Skip to main content

Full text of "Chapters in the history of Halifax, Nova Scotia: Rhode Island Settlers in Hants County, Nova Scotia: Alexander McNutt the Colonizer"

See other formats


/,, 


^ixtt 


HIS  EXCELLENCY  WILLIAM  SHIRLEY,  ESQB. 

Captain    General   and  Governor  in  Chief,  etc.,  of  the  Province 

of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  in  New  England  and  Colonel  of 

one  of  His  Majesty's  Regiments  of  Foot 


AMERICANA 

April    1915 

Chapters   in  the  History  of  Halifax, 
Nova   Scotia 

No.  I— THE  FOUNDING  OF  HALIFAX  IN  1749 
BY  ARTHUR  WENTWORTH  HAMILTON  EATON,  M.  A.,  D.  C.  L. 

When  England's  power  at  last  would  be  complete 
On  all  the  tide-washed  shores  of  Acadie, 

She  sent  Cornwall  is  with  a  friendly  fleet 
To  found  this  goodly  city  by  the  sea. 

Acadian  Ballads. 


I 


HE  history  of  Nova  Scotia  has  an  interest  wholly 
disproportionate  to  the  size  and  remote  geograph- 
ical position  of  the  small  peninsula  which  with  the 
island  of  Cape  Breton  constitutes  the  present  prov- 
ince bearing  that  name.  Of  the  nine  British  provinces  that  com- 
pose the  Dominion  of  Canada,  Nova  Scotia  stands  lowest  but 
one  in  point  of  size,  but  on  the  stage  which  her  comparatively 
small  land  area  presents  have  been  enacted  some  of  the  most 
striking  events  which  find  place  in  the  drama  of  American  his- 
tory.1 It  was  the  peninsula  of  Nova  Scotia  that  formed  the 
chief  part  of  the  ancient  French  province  of  Acadia,  it  was  here 
that  the  first  permanent  European  settlement  except  James- 
town, Virginia,  was  made,  and  it  was  from  the  wooden  walls 
of  this  new  world  Port  Royal,  that  the  white  flag  of  the  Bour- 
bons, proclaiming  France's  ownership  of  Acadia,  long  flew  to 


i.  The  province  of  Nova  Scotia  (with  the  island  of  Cape  Breton)  comprises 
21,428  square  miles,  or  13,713,771  acres.  It  has  a  total  population  of  492,338.  Of 
this  number,  122,084  afe  'n  the  island  of  Cape  Breton,  370,254  in  the  peninsula. 
The  city  of  Halifax,  together  with  Dartmouth,  its  main  suburb  (across  the  har- 
bour), has  a  population  of  51,677.  The  city  itself,  however,  has  only  46,619.  Of 
other  towns,  Nova  Scotia  has  but  six  that  have  populations  of  over  five  thousand, 
these  are:  Sydney,  17,723;  Sydney  Mines,  7,470;  New  Glasgow,  6,383;  Truro,  6,- 
107;  Springhill,  5,713;  North  Sydney,  5,418. 

269 


270          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

the  breeze.  In  the  island  of  Cape  Breton,  which  for  many 
years  now  has  been  part  of  Nova  Scotia,  though  it  was  originally 
not  comprehended  in  Acadia,  France  reared  her  strongest  for- 
tress in  the  new  world  except  Quebec,  and  it  was  in  the  present 
province  of  Nova  Scotia  at  large,  as  at  Louisburg  and  Beause- 
jour,  that  some  of  the  most  vigorous  military  movements  which 
resulted  in  the  complete  overthrow  of  French  power  on  the  con- 
tinent were  pursued. 

In  the  tragedy  of  the  expulsion  of  the  Acadians  from  the 
shores  of  Grand  Pre  in  1755,  Longfellow  found  the  theme  for  a 
narrative  poem  of  remarkable  beauty,  the  world-famed  Evan- 
geline,  but  almost  from  the  beginning  of  New  England,  Boston 
enterprise  had  found  play  at  various  spots  on  the  Acadian  sea- 
coast,  and  at  last  in  1760  a  tide  of  New  Englanders,  from  Mas- 
sachusetts, Rhode  Island,  and  Connecticut,  swept  into  Nova 
Scotia  and  made  the  desolate  Acadian  farms  and  many  never 
previously  cultivated  places  in  the  province  blossom  as  the  rose. 
At  the  Revolution,  between  1775  and  1783,  from  thirty  to  thirty- 
five  thousand  Loyalists  for  a  longer  or  shorter  time  found  refuge 
in  Nova  Scotia,  and  here,  in  the  old  province,  or  in  that  part  of 
it  that  in  the  latter  year,  on  the  demand  of  the  Tories  was  set 
off  as  the  province  of  New  Brunswick,  a  very  considerable  num- 
ber found  all  the  scope  that  remained  to  them  for  the  rest  of 
their  days  for  the  distinguished  abilities  they  had  manifested  in 
their  native  provinces— abilities  which,  directed  in  favor  of  Eng- 
land, had  made  them  supremely  hateful  to  the  leaders  of  the 
American  cause. 

In  the  year  1749  George  II.  was  on  the  throne  of  England 
and  Louis  XV.  on  the  throne  of  France.  On  the  eighteenth  of 
October  of  the  preceding  year  the  long,  wasteful  struggle  be- 
tween France  and  England  known  as  the  "war  of  the  Austrian 
Succession,"  which  began  in  1744,  had  come  to  an  end,  and  by 
the  treaty  of  Aix  la  Chapelle,  which  signalized  its  close,  the 
strong  fortress  of  Louisburg,  won  to  England  chiefly  by  the 
fierce  determination  of  New  England  militia  troops  in  1745,  in 
exchange  for  Madras  had  been  blindly  restored  by  the  British 
plenipotentiaries  to  France.  In  England  the  inglorious  Pelham 
ministry  was  in  power,  and  in  France  Madame  de  Pompadour 


THE   HISTORY   OF   HALIFAX,    NOVA   SCOTIA        271 

was  at  the  height  of  her  influence  over  the  volatile  king,  whose 
subjects  were  having  a  short  breathing  spell  before  the  begin- 
ning of  another  seven  years  war.  In  New  England,  William 
Shirley,  the  most  powerful  Englishman  in  America,  whose  influ- 
ence as  an  adviser  of  the  crown  and  a  director  of  American 
affairs  had  been  conspicuously  felt  here  before  the  beginning  of 
the  then  recent  war,  and  had  contributed  more  than  that  of  any 
other  public  servant  of  the  crown  to  the  final  overthrow  of 
French  power  on  the  continent,  was  governor  of  the  province 
of  Massachusetts  Bay. 

At  the  head  of  Annapolis  Basin,  on  the  Bay  of  Fundy  shore 
of  Nova.  Scotia,  stood  the  scattered  village  and  dilapidated  for- 
tress of  Annapolis  Royal,  which  since  the  destruction  by  a  French 
force  from  Louisburg  under  Du  Vivier,  in  May,  1744,  of  the 
small  garrison  at  Canso,  and  the  removal  of  the  men  as  prison- 
ers to  Louisburg,  had  been  the  only  important  centre  of  Eng- 
lish influence  in  the  whole  province.  Of  other  inhabitants  of 
English  extraction  and  speech,  save  about  the  fort  of  Annapolis 
Royal,  there  were  very  few,  and  these  scattering  New  England 
fishermen  and  small  traders  and  in  Cumberland,  miners,  who 
probably,  for  the  most  part,  in  winter  returned  to  their  New 
England  homes. 

The  successful  campaign,  which  included  in  its  scope  every 
position  where  the  French  had  strongly  intrenched  themselves 
throughout  America,  was  planned  and  in  large  measure  car- 
ried out  under  the  direct  supervision  of  Shirley.  In  Cape  Bre- 
ton the  fortress  of  Louisburg  frowned  threateningly  not  only  on 
the  British  ownership  of  Acadia,  but  on  "his  Majesty's  interest 
and  the  security  and  prosperity  of  the  colonies  of  New  England," 
and  second  in  importance  to  that,  within  the  confines  of  Nova 
Scotia,  was  Fort  Beausejour,  near  the  isthmus  of  Chignecto,  in 
what  is  now  the  county  of  Cumberland  in  this  historic  province. 
The  destruction  of  both  forts  was  in  Shirley's  plan  of  cam- 
paign, and  inspired  by  his  determination  and  roused  to  greater 
action  by  racial  antagonism  and  religious  zeal,  New  England 
militia  troops,  assisted  at  Louisburg  by  British  war-ships,  in 
1745  effected  the  overthrow  of  Louisburg,  and  ten  years  later 
made  successful  capture  of  the  lesser  fort.  To  determine  prop- 


272          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

erly  the  direct  responsibility  for  the  expulsion  of  the  Acadians 
in  1755,  it  is  necessary  to  read  carefully  the  correspondence  of 
Shirley  with  his  superiors  in  England  and  his  fellow  crown 
officials  in  the  various  American  colonies.  The  question  of  how 
best  to  neutralize  the  influence  of  the  French  in  Nova  Scotia,  so 
that  in  any  future  designs  France  might  have  on  the  new  world 
they  should  be  harmless,  was  frequently  in  Shirley's  mind,  and, 
as  is  well  known,  his  proposal  for  a  long  time  was  to  distribute 
people  of  British  allegiance  among  the  French  in  Nova  Scotia  so 
thickly  that  through  intermarriage  and  in  other  ways  the  loyalty 
of  the  latter  to  France  should  be  weakened  and  the  hold  of  Eng- 
land upon  them  gain  greater  strength. 

That  it  was  Shirley's  immediate  suggestion  that  determined 
the  home  government  finally  to  establish  a  civil  government 
and  create  a  strong  strategic  military  centre  at  the  Nova  Sco- 
tia point  where  Halifax  stands  we  are  not  explicitly  told,  but 
we  can  hardly  believe  that  the  plan  was  first  presented  to  the 
British  ministers  by  any  one  else.  In  any  case,  in  1747  the  min- 
istry requested  Shirley  to  draw  up  a  plan  for  civil  government 
for  N/ova  Scotia,  and  in  February,  1748,  the  governor  submitted 
to  the  Duke  of  Bedford  such  a  plan.  His  plan  was  of  a  char- 
ter government,  and  was  not  accepted,  but  a  year  later,  in 
February,  1749,  Louisburg  again  being  in  French  hands,  and 
the  French  ministry  having  by  no  means  given  up  the  idea  of 
some  day  recapturing  Acadia,  the  government  did  adopt  a  plan, 
which  in  the  meantime  had  been  devised,  for  establishing  such 
civil  government,  for  that  purpose  sending  out  a  large  body  of 
colonists  to  Chebucto  Bay,  as  Halifax  Harbour  was  then  called, 
to  create  a  town.  In  pursuance  of  this  plan,  the  following  March 
the  Lords  of  Trade  published  in  the  London  Gazette  an  adver- 
tisement calling  for  volunteers  for  the  enterprise. 

