Thomas Talbot (July 19, 1771–February 5, 1853)[1] was an Irish-born Canadian soldier and colonial administrator. He founded the community of Port Talbot, Ontario, which was at one time the most prosperous town in the region due to his insistence on building quality roads, and was responsible for enticing 50,000 people to settle in the Thames River area.
Talbot received a commission in the army as ensign before he was twelve years old, and was appointed at sixteen to aid his relative, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.[2] He saw active service in Holland and at Gibraltar.[2]
Canada
Talbot immigrated to Canada in 1791, where he became personal secretary to John Graves Simcoe, Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada. After returning to England, Talbot convinced the government to allow him to implement a land settlement scheme along the shore of Lake Erie.[3] He chose property which today is in Elgin County, Ontario in adjoining townships, Dunwich and Aldborough (today called West Elgin), when his petition for 5,000 acres (20km2) was granted in 1803.[3] It was May 21, 1803, that he landed at a spot which has been called since Port Talbot,[3] and built a log cabin.[4] Nearby, he added a sawmill, a cooper shop, a blacksmith shop, and a poultry house along with a barn. When settlers began to arrive in 1809, Talbot added a gristmill as well.[4]
Here he ruled as an absolute, if erratic, potentate, doling out strips of land to people of his choosing, a group that emphatically did not include supporters of the American Revolution, liberals or anyone insufficiently respectful.[5] For every settler he placed on 50 acres (200,000m2) of land, Talbot received an additional 200 acres (0.81km2) for himself.[3] He wanted permanent and compact settlement.[3] One of the conditions attached to the free grant of 50 acres (200,000m2), which he offered to settlers, was the right to purchase an additional hundred and 50 acres (200,000m2) at $3 each, and the promise of a road in front of each farm within three and a half years.[6] The other condition was the building of a small house and the clearing and sowing of 10 acres (40,000m2) of land.[6]
The result of the road-making provision was that the settlement became noted for its good roads, especially for that named Talbot Road.[6] By the late 1820s Colonel Thomas Talbot had organized the construction of a 300-mile-long (480km) road linking the Detroit River and Lake Ontario as part of a grand settlement enterprise in the south western peninsula.[7] By 1820, all of the land originally allotted to Talbot had been taken up.[3] From 1814 to 1837 he settled 50,000 people on 650,000 acres (2,600km2) of land in the Thames River area. Many, if not most, of the settlers were American.[8] He had placed about 20,000 immigrants on the Talbot settlement by 1826.[3]
Because he had done his work so well, the government placed the southwestern part of the province under his charge.[3] This afforded Talbot the opportunity of extending the Talbot road from the Long Point region to the Detroit River.[3][9] In 1823, Talbot decided to name the port after his friend Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, whose son, Frederick would become Canada's governor general and donate to the ice-hockey world the trophy that still bears his name.[9] According to returns placed before the House of Assembly in 1836, title to some 5,280,000 acres (21,400km2) located in twenty-nine townships had at one time gone through his hands.[3]
Thomas Talbot
Talbot's administration was regarded as despotic.[citation needed] He was infamous for registering settlers' names on the local settlement map in pencil and if displeased, was alleged to have erased their entry. However, his insistence on provision of good roads (notably the eponymous Talbot Trail), maintenance of the roads by the settlers, and the removal of Crown and clergy reserves from main roads quickly resulted in the Talbot Settlement becoming the most prosperous part of the province. Eventually, however, he began to make political demands on the settlers, after which his power was reduced by the provincial government. Talbot's abuse of power was a contributing factor in the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837.[citation needed]
Talbot's home in Port Talbot was called Malahide (which was demolished in 1997, generating much public outcry from heritage preservationists). Talbot died in the home of George Macbeth at London, Ontario, in 1853 and is interred in the cemetery of St. Peters Anglican Church near Tyrconnell, Ontario, in Elgin County. Talbot eventually moved to London where he lived until his death in 1853.[4] When he died in 1853, at age 82, he had been visited at his historic home on Lake Erie by General Isaac Brock, Francis Gore, Mrs. Anna Jameson, Sir Peregrine Maitland, Sir John Colborne, Chief Justice Sir John Beverley Robinson, his brother the Honourable Peter Robinson, Dr. William Dunlop, Bishops Stuart and Strachan, Sir George Arthur, the Duke of Richmond, Lord Aylmer and many others. He lies buried at Port Talbot overlooking his beloved Lake Erie. [10]
Talbotville (a community in Southwold, Ontario) and the city of St. Thomas, Ontario, were named after him,[11] as well as Colonel Talbot Road and Talbot Street in both London and St. Thomas.
Related Research Articles
Essex County is a primarily rural county in Southwestern Ontario, Canada comprising seven municipalities: Amherstburg, Kingsville, Lakeshore, LaSalle, Leamington, Tecumseh and the administrative seat, Essex.
St. Thomas is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada. It gained its city charter on March 4, 1881. The city is also the seat for Elgin County, although it is independent of the county.
