Page 25 [25]
OCR
town was to arise. Even the occupation of the country by the British did not materially change the condition of affairs, until the termination of the American Revolution, which sent to our shores thousands of King’s Men, who preferred the “Old Flag" to Republican institutions. At the time of the separation of the Provinces, the population was not known, but was set down at sixty-five thousand. This was probably an exaggeration, as the total revenue for the thirteen years from the rst of May, 1775, to the 1st of May, 1788, including arrears, was less than ten thousand pounds, Crna 4. iv Tue JOHNSTOWN DistRICT—EARLY EXPLORATIONS GOURLAY S REPORTS. THE Johnston District, according to returns brought down in 1849, contained 1,020,000 acres, of which 141,646 were Clergy Reserves. The District was bounded on the west, north-west, north, and northcast by the Midland, Bathurst, Daihcusie, and Eastern Districts, and on the south, by the Kiver St. Lawrence. Originally, portions of North Burgess, Montague, North Gower, and Marlborough were integral parts of the District, the first survey running the boundary line to the north of the Rideau River. Subsequently, North Burgess and Montague were changed to include the land south to the Rideau, and attached to the County of Lanark ; the same plan being pursued in reference to Marlborough and North Gower, these townships forming a part of the County of Carleton. Many of the original settlers of Johnstown have, therefore, by legislation, been removed from the jurisdiction of the United Counties, yet deserve to be ranked peers the pioneers of Leeds and Grenville. . The County of Leeds contains the Townships of Bastard and Burgess (united October 29th, 1849), ae Crosby, South Crosby, Elizabethtown, Elmshe éj Escott, Kitley, Front of Leeds and Lansdowne, Rear of Leeds and Lansdowne, Front of Yonge, Re ear of Yonge and Escott, Incorporated Villages of eeeenoaee and Newboro’, and the Town of ‘sella eric. _ The peeation of the Johnstown District was, in )2 924 144741 ; in 1834, 28,061; in 1848, 43,436 ; and L44208. Of Leeds and Grenville, in 1860, Zz ™ . According to the census of 1871, Grenville aaa a oF a ü » ict f , hi + 1 a7 i 79 et ' a Pom oe i a tűldlga ‘ oh 7 li d úg as a ia 1 s = TT South, 14,197 ; “North Leeds and Grenville, 13,5303 South Leeds, 20,716. Previous to the declaration of war by the thirteen original colonies against Great Britain, the Rev. John Stuart, D.D., was acting missionary among the Mohawks, reading the service regularly every Sunday, first in English and then in Indian. Sir William Johnston secured for the missionary a handsome grant of land, which, in honor of his patron, Mr. Stuart named Johnstown. Some time after hostilities opened, Mr. Stuart was taken prisoner of war by the Continental forces, in consequence of his loyalty to the British Crown, and his estate forfeited; but, through the kindness of Subsequently, he settled at Cataraqui, receiving extensive grants of land, partly in the vicinity of that place, and partly at a point in Grenville, which, in memory of the Johnstown, the village subsequently becoming the entire District. During the Indian supremacy, the unbroken wilderness was traversed by ascending the great streams in bark canoes, paddling, when compelled, around the shores of the great lakes, surmounting rapids and other obstacles by carrying their frail barks. Their frequent journeyings created well-marked trails, that proved of the greatest service to the early French missionaries and explorers. The original routes from the seaboard were up the St. Lawrence River to ‘its confluence with the Ottawa; thence, by that stream, north to Lake Nipissing, and westward to Georgian Bay. To reach Lake Ontario, the path diverged so as to strike the head waters of the Trent, descending which, the voyageurs found themselves in the magnificent Bay of Quinte. Lake Ontario was shown on the early maps as Lake St. Louis, and subsequently as Lake Frontenac. A map is preserved in the Imperial Library in Paris, in which the Indian name of Ontario is given as Skaniadono, and bearing the date, 1688. According to a map in the Patent Office at Washington, the point on the Longley estate, at the windmill below Prescott, where the battle was fought in the so-called Patriot war, “Point aux Lievres ;” the site of Brockville bearing the title, “Fontaine Bequencourt.” Jones’ Creek is set down s “Quagaran River.” From Lake Ontario to Lake Huron, the route was up the Bay of Quinte, the River Trent, Lake Simcoe, and thence to Georgian Bay, Only
