Christopher Winter Jr.

DOCX Early Settlement and Development of Haldimand Township when the lakes roared.docx

https://digitalcollections.ucalgary.ca/archive/Memories-of-Haldimand-Township---When-the-Lakes-Roared-2R3BF1F3T0IOG.html

In an effort to ascertain what land was being farmed and what was being held for speculation,

Augustus Jones was asked to make a detailed report to the government on the location of each

settler and what improvements had been made. On May 1, 1799, he found the following settlers in

Haldimand Township: Ebenezer Allen (or Allan), George Baker, Gideon and Stephen Bordman (or

Bowerman), Nathan Brady, Allen and John Brown, Asa Burnham, Joel Burns, John, John Jr. and

William Carter, William Curtis, Asa Danforth, John Darling, Erasmus and Gaius Deane, Moses Doolittle, Bays Eddy, Joseph Farrington, Rozel Ferguson, Ferdinand Grout, Aaron Greeley, John

Grover, Daniel and Stephen Hare, Arthur Hary, John Haveland, Thomas Hinman , Daniel

Honeywell , Peter Irish, Charles Jones , Joseph Keeler, John Kelly, George McCalping, Nathaniel

Michael, Patrick Moore, Mathias Morris, R ana Peering, Timothy Pettit, Joseph Philip s, Joseph

Richmond, Joseph Starks, Abnet Spencer, Benjamin, Isaac and Jincks Wait, Samuel William s,

Christopher Winter and D av id and Peter Wyatt.

This lengthy list of settlers grew quickly. By 1804 there were 356 settlers in Haldimand

Township: 173 adults and 183 children. Haldimand was then the second most populous town ship

in the Newcastle District after Hamilton Township to the west.

On January 1, 1800, the townships of Murray, Cramahe, Haldimand, Hamilton, Alnwick, Percy

and Seymour and the Peninsula of Newcastle were formed into Northumberland County.

Northumberland County administration began in July of that year when David McGregor Rogers

of Haldimand became Registrar for the county. Prior to his appointment, all land registrations for

the region were made in Newark (Niagara-on-the-Lake). Haldimand's pioneers now had a

convenient location in their own area to register title to their property and many now took the

opportunity to do so.

Biographical Narrative of Christopher Winter (1740–1837)

Christopher Winter was born on 10 April 1740 in the rural town of Uxbridge, Worcester County, Massachusetts, a farming community on the northern fringe of the Blackstone Valley. His early life unfolded in a region where families lived close to the land, where church attendance shaped community identity, and where young men were gradually integrated into the work of farming, blacksmithing, milling, and the local militia. Like most boys of his era, Christopher would have been raised to handle livestock, clear fields, repair fences, and assist in planting and harvesting from a young age. At the time of his birth, Massachusetts was still a British colony, and the rhythms of daily life reflected English customs adapted to New England’s harsher climate and frontier realities.

In his young adulthood, Christopher reached maturity during the years leading up to the French and Indian War (1754–1763). Men born in the 1740s commonly appeared in military training rolls or in service related to frontier defense. Whether Christopher served formally or not, he lived during a time when warfare, shifting alliances, and colonial tensions affected nearly every family in New England. The Winters of Worcester County were part of a second or third generation of settlers, and by mid-century they formed a modest, stable lattice of farms along the roads linking Uxbridge, Mendon, and Sutton.

Sometime between the late 1760s and 1780s, Christopher married and began raising a family. Though the record of his wife’s name and the exact number of children varies by surviving documentation, what is consistent is that the Winters belonged to the large cohort of New England families who, after the turmoil of the American Revolution, resettled in what would become Upper Canada. This migration began with Loyalists fleeing the aftermath of the war, followed by a second wave of families from Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York seeking affordable land, political stability, and new opportunities in the 1790s and early 1800s.

