CHAPTER XVI.
Contents—The term Concession—First Concession of Land in Canada—The Carignan Regiment—Seigniories—Disproportion of the sexes—Females sent from France—Their appearance—Settling them—Marriage allowance—The last seigniory—New Longeuil—Seigniory at Frontenac—Grants to Refugees—Officers and men—Scale of granting—Free of expense—Squatting—Disbanded soldiers—Remote regions—A wise and beneficent policy—Impostors—Very young officers—Wholesale granting of land—Republicans coming over—Covetous—False pretensions—Government had to discriminate—Rules and regulations—Family lands—Bounty—Certificates—Selling claims—Rear concessions—Transfer of location ticket—Land board—Tardiness in obtaining titles to real estate—Transfer by bond—Jobbing—Sir Wm. Pullency—Washington—Giving lands to favorites—Reserves—Evil results—The Family Compact—Extract from Playter—Extract from Lord Durham—From Gourlay—Recompense to Loyalists—Rations—Mode of drawing land—Land Agent—Broken front—Traitor Arnold—Tyendinaga.
CONCESSION OF LANDS TO THE FRENCH.
It has been stated that the term concession, as well as the system of granting land to disbanded soldiers, was derived from the French. The first concession of lands to soldiers took place in 1665, to the Carignan Regiment, a name derived from a Prince of the house of Savoy, which came to New France with the first Viceroy. It was a distinguished corps in the French Infantry, having won renown on many a bloody field, and carried death to many an Iroquois Indian. The Indians having sought peace from the French, leave was granted to this regiment to permanently settle in the New World. Titles to land was conferred according to rank, and as well, sums of money to assist in the clearing of land. “The officers, who were mostly noblesse obtained seigniories with their late soldiers for vassals.” The settlement of this body of men increased the disproportion between the males and females in Canada. The home government considerately took steps to remedy this abnormal state of things and despatched “several hundred from old France.” They “consisted of tall, short, fair, brown, fat and lean.” These females were offered to such of the men as had means to support a wife. In a few days they were all disposed of. The Governor-General then distributed to the newly married ones “oxen, cows, hogs, fowls, salted beef,” as well as money.—(Smith.)
The original grants of land by the French Government under the feudal system, was into seigniories. These were subdivided into parishes, “whose extents were exactly defined by De Vandreuil and Bigon, September 1721.” For these grants of seignioral tenure, certain acts of fealty were to be performed, pursuant to the custom of Paris. After the British supremacy, grants of land were still made by government in Lower Canada. The last seigniory was conferred by the French in April, 1734, to Chevalier de Longeuil, and is known as New Longeuil. It constitutes the western boundary of the Lower Province.
CONCESSION OF LANDS TO THE LOYALISTS.
We have elsewhere seen that the first person, other than the natives, to possess land in Upper Canada, was De la Salle, the discoverer of the Mississippi River, to whom was granted a seigniory at Cataraqui, of four leagues, including the fort, and the islands in front of the four leagues of territory. Wolfe, Gage and Amherst Islands.
At the close of the war in 1783, it was determined by government to confer grants of land to the refugee loyalists in Canada, on the same scale to officers and men as had been done after the conquest of Canada, 1763, with the exception that all loyalists under the rank of subaltern were to receive 200 acres. The grants to the disbanded soldiers and loyalists, were to be made free of every expense.
In some of the townships, the settlers were squatting along the St. Lawrence and Bay Quinté, until late in the summer and fall of 1784, waiting to know the location of their lots. This might easily be, as although the forest had been surveyed, the lots had not been numbered. So, although the refugee soldier had his location ticket for a certain lot, it was often a long tedious time before he could know its precise situation.
The front part of the first, second, third, fourth and fifth townships upon the bay were definitely disposed of to disbanded soldiers and refugees, formed into companies. But the lands, then considered more remote, as along the north shore of Hay Bay, in the third and fourth towns; in some parts of the fifth; and more particularly along the shores of the western extremity of the bay, were at the service of any one who might venture to settle. It was considered quite in the remote part of the earth. Even the head of Picton Bay was considered a place which would hardly be settled. The result was, that many of the choice lots were taken up in the eighth and ninth towns, before they were surveyed.
