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The Toronto Purchase was the sale of lands in the Toronto area from the Mississaugas of New Credit to the British crown. An initial, disputed, agreement was made in 1787, in exchange for various items. The agreement was revisited in 1805, intended to clarify the area purchased. The agreement remained in dispute for over 200 years until 2010, when a settlement for the land was made between the Government of Canada and the Mississaugas for the land and other lands in the area.
Under the Treaty of Paris which ended the conflict between Great Britain and its former colonies, the boundary of British North America was set in the middle of the Great Lakes. This made the land north of the border more important, strategically and as the place for Loyalists to settle after the war. In 1781, the Mississaugas surrendered a strip of land along the Niagara River, and in 1783, land on the Bay of Quinte for the Mohawks who had been loyal to the British to settle (today's Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory). Between 1783 and 1785, 10,000 Loyalists arrived and were settling on land the Crown had recognized as Indian Land. In 1784, the Mississaugas surrendered more land in the Niagara peninsula, including land on the Grand River for the Iroquois. [1]
In 1786, Lord Dorchester arrived in Quebec City as Governor-in-Chief of British North America. His mission was to solve the problems of the newly landed Loyalists. At first, Dorchester suggested opening the new Canada West as districts under the Quebec government, but the British Government made known its intention to split Canada into Upper and Lower Canada. Dorchester began organizing for the new province of Upper Canada, including a capital. Dorchester's first choice was Kingston, but was aware of the number of Loyalists in the Bay of Quinte and Niagara areas, and chose instead the location north of the Bay of Toronto, midway between the settlements and 30 miles (48 km) from the US. Under the policy of the time, the British recognized aboriginal title to the land and Dorchester arranged to purchase the lands from the Mississaugas. [2]
The 1787 purchase, according to British records, was conducted on September 23, 1787, at the "Carrying-Place" of Bay of Quinte. The British crown and the Mississaugas of New Credit met to arrange for the sale of lands along Lake Ontario. In the case of the Toronto area, the Mississaugas of New Credit exchanged 250,808 acres (101,498 ha) of land in what became York County (most of current Toronto and the Regional Municipality of York bounded by Lake Ontario to the south, approximately Etobicoke Creek and Highways 427 and 50 (both part of a now mostly-vanished road known as Indian Line, which was named due to it forming the purchase boundary) to the west, approximately Ashbridge's Bay/Woodbine Avenue-Highway 404 to the east and approximately south of Sideroad 15-Bloomington Road to the north) for some money, 2,000 gun flints, 24 brass kettles, 120 mirrors, 24 laced hats, a bale of flowered flannel, and 96 gallons of rum.
At the time, the Mississaugas believed that the agreement was not a purchase extinguishing their rights to the land, but a rental of the lands for British use in exchange for gifts and presents in perpetuity. [3]
In 1788, surveyor Alexander Aitken was assigned to conduct a survey of the Toronto site. The Mississaugas blocked him from surveying west of the Humber, saying the lands to the west had not been ceded. Aitken was only allowed to survey the land after British authorities interceded with the Mississaugas. Aitken surveyed west to Etobicoke Creek, but did not survey more than a few miles from the lake (as far north as the northern limit of where the creek forms the present Toronto-Mississauga limits) before stopping to avoid further confrontation. [4]
An Indenture (a revision) of the deal was made on August 1, 1805. Both the 1787 Purchase and its 1805 Indenture were registered as Crown Treaty No. 13. For this revision, the Mississaugas of New Credit First Nation also claimed the Toronto Islands, which was not part of the purchase as the agreement only went to the Lake Ontario shoreline.
The land sold consists of:
The Purchased was signed by Sir John Johnson, William Claus (deputy superintendent of Indian Affairs representing the Crown). Witness consisted of:
British
Confirming Indian Chief Totems
First Nations
Starting in 1986, the Mississaugas opened a land claims settlement process with the Government of Canada to rectify its grievance over the Toronto Purchase and a smaller plot of land near Burlington Bay. [6] In 2010, Canada agreed to pay CA$145 million for the lands, based on the ancient value of the land, extrapolated to current dollars. The money was distributed to the band government, with each of the 1,700 present-day Mississaugas receiving $20,000, with the rest placed in trust for future generations. [7]
Etobicoke is an administrative district and former city within Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Comprising the city's west-end, Etobicoke is bordered on the south by Lake Ontario, on the east by the Humber River, on the west by Etobicoke Creek, the cities of Brampton, and Mississauga, the Toronto Pearson International Airport, and on the north by the city of Vaughan at Steeles Avenue West.
The Mississaugas are a group of First Nations peoples located in southern Ontario, Canada. They are a sub-group of the Ojibwe Nation.
Events from the year 1787 in Canada.
Six Nations is demographically the largest First Nations reserve in Canada. As of the end of 2017, it has a total of 27,276 members, 12,848 of whom live on the reserve. It is the only reserve in North America that has representatives of all six Haudenosaunee nations living together. These nations are the Mohawk, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Seneca and Tuscarora. Some Lenape live in the territory as well.
Samuel Bois Smith was a Loyalist British Army officer and politician. He was appointed to the Executive Council of Upper Canada and appointed Administrator of Upper Canada.
