812.--Captain Nairne on Lake
Ontario.--Quebec Society and the proposed flight from danger to
Murray Bay.--Anxiety at Murray Bay.--The progress of the War.--An
American attack on Kingston.--Captain Nairne on the Niagara
frontier.--Naval War on Lake Ontario.--Nairne's description of a
naval engagement.--Sense of impending disaster at Murray Bay.--The
American advance on Montreal by the St. Lawrence.--Nairne's
regiment a part of the opposing British force.--The Battle of
Crysler's Farm.--Nairne's death.--His body taken to Quebec.--The
grief of the family at Murray Bay.--The funeral.

At his father's death Thomas Nairne was the only surviving son. In 1791
the father had written of this boy, born in 1787 and thus only four
years old: "Tom continues very stout but not easy to manage and [I] am
afraid it will be difficult to separate [him] from his mother. He does
not speak a word of English; neither do your sisters Mary (now called
Polly) or Anny speak any other language than French; but I intend to
send them all to Quebec next summer, where it's to be hoped they will
soon learn to understand a little English." So to Quebec Tom was sent to
begin his education. By 1798, when only eleven years old, he had gone to
the relatives in Scotland and Nairne's friend, Ker, writes of him: "I
think Tommie one of the sweetest tempered fine boys I ever saw and he
will, I doubt not, be the comfort and delight of you all." Polly was
there too--"a very good girl ... of great use to her Aunts to whom she
pays every attention." Tom, like his brother John, was carefully
instructed by his father. He must look after himself, dress, care for
his clothes, and keep clean, without troubling others. Especially must
he try to think clearly and speak distinctly--truly a sound beginning of
education. His brother's death in 1799 made him an important person, the
pride of his house. "There are many Tams now in this parish," wrote his
father in 1801, "even a part of it is named St. Thomas, all in
compliment to our Tom." At the time of his father's death in 1802, a boy
of fifteen, Tom was attending the Edinburgh High School. Before me lies
a coverless account book of octavo size in which are written by some
careful person, in clear round-hand, recipes, scraps of poetry, problems
in arithmetic and geometry, and among other things, "Tom's Expenses,
1796." A quarter at the High School costs 10/6, "Lattin books," 4/-,