Volunteer transcription of the Perth military depot land returns. Records each settler's rank and regiment (or 'emigrant' with ship and country of origin), household composition by age and sex, years of service, and every lot located, exchanged or regranted. The live rootsweb host returns HTTP 403 to all non-browser clients; consulted via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.
For “Military Service” FROM 1811 TO 1817 of John Ferguson
"708. John Ferguson, Sergt, 104th Reg., ... years of service 6-31 country Scotland"
Rank, regiment, length of service and country of origin as entered in the Perth military settling returns. Service length is given in years-days.
For “Property” 17 JUN 1817 of John Ferguson
"located June 17, 1817 Drummond, C10 lot 40-25 acres of lot number 3 transferred to? Lt Cummings instead of NE12 in the 10th Concession Drummond ... July 31, 1817 Lansdown C3 SW23; July 31, 1817 Drummond, C12 NE4, SDP."
'SDP' = settling duties performed, i.e. he cleared and occupied the land rather than abandoning it, as many regranted settlers on these pages did.
For “Property” 19 JAN 1819 of John Ferguson
"John Ferguson, Sgt, 104 Reg., Drummond, C10, Lot NE12, located Jan. 19, 1819, original settler Lieut. Cummings, 104 Reg., located July 16, 1816. Exchanged from the block NE?40 on the NE half 3 in the 10 Concession Drummond this lot given to Lieut Cummings. Exchanged from SW 11 8th Concession, same township, lot bad."
A second, independent page of the same series recording the same man and the same Cummings lot exchange, which confirms entry 708 is not a transcription artefact.
For “Number of Children” 17 JUN 1817 of John Ferguson
"1 adult male and 1 adult female, 1 male over 12 and 1 female over 12 and 1 female under 12"
These returns tally households as adults / over 12 / under 12; other entries on the same pages use all three brackets freely, so the absence of a 'male under 12' is a real feature of the entry and not a shorthand. Evidence for unrecorded daughters, and the outstanding conflict against Stephen's recorded 1808 birth.
For John Ferguson
"1 adult male and 1 adult female"
The unnamed wife of family 1267 was living and resident in Drummond Township, Lanark County, in June 1817 - ten years after the 1807 New Brunswick marriage. The return does not name her. She is therefore a real person to search for in the 104th Regiment's married-establishment returns and in Upper Canada land petitions, not merely an inference from the existence of a son.
"708. John Ferguson, Sergt, 104th Reg., 1 adult male and 1 adult female, 1 male over 12 and 1 female over 12 and 1 female under 12, years of service 6-31 country Scotland, located June 17, 1817 Drummond, C10 lot 40-25 acres of lot number 3 transferred to? Lt Cummings instead of NE12 in the 10th Concession Drummond--below C10 lot 4- is marked 10 and NE12; July 31, 1817 Lansdown C3 SW23; July 31, 1817 Drummond, C12 NE4, SDP."
MEDIUM-confidence identification with John Ferguson (3014). For: the 104th (New Brunswick) Regiment of Foot was raised in 1803 as the New Brunswick Fencibles and garrisoned at Fredericton, exactly where 3014 married in 1807 and his son Stephen was born 18 Apr 1808; 6 years 31 days' service to June 1817 puts his enlistment about May 1811, i.e. after that marriage and birth; the regiment marched to Upper Canada in 1813 and was disbanded in 1817, its men settled at Perth; and 3014's son Stephen married at Perth in 1829, resided in Lanark in 1830 and had children there. 'Country Scotland' also corroborates the Scottish birthplace already on 3014 (North Uist), though the return names only the country, not the island; the same returns record 'N Brunswick' as a country of origin for other men of this regiment (entry 709, Neil McEchan), so 'Scotland' is deliberate. DISCRIMINATOR: a dozen other Fergusons appear in this series (John of Perthshire ship Dorothy 1815; John Jr, Caladonia 1816; John Jr 2nd, ship Ann 1816; Peter, Peter Jr, Daniel, Robert, Duncan, Samuel, Joseph, William, James; Capt. George Ferguson of the Canadian Fencibles) and every one is marked 'emigrant' with a ship and arrival year - ours is the only military Ferguson. AGAINST / UNRESOLVED: the June 1817 household tally lists no male under 12, whereas Stephen would have been 9. Needs the 104th's muster rolls and pay lists (LAC RG8 C series) to settle.