Status of Puslinch Township Papers As Of September 2004

A few years ago, the Puslinch Historical Society purchased four microfilm reels from the Ontario Archives which contain some early documents relating to settlers in Puslinch from the year 1830 to the 1850s. These Township Papers include queries about available land, letters to land commissioners clarifying locations, transfers of land from one settler to another, quit claims, records of installment payments, petitions and, in a few cases, furious letters detailing the disputes that arose among these early occupiers of Puslinch.

Some of the names are those of people who were speculating in land , some of people who only stayed briefly in the Township and some of people who eventually made a legal land claim and stayed in the Township for up to a hundred years or more.

The Papers are arranged in order by lot and concession so that it is relatively easy to find the documents relating to a particular lot and documentary material can be found on almost every lot in the Township.

We undertook to print out as many of the Papers as we could to make research independent of a microfilm reader easier and will be in the process of doing that for some time for there are over 3000 items. However, several binders have already been filled with print-outs and it seems desirable to provide a list of our progress so far. Please note that while some concessions are nearly complete, some which were in response to queries from website correspondents, are barely started.

The Gore: Lots 35, 36, 37, 38 and 39

Concession 1: Lots 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 21, 22 and 23

Concession 2: Lots 2, 5, 6, 12, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27

Concession 3: Lots 1, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25

Concession 4: Lots 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 17, 21, 22

Concession 5: Lots 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 15

Concession 6: Lot 15

Concession 7: Lots 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36.Concession 8: Lots 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36.

Concession 8: Lots 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36.

Concession 9: Lots  3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 27, 28,  29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38

Concession 10: Lots 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 25, 27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37.

Concession 11: Lots 20, 21, 22, 26, 36, 37.

Puslinch is particularly lucky that so many of its Papers are preserved.To see what other townships have such Papers, researchers can look under Townships on the Provincial Archive website.

EXAMPLE FROM PUSLINCH TOWNSHIP PAPERS #2019

CLICK ON PHOTO TO ENLARGE

THE ABOVE DOCUMENT READS AS FOLLOWS:

(spelling and grammar as it appeared )

Puslinch August 6th 1837

Thomas Kirton and Robert Linfoot 

Sir    We are Desireous of hav ing the 29th Lot of Land in the 8th Consesion in Puslinch and the 28th Lot in the 7th Consesion our fathers as taken up the 30 Lot and the front haf in the 8 Consesion whe attended the Last Sale but it was not Sold we wrote to Crownlands Office about 3 Month Since and we where to wait til the Sale Come on the auctioneer would have like to had it out up fore us but whe where to write to the Crownlands office about it first we would like you to tell us if there will be heaney Sale this year or not fore we would like to have your Leave Each of us fore we would like to Build Each of us a house and Clean Some Land and we will at tend the first Sale of Puslinch Land whe are one of us Blacksmith and the other Carpenter and the Neibors are Desireous of us Satling here So you must answer Back as Soon as Posible