Talbot  is  well 
illustrated  by  his  remark  to  the  Bishop,  himself  a  Scotchman, 
when  the  case  of  a  long-winded  clergyman  was  under  discussion 
— "  I  never  knew  anybody  that  could  bear  a  long  sermon  but  a 
Scotchman — when  he  pays  for  it." 

Though  the  Colonel  was  not  the  most  devoted  of  churchmen,  he 
was  never  charged  with  encouraging  dissent.  "Good  morning, 
Colonel,"  said  a  Congregationalist  minister,  who  had  come  to  ask 

a  subscription,    "and  "      "What  do  you  want?"  was  the 

reply.  "  We  want  to  make  some  improvement  in  our  neighbour- 
hood, and "  "There's  much  need  of  it,"  cut  in  the  Colonel. 

"  We're  going  to  build  a  house,"  persisted  the  visitor.  "  A  house 
for  what?  "  "A  house  for  the  worship  of  God,  and  I  just  came 
to  solicit  a  subscription."  "I'll  give  you  nothing."  "  Why  not, 
Colonel?  "  "  Because  you  gather  a  parcel  of  you  together,  sing 


DRY  WINE.  307 

a  psalm,  howl  and  yell  like  a  pack  of  wolves,  then  go  and  cheat 
your  neighbour  and  come  back  and  sing  a  hymn  over  it."  The 
Colonel  and  the  minister  in  question,  who  was  an  old  settler,  had 
a  mutual  respect  for  one  another,  nevertheless,  and  it  is  said  that 
the  latter  took  the  rebuff  in  good  part  and  was  even  constrained 
to  admit  some  truth  in  the  Colonel's  remarks. 

The  Colonel  had  just  returned  from  England  upon  one  occasion 
and,  travelling  to  Port  Talbot  with  his  brother,  a  confirmed 
grumbler,  promised  him  a  good  glass  of  wine  at  Port  Talbot. 
Arrived  at  home,  the  Colonel  presently  called  upon  the  man  he 
had  left  in  charge  of  his  cellar  to  bring  up  some  of  the  best  port. 
The  man,  an  Irishman,  pretended  to  go,  but  presently  returned 
with  the  startling  intelligence  that  there  was  no  wine  left — the 
cask  was  empty.  "What,  none!"  exclaimed  the  incredulous 
Colonel,  who  never  allowed  himself  to  be  without  good  wine. 
"None,  your  honour,"  replied,  the  man,  fertile  in  excuses, 
"  It  all  dried  up  with  the  hot  weather." 

Though  the  Colonel's  wine  was  of  the  best,  his  food  and 
furniture  were  of  the  plainest,  though  most  substantial,  character. 
An  ex-sheriff  of  old  London,  Parkins  by  name,  was  once  dining 
at  the  Colonel's  and  made  some  disparaging  remark  about  a  friend 
of  the  latter.  The  Colonel  promptly  informed  him  that  he  did 
not  permit  such  language  to  be  used  at  his  table.  "Your  table  !  " 
contemptuously  replied  the  ex-sheriff,  lifting  the  cloth  and 
disclosing  a  pine  board,  "do  you  call  this  a  table?"  "Jeffry," 
said  the  Colonel  blandly,  "let  Mr.  Parkins'  horse  be  brought  to 
the  door." 

A  pedantic  resident  of  the  township  of  Howard  once  approached 
the  Colonel  with  a  local  grievance  couched  in  the  most  high 
sounding  phrases,  and  proceeded  to  lay  a  complaint  against  a 
settler  in  sentences  and  words  of  the  longest  kind.  "What  the 

do  you  mean,  man?  "  cut  in  the  Colonel,  who  did  not 

favour  circumlocution,  "  if  you  do  not  come  down  to  the  level  of 
my  poor  understanding,  I  can  do  nothing  for  you."  The  man 
resumed  in  plainer  words,  but  ambiguous  manner,  to  complain  of 
his  neighbour's  deficiencies  in  the  work  on  his  lot.  "Come  out 
with  it,"  exclaimed  the  Colonel.  "  Now  I  see  what  you  would  be 


308  THE  TALBOT   REGIME. 

at.  You  wish  to  oust  your  neighbour,  and  get  the  land  for 

yourself,  but  I'll  be if  you  do."  The  attempt,  which  was 

one  of  a  class  not  infrequently  made,  failed,  the  Colonel  having 
detected  the  truth  hidden  in  a  multitude  of  words. 

One  woman,  George  Crane's  Scotch  wife,  will  live  in  history  as 
the  only  woman  who  ever  vanquished  the  Colonel.  She  looked  upon 
all  the  latter's  possessions  as  belonging  to  the  settlers  in  general, 
and  one  day  demanded  one  of  his  horses  to  take  her  to  mill. 
"  Indeed,  I  will  give  you  no  horse,"  the  Colonel  boldly  answered. 
"You  won't,  won't  you  ?"  cried  the  Amazon,  seizing  a  carving 
fork,  "  we'll  see  whether  you  would  rather  give  a  horse,  or  be 
run  through  with  this  fork  !  "  The  Colonel,  retreating  in  dismay, 
cried  out,  "  Jeffry,  Jeffry,  order  a  horse  for  this  Scotch  she  d — 1." 
The  horse  was  given  her  and  in  due  time  returned. 

Colonel  Talbot's  appearance  and  characteristics  in  his  younger 
days  when  he  was  with  Governor  Simcoe  will  be  of  interest. 
"  The  Colonel  was  the  prettiest,  the  neatest  and  most  active  of 
the  whole  party,"  said  Fleming,  who  acted  as  a  boatman  on  one 
of  the  Governor's  expeditions  along  the  shore  of  Lake  Erie.  He 
was  described  as  actively  employed,  from  the  moment  of  landing, 
in  gathering  wood  for  fuel,  tent  pitching,  aiding  the  boatmen  at 
the  portages.  Once  the  Governor  remarked  that  there  were  men 
enough  to  do  the  work.  The  young  officer's  laconic  reply  was, 
"  None  more  manly  than  I  am,"  to  which  the  Governor  is  said  to 
have  assented  with  a  smile. 

It  was  during  one  of  his  trips  with  the  Governor  that  the 
Colonel  (then  Lieutenant  Talbot)  was  made  a  chief  of  the  Six 
Nations  at  the  Grand  River  reserve.  Lady  Emmeline  Stuart 
Wortley  gave  his  version  of  the  affair  and  a  couple  of  anecdotes 
connected  therewith  as  follows  : 

He  tells  me  he  is  in  reality  "  the  last  of  the  Mohicans,"  having  been  adopted 
years  ago  into  this  gallant  tribe  and  called  by  them  by  an  Indian  name.  He 
told  me  a  remarkable  instance  of  the  accurate  memory  of  the  North  American 
Indians.  It  seems  that  having  been  away,  and  not  having  seen  any  of  the 
tribe  for  a  great  many  years,  one  day  on  his  return  he  met  an  Indian  whom  he 
did  not  in  the  least  recognize,  but  who  the  moment  he  saw  him  repeated 
softly  his  Indian  name  in  the  usual  calm,  impassive  manner  of  the  redman. 
Another  story,  not  of  a  Mohican,  but  of  a  gentleman  apparently  quite  as  cool 


DUNLOP'S   FIRST  VISIT  TO   PORT  TALBOT.  309 

in  his  proceedings,  amused  me  much.  It  appears,  some  years  ago,  the 
Colonel  called  to  his  servant  to  bring  him  some  warm  water  for  shaving 
purposes.  The  servant  did  not  answer,  and  after  repeatedly  calling  him  in 
vain,  Colonel  Talbot  ascertained  at  length  that  the  man  had  marched  off, 
having,  I  believe,  spoken  before  of  feeling  discontented  where  he  was,  but 
without  giving  any  reason  to  think  he  would  shake  the  dust  of  Port  Talbot 
from  his  shoes  so  suddenly.  Some  years  afterward  Colonel  Talbot  one 
morning  called  for  warm  water,  and  in  walked  the  truant  most  demurely,  jug 
in  hand,  and  proceeded  to  take  upon  himself  all  his  once  repudiated  valet 
duties,  in  the  most  quiet  and  regular  manner  imaginable,  as  if  he  had  never 
been  absent  from  his  post  for  an  hour.  He  alluded  not  to  what  had 
occurred,  nor  did  Colonel  Talbot.  The  Mohican  could  not  easily  surpass 
that,  I  think,  in  coolness  and  self-possession,  and  Colonel  Talbot,  too,  was 
not  made  one  of  the  tribe  for  nothing. 

An  intending  settler  on  the  flat,  wet  lands  of  Tilbury  is  reported 
to  have  one  day  asked  Colonel  Talbot  if  he  thought  the  land  itself 

would  be  good  if  the  water  were  drained  off.  "  How  the  h 

can  I  tell  you?  "  demanded  the  irate  Colonel  ;  "do  you  think  I 
am  a  duck  that  I  can  dive  down  and  see  ?  "  "Is  the  duck  the 
only  bird  that  dives  in  these  parts  ?  "  was  the  quiet  rejoinder. 
The  veiled  allusion  to  the  bird  known  as  the  helldiver  served  both 
to  reprove  the  Colonel's  profanity  and  restore  harmony  and 
mutual  good  humour. 

The  well-known  Dr.  Dunlop  of  the  Huron  district  and  Colonel 
Talbot  had  much  in  common  both  as  to  the  nature  of  their 
pursuits  and  their  humour  and  love  of  a  joke.  Naturally  they 
were  friends  and  boon  companions  when  they  met.  In  person 
they  were  as  dissimilar  as  might  be,  the  "  Tiger,"  as  Dunlop 
was  called,  being  a  very  large  man,  the  Colonel  somewhat  short. 
The  first  time  Dunlop  visited  Port  Talbot  he  thought  to  play  a 
prank  upon  the  Colonel,  and  stopping  some  distance  from  the 
house,  he  turned  his  coat  and  bonnet  inside  out,  cut  himself  a 
huge  stick  and  proceeded  on  his  way  to  Malahide  Castle. 
Arrived  at  the  door,  he  gave  it  a  tremendous  rap  with  the  stick, 
and  when  Jeffry  answered  the  startling  summons  and  demanded 
who  was  there,  a  huge  figure  loomed  up  in  the  darkness  in 
fantastic  dress  and  a  gruff  voice  roared,  "Go  to  the  diel  and 
shake  yourself."  Jeffry  lost  no  time  in  reporting  to  the  Colonel 
the  strange  arrival.  "  Who's  there  ?  "  now  roared  the  Colonel  in 


310  THE  TALBOT   REGIME. 

turn.  "Go  to  the  deil  and  shake  yourself,"  was  the  only  reply 
he  got,  but  it  satisfied  the  Colonel.  "  Show  him  in,  Jeffry," 
he  said  quietly,  "it  is  either  Dunlop  or  the  devil." 

The  Colonel  is  reported  to  have  discovered  a  man  at  work  upon 
what  he  mistook  for  an  ungranted  and  unlocated  lot,  and  at  once 
approaching,  demanded  of  him  who  he  was  and  what  he  was  doing 
there.  The  man  eyed  him  quietly  and  replied,  "  I'm  Sandy 
Macdonald,  and  who  the  deil  are  you,  to  give  you  back  yer  ain 
salutation?"  "  I'm  Colonel  Talbot  and  I'd  like  to  know  what 
right  you  have  on  this  lot?"  "Colonel  this,  or  Colonel  that," 
said  the  Scotchman,  "  does  na  matter  tae  me.  The  lot's  my  ain 
and  I  wad  advise  ye  tae  get  out  o'  ma  turnip  patch  an'  stop 
trampin'  ma  neeps  or  I'll  set  the  bull-dog  on  ye  " — and  he  called 
to  a  fierce  looking  animal,  which  approached  the  Colonel.  "  Call 
off  your  dog,"  roared  the  Colonel,  pulling  out  a  pistol,  "or  I'll 
put  a  ball  through  him  and  have  you  in  gaol  besides. "  Mutual 
explanations  followed  and  the  Colonel  departed  satisfied  of  his 
mistake. 

A  certain  man  is  reported  to  have  one  day  applied  to  the  Colonel 
for  a  lot  and  been  refused.  He  departed  much  disappointed,  but 
•ubsequently  met  with  a  successful  applicant,  who  agreed  to  give 
him  half  his  land  if  he  would  do  the  settlement  duties  for  the 
whole.  Not  long  after,  Colonel  Talbot,  happening  to  be  in  the 
neighborhood,  saw  and  recognized  the  man  at  work  pursuant  to 
the  bargain.  The  Colonel  inquired  whether  he  was  the  man  to 
whom  he  had  refused  land.  Being  answered  in  the  affirmative, 
he  next  enquired  why  he  then  was  doing  work  on  the  lot.  When 
told  the  true  reason  he  said,  "  Very  well,  go  right  on.  He  will 
give  you  one-half  for  doing  his  settlement  duties  and  I  will  give 
the  other  for  doing  your  own.  Tell  your  friend  when  you  see 
him  that  he  will  have  to  come  to  Port  Talbot  and  locate  more 
land — and  do  the  settlement  duties  himself." 


CHAPTER  XXXVII. 

ESTIMATE  OF  COLONEL  TALBOT — PIONEERS  AT  REST. 

THE  foregoing  anecdotes,  coupled  with  what  has  gone  before, 
though  probably  in  some  instances  exaggerated  by  the  accretions 
of  intervening  years,  serve  to  illustrate  both  the  character  and 
aims  of  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  men  of  the  last  century  in 
Canada.  His  critics — and  they  have  been  numberless — generally 
overlook  the  fact  that  he  was  in  reality  a  product  of  the  century 
before,  and  that  during  the  last  quarter  of  the  eighteenth  century 
the  formative  period  of  his  life  was  passed.  He  was  of  the 
Georgian  era,  and  his  power  as  the  uncrowned  king  of  these 
regions  may  be  said  to  have  almost  expired  with  the  last  of  those 
kings  whose  confidence  he  enjoyed  and  under  whom  he  flourished. 
He  informed  Mrs.  Jameson  in  1837  that  he  had  accomplished 
what  he  had  set  out  to  do.  Though  he  lived  until  1853,  the 
intervening  years  were  the  period  of  his  decline.  They  witnessed 
the  dawn  of  the  Victorian  era — the  era  of  manifold  blessings  in 
things  material,  political,  educational,  scientific  and  religious — 
yet  these  came  after  the  period  of  Colonel  Talbot's  chief  power. 

In  an  address  to  the  Ontario  Historical  Society  at  its  meeting 
held  in  St.  Thomas  after  the  Talbot  Settlement  Centennial 
celebration  of  1903,  the  present  writer  said  concerning  the 
founder  of  the  settlement  : 

Judging  Colonel  Talbot  by  present  day  standards,  it  is  easy  to  depict  him 
a  monster  of  cruelty,  oppression,  rapacity  and  intemperance — as  indeed  it 
seems  rather  the  fashion  now  to  paint  him.  Placed  in  the  light  and  shade 
and  amid  the  environments  of  the  days  in  which  he  lived,  probably  he  would 
present  a  different  figure  and  moral  aspect  to  his  critics. 

Slavery  was  made  illegal  by  the  first  parliament  of  the  province  which  he 
attended  in  the  suite  of  the  first  Governor,  yet  was  not  immediately  com- 
pletely abolished.  Duelling  continued  to  be  regarded  as  a  necessary  mode 


312  THE  TALBOT   REGIME. 

of  settling  certain  classes  of  disputes  for  many  years  after,  while  gambling 
and  intemperance  were  almost  necessary  social  accomplishments.  Land 
grabbing  was  general  and  whole  townships  were  granted  to  individuals  who 
made  no  sacrifice  either  of  money  or  effort  to  promote  settlement  to  the 
extent  that  Colonel  Talbot  did.  Indeed  colonization  schemes  for  the  enrich- 
ment of  speculators,  rather  than  the  benefit  of  the  colonists,  have  not  been 
unknown  even  in  our  own  day.  Responsible  government  was  imperfectly 
understood  in  the  motherland,  and  much  less  in  the  colonies.' 

I  mention  these  things,  not  as  an  apologist  for  Colonel  Talbot  or  defender 
of  his  methods  or  habits,  but  simply  to  show  the  necessity  for  surrounding 
historical  characters  with  the  atmosphere  and  environments  in  which  they 
lived. 

In  the  foregoing  pages  an  attempt  has  been  made  to  depict 
Colonel  Talbot  as  he  really  was,  with  the  facts,  persons  and 
surroundings  among  whom  he  at  different  periods  moved.  His 
early  life,  his  travels,  his  letters,  his  sayings  and  doings,  his 
characteristics  and  habits,  manners  and  mode  of  life,  his  hardships 
and  how  he  overcame  them,  his  aims  and  how  far  he  attained 
them,  his  social,  political  and  even  his  religious  views,  have  been 
indicated  and  portrayed  with  as  much  truth  and  faithfulness  as,  it 
is  believed,  the  known  facts  and  records  admit  of.  The  writer 
has  endeavoured  neither  to  extenuate  his  faults  nor  to  magnify 
his  achievements.  It  is  hoped  that  what  has  been  written  will 
enable  the  reader  to  form  a  just  estimate  of  the  man  who  was  the 
central  figure  of  the  settlement  during  its  first  half  century. 

Much  depends  upon  the  point  of  view  from  which  he  is  regarded 
— whether  from  the  standpoint  of  the  commencement  or  the  close 
of  the  nineteenth  century.  Judged  by  the  standard  of  the  latter, 
he  appears  to  have  been  autocratic  and  intolerant  in  his  opinions 
and  public  acts  and  in  the  performance  of  his  official  duties  and  in 
his  private  life  irreligious,  blasphemous,  and,  in  his  later  years 
especially,  well  nigh  besotted.  Judged  by  the  standard  of  the  times 
in  which  he  lived  to  so  stigmatise  him  would  be  regarded  as  unjustly 
severe  and  attributable  to  either  political  rancour  or  private 
spleen.  Autocratic  he  was  with  the  arbitrariness  of  the  military 
commander  in  the  days  when,  even  so  late  as  1840  or  thereabouts, 
the  cries  of  soldiers  writhing  under  the  lash  at  the  barracks  in  St. 
Thomas  were  reported  as  reaching  the  ears  oT  the  inhabitants  of 
Hog's  Hollow  in  the  valley — a  good  half-mile  away — and  with  the 


ESTIMATE  OF  COLONEL  TALBOT.  313 

arbitrariness  of  the  magistrate  in  the  days  when  theft  was  punish- 
able with  death.  Intolerant  he  was  with  the  intolerance  of  the 
days  when  king's  and  governors  dismissed  their  ministers  at  will 
and  accepted  or  spurned  their  advice  as  best  suited  them  ;  when 
no  clergyman,  unless  of  the  established  church,  could  join  in 
marriage  two  members  of  his  own  flock  ;  when  political  opponents 
scarce  recognized  one  another  on  the  street.  His  St.  Thomas 
speech  would  not  bear  the  criticism  of  the  present  day,  but  it 
without  doubt  voiced  the  sentiments  of  the  dominant  political 
party  at  the  time  and  for  more  than  a  decade  after  it  was  uttered. 
It  probably  served  its  purpose  of  checking-  the  spread  of  disaffec- 
tion and  so  helping  to  preserve  this  fair  land  for  the  British 
Empire,  whatever  may  be  now  thought  of  the  sentiments  it 
expressed  or  the  language  in  which  they  were  clothed. 

All  evidence  points  to  Governor  Simcoe  as  the  Gamaliel  at 
whose  feet  Talbot's  political  views  and  land  policy  were  imbibed — 
that  respectable  first  governor  whose  sturdy  loyalty  to  the  British 
crown  had  been  intensified  in  the  revolutionary  war,  whose  policy 
was  to  fortify  the  province  by  placing  lieutenants  of  counties  all 
along  its  borders,  around  each  of  whom  would  be  gathered 
settlers  to  form  the  nucleus  of  a  force  to  repel  invasion.  Though 
Colonel  Talbot  was  not  appointed  a  lieutenant  of  a  county,  a 
reference  to  Simcoe's  letter  to  Lord  Hobart  (anti  chapter  vt.J 
.will  show  that  his  declared  object  in  undertaking  the  settlement 
then  was  "  by  precept  and  example  to  enforce  principles  of  loyalty, 
obedience  and  industry,  amongst  those  with  whom  he  will  be 
surrounded."  How  well  he  adhered  to  this  policy  the  preceding 
pages  sufficiently  indicate.  No  charge  against  him  can  be  sustained 
of  neglect  of  any  of  these  principles,  and  the  settlement  to  this 
day  testifies  to  the  manner  in  which  he  executed  his  trust  in  these 
respects.  If  any  complaint  was  heard  it  was  only  of  the  exaction 
of  a  too  implicit  obedience  to  his  behests.  Yet  few  who  were 
deserving  complained,  or  justly  complaining,  were  refused  consid- 
eration, though  the  manner  in  which  it  was  given  may  not  always 
have  pleased.  That  the  Colonel  was  just  and  even  generous  in 
his  treatment  of  most  deserving  settlers  is  pretty  generally 
conceded.  The  exceptions,  if  any  there  were,  were  probably 


314  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

those  who  opposed  his  will  and  endeavoured  to  thwart  him. 
Love  of  justice  was  as  manifest  a  trait  in  his  character  as  was  real 
kindness  of  heart.  But  his  self-will  was  a  more  manifest  charac- 
teristic to  the  eyes  of  those  unacquainted  with,  or  who  refused  to 
see,  the  more  latent  and  better  qualities  of  his  nature.  And,  like 
most  self-willed  people,  this  characteristic,  when  not  self-repressed, 
thrived  and  grew  alike  when  met  with  opposition  and  with  com- 
pliance, and  increased  with  age.  It  was,  fortunately  for  the 
Colonel,  not  untempered  by  a  native  shrewdness  which  caused 
him  to  recognize  the  few  limitations  to  his  power  when  met  with, 
and  then  to  set  his  fertile  brain  to  work  to  attain  his  object  in 
some  more  subtle  way. 

That  Colonel  Talbot  did  not  commence  the  settlement  from 
purely  disinterested  motives  is  manifest.  Had  he  done  so,  he 
would  have  been  a  patriot  and  philanthropist  simply  and  solely. 
He  obviously  aimed,  also,  at  acquiring  and  building  up  for  himself 
an  estate.  This  he  did,  not  by  dishonourable  means,  though  he 
thereby  retarded  the  settlement  of  the  townships  in  which  his 
lands  lay.  Compared  with  the  non-resident  grantees  of  waste 
lands,  who  did  nothing  to  improve  them  or  the  neighbourhood  in 
which  they  were,  he  was  both  patriotic  and  philanthropic.  With 
the  same  expenditure  of  toil,  time,  ability,  and  money,  he  could 
have  acquired  a  fortune  elsewhere,  without  undergoing  the 
privations  he  did.  The  Scotch  settlers  on  his  lands  made  no 
allowance  for  him  on  that  account,  however.  They  felt  that  they 
were,  morally,  as  much  entitled  to  the  lands  as  he,  and  with  many 
that  feeling  never  died  out.  As  to  why  Colonel  Talbot  wished  to 
acquire  an  estate,  no  one  will  now  have  any  clearer  idea  than  of 
his  motive  for  deserting  the  world  of  fashion  to  bury  himself  for 
life  in  the  woods.  Both  are  unsolved  problems,  though  many 
have  attempted  to  solve  them,  and  in  previous  pages  the  writer 
has  suggested  probable  motives.  The  vanity  of  human  ambition 
could  hardly  have  received  a  better  illustration  than  the  purely 
personal  result  of  the  Colonel's  lifetime  of  toil  and  privation 
affords.  He  acquired  an  estate,  but  the  larger  portion  of  it 
passed-into  the  hands  of  a  stranger  to  his  family.  That  he  had  a 
larger  and  nobler  ambition — to  leave  behind  him  a  happy  and 


ESTIMATE  OF  COLONEL  TALBOT.  315 

prosperous  and  loyal  British  settlement — and  that  this  ambition 
was  fulfilled,  probably  afforded  him  great  satisfaction,  and  compen- 
sated for  other  disappointments  in  the  end. 

His  was  a  proud  and  independent  spirit,  which  brooked  no 
interference  with  his  plans,  and  admitted  no  rival  within  what  he 
considered  his  own  domain.  Mr.  Simon  Zelotes  Watson  found 
out,  to  his  cost,  that  the  Colonel  would  admit  no  one  to 
partnership  in  his  land  business.  In  politics,  though  his  Toryism 
was  undoubted,  he  preserved,  as  a  rule,  his  independence  of 
provincial  politics — never  even  took  his  seat,  it  is  said,  as  a 
Legislative  Councillor,  and  did  not  shrink  from  an  encounter  with 
the  provincial  administration  when  they  attempted  to  interfere 
with  him  beyond  what  he  conceived  to  be  their  right.  His  only 
public  political  speech  was  made  when  he  thought  sedition 
threatened  the  provincial  authorities  and  his  feeling  of  loyalty  to 
the  crown  impelled  him  to  actively  interfere.  His  immense 
influence  was,  no  doubt,  cast  in  favour  of  the  Tory  candidates  as 
a  rule,  but  passively,  rather  than  actively,  exerted. 

His  language  and  habits  were  those  of  his  day  and  generation 
in  the  class  from  which  he  came.  Courtly  and  polite,  and  even 
tender,  in  his  manner  to  and  treatment  of  ladies,  warm  hearted, 
genial,  and  most  companionable  with  those  he  looked  upon  as 
friends,  he  turned  a  rough  tongue  upon  those  whom  he  thought 
deserved  it,  and  garnished  his  language  with  oaths,  after  the 
fashion  of  his  early  days.  His  use,  or  abuse,  of  wine  and  liquor 
was,  it  is  conceived,  not  in  excess  of  that  of  those  of  his  own  class 
in  either  the  Old  Country  or  Canada  in  the  early  days.  Habits 
and  prejudices  engendered  in  the  barracks  and  in  the  carousing 
circles  patronized  by  the  sons  of  George  III.  were  not  easy  to 
shake  off,  and  though  the  evidence  shows  that  Colonel  Talbot 
kept  them  in  subjection  in  early  life,  his  isolation  and  the  privations 
he  endured  led  to  their  gradually  obtaining  a  mastery — though 
not  so  far  as  to  incapacitate  him  for  business  or  justify  his  being 
classed  as  a  drunkard.  If  he  got  drunk — and  there  is  little  direct 
evidence  of  this — it  was  after  the  fashion  of  a  gentleman  of 
his  day,  under  his  own  or  a  friend's  roof,  or  where  he  could  be 
bundled  to  bed  in  the  old-fashioned  gentleman's  style.  By  such 


316  THE  TALBOT   REGIME. 

as  he,  the  new-fangled  "Cold  Water  Drinking  Societies"  were 
regarded  as  dangerous  innovations,  especially  where  their  members 
also  took  part  in  radical  political  agitation. 

As  a  military  commander,  Colonel  Talbot  achieved  no  brilliant 
success,  either  in  Europe  or  here.  His  natural  caution  has,  by 
some,  been  regarded  as  even  akin  to  cowardice,  yet  he  served 
with  some  distinction,  and  was  present  at  the  battles  of  Lundy's 
Lane  and  Fort  Erie.  He  was  well  out  of  harm's  way  when  the 
Americans  landed  at  Port  Dover,  and  gave  them  the  slip  at  Port 
Talbot.  He  probably  understood  himself  best  and  found  useful 
occupation  at  the  base  of  supplies,  and  did  good  work  in  connec- 
tion with  the  transport  service  and  as  an  organizer  of  the  militia. 

For  the  rest,  Colonel  Talbot  was  upright  in  his  business 
relations,  honourable  in  his  dealings,  and  just  and  benevolent  by 
nature.  He  lacked  humility.  The  following  quotation,  as 
containing  words  of  wisdom,  is  made  from  Edward  Ermatinger's 
biography  of  the  Colonel : 

"  He  was  deficient  in  humility.  He  set  out  in  life  with  the  best  intentions, 
but  he  neglected  the  only  safe  course  to  carry  them  out.  Like  many  other 
great  men,  he  relied  too  much  on  the  strength  of  his  own  mind.  We  have 
seen  that  in  early  life  he  did  not  neglect  the  ordinances  of  religion  ;  he  did  not 
at  once  abandon  those  forms  of  devotion,  with  which  he  had  become  familiar- 
ized in  the  society  of  the  civilized  world  ;  but  the  habit  of  self-reliance  in 
religion  led  him  astray,  as  it  has  frequently  done  other  men.  The  mind  of 
man  is  so  wonderfully  constructed  that,  no  matter  how  powerful  the  intellect, 
or  how  exalted  the  genius,  if  he  does  not  implicitly  rely  on  strength  superior 
to  his  own  and  habitually  make  use  of  the  means  which  religion  places  within 
bis  reach,  his  strength  becomes  weakness.  Of  this  great  fact  history 
furnishes  innumerable  instances,  and  we  have  examples  daily  before  our  eyes. 
Men  acquire  wealth,  fame,  and  earthly  glory  in  this  life,  but  if  they  have  not 
made  religion  the  first  and  chief  consideration,  the  hour  of  death  is  a  blank 
space  in  their  existence,  and  they  have  toiled  for  worse  than  nothing." 

That  Colonel  Talbot's  last  hour  was  such  as  this,  happily,  no 
man  may  say. 

The  youthful  comrade  of  Wellington,  the  young  officer,  "  the 
once  gay  Tom  Talbot,"  the  companion  of  princes  and  governors, 
the  homespun  and  sheepskin-clad  hermit  of  Port  Talbot,  the  founder 
and  early  ruler  of  the  settlement  was  gone — but  the  settlement 
lived  on  and  advanced  apace. 


PIONEERS  AT   REST.  317 

The  day  when  the  pioneer's  axe  cut  and  shaped  everything  was 
past.  Saw  mills  and  factories  were  plentiful.  The  day  of  coarse 
flour,  pounded  out  by  hand,  was  gone.  Mills  were  busy  on  almost 
every  considerable  stream.  The  newly-arrived  infant  settler  was 
no  longer  rocked  to  sleep  in  the  sap-trough  cradle,  nor  the 
departed  settler  interred  in  a  dug-out  log  coffin.  Flint  and  steel 
had  given  place  to  lucifer  matches,  flint  locks  to  percussion  caps. 
On  the  lake,  where  canoe,  row  boat,  and  schooner  had,  in  turn, 
appeared,  the  steamboats  now  plied  to  and  fro.  He  who  carried, 
at  first,  his  load  to  mill  upon  his  back  or  jolted,  at  snail's  pace, 
behind  the  patient  oxen,  had  first  his  saddle  horse,  then  horse  and 
waggon,  now  sometimes  his  carriage  or  "buggy,"  while  stage 
coaches  now  bowled  along  the  leading  roads.  Their  day,  too, 
was  now  fast  drawing  to  a  close  and  the  roar  of  the  iron  horse 
was  soon  to  be  heard.  The  first  locomotive  produced  in  Canada 
was  built  some  two  months  after  Colonel  Talbot's  death.  Two 
months  later  and  the  first  railway  within  the  province  was  in 
operation,  while,  before  a  new  year  dawned,  the  iron  horse  was 
destined  to  reach  London  on  its  westward  way,  and  the  latter 
town,  shortly  after,  to  become  a  city. 

Meantime,  the  Talbot  road,  almost  from  end  to  end  of  its 
hundred  miles  and  more,  and  many  other  leading  roads  as  well, 
were  flanked  by  sunny  fields  and  smiling  orchards.  The  newly 
incorporated  village  of  St.  Thomas  had  its  brick  town  hall,  the 
newly  set  apart  County  of  Elgin  its  handsome  court  house,  whose 
cut  stone  front  bore  upon  its  forehead,  where  they  still  remain, 
the  figures  1853. 

