AND Archives of Ontario , BY ALF.XANDER FRASER, lL.O. 1929 ' i, REPORT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC RECORDS AND ARCHIVES OF ONTARIO 1929 [i] INTERIOR Vmw OF NAVY HALL, NEWARK. GovERNOR SIMCOE, \\1rLLIAM J ARVIS , SECRETARY. AND COURIER \\"ITH DISPATCH FROM l NDIAK T ER RITORY EIGHTEENTH REPORT OF THE Department of Public Records AND Archives of Ontario BY ALEXANDER FRASER, LLD. 1929 PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF ONTARIO SESSIONAL PAPER No. 26, 1930 ONTARIO TORONTO: Printed and Published by Herbert H. Ball, Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty 1 9 3 0 CONTENTS PAGE Letters of Transmission .................................................. V Prefatory .............................................................. VII Grants of Crown Lands in Upper Canada, 1792-1796 ........................ Land Book A ....................................................... 9 Appendix I-Simcoe's Commission of Appointment ....................... 178 II-Simcoe's Arrival at Quebec ................................. 178 III-Oaths of Office, Forms of .................................. 180 IV-Executive Council. ....................................... 182 V-Legislative Council ........................................ 183 VI-Legislative Assembly ...................................... 183 \'II-Executive Officers ......................................... 183 VIII--Formation of the Old Districts ............................. 184 LX-Conditions of Land Settlement ............................. 185 X-First Counties in Upper Canada ............................ 187 XI-Old Instructions to Land Surveyors ......................... 192 Index .................................................................. 195 liv] To Hrs HONOUR THE HONOURABLE WILLIAM D. Ross, LLD., ETC., Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of Ontario. MAv IT PLEASE YouR HONOUR: I have the pleasure to present for the consideration of Your Honour the Report of the Department of Public Records and Archives of Ontario for the year 1929. Respectfully submitted, J. D. MONTEITH, Treasurer of Ontario. TORONTO, 1929. THE HONOURABLE J. D. MONTEITH, M.D., M.P.P., ETC., Treasurer of Ontario. Srn,- I have the honour to submit to you the following Report in connection with the Department of Public Records and Archives of Ontario. I have the honour to be, Sir, Your obedient servant, ALEXANDER FRASER, Deputy Minister. TORONTO, 31st December, 1929. [v] "The world is now aware that historians are to be doubted, that State Papers, even Acts of Parliament, may deceive-may be coined for the purpose of deceiving. But family documents, the private letters, the household accounts, the memoranda scratched in the leaf of an old almanac, reach us without sus­ picion, an<l carry conviction about things as important to happiness as ·wars and treaties."-Professor Cosmo Innes. "~-It is very difficult to compare human lives at different times and in different places. Yet without such comparisons, explicit or implicit, social history can teach us nothing."-G. G. Coulton. [vi] Ex Rebus A ntiquis Erudito Oriatur PREFATORY Following last year's Report in due sequence, this volume, the eighteenth in the series, contains, in the main, original documents concerning the peopling of the Province of Upper Canada in the epochal years from 1792 to 1796, covering the entire Administration of John Graves Simcoe, first Lieutenant Governor of the Province. In 1791 the Province of Quebec was divided into Upper and Lower Canada, each Province having its own legislature and separate government. Colonel Simcoe was detained at Quebec on account of the non-arrival of the appointed members of the Executive Council, without a quorum of which he could not be sworn in nor enter upon his official duties. It is a curious co­ incidence that on his departure from ( 'anada in 1796 he was again delayed at Quebec for a considerable time owing to an unexpected interruption of his sailing arrangements. In this enforced interval, Simcoe was engaged in planning the structure of government for the Province-the social and institutional life of which he was the inspirer and real founder; so that on his arrival at Kingston early in the month of July, 1792, he was ready, ·without delay, to take up the work of his office. The Executive Council was at once organized. The first members to be sworn in were William Osgoode and Peter Russell. Tlre Council thus constituted tendered the oaths to His ExcPllency. The oaths administered at that time may be ref erred to in Appendix I I. Then began the daily meetings, the record of which bears testimony to the unceasing activity and to the thoroughnPss with which, to the minutest detail, the arduous duties of the Lieutenant Governor were discharged. He began by reading