CONTENTS—The term Concession—First Concession of Land in Canada—The
Carignan Regiment—Seigniories—Disproportion of the sexes—Females
sent from France—Their appearance—Settling them—Marriage
allowance—The last seigniory—New Longeuil—Seigniory at Frontenac—
Grants to Refugees—Officers and men—Scale of granting—Free of
expense—Squatting—Disbanded soldiers—Remote regions—A wise and
beneficent policy—Impostors—Very young officers—Wholesale granting
of land—Republicans coming over—Covetous—False pretensions—
Government had to discriminate—Rules and regulations—Family lands—
Bounty—Certificates—Selling claims—Rear concessions—Transfer of
location ticket—Land board—Tardiness in obtaining titles to real
estate—Transfer by bond—Jobbing—Sir Wm. Pullency—Washington—Giving
lands to favorites—Reserves—Evil results—The Family Compact—
Extract from Playter—Extract from Lord Durham—From Gourlay—
Recompense to Loyalists—Rations—Mode of drawing land—Land Agent—
Broken front—Traitor Arnold—Tyendinaga.
CONCESSION OF LANDS TO THE FRENCH.
It has been stated that the term concession, as well as the system of
granting land to disbanded soldiers, was derived from the French. The
first concession of lands to soldiers took place in 1665, to the
Carignan Regiment, a name derived from a Prince of the house of Savoy,
which came to New France with the first Viceroy. It was a distinguished
corps in the French Infantry, having won renown on many a bloody field,
and carried death to many an Iroquois Indian. The Indians having sought
peace from the French, leave was granted to this regiment to permanently
settle in the New World. Titles to land was conferred according to rank,
and as well, sums of money to assist in the clearing of land. “The
officers, who were mostly noblesse obtained seigniories with their late
soldiers for vassals.” The settlement of this body of men increased the
disproportion between the males and females in Canada. The home
government considerately took steps to remedy this abnormal state of
things and despatched “several hundred from old France.” They “consisted
of tall, short, fair, brown, fat and lean.” These females were offered
to such of the men as had means to support a wife. In a few days they
were all disposed of. The Governor-General then distributed to the newly
married ones “oxen, cows, hogs, fowls, salted beef,” as well as money.—
(_Smith._)
The original grants of land by the French Government under the feudal
system, was into seigniories. These were subdivided into parishes,
“whose extents were exactly defined by De Vandreuil and Bigon, September
1721.” For these grants of seignioral tenure, certain acts of fealty
were to be performed, pursuant to the custom of Paris. After the British
supremacy, grants of land were still made by government in Lower Canada.
The last seigniory was conferred by the French in April, 1734, to
Chevalier de Longeuil, and is known as New Longeuil. It constitutes the
western boundary of the Lower Province.
CONCESSION OF LANDS TO THE LOYALISTS.
We have elsewhere seen that the first person, other than the natives, to
possess land in Upper Canada, was De la Salle, the discoverer of the
Mississippi River, to whom was granted a seigniory at Cataraqui, of four
leagues, including the fort, and the islands in front of the four
leagues of territory. Wolfe, Gage and Amherst Islands.
At the close of the war in 1783, it was determined by government to
confer grants of land to the refugee loyalists in Canada, on the same
scale to officers and men as had been done after the conquest of Canada,
1763, with the exception that all loyalists under the rank of subaltern
were to receive 200 acres. The grants to the disbanded soldiers and
loyalists, were to be made free of every expense.
In some of the townships, the settlers were squatting along the St.
Lawrence and Bay Quinté, until late in the summer and fall of 1784,
waiting to know the location of their lots. This might easily be, as
although the forest had been surveyed, the lots had not been numbered.
So, although the refugee soldier had his location ticket for a certain
lot, it was often a long tedious time before he could know its precise
situation.
The front part of the first, second, third, fourth and fifth townships
upon the bay were definitely disposed of to disbanded soldiers and
refugees, formed into companies. But the lands, then considered more
remote, as along the north shore of Hay Bay, in the third and fourth
towns; in some parts of the fifth; and more particularly along the
shores of the western extremity of the bay, were at the service of any
one who might venture to settle. It was considered quite in the remote
part of the earth. Even the head of Picton Bay was considered a place
which would hardly be settled. The result was, that many of the choice
lots were taken up in the eighth and ninth towns, before they were
surveyed.
