ARRIVAL OF THE SETTLERS IN M'NAB--THEIR LOCATION.
On the 23rd of June, 1825, the settlers all arrived safely in the
township, and pitched their camps at the present Arnprior steamboat
landing. As many as could be crowded into Kennel Lodge, where the Laird
resided, proceeded thither; the remainder occupied the camps until all
the luggage had safely reached its destination. The Laird then called
them together and informed them that the township was given to him as a
grant by the Government, because he was a Highland Chief--that they
could go and select their lands--that he would send the Campbells (of
the lake), the Goodwins and Arch. Stewart along with them to point out
the most eligible locations, and as soon as they had chosen their
respective lots, he would locate them in due form. They accordingly
proceeded to prospect and select their lands: The three McIntyre
families, James McFarlane (Kier), James McDonald and Donald McNaughton
went up the Madawaska a distance of seven miles, and selected lands in
what is now called the Flat Rapid Settlement. James McLaren went to the
borders of Horton, in what is now known as the Lochwinnoch settlement,
and the rest of the emigrants pitched upon lands in the neighborhood of
what is now Arnprior, and along the banks of a small brook which they
named the Dochert, after a river of the same name which flowed through
the Kennel estate in Scotland. Having made this selection they removed
their families to the wild woods, in the very depth of the primeval
forest, and erected small shanties. The heads of families repaired to
the Chief's house to get their locations.
The Chief, through Dr. Hamilton, of Leney, promised that the settlers
were to be transported to their lands without any trouble or expense,
and were to be furnished by the Chief with three months' provisions
after they arrived, out of a store that was kept at the mouth of the
Madawaska river, by Mr. Ferguson (Craigdarrach). When the settlers
arrived, all that was in the store was a large puncheon of whiskey and
some clothes, nothing in the provision line whatever. They resolved
then, as soon as they got their locations, to go out in the neighboring
Township of Fitzroy to work for food for themselves and families. The
Chief accordingly sitting in solemn state at Kennel Lodge, having these
memorable and remarkable documents prepared in duplicate, forthwith
proceeded to seal and sign.
I subjoin a copy of this remarkable document given to the first
settlers. They are all of the same form, and in transcribing one I give
you a copy of each settlers' location ticket. All of them were written
in red ink, with the exception of two, and these two settlers had given
some offence to the Chief on their way up, and to evince his displeasure
he wrote theirs in black ink.
[COPY OF LOCATION TICKET.]
I, Archibald McNab, of McNab, do hereby locate you, James
Carmichael, upon the rear half of the Sixteenth Lot of the Eleventh
Concession of McNab, upon the following terms and conditions, that
is to say: I hereby bind myself, my heirs and successors, to give
you the said land free of any _quit rent_ for three years from this
date, as also to procure you a patent for the same at your expense,
upon your having done the settlement duties and your granting me a
mortgage upon said lands, that you will _yearly thereafter_ pay to
me, _my heirs and successors for ever_ one bushel of wheat or
Indian corn, or oats of like value, for every cleared acre upon the
said Lot of Land in name of _Quit Rent_ for the same, in month of
January in each year.
Your subscribing to these conditions being binding upon you to
fulfil the terms thereof.
Signed and sealed by us at Kennell Lodge, this twelfth day of
August, 1825.
Signed, ARCHIBALD McNAB, (L.S.)
Signed, JAMES CARMICHAEL,(L.S.)
I have interlined the above document, which indicates the first attempt
to establish and fix firmly a system of feudal dependence upon the
Chief. All the first settlers signed their original location tickets.
Now, McNab held them under him by two instruments--the bond executed at
Leney House in Callander, and the location ticket which bound themselves
and their lands to the Chief and his heirs and successors forever. The
reader will direct his attention to the Order in Council for the
settlement of the Township of McNab, passed in 1823, and contrast it
with the terms the Laird of McNab imposed upon his settlers. They were
ignorant. They had implicit confidence in their Chief. His word was
law, and they imagined that the land was his, as he had represented it,
and they conceived that they could easily pay the bushel of wheat to the
acre. They had no experience and they really and conscientiously
believed that the lands in Canada were as fertile as those in the
straiths of their own native country--the land they had so lately left
and where they paid high rents, and this small tax of a bushel for every
cleared acre was a mere nothing, which could be easily met.