The  substance  of  the  proclamation  was  also  soon  published 
in  French  and  German  newspapers,  the  terms  offered  being 
briefly,  a  free  passage  and  support  for  twelve  months  after  land- 
ing ;  arms  and  necessary  utensils ;  the  establishment  of  a  secure 
civil  government;  lands  in  fee  simple,  free  from  payment  of 
quit-rents  or  taxes  for  the  period  of  ten  years,— fifty  acres  to  be 
awarded  every  private  soldier  or  seaman,  with  ten  acres  for 


THE   HISTORY   OF   HALIFAX,   NOVA   SCOTIA        273 

every  person  in  his  household,  eighty  acres  to  be  given  every 
officer  under  the  rank  of  ensign  in  the  land  service,  and  of  lieu- 
tenant in  the  sea  service,  and  fifteen  acres  to  each  person  in  his 
household,  while  ensigns  were  to  receive  two  hundred  acres  each, 
lieutenants  three  hundred,  captains  four  hundred,  and  officers 
above  the  rank  of  captains  six  hundred,  all  the  members  of  the 
households  of  these  various  officers  to  receive  thirty  acres  apiece. 
Surgeons,  it  is  declared  in  this  prospectus,  whether  they  have 
been  engaged  in  his  Majesty's  service  or  not,  are  to  fare  in  the 
distribution  of  lands  as  ensigns  in  the  service.  For  the  expense 
of  this  scheme  parliament  voted  a  subsidy  of  forty  thousand 
pounds  sterling. 

The  special  encouragement  given  soldiers  and  sailors  in  this 
proclamation  of  the  Lords  of  Trade  was  of  course  due  to  the 
fact  that  at  the  termination  of  the  war  with  France  a  large 
number  of  both  had  been  thrown  out  of  employment  and  needed 
to  have  some  provision  made  for  them.  The  advertisement  in 
the  London  Gazette  begins:  "A  proposal  having  been  presented 
under  his  Majesty,  for  establishing  a  civil  government  in  the 
province  of  Nova  Scotia,  in  North  America,  as  also  for  the  bet- 
ter peopling  and  settling  the  said  Province,  and  extending  and 
improving  the  fishery  thereof,  by  granting  lands  within  the 
same,  and  giving  other  encouragement  to  such  of  the  officers  and 
private  men  lately  dismissed  his  Majesty's  land  and  sea  service, 
as  shall  be  willing  to  settle  in  the  said  province ;  and  his  Majesty 
having  signified  his  Royal  approbation  of  the  purport  of  the  said 
proposals,  the  Right  Hon.  the  Lords  Commissioners  for  Trade 
and  Plantations,  by  his  Majesty's  command  give  notice  that 
proper  encouragement  will  be  given  to  such  of  the  officers  and 
private  men  lately  dismissed  from  his  Majesty's  land  and 
sea  service,  and  to  artificers  necessary  in  building  or  husbandry, 
as  are  willing  to  accept  of  grants  of  land,  and  to  settle,  with  or 
without  families,  in  the  province  of  Nova  Scotia." 

Chebucto  Bay,  now  Halifax  Harbour,  lies  on  the  southeast 
coast  of  Nova  Scotia.  It  is  a  magnificent  harbour,  about  six  miles 
long  by  a  mile  wide,  with  excellent  anchorage  in  all  parts,  and  in 
spite  of  its  northern  latitude  is  open  for  navigation  all  the 
year  round.  In  the  north,  a  narrow  passage  connects  it  with 


274          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

what  is  called  Bedford  Basin,  a  lovely  sheet  of  water,  six  miles 
long  by  four  wide,  and  deep  enough  for  the  largest  men  of  war 
to  enter,  and  on  this  harbour  it  was  proposed  to  locate  the  new 
Nova  Scotia  town.  Chebucto  Bay  was  of  course  well  known  to 
European  voyagers  to  the  province,  and  only  recently,  in  1746, 
it  had  been  the  refuge  of  the  melancholy  fleet  of  M.  de  la  Roche- 
foucauld, Due  d'Anville,  when,  on  its  way  to  seize  the  forts  of 
Louisburg  and  Annapolis,  attacked  by  storm  and  pestilence,  it 
had  been  forced  to  anchor  in  Bedford  Basin  until,  though 
wretchedly  depleted,  it  had  regained  strength  to  return  to 
France.  In  anticipation  of  the  settlement,  the  government  had 
taken  pains  to  acquaint  itself  intimately  with  the  harbour  and 
the  coast  near  it,  shortly  before  the  project  took  final  shape  em- 
ploying Captain,  afterwards  Admiral,  Philip  Durell,  who  had 
commanded  one  of  Warren's  ships  at  Louisburg  in  17-15,  in  mak- 
ing a  careful  survey  of  both.1' 

Command  of  the  new  expedition  was  given  to  the  Honourable 
Edward  Cornwallis,  M.  P.  for  Eye  (a  borough  long  in  the  hands 
of  the  Cornwallis  family),  sixth  son  of  Baron  Charles  Corn- 
wallis, and  his  wife  Lady  Charlotte  Butler,  whose  father  was 
Eichard  Earl  of  Arran.  Colonel  Cornwallis,  who  was  born  Feb- 
ruary 22,  1713,  had  served  as  major  of  the  Twentieth  regiment 
in  Flanders  in  1744  and  1745,  and  in  the  latter  year  had  been 
appointed  lieutenant-colonel  of  his  regiment.  On  the  decease  of 
his  brother  Stephen  he  was  chosen  for  Eye,  and  during  the  ses- 
sion of  parliament  following  was  made  a  groom  of  his  Majesty's 
bedchamber.  On  the  ninth  of  May,  1749,  he  became  colonel  of 
the  Twenty-fourth  regiment,  and  received  the  appointment  of 


2.  In  a  letter  of  Governor  Cornwallis  to  the  Duke  of  Bedford  of  July  23,  1749, 
we  find  Cornwallis  saying:  "As  perhaps  no  copies  were  taken  of  the  Plans  sent 
me  of  the  Harbour,  I  send  along  with  this  a  copy  of  Durell's  plan."  Of  this  plan 
of  Durell's,  Cornwallis  in  another  letter  says,  "the  two  points  that  make  the  en- 
trance to  Bedford  Bay  are  marked  as  the  places  proper  to  fortify."  In  his  cor- 
respondence with  the  Lords  of  Trade  the  governor  also  refers  to  "a  copy  of  Durell's 
Plan  of  the  Harbour  and  Bay." 

Admiral  Philip  Durell,  as  "Captain  Durell,"  commanded  the  Eesham,  one  of 
Warren's  ships  at  the  first  taking  of  Louisburg.  In  Boscawen's  fleet  at  Halifax, 
in  May,  1758,  we  once  more  find  him  as  commander  of  the  Princess  Amelia,  80 
tons.  April  4,  1759,  General  Jeffery  Amherst  writes  to  Governor  Lawrence :  "I 
wish  Admiral  Durell  had  had  the  men  he  wanted  for  his  ship^  from  the  Massa- 
chusetts Government  in  the  manner  I  desired,  which  Mr.  Pownall  I  thought  readily 
consented  to;  I  fear  it  will  fall  on  the  Regiments  to  _  give  him  men  to  get  out  or 
he  will  be  too  late,  and  the  regiments  will  suffer  by  it." 


THE   HISTORY  OF   HALIFAX,   NOVA   SCOTIA        275 

Governor  of  Placentia,  in  Newfoundland,  and  Captain-General 
and  Governor-in-Chief  in  and  over  his  Majesty's  province  of 
Nova  Scotia  or  Acadia.3 

To  the  government 's  proclamation  so  large  a  number  of  people 
responded,  not  only  soldiers  and  sailors  retired  from  active  ser- 
vice, but  mechanics  of  various  sorts,  and  farmers,  that  early 
in  May,  1749,  a  fleet  consisting  of  thirteen  transports  and  a 
sloop  of  war,  carrying  in  all  2,576  persons,  set  sail  from  Eng- 
land for  Chebucto  Bay.  In  about  a  month  some  of  these  an- 
chored at  Chebucto,  some,  however,  not  arriving  until  late  in 
June.  The  ships  in  the  fleet  were  the  Spinx,  war  sloop,  which 
brought  Cornwallis  and  his  suite,  the  frigates  Charlton  and  Can- 
non,  and  the  ships  Winchelsea,  Wilmington,  Merry  Jacks, 
Alexander,  Beaufort,  Roehampton,  Evcrly,  London,  Brother- 
hood, Baltimore,  and  Fair  Lady.  Of  the  settlers  conveyed  in 
these  ships  there  were  two  majors  in  the  army,  one  foot-major 
and  commissary,  six  captains,  nineteen  lieutenants,  and  three 
ensigns.  Of  retired  naval  men  and  others  there  were  three  lieu- 
tenants, five  lieutenants  of  privateers,  twenty-three  midshipmen, 
one  cadet,  one  artificer,  five  volunteers,  one  purser,  one  engi- 
neer, fifteen  surgeons,  one  lieutenant  and  surgeon,  ten  surgeon's 
mates  and  assistants,  one  surgeon's  pupil,  one  clergyman  (Rev. 
William  Anwyl),  one  "gentleman  and  schoolmaster"  (John  Bap- 
tiste  Moreau),  one  commissary,  one  brewer  and  merchant,  one 
attorney,  several  "gentlemen,"  four  governor's  clerks,  and  one 
clerk  of  stores.  Of  the  total  number  of  settlers  the  number  of 
adult  males  was  1,546,  five  hundred  of  these  being  former  men- 
of-war  sailors.  Among  the  names  of  the  colonists  that  in  the 
progress  of  the  settlement  became  more  or  less  prominent  were 
Richard  Bulkeley,  Alexander  Callendar,  John  Collier,  John 
Creighton,  Robert  Ewer,  John  Galland,  Archibald  Hinchelwood, 


3.  In  1757,  Colonel  Cornwallis  was  advanced  to  the  rank  of  major-general  and 
in  1760  to  lieutenant-general.  On  his  retirement  from  Nova  Scotia  he  went  to 
England  and  was  unanimously  elected  to  parliament  from  Westminster,  which  con- 
stituency he  represented  for  a  few  years  until  he  was  appointed  Governor  of 
Gibraltar.  Edward  Cornwallis  was  an  uncle  of  Charles  Cornwallis,  first  marquis 
and  second  earl,  who  from  1776  until  the  close  of  the  American  war  was  in  com- 
mand of  British  troops  in  America,  and  later  was  Governor  General  of  India.  Ed- 
ward Cornwallis  married  in  1753,  Mary,  daughter  of  Charles,  second  Lord  Vis- 
count Townsend,  and  died,  without  issue,  December  29,  1776.  See  Collins's  Peer- 
age, Vol.  2. 


276          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

William  Nesbitt,  Lewis  Piers,  and  John  Pyke,  the  last  of  whom 
is  believed  by  his  descendants  to  have  been  private  secretary  to 
Cornwallis. 

Before  reaching  Chebucto,  Cornwallis  touched  at  Lunenburg, 
or  Merligueche  as  it  was  called  by  the  French.  There  he  found 
a  small  French  settlement,  the  people  living  in  * '  tolerable  wood- 
en houses,  covered  with  bark."  They  had  a  good  many  cattle 
and  had  cleared  more  land  than  they  needed  to  cultivate,  and 
Cornwallis  says  they  were  favourable  to  English  rule  and  heard 
of  the  new  settlement  to  be  made  at  Chebucto  with  unfeigned  joy. 

