40 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
near the mouth of Nanticoke Creek on Lake Erie, which was their 
principal rendezvous. Three of them were killed and eighteen captured 
with a loss to the militia of one man killed and one officer wounded.* 
Dunham and three others were subsequently executed. 
In the autumn of 1813 a man named Reuben Ainsworth was ar- 
rested near Cornwall and committed to the gaol of the Eastern District 
in that town on a charge of uttering with intent to defraud, a counter- 
feit Army Bill for twenty-five dollars. As his conviction was considered 
a matter of much public importance the Governor General authorized 
a special commission for his speedy trial; but the near approach of 
General Wilkinson’s army having rendered his further custody at 
Cornwall extremely precarious, the magistrates directed that he should 
be removed to Montreal and while on the journey the prisoner effected 
his escape by leaping out of a window although guarded by two men.’ 
About the same time it was ascertained that counterfeit Army 
Bills of the denominations of one, four and twenty-five dollars were 
being publicly offered for sale at Ogdensburg, and it was also reported 
that disaffected persons from Upper Canada, “of whom there were a 
considerable number in the Johnstown District,” frequently went 
across the river to obtain them for circulation within the province.® 
Late in December Captain Oliver Barker who commanded a de- 
tachment of the Frontier Light Infantry stationed at Stanstead, re- 
ceived information that two men from Boston had taken lodgings in a 
small village near the frontier in the township of Derby in the State 
of Vermont, having in their possession a trunk filled with counterfeit 
one dollar Army Bills and that they expected to receive a supply of 
counterfeit twenty-five dollar for circulation in Canada. After persist- 
ent efforts extending over a period of three weeks, Barker succeeded 
in arresting Dr. Benjamin Dolbear, the principal of this gang, and com- 
mitted him to gaol in Montreal, although two determined attempts were 
made to rescue him by his confederates numbering about forty armed 
men.* 
Learning from the officer in command of the important post at 
Prescott that the neighbouring farmers were extremely reluctant to 
part with provisions and forage of which they possessed an abundance, 
for the supply of the garrison, Major General de Rottenburg finally 
issued a proclamation declaring martial law in the Eastern and Johns- 
town Districts as far as procuring articles of necessary subsistence for 

1 Bostwick to Glegg, November 14, 1813. Can. Arch. C 681, pp. 142-4. 
* De Rottenburg to Brenton, November 16, 1813. 
5 De Rottenburg to Brenton, November 16, 1813. 
4 Barker to Brenton, December 31, 1813; Memorial of Oliver Barker, March 18, 
1816. Can. Arch. 
