he bulk of this article was published in the Perth Courier, December 28, 1916, but additional information has been offered by website users. The items have been re-arranged so that regiments are listed alphabetically. Additional information is credited with the name and email address of each submitter. Items without credit are from the original article.

This article is based heavily on a paper written for the Perth Historical and Antiquarian Society, circa 1900.

Following the article in last issue (Centennial Of The Perth Settlement) relating to the settlement in and about Perth, other particulars of the pioneer days are given this week, taken from the notes preserved from early records and summarized by the Perth Historical Society — a most useful organization of our younger residents formed some years ago to deal with the settlement events now a hundred years old, many of which might otherwise disappear from the knowledge of the present and future generations but for their thoughtfulness and labor. All honor to them for what they have done. The paper relating to the settlement of soldiers, after their return from Britain’s and Canada’s wars is partly given below:

The farms along the Christy Lake road (3rd con. Bathurst), 1817-1818, were taken up principally by the retired soldiers of the de Watteville and deMeuron Regiments — Swiss, Belgians, Germans, Poles and Italians, at first conscripts in Napoleon Bonaparte’s army, gathered from these various nationalities, and compelled to serve in his campaigns — and who afterwards, when taken prisoners by the British, volunteered to serve for our empire in the war of 1812-1815 against the United States. At the peace which followed, they were given grants of land by the Crown of farm lands in Bathurst, Burgess and Drummond. Most of them, unused to farming under the new conditions then prevailing, and perhaps through mere shiftlessness, abandoned their land and emigrated to other parts. Those who remained in Bathurst and Burgess were: Sergeant Pierre Klein, Flanders, lot 25, 6th con.; Privates Peter Adam, German, S.W. ½ 7 in 8th con. Burgess; Harry Kuppir (Cooper), German, E.½ 16, con. 8, Burgess; John Meckler (Mackler), private, Swiss, ½ 18 con. 9 Burgess; George Hoffsmith (Smith), private, Swiss, ½ 6, 3rd con. Bathurst; Andrew Stillar, private, Swiss, E.½ 5, 3rd con. Bathurst; Louis Pennette, private, German ½ 22, 6th con. Bathurst; John Publow, private, Flanders, ½ 26, 6th con. Bathurst, Jacob Dick, private, Swiss, ½ 23, 7th con. Bathurst; Jacob Hollinger, sergeant, German, W.½ 1 in 6th con. Drummond. With these came as chaplain Rev. Abbe Lamothe, a Frenchman, who got 800 acres. He settled among the Burgess soldiers in 1818, in lot 7 in 7th con., and died in Perth, East Ward, in the building where Mrs. McNaughton now keeps a grocery.

Other soldier settlers in and about Perth were:

