The Last Laird of MacNab Part 3

"Then, my men," exclaimed he, foaming with rage, "you don't get the money at all; I will send it back to York."

They begged him to reconsider his resolution, and offered to expend 50 of the money at White Lake.

"No; not one farthing shall be spent elsewhere. You will suffer, my men, for this disobedience. The fate of Miller and the McIntyres shall be yours."

Thereupon Duncan McNab, who was not only a settler but a lumberer, and had acquired considerable wealth, told the Chief flatly that he was nothing but an agent; that George Buchanan had found it out, and that the people were aware of it.

The Chief stared at him aghast, rolled up his eyes, made a number of pantomimic gestures, at which he was an adept; and terminated the interview by ordering them out of the house. This dispute eventually culminated in a law-suit, and four years elapsed before the money was obtained from the Chief, and expended.

While the Chief was building his cottage at White Lake, and disputing with the township commissioners, the Messrs. Buchanan were actively engaged in carrying on the improvements and investing capital in a new enterprise. Since the first settlers had taken up their locations in McNab, a regular line of steamboat communication had been established between Montreal and Fitzroy Harbor (the Chats). The _Ottawa_ plied between Lachine and Carillon; the old _Shannon_ performed its regular trips between Grenville and Bytown; and the _Lady Colborne_ made its tri-weekly voyage between Aylmer and the Chats. The Messrs. Buchanan resolved to extend the communication to the Cheneaux. Accordingly, in the autumn of 1835, they commenced making preparations to build the _George Buchanan_; the keel was laid--the materials procured--ship-builders actively at work--when Mr. Andrew Buchanan fell ill and died. This was a sad blow to the prospects of the Company. The deceased was a gentleman of education, ability and energy; and the a.s.sistance of his great commercial abilities was much needed at this crisis. Mr. Buchanan was buried on a knoll on the west side of the Madawaska. The spot is now occupied by the house and store of Mr.

William Russell. Previous to commencing their building in 1853, Messrs.

Russell caused Mr. Buchanan's remains to be removed to the Inch-Bhui burying ground at Arnprior, a beautiful spot at the mouth of the Madawaska, consisting of two acres specially granted by the Chief as a burying ground for the township.

At this eventful period the dispute between McNab and the Buchanans was at its height. McPhee, a foreman of theirs, had that season made an immense quant.i.ty of saw-logs on the settlers' lots for their mills, and had driven the greater part of them to the boom at Arnprior. To embarra.s.s the Buchanans was now his object and delight. By the wording of the patent from the Crown, certain reservations and restrictions were made with respect to the river, and notice was served on Mr. George Buchanan and by the Chief's legal adviser that an injunction would be moved for in Chancery to restrain him from violating the restrictions in the patent, in consequence of which a new boom had to be made further up the river, where the lands were not severed from the Crown. As this patent is of the utmost consequence to the people now, and to the lumber trade on the Madawaska, the writer has, with no small trouble, obtained an exemplification of the original deed. It is as follows:--

PROVINCE OF UPPER CANADA, } George the Fourth, P. MAITLAND: } by the Grace of G.o.d, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, KING: To all whom these presents shall come, greeting:

Know Ye that We, of our special grace, certain knowledge, and mere motion, have given and granted, and by these presents do give and grant unto ARCHIBALD McNAB of McNab, of the township of McNab, in the County of Carleton, in the District of Bathurst, his heirs and a.s.signs forever, all that parcel or tract of land situate in the township of McNab, in the County of Carleton, in the District of Bathurst, in our said Province, containing by admeasurement Four Hundred and Fifty Acres, be the same more or less, being the South-Westerly halves of Lots Three and Four, the North-Easterly half of Lot number Three, and the broken Lot number Five, in concession C in the said township of McNab; Together with all woods and waters lying and being under the reservations, limitations, and conditions hereinafter expressed.

(Then follow the surveyor's boundaries, which are in the usual form, except the boundaries of number Five, which we transcribe:) Also commencing where a post has been planted at the South-West angle of the said broken Lot number Five, then north thirty-six degrees west thirty chains more or less to the Grand or Ottawa River, then easterly along the sh.o.r.e to the mouth of the River Madawaska, then southerly along the water's edge of the said river, against the stream, to the southern limit of the said Lot, then south fifty-four degrees west to the place of beginning, containing One Hundred and Fifty acres, more or less.

To have and to hold the said parcel or tract of land hereby given or granted to him the said Archibald McNab (reserving free access to the beach by all vessels, boats and persons, and also all navigable waters within the said tract of land) his heirs and a.s.signs forever, saving nevertheless to us, our heirs and successors, all mines of gold and silver that shall or may be hereafter found on any part of the said parcel or tract of land hereby given and granted as aforesaid,--&c., &c.

