paper, ink, wax

Description of Land Sold:

Whereas, in and by certain Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the Province of Canada, and bearing date 12th January 1847, it is recited that they Chiefs, Warriors, women and children of the Six Nations residing in the District or Territory of Tyendinaga, in the District of Victoria, in the Province of Canada, had by deed poll under the hands and totems of certain chiefs therein named and affixed thereto in testimony of the assent of the said Six Nations to the act of surrender thereby made, surrendered and yielded up to Her Majesty Queen Victoria, Her heirs and successors, the tract or parcel of land thereinafter described, and by the said Letters Patent granted, trusting and confiding in Her said Majesty’s royal will and pleasure to re-grant the same to the persons therein names as trustees. Her Majesty gave and granted unto George Vardon, Thomas G. Anderson, and Joseph B. Clench, all that parcel of land situated in the Township of Tyendinaga, in the District of Victoria, and on the south-easterly side of the Salmon River, in the Province of Canada, being composed of parts of lots numbers five and six in the first concession south of the road in the said township, containing twenty-six acres and three roods of land, including the several streets laid out or intended to be laid out thereon, for the purpose of forming a town plot, and which said tract is butted and bounded or may be otherwise known as follows: commencing in front of the said concession at the south-east angle of the said lot number six; then north sixteen degrees west thirteen chains; to land leased by the Mohawk Indians to George Auldjo, Esquire; then southerly seventy-four degrees west twenty chains fifty links, to the south-easterly side of the Salmon River; then south-westerly, following the south-easterly side of the said river down the stream to the allowance for road in front of the said concession; then north eighty-two degrees thirty minutes east twenty-nine chains seventy-five links, to the place of beginning; reserving the allowance for road between the said lots numbers five and six, and free access to the shore of the said Salmon River for all vessels, boats, and persons.

And whereas the system under which the lands set apart within this province for the benefit of the various Indian tribes have been vested in trustees, as above described, has been found to be attended with inconvenience, and it has consequently been determined to require all lands so circumstanced to be re-invested in Her Majesty Queen Victoria, Her heirs and successors, with a view, nonetheless, to the more perfect accomplishment of the object of the original grants.

And whereas the Indian Department have requested the grantors herein named to convey to Her Majesty the parcel of land herein described and hereby intended to be conveyed, with the objects, nevertheless, and for the purposes hereinbefore stated, and the said trustees have consented thereto: in consideration of the premises, and also in further consideration of the sum of five shillings of lawful money, paid to George Vardon, Thomas G. Anderson, and Joseph B. Clench, they have surrendered the parcel of land described above, with the sole purpose of carrying out the objects in the said letters patent hereinbefore recited.

Witnesses:

S.Y. Chesley

Wm. R. Bartlett

D.C. Napier

Ignace Giasson

Crown Signatories:

George Vardon

T.G. Anderson, S.I.A.

J.B. Clench, S.I.A.

Date document signed

Canada, Indian Treaties and Surrenders from 1680 to 1890, 2 vols., (Ottawa: Queen’s Printer, 1891), 1: 170-172.

8 November 1850, Six Nations Tyendinaga Surrender, Library and Archives Canada, Indian Affairs, D-10a, Series A, Volume 1845, Reel T-9938, GAD REF IT163, http://grasac.org/gks, (heritage item id no. 3099, accessed [date]).

This record was created under the direction of Heidi Bohaker as part of a larger research project funded by an Aboriginal Research Grant titled “Braiding Knowledges: Anishinaabe Heritage in Community Perspective”from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).