Spencer Wood was not included in the schedule and division of property handed over by the Dominion Government to the Province of Quebec—it was, however, about that time presented as a gift to our province, solely as a gubernatorial residence—as such to be held, and consequently cannot be sold by the Government of the Province of Quebec.
HENRY WATSON POWELL was commissioned a Lieutenant in the 46th Foot, March 10th, 1753. He was promoted to a captaincy in the 2nd Battalion of the 11th Foot, September 2nd, 1756, but upon that battalion's being detached from the 11th and renumbered in 1758, his regimental number became the 64th. He served in the expedition against the French West India Islands in 1759, and went with his regiment to America in 1768. June 2nd, 1770, he became Major of the 38th Foot, and July 23rd, 1771, Lieutenant-Colonel of the 53rd Foot, which was then stationed at Minorca. He accompanied his corps to Canada in the spring of 1776, and on June 10th of that year, a few days after his arrival, Sir Guy Carleton appointed him a Brigadier General and assigned him to the 2nd Brigade, which consisted of the 34th, 53rd and 20th Regiments. When Gen. Gordon's brigade was broken up on the death of that officer, August 1st, 1776, the 62nd was added to Powell's brigade, and in November of that year, upon General Nesbit's death, Gen. Powell was transferred to the command of the 1st Brigade, consisting of the 9th, 47th, 31st and 21st Regiments, save that the 53rd was substituted for the 21st. Gen. Powell served under Gen. Carleton in 1776, and the next year accompanied Burgoyne. In organizing the troops for Burgoyne's expedition in 1777, Gen. Powell was assigned to the 2nd Brigade, consisting of the 20th, 21st and 62nd Regiments. The 62nd was left at Ticonderoga, however with Prince Frederick's (German) Regiment and a portion of Captain Borthwick's company of the Royal Artillery July 5th when the Americans evacuated that fort, and August 10th Gen. Powell was sent back to assume command of that post, his regiment, the 53rd, being also ordered to relieve the 62nd. Though he successfully repelled the American Col. Brown's attack on Ticonderoga and for four days maintained a gallant defence, the enemy retreating September 22nd, yet inasmuch as a considerable part of four companies of the 53rd were surprised in the old French lines and at the outposts by the American advance, and a number of American Prisoners were recaptured, the affair was not one of unmixed satisfaction to either side.
When the toils of adversity began to tighten round Burgoyne in October Gen. Powell was sorely puzzled as to his duty for though he was out of Sir Guy Carleton's military jurisdiction yet that officer was accessible while Burgoyne, his own proper commander was not. The following letter, there fore, written by Sir Guy to Gen. Powell, after Burgoyne's surrender, though in ignorance of that event, throws some light upon the awkwardness of Powell's situation. The letter reads as follows:—
QUEBEC, the 20th October, 1777.
SIR,—I have this moment received your letter of the 19th instant, wherein you demand orders from me for your guidance in your present emergency. It is impossible that I should give orders to you, not alone because the post you are in has been taken out of my command, but the distance is too great for my being able to judge of the situation of Gen Burgoyne or of the exigencies of the place you are at which must depend upon the other, as if you were subject to my commands ignorant as I am of the strength or weakness of your post, I should under all the other circumstances think it best for His Majesty's service to suffer you to act by your own judgment, so you will there fore easily see the greater necessity there is as matters are for my leaving you to pursue such steps, as shall be suggested to you by your own prudence and reason. I can only recommend to you not to balance between two opposite measures, whereby you may be disabled from following the one or the other with advantage but that either you prepare, with vigour to put to place in such a situation as to be able to make the longest and most resolute defence or that you prepare in time to abandon it with all the stores while your retreat may be certain. Your own sense will tell you that this latter would be a most pernicious measure if there be still hopes of General Burgoyne coming to your post.
I am, sir, &c.
Though Sir Guy did not feel at liberty to issue orders to Gen. Powell yet he immediately despatched Gen. Maclean with the 31st regiment, the Royal Highland Emigrants and a detachment of artillery with four guns to take post and entrench at Chimney Point, near Crown Point, in order to keep up communication with Ticonderoga. Two or three weeks later Gen. Powell abandoned Ticonderoga and withdrew to Canada. After a short tarry at St. John's he was posted at Montreal, where he commanded during the winter of 1777-8. Then he was stationed at St John's and in the autumn of 1780, after Lieut.-Colonel Bolton's unfortunate loss on Lake Ontario, we find him in command of the upper posts with his headquarters at Niagara. By Gen. Haldimand's order of October 21st, 1782, Brig.-Gen. Maclean was assigned to the command of the upper posts, and Gen. Powell was appointed commandant of Quebec. How long he remained at Quebec has not been ascertained, but in 1780 he bought a fine estate on the St. Lewis Road, about two and a half miles from Quebec to which he gave the name of Powell Place and which he did not dispose of until 1796, when he sold it to Francis Lehoullier. This place was subsequently known as Spencer Wood, but it has since been divided, the larger portion being still known as Spencer Wood, and serving as the residence of the Lieutenant-Governor, while the smaller portion consisting of about forty acres and known as Spencer Grange, belongs to and is the property of J. M. LeMoine, President of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec.
Gen. Powell became a Colonel in the army February 19th, 1779; a Major General, November 20th, 1782; Colonel of the 69th Foot, April 16th, 1792; Colonel of the 15th Foot, June 20th, 1794 (not April 20th, as printed in Burgoyne's Orderly Book); A Lieutenant-General, May 3rd, 1796, and a General, January 1st, 1801. He died at an advanced age at Lyme, England, July 14th, 1814.
Army Lists—Gentleman's Magazine, vol. 84, p. 190; Burgoyne's Orderly
Book, p. 10; Hadden's Journal; Haldimand Papers; LeMoine's Maple
Leaves, 3rd series; J. M. LeMoine's Title Deeds." (From Gen. Horatio
Rogers' Notes on HADDEN'S JOURNAL of Burgoyne's Campaign, 1776.)