Historical Memoranda by Mrs. Amelia Harris, of Eldon House, London, Ontario, only daughter of the late Colonel Samuel Ryerse, the sister of the late Rev. Geo. J. Ryerse.

The husband of Mrs. Harris was an active and scientific officer in the Royal Navy, having been employed with the late Admirals Bayfield and Owen in the survey of the Canadian lakes and rivers, by the Admiralty, during the years 1815 to 1817. It was during the progress of this survey that Miss Ryerse married. After a few years’ residence in Kingston, Mr. and Mrs. Harris returned to a beautiful homestead on Long Point Bay, intending to reside there permanently.  In the days of the early settlement, a more refined and cultivated society was to be found on the country than usually in the towns and villages. Mr. Harris was at once selected by the various Governments of the day to be the recipient of various Government offices. During the years 1837-38 he took an active part in quelling the rebellion and is believed by many to have been the head and front and organizer of the expedition which sent the steamer Caroline over the Falls. He was the first man on her deck, and the last to leave, having set her on fire.

The late Edward Ermatinger, in his Life of Colonel Talbot, refers to the Harris family as follows: A.D. 1834, "By degrees the officers of the Court removed to London, and Mr. Harris was the first to build a home of considerable dimensions on the handsome piece of ground highly elevated about the banks of the River Thames.  

"This house was long the resort of the first men of Canada, and in this house the venerable founder of the Talbot settlement lay during his first serious illness, while on his way to England. Every man of rank or distinction who visited this part of Canada became the guest of Mr. Harris — the late Lord Sydenham, the various lieutenant-governors and governor-generals, and the present Lord Derby, were among the number."

In the following Memoranda, which Mrs. Harris wrote more than 20 years since, at the wish of her children, but not for publication, she gives a graphic and highly interesting account of her father’s early settlement in Canada, and of the circumstances of the first settlers, and the state of society of that time.

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This account of Amelia's Story originally appeared as "The Settling of Port Ryerse" in 
Port Ryerse: 1794-1994, published by the Port Ryerse Environmental and Historical Society, 1994.  This softcover bicentennial souvenir book is now out of print.  A copy is available for inspection at the Norfolk Historical Society.

Copyright 1994-2014 John Cardiff and Port Ryerse Environmental and Historical Society

Memorandum: Prelude >