Flamborough was the second township Jones created. It included the surveyed concessions of Geneva Township and the proposed garrison community of Coote’s Paradise that was later to become the Town of Dundas. His instructions were that it was to be laid out east of Beverly “until you come near the North Angle of Coote’s Paradies” with each lot being “20 chains in front by 100 chains deep, the side lines at right angles to the road, with a chain allowance for roads.”
The name Flamborough that was chosen for the township originated, like many other names awarded to the first townships, from Lt. Governor Simcoe’s northern England heritage. Flamborough is a small village in the county of Yorkshire and its name is believed to have originated from the Anglo-Saxon words ‘flaen’ and ‘borough’, meaning arrowhead and fortified place, which refer to the magnificent chalk headland that shelters the village to the present day.
By the end of 1793 when the surveying had been completed, a number of the lots were assigned to people who had already filed petitions and claims to certain properties in the township. These “assigned” reserves were to cause problems, as several already had squatters, “authorized” and otherwise on them. Other problems resulted from the order that only petitioners who were trained in the militia were to be settled along the new military road that Governor Simcoe named Dundas Street. This eliminated any lots in the first concession of the township being set aside as Clergy Reserves – most were granted to Loyalists. Once all the necessary adjustments of prior ownership were completed, the Land Board began accepting applications for the remaining property in West Flamborough.
The British crown granted the first applicants ownership of freehold property by the issue of a Patent and so they became known as Crown Patentees. Much of the township’s 31,859 acres was awarded to officers who had served with the British during the Revolutionary War. Many of these soldiers, who were then serving in the Queen’s Rangers, received large parcels of land. Between 1793 and 1800 Orders-in-Council granted over 14,000 acres to twelve officers, among them three captains, a lieutenant colonel, three lieutenants, an ensign and two surgeons. Two of the largest grants were made to Lieutenant Angus McDonnell of the 71st Regiment, a Deputy Provincial Surveyor who received 1,300 acres and Major David Shank who received over 2,000 acres. Most of these patentees disposed of their property for cash, selling to early West Flamborough families such as the Greens, Crooks, Binkleys, Rymals, and Tunis within the first decade of the nineteenth century.
Government officials, King’s College, the Canada Company and the heirs of General Sir Isaac Brock also received large grants of free land from the Crown. Many of these properties were rented to settlers whose tenancy was never recorded and then eventually sold to settlers between 1830 to 1860. In the settlement areas, such as Millgrove, Freelton, Greensville and West Flamboro’ Village most of the lots were sold as small parcels of five acres or less.
Between 1793 and 1798, a series of Provincial boundary realignments and name changes within Upper Canada occurred. Instituted to allow for the election of representatives to the Legislative Assembly and to improve government, the changes of 1798 resulted in Flamborough being divided into two separate townships, East and West Flamborough. The final Royal Assent to the creation of West Flamborough came from the British Parliament on 1 January 1800. Since that date over two hundred years ago, the township has grown and prospered through the industry and vision of those who went to West Flamborough.
© The Waterdown-East Flamborough Heritage Society 2003, 2023.
