ABSTRACT
In the time-honoured language of the naval prayer, seamen looked forward to enjoying 'the blessings of the land with the fruits of their labours'. It is a reasonable assumption that seems to be borne out by other evidence that every naval officer settling in the province took advantage of the grant to which he was entitled; therefore the lists of land grants or equivalent benefits provide a solid foundation for analysing the group. The Proclamation of 1763 contained the first scale of grants of Crown Lands in the colonies, as a reward for military service. Settlement policies not having been particularly successful in Upper Canada between 1815 and 1826, Lord Bathurst instituted the New South Wales system, named after the practice being followed in the colony of that name in Australia. Naval officers tended to settle near each other even though they were located in townships from one end of the province to another.
