[vooRHis] ANCESTRY OF ARCHIBALD LAMPMAN 117 



great privation in obtaining food for there were very few settlements 

 and the whole region was held by the Americans. The winter of 1779- 

 1780 he spent at Quebec. 



In the spring of 1780 he proceeded west by the St. Lawrence 

 river to the Niagara peninsula where he took up a claim at bend of 

 the Niagara escarpment called St. Anthony's Nose. Newark w^as 

 the name of the nearest settlement. At this place, the first Parliament 

 of Upper Canada was afterwards held, the name being changed to 

 Grantham, then to Lenox, and finally to Niagara. From the autumn 

 of 1780 to the spring of 1782 Peter Lampman was busily engaged in 

 preparing his new home in the wilderness, .cutting down the forest, 

 an,d building a log house. He was compelled to do the work practi- 

 cally alone for there were very few settlers in that district at the time, 

 the Loyalists not arriving in numbers before 1784 when Peter's family 

 settled nearby at Stamford. In the spring of 1782, having made 

 sufficient preparation, he set out alone for New York to fetch his 

 wife and child. Although peace had been declared in that year, 

 news was slow in travelling, and his return to New York was 

 probably as dangerous as his flight from the town had been. His route 

 this time was by the Mohawk valley through the country of the Five 

 Nations. At some time during the summer of 1782 he found his w^ife 

 and the little child Catrina then about four years old whom he saw 

 for the first time. 



We do not know where they lived for the next nine or ten months, 

 but in the following spring of 1783 Peter returned again to Niagara 

 bringing his wife, Catrina, and an infant son but a few weeks old. 

 It is related that he procured a horse, on which his wife and children 

 rode while he walked by their side. They arrived in Niagara in safety 

 and began life in their forest home where though privations were 

 severe, there was security under the British flag. Peter Lampman 's 

 grants were extensive, altogether about 750 acres as recorded in the 

 Land Books of Upper Canada which are preserved in the Archives 

 at Toronto. The estate, which he named Mountain Point, was 

 situated between Thorold and St. Catherine's, and under his care a 

 beautiful fruit farm was developed. Here he lived for fifty-two years. 

 In 1834 he died at the age of eighty-five, having survived his wife 

 fourteen years. They were both interred in the graveyard of the old 

 Lutheran church at Thorold. This historic log church was recently 

 taken down to make room for the new Welland canal. 



Ten children were born to Peter Lampman, five boys and five 

 daughters. The eldest daughter Catharine, who had travelled on 

 horseback with her mother to Canada, married in 1797 George Keefer 



