and continental history. Readers of Shakespeare's historical plays are,
it is to be hoped, sufficiently familiar with that "scourge of France"
who was defied by Joan of Arc, and who, with his son, John Talbot, fell
bravely fighting his country's battles on the field of Castillon, near
Bordeaux. It would be difficult for a man to sustain the burden of a
long line of such ancestors as these. It is therefore reassuring to
learn that the Talbot line has been diversified by representatives of
another sort. Readers of Macaulay's History are familiar with the name
of Richard Talbot, that noted sharper, bully, pimp and pander, who
haunted Whitehall during the years immediately succeeding the
Restoration; whose genius for mendacity procured for him the nickname
of "Lying Dick Talbot;" who became the husband of Frances Jennings; who
slandered Anne Hyde for the money of the Duke of York; who, in a word,
was one of the greatest scoundrels that figured in those iniquitous
times; and who was subsequently raised by James II. to the Earldom of
Tyrconnel. "Lying Dick" was a member of the Irish branch of the Talbot
family, which settled in Ireland during the reign of Henry II., and
became possessed of the ancient baronial castle of Malahide, in the
county of Dublin. 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
father of the subject of this sketch was Richard Talbot, of Malahide.
His mother was Margaret, Baroness Talbot; and he himself was born at
Malahide on the 17th of July, 1771.
All that can be ascertained about his childhood is that he spent some
years at the Public Free School at Manchester, and that he received a
commission in the army in the year 1782, when he was only eleven years
of age. Whether or not he left school immediately after obtaining this
commission does not appear, but his education must have been very
imperfect, as he was not of a studious disposition, and in 1786, when he
was only sixteen, we find him installed as an aide-de-camp to his
relative the Marquis of Buckingham, who was then Lord Lieutenant of
Ireland. His brother aide was the Arthur Wellesley already referred to.
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,
"Yearning for the large excitement that
the coming years would yield."
Young Talbot continued in the position of aide-de-camp for several
years. In 1790 he joined the 24th Regiment, which was then stationed at
Quebec, in the capacity of Lieutenant. We have no record of his life
during the next few months. 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. He continued to
form part of the establishment of Upper Canada's first
Lieutenant-Governor until just before the latter's removal from this
country. "During that period," says General Simcoe, writing in 1803, "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 affection 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 to
Governor Simcoe that the idea of embracing a pioneer's life in Canada
first took possession of young Talbot's mind. It has been alleged that
his imagination was fired by reading a translation of part of
Charlevoix's "Historie Générale de la Nouvelle France," a work which
describes the writer's own experiences in the wilds of Canada in a
pleasant and easy fashion. This idea is probably attributable to an
assertion made by Colonel Talbot himself to Mrs. Jameson, when that
lady visited him during her brief sojourn in Upper Canada. "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." It is much more
probable, however, that he was influenced by his own experiences in the
Canadian forest, which for him would possess all the charm of novelty,
in addition to its natural beauties. He accompanied the
Lieutenant-Governor hither and thither, and traversed in his company the
greater part of what then constituted Upper Canada. He formed a somewhat
intimate acquaintance with the Honourable William Osgoode, the first
Chief Justice of this Province, who was for some time an inmate of
Governor Simcoe's abode at Niagara--or Newark, as it was then generally
called. The Chief Justice felt the isolation of his position very
keenly, and was doubtless glad to relax his mind by communion with the
young Irish lieutenant, who possessed no inconsiderable share of the
humour characteristic of his nationality, and could make himself a boon
companion. At this time there would seem to have been nothing of the
misanthrope about Lieutenant Talbot. He seemed to take fully as much
enjoyment out of life as his circumstances admitted of. His constitution
was robust, and his disposition cheerful. He was prim, and indeed
fastidious about his personal appearance, and was keenly alive to
everything that was going on about him. He was popular among all the
members of the household, and was the especial friend of Major
Littlehales, the adjutant and general secretary, whose name is familiar
to most persons who take an interest in the history of the early
settlement of this Province.
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 Navy Hall[1] to
explore the pathless wilds of Upper Canada. It consisted of
Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe himself and several of his officers, among
whom were Major Littlehales and the subject of the present sketch. The
Major kept a diary during the journey, which was given to the world more
than forty years afterwards in the _Canadian Literary Magazine_, a
periodical of which several numbers were published in Toronto in 1834.