The  first  site  chosen  for  Halifax  was  "Sandwich  Point,"  near 
the  end  of  Point  Pleasant,  that  spot  being  considered,  as  it  was, 
very  favourable  for  defence,  especially  since  the  North- West 
Arm,  which  the  settlers  named  Sandwich  River,  was  navigable 
for  war  ships  to  its  very  head.  For  at  least  a  day  the  settlers 
worked  there,  cutting  down  trees,  but  the  depth  of  water  in 
front  of  the  place,  the  exposure  of  the  spot  to  the  south-east 
gales,  and  "other  inconveniences,"  led  them  to  abandon  it  for 
the  present  site.  The  city  of  Halifax  to-day  extends,  north, 
south,  and  west,  far  beyond  its  original  limits,  but  in  the  begin- 
ning, Buckingham  Street  on  the  north  and  Salter  Street  on  the 
south  marked  its  utmost  bounds.  Regarding  the  location  of  the 
town  Governor  Cornwallis  writes  to  the  Duke  of  Bedford: 
"Your  Grace  will  see  that  the  place  I  have  fixed  for  the  town  is 
on  the  west  side  of  the  harbour — 'tis  upon  the  side  of  a  Hill 
which  commands  the  whole  Peninsula,  and  shelters  the  town 
from  the  Northwest  winds.  From  the  shore  to  the  top  of  the 
hill  is  about  half  a  mile,  the  ascent  very  gentle,  the  soil  is  good, 
there  is  convenient  landing  for  Boats  all  along  the  Beach,  and 
good  anchorage  within  Gunshot  of  the  shore  for  the  largest 
Ships."  On  the  spot  finally  chosen,  John  Brewse  or  Bruce,  the 
English  engineer  who  had  come  with  the  settlers,  and  Mr. 
Charles  Morris,  of  Massachusetts,  the  government  surveyor,  were 
ordered  to  lay  out  the  town.  By  the  fourteenth  of  September 
the  plan  was  completed  and  the  lots  appropriated  to  their  re- 
spective owners.  The  town,  says  Dr.  Akins,  "was  laid  out  in 
squares  or  blocks  of  320  by  120  feet  deep,  the  streets  being  55 
feet  in  width.  Each  block  contained  16  town  lots,  40  feet  front 


THE   HISTORY  OF   HALIFAX,   NOVA   SCOTIA        277 

by  60  feet  deep,  and  the  whole  was  afterwards  divided  into  five 
divisions  or  wards,  called  Callendar's,  Galland's,  Ewer's,  Col- 
lier's, and  Foreman's  divisions,  after  the  names  of  the  persons 
who  were  appointed  captains  in  the  militia,  each  ward  being 
]arge  enough  to  supply  one  company."  "Foreman's  new  divi- 
sion was  afterwards  added  as  far  as  the  present  Jacob  Street. 
The  north  and  south  suburbs  were  surveyed  about  the  same 
time,  but  the  German  lots  in  the  north  were  not  laid  off  till  the 
year  following." 

For  the  first  few  weeks  after  reaching  their  destination,  many 
of  the  colonists  either  remained  on  board  the  transports  which 
had  brought  them,  or  found  shelter  under  canvas  or  tarpaulin 
tents.  In  some  instances,  it  is  said,  the  trunks  and  boxes  in  wThich 
their  goods  had  come  "served  as  a  temporary  floor  to  protect 
them  from  the  dampness  of  the  ground."  By  the  last  of  Octo- 
ber about  three  hundred  small  one-story  houses  were  scattered 
up  and  down  the  rocky  hillside,  between  what  are  now  Buck- 
ingham street  on  the  north  and  Salter  street  on  the  south.  Many 
of  these  houses  were  built  of  pickets,  set  up  vertically  in  rows 
close  together,  on  which  boards  were  nailed,  but  for  at  least  the 
governor 's  house  and  St.  Paul 's  Church  the  frames  were  obtained 
from  Boston.  By  the  last  of  October  also  two  forts  were  fin- 
ished and  a  barricade  around  the  town  was  completed.  By  March, 
1750,  Cornwallis  had  had  the  frame  of  a  hospital  erected,  the 
sick  until  this  time  having  been  cared  for  on  one  of  the  ships. 
He  had  also  in  process  a  schoolhouse  for  orphan  children,  where 
these  unfortunate  little  ones  should  be  cared  for  until  the  boys 
were  old  enough  to  be  apprenticed  to  fishermen.  He  was  expect- 
ing soon  from  New  England  the  frame  of  the  church,  which  was 
to  be  an  exact  copy  of  Marylebone  Chapel  in  London,  and  was 
to  cost,  by  the  estimate  that  had  been  sent  him  from  Boston,  a 
thousand  pounds.  In  October,  1749,  the  town  was  named,  with 
what  formal  ceremonies  we  do  not  know,  for  the  Earl  of  Halifax, 
a  nobleman  then  at  the  head  of  the  Board  of  Trade.4 


4.  The  Council  of  Trade  and  Plantations,  created  in  1695,  and  lasting  until 
1782,  exercised  an  important  control  over  mercantile  matters  at  home  and  the 
settlement  and  trade  of  the  colonies  wherever  they  existed,  and  in  1748,  George 
Montagu,  Earl  of  Halifax,  of  not  particularly  happy  memory,  became  president  of 
this  body.  The  exact  date  of  the  naming  of  Halifax  is  clear  from  the  Governor's 
dispatches.  Until  the  I7th  of  October,  1749,  Cornwallis  sends  his  letters  from 
"Chebucto";  on  the  above  date  he  first  uses  the  name  Halifax. 


278          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

On  the  thirteenth  of  August,  1749,  a  sloop  arrived  from  Liver- 
pool, England,  after  nine  weeks  voyage,  bringing  a  hundred  and 
sixteen  more  settlers  to  the  town.  For  these  people  two  new 
streets  were  added,  and  more  lots  were  assigned.  In  August, 
1750,  the  colony  was  still  further  increased  by  the  arrival  of  three 
hundred  and  fifty- three  more  English  settlers  in  the  ship  Alder- 
ney  (a  vessel  of  five  hundred  and  four  tons),  whom  it  was  con- 
sidered best  to  settle  on  the  east  side  of  the  harbour,  where  until 
then  there  had  been  no  settlement  made.  For  these  new  arrivals, 
therefore,  in  the  autumn  of  1750,  the  town  of  Dartmouth  was 
laid  out,  its  name  being  given  in  honour  of  William  Legge,  first 
Earl  of  Dartmouth,  a  nobleman  high  in  the  favour  of  Queen 
Anne,  who  had  made  him  in  1710,  one  of  her  principal  secre- 
taries of  state,  and  in  1713  Lord  Privy  Seal.5 

July  13,  1750,  three  hundred  and  twelve  German  Protestants 
from  the  Palatinate  arrived  in  Halifax  in  the  ship  Ann.  The 
British  government  had  engaged  a  Rotterdam  merchant,  Mr. 
Johann  Dick,  to  make  contracts  with  such  families  or  persons  as 
he  could  find  willing  to  settle  in  Nova  Scotia,  and  to  arrange 
for  their  transportation  thither,  and  these  German  emigrants  had 
been  sent  from  Rotterdam  by  him.6  The  provision  made  by  gov- 
ernment for  maintaining  the  colony  was  not  sufficient,  and  the 
coming  of  these  new  settlers  gave  Cornwallis'and  his  council  no 
little  anxiety.  As  cold  weather  drew  near  the  problem  of  their 
support  became  very  serious,  and  through  the  long  hard  ensuing 
winter  they  were  undoubtedly  very  poorly  housed  and  fed.  When 
spring  opened  they  were  set  to  work  clearing  land,  building  a 


5.  The  Earl  of  Dartmouth  died  December  15,  1750,  very  soon  after  the  Nova 
Scotia  settlement  bearing  his  name  was  formed. 

6.  Johann  or  John  Dick,  the  Rotterdam  merchant  mentioned  here,  undertook 
to  send  over  a  thousand  continental  Protestants,  at  a  guinea  a  head,  and  he  seems 
to  have  fulfilled  his  agreement  in  a  most  unscrupulous  way.     He  was  later  accused 
by   Governor   Hopson   of   having   advised   the   poor   emigrants   whom   he   engaged, 
probably  in   order  to  secure  more  room  on  the  ships,  to  sell  even  their  bedding, 
before  they  embarked.     On  this  .account  they  were  obliged  during  the  whole  tedious 
voyage  to  sleep  on  the  bare  decks  or  elsewhere  without  any  beds  or  proper  bed- 
coverings.     Among  the  people  he  sent  to  Halifax  were  "many  poor  old  decrepid 
creatures,  both  men  and  women,  who  were  objects  fitter  to  have  been  kept  in  alms- 
houses  than  to  be  sent  as  settlers  to  work  for  their  bread."  When  the  people  were 
landed  there  were  over  thirty  of  them  who  could  not  stir  from  the  beach,  eight  of 
these  being  young  orphans,  who  had  to  be  put  in  an  orphanage  as  soon  as  one  was 
established. 


THE   HISTORY  OF   HALIFAX,   NOVA   SCOTIA        279 

battery  and  fort  on  George's  Island,  and  constructing  a  palisade 
around  the  settlement  of  Dartmouth. 

In  175.1  and  1752  some  thirteen  hundred  more  foreign  settlers 
came,  the  greater  part  of  them  Germans,  but  some  Swiss,  and 
some  French  from  Montbelliard  or  Mumpolgarter,  the  capital 
city  of  an  arondissement  in  the  French  department  of  Doubs. 
Some  Germans  who  came  in  the  spring  of  1751  the  Council  pro- 
posed to  place  at  Dartmouth,  opposite  George's  Island,  and  in 
preparation  for  locating  them  it  sent  Captain  Charles  Morris 
to  survey  the  land.  For  some  reason,  however,  the  Germans 
were  not  located  there.  Six  of  the  ships  in  which  the  settlers 
of  1751  and  1752  came  were  the  Pearl,  Gale,  Sally,  Betty,  Mur- 
doch, and  Swan. 

On  the  28th  of  May,  1753,  1,453  of  the  German  and  French 
emigrants  were  sent  by  Governor  Hopson,  Cornwallis's  succes- 
sor, to  Merligueche,  where  already,  as  we  have  seen,  there  were 
a  few  French  settlers  of  the  old  Acadian  population,  favourable, 
however,  to  British  rule.  The  fourteen  transports  on  which 
they  sailed  from  Halifax  were  under  convoy  of  the  provincial 
sloop  York,  commanded  by  Sylvanus  Cobb,  a  New  England  sea- 
captain,  who  in  1755  was  engaged  in  the  removal  of  the  Aca- 
dians,  in  1758  conveyed  General  Wolfe  to  a  reconnoitre  at  Lou- 
isburg,  later  made  his  home  in  Liverpool,  Nova  Scotia,  but  died 
at  Havana  in  1762.  The  first  company  of  Germans  who  came  to 
Halifax  were  from  Luneburg,  the  chief  town  of  a  district  in 
the  Prussian  province  of  Hanover,  and  in  recognition  of  their 
native  place  the  settlement  of  Merligueche  (or  " Malaga sh") 
was  now  re-named  LunenburgJ  "I  pitched  upon  Merlegash  for 
the  settlement  of  the  foreigners,"  writes  Governor  Hopson  to 
the  Lords  of  Trade  in  July,  1753,  ' '  it  was  preferable  to  Musquo- 
doboit,  as  there  is  a  good  harbour,  which  is  wanting  at  Musquodo- 


7.  The  departure  of  these  German  settlers  from  the  Duchy  of  Luneburg,  in 
Hanover,  says  the  Rev.  Mr.  Roth,  a  Lutheran  clergyman  once  settled  in  Lunen- 
burg,  Nova  Scotia,  is  at  once  interesting  and  pathetic.  "On  the  eve  of  departure 
they  were  summoned  by  the  bell  to  their  church  and  there  for  the  last  time  they 
sang  sacred  songs  of  faith  and  trust,  united  in  the  prayers  that  were  offered  for 
their  guidance  and  protection  by  the  power  of  the  Almighty,  listened  to  the  ex- 
hortations of  their  faithful  pastor,  and  then  amid  the  tears  and  farewells  of  their 
dearest  friends  took  leave  of  the  home  of  their  childhood,  the  associations  of  their 
youth,  and  the  land  they  were  destined  never  to  see  again.  Some  of  them  came  in 
extreme  destitution  and  their  sufferings  in  their  new  home  were  not  few  nor  light." 


