Ancestral Lines of Chester Everts Howell - (PDF ... - Adkinshorton.net

and if it so please Your Excellency (the Governor) to the extent of 600 acres inall". According to family tradition it was this land that was sold to pay for theerection of the great house begun in 1814 on the King's Highway whose architecturereminds one of Achallader and pictures of the house at Bartavurichshown in J. C. C. Fletcher's 19 1 6 "Auchallader"The petition in 1817 for Crown Land by Alexander Fletcher is in his ownhandwriting "a British born subject and has been an Inhabitant of UpperCanada for a space of nearly 30 years"; is dated in March placing his arrivalin the spring or early summer of 1787 when he was aged about 18.His will,however,filed at Bowmanville, Durham County, Ontario, is a socalled "memorial" or copy. It is dated 1846 May 21st and registeredJune 9th. Mentioned are his wife Rachel and his daughters Jane and Elizabeth.His son John to whom land had already been given was to have the "oldInverora sword" and two other sons (Archibald, Drummond Gordon) weregiven land. Alexander (Jr.) was not mentioned-possibly he had already beenprovided for or had moved to the States (he married a Vermont girl)The gravestones of Alexander and Rachel were until 1883 in the old Kirkyardin Bowmanville's center. Then a town order was passed to move thebodies in this plot. The coffins were taken first to the fire house (seen thereby A. Herbert Fletcher) and thought by him to have been put on his father's(Gordon's) lot in the new cemetery. However in 1938 the stones could not befound there.The sword, mentioned in the will of Alexander, led to a great deal ofsearch in the hope of its finding; a great grandson, Douglas was finally foundin Toronto. His father John Jr. of Toronto had come into possession of thissword after the death of John son of Alexander. Douglas never saw this weaponafter the burning of his father's, John Jr's, home about 1900. It was assumedto have been lost in the debris. He knew about the "other" sword; for oneonce belonging to Alexander was in the hands then (1948) of a descendant,Maude Fletcher Best of Scarboro, and he remembered its style to be differentfrom the sword willed to John Fletcher. The second sword has markingswhich when described to Research at Smithsonian Institute, Wash. , D. C. weresaid to indicate its forging was by a weapon maker about 1793. It is curvedwhile that willed to John was a long straight sword.The Bowmanville "Statesman" in 1916 ran a series of articles re: the earlysettlers of Darlington township. Excerpts are: "Alexander Fletcher came in1800 from the Highlands of Scotland" (comment by JHF: his own statement in1817 says he came about 1787) -- his "land included portions of Lot 9 & Lot 10upon parts of which Bowmanville now stands" "he erected the first brickbuilding in town in a very desirable location -- made of bricks smaller thanthose in present use; these were made on the spot; the proceeds from the saleof a 1000 acres went into its cost; the land sold being part of Peterboro ornear it" (comment by JHF :Land records suggest this amount of land to be exaggerated)"At the time of the War of "12 Alexander was one of the few residentson the Kingston road and he stored munitions of war in log buildings intransit to York (Toronto) brought that far in bateaux" -- He married RachelCorwin in this country" "In the old country Alexander was highly connectedwith some of the leading families" his son Drummond once published a108