Bronson, Erskine Henry, M.P.P., for the city of Ottawa, was born on the 12th of September, 1844, at Bolton, Warren county, New York state. He is a son of Henry Franklin Bronson, and Edith E. Pierce, of Bolton, and a member of the firm of Bronsons & Weston, lumber manufacturers, Ottawa city. Mr. Bronson, senr., came to Canada in 1849, when Erskine was a mere child, and visiting the Ottawa valley became greatly impressed with the idea that the Chaudière Falls was a splendid place to begin lumbering operations. The timber supply in the neighbourhood seemed inexhaustible, and the water power magnificent. After a short stay, however, he returned to his home in the state of New York, and thought little more of the matter until 1852, when he persuaded J. J. Harris, an extensive lumberman, with whom he was associated, to go with him to Ottawa. Arrived at their destination, the river experts tried to persuade them that the Ottawa river was not suitable for the safe driving of saw logs. But Mr. Bronson thought differently, and persuaded Mr. Harris to purchase certain water lots at the Chaudière Falls, which he accordingly did, from the Crown, and here, under the personal superintendence of Mr. Bronson, were erected mills, portions of which still exist and form part of the splendid works since erected by Bronsons & Weston. Shortly after the erection of the first mill, Mr. Bronson removed his family to Canada, in the fall of 1853, and made his permanent home at Ottawa. Erskine was brought up here, and received his education in the best schools in the place, and at Sandy Hill, New York state. After finishing his education, he took a position in the business; and in 1864, on the retirement of Mr. Harris, he was admitted a partner into the new firm, which was then established, and which consisted of Henry Franklin Bronson, who with Mr. Harris originated the business, Erskine H. Bronson and Abijah Weston, of Painted Post, New York, and which has since traded under the name of Bronsons & Weston. This firm owns two mills at Ottawa, running ten gates, with a capacity of producing 60,000,000 feet of lumber during the season. They have also close business relations with John W. Dunham, of Albany, New York, and Herman K. Weaver, of Burlington, Vt., and have also a yard in Albany, for the sale of lumber in the rough. Though in the building up of this great concern, the Liberal member for Ottawa has played no inconsiderable part, he has also done something to prove himself a good and useful citizen. He has been a member of the School Board for the last fourteen years, during the past four years of which he has been chairman of the committee on school management. He was first elected to the city council by acclamation in 1871, and served continuously until the close of 1877. During the last year he was in the council he prepared the act consolidating the city debt, and secured its passage in the Ontario Legislature in the session of 1878. This act relieved the city by the extension of the time of the payment of its bonds of a large annual levy for a sinking fund, and fixed the maximum of taxation at one and a half per cent., instead of two per cent. as before, under the general municipal law. Mr. Bronson in politics is a Reformer, and in religious matters an adherent of the Presbyterian church. He is one of our rising men, and we feel that Ottawa in electing him as one of its representatives in the Ontario Legislature, has done something that shall redound to its credit. Mr. Bronson was married in 1874, to Miss Webster, the only daughter of Professor Webster, a Southern gentleman, at one time a resident of the capital, by whom he has two children.
