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Crown Honor Superfecta

In 1779, Governor Haldimand expressly pledged that the ruined Mohawk villages of Canojaharie, Tikondarago, and Aughugo – destroyed “on account of their steady attachment to the King’s service and the interests of Government” – would be restored at the expense of the Crown. In 1784, this promise was performed through the Haldimand Proclamation, by which a Crown-purchased tract “under His protection” along the Grand River, six miles deep from each side, was granted to “the said Mohawk Nation and such others of the Six Nations Indians as wish to settle in their quarter,” for “them and their posterity to enjoy forever.” Subsequent imperial policy did not treat these Loyalist Mohawk allies as anonymous “Indians,” but as a distinct hereditary class. Lord Dorchester’s 1789 minute created a “mark of honour” for those who had “adhered to the Unity of Empire, and joined the Royal Standard in America before the treaty of separation,” and ordered their names and posterity to be discriminated from future settlers in parish registers, militia rolls, and other public records, as proper objects for “distinguished benefits and privileges.” Simcoe’s 1796 proclamation acknowledged that this registry had not been properly made and directed that such Loyalists have their status “ascertained upon oath before the magistrates” so their lands could be confirmed by deed under provincial seal. Read together, the Haldimand pledge and grant supply the territorial and treaty framework, while the Dorchester and Simcoe instruments supply the hereditary and procedural framework, for the recognition of Mohawk Loyalist posterity on the Grand River – a framework that has been neglected in practice but never lawfully revoked. Taken together, the Haldimand Pledge of 1779, the Haldimand Proclamation of 1784, Lord Dorchester’s Proclamation of 1789, and the Simcoe Proclamation form a Crown Honour Superfecta: four linked instruments that move from promise, to grant, to loyalist recognition, to hereditary registration for the Mohawk of Grand River.