The first person to engage in the trading business at Bath was Benjamin Fairfield.

Thus wrote Gourlay, of Bath, in 1811: “From the lake shore the ground ascends about seventy rods, and thence slopes off in a gentle northern descent. The ascent is divided into regular squares by five streets, laid parallel with the shore; one of them being the lower branch of the main road, and all of them crossed at right angles by streets running northerly. One of these cross streets is continued through the concession, and forms that branch of the main road which passes round the Bay of Quinté. On the east side of this street, at the most elevated point, stands the church, and on the opposite side is the academy, overlooking the village, and commanding a variegated prospect of the harbour, the sound, the adjacent island, the outlets into the open lake, and the shores stretching eastward and westward, with a fine landscape view of the country all around. The situation is healthy and delightful, not surpassed perhaps in natural advantages by any in America. The village is increasing in buildings, accommodations, inhabitants, and business, and seems calculated to be the central point of a populous and productive tract of country around it.”

A stranger visiting Bath to-day, having read of its early and enterprising days, will not unlikely feel a pang of disappointment. We are sorry to say that the place presents a tumbling-down appearance. A large brick building, built in 1809, to accommodate what was then the largest Free Mason lodge in the province, has a large rent in it, as if an enemy’s cannon ball had penetrated and shattered it. Prominently situated it attracts great attention. The quietness of the place reminds one of Goldsmith’s deserted village. Within our own recollection, ship building was carried on here; but now nothing indicates the place of busy enterprise; there is nothing but the plain unbroken beach, where was constructed the first steamboats built in Upper Canada. The literary spirit that led to the establishment of a library here at an early date, we fear has departed—​gone with the spirit of those who nobly conceived the project—​gone as lawyers Macaulay, Fairfield, and Ridwell, who here entered upon promising careers of professional usefulness. The glory of Bath has not ceased to depart; year after year it has lost some element of importance to its existence. The rich country around for many years poured into this charming village its ever increasing supplies. The merchants of Bath exchanged goods for the produce, and became rich; but now, Napanee, affording a greater variety of the necessaries and luxuries for family use, draws a large majority of the well-to-do yeomen, who there spend their money. Occasionally, a grain buyer may be able to offer a little higher price here, yet the farmer takes his money to spend in Napanee. Times, indeed, have changed since the denizens of Bath regarded their village as a rival of Kingston; when enterprise sought here a larger field in which to drive business, and men of education adorned society, and gave refinement and superior advantages to its people. Then Napanee was in the backwoods—​a place regarded as we do now the settlements upon the Hastings’ Road; and those who lived there were removed from the centre of civilization. But now the iron horse speeds along by the old York Road; and Bath of Canada, like its great namesake at home, although still beautiful, is interesting, mainly from its past associations.

It was the citizens of Bath who first saw the American fleet in 1813 approaching the shore. The early morning sun saw the inhabitants very shortly aroused to action. The old veterans, who for so many years had used the plow and the axe, anxiously enquired for their old weapons of warfare. Mrs. Perry tells us that she distinctly remembers that the word came to her father’s while they were at breakfast, that the enemy was entering Bath. Her father, then fifty-eight, forsook his breakfast and sought his gun. But before he and his sons reached the village, the fleet had passed on toward Kingston. Three of his sons, hurried on to Kingston. In like manner, all along the front, arose the men of seventy-six, with their sons; and their arms flashed in the morning sunlight. The enemy had won at Bath a great victory. They had stolen in at the early dawn, when no foe was there, and actually had succeeded in taking and burning the schooner Benjamin Davy.

THE THIRD TOWNSHIP—​FREDERICKSBURGH.

The early settlers sometimes called it the “Township of Frederick.” It was called after Augustus Frederick, the Duke of Sussex, ninth child of the king.

According to the original plan of this township, preserved in the Crown Lands’ Department, it was “surveyed in 1784 by James Pearly Lewis Kotte, Henry Holland, and Samuel Tuffe.”

The limits of the second township having been defined, the third was also planned. Having fixed the base line, which formed a slight angle with that of the second town, over the width of twenty-five lots, it was at first, the intention to limit the township to this extent of frontage; and the lots were consequently completed and numbered from west to east, as had been done with the first two townships. But it turned out that this would not meet the requirements of Sir John Johnson’s disbanded soldiers, to whom the promise had been made that they should be located in a township by themselves. The result was, that the wishes of this corps’ were gratified, and the township was enlarged to the extent of thirteen additional lots, which the map will show are numbered from east to west, and which indicate that the lots were completely surveyed before they were numbered. That portion of the third town included in the portion first numbered, received the name of “Fredericksburgh Original,” and that subsequently added, was called “Fredericksburgh Additional.” The original intention of the surveyor, was to have the latter portion form a part of the fourth township, which would have effected a more equal division of the land; but the disbanded soldiers did not wish to pass under the control of other officers, such as held command of the settlers of the fourth township. Indeed, as will be more particularly pointed out in connection with that township, Adolphustown had well nigh been entirely consumed by the renewed arrivals of Rogers’ men. There need be no wonder that the old soldiers should thus desire to remain side by side under a common commander, in the wilderness field, to fight the stern battle of pioneer life, and to convert the wilderness into homesteads. The fact that numbers of each battalion were unwilling to settle, except under their own officers, reveals the spirit of the times: it tells us how much the settlement partook of a military character, and the feeling of attachment which existed between the officers and men, as well as among the rank and file. It would not do that the same lots should be occupied as a part of the fourth town under Captain VanAlstine; they must be severed from that township, and united to Fredericksburgh, under the jurisdiction of their old major.

Fredericksburgh contains 40,215 acres of the very best quality of land. The following is taken from Cooper’s Essay, by the pen of the talented Mrs. Moodie. “We approach Fredericksburgh: this too is a pretty place, on the north side of the bay; beautiful orchards and meadows skirt the water, and fine bass-wood and willow-trees grow beside, or bend over the waves. The green smooth meadows, out of which the black stumps rotted long ago, show noble groups of hickory and butternut, and, sleek fat cows are reposing beneath them, or standing midleg in the small creek, that wanders through them, to pour its fairy tribute into the broad bay.” In 1811, the township had “a large population, and many excellent farms, an Episcopal Church (subsequently burnt), and a Lutheran Meeting-house.”—​(Gourlay).

There was also a “reserve” for a village in this township at the front, which, however, never grew into a village.