“Land Rush:” 1799

by Mary Ducharme  (February 2013)

Hemmingford as a township was founded on March 18, 1799. There were no roads, the terrain was swampy and heavily wooded , and no waterways provided easy transportation. The land was unoccupied except by a few American squatters using the woodlands to produce potash. Eager to foster settlement, the government granted 23,000 acres of Crown Land to 119 individuals, with the objective of having loyal British subjects inhabiting the lands near the international border. While land-hungry immigrants were glad to own property, no matter what it was, enthusiasm for the so-called “wastelands” was not unanimous. In several cases, owners never took possession and sold their grants for as little as a bottle of rum.

Each male person in a family could apply for a grant, thus increasing holdings significantly. The Odel and Lewis families each had seven names on the list, the two families together claiming 2,800 acres. The Mannings, John and Isaac increased their acres in 1809 when Jacob and Joseph added their lots. A number of fathers and sons each gained 200 acre grants including Samuel Covey and his son with the same name, as well as John Lewis and his son Barnard. It was not until 33 years later when John Scriver appears on the grant list when he was awarded 462 acres for his military service in the War of 1812, the only person thus awarded in the township. In the same year his brother William is granted 100 acres. Julius and John A. Scriver appear on grant lists in 1862, the year that the Ryans, Jeremiah and Edward, are granted partial lots, and these family names appear frequently on lot maps over many years.

The 1799 list reveals that most settlers are of English, Irish, and Scot origins, with a number of grants to United Empire Loyalists, refugees from the American Revolution. There are few French surnames included, and to 1862, this remained fairly consistent. However, a growing French presence is apparent as the original grants are subdivided, bought and sold many times. The French had cause to be frustrated with prejudiced land companies. In 1833, for example, the British American Land Company controlled more than 1,400,000 acres of crown land in the Eastern Townships, and the company actively favored settlers from the British Isles.

For more information on the topic of early land distribution, see our website: sites.google.com/site/hemmingfordarchives/