Watertown leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1909-1911, 1911-07-07
FLUNG AWAYLAHD
Amazing Grants of Territory to
Royal Favorites.
ALL OF CANADA ONCE A GIFT

II was rahoeo over 6odiIy by James
|. to Lord Stirling, Who Didn't Know
Enough to Keep 1.-THE Hudson Bay
! Company's Famous Present
America has been freely parceled out
! in gifts since Columbus first set eyes
| ed States territory has been at some
| time or other handed over to public
and private companies. New York. for
example, fifty years after it had been
sold for something like $50 was pre-
sented with other lands to the Duke of
York by his brother. the king, and the
name Of the city is witness this day
to that transaction. The duke granted
New Jersey to somebody else, and
few years before the king had carved
out Maryland for Lord Baltimore
Pennsylvania was given to William
Penn, the Quaker who founded the
state, in payment. it is said. of debt
that Charles ii. owed PENIS father
and the same monarch gave both North
and South Carolina to eight London
gentlemen who stayed at home called
themselves the lords proprietorS and
lived on the rents until the people re-
fused to pay any more and George II.
took over the colonies.
The story of Colonel Talbot at the be
ginning of the last century is one of
the rOmanceS of Canadian history.
The colonel went out in 1893 as an aid
de-camp to the governor, and the
founding of a colony beca me the ruling
passion of his life. He was given 1907
600 acres. which grew later to $4,000.
on condition that he place a settler on
every 200 acres. Today this territory
is occupied by some of the most -four
iShing towns in the Dominion, and at
the beginning of Queen Victorias reign
Colonel Talbot. who was then still liv-
ing, was the recognized chief of TWEEN
ty-eight towns. all of which had been
given to him Years before as unOccu-
pied land.
Prince Edward Island. covering 5000
tI9 VI I,111IIs, UUWnS as UCUI SGtUWff, SHfffH
lottetown and Princetown, was given
away in 1897 to absentee proprietors
and was bought back again on the or
ganization of the Dominion of Cana
da for G16OOOO The Canadian com
pany, founded in 1926, received a grant
of 100000 acres. and bought 100000
more at the rate of half a crown an
acre.
The mention of the Hudson's Bay
company recalls what is probably the
most famous gift of territory in his
tory In 1910 Charles II. gave Prince
Rupert by royal charter territory 200
or 300 miles wide around the eastern
and southern shores of Hudson's bay,
in addition to a vast empire of forest
and prairie. "Ruperts Land" as the
territory was called, ultimately stretch
ed across Canada. from the Atlantic
end of Hudson's strait to the shores
of the Pacific. As rent for this ter
ritory. covering 100000 square miles,
the company paid to the king each
year "two elks and two black bea-
vers''
Something over forty years ago the
Canadian confederation took over the
| company's monopoly for 100000. but
the company retained a twentieth part
of it's lands. The original capital of
| the company was f1O,500. and in two
centuries it's income from furs was
| f2O,OO0,OOO.
| But the most amazing gift ever made
since the world began was surely that
| made by James l. to Lord Stirling. the
| poet who was then his favorite. On
| Sept. q, 1921 King James. who must
| have been extraordinarily deficient in
| geography, made Lord Stirling, then
| Sir William Alexander, present of
| the whole of Canada. The gift, which
| included Nova Scotia and Newfound
land was confirmed by Charles l., and
the poet was so moved by the high
honor that he received that he pub
lished IAN Encouragement to Colo
MES" work that attained three edl-
tons. The gift became the subject of
| interesting legal proceedings, and Can
ada once more became the property of
| the crown.
The city of Liverpool was given
away by William the Conqueror and
| again by Henry IL. who bestowed it
on the keeper of the castle and pris-
| on OF Lancaster" King John bought
| the site from this keeper and founded
| the city Henry III. leased all the
crown revenues and royal customs of
| Liverpool to the Earl of Chester for
f10 a year. and the town changed
/ hands several times between the reigns
Of Henry III. and Charles Stuart.
That unhappy monarch. being in q
state Of impecuniosity. offered the town
| for sale, and it was purchased by some
London merchants. who in 1882 sold
the crown rights for f4JO. Forty years
afterward the rights were purchased
by the corporation.
Bombay. the earliest settlement of
the British in India. was so lightly re-
/ garded by Charles ii. that Immediate
| " after its cession to England he sold