Yale University Library 39002021641981 ftV V c YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 1937 COLONEL THOMAS TALBOT. n 3 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, MD CCCC IV D. :i D Entered according to Act of Parliament of Canada, in the year Nineteen Hundred and Four, 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 imprpbable 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 riot 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 foreg'oing 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 impending poverty in his old age, of self-imposed exile from his "dear country,'' as he termed Canada — ofhis 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 21st, igo^. EkRATA, Chapter XIX. — ¥or James, \s&&. 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 n.— Talbot's Family and Early Life 5 CHAPTER in.— Talbot and Governor Simcoe 10 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 XI. — 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 XXI.— The New District Capital.— London's First Decade, 1826-1836. — Early Settlers. — Offi cials, Lawyers, Doctors 138 CHAPTER XXII.— 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 XXVII.— 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.— Coj.onel Airey's Regiment.— St. Thomas in the 40's 231 CHAPTER XXXI. —London in the 40'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 THE40'S 253 CHAPTER XXXIII. — Moral and Religious Condition.— Church 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 311 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 " 352 " 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 Talbot "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 their families alike froip prowling bands of hostile nations and from the wild beasts of the forest. Traces of some of these villages are 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 oasis 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 beaver felled trees and built dams where required for their pur poses. Myriads of pigeons darkened, at times, the sky, and duck innumerable 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 172-1, 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 "MuUaghide" and adjacent territory, besides the command of the waters, and provides a long tariff of customs. It bears date i8th 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 commanding 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 it.'^ 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 19th 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 14th 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 pnofession ; 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 meinber 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, ^^^ 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 19th 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 4tfa regiment, at 12 years of age. Col. Talbot is stated to have received his first commission as ensign of the 66th regiment 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 21st 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 41st 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 pf 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 Rangers under Captain (afterwards major-general) Aeneas Shaw by a long 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 — soine 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 of 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 17th 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 bne 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 ; Lifeutenant 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 7th they arrived at the residence of Captain Brant (Theyendanegea) at the Mohawk village, where a feu de foie 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 ofhis 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. From Rends ^* Lieitieiiani Governors of Upper Cana da," by permissioti. 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 12th 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 18 12, 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 2.feii dejoie 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 Lenoult and the rest of the works, drove in a "calash "to the River Rouge, 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 night — -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 SITF 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 oiit 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 recordeci 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 14th 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 — S kittee waab AA. 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 operating 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 12th, 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 diff'erent 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 14th dragoons, who, in 1810, 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 i8oi, 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 incHnations. 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 : Although 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 propiHous 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 eff'ect, 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 10 prevent its producing discontent, I will beg leave to point out a. mode for its execution. There are parcels of land under tbe 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 Toimnship 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. lam 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 e-xclaim, " 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 T.\lbot. To H.- R. H. the Duke of Cumberland. Where "Skitteewaabaa" — Ojib way 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 hav-e 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. My 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 sth 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 busilv 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 ofhis 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 exceeded the quantity to which, under Simcoe's policy he would have been, as afield 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, wrofe 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 %i 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 ptiblic 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 s,ooo 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 for 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 appHcation 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 12th concessions of Dunwich — the other, lots 22, 23 and 24 in the 9th, 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. .^.kM^4ii^^ 0< io a s C It. ta CHAPTER VH. Settlement Begun. It was on the 21st 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, James Fleming, 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 181 2-14. 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 181 2 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 Long Point and built on the site of St. Thomas (then only known 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 scattered along the line of the Talbot road throughout Dunwich, 38 THE TALBOT REGIME. Southwold, Yarmouth and Malahide. In that year that portion of 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 settlement for the rest of his life — as colonel of militia and member of parliament, as well as in his capacity of surveyor of many portions 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 181 2. 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 dinfed, 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 house, 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 supphed by Colonel Talbot at first, was sown — wheat, barley, peas, oats. While the land was virgin, it was networked, 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 gr^in 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, hy 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 ^uch 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 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 bl^ck 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 VHI. 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 181 1) 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 Brigham 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 tothe 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, gove^rnment 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 diff'erences, 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 FRANCIS GORE, LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR. SIR PEREGRINE MAITLAND, LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR. From Reads ^^ Lieutenant Governors of Upper Canada" by permission. 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 ;^3,50o for roads and ;^40o 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 1811 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 being 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 general order of the same date appointing Colonel Talbot to the command of the militia in the London district and requiring 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 20th — 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, Bois 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 the 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 a.ppointed 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." Behoving 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 hbraries, 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 41st 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 41st 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-general 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 o.n 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,ooo 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 Sth 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 ordeily 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 lo embark the whole of the force as.sembled 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 a 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 too 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 41st 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." Frorn 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 41st regiment from Fort Erie and the twenty Indians, composed entirely of mihtia. 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 batteiry 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 been 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 fatigues 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 his 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 Talbot and 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 L.\ke 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, 181 3, he met and defeated General Winchester, then advancing upon Detroit, at the River Raisin, and took the American commander and some five hundred of his force prisoners, most 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 181 3 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, Remains 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 Firtnis, 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 cartilege of his aquiline nose, and a large silver medallion of George IIL, 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 his feet leather moccasins, ornamented "with work made from dyed quills of porcupine.'' Tecumseh's Stone 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 ofhis 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 ^o, 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. If 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 ofif. The slate of the roads and bridges are a primary consideration at present, especially those *No doubt Backhouse of Long Point settlement was here referred to. r- » I 'i ' wj* ¦«.¦ ¦ « '^¦ 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 » 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, ifyouseeno 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 I have sent Mrs. Proctor ofif 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 nie, 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 27th* 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. armv marched into Amherstburg between 4 and 5 o'clock p. m. on 23rd Sep tember Dates in text are as given by Proctor subsequently. Mr. Janaes also presents data to show that the fort was first named Fort Arahenstburg 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 29th 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 of 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 41st 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 41st, 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 mispFaced — 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 nu Tiber 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 hii remains disappeared from mortal eyes forever — and yet even the manner ofhis 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 41st caught up to the main body at Port Talbot oti 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 181 1, 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, 181 2, 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 63 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 19th 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, 18 12, "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 41st, 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 tp 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 XH. 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 181 2. 