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PROPERTY (“1' '1 " 9

The Life and Times of Major Samuel Holland, Surveyor-General, 1764-1801

By WILLIS CHIPMAN, O.L.S., C.E.

FOREWORD.

Brief biographical sketches of Major Samuel Holland have been published from time to time, but it is seldom his name is met with in our histories, not- withstanding the fact that there is probably no one man who did more toward the development of Canada than Major Holland. Land surveyors who have occasion to examine the early records of surveys in Ontario, Quebec and Prince Edward Island are probably the only persons who have any conception of the important place that Major Holland held in British North America.

In 1921, the Association of Ontario Land Surveyors published a sketch of Major Holland with portrait, but the information then collected was too voluminous to be given in full. It was, however, too valuable to be discarded; and much of it, with additional documents, has been included in this sketch.

On one of his trips to England, probably in 1762-3, his portmanteau was stolen from a coach in which he was travelling to or from London. This port- manteau contained his journals and notes, taken during the Seven Years' War in America.1

His field notes, plans, reports, memorials, petitions, etc., when engaged on surveys in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and on the New England coast, are probably filed in London, England, as he was working under instructions from the British Government, to whom he reported.

Before Prince Edward Island was set apart as a separate Province, many official records and plans of surveys, or copies of them, were filed at Halifax, which was then the seat of government. It is probable that some of these documents and plans were not transferred to Charlottetown.

A careful examination of the original records at London and at Halifax would yield much interesting and valuable information to students of Canadian history, and might clear away the clouds that now obscure many interesting events in Major Holland’s eventful career.

1In the Toronto Reference 1 ibran there 13 an interesting manusuipt journal of the Seven \ ears’ War 1756-1759, that 15 filed \\ith the D. \V. Smith collection, which was acquired by the late Dr Bain some years ago. T his journal, however is not by D. W. Smith, as he was not bo1n until 1764, but was purchased in Sc,otland pyrobabl by Dr. Bain’ s brother, Robert, recently dueased (1923). It is listed 1n the library as Vol. I, Series ”,A " D. W. Smith collection of MSS. There is no signature to the Journal and no means of identifying the author, but it cm ers the exact period of Major Holland’s service in the war, including Ticonderoga, Louisburg and Quebec. It is possible that this is his lost Journal.

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