2nd proviso reserves all white pine trees.

3rd proviso enjoins the erection of a dwelling-house.

PROVIDED also that it as any time or times thereafter the land so hereby given and granted to the said Archibald McNab and his heirs shall come into possession or tenure of any person or persons whomsoever, either by virtue of any deed or sale, conveyance, enfeoffment, or exchange; or by gift, inheritance, descent, devise, or marriage; such person or persons shall _twelve months_ next after his, her, or their entry into and possession of the same, take the oaths prescribed by law, before some one of the magistrates of our said Province, and a certificate of such oath having been so taken, shall cause to be recorded in the Secretary's office of the said Province. In default of all or any of which conditions, limitations and restrictions, the said Grant, and everything herein contained, shall be, and We hereby declare the same to be null and void, to all intents and purposes whatsoever; and the land hereby granted, and every part and parcel thereof, shall revert to, and become vested in us, Our Heirs and Successors in like manner, as if the same had never been granted, etc., etc.

(Signed) JOHN B. ROBINSON, _Attorney-General_.

Given under the Great Seal of our Province of Upper Canada: Witness our trusty and well-beloved Sir Peregrine Maitland, K.C.B., etc., etc.; this Twenty-eighth day of February, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight, and ninth of Our reign.

By command of His Excellency in Council,

(Signed) D. CAMERON, _Sec'y_.

Entered with the Auditor, 8th March, 1828.

(Signed) S. HEWARD, _Aud. Gen'l_.

[NOTE.--It will be observed that anyone who has purchased land from the McNab or his a.s.signs, or from any one holding under them, in the village of Arnprior, itself, or in any portions of the lots described in the patent, must have the oaths of supremacy and allegiance taken and registered within a year of their entry and possession, or their land is forfeited to the Crown. And again, by another of the provisions it stipulates that if free access to the beach on the sh.o.r.es of the Ottawa and Madawaska by means of booms and other impediments is prevented, the whole of the above land is forfeited; and the party hindered from this free access, either through the land, or by boat or vessels by water, has his remedy by action. There seems something strange in the wording of this particular patent, differing, as it does, from all others, but it was drafted by Sir John Beverly Robinson, late Chief Justice of Upper Canada, and was evidently drawn up with great care and forethought, in order to protect the rights of the lumbermen taking their timber down the Madawaska.]

At the close of this year, in consequence of his dispute with the Buchanans, the Chief procured a specific grant of all the white-pine timber on all unlocated lands in the township. This grant was made by patent, but he took special care in locating new lots to reserve the timber for his own use. We now find McNab at the close of this year (1835), engaged in a law-suit with Mr. George Buchanan and others involved in a dispute with the Commissioners respecting road-grants, and making a new farm and building a new cottage at White Lake.--His hands were full, but this did not prevent him from carrying out his revenge on certain of the "black sheep," the full particulars of which will be detailed in the following chapter.

CHAPTER IX.

1836 AND 1837--IMPRISONMENT OF THE M'INTYRES--DISAFFECTION OF THE SETTLERS.

This year opened with disputes between McNab and the people, about the road money. At the town meeting Duncan McNab resigned his commissionership, and Angus McNab was elected in his stead.--Before the town-meeting had terminated its business, the Laird made his appearance, told the people he had the money, pulled our a large roll of bills, and openly defied the commissioners. If the money was not laid out where he wanted it, they would not have the satisfaction of expending it at all.

He said he would return it to the Treasurer with instructions not to pay it over without his order. Accordingly he returned 100 to Mr. McKay, who was then County Treasurer; the remainder he kept in his own hands.

The commissioners could not go on with improvements. The bridge at Johnston's Rock (Burnstown), had to be postponed; legal advice was taken, and a suit, under the management of the late T. M. Radenhurst, was commenced against the Chief. While this was going on the Chief had procured a _ca. sa_ against John McIntyre and his son Peter. In the dead of winter, in the latter end of January, 1836, the officers of the law made a raid into the Flat Rapid settlement, arrested and carried off the two unfortunate victims of the Chief's anger. The old man, John McIntyre, was then seventy years of age, and his son Peter was in the prime of manhood. Their wives accompanied them to Kennell. The old man was not allowed an overcoat to keep the cold from his attenuated frame.