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 17th, 181 3, 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 Deceftiber 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 Medcalf's 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 89th regiment of regulars to dislodge Captain Holmes of the 24th regiment of U. S. infantry, who with 160 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 89th, 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 half's 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, 89th,) 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 31st 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 H arrison'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 20th May''*' at about 6 p. m. that the enemy actually appeared at Port Talbot, half an hoar's notice of their approach having been given to Colonel Burwell 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 21st. Captain Secord receiving chance intelligence of the invasion that morning had another party of fourteen, including Lieutenant Rice and himself, at Rapelje's (St. Thpmas) 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, *30th 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 abo.ut 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 paroUed 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 probabiUty 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. Ermatinger s " Life of Talbot," p. ,}.<). 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 30th 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 Septernber 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 XHI. 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 14th 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 itsed 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 19th 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 20th, 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 19th 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. 8l 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 well 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 100 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 oj-der 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 29th, "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, i 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 19th dragoons and a body c' militia under Major Salmon, sav^d these mills from sharing thc 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 a,nd 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 7th 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 focce reached Detroit on 17th November. Among their "just claims to the gratitude of 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 0/ 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 settleinent, 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 I 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 Umited 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, arid 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 wilh respect to all settlement, the government remained ignorant of the quahty 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 oqder 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 loo 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,ooo. 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 fees, 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 issuing 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 or 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,.ooo, 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 4nto 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 Williain 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 ;^i5o 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 aH 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 181 1, 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 rhay 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 of 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 (20th April, 181 2,) 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 livad, 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 i8i6 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 McCoU, 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 Gselic 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 n'ot 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 Colone} 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 thdse 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 enUven their departure by a skreel of the pipes was also acquiesced in, aiid 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, redognizing 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 acre's 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 i:ownships. One hundred would thus be the maximum number of families, td 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 50-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 200-acre lot, which he would be entitled to retain for himself. From the standpoint of 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 loo 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 thernselves, 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 183 1, 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 poHtical 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 marauding 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 XVH. Dr. John Rolph and Family — Colonel Burwell — Elections — Two Scotch Baronets. Across Kettle Creek, upon the roUing 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. .iVbraham 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, w^as 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 Church 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 Georgfe 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 181 2 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 21st 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 21st 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 Mathews, 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 citizen^ 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 with 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 Qombined 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 conjunctionof 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 \j 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 COLO.NEL M.VHLON BURWELL. roni " Illustrated London '' (Copyrighted) by permission COLONEL JOHN BOSTWICK. .-» DR. JOHN ROLPH. From a patJititig- in i8j6. UR. CHAS. DUNCOMBE. at the age of "JO. , ELECTIONS. 1 1 5 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 bluesurtout coat and trousers ; there was nothing fanciful about his dress or hor.se 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 ip 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 pjirpose." CHAPTER XVHI. 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 lightsortie 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 fhe 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. I 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 sd.w 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- coiTibe, 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 1S26 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 having 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 oi 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 1,000 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 : Edward Allen Talbot, John Talbot, William Geeris, Thomas Brooks, Peter Rodgers, Thomas Guest, Frank Lewis, Benjamin Lewis, William Haskett, Williain Mooney, William Evans, William O'Neil, Edmunds Stoney, Joseph O'Brien, George Foster, Thomas Howey, James Howey, John Phalen, Joseph Hardy, Toseph N. Hardy, John Gray, John Gray, Jr., Foilet Gray, Ro'oert 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 rSoo, 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 181 2, 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,ooo, 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 pf 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,ooo 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 cari;y 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. 'f 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, Hkymarket, 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 trifljng 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 30th 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 lbs. 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 al 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 suff'ered to hang too long on the trees, until the frosts came and spoiled them. The beautiful httle 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 lbs. 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 20th 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 sleighing, 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 ea.sy way of travelling, 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 ofifered 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 ca.st 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 Sth — " Pigeons, in great flocks, going out daily north ward i 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 15th — "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 thati usual; fields hardly look green yet. Sowed oats, and more clover and timothy grass, and pecked and levelled the land (avery uncommon thing in America); sowed three bushels of oats to the acre (more than is sown in general), with foiir 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 3SS. 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 ^he 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-l.oad 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 ara 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 j£i to £i 12s., or £1 15s. per cwt., according to quaUty 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 12th 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 best 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 29th 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 quaUty, 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 2nd — "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, 10^ 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 2j^ miles beyond Colonel BurweU'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 — " 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 i^, ij^^ and 2 in. iron is most in use. Went to dine with the parson of the parish. Oa 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. 7th — " 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 to 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, hfe 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 updn 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 I " 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 r-eached 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 I. Temporary Court House and District School, London. 2. London Court House as remodelled. From Illustrated London (Copyrighted) by Permission. 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 RusseU, a Scotch gentle- i^3.n — 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 ard 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. Mcintosh, 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. Mcintosh 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 bf 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 mernber 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 Ekftid. 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 Cronyn 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, ofthe village of "The Forks, ",some two miles to the north. Thither he made his way, over the Wharncliffe road and Westminster bridge, tp 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 towrlship, 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 ofthe 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 gav,e 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 ofthe shanty ; ofthe inconvenience resulting from fowl roo.sting 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 ofthe 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 sufiiciently 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 ofhis sons, born in Westminster in 1840, being a Chief Justice (Sir William R. Meredith), and another (Hon. R. M. Meredith) a Justice ofthe 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. Ofthe 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 fellojv-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 BrockviUe 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 i8og, 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 Tlu)mas 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 183 1, 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 ofthe St. Thomz.s 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 Wytwn, 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 a.fter 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 tjje 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. JOHN HARRIS, TREASURER. SHERIFF HAMIL-ION. From Illustrated London. (Copyrighted.) By permission of the London Ptg &' 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.-* Siirveyor-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 ofthe N. W. Supreme Court), Rapelje, the Kents, Rob, Dariing, the Harris', Askins, H. Hamilton, the Stevens', Lees, Hughes (alterwards Judge of Elgin), Cronyns, Travers, Cornishes, and Charles, son of Dr. Elijah Duncombe and W. C. VanBuskirk, the well known St. Thomas physician. CHAPTER xxn. 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 ofthe 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 tl-ie present writer's father (already quoted in part), the Chief Justice, in 1850, speaks ofthe 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 ruffied 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 ofthe 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 sheep.skin 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 oif, 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 ofthe surveyors. On April 12th, 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 12s. 