McPherson, R. B., Thorold, Ontario, was born in 1817, in Kingussie, Inverness-shire, Scotland. His father was a merchant; and having a family of twelve children, he considered it would be to their interest if he emigrated to Canada. He therefore left his native country in 1822, and located himself in Glengarry, about twenty miles east by north of Cornwall. Here R. B. McPherson was brought up, and received the very scant education given in the back township schools in those days, the principal being the reading of the Bible and the committing to memory the Shorter Catechism and the Paraphrases. At the age of thirteen he left home, and found employment in a country store, the proprietor of which was in the habit of purchasing timber for the Quebec market. Here Mr. McPherson remained for some time, and frequently had to act in the capacity of raftsman, and help bring his employer’s timber down to Quebec. He often ran the risk of losing his life in the St. Lawrence river rapids before the rafts were safely anchored in the timber coves at Quebec. During the rebellion of 1837-8, Mr. McPherson took sides with the loyalists, and had command at one time of a guard at the river Beaudette bridge near Coteau Rapids, Province of Quebec, whose duty it was to intercept rebels coming or going over it, more especially the late Sir George E. Cartier, for whose head a large sum of money had been offered, and who it was thought would endeavour to escape across the St. Lawrence at this point. In 1840 Mr. McPherson left Lower Canada and came to Toronto, where he remained a short time, and then crossed over to Rochester. From this place he travelled through the Genesee country to Buffalo and the Falls of Niagara, and when at the latter point, he saw Mr. McLeod, of Caroline steamer notoriety, a prisoner, surrounded by a strong guard at the hotel. He again returned to Canada, and found employment near the town of Simcoe. In this place he remained for a short time, and then left for New York, intending to sail from that port to Buenos Ayres, South America, and try his fortune there. On his arrival at New York, he learned that Buenos Ayres was blockaded by a French squadron, and being advised to abandon his southern trip, he remained in New York until his means were exhausted, and then, in the month of January, he left with the idea of tramping his way to New Orleans by way of the Mississippi. On his route he passed through Philadelphia and Baltimore. At Baltimore he took the turnpike road to Pittsburg, but after a while got so tired and footsore with travelling in the snow that he turned off the main road, and took the road right across the state of Pennsylvania through the coal mines, making his way towards Lake Erie. When he reached the Alleghany river he followed its course for a long distance, and then struck off to Jamestown, just then starting into existence, and then on to Buffalo. From this point he walked across Lake Erie on the ice to Port Colborne and then on to St. Catharines. Here he found employment as bookkeeper, paymaster, etc., in the office of Thompson, Haggert & Burford, contractors engaged in building the Welland canal. Frank Smith (now senator) was at this date employed by this former firm and was in charge of a store that shipped goods to the labourers’ employers on the works. After the completion of this famous Welland canal contract Mr. McPherson went to Toronto, and meeting a Mr. Logan, a then prominent merchant in that city, who controlled about a dozen stores in various country parts north and east of Toronto, he entered into an engagement with him to take charge of a store at Oshawa; and while here Mr. Logan’s storekeeper in the village of Markham was murdered (the murderer being afterwards executed in Toronto), and Mr. McPherson was transferred to that village leaving the employ of Mr. Logan, he went to the village of Bradford and took charge of a store for Mr. Cameron, son of the late Colin Cameron, of Hogshollow, Yonge street. In the spring of 1849 Mr. McPherson again got restless and left Bradford with the intention of going to California, but on his way, at Buffalo, he met the late Mr. Brown, who had a large contract in the Welland canal, and abandoning his California trip, he arranged with that gentleman to become his general manager, and once more returned to Canada. Mr. Brown was a large contractor, and shortly after Mr. McPherson joined him, he secured a contract amounting to about two million dollars on the new canal; but before he had half completed the work, he met with an accident which caused his death. Dying without a will, Mr. Brown’s affairs were put into Chancery, and Mr. McPherson was appointed administrator of the estate. He went to work and completed Mr. Brown’s contracts. When the estate was wound up, it was found that Mr. McPherson had faithfully done his duty, and that the sum of six hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars had been realized for Mr. Brown’s heirs. In 1869 Mr. McPherson built a grist flouring mill, and another in 1878, to supply flour, etc., to the men building the canal, both ventures turning out fairly. From 1856 to 1862 he was a member of the town council, and for two years a member of the county council, and when acting as county councillor he had the pleasure of taking part in the reception given the Prince of Wales at Chippawa. Mr. McPherson was a Liberal in politics ever since he knew the meaning of the term, and always took a lively interest in political matters. In 1881, on the death of his wife, he took a tour through the Southern States, and in his rambles visited Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee and Kentucky, returning through some of the Northern States; and came to the wise conclusion that Ontario suited him best, and in this province he spent the remainder of his days. Although Mr. McPherson’s parents were, in the old country, Baptists, and in Canada attended the Presbyterian church, and were very strict observers of Sunday and all the doctrines held by that church, yet as a young man he began to wonder why God was so particular about Sunday. Being of an inquiring turn of mind and not afraid to think for himself, he began reading philosophical works, and works on the religions of antiquity, and comparing them with the writings of the Jews, he gradually relinquished the Christian dogmas, and became an Agnostic. Mr. McPherson was married in 1855, to Miss Secord, whose parents reside near St. David’s, a few miles from Queenston. Her grandmother gained considerable renown during the war of 1812, having walked from Queenston in the night through the enemy’s lines to give important information to the British general stationed about twenty miles west of that place. While on a visit to Buffalo, Mr. McPherson was suddenly taken ill, and died on the 1st December, 1886, in that city, aged sixty-nine years, leaving behind him an honourable record for integrity and usefulness.