280          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

boit.  Had  it  been  possible  to  have  sent  the  settlers  by  land  it 
would  have  been  a  great  satisfaction  to  me  to  have  saved  the  ex- 
pense of  hiring  vessels,  but  on  inquiring,  found  it  absolutely  im- 
possible, not  only  as  they  would  have  had  at  least  fifty  miles  to 
go  through  the  woods  but  there  is  not  any  road." 

The  removal  of  the  Halifax  Germans  in  general  to  Lunenburg 
did  not,  however,  take  all  of  these  foreigners  who  had  come  to 
the  town.  It  is  difficult  to  say  how  many  remained,  but  the  Kev. 
Dr.  Partridge,  historian  of  St.  George's  Parish,  says  that  some 
twenty  or  twenty-five  families  who  had  received  grants  in  the 
north  and  south  suburbs  of  Halifax  made  their  permanent 
homes  there. 

In  a  letter  to  the  Lords  of  Trade,  written  August  20, 1749,  Gov- 
ernor Cornwallis  says  that  a  good  many  people  from  Louisburg 
have  settled  in  the  town,  and  ' '  several ' '  from  New  England,  and 
that  he  is  told  that  over  a  thousand  more  New  England  people 
desire  to  come  there  before  winter.  "I  have  ordered,"  he  says, 
''all  vessels  in  the  Government's  service  to  give  them  passage." 
To  his  letter  the  Lords  of  Trade  reply  that  they  are  very  glad 
to  hear  that  such  numbers  of  people  are  preparing  to  come  down 
from  New  England,  and  that  they  approve  the  measure  he  has 
taken  to  enable  them  to  get  a  ready  passage.  Every  acquisition 
of  people,  they  say,  will  be  an  acquisition  of  strength,  and  they 
hope  that  the  design  of  "the  French  Protestants  from  Martini- 
co  "  to  settle  in  Halifax  may  likewise  take  effect.8  In  July,  1752, 
the  governor  had  a  census  of  the  town  taken,  the  various  divi- 
sions being  the  North  Suburbs,  the  South  Suburbs,  within  the 
Town,  within  the  Pickets,  within  the  Town  of  Dartmouth,  on  the 
several  islands  and  harbours  employed  in  the  fishery,  and  at  the 
Wock  house  and  the  isthmus.9 

As  one  reads  the  names  of  the  citizens  of  Halifax  as  given 
in  this  census,  one  is  struck  by  the  number  of  New  England,  gen- 


8.  Cornwallis  writes,  August  20,  1749:  "A  French  merchant  has  been  here  and 
proposed  to  bring  some  Protestant  families  from  Martinico,  with  their  effects,  if  I 
would  give  them  encouragement,  protection,  and  land.     He  has  given  me  a  list  of 
their  names,  with  what  each  of  them  is  worth— he  makes  their  fortunes  amount  to 
above  £50,000  sterling.     I  have  promised  all  kinds  of  protection  and  he  is  gone  to 
get  a  passport  at  Louisburg.     From  thence  he  goes  to  Martinico,  and  thinks  they 
shall  be  able  to  get  here  before  winter."     The  Martinique  Protestants  never  came. 
See  Nova  Scotia  Archives,  Vol.  I,  p.  579- 

9.  The  whole  number  of  the  population  as  given  in  this  census  is  5,134. 


THE   HISTORY  OF   HALIFAX,   NOVA   SCOTIA        281 

erally  Boston,  names.  Among  such  are,  Fairbanks,  Fillis,  Ger- 
rish,  Green,  Lawson,  Morris,  Prescott,  and  Salter.  That  this 
should  be  so  is  not,  however,  at  all  strange,  for  ever  since  the 
final  capture  of  Port  Royal  in  1710,  which  capture  had  been 
effected  largely  through  New  England  troops,  there  had  been 
constant  close  communication  between  Annapolis  and  Boston, 
while  Canso,  the  extreme  eastern  point  of  the  Nova  Scotia  penin- 
sula, had  long  been  a  New  England  fishing  and  trading  station, 
with  warehouses  for  the  storage  of  fish.  At  other  places  on  the 
shores  of  Nova  Scotia,  and  notably  at  Chebucto  itself,  single  men, 
and  perhaps  families,  from  New  England,  had  been  more  or  less 
permanently  located,  gathering  fish  in  summer,  and  selling  goods 
in  small  quantities  to  the  Acadians  in  return  for  the  products  of 
their  toil.  One  Boston  firm,  indeed,  had  before  1749  secured  a 
grant  of  four  thousand  acres  at  Chignecto,  in  what  is  now  Cum- 
berland county  for  the  purpose  of  coal  mining,  and  when  Corn- 
wallis  came  were  more  or  less  vigorously  digging  coal.  By  the 
lease  granted  this  Boston  company  by  the  military  government 
at  Annapolis  Royal,  the  firm  receiving  the  privilege  was  required 
to  pay  the  government  a  quit  rent  of  one  penny  an  acre.10  Of 
Malachy  Salter  of  Halifax,  who  was  a  Boston  born  man,  and  who 
in  the  progress  of  the  town  came  to  be  one  of  the  most  important 
men  in  trade,  politics,  and  social  life,  the  tradition  is  well  estab- 
lished that  he,  and  perhaps  his  family,  had  been  settled  at 
Chebucto  some  time  before  Cornwallis  came. 

Describing  rather  graphically  the  earliest  condition  of  Hali- 
fax as  a  town,  Dr.  Beamish  Murdoch  in  his  valuable  documen- 
tary history  of  Nova  Scotia  says:  "Halifax  in  the  summer  and 
autumn  of  1749  must  have  presented  a  busy  and  singular  scene. 
The  ship  of  war,  and  her  discipline,  the  transports  swarming 


10.  It  is  said  that  in  1733  no  less  than  forty-six  thousand  quintals  of  dry  fish 
were  exported  from  Canso,  and  that  at  the  most  prosperous  time  of  the  fishery 
there  in  the  summer  season  from  fifteen  hundred  to  two  thousand  men  were  em- 
ployed in  fishing.  Even  whale  fishing,  it  is  said,  was  carried  on  at  Canso,  though 
in  a  limited  way;  and  the  trade  of  enterprising  New  Englanders  at  this  point  with 
the  French  on  the  peninsula  and  Cape  Breton  shores,  must  have  been  very  consid- 
erable, dry  goods,  and  other  articles  of  British  or  American  manufacture  for  do- 
mestic use,  as  well  as  prints,  vegetables,  oats,  shingles,  bricks,  flour,  meal,  and  bis- 
cuits, being  given  in  exchange  for  fish,  oils,  and  furs. 

Our  statement  concerning  mining  operations  at  Chignecto  we  have  found  in 
Brown's  "History  of  Cape  Breton." 


282          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

with  passengers  who  had  not  yet  got  shelter  on  land,  the  wide 
extent  of  wood  in  every  direction,  except  a  little  spot  hastily  and 
partially  cleared,  on  which  men  might  be  seen  trying  to  make 
walls  out  of  the  spruce  trees  that  grew  on  their  house  lots,  the 
boats  perpetually  rowing  to  and  from  the  shipping,  and  as  the 
work  advanced  a  little,  the  groups  gathered  around— the  Eng- 
lishman in  the  costume  of  the  day,  cocked  hat,  wig,  knee-breeches, 
shoes  with  large  glittering  buckles ;  his  lady  with  her  hoop  and 
brocades ;  the  soldiers  and  sailors  of  the  late  war  now  in  civilian 
dress,  as  settlers;  the  shrewd,  keen,  commercial  Bostonian,  tall, 
thin,  wiry,  supple  in  body,  bold  and  persevering  in  mind,  calcu- 
lating on  land  grants,  saw-mills,  shipping  of  lumber,  fishing 
profits ;  the  unlucky  habitant  from  Grand  Pre  or  Piziquid,  in 
homespun  garb,  looking  with  dismay  at  the  numbers,  discipline, 
and  earnestness  of  the  new  settlers  and  their  large  military 
force,— large  to  him  as  he  had  known  only  the  little  garrison  of 
Annapolis ;  the  half  wild  Indian,  made  wilder  and  more  intracta- 
ble by  bad  advisers  who  professed  to  be  his  warmest  friends ; 
the  men-of-war's  men;  the  sailors  of  the  transports,  and  per- 
haps some  hardy  fishermen  seeking  supplies,  or  led  thither  by 
curiosity, — of  such  various  elements  was  the  bustling  crowd 
composed." 

The  arrival  of  Cornwallis  at  Chebucto  with  the  commission  of 
captain-general  and  governor-in-chief  of  the  province  brought 
to  an  end  Nova  Scotia's  thirty-nine  years  military  rule.  The 
military  governor  of  the  fort  at  Annapolis  Royal  since  1740  had 
been  Major  Paul  Mascarene,11  and  this  excellent  official  had  been 
duly  apprised  beforehand  of  the  sailing  of  the  Cornwallis  fleet. 
Shortly  after  his  arrival,  the  new  governor  sent  the  transport 
Fair  Lady,  whose  passengers  had  been  landed  on  George's  Isl- 
and, to  Annapolis  Royal  to  bring  Mascarene  and  a  quorum  of 
his  council  to  Halifax  to  be  formally  dismissed  from  office.  On 
the  12th  of  July  the  Annapolis  officials  arrived  and  Cornwallis 
displayed  to  them  his  own  commission  and  took  the  oaths  of  office 
in  their  presence.  On  the  14th,  Friday,  on  board  the  Beaufort, 


ii.  For  an  account  of  Major  Mascarene  see  the  "New  England  Historical  and 
Genealogical  Register,"  Vol.  9,  p.  239;  and  the  "Correspondence  of  William  Shir- 
ley," Vol.  i,  pp.  337,  338. 


THE   HISTORY   OF    HALIFAX,    XOVA   SCOTIA         283 

in  the  harbour,  he  chose  a  new  council,  and  thus  formally  organ- 
ized the  civil  government.  The  members  of  the  new  council 
were :  Paul  Mascarene,  Edward  Howe,  John  Gorham,  Benja- 
min Green,  John  Salusbury,12  and  Hugh  Davidson,  the  last  of 
whom  became  the  first  secretary  of  the  province  under  civil  rule. 

