The Crawford Purchase was an agreement that surrendered lands that extended west along the north shore of the St. Lawrence River and

Lake Ontario Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York. The Canada–United States border sp ...

from the

Mississaugas The Mississauga are a subtribe of the Anishinaabe-speaking First Nations peoples located in southern Ontario, Canada. They are closely related to the Ojibwe. The name "Mississauga" comes from the Anishinaabe word ''Misi-zaagiing'', meaning " ho ...

to the

British crown The Crown is the state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies, overseas territories, provinces, or states). Legally ill-defined, the term has different ...

to enable

Loyalist Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British C ...

settlement in what is now a part of eastern

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada. The agreement was made in 1783 in exchange for various items.

Background

Land in the eastern region of what is now Ontario was being settled by Loyalists and their Native allies in 1783. This area was originally the domain of the

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian Peoples, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Indigenous confederations in North America, confederacy of First Nations in Canada, First Natio ...

, but became occupied by the

by 1700. An arrangement needed to be worked out with the Mississaugas before the land became organized for settlement.

Agreement

Frederick Haldimand Sir Frederick Haldimand, KB (11 August 1718 – 5 June 1791) was a military officer best known for his service in the British Army in North America during the Seven Years' War and the American Revolutionary War. From 1778 to 1786, he serve ...

, governor of the

Province of Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirteen ...

instructed Sir John Johnson, Inspector General of Indian Affairs, to begin land purchase negotiations. Negotiations were led by Captain William Radford Crawford of the

King's Royal Regiment of New York The King's Royal Regiment of New York, also known as Johnson's Royal Regiment of New York, King's Royal Regiment, King's Royal Yorkers, and Royal Greens, were one of the first Loyalist regiments, raised on June 19, 1776, in British Canada, duri ...

. The agreement was signed on 9 October 1783 on Carleton Island and gave the British title to "all the lands from the Toniata or Ongara River (now Jones Creek near

Brockville Brockville, formerly Elizabethtown, is a city in Eastern Ontario, Canada, in the Thousand Islands region. Although it is the seat of the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville, it is politically independent of the county. It is included with Le ...

) to a river in the

Bay of Quinte The Bay of Quinte () is a long, narrow bay shaped like the letter "Z" on the northern shore of Lake Ontario in the province of Ontario, Canada. It is just west of the head of the Saint Lawrence River that drains the Great Lakes into the Gulf of ...

within eight leagues to the bottom of the said Bay including all the islands extending from the lake as far back as a man can travail (sic) in a day". The actual extent comprised an area of land from near

Gananoque Gananoque ( ) is a town in the Leeds and Grenville area of Ontario, Canada. The town had a population of 5,383 year-round residents in the 2021 Canadian Census, as well as summer residents sometimes referred to as "Islanders" because of the Tho ...

to the Trent River and about 30 miles inland. The Mississaugas received gifts which consisted of blankets, clothing, guns, ammunition, and "as much red cloth as would make a dozen coats and as many laced hats".Mika et al 1987, p. 21. The Crawford Purchase was designated an Event of National Historic Significance on 17 May 1929.

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * Mika, Nick and Helma et al. ''Kingston, Historic City''. Belleville: Mika Publishing Co., 1987. . *Osborne, Brian S. and Donald Swainson. ''Kingston, Building on the Past for the Future''. Quarry Heritage Books, 2011.
Crawford Purchase National Historic Event
Retrieved 2015-09-11 * {{refend 1783 in Canada Events of National Historic Significance (Canada) Mississaugas

Background

Agreement

See also

References