There were, in fact, several Talbot Roads. The original Talbot Road ran from Brantford through Waterford in what is now the City of Nanticoke to about Delhi. The road was intended to go further west but funds ran out before it could be completed. John Bostwick was the surveyor for that road.

In 1809, after being appointed Deputy Surveyor for Upper Canada, Mahlon Burwell surveyed from Port Talbot on Lake Erie southwest of St Thomas to Delhi. This was known as Talbot Road East.

In 1811, Surveyor General Thomas Ridout ordered Burwell to survey a road from Westminster Township (south of London) to Kettle Creek Village (now the western end of St Thomas). He was then to survey a road from the western edge of Dunwich Township to Essex County. For some reason, after surveying from Westminster to Five Stakes (Talbotville), he started to survey west, parallel to his previous survey of the Talbot Road East. The road from Talbotville to Essex County became Talbot Road West and ended at Sandwich, now part of Windsor. It is now called Talbot Line and almost joins Fingal Line (the old Talbot Road East) at Wallacetown. Talbot Road West was Highway 3 until the Ontario Government messed up the numbering of roads.

The road from Westminster (southwest of London) to St Thomas is another Talbot Road and, in fact, is called Colonel Talbot Road. This includes the section surveyed by Burwell. A fourth Talbot road was, and is, called the Middle Road and it goes from east of Ridgetown to Sandwich (Windsor). It was intended to be a middle road between the Talbot Road and the route along the Thames to Sandwich, part of which is the Longwoods Road. Talbot also controlled the settlement of the Longwoods Road from the village of Delaware near London to Chatham.