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 12s. 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 100 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 14s. 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 <-^\_^--- /^ , /'^.^ ^«.%^' ?2^-^/ ;^ i Facsimile Receipt in handwriting of and signed by Colonel Talbot on purchase of Eastabrook farn,, for part of which, though subject to floods, the City of St. Thomas has since paid nearly $.00 per acre for waterworks purposes, under arbitrators valuation. 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 affbrds, 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 coilstantly 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 loth, '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 12s. 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 ofthe 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 15th, 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 ofi^ 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', 2nd to Brantford, 3rd to Wilson's al 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 caslle 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 ofif better. I long to see you." On the 13th 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 21st 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 ofthe sufferings ofthe 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 Sth 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 " ^ivas 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 ROBINSOIV. 1 57 "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 fhe 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 ofif. I hope to hear that the chief's 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 ofif 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 17th 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 17th, 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 leaving 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 17th 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 undertaking 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 ofthe 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 informing him, to his astonishment, that ;^4,ooo 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 ag^ainst 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 kno.w when, for I have not sold an acre for less than 12s. 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 wfeU, 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 diff'erent 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 19th, 1832. " To the Editor oi ^e. 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 ofthe Talbot Settlement." The St. Thomas Journal, the Tory paper, was published -weekly ST. GEORGES 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 fettled 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 Talbot 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 ii 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 enthusiastic 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 rnay 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 ofthe 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 my 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 ofthe greatest nation on earth, and all who claim to be her sons, either by birth or adaption, 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 conspiratcjrs 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 ofthe 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 exerted 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 staflF. 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 the.se 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 descenderits 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 rebeUion 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 '30'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 announced 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 13th. It turned out that there were some unexpected guests present on this occasion, whose coming gave much pleasure to the Cdlonel. 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 19th 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 20th, 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 ofthe 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 jheep 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, tyvo 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 I)r. 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 funei-i(}*of a similar kind of two aged partners and residents of 174 THE TALBOT REGIME. Meantime, in the early '3d's, 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 ofthe 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 181 2 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 VIEW OF PORT TALBOT LOOKING TOW.^RDS THE LAKE. VIEW OF ST. THOMAS FROM AN OLD PAINTING. ST. THOMAS IN THE THIRTIES. 177 rendered in his favour, testified his gratitude by a " Thank you, Vour 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 irk 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 op 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 ofthe campaign of 1838 in the west. Colonel Maitland ofthe 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 j ourney 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 artd 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 Hght ; 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 deop, rapid stream, called the Kettle Creek (I wish they had given 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, ouq 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 Talbot 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 I " 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 j-ears 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 beard 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 unhappil}' 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 other.s — 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 chfif, 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 i6o 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 ofif 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 ofif 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 he're resemble those of Dr. Howison, who passed some time in the settlement nearly twenty years before, and published an account ofhis 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 sf the character and habits of many of the early settlers ofthe 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, a,t 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, vanitv, 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 apparent!}- contradictory emotions and impressions I set down cts thev 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 Duncombe. 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. lu' 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 18 15, 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 oc 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 ofthe 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,ooo 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 15th 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, ¦«vho 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 SIR JOHN COLBORNE, LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR. SIR FRANCIS BOND HEAD, LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR. From Read's " Lietitenant Governors of Upper Canada," hv perniis.^ion. POLITICAL AFFAIRS OF THE PROVINCE. 191 matter, his conduct in striking 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 province for 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 proceedings, 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 Duncombe 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. In the first session ofthe new parliament (1835) at the instance of Dr. Duncombe a resolution was passed providing for a grant of ;^i5o 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 whifch 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 ofthe 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. Duncombe 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 ofhis 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 ofthe 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, " 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 ;^5o,ooo 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 gf 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 ofthe 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 ofthe people ofthe 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. DUNCOMBE'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 13th. 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 fii-st and second Middlesex were called out and volunteers 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 ofthe 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, DUNCOMBE'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 ;£^50o 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 ofthe 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 ofthe supposed " grandma " in the bed. A brother ofhis 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.) Cha.se 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 Duncombe 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. Duncombe took no part in the actual operations of the subsequent attempted invasions — although both Dr. Rolph and himself were accused by prisoners taken at Prescott of having taken part in, or advised, the ill-starred expedition against that point. Dr. Duncombe 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 Old St. Thomas church. McNab and a large portion of his force left the search for Duncombe 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 December, 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 Drew, 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 ofthe " 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, Amher.stburg ; long:er one from schooner Anne, shorter ona 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 ofthe 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 hptel. 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 tThellar, 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 27th Innis- killens, and had been in twelve engagements. He was at a ball at the house of Dr. Phillips when word came ofthe 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, ofthe 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 ofthe marching of such a force, with its artillery, across an expanse of some twenty miles. The cavahy 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 info the woods. Captain Browne, with two companies of the 3and, 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 ofthe 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, I 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 hor.se, 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, 1S38. 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 ii p. m. before they, tired and hungry, reached the mainland, that they remained there until next day (Sunday) and after a scanty meal started fos 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 .\mherstburg 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 PeI6 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 ofthe 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 {Cerr 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 irriprovement 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 al 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 humber 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 pf 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. Meaptime 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 during 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 40,600 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, iut 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 Ihem 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 fo 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 Duncombe'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 ofhis 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 ofthe 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. I 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. ooe 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 Duncombe from Yarmouth were settlers 233 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 prbfessedly 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. Th5 Macbeths — Colonel Airey's Regiment — St. Thomas IN THE '40's. 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 ofhis 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 Hupter, 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 everat 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, tvhere, 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 separatipn 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 betw^een 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, .