Item #116711 South Australia. Peculiar Land Order. (Part 1.) No. 84 [a printed document with manuscript insertions, issued to Captain Daniel Pring, who 'played an indispensable part in protecting the Montreal frontier during the War of 1812']. South Australia.

South Australia. Peculiar Land Order. (Part 1.) No. 84 [a printed document with manuscript insertions, issued to Captain Daniel Pring, who 'played an indispensable part in protecting the Montreal frontier during the War of 1812']

Folio (324 × 198 mm), one leaf, printed recto and verso (the latter gives information on transferring the order: 'As the Land Order is issued in Duplicate, both Copies, (marked Part 1 and Part 2) must be transferred'); blind-stamped seal at the foot of the document, signed (see below) and dated 3 May 1838.

Creased where folded, with minimal wear in a few tiny spots; three short marginal splits neatly sealed; left-hand edge slightly chipped and a little unevenly trimmed; in very good condition.

The land order, issued in London, states that 'Captain Daniel Pring of Guildford Street hath paid for One Section of Rural Land, consisting of Eighty Acres, and also for Ten other Acres of Town Land, forming a portion of the 9,000 Acres purchased by certain Directors of an Association for the purchase of one or more special survey or surveys of Land in South Australia'. The document is signed by two Colonization Commissioners for South Australia (Josiah Roberts and Jacob Montefiore), and the Secretary, Rowland Hill. Sir Rowland Hill (1795-1879), British administrator, educator and social reformer, is perhaps best remembered for 'originating the basic concepts of the modern postal service, including the invention of the postage stamp ... [but he also] served from 1833 until 1839 as secretary of the South Australian Colonization Commission, which worked successfully to establish a settlement without convicts at what is today Adelaide' (Wikipedia). Daniel Pring (1788-1846), a British naval officer, did not settle on the land in question, nor did he emigrate. However, his lengthy entry in the 'Canadian Dictionary of National Biography' indicates he played a significant role in Canada's history: 'Neither Pring nor his contemporaries were forthcoming about his private affairs. He spent his first years, and his years on half pay, at his home in Devon, Ivedon Penn. When he died he left a considerable amount of land to his widow and other property to a close friend in Tavistock. There is no known portrait of Pring and no memorial. The fact remains that he played an indispensable part in protecting the Montreal frontier during the War of 1812'.

Item #116711

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