The policy pursued by the British Government, in recognizing the
services of those who served in the British army against the rebels, and
in recompensing the losses sustained by those who adhered to the British
Crown in America, was most wise and beneficent. There were a few
deserving ones in suffering circumstances, who failed to get the bounty
so wisely granted. This sometimes was the result of the individual’s own
neglect, in not advancing his claims; sometimes the fault of an agent
who, too intent in getting for himself, forget those entrusted to his
care. While a small number thus remained without justice, there were on
the other hand, a large number who succeeded unworthily in obtaining
grants. It is no cause for wonder, that out of the large number who
composed the U. E. Loyalists, there would be found a certain number who
would not hesitate to so represent, or misrepresent their case, that an
undue reward would be accorded. Finding the government on the giving
hand, they scrupled not to take advantage of its parental kindness. In
later days we have seen the United States, when in the throes of a great
civil war, bleeding at every point of the body politic, by the
unprincipled contractors and others, who the most loudly proclaimed
their patriotism. In 1783, when a rebellion had proved successful, and
so had become a revolution, and the nation, from which a branch had been
struck off, was most anxious to repay those who had preferred loyalty to
personal aggrandizement, we may not wonder that there were some willing
to take all they could get.
It is also related that certain officers of the regiments were in the
habit of putting each of their children, however young, upon the
strength of the regiment, with the view of securing him land, and hence
arose an expression the “Major won’t take his pap,” and “half pay
officers never die,” as the officer placed on half pay when a year old,
would long enjoy it. But it will be often found that this mode was
adopted by those in authority, as the most convenient to confer favors
upon the chief officers, although a very ridiculous one.
For many a year no strict rules for discrimination, were observed in the
granting of lands in Canada, and the petitions which literally crowded
upon the government, were, in the main, promptly complied with. The time
came, however, when more care had to be observed, for not a few of those
who had actually rebelled, or had sympathized with the rebels, finding
less advantages from republicanism than had been promised, and with
chagrin, learning that those, whose homesteads and lands they had
assisted to confiscate, had wrought out new homes upon land, conferred
by a government more liberal, and of a nobler mind than the _parvenu_
government, which had erected a new flag upon American soil, looked now
with longing, covetous eyes toward the northern country, which those
they had persecuted, had converted from a wilderness to comfortable
homes. The trials of the first settlement had been overcome. The
occasional visit of a Canadian pioneer to his old home in the States,
where he told the pleasing tale of success, notwithstanding their
cruelty, caused some to envy their hard earned comforts, and even led
some who had been the worst of rebels, to set out for Canada with a view
of asserting their loyalty and, thereby of procuring lands. Not a few of
such unworthy ones succeeded for a time in procuring lands. It therefore
became necessary, on the part of the government, to exact the most
searching examination of parties petitioning for land. No reference is
here made to those who came into the province in response to the
invitation proclaimed by Governor Simcoe; but to those who entered under
false colors, prior to the time of Upper Canada being set apart from
Lower Canada.
_Extracts from the Rules and Regulations for the conduct of the Land
Office Department, dated Council Chamber, 17th February, 1789, for
the guidance of the Land Boards._
“4th. The safety and propriety of admitting the petitioner to become an
inhabitant of this Province being well ascertained to the satisfaction
of the Board, they shall administer to every such person the oaths of
fidelity and allegiance directed by law; after which the Board shall
give every such petitioner a certificate to the Surveyor General or any
person authorized to act as an Agent or Deputy Surveyor for the district
within the trust of that Board, expressing the ground of the
petitioner’s admission, and such Agent or Deputy Surveyor shall, within
two days after the presentment of the certificate, assign the petitioner
a single lot of about two hundred acres, describing the same with due
certainty and accuracy under his signature. But the said certificate
shall, nevertheless, have no effect if the petitioner shall not enter
upon the location, and begin the improvement and cultivation thereof
within one year from the date of such assignment, or if the petitioner
shall have had lands assigned to him before that time in any other part
of the Province.
“7th. The respective Boards shall, on petition from the Loyalists
already settled in the Upper Districts for the allotment of lands under
the instructions to the Deputy Surveyor General of the 2nd of June,
1787, or under prior or other orders for assigning portions to their
families, examine into the grounds of such requests and claims, and
being well satisfied of the justice thereof, they shall grant
certificates for such further qualities of lands as the said
instructions and orders may warrant to the acting Surveyors of their
Districts respectively, to be by them made effectual in the manner
before mentioned, but to be void, nevertheless, if prior to the passing
the grant in form, it shall appear to the Government that such
additional locations have been obtained by fraud, and that of these the
Boards transmit to the office of the Governor’s Secretary, and to each
others, like reports and lists as hereinbefore, as to the other
locations directed.