\nson 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 resurned his business. Finally he sold to James Blackwood, 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 Blackwood'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 and ambled down Talbot street toward the Mansion House. John Beaupr^, 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 Duncombe, 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 proferred 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 lo 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 building 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. Thoihas in the nomenclature of the streets of those districts. The wooden structures which comprised the business portions of St. Thomas in the 30's and 40's 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 jiist 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 yoilng 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. Tie 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 Chrotiicle, 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 ofthe poll stood fot Mr. Ermatinger i,ooo, 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's — 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 ^y 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) by permission 0/ 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 ofthe 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 BrockviUe 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 ofthe 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 ray 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 Morrill'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 vote. 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 17th 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 9onstituents 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 ofthe 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 tjie 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 1 85 1, 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 Idwyer, 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 ofthe 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 v^as 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 dweUing house occurring, formed as it were, the gap between the living and the dead. Intense apprehensions, however, were entertained for the Robinson HaU 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, 13th 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 1 50 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 VI1-;\V OF LONDON FROM THE AVKST, FROM A PAIN IhW. BV JAMKS HAMILTON. From Illustrated London. (Copyrighted. ) WHARNCLIFFE ROAD, ABOL'T 1 850, FROM A FAINTING BY JAMES HAMILTON. From llhistrated London. (Copyrighted.) By permission oftJie London Ptg «Sr= 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 to\yn. 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 ofthe 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 loo 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, among 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 \vriter 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 -^ithout any feeling of dishonour. A similar course of conduct on the part ofthe 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 ofthe 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 27th 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 ofthe district," presented by Mr. J. Walthew, (the father of the present St. Thomas decorator, and painter ofthe 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 bj' 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 15th 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, novvr 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 TALBO-r 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 760, 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 Ald 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 WiUiams' 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 ofthe 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 Fingal. 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 nearby 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 ofthe 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 dale 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 1 888. 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 t>Jova 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 yourigest son, Mr. Jacob, were at Silver Creek when I AYLMER. 261 arrived. The next morning 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 vitee was placed in the centre of the board, aod 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 lumbgr-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, Edisohs, (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 WooUeys, 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, distingui^ed it then, as now, to a far .greater extent. Its fine, roUing 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 181 7, 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 exclusi-\^e 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, graAted to him under the arrangement originally made by Lord Hobart. In the Western district, south ofthe 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, tg 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 ofthe 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 £l IOS. 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 etiormous 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 183 1 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 ofthe 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 .-vnd 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 ruile, had it been left without the ministrations of the gospel. As it *.<4 Five Years' Residence in Upper Canada, by Edward Allen Talbot Esq., of the Talbot settlement, two volumes t7%e Beauties of Talbotism, or Libels upon Upper Canada, forty-eight pages, 2S. per copy. 270 THE TALB.OT 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. Mcintosh 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 Eari 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 fir.st 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. KEV. BENJ. CRONYN, FIRST BISHOP OF HURO-V. I' rom Illustrated London. (Copyrighted.) ST. PETER'S, TYRCONNEL. Erected in 1828. '<* ¦¦^^^'¦" OLD SI-. TIIOMAS CHURCH. Erected in 1824. 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. Mcintosh 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, Mcintosh, 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 rhuch-attacked Archdeacon of his journey. to Talbot road is worth quoting in full as illustrative ofthe 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 of lighting a fire, notwith.standing 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 whijch 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. 111., 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 j 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 saddlebags constituting their only [' bagg-age." 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. BrQugh, 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, Wal pole Island ; John Gunne, Dawn, and F. Wm. Sandys. To these by 1 85 1 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 ofthe 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, 1751 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 L'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 181 2, 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 Yarrnouth,- 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 31st 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 ofhis 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 broiight 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 Dovvnie, 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 tlje lawyers of a future generation. 276 THE TALBOT REGIME. Mention has already been made of the buildifig of the first Roman Catholic church in London in 1834. From that time the congregation continued to grow until, in 1851, Bishop de Charmonel confirirled 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 iri 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 wete without the full ministrations of their church until shout 183b. Young couples desiroUs of marrying trudged on foot thtbiigh the fotest to Port Talbot to be married by Colohel Talbot, in hig ' capacity of magistrate, and thert home again, over -what would have been many a weafy mile of wilderness, Were the occasion 'A less joyful one, their frierids frequently accofnp&nying them oil their weddihg joui-hey. A chut-ch building was erected ifl 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 tienry, arid 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 eighteeti 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 ofthe 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 '50 the Rev. John Fraser began to occupy the pijlpit 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 Tvorship. 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 ofthe 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 thoiight 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 Josefih Ryerson — himself an English churchman — of Long Point settlement. Five of the six sons became minis'ters, 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 ;^5o 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 ofthe 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 £2^9 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 los. 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 chojr and harmony and progress prevailed. Meanwhile the abandoned church-barrack lacked a congregation and the heirs ofthe 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, Wm. 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's. London possessed a comfortable Methodist church in the 30's 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 qf 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 ofthe 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 182 1, 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 182 1 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, Landon, 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 tittle town of Fairfield, which, being burned by Harrison's army after the battle ofthe 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 ih 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 foe^ 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 built 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 ill 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 frorri their farriilies, Who supplied also each a proportion ofthe 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 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 hor.se, she would thin do-wn 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 appHcation 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 suitabje 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 yea,rs afterwards in the same place.' " As early as 1825 a school house had been erected in St. Thomas. A few individuals, chiefly farmers, had guaranteed the payment of ;^ioo 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 Mcintosh. 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 i remained unfinished fof many a day, its sides uflsheeted and the interior exposed to the weather. Here free tuition in . physical culture was afforded the youths of the village occasiorially, 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 hOufS, 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 Chatharfi 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 iire 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 jpast 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 ofthe world until this very day, March, 1827. St. Patrick's day in the morning, 1827, £1 — 10. John Leslie. A copy of an agreement made at a later date, engaging a 'SSG THE TALBOT REGIME. teacher for tte same locality — in Yarmouth-^-in which Mr. Leslie tW§K(l i^'-ivhich is shown the prevalent rate of remuneration and. modes of apportionment thereof, with other interesting particulars, •S' stiirj)r'6served by the Caughell family. '• ^OV^l* the somewhat improved common schools of the district of ''^6nd8n, in the forties, John Wilson — afterward Hon. Justice Wflsbn — and William Elliott — afterward County Judge of Middle- 'i'ex— 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. I am 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 lifei 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 preflaring for his trip, however, as the following letter written to Judge Salmon six weeks later shows : " Port Talbot, Sth 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 19th or 20th 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 ray right hand which made it painful to write — besides I have been as bu.sy 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 ray old dear friend, your mother, is enjoying it in her garden. Now believe me, my dear WiUiam, 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 Burwell'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 tha't fre.sh-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 wigwam, 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 refetred 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 tlie 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 ofthe 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 criticism on account of the bad condition before Sebastopol, unjustly as il 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 nephew's assumption 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 ofhis 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 ofhis 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 commis.sariat, 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 1.862, 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 ofthe well known Airey commission, appointed in 1879, to enquire as to the result ofthe short service system. He died 14th September, 1881, at the Grange, Leather- head, the seat of Lord Wolseley. He is described as bred in the school of Wellington, and as forming the best link between him and Lord Wolseley, and his ability as never having been denied. — CVide Dictionary of National Biography, ^nd 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 retnonstrances 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 beeti 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 — 9th 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 ofthe 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 ;^5o,ooo, 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's 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 Talbot, 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. Arrios, 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," Ihe 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," whereupon 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 hurtiour, 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 given 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 ofthe 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 und^r 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 Goveirnor 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. ^& 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, an4 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 ate 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 subsequently 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 rnan 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 ea,sy 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 of 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 kings 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 vi.) 