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eral of the Province, on the part of His Majesty, or by a general pardon to be granted to Mr. McDonnell.

We have the honor to be

My Lord

Your Lordship's

most obedient

humble servants

CHRISTO ROBINSON,

WM. GRIFFIN,
J. S. COPLEY.

To The Earl Bathurst, &c. &c. &c.

[Q 334, p 30]

MEMORIAL OF LIEUT. COL. HENRY BIRD.

To the Right Honorable the Earl Bathurst principal Secretary of State for the Colonial Department &c. &c. &c. &c.

The Memorial of Lieut Colonel Henry Bird of the 16th Regiment of foot, sheweth that in a reply to a Memorial transmitted to Your Lordship, with the recommendation of His Royal Highness the Duke of York, in February 1818 accompanied by several papers and documents in explanation, your memorialist received a communication from the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury, thro' Henry Goulborne, Esqr. stating that their Lordships considered the claim therein made as inadmissible on the ground "that it appears "laid down in the letter from Sir Frederick Haldimand to Lieut "Governor Hay, which conveyed Sir F. Haldimand's consent to the "immediate occupation of the Land of the Officers to whom it had 'been granted, that a certain defined portion of it was to be reserved "for the crown, and that in the Surveyor General's report it is stated the reserve set apart comprehended Captain Bird's Lot.

46

In reply to this Your Memorialist had the honor to transmit a statement to their Lordships endeavouring to explain what he deemed a misconception with regard to the particular grant in question, which was one made by the Indian Nations, in the year 1784, and to the entire and immediate occupation of which no objection was made on the part of Government. Your Memorialist apprehended the reservation made by Sir F. Haldimand referred to a subsequent

Grant made by the British Government to officers and men who had served in the Indian Department, which latter grant was adjoining the former one made by the Indian Nations. Your Memorialist is not aware that any reservation was made with regard to the Indian Grant of 1784, and is certain that no particular portion of that Grant was defined or marked out as intended to be taken by the Crown before the year 1787, at which time Lieut Colonel Mathews then commanding in Upper Canada was directed to look out for proper situations to erect Military posts in lieu of those to be given up to the Americans, and he then pointed out part of the Lot granted to Your Memorialist's Father as the most suitable position for a Fort to protect the en trance of the Detroit River, his recommendaton was adopted by the Surveyor General or Chief Engineer and Fort Amherstberg erected thereon in the year 1796-7. Thus Your Memorialist's Father had quiet and entire possession of the grant for three years before he knew that any part of it would be required by the Crown, and during that period, indeed in the year 1784, as soon as he got possession of it, he cleared about two hundred acres of the same, erected two Dwelling Houses on it, planted and fenced Gardens and Orchards &c. &c. at an expense of nearly £1200; and it is clear, had he entertained an idea of Government at any time taking it no man of common sense would have expended so large a sum in clearing and building on When it was taken Government found it ready cleared, and two good Houses on it, one of which was till lately (and your memorialist believes still is) the residence of the Chief Engineer, or Officer Commanding the Artillery, the other was either the residence of the Barrack Master or converted into a Government Store. Supposing Your Memorialist were even to lay aside his claim to remuneration for the Land, itself or allowing even that Government had the right to take it without such remuneration, surely even then He would be entitled to be repaid the expense of clearing it, (which must otherwise have been done at the public charge), as well as to payment for the Houses and buildings taken possession of by, and actually in occupation of Government at this moment, as they have been for twenty-seven years from the year 1796 to the present time.

on it.

