Richmond Military Settlement 1818

In August, 1818, some thirty disbanded veterans of the 99th Regiment, led by Captain G.T. Burke, arrived in newly surveyed Goulbourn Township. These formed the advanced party of a military settlement planned and supported by the quartermaster-general's department. Here they laid out a town site named after the governor general, the Duke of Richmond. Storehouses were built, settlers' cabins erected and the colonists provided with farm implements and rations. Under the general supervision of Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Cockburn, about 400 heads of families, including some civilians, were established in the settlement by the end of 1818, thus forming the first large community within the present Carleton County.