Very  soon  William  Steele,  Peregrine  Thomas  Hopson  (who  on 
account  of  his  higher  military  rank  at  once  took  precedence  of 
Mascarene),  John  Horseman,  Robert  Ellison,  James  Francis 
Mercer,  and  Charles  Lawrence,  were  added  to  the  list,  the  number 
thus  being  raised  to  the  full  complement  of  twelve,  the  number 
of  the  earlier  military  council.  The  formation  of  the  council  was 
announced  to  the  people  by  a  general  salute  from  the  ships  in 
the  harbour  and  the  day  was  given  up  to  general  festivity.  The 
table  around  which  the  first  council  sat  on  the  Beaufort  is  now 
in  the  small  Council  Chamber  in  the  Province  Building,  and  is 
one  of  Nova  Scotia's  most  famous  historical  relics.  On  the  18th 
of  July  Cornwallis  appointed  John  Brewse  or  Bruce,  Robert 
Ewer,  John  Collier,  and  John  Duport,  Esquires,  justices  of  the 
peace,  for  the  township  of  Halifax,  thus  organizing  a  minor  town 
government  for  the  new  settlement,  in  addition  to  the  govern- 
ment-in-chief. 

By  his  commission,  Governor  Cornwallis,  "with  the  advice 
and  consent  of  his  Council  and  Assembly,  or  the  major  part  of 
them  respectively, ' '  was  given  full  power  and  authority  to  make, 
constitute,  and  ordain  laws,  statutes,  and  ordinances  for  the  pub- 
lic peace,  welfare,  and  good  government  of  the  province,  these 
laws  to  be  submitted  to  the  home  government  for  its  approba- 
tion or  disallowance  within  three  months  after  making.  It  will 
thus  be  seen  that  the  home  government  from  the  first  contem- 
plated the  establishment,  as  soon  as  circumstances  should  make 
it  possible,  of  some  form  of  representative  government  for  Nova 
Scotia,  but  it  was  not  until  1758,  nine  years  after  the  settlement 
under  Cornwallis  began,  that  a  representative  assembly  was 
formed.  Until  then  the  governor  and  his  council  exercised  un- 


12.  John  Salusbury,  who  returned  to  England  in  the  spring  of  I753».  and  died 
in  1762,  was  of  a  Welsh  family,  and  was  a  friend  of  Lord  Halifax.  His  wife,  a 
Miss  Cotton,  is  said  to  have  brought  him  a  fortune  of  £10,000,  "which  he  spent  in 
extravagance  and  dissipation."  His  daughter  was  Mrs.  Thrale,  afterwards  Mrs. 
Piozzi,  famous  as  during  her  first  marriage  the  friend  of  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson. 


284          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

limited  control  in  the  province,  and  it  was  naturally  not  without 
much  unwillingness  that  these  functionaries  suffered  any  part 
of  the  government  of  the  province  at  last  to  pass  out  of  their 
hands.  The  interests  of  the  newly  appointed  council  of  Nova 
Scotia  and  the  governor-in-chief  were  many  and  varied.  The 
French  and  Indians  had  to  be  promptly  dealt  with,  the  defences 
of  the  town  and  suburbs  vigorously  pushed,  conditions  of  trade 
determined,  the  sale  of  liquor  regulated,  offenders  against  the 
law  tried  and  punished,  houses,  wharves,  a  church,  a  hospital, 
and  an  orphanage  built,  allowances  to  needy  settlers  granted, 
Sunday  traffic  kept  in  check,  the  town  divided  into  wards,  a  ferry 
to  Dartmouth  established,  a  light-house  placed  at  the  entrance 
to  the  harbour,  and  an  efficient  militia  established  and  trained,— 
these  were  some  of  the  many  tasks  that  at  once  claimed  the  at- 
tention of  the  newly  formed  government  and  taxed  its  executive 
powers. 

In  November  (1749)  the  council  ordered  that  all  trees  remain- 
ing within  the  forts  or  barricades  should  be  left  standing  for 
ornament  or  shelter  for  the  town,  none  to  be  cut  down  or 
"barked."  For  each  tree  destroyed  in  defiance  of  this  order, 
the  penalty  was  forty-eight  hours  imprisonment  and  a  fine  of 
one  pound.  The  order,  however,  did  not  hinder  any  one  from 
cutting  trees  on  his  own  lot.  In  December,  housekeepers  were 
ordered  to  give  notice  within  twenty-four  hours  to  one  of  the 
clergymen  of  the  town  of  any  deaths  that  had  occurred  in  their 
houses,  the  penalty  for  failure  to  do  this  likewise  being  impris- 
onment and  fine.  Persons  refusing  to  attend  a  corpse  to  the 
grave,  when  ordered  to  do  so  by  a  justice  of  the  peace,  were  to 
be  imprisoned,  and  it  was  strictly  enjoined  that  "Vernon  the 
carpenter"  should  mark  the  initials  of  every  deceased  person 
on  the  coffin  in  which  his  body  was  inclosed.  In  June,  1750,  a 
market  place  was  ordered  to  be  set  apart  for  the  sale  of  black 
cattle  and  sheep.  In  July  the  proprietors  of  lots  were  ordered 
to  clear  the  ground  in  front  of  their  lots  to  the  middle  of  the 
streets  which  ran  before  them.  January  14, 1751,  it  was  ordered 
that  the  town  and  suburbs  be  divided  into  eight  wards,  and  that 
the  inhabitants  be  empowered  to  choose  annually  the  following 
officers  for  managing  such  prudential  affairs  of  the  town  as 


THE   HISTORY  OF   HALIFAX,   NOVA   SCOTIA        285 

should  be  committed  by  the  governor  and  council  to  their  care, 
namely,  eight  town  overseers,  a  town  clerk,  sixteen  constables, 
and  eight  scavengers.13 

Regarding  the  settlement  of  French  in  the  environs  of  Halifax 
before  the  coming  of  Cornwallis 's  fleet,  we  have  not  very  much 
knowledge,  but  we  do  know  something.  June  22,  1749,  Governor 
Comwallis  writing  from  Chebucto  to  the  Duke  of  Bedford  says : 
"There  are  a  few  French  families  on  each  side  of  the  Bay  [the 
name  he  always  uses  in  speaking  of  Bedford  Basin],  about  three 
leagues  off ;  some  have  been  on  board. ' '  A  month  later,  the  23rd 
of  July,  he  writes  the  Duke:  "Tis  twenty -five  leagues  from 
hence  to  Minas  and  the  French  have  made  a  path  by  driving  their 
cattle  over. ' '  In  the  same  letter  he  says :  ' '  Another  company 
I  shall  send  to  the  head  of  the  Bay,  where  the  road  to  Minas 
begins."  Indeed,  among  the  older  residents  of  Halifax  in  recent 
times  a  clear  tradition  existed  that  before  Cornwallis  came  there 
was  a  scattered  settlement  of  French  on  the  southwest  shore  of 
Bedford  Basin,  near  what  is  now  Bockingham,  which  continued 
on  the  opposite  shore,  near  what  is  now  Navy  Island.  As  in 
King's  and  other  further  western  counties  of  the  province  it  is 
not  many  years  since  the  foundations  of  what  are  said 
to  have  been  French  houses  could  plainly  be  seen  on  the 
Bedford  Basin  shores,  between  Bockingham  (Four  Mile 
House)  and  Fairview  (Three  Mile  House),  a  certain  point 
here  being  very  well  known  as  "French  Landing."  There 
is  also  a  tradition  that  a  few  French  houses,  probably  of 
settlers  who  were  occupied  in  fishing,  were  scattered 
along  the  shore  of  the  Northwest  Arm.14  That  the  French  in  the 
environs  of  Halifax  when  Cornwallis  came  were  very  few,  and 
the  settlement  at  Bedford,  if  such  existed,  very  inconsiderable, 


13.  When  Halifax  was  founded,  New  York  was  a  hundred  and  twenty-eight 
years  old,  Boston  a  hundred  and  fifteen,  and  Philadelphia  sixty-seven. 

14.  These  last  interesting  facts  have  been  given  us  by  Harry  Piers,  Esq.,  the 
able  Nova  Scotia  archivist  and  curator  of  the  Provincial  Museum,  who  says  that 
"French  Landing"  may  have  been  the  place  where  D'Anville  disembarked  his  men 
to  recuperate,  in  1746.     "Is  it  not  likely,"  says  Mr.  Piers,  "that  D'Anville  landed 
his  men  close  to  these  French  houses,  in  order  to  get  fresh  vegetables  for  which 
his  men  were  suffering?    D'Anville' s  men  who  died  were  buried  near  by,  in  what 
is  now  woods.     There  is  an  old  cemetery  (I  have  unearthed  there  many  bones  my- 
self) which  plainly  antedates  the  settlement  of  Halifax,  at  Birch  Cove,  a  couple  of 
miles  above  French  Landing.     The  cemetery  has  no  stones." 


286          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

is  proved  by  a  statement  made  by  the  Rev.  William  Tutty  to  the 
venerable  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  a  letter 
written  by  him  on  board  the  Beaufort  in  Halifax  Harbour,  Sep- 
tember 29,  1749.  Mr.  Tutty  says:  "The  nearest  of  the  French 
settlements  lie  at  the  distance  of  about  forty  miles  from  the  Town 
of  Halifax,  so  that  'tis  very  difficult  to  have  any  communication 
with  them,  at  least  such  comimunication  as  might  convince  them 
of  the  errors  of  their  faith. ' ' 

Of  the  number  of  Indians  located  near  Halifax  we  know  still 
less  than  we  do  about  the  French.  "The  Indians,"  says  Gov- 
ernor Cornwallis  in  a  letter  to  the  Duke  of  Bedford  dated  July 
23,  1749,  "are  hitherto  very  peaceable,  many  of  them  have 
been  here  with  some  chiefs.  I  made  them  small  presents,  told 
them  I  had  instructions  from  his  Majesty  to  offer  them  friendship 
and  all  protection,  and  likewise  presents,  which  I  should  deliver 
as  soon  as  they  could  assemble1  their  tribes  and  return  with  pow- 
ers to  enter  into  treaty  and  exchange  their  French  commissions 
for  others  in  his  Majesty's  name."  "The  Indians  of  this 
Peninsula,  when  we  first  arrived,"  says  the  Rev.  Mr.  Tutty, 
"came  frequently  amongst  us  with  their  wives  and  children, 
traded  with  us  and  seemed  not  in  the  least  dissatisfied  with  our 
settling  here.  But  they  vanished  all  at  once,  summoned  as  we 
learned  afterward  by  their  priest  at  Chignecto,  who  was  endeav- 
oring to  stir  them  up  to  arms,  and  has  himself  now,  as  he  did  in 
the  last  war,  appeared  about  Minas  at  the  head  of  some  of 
them.  But  as  an  officer  is  posted  there  with  an  hundred  men, 
and  is  so  fortified  as  to  be  a  match  for  all  the  Indians  of  the 
Peninsula,  there  is  no  danger  to  be  apprehended  on  that  side." 

