Collection search - Deed of Feoffment - The Messissague Nation to His Britannick Majesty - IT 005

GAD Reference number: IT 005;
Indian Affairs' consecutive no.: 3
Aboriginal people(s): Messissague Nation;
Aboriginal individual(s): Wabakanyne, Wabanip, Kautabus, Wabaniship, Mattotow;
Other party(ies): John Graves Simcoe, Lieutenant Governor for King George III
Type of Document: Surrender of land and extinguishment of title (indenture) - Docket title: "Deed of Feoffment"
Specific purpose(s): A more precise description of the boundaries of land surrendered in 1784/05/22 including "woods, ways, paths waters, watercourses and appurtenances thereunto belonging" and the Mississauga nation will allow roads to be built, navigation on rivers and lakes and free trade to be carried out unmolested through their country.
Land involved: Tract of land between Lakes Ontario and Erie in Lincoln, Brant, Oxford, Elgin, Wellington, Middlesex, Norfolk, Haldimand and Welland Counties - See document.
Form: Manuscript original

The document has 13 covered seals and five doodem (clan, also known by the anglicized term totem) signatures. There is possibly one seal too many for number of signatories, thus one seal has a large "X" over it.

The document is laminated with tissue. The upper edge has pieces missing or was irregularly cut. Fold lines are torn, dirty, and small pieces missing. The document should probably have been conserved as two leaves rather than as a single sheet, as it is presently.

Indian Treaties and Surrenders (Coles' 1971 Reprint): Vol. I, pages 1-5.

This document is also available on microfilm reel T-9938.