And  what,  may  be  asked,  of  the  pioneer  settlers  themselves  ? 
Many  aged  men  and  women,  clad  in  the  fast-disappearing 
homespun,  gathered  their  children  and  grandchildren  around  the 
blazing  log  in  the  old  open  fire-place,  whilst  they  told  the  story  of 
their  early  struggles  and  privations,  of  cold  and  hunger,  of  wolves 
howling  around  the  sheep  pens,  of  war  and  pestilence,  and  of  first 
meeting  with  the  eccentric  old  Colonel,  just  laid  in  his  last  resting 
place.  Many  an  old  pioneer  couple  now  rested  from  their  labours 
i»  the  small  fenced  plot  on  the  farm,  rendered  sacred  to  their 
descendants  by  the  presence  of  their  remains,  while  the  log  house, 


318 


THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 


now  untenanted  except  by  cattle,  sheep,  or  poultry,  was  hidden 
behind  a  new  and  more  pretentious,  if  not  more  comfortable 
dwelling.  They  rested  from  their  labours,  the  results  of  which 
their  sons  now  looked  out  upon  with  pride,  as  well  as  thankful- 
ness, conscious  at  the  same  time  that  contentment  as  real  and 
happiness  as  great — sometimes  greater — had  reigned  within  the 
log  cabin  as  in  the  new  farm  house. 

They  had  fought  a  good  fight — these  old  pioneers — and  in  hope 
that  the  memory  of  them  will  not  fade,  these  lines  are  written. 


APPENDICES. 


THE 

TALBOT 

SETTLEMENT 


APPENDICES. 


APPENDIX  A. 

TALBOT  PAPERS  PREVIOUS  TO  WAR  OF  1812. 


/. — Petition  of  Simon  Zelotes   Watson. 
II. — Letter  of  Colonel  Talbot  to  Simon  Z.    Watson. 
III. — Rough  draft  of  letters  to  Major  Halton,    Governor 
Gore's  Secretary,  and  to  S.   Z.    Watson,  kept  by 
Colonel  Talbot. 

IV.— Letter  Major  Halton  to  Colonel  Talbot. 
V. — Letter  S.  Z.   Watson  to  Colonel  Talbot. 
VI. — Draft  Memorial  of  Colonel  Talbot  re  Talbot  Road. 
VII.— Letter  President  Brock  to  Colonel  Talbot. 


I. — Petition   of  Simon  Zelotes    Watson. 

THE  HONORABLE  MEMBERS  OF 
His  MAJESTY'S  EXECUTIVE 
COUNCIL  OF  THE  PROVINCE 
OF  UPPER  CANADA,  ETC., 
ETC.,  ETC.,  IN  COUNCIL. 

The  petition  of  Simon  Zelotes  Watson  of  the  Township  of  Westminster 
most  respectfully  sheweth  : 

That  your  petitioner  having  been  permitted  to  settle  the  broken  front  and 
two  concessions  in  the  said  Township  of  Westminster  by  himself  and  followers  ; 
that  many  of  his  said  followers  with  their  families  will  be  obliged  to  come  into 
the  Province  (some  by  land  and  others  by  water)  via  Niagara ;  that  to  be 
obliged  to  come  to  the  seat  of  Government  of  this  Province  to  report  them- 
selves, will  greatly  add  to  the  expense,  hardship  and  delays  of  a  long  and 
tedious  journey  ;  that  Port  Talbot  being  in  the  vicinity  of  the  said  Township 
of  Westminster, 


322  THE  TALBOT   REGIME. 

Your  petitioner  humbly  prays  that  he  may  be  permitted  to  report  his  said 
followers  to  Thomas  Talbot,  Esquire,  and  that  his  approbation  of  their  being 
fit  persons  to  become  settlers  on  the  vacant  lands  of  the  Crown,  shall  be  a 
sufficient  authority  for  your  petitioner  to  return  them  to  the  Government  as 
his  followers  to  settle  on  the  lands  allotted  to  him  and  them  in  the  said 
township. 

And  he,  as  in  duty  bound,  will  ever  pray, 

SIMON  ZELOTES  WATSON. 
York,  1 5th  February,  1811. 


II. — Letter  Colonel  Talbot  to  S.  Z.    Watson. 

WESTMINSTER,  2nd  March,  1811. 
DEAR  SIR  : 

In  consequence  of  its  haVing  been  understood  at  York  that  several  families 
were  about  to  place  themselves  on  the  road  lots  in  Westminster,  whom  you 
had  engaged  in  this  Province,  and  further,  that  you  require  that  each  settler 
should  bind  himself  to  pay  the  difference  between  the  established  fees,  $100, 
for  your  permission  to  locate,  His  Excellency  the  Lieutenant-Governor  has 
commanded  me  to  inform  you  that  no  recommendation  for  a  grant  of  land  on 
the  tract  surveyed  for  the  accommodation  of  the  families  which  you  reported 
to  the  council,  were  disposed  to  move  into  the  Province,  will  be  attended  to, 
but  for  such  applicants  as  shall  actually  have  moved  direct  from  Lower 
Canada,  adding  that  I  must  explain  to  such  persons  that  no  extraordinary 
charges  are  to  be  imposed  upon  them,  as  His  Majesty  will  in  every  instance 
prevent  all  manner  of  speculation  upon  the  Crown  Lands  in  this  part.  I  had 
hoped  to  have  found  you  in  Westminster,  but  on  my  passing  through  Oxford 
I  was  informed  that  you  had  stopped  at  the  head  of  the  Lake.  I  have  there- 
fore felt  it  particularly  my  duty  to  make  known  to  all  concerned  the  intentions 
of  the  Government  with  respect  to  the  lands  in  Westminster,  so  that  ignor- 
ance may  not  be  offered  hereafter  as  a  plea,  and  at  the  same  time  to  state 
positively  for  your  information  that  I  will  not  recommend  any  of  your  followers 
but  such  as  come  under  the  description  that  His  Excellency  in  council  has 
thought  fit  to  receive. 

You  no  doubt  will  perceive  the  necessity  of  a  strict  compliance  on  your 
part  with  the  wishes  of  His  Majesty's  Government  in  this  Province. 

I  am,  sir, 

Your  very  obedient  servant, 

THOMAS  TALBOT. 
S.  Z.  Watson,  Esq. 


APPENDICES.  323 

///. — Rough   Draft  of  Letters    to    Major   Halton    and  to    S.    Z. 
Watson,  kept  by  Colonel  Talbot. 

PORT  TALBOT,  i4th  March,  1811. 
My  DEAR  MAJOR  : 

Two  days  after  I  had  the  pleasure  of  writing  to  you  by  Shenich  on  the 
subject  of  the  lands  in  Westminster,  Mr.  Watson  called  on  me,  accompanied 
by  his  friend  Bird  and  a  person  of  the  name  of  Brigham  from  Delaware. 
Watson  attacked  me  in  a  most  insolent  tone,  asked  me  "how  I  dared  to  go 
among  his  settlers  and  desire  them  not  to  pay  him  his  demands  on  them  of 
100  dollars  for  every  person  that  refused  to  give  him  that  sum,  in  consequence 
of  any  advice  ;  that  neither  the  Governor,  Government  or  any  individual 
had  a  right  to  interfere  with  his  private  contracts  ;  that  the  lands  were 
assigned  to  him  to  settle,  and  he  would  show  the  world  that  he  would  make 
such  bargains  as  he  thought  fit  and  he  was  not  apprehensive  of  consequences, 
as  he  was  certain  of  the  support  of  an  honest  jury.  His  passion  increased  to 
so  abusive  a  strain  that  I  ordered  him  out  of  my  house,  and  by  that  method 
got  rid  of  the  fellow.  McMillan,  one  of  the  persons  that  His  Excellency  was 
pleased  to  say  might  remain  on  the  lots  which  they  have  occupied  for  several 
years,  came  to  Port  Talbot  the  same  day  with  the  money  to  pay  the  fees,  and 
when  Watson  found  that  I  accepted  of  them,  he  swore  he  would  make  me 
smart  for  it,  if  there  was  justice  to  be  had  in  the  Province.  Watson  retired  to 
the  house  of  one  of  my  settlers,  from  whence  he  issued  me  a  letter.  Copies 
of  it  and  of  my  answer  I  now  enclose.  I  cannot  comprehend  his  meaning 
when  he  states  the  ruin  of  himself  and  family,  unless  it  is  to  be  inferred  by  his 
not  being  allowed  to  realize  his  speculative  system  ;  neither  can  I  understand 
how  the  three  hundred  families  that  he  mentions  are  to  suffer  and  be  lost  to 
the  Province,  as  I  cannot  conceive  it  probable  that  if  such  families  are  about 
to  emigrate  into  this  country  that  they  can  make  any  reasonable  demur  at 
not  being  charged  more  than  the  usual  fees  for  their  grants  of  land  from  the 
Crown. 

Your  extraordinary  letter,  dated  the  oth  inst.,  would  have  much  surprised 
me,  had  not  your  violent  manner  on  the  preceding  day  in  a  great  measure 
prepared  me  for  its  reception.  In  answer,  you  are  assured  from  me,  that  I 
have  not  any  intention  of  complying  with  your  desire  of  going  to  Westminster, 
to  retract  the  orders  intrusted  to  me,  by  Government,  to  promulgate.  You  are 
likewise  equally  in  error  if  you  expect  that  I  will  enter  the  list  with  you,  for 
believe  me,  I  value  my  life  too  highly  to  hazard  it  in  your  speculations. 
Should  you  further  intrude  yourself  personally  upon  me  with  threats,  I  will 
employ  the  constable  to  deliver  the  necessary  reply. 

Copies  of  your  letter  and  my  answer,  together  with  a  statement  of  the 
circumstances  that  have  led  to  the  correspondence,  will  be  forwarded  to 
Government.  I  am,  sir, 

THOMAS  TALBOT. 

Mr.  Simon  Zelotes  Watson. 


324  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

IV.— Letter  Major  Halton  to  Colonel  Talbot. 

YORK,  1 5th  March,  1811. 
MY  DEAR  COLONEL  : 

The  Governor  having  desired  your  friend,  Mr.  Sherih  Shenich,  to  call  at  a 
very  barbarous  hour  to-morrow  morning  I  must  steal  a  quarter  of  an  hour 
before  dinner  ready  to  acknowledge  and  answer  your  dispatch  brought  by 
the  above  named  messenger. 

First  we  all  rejoice  that  the  most  valuable  person  in  the  Province  was  safely 
restored  to  his  domestic  comforts.  Next,  His  Excellency  desires  me  to  say, 
he  approves  entirely  of  what  you  have  done,  and  requests  you  will  continue 
rigidly  to  enforce  His  orders  as  contained  in  your  letters.  I  regret  very  much 
the  conduct  of  my  friend  Zelotes.  He  seems  to  be  rather  more  attached  to 
the  concerns  of  this  world  than  the  original  person  from  whence  he  took  his 
name.  But  I  suppose  it's  all  fish  that  come  to  his  net.  Mrs.  Gore  is  consid- 
erably better  and  desires  her  kindest  regards.  I  have  nothing  new  and  hope 
you  have  received  my  letter  by  Sovereign.  He  took  Mr.  Rolph's  commission 
and  put  one  into  his  hands,  app.  Him  Surrogate,  on  which  the  Beast  never 
uttered  a  single  word.  Should  your  brother  marry  into  the  Hon'ble  family 
of  the  Rolphs,  will  displace  Sovereign  if  you  should  wish  it.  To  convey  to 
you  everything,  that's  interesting,  I  enclose  the  last  York  Gazette,  to  which 
I  also  add  the  last  from  Kingston.  The  Toronto  sailed  to-day  with  the 
Niagara  members.  Believe  me  ever,  my  dear  Colonel,  very  faithfully 
yours, 

W.  HALTON. 


V-. — Letter  S.  Z.   Watson  to  Colonel  Talbot. 

WESTMINSTER,  22nd  March,  1811. 

SIR, — I  have  just  compleated  a  true  statement  of  facts  relative  to  the 
whole  of  my  proceedings  in  obtaining  lands  for  myself  and  followers  in  this 
Province,  with  an  exposition  of  all  my  intercourse  with  you  on  the  subject, 
with  copies  of  your  letters  to  me  and  my  remarks  thereon,  the  whole 
accompanied  with  an  address  to  the  Lt.  Gov'r  of  this  Province  ;  all  which  I 
mean  to  lay  before  His  Excell'y  ere  long,  and  as  all  the  facts  that  I  have 
stated  regarding  you  (every  one  of  which  I  can  and  will  prove  to  His  Excel- 
lency's satisfaction)  will  bear  hard  upon  you,  it  therefore  highly  concerns  you 
to  prevent  my  laying  them  before  His  Majesty's  representative  (for  you  will 
find  him  no  longer  your  friend  when  he  is  convinced  you  are  not  an  honest 
man)  by  repairing  the  serious  injuries  you  have  done  to  me  and  my  settle- 
ment. You  must  be  sensible  that  your  late  conduct  does  not  merit  this  or 
any  other  attention  from  me,  but  from  a  retrospective  view  of  your  hospitality 
and  friendship  to  me  when  I  was  a  stranger  in  the  Province,  has  induced  me 


APPENDICES.  325 

once  more  to  offer  you  the  hand  of  friendship  under  the  hope  that  you  will  by 
your  future  conduct  merit  it  in  atoning-  past  offences.  It  gave  me  real 
pleasure  to  speak  honorably  of  you  and  exert  myself  to  the  utmost  in  obtain- 
ing as  many  good  people  as  possible  to  settle  and  make  valuable  the  country 
adjoining  and  near  you,  thro'  the  whole  course  of  my  journey  of  £seven 
hundred  miles  in  the  States  and  among  my  friends  in  Lower  Canada,  last 
summer  and  autumn,  when  I  thought  you  the  best  of  men  and  my  real 
friend  ;  and  I  wish  you  to  be  assured  that  no  occurrence  of  my  life  has  ever 
given  me  such  real  pain  as  to  be  obliged  to  think  otherwise  of  you.  I  am 
therefore  still  willing  to  forget  and  forgive  the  serious  injuries  you  have  done 
me  upon  the  exprinciple  that  I  hope  there  is  yet  a  latent  spark  of  Honour  in 
your  Soul  (which  pride  and  other  passions  have  hitherto  kept  in  a  state  of 
dormantry)  which  will  now  be  awakened,  and  induce  you  to  acknowledge 
with  the  immortal  Pope  that  an  honest  man  is  the  noblest  work  of  God. 
Under  this  hope  I  am  still  willing  to  go  hand  in  hand  with  you  as  we  had 
agreed  in  pursuing  and  effecting  the  laudable  and  pleasing  task  of  adding  to 
the  strength  by  augmenting  the  numbers  of  His  Majesty's  Subjects  with 
thousands  of  Industries  Inhabitants  and  realize  the  pleasing  anticipation 
which  I  have  kept  in  view  from  the  beginning  of  co-operating  with  you  in 
trying  to  induce  them  to  be  dutiful  and  loyal  as  well  as  useful  and  industrious 
subjects. 

In  addressing  you  as  above  I  have  repressed  my  feelings  as  an  injured 
man,  and  it  will  depend  on  your  answer  by  the  Bearer  whether  they  will  ever 
be  called  into  action  again.  If  he  returns  with  a  written  statement  from  you 
in  any  way  your  good  sense  may  dictate,  placing  me  and  my  settlement  in 
that  favorable  and  prosperous  point  of  view  we  were  in  previous  to  your  last 
journey  to  York  and  your  memorable  return  via  Westminster,  well,  if  not,  I 
will  immediately  proceed  to  York  and  lay  the  whole  before  the  Lieut. -Gov'r 
and  should  any  unforeseen  cause  induce  His  Excellency  to  decide  against 
me,  that  will  fix  an  indelible  stain  upon  your  fate  and  mine.  I  shall  then  turn 
to  you,  the  primary  and  ultimate  cause  of  all  my  misfortunes,  my  present 
enterprise  having  placed  me  in  a  situation  that  all  my  present  and  future 
prospects  for  myself  and  family  must  depend  upon  the  event  of  it.  I  am 
therefore  most  solemnly  and  decidedly  determined  that  the  only  means  I  will 
leave  in  your  power  to  prevent  me  from  effecting  it,  will  be  to  deprive  me  of 
life  :  and  the  strongest  motive  that  has  induced  me  to  send  you  this,  is  to  put 
it  in  your  power  to  avert  a  most  awful  and  momentary  alternative.  Thus  I 
have  made  up  my  mind  and  await  your  answer  and  as  it  may  be,  I  am,  sir, 

Y'r  Humbl'  Serv't, 

S.  Z.  WATSON. 


326  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

VI.— Draft  Memorial  of  Colonel  Talbot  re  Talbot  Road. 

To   His    EXCELLENCY,    FRANCIS    GORE    ESQ.,    LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR   OF 
UPPER  CANADA,  ETC.,  ETC.,  IN  COUNCIL. 

The  memorial  of  Thomas  Talbot  Esq.  humbly  sheweth  : 

That  your  memorialist  was  authorized  by  a  report  of  the  Honourable,  the 
Executive  Council,  approved  by  His  Excellency,  the  late  Lieutenant-Governor 
Hunter,  in  September,  1804,  to  lay  out  one  thousand  dollars,  appropriated  by 
the  Legislature  for  that  purpose,  on  a  road  marked  on  a  plan  annexed  to  the 
above  report,  by  which  a  better  and  shorter  road  to  the  Westward  would  be 
obtained,  to  the  great  advantage  of  the  public. 

That,  altho'  the  above  sum  has  been  advantageously  expended,  yet  the 
distance  is  so  great  as  yet  to  require  a  considerable  expense. 

Your  memorialist,  under  these  circumstances,  presumes  to  offer  a  plan  to 
your  excellency,  which,  on  a  due  consideration,  he  has  reason  to  believe  will 
effect  this  desirable  purpose  without  any  other  than  the  ordinary  aids  which 
may  be  hereafter  afforded  to  other  districts.  Several  of  the  townships 
thro"  which  the  intended  road  is  to  be  made  are  reserved  by  the  Crown, 
and  must,  in  consequence  of  that  reservation,  be  altogether  unproductive  and 
useless  for  many  years. 

Your  memorialist,  therefore,  humbly  submits  to  Your  Excellency  to  grant 
lots  on  each  side  of  this  intended  road  in  the  same  manner  as  Yonge  Street, 
the  grantees  performing  their  settlement  duty  before  their  deeds  are  issued. 

The  good  effects  already  experienced  by  the  adoption  of  this  plan  will,  your 
memorialist  hopes,  induce  Your  Excellency  to  pursue  it  yet  further,  as  it  must 
greatly  add  to  the  value  of  these  reserved  townships,  and  be  a  powerful  means 
of  gaining  a  considerable  population  in  a  part  of  the  country  where  there 
seems  no  other  means  of  obtaining  it. 


VII. — Letter  President  Isaac  Brock  to  Colonel  Talbot. 

YORK,  April  2oth,   1812. 
MY  DEAR  SIR  : 

I  enclose  for  your  information  the  report  of  Council  upon  the  several  points 
contained  in  your  letter.  I  regret  very  much  it  is  not  more  satisfactory.  Not 
an  idea  existed  of  any  survey  having  been  made  of  the  land  parallel  to  Talbot 
Road,  and  no  document  can  be  found  authorizing  that  service.  You  may 
probably  be  possessed  of  a  letter  from  Governor  Gore  on  the  subject,  and  ir 
you  can,  by  any  means,  make  it  appear  that  he  was  privy  and  sanctioned  the 
measure,  I  still  hope  the  Council  may  be  induced  to  meet  your  wishes  in  every 
particular.  I  do  not  find  that  settlers  actually  occupy  any  of  the  new  road. 
I  send  a|plan  of  the  country,  requesting  you  to  insert  the  names  of  the 
individuals  on  the  respective  lots  you  have  assigned  to  them.  Be  assured, 


APPENDICES.  327 

everything  in  my  power  shall  be  done  to  enable  you  to  fulfill  your  engage- 
ments, being  satisfied  that  however  premature  you  may  have  been,  you  acted 
from  the  best  motives. 

It  is  impossible  to  say  how  government  will  view  the  embargo.  I  imagine 
they  will  allow  it  to  operate  quietly,  to  the  ruin  of  the  sorry  politicians  who 
gave  it  birth.  The  Duke  of  Northumberland  writes  to  Selby  that  strong 
reinforcements  are  ordered  to  this  country.  The  public  papers  mention  the 
same  thing,  but  I  hear  nothing  on  the  subject  officially.  Governor  Gore  has 
been  actively  and  successfuly  employed  in  the  service  of  his  friends.  Claus 
and  Givens  have  both  an  increase  to  their  salaries,  Cartwright  three  thousand 
additional  acres,  etc.,  etc.  Mrs.  Gore  was  very  ill ;  Halton  thought  in  imminent 
danger.  The  Prince  Regent  has  surprised  the  world  and  disgusted  his  old 
friends.  I  hope  Lord  Wellington  will  not  be  sacrificed.  He  cannot  expect 
the  unbounded  support  he  was  wont  to  receive  from  the  Marquis. 

Believe  me, 

Dear  Colonel, 

Yours  faithfully, 

Colonel  Talbot.  (Sgd.)  ISAAC  BROCK, 

etc.,  etc.,  etc. 


THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

APPENDIX  B. 

PAPERS  RELATING  TO  WAR  OF  1812-14. 


/. — General  order  Major-General  Sheaffe, 
//.— Letter  Major-General  Sheaffe  to  Colonel  Talbot. 
III.  — List  of  persons  who  turned  out  to  oppose  plunderers  at  Port 

Talbot,  etc. 
IV. — Muster  roll  and  pay  list  of  detachment  captured  at  Sugar 

Loaf. 

V. — List  of  men  on  duty  at  house  of  Andrew  Westbrook. 
VI.  — Memo  of  provisions  issued  at  Port  Talbot ',  etc. 
VII. — Service  roll  ist  Norfolk  Militia  Regiment. 
VIIL—     "          "    2nd      " 
IX.—     "         "    i st  Middlesex"  " 

X. — Quarterly  return  ist  Middlesex  Militia  Regiment. 
XI. — Alphabetical  list  of  men  of  Capt.  A.  A.  Rapelje's  Companies. 
XII.— Casualty  list  Capt.   Rapelje's  Coy.   at  Ft.   Erie  and  other 
memoranda. 


I. — General  Order  of  Major- General  Sheaffe. 

FORT  GEORGE,  i6th  October,  181*. 
D.  G.  O.  : 

Two-thirds  of  the  whole  establishment  of  the  ist  and  2nd  Norfolk,  ist 
Oxford  and  ist  Middlesex  Regiment  of  Militia,  officered  agreeably  to  former 
regulations,  are  to  repair  with  the  greatest  possible  despatch  to  the  following 
points  : 

ist  Norfolk         ^ 

2nd       „  )  Chippew. 

ist  Oxford  \ 

ist  Middlesex     /  Queen8ton 

A  blanket  each  is  recommended  to  be  brought  by  each  man,  and  all  arms 
and  ammunition  in  possession  are  also  to  be  brought. 

(Sgd          R.   H.  SHEAFFE, 
COLONEL  TALBOT,  M.  General  Comm'g. 

Officer  Comm'g,  etc.,  etc.,  etc. 

MEM.  :     Colonel  Bostwick  will  desire  that  the  men  required  by  the  fore- 
going order  shall  be  marched  in  by  their  officers  without  losing  the  time  that 
it  would  require  to  wait  for  orders  from  Colonel  Talbot. 
(Sgd)         R.   H.  SHEAFFE, 

If.  General  Comm'g. 


APPENDICES.  329 

II. — Extract  From  Letter  From  Major- General  Sheaffe 
to  Colonel  Talbot. 

FORT  GEORGE,  igth  December,  1812. 
MY  DEAR  COLONEL  : 

In  consequence  of  the  explanation  furnished  by  you  and  Lieutenant-Colonel 
Nichol,  I  shall  authorize  the  payment  of  the  sums  disallowed  in  the  estimate  of 
thej  24th  September  for  the  pay  of  the  Norfolk,  Middlesex,  and  Oxford 
regiments. 

I  received  dispatches  yesterday  from  Head  Quarters  to  the  6th  December. 
A  superintendent  and  storekeeper  for  our  dock  yard  is  arrived  at  Kingston, 
a  Mr.  Plucknett,  who  has  been  in  one  of  our  dock  yards  at  home. 

From  one  hundred  to  two  hundred  shipwrights  and  thirty  seamen  are,  by 
this  time,  near  Kingston.  Naval  officers  and  seamen  are  expected  from 
Halifax.  A  frigate  and  a  sloop  are  to  be  built  on  this  lake,  and  another  vessel 
like  the  Lady  Prevost  on  Lake  Erie.  Some  gun-boats,  with  heavy  guns,  are 
to  be  added  to  the  list,  etc.,  etc. 

"  Local  intelligence  I  leave  to  Colonel  Bostwick." 


III. — List  of  names  of  the  persons  "who  turned  out  at  a  moment's 
•warning  to  oppose  the  plunderers  upon  hearing  that  they  had 
advanced  to  Port  Talbot  2oth  May,  about  6  o'clock  p.  m.t 
stating  some  circumstances. 

Lt.  Col.  Burwell 

—  McLemens  gave  half  an  hour's  notice  of  their  approach. 

Neil  McNair 


John  Burwell 
Robt.  Burwell 
David  Wallace 
George  Coltman 
Charles  Benedict 
Benjn.  Johnson 

Benjn .  Wilson,  Jun'r,  taken  away  by  his  father. 
Jesse  Page 


Were  all  on  their  way  in  time  to  have  com- 
pleted the  destruction  of  the  enemy,  but  were 
turned  back  by  Lt.-Col.  Burwell  to  Neal's  place 
to  wait  for  a  reinforcement,  when  he  was 
frustrated  in  his  first  plan. 


Mark  Chase 
George  Crane 
James  Chase 
Stephen  Backus 
Walter  Story 
John  Pearce 


Page  was  sent  to  warn  and  reports  that  they 
were  ready  in  a  moment.  Lt.-Col.  Burwell  saw 
some  of  them  since,  and  is  convinced  that  if  he 
had  not  been  deprived  of  Ben  Willson,  would 
have  formed  a  junction  with  him  before  dark. 


Captain  Willson  made  prisoner  at  the  mill. 

Captain  Patterson  do  at  B.  Smith's  shop. 

Walter  Galbraith  do  at  the  mill. 

Thomas  Matthews          do  on  his  way  to  oppose  the  enemy. 


330 


THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 


Timothy  Neal 
B.  Swisher 
O.   Pettit 
K.  Neville 
Jno.  Neville 
M.  Cowell 
A.  Ross 


When  Lt.-Col.  Burwell  was  defeated  in  his 
first  plan,  he  halted  those  above  mentioned, 
whom  he  met  on  their  march,  until  he  could  have 
time  to  bring  these  forward  to  act  with  them, 
but  it  was  too  late,  being  break  of  day  when 
they  arrived  at  Town  Line. 


These  were  all  at  Ross's  by  %  past  10  in  the 
morning  of  the  zist,  but  hearing  that  the  enemy 
bad  retreated  and  that  Lt.-Col.  Burwell's  party 
was  dismissed,  they  returned  to  their  homes. 


Wm.  Johnson  sent  to  Mr.Rapelje  in  the  night  with  a  verbal  acct.of  the  alarm. 

Mr.  Daniel  Rapelje 
Ensign  B.  Willson 
James  Nevills 
Jeronimus  Rapelje 
George  Rapelje 
Thomas  Curtis 
Wm.  P.  Shaff 
Jen  Cranmer 
Henry  Mandeville 
Samuel  York 
William  Lee 
JohnW.  Clark 
William  Toles 
George  Lawrence 
Archie  McNeal 
Justus  Wilcojt 
Finlay  Grant 
David  Everitt 
Henry  Ramsey 
John  Caesar 

Captain  Secord 
Lt.  Rice 
William  Rice 
William  Peter  Secoed 
—  Roe 

George  Wood 
James  Stokes 
Frederick  Efeland 
Henry  House 
William  Gregory 
William  Wilcox 
David  Brush 
James  Brown 
John  Marlatt 

Total  59  men. 


Captain  Secord  got  the  intelligence  by  mere 
chance  on  the  morning  of  the  2ist.  He,  how- 
ever spread  the  alarm  immediately,  and  arrived 
at  Mr.  Rapelje's  with  these  men  at  12  o'clock. 


APPENDICES. 


331 


1  < 

^^^^^ 

<         V, 

uu 

*« 

^VO^^VO-O^SOO 

sXisp  jo 

If^SSKRRt! 

o     ? 

H     oo 

b 

^        1)    "p 

3 

£** 

A 

00 

£     " 

y          ^>c  

as  sl4 

1/5                 W  VO 

1 
fe 

a- 

g  !s  E  *•  jj 

"c  * 

II 

Sflj 

II 


.s 


Hi 

s?l 

1° 


332  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

V. — A  list  of  the  men  on  duty  at  the  house  of  Andrew  Westbrook,  in 
Delaware,  from  the  twenty-seventh  January  to  the  first 
February,  1814,  under  the  command  of  Captain  Daniel 
Springer  : 

i  Benjamin  Schram,  Sergeant  6  John  Davy, 

3  Joseph  House,  Sergeant  7  Joshua  Chamberling, 

1  William  Dingman,  Private  8  John  Crandell, 

2  Lawrence  Dingman,  9  Frederick  Shenich, 

3  William  Schram,  10  Samuel  Stiles, 

4  David  Dingman,  1 1  Frederick  Shoback. 

5  John  McClemings, 

London  District : — Personally  appeared  before  me, Thomas  Bowlsby,  Esquire, 
one  of  His  Majesty's  Justices  of  the  Peace  in  and  for  the  said  district,  Benjamin 
Schram,  Sergeant  in  the  ist  Regiment  Middlesex  Militia,  who,  being  duly 
sworn,  maketh  oath  and  saith  that  the  persons  above  stated  was  actually  on 
duty  at  the  house  of  Andrew  Westbrook,  in  Delaware,  on  or  about  the  first 
day  of  February  last,  under  the  command  of  Captain  Daniel  Springer. 

Sworn  before  me  23rd         |  (Sgd.)  BENJAMIN  SCHRAM. 

day  of  November,  1814.    /  Sergeant  ist  Middlesex  Militia. 

(Sgd.  THOMAS  BOWLBY,  J.  P. 


VI — Memorandum  of  Provisions  issued  at  Port  Talbot  for  Detach- 
ments of  the  Middlesex  and  Essex  Militia  stationed  at  and  in 
advance  of  Port  Talbot. 

From  25th  October  to  24th  November,  1813. 
i  Colonel — 4 — Rations,  i  Captain,  25  Privates. 

From  25th  November  to  24th  December,  1813. 
i  Colonel,  i  Captain,  2  Subalterns,  70  Privates,  3  Women,  6  Children. 

From  25th  December,  1813,  to  24th  January,  1814. 
i  Colonel — 4,  i  Captain,  30  Privates,  3  Women,  6  Children. 

From  25th  January  to  24th  February,  1814. 
i  Colonel— 4— Rations,  i  Captain,  23  Privates,  3  Women,  6  Children. 

From  25th  February  to  24th  March,  1814. 

i  Colonel — 4— Rations,  2  Captains,  2  Subalterns,  63  Privates,  3  Women,  6 
Children. 