“8th. And to prevent individuals from monopolizing such spots as contain
mines, minerals, fossils, and conveniences for mills, and other similar
advantages of a common and public nature, to the prejudice of the
general interest of the settler, the Surveyor-General and his Agents or
Deputy Surveyors in the different districts, shall confine themselves in
the location to be made by them upon certificates of the respective
Boards, to such lands only as are fit for the common purpose of
husbandry; and they shall reserve all other spots aforementioned,
together with all such as may be fit and useful for ports and harbours,
or works of defence, or such as contain valuable timber for ships,
building or other purposes, conveniently situated for water carriage, in
the hands of the Crown, and they shall, without delay, give all
particular information to the Governor or Commander-in-Chief for the
time being, of all such spots as are hereinbefore directed to be
reserved to the Crown, that order may be taken respecting the same. And
the more effectually to prevent abuses and to put individuals on their
guard in this respect, any certificate of location given contrary to the
true intent and meaning of this regulation is hereby declared to be null
and void, and a special order of the Governor and Council made necessary
to pledge the faith of Government for granting of any such spots as are
directed to be reserved.
FAMILY LANDS AND ADDITIONAL BOUNTY.
“Certificate of the Board appointed by His Excellency the Governor,
for the District of ——, in the Province of Quebec, under the rules
and regulations for the conduct of the Land Office Department.
“Dated, Council Chamber, Quebec, 17th February, 1789.
“The bearer ——, having on the —— day of ——, preferred to the Board a
Petition addressed to His Excellency the Governor in Council, for a
grant of —— acres of land in the Township of —— in the District of —
—. We have examined into his character and pretentions, and find
that he has received —— acres of land in the Township of ——, in the
District of ——, and that he settled on and has improved the same,
and that he is entitled to a further assignment of —— acres, —— in
conformity to the seventh articles of the rules and regulations
aforementioned.
“Given at the Board at this —— day of ——, one thousand seven hundred
and ——.
“To ——
“Acting Surveyor for the District of ——.
CERTIFICATE OF THE ACTING SURVEYOR.
“I assign to the bearer —— the lot No. —— in the Township of ——, in
the District of ——, containing —— acres, —— chains, which lands he
is hereby authorized to occupy and improve, and having improved the
same, he shall receive the same grant thereof, to him and his heirs
or devisee in due form on such terms as it shall please His Majesty
to ordain, and all persons are desired to take notice that this
assignment and all others of a similar nature are not transferable,
by purchase, donation or otherwise, on any pretence whatever, except
by an act under the signature of the Board for the District in which
the lands are situated, which is to be endorsed upon this
Certificate.
“Given at ——, this —— day of ——, one thousand seven hundred and ——.
“To ——
“Acting Surveyor for the District of ——.”
But there were many a one who drew land, and never even saw it. It was
quickly, thoughtlessly sometimes, sold for little or nothing. Sometimes
for a quart of rum. The right jolly old soldier would take no thought of
the morrow. A few did not retain their lands, because they were of
little value for agricultural purposes; but the majority because they
were situated in that remote region in the 4th or 5th concession of the
third town, or away up in the 2nd concession of sixth town, or a long
way up in the eighth town. Rear concessions of even the first and second
townships were looked upon doubtingly, as to whether the land was worth
having. Often the land would not be looked after. It not unfrequently
was the case that settlers upon the front who had drawn land also in the
rear townships, disposed of the latter, not from any indifference as to
its future value, but to obtain the immediate necessaries of life, as
articles of clothing, or stock, or perhaps food, or seed grain, and now
and then in later days to pay taxes. The certificates of the children,
entitling them to land when of age, were often disposed of. Even
officers found it convenient, or necessary to sell rear land to new
comers, for ready money.
Thus it came to pass that a good many never took possession of the land
which a prudent Government had granted them. The statement has been made
that persons holding prominent positions at the time, and possessed of
prudent forethought, as to the value which would in the future attach to
certain lots, stood ready not only to accept offers to sell, but to
induce the ignorant and careless to dispose of their claims.
Consequently when patents were issued, several persons became patentees
of large tracts of land, which had been drawn by individual Loyalists,
whose names never appeared in the Crown Land Office. The transfer of a
certificate or “location ticket,” consisted in the seller writing his
name upon the back of the ticket. Occasionally a ticket would exchange
hands several times, so that at last when it was presented to obtain the
deed, it was difficult to determine who was the owner. The power to thus
transfer the certificates, was allowed for several years. But in time
Government discovered the abuses which had arisen out of it, and decided
that all patents should, thenceforward, be in the name of the person who
originally drew the land. Not unfrequently these certificates were lost.
