On the Vaughan side, No. 56 was occupied conjointly by Michel Saigeon and Francis Reneoux; No. 57 by Julien le Bugle; No. 58 by René Aug. Comte de Chalûs, Amboise de Farcy and Quetton St. George conjointly; No. 59 by Quetton St. George; No. 60 by Jean Louis Vicomte de Chalûs. In King, No. 61 by René Aug. Comte de Chalûs and Augustin Boiton conjointly. On the Markham side: No. 52 is occupied by the Comte de Puisaye; No. 53 by René Aug. Comte de Chalûs; No. 54 by Jean Louis Vicomte de Chalûs and René Aug. Comte de Chalûs conjointly;—No. 55 by Jean Louis Vicomte de Chalûs; No. 66 by le Chevalier de Marseuil and Michael Fauchard conjointly; No. 57 by the Chev. de Marseuil; No. 58 by René Letourneaux, Augustin Boiton and J. L. Vicomte de Chalûs conjointly; No. 59 by Quetton St. George and Jean Furon conjointly; No. 60 by Amboise de Farcy. In Whitchurch, No. 61 by Michel Saigeon.
After felling the trees in a few acres of their respective allotments, some of these emigrés withdrew from the country. Hence in the Ridges was to be seen here and there the rather unusual sight of abandoned clearings returning to a state of nature.
The officers styled Comte and Vicomte de Chalûs derived their title from the veritable domain and castle of Chalûs in Normandy, associated in the minds of young readers of English History with the death of Richard Coeur de Lion. Jean Louis de Chalûs, whose name appears on numbers 54 and in 55 Markham and on other lots, was a Major-General in the Royal Army of Brittany. At the balls given by the Governor and others at York, the jewels of Madame la Comtesse created a great sensation, wholly surpassing everything of the kind that had hitherto been seen by the ladies of Upper Canada. Amboise de Farcy, of No. 58 in Vaughan and No. 60 in Markham, had also the rank of General. Augustin Boiton, of No. 48 in Markham and No. 61 in Vaughan, was a Lieutenant-Colonel.
The Comte de Puisaye, of No. 52 in Markham, figures conspicuously in the contemporary accounts of the royalist struggle against the Convention. He himself published in London in 1803 five octavo volumes of Memoirs, justificatory of his proceedings in that contest. Carlyle in his "French Revolution" speaks of de Puisaye's work, and, referring to the so-called Calvados war, says that those who are curious in such matters may read therein "how our Girondin National forces, i.e., the Moderates, marching off with plenty of wind music, were drawn out about the old château of Brécourt, in the wood-country near Vernon (in Brittany), to meet the Mountain National forces (the Communist) advancing from Paris. How on the fifteenth afternoon of July, 1793, they did meet:—and, as it were, shrieked mutually, and took mutually to flight, without loss. How Puisaye thereafter,—for the Mountain Nationals fled first, and we thought ourselves the victors,—was roused from his warm bed in the Castle of Brécourt and had to gallop without boots; our Nationals in the night watches having fallen unexpectedly into sauve qui peut."
Carlyle alludes again to this misadventure, when approaching the subject of the Quiberon expedition, two years later, towards the close of La Vendée war. Affecting for the moment a prophetic tone, in his peculiar way Carlyle proceeds thus, introducing at the close of his sketch de Puisaye once more, who was in command of the invading force spoken of, although not undividedly so. "In the month of July, 1795, English ships," he says, "will ride in Quiberon roads. There will be debarkation of chivalrous ci-devants, (i.e. ex-noblesse), of volunteer prisoners of war—eager to desert; of fire-arms, proclamations, clothes chests, royalists, and specie. Whereupon also, on the Republican side, there will be rapid stand-to arms; with ambuscade-marchings by Quiberon beach at midnight; storming of Fort Penthièvre; war-thunder mingling with the roar of the mighty main; and such a morning light as has seldom dawned; debarkation hurled back into its boats, or into the devouring billows, with wreck and wail;—in one word, a ci-devant Puisaye as totally ineffectual here as he was at Calvados, when he rode from Vernon Castle without boots."
The impression which Carlyle gives of M. de Puisaye is not greatly bettered by what M. de Lamartine says of him in the History of the Girondists, when speaking of him in connexion with the affair near the Château of Brécourt. He is there ranked with adventurers rather than heroes. "This man," de Lamartine says, "was at once an orator, a diplomatist, and a soldier,—a character eminently adapted for civil war, which produces more adventurers than heroes." De Lamartine describes how, prior to the repulse at Château Brécourt, "M. de Puisaye had passed a whole year concealed in a cavern in the midst of the forests of Brittany, where, by his manoeuvres and correspondence he kindled the fire of revolt against the republic." He professed to act in the interest of the moderates, believing that, through his influence, they would at last be induced to espouse heartily the cause of constitutional royalty.
Thiers, in his "History of the French Revolution," vii. 146, speaks in respectful terms of Puisaye. He says that "with great intelligence and extraordinary skill in uniting the elements of a party, he combined extreme activity of body and mind, and vast ambition:" and even after Quiberon, Thiers says "it was certain that Puisaye had done all that lay in his power." De Puisaye ended his days in England, in the neighbourhood of London, in 1827.—In one of the letters of Mr. Surveyor Jones we observe some of the improvements of the Oak Ridges spoken of as "Puisaye's Town."
It is possibly to the settlement, then only in contemplation, of emigrés here in the Oak Ridges of Yonge Street, that Burke alludes, when in his Reflections on the French Revolution he says: "I hear that there are considerable emigrations from France, and that many, quitting that voluptuous climate and that seductive Circean liberty, have taken refuge in the frozen regions, and under the British despotism, of Canada."
"The frozen regions of Canada," the great rhetorician's expression in this place, has become a stereotyped phrase with declaimers. The reports of the first settlers at Tadousac and Quebec made an indelible impression on the European mind. To this day in transatlantic communities, it is realized only to a limited extent that Canada has a spring, summer and autumn as well as a winter, and that her skies wear an aspect not always gloomy and inhospitable. "British despotism" is, of course, ironically said, and means, in reality, British constitutional freedom. (In some instances these Royalist officers appear to have accepted commissions from the British Crown, and so to have become nominally entitled to grants of land.)
There are some representatives of the original émigrés still to be met with in the neighbourhood of the Oak Ridges; but they have not in every instance continued to be seised of the lands granted in 1798. The Comte de Chalûs, son of René Augustin, retains property here; but he resides in Montreal.