McNab Settlement
Archibald McNab (c.1781-1860), seventeenth chief of Clan McNab (Macnab), came to Canada in 1822. He obtained 33,000 ha on the Ottawa River in 1823 and two years later brought over 84 fellow Scots to begin colonization. McNab treated these and subsequent settlers like vassals in a feudal domain, forcing them to pay illegal rent and demanding an annual allotment of their crops. He lived in grand style while the settlers, ignorant of their rights, endured poverty. Word spread, and in 1840 a government investigation revoked McNab's settlement rights. With the removal of their tyrannical laird, the Highland immigrants prospered on the lands of McNab township.
Plaque via Alan L. Brown's site Ontario Plaques. Full page here.