Any  favourable  opinion  Cornwallis  may  have  formed,  of  the 
Indians,  however,  he  was  destined  soon  to  change.  No  later 
than  October  of  the  year  of  the  settlement  he  felt  obliged  to 
publish  a  proclamation  authorizing  all  his  Majesty's  subjects 
"to  annoy,  distress,  take  or  destroy  the  savages  commonly  called 
Micmacks  wherever  they  are  found,  and  all  such  as  are  aiding- 
and  assisting  them,"  and  to  offer  a  reward  of  ten  guineas  for 
every  Indian  taken  or  killed.  The  occasion  of  this  proclama- 
tion was  several  depredations  committed  by  the  Micmacs  short- 


THE   HISTORY  OF   HALIFAX,   NOVA   SCOTIA        287 

ly  before,  some  of  them  on  the  settlers  of  Halifax  itself.15  The 
worst  of  the  earlier  atrocities  committeed  by  the  natives  was  an 
attack  on  the  people  located  at  Dartmouth,  in  May,  1751,  in 
which  a  number  of  white  people,  one  of  whom  was  Mr.  John 
Pyke,  were  killed  and  scalped,  and  others  carried  off  as  prison- 
ers. The  Indians  concerned  in  this  tragedy  were  not,  however, 
drawn  from  anywhere  near  Halifax,  they  are  said  to  have  col- 
lected first  "in  great  force"  on  the  Basin  of  Minas,  then  to  have 
ascended  the  Shubenacadie  river  in  canoes,  and  at  last  through 
the  almost  trackless  woods  to  have  come  stealthily  on  their  prey. 

The  administration  of  Governor  Cornwallis,  as  we  have  seen, 
lasted  only  three  years.  His  task  in  organizing  and  firmly 
planting  a  new  colony  and  in  directing  all  its  pressing  affairs 
was  one  of  great  difficulty  and  he  discharged  it  in  the  main  with 
comprehensive  and  wise  judgment  and  with  singular  force  of 
mind.  For  a  short  time,  between  him  and  the  Lords  of  Trade  a 
certain  lack  of  harmony  existed,  but  whatever  fault  this  body 
had  to  find  with  him  was  clearly  due  rather  to  a  failure  on  his 
part  to  understand  fully  the  proper  conduct  of  financial  business 
than  to  an  obstinate  determination  to  have  his  own  way,  and  in 
the  end  his  English  masters  must  have  been  well  satisfied  with 
his  management  of  the  difficult  enterprise  they  had  entrusted  to 
his  hands.  That  the  colonists  themselves  for  the  most  part  ap- 
proved of  and  liked  him  we  are  strongly  assured,  the  only  seri- 
ous complaint  that  we  know  of  against  him  having  been  made  by 
a  Jewish  trader,  Joshua  Mauger,16  whose  unscrupulous  smug- 
gling of  goods  into  Halifax  he  made  determined  efforts  to  stop. 

Somewhere  between  the  middle  of  June  and  the  last  of  July, 
1752,  Cornwallis,  worn  out  with  his  labours,  resigned  and  went 
home,17  and  on  the  3rd  of  August  Major-General  Peregrine 


15.  Nova  Scotia  Archives,  Vol.   i,  p.  582. 

16.  In  the  February  issue  of  Americana  we  have  said  that  Joshua  Mauger. 
whose  name  figures  prominently  in  early  Halifax  history,  had  a  daughter  who  be- 
came the  wife  of  the  Due  de   Brouillan.     This  is  incorrect.     We  are  indebted  to 
Mr.  George  Mullane  of  Halifax,  an  indefatigable  and  accurate  student  of  Halifax 
local  history  for  the  fact  that  Miss  Mauger  was  married  to  a  Captain  D'Auvergne, 
R.  N.,  a  native  of  the  island  of  Jersey,  who  became  heir  to  a  Due  de  Broiii'lan,  of 
whom  he  is  said  to  have  been  a  left-handed  relative.     At  the   peace  of  Amiens, 
D'Auvergne  went  to  Paris  to  urge  his  claims  to  the  Brouillan  title,  but  he  was  ar- 
rested at  the  instance  of  Napoleon,  who  was  angry  with  him  for  the  part  he  had 
taken  in  an  expedition  against  the  French  coast  in  connection  with  the  emigres. 

17.  Shirley's  correspondence  (Vol.  i,  p.  503)  informs  us  that  when  Cornwallis 


288          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

Thomas  Hopson  was  sworn  into  office  as  Governor  of  Nova  Sco- 
tia. When  Louisburg  was  restored  to  the  French  under  the 
treaty  of  Alix-la-Chapelle,  Hopson  was  the  English  commander 
of  that  fort ;  after  the  delivery  of  the  fort  he  came  up  with  the 
troops  to  Chebucto,  and  was  sworn  in  senior  councillor,  taking 
precedence,  as  we  have  said,  of  Paul  Mascarene,  governor  of 
Annapolis  Eoyal,  because  of  superior  military  rank.  As 
governor  he  resided  in  the  province  a  little  more  than  a  year, 
on  the  first  of  November,  1753,  sailing  for  England,  whence  he 
never  returned.  On  his  departure  from  Halifax,  Colonel  Charles 
Lawrence,  another  English  officer  from  Louisburg,  was  appoint- 
ed to  administer  the  government,  a  formal  commission  as  lieu- 
tenant-governor under  Hopson  being  given  him  the  next  year. 


was  given  his  commission  he  was  promised  that  he  should  be  relieved  in  two 
years.  March  28,  1750,  Shirley  asks  that  he  may  be  appointed  governor  of  Nova 
Scotia,  in  addition  to  his  Massachusetts  governorship,  if  Cornwallis  should  leave 
before  the  two  years,  as  he  seems  to  think  he  might  possibly  do. 

[The  following  slight  changes  should  be  made  in  our  articles  entitled  "Rhode 
Island  Settlers  on  the  French  Lands  in  Nova  Scotia"  in  AMERICANA  for  January 
and  February,  1915.  In  the  January  number,  p.  21,  note,  we  have  stated  that  only 
Falmouth  and  Newport  sent  members  to  the  legislature.  This  is  not  true,  Windsor 
also  had  representation.  On  pp.  36,  37  the  name  Winckworth,  of  Col.  Tonge's 
estate,  is  said  to  be  in  late  years  "incorrectly  spelled  Wentwprth."  The  fact  no 
doubt  is  that  the  name  Winckworth  was  by  design  (and  legitimately)  changed  to 
Wentworth  by  the  Cunningham  family  when  they  acquired  the  estate.  This  correc- 
tion has  been  kindly  suggested  to  us  by  Mr.  Harry  Piers,  the  able  archivist  of  Nova 
Scotia,  who  is  likewise  a  very  accurate  local  historian.  In  the  February  issue,  p. 
92,  we  have  said  that  Joshua  Mauger's  only  daughter  was  married  to  the  Due  de 
Brouillan,  this,  as  Mr.  George  Mullane  has  shown  us,  is  not  true.  Proper  correc- 
tion of  the  statements  appears  elsewhere  in  this  issue.  On  p.  97  we  have  said 
that  Perez  Morton  Cunningham  died  unmarried.  This,  Judge  Savary  informs  us, 
is  also  incorrect.  The  facts  of  Cunningham's  marriage,  however,  we  are  at  pres- 
ent unable  to  give.  A.  W.  H.  E.j 


THE  HAMLET  AT  THE  BOUWERIJ  763 

ers  of  lands  thereon  from  llth  Street  southwardly  to  4th  Street 
and  from  20th  Street  northwardly  to  23rd  Street  to  reset  (at 
their  own  expense)  the  curb  and  gutter  so  as  to  reduce  the  car- 
riage way  to  the  same  width  of  40  feet  and  to  grant  permission 
to  such  owners,  between  4th  and  23rd  Streets  to  enclose  15  feet 
of  the  sidewalks  within  court  yards,  as  had  been  permitted  in 
the  case  of  Fifth  Avenue,  of  23rd  Street,  etc.,  etc.,  and  if  neces- 
sary to  obtain  from  the  Legislature  an  Act  authorizing  such 
enclosures.  The  Corporation  further  agreed  to  place  a  foun- 
tain, equal  to  that  in  Union  Square,  in  each  of  the  enclosures 
aforesaid,  the  same  to  be  under  the  control  of  the  City  officials. 
(Mins.  C.  C.,  Vol.  XVII:3).  The  release  is  not  of  record. 

On  August  4,  1849,  the  "widening  [sic]  of  the  sidewalks  in 
Second  Avenue,  from  60  to  45  feet"  and  the  resetting  of  the 
curb  and  gutter  in  the  Avenue  from  llth  to  20th  Streets  were  au- 
thorized and  the  question  of  building  fountains  was  referred  to 
the  Croton  Aqueduct  Board  with  instructions  to  procure  plans 
and  estimates  and  submit  them  to  the  Common  Council.  Said 
Department  was  directed  on  October  11  to  erect  the  fountains 
and  $7,500  was  appropriated  to  cover  the  expense. 

Considering  the  above  action  it  is  rather  disconcerting  that 
the  Mayor  should  have  approved  resolutions,  Jan.  5,  1850,  open- 
ing as  a  public  square  the  triangular  piece  of  ground  lying  be- 
tween and  contained  by  the  Bowery,  Third  Avenue  and  7th 
Street,  (Vol.  XVII  :566)  and  that  the  Legislature  should  have 
passed  a  law,  March  16  of  that  year  laying  out  a  public  place 
on  the  above  plot  to  be  known  as  Stuyvesant  Square,  (Chap.  65.) 
This  has  now  become  Cooper  Square  and  lies  just  south  of 
Cooper  Union. 

Many  people  of  note  settled  around  the  original  square.  Those 
families  which  inherited  parts  of  the  Stuyvesant  farm  were 
anxious  to  live  thereon  and  built  substantial  brick  mansions 
along  the  broad  stretch  of  Second  Avenue.  Their  following  went 
with  them  and  a  great  deal  of  the  social  gaiety  of  the  City  was 
transferred  away  over  to  the  East  Side.  There  still  remain 
many  of  these  fine  old  houses  where  people  live  in  comfort  and 
it  is  yet  a  highly  respectable  place  of  residence  which,  although 
fashion  has  passed  by,  clings  tenaciously  to  its  old  home  charms. 


Chapters  in  the  History  of  Halifax, 
Nova  Scotia 

No.  II — THE  COMING  OF  THE  BOSTON  TOBIES 
BY  AETHUE  WENTWOETH  HAMILTON  EATON,  M.  A.,  D.  C.  L. 

"Time  was  when  America  hallowed  the  morn 
On  which  the  lov'd  monarch  of  Britain  was  born, 
Hallowed  the  day,  and  joyfully  chanted 

God  save  the  King! 

Then  flourish 'd  tho  blessings  of  freedom  and  peace, 
And  plenty  flow'd  in  with  a  yearly  increase, 
Proud  of  our  lot  we  chanted  merrily 
Glory  and  joy  crown  the  King! 

"But  see!  how  rebellion  has  lifted  her  head! 
How  honour  and  truth  are  with  loyalty  fled ! 
Few  are  there  now  to  join  us  in  chanting 

God  save  the  King! 

And  see!  how  deluded  the  multitude  fly 
To  arm  in  a  cause  that  is  built  on  a  lye ! 
Yet  are  we  proud  to  chant  thus  merrily 
Glory  and  joy  crown  the  King!" 