The policy pursued by the British Government, in recognizing the services of those who served in the British army against the rebels, and in recompensing the losses sustained by those who adhered to the British Crown in America, was most wise and beneficent. There were a few deserving ones in suffering circumstances, who failed to get the bounty so wisely granted. This sometimes was the result of the individual’s own neglect, in not advancing his claims; sometimes the fault of an agent who, too intent in getting for himself, forget those entrusted to his care. While a small number thus remained without justice, there were on the other hand, a large number who succeeded unworthily in obtaining grants. It is no cause for wonder, that out of the large number who composed the U. E. Loyalists, there would be found a certain number who would not hesitate to so represent, or misrepresent their case, that an undue reward would be accorded. Finding the government on the giving hand, they scrupled not to take advantage of its parental kindness. In later days we have seen the United States, when in the throes of a great civil war, bleeding at every point of the body politic, by the unprincipled contractors and others, who the most loudly proclaimed their patriotism. In 1783, when a rebellion had proved successful, and so had become a revolution, and the nation, from which a branch had been struck off, was most anxious to repay those who had preferred loyalty to personal aggrandizement, we may not wonder that there were some willing to take all they could get.
It is also related that certain officers of the regiments were in the habit of putting each of their children, however young, upon the strength of the regiment, with the view of securing him land, and hence arose an expression the “Major won’t take his pap,” and “half pay officers never die,” as the officer placed on half pay when a year old, would long enjoy it. But it will be often found that this mode was adopted by those in authority, as the most convenient to confer favors upon the chief officers, although a very ridiculous one.
For many a year no strict rules for discrimination, were observed in the granting of lands in Canada, and the petitions which literally crowded upon the government, were, in the main, promptly complied with. The time came, however, when more care had to be observed, for not a few of those who had actually rebelled, or had sympathized with the rebels, finding less advantages from republicanism than had been promised, and with chagrin, learning that those, whose homesteads and lands they had assisted to confiscate, had wrought out new homes upon land, conferred by a government more liberal, and of a nobler mind than the parvenu government, which had erected a new flag upon American soil, looked now with longing, covetous eyes toward the northern country, which those they had persecuted, had converted from a wilderness to comfortable homes. The trials of the first settlement had been overcome. The occasional visit of a Canadian pioneer to his old home in the States, where he told the pleasing tale of success, notwithstanding their cruelty, caused some to envy their hard earned comforts, and even led some who had been the worst of rebels, to set out for Canada with a view of asserting their loyalty and, thereby of procuring lands. Not a few of such unworthy ones succeeded for a time in procuring lands. It therefore became necessary, on the part of the government, to exact the most searching examination of parties petitioning for land. No reference is here made to those who came into the province in response to the invitation proclaimed by Governor Simcoe; but to those who entered under false colors, prior to the time of Upper Canada being set apart from Lower Canada.
Extracts from the Rules and Regulations for the conduct of the Land Office Department, dated Council Chamber, 17th February, 1789, for the guidance of the Land Boards.
“4th. The safety and propriety of admitting the petitioner to become an inhabitant of this Province being well ascertained to the satisfaction of the Board, they shall administer to every such person the oaths of fidelity and allegiance directed by law; after which the Board shall give every such petitioner a certificate to the Surveyor General or any person authorized to act as an Agent or Deputy Surveyor for the district within the trust of that Board, expressing the ground of the petitioner’s admission, and such Agent or Deputy Surveyor shall, within two days after the presentment of the certificate, assign the petitioner a single lot of about two hundred acres, describing the same with due certainty and accuracy under his signature. But the said certificate shall, nevertheless, have no effect if the petitioner shall not enter upon the location, and begin the improvement and cultivation thereof within one year from the date of such assignment, or if the petitioner shall have had lands assigned to him before that time in any other part of the Province.
“7th. The respective Boards shall, on petition from the Loyalists already settled in the Upper Districts for the allotment of lands under the instructions to the Deputy Surveyor General of the 2nd of June, 1787, or under prior or other orders for assigning portions to their families, examine into the grounds of such requests and claims, and being well satisfied of the justice thereof, they shall grant certificates for such further qualities of lands as the said instructions and orders may warrant to the acting Surveyors of their Districts respectively, to be by them made effectual in the manner before mentioned, but to be void, nevertheless, if prior to the passing the grant in form, it shall appear to the Government that such additional locations have been obtained by fraud, and that of these the Boards transmit to the office of the Governor’s Secretary, and to each others, like reports and lists as hereinbefore, as to the other locations directed.