The Humber River is a river in Southern Ontario, Canada. It is in the Great Lakes Basin, is a tributary of Lake Ontario and is one of two major rivers on either side of the city of Toronto, the other being the Don River to the east. It was designated a Canadian Heritage River on September 24, 1999.
Aylmer is a town in Elgin County in southern Ontario, Canada, just north of Lake Erie, on Catfish Creek. It is 20 kilometres (12 mi) south of Highway 401.
Elgin County is a county of the Canadian province of Ontario with a 2016 population of 50,069. Its population centres are St. Thomas, Aylmer, Port Stanley, Belmont, Dutton and West Lorne. The county seat is St. Thomas, which is separated from the county but within its geographic boundary.
King's Highway 3, commonly referred to as Highway 3, is a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario which travels parallel to the northern shoreline of Lake Erie. It has three segments, the first of which travels from the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor to Highway 77 in Leamington. The second portion begins at Talbotville Royal outside of St. Thomas at Highway 4, and travels to the western city limits of Port Colborne. The road is regionally maintained within Port Colborne as Niagara Regional Road 3, but regains its provincial designation at Highway 140. Its third and final terminus is at Edgewood Park, within the Fort Erie town limits. From there, the road continues as Niagara Regional Road 3 to the Peace Bridge, where drivers can cross to the United States. The total length of Highway 3 is 258.2 km (160.4 mi), consisting of 49.2 km (30.6 mi) from Windsor to Leamington, 187.9 km (116.8 mi) from Talbotville Royal to Port Colborne and 21.1 km (13.1 mi) from Port Colborne to Edgewood Park.
Port Stanley is a community in the Municipality of Central Elgin, Elgin County in Ontario, Canada. It is located on the north shore of Lake Erie at the mouth of Kettle Creek. In 2016, it had a population of 2,148.
Southampton is a community on the shores of Lake Huron in Bruce County, Ontario, Canada. It is close to Port Elgin and is located at the mouth of the Saugeen River in the Saugeen Ojibway Nation Territory. The size of the town is 6.44 square kilometres. The permanent population in 2016 was 3,678, but the summer population is higher since cottagers and campers spend vacation time in the area.
Wheatley is a community in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, within the municipality of Chatham-Kent. It lies about 12 kilometres (7 mi) east of Leamington. Nearby parks include Two Creeks Conservation Area, which has 15 km of hiking and bicycling paths, Kopegaron Woods Conservation Area, Hillman Marsh Conservation Area and Point Pelee National Park. Rondeau Provincial Park is only a forty-five-minute drive to the east. It also boasts Wheatley Provincial Park, home to the endangered Blue Racer snake, which can only be found in the park as well as the Point Pelee National Park and on Pelee Island.
Port Burwell is a community on the north shore of Lake Erie, in the Municipality of Bayham in Elgin County, Ontario, Canada. It is situated at the mouth of Big Otter Creek, which stretches more than forty miles north through Bayham to Tillsonburg and Otterville, and with the harbour at Port Burwell was of historic importance in the development of landlocked Oxford County.
Mahlon Burwell was a surveyor and political figure in Upper Canada.
King's Highway 77, commonly referred to as Highway 77, is a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario. One of three highways within Essex County, Highway 77 serves to interconnect Highway 3 near Leamington with Highway 401 near Tilbury. Prior to 1998, the highway extended south into Leamington, ending at the former routing of Highway 3 and Highway 18. This section was turned over to Essex County and renamed Erie Street. The speed limit on Highway 77 is 80 km/h (50 mph) in most places, dropping to 50 km/h in built-up areas. It is patrolled by the Ontario Provincial Police.
South-West Oxford is a township in the Canadian province of Ontario, located within Oxford County. The township had a population of 7,664 in the 2016 Canadian census. A predominantly rural municipality, South-West Oxford was formed in 1975 through the amalgamation of Dereham and West Oxford townships and the village of Beachville.
The London and Lake Erie Railway and Transportation Company is a defunct Interurban railway that operated in Ontario, Canada from 1902 to 1918. Originally chartered as the South Western Traction Company, the line was renamed the London and Lake Erie Railway in 1909. Throughout its short life, the line was always referred to locally as "The Traction Line".
Kawartha Lakes Road 35, also known as Victoria Road and Fennel Road, is a municipally-maintained road located in the city of Kawartha Lakes, in the Canadian province of Ontario. The road is mostly straight, running in a north–south orientation throughout its length. It began at the hamlet of Glenarm and travels 30.5 kilometres (19.0 mi) to Uphill.
The Backus-Page House Museum is a living history museum located in the heart of the Talbot Settlement in Wallacetown, Ontario, Canada. The Georgian style house has been restored as closely as possible to its state in 1850. The museum is maintained and run by the Tyrconnell Heritage Society, a local independent organization that is dedicated to restoration and preservation of Backus-Page House and surrounding estate.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