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 Jie 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 ofhis 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 rpof, 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 familia'r- ized in the society of the civilized world ; but the habit of self-rehance 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 sftrength superior to his own and habitually make use of the 'means which religion places within his 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, thefounder 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 in 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. J/lW/Z/x/x/---""'' wrffiiMiiiifttTO 1 APPENDICES. THETALBOTSETTLEMENT APPENDICES. APPENDIX A. Talbot Papers Previous to War of 1812. /. — Petition, of Simon Zelotes Watson, II, — Letter of Colonel Talbot io Simon Z. Watson, III, — Rough draft of letters to Major Halton, Governor Gore's Secretary, and to S, Z. Watson, kept by Colonel Talbot, I'V, — Letter Major Halton to Colonel Talbot, P, — Letter S, Z, Watson to Colonel Talbot, F/. — 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 Provincb 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 lo 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, I gth February, iSii. Dear Sir //. — Letter Colonel Talbot to S. Z. Watson, Westminster, 2nd March, 1811. 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 ofifered 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, 14th March, 181 1. My Dear Major : , Two days after I had the pleasure of writing to you by Shenich on the subject ofthe 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 ofthe 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 interred 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 whh threats, I will employ the constable to deliver the necessary repl}'. 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, isth 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 ray 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 rae 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 dorraantry) 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 Industrious 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 Esg., 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 ofthe 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 20th, 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 ii 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 a3!plan of the country, requesting you to insert the naiftes 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 oificially. 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 suppqrt he was wont to receive from the Marquis. Believe me. Dear Colonel, Yours faithfully. Colonel Talbot. (Sgd.) ISAAC BROCK. etc., etc., etc. 328 THE TALBOT REGIME. APPENDIX B. Papers Relating to War of 1812-14. /. — General order Major-General Sheaffe. II. — 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 isstted at Port Talbot, etc, VII. — Service roll ist Norfolk Militia Regiment, VIIL— " " 2nd " " " LX,— " " ist 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, T6th October, iSia. 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 : \ Chippewa ist Norfolk 2nd " ist Oxford ^ \ Queenston 1st Middlesex 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, M. General Comm'g'. APPENDICES. 329 //. — Extract From Letter From Major-General Sheaffe to Colonel Talbot. Fort George, 19th December, 1812. My Dear Colonel : In consequence of the explanation furnished by you and Lieutenant-Colonel Nichol, I shall authorize the payment ofthe sums disallowed in the estimate of the] 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." ///. — List of names of the persons who turned out at a moment's warning to oppose the plunderers upon hearing that thev had advanced to Port Talbot 20th May, about 6 o'clock p. m,, stating some circumstances. Lt. Col. Burwell — McLemens gave half an hour's notice of their approach. Neil McNair John Burwell Were all on their way in time to have com- Robt. Burwell pleted the destruction of the enemy, but were David Wallace ? turned back by Lt.-Col. Burwell to Neal's place George Coltman to wait for a reinforcement, when he was Charles Benedict frustrated in his first plan. Benjn. Johnson Benjn. Wilson, Jun'r, taken away by his father. Jesse Page Mark Chase George Crane James Chase Stephen Backus Walter Story John Pearce 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. Page was sent to warn and reports that tiiey 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. 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 J^ past lo in the morning ofthe 21st, but hearing that the enemy had 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 Crarimer Henry Mandeville Samuel York William Lee JohnW. Clark William Toles George Lawrence Archie McNeal Justus Wilcox Finlay Grant David Everitt Henry Ramsey John C^sar 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 Captain Secord got the intelligence by mere chance on the morning of the 21st. He, how ever spread the alarm immediately, and arrived at Mr. Rapelje's with these men at 12 o'clock. Total 59 men. IV, — Muster Roll and Pay List of a Detachment of the 2nd Norfolk Regiment of Militia, under the command of Lieutenant Titus Williams, captured by the enemy at Sugar Loaf Hill the I'/thJune, i8ij. Period Sg, ^ .a Names 3.^ u'^ Amount From To « 1813 1814 Z^ Kb, £ s. d. Lieuten't Titus Williams 25 May 9 Jf'y 400 6s. 6d. 133— S- Private John Widner u 24 February 269 6d. 6 — 14.6 Jeremiah Green (( 24 July 425 6d. 10 — 1Z.6 Sobrique Dominique 2 July 3«7 6d. 9—13.6 Angus Mclntyre 16 June, 1814 39 6d. 19.6 Chat les Knight 39 6d. 19.6 Elijah Montonier 39 6d. 19.6 Alex. Logan 39 fid. 19.6 John Furry 39 6d. 19 6 Samuel Troup 39 6d. 19.6 Army — Sterling Dollars @ 4/8 — £166 — 2.6 >Wzoo w (Signed) TITUS WILLIAMS, Lieutenant. Certified (Signed) Thomas Talbot, Colonel in Command of Militia, London District. 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 : 1 Benjamin Schram, Sergeant 6 John Davy, 2 Joseph House, Sergeant 7 Joshua Chamberhng, I 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 "l (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 2Sth January to 24th February, 1814. I Colonel — 4 — Rations, 1 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 mihtia actually on duty in the District of London between 30th June, 1812, and 24th December, 1814, both days inclusive : Rank Lieut.-Colonel. Major Captain Captain Captain Captain Captain Captain Lieutenant . , . . Lieutenant . . . . Lieutenant . . . . Lieutenant . . . . Lieutenant . . . . Ensign Ensign Lieutenant . . . . Ensign Lieutenant . . . . Ensign '. Ensign Ensign Ensign Ensign Adjutant. . . . Qr. Master. . . Name Periods of Service From Joseph Ryerson . . . Wm. D. Bowen . . . John Bostwick .... Daniel McCall Oliver Mabee Duncan McCall.. . . John Backhouse . . . James Mitchell .... George Ryerson. . , George Rolph William Smith William Dill John Dedrick James McCall Samuel Ryerson . . Samuel Ryerson . . . Jacob Potts Jacob Potts Aquilla Walsh Francis Glover. . . . Romaine Rolph . . . Mathew Tisdale . . . Thomas Bac'khouse Samuel Tisdale. . . . Francis L. Walsh.. 25 Sept., I !S July. I 3 July. 3 Sept., 25 SepL, 18 June, 15 Sept., 7 Aug., 13 July. 30 June, 22 July, 25 Sept., 25 Sept., 13 July. 17 Aug., 25 Sept., 31 Aug., TS Sept., !5 Sept., 13 July, !S SepL, 22 Aug., 23 Aug., 25 Oct., 25 Sept., To 313 24 Nov.,ii ?I2 24 Nov., '12 24 Dec, 12 24 Nov., 13 24 Nov., '13 24 Nov., '13 24 Nov., '12 24 Nov., '12 24 May, '12 24 Nov., '12 24 Nov., 1324 July, '13 24 Nov., ' 1 2 24 Nov. , '1214 Mar., No. of Months •o -T ^.^ . ., 13 24 Nov., '12 24 Nov., '13 24 Nov., '13 24 Nov., 12 24 Nov., '14 24 Dec, '13 24 Nov., 7 17 "9 2-30 4-30 57 S 6 9 16-30 13 4-30 I 14-30 4 4-30 6 8-30 9 20-30 5 8-30 S5 23-30 6 17-30 6 3-30 9 3-30 25 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 appearing 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, boch days inclusive : Rank Major Captain . . . Captain .. . . Captain .. . . Captain .. . . Captain .. . Captain .. . Paymaster . Paymaster . Lieutenant . Captain . . . Lieutenant . Lieutenant . Lieutenant . Lieutenant . Lieutenant . Lieutenant . Captain .. . . Ensign .... Ensign .... Ensign .... Ensign .... Ensign .... Ensign .... Ensign .... Ensign .... Lieutenant . Adjutant. . Ensign .... Qr. Master. Names George C. Salmon. Samuel Ryerse .... William Park William Drake. . . . Wm. McCracken.. William Robinson.. Henry Medcalf. . . . Daniel Ross John Rolph Jonathan Austin. . . Nathaniel White. . . Titus Williams .... William Robinson.. Henry Medcalf Isaac Gilbert ....... Benjamin Mead . . . McFarlane Wilson . Abrah'm A. Rapelje Isaac Gilbert McFarlane Wilson Jacob Lemon Abraham Messecar Thomas Francis . . . John Conrad James McQueen... Dennis Shoaf William Gordon. . . William Gordon . . . George Ryerse .... Albert Berdan Periods of Service Fron 3 July, 21 Oct., 25 May, 25 April, 13 July, !S SepL, 2 Jan., 28 June, 25 Sept., 21 OcL, 7 July, 13 July, 1 July, 7 May, 25 Sept., 30 June, 25 Sept., !2 Oct., 3 July. I Sept., '¦S SepL, 25 Sept., 15 April, !S April, !S April, !S April, '3 July, 25 SepL, 25 OcL, July, To 1812 24 Dec, 1814 '12 24 July, '¦ '13 24 Nov., '14 24 Nov., '1224 Aug., '13 24 Nov., '14 24 Dec, '12 24 Sept., '13 24 Dec, '12 24 Nov., 12 21 Dec, '12 24 Dec, '12 14 July, '13 2 Jan., ¦13 24 Nov., '12 24 Nov., '13 24 Nov., '12 24 May, '12 6 April, '12 23 Dec, '13 24 Nov., '13 24 Nov., '14 24 Nov., '14 24 July, '14 24 Nov., '14 24 Nov., '12 24 Sept., '13 24 Dec, '14 24 Nov., 12 24 Feb., 14 'H ','4¦14'14'14 13 '14'14'i: '\i'14 '14'14'14 '13 '13'12''4¦14 '14'14¦14'14¦<3 '14 '14 '14 Months 12 12-30 6 11-30 10 4 II 11-30 5 9-30 II 23-30 14 26-30 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 iS-30 27-30 9-30 18-30 18 8-30 9 26-30 4 24-30 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 ofthe ist Middle sex Regiinent 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 From To M onths Colonel Lieut.-Colonel. . Captain Captain Captain Captain Captain Lieutenant Lieutenant Lieutenant Lieutenant Ensign Ensign Adjutant Quarter-MasterLieutenant Ensign Ensign Ensign ; . Thomas Talbot. . . . Mahlon Burwell.. . . David Secord 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. . 28 June, 18 10 July, ' 4 Aug., ¦ 2 Aug., ' 10 July, ' 10 July, 25 May, 30 July, 10 July, 23 Oct., 5 Feb., 25 Aug., 10 July, 25 April, 25 May, 25 March, 4 Aug., 25 Aug., 25 March, 2 24 Dec, \i 16 Aug., 24 Nov., i\ Nov., 24 Dec, 24 Nov., 24 Nov., ._ 24 Nov., 12 24 Nov., 12 24 Nov., 13 24 Sept., 13 24 Nov., 12 24 Nov., '14 24 Nov., '1424 July, '14 24 Dec, '12 23 Dec, '1324 Sept., '14 24 Oct., >4 29 27-30 '4 6 22-30 14 8 16-30 14 9 S-30 '4 17 22-30 14 4 25-30 14 6 14 8 17-30 14 ¦ 7 1-30 14 10 11-30 '13 I 28-30 1.4 7 14 10 28-30 14 7 14 ¦14 9 12 2 17-30 13 I '14 7 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. w S3Uio m Oh COa u 0 Vt, I. 0 •S'O s S 3 rt 2c/) OT (U •a M 'SO 1 I I 3 2 2 2 2 57 SO 22 28 30 60 10101010 600 100100100100 0) /"David Secord .S Daniel Springer .2 J Oilman Wilson cj Leslie Patterson ^ (^Samuel Edison Total I I I 5 S s I I II .87 100 1000 Rank and Names of the Officers, Colonel — Thomas Talbot. Lieutenant-Colonel — Mahlon Burwell. Major — ^John Eakins. Captains — David Secord, Daniel Springer, Oilman Wilson, Leslie Patterson, Samuel Edison. Lieutenants — William Bird, William Saxton, Gideon Tiffany, Moses Rice, Samuel Axford. Ensigns — Daniel Mclntyre, David Davis, Joseph Defields, Benjamin Wilson, Samuel Harris. Adjutant— John Potts. Quarter-Master — Sylvanus Reynolds. APPENDICES. 337 XI, — Extracts from book kept by A, A. Rapelfe, 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 corapany at York, 13th 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, Janes Chambers, Robert CoUard, Stephen CoUard, 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) 338 . 