34 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
XIII THE TERMS oF CONTRACT. 
Talbot waited a year before taking out his patent for the five 
thousand acres, which formed the basis of the scheme of settlement as 
sanctioned by Lord Hobart’s despatch of February 15th, 1803. He 
selected them in one block, with the exception of a single isolated lot. 
The terms of agreement required him, if he wished to claim other lands 
in the proportion of 200 acres for each family settled upon 50 acres, 
to place the families “ upon his original grant.” 
The advantage to the settlers, if he had carried out the terms, 
was obvious. Although their allotments might be small—only one- 
quarter of the usual allowance—yet they would be close together. The 
construction of roads, the erection of a school and a church, the trans- 
action of business, social intercourse, would be facilitated, and there 
would be within a very brief period a compact society of one hundred 
families. This would be the nucleus of the wider settlement to be 
composed of the reserved township. One-fourth of the reserve, it is 
true, would be appropriated to the Founder as his compensation, but 
the whole would be presently available for other settlers, to whom 
one of the principal attractions would undoubtedly be the existence of 
a compact settlement in their near neighbourhood. But the stipulation 
was ignored by Colonel Talbot. He retained the original block of land 
in his own hands. The hemp project, upon which the promise of the 
Crown was founded, was dropped. No settlers came from the continent 
of Europe, and very few, perhaps a dozen at most, from the United 
States; and yet immigrants from other countries, by the terms of con- 
tract, were excluded. Instead of settlement in the reserved townships 
being accelerated, it was greatly retarded by the scheme of settlement 
as actually worked out by Talbot for his own benefit. Roughly speak- 
ing, the south halves of Dunwich and Aldborough were made over to 
him. The settlers were scattered along Talbot Road, and in Ald- 
borough the Middle Road as well, on quarter lots, the Colonel taking 
as a rule the residue. As he systematically held back his lands from 
settlement and sale, the result was necessarily disastrous to the settlers’ 
hopes. Improvements were practically impossible, where so large a 
proportion of the land was unoccupied and covered with the primeval 
forest. Much of it was swamp-land, rich, but almost useless without 

? His letters patent from the Crown are dated May 7, 1804, and include 
the following lots, all of them being in the Township of Dunwich: In Con- 
cession IX, Lots 22, 23, 24;, Concession X, Lots 5, 21, 22, 23, 24, and A; 
Concession XI, Lots 14 to 24 inclusive, also A and B; Concession XII, Lots 
14 to 24 inclusive, also A and B. 
