160 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



On the 17th June, 1812, Benjamin Hardison and three others, 

 wrote to the Buffalo Gazette, referring to the understanding that Black 

 Rock and Fort Erie were to observe a neutrality towards each other, 

 and calling attention to the fact that recently musket balls have been 

 fired from the American side. 



Buffalo, 38th July, 1812 : " The British have erected another 

 breastwork in a circular form on the hill near Capt. Hardison's oppo- 

 site Black Eock. A number of soldiers are stationed behind it." 



Buffalo, 1st December, 1812 : " Between 9 and 10 o'clock, three 

 sailors embarked in a boat, passed over to the enemy's shore and set 

 fire to the dwelling house of B. Hardison and to the house and store of 

 Mr. Douglas, which were consumed." 



Lt.-Col. Cruikshank has lately interviewed Capt. Hardison's 

 daughter, Mrs. Martha Ann S(tanton, who is stiill living at Fort Brie, 

 aged 86. She states that her father was twenty years older than her 

 mother, who was born in 1781. Her mother was his second wife. He 

 was born, therefore, in 1761. He dijed about 1823, and is buried on his 

 farm at Fort Erie. The Massachusetts War Records contain the fol- 

 lowing entry: — 



" Benjamin Hardison, private in Capt. Moye's Company, Col. 

 Phinney's regular Massachusetts troops, taken prisoner and held cap- 

 tive in Canada until close of the War." 



He was born at Berwick, then in Massachusetts, now in the State 

 of Maine. Mrs. Stanton states that he was an usher to the first Pro- 

 vincial Legislature, Samuel Street being another, and she has a silver 

 knee buckle set with Irish diamonds, which is believed to have been 

 part of his ofiicial costume. 



Capt. Hardison is the only member of the early Legislature who 

 had fought on the United States side — perhaps his withdrawal from the 

 fighting through his capture and the treatment received while in 

 Canada may have changed his views. He was but a youth at the time. 

 We shall probably never know the reason for his settling at Fort Erie 

 and becoming a loyal Britisher. It is also worth noting that there is 

 still living in 1903 the daughter of one who was employed in the First 

 Ijegislature of Upper Canada in 1792 to 1796, and who was a member 

 of the Second House one hundred and seven years ago. 



Kent. — As in the first parliament, Kent sent two representatives 

 elected jointly by the whole county, not by two ridings of the county 

 as in the case of Glengarry. As stated in the previous paper, Kent 

 county included all left over from the other counties north and west 

 as far as the Indian lands. The southern boundary was a line running 

 east from Maisonville's mill to the Thames. The county included. 



