A History Of Lake Champlain

Lake Champlain is one of the largest bodies of fresh water in the United States, being exceeded in size by the Great Lakes, and by Lake Okechobee, in Florida, which is so shallow that in part it is more marsh than lake. Judged by the standard of historic interest, Lake Champlain has no rival in all the continent of North America; and in natural scenic beauty, it ranks with the best the world affords. Lying in the valley between the Green and the Adirondack Mountain ranges, this lake is 118 miles long, measured from Whitehall, N. Y. to the northern extremity of Missisquoi Bay, which extends a few miles into Canada. Its greatest width is 12 1/8 miles from the mouth of the Ausable River, on the west to the head of Malletts Bay, on the east, the average width being 4 1/8 miles. Its greatest depth is 399 feet, off Essex, N. Y. Lake George flows into Lake Champlain. The more important tributary streams from Vermont include the Missisquoi, Lamoille, Winooski, Otter Creek, and Poultney; and from New York, the Big and Little Chazy, the Saranac, the Salmon, the Boquet, and the Great and Little Ausable. The deep channel of the lake forms the boundary line between the States of Vermont and New York, the greater part of the area lying within the limits of the Green Mountain State. Its waters are discharged northward through the Richelieu River into the St. Lawrence, and thence into the Atlantic Ocean, thus forming an exception to the direction in which the waters of most of the lakes and rivers of the United States flow, which is toward the south. The Champlain Canal, between Whitehall and Waterford, connects the lake with the Hudson River and the Atlantic Ocean, while the Chambly Canal, between St. Johns and Chambly, Que., makes navigation possible around the rapids of the Richelieu to the River and Gulf of St. Lawrence.

The larger islands in Lake Champlain include Grand Isle, North Hero, Isle La Motte, Valcour, Schuylers, Juniper, and the Four Brothers, called by the French the Islands of the Four Winds. Lake Champlain has been called the Lake of the Iroquois; Peta-wa-bouque, meaning alternate land and water; Peta-pargow, or the great water; and Lake Corlaer, after Arendt Van Corlaer, a popular New York official, who was drowned in its waters in 1667.

Crockett, Walter Hill, A History Of Lake Champlain; the record of three centuries, 1609-1909. Published 1909 at Burlington, Vt., H. J. Shanley & Co.

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French Settlements in Champlain Valley, the Seigneur Grants

Although few actual settlements were made by the French in the Champlain valley, there were many grants by the French crown, similar to Foucault's concession. Nearly all the land surrounding the lake was granted to various individuals, in many instances to army officers and Canadian officials. The first public record bearing on this subject is an order issued by the King, dated May 20, 1676, and authorizing such grants on Lake Champlain. One of the largest of these grants, or seigniories, was made on Oct. 7, 1743, to Gilles Hocquart, intendant of Canada from 1728 to 1748, at one time councillor of state and intendant of the naval forces at Brest. According to an early map, printed at Albany by Richard H. Pease, this seigniory appears to have included the present towns of Panton, Addison.Waltham, New Haven, Weybridge, and portions of Bridport, Cornwall, Middlebury, and Bristol. In a communication from the British Board of Trade, addressed to the committee of the Privy Council, the lordship of Hocquart is estimated to contain about 115,000 acres. In 1764 it was transferred to Michael Chartier de Lotbiniere, and in 1758 Marquis de Vaudreuil, governor general of Canada, granted to Lotbiniere who had laid out the fortress of Ticonderoga, the seigniory of Alainville, embracing more than four leagues in front and five leagues in depth, lying partly on Lake George, and partly on Lake Champlain.

Among other grants was one made to M. Contrecoeur Jr., July 7, 1734, "on the borders of Lake Champlain, beginning at the mouth of the Riviere aux Loutres [Otter Creek] one league and a half above, and one league and a half below, making two leagues in front by three in depth, together with so much of said Riviere aux Loutres as is found therein, with those islands or islets which are in front of said concession and depend thereon." This grant probably included the present towns of Ferrisburgh and Monkton, the city of Vergennes, and portions of Panton, Waltham, New Haven, and Bristol. On July 6, 1734, a grant was made to Sieur de La Perriere, one league above and one league below the River Ouinouski (Winooski). Captain La Perriere was an officer stationed at the castle of Quebec, who became governor of Montreal in 1752. This seigniory included a part or all of the present city of Burlington.

