Francis Wilkinson & Clarissa Simons

Francis Wilkinson & Clarissa Simons were my GGG grandparents. Clarissa Simons' family were one of the first families to settle in Trafalgar at Palermo but are rarely mentioned along with the Hagar's etc although they all moved from New Jersey via The Forty [Grimsby] at the same time. It is family lore that Clarissa was the first white female child born in the District [now Halton]. Her mother [possibly Polly] was scalped by natives on the farm which they were granted here.

Clarissa Simons father Bildad Simons was granted a land patent on Lot 30, Con 1, SDS [200 acres] of Trafalgar Twsp. at Palermo on 18 June 1806. Settlement duties had been performed on this property. The Land Board duties were defined as the clearing and fencing of 5 acres for every 100 granted, the building of a house sixteen feet by twenty feet, and the clearing of half the road in front of each lot. The filing of a certificate of duties performed was required within two years of the date of location. These requirements fulfilled, the applicant would receive his patent only after actual residence of 5 years.' Note- This would explain how Clarissa was born on the farm before the land was titled in 1808. The Simons must have been living there about 1801-02.