The losers, upon claiming land, could not establish their rights; but
Government, to meet this misfortune, created a Land Board for each
Township, whose duty it was to examine and determine the claims of all
who presented them.
The following extract of a letter will explain itself:
“_For the Kingston Gazette, June 1st, 1816._”
“It has long been a subject of deep regret in the minds of judicious
persons, that the inhabitants of this Province should be so
neglectful as they are in securing their titles of real estate. When
the country was first settled, the grants of land from the crown, on
account of the existing state of the Province, could not be
immediately issued. The settlers, however, drew their lots and went
into possession of them, receiving only tickets, or certificates, as
the evidence of their right to them. In the meantime, exchanges and
sales were made by transfers of the possession with bonds for
conveyances when the deeds should be obtained from the Crown Office.
“This practice of transferring land by way of bond, being thus
introduced, was continued by force of usage, after the cause of its
introduction was removed. In too many instances it is still
continued, although, by the death of the parties, and the consequent
descent of estates to heirs under age, and other intervening
privations, many disappointments, failures, and defects of title,
are already experienced; and the evil consequences are becoming
still more serious, as lands rise in value, become more settled and
divided among assignees, devisees, &c. In a few years this custom,
more prevalent perhaps in this Province, than elsewhere, will prove
a fruitful source of litigation, unless the practice should be
discontinued.”
In connection with free grants of land, and a certain degree of
indifference as to the value, there must necessarily arise more or less
speculation or land-jobbing.
Sir William Pullency has been called the first land-jobber in Canada. In
1791, he bought up 1,500,000, at one shilling per acre, and soon after
sold 700,000 at an average of eight shillings per acre. But land-jobbing
is not peculiar to Canada, nor has its practice militated against the
public character of eminent men, either here or abroad. General
Washington was not only a Surveyor, but an extensive land-jobber, and
thereby increased immensely his private fortune.
We have seen elsewhere, that a few private individuals were wont to buy
the location tickets of all who desired to part with them, or whom they
could induce to sell. In this way a few individuals came to own large
quantities of land, even from the first. Afterward, there was often
conferred by the authorities, quantities of land upon those connected
with influential persons, or upon favorites. Subsequently the mode of
reserving Crown and Clergy lands increased the evil. And it was an evil,
a serious drawback; not alone that, but favorites procured land without
any particular claim or right. The land thus held in reserve, being
distributed among the settled lots in the several townships, was waste
land, and a barrier to advancement. Each settler had to clear a road
across his lot; but the Government lots, and those held by
non-residents, remained without any road across them, except such paths
as the absolute requirements of the settlers had caused them to make. In
this way, the interests of the inhabitants were much retarded, and the
welfare of the Province seriously damaged. The existence of the Family
Compact prevented the removal of this evil, for many a year, while
favorites enjoyed choice advantages. In 1817, “The House of Assembly in
Upper Canada took into consideration the state of the Province, and
among other topics, the injury arising from the reserve lands of the
Crown and the Clergy.” In laying out the townships in later years, “The
Government reserved in the first concession, the 5th, 15th, and 20th
lots; and the Clergy the 3rd, 10th, 17th, and 22nd. In the second
concession, the Crown reserved the 4th, 11th, 21st, and 23rd; and the
Clergy, the 2nd, 9th, and 16th. And thus in every two concessions, the
Crown would have three lots in one, and four in the other, or seven in
all; and the Clergy the same; or 14 lots reserved in every 48, or nearly
one-third of the land in each concession, and in each township. The
object of the reservation was to increase the value of such land by the
improvements of the settlers around it. The object was selfish, as the
reserve lands injured all those who did them good. It was difficulty
enough to clear up the forests; but to leave so many lots in this forest
state, was a difficulty added by the Crown. To have one-third of a
concession uncleared and uncultivated, was an injury to the two-thirds
cleared and cultivated. Large patches of forest, interspersed with
cultivated land, obstructs the water courses, the air, and the light;
nurtured wild animals and vermin destructive to crops and domestic
creatures around a farm house; and especially, are injurious to roads
running through them, by preventing the wind and the sun from drying the
moisture. Besides, no taxes were paid by these wild lots for any public
improvements; only from cultivated lands. The Assembly, however, were
cut short in their work of complaint, by being suddenly prorogued by the
Governor, whose Council was entirely against such an investigation. Here
