164 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



McKee for 999 years. In ISO-t Thomas MeKee leased the island to 

 John Askin, and in 1815 Alexander McKee, son of Thomas, leased 

 it to William McCormac'k. In 1823 full title was passed, and the 

 island's history became part of the history of the McCormick family. 

 William McCormick married Mary, the seventeen-year-old daughter of 

 John Cornwall, in January, 1809, and in this way the sketch of 

 the member under consideration comes into the story. John Corn- 

 wall was a native of Wales. He came to America about 1772 and 

 settled in Connecticut. He Joined the Loyalists and, after serving 

 through the war, found himself at its close in the western district. 

 On enlisting, " he left his wife and child in Connecticut, and it was 

 twenty ( ?) years before t'hey joined Mm in Canada, the son by that 

 time a grown man. This son, Joshua Cornwall, I take to be the mem- 

 ber elected to represent Essex county in the seventh parliament, 1817. 

 Mr. Thaddeus Smith has given us more information of Mary Cornwall 

 McCormick than of her father. 'Her husband died in 1840, and she 

 survived him fifty-one years, dying in 1891, but little short of 99 years 

 of age. " She had good executive ability and great influence for good 

 upon those slie came in contact with. Her mind was a wonderful 

 storehouse of knowledge of the incidents and history of the early 

 times, much of which was within h'er personal experience." 



An old record book of " The Two Connected Townships " pre- 

 served in 'the Crown Lands Dept., Toro^nto, gives the names of the 

 grantees of the 97 lots, John Cornwall is entered as a private of Butler's 

 Eangers. Then follows this note: "The Board told Cornwall that 

 if he could find an unclaimed few lots together, they would consent 

 to his getting them for himself and family and so dispose qf his im- 

 provements on his lot." Thaddeus Smith states that he lived near 

 Sandwich. The above note may help to reconcile statemients as to 

 his location. 



Members of First Legislature. 



Since the appearance of my paper of lasit year dealing with the 

 members of the first legislature I have been enabled to procure notes of 

 three members that were • somewhat briefly referred to, namely: Isaac 

 Swayzie, member for 3rd Lincoln, Francis Baby, one of the mem- 

 bers for Kent and Parsihall Terry, member for Lincoln and Norfolk. 



Isaac Swayzie. — The following notes as to Isaac Swayzie, member 

 for 3rd Lincoln in the first legislature (1792-1796), have been fur- 

 nished by Mr. Benjamin E. Swayzie, barrister, of Toronto, great-grand- 

 son of Israel Swayzie, the first settler at Beaver Dams, and first cousin 

 of Isaac Swayzie: 



