(first published in The Loyalist Gazette, June 1985 at pp. 6-7)

It is probable that before the American Revolution there were no English speaking people in Sorel. Although then merely a hamlet or village, this place was the scene of much activity. During the tumultuous days of 1776 large bodies of troops passed through and at times were stationed here; the German auxiliaries employed by England were quartered here, and sent on as they arrived in the country. A letter from Governor Frederick Haldimand to Lord George Germain in October of 1778, written from his camp in Sorel where fortifications were in progress, indicates his proposed use of the Seigniory. –“....It is my intention therefore. if time and circumstances favour me, to make Sorel a place of strength with Permanent Works, as the importance of it deserves. The Seigneurie of this Place is vested in merchants residing in England and the Inhabitants of it, people remarkable for their courage and resolution, have distinguished themselves very much by theirattachment to the Government even at a time the Rebels were Masters of that Country, in which account I think it would serve the King's interest to bestow some Public mark of favour upon them such as remitting them the Quitrents which they pay for their land, to the Seigneur, and the Seigneurie being to be sold, and the purchase would not exceed 13,000, having been offered for that sum, I submit to Your Lordship whether it would not be best to give orders to treat immediately with the Proprietors, Messrs. Greenwood and Higgins in London, both for enabling me to effect the purchase…."

The purchase was eventually made in 1781 and Sorel became a clearing house for the steady stream of refugees from the south. A certain number of them settled here forming the nucleus of the English population. Another addition was occasioned by Sorel being selected as one of the stations for "Military Invalids", or “Outside Chelsea Pensioners" as they were also called. These old soldiers and their dependents, numbering several hundreds, were sent to Sorel under the medical care of Dr. Christopher Carter.

The villages of Yamaska and Yamachiche, like that of Sorel, received contingents of Loyalists. On the 8th of September 1778, Edward Foy spoke to the captains of the parishes surrounding Sorel, requesting them to build storehouses, barracks, and a hospital to receive the newcomers.
The Loyalists arrived in number from Albany, Susquehanna and Charlotte and Gloucester counties. On the 1st July 1779, Captain Daniel McAlpin of the 60th Regiment, notified the Governor that 853 Loyalists had entered the area and 87 amongst them had settled in Sorel.

Five companies comprising 300 men were stationed in Sorel under the command of Captains Daniel McAlpin, Ebenezer Jessup John Peters, Robert Leake and Samuel Adams. There were 44 children and 22 women among the colonists. "All are in a state of distress", wrote McAlpin in his report, "and are in urgent need of help".

By the beginning of December 1783, there were 132 Loyalists in Sorel and this number was increased to 653 by counting those at Yamaska. Governor Haldimand was obliged to see to their needs as the winter had begun, and we note he furnished the settlers with the following: 360 yards of linen cloth, 149 yards of wollen cloth, 73 blankets, 110 pairs of stockings, 106 pairs of shoes and 10 pairs of short leggings and mitts.

It is to be noted that the Loyalists had not been entirely idle during their stay in the Seigniory as at least 54 families had acreage cleared by September 1784. There was a total of 95 families comprising 316 men, women and children included in the above muster.

Many received help from the hospital, being old soldiers or Loyalists. This hospital gave asylum to the sick men, women and children until around 1830.

Having full confidence in Haldimand's judgement, as well as his knowledge of the country, the British ministry left to him the distribution of the Loyalists, with the suggestion that the important district of Sorel be settled as soon as possible with old soldiers, in order to form a barrier at that entrance of the province. To ensure the district's being thickly populated, the lots were made small, only sixty acres, but each settler was to have a town lot in addition, as soon as a site was fixed upon, and the remainder of his allowance would be granted him either on the Chaleur Bay or at Cataraqui, now Kingston.

The governor enforced the strictest impartiality in the bestowal of lands, and would not grant to officers the choice of front lots at Sorel, as they requested, but said they must take their chances in drawing, on an equality with the men. The allowance for all was sufficiently liberal: 5,000 acres to a field officer, 3,000 each to the captains, 2,000 to subalterns, 200 to each non-commissioned officer or private, with an extra grant of fifty acres more for his wife and each child. Arrived at the age of twenty-one, every son or daughter of a Loyalist was given 200 acres in addition.