He was not permitted even to go to the house for a change of clothes, for fear of a rescue. Peter McIntyre was one of the persons who, in company with John Buchanan, had a.s.sisted the Chief to fly from his unrelenting creditors at home; and these were his thanks, and this the Chief's grat.i.tude! Forgetting former kindness and former a.s.sistance in a pressing emergency, in thus gratifying his vengeance and appeasing his mortified pride the poor McIntyres were made to suffer. He had not spent a shilling of his own money in bringing them out. Dr. Hamilton and his sister, Mrs. Fairfield, had paid all the settlers' expenses, and had they known that McNab would thus use the power vested in him by the bond, they would have cancelled all the obligations it imposed, and made the settlers a present of the consideration. The McIntyres were brought to Perth. Peter McIntyre's wife's friends in Beckwith went security for the amount, and he was speedily liberated. Donald McIntyre, sr., was also arrested, but his sons paid the amount, and demanded the patent.

Old Mr. McIntyre remained in the debtors' prison in Perth. He would allow no one to go security, or pay the amount. His feelings had been cruelly outraged. He, who had so gallantly fought for his country, was now imprisoned for no offence, but for the sake of his own philanthropy.

He had a.s.sisted Miller, and thus provoked the sleepless enmity of the Laird. When pressed to take bail the n.o.ble old man rose immovable as a statue, his white locks hanging over his shoulders in profuse ma.s.ses like a patriarch of old, and exclaimed, "I will have no one suffer for me. My earthly pilgrimage will soon be over; and if I end my life here, no one will be the worse. I will not undertake to do what I cannot perform. It was a weary day for me when I left Scotland. I have suffered trials and hardships ever since."

The old man remained imprisoned for three months, receiving the allowance of five shillings per week. One morning it was fortunately forgotten, and Mr. McIntyre was released. He went to a desolate home, and were it not for exertions of his two sons, John and Daniel, Mr.

McIntyre would have perished from sheer inanition. He never got over it; he lingered for three years, and then died broken-hearted. The Chief had taken everything he possessed, and left him without a cow, or even a solitary hen. A burst of indignation went through the whole township against the Chief; and even his most intimate friends and subservient toadies could not defend him. Instead of this transaction being a warning to others, it proved the contrary. It called forth an universal feeling of sympathy for the poor sufferers, and a determination of the settlers to resist further encroachments. The report of the Buchanans, that McNab was only an agent, about this time spread through the township like wildfire, and it was generally believed that whatever the Chief might do with those who had signed the bond in Scotland, he could not pretend to hara.s.s those who came out at their own expense. The old settlers, with these four or five exceptions, endeavored to pay their rent regularly, although the majority determined to use every legal means to get rid of it. Some even offered to pay up the pa.s.sage-money, with interest; but it was refused, the time for doing so having expired.

Serfs they were, and serfs they must remain. The Laird became aware, through his spies and tale-bearers (in whom he took great delight), of this general feeling of dissatisfaction. He resolved to punish the whole township. Accordingly, in March, he and Mr. Richey, a brother-magistrate from Fitzroy, having been appointed by the Quarter Sessions to do the road business, sat to apportion the statute-labor. The Chief wanted a new road from White Lake to Bellamy's Mills; consequently, all the statute-labor on the east side of the Madawaska was ordered to be laid out on the road. The place of labor was about ten miles distant from some of the settlers' homes. The labor on the west side of the Madawaska was ordered to be expended between Arnprior and the 2nd concession line, bringing some of the settlers away from their own roads, which very much needed a large amount of work.

This apportionment the commissioners determined to oppose as unjust and unreasonable. They ordered the pathmasters to lay out the statute-labor in their own divisions, irrespective of the magisterial fiat. The same thing occurred next year--1837. The Laird now resolved to punish both pathmasters and commissioners; the pathmasters by forcing them to go to Perth at their own expense to give evidence, and the commissioners, to indict them before the Grand Jury. Accordingly, he procured a criminal subpoena from the Deputy Clerk of the Crown, Mr. Sache, summoning John McLachlin, James McKay, Duncan McNab, and ten other pathmasters to give evidence against Angus McNab, Donald Mohr McNaughton and, Jas.

Carmichael. The poor pathmasters, dreading the consequences, obeyed, travelled to Perth a distance of between fifty and sixty miles, in the very middle of harvest (August, 1837), were detained there four days, and on the fourth were examined by the Attorney-General, Mr. W. H.

Draper, (afterwards Chief Justice), and dismissed without a penny--dismissed without even going before the Grand Jury,--because Mr.