“8th. And to prevent individuals from monopolizing such spots as contain mines, minerals, fossils, and conveniences for mills, and other similar advantages of a common and public nature, to the prejudice of the general interest of the settler, the Surveyor-General and his Agents or Deputy Surveyors in the different districts, shall confine themselves in the location to be made by them upon certificates of the respective Boards, to such lands only as are fit for the common purpose of husbandry; and they shall reserve all other spots aforementioned, together with all such as may be fit and useful for ports and harbours, or works of defence, or such as contain valuable timber for ships, building or other purposes, conveniently situated for water carriage, in the hands of the Crown, and they shall, without delay, give all particular information to the Governor or Commander-in-Chief for the time being, of all such spots as are hereinbefore directed to be reserved to the Crown, that order may be taken respecting the same. And the more effectually to prevent abuses and to put individuals on their guard in this respect, any certificate of location given contrary to the true intent and meaning of this regulation is hereby declared to be null and void, and a special order of the Governor and Council made necessary to pledge the faith of Government for granting of any such spots as are directed to be reserved.
FAMILY LANDS AND ADDITIONAL BOUNTY.
“Certificate of the Board appointed by His Excellency the Governor, for the District of ——, in the Province of Quebec, under the rules and regulations for the conduct of the Land Office Department.
“Dated, Council Chamber, Quebec, 17th February, 1789.
“The bearer ——, having on the —— day of ——, preferred to the Board a Petition addressed to His Excellency the Governor in Council, for a grant of —— acres of land in the Township of —— in the District of ——. We have examined into his character and pretentions, and find that he has received —— acres of land in the Township of ——, in the District of ——, and that he settled on and has improved the same, and that he is entitled to a further assignment of —— acres, —— in conformity to the seventh articles of the rules and regulations aforementioned.
“Given at the Board at this —— day of ——, one thousand seven hundred and ——.
“To ——
“Acting Surveyor for the District of ——.
CERTIFICATE OF THE ACTING SURVEYOR.
“I assign to the bearer —— the lot No. —— in the Township of ——, in the District of ——, containing —— acres, —— chains, which lands he is hereby authorized to occupy and improve, and having improved the same, he shall receive the same grant thereof, to him and his heirs or devisee in due form on such terms as it shall please His Majesty to ordain, and all persons are desired to take notice that this assignment and all others of a similar nature are not transferable, by purchase, donation or otherwise, on any pretence whatever, except by an act under the signature of the Board for the District in which the lands are situated, which is to be endorsed upon this Certificate.
“Given at ——, this —— day of ——, one thousand seven hundred and ——.
“To ——
“Acting Surveyor for the District of ——.”
But there were many a one who drew land, and never even saw it. It was quickly, thoughtlessly sometimes, sold for little or nothing. Sometimes for a quart of rum. The right jolly old soldier would take no thought of the morrow. A few did not retain their lands, because they were of little value for agricultural purposes; but the majority because they were situated in that remote region in the 4th or 5th concession of the third town, or away up in the 2nd concession of sixth town, or a long way up in the eighth town. Rear concessions of even the first and second townships were looked upon doubtingly, as to whether the land was worth having. Often the land would not be looked after. It not unfrequently was the case that settlers upon the front who had drawn land also in the rear townships, disposed of the latter, not from any indifference as to its future value, but to obtain the immediate necessaries of life, as articles of clothing, or stock, or perhaps food, or seed grain, and now and then in later days to pay taxes. The certificates of the children, entitling them to land when of age, were often disposed of. Even officers found it convenient, or necessary to sell rear land to new comers, for ready money.
Thus it came to pass that a good many never took possession of the land which a prudent Government had granted them. The statement has been made that persons holding prominent positions at the time, and possessed of prudent forethought, as to the value which would in the future attach to certain lots, stood ready not only to accept offers to sell, but to induce the ignorant and careless to dispose of their claims. Consequently when patents were issued, several persons became patentees of large tracts of land, which had been drawn by individual Loyalists, whose names never appeared in the Crown Land Office. The transfer of a certificate or “location ticket,” consisted in the seller writing his name upon the back of the ticket. Occasionally a ticket would exchange hands several times, so that at last when it was presented to obtain the deed, it was difficult to determine who was the owner. The power to thus transfer the certificates, was allowed for several years. But in time Government discovered the abuses which had arisen out of it, and decided that all patents should, thenceforward, be in the name of the person who originally drew the land. Not unfrequently these certificates were lost. The losers, upon claiming land, could not establish their rights; but Government, to meet this misfortune, created a Land Board for each Township, whose duty it was to examine and determine the claims of all who presented them.
