"120 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



inhabitants, who had been able to establish themselves "in a fair 

 degree of comfort, in spite of two seasons of scarcity, which had brought 

 some of them perilously near starvation." A considerable area of 

 land had been cleared and brought under cultivation, roads opened, 

 more than a dozen grist and sawmills erected throughout the Peninsula, 

 a town laid out, and merchants had found convenient centers for their 

 operations at four places along the Niagara River, namely. Fort Erie, 

 Chippewa, the West Landing (Queenston) and Niagara.^ 



According to an ethnological survey, published in 1901, 250 

 families belonging to Butler's Rangers settled in Niagara Township 

 and 200 more in Grantham. An unnumbered group of other Loyal- 

 ists also found homes in Niagara and another unnumbered group in 

 Louth. These were all in Lincoln County. In the County of Welland 

 to the south Stamford Township is said to have received 140 Loyalist 

 families, Willoughby, 60, Bertie, 145, Thorold, 100, Crowland, 80, 

 Humberstone, 100, Pelham, 120, and Wainfleet, 115. From another 

 source we learn that Crowland remained a part of Willoughby for 

 township purposes until March 17, 1803, when the former township 

 had a population of only 216. This indicates that at the time of its 

 separation Crowland had no more than half the number of families 

 credited to it by the survey. Only two townships in Wentworth 

 County at the head of Lake Ontario are mentioned as sharing in the 

 Loyalist immigration, namely, Ancaster and Beverly; and the same 

 townships are shown on an old map in the writer's possession to have 

 been settled by refugees. But we know from other sources that four 

 other townships in this region should be included, namely, Saltfleet 

 Binbrook, and Barton to the south of Burlington Bay and Flamboro to 

 the north of it.^ 



The severer of the two seasons of scarcity, referred to in a pre- 

 vious paragraph, was undoubtedly the "hungry year" of 1789. The 

 famine of this year was partly due to the failure of crops, but partly 

 also to the increased demand for provisions by the numbers of desti- 

 tute people coming in. The older settlers had reserved a supply of 

 potatoes and cereals for planting, but by the opening of May the 

 stock of provisions had failed, and the assistance promised by the 

 government was not forthcoming. Harvest was still more than three 

 months away. The settlement at Niagara was fortunate in being 

 near the fort, for the commandant, Lieutenant Colonel Peter Hunter 

 of the 60th Regiment, took the responsibility of opening the military 

 stores to his neighbors across the river, although he did so without 



1 Niagara Hist. Soc, No. 17, 35, 39, 40; No. 26, 49-51. 



2 Papers and Records, Ont. Hist. Soc, HI, 190, 192, 193, 195; Cruikshank, A 

 Century of Municipal Hist., Co. of Welland, Pt. I, 7,9,49. See also /)05/, pp. 112, 113. 



