Crawford Purchase
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The Crawford Purchase was an agreement that surrendered lands that extended west along the north shore of the St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario from the Mississaugas to the British crown to enable Loyalist settlement in what is now a part of eastern Ontario, Canada. The agreement was made in 1783 in exchange for various items. It was the first of a sequence of agreements between the British and the Mississaugas ultimately covering most of southeastern Ontario.
Land in the eastern region of what is now Ontario was being settled by Loyalists and their Native allies in 1783. This area was historically territory of the Anishinaabe, more specifically the Algonquin[1] and Mississauga nations. It had come under the control of the Iroquois during the Beaver Wars in the second half of the 17th century. The Mississaugas had recovered the territory by 1700.[2][3] Since land to the west of the Province of Quebec had been reserved as "Indian reserve" land via the Royal Proclamation of 1763, the British required an arrangement to be worked out with the Mississaugas before the land became organized for settlement.