Talk:Refugee Tract

	United States portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the United States of America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions. Template Usage Articles Requested! Become a Member Project Talk Alerts United StatesWikipedia:WikiProject United StatesTemplate:WikiProject United StatesUnited States articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.
	Ohio portal This article is supported by WikiProject Ohio (assessed as Low-importance).

Assessment comment[edit]

The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:Refugee Tract/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.

Comment(s)

Press [show] to view →

In addition to the refugee tract that was set aside in Ohio, there was also a "Canada and Nova Scotia Refugee Tract" which was set aside in New York State. Located in the northeast corner of Clinton County, NY, the tract was bordered by Canada on the north and Lake Champlain on the east.The majority of the tract was divided into 420-acre lots with an area of 80-acre lots set aside near Point Au Fer near the outlet of the Chazy River into Lake Champlain. This tract was laid out by the Surveyor-General in "A Map of Land Given to the Canadian & Nova Scotia Refugees By the State of New York Lying in Clinton County" at a scale of eighty chains to an inch. This map is located in the New York State Archives and is catalogued as map A0273-209.

Patents for Lots 101 and 130 at 80 acres each, and Lots 124 and 240 at 420-acres each, were given to Maurice Desdevens, a French-Canadian who served as a Captain in the Continental Army, on February 27, 1790. These Letters Patent stipulated that, "within the Term of seven Years, to be computed from the first day of January next ensuing the Date hereof, there shall be one actual Settlement made on the said Tract of Land hereby granted," or the Patent would be rescinded. These Leters Patent are located in the New York State Archives, Canadian & Nova Scotia Refugee Tract Letters Patent, Book 22, pp. 211-212.

The basis for the creation of such a tract by New York State may have stemmed from a Congressional directive to Governor George Clinton. A letter published in the Public Papers of George Clinton, Vol.VI, p. 417, available at the New York State Archives reads:

Philadelphia, November 16, 1780.

Sir, Your Excellency will receive herewith enclosed, the Copy of an Act of Congress of the 10 Instant, requesting your Excellency to cause an Enquiry to be made into the Circum- stances of the Canadian Families residing in the State of New York, and to take them under your Protection; and to give them such Assistance, further than what they have already received, at the Expense of the United States, as you shall Judge neces- sary. I have the Honor to be, with the highest respect, your Excellency's most obedient Servant

                           Sam. Huntington, President

Mark Thaler (talk) 19:38, 11 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Last edited at 19:38, 11 April 2009 (UTC). Substituted at 04:04, 30 April 2016 (UTC)