From  25th  March  to  24th  April,  1814. 

i  Colonel— 4— Rations,   i  Captain,   i  Subaltern,  35  Privates,  3  Women,  6 
Children. 


APPENDICES. 


333 


N.  B. — Rations  were  field  rations  in  pork  and  flour 

Women's  Names 
Margaret  Craford 


Mary  Crawford 
Elizabeth  Mitchell 


Children's 

Thomas  Craford 
Magnus  Craford 
John  Mitchell 
William  Mitchell 
Jane  Mitchell 
Mary  Mitchell 


VII. — Service  Roll  ist  Norfolk  Militia,  Compiled  by 
Colonel  Talbot. 

Periods  of  service  for  allowances  due  to  the  militia  actually  on  duty  in  the 
District  of  London  between  3oth  June,  1812,  and  24th  December,  1814,  both 
days  inclusive  : 


Rank 

Name 

Periods  of  Service 

No.  of  Months 

From 

To 

Lieut.-Colonel  .  . 

oseph  Ryerson  .  .  . 

25SePt.,i8i3 

4  Nov.,  1814 

7 

Major  

,Vm.  D.  Bowen  .  .  . 

25  July,   1812 

4  Nov.,    "14 

17      2-7O 

Captain  

ohn  Bostwick  .... 

3  July,      '12 

4  Dec.,     '14 

1  /     ^  ou 
19     4-30 

Captain  

Daniel  McCall  

3  Sept.,    '12 

24  Nov.,     '14 

II 

Captain  

Oliver  Mabee  

25  Sept.,    '13 

24  Nov.,    '14 

5 

Captain  .. 

Duncan  McCall..  .  . 

1  8  June,     '13 

24  Nov.,    *ij 

Captain  ..        .  . 

[ohn  Backhouse  .  .  . 

2C  Sept.,    '11 

24  Nov.,    "ij 

Captain 

fames  Mitchell       . 

•*J    »JCpt.j            ij 

[7  AufiT.,      *I2 

24  Nov.,    *id 

5 

Lieutenant  .... 

"ieorge  Ryerson.  .  . 

13  July,      '12 

24  May,     '13 

9  16-30 

Lieutenant  

jeorge  Rolph  

30  June,     '12 

24  Nov.,     '14 

!3    4-3° 

Lieutenant  

William  Smith  

22  July,      '12 

24  Nov.,    '14 

i  14-30 

Lieutenant  .... 

William  Dill  

25  Sept.,    '13 

24  July,      '14 

4    4-3° 

Lieutenant  

John  Dedrick  

25  Sept.,    '13 

24  Nov.,    'i/ 

5 

Ensign  

James  McCall  

13  July,      '12 

24  Nov.,     '14 

6    8-30 

Ensign  
Lieutenant  

Samuel  Ryerson  .  . 
Samuel  Ryerson  .  .  . 

17  Aug.,    '12 
25  Sept.,    '13 

14  Mar.,     V 
24  Nov.,     'K 

}   9  20-30 

Ensign  
Lieutenant  

Jacob  Potts  
Jacob  Potts  

31  Aug.,    '12 
25  Sept.,    '13 

12  Sept.,    '12 
24  Nov.,    "ii 

}   5    8-30 

Ensign    

Aquilla  Walsh  

25  Sept.,    '13 

24  Nov.,    'i< 

5 

Ensign  

Francis  Glover.  .  .  . 

!3July>    '12 

24  Nov.,    'i< 

5  23-3° 

Ensign  

Romaine  Rolph  .  . 

25  Sept.,    '13 

24  Nov.,    'n 

6  17-30 

Ensign 

Mathew  Tisdale  .  . 

22  Augf.        'l  ' 

24  Nov.      '1^ 

6    1-70 

Ensign  

Thomas  Backhouse 

23  Aug.,     '12 

24  Nov.,    'i< 

u       O    Ou 

9    3-30 

Adjutant  

Samuel  Tisdale... 

25  Oct.,     '14 

24  Dec.,    'i, 

2 

Qr.  Master  

Francis  L.   Walsh. 

25  Sept.,    '13 

24  Nov.,     'i. 

5 

NOTE. — Only  the  first  and  last  dates  of  service  are  reproduced  here.  In 
the  original  the  intervening  dates,  showing  the  several  broken  periods  of 
service  of  each  officer,  are  given.  These,  for  the  sake  of  brevity,  are 


334 


THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 


omitted,  the  total  length  of  service  in  each  case  appearing1  in  the  "  months  " 
column.  Lieutenant  Geo.  Rolph  appears  to  have  been  the  first  officer  placed 
on  duty  in  this  regiment,  and  Captain  John  Bostwick  to  have  served  the 
longest  total  period,  Major  Bowen  being  next.  The  periods  of  service  of 
non-coms,  and  men  are  omitted,  as  no  names  appear  and  a  summary  has 
already  been  given, — Ante  p.  68. 


VIII, — Service  Roll,  2nd  Norfolk  Regiment,  Compiled  by 
Colonel    Talbot. 

Periods  of  service  for  allowances  due  to  the  militia  officers  of  the  Second 
Norfolk  Regiment  actually  on  duty  in  the  District  of  London,  between 
the  28th  pay  of  June,  1812,  and  the  24th  day  of  December,  1814,  both  days 
inclusive  : 


Rank 

Names 

Periods  of  Service 

Months 

From 

To 

George  C.  Salmon. 
Samuel  Ryerse  .... 
William  Park  
William  Drake.... 
WTm.  McCracken.. 
William  Robinson.. 
Henry  Medcalf.  .  .  . 
Daniel  Ross  
John  Rolph  
Jonathan  Austin.  .  . 
Nathaniel  White.  .  . 

13  July.  1812 

21   Oct.,        '12 

25  May,     '13 
25  April,    '14 
13  July,      '12 
25  Sept.,    '13 
2  Jan.,      '14 
28  June,     '12 
25  Sept.,    '13 

21   Oct.,       '12 

7  July,      '12 
13  July,      '12 
i  July,      '12 
7  May,     '13 
25  Sept.,    '13 
30  June,     '12 
25  Sept.,    '13 

22  Oct.,       '12 

3  July,      '12 
i  Sept.,    '12 
25  Sept.,    '13 
25  Sept.,    '13 
25  April,    '14 
25  April,    '14 
25  April,    '14 
25  April,    '14 
3  July,      '12 
25  Sept.,    '13 
25  Oct.,     '14 
4  July,      '12 

24  Dec.,  181 

24  July,      '\i 
24  Nov.,    'i< 
24  Nov.,     'i< 
24  Aug.,     'i< 
24  Nov.,    'i< 
24  Dec.,     'it 
24  Sept.,    '13 
24  Dec.,     '14 
24  Nov.,    '14 
21  Dec.,     '12 
24  Dec.,    '14 
14  July,      'ia 
2  Jan.,      '14 
24  Nov.,    '14 
24  Nov.,    "14 
24  Nov.,    '14 
24  May,     '13 
6  April,    '13 
23  Dec..     '12 
24  Nov.,     '14 
24  Nov.,     '14 
24  Nov.,     '14 
24  July,      '14 
24  Nov.,    "14 
24  Nov.,    '14 
24  Sept.,    '13 
24  Dec.,     '14 
24  Nov.,    "14 
24  Feb.,     '14 

12   12-30 

6  11-30 

IO 

4 
ii  11-30 
5    9-30 
ii  23-30 
14  26-30 

'5 
14  11-30 
4    3-30 
17  20-30 
14-30 
7    6-30 
6  18-30 
8    2-30 
7    8-30 
6  22-30 
7  18-30 
2  15-3° 
6  27-30 
5    9-30 
5  18-30 
7 
6 

1  8    8-30 
9  26-30 

4  24-30 

Captain  
Captain  
Captain  
Captain  
Captain  ,.  ,  
Captain  
Paymaster  
Paymaster  
Lieutenant  
Captain  

Lieutenant  
Lieutenant  
Lieutenant  
Lieutenant  
Lieutenant  
Lieutenant  
Captain  
Ensign  

Titus  Williams  
William  Robinson.. 
Henry  Medcalf.  .  .  . 
Isaac  Gilbert  
Benjamin  Mead  .  .  . 
McFarlane  Wilson  . 
Abrah'm  A.  Rapelje 
Isaac  Gilbert  
VIcFarlane  Wilson  . 
facob  Lemon  
Abraham  Messecar 
Thomas  Francis  .  .  . 
fohn  Conrad  
'ames  McQueen.  .  . 
Dennis  Shoaf  
iVilliam  Gordon  .  .  . 
.Villiam  Gordon..  . 
jeorge  Ryerse  .... 
Albert  Berdan  

Ensign  
Ensign  
Ensign  
Ensign  
Ensign  
Ensign  
Ensign  
Lieutenant  
Adjutant.  
Ensign  
Qr.  Master.  .  .  . 

APPENDICES. 


335 


NOTE. — For  brevity's  sake,  only  the  first  and  last  dates  of  service  are 
reproduced  — the  total  length  of  service,  made  up  of  broken  periods,  in 
each  case  being-  shown.  As  no  names  of  non-coms,  or  men  appear,  the 
statement  of  their  numbers  and  periods  of  service — summarized  ante  p.  68 — 
is  omitted. 


IX. — Service  roll  ist  Middlesex  Militia,  compiled  by  Colonel  Talbot. 

Periods  of  service  for  allowances  due  to  the  militia  officers  of  the  ist  Middle- 
sex Regiment  actually  on  duty  in  the  District  of  London  between  the  28th  day 
of  June,  1812,  and  the  24th  day  of  December,  1814,  both  days  inclusive. 


Rank 

Names 

Periods  of  Service 

Months 

From 

To 

Colonel 

Thomas  Talbot  
Vlahlon  Burwell  

28  June,  1812 
10  July,      '12 
4  Aug.,    '12 
2  Aug.,    '12 
10  July,      "12 
10  July,      "12 
25  May,     '14 
30  July,      '12 
10  July,      '12 
23  Oct.,     '12 
15  Feb.,     '  3 
25  Aug.,    '  3 
10  July,      '  2 
25  April,    '  4 
25  May,     '  4 
25  March,  '  4 
4  Aug.,    '  2 
25  Aug.,    '  3 
25  March,  '  L 

24  Dec., 
16  Aug  , 

24  Nov  , 
24  Nov  , 
24  Dec  , 
24  Nov  , 
24  Nov  , 
24  Nov., 
24  Nov., 
24  Nov., 
24  Sept. 
24  Nov., 
24  Nov., 
24  Nov., 
24  July, 
24  Dec., 
23  Dec., 
24  Sept. 
24  Oct., 

1814 
''4 
'i4 
'i4 
'  4 
'  4 
'  4 
'  4 
'  ^ 
4 

4J 

rf| 

29  27-30 
6  22-30 
8  16-30 

9    5-3° 
17  22-30 

4  25-3° 
6 
8  17-30 
7    i-30 
10  11-30 
i  28-30 

7 
10  28-30 

7 

9 
2  17-30 

7 

Lieut.-Colonel.. 
Captain  
Captain  
Captain  

Daniel  Springer... 
Leslie  Patterson  .  .  . 
Oilman  Wilson  
Daniel  Rapelje.... 
William  Bird  
Moses  Rice  
William  Saxton  
Samuel  Axford  
Joseph  Defield  
Benjamin  Wilson.. 
James  Nevill  
Sylvanus   Reynolds 
Nicholas  Lytle  
Samuel  Harris  
Daniel  Mclntyre.  .  . 
Prideaux  Girty.  .  .  . 

Captain  
Captain.  
Lieutenant  
Lieutenant  
Lieutenant  
Lieutenant  
Ensign  
Ensign  
Adjutant  
Quarter-Master 
Lieutenant  
Ensign  

Ensign  

Ensign  

NOTE. — For  brevity's  sake  only  the  first  and  last  dates  of  services  are 
reproduced  here,  the  total  length  of  service  appearing  opposite  each  officer's 
name.  No  names  of  non-coms,  or  privates  appear.  See  ante  page  68  for 
summary  of  numbers  and  length  of  service. 


336 


THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 


If  ?  E  g 

r  If    I    I 

if.4  I  i 


?  S     w 
t  s    £• 


pl 


I. 


I 

II- 1 


£>         ^--         t^     U5  3       g  ^ 

I   fflli 

8  W  1-  ?  I  f    S 

Mil  ?i  -3 

I     v    3  -    S  1 


_3    g.     5    CO 

w^  -  B! 

•     1"^ 

£?  ^i 

Sr  ^         " 

n    D.  3 


.? 


g 

£ 

Colonel  
Lieutenant-Colonel. 
Major  
w  /David  Secord.  . 
.S  Daniel  Springer 
31  Oilman  Wilson  . 
e«  Leslie  Patterson 
u  {.Samuel  Edison 

h 

1 

S' 

:  :  :  :  :  :  :  : 

Colonel 

Lieut.-Colonel 

Major 

Cn 

Captains 

Cn 

Lieutenants 

Ensigns 

Cornets 

Chaplains 

Adjutant 

Quarter-Master 

Surgeon 

Assist.  Surgeon 

« 

Sergeants 

Corporals 

Drummers 

J? 

<3  &KtS^J 

Privates 

i 

0    0    0    0    0^ 

Number  of 
Stands  of  Arms 

§ 

88888 

No.  of  Pounds 
Ball  Cartridge 

2 

III 

rl 

I? 


fl 


i-i1 


N 


^  £ 
^1 


APPENDICES. 


337 


XL — Extracts  from  book  kept  by  A.  A.  Rapelje,  Captain  of  First 
Flank  Company,  Second  Regiment,  Norfolk  Militia  and  of  A 
Company  of  the  Incorporated  Militia. 


Names  in  muster  rolls  and  other  memoranda  referring  to  his  command, 
commencing-  22nd  October,  1812,  and  including  the  members  of  his  incor- 
porated company  at  York,  I3th  February,  1814,  (extracted  and  arranged 
alphabetically  from  his  note-book  now  in  possession  of  his  grand-daughter, 
Miss  Agnes  Taylor,  Hamilton,  Ont.)  : 


Alward,  Ruben 
Adams,   Evi 
Anderson,  Anthony 
Acre,  Peter 
Archibald,  A. 
Butler,  John 
Berdan,  Jacob 
Berdan,  Albert 
Berdan,  Daniel 
Bennett,  John  (drummer) 
Burns,  David 
Berber,  Elisha 
Beers,  John 
Broughton,  Asa 
Colton,  James 
Conrod,  David 
Conrod,  John 
Cruson,  Michael 
Cherie,  Leon 
Cornwall,  William 
Cram,  David 
Chambers,  James 
Curtis,  Daniel 
Canaday,  James 
Chambers,  Robert 
Collard,  Stephen 
Collard,  E.  (Sergeant) 
Chisholm,  Sergeant 
Cronk,  John 
Cronk,  William 
Crisel,  Michael 
Cole,  John 
Cronk,  William 


Drake,  Richard 

Dedrick,  Christian 

Ducher,  John 

Disbrow,  Israel  R. 

Dougall,  William 

Drake,  John 

Durham,  E.,  (Corporal  and  Sergeant) 

Emmins,  John 

Fuller,  Daniel 

Gilmore,  Samuel 

Gilbert,  Isaac  (Ensign) 

Glover,  Charles 

Garvin,  Hugh 

Garton,  Richard 

Haviland,  Benj.  (Sergeant) 

Hannon,  Charles 

Hogadone,   Peter 

Horton,  Peter 

Harris,  Samuel 

Hull,  Richard 

Hinchey,  John 

Jewell,  James 

Jackson,  John 

Kelly,  Andrew 

Lemon,  Alexander 

Lemon,  James 

Logan,  Edward  (Sergeant  Inc.  Co.) 

Lampman,  John  (Ensign) 

Lutts,  Z. 

Layman,  Peter 

Loder,  Joseph 

Mabee,  Simon 

Medcalf,  Henry  (Sergeant) 


THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 


Mathews,  John 
Messenger,  Silas 
Mathews,  Philip 
Messecar,  Abram 
Millard,  Dan 
Messecar,  Job 
Mabee,  Pinkney 
Marr,   Richard 
Mathews,  George 
Millard,  John 
Mericle,  Benjamin 
Millard,  Jason 
Menickee,  Cornelius 
Markel,  (Corporal) 
Moore 

Montross,  A. 
Meriele,  B. 
McQueen,  James 
McLean,  Samuel 
McKay,  Daniel 
Nelles,  Abraham 
Nonimaker,  Jacob 
Philips,  Ensign 


Shearer,  John 

Samon,  Peter 

Sovereign,  John 

Shoaf,  Michael 

Slaght,  John 

Stagment,  John 

Smally,  Ralph 

Smally,  Erastus 

Smith,  Samuel 

Scram,  E. 

Troup,  Samuel 

Thompson,  John  (Sergeant) 

Taylor.  Rich. 

Taylor,  Bert 

Urquhart,  Edward 

Vanzant 

Vollack,  John 

Vanfalkenburgh,  John 

Woodley,  Mathias 

Williams,  Titus  (Lieutenant) 

Williams,  Benjamin  (Sergeant) 

Wyckoff,  John 

Williams,  Elijah 

Winan 

Winance,  John 

Winter,  Asa 


Parker,  Samuel 
Rapelje,  A.  A.  (Captain 
Rikeman,  James 

Ryerson,  George  (Lieutenant)  Inc.  Co.  Williams,  Samuel 

Robertson,  Amon  Woolley,  Peter 

Robertson,  Seth  Wintermoot,  C. 

Robins,  Joseph  Wideman,  P. 

Shoaf,  Jacob  Wood,  Joseph 

Sleight,  Cornelius  Wickham,  Samuel 

Sergeant,  Geo.  York,  Silas  (Corporal) 

Simmons,  David  Younglove,  David 

Sells,  William  Zobriskie,  George 
Summerfield,  Charles 


Those   whose    names   follow  joined  the  artillery  on  the  23rd  November, 
1812  : 


i— Richard  Drake 
2— John  Butler 
3— Elijah  Williams 
4 — Evi  Adams 
5— Albert  Berdan 


6 — George  Sergent 
7 — Henry  Medcalf 
8 — Pinkney  Mabee 
9 — James  Mathews 
10 — Jacob  Berdan 


APPENDICES.  339 

XII. — Memoranda  and  casualty  list  of  Captain  A.  A.  Rapelje's 
Company  at  Fort  Erie  from  his  original  note-book,  now  the 
property  of  his  grand-daughter,  Miss  Agnes  Taylor. 

FORT  ERIE,  November  28th,  1812. 

The  Americans  came  over  with  a  large  number  of  boats  ;  by  examination 
of  a  prisoner  we  took,  says  they  (the  Americans)  could  not  collect  more  than 
3,000  men  on  the  frontier.  That  800  or  1,000  attempted  to  land  on  the  2  8th 
inst.,  at  2  o'clock  a.  m.,  but  could  not  effect  their  purpose,  and  they  suffered 
severely  by  the  brave  few  that  opposed  them,  who  were  weighty  but  few  in 
number  in  comparison  to  the  Americans  who  made  the  best  of  their  way  back 
with  their  shattered  boats,  after  leaving  a  number  dead  and  some  prisoners, 
perhaps  50. 

List  of  killed,  wounded  and  missing  belonging  to  Captain  A.  Rapelje's 
Company,  on  the  28th  November,  at  Fort  Erie  : 

i— John  Wyckoff killed 

2 — John  Bonnet wounded 

3 — David  Conrod " 

4 — John  Conrod " 

5 — Ruben  Allward " 

6 — Michael  Croson " 

7 — James  McQueen " 

8 — John  Mathews " 

i — John  Butler missing 

2— Mathias  Woodley " 

3— William  Sells 

4 — Samuel  Troup " 

1812. 

Beef — Quantity  received  740  Ibs. 

Nov.  ist — Beef  issued — one  day  ration  for  42  men,  42  Ibs. 
Nov.  2nd — Beef  issued — one  day  ration  for  42  men,  42  Ibs. 
Nov.  3rd — Beef  issued — two-day  ration  for  114  men,  including  Captain  Bost- 

wick  and  Lieutenant  Brigham  Company,  228  Ibs.  beef. 
Nov.  4th — None. 

Nov.  5th — Beef  issued — for  two  days,  including  all  the  Company,  excepting 
Captain  Bostwick,  which  only  received  one,  183  Ibs.  beef. 

Men  present,  invalids  included,  28  rank  and  file. 

"  I  returned  from  Long  Point  to  Burlington  October  agth,  1813,  and  joined 
the  Company  at  Stoney  Creek  that  night." 

"  Left  camp  igth  August,  1814,  in  consequence  of  sickness  and  staid  at 
Mrs.  Overholt's." 


340  THE  TALBOT   REGIME. 

On  the  25th  July,  1814. 

The  Americans,  near  Niagara  Falls,  Lundy's  Lane,  with  their  whole  force 
engaged  General  Ryall's  army,  consisting  of  about  2,500  men.  In  the  last 
only  the  8gth  Glengarians  of  the  Incorporated  Militia  were  engaged  for  nearly 
two  hours  before  they  were  reinforced,  and  then  the  Americans  were  repulsed 
with  great  slaughter.  The  loss  but  trifling  on  our  part,  on  hill,  but  many 
wounded  with  buckshot. 

September  4th,  1814. 

The  Americans  came  out  from  Fort  Erie  and  attacked  our  batteries  and 
were  repulsed  with  considerable  loss,  the  loss  on  our  part  but  trifling. 


APPENDIX  C. 

RELATING  TO  WAR  OF  1812-14. 


/. — Petitions  of  Colonel  Talbot  to  Committee  of  Loyal  and 
Patriotic  Society,  •with  return  of  property  destroyed  in 
Norfolk  in  May,  1814. 

II.— Petition  of  Colonel  Talbot  to  Loyal  and  Patriotic  Society, 
•with  list  of  persons  plundered  at  and  near  Port  Talbot. 
III. — Extracts  from  report  of  Loyal  and  Patriotic  Society. 
IV. — Letter  from  Colonel  Talbot  to  Chief  Justice  Scott  as  to  Raids 

on  Port  Talbot,  etc. 
V. — Petition  of  Colonel  Talbot  to  Loyal  and  Patriotic  Society 

with  further  list  of  sufferers  along  Talbot  Road. 
VI. — List  of  Persons  plundered  in.  Norfolk  by  Me  Arthur's  Forces. 


I.  — Petitions  of  Colonel  Talbot  to  Committee  of  Loyal  and  Patriotic 
Society,  -with  return  of  property  destroyed  in  Norfolk  in  May, 

1814. 

LONG  POINT,  ist  June,  1814. 
SIR: 

In  compliance  with  the  wishes  of  the  Committee  appointed  for  the  distribu- 
tion of  the  sum  of  money  appropriated  by  the  Legislature  of  Nova  Scotia 
toward  the  relief  of  the  sufferers  by  the  war  in  this  Province,  I  have  the 
honour  to  transmit  to  you,  for  their  consideration,  a  return  of  the  los» 
sustained  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  County  of  Norfolk  when  the  enemy  landed 
at  Dover.  I  will,  at  all  times,  feel  extreme  pleasure  in  executing  the 
nstructions  of  the  committee. 


APPENDICES.  341 

A  return  of  property  destroyed  by  the  Americans  at  Long  Point,  County  of 
Norfolk,  District  of  London,  U.  C.,  on  isth  and  i6th  of  May,  1814. 

AT  DOVER   MILLS. 

£    * 

Robert   Nichol,   2  houses,  2  barns,    i    grist    mill,    i  saw    mill,     i 

distillery 5000 

Daniel  McQueen,  2  houses,  2  barns 517 

Peter  Walker 8 

James  Wattles,  house,  etc 77  10 

Samuel  Williams 125 

Francis  17  10 

Abraham  Rapelje,  house,  etc   1 12  10 

Mathias  Steele 73     3 

William  Drake,  horse,  etc 4J9 

Nathan  Mann,  house 25 

Edward  Landon, i  a 

Isaac  Olds 50 

Benjamin  Meade,  2  houses,  2  barns,  tannery 568  10 

Wynent  Williams,  house,  barn,  etc 881     5 

Jonathan  Williams,  house,  barn,  etc 657  10 

Henry    Bostwick,    house,    barn,    and   office ;   in  charge  of  Henry 

Bostwick,  house  and  barn,  Robert  Henderson 12   10 

AT  RYERSE'S  MILLS 

Sarah  Ryerse,  house,  mill,  and  distillery 2500 

Daniel  Ross 37  10 

Henry  Medcalf 300  oo 

AT  FINCH'S  MILLS 

Titus  Finch,  house,  barn,  saw  and  grist  mills,  and  distillery 530 

Silas  Montross,  2  houses  and  barn 571     2 

William  Dunmeade 25 

William  Harrington,  barn 135 


//. — Petition  of  Colonel  Talbot  to  Loyal  and  Patriotic  Society,  with 
list  of  persons  plundered  at  and  near  Port  Talbot. 

Colonel  Talbot  has  the  honour  of  stating  to  the  Loyal  and  Patriotic  Society 
that  on  the  sixteenth  of  last  month  the  enemy,  amounting  to  upwards  of  100 
men,  composed  of  Indians  and  Americans  painted  and  disguised  as  the  former, 
surprised  the  settlement  of  Port  Talbot,  where  they  committed  the  most  wanton 
and  atrocious  acts  of  violence  by  robbing  the  undermentioned  fifty  heads  of 
families  of  all  their  horses  and  every  particle  of  wearing  apparel  and  house- 
hold furniture,  leaving  the  sufferers  naked  and  in  the  most  wretched  state. 


342  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

1  Samuel  Mclntyre,  a  wife,  both  between  60  and  70  years  of  age. 

2  Daniel  Mclntyre,  a  wife  and  one  child. 

3  John  Philpot,  a  wife  and  two  children. 

4  Ira  Gilbert,  a  wife  and  three  children. 

5  John  Axford,  a  wife  and  five  children. 

6  Samuel  Axford,  a  wife  and  four  children. 

7  William  Brooks,  a  wife  and  seven  children. 

8  William  Johnson,  a  wife  and  two  children. 

9  Henry  Barger. 

10  John  Caddy,  a  wife  and  two  children. 

1 1  Samuel  Guernsey,  a  wife  and  three  children. 

12  Samuel  Brotherhood,  a  wife  and  two  children. 

13  John  Barber,  a  wife  and  two  children. 

14  John  Mitchell,  a  wife  and  six  children. 

15  Mahlon  Burwell  Esq.,  a  wife  and  two  children. 

1 6  Leslie  Patterson,  a  wife  and  four  children. 

17  Alexander  Wilkinson,  a  wife  and  two  children. 

1 8  James  Wilkinson,  single. 

19  John  Fulman,  a  wife  and  nine  children. 

20  Nathan  Aldwin          "\ 

21  Robert  Burwell  Wounded  at  the  battle 

22  Samuel  Burwell          j  of 

23  Joseph  Phillips          J  Lundy'sLane. 

24  James  Burwell,  a  wife  and  eleven  children. 

25  John  Cook,  single. 

26  Charles  Benedict,  single. 

27  Walter  Galbraith,  single. 

28  Gilman  Wilson,  a  wife  and  eight  children. 

29  Jesse  Page,  a  wife  and  six  children. 

30  Mark  Chase,  a  wife  and  eleven  children. 

31  John  Quick,  a  wife  and  two  children. 

32  John  Parker,  a  wife  and  four  children. 

33  Thomas  Matthews,  a  wife  and  one  child. 

34  Thomas  Henley,  a  wife  ;  both  between  60  and  70  years  of  age. 

35  George  Crane,  a  wife  and  six  children. 

36  Enoch  Huntley,  a  wife  and  four  children. 

37  Dute  Underwood,  a  wife  and  five  children. 

38  Elijah  Goff,  a  wife  and  six  children. 

39  Jarvis  Phair,  a  wife  and  five  children. 

40  John  Carsin,  a  wife  and  three  children. 

41  Mary  Story,  a  widow,  60  years  of  age. 

42  Walter  Story,  single. 

43  Stephen  Backus,  a  wife  and  two  children. 

44  John ,  a  wife  and  seven  children. 


APPENDICES.  343 

45  James  Scares,  a  wife  and  three  children. 

46  John  Crawford,  a  wife  and  one  child. 

47  Samuel  Crawford,  single. 

48  Nicholas  Lytle,  single. 

49  Prideaux  Girty,  single. 

50  Richard  McCardy,  four  children. 

THOMAS  TALBOT. 
YORK,  2nd  September,   1814. 

(From  report  of  Loyal  and  Patriotic  Society,  pp  384 — 387.) 


///. — Extract  from  Report  of  Loyal  and  Patriotic  Society. 
To  MAHLON  BURWELL  ESQ.,  £50 

This  gentleman,  a  member  of  the  House  of  Assembly,  Lieutenant-Colonel 
of  Militia,  was  active  against  the  enemy  on  all  occasions  and  became  odious 
to  them.  At  night  they  made  a  sudden  incursion  on  the  Talbot  settlement, 
found  him  in  bed  ill  of  the  ague,  and  dragged  him,  without  hat  or  coat,  away 
to  Detroit,  a  prisoner,  and  from  thence  to  Kentucky,  where  he  remained  many 
weeks,  his  house  having  been  burnt  and  all  property  destroyed,  and  his 
amily  driven  off.  The  Society,  on  Colonel  Burwell's  return,  requested  his 
acceptance  as  a  mark  of  regard.  P.  237. 


SYKES  TOUSELEY  ESQ.,  MAJOR  OXFORD  MILITIA. 

This  gentleman  had  been  active  during  the  war,  and  was  marked  out  for 
plunder  and  depredation.  From  the  greatness  of  his  losses  the  Society  was 
induced  to  order  him  £60.  P.  245. 


DANIEL  SPRINGER  ESQ.,  LONDON  DISTRICT. 

Captain  Springer  exerted  himself  in  defending  the  Province  by  actively 
performing  his  duty  on  all  occasions.  He  therefore  became,  as  usual, 
extremely  obnoxious  to  the  enemy  and  the  disaffected,  a  party  of  whom  seized 
him  on  the  ist  February,  1814,  and  after  binding  him,  took  his  own  horses 
and  sleigh  and,  placing  him  in  it,  carried  him  to  Kentucky.  Shortly  after  his 
departure  his  family  was  obliged  to  remove  to  the  Grand  River.  He  returned 
in  time  to  share  in  the  glory  of  the  battle  of  the  Falls.  P.  247. 

Swain  Corliss,  of  the  London  District,  appeared  before  the  Society  and 
stated  that  he  was  severely  wounded  in  a  skirmish  at  Malcolm's  Mills  with 
General  McArthur's  troops,  and  left  on  the  field  and  stripped  ;  he  has  lost  the 
use  of  his  left  arm  in  a  great  degree,  had  seventeen  balls  that  pierced  his 
shirt,  seven  balls  entered  his  body,  three  of  which  still  remain  in  it ;  he  has  a 
wife  and  seven  children. 


344  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

In  consideration  of  his  sufferings  and  services,  the  Society  vote  him  fifty 
pounds,  which,  with  the  ten  pounds  already  received,  make  the  whole 
donation  sixty  pounds. 

(Report  of  Loyal  and  Patriotic  Society,  pp.  184 — 5.) 


IV.— Letter  from  Colonel  Talbot  to  Chief  Justice  Scott  as  to  Raids 
on  Port  Talbot,  etc. 

ANCASTER,  24th  October,  1815. 
MY  DEAR  CHIEF: 

Your  kindness  to  my  representations  when  I  was  last  at  York  induces  me 
to  repeat  my  petitions  to  your  honourable  board. 

