32 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



every pains to assuie Vermonters of Haldimand's determination to 

 prevent settlements on the frontiers, and had even specified 'the 

 boundaries l)e3^ond which they must not presume to improve, namely, 

 Middlebury Falls, North and East, for the west side, and the chain 

 of the Gi-een Mountains for the eastern boundary of the Connecticut 

 River people." * 



This question was raised, of course, by the new waves of immi- 

 gration that flowed in during the closing scenes of the Revolution. 

 In March, 1782, Captain Sherwood transmitted intelligence from 

 Albany that there were great numbers of loyalists "in New York 

 and the Massachusetts provinces " who wished to remove to Canada 

 with their families, provided a place were available where they could 

 settle and support themselves without any expense to government, f 

 In the following May, General St. Léger wrote from Montreal to Quebec 

 concerning "many persons under the designation of Loyalists lately 

 come from the colonies" who were travelling about in his neighbor- 

 hood. X In the latter part of June of the same year, word also came 

 from Major John Nairnè, at the Isle aux Noix, of people detained 

 there and at the Loyal Blockhouse who wished "above all things for 

 leave to settle in Canada." In view of the distress of some of these 

 persons, the Major asked permission in future to forward all those of 

 whose fidelity he felt assured.* Early in April, 1783, the Rev. Ranna 

 Cossit, of Haverhill, Massachusetts, sent a communication to Captain 

 Sherwood that his parishioners had stood firm for the Crown in spite 

 of persecution, but that now, terrified by the storms likely to arise, 

 they wished to know if there was not room for them in the King's 

 dominions. He added, with pathos, that though they had been made 

 poor by the war, all they asked was the protection of the laws.^ 



Haldimand's objections to the settling of the frontier did not 

 put a stop to the series of petitions requesting his consent for large 

 parties of loyalists to take up their residence there. Only two months 

 after Sherwood's efforts to desseminate the adverse views of the Gover- 

 nor General, some loyalists presented a memorial for permission to settle 

 on Caldwell's Manor.^ The manor occupied the larger part of the broad 

 tongue of land between the Richelieu River and Mississquoi Bay at the 

 northern end of Lake Champlain. After another interval of sixty 

 days William Marsh, a Vermont loyalist at St. Johns, sent in (August 



*Can. Arch., 1888, 837. 

 tHaldimand Papers, B. 138, p. 165. 

 Jlbid., B. 130, p. 124. 

 ' Ibid., 21,792, p. 199. 

 •Can. Arch., 1888, 837. 

 • Ibid,. 1889, 73. 