The next grant, lying to the north, was made to M. Raimbault. There is on record a deed of sale made in Montreal, bearing the date of Sept. 27, 1766, by which the heirs of M. Pierre Raimbault, "in his lifetime lieutenant general for His Most Christian Majesty of the Jurisdiction of this City [Montreal]" transferred the seigniory of La Maunadiere to Benjamin Price, Daniel Robertson, and John Livingston. The price agreed upon was 90,000 livres (about $18,000), "current money of the province," half of which was to be paid in gold and silver, and half in merchandise at the prices then current in Montreal. This was one of the first recorded land transfers in northern Vermont. The text of this deed is published in the manuscripts relating to the French claims, in the New York State Papers and the compiler has added a marginal note to the effect that Burlington is situated on a part of the seigniory of La Maunadiere. This would seem to be an error, however, as the De Lery map, made in Quebec in October, 1748, by M. Anger, the King's surveyor, shows M. Raimbault's grant to have extended from a point near the head of Malletts Bay, on the south, to a point on the north, apparently in the present town of Georgia. The deed of sale states that the southern boundary of the Raimbault grant is the seigniory granted to La Perriere, which lay a league above and a league below the mouth of the Winooski River. This would indicate that the southern boundary of the seigniory of La Maunadiere was several miles north of the present line between Burlington and Colchester. A grant to M. Douville seems to have included parts of Georgia, St. Albans, Fairfax, and Fairfield; while another made to M. de Beauvais Jr., included Highgate and parts of Swanton, Franklin, and Sheldon. Isle Longue, or North Hero, was granted to M. Contrecoeur Sr.

On April 10, 1733, a grant of "two leagues or two and a half in front, by three in depth, along the river Chambly and Lake Champlain, together with the river Chazy included therein and Isle a la Motte," was made to Sieur Pean, major of the town and castle of Quebec and member of the superior council of that city. This grant included the northern part of the present town of Champlain and it was transferred on May 2, 1754, to Daniel Lienard, Sieur de Beaujeu, who owned the seigniory immediately north. Both Contrecoeur and Beaujeu were prominent in the operations around Fort Duquesne, and the latter lost his life in the battle which resulted in General Braddock's defeat and death at the beginning of the French and Indian War. Grants a little to the south of Beaujeu's seigniories were made to Sieur St. Vincent, ensign of foot, and to Sieur La Gauchetiere, a captain of marines. Sieur Roebert, the King's store-keeper at Montreal, received a grant of two and one-half leagues above the Boquet River, and one league below.

It is difficult to give the exact limits of any of these grants, as the early maps were far from accurate in many particulars, and the boundaries as shown on different maps are not always the same. Most of these grants, being unimproved, reverted to the crown by virtue of an order issued at Quebec, May 10, 1741, by the governor, the Marquis de Beauharnois. As might have been expected this order was not accepted everywhere in a spirit of meekness. The protests received show more clearly, perhaps, than any other records, the fact that under conditions then existing the attempt to colonize the Champlain valley with French settlers was a hopeless and a thankless task. For example, Sieurs Contrecoeur and La Perriere maintained "that it was impossible to find individuals willing to accept lands, though they offered them some on very advantageous terms, and were willing to give even 300 livres to engage the said individuals." Sieur La Fontaine offered "to give to those whom he will find willing to settle there grain and even money, asking from them no rent, in order to obtain from them by the allurement of this gift what he cannot obtain by force". Sieur Roebert wrote that he had "neglected nothing to induce some young farmers to go and settle there by procuring for them great advantages and many facilities."

It appeared, however, that neither the "great advantages" nor the "many facilities" offered by Sieur Roebert, not even the "allurements" of Sieur La Fontaine, were sufficiently advantageous and alluring to tempt many young farmers to the French grants, and thus save to the proprietors their seigniories, which could not be retained if they remained unoccupied. It was much easier for ,the King of France "graciously to bestow" these seigniories, than it was for the favorites upon whom they were bestowed to persuade settlers to live upon them. The Champlain valley had not been a popular place for home seekers, long before the white man came; and the young farmers, realizing that a pathway for war parties was not likely to be a safe home for their wives and children, or a comfortable place for themselves, and having a lively desire to keep their scalps on their own heads, looked elsewhere for land. Moreover, the heart of the French people was not in the work of attempting to colonize America. Had the rulers of France left undone some of the things which they did in Europe, and set themselves earnestly to the task of improving and colonizing their vast possessions in the New World, then the history of America might have been written in a different manner, and, perhaps, in a different language.