The  vagabond  enemy,  not  being  satisfied  with  the  plunder  they  carried  off 
from  Port  Talbot  on  the  i6th  August,  returned  in  greater  force  about  the 
middle  of  September,  when  they  burnt  my  mills  and  other  buildings,  destroyed 
all  my  flour  and  killed  my  sheep,  etc.  Poor  Burwell's  house  and  barn  were 
likewise  sacrificed,  thence  the  enemy  extended  their  violence  down  my  road 
fifteen  miles.  Enclosed  is  my  statement,  which  I  trust  may  call  forth  the 
bounty  of  the  Society,  as  nothing  can  exceed  the  deplorable  condition  of  that 
part  of  the  Province.  My  mills  having  been  burnt,  the  farmers  will  be  obliged 
to  take  their  grain  at  least  120  miles  to  have  it  ground  ,  the  expenses  attend- 
ing the  transport  in  these  hard  times  will  be  heavy  indeed.  I  am  considerably 
alarmed  for  the  fate  of  the  sum  the  Society  granted  me  before,  as  we  have 
this  moment  learned  that  ten  boats  have  been  captured  by  the  enemy  near  the 
Bay  of  Quinte,  and  Mr.Hatt,  who  was  kind  enough  to  procure  the  clothing  at 
Montreal  for  my  poor  people,  is  of  opinion  that  my  things  were  in  the  above 
boats.  Mr.  Ralph  [Rolph  ?],  who  is  going  to  York,  will  take  charge  of  any 
assistance  which  the  Society  may  please  to  afford. 

The  arrival  of  our  fleet  at  Fort  George,  I  hope,  will  ensure  quiet  to  us  at 
least  for  the  winter. 

The  American  and  European  accounts  hold  out  no  great  expectations  of  a. 
speedy  conclusion  to  the  war. 

God  preserve  us  from  greater  evils  than  we  have  already  suffered. 

Believe,  my  dear  sir,  always  most  sincerely, 

(Sgd.)  THOMAS  TALBOT. 

The  Honourable  Mr.  Chief  Justice  Scott. 


V. — Petition  of  Colonel  Talbot  to  Royal  and  Patriotic  Society  with 
further  list  of  sufferers  along  Talbot  Road. 

The  accumulated  distresses  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  County  of  Middlesex 
since  the  third  of  September  last  compels  Colonel  Talbot  again  to  implore  the 


APPENDICES.  345 

benevolent  aid  of  the  Loyal  and  Patriotic  Society  towards  the  relief  of  the 
undermentioned  persons,  who  have  been  robbed  by  their  ferocious  enemy, 
who  returned  to  Port  Talbot  about  the  2Oth  of  September,  burnt  the  mills  and 
other  buildings  belonging  to  Colonel  Talbot,  together  with  the  houses  and 
barns  of  Colonel  Burwell  and  several  others,  thence  extending  their  depreda- 
tions sixteen  miles  down  Talbot  Road,  taking  all  the  horses  and  pilliaging  the 
houses  of  every  article  of  clothing,  and  destroying  such  furniture  as  could  not 
be  conveniently  carried  off. 


List  of  the  sufferers  furnished  by  Colonel  Talbot : 

1  Alexander  Ross,  a  wife  and  five  children. 

2  Neil  McNeal,  a  wife  and  two  children. 

3  Timothy  Neal,  single. 

4  Richard  Barrett,  single. 

•     5  Jeremiah  Cranmer,  mother  70  years  of  age. 

6  Henry  Ramey,  single. 

7  William  Shaff,  single. 

8  David  Mandeville,  a  wife  and  seven  children. 

9  David  [Daniel?]  Rapelje,  a  wife  and  nine  children. 

10  Garrett  Smith,  a  wife  and  four  children. 

11  Thomas  Curtis,  a  wife  and  six  children. 

12  Archibald  McNeal,  a  wife  and  two  children. 

13  George  Lawrence,  a  wife  and  three  children. 

14  William  Lee,  a  wife  and  eight  children. 

15  George  Clark,  a  wife  and  four  children. 

16  Benjamin  Wilson,  a  wife. 

17  John  Davis,  a  wife  and  four  children. 

18  Joseph  Mann,  a  wife  and  five  children. 

19  William  Toles,  a  wife  and  seven  children. 

20  Hosker  Lee. 

21  Jeremiah  Rapelje. 

22  George  Rapelje. 

23  Justus  Wilcox,  a  wife  and  six  children. 

24  James  Neville,  a  wife  and  two  children. 

25  Margaret  Peace,  a  widow,  and  four  children. 

26  John  Brae,  a  wife  and  three  children. 

27  Finlay  Grant,  single. 

THOMAS  TALBOT. 

ANCASTER,  24th  October,  1814. 

(From  the  report  of  the  Loyal  and    Patriotic   Society   of  Upper   Canada, 

Montreal.  Printed  by  William  Gray,  1817.) 


346  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

VI. — List  of  Persons  of  the  County  of  Norfolk,   plundered  by  the 

Americans  under  General  Me  Arthur,  in  the  month  of 

November,   1814. 

£    s.  d  £  s.  d 

1  James  Crane 60  10  o         13  Aaron  Collver 31  50 

2  James   Brown 36     o  o         14  John  Collver 6  15  o 

3  Jacob  Byard 31    150         15  John  Davis 1000  oo 

4  Jacob  Crane.      35     26         16  Morris  and  Leonard 

Sovereen 1750  o  o 

5  Samuel  Brown  .......        39  150         17  Joseph  Wooley 44  o  o 

6  Noah  Fairchild 50     50         18  Levi  Douglas 20  o  o 

7  Joseph  Boughner 700         19  William  Bird 24  o  o 

8  Thomas   Shippey 660         20  E.  Woodruff 20  o  o 

9  Philip  Wilson 15  19  5         21   E.  Woodruff  and  A. 

Collver 1700  o  o 

10  Martin  Boughner 12     o  o         22  Leonard  Sovereign...  149  o  o 

11  Ephriam  C.  Mitchell..       27     2  6         23  John   Robins 213  o  o 

12  James   66  16  o         24  Shearman  Hyde 45  o  o 

(Report  of  Loyal  and  Patriotic  Society,  pp.  387 — 8.) 


APPENDIX  D. 

PAPERS  SUBSEQUENT  TO  WAR  OF  1812-14. 


/. — Letter  Colonel  Talbot  to  Major  Salmon. 
II. — Letter  of  Dr.  John  Ralph  announcing  death  of  his  father. 
///.—     "  "         "         "       respecting     "  The     Talbot    Dis- 

pensatory. " 
IV. — Advertisement  of  Medical   School  at    St.     Thomas  from 

' '  Colonial  Advocate. " 

V. — Letter  Sir  Peregrine  Maitland  to  Colonel  Talbot. 
VI. — Address   to    Lieut. -Governor  Maitland  from    inhabitants  of 
Talbot  Settlement  and  reply. 


I. — Letter  Colonel  Talbot  to  Major  Salmon. 

YORK,  4th  February,  1815. 
MY  DEAR  SALMON  : 

It  is  possible  that  this  may  reach  you  before  a  letter  which  I  addressed  to 
you  yesterday  and  sent  by  an  Indian  express.     I  did  not  then  expect  to  leave 


APPENDICES.  347 

York  for  some  days,  but  Sir  James  Yeo,  who  accompanied  me  from  Kingston, 
proposed  to  me  yesterday  after  dinner  to  go  to  Long  Point  with  him.  We 
set  out  to-morrow  morning,  and  perhaps  may  reach  Hatt's  the  same  day,  but 
I  am  doubtful,  as  Drake's  horses  are  not  the  spriest  and  somewhat  fagged. 
We  will  not  remain  more  than  one  night  at  Ancaster,  and  thence  it  is  the 
knight's  intention  to  favour  you  and  Mrs.  Salmon  with  a  visit. 

General  Drummond  has  been  good  enough  to  send  this  by  express,  so  that 
we  may  not  surprise  you.  Sir  James  will  have  but  one  attendant — his  ist 
Lieutenant,  Mr.  Scott.  I  long  to  see  you  all  again.  With  kind  regards  to 
Mrs.  Salmon  and  George  and  Bill, 

Yours  truly, 

THOMAS  TALBOT. 
H.  M.  Service, 
To  Major  Salmon, 

and  Norfolk  Militia,  Long  Point. 


//. — Letter  of  John  Rolph,  announcing  his  father's  death. 

Monday  Morning. 
MY  DEAR  SIR  : 

You  will,  I  am  sure,  in  a  degree  participate  the  sorrow  I  feel  in  a  very 
great  loss  wh.  we  have  so  recently  sustained.  Independent,  my  dear  sir, 
of  those  feelings  wh.  nature  has  implanted  and  education  improved,  a  family 
of  such  extent  as  ours  must  necessarily  feel  the  privation  with  peculiar  severity. 
I  am  obliged  to  you  for  the  concern  you  expressed  for  his  illness  and  lament 
that  it  must  extend  to  his  death.  At  present  I  scarcely  know  my  own  feelings, 
for  the  last  and  highest  duty  I  can  perform  to  so  valuable  a  friend  is  to  check 
ray  own  feelings  and  direct  my  exertion  for  the  comforting  a  disconsolate 
mother  and  to  protect  those  in  the  crisis  about  to  happen  who  are  unable  to 
protect  themselves.  My  father  seemed  quite  unconscious  of  his  approaching 
dissolution.  He  expired  on  the  sofa  and  sunk,  as  he  thought,  into  sleep.  It  is,  I 
assure  you,  not  a  trifling  consolation  to  me  that  he  died  with  so  much  ease 
and  without  those  distressing  reflections  which  a  father  must  experience  when 
about  to  leave  such  a  retinue  behind.  Had  he  lived  his  life  would  have  been 
very  unhappy  during  the  troublesome  times  we  shall  probably  witness.  He  is 
now  much  happier,  and  I  even  sometimes  hope  He  may  occasionally  glance 
upon  us  from  Heaven  and  smile  upon  a  more  fortunate  issue  than  the  aspect 
of  affairs  will  allow  us  to  anticipate. 

The  inclosed  letter  is  the  last  He  wrote  and  was  omitted  in  the  last  dispatch 
to  you.  I  have  kept  it  sacred  and  send  you  a  Relic  wh.  I  wd.  willingly  have 
preserved  myself. 


348  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

Excuse  my  dear  sir,  from  sendg  you  the  particulars  you  requested.  When 
the  awful  ceremonies  of  to-morrow  are  over,  I  shall  be  better  able  to  attend 
to  such  duties. 

With  great  Respect  believe  me  Dr  Sir 

Yours  obliged  &  truly 

To  JNO.  ROLPH. 

The  Hon.  Thos. 

Talbot,  &c.  &c.  &c.  My  brother  has  just  arrived  from  York  to   follow 

Port  Talbot.  my  father  with  me  to  the  grave.     He  desires  his 

respects  to  you. 


///. — Letter  of J.  Ralph  re  "  The  St.  Thomas  Dispensatory" 

Dr.  Buncombe  and  myself  are  modestly  recommended  as  the  Teachers  and 
Lecturers : 
MY  DEAR  SIR  : 

Everything  that  is  great  and  useful  should  begin  in  the  Talbot  Settlement 
under  your  auspices.  It  was  proposed  by  Dr.  Duncombe  more  than  a  year 
ago,  to  form  an  institution  at  the  city  of  St.  Thomas  for  the  instruction  of 
candidates  in  medicine  and  surgery.  No  school  of  that  description  has  yet 
been  formed  in  any  part  of  the  Province  nor  is  the  hospital  at  York  ever  likely 
under  its  sleepy  patrons  to  become  a  source  of  public  usefulness. 

We  propose  to  call  it  "the  Talbot  Dispensatory."  The  Honble.  Col. 
Talbot  to  be  its  perpetual  Patron  with  visitorial  Power.  Colonel  Burwell 
President,  without  such  power,  with  privileges  ascertained  by  the  by-laws, 
and  Captain  Matthews  and  Col.  Backhouse  Vice  Presidents  so  that  there  may 
be  evidently  nothing  of  a  political  nature  in  it — and  I  hope  you  are  sufficiently 
acquainted  with  the  State  of  public  feeling,  to  be  satisfied  of  my  engaging  in 
nothing  with  the  mere  view  of  conciliating  the  further  favour  of  your  settle- 
ment— Col.  Hamilton  Treasurer,  and  Col.  Bostwick  Secretary. 

A  committee  to  examine  the  funds  and  state  of  cleanliness  of  the  institution. 

John  Warren,  Ira  Scofield,  Joseph  Defields,  J.  C.  Goodhue,     Shaw, 

James  Nevills,  J.  Smith  and  W.  Philan. 

Advice  to  be  given  once  a  week  at  the  dispensatory,  gratis,  wh.  judging 
from  my  daily  habits,  will  be  much  frequented — and  an  exact  Registry  to  be 
kept  and  submitted  to  the  Committee  and  everything  open,  of  course,  in  an 
unlimited  manner  to  your  visitorial  power. 

Dr.  Duncombe  and  myself  will  join  our  Libraries  for  the  institution,  wh.  I 
am  satisfied,  will  exceed  very  far,  any  in  this  or  sister  Province.  To  it  we 
will  add  other  valuable  works  and  periodical  publications.  To  these  I 
shall  add  the  anatomical  preparations,  wh.  were  the  work  of  my  own  Labor, 
when  a  pupil  of  Sir  Astley  Cooper's. 

This  institution,  like  the  Talbot  anniversary,  will,  under  your  patronage,  be 
supported  with  equal  zeal. 


APPENDICES.  349 

In  naming  the  above  appointments,  you  are  requested  to  regard  it  as  a 
suggestion,  it  being  understood  that  all  nominations  shall  emanate  from  you. 
It  is  further  hoped  you  will  consider  St.  Thomas's  as  the  most  proper  place. 
There  will  be  about  12  pupils  to  begin  with. 

The  committee  presidents  are  to  be  for  the  future  annually  elected  by 
subscribers.  During  the  concourse  of  the  election  under  your  patronage  and 
the  conjunction  of  all  the  candidates,  it  is  thought  we  can  commence  with 
advantage,  give  an  impulse  to  public  feeling  on  the  subject,  and  receive 
annual  subscriptions  as  a  bushel  of  produce.  The  introductory  Lectures 
might  then  be  given  with  advantage  in  Public. 

Dr.  Duncombe  will  call  upon  you  to  learn  your  pleasure  on  the  subject. 
There  are  many  arrangements  as  to  the  nature  of  the  Lectures  wh.  cannot 
be  well  suggested  in  this  letter. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  my 

(addressed  on  the  back)  dear  sir 

To  Yonr  most  faithful  servant 

The  Honble.  JOHN  ROLPH. 

Col.  f  albot 

Port  Talbot. 

IV. — From  Colonial  Advocate,  Aug.  19,  1824,  Advertisement. 
MEDICAL    SCHOOL 

AT 

St.  Thomas, 

IN     THE     TALBOT     SETTLEMENT,       AND      UNDER      THE 
IMMEDIATE    PATRONAGE     OF 

THE   HON.   COLONEL   TALBOT. 

•\JOTICE  is  hereby  given  that  a  Medical  School  is 
•^  opened  at  St.  Thomas,  in  the  Talbot  Settlement, 
under  the  direction  of  CHARLES  DUNCOMB,  Esquire, 
Licentiate,  and  the  immediate  patronage  of  The 
Honourable  Colonel  Talbot,  where  the  Education  of 
young-  men  for  the  profession  of  MEDICINE  AND 
SURGERY  will  be  carefully  superintended,  and  every 
opportunity  afforded  them  to  become  intimately 
acquainted  with  the  structure  and  physiology  of  the 
human  body. 

Every  student  before  admission  is  expected  to  have 
a  complete  knowledge  of  the  LATIN  language,  or  to 
give  satisfactory  assurances  of  immediately  acquir- 
ing it ;  for  which  purpose  A  COMPETENT  TEACHER 
will  be  resident  in  the  village. 

CHARLES  DUNCOMB 
will  give  a  course  of  LECTURES  ON  THE  THEORY  AND 
PRACTICE  OF  MEDICINE. 

JOHN  ROLPH 

is  expected  to  give  the  first  course  of  LECTURES  AND 
DEMONSTRATIONS,  during  the  ensuing  season,    on 
the    ANATOMY  AND    PHYSIOLOGY  OF   THE    HUMAN 
BODY. 
St.  Thomas,  August  5,  1824.  6wn 


350  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

V. — Letter  Sir  P.   Maitland  to  Colonel  Talbot. 


GOVERNMENT  HOUSE,  YORK,  April  yth,  1825 
DEAR  TALBOT  : 

Taking  pity  on  your  desolate  situation,  I  take  upon  to  let  you  know 
what  is  going-  on  in  this  -world — and  first  and  foremost  you  shall  hear  of  the 
departure  of  Lady  Sarah  and  the  children  to  Stamford.  I  took  them  over  on 
Monday  and  had  the  pleasure  of  their  society  on  the  lake  for  22  hours.  I 
kicked  your  friend  Wardlaw  out  of  bed  at  6  in  the  morning  and  was  saluted 
with  "Monstrous — what  brought  you  here."  I  left  them  at  the  cottage  at 
three  the  same  evening.  Lady  Sarah  though  a  good  deal  fagged  is  not  I 
hope  the  worse  for  the  journey.  Gordon  I  saw  at  the  mess.  He  made 
tender  enquires  after  you  Sir  Thomas.  He  is  in  the  Sergeant  Major's  hands 
and  is  not  yet  disgusted. 

Captain  Franklin  and  his  artics  arrived  here  the  other  day,  they  are  all 
gone  with  the  exception  of  Back  who  is  left  behind.  I  am  told  they  are  all 
as  fat  as  butter,  which  I  think  an  advantage  for  more  reasons  than  one. 

The  Lords  Commissioners  still  talk  about  getting  away  in  three  weeks,  this 
a  favourite  space  of  time  with  them  as  they  have  from  the  very  first  been 
going  in  three  weeks.  They  are  in  great  want  of  a  Knightly  President. 

I  had  a  letter  from  Arthur  yesterday.  He  says  he  is  coming  early  in  the 
Spring,  and  is  much  pleased  with  our  projected  journey  to  Port  Talbot. 

How  often   has  the  faithful  Jeffry  had  to  put  you  to  bed  ?     If  you  got  to 
Salmon's  on  the  night  of  the   storm    I  have  no  doubt  you  wanted  a  little 
assistance  in  that  way.     Hillier  is  coming  to  bother  me. 
Yours, 

P.  MAITLAND. 


VI. — Extract  from  Upper  Canada  Gazette,   October  22,  1818. 

On  the  evening  of  the  2Sih  ulto.  His  Excellency  the  Lieutenant  Governor 
and  suite,  accompanied  by  Col.  Talbot,  arrived  at  Port  Talbot,  and  on  the 
26th,  at  1 1  o'clock  a.  m.,  about  three  hundred  of  the  inhabitants  waited 
on  His  Excellency  with  the  following  address  : 

To  His  Excellency  Sir  Peregrine  Maitland)  K.  C.  B.,  Lieutenant-Governor 
of  Upper  Canada,  Major-General  Commanding  His  Majesty's  Forces 
therein,  etc.,  etc.,  etc.  : 

MAY  IT  PLEASE  YOUR  EXCELLENCY  : 

WE,  His  Majesty's  dutiful  and  loyal  subjects,  inhabitants  of  the  Talbot 
country,  highly  gratified  with  the  condescension  of  your  Excellency  in  visiting 
this  infant  but  flourishing  settlement,  consider  it  as  a  duty  which  we  owe  to  you 


APPENDICES  351 

as  well  as  to  ourselves  thus  publickly  to  express  our  thankfulness  for  this 
distinguished  mark  of  attention. 

It  is  our  earnest  wish  and  it  shall  be  our  constant  endeavour  to  convince 
Your  Excellency  by  our  conduct  that  His  Majesty  has  in  this  remote  part  of 
his  dominions  men  who,  by  loyalty  and  industry,  are  not  unworthy  of  the 
protection  and  fostering-  care  of  our  Parent  State  ;  and  we  receive  it  as  a 
mark  of  the  attention  of  His  Royal  Highness  the  Prince  Regent  in  confiding 
the  Government  of  this  Province  to  one  whose  object  is  to  know  its  wants  and 
to  promote  its  happiness. 

And  here  we  cannot  refrain  from  expressing  our  warmest  acknowledgments 
to  our  leader,  Colonel  Talbot,  who  for  the  space  of  seventeen  years  hath 
devoted  his  life  and  fortune  to  the  rearing  and  organizing  this  once  unculti- 
vated but  now  increasing  settlement,  and  who,  by  continued  exertions  and 
kind  offices,  may  be  truly  said  to  have  discharged  the  duties  of  a  father  and 
of  a  friend. 

The  exertions  which  have  been  made  in  the  making  and  improving  of  our 
public  roads,  we  trust,  have  met  with  Your  Excellency's  approbation,  and  we 
look  forward  with  the  pleasing  hope  when  a  facility  of  communication  will 
still  farther  be  promoted  by  the  growing  prosperity  of  the  Province  under 
Your  Excellency's  administration.  Permit  us  on  this  occasion  to  express  our 
sincerest  wishes  for  your  health  and  prosperity,  praying  that  you  may  long 
enjoy  the  well-earned  honors  which  your  country  has  been  pleased  to  bestow. 

To  -which  His  Excellency  was  pleased  to  return  the  folio-wing  answer  : 

GENTLEMEN  : 

I  thank  you  for  your  address,  and  assure  you  I  have  viewed  with  the 
greatest  satisfaction  the  flourishing  state  of  your  infant  settlement. 

Gentlemen,  your  loyalty  and  industry  have  been  already  made  conspicuous 
and  will  continue  to  add  new  importance  and  security  to  this  part  of  the 
Province,  which  has  already  excited  a  lively  interest  in  His  Royal  Highness 
the  Prince  Regent. 

Very  laudable  and  valuable  are  the  exertions  you  have  been  making  for  the 
improvement,  or  rather  the  creation,  of  your  high  road. 

My  worthy  host  must  have  heard  that  which  you  have  recited  of  him  with 
the  solid  pleasure  which  attends  on  conscientiousness  of  desert. 

Gentlemen,  your  welfare  and  interest  shall  not  fail  to  have  my  best  wishes 
and  all  the  assistance  I  can  render  them. 


352  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

APPENDIX    E. 

THE  TALBOT  ANNIVERSARY  CORRESPONDENCE. 


I. — Letter}.  Nevills,  Secretary  to  Colonel  Talbot. 
I L— Address  to  Colonel  Talbot. 
III.— Memo,  of  J.  Rolph. 
IV. — Colonel  Talbofs  reply  to  Address. 

V . — Colonel  Burwelfs  Address  to  the  People  of  Talbot  Road. 
VI. — Minutes  of  Meeting  at  First  Anniversary. 


I.— Letter  J.  Nevills,  Secretary,  to  Colonel  Talbot. 

YARMOUTH,  6th  March,  1817. 

SIR, — I  am  directed,  as  Secretary,  by  a  numerous  meeting  on  the  Talbot 
Anniversary,  on  the  8th  March,  to  transmit  the  enclosed  address  to  you.  I 
am  further  directed  to  inform  you  that  «  chair  is  to  be  left  perpetually  vacant 
in  your  name,  which  is  to  be  filled  by  you  only,  or  by  your  descendants  in 
future  ages. 

In  assuring  you  of  the  warmth  end  cordiality  with  which  the  above  motions 
were  approved,  I  individually  express  the  very  particular  respect  with  which, 
I  am 

Sir 
To  the  Hon.  Colonel  Talbot      "k  Your  most  obedient 

Port  Talbot.         J  and  humble  servant, 

JAMES  NEVILLS, 

Secretary. 

I  sent  the  above  letter  in  your  name  and  Colonel  Talbot's  answer  to  you  is 
inclosed. 

J.  ROLPH. 


II. — Address  to  Colonel  Talbot. 

SIR, — Having  assembled  to  commemorate  the  institution  of  this  highly 
favored  settlement,  we  beg  leave  to  present  you  with  the  tribute  of  that  high 
respect,  which  we  collectively  express,  but  which  we  individually  feel.  From 
the  earliest  commencement  of  this  happy  Patriarchy,  we  date  all  the  blessings 
we  now  enjoy  ;  and  regarding  you  as  its  Founder,  its  Patron  and  its  Friend, 
we  most  respectfully  beg  leave  to  associate  your  name  with  our  infant 
institution.  To  your  first  arrival  at  Port  Talbot  we  refer,  as  the  auspicious 


APPENDICES.  353 

hour,  which  gave  birth  to  the  happiness  and  independence  we  all  enjoy,  and 
this  day  commemorate.  In  grateful  remembrance  of  your  unexampled 
hospitality  and  disinterested  zeal  in  our  behalf;  and  contemplating  with 
interested  feelings  the  astonishing  progress  of  our  increasing  settlement, 
under  your  friendly  patronage  and  Patriarchal  care,  we  have  unanimously 
appointed  the  2ist  May  for  the  Talbot  anniversary.  And  this  public 
expression  of  the  happiness  among  ourselves,  and  of  our  gratitude  to  you,  we 
transmit  through  our  children  to  our  latest  posterity. 

We  beg  you  will  accept  this  assurance  of  our  regard  and  veneration,  not  as 
the  voice  of  adulation,  but  as  the  language  of  conscious  obligation  and 
heartfelt  sincerity. 

Signed  in  the  name  of  the  meeting,  by 

J.  WILSON,  P. 

L.  PATTERSON,  V.  P. 


III.— Memo,  of  f.   Ralph. 

The  above  address  having  been  presented  to  the  Hon.  Colonel  Talbot,  he 
was  pleased  to  return  the  following  answer. 

The  answer  accompanies  the  letter  inclosed  to  you. 

The  Secretary  to  the  Talbot  Anniversary,  Mr.  Adjt.  James  Nevills,  should 
prepare  a  statement  to  be  published — and  he  should  keep  on  record  all  the 
proceedings  of  the  day.  Should  pen,  ink  and  paper  be  scarce,  the  Adjutant 
knows  where  he  can  get  as  much  as  he  wants  by  riding  up  for  it. 

J.  ROLPH. 
To  Mr.  Secretary  James  Nevills 

Adjutant  ist  Regt.  Middlesex  Militia  &c.  &c.  Yarmouth. 


IV.— Colonel  Talbofs  Reply  to  Address. 

To  the  Inhabitants  of  the  Talbot  Settlement  : 
GENTLEMEN  : 

Accept  my  hearty  thanks,  in  return  for  the  flattering  address  which  you 
have  been  pleased,  so  unexpectedly,  to  honor  me  with. 

I  am  highly  gratified  to  hear  that  you  are  not  insensible  of  the  exertions  I 
have  made  to  advance  the  welfare  of  this  part  of  the  Province,  for  which  I  am 
amply  compensated  by  witnessing  this  day  the  assemblage  of  so  Loyal  and 
respectable  a  body  of  settlers,  and  I  have  not  any  doubt  but  that  in  a  very  few 
years,  our  country  will  exhibit  in  a  conspicuous  degree,  the  superiority  of  our 
soil  and  labors.  The  surest  pledge  we  can  give  for  its  confirmation  is  to 
preserve  the  continuance  of  the  admirable  industry  and  harmony  which  has 
hitherto  so  happily  prevailed  throughout  the  Talbot  Settlement,  and  you  may 
be  assured  that  there  shall  not  be  any  want  of  attention  on  my  part  to  pro- 
mote as  far  as  lies  in  my  power,  your  general  interest. 


354  THE  TALBOT   REGIME. 

You  do  me  infinite  honor,  by  associating  my  name  with  your  infant 
institution,  which,  I  most  ardently  trust  may  be  productive  of  social  and 
virtuous  enjoyments,  and  never  become  the  vehicle  of  calumny,  and  party 
intrigue. 

I  intreat  you  individually  to  receive  my  sincere  wishes  that  you  and  your 
families  may  long  partake  of  every  comfort  that  this  life  affords. 

I  am  gentlemen 
Port  Talbot  ever,  your  faithful  friend 

loth  March  1817  THOMAS  TALBOT 

V. — Colonel  BurwelFs  Address  to  the  People  of  Talbot  Road. 

To  the  People  of  Talbot  Road  : 

GENTLEMEN—  Having  seen  the  Prospectus  to  an  Anniversary  lately  insti- 
tuted at  Doctor  Lee's  Hotel  ;  and  the  copy  of  an  address  to  Colonel  Talbot, 
on  the  subject  ;  I  think  it  my  duty  to  inform  the  public  that  I  am  decidedly 
opposed  to  the  Institution.  It  is  certainly  premature. 

I  am  never  inclined  to  make  opposition  to  anything,  without  being  capable 
of  rendering  reasons  for  so  doing.  At  the  same  time  I  beg  to  be  understood 
as  not  meaning  disrespect  to  the  gentlemen  who  composed  that  Association. 
On  the  contrary,  I  have  a  high  respect  for  most  of  them. 

The  Law  of  the  Land  defines  Anniversary  days  to  be  "solemn  days 
appointed  to  be  celebrated  yearly,  in  commemoration  of  the  death  or  martyr- 
dom of  Saints.or  the  days  whereon,  at  the  return  of  every  year  men  were  wont 
to  pray  for  the  souls  of  their  deceased  friends."  I  Ed.  6  chap.  I4th. 

If  the  worthy  personage  to  whom  the  address  was  presented,  had  departed 
this  life.  If  he  was  no  more — I  will  not  now  inform  the  world,  nor  insult  his 
sense  of  delicacy  by  saying  what  part  I  would  take  in  the  foundation  of  such 
an  Institution.  At  present  he  is  amongst  us.  We  know  his  exertions  to  get 
the  fine  tract  of  country  we  inhabit,  settled.  And  he  knows  what  our 
exertions  have  been  to  settle  it.  Without  saying  anything  more  respecting 
him — we  know  him.  And  from  the  progress  we  have  made,  not  in  fine 
Anniversary  addresses,  but  in  meliorating  the  rude  wilderness  :  the  world 
may  judge  whether  we  have  not  such  feelings  and  understandings  as  we 
ought  to  have  and  whether  we  can  appreciate  its  worth,  without  proclaiming 
it  on  the  house  tops — and  making  ourselves  ridiculous. 

However  high  and  respectable  any  person  may  be,  and  whatever  his 
exertions  may  have  been  for  the  public  good — the  industrious  population 
ought  not  to  permit  an  act,  which  by  its  fulsomeness,  would  be  insulting  to 
him,  or  beneath  their  own  dignity.  And  whatever  may  be  the  object  of 
designing  persons,  the  Yeomanry  of  the  country  should  never  do  anything 
that  the  observing  world  would  be  obliged  to  call  prostitution  to  flattery. 

The  inhabitants  of  this  new  and  extensive  chain  of  settlement,  are  bearing 
the  burden  in  the  heat  of  the  day.  Most  of  us  have  increasing  families,  and 
just  exert  ourselves  to  support  them.  We  can  therefore  but  ill  afford  to  pay 


APPENDICES.  355 

our  cash  for  attending  far  fetched  Anniversaries,  public  festivities,  cordial 
unions,  &c.,  as  they  are  called  in  the  Prospectus  before  alluded  to  ;  knowing 
at  the  same  time,  that  such  Associations  would  have  a  tendency  to  lead  us 
imperceptibly  to  scenes  of  dissipation,  and  must  like  the  baseless  fabric  of  a 
vision,  fall  to  the  ground, 

I  am,  with  sincere  regard 

Gentlemen 

Your  most  obedient  and  humble  serv't 

Southwold,  Talbot  Road,  M.  BURWELL. 