was the beginning of the Clergy Reserve agitation in the Provincial
Parliament, which continued for many years.”—(_Playter._)
In this connection, the following extract from a report of Lord Durham,
will be found interesting:
“By official returns which accompany this report, it appears that, out
of about 17,000,000 acres comprised within the surveyed districts of
Upper Canada, less than 1,600,000 acres are yet unappropriated, and this
amount includes 450,000 acres the reserve for roads, leaving less than
1,200,000 acres open to grant, and of this remnant 500,000 acres are
required to satisfy claims for grants founded on pledges by the
Government. In the opinion of Mr. Radenhurst, the really acting
Surveyor-General, the remaining 700,000 consist for the most, part of
land inferior in position or quality. It may almost be said, therefore,
that the whole of the public lands in Upper Canada have been alienated
by the Government. In Lower Canada, out of 6,169,963 acres in the
surveyed townships, nearly 4,000,000 acres have been granted or sold;
and there are unsatisfied but indisputable claims for grants to the
amount of about 500,000. In Nova Scotia nearly 6,000,000 acres of land
have been granted, and in the opinion of the Surveyor-General, only
about one-eighth of the land which remains to the Crown, or 300,000
acres is available for the purposes of settlement. The whole of Prince
Edward’s Island, about 1,400,000 acres, was alienated in one day. In New
Brunswick 4,400,000 acres have been granted or sold, leaving to the
Crown about 11,000,000, of which 5,500,000 are considered fit for
immediate settlement.
“Of the lands granted in Upper and Lower Canada, upwards of 3,000,000
acres consist of ‘Clergy Reserves,’ being for the most part lots of 200
acres each, scattered at regular intervals over the whole face of the
townships, and remaining, with few exceptions, entirely wild to this
day. The evils produced by the system of reserving land for the Clergy
have become notorious, even in this country; and a common opinion I
believe prevails here, not only that the system has been abandoned, but
that measures of remedy have been adopted. This opinion is incorrect in
both points. In respect of every new township in both Provinces reserves
are still made for the Clergy, just as before; and the Act of the
Imperial Parliament which permits the sale of the Clergy Reserves,
applies to only one-fourth of the quantity The select committee of the
House of Commons on the civil government of Canada reported in 1828,
that “these reserved lands, as they are at present distributed over the
country, retard more than any other circumstance the growth of the
colony, lying as they do in detached portions of each township, and
intervening between the occupations of actual settlers, who have no
means of cutting roads through the woods and morasses, which thus
separate them from their neighbours. This description is perfectly
applicable to the present state of things. In no perceptible degree has
the evil been remedied.
“The system of Clergy Reserves was established by the act of 1791,
commonly called the Constitutional Act, which directed that, in respect
of all grants made by the Crown, a quantity equal to one-seventh of the
land so granted should be reserved for the clergy. A quantity equal to
one-seventh of all grants would be one-eighth of each township, or of
all the public land. Instead of this proportion, the practice has been,
ever since the act passed, and in the clearest violation of its
provisions, to set apart for the clergy in Upper Canada a seventh of all
the land, which is a quantity equal to a sixth of the land granted.
There have been appropriated for this purpose 300,000 acres, which
legally, it is manifest, belong to the public. And of the amount for
which Clergy Reserves have been sold in that Province, namely, £317,000
(of which about £100,000 have been already received and invested in the
English funds,) the sum of about £45,000 should belong to the public.
“In Lower Canada, the same violation of the law has taken place, with
this difference—that upon every sale of Crown and Clergy Reserves, a
fresh reserve for the Clergy has been made, equal to one-fifth of such
reserves. The result has been the appropriation for the clergy of
673,567 acres, instead of 446,000, being an excess of 227,559 acres, or
half as much again as they ought to have received. The Lower Canada fund
already produced by sales amounts to £50,000, of which, therefore, a
third, or about £16,000, belong to the public. If, without any reform of
this abuse, the whole of the unsold Clergy Reserves in both Provinces
should fetch the average price at which such lands have hitherto sold,
the public would be wronged to the amount of about £280,000; and the
reform of this abuse will produce a certain and almost immediate gain to
the public of £60,000. In referring, for further explanation of this
subject, to a paper in the appendix which has been drawn up by Mr.
Hanson, a member of the commission of inquiry which I appointed for the
colonies. I am desirous of stating my own conviction that the clergy
have had no part in this great misappropriation of the public property,
but that it has arisen entirely from heedless misconception, or some
other error, of the civil government of both Provinces.”