Draper found there was no case to submit to the Grand Inquest. Thus, fourteen poor settlers and three commissioners, in the midst of their harvesting labors, were forced to go to Perth at their own expense, and when they applied to the Chief for compensation, his reply was, "My men, it is a Queen's case. I have nothing to do with it; every man is bound to obey the Queen's summons." In the meantime the commissioners had obtained judgment against the Laird for the money granted by the House of a.s.sembly. It was sent to the Chief. He had retained 100 in his own hands. The other 100 was in the County Treasury. The Chief immediately gave an order for the money in the Treasury and told Mr. Radenhurst he would pay the remainder when the bridge over the Madawaska was contracted for.

While these road disputes were going on, and the settlers were increasing in their disaffection and efforts of resistance, another act of injustice was perpetrated which never could have taken place under any other _regime_ than that of the Family Compact--an act so gross, so cruel, so unjust in its consequences, as to shake the confidence in the integrity of the Government. Sir F. B. Head was then Lieut.-Governor of Upper Canada. Every measure calculated to promote the happiness and welfare of the people was frowned down, and every means used to build up and foster a small party clique at the expense of the people, met with his cordial approbation and support. A majority of the House of a.s.sembly, led by Mackenzie, Baldwin, Bidwell and Rolph, was against him and his government. He ignored the acts of the majority. C. H. Hagerman bullied, or attempted to bully, the independent members of the House. He did the dirty work of a dirty and oppressive government. These were the men who were then the bosom friends of the Chief. Sir F. B. Head and the Laird of McNab were similar in some traits of their character. Bond Head was pompous, vain and important; the Laird excelled him in these characteristics. The Lieut.-Governor had the airs of a dancing-master, and the braggadocio of a Gascon; McNab possessed the same admirable qualities. Head was tyrannical and vindictive to all who opposed his measures: the Chief vied with him in these peculiar attributes. Sir Francis was a clever writer, speaker and politician. Here there was a dissimilarity, for McNab in a great measure lacked these qualities. They were boon companions and swore eternal friendship. McNab asked for a patent of all the timber on the unlocated lots of the township. It was granted without hesitation; and now we will revert to the facts of the particular case that the writer is about to relate.

One Duncan Anderson was located by the Chief on Lot No. 14 in the 4th concession. Duncan McNab (Islay,) was located on Lot No 18 in the 1st.

The latter was a good place of business and rather poor for agricultural purposes; the former was a splendid lot of good arable land. Anderson wished to engage in business, having made a good land speculation in connection with McNab upon a lot they jointly sold to Michael Roddy, as will hereafter be seen in the report of the late Francis Allan, Esq.

Duncan McNab wanted a good lot for farming. They exchanged lots, and a.s.signed location-tickets. D. McNab went to reside in the 14th of the 4th and Anderson took possession of D. McNab's land. The Chief at first sanctioned the agreement. It was nothing to him. His interests did not suffer by the transfer. A few months afterwards Duncan McNab had given some offence to the Laird. He served a notice upon poor Duncan to quit the place, as he disapproved of the arrangement, and intended to take out the patent for himself. Six weeks afterwards he applied to his friend, Francis; and although a copy of the location ticket was filed in the Crown Land office, and Duncan McNab's name subst.i.tuted for Anderson's in the diagram of the township, the patent was at once ordered to issue to the Chief. He immediately commenced proceedings in ejectment. Poor Duncan did not know who John Doe and Richard Roe were.

He went to Perth and consulted Mr. Radenhurst, who undertook the defence. In August, 1837, the case was brought down to trial at _Nisi Prius_, and a verdict entered for plaintiff at one-shilling damages.

The Hon. Jonas Jones tried the case; said it was a great hardship, and openly recommended it to be referred to _Chancery_--saying that the courts of law could give no relief to Duncan McNab. The Judge had made an error at the trial in not allowing the patent to be proved in the ordinary way. Mr. Radenhurst took advantage of this _lapsus_, and moved for a new trial in _term_, which he obtained. Leaving this matter for the present, as its termination belongs to the record of a subsequent year, we now revert to stirring events in the township and in the province.

In the fall of 1836, George Buchanan failed. The steamboat which he had built had just received its engine, and the _George Buchanan_ had made one trip to the Chenaux. The whole estate and business was transferred to Messrs. Simpson, Gould & Mettleberger. Mr. Buchanan went to his property on Victoria Island, at the Chats, where he had constructed a slide for the pa.s.sing of timber, and which proved a lucrative speculation. The old company carried on the business at first briskly, but gradually declined in their operations till 1837 they ceased doing anything in the lumber line. They could get no logs from McNab without paying too dearly for the privilege. Mr. Rogerson, (brother-in-law of Mr. William Fraser, afterwards the esteemed Treasurer of the County of Lanark) still remained at Arnprior collecting the debts due to the Buchanan estate, and winding up the business. This was the state of affairs at Arnprior at the close of 1837.

