UPDATED: 25, 27 and 28 Oct. 2023. See note 8 for details.

Under the unique Leaders and Associates land grant system of early Lower Canada, one of the first and essential steps in obtaining a grant of land from the Crown was to assemble at least 40 (purported) would-be immigrants—often from northern New York and the New England states—and have them sign an official petition requesting a grant of such land. The leaders might be directly involved in the signature gathering process, or they might delegate their tasks to an “agent.”

In 1791, when the Constitutional Act creating Upper and Lower Canada was passed by the British Parliament, Stanstead’s original leaders Eleazar Fitch and Issac Ogden were living and doing business in St. John’s and Montréal, respectively. It’s probable that neither man ever got close to the future Stanstead Township, or northern New York and the New England states¹. As we suggested at the end of an earlier post, Fitch and Ogden appear to have delegated the petition process to a farmer (and would-be “Leader” of yet another Eastern Township or two) named Josiah Sawyer.²

Library and Archives Canada, search results for today’s petition. See below for full citation.

Josiah Sawyer, agent

From what I can surmise, one of the main functions of an Agent in the Lower Canada land grant process was to begin the new township project by obtaining the signatures of the required minimum number of Associates on a petition to the government for that land. As we learned earlier, this would usually include a payment from the Leaders to each petition-signing Associate, and—for those Associates that did not intend to actually settle in the new township—the collection of the necessary signed forms deeding the Associates’ hoped-for 200 acre allotments back to the Leaders, for them to hold or re-sell as they deemed most profitable.

The organizing meeting for Stanstead’s associates appears to have been held in Rutland³, Vermont, on April 3rd, 1792. The ink and handwriting of the first signer, Josiah Sawyer, appear identical with that of the petition statement itself, suggesting that Josiah Sawyer was, indeed, the man that organized the signing of this document.

The original petition, front side

Here is the front side to the original, complete Associates’ petition for the proposed Township of Stanstead, as found in the Land Petitions of Lower Canada, 1764-1841, RG 1 L3L, Vol. 175, archival page number 84887. Originally, the microfilm camera operator needed two exposures to capture the full contents of each side of this oversized page.⁴ I have used software to stitch the overlapping images back together, so that you can view (and try to read!) the document as it looked in 1792.

As always, if you click on the image you’ll open a new window with a much higher-resolution, zoomable version of the document. I highly recommend doing this for today’s worn and faded petition.

The front side of the petition begins with a standard, formulaic “prayer” to the Crown that a new township be surveyed and granted to the petitioners. I won’t transcribe this paragraph today, but I have a more legible fair copy of the an almost identical petition that I will post shortly. The petition paragraph continues with a description of the geographic location of the desired land; the description on this petition makes it clear that the petitioners desire the land on the eastern shore of Lake Memphremagog that became Stanstead Township. The petition paragraph ends with the expected formal niceties and is followed, in the same hand and ink, by the place and date—Rutland April 3d 1792—and the first signature: Josiah Sawyer.

The original petition, back side

And here is the back of the same petition, archival page number 84888. As with the front side, I have used software to stitch the two original, overlapping images back together,

Help the Historian! – Count the Clarks!

I invite you click on each page and open these images in a new window so that you can read the petition and Help the Historian! I’m going to take a crack at locating and transcribing all the Clark names that I can find. I’d love to have your assistance in finding any missed signatures and proofreading my work. Here’s my first attempt at a list, starting with the front side of the document (page 84887, left column, top to bottom):

front, col. 1: Moses Clark
front, col. 2: Isaac Clark
front, col. 3: [Maria?] Clark, Caleb Clark, [Avery?] Clark, James Clark, Jr.
front, col. 4: Sam^l Clark, William Clark

back, col. 1: —
back, col. 2: —
back, col. 3: —
back, col. 4: five Clark signatures, see next paragraph