Loyalist  Poem  by  the  Rev.  Jonathan  Odell,  M.  D.,  on  the 
King's  birthday,  June  4,  1777.  Printed  in  the  Gentleman's 
Magazine. 

OF  THE  several  provinces  that  constitute  the  Domin- 
ion of  Canada,  Quebec  and  Nova  Scotia  were  the  only 
ones  at  the  time  of  American  Revolution  that  could 
be  considered  settled.     The  nearest  of  the  provinces 
to  the  colonies  engaged  in  revolt  was  Nova  Scotia,  and  the  fact 
that  her  population  had  in  great  part  only  recently  been  drawn 
from  New  England,  and  that  her  trade  was  still  most  largely 
with  Boston,  gives  this  province  a  significance  in  the  great  strug- 

(764) 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          765 

gle  for  independence  that  is  second  only  to  that  of  the  revolt- 
ing colonies  themselves.  Political  sympathies  are  usually  most 
strongly  determined  by  racial  connection  and  commercial  inter- 
est, and  with  a  large  proportion  of  the  people  of  Nova  Scotia 
at  the  period  of  the  Revolution,  near  ties  of  blood  and  the  neces- 
sities of  trade  naturally  combined  to  produce  a  feeling  of  sym- 
pathy with  the  revolt,  that  showed  itself  strongly  throughout 
the  province,  particularly  in  the  two  important  but  widely  sepa- 
rated counties  of  Yarmouth  and  Cumberland.  That  in  the  Rev- 
olution the  political  fate  of  Nova  Scotia  "hung  upon  a  very 
slender  thread"  is  a  statement  that  has  recently  been  boldly 
made  in  Nova  Scotia  itself,  and  strong  as  the  statement  to  many 
people  may  seem,  the  facts  in  the  case  we  believe  fully  warrant 
the  historian  in  making  the  charge  that  his  statement  implies.1 
Geographically,  Nova  Scotia  and  the  adjoining  province  of 
New  Brunswick,  which  until  1783  was  reckoned  as  part  of 
Nova  Scotia,  belong  with  New  England,  and  in  the  commissions 
of  several  of  the  governors  sent  out  as  the  chief  executives  of 
Massachusetts,  Nova  Scotia  was  included  as  part  of  the  terri- 
tory over  which  these  officials  were  empowered  to  exercise  con- 
trol.2 For  two-thirds  of  a  century  before  the  Revolution,  ever 
since  England  had  gained  the  final  undisputed  right  to  rule  Aca- 
dia,  intercourse,  political  and  social,  between  the  two  provinces 
had  been  of  the  closest  kind.  Massachusetts,  indeed,  for  much  of 
this  time  had  been  in  a  military  way  much  more  than  a  friendly 


1.  Edmund  Duval  Poole  in  "Annals  of  Yarmouth  and  Harrington,"  page  i. 

2.  Sir  William    Phips's   commission,   in    1692,   gave  this   governor  control   of 
"the  Old  Colony,  the  Colony  of  New  Plymouth,  the  Province  of  Maine,  of  Nova 
Scotia,  and  all  the  country  between  the  last  two  mentioned  places."  See  Sparks's 
American  Biography,  Vol.  7,  p.  77.     William  Shirley's  commission,  in  1741,  reads : 
"Whereas  by  a  Royal  Charter  under  the  Great  Seal  of  England,  bearing  date  the 
Seventh  day  of  October  in  the  3rd  year  of  the  Reign  of  King  William  the  Third, 
the  Colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  the  Colony  of  New  Plymouth,  the  Province  of 
Main  in  New  England,  the  Territory  of  Acadie  or  Nova  Scotia,  and  the  Lands 
lying  between  the  said  Territory  of  Nova  Scotia  and  the  Province  of  Main  afore- 
said were  United,  Erected,  and  incorporated  into  one  real  Province,  by  the  name 
of  Our  Province  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  in  New  England.     .     .     .     We  repos- 
ing Especial  Trust  and  Confidence  in  the  Prudence,  Courage,  and  Loyalty  of  you 
the  said  William  Shirley.     ...     do  Constitute  and  Appoint  You  the  said  Wil- 
liam Shirley  to  be  Our  Captain  General  and  Governor  in  Chief  in  and  over  Our 
said  Province  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay."     "The  Correspondence  of  William  Shir- 
ley," edited  by  Charles  Henry  Lincoln,  Ph.D.,  Vol.  i,  pp.  28-36.    The  "seventh  day 
of  October  in  the  third  year  of  the  Reign  of  King  William  the  Third"  was  Octo- 
ber 7,  1691. 


766  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

neighbor  to  the  more  easterly  province,  she  had,  primarily  of 
course  for  her  own  protection,  used  her  forces  unsparingly  in 
guarding  the  interests  of  Nova  Scotia  against  the  machinations 
of  the  common  foe  of  all  the  eastern  American  colonies,  the 
papistical  French.3  In  the  matter  of  trade  the  two  provinces 
had  been  extremely  valuable  to  each  other,  important  commer- 
cial intercourse  between  them  having  begun  even  earlier  than  the 
time  that  De  Razilly's  warring  lieutenants,  D'Aulnay  Charni- 
say  and  Charles  La  Tour,  were  waging  their  petty  wars  for  su- 
premacy in  the  Acadian  woods. 

As  we  have  seen,  there  was  no  attempt  at  British  settlement 
of  Nova  Scotia  until  1749,  and  thereafter  no  further  attempt  un- 
til 1758,  so  that  the  political  grievances  of  which  long  settled 
Massachusetts  had  come  to  complain  had  had  no  chance  to  de- 
velop in  the  former  province.  But  the  population  of  Nova  Sco- 
tia, wherever  population  existed  in  the  districts  outside  of  Hali- 
fax, had  been  largely  drawn  from  New  England,  and  as  has 
been  said,  and  as  we  should  expect,  these  Nova  Scotian  New 
Englanders  soon  after  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution  showed 
unmistakable  signs  of  close  sympathy  with  the  cause  to  which 
their  relatives  and  friends  in  the  colonies  they  had  left  behind 
had  given  their  passionate  support.  At  Halifax,  however,  mat- 
ters were  different,  many  of  the  most  influential  inhabitants  of 
the  town,  it  is  true,  were  New  Englanders,  but  society  there  had 
begun  on  a  distinctly  aristocratic  plan,  the  governor  was  an 
Englishman,  the  council,  into  which  several  New  England  men 
had  already  been  admitted,  was  a  body  which  stimulated  and 
gave  exercise  for  the  love  of  power  which  most  men  possess, 
and  already  a  considerable  number  of  the  Boston  Congregation- 


3.  In  1747,  Governor  Shirley  wrote  the  Duke  of  Newcastle  that  "New  Eng- 
land had  furnished  for  years  the  only  succour  and  support  the  Garrison  at  An- 
napolis Royal  had  received,  and  that  the  General  Assembly  of  Massachusetts  were 
growing  tired  of  haying  the  burden  of  defence  thrown  upon  them,  and  desired 
his  Majesty's  more  immediate  interposition  for  the  protection  of  Nova  Scotia." 
Archdeacon  Raymond,  LL.D.,  in  "Nova  Scotia  under  English  Rule;  from  the 
Capture  of  Port  Royal  to  the  Conquest  of  Canada,  A.  D.  1710-1760,"  published  in 
the  "Transactions  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Canada,"  Third  Series  1910,  p.  68. 

March  28,  1750,  Shirley  writes  the  Duke  of  Newcastle  that  Nova  Scotia  hav- 
ing long  been  the  object  of  his  attention,  appears  to  him  "immediately  to  affect 
the  safety  of  all  his  [Majesty's]  other  Northern  Colonies,  particularly  those  of 
New  England,  and  in  its  consequences  the  interests  of  Great  Britain  itself  in  a 
very  high  degree."  "The  Correspondence  of  William  Shirley." 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  767 

alists  settled  in  the  town  had  conceived  an  attachment,  stronger 
or  weaker,  for  the  Anglican  Church.  When  the  Revolution 
began,  therefore,  self  interest  for  most  of  the  Halifax  men 
seemed  to  demand  that  whatever  might  come  they  should  keep 
loyal  to  England,  hence  the  strong  censure  with  which  any  disaf- 
fection towards  British  control  was  visited  at  Halifax  from  first 
to  last  through  the  whole  continuance  of  the  war. 

The  Revolutionary  conflict  started  in  Massachusetts  on  the 
nineteenth  of  April,  1775,  by  the  march  of  some  eight  or  ninte 
hundred  royal  troops  from  Boston  towards  Concord  to  seize 
stores  of  ammunition  and  food  the  provincials  had  collected  there 
for  use  in  the  impending  certain  strife.  The  attempt  was  un- 
successful, and  before  long  Boston,  where  the  British  forces 
were  gathered,  was  completely  surrounded  by  provincial  troops 
and  all  supplies  for  the  King's  army  were  cut  off.  As  soon  as 
this  fact  became  known  in  Nova  Scotia,  Governor  Legge  of  this 
province  ordered  shipments  of  provisions  from  the  Bay  of  Fun- 
dy,  and  likewise  dispatched  four  companies  of  the  65th  regi- 
ment, then  stationed  at  Halifax,  to  assist  the  royal  troops  in  the 
beleaguered  town.  In  the  Massachusetts  Archives  is  a  mass  of 
documents  which  reveal  with  great  clearness  the  unhappy  con- 
ditions which  existed  both  in  Nova  Scotia  and  in  Massachusetts, 
from  the  prohibition  of  all  intercourse  between  the  two  prov- 
inces by  the  patriot  authorities  of  Massachusetts,  throughout 
the  progress  of  the  strife,  until  the  enactment  of  the  resolve  of 
July  fifth,  1792,  by  the  Massachusetts  Great  and  General  Court 
abolished  privateering  and  put  trade  relations  once  more  on  a 
friendly  basis. 

