The original land grant provides information not revealed elsewhere.

Margaret Dalton was a widow, and was granted this land on the same day as other at least one other widow. From the wording of both grants, they are clearly linked as part of the same procedure. Sophia Green's grant to the adjacent land sheds some further light on Dalton's. She is identified as Sophia Green of Saint John's in our Island of Newfoundland Widow of the late Fort Major Richard Wenman Green. (Information here and possible references here (to his son of the same name), here and here.) It would seem that these grants were in response to the deaths of their husbands, who were apparently in the military and serving at Fort Townshend. From the size of the land grants, Dalton's husband presumably had less rank or time of service than Fort Major Green. Richard Green died in 1828, so it took some time for this grant occur.


The other interesting new information is the land description and associated map fragment. There is no detailed map of the area at this time, so if there are other grants around this time with similar fragments, we could possibly create a new map. What is revealed here is the existance of a large public road immediately to the east of the land.


Partial Transcription

[My comments appear in square brackets.] The grant is a standard form. Printed material is represented in normal fonts. Handwritten material is shown in italics.

Original Registry. Volume 3 Folio 131 No. 366.

Newfoundland

[Victoria, Queen...] GIVE and GRANT unto Margaret Dalton of Saint John's in our Island of Newfoundland Widow, her Heirs and Assigns, all that Piece and Parcel of Land situate and being about one quarter of a Mile to the Northward of Fort Townshend and lying on the South of Ground heretofore granted to the Right Reverend Michael A. Fleming and known as the Roman Catholic Cathedral Ground, bounded on the North by the Said Cathedral Ground, on the East by a Public Road of Thirty feet wide, on the South by another Road Twenty feet wide, and on the West by ground now granted to Sophia Green.

Thanks to Maureen Power for obtaining copies of both grants.