History of Compton County in the Eastern Townships of Québec by L.S. Channell
QFHS Library #UEL-REF HG-153.01 C46
295 pages large format – Two copies available at the Library.

Being a U.E.L. Reference book, said books cannot be taken out of the Library.

The history of 400 pioneer families of Compton County plus those in Sherbrooke County and those within the district of St. Francis from the birth of the region in 1782.

At the close of the Revolutionary War in 1782, many thousand United Empire Loyalists were offered lands in Canada by the British Government. A few hundred families came to the townships of Eastern Canada.

There can be no doubt that United Empire Loyalists took up their residence in our Townships before 1792, but the official records of such are missing.

The first settlers are heard of on Missisquoi Bay and Lake Memphremagog. At the head of the Connecticut River in the township of Hereford, Colonel John Pope settled as early as 1792, and there is not much doubt but that settlers were there for several years previously.

In the year 1796 the first lands in Lower Canada were granted in free and common soccage.

In 1803 the courts of Montréal rendered a decision that no right of property in slaves could exist in Lower Canada, and the few slaves in this country were thus manumitted. The people in the Townships were too poor to own slaves in those days, and two only are known to have been in what is now Compton County. They belonged to Colonel John Pope, and remained with him until their death when they were sent back to the old plantation in Massachusetts for burial.

L.S. Channell

Posted by Jacques Gagné for Genealogy Ensemble