Purchasing Power

While women had participated in the provincial economy prior to the war through their work in households, farms, and limited commercial activity, the War of 1812 created circumstances in which a greater number of women were responsible for financial expenditures and investments and therefore became more deeply involved in the postwar economy of the Niagara District. However, because few women who lived through the war left behind personal account books or detailed estate records, it is difficult to establish a baseline of their physical and financial resources against which to compare losses and compensation payments received in the 1820s. The records of the Board of Claims for Losses provide the best available information about women’s contribution to the economy of postwar Niagara District. The vouchers issued to claimants provide specific figures that help determine the amount of financial capital for which women were responsible. As previously discussed, the payments were limited to thirty-five percent of each claim. In 1824, the government distributed vouchers for 25% of each award, which were signed for by claimants or their agents. Over the next few years, the administration issued additional payments of 10% on the awards. According to the schedule of payments, 89 women from Niagara received £4,889 (about £446,300 today) in total compensation.²⁸⁶ Assuming that the vouchers were fulfilled as promised and retained their value, these payments provided women with financial capital to use as they needed to supplement their current living, to rebuild homes, or to purchase land and goods to support farming.

The total amount of money distributed to women in Niagara was not evenly divided, however, because the government paid compensation at the same percentage across all claims, regardless of circumstances. For example, a woman who claimed £100 would receive £25 of her award, whereas a woman who claimed only £10 would receive only £2/10s, even if she was in a more difficult financial situation. Most of the women who submitted claims received less than £20 and some received amounts that were almost negligible. Hannah Clendenning received only £1/17s/6d, which would have been welcome but hardly life changing.²⁸⁷ Only thirteen women received payments above £100, an amount that would have been roughly sufficient to purchase a new house, barn, stables, and outhouses.²⁸⁸ Such a wide range in payment amounts meant that some women gained more financial power than others and could spend more on higher value items such as homes or land. Regardless of how much money each woman received, however, the decisions about whether to save the money, spend it on rebuilding a home or replacing stolen goods, or invest for their children’s futures were theirs alone.

Women’s involvement in the rebuilding effort also included continued participation in commercial activities and land purchases. At least twenty of the women who made claims in 1823 also appear in various records from registers of deeds and township papers in Niagara as sellers, buyers, heirs, executors, and testators of wills. Some cases provide glimpses of the dynamic nature of rural life in Upper Canada. In Bertie Township, Ann Graham purchased 100 acres in 1814 for $1,000, resold them in 1816 without profit, and then bought 50 acres in 1817 for $600.²⁹⁰ Without further documentation of Graham’s life, it is difficult to know why she purchased and sold a large tract of land before finally buying a smaller lot. She had inherited a farm from her husband, and her war loss claim includes a number of farm goods that were taken or destroyed. Fortunately, she did not suffer the burning of her home or farm during the war. Perhaps Graham hoped to expand her existing farm but could not afford to work such a large holding and so settled for a smaller lot. Whatever her reason for making these deals, Graham’s legacy persisted and the lot she purchased in 1817 still appeared in the Graham name on an 1862 map of the township.

Surviving evidence of Hannah Secord’s life and business deals also provides an example of how women used their war loss compensation to fund expansion of their land holdings and suggests that some women successfully operated or reestablished commercial enterprises after the war. Various sources indicate that Hannah was operating the Secord family grist mill in St. David’s during the war. The story of Laura Secord, her sister-in-law, includes the detail that Laura stopped at Hannah’s house on her way to inform the British about an impending attack.²⁹¹ The mill had been built by Peter Secord and operated by various relatives including Hannah, whose war loss claim includes a line item for ten bushels of wheat and one barrel of flour taken from the mill, along with many other items that were looted and her home which was burned.²⁹² Her claim was valued at nearly £800 which the commissioners reduced to only £500 and then paid out only £178. It seems likely, however, that Hannah Secord used her limited compensation to help reestablish her mill operation, which provided a substantial income and allowed her to engage in land speculation that increased her estate. In 1824, she spent £120 on fifty acres in Grantham Township, which she sold in 1828 as two parcels, one to the Welland Canal Company for £60 and the other to Oliver Phelps for £150 (a total profit of £90). Around the same time, she purchased over 207 acres in Grantham Township from George Young for the sum of £850.²⁹³ Even without access to more detailed information about Hannah’s life, these few surviving records suggest that she was significantly involved in commerce and development in the Niagara District during the postwar years.