Early Land Survey in Ontario

Early Land Survey in Ontario

Kingston, Ontario

The Early Land Survey in Ontario was recognized as a National Historic Event of Canada in 1932 and plaqued in 1938. This marks the establishments of five townships from Cataraqui to the Bay of Quinte beginning in the fall of 1783. The plaque in found in the city park at the corner of King and West Street in Kingston, Ontario.

The plaque reads as follows:

EARLY LAND IN ONTARIO
PREMIERS TRAVAUX D’ARPENTAGE EN ONTARIO

In September 1783, Deputy Surveyor-General John Collins was dispatched to Cataraqui by Governor Haldimand to lay out townships for loyalist settlers. The necessary land was purchased from Mississauga Indians, and on 27 October the first survey marker was planted. By the year’s end the front concessions of four townships, stretching from Cataraqui to the Bay of Quinte, had been surveyed. A fifth was laid out the following summer. Collins thus completed the first major survey made under civil authority in what is now Ontario.

En septembre 1783, le gouverneur Haldimand envoya le sous-arpenteur général, John Collins, à Cataraqui pour y établir le plan des townships des colons loyalistes. On planta les premiers jalons le 27 octobre, sur des terrains achetés aux Mississaugas. À la fin de l’année, on avait terminé l’arpentage des concessions de front de quatre cantons, s’étendant de Cataraqui à la baie de Quinte. Le tracé d’un cinquième fut achevé l’été suivant. Collins réalisa donc le premier grand travail d’arpentage ordonné par les autorités civiles dans ce qui forme aujourd’hui l’Ontario.

(Text prepared by the Special Committee on the Revision of Unilingual Plaques – 1973 to 1977)