Colonel the Honourable Thomas Talbot 1771-1853
By Sandra Sales
On July 19, 1771, Thomas Talbot was born into an Anglo-Irish
aristocratic family, on ancestral lands in Malahide, Republic of Ireland, which
the Talbots had owned since the 12th century. He was the fourth of
twelve children. At the age of 11, he was commissioned ensign in the 66th
Regiment of Foot, British Army. By February, 1792, at 20 years of age, he was
in Montreal with the 24th Foot when he was named private secretary
to John Graves Simcoe, the first lieutenant governor of the new province of Upper
Canada. With Simcoe, and later on Simcoe’s behalf, Talbot traveled extensively
between York and Detroit, an area bounded by the Thames River and the Lake Erie
shoreline.
Talbot’s duties with Simcoe throughout Upper Canada seemed
to influence the rest of his life. On Christmas Day in 1800, now-Major Talbot
sold his commission with the British Army and determined to become a settler in
Upper Canada. He had been given a field officer’s grant of 5,000 acres in which
to establish a settlement, and on May 21, 1803, he chose a spot at the mouth of
what is now known as Talbot Creek in Dunwich Township on the north shore of
Lake Erie. He later referred to this as “impenetrable wilderness”, but there,
over time, he built up his estate and took on the role of selecting settlers,
extending roads, and allocating land. His initial intent was twofold: to bring
in settlers from Britain and Europe that would be loyal to Britain, "and to
make hemp a major crop supplying Britain with rope for ships’ rigging. In order
to encourage settlement, he built a sawmill, gristmill, blacksmith shop, cooper
shop, distillery and barns. Later his priorities changed, but writing to Major
Halton in the lieutenant-governor’s office, June 1, 1811, he said, “I have infinite pleasure in stating for his Excellency's information
that I have been very successful in procuring settlers and am filling this
part of the Province with a most industrious description of inhabitants."
In Talbot’s early years there, he enjoyed considerable
political power in public office and a position of influence. Despite raising
the ire of the provincial government at York for his autocratic methods and his
tendency to go over their heads to Lord Bathurst, the colonial secretary in
London, Talbot eventually extended his settlement from the Detroit River to
Delhi. He placed 3,000 settlers in 29 townships in southwestern Upper Canada.
Talbot’s settlement was barely six years old at the beginning
of the War of 1812. Talbot was
commissioned colonel by Major-General Sir Isaac Brock in 1812 and made
commander of the London District which was made up of the militias of
Middlesex, Norfolk and Oxford. In 1812, Colonel Talbot
began to recruit volunteers for the Middlesex Militia from the Norfolk Militia
and Oxford Militia. At first, recruits were hard to find and only 60 men were
willing to leave their young families and new farms during harvest. Nevertheless,
by August 10, 1812, Talbot mustered upwards of 350 men who boarded a small
fleet of boats at Port Dover that transported the volunteers to Detroit. On
August 16, Major General Isaac
Brock with British forces and Talbot’s recruits captured Fort Detroit. Later the
Middlesex Militia participated at the Battle of the Thames and at Lundy’s Lane.
At first, the
community of Port Talbot was not greatly affected by the conflict. However,
after an initial success, the British position weakened. Following the Battle
of Lake Erie, September 10, 1813, the Americans had control of Lake Erie. After
the Battle of Longwoods in March of 1814, the area of western Upper Canada was
basically undefended. American forces were sent in to destroy the settlements in
an attempt to reduce the ability of the region to support the British Army.
Between March and September of 1814, raids were
unrelenting as American soldiers and sympathizers marauded along Lake Erie. Some of these marauders were residents of the
Talbot Settlement who defected to the American side and were employed as scouts
and guides for the American raiding expeditions. Two, Andrew Westbrook and
Simon Zelotes Watson, were known to have vendettas against Talbot. Watson had
hoped to partner with Talbot in settling the area. Talbot had refused. On
September 9, 1814, General McArthur accompanied by Andrew Westbrook, invaded
Port Talbot. In the absence of Talbot and the militia, the settlement was
completely plundered.
In Colonel Thomas Talbot’s own words:
On the 16th of last month
(August, 1814) the enemy, amounting to upwards of 100 men, composed of Indians
and Americans painted and disguised as the former, surprised the settlement of
Port Talbot, where they committed the most wanton and atrocious acts of
violence by robbing the undermentioned fifty heads of families of all their
horses and every particle of wearing apparel and household furniture leaving
the sufferers naked and in the most wretched state.
Petition
of Colonel Talbot to the Loyal and Patriotic Society, 2 September, 1814
The vagabond enemy, not being
satisfied with the plunder they carried off from Port Talbot on the 16th
August, returned in greater force about the middle of September, when they
burnt my mills and other buildings, destroyed all my flour and killed my sheep.
Poor Burwell’s house and barn were likewise sacrificed; thence the enemy
extended their violence down my road fifteen miles. . . . My mills having been
burnt the farmers will be obliged to take their grain at least 120 miles to
have it ground, the expenses attending the transport in these hard times will
be heavy indeed.
Thomas
Talbot, Letter to Chief Justice Scott, 24 October, 1814
Though the raiders on Port Talbot hoped to
take Talbot prisoner, he was never captured. He was either away at Turkey
Point, or evaded capture. At home, Talbot dressed the same has his neighbours. Legend
has it that one time he was able simply to walk away because the enemy was told
he was the man who looked after the sheep.
Thomas Talbot remained at Port
Talbot for 50 years, occasionally visited by members of the British gentry, but
seemingly content in his isolation. He had no offspring and left half of his 50,000 acre estate to his nephew Colonel
Richard Airey and the other half to his trusted companion/estate manager George
Macbeth. Talbot died in London with George Macbeth’s family on Feb 5, 1853 at
the age of 82. Part of his legacy is the Talbot Road (Highway 3) that opened up
southwestern Upper Canada to travel and settlement.
References:
The
Talbot Papers, ed. James Coyne, 1908
Through the War of 1812 Graveside Project, Colonel The Honourable Thomas Talbot and others will be remembered with a ceremony in St. Peter's Anglican Church Cemetery on Sunday, July 12 at 1pm during Backus-Page House Museum's Living History Weekend July 11-12, 2015.
