THE DE PUISAYE SETTLEMENT 1799 - Richmond Hill
N 43° 55.376 W 079° 26.955
17T E 624491 N 4864482
Located at St. John's Anglican Church on 12125 Yonge Street just south of Stouffville Road.
Waymark Code: WM7Q5X
Location: Ontario, Canada
Date Posted: 11/21/2009
Views: 7
Text from the plaque:
THE DE PUISAYE SETTLEMENT 1799
In the fall of 1798 some 40 exiled French Royalists under the leadership of Joseph-Genevieve, Comte de Puisaye (1754-1827), emigrated from England to Upper Canada. The following year they were given rations and agricultural implements and settled along Yonge Street in the townships of Markham and Vaughan. However, these members of the nobility and their servants were unable to adapt themselves to a pioneer existence and by 1806 their settlement, known as Windham, was abandoned. De Puisaye lived for a time on an estate near Niagara, but returned to England in 1802.
History:
Starting with forty-one people in 1798, French royalist settlers led by Joseph-Geneviève Comte de Puisaye, began settling along Yonge Street from today's Elgin Mills Road north to Stoufville Road. The Legislative Council of Upper Canada had some misgivings about the suitability of these settlers for the land, but the French Royalist officers who had left France after the French Revolution were given land grants comparable to those given to United Empire Loyalists who had come to Upper Canada after the American Revolution. Their community was named Windham to honour William Windham the British official who had arranged for their settlement there, but was locally referred to as Puisaye Town. De Puisaye and Augustus Jones went to survey the area in December 1798 while the other settlers remained in York, supported by government supplies. The de Puisaye settlers soon went north, and by January 1799 trees were being cleared from lots. On February 14, 1799 eighteen log cabins had been constructed, but not finished. The settlers work slowed as 1799 dragged on, and individuals began leaving Windham for more developed areas: Montreal, New York and even Europe. De Puisaye soon moved to the Niagara region, although he continued to work for the betterment of Puisaye Town. Of all the settlers who came to Markham township with de Puisaye, only Le Chevalier Michel Saigeon seems to have stayed and prospered. Laurent Quetton St. George, a settler who arrived in Windham in 1799 also stayed in Upper Canada and prospered, making a career as a fur trader.
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