Pike County Misc.. William Fortune Letter 1793
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb by:
Patsy McCoy pmccoy@pacifier.com  May 2003


Typed copy of William Fortune Sr.'s letter # 42562/3/4 from National Archives Ottawa Ontario Canada



William Fortune's letter # 42562 (which includes pages 42562, 42563 & 42564, 
numbered on the microfilm) from National
Archives, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada dated Jan. 21, 1793 (letter is typed exactly 
from the original, including any spelling errors
with the same word capitalized in some spots and not others etc.)



To his Excellency Major General Clarke Lieutenant Governor and Commander in 
Chief of the Province of Lower Canada. 



The Memorial of William Fortune. She with.



That your Excellency's Memorialist was a Planter and Land Surveyor in the Province of 
South Carolina prior the the late war in America: at the Commencement of which he took 
the earliest opportunity to his majesty's Troops in that Province
and was employed by Earl Cornwallis and Lord Rawdon in many Confidential ____ and 
services for the benefit of the army?

He was appointed Captain of Guides and Pioneers and was appointed and acted as Colonel 
of Militia, which Duties your memorialist performed with great ____ fidelity during the 
Rebellion.

That your memorialist was obliged to leave his Family and to secret himself from his 
Family from near three years before the arrival of the British Troops on account of 
your memorialist's attachment to the British Government, lying all that time in woods 
and marshes, under Contintental apprehensions of Death as that was inflicted on many 
who embraced the same line of Conduct. 

That your memorialist came to this Province in the year 1789 and made application to 
his Excellency Lord Dorchester for lands on the Grand River. 

That one thousand acres of land were granted to your memorialist in the before mentioned 
place which Lands your memorialist is now improving.

That your memorialist understanding by an order of Council of the ____ August 1790, that 
all reduced officers who
have made settlements on the Land already assigned them are to be put upon a footing with 
the late officers of the 84th Regiment

Your memorialist, therefore prays that your Excellency will be pleased to grant him a 
Tract of Land in the Township of Chatham and joining the western boundary of the 
seigniory of Argenteuil and adjoining South East Boundary of the Lands already granted 
to Lieutenant Duncan McDougal of the late Eighty forth Regiment.

(signed) Quebec Jan. 21st 1793

William Fortune 





The following is found on the outside of the letter in two columns. 



Land Committee (left hand column)



The Land Committee do not find that the Petitioner is entitled by Lord Dorchester's 
Orders in Council of the 22nd of October 1788 and 21st July 1790 to be put on a footing 
in the reduced officers of the 84th Regiment in point of quantum of the
King's bounty of Grants of the Crown lands.

It is by those _____required , that the applicant for that loan, shall show that he 
obtained Lands as a reduced officer, that he made improvements therein prior to the 
22nd of October 1788. He obtained Land before 1789.

Signed by Order 29 January 1793.

High Finlay

Chairman



(right hand column)



The Memorial of William Fortune Half pay Capt of Provincials 

Quebec 21st January 1793



For a tract of Land in the Township of Chatham adjoining the Western boundary of the 
Seigniory fo Argentieul



Referred to the Land Committee By order of His Excellency the Lieutentan Governor 
Quebec 21st Jan'y 1793

(signed) ______??

Rec's on the ___of the Land Comm: 21 Jan'y 1793

(initialed) _____? 



Footnotes by Glen Porteous, Ottawa, Ontario Canada

William tries to get a grant of land in Lower Canada that is directly north, across the 
Grand (later known as the Ottawa River) in Lower Canada (now the Province of Quebec). As 
later letters show, he fails to obtain land in his own name, but does
obtain 1,200 acres for his 6 children in the same place.