The expedition occupied five weeks, and extended as far as Detroit. The
route lay through Mohawk village, on the Grand River, where the party
were entertained by Joseph Brant; thence westward to where Woodstock now
stands; and so on by a somewhat devious course to Detroit, the greater
part of the journey being necessarily made on foot. 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." The whole party were delighted with the
wild and primitive aspect of the country through which they passed, but
not one of them manifested such enthusiasm as young Lieutenant Talbot,
who 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 despatched 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 of 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. One writer ventures the hypothesis that he had been
crossed in love. The only justification, so far as we are aware, for
this hypothesis, is a half jocular expression of the Colonel's some
years afterwards. A friend having bantered him on the subject of his
remaining so long in a state of single blessedness, took an opportunity
of questioning him about it, and in the course of a familiar chat, asked
him why he remained so long single, when he stood so much in need of a
help-mate. "Why," said the Colonel, "to tell you the truth, I never saw
but one woman that I really cared anything about, and she would'nt have
me; and to use an old joke, those who would have me, the devil would'nt
have them. Miss Johnston," continued the Colonel, "the daughter of Sir
J. Johnston, was the only girl I ever loved, and she wouldn't have me."
Whatever cause may have impelled him, it is sufficiently evident that he
had become out of sorts with society, and had resolved to betake himself
to a distance from the haunts of civilized mankind. Aided by the
influence of ex-Governor Simcoe and other powerful friends, he obtained
a grant of five thousand acres of land as a Field Officer meaning to
reside in the Province, and to permanently establish himself there. The
land was situated in the southern part of the Upper Canadian peninsula,
bordering on Lake Erie, and included the site of what afterwards became
Port Talbot. This, however, was only a portion of the advantage
derivable from the grant. In addition to the tract so conferred upon him
he obtained a preëmptive or proprietary right over an immense territory
including about half a million acres, and comprising twenty-eight of the
adjacent townships.[2] For every settler placed by the Colonel on fifty
acres of this land, he was entitled to a patent of a hundred and fifty
additional acres for himself. He thus obtained practical control of an
expanse of territory which, as has been said, was "a principality in
extent." Armed with these formidable powers he once more crossed the
Atlantic, and made his way to the present site of Port Talbot, which had
so hugely attracted his fancy during his tour with Governor Simcoe. He
reached the spot on the 21st of May, 1803, and immediately set to work
with his axe, and cut down the first tree, to commemorate his landing to
take possession of his woodland estate. The settlement which
subsequently bore his name was then an unbroken forest, and there were
no traces of civilization nearer than Long Point, sixty miles to the
eastward, while to the westward the aborigines were still the lords of
the soil, and rules with the tomahawk. In this sequestered region
Colonel Talbot took up his abode, and literally made for himself "a
local habitation and a name."
At the time of his arrival he was accompanied by two or three stalwart
settlers who had crossed the Atlantic under his auspices, and with their
assistance he was not long in erecting an abode which was thenceforward
known as Castle Malahide. It was built on a high cliff overhanging the
lake. The "Castle" was "neither more nor less than a long range of low
buildings, formed of logs and shingles." The main structure consisted of
three divisions, or apartments; viz., a granary, which was also used as
a store-room; a dining-room, which was also used as an office and
reception-room for visitors; and a kitchen. There was another building
close by, containing a range of bed-rooms, where guests could be made
comfortable for the night. In his later years, the Colonel added a suite
of rooms of more lofty pretensions, but without disturbing the old
tenements, and these sumptuous apartments were reserved for state
occasions. There were underground cellars for wine, milk, and kitchen
stores. This description applies to the establishment as it appeared
when finally completed. For some time after the Colonel's first arrival
it was much less pretentious, and consisted of a single log shanty. In
order to prevent settlers and other people from intruding upon his
privacy unnecessarily, the Colonel caused one of the panes of glass in
the window of his office to be removed, and a little door, swung upon
hinges, to be substituted, after the fashion sometimes seen at rural
post-offices. By means of this little swinging door he held conferences
with all persons whom he did not chose to admit to a closer
communication. This, which at a first glance, would seem to smack of
superciliousness, was in reality nothing more than a judicious
precaution. In the course of his dealings with settlers and emigrants,
some of them were tempted, by the loneliness of his situation, to
browbeat, and even to manifest violence towards him. On one occasion, it
is said, he was assaulted and thrown down by one of the "land pirates,"
as he used to call them. The solitary situation in which he had
voluntarily placed himself, and the power he possessed of distributing
lands, required him to act frequently with apparent harshness, in order
to avoid being imposed upon by land jobbers, and to prevent artful men
from overreaching their weaker-minded brethren. His henchman,
house-steward and major-domo, was a faithful servant whose name was
Jeffery Hunter, in whom his master had great confidence, and who, as we
are gravely informed, was very useful in reaching down the maps.
Jeffery, however, did not enter the Colonel's employ until the later had
been some time in the country. Previous to that time this scion of
aristocracy was generally compelled to be his own servant, and to cook,
bake, and perform all the household drudgery, which he was not
unfrequently compelled to perform in the presence of distinguished
guests.
Some years seem to have elapsed before the Colonel attracted any
considerable number of settlers around him. 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 wildernesses of Western Canada. There was no
flouring-mill, for instance, within sixty miles of Castle Malahide. In
the earliest years of the settlement the few residents were compelled to
grind their own grain after a primitive fashion, in a mortar formed by
hollowing out a basin in the stump of a tree with a heated iron. The
grain was placed in the basin, and then pounded with a heavy wooden
beetle until it bore some resemblance to meal. In process of time the
Colonel built a mill in the township of Dunwich, not far from his own
abode. It was a great boon to the settlement, but was not long in
existence, having been destroyed during the American invasion in 1812.
