Col. Thomas Talbot, 1853 James B. Wandesforde Private Collection Wandesforde, an itinerant artist from Goderich, was active in the area before 1870. His portraits of several members of the Harris family can be seen today at Eldon House. This portrait of a vigorous -looking Col. Talbot was probably done from a photograph as it is dated the year Talbot died. Most of southwestern Ontario was settled between 1800 and 1850 by the provincial government through a variety of land agents, provincial land boards and bureaucrats. In the London District, the job was enthusiastically taken up by a young officer of the imperial army who had served as Lt.-Gov. Simcoe's private secretary, and had accompanied him to the Forks in 1793. Ten years later, he left a promising military career in England and returned to the unsettled wilderness of Southwestern Ontario. Col. Talbot and his surveyor, Mahlon Burwell, opened most of the important roads through the District. This was done by locating early settlers on lots fronting on the roadway and requiring them to clear their portion of the road. This was among a series of "settlement duties" whose completion was required before title to the grant was conferred. Other duties included clearing a small number of acres and building a log house within a few years of locating on the lot. Once the duties were completed, the settler paid the patent fee and obtained the deed to his land.Though scrupulous about the performance of settlement duties, Talbot often extended the time limit for well-intentioned settlers. Those who truly neglected their duties, however, had their names literally rubbed off his location map. By the end of his active period, in 1837, nearly 40,000 people were living in the 27 townships he settled, stretching from Long Point in Norfolk County to the Detroit River. Thanks to his careful selection of settlers and efficient supervision, southwestern Ontario developed more quickly than many other parts of the province. For more information read Gerald M. Craig, Upper Canada: The Formative Years and Fred Coyne Hamil, Colonel Thomas Talbot: Lake Erie Baron