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JOSHUA YOUNG COZENS, Upper Canada Sundries, Ontario

JOSHUA YOUNG COZENS, Upper Canada Sundries, Ontario

Posted: 25 Aug 2014 3:36AM GMT
Classification: Biography
Edited: 25 Aug 2014 10:20PM GMT
Long Documents, with lots of family information:
UPPER CANADA PETITION 69
> To Lieut. Governor John Colborne, KCB of Upper Canada.
May it please your Excellency having received an unfavourable answer to my petition praying to have my name insured in the U.E. [Loyalist] List of this Province, I feel it is duty to my family to inform you what is stated in my petition but I conceived the vouchers are sufficient, my affidavit as a Gentleman, Christian can be received as evidence. I was born 17 Aug., 1766, and often being sent on official services under the directions of my father I was sent to my Uncle Captain Daniel Cozens who Commended a light infantry Company during the whole of the American War and was in all principal engagements in Colonel Allan's Provincial 3rd Regiment of Jersey Volunteers but as being exchanged as a prisoner was attached to the 42nd shortly before the restoration.
I did duty in my Uncles Company as a Cadet in 1781. Carried a Fusle arm, 18 rounds and was in several engagements fought against Loyalist and was taken prisoner at York Town, Virginia with Lord Cornwallis's army being then in my 16th year and remained with my Uncle's Company until the evacuation of the troops at New York in 1783.
I am confident that I rendered personally as much actual service to my King in the different services during the Revolutionary War as any soldier without exceptions within the Scouting Regiments Commanded by Sir John Johnson and Colonel Butler who all (being under my age) to the U.E. List. Please give my petition a hearing. Your Memoralist as in duty bound will ever pray,
Signed will flourish, Cornwall, 6 November, 1833m J Y Cozens.

Envelope: Signed John Strachan, P.L. [ i.e. Bishop of Toronto! ], Entered on the U.E. List, Council Office 5 Apr., 1834.

Re: JOSHUA YOUNG COZENS, Upper Canada Sundries, Ontario.2

Posted: 25 Aug 2014 3:42AM GMT
Classification: Query
Edited: 25 Aug 2014 10:19PM GMT
UPPER CANADA PETITION 69, continued:

> Eastern District, Before me, one of Justice of the Peace before me of the said District, personally appeared Joshua Y Cozens of Town of Cornwall, Esquire, duly sworn deposeth & saith he was born 17 August 1766 in Colony, now State of New Jersey, 12 miles from the City of Philadelphia, as appears by his father's Registration; that there was a formidable Garrison erected by the Revolutionist on the banks of the Delaware, 2 miles from his father's residency and who owned 4,000 acres of land adjoining the Garrison called Billingspor. The vast quantity of timber to erect said Garrison, as also to erect bridges across the Delaware 3 miles above said Garrison was taken from off his deponents father's forests without leave and never paid for in any respect, he having joined the British Standard at the commencement of the war. His father was acting as head engineer by the appointment of General Clinton in 1st Stockade? bridge to admit the British fleet to get up the River to the City of Philadelphia; after which being engaged as a guide for the British Forces, ordered deponent to be brought from Princetown College School in the year 1778 and sent to this father at the said Garrison of Billingsport then in possession of British Troops, who kept him employed in carrying letters & giving information of the movements of the American Rebel forces until the year 1781 when he was sent with a letter between the seals of his sand less ? to his Uncle Captain Daniel Cozens who was doing his duty as a British Captain with Lord Cornwallis's army in the Southern Colonies; that the deponent process through General Wes? Kingston's; leaving, was striped naked and his clothes searched for letters that said dispatches so concealed were safely delivered to his Uncle (who he told G. Washington was his father to whom he was going); Said dispatch contained intelligence of Washington's army being sent on its march to the Southland to reinforce Layette's army.

And this deponent further saith hat his Uncle introduced him to Lord Cornwallis as his nephew and altho' so young had rendered great service under his father's direction in conveying intelligence of the movements of the Rebel Forces and often acting as a guide to detachments off British troops that his Lordship ordered him to be put upon the strength of Colonel Vandyke's Colonial Regiment as a Cadet in the his Uncle's Company. He was clothed in one uniform and equipped and served in his Uncle's Company and was in several server engagements against Loyalist army when the British Forces surrendered at Yorktown in Virginia, when he went with his Uncle to the City of New York whence the Regiment was Sxxd and his Uncle's & his Company went to Nova Scotia and he & other boy returned to their parents.