Cameron, Sir Matthew, Chief Justice of Ontario, who died at Toronto, Ontario, on the 25th June, 1887, was a son of John McAlpine Cameron, a descendant of the Camerons of Fassifern, Scotland, who emigrated from Inverness-shire to Upper Canada in 1819, settling at Dundas, where he engaged in business, and subsequently discharged the duties of deputy postmaster under Thomas Allan Stayner, then the Imperial Postmaster-General for Canada, at Hamilton. He also acted as deputy clerk of the Crown for Gore district. Later, however, he was a student at law with Sir Allan McNab, with whom he remained until he was appointed to the first permanent clerkship of committees in the parliament of Upper Canada, from which office he went to the Canada Company’s office in Toronto, where he held an important position for many years. Coming to this part of the country, as he did, when it was yet undeveloped and sparsely settled, and engaging in active life, Mr. Cameron became well and widely known. He died in Toronto in November, 1866, aged seventy-nine years. His mother was Nancy Foy, a native of Northumberland, England. The deceased chief justice received his primary education at a school in Hamilton, under a Mr. Randall, and afterwards at the District School in Toronto, which he attended for a short time. In 1838 he entered Upper Canada College, where he studied until 1840, when, in consequence of an accident while out shooting, he had to retire. Two years later he entered the office of Campbell & Boulton, of Toronto, as a student-at-law, where he remained until Hilary term, 1849, when he was called to the bar of the province of Ontario. He engaged in Toronto in the practice of his profession, first with Mr. Boulton, his former master. This firm continued until the law partnership of Cayley & Cameron was formed, the senior member being the Hon. William Cayley, an English barrister, and at one time inspector-general of the province, afterwards registrar of the Surrogate Court. In 1859 Dr. McMichael entered the firm, which then became Cayley, Cameron & McMichael. Later Mr. Cayley retired, and E. Fitzgerald became a partner in the business, and his name was added to the name and style of the firm, remaining so for several years. Alfred Hoskin subsequently became a partner, and on the retirement of Mr. Fitzgerald, the firm became Cameron, McMichael & Hoskin, and remained so until the senior member’s elevation to the bench in November, 1878. He was elected a Queen’s counsel in 1863, and elected a bencher in November, 1878. He first came into public notice as a counsel in the famous case of Anderson, the fugitive slave, the refusal to surrender whom, on the part of the British government, nearly caused war between that country and the United States. Mr. Cameron represented Anderson in this case, and made a defence which for burning eloquence and closely reasoned logic has scarcely ever been equalled at the bar in this country. It was over the magnificence of this effort that he got the title which he retained for some time of the silver-tongued orator of the Ontario bar. Partly as a result of this case he obtained a very large practice, and travelled from assize to assize, putting in an immense amount of work, though nearly all the time enduring great personal agony, as the result of an accident suffered some years before. This accident occurred while he and another gentleman were shooting in the marsh near this city. One of the guns went off prematurely, shooting Mr. Cameron in the thigh. The wound took a bad turn, and the injured leg had to be amputated. The stump never healed properly, and during the remainder of his life he was almost continually in pain from this accident. The physical suffering never prevented him from doing such a day’s work that few men in the country would have performed in the same time. In his early days, when he was a practising barrister, he would work through one assize court, and then travel all night across country roads thirty or forty miles, take up the business at another court and after going through it travel to the next court, and so on. At the assizes, as a judge, he would go to the bench early in the morning, would sit there all afternoon, and would not adjourn till four or five in the morning if necessary to get through with a case. He has worn out three juries in a day. His legal acquirements and great talents caused him to be looked up to with profound respect by the bar, the members of which also entertained much personal affection for him. His summing up of a case was a masterpiece of lucidity and force. The first public office held by the late Sir Matthew Cameron was on a commission with Colonel Coffin, appointed in 1852, to inquire into the causes of accidents which had been of frequent occurrence on the Great Western Railway. In 1859 he went into the City Council of Toronto, representing St. James ward, and thenceforward he figured prominently in public life. In 1861, and again a few years later, at the solicitation of many citizens, he contested the mayoralty unsuccessfully. In 1861 he entered the arena of national politics, and sat for North