  • Dr. Alex. Thom, Scotch, 800 acres in Bathurst, South Sherbrooke and Perth (Gamsby farm), as surgeon to forces; James Noonan, gunner, Ireland, E½ 16 in 1st con. Drummond, 1817; Richard Cullen, Ireland, ½ 16 in 1st con. Drummond, 1817; David Hogg, Scotch, 22, 2nd con. Drummond, 1816; David Kinnear, lieutenant, Ireland, 18 in 11th con. Drummond. He lived in a small stone house (now gone) between Greenly’s Corners, Perth, and the Lanark turn — 1820.
  • 6th Regiment — Peter Leaver, private, England, 24, 4th con. Bathurst, in 1816 — grandfather of Mr. James Leaver, Perth.
  • 9th Regiment — Samuel Fidler, private, England, 24 in 4th con. Bathurst, in 1815.
  • 11th Regiment, Devonshire — John Monk Mason, Ensign, Ireland, 200 acres in Bathurst and Burgess, 1819.
  • 17th Regiment — Private Thomas Echlin, Ireland, 9th con. Bathurst.
  • 41st Regiment — Dennis Noonan, Ireland, ½ 18, 3rd con. Bathurst; Zephania DeWitt, Pennsylvania, private, 23, 4th con. Bathurst.
  • 49th Regiment — Capt. Alexander Fraser, Scotland, ½ 16, 4th con. Drummond, 1816.
  • 57th Regiment — Samuel Herbert, England, 11 in 2nd con. Drummond.
  • 68th Regiment — Thomas Kirkham, England, private, N. E. ½ 15, 2nd con. Bathurst, 1819.
  • 76th Regiment — Sergt. John Balderson, S. W. ½ 8th con. Drummond, England; Charles W. Sache, England, 1 in 9th con. and 1 in 10th con. Drummond, 1819.
  • 81st Regiment — Evan Griffith, Welsh, S. W. ½ 12, 2nd con. Drummond, 1816.
  • 89th Regiment — Moses Budd, private, England, ½ 1, Drummond, 1816; Samuel Swan private, England, 19, 2nd con. Bathurst, 1816.
  • 90th Regiment — Sergeant James Maitland, Scotland, Montague, in 1815 or 1817.
  • 103rd Regiment — Lieut. Henry Graham, Ireland, 600 acres — became a Senator; Major James H. Powell, Ireland, 1,000 acres around Perth, 1818; father of Sheriff Powell, of Ottawa; Sergeant James Young, Scotland, ½ 24, 8th con. Bathurst — afterwards gaoler in Perth; has many descendants in this vicinity.
  • 104th Regiment — And. W. Playfair, colonel, Paris, lot 22 in 12th con. Bathurst, 36 in 10th con. Drummond, and 21 in 7th con. Lansdowne, Co. Leeds, 1817; Joseph Avery, corporal, Ireland, E. ½ 14th. 6th con. Bathurst, 1818.
  • Canadian Fencibles — Lieut T. de Lisle, Lower Canada, 12 in 6th con. Beckwith; 2, 4th con. Drummond; S. W. ½ 24 5th con. Leeds, 1817; Asst. Military Secretary Noah Freer, afterwards president Bank of British North America, 21 in 11 con. Drummond, N. E. ½ 20, 4th con. Sherbrooke (1816), 28 and 29 in 5th con. Elmsley, 6 in 5th con. Burgess — 600 acres in all, 1817; Sergeant Joseph Legarry, Lower Canada, 27 in 10th con. Bathurst, 1816; Captain Josias Taylor, 4 lots in Drummond; private Louis Grenier, Lower Canada, in 1816 got N. E. ½ 18, con. 10, N. Elmsley; Captain William Marshall, Scotland, in 1816, 670 acres; drew lot in Perth owned later by Captain Leslie and J. A. McLaren; took charge of Lanark land office, and located the Dalhousie settlers; Sergt. William Matheson (Bill of all Trades), United States — S. W. ½ 19, 1st con. Drummond, 1816 — transferred to Edward James.
  • Field Train — Wm. McNaughton, England. He had the first bakery in town, where the Ferrier block now stands.
  • 7th Fusilliers (Royal) — Staff-Sergeant William Brown, England, 11 in 9th con. Burgess, formerly held by a deWatteville man for one year.
  • Glengarry Fencibles — Sergeant Jas. McNiece, Ireland, W.½ 10, 9th con. Drummond, 1816; Corporal Thomas Morris, England, N. E. ½ 11, 4th con. Bathurst; Angus McDonald, private, Upper Canada, 12 in 11th con. Drummond.
  • Glengarry Light Infantry — Captain Alex. McMillan, Scotland; got 1205 acres; Sergt. John Adamson, Scotland, in 1817 got 25 acres in town; William Blair, Lieutenant, Scotland, 23 in 3rd con. Bathurst; William Horricks, England, E. ½ 12 in 9th con. Drummond, and Patrick McNamee, Ireland, land in Burgess; Lieut.-Col. Matheson, paymaster, got 825 acres; Paymaster Arthur Leslie, lieutenant; Quartermaster John Watson; Sergeant James Quigley, Ireland, in 1816 got S. W. ½ 24 in 2nd con. Bathurst.
  • 19th Light Dragoons — John Truelove, private, England, Bathurst.
  • New Brunswick Fencibles — Lieut. Alex Fraser, Scotland; in 1816 got 7 in 10th con.; in 1818 got W. ½ 6 in 1st con. Drummond.
  • Royal Artillery — Nicholas Spooner is believed to have arrived in Canada as a Driver (of horses) in the Royal Artillery during the War of 1812-14 and to have remained in Canada after the war. In 1820 he was given, by Order in Council, a Free Grant for Military Service title to the SW ½ (100 acres) of Lot 20, con 4, Drummond Twp., on the edge of what is now the Town of Perth. He had lived on that parcel at least as early as 1817 as he, his wife and daughter (both named Elizabeth) appear in the 1817 Lanark census. However, his name has not turned up at all in the Royal Artillery records at Kew (London) which leads to the thought that perhaps he had already emigrated and joined the Royal Artillery in Canada. Very soon after he received title to his land he seems to have abandoned it and moved to Montreal from which point the major events in his life are fairly well documented, but virtually nothing is known about him prior to 1817. Submitted by Julian Bernard.
  • 3rd Royal Guards — Lupton Wrathall, private, England, N. E. 13, 5th con. Drummond, 1817.
  • Royal Navy — Lieut. Thos. Consitt, England, ½ 21, 1st. con. Bathurst; drew other lots in Lansdowne, Leeds Co., but exchanged them for lots in Burgess; he fought with Nelson in battle of the Nile; Lieut. Charles James Bell, block 4, lot 27, 2nd con. Drummond, 1822. He lost a leg at the battle of Plattsburg.
  • Naval Artillery — Joseph Tysick, England, N. E. ½ 8 in 8th con. Bathurst, 1817.
  • Royal Newfoundland Fencibles — Lelievre, Captain, 800 acres.
  • 4th Royal Veteran Battalion — Ensign Matthew Gould, England, 7 in 8th con. Drummond, 1816.
  • York Chasseurs — Thomas Leonard, Sergeant, Spain, 12 in 10th con. Bathurst.