Richard Beasley and early days on Burlington Heights
A talk given to the MacNab Circle
at Dundurn Castle, Hamilton, Ontario on February 19, 2007.

and

The political education of Richard Beasley
A talk given to the Waterloo Chapter of the PA German Folklore Society
at the Community Centre, New Dundee, Ontario on April 26, 2007.

Author: David R. Beasley
ISBN: 978-0-915317-23-3
Paper: $5.00 Cdn & US

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Burlington Heights overlooking Burlington Bay and Lake Ontario at the head of the lake was a meeting place for American Indians through the centuries, the site of a fur trading post and later estate belonging to Squire Richard Beasley, the central nerve centre and headquarters for troops during the War of 1812, and the stage for many dramatic, violent and colorful scenes in the half-century that Richard Beasley lived there before he lost the land to Allan MacNab who built Dundurn Castle there.

As a magistrate and Colonel of the 2nd York militia, Richard Beasley experienced a political vendetta from the Tory oligarchy that began when he tried to help Chief Joseph Brant bring settlers into Waterloo County and, as speaker of the Upper Canada House of Assembly, worked with the liberal element for the benefit of the settlers. Historical characters such as Reverend John Strachan, Colonel William Claus, Major Titus Simons and the Honorable Richard Cartwright infiltrate Beasley's life to give him a political education.