Jefferson, Thomas DS 18999.Doc

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Rare U.S. Land Grant to the Widow of a Canadian Patriot and Supporter of the American Revolution

JEFFERSON, THOMAS. (1743-1826). Third president of the United States. Partially printed DS. (“Th. Jefferson” ). Countersigned by Secretary of State and future president, JAMES MADISON , (1751-1836; “ James Madison ”). 1p. Small folio. Washington, February 15, 1802. To Martha Walker, the widow of Canadian merchant and American Revolutionary Thomas Walker.

THOMAS JEFFERSON, President of the United States of America, To all whom these presents shall come, Greeting:

KNOW YE, That in pursuance of the act of Congress passed on the eighteenth day of February, 1801, entitled “An Act regulating the grants of Land appropriated for the Refugees from the British Provinces of Canada and Nova Scotia,” there is granted unto Martha Walker, a certain tract of land estimated to contain Three hundred seventeen acres, and fifty two perches, being half section Number Two, in Township Number five and Range twenty two of the lands set apart and reserved for the purpose of satisfying the claims of the Refugees aforesaid and surveyed and located in pursuance of the act above recited: To have and to hold the said described tract of land, with the appurtenances thereof unto the said Martha Walker, and assigns forever, subject to the conditions, restrictions and provisions contained in the said recited act.

In witness whereof, the said THOMAS JEFFERSON, President of the United States of America, hath caused the Seal of the said United States to be hereunto affixed, and signed the same with his hand, at the City of Washington, the fifteenth day of February in the year of our Lord, 1802 and of the Independence of the United States of America the twenty sixth…

Martha Walker was the widow of Thomas Walker, a British merchant in Montreal who challenged the local English military authorities and eventually took up the American cause for independence. After his appointment as a justice of the peace in 1764, during Quebec’s transition to a civil government, Walker challenged the billeting of an officer in one of his legal decisions. For this and “other political outbursts, Thomas Walker highlighted himself as one of the most radical of the British Party troublemakers. Army officers were seriously offended by the ‘Oppressive Proceedings of the new Magistrates’ epitomized by Walker,” ( The Battle for the Fourteenth Colony: America's War of Liberation in Canada, 1774-1776 , Anderson). Walker was severely beaten by British soldiers who broke into his home and cut off his ear and part of his cheek. Unable to obtain justice for the attack, Walker grew even more opposed to British military rule. In 1773, he sailed to London to petition for the right to an elected assembly. “Through his activity as a wheat buyer and speculator Walker had gained an influence in rural areas that enabled him to circulate, in Montreal and its district and in Quebec, the [U.S.] Continental Congress’ 1774 appeal for support. By 1775 Walker was a full- fledged republican. In April he was present at a meeting of American sympathizers at the Montreal Coffee House and there urged the sending of delegates to the next Congress. He supplied military

LION HEART AUTOGRAPHS 216 East 45 th Street, Suite 1100 New York, NY 10017 www.lionheartautographs.com Tel: 212.779.7050 Toll-free: 800.969.1310 information to Benedict Arnold, and later to Ethan Allen. In June he agitated among the inhabitants of Repentigny and Chambly, promising money, arms, and powder to those who would support the Americans. When the American army invaded the colony in September… Walker, naturally regarded as an enemy and a traitor, was arrested at L’Assomption, where he owned a farm and potash plant and where he had been engaged in levying Canadians to fight the British. On 11 November… Walker was placed on a ship bound for Quebec. The Americans captured the vessel, however, and Walker was released. He returned to Montreal, and there he housed Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Chase, and Charles Carroll, the three Congress delegates who arrived in the city early in 1776. When the Americans withdrew from the province later that year, Walker accompanied them and established himself in Boston,” ( Dictionary of Canadian Biography , Thomas). In January 1785, Walker petitioned Congress for compensation for the assets confiscated by the British crown.

Jefferson was outspoken on his philosophy that land ownership was fundamental to freedom and all other rights. While he served in Virginia’s delegation to the Continental Congress in 1782, the state ceded the land northwest of the Ohio River, the Northwest Territory, to the national government. Jefferson then drafted the Ordinance of 1784 stipulating that the territory not be held as a colony but divided and entered into the Union as states when the population reached 5,000 voting citizens. Despite the measure’s defeat, a similar ordinance was passed in 1787 that set the requirements for subsequent entry of states into the Union and marked the beginning of America’s westward expansion.

The American government had promised in 1783 and 1785 to compensate Canadians who had supported the Revolutionary cause. However, the townships near Lake Erie set aside in the Land Ordinance of 1785 belonged to Connecticut and, therefore, could not be given by the federal government. Walker died in Boston in 1788, before his claim was resolved. In 1798, Congress invited the Canadian refugees to file claims that were examined by the secretaries of treasury and war, who determined the acreage each claimant was to receive. The February 18, 1801 “Act regulating the grants of Land appropriated for the Refugees from the British Provinces of Canada and Nova Scotia” created the Refugee Tract in what became Ohio two years later. Its 60,000 acres, located in modern Franklin, Licking, Fairfield, and Perry counties, were divided among the 67 Canadian refugees. Walker’s widow, Martha, was one of seven granted 2240 acres, the greatest amount of land awarded. The Refugee Tract was located directly south of the United State Military District, portions of which were awarded in lieu of payment to veterans of the Revolutionary War according to rank.

The tract of land granted in our document, roughly 1/7 of the total amount, is located in “Township Number five, Range twenty two” which is Montgomery Township, Franklin County (named in honor of Benjamin Franklin), Ohio, annexed by the city of Columbus in 2010. The approximate location of Walker’s tracts is just north of today’s Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens.

With an unusual, detailed watercolor map on the verso showing Franklinton (now a neighborhood of Columbus), the Scioto River, Whetstone River (more commonly referred to as the Olentangy River), and Allum Creek, and laying out several of Walker’s plots (No. 3 and No. 2) and showing neighboring parcels owned by Edward Faulkner, Lieutenant Colonel Livingston and Lieutenant Colonel Bradford.

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On a folded vellum sheet with an intact but slightly damaged blind-stamped paper Great Seal of the United States. A tiny hole affects the “J” of Jefferson’s signature. Several ink fingerprints in the margins with one next to Jefferson’s signature. In very good condition.

In more than forty years of auction records, we could find only one other land grant for a Canadian supporter of the American Revolution and that one was also issued on the same date to Martha Walker for 327 acres, possibly for the adjacent piece of property delineated on the map. It sold for $3800 in 2004. $4500

Item #18999 F:\NewWorks\Jefferson, Thomas DS 18999.doc

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Location of the Refugee Tract (between the two arrows)

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