The following extract of a letter will explain itself:
“For the Kingston Gazette, June 1st, 1816.”
“It has long been a subject of deep regret in the minds of judicious persons, that the inhabitants of this Province should be so neglectful as they are in securing their titles of real estate. When the country was first settled, the grants of land from the crown, on account of the existing state of the Province, could not be immediately issued. The settlers, however, drew their lots and went into possession of them, receiving only tickets, or certificates, as the evidence of their right to them. In the meantime, exchanges and sales were made by transfers of the possession with bonds for conveyances when the deeds should be obtained from the Crown Office.
“This practice of transferring land by way of bond, being thus introduced, was continued by force of usage, after the cause of its introduction was removed. In too many instances it is still continued, although, by the death of the parties, and the consequent descent of estates to heirs under age, and other intervening privations, many disappointments, failures, and defects of title, are already experienced; and the evil consequences are becoming still more serious, as lands rise in value, become more settled and divided among assignees, devisees, &c. In a few years this custom, more prevalent perhaps in this Province, than elsewhere, will prove a fruitful source of litigation, unless the practice should be discontinued.”
In connection with free grants of land, and a certain degree of indifference as to the value, there must necessarily arise more or less speculation or land-jobbing.
Sir William Pullency has been called the first land-jobber in Canada. In 1791, he bought up 1,500,000, at one shilling per acre, and soon after sold 700,000 at an average of eight shillings per acre. But land-jobbing is not peculiar to Canada, nor has its practice militated against the public character of eminent men, either here or abroad. General Washington was not only a Surveyor, but an extensive land-jobber, and thereby increased immensely his private fortune.
We have seen elsewhere, that a few private individuals were wont to buy the location tickets of all who desired to part with them, or whom they could induce to sell. In this way a few individuals came to own large quantities of land, even from the first. Afterward, there was often conferred by the authorities, quantities of land upon those connected with influential persons, or upon favorites. Subsequently the mode of reserving Crown and Clergy lands increased the evil. And it was an evil, a serious drawback; not alone that, but favorites procured land without any particular claim or right. The land thus held in reserve, being distributed among the settled lots in the several townships, was waste land, and a barrier to advancement. Each settler had to clear a road across his lot; but the Government lots, and those held by non-residents, remained without any road across them, except such paths as the absolute requirements of the settlers had caused them to make. In this way, the interests of the inhabitants were much retarded, and the welfare of the Province seriously damaged. The existence of the Family Compact prevented the removal of this evil, for many a year, while favorites enjoyed choice advantages. In 1817, “The House of Assembly in Upper Canada took into consideration the state of the Province, and among other topics, the injury arising from the reserve lands of the Crown and the Clergy.” In laying out the townships in later years, “The Government reserved in the first concession, the 5th, 15th, and 20th lots; and the Clergy the 3rd, 10th, 17th, and 22nd. In the second concession, the Crown reserved the 4th, 11th, 21st, and 23rd; and the Clergy, the 2nd, 9th, and 16th. And thus in every two concessions, the Crown would have three lots in one, and four in the other, or seven in all; and the Clergy the same; or 14 lots reserved in every 48, or nearly one-third of the land in each concession, and in each township. The object of the reservation was to increase the value of such land by the improvements of the settlers around it. The object was selfish, as the reserve lands injured all those who did them good. It was difficulty enough to clear up the forests; but to leave so many lots in this forest state, was a difficulty added by the Crown. To have one-third of a concession uncleared and uncultivated, was an injury to the two-thirds cleared and cultivated. Large patches of forest, interspersed with cultivated land, obstructs the water courses, the air, and the light; nurtured wild animals and vermin destructive to crops and domestic creatures around a farm house; and especially, are injurious to roads running through them, by preventing the wind and the sun from drying the moisture. Besides, no taxes were paid by these wild lots for any public improvements; only from cultivated lands. The Assembly, however, were cut short in their work of complaint, by being suddenly prorogued by the Governor, whose Council was entirely against such an investigation. Here was the beginning of the Clergy Reserve agitation in the Provincial Parliament, which continued for many years.”—(Playter.)