Five hard-to-read Clark signatures

Take a look at the back side of the petition (page 84888), far right (4th) column, below the middle. I count five CLARK signatures here, but I can’t decipher them all. Here’s a detail of that section, for your eagle eyes:

My best-guess transcriptions of these names, top to bottom, are:
[Rebeckah? Wanes?]
Jaradias Clark, Jr
Jardias Clark [presumably “Senior”?]
aron hastens [sp?]
Jonas tuttle
Easter C Clark
Horaah [?] Susanah Clark
Jonathan Clark

I’m not at all confident about the spelling or transcription of the names Jaradias/Jardias, Easter, or Horaah. What do you see? Any suggestions or corrections?

One other mystery: according to the LAC index of this document, there should be a signature for one Simeon Clark, but I can’t find it. Perhaps it is one of the very faded or messy signatures? Let me know if you can locate it on this document.⁵

Notes on some other names

There are other surnames on this petition that figure in early Stanstead history and genealogy, among them AVERY, BIGELOW, BLANCHARD, CARPENTER, DANFORTH, EVERTS, SAWYER and WHITE. And on the back side, column 1, I also noted what look like several TURK signatures, including one Peter Turk. This cannot be Mequon pioneer Peter Turk/Turck as he was not born until 1798, but it suggests that some as yet unidentified branch of New York’s Turk/Turck family may have already migrated north and east of their homes along the Hudson River by the time this document was signed in 1792. Adjacent Turk signatures include Nath^l [Nathaniel] Turk, Nath^l Turk, jr., Rufus Turk and Edward Turk.⁶

What do these Clark signatures mean for us?

I found thirteen Clark signatures on this petition to the Crown, requesting that a new township—the future township of Stanstead—be surveyed and granted to the petitioners. As we know from our earlier post, Leaders and Associates – the unique land grant system of early Lower Canada, a large percentage of Lower Canada land petition signers had no intention of actually relocating to the new township. They intended to collect a payment from the Leader(s) or Agent, transfer their right to a 200 acre lot in the new township back to the Leader(s), and return to their established farms in New York, Vermont, New Hampshire or neighboring areas, somewhat richer after a short round trip to Rutland and back.

Are Jonathan M. Clark’s parents or other kin among the signers of this petition? Maybe, but this petition does not prove that. If JMC’s kin were signers, did they actually relocate to Stanstead in the following years? Perhaps, but this petition does not include that information, either.

The useful information hidden in this petition are the names of various Clark men (and a woman or two) that were (1) alive and considered adults in 1792, (2) living within a reasonable distance from Rutland, Vermont, (3) may have had a real interest in migrating to Lower Canada and receiving a grant of 200 acres of free land from the Crown and (4) might possibly be related to JMC.

That makes this petition the first of many documents that we will consult to make lists and narrow the number of names of Jonathan M. Clark’s various possible Clark or Clarke ancestors in the Stanstead area. Stay tuned for the next installment.

Bibliographic Citation

As we search for JMC’s roots, I’m also trying to tidy up my bibliographic citations so that there will be a clear research trail to follow if, or when, I ask for specialist assistance. I’ve been doing pretty well with citations for standard items like books, photographs, and other artwork, as well as birth, marriage, and death documents from U.S. collections. But I’m treading fresh bibliographic ground citing some of the Lower Canada records, whether land petitions, church records or—shudder—the vast ocean of notarial papers.

Even among the Library and Archives Canada collection of Land Petitions of Lower Canada, 1764-1841, there are a wide variety of documents, including various petitions, orders to make surveys and pay surveyors, maps (“diagrams”) of the lots and ranges in each township, and so forth. And each will need a proper and consistent citation format. So to get the bibliographical ball rolling, here are the full citations for today’s database and specific document⁷:

Source List Entry:
Canada. “Land Petitions of Lower Canada, 1794-1841.” Database with images, Library and Archives Canada. Genealogy and Family History. https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/land/land-petitions-lower-canada-1764-1841/Pages/land-petitions-lower-canada.aspx : 2023.

