1780s

Searching for JMC’s roots: Daily life in the Stanstead area, 1784-1817

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins.

A recent CHH comment from reader Meredith Johanson brought an interesting local history newspaper article to my attention. It’s from page 8 of the Sherbrooke [Québec] Daily Record of May 13, 1911, now available as a digital image at BAnQ.

The article was compiled by H. I Bullock, of Beebe Junction, Stanstead county, Québec. The compiler was a descendant of one of the earliest white settler families in the Eastern Townships of Lower Canada, the Ruiter family and, as of 1911, s/he possessed a number of historic Ruiter family documents.

The contents of several of these documents are presented in detail in the article, and include discussions of Ruiter family settlement in the Stanstead area, how farms and homes were created in the heavily-timbered forests of the “New Townships,” various local trades and supplies and their respective wages and costs, and early military affairs, with local militia rosters from 1809 and 1817.

The article is focused on Ruiter family documents, but many other early settlers are mentioned by name, including one William Clark, and several men with the surname Merrill. As far as we know—at the moment—none of these men are directly related to our Jonathan Morrell/Merrill Clark. But the information in this 1911 article does give a hint of what life was like for the first Stanstead-area settlers—such as Jonathan M. Clark’s still-unknown parents—in the early 1800s.

Bartlett, W. H, artist, A First Settlement, drawing, brown wash on wove paper, c. 1840, National Gallery of Canada, public domain.

I have made no cuts to the article, and since the original is long, I have not included extra commentary. I have added more white space between paragraphs for ease of reading, made a few clarifications and citations in the Notes that follow, and added an illustration not found in the original. Here’s the complete transcription. I hope you find it interesting:

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Searching for JMC’s roots: Navigating the “Land Petitions of Lower Canada, 1764-1841”

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 3 Comments

We believe that Jonathan M. Clark was born or raised, or both, in or near the Township of Stanstead, Lower Canada, in 1811 or 1812. Who his parents were, where they came from, and what happened to them, are important questions that we want to answer. I’ve been searching the Library and Archives of Canada (LAC) database of Land Petitions of Lower Canada, 1764-1841, and I have located what I believe are the earliest founding documents for Stanstead. Before we begin our examination of these documents, looking for signs of early settlers named Clark or Clarke (and their relatives and neighbors), I thought I should share a few notes about what we are looking for, and how we can find it again, in case anyone would like to check or build on the work we’re doing here.

Finding the documents

How do you find records of your early Eastern Townships pioneer? Begin by clicking over to the Library and Archives Canada (LAC) database called Land Petitions of Lower Canada, 1764-1841. The (old but still operating1) home page for that database looks like this:

Read the information on this page. It’s not long, but it’s very helpful. One of the essential points to note is the description of what is—and is not—indexed in this database:

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Searching for JMC’s roots in Eastern Township sources: books (part 2)

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 1 Comment

UPDATED Nov. 9, 2023 to correct Mrs. Day’s first name. It’s Catherine (not Caroline) Matilda Day.

Continuing our search for Jonathan M. Clark’s supposed ancestry in Stanstead, Eastern Townships, Lower Canada—and before the deluge of original, mostly handwritten, documents from the Land Petitions of Lower Canada, 1764-1841 begins—we have another interesting and useful book to add to the first installment of our book list.

Day. 1863. Pioneers of the Eastern Townships1
Day, Mrs. C. M. [Catherine Matilda], Pioneers of the Eastern townships : a work containing official and reliable information respecting the formation of settlements, with incidents in their early history, and details of adventures, perils and deliverances, Montreal, 1863. Online via Canadiana, accessed September 24, 2023.

This early collection of Eastern Township history is not to be confused with the same author’s longer and more comprehensive History of the Eastern Townships Province of Quebec of 1869. Today’s 1863 book, only about 170 pages, is not intended to be a broad survey of early Eastern Township history like its 1869 successor, and it does not have any Stanstead- or Clark-specific information. But researchers seeking information on early Lower Canada history, land patent process, and settlement will find Pioneers of the Eastern townships to be very helpful and illuminating in two distinct ways.

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Searching for JMC’s roots: Québec land & records

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 1 Comment

A tale in four news clippings

As you know by now, we believe that Jonathan M. Clark was born or raised—or both—in or near the Township of Stanstead, Lower Canada. Who his parents were, where they came from, and what happened to them afterwards, are important questions that we have yet to answer. There are two main stumbling blocks. On the one hand, reliable birth, marriage, death and similar records for this part of Lower Canada and northern Vermont do not begin to appear on a regular basis until a decade or more after JMC’s birth in 1811/1812. And at the same time, the CLARK surname is unbelievably common in New England and the adjacent parts of English-speaking Canada. There are just too many Clark families listed in relevant indexes and archives to even begin a useful search; for a productive search, we need a way to narrow the list to only those Clarks that might be related to JMC.

So one of my first steps in this (renewed) search is to go Clark-hunting among the larger archival sources of Lower Canada, record the potentially-relevant Clark-related information and (full) names that I find, and make a big list of persons named Clark that were in or near Stanstead between about 1790-1830. If we get really lucky, we”ll find specific records of JMC, his parents, and his family. More likely, we’ll end up with a massive list of people named Clark, and from that list we can see which of these Clarks stand out as likely suspects, identify—where possible—which Clarks are definitely not “our” Clarks, and proceed from there.

For the next several weeks our name collecting expedition will be focused on the Library and Archives Canada (LAC) database of Land Petitions of Lower Canada, 1764-1841. I suspect many of our U.S. readers will see that and wonder: why waste time in that seemingly arcane archive? (Our Canadian readers will probably nod their heads and think, yes, that sounds like a very logical place to look for early Clark and Stanstead documents).

A history in 4 newspaper items

So for those readers whose knowledge of Canada history is spotty at best, let me give a very, very brief explanation of a few bits of pertinent local history, including the Loyalist issue, how Québec became Lower Canada, and how JMC’s ancestors—and their relatives and neighbors—might have been enticed to move to Lower Canada, using four contemporary newspaper clippings.

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