[siebert] loyalists AND SIX NATION INDIANS 101 



THE LAND BOARD. 



The increasing immigration from the States during recent years, 

 and the abuses connected with the distribution of lands, together 

 with disputes over locations, led to the passing of an order in council, 

 December 29, 1788, by which a Land Board was named for the Dis- 

 trict of Nassau. This board proceeded to examine into the loyalty, 

 but more especially into the character, of persons appearing before 

 it with claims for land. To such as were approved the board admin- 

 istered the oath of allegiance, while directing the surveyor to supply 

 successful claimants with tickets specifying the amount of land to 

 which they and their families were entitled. "All these claimants," 

 we are informed, "were already settled, some on the surveyed lands, 

 others on the waste land adjoining." Ten months later the Land 

 Board adopted regulations for its guidance in making assignments, 

 in accordance with instructions previously issued by the government. 

 According to these regulations, field officers were to receive 1,000 

 acres each, captains, 700, subaltern, staff, or warrant officers, 500, 

 non-commissioned officers, 200, private soldiers, 100, Loyalist heads 

 of families, 100, while the members of the families of the different 

 classes of persons named above were to receive 50 acres each, as were 

 unmarried Loyalist men. This scale of allotments was according 

 to the King's instructions of 1783; but by Governor General Carleton's 

 instructions of June 2, 1787, all settlers who had improved the lands 

 already granted them were to receive 200 additional acres. Therefore, 

 the board ruled that those who had borne arms, or served in some 

 other capacity during the war, would be entitled to 300 acres or more, 

 in proportion to their rank, and all others, to 200 acres only. In 

 accordance with these regulations, the board issued its first certificate, 

 June 28, 1790, to David Secord for Lots 43 and 50 of Township No. 1 

 (Niagara), containing 200 acres. ^ 



CONTINUED IMMIGRATION FROM THE STATES, 1789-1791. 



Meantime, numerous immigrants were still coming in from 

 the settled districts of the Eastern States, despite the attractions of the 

 Hudson and Mohawk valleys through which most of them passed. 

 An official enumeration made at Oswego shows that during the 18 

 months from May 1, 1789, to November 1, 1791, 88 men, 63 women, and 

 144 children, or a total of 265 persons, arrived at this point on their 

 way "to the new settlement at Niagara." In the first decade of its his- 

 tory this scattered colony had grown to a population of some 3,000 



1 Niagara Hist. Soc, No. 17, 31-34. 