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) MooreMontross, A. Meriele, B. McQueen, James McLean, Samuel McKay, Daniel Nelles, Abraham Nonimaker, Jacob Philips, Ensign Parker, Samuel Rapelje, A. A. (Captain Rikeman, James Ryerson, George (Lieutenant) Inc. Robertson, Amon Robertson, Seth Robins, Joseph Shoaf, Jacob Sleight, Cornelius Sergeant, Geo. Simraons, David Sells, William Summerfield, Charles 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 VanzantVoUack, John Vanfalkenburgh, John Woodley, Mathias Williams, Titus (Lieutenant) Williams, Benjamin (Sergeant) Wyckoff, John WiUiams, Elijah Winan Winance, John Winter, Asa Co. Williams, Samuel Woolley, Peter Wintermoot, C. Wideman, P. Wood, Joseph Wickhara, Samuel York, Silas (Corporal) Younglove, David Zobriskie, George 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 — Jaraes Mathews 10 — Jacob Berdan app:endices. 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 28th 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 AUward " 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 lbs. • Nov. 1st — Beef issued — one day ration for 42 men, 42 lbs. Nov. 2nd — Beef issued — one day ration for 42 men, 42 lbs. Nov. 3rd — Beef issued — two-day ration for 114 men, including Captain Bost wick and Lieutenant Brigham Company, 228 lbs. beef. Nov. 4th — None. Nov. sth — Beef issued — for two days, including all the Company, excepting Captain Bostwick, which only received one, 183 lbs. beef. Men present, invalids included, 28 rank and file. " I returned from Long Point to Burlington October 29th, 1813, and joined the Company at Stoney Creek that night." " Left camp 19th August, 1814, in consequence of sickness and staid at Mrs. Overholt's." 340 THE TALBOT REGIME. On the 2Sth July, 1S14. The Americans, near Niagara Falls, Lundy's Lane, with their whole force engaged General Ryall's army, consisting of about :<,5oo men. In the last lonly the 89th Glengarians ofthe 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 181 2-14. /. — Petitions of Colonel Talbot to Committee of Loyal and Patriotic Society, with return of property destroyed in Norfolk in May, 18 14. 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, • VL. — List of Persons plundered in Norfolk by McArthur's Forces. I, — Petitions of Colonel Talbot to Committee of Loyal and Patriotic Society, with return of property destroyed iri Norfolk in May, 1814, Long Point, 1st June, 1814. Sir: In compliance with the wishes ofthe Comraittee appointed for the 11 I Wounded at the battle 21 Robert Burwell I 22 Samual Burwell j T I- null' I Lundy's Lane. 23 Joseph Phillips I ¦' 24 James Burwell, a wife and eleven children. 25 John Cook, single. 26 Charles Benedict, single. 27 Walter Galbraith, single. 28 Oilman 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 Seares, 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., £y> ¦ 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 £(iO. 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 lett 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 ray 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 20th 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 : I 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 bavid Mandeville, a wife and seven children. 9 David [Daniel?] Rapelje, a wife and nine children. 10 Garrett Smith, a wife and four children. II 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, => 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 McArthur, in the month of November, 1814. £ s, A £ s, A I James Crane 60 100 13 Aaron CoUver 31 50 2 James Brown 36 o o 14 John CoUver 6 15 o 3 Jacob Byard 31 15 o 15 John Davis 1000 o o 4 Jacob Crane 35 26 16 Morris and Leonard Sovereen 1750 00 5 Samuel Brown 39 15 o 17 Joseph Wooley 44 00 6 Noah Fairchild 50 50 18 Levi Douglas 20 00 7 Joseph Boughner 700 19 William Bird 24 00 8 Thomas Shippey 660 20 E. Woodruff 20 00 9 Philip Wilson 15 19 5 21 E. Woodruff and A. CoUver 1700 o o 10 Martin Boughner 12 o o 22 Leonard Sovereign... 149 o o n Ephriam C. Mitchell.. 27 2 6 23 John Robins 213 00 12 James 66 16 o 24 Shearman Hyde 45 00 (Report of Loyal and Patriotic Society, pp. 387 — 8.) APPENDIX D. Papers Subsequent to War of 18 12- 14. /. — Letter Colonel Talbot to Major Salmon, II, — Letter of Dr, John Rolph announcing death of his father. IIL— " " " " 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, 18 15. 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 Halt'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, 2nd 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 my 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 rauch 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 aUow us to anticipate. The inclosed letter is the last He wrote and was omitted in the last dLspatch 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. Rolph re " The St. Thomas Dispensatory." Dr. Duncombe and rayself 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. Duncorabe 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, wilh 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 comraittee to examine the funds and state of cleanliness ofthe institution. John Warren, Ira Scofield, Joseph Defields, J. C. Goodhue, • Shaw, Jaraes 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 pupU 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. Talbot Port TalboL IV. — From Colonial Advocate, Aug. ig, 1824, Advertisement. MEIDICAL SCHOOL AT St Thomas, IN THE TALBOT SETTLEMENT, AND UNDER THE IMMEDIATE PATRONAGE OF THE HON. COLONEL TALBOT. IVrOTICE 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 patronag'e 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 aiForded them to become intimately acquainted with the structure and physiology ofthe human body. Every student before admission is expected to have a complete knowledge of the Latin languag^e,. 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. 6wii 350 THE TALBOT REGIME, V. — Letter Sir P, Maitland to Colonel Talbot. Government House, York, April 7th, 1825 Dear Talbot : Taking pity on your desolate situation, I take upon to let you know what is going on in this -morld — 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 thetn 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 FrankUn 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 Comraissioners 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 25lh ulto. His Excellency the Lieutenant Governor and suite, accompanied by Col. Talbot, arrived at Port Talbot, and on the 26th, at I.I 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 Coinmanding 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 1-eceive 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 (he 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 raaking 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 followifig 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 iraportance 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. /. — Letter J. Nevills, Secretary to Colonel Talbot, II, — Address to Colonel Talbot, IIL— Memo, of J. Rolph. IV. — Colonel Talbot's reply to Address, V . — Colonel Burwell's 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 Sth March, to transmit the enclosed address to you. I am further directed to inform you that a 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 warrath 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 "j 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. //. — Address to Colonel Talbot, Sir, — Having assembled to commemorate the institution of this highly favorted 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 21st 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. ///. — Memo, of f. Rolph. 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 1st Regt. Middlesex Militia &c. &c. Yarmouth. IV.^Colonel Talbot's Reply to Address, To the Lnhabitants 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 pf 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 wiU 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 shaU 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 /a.milies may long partake of every comfort that this life affords. I am gentlemen Port Talbol ever, your faithful friend loth March 1817 THOMAS TALBOT V. — Colonel Burwell's 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. 14th. 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 fulsoraeness, would be insulting to hira, 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 obUged 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. i8th April 1817. VI. — Minutes of Meeting at First Anniversary, On the 2ist 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. 2nd Resolution — It is the opinion of this meeting that Lieut.-Colonel Burwell's remarks upon the address voted to Colonel Talbot merely on account ofhis 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 BurweU's letter to the Secretary, is written in the raost 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 BurweU, 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. Ill, — Letter Col. Askin to E, Ermatinger re steamer Caroline. IV. — Letter of Col, Radcliff reporting capture of schooner Anne, V, — Letter Lieut. Woodward 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, Lawrason, 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 ofthe St. Thom-as Cavalry Troop. James Ermatinger, Captain Thomas Backus John Pearce John Bostwick Robert Short J. K. Woodward, pay-master Peter Wilson Bark Rapelje Jepthah Wilson Daniel Marlatt WiUiam Silcox William Drake Henry Harris John Thayer John Couse Thomas Bobier Mr. Marten Richard Evans Mr. Richardson John Sells Mr. Bell John Meek Mr. Walker Jaraes Meek Daniel Berdan Thoraas Meek Frank Wade William Meek Dr. Brydges Henry Bostwick Montgomery George 'W. CoU Benjamin Lloyd Mr. Garrett, Pt. Stanley Turvill R. Tomlinson, Pt. Stanley Dr. Stevens Thomas Parish (killed at Pt. Pelee) Basset or Best, Pt. Stanley John Conrod Henry Ellis Frederick Huntley Henry Bostwick George Smith, Five Stakes Dr. McKenzie, surgeon Henry Finch, Aylmer, " Flagbearer Samuel Williams Mr. Duck, Morpeth Thomas Davidson Captain Julius Airey, Port Talbot 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. I 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 ray 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 Array — 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 ofthe 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 khow 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 eriforcrat ofthe Laws, founded on the Treaty of Peace and araity 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 schoo?ier Anne, Amherstburg io Jany 1838. Dear Colonel I have .succeeded in taking the enemy's schooner well provided with arras an ammunition & three guns. it took place as foUows^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 lo 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 welLstationed on part of the piket House wljere 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 pf the Returns. I beg you will forward rae 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 hira 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 ara dear Sir i^Your obt sert Return of killed and THOS. RADCLIFF. wounded on board the schooner " Anne " of Detroit, taken on the night ofthe 9th January 1838 Killed I Wounded 8 Prisoners 12 Prisoners naraes ascertained Dr. Theller — general Bob Davis cap'n David Anderson Walter Chase W.M. Dodge Squire Thayer Nathan Smith Stephen O. Brothy Reed Jany. 10, 1838 4 O c P.m. Jas. Hamilton Dr. TheUer said to have died since taken V, — Letter of J, K, Woodword, Lieut, aud 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. 36» 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 & ii 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 lOo men. We are going to pay thera a visit this morning. Some ofthe 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 gth inst. General TheUer, Col. Dodge, Capt. Robert Davis author of the " Canada Farmer Published in Buffalo last summer. C9I. 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 ree^spn to believe is in possession of our Forces ASKIN. Extract from Col. Radcliff^s letter to Col. Hamilton " I ara 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 Ca,pt. Shore to concert measures to adopted in the preset!^, 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 a,fternoon 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 isfuUy of opinion must have reached Sandwich before Thursday morning as the night was remarkably 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 comraand 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 ofthe 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 is 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. VIII. — Letter from L, Lawrason 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 wa.y Westward in a body Should any thing new come before this post leaves tomorrow I will let you know, meantime, I remain,, Yrs faithfuUy Edw. Ermatinger Esq. L. LAWRASON IX, — District Order conveying Lt, -Gov' r's thanks to the Officers. Head Quarters Amherstburg U. C. gth March 1838 District Order The Colonel coraraanding has great pleasure in publishing to the District under his comraand the following copy of a letter addressed to him by the Adjutant General at Toronto Adjutant General's Office Toronto 2nd March 183S Colonel Foster having laid before the Lieutenant Governor your communi cation ofthe 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 Corapany 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 2nd Essex: Militia — Captain Ermatinger of the St. Thomas Cavalry and to Lieutenant Col. Prince his thanks for their gaUant 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 ofthe Province To Colonel I have the honour to be The Honble T. Maitland (signed) RICHARD BULLOCK coraraanding Araherstburg Adjt Genl Militia By order J. D. Kelly Adjt 32 4,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 officer.