It may appear that considerable neglect occurred on the part of Your Memorialist's Father in not applying to Government as soon as the property was taken, but Your Memorialist begs to state, as

that did occur till the year 1796 his Father did not hear of it till the following year, and it was then necessary to get a more clear and regular account from Upper Canada that he at first received (which was merely a complaint from the persons he allowed to live in the Houses, that they had been dispossessed of them, as well as all the Land that was cleared) but before he had time to get the information he required, he joined his regiment (the 54th) in Ireland at the time the Rebellion was scarcely quelled, he immediately afterwards embarked for Foreign Service, and died on the Expedition, under the command of Sir Ralph Abercrombie, leaving this property in America by his will as the only provision for Your Memorialist and his Brother. Your Memorialist was then too young and inexperienced to know the proper mode of applying for remuneration, and being shortly after appointed to the Fifth Regt. be joined it immediately. In the year, 1805 he transmitted a memorial to Lord Castlereagh on on the subject, but going on service immediately, the application was necessarily not followed up: In 1806 he went with his Regiment to South America, very soon after his return in 1808 he accompanied his Regiment with the first Troops to the Peninsula, shortly] after his return with the remains of Sir John Johnson's Army he went with the Regiment to Walcheren, and afterwards with it again to the Peninsula, where it remained to the end of the war.

During Your Memorialist's absence from England on Service some of his Father's friends presented Memorials to Lord Castlereagh on behalf of the family generally, (this having been done in 1808, by Lieut Colonel Matthews and Sir John Caldwell Bart. both perfectly well acquainted with all the circumstances of the case from having been on the spot, at the time, an offer was made from the Treasury of 1200 Dollars as a compensation for the Land taken by [Government, but as these gentlemen, deemed this sum totally inadequate to the value of the property (tho' perhaps equal to that of the Land without the buildings and improvements on it) they declined accepting it for the family; and thus the business has rested till Your Memorialist's first application to Your Lordship since the peace in February 1818.

Your Memorialist earnestly prays Your Lordship to take the hardship of his case into your favorable consideration seeing that be has been dispossessed of 200 acres of cleared Land which was in a thriving state, that he has also been dispossessed of two Dwell

ing Houses erected thereon at a very great expense, which were taken by Government and have been occupied by its servants for twenty seven years or upwards, and are still so occupied; that Your Memorialist has never received any compensation or remuneration for the Land or Houses so taken; That his claim to such compensation has been fully recognized and acknowledged by an offer from the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury in the year 1808 of 1200 Dollars for the Land so taken, but such sum being totally inadequate to the value of the Buildings before mentioned your memorialist humbly entreats Your Lordship to recommend such remuneration as Your Lordship may deem equivalent to the value of the property he has lost, and the length of time he has been deprived of it. Your Memorialist begs to state his present distressed situation; being appointed to a Regiment in Ceylon he is obliged to leave a wife and five children in England having no income by which he can provide for them but what arises from his commission, and looking entirely to the kind consideration of Your Lordship, and the justice and liberality of the Government he has served with zeal from Boyhood for the means of enabling him to fit himself out and join his Regiment without leaving his Family in want. Your Lordship's favorable determination on his case will confer a most essential obligation on Your Memorialist and ever ensure the gratitude of

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HALDIMAND PAPERS.

GEN. FREDERICK HALDIMAND TO BRIG. GEN. H. WATSON POWELL.

QUEBEC, 6th Jan. 1781.

SIR,

I have waited the return of Capt. La Force to acknowledge the receipt of your letters dated the 10th and 18th of November. The fatal accident conjectured in the former and confirmed in the latter is the cause of great concern to me and cannot fail to embarrass the service in that quarter, where it is already too complicated and opposed by difficulties.

I am however much relieved by reflecting that there is an officer upon the spot in whose zeal activity & attention I have the utmost dependance, and who I rest assured, will exert every power to repair the loss the service has sustained, it will be most felt in the naval Department. Upon hearing of the misfortune I immediately sent off the master builder with a few Carpenters to Carleton Island with full directions arranged by Capt. Schanks to repair the Haldimand and replace the Ontario with all possible expedition.

Captain Fraser had very prudently set about preparing Timber for these works, and from the diligence of Mr. Coleman, I hope there will not be any material delay in the Transport across the Lake, as soon as it becomes navigable.

I am

more alarmed at what you may suffer from want of provisions before that time.

Sir John Johnson's Expedition and the loss of the Ontario having thrown the Transport so far back in the Fall and I am no stranger to the little consideration the Indians have for exigencies of the kind tho' I am at the same time persuaded their wants are great. To your circumstances and prudence I refer you for an answer and a paragraph of your letter desiring to know if the

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