From Robert Fraser:
This information will appear in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography University of Toronto Press, Volume
7.
A coloured man Richard Pierpoint was granted land in West Garafraxa Township in 1820, on the 1st
concession, Lot #6
(Approximate area of John Black School and Wintermute’s home of 1831 which was supposed to be the
only settler north of the Village of Fergus in 1833)
In November 1826 the Surveyor General’s office inspected and patented the land because 5 acres had
been cleared, 1/2 road allowance had been cleared and a 16′ x 20′ structure had been erected.
Richard Pierpoint died sometime in 1838 as his will was proved September 2, 1838 and the land was left
to Leneuel Brown.
Richard Pierpoint was a black slave born in 1744 in Senegal, West Coast Africa. He was brought by slave
trader in 1760 to the U.S. and was sold to a British Regimental Officer. During the American Revolution
c1776 he enlisted in Butler’s Rangers. He settled in the Niagara region, Grantham Township, Niagara
County in 1784 and was listed as a labourer.
In 1794 his name was listed on a petition to have a separate area of land given to coloured people where
they could live and hire themselves out to the whites in the area. Simcoe turned down the petition
because he wanted them to integrate into the community.
In the war of 1812 he volunteered to establish a Black Corp and in this connection served at Fort George
and Fort Mississauga.
In the 1820 there was an amendment to the militia laws and Richard Pierpoint applied for assistance to
return to Africa. He apparently was refused but was given a land grant instead in West Garafraxa.
Richard Pierpoint was unmarried and went by the name of ‘Captain Dick’ Pierpoint Parepoint Pawpine
Paupine. There were two other blacks, Robert Jupiter and John Van Tattan who were given land in West Garafraxa also.