Ontario in the Canadian Assembly from the general election of that year until the general election in 1863, when he was defeated. But in July, 1864, he was re-elected for the same seat, which he continued to hold until confederation, when he was again unsuccessful. At the general Provincial elections in 1867 he was returned to the Ontario legislature for East Toronto, and re-elected in 1871 and 1875. He was a member of the Executive Council in Ontario in the Sandfield Macdonald administration from July 20, 1867, until the resignation of the ministry, December 19, 1871, and, with the exception of the last five months of this period, when he was commissioner of Crown Lands, he held the offices of Provincial Secretary and Registrar. He was also leader, and a very able one, too, of the opposition, from the general elections in December, 1871, until appointed to the judgeship in the Queen’s Bench, in November, 1878, which position he held until he rose to the chief justiceship of the Common Pleas in 1884. He aided in forming the Liberal-Conservative Association of Toronto, became its first president, and held that office until his elevation to the bench. He was also vice-president of the Liberal-Conservative convention which was assembled in Toronto in 1874. He was a member of the Caledonian and St. Andrew’s societies. He was created a Knight Bachelor on April 5th last, at the same time Chief Justice Stuart, of Quebec, received a similar honour. As a lawyer Sir Matthew had few equals either among his predecessors or his contemporaries; and as a citizen he was generous almost to excess. As a minister of the Crown, and as leader of the opposition, he was a prodigious worker, an able tactician, and a most formidable, though always courteous, enemy. As a judge he had the confidence and respect of the bar to the utmost extent, while his immense knowledge of law and the clearness of his decisions made him a most valuable public servant. Chief Justice Cameron belonged to the Episcopal denomination, and for about thirty years was a member of Trinity Church, Toronto. In politics he was a Liberal-Conservative. On December 1st, 1851, he was married in Toronto to Charlotte Ross, daughter of William Wedd, who immediately prior to his death resided in Hamilton, Ontario. Mrs. Cameron died January 14th, 1868. She was a sister of William Wedd, first classical master at Upper Canada College, and also of the late Mrs. Dr. McMichael, Mrs. Dr. Strathy, Toronto, and Mrs. Scadding, of Orillia. Sir Matthew left three sons and three daughters. His sons are, Dr. Irving H. Cameron, Ross McAlpine Cameron, and Douglas W. Cameron. His daughters are Mrs. Darling, the widow of the late son of the Rev. W. S. Darling, Mrs. A. Wright, and a young unmarried daughter.
Talbot, Hon. Thomas, was born at Malahide, on the 17th July, 1771. His father was Richard Talbot, of Malahide, and his mother, Margaret, Baroness Talbot. The Talbots of Malahide trace their descent from the same stock as the Talbots who have been earls of Shrewsbury, in the peerage of Great Britain, since the middle of the fifteenth century. The subject of our sketch spent some years at the Public Free School of Manchester, and received a commission in the army in the year 1782, when he was only eleven years of age. In 1787, when only sixteen, we find him installed as aide-de-camp to his relative, the Marquis of Buckingham, who was then lord lieutenant of Ireland. His brother aide was the Arthur Wellesley, who afterwards became the illustrious Duke of Wellington. The two boys were necessarily thrown much together, and each of them formed a warm attachment for the other. Their future paths in life lay far apart, but they never ceased to correspond, and to recall the happy time they had spent together. In 1790 he joined the 24th regiment, which was then stationed at Quebec, in the capacity of lieutenant. Upon the arrival of Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe at Quebec, at the end of May, 1792, Lieutenant Talbot, who had nearly completed his twenty-first year, became attached to the governor’s suite in the capacity of private secretary. Governor Simcoe, writing in 1803, says, “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 the country in peace, without violating, on the one hand, the relations of amity with the United States, and on the other, alienating the affections 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, and these duties, without any salary or emolument, he executed to my perfect satisfaction.” It seems to have been during his tenure of office as secretary that the idea of embracing a pioneer’s life in Canada first took possession of young Talbot’s mind. On the 4th of February, 1793, an expedition which was destined to have an important bearing upon the future life of Lieutenant Talbot, as well as upon the future history of the province, set out from Newark, now Niagara village, to explore the pathless wilds of Upper Canada. It consisted of Governor Simcoe himself and several of his officers, and the subject of our present sketch. The expedition occupied five weeks, and extended as far as Detroit. The