[siebert] the AMERICAN LOYALISTS 39 



original settlers on the bay, was apparently the agent of the asso- 

 ciates who, in 1803, received portions of Ascot Township in Sher- 

 brooke County. Several of Hyatt's brothers also received grants 

 in the same township.* In the same year, Roxton Township was 

 erected, and again pioneer settlers east of Mississquoi Bay were among 

 the grantees, including Elizabeth Ruiter, the widow of John Ruiter, 

 together with her six children, and Christian Wehr, junior. f 



The most notable of the loyalist associates of the Eastern Town- 

 ships was undoubtedly Abraham Cuyler, former mayor of Albany, New 

 York, who, after serving as inspector of refugees loyalist in the Pro- 

 vince of Quebec, became the promoter of a loyalist movement to the 

 Island of Cape Breton. In 1782, Cuyler went to London to seek 

 compensation for his losses, and wrote thence to the Canadian authori- 

 ties for the concession of the whole Township of Hemmingford. Fail- 

 ing in this petition, be applied for allotments in Dunham, Stanbridge, 

 Farnham, Shefford, and Stanstead townships. Next, he claimed a 

 part of Montreal, but, as this was not available, he was given 3,600 

 acres elsewhere, and, in addition, he and his two sons received grants 

 as associates of Farnham in 1798. However, there is reason for be- 

 lieving that the disposable crown lands in this township were exhausted 

 before Cuyler secured his claim. J 



The extensive district thus widely, if sparsely, seeded with loyal- 

 ist stock lay east of the Richelieu. West of that river lies the elongated 

 oounty of Huntingdon, adjacent to the New York boundary, and ex- 

 tending clear to the St. Lawrence River. It also received its sprink- 

 ling of loyalist settlers. Those who took up their residence in the 

 eastern part of Huntingdon came from the banks of the Richelieu, 

 from the district of La Colle adjoining, from Alburgh, Vermont, and 

 even from Sorel. Thus, some of the pioneers of the eastern part of 

 Huntingdon were the sons of refugee settlers along the Richelieu, who 

 as they grew up ''moved back into the bush" and made clearings foi 

 themselves. With them came a few families of loyalists from La 

 Colle and Alburgh. The Township of Hemmingford was opened in 

 this way in the spring of 1800 by James Fisher and his family, of Al- 

 burgh. Several years ^rlier a small loyalist settlement was begun 

 on the eastern slope of Covey Hill, nine miles west of Hemmingford. 

 So far as known the first member of this communtiy was James O'- 

 Neill, a Tory from Pennsylvania, who served in the Royal Regiment 

 of Highland Emigrants during the Revolution, and emigrated to Can- 



*Day, History of the Eastern Townships, 376, 377. 

 flbid, 341. 



JMississquoi County Historical Society, Third An. Rep., 93; Day, History of the 

 Eastern Townships, 272. 