In this connection, the following extract from a report of Lord Durham, will be found interesting:
“By official returns which accompany this report, it appears that, out of about 17,000,000 acres comprised within the surveyed districts of Upper Canada, less than 1,600,000 acres are yet unappropriated, and this amount includes 450,000 acres the reserve for roads, leaving less than 1,200,000 acres open to grant, and of this remnant 500,000 acres are required to satisfy claims for grants founded on pledges by the Government. In the opinion of Mr. Radenhurst, the really acting Surveyor-General, the remaining 700,000 consist for the most, part of land inferior in position or quality. It may almost be said, therefore, that the whole of the public lands in Upper Canada have been alienated by the Government. In Lower Canada, out of 6,169,963 acres in the surveyed townships, nearly 4,000,000 acres have been granted or sold; and there are unsatisfied but indisputable claims for grants to the amount of about 500,000. In Nova Scotia nearly 6,000,000 acres of land have been granted, and in the opinion of the Surveyor-General, only about one-eighth of the land which remains to the Crown, or 300,000 acres is available for the purposes of settlement. The whole of Prince Edward’s Island, about 1,400,000 acres, was alienated in one day. In New Brunswick 4,400,000 acres have been granted or sold, leaving to the Crown about 11,000,000, of which 5,500,000 are considered fit for immediate settlement.
“Of the lands granted in Upper and Lower Canada, upwards of 3,000,000 acres consist of ‘Clergy Reserves,’ being for the most part lots of 200 acres each, scattered at regular intervals over the whole face of the townships, and remaining, with few exceptions, entirely wild to this day. The evils produced by the system of reserving land for the Clergy have become notorious, even in this country; and a common opinion I believe prevails here, not only that the system has been abandoned, but that measures of remedy have been adopted. This opinion is incorrect in both points. In respect of every new township in both Provinces reserves are still made for the Clergy, just as before; and the Act of the Imperial Parliament which permits the sale of the Clergy Reserves, applies to only one-fourth of the quantity The select committee of the House of Commons on the civil government of Canada reported in 1828, that “these reserved lands, as they are at present distributed over the country, retard more than any other circumstance the growth of the colony, lying as they do in detached portions of each township, and intervening between the occupations of actual settlers, who have no means of cutting roads through the woods and morasses, which thus separate them from their neighbours. This description is perfectly applicable to the present state of things. In no perceptible degree has the evil been remedied.
“The system of Clergy Reserves was established by the act of 1791, commonly called the Constitutional Act, which directed that, in respect of all grants made by the Crown, a quantity equal to one-seventh of the land so granted should be reserved for the clergy. A quantity equal to one-seventh of all grants would be one-eighth of each township, or of all the public land. Instead of this proportion, the practice has been, ever since the act passed, and in the clearest violation of its provisions, to set apart for the clergy in Upper Canada a seventh of all the land, which is a quantity equal to a sixth of the land granted. There have been appropriated for this purpose 300,000 acres, which legally, it is manifest, belong to the public. And of the amount for which Clergy Reserves have been sold in that Province, namely, £317,000 (of which about £100,000 have been already received and invested in the English funds,) the sum of about £45,000 should belong to the public.
“In Lower Canada, the same violation of the law has taken place, with this difference—that upon every sale of Crown and Clergy Reserves, a fresh reserve for the Clergy has been made, equal to one-fifth of such reserves. The result has been the appropriation for the clergy of 673,567 acres, instead of 446,000, being an excess of 227,559 acres, or half as much again as they ought to have received. The Lower Canada fund already produced by sales amounts to £50,000, of which, therefore, a third, or about £16,000, belong to the public. If, without any reform of this abuse, the whole of the unsold Clergy Reserves in both Provinces should fetch the average price at which such lands have hitherto sold, the public would be wronged to the amount of about £280,000; and the reform of this abuse will produce a certain and almost immediate gain to the public of £60,000. In referring, for further explanation of this subject, to a paper in the appendix which has been drawn up by Mr. Hanson, a member of the commission of inquiry which I appointed for the colonies. I am desirous of stating my own conviction that the clergy have had no part in this great misappropriation of the public property, but that it has arisen entirely from heedless misconception, or some other error, of the civil government of both Provinces.”