to a meeting of the magistrates and principal inhabi­ tants the Commission appointing Lord Dorchester Governor-in-Chief of Upper and Lower Canada1, and the Commission appointing himself to be Lieutenant 2 Governor of Upper Canada ; the foundation documents of these Provinces. The personnel of the first Government, Legislative Council, and executive officials was as follows:- Lieutenan t Governor: John Graves Simcoe. Secretary: Edward B. Li ttlehales. Executive Council: William Osgoocle, Chief Justice; William Robertson3, Alexander Grant, Peter Russell and James Baby. Clerk: John Small, and E. B. Littlehales, pro tern.; James Clark. Secretary and Registrar of the Province: William Jarvis. Legislative Council: William Osgoode, C.J., James Baby, Richard Duncan, William Robertson 3, Robert Hamilton, Richard Cartwright, Jun., John Munro, Alexander Grant, Peter Russell. Clerk of the Crown, and Court of Common Pleas: David Burns. Sheriffs: Richard Pollard, Alexander McDonell. 1See Ontario Archives IV., pp. 161-169. 2See Appendix No. 1 to this volume. 3 \iVilliam Robertson had settled at Detroit in 1782 and was prominent in affairs. At the time of his appointment he was in England and did not return to Canada. JEneas Shaw was appointed in his place (p. 72). [vii] Speaker of the House of Assembly: John McDonnell. Clerk: Angus McDonell. Surveyor-General of Lands: David William Smith. "-\ttorney-General: John White. In addition to the Minutes of the Executive Council this Report contains a few documents of special interest. For instance, on pages 1-7 will be found the Royal Instructions given to Simcoe on his appointment, in which the functions of the Executiw Council are set forth. These Instructions were not available "·hen the State documents published in the Fourth Report of the Ontario Archives (1906) were being collected, and so far as is presently known to the writer they are pubfo,hed herein for the first time. The late Avern Pardoe, Parliamentary Librarian of Ontario, made a search for this document in 1906, with the assistance of the Dominion Archivist and the Under-Secretary of State.1 The claim of the Reverend John Stuart to the exclusive right of granting marriage licenses, letters of administration, and probates of wills; under the authority of a Commission from the Bishop of Nova Scotia, throws a side-light on ecclesiastical relationships and jurisdiction. Of interest also are such records as those dealing with the authorization of local fairs, Indian claims to certain lands, the details of sundry public accounts, and tables of official fees, the per­ sonnel of the ne,Y local Land Boards, the establishment of a Supreme Court of Judicature for the Province, the Bill for which was prepared by Chief Justice Osgoode, a memorial for lots on which to build a Presbyterian Church and School House at Newark, various references to loyalist and military services of public as well as of genealogical value, and certain collects and prayers for the Lieutenant Governor and Legislature in S(ssion prepared by the Bishop of Nova Scotia. In the matter of settlement three periods are noticeable: that in which the Council at Quebec and the District Land Boards operated, the proceedings of "hich are given in last year's Report, the period of Simcoe's regime-distinct in itself, meriting careful study, and the period of the Administrations immediately follov.'ing, noted for being rather less restrained in disposing of the virgin resources of the Province. The official relationship between Dorchester and Simcoe, into which serious friction entered, is scarcely more than hinted at in these particular records; yet to anyone familiar with the correspondence, the diverse influences at work are even here significantly discernible. Simcoe held laboriously to his post until his request for leave of absence was granted, his characteristic diligence undiminished, though undoubtedly the state of his health demanded temporary relief, and most probably was the actual cause of his desire for a change of scene. Simcoe's Commission of Appointment as Lieutenant Governor, his Pro­ clamations regarding land settlement and creating of the first sixteen counties of Upper Canada; Dorchester's Proclamation forming the original districts; and a copy of early instructions to land surveyors, will be found among the Appendices. From these records a vivid glimpse is obtained of the tortuous processes of settlement, and information essential to the historian and special investigator pursuing the work of historical research. Indebtedness is gratefully acknowledged to Dr. Doughty, Dominion Archivist, for his ever ready assistance; and for the correspondence relating to Simcoe's arrival at Quebec, to the Ontario Historical Society, in whose valuable volume of Simcoe Papers, edited by Brig.-General