1 8th  April  1817.- 


VI. — Minutes  of  Meeting  at  First  Anniversary. 

On  the  2  ist  May,  was  held  at  Doctor  Lee's  Hotel,  in  Yarmouth,  the 
Talbot  Anniversary  to  commemorate  the  Institution  of  the  Talbot  Settlement, 
the  President  and  Vice  President,  Capts.  Secord  and  Rapelje  directed  the 
address  from  Lieut.  Colonel  Burwell  to  the  people  of  the  Talbot  Settlement, 
in  opposition  to  the  Anniversary  as  well  as  his  letter  to  the  Secretary,  on  the 
same  subject,  to  be  submitted  to  the  meeting.  The  Anniversary  was  attended 
by  seventy-five  persons.  The  above  papers  being  read,  the  resolutions  were 
discussed  and  unanimously  adopted,  ist  Resolution — It  is  the  opinion  of  this 
meeting,  that  it  was  highly  unbecoming  for  Lieut.  Colonel  Burwell,  in  such  a 
manner  to  obtrude  his  opinion  on  a  subject  respecting  which,  every  man  should 
think  for  himself ;  his  individual  voice  is  not  to  sway  the  public  mind  or  over- 
rule the  popular  opinion,  and  Resolution — It  is  the  opinion  of  this  meeting 
that  Lieut.-Colonel  Burwell's  remarks  upon  the  address  voted  to  Colonel  Talbot 
merely  on  account  of  his  being  the  friend  and  founder  of  this  settlement,  as 
most  indelicate  and  obtrusive.  From  Colonel  Talbot's  address,  it  is  very 
evident  he  was  himself  too  liberal  to  insult  us  with  such  gross  and  ill-natured 
animadversions,  and  it  is  again  unanimously  repeated,  that  Colonel  Talbot  is 
deserving  of  our  respect,  for  his  uniform  zeal  and  exertions  in  behalf  of  this 
settlement.  3rd  Resolution — It  is  the  opinion  of  this  meeting  that  Lieut.- 
Colonel  Burwell's  letter  to  the  Secretary,  is  written  in  the  most  disrespectful 
manner,  but  as  it  is  the  unanimous  wish  of  this  meeting  to  prevent  the 
anniversary  from  any  further  becoming  the  vehicle  of  calumny  or  party 
intrigue,  the  Secretary  is  directed  to  rigidly  forbear  entering  into  any 
future  discussion  with  Lieut.-Colonel  Burwell,  on  the  subject  of  his 
unbecoming  interference,  being  most  fully  convinced  that  a  reference,  even 
to  Johnson's  Dictionary,  will  correct  his  strange  and  unaccountable 
mistake,  as  to  the  nature  and  design  of  Protestant  Anniversaries. 
4th  Resolution — The  thanks  of  the  meeting  are  presented  to  the  committee 
for  their  highly  honorable  and  independent  conduct. 

(A  true  copy)  JAMES   NEVILLS, 

Secretary. 


356 


THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 


APPENDIX    F. 

LETTERS  AND  DOCUMENTS  RELATING  TO  THE  REBELLION  OF  1837-8. 


/. — List  of  Officers  and  Men  of  St.  Thomas  Cavalry  Troop. 
II. — Letter  Doyle  McKenney  to  E.  Ermrtinger. 
III. — Letter  Col.  Askin  to  E.  Ermatinger  re  steamer  Caroline. 
IV. — Letter  of  Col.  Radcliff  reporting  capture  of  schooner  Anne. 
V. — Letter  Lieut.  Wood-ward  to  E.  Ermatinger  reporting  capture 

of  schooner  Anne. 

VI. — Dispatch,  Col.  Askin  to  the  " good  people  of  St.  Thomas." 
VII. — Letter,  Col.  Askin  to  E.  Ermatinger  and  others. 
VIII. — Letter,  L.  La-wrason,  Esq.  to  E.  Ermatinger. 
IX. — District  Order  conveying  Lt.-Gov'r's  thanks  to  Officers. 
X. — District  Order  of  Col.  Love. 


I. — List  of  Officers  and  Men  of  the  St.  Thomas  Cavalry  Troop. 
James  Ermatinger,  Captain  Thomas  Backus  John  Pearce 


John  Bostwick 

J.  K.   Woodward,  pay-master 

Bark  Rapelje 

Daniel  Marlatt 

William  Drake 

John  Thayer 

Thomas  Bobier 

Richard  Evans 

John  Sells 

John  Meek 

James  Meek 

Thomas  Meek 

William  Meek 

Henry  Bostwick 

George  W.  Coll 

Mr.  Garrett,  Pt.  Stanley 

R.  Tomlinson,  Pt.  Stanley 

Thomas  Parish  (killed  at  Pt.  Pelee) 

John  Conrod 

Frederick  Huntley 

George  Smith,  Five  Stakes 

Henry  Finch,  Aylmer,  "Flagbearer1 

Mr.  Duck,  Morpeth 

Captain  Julius  Airey,  Port  Talbot 


Robert  Short 

Peter  Wilson 

Jepthah  Wilson 

William  Silcox 

Henry  Harris 

John  Couse 

Mr.  Marten 

Mr.  Richardson 

Mr.  Bell 

Mr.  Walker 

Daniel  Berdan 

Frank  Wade 

Dr.  Brydges 

Montgomery 

Benjamin  Lloyd 

Turvill 

Dr.  Stevens 

Basset  or  Best,  Pt.  Stanley 

Henry  Ellis 

Henry  Bostwick 

Dr.  McKenzie,  surgeon 

Samuel  Williams 

Thomas  Davidson 

Henry  Wilcox 


APPENDICES.  357 

//. — -Letter,  Doyle  McKinney  to  E.  Ermatinger. 

MALAHIDE,  nth  Dec.,  1837 
SIR: 

We  have  been  waiting  these  two  days  anxious  to  know  what  is  to  be  done. 

1  have  wrote  several  letters  but  only  received  one  from  my  friend  Hodkenson. 
The  rebels  from  Bayham  started  last  night  for  Hamilton  or  Toronto  we  don't 
understand  which.     They  rec'd  a  letter  from  James  Malcolm  of  Oakland  to 
meet  them  near  Brantford  West — has  got  all  the   men   of  Bayham   to   go  he 
could,  say  30  or  40  with  a  promise  of  200  acres  of  land. 

I  have  got  several  of  my  neighbours  (Loyalists)  to  meet  and  we  have 
united  as  one  man  to  march  to  any  part  we  may  told  and  to  give  every  assis- 
tance to  Lieut.-Governor  or  any  lawful  authority  and  to  defend  our  Lawful 
Sovereign  with  our  lives  and  property  what  is  wanted  here  is  orders  and  armes. 
We  have  but  guns  and  less  amunition  but  the  Boys  are  manifesting  every 
manly  fealing. 

Capt.  Medcalf  and  about  twenty  is  now  with  me  and  we  will  be  about  60  at 

2  or  3  o'clock  this  afternoon     My  opinion  that  we  ought  to  march  to  overtake 
and  defeat  the  Rebels  and  give  every  assistonce  to  our  Queen  and  Laws  with 
hesitation 

in  haste 
Please  write  Yours  &c 

an  Answer'  DOYLE  McKENNY 


///. — Letter,  Col.  Askin  to  E.  Ermatinger  re  steamer  Caroline. 

LONDON  i  January  1838. 
MY  DEAR  SIR 

By  an  Express  on  its  return  home  Mr  Ross  Robertson,  who  left  Chippawa 
Saturday  at  3  P.m.  we  are  informed  that  Captain  Drew,  with  a  party  of  "  the 
Elegant  Extracts,"  the  Boy  Volunteers  from  London  &  Woodstock,  made  a 
push  over  to  Slusher  on  Friday  night,  cut  out  a  Steam  Boat  which  was,  and 
had  been  all  that  day  observed  in  communication  with  the  Rebels  on  Navy 
Island  and  supposed  to  belong  to  the  Rebel  Army — the  cutting  out  was  done 
in  gallant  style — she  was  set  fire  to  and  sent  down  the  fall — in  the  conflict 
Capt.  McCormack  of  Adelaide  was  wounded  in  two  places,  but  not  seriously 
another  person  from  Hamilton  was  also  wounded  slightly  that  was  the  only 
injury  the  party  sustained — the  party  report  having  killed  five  persons  and 
wounded  many.  McKenzie  from  the  last  accounts  is  supposed  to  have  a  force 
of  about  800  with  some  cannon  6  or  8  the  largest  an  18  pr.  Our  forces  exceed 
3500  with  13  pieces  of  ordnance — the  largest  of  which  is  a  24  pr  with  a  How- 
itzer— Active  preparations  are  making  for  an  attack  on  the  Island.  Boats 
Collecting — the  messenger  thinks  some  time  in  the  week  we  may  hear  some- 
thing decisive — our  forces  are  represented  to  be  in  high  spirits — Judge 
McLean  was  there  &  just  returned  from  a  special  mission  to  the  seat  of 


358  THE  TALBOT  REGIME. 

government  of  the  United  States  Mr.  Robertson  could  not  learn  the  result  of 
his  mission  there,  but  judging  from  what  he  could  learn,  that  all  was  right — 
lest  you  should  not  know  the  nature  of  McLean's  mission,  it  was  a  demand  on 
the  part  of  the  Lt.  Governor  to  the  Governt  of  U.  S.  to  insist  upon  the 
enforcmt  of  the  Laws,  founded  on  the  Treaty  of  Peace  and  amity  existing 
between  Great  Britain  and  this  government,  and  in  default  of  the  Executive 
of  the  U.  S.  acting  with  vigor  against  persons  aiding  or  abetting  the  Rebels 
— that  the  Minister  of  our  Government  was  to  leave  the  U.  S. — As  you  will 
see  by  the  tenor  of  his  speech  to  the  House  of  Assembly  that  the  Governor  is 
in  earnest.  Nothing  new  from  the  West — Hamilton  is  at  Windsor  Ferry — 
William  Jones  at  Sarnia,  who  will  give  us  the  earliest  intelligence  of  any 
movements  making  there — the  man  who  carries  this  being  a  private  hence  I 
must  conclude  with  wishing  you  many  happy  returns  of  the  day — and  to 
request  that  you  will  give  the  information  contained  in  this  to  Col.  Talbot  — 
Bostwick  and  all  our  friends  at  St.  Thomas — particularly  Shores,  McKenzie, 
Innes  &c. 

Yours  most  faithfully 

J.  B.  ASKIN 


IV. — Letter  of  Col.  Radcliff  reporting  capture  of  schooner  Anne. 

AMHERSTBURG  10  Jany  1838. 
DEAR  COLONEL 

I  have  succeeded  in  taking  the  enemy's  schooner  well  provided  with  arms 
an  ammunition  &  three  guns,  it  took  place  as  follows — they  have  keeping  us 
in  a  constant  state  of  hot  water  these  few  days  &  last  night  at  dark  the 
schooner  who  lay  at  the  East  point  of  the  island  opposite  the  Fort  was 
remarked  to  near  the  shore,  on  this  being  reported,  I  directed  the  guards  to 
be  re-inforced  &  all  hands  to  be  ready  to  turn  out.  in  a  few  moments,  she  got 
under  way  and  ran  down  along  the  town,  as  usual  throughing  shot  &  grape 
into  private  Houses  we  all  hurried  off  to  the  point  opposite  the  West  end  of 
the  island,  whence  it  was  supposed  they  meant  to  effect  a  landing,  however 
in  the  meantime  I  had  strong  suspicions,  that  while  we  were  occupied  at  the 
point,  the  Rebells  would  attempt  a  landing  below  the  post,  to  obviate  this 
difficulty,  I  detailed  acting  Lieut.  Col.  Prince  M.P.P.  and  placed  150  men 
under  his  command  &  gave  him  directions  to  look  well  to  his  right  and  front 
this  matter  being  attended  to,  I  proceeded  to  the  point,  where  I  found  the 
men  well  ^stationed  on  part  of  the  piket  House  where  there  were  large  trees 
around  and  behind  which  they  were  enabled  to  cover  themselves  totally  by 
this  time  the  schooner  came  close  to  the  shore  and  of  course  we  were  prepared 
for  a  landing  they  cannister  and  grape  without  effect  and  musketry  We 
shortly  began  to  suspect  that  the  vessel  was  aground  and  some  men  attempted 
to  Board  which  was  effected  without  opposition — the  men  had  to  wade  nearly 
up  to  their  arms  in  water,  We  have  taken  all  descriptions  of  useful  equipments, 


APPENDICES.  359 

muskets  &  Bayonets,  Pouches,  Knapsacks,  ammunition,  3  peices  of  cannon 
&c  which  I  will  detail  more  accurately  when  I  am  in  possession  of  the 
Returns. 

I  beg  you  will  forward  me  here  without  delay  the  ship  Gun  carriages  that 
are  at  the  North  West  Compy's  store,  with  any  shot  or  grape  you  may  have. 
My  zealous  friend  Captn  Douglas  will  push  this  matter  if  you  give  him 
directions.  If  my  men  are  come  send  them  I  cannot  return  to  Windsor  for 
some  time — also  get  my  clothes  from  the  tailor  &  send  them  to  me  as  I  am 
shabby  beyond  anything  you  can  imagine.  I  am  about  to  send  a  party  of 
volunteers  to  re-occupy  the  island  of  Bois  Blanc.  If  you  send  up  the  gun 
carriages  we  will  have  the  schooner  rigged  up  for  our  own  use. 

I  am  dear  Sir 

fcYour  obt  sert 

Return  of  killed  and  THOS.  RADCLIFF. 

wounded  on  board  the  schooner 
"  Anne  "  of  Detroit,  taken  on  the  night 
of  the  gth  January  1838 

Killed i 

Wounded 8 

Prisoners    12 


21 

Prisoners  names  ascertained 
Dr.  Theller  —  general 
Bob  Davis       cap'n 
David  Anderson 

Reed  Jany.  10,  1838 
4  O  c  P.m. 
Jas.  Hamilton 

Walter  Chase 
W.M.  Dodge 
Squire  Thayer 
Nathan  Smith 

h            Dr.  Theller  said  to  1- 
died  since  taken 

Stephen  O.  Brothy 

V. — Letter  of  J.  K.   Woodward,  Lieut,   and  Paymaster   St.    Thomas 
Cavalry,  to  Edw.  Ermatinger. 

AMHERSTBURG,  Jany  10,  1838. 
EDW.  ERMATINGER  ESQ 
St.  Thomas 

DR  SIR  On  my  arrival  at  Amherstburgh  the  magistrates  requested  my 
staying  to  assist  them — &  in  the  evening  of  the  same  day  a  sloop  came  along 
the  shore,  firing  grape  shot — to  the  annoyance  of  our  Friends  who  instantly 
returned  the  compliment  with  Musket  and  Rifle  Balls. 

Yesterday  a  day  to  be  remembered — the  sloop  appeared   off  the   Land. 


360  THE  TALBOT   REGIME. 

Fire  grape  on  the  town.  We  pursued  it  for  about  2  miles  when  providentially 
she  grounded.  We  commenced  a  raking  fire  on  her.  Her  port  gun  carriage 
becoming  injured  she  could  not  again  fire  &  she  surrendered  with  7  Boxes  of 
new  Muskets,  great  quantities  of  fire  arms  and  ammunition,  one  large  field 
peice,  one  less  &  a  brass  gun — Walter  Chase  &  Dr  Teller  &  1 1  prisoners — 
Anderson  was  shot  in  the  chest  &  will  no  doubt  die  in  a  day  or  two. 

The  prisoners  are  under  an  escort  of  St.  Thomas  Cavalry. 

Dr  Duncombe's  Horse,  Chase  informs  me,  was  found  tied  to  a  tree  at  bear 
creek— &  Dr  Duncombe  is  supposed  to  be  drowned. 

Captn  Josh.  Done  is  on  an  Island  a  mile  from  us,  Bois  Blanc,  with  about 
100  men.  We  are  going  to  pay  them  a  visit  this  morning.  Some  of  the 
prisoners  are  French  &  Irish — the  principal  Americans  from  Munro  & 
Pontiac. 

I  have  no  time  to  communicate  anything  more — will  write  early 
I  am  Dr  Sir 
Yours  truly 

J.  K.  WOODWARD. 


VI. — Despatch  Colonel  Askin  "to  the  good  people  at  St.   Thomas." 
FOR  THE  GOOD  PEOPLE  AT  ST.  THOMAS 

Prisoners  taken  by  the  Royal  Kent  Volunteers  &  others  on  the  night  of  the 
9th  inst.  General  Theller,  Col.  Dodge,  Capt.  Robert  Davis  author  of  the 
"  Canada  Farmer  Published  in  Buffalo  last  summer.  Col.  Brothy  of  the 
Engineers  with  others  amongst  whom  is  Capt.  David  Anderson  of  Yarmouth 
2  six  &  i  9  Pounders — 300  muskets  new  (said  to  have  been  taken  from  the 
arsenal  at  Detroit) — with  abundance  of  appointments  and  ammunition,  etc. 

Extracted  from  a  Dispatch  addressed  by  Brigd  Genl  T.  H.  Sutherland  to 
Genl  VanRansellier  at  Navy  Island  and  Dated  Bois  Blanc  Island  10  January 
1838. 

this  latter  part  is  not  true,  as  we  have  reason  to  believe  is  in  possession  of 
our  Forces 

ASKIN. 

Extract  from  Col.  RadcliflTs  letter  to  Col.  Hamilton  "  I  am  about  to  send  a 
party  of  volunteers  to  re-occupy  the  Island  of  Bois  Blanc." 


VII. — Letter  from  J.  B.  Askin  to  Edward  Ermatinger  and  others. 

LONDON  12  January  1838 

GENTLEMEN — I  beg  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your  letter  of  yesterday's, 
and  referred  me  to  Capt.  Shore  to  concert  measures  to  adopted  in  the  present 
crisis — it  is  proper  I  should  mention,  that  an  express  has  reached  this  on  its 
route  to  Toronto,  this  dispatch  is  dated  8  Jany  20  min.  to  i  P.m. — since  or 


APPENDICES.  361 

rather  I  might  say  a  gentleman  (a  merchant)  from  Montreal  who  has  been  as 
far  West  as  Chicago,  arrived  here  and  states  that  he  left  Detroit  on  Tuesday 
afternoon  at  6-  and  saw  and  spoke  with  Mr.  Thomas  McCrae  then  on  Board 
of  a  schooner  who  left  Sandwich  at  the  same  time  that  this  informant  left 
Detroit.  McCrae  told  him  that  the  volunteers  or  militia  have  had  a  brush 
with  the  rebel  party  and  repulsed  them  from  Bois  Blanc  island,  and  that  they 
were  on  Sugar  Island  some  short  distance  from  Bois  Blanc — But  on  Wednes- 
day afternoon  at  about  4  P.m.  he  met  the  steamer  Cynthia  and  a  schooner 
full  of  troops,  which  he  is  fully  of  opinion  must  have  reached  Sandwich  before 
Thursday  morning  as  the  night  was  renutrkably  calm  and  quiet — under  all 
circumstances  I  think  it  would  be  advisable  to  wait  for  some  further  informa- 
tion before  measures  are  taken  for  moving  a  body  of  men,  and  in  fact  Col. 
Radcliff  being  then  in  command  and  in  the  absence  of  any  desire  on  his  part 
I  do  not  think  it  right  to  order  men  out,  as  it  might  be  only  harrassing  good  men 
unnecessarily  which  you  rest  assured  I  shall  not  hesitate  to  do,  when  there 
shall  be  a  necessity  for  doing  so.  I  wrote  again  in  the  very  strongest  terms 
to  Col.  Jones  &  pointed  out  how  impossible  it  would  be  to  expect  the  militia 
men  of  the  country  to  go  forward  to  meet  any  an  invading  foe  without  the 
means  of  repelling  them.  Capt.  Shore  will  communicate  with  you  on  the 
subject  of  the  information  which  has  reached  this. 

J.  B.  ASKIN. 

Extract  from  the  remarks  upon  the  Road  bill  by  Mail  from  Sandwich  dated 
9th  January  1838  at  7  oclock  a.m.  "  The  rebels  at  midnight  in  two  small 
schooners  attempted  to  land  at  Maiden  fired  a  number  of  Cannon  but 
appeared  to  be  repulsed  by  our  Musketry  and  when  the  courier  left  appeared 
to  be  shoving  off.  The  courier  brought  back  the  Eastern  Mail  and  no  mail 
from  Amherstburg.  The  P.  M.  could  not  be  found 

(signed)        JOHN  GENTLE  P.  M. 

*         *         *        * 

War  has  commenced  in  this  quarter.  We  are  all  in  an  uproar.  Chatham 
i»  full  of  men,  but  not  one  in  10  has  arms — upwards  of  200  left  this  for 
Sandwich  this  morning  in  the  Schr  Kent  and  Steamer  Cynthia.  Report  says 
the  Rebels  were  to  have  made  another  attack  last  night 

(signed)  D.  McGREGOR  P.  M. 

pr  M.  DOLSEN. 
dated  at  Raleigh  10  Jany  8  P.  m. 


VIH. — Letter  from  L.   Laivrason  to  Edw.   Ermatinger. 

LONDON  26  June  1838 
MY  DEAR  SIR 

By  a  dispatch  rec'd  today  it  appears  that  7  or  800  Rebels  are  assembled  at 
Pelham — and  that  our  old  friend  Dr.  Wilson  has  been  conspicuous  amongst 
them— he  was  last  seen  in  the  Grand  River  Swamp  and  is  supposed  to  be 


362  THE  TALBOT   REGIME. 

somewhere  in  this  District.  I  have  sent  to  Norwich  in  search  of  him  &  the 
Bearer  Mr  R.  Warren  Dy.  Shff.  has  a  Warrant  to  apprehend  him — as  he  may 
probably  be  lurking  about  Sparta.  Will  you  be  so  kind  as  to  give  any  assis- 
tance or  information  you  can  to  effect  his  capture — It  is  also  suspected  that 
many  of  the  others  may  flee  in  this  direction — Should  Dr  Wilson  be  taken 
have  him  searched  and  examined — Ask  him  when  he  left  the  United  States — 
with  whom — whether  he  knows  Samuel  Chandler — and  where  he  saw  him  last. 
Wilson  is  supposed  to  have  a  good  deal  of  money  with  him.  About  $1000 
were  stolen  by  the  rebels  from  two  persons  in  the  Niagara  District.  Chandler 
&  5  others  have  been  taken — and  the  Forces  are  preparing  to  attack  the 
Rebels  from  every  side  and  hope  to  capture  or  destroy  the  most  of  them — 
Most  likely  they  will  scatter  about  the  woods — but  it  is  possible  they  may 
attempt  to  effect  their  way  Westward  in  a  body  Should  any  thing  new  come 
before  this  post  leaves  tomorrow  I  will  let  you  know,  meantime,  I  remain, 
Yrs  faithfully 

Edw.  Ermatinger  Esq.  '       L.  LAWRASON 


IX. — District  Order  conveying  Lt.-Gov'r's  thanks  to  the  Officers. 
HEAD  QUARTERS  AMHERSTBURG  U.  C. 
9th  March  1838 
DISTRICT  ORDER 

The  Colonel  commanding  has  great  pleasure  in  publishing  to  the  District 
under  his  command  the  following  copy  of  a  letter  addressed  to  him  by  the 
Adjutant  General  at  Toronto 

ADJUTANT  GENERAL'S  OFFICE 
TORONTO  and  March  1838 

Colonel  Foster  having  laid  before  the  Lieutenant  Governor  your  communi- 
cation of  the  25th  inst.  enclosing  Col.  Townshend's  letter  to  you  of  the  same 
date  I  am  commanded  by  his  Excellency  to  convey  to  you  as  also  to  Col. 
Townshend  his  approbation  of  the  prompt  and  effectual  manner  in  which  the 
rebels  were  driven  from  Fighting  Island  by  Captn  Brown's  Compy  32nd 
Regt,  the  83rd  Company  under  Lieutenant  Kilsall,  Captn  Glasgow's  Detach- 
ment of  the  Royal  Artillery  and  the  Gallant  Body  of  Volunteers  and  Militia 
who  accompanied  them. 

The  Lieutenant  Governor  desires  that  you  will  be  so  good  as  to  express  to  the 
above  named  officers  as  also  to  Colonel's  Elliott  and  Askin  of  the  and  Essex 
Militia — Captain  Ermatinger  of  the  St.  Thomas  Cavalry  and  to  Lieutenant 
Col.  Prince  his  thanks  for  their  gallant  conduct  in  this  affair.  His  Excellency 
has  been  particularly  gratified  by  observing  the  feelings  of  cordiality  and 


APPENDICES.  363 

unanimity  which   evidently  exist   between   Her   Majesty's   Soldiers  and  the 
Militia  men  of  the  Province 

To  Colonel  I  have  the  honour  to  be 

The  Honble  T.  Maitland  (signed)     RICHARD  BULLOCK 

commanding  Amherstburg  Adjt  Genl  Militia 

By  order  J.   D.   Kelly  Adjt  32  Regt  and 
acting  Major  of  Brigade 


X.— District  Order  of  Col.  Love. 

LONDON 
DISTRICT  ORDER  28  April  1840 

Col  Love  cannot  allow  the  cavalry  to  be  disbanded  without  expressing  to 
the  officers,  noncommissioned  officers  and  men  of  the  Norfolk  and  St. Thomas 
Troops,  his  approbation  at  the  improvement  they  have  made  in  their  drill  and 
discipline,  and  his  satisfaction  at  their  general  good  conduct  during  the  time 
they  have  been  under  his  command,  He  feels  assured,  should  circumstances 
again  make  it  necessary  for  them  to  leave  their  homes  for  the  defence  of  the 
Province,  that  they  will  turn  out  with  the  same  loyal  spirit  which  first  induced 
them  to  offer  their  services,  and  should  an  opportunity  be  afforded  them 
prove  to  the  enemies  of  their  country  and  their  Queen  that  they  have  neither 
forgotten  the  discipline  which  has  been  taught  them  nor  allowed  their  swords 
to  get  rusty  in  their  scabbards. 

By  order 

B.   BROWN 

Lt.  Adjt 

73rd. 


364  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

APPENDIX  G. 

RELATING  TO  COL.  TALBOT'S  VISITS  TO  ENGLAND,  ETC.,  IN 
1848  AND  1850— etc. 


/. — Letters  from  Geo.  Macbeth  to  H.  C.  R.  Becher,  1847  and  1848. 
II. — Letters  from  Col.  Talbot  and  Geo.  Macbeth  to  H.  C.  R.  Becher 

1830  and  1851. 
III.  — Miscellaneous. 


Extract  from  letter  of  Geo.  Macbeth  to  H  .C.  R.  Becher,  Esq.,  fth 
Dec. ,  1847— -from  Pt.  Talbot. 

Colonel  Talbot  has  received  an  answer  from  Col.  Airey  expressing  his 
delight  at  the  offer  made  to  him  and  accepting  all  the  conditions  proposed. 
Colonel  Talbot  does  not  understand  the  report  of  his  being  appointed  Deputy 
Adjutant  General  as  he  has  received  a  letter  of  the  2nd  Jany  from  Mr  Julius 
Airey  in  which  no  mention  is  made  of  it. 

Col.  Talbot  is  quite  well. 


Extract  from  letter  of  Geo.  Macbeth  to  H.  C.  R.  Becher,  Esq. 

26  Mount  St.  Grosvenor  Square 
DEAR  SIR  LONDON  i3th  July  1848 

I  suppose  you  have  already  heard  from  Col.  Airey  of  our  safe  arrival  at 
Liverpool.  We  were  rather  longer  at  sea  than  the  Col.  expected  when  he 
engaged  his  passage  in  a  Liner,  altho'  23  days  cannot  be  considered  long. 
We  had  very  little  rough  weather  and  altogether  a  good  voyage. 

The  Col.  did  not  suffer  the  least,  he  was  on  deck  more  or  less  every  day — 
and  ate  I  think  more  than  he  did  at  home,  and  at  night  he  slept  very  well,  not 
being  much  troubled  with  cramp — the  only  trouble  was  his  insisting  on  sleep- 
ing in  the  upper  berth,  and  when  the  ship  was  rolling  it  sometimes  made  him 
groan  when  he  rubbed  his  shins  against  the  boards.  He  took  it  into  his  head 
that  I  must  be  seasick,  and  he  did  not  like  the  idea  of  my  being  in  the  berth 
above  him.  I  was  not,  I  am  proud  to  say,  in  the  least  ill.  I  did  not  indeed 
miss  a  meal  the  whole  way  over,  which  I  attribute,  I  must  say  to  my  drinking 
a  great  deal  of  weak  brandy  and  water,  the  advice  of  the  chief  mate — so  that 
when  I  felt  the  least  qualms,  I  at  once  paid  my  respects  to  the  bottle,  let  it  be 
morning,  noon  or  night. 

It  was  getting  late  in  the  evening  before  we  could  pass  our  traps  through 
the  Custom  House  at  Liverpool  so  that  we  slept  there  that  night,  and  the 
next  morning  early  (perhaps  Col.  Airey  will  tell  you  how  early  the  Col.  can 


APPENDICES.  365 

get  up  when  he  is  traveling)  we  started  by  Rail  for  London.  The  Colonel  has 
taken  lodgings  near  Hyde  Park,  the  pleasantest  part  of  this  wilderness  of 
Houses  and  Streets — Perhaps  you  will  expect  me  to  say  something  of  London, 
but  I  cannot — I  really  do  not  know  what  to  say— Of  course  you  know  what  it 
is  and  for  the  size  of  it,  Oh  dear,  there  is  no  end  to  streets,  carriages  and  men 
in  Livery — the  last  indeed  struck  me  as  much  as  anything — I  do  believe  there 
is  footmen  enough  in  London  at  present  (fine  handsome  fellows,  too)  to  beat 
the  whole  United  States  Army,  boasters  as  they  are — by  the  bye  what  a  row 
Mitchell  case  is  likely  to  make — brother  Jonathan  seems  to  make  a  great 
fuss  about  it. 

Two  days  ago  I  went  to  the  Admiralty  and  saw  Captain  Becher,  he  is  not 
a  bit  like  you  I  think  altho  his  voice  is  like  yours — then  he  looks  at  least  20 
years  (I  wont  say  as  old  as  your  father)  older  than  you  do,  he  is  stouter  and 
apparently  in  excellent  health,  he  was  very  busy  and  could  not  speak  much  to 
me.  He  gave  me  his  mother's  and  his  own  address,  and  hoped  I  would  call 
some  evening,  so  today  I  went  to  Norland  Square  and  called  on  Mrs.  Becher, 
your  mother.  ......... 

Well  I  was  shewn  up  into  a  magnificent  drawing  room  where  I  waited  for  a 
moment,  when  in  walked  Mrs.  Townsend,  if  I  do  not  forget,  your  sister.  I 
bowed  and  all  that  sort  of  thing,  apologised  for  calling,  etc,  She  looked  at 
me  very  hard,  as  they  took  it  into  their  heads  that  I  must  be  "  Harry."  She 
then  asked  me  to  sit  down,  and  told  me  that  her  mother  felt  nervous  when  the 
servant  gave  my  message  (I  did  not  tell  my  name)  but  that  she  would  be  in, 
in  a  moment.  What  a  scene  it  would  be  to  be  sure  if  it  had  been  "Harry." 
Well  presently  in  comes  Mrs.  Wood  I  think,  her  two  daughters  &  son — and 
maybe  there  was  not  a  cross  fire  of  questions.  Well  there  I  sat  trying  to 
answer  all  their  questions  for  perhaps  an  hour. 