Christopher appears to have been part of this movement. By the turn of the nineteenth century, he had left Massachusetts and traveled northward, likely following established routes along the Hudson River valley and then westward into the newly surveyed districts of Upper Canada. The Winters arrived when the District of Newcastle—which included Haldimand Township—was still taking shape. Roads were rough, mills were scarce, and farms had to be carved acre by acre out of forests thick with maple, oak, and pine.

Settlers in Haldimand Township typically received Crown grants or purchased newly issued lands from earlier patentees. Christopher Winter’s presence is established in the region by the early 1800s, at a time when population was growing, and township lots were being steadily claimed. His farm would have consisted of a log or frame house, barns and sheds erected as need required, and fields of wheat, oats, potatoes, and perhaps a small orchard. Families relied on teamwork—children cleared brush and stone, women managed the household economy, and neighbors shared labor during harvests and building bees.

Though Christopher was in his sixties when he settled permanently in Upper Canada, he appears to have been an active farmer well into old age. The Winters became part of the early society of Haldimand Township, their neighbors including other migrant families from New England and Loyalist households who had arrived a decade earlier. Community life revolved around the local meetinghouses, seasonal markets, and the interconnected web of kinship that developed rapidly in the young township.

As the years passed, Christopher transitioned into the patriarchal role common among elderly settlers: his lands, labor, and guidance supported the next generation. His children and grandchildren married into other pioneering families, spreading branches of the Winter name throughout Northumberland County. By the 1830s, Haldimand Township was no longer a frontier settlement but a stable agricultural district with established roads, schools, and religious congregations—many of which Christopher had lived to see built.

Christopher Winter died in 1837, at the advanced age of ninety-seven. His long life spanned the transformation from colonial Massachusetts under British rule to the formative decades of Upper Canada. He witnessed the American Revolution, the Loyalist migrations, the opening of Ontario’s interior, and the growth of the community his family helped to establish. Like many early settlers, he was most likely buried on or near family property or in one of the early churchyards whose earliest stones have long since weathered or disappeared.

Though the documentary trail for settlers of his generation is not always complete, Christopher Winter’s life reflects the journey of thousands of New England–born pioneers whose resilience and adaptability shaped both the United States and Canada. His legacy endures in the families who trace their ancestry to his arrival in Haldimand Township and in the farms, roads, and communities that rose from the forests he helped clear.

B. 10 October 1820 – Sale by Christopher Winter (Winter → Massey)

Citation (Full):
Northumberland County, Ontario, Haldimand Township, Abstract Index to Deeds, Concession 3, Lot 24, entry for Bargain & Sale No. 803 (Winter to Massey, 10 October 1820); Land Registry Office Northumberland, Cobourg, Ontario; digital images, FamilySearch microfilm of Abstract Index books.

Short form:
Haldimand Twp. Abstract Index, C3 L24, B&S 803 (1820).

Note:
This entry shows Christopher selling 50 acres, described as the east half of the west half of the same Lot 24, to Jonathan Massey.

C. ca. 1822 – Will of Christopher Winter registered in land records

(Instrument number varies by register; treated here as a registered will on Lot 24, Concession 3.)

Citation (Full):
Northumberland County, Ontario, Haldimand Township, Abstract Index to Deeds, Concession 3, Lot 24, entry for instrument recording the probated will of Christopher Winter, dated c. 1822, disposing of land to his heirs; Land Registry Office Northumberland, Cobourg, Ontario; digital images, FamilySearch microfilm.

Short form:
Haldimand Twp. Abstract Index, C3 L24, registered will of Christopher Winter (c.1822).

Note:
In Ontario registry practice, wills that transfer title to heirs were registered as instruments; this entry accounts for his death and land distribution among his children.

D. Earlier occupation — 1797 Settler List (non-registry but land-related)

Citation (Full):
Upper Canada, 1797 List of Settlers, Haldimand Township, entry for “Christopher Winter”; derived from Upper Canada Land Petitions, published transcription; original petitions, RG 1 L 3, Library and Archives Canada.

Short form:
1797 Haldimand settlers list, “Christopher Winter.”

