I am trying to establish an approximate date of birth for an ancestor John Pencil, Jr of Fredericksburg. This is what I have: An extra male child appears on the provisions list in Crowder's Early Ontario Settlers in 1786 for the family of John Pencil, Sr. who is allotted land in Fredericksburg for his service with Butler's Rangers.
I assumed that this additional male child was John Pencil, Jr. (His parents had no other children between them - other children on the list were from a previous marriage).
John Jr, however, does not petition for land as an SUE until 1810. Some military records also show John Jr's approximate date of birth to be 1789 instead of 1786.
Sticking with the possible 1786 birth year he would have been 24 when he petitioned and not the usual age 21.
I have adjusted my thinking to this possible scenario: the child born in 1786 may have died and John Jr was actually born 1789. Problem here is that his baptism does not appear in the Rev Langhorn records where the rest of his step-siblings are getting married and having kids baptized.
Another scenario would be that John Jr was delayed in applying for his SUE petition for some unknown reason. John Jr. does mention that he is from Fredericksburg and his father has died in the 1810 petition.
My question: when was the law permitting sons and daughters of Loyalists to receive land grants passed? could it have been after 1807? If the law wasn't passed yet, maybe this is why John Jr waited until 1810.