The new municipality was to be called the Town of Charlotteville
in honour of Queen Charlotte and a survey was ordered for a road to connect it
with the Governor's Road to the north. He proposed to create a military
establishment there as well, to aid in defence of the province He claimed that
the Long Point area was "admirably adapted for settlements" and that
it was the only good roadstead on Lake Erie.�
Governor Simcoe ordered a survey made for government
buildings and called it "Charlotte Villa." On this town site was
erected a courthouse where the London District courts were held for fourteen
years, prior to their removal to Vittoria. Here was erected Fort Norfolk to
strengthen the area defences. The Governor's foresight in this regard was amply
justified during the War of 1812-14 when British Regulars were stationed there
to take a key role in the defence of Upper Canada.
In her very
interesting diary of the Simcoe family's years in this country, Mrs. Simcoe
described the Governor's trip through Norfolk in a paragraph dated Sept, 12th,
1795: "The Governor returned and is far from well. He was pleased with
Long Point, which he called Charlotteville; the banks on the lake 150 feet
high; on the shore grew weeping willows, covered with vines He gathered some
grapes, already sweet.�
The fortification of Turkey Point was only one part of the
extensive program carried out by Governor Simcoe All around the perimeter of
Upper Canada's borders; he strengthened the military defences in anticipation
of ultimate hostilities with the United States. His vision was rewarded by the
successful defence of Canadian soil a few years later. As a strong Britisher,
too, Governor Simcoe always had in the back of his mind the reclamation of the
American colonies for the British Throne.�
Governor Simcoe retained the friendship of the Six Nations
Indians, who had remained on the British side after the Revolutionary War and
who had been granted by the government a large concession along the Grand
River. He was an intimate friend of Captain Joseph Brant, the distinguished Six
Nations chieftain, who had great influence with his Indian compatriots. The
Governor visited Capt. Brant on the Six Nations Reserve and took part in their
councils.
One outstanding fact about the early origins of Norfolk
County was that a large segment of its first settlers were United Empire
Loyalists. They had fought on the British side during the Revolutionary War,
their lands and possessions were confiscated by the new American government and
they had fled the country, many of them heading northward to take up new homes
in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
Himself a veteran of the Revolutionary War, in which he had
headed the famous Queen's Rangers and in which he was wounded, Governor Simcoe
had the warmest sympathy with the U. E. Loyalists. He turned his attention to
attracting large numbers of them to come to Upper Canada, offering them
substantial tracts of land from the Crown. In this way he hoped to open up the
new country and to encourage development of agriculture. From 1795 onward many
thousands of U. E. Loyalists came to this province, of whom Norfolk County
derived numerous families. In the next few years these excellent settlers
spread into virtually all townships of Norfolk and they became the forbears of
many of the most prominent families in the county's history. In this connection
an excerpt from the volume, "The Life and Times Of General Simcoe" by
D. B. Read, Q. C., reads:
"On the 20th
June, 1796, a list of applicants for lands in the townships of Walsingham,
Charlotteville, Woodhouse and Long Point Settlement was filed in the office of
the Acting Surveyor-General Smith, and to this the Governor appended his
sanction as follows: 'Approved and to be complied with as far as existing
regulations will permit'. The names of applicants for land in the townships
above named included families well known in the province such as Ryerse, Maybee, Backhouse, Secord and numerous others. In the case of Mrs.
Maybee, a
widow about whose patent there was some delay in the department, the Governor
was very peremptory in his order that she, being the widow of a Loyalist,
prompt attention must be given to her application."