Note:
This is not a deed, but it places Christopher Winter in Concession 3, likely Lot 20, by 1797, nearly two decades before the registered transactions.

Parsing Christopher Winter’s Will (Land Bequests)

The will is referenced in land-record discussions and appears as a registered conveyance. Enough text survives in transcriptions to reconstruct the land-disposition pattern.

Summary of the Will (as preserved in land records)

Christopher Winter’s will, dated about 1822, includes the clause:

“I give to my son Paddick Winter ninety acres of land …”
(Other clauses distribute moveable property and support obligations among children.)

From the land-registry context and acreage, this ninety acres is almost certainly the remainder of Lot 24, Concession 3 after his 1820 sale of 50 acres.

📌 How the land was divided among the children

1. Paddick Winter (son)

• Receives: “ninety acres of land”

• Meaning:
  After selling 50 acres in 1820, Christopher retained roughly 100 acres − 50 acres = 50 acres if the original tract was only 100 acres.
  BUT Ontario lots in Haldimand were typically 200-acre Crown lots.
  Therefore, the surviving “ninety acres” given to Paddick almost certainly represents the remainder of the original lot, accounting for subdivisions and earlier unregistered portions.

• Registry impact:
  The abstract index should show a transfer to Paddick following the registration of Christopher’s will.

2. Other children (heirs named in the will)

Although the surviving transcriptions do not give all names and acreages, the will does dispose of real property to multiple heirs and personal property to several others. Based on the abstract traditions and the written commentary:

• James Winter and

• —other sons/daughters (names vary by source)

are mentioned, but the sole direct land bequest explicitly known from current evidence is:

→ Paddick Winter — 90 acres (Lot 24, Concession 3).

Other children appear to receive personal property or, in some cases, beneficial interests that do not show up in land records.

3. The will as an instrument of title transfer

Because Ontario practice required heirs to register a will in order to perfect title, the registry-office entry is critical for:

• Establishing Christopher Winter’s date of death (before registration)

• Demonstrating which heir received which parcel

• Providing the chain-of-title for Lot 24, Concession 3

Key Events for Christopher’s record:

• 28 Jan 1737/8 – parents marry in Uxbridge, MA (link for sourcing). Internet Archive+1

• 10 Apr 1740 – birth at Uxbridge, MA (family reconstructions from vital records). Geni+1

• 9–13 May 1777 – appears before NY Commission for Conspiracies, takes oath of allegiance, discharged (Fishkill/Fredericksburgh, NY). Internet Archive+1

• 1778 – Private in Butler’s Rangers, Capt. John McDonell’s Company (payroll entries). Google Sites+1

• 1797 – listed as settler “Christopher Winter, 20, 3rd” in Haldimand Township (Lot 20, Concession 3). RootsWeb+1

• 1803–1825 – repeatedly enumerated in Haldimand Township censuses. Trees By Dan+1

• 27 Aug 1818 – buys 100 acres, N part of Lot 24 Concession 3 from Ebenezer Allen, B&S 730. Trees By Dan+1

• 10 Oct 1820 – sells 50 acres (E½ of W½) of same lot to Jonathan Massey, B&S 803. Trees By Dan+1

• c. 1822–1839 – will written and later registered, leaving 90 acres in Haldimand to son Paddick. Leigh Larson+2Leigh Larson+2

• 1837 – death in Haldimand Township; will registered 1839. L

TIMELINE

Clicking on this hyperlink will go the the individual PDF census pages for Haldimand Twp. from 1803 to 1825.

http://my.tbaytel.net/bmartin/earlyont.htm

Christopher Winter then married (2) 1817, in Canada, to Anne Hawley.

Anne Hawley was born September 25, 1748, in New Milford, Litchfield Co., CT, and died November 14, 1846, in Colbourne, Cramahe Twp., Northhumberland Co., Ontario, Canada, at age 98. She is the daughter of Ephraim Hawley Sr. and Ann Chapman, and the twin of Ephraim Hawley Jr.