Extracts  from  letter  of  Geo.   Macbeth  to  H,    C.   R.   Becher — 2jth 

March,  1850,  from  Pt.  Talbot. 
DEAR  SIR. 

I  am  sorry  to  say  the  Colonel  is  scarcely,  if  any,  better.  He  is  dreadfully 
emaciated  and  quite  helpless,  last  evening  Daniel  and  myself  had  to  carry 
him  from  the  sitting  to  his  bedroom.  He  had  however  a  tolerable  night's 
rest  and  is  now  (%,  past  10)  fast  asleep.  - 

He  still  says  will  start  on  Thursday  if  you  come  on  the  2yth,  but  when  he 
gets  up  I  will  speak  to  him  again.  He  will  not  try  to  catch  the  steamer  on 
the  3rd.  My  plan  is,  if  it  will  suit  you — is  to  leave  here  on  Saturday  or 
Sunday — and  let  him  stay  with  Mrs.  Harris  until  your  business  in  Court  will 
be  over,  say  on  Thursday  or  Friday.  I  am  much  afraid  that  he  cannot 
possibly  reach  London  in  his  present  state  and  the  state  of  the  roads  from 
St.  Thomas  here  is  something  dreadful  to  think  of.  I  do  believe  it  will  kill 


366  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

him.  Do  you  think  you  could  get  some  sort  of  a  covered  carriage  from 
Jennings  ?  Never  mind  the  cost  we  need  not  let  him  know  it  and  I  can  pay 
for  it.  It  would  be  much  warmer  and  comfortable — that  we  might  induce  him 
to  take  it  to  Hamilton — Daniel  taking  the  luggage  in  our  lumber  waggon. 


Afternoon.  The  Col.  is  up  but  is  no  better.  I  think  worse.  We  had  to 
lift  him  out  of  bed  and  carry  him  to  this  room  in  a  chair.  He  is  more 
determined  than  ever  to  be  off.  He  wishes  you  to  bring  as  easy  a  carriage 
as  you  can  get — and  to  come  as  soon  as  you  can,  not  later  than  Thursday. 
If  he  is  able  he  says  he  will  go  on  to  Toronto  without  you  early  in  the  week, 
rather  than  interfere  with  your  business — every  moment  he  stays  here  is 
hastening  his  death — he  says  he  feels  it.  He  wont  eat  anything  at  all  to-day 
— he  is  now  scolding  me  to  haste  and  pack  up. 

I  do'n't  know  what  to  do  with  him.  I  think  it  will  be  wrong  to  let  him 
move  in  his  present  state.  If  I  allowed  him  to  travel  in  the  way  he  is  in 
England  without  medical  advice  (&  he  died)  they  would  try  me  for  my  life  as 
being  accessory  to  his  death. 

He  won't  let  me  write  more  but  will  write  on  Wednesday  tho'  I  fear  you'll 
not  get  it  in  time  to  come  out  on  Thursday.  Yours  gratefully 

GEORGE  MACBETH. 

Wednesday  evening. 
The  Col.  got  much  worse  after  your  departure  and  on  Sunday  and  Monday 

we  certainly  tho't  he  would  have  died. On  Tuesday  morning  within 

the  space   of  half  one  hour he  was  still  so  weak  that  he  had  to  be 

lifted  in  and  out  of  bed.     He  is  now  slowly  I  think  improving  but  eats  nothing 
drinks  a  little  wine  &  water  and  is  very  irritable. 

He  desires  me  to  say  that  the  state  of  the  roads  being  so  bad  he  thinks  you 
had  better  not  come  out  till  the  ayth.  Col.  A.  is  waiting  for  this. 

Yours  faithfully 
G.  M. 

On  board  the  Cambria 
MY  DEAR  MR.  BECHER  off  Halifax,  5th  July. 

The  Colonel  is  gaining  fast — he  is  actually  able  to  walk  up  &  down  stairs 
with  the  assistance  of  any  of  the  passengers — and  along  the  passages  by 
himself.  He  eats  well  breakfast  and  dinner,  and  rests  well.  He  is  cheerful 
and  happy  and  converses  with  the  passengers  among  whom  he  has  found  an 
old  friend  of  30  or  40  years  standing,  a  Mr.  Beckett.  And  who  else  do  you 
think  ?  No  less  a  personage  than  Mrs.  Fanny  Kemble  with  whom  he  has 
revived  an  old  acquaintance — as  it  appears  he  in  conjunction  with  the  present 
Ld  Wharncliffe  &  Mr.  James  Stuart  Wortley  were  her  greatest  supporters  & 
admirers  in  her  earliest  efforts  on  the  stage.  He  bathes  his  feet  morning  & 
evening  in  warm  salt  water,  which  he  thinks  strengthens  them,  but  they  are 
still  much  swollen,  probably  from  walking  so  much  which  he  persists  in  doing 
— not  sitting  5  minutes  in  a  place  unless  some  one  is  speaking  to  him.  The 


APPENDICES.  367 

passengers  generally  are  astonished  and  know  not  what  to  make  of  him.  But 
the  public  and  particular  manner  in  which  Mrs.  Kemble  begged  for  his 
acquaintance  has  taken  a  great  deal  of  trouble  off  my  hands — the  passengers 
being  kind  and  attentive — and  the  stewards  and  servants  generally  being 
more  civil  and  particular  than  they  were  disposed  to  be  to  a  person  of  his 
dress  and  appearance. 

For  myself  I  hate  the  boat  the  steams  of  cooking,  smells,  smoke,  dust  and 
shaking  makes  me  more  inclined  to  be  ill  than  ever  I  was  on  board  the  good 
ship  Montezuma  the  shaking  so  violent  in  smooth  water  that  I  can  hardly 
write  as  you  perceive.  I  dont  know  how  things  will  be  when  'tis  rough.  We 
have  not  had  a  breath  of  wind  since  we  left  New  York  calm  &  foggy.  We 
nearly  ran  down  a  vessel — her  sails  got  almost  entangled  in  our  ropes.  The 
captain  fears  will  have  to  lay  by  nearer  Halifax  for  the  fog  to  clear  off  other- 
wise we  should  be  in  by  i  or  2  in  the  morning  (6th) — 'tis  now  7  P.  M.  (sth). 

The  Col.  wishes  you  to  stop  the  Albion  &  pay  for  the  back  subscription, 
which  I  had  not  time  to  do  myself  in  New  York. 

With  kind  remembrances  to  all  I  remain  my  dear  Mr.  Becher, 

Yours  affectionately 
and  faithfully 

GEORGE  MACBETH. 


Letter  Col.   Talbot  to  H.  C.  R.  Becher. 

LONDON  igth  July  1850 
MY  DEAR  BECHER 

I  want  to  let  you  see  my  hand  writing  again.  George  will  tell  you  all 
about  me.  I  am  certainly  a  little  stronger  but  still  very  feeble,  but  can  walk 
a  little  with  the  support  and  assistance  of  our  friend  George.  I  trust  that  this 
may  find  yourself  and  Mrs.  Becher  well.  Write  immediately  to  George. 
God  bless  you. 

Ever  Truly  Yrs 

THOMAS   TALBOT. 

Extract  from  accompanying  letter  from  George  Macbeth  from  "  Long's 
Hotel,  Bond  Street." 

When  I  wrote  from  on  board  the  Cambria  off  Halifax  I  gave  my  letter  to 
the  Mail  Master  and  did  not  like  to  trouble  him  to  get  it  back  to  open  it  and 
give  my  account  of  our  getting  on  the  rocks  and  I  thought  it  hardly  worth 
the  postage  writing  another  as  I  thought  you  would  see  an  account  of  it  by 
Telegraph.  The  Col.  was  below  and  was  somewhat  frightened  at  the  three 
distinct  shocks.  We  left  Halifax  at  7  P.  M.  Saturday  and  arrived  in  the 
Mersey  at  3  a.  m.  on  the  Tuesday  but  one  following.  We  had  no  wind  all 
the  way  across.  In  fact  the  water  the  most  of  the  time  was  as  glassy  as  a 
river.  We  went  to  our  old  Hotel  in  Liverpool,  the  Stork — and  on  Wednesday 
I  took  a  run  out  to  Knowesley  to  dinner.  There  was  no  visitors  there  and  I 
heard  no  news. 


868  THE  TALBOT   REGIME. 

Lord  Stanley  &  his  son  are  in  Town.  They  leave  next  week,  Mr.  S 
starting  on  his  travels,  but  when  I  could  not  learn.  The  Chanoinesse*  is 
dead.  I  did  not  tell  him,  but  will  get  Dowr  Lady  T.  to  break  it  to  him — he  is 
now  going  to  call  on  some  of  his  friends.  By  next  week  I'll  write  and  tell 
you  his  plans  for  the  future. 


Letter  Col.   Talbot  to  H.   C.  R.  Becker. 

26  Mount  St.  Grosvenor  Square  31  July  1850. 
My  DEAR  BECKER 

When  I  returned  to  London  2  days  ago  I  found  your  welcome  letter  of  the 
gth  inst  and  altho'  short  it  was  satisfactory  as  to  your  doings,  as  every  little 
information  is  interesting  in  my  present  condition.  I  remained  a  week  at  St. 
Leonards  in  Sussex  to  try  what  the  sea  air  might  effect.  The  place  is  on  the 
Sea  Shore,  dry  and  bracing,  but  my  weak  state  did  not  admit  of  my  walking 
out,  so  I  lost  the  pleasure  that  otherwise  I  might  have  enjoyed,  and  whether 
I  received  strength  from  the  air  or  nature  I  don't  know — and  now  for  business, 
I  am  glad  that  you  sold  one  lot  in  Dunwich,  the  price  tolerable,  but  hope  the 
land  may  increase  in  value  soon,  my  object  is  to  invest  as  much  as  I  can  so 
that  I  may  provide  a  fair  income  to  live  in  this  expensive  country  for  you  have 
not  the  least  idea  of  how  much  money  it  requires  to  live  now  in  the  most 
quiet  manner  in  England.  I  should  certainly  say  in  a  very  humble  way 
according  to  may  live  for  less  than  from  800^  to  1000  sterling  a  year,  but 
with  that  I  might  partake  of  some  reasonable  comfort  and  not  less. 

My  sister  Fanny  is  dead,  and  left  the  ;£iooo  I  owed  her  to  James  Talbot, 
Ld  Talbot  de  Malahide's  eldest  son — he  has  not  as  yet  said  anything  to  me 
about  it,  but  when  he  does,  I  shall  answer  that  it  is  not  in  my  power — to  pay 
the  whole  sum  at  once,  but  by  degrees  for  he  does  not  want  it.  Of  course  I 
mean  that  Col,  Airey  shd  get  all  the  remaining  money  that  may  be  paid  on 
the  land  in  Aldboro'  that  was  conditioned  to  be  sold  by  me  previous  to  my 
giving  Airey  a  deed  for  Aldboro'.  But  all  that  can  be  collected  from  the  land 
that  I  reserved  for  myself,  I  wish  that  as  much  as  can  be  may  be  invested  for 
an  income.  At  the  same  time  I  shall  require  some  £100  to  keep  me  until  the 
interest  is  sufficient  to  support  me.  All  sums  must  be  invested  in  my  own 
name.  Pray  when  you  write  which  I  request  may  be  as  often  as  you  can  to 
give  a  particular  account  of  the  state  of  the  Province  and  how  Hincks'  assess- 
ment Bill  operates  and  also  I  beg  that  you  will  fairly  tell  me  as  near  as  you 
can  the  amounts  I  may  rely  on  receiving  a  year  so  that  I  may  limit  myself 
accordingly,  as  it  would  be  dreadful  to  out  run  my  means.  George  is  getting 
on  as  well  as  I  could  wish  and  I  have  the  greatest  comfort  in  him  and  I 
flatter  myself  that  my  health  may  be  restored  so  long  as  to  give  me  many 

*Col.  Talbot's  sister  Fanny,  a  chanoinesse  i.  e.  canouess. 


APPENDICES.  369 

years  more  of  his  friendly  assistance,  for  it  can't  be  valued  at  my  age — as  yet 
I  have  not  been  able  to  walk  out  to  see  any  of  my  old  friends,  indeed  they  are 
now  going  out  of  London  as  fast  as  they  can,  and  as  to  my  visiting  them  in  the 
country  it  will  not  be  in  my  power.  I  hope  that  Mrs.  Becher  may  be  quite 
well  and  safe  when  this  reaches  you.  Give  her  my  kindest  regards.  I  had  a 
note  from  Mrs.  Harris.  Mary's  marriage  not  settled.  George  joins  in  good 
wishes.  Yrs  ever  truly 

THOMAS  TALBOT. 


George  Macbeth  to  H.  C.  R.  Becher,  Esq. 

HARROWGATE  25  Aug 
MY  DEAR  MR.  BECKER 

After  a  great  deal  of  persuasion  the  Colonel  was  induced  to  join  his  sister* 
here  on  Monday  evening  last.  But  hitherto  we  have  not  succeeded  in  getting 
him  to  drink  the  waters,  which  indeed  is  not  so  much  to  be  wondered  at  for 
the  smell  &  taste  is  dreadful — worse  than  any  of  Dr  Anderson's  medicine — 
with  the  breeze  I  can  smell  the  pump  room  at  least  two  hundred  yards  off — 
Since  my  last  I  cannot  say  there  is  much  if  any  improvement — his  legs 
continue  about  the  same  size,  but  his  appetite  is  very  good.  He  was  a  good 
deal  fagged  coming  from  London  for  we  lost  the  morning  express  train  &  the 
next  with  stoppages  &  shifting  from  one  carriage  to  another  took  11% 
hours. 

High  Harrowgate  where  we  are  staying  is  an  open  exposed  and  wide 
plain  consequently  bleak  and  cold,  but  the  air  is  clear  of  smoke,  a  rare  thing 
in  Yorkshire.  The  Colonel  does  not  dislike  it,  for  he  is  very  comfortable  with 
his  sister.  The  company  all  live  at  the  public  table  as  in  America,  but  in  a 
much  better  manner,  in  fact  like  a  large  private  party,  each  one  being  waited 
on  by  their  own  servants,  there  being  only  one  or  two  belonging  to  the  house 
attending  to  sometimes  two  or  300  persons.  There  are  a  great  many  of  his 
friends  here,  so  that  he  has  enough  of  company  and  when  he  tires  goes  to  his 
own  room  where  there  is  always  a  good  fire.  There  are  private  &  public 
Balls  every  week  &  well  attended  but  tho'  one  does  not  visit  the  ball  room,  if 
staying  at  the  Hotels,  are  expected  indeed  obliged  to  contribute  towards  the 
funds  to  pay  the  band.  The  Town  is  very  unconnected  rows  &  terraces  here 
and  there  and  this  hotel  is  more  than  a  mile  from  the  Springs. 

He  is  counting  the  days  that  your  answer  should  arrive — it  is  no  avail  my 
telling  him  that  he  has  more  than  enough  while  he  lives.  His  answer  always 
is  that  "  Becher  will  let  me  know."  I  am  most  anxious  that  your  account 
will  satisfy  him — otherwise  he  will  make  himself  very  unhappy — he  very  often 

says  that  he  would  be  content  with  £800  but  .£1000  would  be  better 1  do 

not  know  how  long  Mrs.  Kay  will  remain  but  I  think  six  weeks  and  what  our 

*Col.  Talbot's  sister  Eliza,  wife  of  Ellis  Cunliffe  Lister  Kaye. 


370  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

next  move  will  be  he  does  not  know.  Much  will  depend  on  your  letter  which 
(as  'tis  3  weeks  since  he  wrote)  I  expect  will  arrive  before  we  leave  here.  I 
have  nothing  more  that  you  would  care  about.  I  send  you  an  Illustrated 
News.  Yours  faithfully 

GEORGE  MACBETH. 


Extract  from  letter  of  Geo.  Macbeth  to  H.    C.  R.  Becker  dated  at 
26  Mount  St.,  ist  Oct.,  1830. 

Your  letter  of  the  2gth  Augt  announcing  poor  Mr  Harris'  death  was 
received  on  the  i6th  Sept.  Of  course  you  will  be  much  surprised  at  not 
hearing  from  me  for  so  long  a  time,  but  as  I  had  nothing  of  consequence  to 
write  I  deferred  until  I  should  hear  in  answer  to  what  I  wrote  on  the  eve  of 
our  departure  to  Harrowgate.  We  stayed  at  Harrowgate  just  four  weeks 
with  manifest  benefit  to  the  Colonel's  health  and  strength,  for  latterly  he 
walked  more  or  less  every  day  that  was  fine  and  generally  sat  in  the  gardens 
attached  to  the  Hotel  the  greater  portion  of  the  day  &  in  fact  where  he  held 
his  levees — being  generally  surrounded  by  a  dozen  at  least  of  the  visitors  to 
Harrowgate  &  the  grass  around  his  favourite  seat  had  no  need  of  mowing. 
Notwithstanding  all  this — the  pure  air,  exercise,  cheap  living,  the  society  of 
his  friends  &  some  relatives  it  was  with  the  greatest  difficulty  Mrs.  Kaye  & 
myself  could  induce  him  to  remain,  indeed  we  could  not  have  prevailed  but 
that  Mrs.  Kaye  had  an  alarming  fit  of  illness  &  he  could  not  well  leave  her 
while  under  the  Dr's  hands.  His  desire  was  so  great  to  return  to  Town  there 
was  nothing  for  it  but  to  yield — but  I  got  a  sort  of  promise  that  he  would  go 
to  Richmond  for  some  weeks  &  I  consequently  engaged  rooms  at  the  far 
famed  "Star  and  Garter"  but  after  all  he  backed  out,  starting  so  many 
difficulties  &  the  everlasting  "I  must  hear  from  Becher  before  I  decide  on 
anything."  When  I  found  that  Richmond  was  no  go — I  hinted  that  the 
November  fogs  might  be  agreeably  avoided  at  Paris  or  its  environs.  He 
appears  to  agree  with  me  and  now  after  a  great  many  provisoes  it  is  arranged 
that  we  go  to  Boulogne  shortly,  staying  at  Amiens  and  other  places  as  we 
happen  to  like  them,  then  from  Paris  to  St.  Germain  en  laye  which  some 
persons  recommend  because  like  St.  Leonards  it  suited  them  &  which  I 
prophesy  like  St.  Leonards  will  not  suit  us.  Then  he  proposes  to  take  a  tour 
thro'  Normandy  and  Brittany  returning  via  Havre  de  Grace  and  Southamp- 
ton. All  this,  however  as  yet  vague  surmise,  but  that  we  leave  London  I  am 
determined  on,  for  various  reasons.  In  the  first  place  there  are  scarcely  ont 
of  the  people  he  likes  in  town  &  as  he  is  not  fond  of  sights  or  amusements  he 
does  not  go  out  sufficient  for  his  health — &  again  the  country  air  is  better  for 
him  and  travelling  about  keeps  his  mind  employed  &  active  and  he  has  then 
less  time  to  think  of  old  days.  Hyde  Park  the  nearest  to  us  is  too  far  for  him 
to  walk  to  &  altho'  carriages  are  often  at  his  disposal  will  not  take  advantage 


APPENDICES.  371 

of  them  to  take  a  drive — as  for  cabs  I  have  had  them  at  the  door — but  could 
not  get  him  into  one  to  go  as  far  as  the  gates  because  it  would  cost  a  shilling 
and  the  consequence  is  that  altho'  weather  has  been  beautiful  I  cannot  get 
him  out. 

Dr  Paris  prescribed  along  with  his  medicine  (for  the  legs)  moderate 
walking  on  grass  or  gravel  walks  but  the  Col.  only  laughs  at  him. 

Despite  all  this  he  is  very  well,  the  legs  lessening,  and  his  appetite  good, 
the  face  plump  red  &  clear  without  a  wrinkle,  his  clothes  completely  filled, 
&  when  any  old  Dowager  (none  else  in  Town)  calls,  his  gallantry  &  efforts  to 
walk  up  &  down  stairs  are  amusing  enough. 

Oct  3rd 

And  now  for  Business.  Your  two  letters  are  just  what  I  expected  particu- 
larly the  portion  regarding  the  Colonel's  probable  income.  I  repeated  the 
same  thing  in  substance  to  him  time  after  time.  I  well  knew  that  there  is 
plenty  &  that  from  the  recentness  of  our  departure  nothing  could  be  added 
by  you  to  what  we  already  knew.  He  however  was  of  a  different  opinion  & 
I  must  say  that  his  dread  of  poverty  was  so  vivid  that  he  was  ready  to 
imagine  anything.  The  dread  of  such  a  thing  was  very  detrimental  to  his 
health  &  comfort — and  doing  things  incompatible  to  an  independent  person. 
Your  letter  therefore  being  so  satisfactory  I  trust  there  is  an  end  to  it. 

.  .  .  .  The  Colonel  was  delighted  with  your  account  of  Jane  and  the 
children  and  is  much  pleased  at  your  settling  those  matters  personally.  But 
we  cannot  understand  what  became  of  the  wool.  McKechnie  bargained  for 
it.  Col.  Airey  writes  that  he  was  indignant  at  not  getting  it  &  that  Daniel 
sold  it  to  someone  else.  Col.  Airey's  letter  is  a  gem — it  is  Airey  all  over 
— sent  here  to  a  Lady  enclosed  with  a  long  apology  for  trouble  &c.  &  begging 
it  might  be  forwarded  to  Col.  T.  as  he  was  not  aware  what  part  of  the  world 
he  was  in — then  there  is  a  long  account  of  the  roses  &  garden,  some  at- 
tempts at  pleasantry,  some  indignation  at  Daniel's  taking  away  trunks  full  of 
old  letters  &  refusing  him  (Col.  A.)  to  nail  them  up  and  seal  them  to  be  kept 
till  Col.  T.  returned  &c. — and  concluding  with  the  favourable  accounts  he 
heard  from  Mrs.  Burwell  (of  Col. T.)  The  Colonel  of  course  has  not  answered 
nor  intends  to  do  so — for  I  learnt  at  Harrowgate  from  Mrs  A's  sister  that  Col. 
A.  had  weekly  accounts  from  one  or  other  of  the  family,  who  are  well  aware 
of  the  Col's  residence  and  state  of  health.  - 

The  English  papers  are  making  great  fun  of  theYankees  about  Jenny  Lind. 


Letter  Colonel  Talbot  to  H.  C.  R.  Becker. 

LONDON  Jany.  3rd  1851. 
MY  DEAR  BECHER 

I  returned  from  Paris  two  days  ago  after  two  months  absence  and  am 
happy  to  tell  you  with  my  health  a  good  deal  better  but  my  natural  strength 
is  as  yet  far  from  being  restored  and  cannot  walk  the  streets  but  a  very  little 


372  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

way  without  being  tired.  George  keeps  quite  well.  I  have  received  yours  of 
the  3Oth  Oct.  and  your  letter  of  the  3rd  &  gth  of  Deer  and  your  account  of  the 
state  of  Canada  is  tolerable.  George  has  the  letters  to  examine  and  con 
over,  however  they  are  not  quite  what  I  wanted,  as  in  a  former  letter  you 
promised  to  send  me  a  minute  statement  of  all  the  money  I  have  invested  in 
the  different  stocks  with  the  interest  they  produced,  as  it  is  impossible  for  me 
to  govern  my  expenses  without  actually  being  fully  acquainted  with  my 
means,  for  no  person  in  Canada  can  be  aware  of  the  difficulty  of  living  in  the 
most  economical  way  in  England  or  indeed  in  any  part  of  Europe  for  really  a 
York  sixpence  will  go  further  at  Port  Talbot,  than  a  Sovereign  in  London  or 
Paris.  I  am  therefore  to  beg  of  you  to  furnish  me  with  all  this  needful 
information  as  soon  as  you  possibly  can.  George  will  write  soon  to  you,  but 
I  must  give  my  honest  opinion  as  to  investments,  for  you  must  well  know  my 
objections  to  all  shipping  speculations,  such  as  railroads,  steamboats  and 
vaporing  of  every  description.  I  like  good  honest  investments  that  will  give 
a  fair  interest  without  being  mixed  up  in  Law.  You  of  course  will  not 
interfere  with  my  pension  for  that  I  keep  to  myself,  nor  do  I  intend  to  break 
in  on  any  principal,  but  to  confine  myself  to  the  interest.  If  I  find  that  I  can 
treat  myself  to  a  tour  in  the  South  of  France  in  the  Summer,  that  is  after  the 
first  of  July,  I  shall  do  so,  but  all  depends  on  my  pocket.  I  am  delighted  to 
hear  that  Mrs.  Becher  and  all  yours  are  so  flourishing  and  that  my  friends  the 
Harris's  affairs  are  becoming  better,  and  now  (quite  confidential)  let  me  know 
how  Col.  Airey  is  getting  on  and  how  he  is  considered  in  my  dear  country — 
dont  give  your  opinion  half  way,  but  the  actual  truth.  This  is  quite  entre 
nous.  Mr.  John  Airey  is  not  as  yet  back,  but  is  expected  this  month.  He 
appears  altogether  charmed  with  America,  but  I  am  resolved  not  to  give  my 
opinion  to  him.  Daniel  tells  George  that  Col.  Airey  has  purchased  a 
Reservation  Lot  in  Dunwich.  I  hope  it  is  not  one  of  mine.  George  is  now 
out  hunting  up  for  a  lodging  for  me,  for  this  Hotel,  the  Burlington  in  old 
Burlington  street,  is  most  extravagant.  I  have  not  seen  a  soul  as  yet,  in 
fact  every  person  seems  to  be  quite  ruined  in  old  England — so  God  bless  you 
and  write  regularly,  if  I  can  accomplish  my  next  Summer  tour,  I  shall  require 
at  least  .£300  but  all  will  depend  on  your  report.  Now  with  kindest  regards 
and  wishes  to  all  friends 

Believe  me,  always  most  sincerely  yours 

THOMAS  TALBOT. 
P.  S.     Give  me  all  the  gossip  for  every  trifle  is  interesting.     T.  T. 


Extracts  from  an  Accompanying  Letter  from  Mr.  Macbeth. 

We  arrived  from  Paris  on  Tuesday  evening  and  are  staying  at  the  Bur- 
lington Hotel,  which  I  like  very  much.  I  have  tried  to  induce  the  Col.  to 
remain  in  it  always — which  if  he  agreed  to  do  the  proprietor  would  let  us 
have  apartments  reasonably  cheap,  but  I  have  not  yet  prevailed.  I  have  been 
looking  for  better  lodgings  than  we  had  in  Mount  St.  and  I  find  that  good 


APPENDICES.  373 

apartments  are  not  to  be  had  after  the  first  of  April  in  this  part  under  Seven 
guineas  a  week.  The  same  that  in  other  seasons  range  from  30  to  40  shillings. 
The  Col.  is  very  much  better  he  can  trot  about  quite  well  by  himself  and  is 
tolerably  firm  on  his  legs — the  swelling  is  quite  gone.  He  went  yesterday  to 
Stultz  and  ordered  a  new  rig  out — bought  a  new  hat  &c.  —  —  —  —  — 
Two  subjects  divide  the  attention  of  the  public  at  present — the  Grand 
Exposition  &  Cardinal  Wiseman.  You  will  probably  see  it  stated  that  the 
Emperor  of  Russia,  King  of  Prussia  &c,  are  coming.  There  is  no  truth  in 
the  rumour — and  as  to  the  Catholics  they  will  have  their  own  way  in  the  end 
depend  upon  it.  I  was  horribly  sea  sick  coming  from  France.  The  Col.  was 
not.  Good  bye  till  next  Thursday. 


Extract  from  Letter  Geo.  Macbeth  to  H.  C.  R.  Becker. 

17  Mount  St.  aist  Feb  1851. 
MY  DEAR  MR.  BECHER 

We  received  your  letter  closed  30  Deer  and  a  most  satisfactory  one  it 
proved.  The  Col.  could  scarcely  believe  it  until  I  pointed  out  the  different 
items,  at  the  same  time  telling  him  how  much  it  would  increase  and  how  rich 
he  would  be  in  five  years,  which  latter  he  said  was  like  telling  him  "  live 
horse  and  you'll  get  clover."  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  he  is  not  so  well  as  he 
was  when  last  I  wrote.  About  10  days  ago  feeling  quite  well  and  strong  he 
took  advantage  of  my  being  out  and  walked  to  pay  some  visits.  After 
walking  and  heating  himself  a  good  deal  he  returned  in,  when  Lady  Talbot 
called  and  insisted  on  taking  him  out  in  her  carriage  when  he  must  have  got 
chilled,  for  ever  since  he  has  lost  his  appetite,  is  weak  and  has  a  most  fright- 
ful cough.  I  called  in  Dr.  Paris,  who  prescribed  for  him,  but  with  little 
apparent  benefit  as  yet.  I  too  have  had  the  influenza  —  —  —  What  do 
you  think  of  Col.  Airey's  new  move.  Col.  Wetherall  thinks  it  was  altogether 
unsolicited,  but  does  not  seem  to  know.  He  accounted  for  it  in  this  manner. 
Col.  Sullivan  (Col.  A's  friend)  has  been  writing  grumbling  letters  to  Col.  A- 
and  Col.  A.  wrote  back  that  if  he  did  not  like  the  work  &c  that  he  was  willing 
to  resume  his  duties  at  the  Horse  Guards  if  the  Adjutant  General  had  no 
objection.  That  Sullivan  showed  this  to  Lord  Fitzroy  &  Ld  F.  to  the  Duke, 
who  said  "We  could  not  have  a  more  proper  person."  That  is  all  I  could 
learn  from  Col.  W.  As  far  as  Col.  Talbot  is  concerned  it  is  little  matter  now 
whether  he  comes  or  stays.  Col.  T.  will  not  see  him  if  he  can  help  it.  You 
may  be  sure  the  Col.  &  myself  have  often  talked  about  it,  but  can  not  arrive 
at  any  likely  conclusion.  He  can  easily  arrange  about  Port  Talbot,  Mrs. 
Airey  &  the  children.  But  what  will  he  do  with  Aldboro'  ? 

We  had  John  Airey  here  with  long  stories  of  all  he  had  seen  &  done  in 
Canada  &  the  States.  He  told  the  Col.  he  would  have  married  the  youngest 
Miss  Bannerman  but  that  she  was  too  young  for  him — he  did  not  say  she 


374  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

would  take  him  ! — He  expressed  himself  delighted  with  your  London  & 
neighbourhood  as  well  as  the  attentions  paid  him — He  is  now  in  Paris  and  so 
is  Chrisr  Robinson —  —  —  —  — 

The  Col.  says  you  are  to  ask  from  Col.  Airey    he  portraits  of  the  old  & 
young  Ld  Wharncliffes  &  the  Ivory  miniature  of  Lady  Young* 


Extracts  from  letters  Col.  Talbot  to  H.C.  R.  Beclier,  Esq. 

