I’m working on several substantial and related posts centered around maps and documents that describe the early settlement of Stanstead Township, Lower Canada, from about 1791 to 1810. There are several Clark families involved, and I am investigating whether any of these early Stanstead Clarks might be kin to our Jonathan M. Clark. Research is going along well enough, but the writing is taking more time than planned.

But I couldn’t let this Monday pass without sharing a special map with you, one that I came across while searching for more relevant maps in the digital collections of the Library and Archives Canada (LAC) website. Today’s map is, I believe, the earliest map of what would eventually become the Eastern Township of Stanstead, Lower Canada.

A fief or seigniory, 1772

The archival title of our map has been taken from the inscription at its center: A plott or description of a tract of land applyed for by John Jenison in the foregoing petition as a fief or seignory. The date of 1772 does not appear on the map, but is clear from its accompanying petition (see below). The map is filed in the LAC’s Archives, Collections and Fonds, Maps and Cartographic materials, local class no. F/330/Stanstead/1772, Box number: 2000531117. Online, the map can be accessed via the LAC digital collections.

For reference, compare this 1772 map to this detail from last week‘s 1842 Map of the Eastern townships of lower Canada …, London:

Arrowsmith, John (1790-1873), compiler and publisher. Composite: Map of the Eastern townships of lower Canada …, London, 1842. David Rumsey Map Collection.

The 1772 map

The proposed parcel was to be approximately 4 leagues (about 12 miles) square¹. The west side of this prayed for “fief or seigniory” was to be bounded by the shore of Lake Mamrabagak (i.e., Lake Memphremagog). The survey—and the southern border—began where the 45th parallel of north latitude (Lat. 45° N.) met the eastern shore of the lake. A note on our map indicates this survey starting point: A Cedar Post put up by J. Colins and Thos. Valentine in Aug. 1772.

According to the map, and its original accompanying petition,² from that starting point the parcel’s southern boundary line ran due east on the 45th parallel for 4 leagues. The line then turned due north for 4 leagues, and then turned due west until it met the lake shore. From there, the parcel’s boundary followed the lake shore south to the starting point at the cedar post.

Where’s Vermont?

In the years prior to the American Revolution, most of the lands that we think of as “Canada” and the eastern United States were colonies of the British Crown. Much of the land we think of as “Vermont” was wilderness, barely settled, and its ownership a matter of considerable dispute. This 1772 map reflects the fact that the colony of New York claimed—and exerted a certain amount of control over—the King’s lands east of Lake Champlain and west of New Hampshire that eventually would became the State of Vermont.

So, in 1772 the 45th parallel of north latitude (labeled Lat. 45° N. on our map), served as the boundary between His Majesty’s colonies of New York and Quebec, as well as the mostly unmapped and unsettled lands to the east of both New York and of Jenison’s proposed “fief or seigniory,” all of which belonged to the Crown and are labeled “Government” on this map.

Is there a JMC connection?

Does this map tell us anything about Jonathan M. Clark’s supposed patriotic roots in Vermont or Stanstead? Probably not, except as an illustration of the complicated history of “Vermont,” first as a British possession—land argued over by the colonies (and then states of) New York and New Hampshire—then for a brief period as the Republic of Vermont and, eventually, as the 14th state in the newly-formed United States of America. It’s also an illustration of how early the future township of Stanstead, Quebec/Lower Canada, was perceived as desirable land for pioneer settlement.

In any case, I think it’s a cool map, it’s very early, and I’ve not seen it in my other sources of early Vermont and Lower Canada history. And I thought my Canadian readers might particularly enjoy it, too.

See you soon with more Clark House history.

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NOTES:

1. On land, an English league was usually equal to 3 miles. (Of course, as an 18th-century English measurement, this distance might vary somewhat from place to place and time to time.)
   
   
2. There are two petitions in the LAC collection Land Petitions of Lower Canada, 1764-1841 that include John Jenison’s signature and that relate to today’s map. The first petition is in English and is dated Quebec [presumably Quebec city], 14 November 1772. This is filed as Library and Archives Canada RG 1 L3L, Volume 111, pages 54563-54566. You can read the original document, including the full land description, and view all the signatures to the petition, via this link.
   
   
   The second petition is in French and is dated Montreal, 14 Mars 1774, and appears to be a kind of “follow up” to the original 1772 petition. This is filed as Library and Archives Canada RG 1 L3L, Volume 72, pages 36043-36045. You can read that original petition, via this link.
   
   
   UPDATED, July 29, 2024, to add a link to to the Wikipedia article on the “Vermont Republic” (see above).