Thomas Talbot (Upper Canada)
Colonel the Honourable Thomas Talbot (July 19, 1771 – February 5, 1853) was an Irish-born Canadian soldier and politician.
Talbot was born at Malahide Castle near Dublin, Ireland. He was the fourth son of Richard Talbot and his wife Margaret Talbot, 1st Baroness Talbot of Malahide (see the Baron Talbot of Malahide). Richard Talbot, 2nd Baron Talbot de Malahide and Sir John Talbot were his elder brothers.
Talbot received a commission in the army as ensign before he was twelve years old, and was appointed at sixteen to aid his relative, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland He saw active service in Holland and at Gibraltar.
Talbot immigrated to Canada in 1791, where he became personal secretary to John Graves Simcoe, Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada. After returning to England, Talbot convinced the government to allow him to implement a land settlement scheme along the shore of Lake Erie. He chose property which today is in Elgin County in adjoining townships, Dunwich and Aldborough (today called West Elgin), when his petition for 5,000 acres (20 km2) was granted in 1803. It was May 21, 1803 that he landed at a spot which has been called since Port Talbot, and built a log cabin. Nearby, he added a sawmill, a cooper shop, a blacksmith shop, and a poultry house along with a barn. When settlers began to arrive in 1809, Talbot added a gristmill as well.
Here he ruled as an absolute, if erratic, potentate, doling out strips of land to people of his choosing, a group that emphatically did not include supporters of the American Revolution, liberals or anyone insufficiently respectful. For every settler he placed on 50 acres (200,000 m2) of land, Talbot received an additional 200 acres (0.81 km2) for himself. He wanted permanent and compact settlement. One of the conditions attached to the free grant of 50 acres (200,000 m2) which he offered to settlers, was the right to purchase an additional hundred and 50 acres (200,000 m2) at $3 each, and the promise of a road in front of each farm within three and a half years. The other condition was the building of a small house and the clearing and sowing of 10 acres (40,000 m2) of land.
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