The deponent received soldier's pay and rations during the said servitude of nearly 2 years and also received a Discharge Certificate from Col. Cardike? being a handsome recommendation which was burnt in his father's brick home that was consumed by accident in the year 1790. He was employed in carrying dispatches from Mr. Hammond the British Minister from 1790 until 1793 when he moved to Upper Canada and remains as such to the present time. Further he did his duty zealously and actively as a captain in First Regiment Storming Militia during the late [1812] war with the United States and in a expedition as a Volunteer under the command of Col. Scot's 103rd and was severely wounded by a sleigh upsetting and falling on him when commanding and piloting a large Brigade of Sleighs loaded with stores taken from the enemy in a dark night, which fractured his right arm near the shoulder, dislocated his shoulder joint which is still in a state of dislocation the which he received the Provincial Pension of £20 annually and is made a great cripple in deed.
Sworn before at Cornwall, in said District, 21 Day February, 1834, XXSignature, J.P. and D Y Cozens, Ens.

In Council, 22 Feb., 1834, Joshua Cozens shall rec. a grant of 50 A. off the front of Lots 23 & 24, North Side Bleams Road, Twp. of Wilmot upon paying the survey fee.
Ref: Upper Canada Land Petitions, C1727, p.556 Archives of Canada.

Joshua Young Cozens Petition 69 was transcribed by PJ Ahlberg, U.E., Toronto, 2014.

Re: JOSHUA YOUNG COZENS, Upper Canada Sundries, Ontario.3

Posted: 25 Aug 2014 4:02AM GMT
Classification: Query
Edited: 25 Aug 2014 10:04PM GMT
UPPER CANADA PETITION OF 1816 January 16
To Governor Francis Gore, of Upper Canada,
Petition of Joshua Young Cozen of Cornwall, Eastern District of Upper Canada.

Your Petitioner came into the Province again the year 1793 at the expressed request of Lieut. Governor Simcoe who was personally acquainted with his service during the the Revolutionary War with the American Colonies. He was employed in carrying the private dispatches between the Governors of Canada and the British Minister in the United States for upwards of 4 years, often at the risk of his life.
During which time your petitioner was advised by the Governor to purchase rights of certain associates which had townships granted them in Upper Canada, that the Government would convey Letters of Patent in consequence your petitioner was at the expense of finding agents in England to bring emigrants to settle in lands and paid his last £1500 in this business which townships were whence exchanged and he never received any remuneration when Gov. Simcoe was convinced that Patents obtained said land, he promised to place your petitioner in some office in the Province, but [shortly then] called to Santos Domingo [i.e. to be the new Governor] and not returning to the Province your petitioner was left destitute and obliged to submit to his Fate by earning subsistence by his pen.

Your Petitioner engaged to write in the office of the late Jacob Ferrand of Cornwall, then Clerk of the Peace for three Counties, for the sums of £50 per year with the promise that at his expiration he would assign him the Office of Register in his favor. But he dying when your petitioner was on a journey from Cornwall to York on his business, a memorial being immediately sent to the Governor from the late Job? McGray. The Commission were made out in favor of the Nephew, John Law Ferrand, a young man of 20 years. He consented to be his Deputy in order to feed his family with a Promise from him of resigning the Registry Office to your petitioner at the time he would be admitted as Barrister at Law, him having 4 years of study of Law. Your petition had to leave his office without being compensated for his mode living rendering in him incapable of complaint to Justice to the Peace.

- Your petitioner was ardently solicited to accept the appointment as Judge of the District & Surrogate Courts by the magistrates and attorneys of the said District. Your Excellency may recollect that he applied for the Clerkship of the District Court which your Excellency was please to have given him recommendations. Produced, it had not been previously promised to the friend of the Solicitor General, being at that time certain of obtaining Mr. Farrand's office, which in all probability he x many months & the Clerkship would go together and which was the principal object of your petitioner to support a large helpless family, but to the utter astonishment of your petitioner - and the Inhabitant of the Eastern District at large - application had been made to the President and a promise obtained of Clerk of the Peace and Register for the said District in favor of Archibald McLean, a boy studying Law with the Attorney General - at York, 18 months previous to Mr. Ferrand's death, was which deprived your petitioner of making known one of the montybank? claims presented to a Governor.
Your Petitioner & at least 500 of the most respectable inhabitants of district have interested themselves in his favor for the said offices as having claims of any person whatsoever. That at the time of the death of Mr. John Law Ferrand, Mr. Archibald McLean being a Captain of the Incorporated Militia and a prisoner in the United States, his father thought it advisable to get the Commissions made out in the name of his son John as a matter of accommodation until Arch. McLean was actually residing at Prescott District of Johnston town largely missing as an inhabitant and there being no person in fact capable of transacting law offices especially that of the Clerk of Peace, except your petitioner - there being no attorneys residing therein.

A proposition was made to your petitioner to accept the necessity of your petitioner's family caused him to which to agree to a write for one year, for one half the profits & he received the books from Mr. Ferrand's late office and he had done the business he flatters himself with satisfaction of the inhabitants than if never was in said District previous. Your petitioner's time will expire in a month's time and no doubt Archibald McLean will apply to your Excellency in a few days to cancel Mr. John's and order then made out in his name, he no doubt will be supported by his father and first number of the first characters of consequence at head quarters.

