families of the men and officers of the Loyalist troops
stationed at Niagara. On September 27, 1783, for instance,
the officer commanding at Niagara reports the arrival
from Schenectady of the wives of two officers of Butler's
Rangers, with a number of children. Some of these people
went down the lake to Montreal; but others remained at
the post, and 'squatted' on the land. In 1780 Colonel
Butler reports to Haldimand that four or five families
have settled and built houses, and he requests that they
be given seed early in the spring. In 1781 we know that
a Loyalist named Robert Land had squatted on Burlington
Bay, at the head of Lake Ontario. In 1783 Lieutenant
Tinling was sent to Niagara to survey lots, and Sergeant
Brass of the 84th was sent to build a saw-mill and a
grist-mill. At the same time Butler's Rangers, who were
stationed at the fort, were disbanded; and a number of
them were induced to take up land. They took up land on
the west side of the river, because, although, according
to the terms of peace, Fort George was not given up by
the British until 1796, the river was to constitute the
boundary between the two countries. A return of the rise
and progress of the settlement made in May 1784 shows a
total of forty-six settlers (that is, heads of families),
with forty-four houses and twenty barns. The return makes
it clear that cultivation had been going on for some
time. There were 713 acres cleared, 123 acres sown in
wheat, and 342 acres waiting to be sown; and the farms
were very well stocked, there being an average of about
three horses and four or five cows to each settler.