^, noncomraissioned officers and men of the Norfolk and St. Thomas Troops, his approbation at the improveraent they have raade in their drill and discipline, and his satisfaction at their general good conduct during the time they have been under his command. He feels assui-ed, 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 thera 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 i8jo and 1851. Ill, — Miscellaneous. Extract from letter of Geo, Macbeth to H ,C, R, Becher, Esq,, "jth Dec, , i847^rom 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 raade 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 13th July 1848 I suppose you have already heard frora 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 ray 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 Hyd6 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 rae his mother's and his own address, and hoped I would call some evening, so today I went to Norland Square and caUed 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 caUing, etc, She looked at me very hard, as they took it into their heads that I must be " Harry." She then asked rae to sit down, and told me that her mother felt nervous when the servant gave my message (I did not tell ray namfe) but that she would be in, in a moment. What a scetie 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 — 2.5th 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 hira frora the sitting to his bedroom. He had however a tolerable night's rest and is now (3^ past 10) fast asleep. He still says will start on Thursday if you come on the 27th, 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 rauch 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 latet 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 hiip 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 npw 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 27th. 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 earhest efforts on the stage. He bathes his feet morning & evening in warm salt water, which he thinks strengthens thera, 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 ma!ke 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 iU than ever I was on board the good ship Montezuraa the shakiAg so violent in sraooth 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 reraerabrances to all I remain my dear Mr. Becher, Yours affectionately and faithfully , ' GEORGE MACBETH. Letter Col, Talbot to H, C, R, Becher, London 19th July 1850 My Dear Becher I want to let you see my hand writing again. George will tell you all about me. I ara 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 glas.sy 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. 368 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. Becher. 26 Mount St. Grosvenor Square 31 July 1850. My Dear Becher 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 tiy 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 frora %oa£ 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 aU 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 ofthe state ofthe 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 raay rely on receiving a year so that I may limit rayself accordingly, as it would be dreadful to out run ray raeans. 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. c. canouesst APPENDICES. 369 years more ofhis 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 weU 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, HARRpWGATE 25 Aug My Dear Mr. Becher 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 \ery 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 J^ 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 Vill 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 ;£8oo but j^iooo would be better 1 do not know how long Mrs. Kay will remain but I Ihink six weeks and what our *Col. Talbot's sister Eliza, wife of EUis Cunliffe Lister Kaye. 370 THE TALBOT REGIME. next move wiU be he does not know. Much wiU 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. Becher dated at 26 Mount St., 1st Oct, 1850, Your letter of the 29th Augt announcing poor Mr Harris' death was received on the _i6th Sept. Of course you will be much surprised at not hearing from rae 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 thera & which I prophesy like St. Leonards wiU not suit us. Then he proposes to take a tour thro' Normandy and Brittany returning via Havre de Grace and Southamp ton. AU 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 one 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 wiU 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 shiUing and the consequence is that aUho' 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 naU 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 funf of theYankees about Jenny Lind. Letter Colonel Talbot to H. C. R. Becher, 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 30th 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 rae with all this needful information as soon as you po.ssibly can. George will write soon to you, but I must give ray 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 ara delighted to hear that Mrs. Becher and all yours are so flourishing and that ray 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 raost 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 rauch. 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 weU 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 pubUc at present — the Grand Exposition & Cardinal Wiseman. You wiU 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 CathoUcs 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, Becher. 17 Mount SL 2 I.St 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 Uke teUing him " Uve 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 wUI 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 frora Col. Airey the portraits of the old & young Ld Wharncliffes & the Ivory miniature of Lady Young* Extracts from letters Col, Talbot to H, C. R, Becher, Esq, 17 Mount St. Grosvenor Square 3rd April 1851 My Dear Becher — I was very rauch 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 ofthe land in the Avenue between old Port Talbot and BurweU'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 ara near 80, so that there's not much time for play. — — — — — 17 Mount St Grosvenor Square Thursday 8 May 1851 Your note of the 17th 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. gth 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 Utile surprised at you and Col. Airey making it up so amicably — but I am very glad of it, for with your aid there is stUl 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. ///. — Resolutions to be proposed by Mr. Ermatinger (in Legislative Assembly) on Wednesday, 2jrd June, 184'^. I. 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 ofthe 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. Resolved, — 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 ;£i,5oo,ooo 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 faciUties 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 ils forests, and the great extent of its inland navigation, all concur in pointing out Canada as one of the most valuable appendages ofthe 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 furnishing the raeans of Ship-building to an unlimited extent, and of carrying on a valuable trade through its internal navigation ; but that the extension ofthe 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 loth 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 raade 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 : — " 11. Because the removal of differential duties " in favour of Canadian Corn is at variance with the Legislative encourage- " raent held out to that Colony by Parliament, on the faith of which the "Colonists have laid out large sums on the improveraent 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 interests "most intimately with the United States of America." 8. Resolved, — That the substance ofthe foregoing Resolutions be embodied in an Address to Her Majesty. Commissioners of the Peace for tlie London District — '-i8jj. James Mitchell, Joseph Ryerson, Thomas Bowlby, Mahlon BurweU, G. C. Salmon, James Hamilton, James Graham, James Racey, LesUe Patterson, Ira Schofield, Henry Warijen, 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 CampbeU, Henry Carroll, John WaddeU, 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 BurweU, Robert Grey liirkland, Alexander Richardson, Roswell Mount, Joseph B. Clench, Jaraes APPENDICES. 377 NevUls, Samuel Eccles, William Young, Colonel Alexander Whaley Light, John Warren, Captain R. Dunlop, Edward Buller, Captain PhiUp Graham, Christopher Beer, Thomas Radcliffe, Edward Ermatinger, J. Crysler, John McFarlane. Captain Robert Johnsen, Eliakim Malcolm, Benjamin Springer, John Boyce, WiUiam 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 MerriU, Rev'd Alexander Mcintosh, Mr. Alexander Pringle, Mr. David Robertson (1824 to 1828), Mr. William Johnson (1828 to 1840) Albert P. Salter (from 1 841 to 1846). School Inspectors or Superintendents under Act of 1841 for Western District,* Charles EUiott, Judge W. D. Court, 1842 to 1844. George Duck Jr. 1844 to 1847. Robert Reynolds 1847 to 1849. fudges of Western District Court, with dates of appointment, * Thomas Harffy, 9 July, I7g4. Prideaux Selby, i January, 1800. liobert 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, I7g3 or 4. Walter Roe, I7g6. Richard Pollard 1801. WiUiam 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. AUworth, 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, 209-1 1-12-13. Applegarth, Mr., 121. ArkeU, family, 170-j. ArkeU, WiUiam, 172, 257. ArkeU, Thomas, 172, 234, 287. Armand, de la Richardie, Rev., 274. Arm.strong, A. S., 248. Arthur, Sir George, 229. Askin, Col. J. B., 124, 144-5-6, 173, 203, 214, 243-8, 299. Askin, John H. L., 146. Askins, The, 149. Ault, John, 263. Aylmer, Lord, 159, 232, 261. 63, 34. 51. 74. 161, 227, 161. Baby, — ., 15'- Baby, Hon. Jaraes, 151 Baby, F. and C, 221. Baby, W. L., 157, 213. Backhouse, Col. and faraUy, 60, 80, 84, 122, 260. Backus, Stephen, 37, 270, 285, Backus's, 107. Bagot, Sir Charles, 247-8. Baker, »20, 261. Baker, Elder, 281. Baldwin, Dr. W. W., 45, 112, 192, 201. Baldwin, Hon., Robt., 112, ig2-3- 6-g, 201, 240-S Balkwill, John, 246, 250-1. BaU, 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, 248, 2gg. Bedford, 227. Beemer, John, 122. BeU, Mr., 73. , BeU, Capt., 221. Belton, Rev. S., 278. Benedicts, 256. Benners, 260. Bennett, Holton, 251, 278. Berdans, 257. Berett, Rev. T., 2g9. Best, 256, 263. BidweU, 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, 6g, 74-8, 82-3-4, 106, 114, 137, 144, 171-2, 203, 224, 228, 258, 270. Bostwick, John, Jr., 212. Bostwick, Misses, 2go. BosweU, Rev. E. J., 140. Boughner, John, 257. Boughners, 257. Boulton, James, 145. Boulton, H. J., ig3. Bowen, Major, 6g. 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, 2ig. Brant, Joseph, 12, 16, 17, 20. • Bray, Elder, 282. Brebeuf, 2. Breen, Lieut., 208. Breffney, 7. Brigham, B. B., 37, 45, 51, 74, 176. Brock, Sir Isaac, 47, 50-55, 66-7-g, 70-1, 96-7, 151, i8g, 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, 25g. Buckingham, Marquis of, 8. BuUens, 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, g6-7, 106, iio-ii, 113 to 116, 12I-3, 134-8, 144-7, '52. 160, 174, i8g, ig3-6, 225, 246, 256, 271, 284-8-g, 293-4, 3°'- BurweU, John, 176, 204. BurweU, James, 256. BurweU, 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. CampbeU, , 257, 284. Campbell, Dugald, gg. Campbell, Sir Alex., 244. Campbell, Elder D., 282. Campbell, Colonel, 79, 81, Campbell, Miss, 290. Campeau, , 274. Campion, Rev. Jas. W., 374. 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. CarroU, Peter, 152. CarroU, 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, 263. Charmonel, Bishop, 276. Chase, 206, 212. Chaumonot, z. 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, 208. Cline, Jacob, 263. CUnes, 263. Clunas, 263. Colborne, Sir John, 96-8. 112, 159, 163-4-7. 176, 191-2-3- Coleman, Capt., 72. Collins, Sergeant, 85. Collins, C, 220. CoUins, H. E., 279. Collins, igo-i. Coltman, Widow, 145. Colton, R., 269. Comfort, Stephen, 235. Comfort, Hiram, 235. Cooper, Sir Astley, 112. Corbett, 82. 382 THE TALBOT REGIME. Cornishes, The, I4g. Cornish, W. K., 144-5, 246. Cornish, Frank, 145, Couche, Dep. Cora. Gen'l, 6g. Cowley, Mi.ss, 173. Cowley, Joseph, 242. Coyne, Henry, 100-6, 285. Coyne, William, 234, 252, 280. Coyne, James, 234, 280, Craddock, Miss, 173. Craig, 24g. 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-g, 159, 271-3, 2go. 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-g, 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, i4g. 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., gg. Dickson, 83. Dingman, 148. Dixon, Capt., 55. Dixon, John, 82-7. Dixon, T. C, 246-g, 252. Doan, J., 227. Doan, J. G. and wife, 227-8. Dobbie, G. and A., 263. Dockstader, 83. • Dpdd, John, 237. Dodd, James, 27g, 280. Dodge, Colonel, 213. Dollier de Cas.son, 3. Dolsens, 36. Dolsen, J. and M., 17. Donnelly, Dr., 147, 156. Doolittles, 260. Dorchester, Lord, 13, 5g. DougaU, James, 221. DougaU, 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., ng, 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-g, 80-1-2. Drummond, Alex., 147. Du L'hut, 3. Duck, 211, 220. Duggan, John, 248. Duncombe, Dr. C. and family, 113, 120, 173, 188, ig4-5-6, 202 to 207, 22S-6-8-g, 259. INDEX OF NAMES. 383 Duncombe, Dr. E. and family, 120, 149. 175. 194. 207. 