Lorne Park is a suburban residential neighbourhood located in southwestern Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, that was first established as a resort.
Lakeview is a neighbourhood in Mississauga in the Region of Peel, centred on Lakeshore Road in the extreme southeastern corner of the city, along the shore of Lake Ontario, between the larger neighbourhood of Port Credit to the west and the Long Branch neighbourhood of Toronto to the east.
Deseronto is a town in the Canadian province of Ontario, in Hastings County, located at the mouth of the Napanee River on the shore of the Bay of Quinte, on the northern side of Lake Ontario.
Carrying Place is a community straddling the Quinte West and Prince Edward County border that serves as a gateway to Prince Edward County, Ontario, Canada. Situated northwest of Picton and just south of Trenton, it was named for its location on the portage between the Bay of Quinte and Weller's Bay on Lake Ontario. The Loyalist Parkway passes through the community.
The Robinson Treaties are two treaties signed between the Ojibwa chiefs and the Crown in 1850 in the Province of Canada. The first treaty involved Ojibwa chiefs along the north shore of Lake Superior, and is known as the Robinson Superior Treaty. The second treaty, signed two days later, included Ojibwa chiefs from along the eastern and northern shores of Lake Huron, and is known as the Robinson Huron Treaty. The Wiikwemkoong First Nation did not sign either treaty, and their land is considered "unceded".
The Haldimand Proclamation was a decree that granted land to the Mohawk who had served on the British side during the American Revolution. The decree was issued by the Governor of the Province of Quebec, Frederick Haldimand, on October 25, 1784, three days after the Treaty of Fort Stanwix was signed between others of the Six Nations and the American government. The granted land had to be purchased from the Mississaugas of the Credit whose traditional territory spans much of modern-day Southwestern Ontario. On May 22, 1784 Col. John Butler was sent to negotiate the sale of approximately 3,000,000 acres of land located between Lakes Huron, Ontario, and Erie for £1180.00 from the Mississaugas of the Credit. Of the land ceded, some 550,000 acres were granted to the Mohawk nation in the Haldimand Proclamation. The sale by the Mississaugas of the Credit is also referred to as the "Between the Lakes Treaty."
Captain John Deserontyon, U.E.L was a Mohawk war chief allied with the British during the American Revolutionary War. He led his people to Upper Canada after the war, settling on land granted by the Crown at the Bay of Quinte in present-day Ontario. This reserve, initially settled primarily by Mohawk loyalists from the Lower Castle, is known as Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, Ontario. Deseronto, Ontario is named for him.
Augustus Jones was a North American-born Upper Canadian farmer, land speculator, magistrate, militia captain and surveyor. Jones trained as a surveyor in New York City, and fled as a United Empire Loyalist to Upper Canada. In Upper Canada, he worked as a crown surveyor in the Nassau District, where he quickly rose to the position of Deputy Surveyor General, the highest position in a district of Upper Canada. He occupied that position from 1789 informally, and 1791 formally, until his retirement in 1799. During that time he laid down many of the township boundaries in the Niagara Peninsula and on the north shore of Lake Ontario. He led various teams that cut many of the first sideroads and concession roads into these areas, facilitating their settlement by European and American immigrants. Jones also surveyed the routes for Dundas Street and Yonge Street, and supervised their construction. After his retirement, Jones farmed first in Saltfleet Township, later moving to Brantford and finally an estate outside Paris named Cold Springs, where he died in 1836.
Alderville First Nation is a band of Mississaugas, a sub-nation of the Ojibways. The Alderville and Sugar Island 37A reserves belong to that First Nation band government.
The Huron Tract Purchase also known as the Huron Block, registered as Crown Treaty Number 29, is a large area of land in southwestern Ontario bordering on Lake Huron to the west and Lake Erie to the east. The area spans the counties of Huron, Perth, Middlesex and present day Lambton County, Ontario in the province of Ontario.
Marie Curtis Park is a public park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located at the mouth of the Etobicoke Creek on Lake Ontario in the Long Branch neighbourhood. Marie Curtis Park was built after the devastating floods of Hurricane Hazel in 1954 destroyed 56 homes and cottages on the site, leaving 1,868 persons homeless and 81 dead. It is named after Marie Curtis, the reeve of Long Branch at the time of its construction. Long Branch at the time was a separate village; it's now amalgamated into the City of Toronto government.
Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory is the main First Nation reserve of the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte First Nation. The territory is located in Ontario east of Belleville on the Bay of Quinte. Tyendinaga is located near the site of the former Mohawk village of Ganneious.:10
The Crawford Purchase was an agreement that surrendered lands that extended west along the north shore of the St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario from the Mississaugas to the British crown to enable Loyalist settlement in what is now a part of eastern Ontario, Canada. The agreement was made in 1783 in exchange for various items.
The Culbertson Tract Land Claim, located in the Canadian Province of Ontario in Hastings County, is a specific land claim originally submitted by the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte in 1995. It covers 923 acres surrounding the Tyendinaga area and the majority of the Deseronto township. This claim is based on the loss of over 800 acres of land during the continued loyalist settlement during 1820-1843 which proved to be the loss of the majority of the land from the Simcoe Treaty.
John Collins was an influential Deputy Surveyor General in the Province of Canada shortly after it was captured by the British.