As soon as Haldimand received instructions from England
with regard to the granting of the lands he gave orders
to Major Samuel Holland, surveyor-general of the king's
territories in North America, to proceed with the work
of making the necessary surveys. Major Holland, taking
with him as assistants Lieutenants Kotte and Sutherland
and deputy-surveyors John Collins and Patrick McNish,
set out in the early autumn of 1783, and before the winter
closed in he had completed the survey of five townships
bordering on the Bay of Quinte. The next spring his men
returned, and surveyed eight townships along the north
bank of the St Lawrence, between the Bay of Quinte and
the provincial boundary. These townships are now
distinguished by names, but in 1783-84 they were designated
merely by numbers; thus for many years the old inhabitants
referred to the townships of Osnaburg, Williamsburg, and
Matilda, for instance, as the 'third town,' the 'fourth
town,' and the 'fifth town.' The surveys were made in
great haste, and, it is to be feared, not with great
care; for some tedious lawsuits arose out of the
discrepancies contained in them, and a generation later
Robert Gourlay wrote that 'one of the present surveyors
informed me that in running new lines over a great extent
of the province, he found spare room for a whole township
in the midst of those laid out at an early period.' Each
township was subdivided into lots of two hundred acres
each, and a town-site was selected in each case which
was subdivided into town lots.