The Crawford Purchase

Crawford Purchase

Kingston, Ontario

In 1934, a plaque recognizing the Crawford Purchase of 1783 as a National Historic Event of Canada was unveiled at the entrance to the barracks at Fort Frontenac in Kingston, Ontario. The land was purchased to settle the Loyalists on land owned by the Mississauga.

The inscription of the plaque reads as follows:

THE CRAWFORD PURCHASE
LE MARCHÉ DE CRAWFORD

In October 1783, at Carleton Island near here, Captain William Redford Crawford of the King’s Royal Regiment of New York met with the local Mississauga Indians led by the elderly Mynass. Crawford, Acting for the British government, purchased from the Mississaugas for some clothing, ammunition and coloured cloth a large tract of land east of the Bay of Quinte. The land was subsequently settled by United Empire Loyalists and Britain’s Indian allies who had been forced to leave their homes in the new United States.

En octobre 1783, à l’île Carleton, le capitaine William R. Crawford du King’s Royal Regiment of New York rencontra des Mississaugas conduits par le vieux chef Mynass. Au nom du gouvernement britannique, Crawford leur échangea quelques vêtements, munitions et tissus de couleur, contre une vaste étendue de terre située à l’est de la baie de Quinte. Les Loyalistes et les Indiens alliés des Britanniques qui avaient dû quitter leurs terres vinrent coloniser la région.

(Text prepared by the Special Committee on the Revision of Unilingual Plaques – 1973 to 1977)