“The great objection to reserves for the clergy is, that those for whom the land is set apart never have attempted, and never could successfully attempt, to cultivate or settle the property, and that, by special appropriation, so much land is withheld from settlers, and kept in a state of waste, to the serious injury of all settlers in its neighborhood. But it would be a great mistake to suppose that this is the only practice by which such injury has been, and still is, inflicted on actual settlers. In the two Canadas, especially, the practice of rewarding, or attempting to reward, public services by grants of public land, has produced, and is still producing, a degree of injury to actual settlers which it is difficult to conceive without having witnessed it. The very principle of such grants is bad, inasmuch as, under any circumstances, they must lead to an amount of appropriation beyond the wants of the community, and greatly beyond the proprietor’s means of cultivation and settlement. In both the Canadas, not only has this principle been pursued with reckless profusion, but the local executive governments have managed, by violating or evading the instructions which they received from the Secretary of State, to add incalculably to the mischiefs that would have arisen at all events.
“In Upper Canada, 3,200,000 acres have been granted to “U. E. Loyalists,” being refugees from the United States, who settled in the province before 1787, and their children; 730,000 acres to Militia men; 450,000 acres to discharged Soldiers and Sailors; 225,000 acres to Magistrates and Barristers; 136,000 acres to Executive Councillors, and their families; 50,000 acres to five Legislative Councillors, and their families; 36,900 acres to Clergymen, as private property; 264,000 to persons contracting to make surveys; 92,526 acres to officers of the Army and Navy; 500,000 acres for the endowment of schools; 48,520 acres to Colonel Talbot; 12,000 acres to heirs of General Brock, and 12,000 acres to Dr. Mountain, a former Bishop of Quebec; making altogether, with the Clergy Reserves, nearly half of all the surveyed land in the province. In Lower Canada, exclusively of grants to refugee loyalists, as to the amount of which the Crown Lands’ Department could furnish me with no information, 450,000 acres having been granted to Militiamen, to Executive Councillors 72,000 acres, to Governor Milne, about 48,000 acres, to Mr. Cushing and another, upwards of 100,000 acres (as a reward for giving information in a case of high treason), to officers and soldiers 200,000 acres, and to “leaders of townships” 1,457,209 acres, making altogether, with the Clergy Reserves, rather more than half of the surveyed lands originally at the disposal of the Crown.
“In Upper Canada, a very small proportion (perhaps less than a tenth) of all the land thus granted, has been even occupied by settlers, much less reclaimed and cultivated. In Lower Canada, with the exception of a few townships bordering on the American frontier, which have been comparatively well settled, in despite of the proprietors, by American squatters, it may be said that nineteen-twentieths of these grants are still unsettled, and in a perfectly wild state.
“No other result could have been expected in the case of those classes of grantees whose station would preclude them from settling in the wilderness, and whose means would enable them to avoid exertion for giving immediate value to their grants; and unfortunately, the land which was intended for persons of a poorer order, who might be expected to improve it by their labor, has, for the most part, fallen into the hands of land-jobbers of the class just mentioned, who have never thought of settling in person, and who retain the land in its present wild state, speculating upon its acquiring a value at some distant day, when the demand for land shall have increased through the increase of population.
“In Upper Canada,” says Mr. Bolton, himself a great speculator and holder of wild land, “the plan of granting large tracts of land to gentlemen who have neither the muscular strength to go into the wilderness, nor perhaps, the pecuniary means to improve their grants, has been the means of a large part of the country remaining in a state of wilderness. The system of granting land to the children of U. E. Loyalists has not been productive of the benefits expected from it. A very small proportion of the land granted to them has been occupied or improved. A great proportion of such grants were to unmarried females, who very readily disposed of them for a small consideration, frequently from £2 to £5 for a grant of 200 acres. The grants made to young men were also frequently sold for a very small consideration; they generally had parents with whom they lived, and were therefore not disposed to move to their grants of lands, but preferred remaining with their families. I do not think one-tenth of the lands granted to U. E. Loyalists has been occupied by the persons to whom they were granted, and in a great proportion of cases not occupied at all.” Mr. Randenhurst says, “the general price of these grants was from a gallon of rum up to perhaps £6, so that while millions of acres were granted in this way, the settlement of the Province was not advanced, nor the advantage of the grantee secured in the manner that we may suppose to have been contemplated by government.” He also mentions amongst extensive purchasers of these grants, Mr. Hamilton, a member of the Legislative Council, who bought about 100,000 acres. Chief Justices Emslie and Powell, and Solicitor General Gray, who purchased from 20,800 to 50,000 acres; and states that several members of the Executive and Legislative Councils, as well as of the House of Assembly, were “very large purchasers.”
