SOUGHT BIDDULPH WHEN FARMS IN BYTOWN FAILED

Early Settlers Found That Land in Western Township Quickly Paid for Itself

[...] Land could be procured by purchase from the Canada Company, the owners of the Huron tract, and from the British American Land Company, formed to operate mainly south of the St. Lawrence River in Lower Canada. The Canada land, ranging in size from 50 acres upwards. The settler had five years for full payment by paying installments of one-fifth of the purchase price each year plus the interest at six per cent. per annum. To procure his location ticket for immediate possession, the first fifth of his money had to be paid at once, either to the Canada Company’s agent in Great Britain or at Quebec or York. In this way large numbers of the Biddulph settlers who did not wish to tie up their available capital, procured their lands in the township. [...] A further way of procuring land in the newly-opened tracts was by purchase from private individuals; either those who had decided to return to the Old Country or else who had decided to remove to some other part of the province to be near friends or relations.

[...] The settler was advised to be very sure of the validity of the title to his land. In 1840, one prominent settler who had lately come to Biddulph from the Ottawa district, cleared part of a lot on the 4th concession, only to discover that a settler on the 2nd concession had had a title to that same property since 1835. This caused his removal several lots further north on the same road.