“The great objection to reserves for the clergy is, that those for whom
the land is set apart never have attempted, and never could successfully
attempt, to cultivate or settle the property, and that, by special
appropriation, so much land is withheld from settlers, and kept in a
state of waste, to the serious injury of all settlers in its
neighborhood. But it would be a great mistake to suppose that this is
the only practice by which such injury has been, and still is, inflicted
on actual settlers. In the two Canadas, especially, the practice of
rewarding, or attempting to reward, public services by grants of public
land, has produced, and is still producing, a degree of injury to actual
settlers which it is difficult to conceive without having witnessed it.
The very principle of such grants is bad, inasmuch as, under any
circumstances, they must lead to an amount of appropriation beyond the
wants of the community, and greatly beyond the proprietor’s means of
cultivation and settlement. In both the Canadas, not only has this
principle been pursued with reckless profusion, but the local executive
governments have managed, by violating or evading the instructions which
they received from the Secretary of State, to add incalculably to the
mischiefs that would have arisen at all events.
“In Upper Canada, 3,200,000 acres have been granted to “U. E.
Loyalists,” being refugees from the United States, who settled in the
province before 1787, and their children; 730,000 acres to Militia men;
450,000 acres to discharged Soldiers and Sailors; 225,000 acres to
Magistrates and Barristers; 136,000 acres to Executive Councillors, and
their families; 50,000 acres to five Legislative Councillors, and their
families; 36,900 acres to Clergymen, as private property; 264,000 to
persons contracting to make surveys; 92,526 acres to officers of the
Army and Navy; 500,000 acres for the endowment of schools; 48,520 acres
to Colonel Talbot; 12,000 acres to heirs of General Brock, and 12,000
acres to Dr. Mountain, a former Bishop of Quebec; making altogether,
with the Clergy Reserves, nearly half of all the surveyed land in the
province. In Lower Canada, exclusively of grants to refugee loyalists,
as to the amount of which the Crown Lands’ Department could furnish me
with no information, 450,000 acres having been granted to Militiamen, to
Executive Councillors 72,000 acres, to Governor Milne, about 48,000
acres, to Mr. Cushing and another, upwards of 100,000 acres (as a reward
for giving information in a case of high treason), to officers and
soldiers 200,000 acres, and to “leaders of townships” 1,457,209 acres,
making altogether, with the Clergy Reserves, rather more than half of
the surveyed lands originally at the disposal of the Crown.
“In Upper Canada, a very small proportion (perhaps less than a tenth) of
all the land thus granted, has been even occupied by settlers, much less
reclaimed and cultivated. In Lower Canada, with the exception of a few
townships bordering on the American frontier, which have been
comparatively well settled, in despite of the proprietors, by American
squatters, it may be said that nineteen-twentieths of these grants are
still unsettled, and in a perfectly wild state.
“No other result could have been expected in the case of those classes
of grantees whose station would preclude them from settling in the
wilderness, and whose means would enable them to avoid exertion for
giving immediate value to their grants; and unfortunately, the land
which was intended for persons of a poorer order, who might be expected
to improve it by their labor, has, for the most part, fallen into the
hands of land-jobbers of the class just mentioned, who have never
thought of settling in person, and who retain the land in its present
wild state, speculating upon its acquiring a value at some distant day,
when the demand for land shall have increased through the increase of
population.
“In Upper Canada,” says Mr. Bolton, himself a great speculator and
holder of wild land, “the plan of granting large tracts of land to
gentlemen who have neither the muscular strength to go into the
wilderness, nor perhaps, the pecuniary means to improve their grants,
has been the means of a large part of the country remaining in a state
of wilderness. The system of granting land to the children of U. E.
Loyalists has not been productive of the benefits expected from it. A
very small proportion of the land granted to them has been occupied or
improved. A great proportion of such grants were to unmarried females,
who very readily disposed of them for a small consideration, frequently
from £2 to £5 for a grant of 200 acres. The grants made to young men
were also frequently sold for a very small consideration; they generally
had parents with whom they lived, and were therefore not disposed to
move to their grants of lands, but preferred remaining with their
families. I do not think one-tenth of the lands granted to U. E.
Loyalists has been occupied by the persons to whom they were granted,
and in a great proportion of cases not occupied at all.” Mr. Randenhurst
says, “the general price of these grants was from a gallon of rum up to
perhaps £6, so that while millions of acres were granted in this way,
the settlement of the Province was not advanced, nor the advantage of
the grantee secured in the manner that we may suppose to have been
contemplated by government.” He also mentions amongst extensive
purchasers of these grants, Mr. Hamilton, a member of the Legislative
Council, who bought about 100,000 acres. Chief Justices Emslie and
Powell, and Solicitor General Gray, who purchased from 20,800 to 50,000
acres; and states that several members of the Executive and Legislative
Councils, as well as of the House of Assembly, were “very large
purchasers.”
