[siebert] the AMERICAN LOYALISTS 29 



had for the asking. White and his fellow exiles, of whom a large part 

 were mechanics and tradesmen, believed that if a town were established 

 at Sorel, the place would soon become a center of trade, industry, and 

 shipbuilding. Accordingly, at the end of March, 1784, White applied 

 to Haldimand for grants of land for himself and his associates, evidently 

 on condition that a town should be provided. The applicant received 

 a prompt reply that his request for land would be cheerfully complied 

 with, but that the situation of a town would ''necessarily require 

 consideration." * Despite this indefinite understanding, White and a 

 number of others decided to remain and take up farm lots, apparently 

 believing that the town would be laid out within a few months. 



In May, 1784, John Collins, who was deputy surveyor-general, 

 was sent to Sorel to distribute lots to a few loyalists whose names were 

 specified, and to such others as wanted lands for actual occupation; 

 but he was not to grant to any one more than a single lot of sixty acres. 

 When a town site should be determined upon, mechanics and tradesmen 

 who had settled on farm lots were each to be allowed a town lot. With 

 the exception of Major Jessup, his son-in-law, Mr. Walker, Captain 

 Barnes, Captain Gleissenberg, and Lieutenant French, each of whom 

 was assigned a lot, all settlers were to draw for their lots. They might 

 afterwards exchange these among themselves, if they wished. Similar 

 settlements were established at Chambly and St. Johns within the 

 region southeast of the St. Lawrence, while many other colonies were 

 established outside of this region. A census of the number of disbanded 

 troops and loyalists settled on crown lands in the Province of Quebec, 

 including the St. Lawrence townships, during the year 1784 shows 

 approximately 5,500. Of these settlers, less than eight hundred received 

 royal grants in the neighborhood of the three posts named above, 

 namely, 316 at Sorel, 66 at Chambly, and 375 at St. Johns, f 



Of the subsequent history of the refugee settlers at St. Johns and 

 Chambly we know nothing. Of those who took up lands at Sorel we 

 catch some later glimpses. When Deputy Surveyor-General Collins 

 distributed lots to the loyalists at this post in the spring of 1784, the 

 site of the proposed town had not yet been chosen, as we have seen above. 

 Nor had it been when Haldimand withdrew from the governor general- 

 ship in the middle of the following November. Then, for almost two 

 years the administration was conducted by temporary appointees in 

 the persons of Henry Hamilton and Colonel Henry Hope. Neither of 

 these officials took it upon himself to establish a town at Sorel. But 

 soon after the arrival of Lord Dorchester (Sir Guy Carleton) as governor 

 general, Octol^er 23 1786, some forty of White's associates made known 

 *Haldimand Papers, B. 165, pp. 136, 137. 

 tibid., 21, 829, pp. 100, 111. 



Sec. II, 1913—2 



