Monday, August 18, 2014

Amanuensis Monday - Post 231: 1791 Upper Canada Land Petition of Abraham Dafoe

Genea-blogger John Newmark (who writes the excellent TransylvanianDutch blog) started a Monday blog theme years ago called "Amanuensis Monday."  John offers this definition for "amanuensis:" 

"A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another."

The subject today is five images in a 1791 land petition filed by Abraham Defoe with the Government of Upper Canada on his own and his brother's service during the American Rebellion (five images):







The transcription of these petition papers is:

[page 551, first image above, marked 1]

To his Excellency the Right Honorable Guy Lord Dorchester
Captain General, Governor & Commander in Chief of the Colonies of 
Quebec, Nova Scotia New Brunswick & Their Dependencies &c &c &c

The Memorial of Abraham Defoe, late a Corporal
                     in the King's Rangers
                                          Humbly Sheweth
That your Lordship's Memorialist in Right of his Brother
Jacob Defoe who died at St. John's in the year 1784 and Served
as a private in the King's Rangers, Humbly prays that the
portion of land that his Brother would have received, had he
lived to come to this Country may be assigned him in the
Tenth Township.

And your Memorialist as in duty bound shall we pray
                                                     Abraham Defoe

Kingston           }           To his Excellency Lord Dorchester }
Feb.y 23d 1791  }            Governor & Commander in Chief & & &
                                                   in Council, Quebec.

[page 552, second image above, reverse of image 551, marked 1a]

                          1791
Dist. Mecklenburgh
No. 527
Abraham Defoe

Concur in this w?
the Land Board

Report                Page 14
Sent
February 23 1791
       Referred

[page 553, third image above, marked 1b]

To his Excellency the Right Honorable Guy Lord Dorchester
Captain General, Governor, & Commander in chief of the Colonies
of Quebec, Nova Scotia & New Brunswick & their dependencies &&&

The Memorial of Abraham Defoe Serg^t King Rangers
                                        Humbly Sheweth
That your Lordship's Memorialist have Received one hundred
Acres, humbly prays that one hundred Acres More, together
with his Lordship's Bounty of two hundred Acres may be
assigned him in the Seventh Township --
And your Memorialist as in duty bound will ever pray
                                                          Abraham Dafoe
Kinston                }
March 9^th 1790  }
                              To his Excellency Lord Dorchester
                              Governor & Commander in Chief & & &
                                                              in Council
                                                                      Quebec

[page 554, fourth image above, marked 1c]

No. 235   1790
Abraham Dafoe
Examined

folio 38

[page 556, fifth image above, marked 1e]

                 1792
Abraham Dafoe

Report      Page 7th
Certificate granted
21^st March 1792
                  100 Acres

The source citation for this set of land petition records is:

Upper Canada, "Upper Canada Land Petitions, 1763-1865," digital image, Library and Archives Canada (http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/ : accessed 11 August 2014), Abraham Dafoe, 1791, Microfilm C-1885, Volume 171, "D" Bundle Micellaneous 1788-1795, (DA-DEY), Petition 1 (images 551-554, 556 of 925); citing RG 1, L 3.

There are two petitions in this one set of papers - one filed in 1791 and the second in 1790.  Abraham Dafoe prays for 100 acres in his brother Jacob's right in 1791 (images 1 and 2 above), and for 100 acres more, plus 200 acres of Bounty land, in 1790 in his own right (images 3 and 4 above).  The fifth image above notes he was granted 100 acres.  It is unclear to me if he received the Bounty land, or his brother's land.

The process to find these records was described in Finding Loyalist Petition Papers on Library and Archives Canada (LAC) (posted 11 August 2014).

Abraham Dafoe (1755-1815) is my fifth great-grandfather.  His daughter, Mary Dafoe (1776-before 1851) married John Kemp (1768-after 1861). 


Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver


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