Certificate to Laura Secord

I do hereby certify that Mrs. Secord, the wife of James Secord, of Chippawa, Esq., did, in the month of June, 1813, walk from her house in the village of St. Davids to Decamp's house in Thorold, by a circuitous route of about twenty miles, partly through the woods, to acquaint me that the enemy intended to attempt by surprise to capture a detachment of the 49th regiment, then under my command, she having obtained such knowledge from good authority, as the event proved. Mrs. Secord was a person of slight and delicate frame, and made the effort in weather excessively warm, and I dreaded at the time that she must suffer in health in consequence of fatigue and anxiety, she having been exposed to danger from the enemy, through whose line of communication she had to pass. The attempt was made on my detachment, by the enemy and his detachment, consisting of upwards of 500 men, with a feild-piece, and fifty dragoons were captured in consequence. I write this certificate from memory, and it is therefore thus brief.

Signed, James FitzGibbon

Formerly Lieutenant in the 49th Regt.