Towards the end of the year the commissioners gave out the contract of constructing the bridge at Johnson's Rock (Burnstown), to Mr. Duncan McNab (Auchessan), a lumberer, for 200. Mr. McNab set to work with skill and energy. He took into partnership Mr. Duncan Carmichael, and before the first of January, 1838, the new bridge--the long-talked of and disputed structure--was at length completed. This was now the only bridge on the Madawaska: that at Arnprior had been swept away by the spring freshet, and was not rebuilt till many years afterwards, when the Board of Works of the Province erected the White Bridge at Arnprior, further up the stream.

The Laird of McNab was now roused to fury. The repeated and successful acts of opposition to his will and his plans maddened him. The construction of the bridge had roused all his pa.s.sions, and he resolved to punish the commissioners individually. He selected Mr. Donald Mohr McNaughton as his first victim. This gentleman, now the leader of the settlers in their efforts of resistance, had been, in Scotland, head gamekeeper to Lord Panmure, and was a person of some education and intelligence. In person he was robust, tall and athletic. Measuring 6ft.

4in. in height, he towered above his fellow-settlers in physical height, as well as in physical courage and moral resolution. He had emigrated a few years previously, believing the Laird of McNab to be a gentleman equal to the Earl of Panmure, and settled in the township of McNab. For some years he paid regularly (3 barrels of flour for 200 acres); but when the haughty and overbearing disposition of McNab became apparent in his dispute with the commissioners, and also when he became convinced that the Chief was only an agent of the government, he determined to risk the result, and refused to pay any more rent. McNab could not sue for rent or pa.s.sage money, as Donald Mohr had come to the country at his own expense, bringing a small capital with him which he partly expended in clearing and improving his farm. He devised another scheme as deep as it was malicious. Procuring the signature of twelve freeholders from Fitzroy and Pakenham to a requisition calling upon Manny Nowlan (since dead), a road-surveyor residing at Carleton Place, to run a road from White Lake to Muskrat Lake, he caused Mr. Nowlan to come to White Lake, (where the Chief had now taken up his permanent residence), in October, 1837, to commence operations.

Having given him full instructions how to run the road, the party started early on the following morning, consisting of two axemen, the Chief and the writer, who was then a youth of fifteen. The road was marked out and surveyed properly till they reached the lot of Donald McNaughton, Sr., which lay adjoining that of his gigantic namesake. Here a divergence was made; they made a turn at right angles, so as to go straight through both lots of the two McNaughtons. The poor old man McNaughton came to the Chief, bonnet in hand, and begged him not to spoil his land. The Laird scornfully laughed at him, and ordered the surveyor to proceed. Nowlan continued his survey till he came to the division line of Donald Mohr's lot. The Chief, seeing things progressing properly, according to his views, returned home. Scarcely, however, had the luckless Manny Nowlan crossed the side-line, when Mr. McNaughton, foaming with rage and just indignation, appeared in sight making gigantic strides towards him. The axemen flew in one direction. Manny Nowlan trembled in his shoes.

"What are you doing here, ha?" exclaimed Big Donald, in the thundering tones of a gorilla.

"Surveying a road," was the reply, "and beware how you oppose me."

"Be off! away from my land! if you come one step further (clapping his hands) I will send you to eternity," roared McNaughton.

Nowlan shook with terror, and fled, and did not recover his equanimity till he was safely housed in the Chief's stone cottage at the lake. The Laird vowed vengeance; the whole terrors of the law were to be invoked.

The surveyor was deforced.--Ignorant of the consequences McNaughton had violated the law in defence of his property. The mode to oppose the survey was to appear before the Quarter Sessions. This Big Donald did not know at the time; and if he did, his pa.s.sion and just indignation got the better of his discretion, and he thus fell into the trap and laid himself open to the Chief's vengeance. Accordingly, at the next meeting of the Quarter Session, Nowlan appeared to pa.s.s his road, and go before the Grand Jury. The road was const.i.tuted to the very spot where he was stopped, although opposed by Mr. McNaughton. A presentment was made against McNaughton, the usual process was moved for and a bench warrant issued. McNaughton was arrested, and the bailiff left him on the road while he went down, to the cottage to see if the Chief would take bail.

"Do not bring the fellow here," said the Laird, knitting his brows; "I smell the air foul already; let not this house be contaminated by his presence. Take him to McVicar, and give him this letter."