17  Mount  St.  Grosvenor  Square  3rd  April  1851 
MY  DEAR  BECKER — 

I  was  very  much  gratified  with  the  receipt  of  yours  of  the  3rd  of  last 
month,  but  it  was  not  my  intention  to  tell  you  so,  for  a  couple  of  weeks  more 
but  yesterday  brought  me  the  first  hint  from  the  Executor  of  my  sister  the 
late  Countess  Talbot,  claiming  and  asking  for  the  money  I  owed  her.  .  .  . 
I  told  you  in  my  last  that  it  is  not  my  intention  to  sell  any  of  the  land  in  the 
Avenue  between  old  Port  Talbot  and  Burwell's  as  my  hobby  now  is,  that 
myself  and  George  shall  employ  ourselves  there  in  making  a  snug  little 
Wigwam,  as  my  last  retreat  on  this  earth,  and  feel  most  desirous  that  George 
may  be  comfortably  settled  during  my  life.  He  is  now  in  his  25th  year  of  age 
and  I  am  near  80,  so  that  there's  not  much  time  for  play.  —  —  —  —  — 

17  Mount  St  Grosvenor  Square  Thursday  8  May  1851 

Your  note  of  the  lyth  of  April  I  received  the  4th  inst.  with  the  Bills  of 
Exchange  for  .£300  Sterg  and  a  note  for  George,  all  very  acceptable.  Col. 
Airey  is  injLondon  but  that  is  all  that  I  know  about  him,  further  than  that  he 
is  unwell.  He  has  not  called  on  me  yet,  and  hope  that  he  may  not.  Amelia 
Harris  wrote  that  he  was  going  to  sell  all  the  fruit  trees,  shrubs  and  flowers 
that  I  was  at  the  cost  and  trouble  of  taking  to  Port  Talbot,  but  Mr  Sanders 
protested  against  his  robbing  the  gardens,  however  Daniel  told  George  that 
he  had  sold  them  or  some  of  them.  By  the  way  I  am  most  anxious  for 
Daniel's  arrival  in  London  as  I  am  about  ready  to  start  for  Canada,  and  it 

would  be  too  provoking  to  be  retained  waiting  here  for  him I 

am  very  sorry  you  did  not  insist  on  having  my  miniature  picture  of  Ly 
Young  from  the  Aireys,  as  I  am  convinced  it  was  their  full  intention  to  make 
it  their  own  &  I  hate  to  have  any  communication  with  them.  —  —  —  — 

Geo.  Macbeth  to  H.  C.  R.  Bhcher. 
MY  DEAR  SIR.  9th  May 

The  Colonel  kept  his  note  open  for  me  to  add  this,  this  morning.  Colonej 
Airey  has  just  been  in  town  a  fortnight,  and  has  not  yet  made  his  appearance 
and  I  conclude  never  will.  I  cannot  say  that  I  was  not  a  little  surprised  at 
you  and  Col.  Airey  making  it  up  so  amicably — but  I  am  very  glad  of  it,  for 
with  your  aid  there  is  still  a  chance  of  keeping  the  old  place  in  the  hands  of 

*Col.  Talbot's  sister  Barbara. 


APPENDICES.  375 

respectable  people.  Yet  at  first  sight  it  looked  very  much  like  going  over  to 
the  Enemy.  London  goes  on  as  usual.  Not  the  slightest  difference  that  I 
can  see  only  a  few  more  bearded  faces.  I've  only  been  in  the  glass  palace 

once — the  price  being  still  5/.     I  intend  to  wait The  Colonel  is 

fully  bent  on  going  to  Canada  -when  I  cannot  tell  you. 


MISCELLANEOUS. 

III. — Resolutions  to  be  proposed  by  Mr.  Ermatinger  (in  Legislative 
Assembly)  on  Wednesday,  2jrd  June,   184*7. 

1.  Resolved, — That  this  House  views  with  apprehension  the  difficult  situation 
in  which  the  Trade  and  Commerce  of  this  Province  will  be  placed  by  the 
policy  of  the  Imperial  Government  in  withdrawing  from  the  productive  labour 
of  its  inhabitants,  prospectively,  all  protection  ;  thereby  exposing  our  Agri- 
culturists to  an  unequal  competition  with  the  United   States   in   the   staple 
articles  of  our  trade. 

2.  Resolved, — That  this  abandonment  of  the  protective  policy  of  England 
towards  her  Colonies  in  general,  and  this  Colony  in  particular,  cannot,  in  the 
opinion  of  this  House,  operate  otherwise  than   injuriously  on  the  Trade  and 
prosperity  thereof;  affording  at  the  same  time  no  corresponding  benefit  to  our 
fellow  subjects  in  Great  Britain. 

3.  Retolved, — That  the  construction  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  other  costly 
Canals,  for  which  Canada  obtained  a  loan,  guaranteed  by  the  British  Govern- 
ment,  of  more  than   £1,500,000  Sterling,  was  undertaken  in  the   confident 
expectation  that  we  should  continue  to  enjoy  in  the  British  Markets,  a  pre- 
ference for  our  Products,  over  those  of  Foreign  Nations. 

4.  Resolved, — That  one  great  advantage  expected  to  be  derived  from  the 
large     expenditure     incurred   in   constructing   these    Canals   was,    that   the 
facilities  thus  afforded  would  enable  us  to  acquire  a  great  portion  of  the 
Carrying  Trade  of  the  Western  States  of  America,   but  that  this  advantage 
would  be  entirely  surrendered  to  an  enterprising  rival  nation,  by  the  adoption 
of  such  a  change  in  the  Imperial  Navigation  Laws,  as  would  render  the  free 
navigation  of  the  St.  Lawrence  a  matter  of  necessity. 

5.  Resolved, — That  this  Province  contains  the  elements  for  carrying  on  an 
extended  and  prosperous  trade,  if  based  upon  the  industry  of  its  inhabitants  ; 
the  fertility  of  its  soil,  the  immensity  of  its  forests,  and  the  great  extent  of  its 
inland    navigation,    all    concur   in  pointing  out  Canada  as  one  of  the    most 
valuable  appendages  of  the  British  Crown  ;  susceptible  of  affording  profitable 
employment   to   a   very  large  portion  of  the  redundant     population  of  the 


376  THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 

Mother  Country,  of  furnishing1  the  means  of  Ship-building  to  an  unlimited 
extent,  and  of  carrying  on  a  valuable  trade  through  its  internal  navigation  ; 
but  that  the  extension  of  the  principles  of  free  trade  would,  in  the  opinion  of 
this  House,  tend  to  divert  the  Commerce  of  this  Province  to  the  United 
States,  and  ultimately  endanger  its  connexion  with  the  British  Crown. 

6.  Resolved, — That  this  House  duly  appreciates  the  Act  of  the    Imperial 
Government,  gth  and  roth  Victoria,  chapter  94,  conferring  upon  this  Colony, 
with  other  British  Possessions,  the  power  to  reduce  or  repeal  certain  Duties 
of  Customs,   but  is  nevertheless  of  opinion  that  it  is  the  interest  of  every 
Colony  to  cultivate  commercial  intercourse  with  the  Parent  State,  and  that  a 
total  equalization  of  duties  would  be  at  variance  with  this  principle. 

7.  Resolved^ — That  this  House  heartily  concurs  in  the  expression  contained 
in  the  nth  paragraph  of  a  Protest  made  in  the  British  House  of  Peers  on  the 
third  reading  of  the  Bill  for  the  repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws,  which,  together 
with  the  Address  of  this  House,  at  its  last  Session,  on  the  subject  of  Wheat 
and  Flour,  fully  embraces  and  ably  advocates  the  views  now  entertained  by 
this  House  on  this  subject  : — "  n.  Because  the  removal  of  differential  duties 
"  in  favour  of  Canadian  Corn  is  at  variance  with  the  Legislative  encourage- 
"ment  held  out  to  that  Colony  by  Parliament,   on  the  faith  of  which  the 
"Colonists  have  laid  out  large  sums  on  the  improvement  of  their  internal 
"  navigation  ;  and  because  the  removal  of  protection  will  divert  the  traffic  of 
"the  interior  from  the  St.   Lawrence  and  the  British  Ports  of  Montreal  and 
"  Quebec,   to  the  Foreign  Port  of  New  York  ;  thus  throwing  out  of  employ- 
"  ment  a  large  amount  of  British  Shipping,  severing  the  Commercial  interests 
"  of  Canada  from  those  of  the  Parent  Country,  and  connecting  those  interest* 
"most  intimately  with  the  United  States  of  America." 

8.  Resolved, — That  the  substance  of  the  foregoing  Resolutions  be  embodied 
in  an  Address  to  Her  Majesty. 


Commissioners  of  the  Peace  for  the  London  District — 

James  Mitchell,  Joseph  Ryerson,  Thomas  Bowlby,  Mahlon  Burwell,  G.  C. 
Salmon,  James  Hamilton,  James  Graham,  James  Racey,  Leslie  Patterson,  Ira 
Schofield,  Henry  Warren,  John  Bostwick,  John  Hatch,  Solomon  Lossing,  J. 
W.  Powell,  William  Wilson,  Andrew  Dobie,  E.  A.  Talbot,  Duncan  McKenzie, 
Henry  White,  James  McKenlay,  Isaac  Draper,  Jacob  Potts,  J.  Kirkpatrick, 
Duncan  Campbell,  Henry  Carroll,  John  Waddell,  Gilbert  Wrong,  Samuel 
Edison,  John  McDonald,  Duncan  Warren,  William  Robinson,  John  G.  Losee, 
John  Burdick,  John  Scatcherd,  Benjamin  Wilson,  Charles  Prior,  John  Brew- 
ster,  Peter  Hamilton,  Colin  McNelledge,  Captain  A.  Drew,  Major  J.  Berwick, 
James  Hutton,  Peter  Carroll,  James  Ingersoll,  John  Burwell,  Robert  Grey 
Kirkland,  Alexander  Richardson,  Roswell  Mount,  Joseph  B.  Clench,  James 


APPENDICES.  377 

Nevills,  Samuel  Eccles,  William  Young,  Colonel  Alexander  Whaley  Light, 
John  Warren,  Captain  R.  Dunlop,  Edward  Buller,  Captain  Philip  Graham, 
Christopher  Beer,  Thomas  Radcliffe,  Edward  Ermatinger,  J.  Crysler,  John 
McFarlane.  Captain  Robert  Johns»n,  Eliakim  Malcolm,  Benjamin  Springer, 
John  Boyce,  William  Gordon,  John  Philip  Currain,  Walter  McKenzie,  Henry 
Allison,  R.  Noble  Starr.  Omitted  in  first  list  by  mistake  —  Hon.  Thomas 
Talbot,  Peter  Teeple  (Oxford),  Francis  L.  Walsh  (Vittoria),  William  Wilson 
(Woodhouse.) 

Appointed  in  1833 — Bela  Brewster  Brigham,  John  O'Neil. 


Teachers  of  Western  District  Grammar  School  at  Sandwich  :* 

Mr.  William  Merrill,  Rev'd  Alexander  Mclntosh,  Mr.  Alexander  Pringl«, 
Mr.  David  Robertson  (1824  to  1828),  Mr.  William  Johnson  (1828  to  1840) 
Albert  P.  Salter  (from  1841  to  1846). 


School  Inspectors  or  Superintendents  under  Act  of  1841  for 
Western  District* 

Charles  Elliott,  Judge  W.  D.  Court,  1842  to  1844. 
George  Duck  Jr.  1844  to  1847. 

Rob«rt  Reynolds  1847  to  1849. 


fudges  of  Western  District  Court ,  with  dates  of  appointment.* 

Thomas  Harffy,  9  July,  1794. 

Prideaux  Selby,  i  January,  1800. 

Robert  Richardson,  12  June,  1807. 

William  Berczy,  5  April,  1826. 

Charles  Eliot,  30  November,  1832. 

Alexander  Chewett,  26  May,  1845. 

Surrogate  Judges,    Western  District.* 

Hon.  James  Baby,  1793  or  4. 

Walter  Roe,  1796. 

Richard  Pollard  1801. 

William  Hands,  1824. 

John  Alexander  Wilkinson,  1836. 

*The  corresponding   officials  for  the   London   district   have   appeared   in 
former  pages. 


INDEX  OF   NAMES. 


The  Appendices  are  not  indexed,  but  names  contained  in  them  may  readily 
be  found  under  their  appropriate  headings.  Colonel  Thomas  Talbot's  name 
appears  so  constantly  throughout  the  book  that  it  is  unnecessary  to  include  it 
in  the  Index. 


Ackland,  Judge,  144-6. 

Ackland,  Gideon,  147,  226. 

Acklyn,  Squire,   226. 

Adams,  Edward,  244-6. 

Adams,  family,  264. 

Airey,  Sir  George,  7,  232. 

Airey,  Richard,  (Col.)  (Lord),   154- 

5-7-9,  161,  177,  222,  231-2,  291-2, 

293-4-6-7. 
Airey,    Julius,    159,    161,    211,    222, 

291. 
Airey,    Mrs.,     (afterwards    Lady), 

292-4-5. 

Alexander,  Mr.,  158. 
Alexander,  John,  287. 
Allen,  Judge,  243. 
Allen,  Rev.  D.,  276. 
Allen,  Thomas,  279. 
Allworth,  A.  J.,  232-4-6-7. 
Allworth,  Rev.W.  H.,  281. 
Anderson,  David,  212. 
Anderson,  Dr.,  244-7-8. 
Andrews,  Richard,  259,  282,  287. 
Angus  &  Birrell,  244. 
Anne,  schooner,  209-11-12-13. 
Applegarth,  Mr.,  121. 
Arkell,  family,  170-2. 
Arkell,  William,  172,  257. 
Arkell,  Thomas,  172,  234,  287. 
Armand,  de  la  Richardie,  Rev.,  274. 
Armstrong,  A.  S.,  248. 


Arthur,  Sir  George,  229. 

Askin,  Col.  J.  B.,  124,   144-5-6,  163, 

173,  203,  214,  243-8,  299. 
Askin,  John  H.  L.,  146. 
Askins,  The,  149. 
Ault,  John,  263. 
Aylmer,  Lord,  159,  232,  261. 

Baby,  — .,  18,  34,  51,  74,  161,  227, 

'5'- 

Baby,  Hon.  James,   151,  161. 
Baby,  F.  and  C.,  221. 
Baby,  W.  L.,  157,  213. 
Backhouse,  Col.  and  family,  60,  80, 

84,  122,  260. 

Backus,  Stephen,  37,  270,  185. 
Backus's,  107. 
Bagot,  Sir  Charles,  247-8. 
Baker,  220,  261. 
Baker,  Elder,  281. 
Baldwin,  Dr.  W.  W.,   45,   112,   192, 

aoi. 
Baldwin,    Hon.,    Robt.,    112,   192-3- 

6-9,  20 1,  240-8 
Balkwill,  John,  246,  250-1. 
Ball,  211. 
Bannerman,  99. 

Bannerman,  Sir  George,    116,  298. 
Barber,  John,  37,  256,  284,  302-3. 
Barclay,  Capt.,  58,  61,  66. 
Barnes,  Jonas,  119,  238. 


380 


THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 


Barto,  85. 

Barwick,  Major,  146,  228. 

Barwick,  Hugh,  146,  208. 

Basden,  Capt.,  72. 

Bate,  N.  W.,  240. 

Bathurst,  Earl,  92-4-5,  105. 

Battersby,  Lieut.,  208. 

Bayley,  Rev.  B.,  286. 

Bazley,  85. 

Beals,  Major,  228. 

Beauprie,  John,  236. 

Becher,  H .  C.  R.,  146,  226, 148,  299. 

Bedford,  227. 

Beemer,  John,  122. 

Bell,  Mr.,  73. 

Bell,  Capt.,  321. 

Belton,  Rev.  S.,  278. 

Benedicts,  256. 

Benners,  260. 

Bennett,  Holton,  251,  278. 

Berdans,  257. 

Berett,  Rev.  T.,  299. 

Best,  256,  263. 

Bidwell,  Mr.,  198,  200. 

Bierce,  220. 

Bigelow,  120,  237. 

Bird,  37,  45. 

Birrell  &  Co.,  244-9. 

Black,  Mr.,  106. 

Blackburn,  Josiah,  242. 

Blackhouse,  Capt.,  60. 

Blackwood,  James,  234-5,   251,  298. 

Blackwood,    Andrew   and    Robert, 

234,  257. 
Blake,   Rev.   D.  E.,  Hons.  W.  H., 

Edw.  and  S.  H.,  140,  289. 
Blue,  John,  295. 
Blue,  Archibald,  265. 
Bonnell,  Mr.,  77. 
Borbridge,  263. 
Bostwick,  Henry,  212. 
Bostwick,  Rev.  Gideon,  36. 
Bostwick,  Col.   John,   36-7,   53-5-6, 


69,  74-8,  82-3-4,  1 06,  114,  137, 
144,  171-2,  203,  224,  228,  258,  270. 

Bostwick,  John,  Jr.,  212. 

Bostwick,  Misses,  290. 

Boswell,  Rev.  E.  J.,  140. 

Boughner,  John,  257. 

Boughners,  257. 

Boulton,  James,  145. 

Boulton,  H.  J.,  193. 

Bowen,  Major,  69. 

Bowes,  262. 

Bowlby's,  257. 

Bowman,  Dr.  D.  J.,  175. 

Bowyer,  Rev.  R.  C.,  27. 

Boyd,  Elder,  282. 

Boyer,  Rev.  R.  C.,  273. 

Bradley,  Colonel,  214,  219. 

Brant,  Joseph,  12,  16,  17,  20. 

Bray,  Elder,  28*. 

Brebeuf,  2. 

Breen,  Lieut.,  208. 

Breffney,  7. 

Brigham,  B.  B.,  37,  45,  51,  74,  176. 

Brock,  Sir  Isaac,  47,  50-55,  66-7-9, 
70-1,  96-7,  151,  189,  228,  274. 

Broderick,  Capt.,  222. 

Brooks,  Thos.,  121. 

Brough,  Rev.  C.  C.,  273. 

Brough,  family,  289. 

Brown,  John,  12. 

Brown,  General,  84. 

Brown,  Hon.  George,  252. 

Brown,  Gordon,  242. 

Brown,  Dugald,  257. 

Brown,  Rev.  Charles,  273. 

Browne,  Capt.,  214,  216,  217. 

Bruce,  Dr.,  195. 

Buchanan,  Mr.,  106. 

Buchanan,  Hon.  Isaac,  233. 

Buchanan,  Isaac,  (N.  Yarm'th),  228. 

Buchanans,   259. 

Buckingham,  Marquis  of,  8. 

Bullens,  289. 

Bullock,  Lieut.,  64. 


INDEX   OF   NAMES. 


381 


Bostwick,  Gideon,  144. 

Burdick,  77,  84. 

Burdick,  Freedom,'  77,  84. 

Burke,  Rev.  Father,  275. 

Burleigh,  148. 

Burnham,  Rev.  Mark,  133-4-5-6-7, 
273-4,  280. 

Burnham,  Hon.  Z.,  136. 

Burwell,  Col.  Mahlon  and  family, 
38,  67-8,  74-6-7,  96-7,  1 06,  iio-n, 
113  to  116, 121-3,  134-8,  144-7,  iS*. 
160,  174,  189,  193-6,  225,  246, 
256,  271,  284-8-9,  293-4,  301- 

Burwell,  John,  176,  204. 

Burwell,  James,  256. 

Burwell,  Samuel,  256,  298. 

Bury,  Wm.,  265. 

Busbee,  Mr.,  286. 

Buscerk,  Mr.,  227. 

Butler,  Lt.  Col.,  74. 

Butlers,  275. 

Caddy,  John  H.,  251 
Cadillac,  3. 
Call,  Enos,  170,  279. 
Caldwell,  Capt.,  85. 
Cameron,  Ewen,  257,  284. 

Campbell,  ,  257,  284. 

Campbell,  Dugald,  99. 
Campbell,  Sir  Alex.,  244. 
Campbell,  Elder  D.,  282. 
Campbell,  Colonel,  79,  81. 
Campbell,  Miss,  290. 

Campeau, ,  274. 

Campion,  Rev.  Jas.  W.,  274. 
Carfrae,  Robt.,  139,  149. 
Carling,  Thomas,  121. 
Carling,  Sir  John,  121-2. 
Caroline,  steamer,  202-7-8,  20. 
Carpenter,  36. 
Carroll,  Abraham,  139. 
Carroll,  Capt.,  77. 
Carroll,  Peter,  152. 
Carroll,  Rev.  Father,  276. 


Cascaddens,  261. 

Casey,  Geo.  E.,  256. 

Cassick,  Thos.,  246. 

Caughell,  John,  260. 

Caughell,  David,  289. 

Caughell,  family,  290. 

Caulfield,  Rev.  St.  Geo.,  274. 

Chadwick,  Mr.,  134. 

Chambers,  Capt.,  51-4,  66-9,  84. 

Champlain,  2. 

Charlevoix,  3,  15,  24,  183. 

Charltons,  163. 

Charmonel,  Bishop,  276. 

Chase,  206,  212. 

Chaumonot,  2. 

Cheeseman,  Adjt.,  221. 

Chisholm,  Dr.,  138,  147. 

Chisholm,  Lawrason,  244. 

Chrysler.  James,  175,  226,  258. 

Chute,  Elder,  282. 

Chutes,  260. 

Clarence,  Duke  of,  23. 

Claris,  Geo.  T.,  203-4. 

Claris,  John,  249. 

Clarke,  Albert,  227. 

Clarke,  Rev.  W.  F.,  281. 

Clench,  Joseph  B.,  243. 

Cleverly,  Fred,  146,  ao8. 

Cline,  Jacob,  263. 

Clines,  263. 

Clunas,  263. 

Colborne,  Sir  John,  96-8.   112,   159, 

1 63-4- 7,  176,  191-2-3. 
Coleman,  Capt.,  72. 
Collins,  Sergeant,  85. 
Collins,  C.,  220. 
Collins,  H.  E.,  279. 
Collins,  190-1. 
Coltman,  Widow,  145. 
Colton,  R.,  269. 
Comfort,  Stephen,  235. 
Comfort,  Hiram,  235. 
Cooper,  Sir  Astley,  112. 
Corbett,  82. 


382 


THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 


Cornishes,  The,  149. 

Cornish,  W.  K.,  144-5,  246- 

Cornish,  Frank,  145. 

Couche,  Dep.  Com.  Gen'l,  69. 

Cowley,  Miss,  173. 

Cowley,  Joseph,  242. 

Coyne,  Henry,  100-6,  285. 

Coyne,  William,  234,  252,  280. 

Coyne,  James,  234,  280. 

Craddock,  Miss,  173. 

Craig,  249. 

Crandell,  Elder,  281. 

Crandell,  Jeremy,  302. 

Crane,  George,  36,  306. 

Crane,  Anthony,  36. 

Crane,  Mr.  and  Mrs  ,  287. 

Crawdon,  Wm.,  280. 

Crawford,  Mr.,  134. 

Crinnon,  Rev.  Father,  276. 

Cronyn,    Bishop,     140-1-2-3-9,    159, 

271-3,  290. 

Cronyn,  Verschoyle,  142,  251. 
Crooks,  Hon.  James,  294. 
Crossetts,  263. 
Crouse,  Dr.,  175. 
Cruikshank,  Mr.,  141. 
Crutchley,  General,  293. 
Cullen,  Rev.  John,  275. 
Cumberland,  Duke  of,  23-5-6-7-9,  33 
Cunningham,  C.,  227. 
Curran,  Col.,  140-2. 
Curran,  J.  P.,  146. 
Currie,   157. 

Curtis,  J.  Thomas,  120,  279,  280. 
Curtis,  Capt.,  77. 

Dalzell,  Col.,  144. 
Darling,  149. 
Davidson,  John,  227. 
Davis,  238. 
Davis,  Capt.  R.,  213. 
Davis,  John,  273. 
Decow,  Jacob,  257. 
Defields,  Joseph,  262. 


DeLaroche,  Daillon,  2. 

Delaware  Castle,  17. 

Dewar,  Thos.,  99. 

Dickson,  83. 

Dingman,  148. 

Dixon,  Capt.,  55. 

Dixon,  John,  82-7. 

Dixon,  T.  C.,  246-9,  252. 

Doan,  J.,  227. 

Doan,  J.  G.  and  wife,  227-8. 

Dobbie,  G.  and  A.,  263. 

Dockstader,  83. 

Dodd,  John,  237. 

Dodd,  James,  279,  280. 

Dodge,  Colonel,  213. 

Dollier  de  Casson,  3. 

Dolsens,  36. 

Dolsen,  J.  and  M.,  17. 

Donnelly,  Dr.,  147,  156. 

Doolittles,  260. 

Dorchester,  Lord,  13,  59. 

Dougall,  James,  221. 

Dougall,  J.  J.,  224. 

Douglas,  Sergeant,  72. 

Douglas,  John,  99. 

Douglas  and  Warren,  244. 

Dowland,  Sergeant,  77. 

Downie,  Rev.  Father,  141,  275. 

Drake,  Roderick,  72. 

Drake,  Wm.,  83,  279,  280. 

Drake,  Benj.,  119,  254-5. 

Drake,  Richard,  120. 

Drake,  Daniel,  120,  287. 

Drake,  James  W.,  287. 

Draper,  Hon.  W.  H.,  248. 

Drew,  Capt.,  207-8. 

Drummond,  Gen'l  Sir  G.,  70-2-5-6-9, 

80-1-2. 

Drummond,  Alex.,  147. 
Du  L'hut,  3. 
Duck,  211,  220. 
Duggan,  John,  248. 
Duncombe,  Dr.  C.  and  family,    113, 

120,  173,  1 88,  194-5-6,  202  to  207, 

225-6-8-9,  259. 


INDEX  OF   NAMES. 


383 


Buncombe,  Dr.  E.  and  family,   120, 

149.  X7S»  i94»  207,  234-6. 
Duncombe,  David,  194. 
Dunlop,  Dr.,  93,  304-9-10. 
Dunn,  Hon.  Mr.,  199. 
Durfee,  208. 
Durrant,  Rev.  J.,  281. 
Dyer,  Miss,  286. 

Eastabrook,  Joseph,  152. 

Eastwood,  Elder,  281-2. 

Eberts,  Capt.,  267. 

Ebbs,  Rev.  E.,  281. 

Eccles,    S.  and  family,   170-1-2-3-4, 

289. 

Edison,  Thos.  A.,  262. 
Edison,  Samuel,  263. 
Edmonds,  Miss,  290. 
Edmondson.  John,  280. 
Edward,    Duke    of  Kent,    10,    13, 

27-8-9. 

Edward,  Mr.,  139. 
Edwards,  Mor'v'n  M.,  17,  282. 
Elgin,  Lord,  248,  251-2. 
Ellesmere,  Lady,  12. 
Elliott,  Colonel,  56,  214. 
Elliott,  Capt.,  221. 
Elliott,  Judge  Wm.,  243,  290. 
Elliott,  George,  256. 
Elliott,  Rev.  F.  Gore,  273. 
Ellison,  J.,  R.  and  F.,  259. 
Ermatinger,    E.   and   F.,    117,    133, 

164,     171,      206-10-12-26-34-41-58, 

304-16. 
Ermatinger,  Capt.  and  family,  210- 

214-16-18. 
Evans,  Wm.,   121. 
Evans,  Sirde  Lacy,  210. 
Evans,  Rev.  F.,  273. 
Ewart,  John,  139. 

Farlane,  J.  M.,  285. 
Farley,  Ann,  147. 


Farley,  James,  246-8. 
Farnham,  235-6. 
Ferguson,  257-9. 
Ferguson,  Rev.  Geo.,  278. 
Ferrin,  Samuel,  280. 
Finch's  Mills,  79. 
Finlay,  J.  P.,  257. 
Finlay,  Philip,  257. 
Finnis,    Capt.,  58. 
Fisher's  Glen,  80. 
Fitzgerald,  Capt.,  16. 
Fitzgerald,  Mr.,  134. 
Fitzgibbon,  Colonel,  201. 
Fleming,  James,  36,  83,  308. 
Flood,  Rev.  R.,  258,  273,  289. 

Flood,  John,  273. 

Forbes,  Alex.,  99. 

Ford,  Thomas,  99. 

Forsyth,  191. 

Foster,  Geo.,  121. 

Fowler,  Levi,  256-7. 

Francis,  Capt.  83. 

Franklin,  Dr.,  157. 

Franklins,  262. 

Fraser,  Simon,  59. 

Fraser,  Mr.,  158. 

Fraser,  Rev.  W.,  276. 

Fraser,  Rev.  John,  277,  288. 

Freeman,  187. 

French,  290. 

Fullerton,  Mathews,  263. 

Galbraith,  157. 

Galbraith,  Walter,  75. 

Galinee,  3. 

Ganson,  Elisha  S.,  255. 

Gardiner,  Thomas,  100,  285 

Gardiner.  Singleton,  100. 

Gardner,  Lieut.,  63. 

Garnsey,  Samuel,  256. 

Garrett,  212. 

Geary,  Wm.,  139. 

Geeris,  Wm.,  121. 

George  III.,  19,  23,  28,  59,  315. 


384 


THE  TALBOT  REGIME. 


George  IV.,  192. 

Georgina,   19. 

Gibbins,  Mr.,  250. 

Gibbons,  James,  262. 

Gilbert,  R.  and  sons,  259,  289. 

Gilbert,  Ira,  256. 

Gilbert,  David,  257. 

Gilbert,  Dr.,  175. 

Gillies,  Archibald,  99,  102-3. 

Gillies,  John,  99,  103. 

Givens,  Colonel,  16,  19,  56. 

Girens,  James,  Judge,  147,  248,  289. 

Glasgow,  Capt.,  214-15. 

Glasgow,  126. 

Glass,  Sheriff,  286. 

Glegg,  Major,  55-6-9. 

Glenelg,  Lord,  196-8,  200. 

Goderich,  Lord,  192-3. 

Going,  Dr.  H.,  244. 

Goodhue,   Hon.   G.  J.,   120,   138-9, 

148-9,  246-7,  252,  299. 
Goodhue,  Dr.  J.  C.,   120,   139,  175, 

301. 

Gooding,  Charles,  121. 
Gordon,  Capt.,  208. 
Gore,    F.,    Lieut.  Governor,  44-47, 

91-6-7,  188-9,  i9°»  304- 
Gould,  Anson,  235. 
Gourlay,  Robt.,  190. 
Gowan,  O.  R.,  280. 
Graham,   157. 
Grame,  Lieut.,  73. 
Grant,  Chas.,  Sr.,  220. 
Grant,  Commodore,  188. 
Granville,  Lord,  32. 
Gray,  Lieut.,  16. 
Green,  80,  288. 
Grey,  John,  121,  350. 
Grey,  John,  Jr.,  121. 
Grey,  Foilet,  121. 
Grey,  Lord,  155. 
Griffin,  Edw.,  203-4. 
Griffin,  Sanders,  203-4. 
Griffin,  Gilbert,  292. 


Griffon,  The,  3. 
Grogan,  Capt.,   145. 
Groves,  Constable,  148. 
Guernsey,  23. 
Guest,  Thomas,  121. 
Gumes,  John,  121. 
Gunn,  Geo.,  99. 
Gunn,  W.  &  Co.,  244. 
Gunne,  Rev.  John,  273. 
Gunns,  263. 
Gzowski,  Sir  Casimir,  236. 

Haekstaff,  C.  H.,  242. 

Hagerman,  Solicitor-General,  193. 

Haggert,  Neil,  99. 

Haight,  235,  175. 

Haleys,  263. 

Hall,  77,  264. 

Halton,  Major,  46,  66,  109. 

Hambly,  Mr.,  37. 

Hamilton,  Lieut.-Col.,  76. 

Hamilton  &  Warren,    120-21,    134, 
174,  234,  258. 

Hamilton,  James,   120-23,  234»  248> 

255>  *99- 

Hamilton,  Hon.  John,  120,  286. 
Hamilton,  Henry,  149,  246. 
Hamilton,  Rev.  John,  278. 
Hamiltons,   257. 
Hancks,  Lieut.,  55. 
Handy,  General  H.  S.,  209,  220. 
Hanover,  King  of,  24-29. 
Hannah,  Wm.,  284. 
Hanvey,  Daniel,  175. 
Hardinge,  Lord/296. 
Hardy,  Joseph,   121. 
Harris,  146-9,  257. 
Harris,  John,  124,  144-5,  2°8>  243~4» 

291-2-5. 
Harris,    Mrs.    Amelia,  66,    79,    131, 

144,  291-2-5. 
Harris,  Sarah  B.,   144. 
Harris,  Helen  V.,   144-5. 
Harris,  Eliza,  292. 