234-6. Duncombe, David, 194. Dunlop, Dr., 93, 304-g-io. Dunn, Hon. Mr., igg. Durfee, 208. Durrant, Rev. J., 281. Dyer, Miss, 286. Eastabrook, Joseph, 152. Ea.stwood, Elder, 281-2. Eberts, Capt., 267. Ebbs, Rev. E., 281. Eccles, S. and family, 170-1-2-3-4, 28g. Edison, Thos. A., 262. Edison, Samuel, 263. Edmonds, Miss, 290. Edmondson, John, 280. Edward, Duke of Kent, lo, 23, 27-8-g. Edwdrd, Mr., i3g. Edwards, Mor'v'n M., 17, 282. ' Elgin, Lord, 248, 251-2. Ellesmere, Lady, 12. Elliott, Colonel, 56, 214. EUiott, Capt., 221. Elliott, Judge Wm., 243, 2go. EUiott, George, 256. EUiott, 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., gg. Ford, Thomas, gg. Forsyth, 191. Foster, Geo., 121. Fowler, Levi, 256-7. Francis, Capt. 83. Franklin, Dr., 157. FrankHns, 262. Fraser, Simon, 59. Fraser, Mr., 158. Fraser, Rev. W., 276. Fra.ser, Rev. John, 277, 288. Freeman, 187. French, 2go. Fullerton, Mathews, 263. Galbraith, 157. Galbraith, Walter, 75. Galinee, 3. Ganson, EUsha S., 255. Gardiner, Thomas, 100, 285 Gardiner. Singleton, 100. Gardner, Lieut., 63. Garnsey, Samuel, 256. Garrett, 212. Geary, Wm., ¦I3g. Geeris, Wm., 121. George IIL, ig, 23, 28, sg, 315. 384 THE TALBOT REGIME. George IV., 192. Georgina, ig. Gibbins, Mr., 250. Gibbons, Jaraes, 262. Gilbert, R. and sons, 25g, 289. Gilbert, Ira, 256. GUbert, David, 257. GUbert, Dr., 175. GiUies, Archibald, 99, 102-3. GilUes, John, gg, 103. Givens, Colonel, 16, ig, 56. Givens, James, Judge, 147, 248, 289. Glasgow, Capt., 214-15. Glasgow, 126. Glass, Sheriff, 286. Glegg, Major, 55-6-9. Glenelg, Lord, ig6-8, 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, 9 1 -6-7, 188-9, 190. 304- Gould, Anson, 235. Gourlay, Robt., 190. Gowan, O. R., 280. Graham, 157. Grame, Lieut., 73. Grant, Chas., Sr., 220. Grant, Commodore, 188. GranviUe, Lord, 32. Gray, Lieut., 16. Green, 80, 288. Grey, John, 121, 250. 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., gg. Gunn, W. & Co., 244. Gunne, Rev. John, 273. Gunns, 263. Gzowski, Sir Casimir, 236. Haekstaff, C. H., 242. Hagerman, SoUcitor-General, ig3. Haggert, Neil, gg. Haight, 235, 175. Haleys, 263. HaU, 77, 264. Halton, Major, 46, 66, log. Hambly, Mr., 37. HamUton, Lieut.-CoL, 76. Hamilton & Warren, 120-21, 134, 174, 234, 258. Hamilton, Jaraes, 120-23, 234, 248, 255. 2gg. Hamilton, Hon. John, 120, 286. Hamilton, Henry, I4g, 246. Hamilton, Rev. John, 278. Hamiltons, 257. Hancks, Lieut., 55. Handy, General H. S., 2og, 220. Hanover, King of, 24-2g. Hannah, Wm., 284. Hanvey, Daniel, 175. Hardinge, Lord, 2g6. Hardy, Joseph, 121. Harris, 146-9, 257. Harris, John, 124, 144-5, 208, 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. gs. Head, Sir F. B., 143, ig6 to 201, 22g. 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. HoUand, Rev. H., 273, 29g. Hollywood, 263. Holmes, Capt., 72-3. Holmes, Samuel, 218. Holmes, Marcus, 246. Holmes, Major, 250. Hope, Hon. Adam, 233, 240. Hope and Hodge, 234, 23g. ' Hope, Birrell & Co., 244. Hope, Charles, 245. Hopkins, Elder, 282. Horner, Thos., 38, ig4. 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-g, 220, 246, 252. HuU, General, 4g, 52-3-5, 68, 71, 86, 213, 223. Hume, Joseph, ig6-7-8. Hume, Dr., 221. Hunter, Lieut. General, 33, 188. Hunter, Jeffry, 158, 184, 231, 2g7-g, 301-2-3-5-6-8-9-10. Hunter, Mrs., 2g7-g. Hutchisons, 261. Hyman, E. W., 246. Ingersoll, Chas., 80, 123. Ingersoll, James, 228. Innes, Sir James, 116, 234. Jackson, Rev. J., 278. Jaraes, C. C, 61. Jameson, Vice-ChanceUor, 178. Jameson, Mrs., 131, 178 to 188, 231, 273. 28g, 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. 386 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., 242-6-7-8-2_si. Kilfsall, Lieut., 214. Kingsford, 213, 2ig. Knights, 257. Labatt, Mr., 173. Labatt, family, 289. Labouchere, Mr., 185. Ladd, Alvro, 285. Ladd, Lemuel, 285. Ladd, Phural, 285. Lafont-aine, 248. Laing, Joseph, 235. Lampman, Peter, 220. Lampman, Rev. A., 273. Landoii, Elder, 281. Lanes, 261. Langan, E., 237-8. Lapenotiere, Mr., 208. LaSalle, 3. Lawless, L., 148. Lawrason, L., 148, 228, 8, 252, 29g. Lawrason & Chisholm, 244. Lawrence, Geo., 120. Lawton, Geo., 228, 24g. Learn, Jesse, 204. Lee, X)r., no, 147. Lee, Hiram D., 246. Lee, James, 287. Lees, The, i4g, 251. Lefroy, Capt,, 2g2-3. Leitch, gg. Leonard, Hon. E., 224-5-6, 244-5,. Leonard, family, 225. Lennox, Lady Sarah, 1 8g. 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, igo-i-2. Maitland, Lady Sarah, 151, 189. Maitland, Colonel, 177, 214-15-16, 220. Malcolm, 84-5-6. Malcolm, Eliakim, 304. Mallory, Benajah, 82-6, in. Mallory, Captain, 226. INDEX OF NAMES. 387 MandeviUe, 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, igo-i. Mathews, Edw., 246. Mathews, Mr., 252. Medcalf, Lieut., 76. Meeks, 212, 217, 257. Menzie, John, gg, loi. Meredith, J. W. C, 143 Meredith, SirW.'R., 143. Meredith, Justice, 143. Merrick, Levi, 139. MerrU, Elder, 281. Metcalfe, Lord, 240. MiUard, Daniel, 124. Millards, 257. Miller, John, 120. Miller, Edwin, 218. Miller & Kent, 170. Mills, 221, 259. Miller, N. and Hon. D., 265. MiUs, Rev. Father, 275. Mills, Elder, 281. Mitchell, Judge, 124, 144-5, 243, 285-6. MitcheU, 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., ig5, 201. Morse, Coray., 221. Mortiraer, Rev. A., 273. Mount, RosweU, 140, 152-6-7. Mountain, Bishop, 275. Mountcashel, Earl of, 265. Mountjoy, 246. Muckle, John, 83. Muir, Major, 84. Munro, George, gg, 100-1-2 3-4. Munro, Jaraes, 122. Munro, Sheriff, 257. Munroe, Mr., 160. Murray, Sir George, igi. McArthur, General, 81-3-4-5-6. Macbeth, George and family, 23,1-2, 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., gg. McColl, Nicoll, 257. McColl, Dugald, 257. McComb, steamer, 209. McConneUs, 260. McConneU, Shook, 282. McCormacks, 216. McCormack, Capt., 147, 208. McCormack, Wm., 217. McCrea's, 72. McDermOnds, 260. McDermond, Elder, 280. McDiarmid, Finlay, 40, gg. McDonald, Sir J. A., 244. McDonald, Sandy, 310. McDonnell, John, 45, 52-3-5-6, 274. McDonnell, Bishop, 274-5 McDougaU, Mr., 125. McDougall, John, gg, 276 McDougall, Colin, gg. McEwen, D. and J. , 99. 3^8 THE TALBOT REGIME. McFadden, I4g. McFee, Daniel, 237. McGregor, Gregor. 40, gg. McGregor, Lieut., 72-3. McGregor, Peter, 138-g. McGregor, Duncan, 201. McGugan, Donald, gg. Mcintosh, Rev. A., i3g, 140, 270-1- 2, 287. Mclntyre, Daniel, 257. Mclntyre, Ross and, 237. Mclntyres, 260. McKay, Angus, gg, 276. McKay, John, 233, 255, McKay, Williara, 233-6, 255. McKay, Mrs. and Miss, 237. McKeaud and Bell, 24g. McKee, Colonel, i8, 56. McKeon, Capt., 2ig. McKellar, Peter, gg, 101-4-6. McKellar, Sheriff, gg, loi. McKellar, Rev. D., 276. McKenney, Doyle, .204. McKenney, Richard, 228. McKenzie, W. Lyon, 113-14-15-20- 158, 162-3, igi-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, gg, 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, gg, 276. McNeal, Archibald, i ig, 238, 275 McNeal, Hugh, 237, 275. McPherson, 126. McPherson, Mrs., 231. McPyer.son, D. and H., 264. McPherson, Rev. Lachlin, 277. McQueen, Major, 72, 256-7. Napier, Sir Chas., 8. Neals, 75. Neff, Peter J., 263. NeUes, i6. Nevills, Major, 72, no, 153, 172-6, 203, 220-4, 27g, 280. Nevills, Miss, 172. Nichol, Lt.-Col., 46-8, 50-3-6, 6g, 81, in. Nichol, George, 84. Nichol, Mrs. R. B., 237. Niles, W. H., 242. Niles, Mr., 252. Nixon, Walter, I3g. Northumberland, Duke of, 47. Norvall, John, 244. Notman, Mr., 241-g. Oakes, Garrett, 27, 123. O'Brien, Joseph, 121. O'Brien, Dennis, 138, 141-g, 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, Jaraes, 7. Orr, Major, 208. Osgoode, Chief Justice, 3 J. Page, Jesse, 75. INDEX OF NAMES. 389 Palraer,' 77. Papineau, ig7-8, 2og. Parish, Thomas, 217-18. Parish, David, 237, 241, 255. Parkes, T4g. Parke, William, 124. Parke, Thoraas, 139, 230, 240-1-4-8. Parke, Sarauel, 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, "9. 270, 289. Penhale, Richard, 25g, 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. PoUard, Rev. R., 270. Pontiac, 18. Porter, Maj. -Gen'l, 82. Portland, Lord, 13. Portman, Hon. M. B., 145. Pounds, 261. Powell, Chief Justice, 8g, go to g3. Prevost, Sir Geo., 50-2-5, 65, 75. Price, Samuel, 172, 258-g. Prince, Col., ig6, 211, 214, 2ig, 221- Pritchards, 263. Proctor, General H., 51-6-7-8-g, 60- 1-2-3-4-5, 70-4. 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, 2g6-7. Railton, Geo., 240. Ralph, Robt., 121. Randolph, 14. RandaU, Mr., 287. Rapelje, Daniel, 37, 75, 77, 86, 119, 270-5. Rapelje, Mrs., 86. Rapelje, Sheriff A. A., 144-5-8-g. 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, I4g. Richardson, Major J., 50, 64. Richardson, 211 . Richmond, Duke of, i8g. Richmond, Duchess of, i8g, Ridout, Surveyor-General, 96-7, ns, 149. . 390 THE TALBOT REGIME. Ridout, George, 200. Rider, gg. Riley, Isaac, 203. Ritchie, Rev. Wm., 273. Rob, i4g. Roberts, Lord, g, 49, 210. Roberts, Capt., 49, 55, 210. Roberts, Br. Gen. E. J., 2og. Robertson, Alex., 220, 246. Robertson, Thos., i4g, 220. Robinson, Sir J. B., 52-4-6, g3, 150-1, igo, 293. Robinson, Sir F. B., iSg." Robinson, Hon. Peter, 54, 106, 121, i4g, 150 to 162, i6g, 170, igg, "234- Robinson, Hon. John B., 151 Robinson, John, 83. Robinson, Malcolm, gg. Rodgers, Peter, 121. Roe, Dr. J. Hill, 234. Roe, Charles, 234. Roe, John A., 234. Roebuck, igS. Rogers, 305. Roll, Dr., 155-6, 234. Rolph, Dr. Thoma.s, 54,66-7, io8-g. Rolph, Dr. John, 54, 67, 108 to 116, igo-i-2-3-4-g, 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, 27g. Ross & Mclntyre, 237. Ross, Rev., 276. Rottenburgh, Gen. de, 60, 65. Rouse, Elder, 282. Rowland, Elder D. W., 282. RusseU, Prest. Peter, i88. RusseU, Peter, 139, 260. Rutledge, Miss, 122. Ryan, Rev. T. D., 275. Ryerse, Samuel, 79, 122, 144, 292. Ryerse, Mrs., 7g. Ryerse Mills, 7g. Ryerson, Col. Joseph, 37, 48, 53, 278. Ryerson, George, 53-5-6, 108, 278. Ryerson, Egerton, ig7, 278, 2go. Ryerson, Rev. Wm., John and Edw. M., 278-g. Salmon, Major, 48, 53-6, 6g, 81-4, 108, 2gi-2. Salmon, Mrs., 2g2. 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, Thoraas, 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, 28g. Seaton, Lord, ig2. Secord, David, 37, 75. Selby, Mr., 45, 47. Selkirk, Lord, gg. Sells, John, 226. Sells, Wm., 233, 257. Senseman, 17, 282. Seward, Col., 2ig. 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. SUcox, 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. 3<38. Simpson, Levi, 288. Sirapson, Sir J., 2g7. Sinclair, Elder, 281. Skinner, Rev. Jaraes, 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, ng, 27g. Smith, Rev. I. B., 278. Smith, Moore & Co., 244. Smith, "Dandy," 287. Smith, , 257, 263-4, 2g8. Smith, Col. Samuel, i8g. Southwick, Dr., 234-8, 244. Sovereen, log, 2g2-3. Sparke, Capt., 221. Speedy, schooner, 16. Springer, 37, 50, 74. 296. Spurgin, Wra., 122. Stacey's, 280. Staffords, 257. Stanley, Lord, 185. Stevens, 149. Stewart, Bishop, 139, 270-1-4, 287. Stewart, Rev. James, 273. Stewart, Duncan, gg. Stewart, John, 146. Stimson, Rev. E. R., 273. Stimson, Dr., 175. Stimson, Miss, 148, 286. Stokes, 263. Stoney, Edmunds, 12I. Storor's, 272. Storey, 37, 107, 270. Strachan, Bishop, 136, 145, ig2, 24g, 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, S'- St. Clair, 157. Suffel, George, 263. Sullivan, Mr., 31. Summers', 155. Sutherland, General, 20g-io-ig. 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, g, 303. Talbot, Lieut.-Col., Neil, 7, 23. Talbot, Barbara, 7, 26-7. Talbot, WiUiam, 7, 66, i6g, 232. Talbot, Hon. Freeman, 42, 121, 139. 140. 246- 392 THE TALBOT REGIME. Talbot, Ed. A., 121, 132, 147, 176, 186, 242, 26g. Talbot, John, 121, 147, 163, 225, 286. Talbots (Tipperary), 264. Taylor (school master), 286. Taylor, WiUiam, 287. Teal, Asa, 263. Tecumseh, 54-7-8, 60-5, 223. Teeple, Peter, 122, 168. Teeple, Pelhara, 168. Ten-Brock, John, 138, 145. Thayer, Israel, 280. Thebo, Capt., 221. Thellar, Dr., (General), 2og-ii-i2- 14-22. T^heyendanegea, 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-ig. Tonty, 3. Tovey, Rev. A., 278. Tozer, Chas. G. A., 261. Travers, I4g. Travers, Dr., 104. Travers, Dr. John, 244. Trowbridge, i4g. Trydell, Col., 248. Turners, 257. Turquand, Dep. Com., 6g. Turrils, 25g. TurviUs, 225, 336. Triton, ship, 10. Tyas, Mr., 250. Tyrrel, John, 22g. VaU, Mr., 173. VanAUen, Capt., 221, VanAllen, Mills, 264. 267 VanBroklyn, Mr., 225. VanBuskirk, Mr., 227, 237. VanBuskirk, Dr. W. C, ng. Vandusen, Rev., 27g. VanEvery, Mr., 138, 286. VanNorman, Mr., 225. Vanpatters, 260. VanRensselaer, 203, 2og, 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, 6g, 87, 264, 315. Watson, Mrs. Dixie, 144. Watson, 256. Webb, Wm., 280. Wegg, George, 175. Welch, Thos., 122, 124. Wellesley, Arthur, 8, g, 2g6. Wellington, Duke of, 8, g, 156, 7, 316. Westbrook, 37, 4g, 73-4-5-7, 87. Westlake, Duncan, 25g, 287. Westmoreland, Lord, 8. Westovers, 260. INDEX OF NAMES. 393 WetheraU, Col., 248. White and MitcheU, 237, 275. Whitehead, G. W., 228. Whyte, Mrs., 231. Widdifield, 171. Wilcocks, 47. Wilcox, Joseph, 82, 87. WUkinson, Elder, 281. William, Prince & King, 22, 154, 156. Williams, Titus, 53, 71. WiUiams, 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. WiUiston, Rev., 279. Wills, Mr., 158. Wilson, Capt., 74-5, 220. Wilson, Col. Ben., 37, 72,75, 119. Wilson, CroweU, 171, 284. WUson, Jeptha, 211. Wilson, Mrs. J. H., 221-24. Wilson, John, (Judge), 145-6, 248-9 25'-2-3. 290. Wilson, Maj.-Gen. Jas. H., 2og. Wilson, Dr., 228. Wilson, Elder, 281. Wilsons, 155. Winchester, Gen'l, 57. Wogan, 6. Wolseley, Lord, 2g7. Wood, W. R., 221. Wood, 222. Wood, Amasa, 256-7. Wood, Nathan, 261. Wood, Philo, 280. Woodford, Sir A., 2g6. Woods, Judge R. S., 146, 208, 267, 270. Woodward, Lieut. J. K., 206-10-12, 233- WooUeys, 263. Wortley, Stuart, 185. Wortley, Lady, 2gi-4, 308. Wright, Francis, 286. Wright, Rev. Mr., 286. Wrong, Gilbert, 176,261. Yeigh, Mrs. KateW., 150. Yeo, Sir J., 58, 81, 2g2. Yerex, J., I3g, i4g. York, Duke of, 23. Youmans, R2v. D., 278. Young, Lady, 7, 26-7. Young, Sir Wra., 7. Young, Mor. Miss., F., 17, 282. Young, Judge, 144. Zeisberger, 17, 282.