The Township of Nepean was surveyed in 1792. During the first 20 years of its existence, absentee surveyors and speculators held most of the land. Settlement began as a part of the government’s Loyalist land grant system to boost the population. On October 2, 1792, the township was granted to George Hamilton, an Irish veteran of the Revolutionary War who claimed to represent 143 prospective settlers. He failed, however, to attract settlers and his land was left to his relatives in Ireland upon his death. In the 1780s, loyalists were promised that their children would receive grants once they became adults. Between 1800 and 1812, 200 grants (land making up half the township) were given as a result. Of the rest of the land, 2/7 was reserved for the crown and the Protestant clergy. Generally, population growth in Upper Canada was slow in the early 1800s. Loyalist land holdings were continuously passed on from person to person and never settled (Elliott 5-6).

Nepean remained unpopulated until 1810. The nearest settlement was Philemon Wright’s village in Hull and the American colony around Merrickville and Burritt’s Rapids. A military depot at Richmond opened in 1818 brought settlers to Nepean from the British Isles. By 1820, the land on the Ottawa Front was occupied by American lumberman farmers. The eastern lands in the Merivale area were the last to be surveyed. The most isolated areas of the township were less in demand, and later settlers often got land from family members who arrived earlier (Elliott 5-7).

In 1785 one of the wealthiest men in Augusta Township, Rice Honeywell, moved to Prescott with his wife Ruth Allen, the daughter of a Loyalist. Honeywell was a major landowner whose holdings reached a peak of 4,156 acres as of 1807. Rice and Ruth had a son, Ira, who in 1809 bought Lot 26, Consession 1 of Nepean Township from William Knapp (a loyalist from Augusta Township) for 5 pounds (this area is now part of Woodroffe and Carling in Ottawa). In the winter of 1809-10, Ira built a log cabin on the bank of the Ottawa River and cleared 4 acres. In 1811, he brought his wife Polly Andrews and family to their new home. Shortly thereafter, his son John was born making him supposedly the first white child born in Nepean. There were no other settlers in Nepean Township until 1814 when American Jerard B. Chapman settled near the Jock River. The settlement of Nepean was relatively slow, having reached a total population of only 191, divided between 35 families, in 1822 (Elliott 9-10, 13).

Nepean had become a pioneer community by 1824. One of the first communities that started in Nepean Township was Britannia; a settlement started by Captain John LeBreton, who arrived in Nepean Township in 1819. As well as buying up land along the river, LeBreton also built mills where Britannia's settlers could work. In the 1820's attention turned to the Richmond Road. The population increased in 1826 with the abolition of free land grants. Settlers now had to buy land privately from speculators. The Clergy lands had been up for sale since 1819. By 1827, there were 76 families in Nepean; all were dependent on Richmond and Hull for postal service and churches as the swampy condition of the land to the south prevented such services from being established (Elliott 14-15).

John Grierson surveyed March Road in 1829, and Baseline Road opened in 1833. Both were forced roads that followed the lay of the land. The opening of new roads led to the settlement of the communities of Twin Elm, Fallowfield, and Jockvale. (Elliott 18, 28). The Merivale area was settled in the 1830's by individuals mainly from Northern Ireland. Family names included the Nesbitts, Mulligans, Greers, Langs, Craigs. Davidsons, and Clarks. By 1861, 80% of the families were Irish, evenly divided between Protestant and Catholic (Elliott 36-7, 39).