INDEX  OF  NAMES 


385 


Harris,  Elder,  281. 

Harrison,    General,   57-8,   61-4,  74, 

223,  282. 

Harrison,  William,  227. 
Haskett,  William,  121. 
Hatches,  262. 
Hatt,  52. 

Hawkesworth,  263. 
Hay,  Mr.,  Sec.  95. 
Head,  Sir  F.  B.,  143,  196  to  201, 

229. 

Hennepin,  3. 
Henry,  Chas.,  138, 
Henry,  George,  276. 
Hess,  John,  260. 
Heward,  52,  56. 
Hickie,  Rev.  John,  273. 
"Hickory,  Colonel,"  158,   168,  255. 
Highs,  262. 

Hincks,  Sir  F.,   112,  241. 
Hitchcock,  206. 
Hobart,  Lord,     28-9,    30-2-3-4,    88, 

92,  104,  265,  313. 
Hobson,  Rev.  W.  H.,  273. 
Hodge,  Thomas,  234,  239. 
Hodgkinson,  Mr.,  147,  176,  220. 
Hodgkinson,  George,   163. 
Hodgkinson,  T.,  242. 
Hodgkinson,  B.,  242,  254. 
Holland,  Rev.  H.,  273,  299. 
Hollywood,  263. 
Holmes,  Capt.,  72-3. 
Holmes,  Samuel,  218. 
Holmes,  Marcus,  246. 
Holmes,  Major,  250. 
Hope,  Hon.  Adam,  233,  240. 
Hope  and  Hodge,  234,  239. 
Hope,  Birrell  &  Co.,  244. 
Hope,  Charles,  245. 
Hopkins,  Elder,  282. 
Horner,  Thos.,  38,  194. 
Horton,  William,  243-4. 
Horton,  Edward,  243-4,  298. 
Hortons,  257. 


Handley,  Major,  219. 

House,  262. 

Hovey,  M.,  126. 

Howard,  Thos.,  121. 

Howey,  Thos.,  121. 

Howey,  James,   121. 

Harrison,  Dr.,  132,  186,  269. 

Hughes,   Judge  D.  J.,    145-9,  22O> 

246,  252. 
Hull,   General,    49,   52-3-5,    68,    71, 

86,  213,  223. 
Hume,  Joseph,  196-7-8. 
Hume,  Dr.,  221. 
Hunter,  Lieut.  General,  33,   188. 
Hunter,  Jeffry,  158,  184,  231,  297-9, 

301-2-3-5-6-8-9-10. 
Hunter,  Mrs.,  297-9. 
Hutchisons,  261. 
Hyman,  E.  W.,  246. 

Ingersoll,  Chas.,  80,  123. 
Ingersoll,  James,  228. 
Innes,  Sir  James,  116,  234. 

Jackson,  Rev.  J.,  278. 

James,  C.  C.,  61. 

Jameson,  Vice-Chancellor,  178. 

Jameson,  Mrs.,  131,  178  to  188,  231,. 

273.  289,311. 

Jamieson,  Rev.  Andrew,  273. 
Jannette,  F. ,  221. 
Jenkins,  Thos.,   263. 
Jennings,  John,  138. 
Johnson,  Sir  Wm.,    12. 
Johnston.  Capt.,  73. 
Johnston,  Mr.,  156. 
Joliet,  3. 

Jones,  Stuart,  145. 
Jones,  Capt.,  224. 
Jung,  Michael,  282. 

Kains,  W.  K.,  234. 
Kaye,  O.  C.,  Lister  7. 
Kearney,  L.  C.,  12,  240,  254. 


THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 


Keir,  A.  and  T.,  248. 

Kempt,  Sir  James,  154. 

Kent,  Duke  of,  10,  23,  27-8-9. 

Kents,  149. 

Kent  &  Southwick,  234. 

Kerr,  John,  99. 

Kerr,  Thos.,  147. 

Kerr,  Capt.,  203. 

Kerr,  Geo.,  203,  219,  220. 

Keys,  Robt.,  121. 

Killaly,  Hon.  H.   H.,   242-6-7-8-251. 

Kilsall,  Lieut.,  214. 

Kingsford,  213,  219. 

Knights,  257. 

Labatt,  Mr.,  173. 

Labatt,  family,  289. 

Labouchere,  Mr.,  185. 

Ladd,  Alvro,  285. 

Ladd,  Lemuel,  285. 

Ladd,  Phural,  285. 

Lafontaine,  248. 

Laing,  Joseph,  235. 

Lampman,  Peter,  220. 

Lampman,  Rev.  A.,  273. 

Landon,  Elder,  281. 

Lanes,  261. 

Langan,  E.,  237-8. 

Lapenotiere,   Mr.,  208. 

LaSalle,  3. 

Lawless,  L.,  148. 

Lawrason,  L.,  148,  228,  8,  252,  299. 

Lawrason  &  Chisholm,  244. 

Lawrence,  Geo.,  120. 

Lawton,  Geo.,  228,  249. 

Learn, Jesse,  204. 

Lee,  Dr.,  no,  147. 

Lee,  Hiram  D.,  246. 

Lee,  James,  287. 

Lees,  The,  149,  251. 

Lefroy,  Capt,,  292-3. 

Leitch,  99. 

Leonard,  Hon.  E.,  224-5-6,  244-5, 

Leonard,  family,  225. 


Lennox,  Lady  Sarah,  189. 

Leslie,  Capt.,  221. 

Leslie,  John,  289. 

Lewis,  Capt.,  220-1. 

John  Lewis.  289. 

Lewis,  Frank,  121. 

Lewis,  Benjamin,  121. 

Lewis,  A.  B.,    163. 

Lewis,  Barnabas,  and  sons,  163. 

Light,  W.  S.,  146-208. 

Lindop,  T.  L.,  175. 

Lindsay,  Lieut. -Col.,  22. 

Lindsay,  Chas.,  219. 

Lister,  Kaye,  7. 

Little,  Col.,  267. 

Littlehales,  Sir  E.  B.,  16-17-18-19-20. 

Livingstone,  Samuel,  263. 

Livingstone,  Wm.,  264,  289. 

Lock,  Wm.  H.,  280. 

Locker,  Thomas,  255. 

Loder's,  155,  176. 

Long.  Marshal,  84. 

Long,  Mr.,  135. 

Lount,  201-3. 

Love,  Col.,  220. 

Love,  Alex.,  233-277. 

Lowe,  Miss,  290. 

Luke,  173. 

Lyman,  Moore  &  Co.,  244. 

Lynn,  227. 

Lyon,  W.  B. ,  203. 

Lyon,  Nathan,  261. 

Mabee,  Simon,  83. 

Mack,  Rev.  F.,  273. 

Maitland,    Sir    P.,    94,     151,     189, 

190-1-2. 

Maitland,  Lady  Sarah,   151,  189. 
Maitland,   Colonel,    177,    214-15-16, 

220. 

Malcolm,  84-5-6. 
Malcolm,  Eliakim,  204. 
Mallory,  Benajah,  82-6,  in. 
Mallory,  Captain,  226. 


INDEX  OF  NAMES. 


387 


Mandeville,  David,  37,  120,  172. 

Markle,  A.,  80. 

Marlatt,  Daniel,  203. 

Marlatt,  John,  260. 

Marrs,  260. 

Marr,  David,  204. 

Marsh,  Elder,  282. 

Martin,  Wm.,  174. 

Mathews,  Thos.,  75. 

Mathews,  Capt.,   111-14-15-16,   123, 

190-1. 

Mathews,  Edw.,  246. 
Mathews,  Mr.,  252. 
Medcalf,  Lieut.,  76. 
Meeks,  212,  217,  257. 
Menzie,  John,  99,   101. 
Meredith,  J.  W.  C.,  143 
Meredith,  Sir  W.  R.,  143. 
Meredith,  Justice,  143. 
Merrick,  Levi,  139. 
Merril,  Elder,  281. 
Metcalfe,  Lord,  240. 
Millard,  Daniel,  124. 
Millards,  257. 
Miller,  John,  120. 
Miller,  Edwin,  218. 
Miller  &  Kent,  170. 
Mills,  221,  259. 
Miller,  N.  and  Hon.  D.,  265. 
Mills,  Rev.  Father,  275. 
Mills,  Elder,  281. 
Mitchell,   Judge,    124,    144-5,    243, 

285-6. 

Mitchell,  White  &,  237,  275. 
Mitchells,  262. 
Mockeridge,  Rev.  Jas.,  273. 
Moffat,  Mr.,  134. 
Montross,  Silas,  80. 
Mooney,  Wm.,   121. 
Moore,  Elias,  230,  240. 
Moore,  M.  T.,  238. 
Moore,  Dr.,  244. 
Morgan,  H.  J.,  145. 
Morley,  Rev.  Mr.,  273. 


Morrill,  Simeon,  246. 
Morrison,  Dr.,  195,  201. 
Morse,  Corny.,  221. 
Mortimer,  Rev.  A.,  273. 
Mount,  Roswell,  140,  152-6-7. 
Mountain,  Bishop,  275. 
Mountcashel,  Earl  of,  265. 
Mountjoy,  246. 
Muckle,  John,  83. 
Muir,  Major,  84. 

Munro,  George,  99,  100-1-2  3-4. 
Munro,  James,  122. 
Munro,  Sheriff,  257. 
Munroe,  Mr.,   160. 
Murray,  Sir  George,   191. 

McArthur,  General,  81-3-4-5-6. 
Macbeth,  George  and  family,  231-2, 

294-5-6-7-9. 
McCann,  Hugh,  141. 
McCarton,  Thos.,  218. 
McCausland,  A.  and  J.,  260. 
McClary,  John  and  family,  264. 
McColl,  Thos.  and  S.,  99. 
McColl,  Nicoll,  257. 
McColl,  Dugald,  257. 
McComb,  steamer,  209. 
McConnells,  260. 
McConnell,  Shook,  282. 
McCormacks,  216. 
McCormack,  Capt.,  147,  208. 
McCormack,  Wm.,  217. 
McCrea's,  72. 
McDermonds,  260. 
McDermond,  Elder,  280. 
McDiarmid,  Finlay,  40,  99. 
McDonald,  Sir  J.  A.,  244. 
McDonald,  Sandy,  310. 
McDonnell,  John,  45,  52-3-5-6,  274. 
McDonnell,  Bishop,  274-5 
McDougall,  Mr.,  125. 
McDougall,  John,  99,  276 
McDougall,  Colin,  99. 
McEwen,  D.  and  J.,  99. 


388 


THE   TALBOT   REGIME. 


McFadden,  149. 
McFee,  Daniel,  237. 
McGregor,  Gregor.  40,  99. 
McGregor,  Lieut.,  72-3. 
McGregor,  Peter,  138-9. 
McGregor,  Duncan,  201. 
McGugan,  Donald,  99. 
Mclntosh,  Rev.  A.,  139,  140,   270-1- 

2,  287. 

Mclntyre,  Daniel,  257. 
Mclntyre,  Ross  and,  237. 
Mclntyres,  260. 
McKay,  Angus,  99,  276. 
McKay,  John,  233,  255, 
McKay,  William,  233-6,  255. 
McKay,  Mrs.  and  Miss,  237. 
McKeaud  and  Bell,  249. 
McKee,  Colonel,  18,  56. 
McKeon,  Capt.,  219. 
McKellar,  Peter,  99,  101-4-6. 
McKellar,  Sheriff,  99,  101. 
McKellar,  Rev.  D.,  276. 
McKenney,  Doyle,  204. 
McKenney,  Richard,  228. 
McKenzie,   W.  Lyon,   113-14-15-20- 

158,  162-3, 191-2-3-4-6-7-8,  201-2-3- 

7-9- 

McKenzie,  Murdock,    171-2-4,252-4. 
McKenzie,  George,  174,  257. 
McKenzie,  Duncan,  176. 
McKenzie,  the  explorer,  14. 
McKenzie,  Rev.  Donald,  276. 
McKilligan,  Rev.,  233,  276-7. 
McKindley,  James,  99,  276. 
McKinnon,  Rev.,  277. 
McLachlin,  A.,  163. 
McLean,  Alex.,  146. 
McLeod,  "General,"  214-15-19. 
McLeod,  208. 
McLemans,  75. 
McLoughlin,  Michael,  138. 
McLoughlin,  John,  148. 
McManus,  Patrick,  138. 
McMillan,  45. 


McMillan,  Rev.  D.,  276. 
McNab,  Andrew,  106. 
McNab,  Sir  Allan,  203-4-7-8,  220. 
McNaughton,  Donald,  99,  276. 
McNeal,  Archibald,  119,  238,  275 
McNeal,  Hugh,  237,  275. 
McPherson,  126. 
McPherson,  Mrs.,  231. 
McPyerson,  D.  and  H.,  264. 
McPherson,  Rev.  Lachlin,  277. 
McQueen,  Major,  72,  256-7. 

Napier,  Sir  Chas.,  8. 

Neals,  75. 

Neff,  Peter  J.,  263. 

Nelles,  16. 

Nevills,  Major,  72,   no,   153,   172-6, 

203,  220-4,  279»  280. 
Nevills,  Miss,  172. 
Nichol,    Lt.-Col.,   46-8,    50-3-6,   69, 

81,  in. 

Nichol,  George,  84. 
Nichol,  Mrs.  R.  B.,  237. 
Niles,  W.  H.,  242. 
Niles,  Mr.,  252. 
Nixon,  Walter,  139. 
Northumberland,  Duke  of,  47. 
Norvall,  John,  244. 
Notman,  Mr.,  241-9. 

Oakes,  Garrett,  27,  123, 

O'Brien,  Joseph,  121. 

O'Brien,  Dennis,  138,141-9,177,233 

250. 

O'Dwyer,  Rev.  Father,  275. 
O'Flynn,  Rev.  Father,  275. 
O'Neal,  John,  141-4,  176. 
O'Neil,  Wm.,  121. 
Orchards,  257. 

O'Reilly  and  Newcombe,  240. 
O'Reilly,  James,  7. 
Orr,  Major,  208. 
Osgoode,  Chief  Justice,  31. 

Page,  Jesse,  75. 


INDEX  OF  NAMES. 


Palmer,  77. 

Papineau,  197-8,  209. 

Parish,  Thomas,  217-18. 

Parish,  David,  237,  241,  255. 

Parkes,  149. 

Parke,  William,  124. 

Parke,  Thomas,  139,  230,  240-1-4-8. 

Parke,  Samuel,  144. 

Parke,  E.  J.,  244. 

Parkins,  ex-Sheriff,  307. 

Parkinson,  R.,  142. 

Partridge,  Mr.,  298. 

Patterson,  Col.  Leslie,  74-5-6,   106, 

134,  270. 

Paterson  (piper),  103. 
Patterson,  D.,  276. 
Pauls,  235. 

Paul,  Anson,  174,  225. 
Paul,  Eltham,  174. 
Paul  and  Rhykert,  235. 
Payne,  Esau,  203. 
Paynes,  257. 
Peacey,  Wm.,  172-3. 
Pearce,  37,  106-7,  XI9>  27°»  289. 
Penhale,  Richard,  259,  287. 
Penwarden,  177. 
Perley,  A.,  227. 
Perley,  Colonel,  228. 
Perry,  Capt.,  (Commodore)  58,  61. 
Petrie,  Rev.  Geo.,  273. 
Phalen,  John,  121. 
Phillips,  Dr.,  214. 
Phillpot,  257. 
Pickering,  Joseph,  124  to  132,   171, 

231. 

Pickle,  Elder,  281. 
Pollard,  Rev.  R.,  270. 
Pontiac,  18. 
Porter,  Maj.-Gen'l,  82. 
Portland,  Lord,  13. 
Portman,  Hon.  M.  B.,  145. 
Pounds,  261. 

Powell,  Chief  Justice,  89,  90  to  93. 
Prevost,  Sir  Geo.,  50-2-5,  65,  75. 


Price,  Samuel,  172,  258-9. 

Prince,  Col.,  196,  211,  214,  219,  221- 

2-3- 

Pritchards,  263. 
Proctor,  General  H.,  51-6-7-8-9,  60- 

1-2-3-4-5,  7°-4-  82,  223. 
Proctor,  Mrs.,  61-4. 
Proudfoot,  Rev.  W.,  276. 
Purdy,  263. 
Putnams,  73. 
Putnam,  Mr.,  205. 
Pyne,  Rev.  A.,  278. 

Radcliffe,  Colonel,  211-12-13. 

Raglan,  Lord,  296-7. 

Railton,  Geo.,  240. 

Ralph,  Robt.,  121. 

Randolph,  14. 

Randall,  Mr.,  287. 

Rapelje,     Daniel,    37,    75,    77,    86, 

119,  270-5. 
Rapelje,  Mrs.,  86. 
Rapelje,  Sheriff  A.  A.,  144-5-8-9. 
Ratcliff,  140. 
Rathcoffey,  6. 
Read,  Rev.  T.  Bolton,  273. 
Reed,  148. 
Reeks,  220. 
Reid,  James,  141. 
Reiffenstein,  St.  Adjt.,  64. 
Retter,  Mr.,  220. 
Reynolds,  Surgeon,  45. 
Rhykert,  Paul  &,  245. 
Rice,  Moses,  37,  72,  75. 
Richards,  Mr.,  135. 
Richardson,  Jos.  and  T.  B.,  220. 
Richardson,  Richard,  147,  177,  244. 
Richardson,  Hugh,  149. 
Richardson,  Major  J.,  50,  64. 
Richardson,  211 . 
Richmond,  Duke  of,  189. 
Richmond,  Duchess  of,  189. 
Ridout,      Surveyor-General,      96-7, 

115,  r49. 


390 


THE  TALBOT   REGIME. 


Ridout,  George,  200. 

Rider,  99. 

Riley,  Isaac,  203. 

Ritchie,  Rev.  Wm.,  273. 

Rob,  149. 

Roberts,  Lord,  9,  49,  210. 

Roberts,  Capt.,  49,  55,  210. 

Roberts,  Br.  Gen.  E.  J.,  209. 

Robertson,  Alex.,  220,  246. 

Robertson,  Thos.,  149,  220. 

Robinson,    Sir  J.    B.,     52-4-6,     93, 

150-1,  190,   293. 
Robinson,  Sir  F.  B.,  189. 
Robinson,  Hon.  Peter,  54,  106,  121, 

149,    150  to   162,   169,    170,    199, 

234- 

Robinson,  Hon.  John  B.,  151. 
Robinson,  John,  83. 
Robinson,  Malcolm,  99. 
Rodgers,  Peter,  121. 
Roe,  Dr.  J.  Hill,  234. 
Roe,  Charles,  234. 
Roe,  John  A.,  234. 
Roebuck,  198. 
Rogers,  305. 
Roll,  Dr.,  155-6,  234. 
Rolph,  Dr.  Thomas,  54,66-7,  108-9. 
Rolph,  Dr.  John,  54,  67,  108  to  116, 

190-1-2-3-4-9,  201,  207,  292. 
Rolph,  Rev.  Romaine,  108. 
Rolph,  Rev.  Thomas,  108. 
Rolph,  George,  108. 
Rolph,  Sarah,  108. 
Rolph,  Emma,  108,  292. 
Ros,  Lord  de,  296. 
Rose,  Rev.  Samuel,  279. 
Ross  &  Mclntyre,  237. 
Ross,  Rev.,  276. 
Rottenburgh,  Gen.  de,  60,  65. 
Rouse,  Elder,  282. 
Rowland,  Elder  D.  W.,  282. 
Russell,  Prest.  Peter,  188. 
Russell,  Peter,  139,  260. 
Rutledge,  Miss,   122. 


Ryan,  Rev.  T.  D.,  275. 

Ryerse,  Samuel,  79,  122,  144,  292. 

Ryerse,  Mrs.,  79. 

Ryerse  Mills,  79. 

Ryerson,  Col.  Joseph,   37,  48,    53, 

278. 

Ryerson,  George,  53-5-6,  108,  278. 
Ryerson,  Egerton,   197,  278,  290. 
Ryerson,     Rev.    Wm.,    John     and 

Edw.  M.,  278-9. 

Salmon,   Major,  48,  53-6,  69,   81-4, 

108,  291-2. 
Salmon,  Mrs.,  292. 
Salmon,  Judge,  108,   145,  291-2-3. 
Salmon,  Rev.  Geo.,  273,  292. 
Salter,  John,  244. 
Sanders,  Mr.,  296-7. 
Sandys,  Rev.  F.  W.,  273. 
Saxton,  Alex,  and  Wm.,  204. 
Saxton,  John,  260-3. 
Scanlan,  Mrs  ,  238-9. 
Scatchard,  John,  147,  175,  246. 
Scatchard,  Thomas,  148-9,  246. 
Schofields,  149. 
Schofield,  Ira,  148. 
Schooleys,  260. 
Scott,  Chief  Justice,  46,  151. 
Scott,  George,  120. 
Scott,  Mr.  292. 
Scott,  Rev.  John,  276. 
"Scott's"  252. 
Schram,  Peter,  148. 
Seabrooks,  289. 
Seaton,  Lord,  192. 
Secord,  David,  37,  75. 
Selby,  Mr.,  45,  47. 
Selkirk,  Lord,  99. 
Sells,  John,  226. 
Sells,  Wm.,  233,  257. 
Senseman,  17,   282. 
Seward,  Col.,  219. 
Shanly,  James,  146,  235. 
Shaw,  Bela,  120,  175,  224-5,  234. 


INDEX  OF  NAMES. 


391 


Shaw,  Aeneas,  Maj.-Gen'l,  n. 
Sheaffe,  Maj.-Gen'l,  67-8. 
Shenich,  Mrs.,  205. 
Shepherd,  T.  W.,  246. 
Sheppard,  Edmund,  290. 
Shepherdson,  Rev.  D.,  278. 
Sherich,  37. 
Sherwood,  Judge,  112. 
Sherks,  263. 
Sholes,  64. 

Shore,  Capt.,  173,  203. 
Shore's,  160. 
Sifton,  John,  121. 
Sifton,  Charles,  121. 
Silcox,  Joseph,  257,  280-1,  290. 
Silcox,  Revs.  J.  B.  and  E.  D.,  281. 
Simcoe,  Governor,  10  to  21-4-5-7-9, 
30-2-3-5,  124,  164,  188-9,  270,  308. 
Simpson,  Levi,  288. 
Simpson,  Sir  J.,  297. 
Sinclair,  Elder,  281. 
Skinner,  Rev.  James,  276. 
Skitteewaabaa,  25-6. 
Sloot,  Elder,  281. 
Smeit,  Lieut.-Col.,  84. 
Smith,  Dr.,  176. 
Smith,  Mr.,  60. 
Smith,  P.,  141. 

Smith,  Sir  D.  W.,  16,  18,  in. 
Smith,  Garrett,  119,  279. 
Smith,  Rev.  I.  B.,  278. 
Smith,  Moore  &  Co.,  244. 
Smith,  "  Dandy,"  287. 

Smith, ,  257,  263-4,  298- 

Smith,  Col.  Samuel,  189. 
Southwick,  Dr.,  234-8,  244. 
Sovereen,  109,  292-3. 
Sparke,  Capt.,  221. 
Speedy,  schooner,  16. 
Springer,  37,  50,  74.  296. 
Spurgin,  Wm.,  122. 
Stacey's,  280. 
Staffbrds,  257. 
Stanley,  Lord,   185. 


Stevens,  149. 

Stewart,  Bishop,  139,  270-1-4,  287. 

Stewart,  Rev.  James,   273. 

Stewart,  Duncan,  99. 

Stewart,  John,  146. 

Stimson,  Rev.  E.  R.,  273. 

Stimson,  Dr.,  175. 

Stimson,  Miss,  148,  286. 

Stokes,  263. 

Stoney,  Edmunds,  121. 

Storor's,  272. 

Storey,  37,  107,  270. 

Strachan,    Bishop,     136,     145,    192, 

249,  270-4,  306. 
Strathy,  J.  B.,  243. 
Stratton,  Henry,  262. 
Street,  W.  W.,  248. 
Street,  Rev.  G.  C.,  273. 
Strong  &  Wheeler,  175. 
St.  George,  Colonel,  51. 
St.  Clair,  157. 
Suffel,  George,  263. 
Sullivan,  Mr.,  31. 
Summers',  155. 

Sutherland,  General,  209-10-19. 
Sutherland,  William,  242. 
Sutherland,  Rev.  W.  R.,  277. 
Suttons,  257. 
Sutton,  John,  Jr.,  280. 
Sutton,  John,  (Westminster),  280. 
Swartz,  Lewis,  156. 
Swazey,  Rev.  Caleb,  278. 
Swisher,  256. 
Sydenham,  Lord,  247-8. 
Sydere,  Ed.,  288. 
Sydere,  Arthur,  288. 
Symonds,  Thos.,  218. 

Talbots  de  Malahide,  5,  9,  303. 
Talbot,  Lieut.-Col.,  Neil,  7,  23. 
Talbot,  Barbara,  7,  26-7. 
Talbot,  William,  7,  66,  169,  232. 
Talbot,    Hon.    Freeman,    42,    121, 
139,  140,  246. 


392 


THE  TALBOT  REGIME. 


Talbot,  Ed.  A.,   121,   132,   147,   176, 
186,  242,  269. 

Talbot,  John,    121,    147,    163,    225, 
286. 

Talbots  (Tipperary),  264. 

Taylor  (school  master),  286. 

Taylor,  William,  287. 

Teal,  Asa,  263. 

Tecumseh,  54-7-8,  60-5,  223. 

Teeple,  Peter,  122,  168. 

Teeple,  Pelham,  168. 

Ten-Brock,  John,  138,  145. 

Thayer,  Israel,  280. 

Thebo,  Capt.,  221. 

Thellar,  Dr.,  (General),    209-11-12- 
14-22. 

Theyendaneg-ea,  12,  26. 

Thompson,  J.  and  Sam,  120. 

Thompson,  Mr.,  (Pt.  Stanley),  134. 

Thompson,  James  C.,  286,  288. 

Thorpe,  Judge,  47. 

Tiffany,  Mr.,  265. 

Tilden,  205. 

Tisdale,  84. 

Tomlinson,  R.,  212,17-18-19. 

Tonty,  3. 

Tovey,  Rev.  A.,  278. 

Tozer,  Chas.  G.  A.,  261. 

Travers,  149. 

Travers,  Dr.,  104. 

Travers,  Dr.  John,  244. 

Trowbridge,  149. 

Trydell,  Col.,  248. 

Turners,  257. 

Turquand,  Dep.  Com.,  69. 

Turrils,  259. 

Turvills,  225,  336. 

Triton,  ship,  10. 

Tyas,  Mr.,  250. 

Tyrrel,  John,  229. 

Vail,  Mr.,  173. 
VanAllen,  Capt.,  221,  267 
VanAllen,  Mills,  264. 


VanBroklyn,  Mr.,  225. 
VanBuskirk,  Mr.,  227,  237. 
VanBuskirk,  Dr.  W.  C.,  149. 
Vandusen,  Rev.,  279. 
VanEvery,  Mr.,  138,  286. 
VanNorman,  Mr.,  235. 
Vanpatters,  260. 
VanRensselaer,  203,  209,  219. 
Vincent,  General,  56,  63. 
Vining,  Elder,  281. 
Von  Schultz,  243. 

\ 

Wade,  257. 
Wade,  Dr.,  234. 
Walker,  76. 
Walker,  Weeden,  263. 
Walker,  John,  288. 
Walthew,  John,  175,  254. 
Walthew,  James,  254. 
Warburton,  Lieut.-Col.,  62-3. 
Ward,  Capt.,  264. 
Ward,  family,  289. 
Warren,  Mr.,  114-134. 
Warren,  Thos.  D.,  147. 
Warren,  Douglas  &,  244. 
Warren,    Hamilton    &,    120-1,    134, 

174,  234,  258. 
Wastell,  Rev.  W.  P.,  281. 
Waters',   181,  256,  303,  305. 
Watson,  James,  37,  284. 
Watson,  Simon  Z.,  44  to  47,  49,  50, 

68,  69,  87,  264,  315. 
Watson,  Mrs.  Dixie,  144. 
Watson,  256. 
Webb,  Wm.,  280. 
Wegg,  George,  175. 
Welch,  Thos.,  122,  124. 
Wellesley,  Arthur,  8,  9,  296. 
Wellington,   Duke  of,  8,  9,   156,  7, 

3>6. 

Westbrook,  37,  49,  73-4-5-7,  87. 
Westlake,  Duncan,   259,  287. 
Westmoreland,  Lord,  8. 
Westovers,  260. 


INDEX   OF   NAMES. 


393 


Wetherall,  Col.,  248. 

White  and  Mitchell,  237,  275. 

Whitehead,  G.  W.,  228. 

Whyte,  Mrs.,  231. 

Widdifield,  171. 

Wilcocks,  47. 

Wilcox,  Joseph,  82,  87. 

Wilkinson,  Elder,   281. 

William,  Prince   &  King,    22,    154, 

156. 

Williams,  Titus,  53,  71. 
Williams,  Richard,  256. 
Williams,  Thomas,  216. 
Williams,  Samuel,  211-13-16. 
Williams,  Judge,  144. 
Williams,  Jonathan,  71, 
Williams,  Wynant,  122. 
Williams,  G.  R.,  221-4. 
Williams,  Mrs.,  224. 
Williams,  Dr.,  261. 
Williams,  Elder,  282. 
Willis,  Judge,  112. 
Williston,  Rev.,  279. 
Wills,  Mr.,  158. 
Wilson,  Capt.,  74-5,  220. 
Wilson,  Col.  Ben.,  37,  72,75,  119. 
Wilson,  Crowell,  171,  284. 
Wilson,  Jeptha,  211. 
Wilson,  Mrs.  J.  H.,  221-24. 
Wilson,  John,  (Judge),   145-6,  248-9 

251-2-3,  290. 

Wilson,  Maj.-Gen.  Jas.  H.,  209. 
Wilson,  Dr.,  228. 


Wilson,  Elder,  281. 
Wilsons,  155. 
Winchester,  Gen'l,  57. 
Wogan,  6. 
Wolseley,  Lord,  297. 
Wood,  W.  R.,  221. 

Wood,   222. 

Wood,  Amasa,  256-7. 

Wood,  Nathan,  261. 

Wood,  Philo,  280. 

Woodford,  Sir  A.,  296. 

Woods,  Judge  R.  S.,  146,  208,  267, 

270. 
Woodward,  Lieut.  J.  K.,  206-10-12, 

233- 

Woolleys,  263. 
Wortley,  Stuart,  185. 
Wortley,  Lady,  291-4,  308. 
Wright,  Francis,  286. 
Wright,  Rev.  Mr.,  286. 
Wrong,  Gilbert,  176,2  61. 

Yeigh,  Mrs.  KateW.,  150. 
Yeo,  Sir  J.,  58,  81,  292. 
Yerex,  J.,  139,  149. 
York,  Duke  of,  23. 
Youmans,  Rzv.  D.,  278. 
Young,  Lady,  7,  26-7. 
Young,  Sir  Wm.,  7. 
Young,  Mor.  Miss.,  F.,  17,  282. 
Young,  Judge,  144. 

Zeisberger,  17,  282. 


i 


PLEASE  DO  NOT  REMOVE 
CARDS  OR  SLIPS  FROM  THIS  POCKET 

UNIVERSITY  OF  TORONTO  LIBRARY