PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 51 



road, to a point where Ave roads converge, long known as Five Stakes, bnt now 

 called Talbotville Royal. Thence the road rnns north to join the Talbot Lono-- 

 woods Road in Westminster at a place formerly known as the Jnuctiou, but now 

 called Lambeth, six miles from the city of London. 



An instruction was received the same year to survey under the direction of Col. 

 Talbot a road from Port Talbot Avest near the shore of lake Erie to Amhcrstburg 

 on the Detroit river, to be known as Talbot Road West. " In surveying the Road 

 through Dunwich and Aldborough," Mr. Burwell wrote to the Surveyor (Jeneral 

 on October 24th, "Colonel Talliot directed that I should begin to number the Lots 

 from his 3Iills and continue to the westward, Avhich I have done, and also contin- 

 ued numbering them in succession as far as the Survey extends at present ; without 

 regard to the Townships through which they pass." Work was commenced on 

 August 26th and was carried on until September 8th, when the survey reached lot 

 90, near the west side of Howard, and Avas then discontinued for the .season. 



It is likely that Mr. Burwell had before this time left his home in Bertie, as a 

 deed dated February 25th, 1812, from Col. Talbot to him of a small piece of land 

 in lot 24 of the 11th concession of Dunwich, describes him as of Port Talbot.* But 

 the war between the United States and Great Britain, which had been threatening 

 for several years, broke out in the summer of 1812, and until peace was again 

 established surveying operations near the frontiers of this Province were suspended. 



Only a few references to the war occur in Mr. Burwell' s official letters, and no 

 information is conveyed in them that he was engaged in militaiy service. The 

 report of the Loyal and Patriotic Society states, however, that he was active against 

 the enemy on all occasions and became odious to them. The letters show that he 

 was at the Niagara frontier in 1812 and 1813, when fighting was going on there, 

 and that in the following year, when a small body of American .soldiers ravaged 

 the Port Talbot settlement, he was carried off' as a prisoner of war and his maps 

 and instruments destroyed. A map of Maiden had been given by him to 

 Proctor when that General Avas on his Avay to take command at Amherst Inu-g in 

 1812. which was afterwards taken by the enemy and destroyed, with Ids papers. 

 "The Plans of the other Townships I had deposited, with t lie Instruments and 

 other appendages of my Surveying Establishment, at a per.son's Hou.se, where I 

 thought they would not be likely to be suspected or discovered, but when the 

 plundering party came through which swept the whole Settlement and captured 

 me, all was taken and destroyed — and I have not been al)le to get projierly equipped 

 with Instruments yet." This was in explanation to the Surveyor General (Novem- 

 ber -Ith. 1815) of the loss of plansof townships traversed by the projected Talbot 

 Road West. One other reference to the war is worth quoting. It is found in 3Ir. 

 Burwell's journal of the Talbot Road West survey under date of September 18th, 

 1816. ••! passed the place in Front of Lot No. 177 (Tilbury East) where Major 

 Holmes of the United States Army had encamped a Day or two, when on their 

 intended expedition against Port Talbot in time of the late War. I find here, as 

 well as upon every other occasion, when they have i-emained all night in our Woods, 

 they have felled large Trees flat to the Ground all round their Encampment, to 

 serve as a Breast Work in the event of an attack. Two Field Piecas and ammuni- 

 tion Waggons were left here bj^ Major Holmes, which were destroyed by the Loyal 

 Essex Rangers. The Carriages were burnt, and the Guns and ammunition ^xere 

 carried back and deposited in a Black Ash Swamp where they remained until the 

 Treaty of Peace." The Major Holmes of this record is no doubt the same officer 

 as the Colonel Holmes commanding at Amherstl>ui'g. mentioned in Sir Gordon 

 Drummond's dispatch of May 27th, 1814. 



The survey of Talbot Road West Avas resumed by Mr. Burwell in the summer 

 of 1816, and under instructions the Avestern terminus was fixed at Sandwich instead 

 of Amherstburg. The final report upon it was not sent in until the end of 1824. 



The first settlements in Kent county Avere formed upon the river Thames, and 

 after the Talbot Road began to be opened up a scheme Avas proposed to the Govern- 

 ment by Col. Talbot for a main road to folloAV as nearly as practicable the height 

 of land between lake Erie and river Thames across the county. This Avas referred 



-Air. Gill, the registrar of London, informs me that Mr. Burwell was .ippointed registrar of Middlesex in 

 i8i ., ,-ind that the first deed was registered by him iSIay 28th ot that year. The first registry office for the London 

 and Western Districts was established February 20th, 1801, and the seat of the oftice was at 1 urkey Fomt, with 

 Thomas Homer as registrar. The office was afterwards removed to A'ltt.M-ln. .ind a«-am to Friiuvton. 