For the first twenty years of the Colonel's settlement, the hardships he
as well as his settlers had to contend with were of no ordinary kind,
and such only as could be overcome by industry and patient endurance.
Colonel Talbot for many years exercised almost imperial sway over the
district. He even provided for the wants of those in his immediate
neighbourhood, and assembled them at his house on the first day of the
week for religious worship. He read to them the services of the Church
of England, and insured punctual attendance by sending the
whiskey-bottle round among his congregation at the close of the
ceremonial. Though never a religious man, even in the broadest
acceptation of the term, he solemnized marriages and baptized the
children. So that his government was, in the fullest and best sense,
patriarchal. His method of transferring land was eminently simple and
informal. No deeds were given, nor were any formal books of entry called
into requisition. For many years the only records were sheet maps,
showing the position of each separate lot enclosed in a small space
within four black lines. When the terms of transfer had been agreed
upon, the Colonel wrote the purchaser's name within the space assigned
to the particular lot disposed of, and this was the only muniment of
title. If the purchaser afterwards disposed of his lot, the vendor and
vendee appeared at Castle Malahide, when, if the Colonel approved of the
transaction, he simply obliterated the former purchaser's name with a
piece of india-rubber, and substituted that of the new one.
"Illustrations might be multiplied," says a contemporary Canadian
writer, "of the peculiar way in which Colonel Talbot of Malahide
discharged the duties he had undertaken to perform. There is a strong
vein of the ludicrous running through these performances. We doubt
whether transactions respecting the sale and transfer of real estate
were, on any other occasion, or in any other place, carried on in a
similar way. Pencil and india-rubber performances were, we venture to
think, never before promoted to such trustworthy distinction, or called
on to discharge such responsible duties as those which they described on
the maps of which Jeffery and the dogs appeared to be the guardians.
There is something irresistibly amusing in the fact that such an estate,
exceeding half a million of acres, should have been disposed of in such
a manner, with the help of such machinery, and, so far as we are aware,
to the satisfaction of all concerned. It shows that a bad system
faithfully worked is better than a good system basely managed."[3]
During the American invasion of 1812-'13 and '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. This
white lie probably saved the Colonel's life. The marauders, however,
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, which was totally consumed, and
this was a serious loss to the settlement generally.
It was not till the year 1817 that anything like a regular store or shop
was established in the settlement. Previous to that time the wants of
the settlers were frequently supplied from the stores of Colonel Talbot,
who provided necessaries for his own use, and for the men whom he
employed. The Colonel was punctual in all his engagements, and
scrupulously exact in all monetary transactions. The large sums he
received for many years from the settlers were duly and properly
accounted for to the Government. He would accept payment of his claims
only in the form of notes on the Bank of Upper Canada, and persons
having any money to pay him were always compelled to provide themselves
accordingly. His accumulations were carefully stored in the place of
concealment above referred to; and once a year he carried his wealth to
Little York, and made his returns. This annual trip to Little York was
made in the depth of winter, and was almost the only event that took him
away from home, except on the two or three occasions when he visited the
old country. He was accustomed to make the journey to the Provincial
capital in a high box sleigh, clad in a sheepskin greatcoat which was
known to pretty nearly every man in the settlement.
Among the earliest settlers in the Talbot District was Mr. Mahlon
Burwell, a land surveyor, who was afterwards better known as Colonel
Burwell. He was of great assistance to Colonel Talbot, and became a
privileged guest at Castle Malahide. He surveyed many of the townships
in the Talbot District, and later on rose to a position of great
influence in the Province. His industry and perseverance long enabled
him to hold a high place in the minds of the people of the settlement,
and he enjoyed the reflection of Colonel Talbot's high and benevolent
character. He entered the Provincial Parliament, and for many years
retained a large measure of public confidence. Another early settler in
the District was the afterwards celebrated Dr. John Rolph, who took up
his quarters on Catfish Creek in 1813. He was long on terms of close
intimacy and friendship with Colonel Talbot, and in 1817 originated the
Talbot Anniversary, to commemorate the establishment of the District,
and to do honour to its Founder. This anniversary was held on the 21st
of May, the Colonel's birthday, and was kept up without interruption for
about twenty years. It was attended by every settler who could possibly
get to the place of celebration, which was sometimes at Port Talbot, but
more frequently at St. Thomas, after that place came into existence.
Once only it was held at London. It is perhaps worth while mentioning
that St. Thomas was called in honour of the Colonel's Christian name.
Here the rustics assembled in full force to drink bumpers to the health
of the Founder of the settlement, and to celebrate "the day, and all
who honour it." The Colonel, of course, never failed to appear, and even
after he had passed the allotted age of three score and ten, he always
led off the first dance with some blooming maiden of the settlement.