route was through Mohawk village, on the Grand River, where the party were entertained by Joseph Brant; then westward to where Woodstock now stands; and so on by a somewhat devious course to Detroit. On the return journey the party camped on the present site of London, which Governor Simcoe then pronounced to be an admirable position for the future capital of the province. One important result of this long and toilsome journey was the construction of Dundas Street, or as it is frequently called, “the governor’s road.” Lieutenant Talbot was delighted with the wild and primitive aspect of the country through which they passed, and expressed a strong desire to explore the land farther to the south, bordering on lake Erie. His desire was gratified in the course of the following autumn, when Governor Simcoe indulged himself, and several members of his suite, with another western excursion. During this journey the party encamped on the present site of Port Talbot, which the young lieutenant declared to be the loveliest situation for a dwelling he had ever seen. “Here,” said he, “will I roost, and will soon make the forest tremble under the wings of the flock I will invite, by my warblings, around me.” Whether he was serious in this declaration at the time may be doubted; but, as will presently be seen, he ultimately kept his word. In 1793 young Talbot received his majority. In 1796 he became lieutenant-colonel of the fifth regiment of foot. He returned to Europe and joined his regiment, which was dispatched on active service to the continent. He himself was busily employed during this period, and was for some time in command of two battalions. Upon the conclusion of the peace of Amiens, on the 27th March, 1802, he sold his commission, retired from the service, and prepared to carry out the intention expressed by him to Governor Simcoe nine years before, of pitching his tent in the wilds of Canada. Why he adopted this course it is impossible to do more than conjecture. He never married, but remained a bachelor to the end of his days. The work of settlement cannot be said to have commenced in earnest until 1809. It was no light thing in those days for a man with a family dependent upon him to bury himself in the remote wilderness of Western Canada. There was no flouring mill, for instance, within sixty miles of his abode, which was known as Castle Malahide. During the American invasion of 1812-13-14, Colonel Talbot commanded the militia of the district, and was present at the battles of Lundy’s Lane and Fort Erie. Marauding parties sometimes found their way to Castle Malahide during this troubled period, and what few people there were in the settlement suffered a good deal of annoyance. Within a day or two after the battle of the Thames, where the brave Tecumseh met his doom, a party of these marauders, consisting of Indians and scouts from the American army, presented themselves at Fort Talbot, and summoned the garrison to surrender. The place was not fortified, and the garrison consisted merely of a few farmers, who had enrolled themselves in the militia under the temporary command of a Captain Patterson. A successful defence was out of the question, and Colonel Talbot, who would probably have been deemed an important capture, quietly walked out of the back door as the invaders entered at the front. Some of the Indians saw the colonel, who was dressed in homely, everyday garb, walking off through the woods, and were about to fire on him, when they were restrained by Captain Patterson, who begged them not to hurt the poor old fellow, who, he said, was the person who tended the sheep. The marauders rifled the place, and carried off everything they could lay hands on, including some valuable horses and cattle. Colonel Talbot’s gold, consisting of about two quart pots full, and some valuable plate, concealed under the front wing of the house, escaped notice. The invaders set fire to the grist-mill that the colonel had built in the township of Dunwick, which was totally consumed, and this was a serious loss to the settlement generally. Mrs. Jameson, who travelled in Upper Canada in 1837-38, has left us the following description of her visit to Port Talbot. Speaking of the colonel, she says, “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, deportment, that something which stamps him gentleman. And that something, which thirty-four years of solitude has not effaced, he derives, I suppose, from blood and birth, things of more consequence, when philosophically and philanthropically considered, than we are apt to allow. I had always heard and read of him as the ‘eccentric’ Colonel Talbot. Of his eccentricity I heard much more than of his benevolence, his invincible courage, his enthusiasm, his perseverance; but, perhaps, according to the worldly nomenclature, these qualities come under the general head of ‘eccentricity’ when devotion to a favourite object cannot possibly be referred to self-interest. Of the life he led for the first sixteen years, and the difficulties and obstacles he encountered, he drew, in his discourse with me, a strong, I might say a terrible, picture; and observe that it was not a life of wild, wandering freedom—the life of an Indian hunter, which is said to be so fascinating that ‘no man who has ever followed it for any length of time, ever voluntarily returns to civilized society!’ Colonel Talbot’s life has been one of persevering, heroic self-devotion to the completion of a magnificent plan, laid down in the first instance, and followed up with unflinching tenacity of purpose. 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 upon the bare earth, cooked three meals a day for twenty woodsmen, cleaned his own boots, washed his own linen, milked his own 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 on it. To all these heterogenous 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. Besides natural obstacles, he met with others far more trying to his temper and patience. ‘He had continual quarrels,’ says Dr. Dunlop, ‘with the successive governors, who were jealous of the independent power he exercised in his own territory, and every means were used to annoy him here, and misrepresent his proceedings at home; but he stood firm, and by an occasional visit to the colonial office in England, he opened the eyes of ministers to the proceedings of both parties, and for a while averted the danger. At length, some five years ago, finding the enemy was getting too strong for him, he repaired once more to England, and returned in triumph with an order from the colonial office, that nobody was in any way to interfere with his proceedings; and he has now the pleasure of contemplating some hundreds of miles of the best roads in the province, closely settled on each side by the most prosperous families within its bounds, who owe all they possess to his judgment, enthusiasm, and perseverance, and who are grateful to him in proportion to the benefits he has bestowed upon them, though in many instances sorely against their will at the time.’ The original grant must have been much extended; for the territory now under Colonel Talbot’s management, and bearing the general name of the Talbot country, contains, according to the list I have in his own hand-writing, twenty-eight townships, and about 650,000 acres of land, of which 98,700 are cleared and cultivated. The inhabitants, including the population of the towns, amounted to about 50,000. ‘You see,’ said he, gaily, ‘I may boast, like the Irishman in the farce, of having peopled a whole country with my own hands.’ He has built his tower, like the eagle his eyry, on a bold cliff overhanging the lake. It is a long wooden building, chiefly of rough logs, with a covered porch running along the south side. Here I found suspended, among sundry implements of husbandry, one of those ferocious animals of the feline kind, called here the cat-a-mountain, and by some the American tiger, or panther, which it more resembles. This one, which had been killed in its attack on the fold or poultry-yard, was at least four feet in length, and glared at me from the rafters above ghastly and horrible. The farm consists of six hundred acres. He has sixteen acres of orchard-ground, and has a garden of more than two acres, very neatly laid out and enclosed, and in which he evidently took exceeding pride and pleasure. He described the appearance of the spot when he first came here as contrasted with its present appearance. I told him of the surmises of the people relative 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 undergone in forming this settlement. But do not imagine I repent it; I like my retirement.’” He lived long enough to see the prosperity of his settlement fully assured. For many years prior to his death it appears to have been his cherished desire to bequeath his large estate to one of the male descendants of the Talbot family, and with this view he invited one of his sister’s sons, Julius Airey, to come over from England and reside with him at Port Talbot, which he did, but rusticating without companions or equals in either birth or education did not suit him, so he returned to England. Some years later a younger brother of Julius’, Colonel Airey, military secretary at the Horse Guards, came out with his family to reside at Port Talbot. The uncle and nephew could not get on together, so the uncle determined to leave Canada, and to end his days in the old world. He transferred the Port Talbot estate, valued at £10,000, together with 13,000 acres of land in the adjoining township of Aldborough, to Colonel Airey. Acting on his determination to leave Canada, he started, in his eightieth year, for Europe. He was accompanied on the voyage by George McBeth. Colonel Talbot remained in London somewhat more than a year, but finding London life somewhat distasteful to him, he once more bade adieu to society, and repaired to Canada, where he died on the 6th, and was buried on the 9th of February, 1853, leaving his estate, valued at £50,000, to George McBeth, and an annuity of £20 to Jeffrey Hunter’s widow. He was interred in the churchyard at Tyrconnel. A plate on the oaken coffin bore the simple inscription:
THOMAS TALBOT,
FOUNDER OF THE TALBOT SETTLEMENT,
Died 6th February, 1853.