Talbot, Thomas

(1771-1853)

   Rose to the rank of colonel in the British army, and for a time attached to the staff of Governor Simcoe. Resigning his commission, obtained in 1801 a grant of 5000 acres on the north shore of Lake Erie for the purposes of a settlement, and devoted himself to its development. Brought out a band of colonists from England, and others followed. Port Talbot became the centre of an ever-widening region of cultivated land, until before his death twenty-eight townships had been settled as the result of his efforts.

   Index: S Aide-de-camp to Simcoe, 177; returns to Ireland, later returns to Canada, and forms a settlement in western Ontario, 178.

   Bib.: Six Years in the Canadas. For biog., see Dict. Nat. Biog.; Dent, Can. Por.; Taylor, Brit. Am. See also Coyne, The Talbot Papers (R. S. C., 1907).