First (Full) Reference Note:
1. “Land Petitions of Lower Canada, 1794-1841,” database with images, Library and Archives Canada, Genealogy and Family History. (https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/land/land-petitions-lower-canada-1764-1841/Pages/land-petitions-lower-canada.aspx : accessed 24 October 2023). Petition of Sawyer, Josiah & others, 1792, RG 1 L3L, Vol. 175, pages 84887-84888, item number 77516. Upper and lower parts of page 84887 (images 1-2) and 84888 (images 3-4) have been rejoined and restored to their original state with digital editing software, 2023.

Subsequent Note:
2. “Land Petitions of Lower Canada, 1794-1841,” Petition of Sawyer, Josiah & others, 1792, [Stanstead Township].

Phew!

Thanks for reading and for your patience with this foundational—if difficult to read—manuscript document. I’ll have more to say about the petition and resulting grant of land that became Stanstead Township, Lower Canada, in just a bit. I’ll see you then. And in the meanwhile, please let me know how you read and transcribe these Clark-surname signatures; this is a work in progress.

_________________________

1. Col. Eleazar Fitch was born in Connecticut and had traveled through several of the adjoining states during and just after the Revolutionary War, but once he was established as a Loyalist in Lower Canada he did not (I believe) return to the newly-independent United States. See our Guest post! – Fitch & Ogden, the (contentious) founders of Stanstead for all the details.
   
   
2. I don’t have any documents that specifically name Josiah Sawyer as the official agent for Fitch and Ogden’s proposed Township of Stanstead. But I think it’s a fair surmise, given the other information outlined in today’s post.
   
   
3. In 1793, Rutland was both a county in west central Vermont, and a town within that county. It was chartered in 1761, settled in 1770 and, for a time, alternated with Windsor as the meeting place for the legislature of the Republic of Vermont. For more on Rutland and its role in our petition, see our previous post Monday: Map Day! Vermont, 1796.
   
   
4. Just looking at these scanned images, I suspect that the original petition organizer, probably Josiah Sawyer, pasted two full size sheets of paper together to make this very long document. As noted above, the upper and lower portions of page 84887 (images 1-2) and 84888 (images 3-4), photographed separately during microfilming, have been rejoined and restored to their original size with digital editing software by me for this post.
   
   
5. “Simeon Clark” or “Simeon Clarke” is one of several Clark names that I am particularly interested in. I’m working on connecting him to other early Stanstead and Derby settlers of interest. More on this in a while.
   
   
6. And I’m not 100% convinced that TURK is the correct transcription of this surname. The handwriting is not easy, and there are occasional dots that suggest a surname such as FINK might be plausible here. What do you see, readers?
   
   
7. Bibliographic citations are not an exact science, and I am not a passionate—or expert—bibliographic citation maker. The goals, of course, are (1) to record the source of the particular record and (2) allow other researchers to access the same record and make their own conclusions from that evidence.
   
   The online Land Petitions of Lower Canada, 1764-1841 collection includes digitized images of previously microfilmed images of a wide variety of original historical paper documents. Citing specific items in such databases is complicated, and I’ve done my best here, guided by the excellent Evidence Explained, third edition, by Elizabeth Shown Mills. But if you are a keen bibliographer and have some constructive advice for these citations, please comment publicly (below) or contact me privately. I’m open to suggestions.
   
   
8. UPDATED: 25 Oct. 2023, to correct an error in the explanation of the text on the front side of the petition page. The phrase “fair copy” of the petition has been replaced with the more accurate “a more legible copy of an almost identical petition.” See our next post for details.
   
   UPDATED: 27 Oct. 2023 to revise some boldface vs. plain text details in the listing and discussion of the 14 Clark signatures on this document.
   
   UPDATED: 28 Oct. 2023 to add a missing word to paragraph no. 2.