“In Lower Canada, the grants to “Leaders and Associates” were made by an
evasion of instructions which deserve a particular description.
“By instructions to the Local Executive immediately after the passing of
the Constitutional Act, it was directed that “because great
inconveniences had theretofore arisen in many of the colonies in
America, from the granting excessive quantities of land to particular
persons who have never cultivated or settled the same, and have thereby
prevented others more industrious, from improving such lands; in order,
therefore, to prevent the like inconveniences in future, no farm-lot
should be granted to any person being master or mistress of a family in
any township to be laid out which should contain more than 200 acres.”
The instructions then invest the governor with a discretionary power to
grant additional quantities in certain cases, not exceeding 1,000 acres.
According to these instructions 200 acres should have been the general
amount, 1,200 the maximum, in special cases to be granted to any
individual. The greater part, however, of the land (1,457,200 acres) was
granted, in fact, to individuals at the rate of from 10,000 to 50,000 to
each person. The evasion of the regulations was managed as follows: A
petition, signed by from 10 to 40 or 50 persons, was presented to the
Executive Council, praying for a grant of 1,200 acres to each person,
and promising to settle the land so applied for. Such petitions were, I
am informed, always granted, the Council being perfectly aware that,
under a previous agreement between the applicants (of which the form was
prepared by the then Attorney General, and sold publicly by the law
stationers of Quebec), five-sixths of the land was to be conveyed to one
of them, termed leader, by whose means the grant was obtained. In most
cases the leader obtained the most of the land which had been nominally
applied for by fifty persons.”
Upon this subject we further give as worthy of attention, although we
will not endorse all that is said, the remarks made by Mr. Robert
Gourlay in his “Statistical Account.” He says, “when we look back into
the history of old countries, and observe how landed property was first
established; how it was seized upon, pulled about, given away, and
divided in all sorts of ways, shapes, and quantities; how it was
bequeathed, burdened, entailed, and leased in a hundred forms; when we
consider how dark were the days of antiquity,—how grossly ignorant and
savage were our remote forefathers, we cannot be so much surprised at
finding ourselves heirs to confusion; and, that, in these old countries,
entanglement continues to be the order of the day. But when civilized
men were quietly and peaceably to enter into the occupancy of a new
region, where all could be adjusted by the square and compass; and when
order, from the beginning, could have prevented for ever all possibility
of doubt, and dispute, and disturbance; how deplorable is it to know,
that in less than a life-time, even the simplest affairs should get into
confusion! and so it is already in Upper Canada, to a lamentable degree.
Boundaries of land are doubtful and disputed: deeds have been mislaid,
lost, unfounded, forged: they have been passed again and again in review
before commissioners: they have been blotted and blurred: they have got
into the repositories of attornies and pettifogging lawyers; while
courts of justice are every day adding doubt to doubt, delay to delay,
and confusion to confusion; with costs, charges, cheating.
“Things are not yet beyond the reach of amendment, even in the old
settlements. In the new, what a glorious task it is to devise plans for
lasting peace and prosperity!—to arrange in such a way, as to bar out a
world of turmoil in times to come!
“The present very unprofitable and comfortless condition of Upper Canada
must be traced back to the first operations of Simcoe. With all his
honesty, and energy, and zeal for settling the Province, he had really
no sound views on the subject, and he was infinitely too lavish in
disposing of the land—infinitely too much hurried in all his
proceedings. In giving away land to individuals, no doubt, he thought he
would give these individuals an interest in the improvement of the
country,—an inducement to settle in it, and draw to it settlers; but he
did not consider the character and condition of most of his favorites;
many of them officers in the army, whose habits did not accord with
business, and less still with solitude and the wilderness; whose hearts
were in England, and whose wishes were intent on retirement thither.
