Whether Surveyor-General Holland visited Fort Frontenac in the year 1783, or not, it was Deputy-Surveyor John Collins who made the first survey of the first township, and of the original town plot of Kingston. According to the sworn testimony of Gilbert Orser, who assisted Collins, in the year 1783, as well as others, the township was surveyed first, and the town plot afterward; although it appears that Holland’s instructions were, first “to lay out proper reservations for the town and fort, and then to proceed and lay out the township, six miles square.” The lots were to contain each 200 acres, to be 25 in number, each range. Mr. Collins placed a monument, it is averred, “at the south-east angle of lot 25, from which a line was run northerly the whole depth of the Township, six miles, where another stone monument was placed, making a line of blazed trees throughout.” From this, it would seem, he continued to survey the township, leaving the land for the town, which he, no doubt, thought extensive enough, to be laid out into town lots, and leaving 40 feet of land, which was to form a road between the town and township. Respecting this line and lot 25, there has been a great deal of litigation. As nearly as the facts can be gathered, the following statement may be regarded as correct:
After Collins had completed the survey of the township, and had even made his returns, to the effect that it contained 25 lots, of 200 acres, he was importuned, or ‘induced by the Commanding Officer at Fort Frontenac,’ to make lot 25 contain only 100 acres, that more ground might thereby be had for the proposed town. More than this, it seems that there was some mistake in the said eastern side line, so as to subsequently limit lot 25 to even less than 100 acres. And, Capt. Michael Grass, when he took possession of this lot, in 1784, found that this line was inaccurately run. Deputy-Surveyor Kotte was requested to examine it; and finding there was an error, made representations to Government, who sent persons to correct it. One Deputy-Surveyor Tuffy was directed to re-survey the line, and he gave more land to lot 25. However, there was yet some error, which was a source of great trouble. Capt. Michael Grass sold this lot to Capt. Murney, who, subsequently finding it did not contain the amount of land which the patent assumed, applied legally for his rights.
The surveying party, among whom were some of those who subsequently settled in the township, and who must have belonged to Capt. Grass’ company of refugees, returned to Sorel, where they spent the winter. At least this is the testimony of one of the grand-children of Capt. Grass. But if the surveying party did, this winter of 1783–4, retire from their work to Lower Canada, it appears unlikely they did the following winter. Indeed there are indications that surveying went on during the winter. In laying out the Townships, special attention was given to make the lots front squarely upon the Bay. In the winter the base line could be more closely run by the water edge upon the ice, than in summer, through the woods. We are informed, at the Crown Lands Department, that in some townships no posts or other marks had at first been found in the re-survey, although such were to be found in the 2nd concession. The inference was, that the posts planted in winter by the water, had, in the spring or summer been washed away, in the course of time. This, as may be supposed, led in time to great confusion, and no little litigation. For many years there was much trouble to establish the land marks all along the front; and cases are not wanting where it has been charged that fraudulent removals of posts were made. The straightforward settler, while engaged in his daily and yearly round of toil, thought not of the side lines of his farm, fully believing that a survey had been definitely fixed by marks that could not be altered, and too often when plenty and comfort had come, he was startled to find some one claiming some of his cleared or uncleared land. Although conscious that such and such were the boundaries of the land granted to him, it was not so easy to prove that such was the case. The annoyances of these direct and indirect attempts to disinherit, may easily be imagined. In this connection, the following letter may be given as exemplifying the feelings, if not the facts—perhaps both—which belonged to those days. It appeared in the Kingston Gazette in 1816, over the signature “A.”
“Sir,—The situation of the old settlers in the Province of Upper Canada, is truly deplorable. These people settled in the wilds of Canada, then the Province of Quebec, under the surveys made by the acting Surveyor-General. Landmarks being established for the guidance of their improvements: no deeds were given them until the Parliament of Great Britain altered the Quebec bill, arranged a new constitution, similar to that they had lost during the rebellion, in the Province of New York, from whence they chiefly came to settle at Frontenac, now Kingston. After cultivating the country agreeably to those surveys for twenty years or more, deeds are issued to cover those lots, drawn and cultivated as above mentioned. The Surveyor-General, David William Smith, Speaker of the House of Assembly, knowing that these deeds were filled up by guess, the survey never having been made complete, wisely provided an Act of the Legislature to prevent the deeds from moving the old land-marks. This Act provides that when thirty freeholders apply to the Magistrates in session they shall make an assessment and collect the money to enable the Surveyor-General to erect monuments, in order to preserve their ancient land-marks and boundaries. What is the reason that this Act has not been complied with? Are the Magistrates all landholders and their sons Lawyers?
“An order from the Governor has lain in the Surveyor-General’s office ever since the year 1801 for monuments to be erected in the Township of Kingston, agreeable to the intention of that Act. Why will not the Magistrates do their duty? The consequence is, that the licensed Surveyor, John Ryder, is running new lines every day, and moving the land-marks of the old settlers. People who have come into the country from the States, marry into a family, and obtain a lot of wild land, get John Ryder to move the land-marks, and instead of a wild lot, take by force a fine house and barn and orchard, and a well cultured farm, and turn the old Tory, (as he is called) out of his house, and all his labor for thirty years.
“These old settlers have suffered all that men could suffer; first in a seven years’ rebellion in the revolutionized colonies; then came to a remote wilderness, some hundred miles from any inhabitant—not a road, not a cow, or an ox, or a horse to assist them; no bread during the winter, they wintered first at Cataraqui. A little pease and pork was all they could get until the ice gave way in the spring of 1785.
“The King, as an acknowledgment and mark of his approbation for the loyalty and sufferings of his faithful subjects, ordered lands to be granted them free from expense, and marked each man’s name with the letters U. E., with a grant annexed to each child as it became of age, of two hundred acres of the waste lands of the crown.
“Now these children cannot get these lands agreeably to the intention of Government. They must sell their right to a set of speculators that hover round the seat of Government, or never get located. Or if they should have the fortune to get a location ticket, it is situated on rocks, and lakes, and barren lands, where they are worth nothing at all; the good lots being marked by the Surveyors, and located by those U. E. rights they have so purchased.
“Now, Sir, was I a scholar, I might draw you a much better description of this wickedness. But I have lived to see thirteen colonies, now States of America, severed from the British empire by the mal-administration of justice in the civil government of those colonies; the people’s minds were soured to that degree that a few designing men overthrew the Government.”
“After the conquest of Canada, the king ordered a thousand acres of land to be granted to each man. The land was granted; but the people to whom it was granted were deprived by a set of speculators, from ever getting a foot, unless they became tenants to those who, in a manner, had robbed them of their rights.”