Your unfortunate petitioner's consequences will not admit of his traveling to York or should be enable to further convince your Excellency of the justice of the claims. He does not hold office of profit in the Province, he has the honor of being a Commissioner of Peace, once as Magistrate and as Captain in the First Regiment Stormont Militia. Since 1810 rank as a Volunteer with Colonel Scot on the late expedition of the State of New York.

He had his right shoulder dislocated and the bone of his arm being so badly fractured that it could not heal in place which causes your unfortunate petitioner incapable for life peril to support a family of a wife and eleven children mostly helpless with a crippled arm, and for which he has not received the smallest remuneration nor never can, as Colonel Scott was unfortunately killed shortly after. Should your Excellency doubt of the the truth of this Memorial or any part thereof, your petitioner begs your Excellency would be pleased to refer to Wm. Lannis P Sherwood, Mr. Chrysler, Mr. McMartin, Mr. Allen's, Members of Parliament for the Eastern District, also Reverence Priest McDonnell of Glengarry.
With a confidence in your Excellency's examining into the Just Claims of the Subject which was so fully and frequently received, from your Excellency levying the Province.
Your petitioner flatters himself tin the Justice thought you will once wrote your commissions to be made out in his name at least that of Register for the Counties of Stormont, Dundas & Russell, and your petitioner will every pray.

Signed with much flourish, 22 January, 1816, J. Y. Cozens.

Envelope: Joshua Y Cozen, Memorandum written.
I spoke with Col. Fraser as to the facts. If the Petitioner was qualified under the deputations of W John McLean & the magistrates approved his conduct, it would be evident to accept his ccharacter, when it should be come permissible. Mr. Cozens may be appointed Clerk of the Peace should Archibald McLean resign it. [Note: Rewritten two more times!] (Initial, Register.)
Ref: Upper Canada Sundries, C4546, p. 391-5, Archives of Canada.

Joshua Young Cozens Petition was transcribed by PJ Ahlberg, U.E., Toronto, 2014.

Re: JOSHUA YOUNG COZENS, Cornwall, Stormont Co., Ontario.4

Posted: 25 Aug 2014 4:04AM GMT
Classification: Query
Edited: 25 Aug 2014 10:05PM GMT
- Meeting of the parishioners held in the Presbyterian meeting house, it was resolved to collect the money subscribed, and to proceed with the erection of the church, and Samuel Anderson, John Pescod, and Joshua Young Cozens were appointed a committee to superintend the work, which appears to have been completed in January, 1806. On the 26th day of that month a meeting was held in the church for the purpose of selling the pews, when forty-two parishioners became purchasers. The list of the names, and of the sums bid, is as follows: Joshua Y Cozens.
Ref: Luneburg, The OLD EASTERN DISTRICT, (inc. Cornwall, ON.), By J F Pringle, 1890.

Re: JOSHUA YOUNG COZENS, & Chief Joseph Brant.5

Posted: 25 Aug 2014 10:17PM GMT
Classification: Query
Edited: 25 Aug 2014 11:57PM GMT
Upper Canada Land Petition 281 - NELSON COZEN [son of Joshua Y Cozens]
is perhaps the longest petition the Government Council had to review at 85 pages long! Some pages are duplicate copies of documents previously submitted.

In 1796 Nov 2 Joshua Y Cozens apparently paid £500 to £1000 for 92,000 ACRES of land to Chief Joseph Brant for land granted in his name for the Five Nations Reserve to resettle the Natives on the Grand River at what is now called Brantford, Ontario. It is known that Chief Brant did sell and lease parts the reserve to raise money for his people. The land for the City of Brantford was purchased from the Reserve Land.

Cozens produced a COPY of a signed deed which could not be authenticated because, Joseph Brant and the lawyer-witnesses were all deceased. After more than a decade it was finally ruled that even if the deed were authentic, Joseph Brant was not authorized to sell the land in the name of the Five Nations. On 8th September, 1835 the Upper Canada Council remarked, "It is remarkable that Cozens allows so many years to elapse before pressing his claim."

Joshua Y Cozens died in 1852 at the age of 86 years.

The the long documents do provide some biographical information for the Cozens family.

Ref: Upper Canada Land Petitions Pages 1096 to 1184, Archives of Canada

Re: JOSHUA YOUNG COZENS, & Chief Joseph Brant.5

Posted: 22 Jan 2015 2:52PM GMT
Classification: Query
Hi . J. Young from Cornwall Ontario Canada here . I noticed all of your recent activity on Joshua Young Cozens , who was a Justice of the Peace and noted citizen of Cornwall . I have long been curious as to the Young name , as that could have been his Mother's Surname . If you have no info on this , then no responce necessary . Thanks .
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