10/15/06

Lettre et rapport de Joseph Bouchette, Écuyer, Arpenteur-général du Canada, à Sir Georges Prevost, Gouverneur général, à Québec, le 30 juin, 1814.                                

Source: Document de Bibliothèque et archives Canada,  RG8, séries C, volume 621, pages 18-25, microfilm (bobine) C-3158.  Photocopie et retranscription: Benoît Long.

Source: Library and Archives Canada,  RG8, Series C, Volume 621, pages 18-25, Microfilm C 3158.  Photocopy and transcription Benoît Long.

This document and its place in our ancestor's life and story is interesting for a number of reasons.  The full title of this report is "The Surveyor General's Report upon his return from settling the Veterans and families upon the Portage between Lower Canada and New Brunswick, 30th June 1814" and its existence has been known to researchers at the National Archives for over seventy years. 

It is not known how long the library card has been in the card index that indicates all of the known (at least to National Archives) related to Philip Long but it could be for quite some time (perhaps as much as fifty years - the archivists at National Archives could not tell me definitely). And yet, with all of these known sources, I do not recall ever seeing a copy or transcript of what this report describes, or mentions of the signficance of the report for Philip Long and his farm.  It is also an obvious precursor to Bouchette's full Topographical Report and I think quite interesting for that reason alone, and perhaps this is the source of the confusion - the dates are close enough that perhaps people confused the two.  This seems like the most plausible explanation for the fact that everyone, including Mgr. Lang, seems to have missed this document.  Mgr. Lang followed the materials provided him by the researchers when he wrote to the archives in 1975, and inexplicably, they did not include this document in their list of sources.

As well, the mention of Philip Long as a possible "inspector" under the Grand Voyer to repair and maintain the route of the Portage again demonstrates the complete confidence the government and military leaders of the time had in Philip Long.  In 1815, legislation was created to authorize the Grand Voyer to create local "Commissionaires" who would supervize the work in local areas to maintain key roads.  The search is on to determine who had that role in the Riviere-du-Loup, Temiscouata and Madawaska area.  As Patricia Kennedy, an archivist at the National Archives who I had a long conversation with recently, mentioned, her view was that fidelity, trustworthiness, and the ability to write would have made Philip Long an exceptional choice for the role that Murray and Finlay ultimately created for him and his family.

There are a couple of additional mentions of Long and his farm.  In his writing, we can imagine that Bouchette was developing an attachment for the area that would lead him to secure nearly a quarter of Alexander Fraser's Seignory and plan the development of a new town to be called "Kent" exactly on the border ofthe Lake adjacent to Long's farm and hotel.