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Following the Revolutionary War of 1776-1783 thousands of loyalist
moved north into what remained of British North America, the colonies
of Québec and Nova Scotia. Persecuted at home, their property
seized, ridiculed in public and living in constant fear of death. All
of these unbearable conditions resulted in the largest displacement of
people ever witnessed in North America. Many of the Loyalists sailed
up the eastern seaboard to Nova Scotia from New York and Boston. Many
trekked through the wilderness carrying what they could on their backs
into the St. Lawrence River Valley and the Niagara Frontier. The
British government to assist and to support her loyal subjects gave
generous land grants to all who lost so much in maintaining their
loyalty to the Crown.
To accommodate the influx of tens of thousands of new settlers new
districts were surveyed along the north shore of the St. Lawrence
River and Lake Ontario. These new districts were subdivided into
townships. At this time the townships were assigned numbers. By 1784
the orderly assignment of land grants had begun and the new land
quickly filled with settlers who set to the task of clearing the vast
virgin forest. On June 20, 1784 the first settlers landed in what was
to become Dundas County.
By 1790 thought was being given to replacing the assigned township
numbers with names. The constitutional act of 1791 divided Quebec into
two regions, Upper and Lower Canada. In the British tradition Upper
Canada was to be divided into counties. In 1792, Dundas was chosen as
the name for our county. This name was in honour of Henry Dundas, Lord
Advocate for Scotland and Colonial Secretary at the time of the
naming. Henry Dundas was an effective spokesman in Parliament, and
during the Revolutionary War he supported the war against American,
arguing against any acknowledgment of American independence. Henry
Dundas took a very hard line against the Americans after the war which
was further entrenched by the American mistreatment of the loyalists.
The Dundas (the emphasis should be on the second syllable) surname
is derived from a place name near Edinburgh which, in Gaelic was "dun
deas" which meant "south fort". This name first appears
during the reign of William the Lion in 1200 AD.
Henry Dundas, founder of the Melville line, was the fourth son of
Robert
Dundas of Arniston, lord president of the court of session. His
mother was Robert's second wife, Anne, daughter of Sir William Gordon
of Invergordon. At the age of twenty-four, Henry was appointed
solicitor-general of Scotland; his half-brother was by then lord
president of the court of session. The Dundases of Arniston were
preeminent in the courts of Scotland. In 1774, Henry became the member
for Midlothian (near Edinburgh). The next year he was appointed "Lord
Advocate of Scotland" and the "Keeper of the Signet and
Privy Seal", but soon he was devoting most of his attention to
politics. As the right hand man of the Prime Minister, William Pitt
the Younger, he held numerous important posts in the government,
including Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, President of
the Board of Control for India, First Lord of the Admiralty, Home
Secretary. He was able to bring all Scotland to the support of Pitt;
he was also indispensable to various governments as a formidable
debater. He was instrumental in the government taking India over from
the East India Company and as a result many Scots gained the
opportunity to work there. Henry was the driving force behind the
repeal of the "Proscription Act" which banned the wearing of
tartan and the carrying of weapons. This act had been passed in 1745
after the uprising in support of Bonnie Prince Charlie. In 1802, he
accepted a peerage as Baron Duneira of Perthshire and Viscount
Melville. The title of Melville came from Melville Castle, which his
wife had inherited. In 1805, while serving as First Lord of the
Admiralty, Henry was charged with misappropriation of large sums of
public money. The money was apparently used, with government
knowledge, to bail out the East India Company. The money did not go
into Henry's pockets. At the end of this celebrated trial, during
which he was impeached by the House of Commons but acquitted by the
House of Lords, he was restored to the Privy Council and was offered
an earldom in 1809 but declined it. Henry Dundas died in 1811 at the
age of 69. Henry Dundas's motto was "Quod potui perfeci"
which means "I have done what I could". |
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