The Lake Erie Baron, Thomas Talbot, is an enigma in that opinions of him vary so much. The same facts have been interpreted in different ways according to the small "p" political views of the interpreter. Was he a hero or a villain? Drunk or sober? Malicious or prudent?

Thomas Talbot was born in Ireland on July 17, 1771 at Malahide in the County of Dublin to aristocratic parents Richard Talbot and Margaret, Baroness Talbot. He was commissioned at age 11 in the army and became an aide-de-camp to the Marquis of Buckingham, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. A fellow aide was Arthur Wellesley, who was to go on to fame and fortune as the Duke of Wellington. The two men were very good friends to the ends of their lives, which occurred within months of each other in 1852.

When Colonel John Graves Simcoe was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, Lieutenant Talbot joined him as his private and confidential secretary. In 1793, after Major Talbot was ordered back to England, Simcoe wrote to Lord Hobart asking that Talbot be granted 5000 acres in Yarmouth Township as a resident field officer. (Yarmouth Township is now part of the Municipality of Central Elgin. It is just east of, and once included, St Thomas.) This request was granted although not in Yarmouth Township, because the southern part of the township had been granted to Col. James Baby and the northern part to the Canada Company.

In 1796, Talbot was Lt. Col. of the 5th Regiment of Foot and was present in the Duke of York's disastrous expedition to Holland.

The grand old Duke of York,
He had ten thousand men.
He marched them up to the top of a hill
And he marched them down again.
And when they were up, they were up;
And when they were down, they were down;
And when they were only halfway up,
They were neither up nor down.

On May 21, 1803, Talbot returned to Canada and landed at what was to be Port Talbot on Lake Erie. With him was George Crane, the first settler in Elgin County. At that time, the area was covered in unbroken forest with the nearest hint of civilization at Long Point. The arrangement Talbot worked out with the government in Britain was that, for every settler he located on 50 acres of land, Talbot was to receive 150 acres, up to 5000 acres.

His plan was to deal only with settlers, not with speculators, and only with settlers who looked as though they were going to be hardworking. Many grants had been given to military men and speculators, and few of these grants were settled. Because the government of Upper Canada derived revenue from the selling of land patents, and these patents were only given to people who had fulfilled the conditions for settling on the land, the government was not getting revenue from these unsettled grants. So Talbot was given a free hand to control the settling of Dunwich Township, which included Port Talbot.

In 1809, settlers began to arrive. The first were John Pearce, Leslie Paterson, and their families. They were United Empire Loyalists and brothers-in-law (Pearce was married to Paterson's sister Frances). Paterson's widowed sister, Mary Storey, and Stephen Backus came with them. Mahlon Burwell and his family arrived later that year. Burwell was also a Loyalist, having been born and raised in New Jersey. Burwell became Talbot's right-hand man and close friend.

Patterson House, Tyrconnel

Even during his lifetime and certainly after, Talbot came under intense criticism. When he placed settlers names in lots, he wrote the names in pencil. Did he do that so he could cheat them or was it because it was easier to remove the name if the settler failed to fulfill his obligations in the time allowed? He was arbitrary in the way he accepted some people but rejected others. Was that because he was a bigot and corrupt, or was it because he would not accept speculators and people he thought were going to fail?

He dealt with applicants through a window of his home. If the window was closed, applicants had to wait. If he did not approve of an applicant, he would simply slam the window shut and that would be that. If a settler did not complete his work in an approved time, Talbot simply erased his name from the map and his rights disappeared. However, there is no doubt that, whatever people thought of his methods, they worked. The areas he settled were very much in demand. His roads were the best in Upper Canada and his settlements successful. So much so that the area he controlled expanded until it covered most of Southwest Ontario west of Port Burwell and south of London.