“In Lower Canada, the grants to “Leaders and Associates” were made by an evasion of instructions which deserve a particular description.
“By instructions to the Local Executive immediately after the passing of the Constitutional Act, it was directed that “because great inconveniences had theretofore arisen in many of the colonies in America, from the granting excessive quantities of land to particular persons who have never cultivated or settled the same, and have thereby prevented others more industrious, from improving such lands; in order, therefore, to prevent the like inconveniences in future, no farm-lot should be granted to any person being master or mistress of a family in any township to be laid out which should contain more than 200 acres.” The instructions then invest the governor with a discretionary power to grant additional quantities in certain cases, not exceeding 1,000 acres. According to these instructions 200 acres should have been the general amount, 1,200 the maximum, in special cases to be granted to any individual. The greater part, however, of the land (1,457,200 acres) was granted, in fact, to individuals at the rate of from 10,000 to 50,000 to each person. The evasion of the regulations was managed as follows: A petition, signed by from 10 to 40 or 50 persons, was presented to the Executive Council, praying for a grant of 1,200 acres to each person, and promising to settle the land so applied for. Such petitions were, I am informed, always granted, the Council being perfectly aware that, under a previous agreement between the applicants (of which the form was prepared by the then Attorney General, and sold publicly by the law stationers of Quebec), five-sixths of the land was to be conveyed to one of them, termed leader, by whose means the grant was obtained. In most cases the leader obtained the most of the land which had been nominally applied for by fifty persons.”
Upon this subject we further give as worthy of attention, although we will not endorse all that is said, the remarks made by Mr. Robert Gourlay in his “Statistical Account.” He says, “when we look back into the history of old countries, and observe how landed property was first established; how it was seized upon, pulled about, given away, and divided in all sorts of ways, shapes, and quantities; how it was bequeathed, burdened, entailed, and leased in a hundred forms; when we consider how dark were the days of antiquity,—how grossly ignorant and savage were our remote forefathers, we cannot be so much surprised at finding ourselves heirs to confusion; and, that, in these old countries, entanglement continues to be the order of the day. But when civilized men were quietly and peaceably to enter into the occupancy of a new region, where all could be adjusted by the square and compass; and when order, from the beginning, could have prevented for ever all possibility of doubt, and dispute, and disturbance; how deplorable is it to know, that in less than a life-time, even the simplest affairs should get into confusion! and so it is already in Upper Canada, to a lamentable degree. Boundaries of land are doubtful and disputed: deeds have been mislaid, lost, unfounded, forged: they have been passed again and again in review before commissioners: they have been blotted and blurred: they have got into the repositories of attornies and pettifogging lawyers; while courts of justice are every day adding doubt to doubt, delay to delay, and confusion to confusion; with costs, charges, cheating.
“Things are not yet beyond the reach of amendment, even in the old settlements. In the new, what a glorious task it is to devise plans for lasting peace and prosperity!—to arrange in such a way, as to bar out a world of turmoil in times to come!