Most of them did retire from Upper Canada, and considering, as was
really the case, their land grants of little value, forgot and neglected
them. This was attended with many bad consequences. Their lands became
bars to improvement; as owners they were not known; could not be heard
of; could not be applied to, or consulted with, about any measure for
public advantage. Their promises under the Governor’s hand, their land
board certificates, their deeds, were flung about and neglected. But
mischief greater than all this, arose, is, and will be, from the badness
of surveys. Such was the haste to get land given away, that ignorant and
careless men were employed to measure it out, and such a mess did they
make of their land-measuring, that one of the present surveyors informed
me, that in running new lines over a great extent of the Province, he
found spare room for a whole township in the midst of those laid out at
an early period. It may readily be conceived, upon consideration of this
fact, what blundering has been committed, and what mistakes stand for
correction. Boundary lines in the wilderness are marked by blazing, as
it is called, that is, chopping off with an axe, a little bark from such
trees as stand nearest to the line. Careless surveyors can readily be
supposed to depart wide of the truth with this blazing: their measuring
chains cannot run very straight, and their compass needles, where these
are called in aid, may be greatly diverted from the right direction by
ferruginous substances in the neighbourhood, as spoken of. In short,
numerous mistakes and errors of survey have been made and discovered:
much dispute has arisen therefrom; and I have been told infinite
mischief is still in store. It occurred to me, while in Canada, and it
was one of the objects which, had a commission come home, I meant to
have pressed on the notice of government, that a complete new survey and
map of the Province should be executed; and at the same time a book,
after the manner of Doomsday-book, written out and published, setting
forth all the original grants, and describing briefly but surely all
property both public and private. I would yet most seriously recommend
such to be set about. It might be expensive now, but would assuredly
save, in time to come, a pound for every penny of its cost.”
We have seen elsewhere that, in the terms of peace made at Paris when
hostilities ceased, justice was not done to the American Loyalists. But
subsequently, when their claims became known to the British public,
there was uttered no uncertain sound, upon the floor of Parliament,
respecting the duty resting upon England towards the devoted but
distressed loyalists who had laid all upon the altar of patriotism; and
to the honor of England be said, every step was now taken to provide
some recompense for the United Empire Loyalists. It is true, the old
homes with their comforts and associations could not be restored; the
wilderness was to be their home, a quiet conscience their comfort, and
their associations those of the pioneer for many a day. But, what could
be done, was done by the Crown to render their circumstances tolerable.
Extensive grants of land were granted, not alone to the disbanded
soldier according to rank, but to every one who had become a refugee.
Three years supply of rations were allowed to all, as well as clothing;
and certain implements were furnished with which to clear the land and
prepare it for agriculture. The scale of granting lands was, to a field
officer 5000 acres, captain 3000, subaltern 2000, private 200. The
loyalists were ranked, with the disbanded soldiers, according to their
losses, and services rendered, having taken the usual oath of
allegiance; and all obtained their grants free of every expense. In
1798, complaints having been made to the Imperial Government respecting
the profuse manner of granting lands, royal instructions were given to
Gen. Hunter to limit the allowance to a quantity from 200 to 1,200. The
grants of land when large, were not to be in blocks; but few secured
more than 200 acres upon the front townships. The original mode of
granting lands, at least to the soldiers, was by lot. The process was
simple. The number of each lot, to be granted in each concession, was
written on a separate piece of paper, and all were placed in a hat and
well shaken, when each one to receive land, drew a piece of paper from
the hat. The number upon the paper was the number of his lot. He then
received a printed location ticket. In drawing lots, no one felt any
particular anxiety. They were yet unacquainted with the country, they
had not seen the land, and one number was as likely to prove as valuable
as another.
It would seem that the Surveyor acted as Land Agent. Having surveyed the
lots, he prepared the ballot, and arranged the time and place for the
settlers to draw. It was no doubt this original mode of drawing by
lottery, which gave the provincial term _drawing_ land. We have the
testimony of Ex-Sheriff Sherwood, that the Surveyor discharged this
office. He recollects “Esquire Collins;” he was at his father’s house,
and his father assisted in the matter of drawing with those who had
assembled for the purpose. The Surveyor had a plan by him, and as each
drew his lot, his name was written immediately upon the map. Many of the
plans, with names upon them, may be seen in the Crown Land Department.
Some of the settlers upon the front acquired much more land than others
by reason of the “broken front.” It often happened that the base line,
running from one cove of the Bay to another, left between it and the
water a large strip of land. This “broken front” belonged to the
adjacent 200 acres, so that often the fortunate party possessed even 50
or 100 acres extra.
One of the noted individuals to whom land was granted in Upper Canada,
was Arnold the Traitor. 18,000 acres was given him, and £10,000.
The tract of land now constituting the Township of Tyendinaga, having
been purchased from the Mississaugas, was deeded to the Mohawks. The
deed bears the date of 1804. The land is granted to “the chiefs,
warriors, people, women of the Six Nations.” The chief, at the time they
settled, was Capt. John Deserontyon.