Governor Haldimand had altruistic motives in the settling of the Seigniory, but the type of settler he had to deal with was not always of the settling type.

"It is," said a report, "the intention of the Governor to settle the Seigniory and the town with people of an industrial category, giving them sixty acres in the Seigniory and a lot in town, so as to encourage them to follow a trade of their own choosing. But the contrary has occurred. The greatest part of them pass a life of inactivity, slothfully awaiting for the Government to feed them.

Their personal jealousies tempt them to falsely accuse the officers of the Government, their spirit of criticism is the result of their disappointment and a real distress has followed…." This stern rebuke was the result of an inquiry into a large number or complaints made by the Loyalists concerning rations, lodgings, accusations against the town officials, etc, and resulted in a twenty page report dated 12th July 1787 that refuted almost all their claims and arguments.

The earliest efforts for the propagation of the Protestant religion in Canada had been made in Sorel. Attached to the 34th regiment was a certain Thomas Charles Heslop Scott who acted as chaplain, but proved a constant source of annoyance to its colonel, Barry St. Leger. To dispose of him Scott was sent to Sorel to take charge of the Protestant population. He again caused friction with the authorities so that on the 24th October 1781, Robert Mathews, agent of the Seigniory indicated to Scott that he was "persona non grata".

The continued influx of Loyalists during the year 1783 into the Seigniory prompted the population to search out a permanent Minister, and so at the end of the year, a petition was sent to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, begging them to send a Minister of the Gospel to reside in the Seigniory.

Following the request, the Reverend John Doty embarked during the month of April 1784 at Gravesend, England, and arrived at Quebec in June, and at Sorel on the 4th July 1784, where he celebrated Divine Service and preached his first sermon. This is the date of the foundation of the Anglican parish in Sorel and the first Anglican mission in Canada.

The chapel where the faithful united was a wooden building located at the end of King Street, a few steps from the Richelieu market. This building had already served as a military storehouse.

The interior was cleaned and redecorated, and a tower was added, in which was installed a bell donated from one of the visiting ships of the period. This same bell is the one which is heard calling the faithful to services today at Christ Church in Royal Square.

In 1789, owing to the newly laid outlines of the town, it was found that the church encroached upon the street, and so therefore the congregation considered building elsewhere. In the month of April 1790 at a special meeting of the vestry, the Rector, Church Wardens and members present, it was decided to build a Church on land graciously donated by the Government, on the east side of Royal Square. The building was of wood, and was laid out on the exact site of the Church we see today.

A civil engineer, probably Major French, drew up a plan of the town in its quadrilateral form, with wide streets which intersected at right angles. These streets are designated with the names of the principal personages of the Royal Family of that day, George, King, Queen, Augusta, Sophia, (today changed to Hôtel Dieu Avenue), Prince, Phipps, Charlotte. In the center was left a public place or Place d'Armes. This is the park which we admire so much today. The town was then divided up into building lots. The agent of the Seigniory. Samuel Holland, recorded the distribution of the lots on tickets, specimens of which are still in existence today. Each of these lots was given in "franc and common socage", without any title or seigniorial rent; this was the Royal Proclamation. At the request of Robert Jones, the English authorities consented to charge a rental, which later was the cause of a lengthy debate between the citizens and the Government.

The 24th of July 1787, the agent of the Seigniory reported that 107persons had accepted lots in the town, and the establishment of the Loyalists in the Seigniory was made just as rapidly.

After the visit of Prince William Henry to Sorel in 1787 the town took the name of William-Henry, a name it retained for three-quarters of a century.

In Joseph Bouchette's Topographical Description of the Province of Lower Canada, published in May 1815, there is a plan of the town of "William-Henry", together with the following notation:

Old Government House, Sorel, Quebec c-5033 Public Archives of Canada

"The present town of Sorel was begun in the year 1785, when some Loyalists and disbanded soldiers settled at it and it still continues to be the residence of many old military servants of the crown, who exist upon pensions allowed them by the government. A small distance from a little rivulet to the southward of the place is a blockhouse and a hospital, and a little further on a good wooden building, with out-houses, gardens, etc., called the Government house, serving as a residence for the commanding officer of the troops stationed here, usually one or two companies or infantry…"
by the late Walter S. White,
author of Pages from the History of Sorel,
and Governors Cottage, and several other publications.