“The present very unprofitable and comfortless condition of Upper Canada must be traced back to the first operations of Simcoe. With all his honesty, and energy, and zeal for settling the Province, he had really no sound views on the subject, and he was infinitely too lavish in disposing of the land—infinitely too much hurried in all his proceedings. In giving away land to individuals, no doubt, he thought he would give these individuals an interest in the improvement of the country,—an inducement to settle in it, and draw to it settlers; but he did not consider the character and condition of most of his favorites; many of them officers in the army, whose habits did not accord with business, and less still with solitude and the wilderness; whose hearts were in England, and whose wishes were intent on retirement thither. Most of them did retire from Upper Canada, and considering, as was really the case, their land grants of little value, forgot and neglected them. This was attended with many bad consequences. Their lands became bars to improvement; as owners they were not known; could not be heard of; could not be applied to, or consulted with, about any measure for public advantage. Their promises under the Governor’s hand, their land board certificates, their deeds, were flung about and neglected. But mischief greater than all this, arose, is, and will be, from the badness of surveys. Such was the haste to get land given away, that ignorant and careless men were employed to measure it out, and such a mess did they make of their land-measuring, that one of the present surveyors informed me, that in running new lines over a great extent of the Province, he found spare room for a whole township in the midst of those laid out at an early period. It may readily be conceived, upon consideration of this fact, what blundering has been committed, and what mistakes stand for correction. Boundary lines in the wilderness are marked by blazing, as it is called, that is, chopping off with an axe, a little bark from such trees as stand nearest to the line. Careless surveyors can readily be supposed to depart wide of the truth with this blazing: their measuring chains cannot run very straight, and their compass needles, where these are called in aid, may be greatly diverted from the right direction by ferruginous substances in the neighbourhood, as spoken of. In short, numerous mistakes and errors of survey have been made and discovered: much dispute has arisen therefrom; and I have been told infinite mischief is still in store. It occurred to me, while in Canada, and it was one of the objects which, had a commission come home, I meant to have pressed on the notice of government, that a complete new survey and map of the Province should be executed; and at the same time a book, after the manner of Doomsday-book, written out and published, setting forth all the original grants, and describing briefly but surely all property both public and private. I would yet most seriously recommend such to be set about. It might be expensive now, but would assuredly save, in time to come, a pound for every penny of its cost.”
We have seen elsewhere that, in the terms of peace made at Paris when hostilities ceased, justice was not done to the American Loyalists. But subsequently, when their claims became known to the British public, there was uttered no uncertain sound, upon the floor of Parliament, respecting the duty resting upon England towards the devoted but distressed loyalists who had laid all upon the altar of patriotism; and to the honor of England be said, every step was now taken to provide some recompense for the United Empire Loyalists. It is true, the old homes with their comforts and associations could not be restored; the wilderness was to be their home, a quiet conscience their comfort, and their associations those of the pioneer for many a day. But, what could be done, was done by the Crown to render their circumstances tolerable. Extensive grants of land were granted, not alone to the disbanded soldier according to rank, but to every one who had become a refugee. Three years supply of rations were allowed to all, as well as clothing; and certain implements were furnished with which to clear the land and prepare it for agriculture. The scale of granting lands was, to a field officer 5000 acres, captain 3000, subaltern 2000, private 200. The loyalists were ranked, with the disbanded soldiers, according to their losses, and services rendered, having taken the usual oath of allegiance; and all obtained their grants free of every expense. In 1798, complaints having been made to the Imperial Government respecting the profuse manner of granting lands, royal instructions were given to Gen. Hunter to limit the allowance to a quantity from 200 to 1,200. The grants of land when large, were not to be in blocks; but few secured more than 200 acres upon the front townships. The original mode of granting lands, at least to the soldiers, was by lot. The process was simple. The number of each lot, to be granted in each concession, was written on a separate piece of paper, and all were placed in a hat and well shaken, when each one to receive land, drew a piece of paper from the hat. The number upon the paper was the number of his lot. He then received a printed location ticket. In drawing lots, no one felt any particular anxiety. They were yet unacquainted with the country, they had not seen the land, and one number was as likely to prove as valuable as another.
It would seem that the Surveyor acted as Land Agent. Having surveyed the lots, he prepared the ballot, and arranged the time and place for the settlers to draw. It was no doubt this original mode of drawing by lottery, which gave the provincial term drawing land. We have the testimony of Ex-Sheriff Sherwood, that the Surveyor discharged this office. He recollects “Esquire Collins;” he was at his father’s house, and his father assisted in the matter of drawing with those who had assembled for the purpose. The Surveyor had a plan by him, and as each drew his lot, his name was written immediately upon the map. Many of the plans, with names upon them, may be seen in the Crown Land Department. Some of the settlers upon the front acquired much more land than others by reason of the “broken front.” It often happened that the base line, running from one cove of the Bay to another, left between it and the water a large strip of land. This “broken front” belonged to the adjacent 200 acres, so that often the fortunate party possessed even 50 or 100 acres extra.
One of the noted individuals to whom land was granted in Upper Canada, was Arnold the Traitor. 18,000 acres was given him, and £10,000.
The tract of land now constituting the Township of Tyendinaga, having been purchased from the Mississaugas, was deeded to the Mohawks. The deed bears the date of 1804. The land is granted to “the chiefs, warriors, people, women of the Six Nations.” The chief, at the time they settled, was Capt. John Deserontyon.