o the
Harris family as follows:

A.D. 1834. "By degrees the officers of the Court removed to London, and
Mr. Harris was the first to build a house of considerable dimensions on
a handsome piece of ground highly elevated above the banks of the River
Thames. This house was long the resort of the first men in Canada, and
in this house the venerable founder of the Talbot settlement lay during
his first serious illness, while on his way to England. Every man of
rank or distinction who visited this part of Canada became the guest of
Mr. Harris--the late Lord Sydenham, the various lieutenant-governors and
governor-generals, and the present Lord Derby, were among the number."

In the following memoranda, which Mrs. Harris wrote more than twenty
years since, at the wish of her children, but not for publication, she
gives a graphic and highly interesting account of her father's early
settlement in Canada, and the circumstances of the first settlers, and
the state of society of that time:

"Captain Samuel Ryerse, one of the early settlers in Canada, was the
descendant of an old Dutch family in New Jersey, and both his father and
grandfather held judicial appointments under Kings George II. and III.
When the rebellion commenced in 1776, and the British Government was
anxious to raise provincial troops, they offered commissions to any
young gentlemen who could enlist a certain number of young men; sixty, I
think, entitled them to a captaincy. My father, Captain Ryerse, being
popular in his neighbourhood, found no difficulty in enlisting double
the number required, and on presenting himself and men at headquarters,
New York, was gazetted captain in the 4th Battalion New Jersey
Volunteers, in which regiment he served with distinction during the
seven years' war.

"After the acknowledgment of American Independence by England, and the
British troops were about to be disbanded, the British Government
offered them a free transport to New Brunswick, and a grant of land.
When there, little choice was left to those who had sacrificed all for
connection with the mother country. On my father's arrival in New
Brunswick he obtained a lot of land in or near Fredericton, the present
seat of government; and there he met my mother, who was a refugee also,
and they were married.

"After remaining there several years, his friends entreated him to
return to New York, holding out great inducements if he would consent to
do so. He accepted the offe