Fear  that  the  interruption  of  trade  relations,  and  more  es- 
pecially that  the  close  relationship  that  existed  between  a 
great  part  of  the  inhabitants  of  Nova  Scotia  and  the  people  of 
New  England,  might  produce  a  feeling  of  sympathy  in  Nova 
Scotia  with  the  revolting  colonies,  caused  the  government  at 
Halifax  to  bestir  themselves  vigorously  almost  as  soon  as  the 
Revolution  began  to  check  any  outward  demonstration  of  dis- 
loyalty the  N^ova  Scotians  might  be  disposed  to  make.  At  the 
opening  of  the  Legislature  in  June,  1775,  Governor  Legge  in 
Ms  speech  said  diplomatically :  * '  On  so  critical  a  conjuncture  of 


768          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

affairs  in  America  I  cannot  forbear  expressing  the  great  pleas- 
ure and  satisfaction  I  receive  from  your  steady  and  uniform  be- 
haviour in  your  duty  and  allegiance  to  the  King,  and  in  your 
due  observance  of  the  laws  of  Great  Britain.  Nothing  can  more 
advance  the  good  and  welfare  of  this  people,  nor  render  us  more 
respectable  to  Great  Britain,  nor  be  more  subservient  to  procure 
the  favour  and  protection  of  our  Royal  and  most  gracious  sov- 
ereign; as  on  the  continuance  of  his  protection  our  safety,  our 
prosperity,  and  the  very  existence  of  this  colony  depends."  The 
replies  of  the  Council  and  the  Assembly  to  this  speech  were  as 
loyal  in  tone  as  could  be  asked,  but  the  Governor  soon  began  in 
letters  to  the  Home  Government  to  charge  disloyalty  to  England 
on  most  of  the  people  under  his  rule,  clearly  insinuating  that 
even  members  of  the  Council  itself  were  tainted  with  treasonable 
feeling.4  Positive  orders  issued  both  by  the  revolted  colonies 
and  the  Governor  and  Council  of  this  province  prohibiting  in- 
tercourse between  Nova  Scotia  and  the  other  colonies  soon  pro- 


4.  At  Halifax  the  restraint  of  trade  was  of  course  severely  felt,  and  a  few 
persons  there  were  charged  by  name  with  unfriendliness  towards  the  English 
cause.  A  quantity  of  hay  had  been  bought  from  Mr.  Joseph  Fairbanks  for  the 
King's  troops  at  Boston,  but  by  some  means  it  was  burned  before  it  could  be  got 
away.  Responsibility  for  destroying  it  was  publicly  laid  on  two  Massachusetts 
residents  of  the  town,  John  Fillis,  formerly  of  Boston,  and  William  Smith.  They 
stoutly  denied  the  charge,  however,  and  the  council  exonerated  them.  In  Octo- 
ber, 1777,  an  order  was  passed  in  council  for  the  arrest  of  Mr.  Malachy  Salter, 
one  of  the  most  prominent  merchants  of  the  town,  also  a  native  Bostonian, 
on  a  charge  of  correspondence  of  a  dangerous  tendency  with  parties  in  Boston, 
and  a  prosecution  was  ordered  against  him  for  unlawful  correspondence  with 
the  rebels.  In  the  next  session  of  the  Supreme  Court  Mr.  Salter  was  tried  but 
he  too  was  honourably  acquitted. 

The  Eddy  rebellion  in  Cumberland  county  in  17/6,  led  by  Jonathan  Eddy,  John 
Allan,  and  Samuel  Rogers,  all  of  whom  had  been  members  of  the  Nova  Scotia 
Legislature,  is  a  conspicuous  matter  of  Revolutionary  history.  How  the  news  of 
this  rebellion  affected  the  government  at  Halifax  a  minute  of  the  council  books 
shows.  This  notable  entry  is  as  follows : 

"At  a  council  holden  at  Halifax,  on  the  I7th  Nov.,  1776,  Present  the  Honoura- 
ble the  Lieut.  Governor,  the  Hon.  Charles  Morris,  Richard  Bulkeley,  Henry  New- 
ton, Jonathan  Binney,  Arthur  Gpold,  John  Butler. 

"On  certain  intelligence  having  been  received  that  Jonathan  Eddy,  William 
Howe,  and  Samuel  Rogers  have  been  to  the  utmost  of  their  power  exciting  and 
stirring  up  disaffection  and  rebellion  among  the  people  of  the  county  of  Cumber- 
land, and  are  actually  before  the  fort  at  Cumberland  with  a  considerable  number 
of  rebels  from  New  England,  together  with  some  Acadians  and  Indians.  It  was 
therefore  resolved  to  offer  £200  Reward  for  apprehending  Jonathan  Eddy  and 
£100  for  apprehending  John  Allan,  who  has  been  deeply  concerned  in  exciting  said 
rebellion.'' 

A  fact  never  entirely  lost  sight  of  by  historians  of  Halifax  is  that  in  this 
Eddy  rebellion  in  Cumberland  a  young  Irishman,  Richard  John  Uniacke,  who  in 
later  life  was  to  hold  high  positions  in  the  local  government  and  to  found  in 
Halifax  a  family  of  the  first  importance,  took  part  against  the  British  authorities. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  769 

duced  a  most  unhappy  state  of  feeling  all  over  the  province; 
Nova  Scotia  had  lost  her  markets,  privateering  on  both  sides  was 
rampant  on  the  seas,  so  large  a  number  of  prisoners  were  being 
brought  into  Halifax  that  the  prison  ship  in  the  harbour  and 
the  jail  in  the  town  were  full  to  overflowing,  and  to  crown  all  an 
order  had  gone  out  from  Governor  Legge  for  the  enrollment  of 
a  large  body  of  militia  in  various  parts  of  the  province  for  im- 
mediate service,  if  necessary  in  the  field.  Legge,  who  was  a  rel- 
ative of  the  Earl  of  Dartmouth,  was  the  most  unpopular  gover- 
nor Nova  Scotia  has  ever  had,  he  was  autocratic  and  suspicious, 
and  in  the  three  years  that  he  spent  as  head  of  the  government, 
he  managed  hopelessly  to  antagonize  not  only  the  lieutenant- 
governor,  Mr.  Michael  Francklin,  and  the  members  of  the  Coun- 
cil, but  the  people  at  large  of  perhaps  every  settled  township  in 
the  province  under  his  rule.  His  order  to  the  militia  was  re- 
ceived throughout  the  province  with  marked  disapprobation; 
* '  Those  of  us  who  belong  to  New  England  being  invited  into  this 
province  by  Governor  Lawrence's  proclamation,'1  say  the  peo- 
ple of  Cumberland,  "it  must  be  the  greatest  piece  of  cruelty 
and  imposition  for  them  to  be  subjected  to  march  into  different 
parts  in  arms  against  their  friends  and  relations."  Protests 
from  Onslow  and  Truro  speak  of  the  hardships  of  the  militia 
law,  since  it  takes  men  from  their  avocations,  and  also  leaves  the 
parts  of  the  country  from  which  they  come  exposed  to  attack. 

The  movement  of  Loyalists  from  Massachusetts  to  Nova  Sco- 
tia began  very  soon  after  the  skirmish  at  Lexington.  Many  per- 
sons of  comfortable  fortune,  in  and  near  Boston,  foresaw  that  if 
the  provincials  triumphed  their  own  fortunes  must  lie  elsewhere 
than  in  their  native  province,  and  cast  their  eyes  on  Nova  Scotia 
as  a  place  of  refuge.  Early  in  May,  1775,  therefore,  several 
vessels  arrived  in  Halifax  harbour  with  families  that  were  glad 
to  escape  thus  early  from  the  scene  of  what  clearly  threatened 
to  be  a  miserable  and  protracted  civil  war. 

The  first  Massachusetts  Loyalists  that  we  know  to  have  ar- 
rived in  Halifax  were  a  group  who  embarked  at  Salem  on  the 
twenty-ninth  of  April,  1775,  in  the  brig  Minerva.  This  group 
comprised  Mr.  George  DeBlois,  a  local  Salem  merchant,  a  first 
cousin  of  Gilbert  and  Lewis  DeBlois,  the  well  known  Boston 


770  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

Tories  who  died  in  England,— Dr.  John  Prince,  a  Salem  physi- 
cian, Mr.  James  Grant,  and  a  Mrs.  Cottnam  and  her  family.5 
A  little  over  a  month  later,  on  the  eighth  of  June,  1775,  Edward 
Lyde  and  his  family  of  Boston  left  their  native  city,  in  some 
vessel,  and  sought  refuge  in  Halifax.  Edward  Lyde  was  a 
prosperous  iron  merchant,  a  man  of  the  first  social  position,  who 
had  managed  to  make  himself  highly  offensive  to  the  patriots, 
and  his  flight  from  his  native  town  at  this  early  period  seems 
to  have  been  necessary  for  his  safety.  Precisely  where  in  Hali- 
fax he  lived  during  the  year  he  spent  there  we  do  not  know,  but 
when  his  friends  from  Boston  arrived  with  General  Howe,  as 
we  shall  presently  see,  he  met  Chief  Justice  Peter  Oliver,  and 
at  once  took  him  to  his  house,  where  he  kept  him  during  his  stay. 
Some  time  in  1776,  Mr.  Lyde  embarked  for  London,  though  he 
did  not  long  stay  abroad.  In  1779  he  came  to  New  York,  where 
he  had  important  business  interests,  and  in  that  city  he  spent 
most  of  the  remainder  of  his  life.6  When  Howe's  fleet  reached 
Halifax,  among  the  Refugees  that  came  with  it  were  Mr.  By- 
field  Lyde  of  Boston,  Edward  Lyde's  father,  and  two  or  three 
sisters  of  Edward  Lyde.  Of  these  sisters,  Sarah,  became  in 
3777,  in  Halifax,  the  second  wife  of  Dr.  Mather  Byles. 

Very  soon  after  the  battle  of  Lexington,  Major  John  Vassall 
of  Cambridge  and  Boston,  and  his  family,  and  Colonel  Isaac 
Royall  of  Medford,  sailed  for  Halifax,  and  with  the  latter  prob- 
ably went  also  Sir  William  Pepperrell,  2nd,  Colonel  Royall 's  son- 
in-law,  and  Lady  Pepperrell.  In  Halifax  Lady  Pepperrell  died, 
her  funeral  taking  place  there  October  eighth,  1775.  Late  in 
1775,  or  early  in  1776,  Rev.  John  Troutbeck,  who  had  been  for 
about  twenty-one  years  assistant  minister  of  King's  Chapel, 
also  took  refuge  in  Halifax,  and  with  the  exception  of  the  Pep- 


5.  See  the  writer's  "Old  Boston  Families,  No.  i,  the  DeBlois  Family,"  in  the 
N.  E.  Hist,  and  Gen.  Register  for  January,  1913.     Mrs.  Cottnam  afterward  kept 
a  school  for  girls,  first  in  Halifax,  then  in  St.  John.     She  and  her  daughter  are 
occasionally  referred  to  in  the  Byles  correspondence. 

6.  Edward    Lyde's   movements    are   clearly   learned    from    the    deposition   he 
made  before  the  commissioners  appointed  to  receive  petitions  from  Loyalists  for 
compensation  for  their  losses  in  the  Revolution.     See  "Ontario  Sessional  Papers,* 
Vol.  37,  Parts  n  and  12  (2  Vols.,  1905). 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  771 

perrells  these  persons  were  all  in  Nova  Scotia  when  Howe's 
iieet  arrived  in  March  and  April,  1776.7 

Almost  immediately  after  the  battle  of  Lexington,  as  we  have 
said,  Boston  came  into  a  state  of  siege,  General  Gage  promptly 
ordering  the  inhabitants  of  the  town  to  have  no  communication 
whatever  with  the  country  around.  Just  before  the  battle  of 
Bunker  Hill  (June  17,  1775),  General  Howe  said  to  his  troops: 
"Remember,  gentlemen,  we  have  no  recourse  if  we  lose  Boston, 
but  to  go  on  board  our  ships,  which  will  be  very  disagreeable  to 
us  all."  On  the  seventh  of  March,  1776,  Howe's  situation  "was 
perplexing  and  critical.  The  fleet  was  unable  to  ride  in  safety 
in  the  harbour.  The  army,  exposed  to  the  mercy  of  the  American 
batteries  and  not  strong  enough  to  force  the  lines,  was  humiliat- 
ed and  discontented.  The  Loyalists  were  expecting  and  claim- 
ing the  protection  that  had  so  often  been  guaranteed  to  them.8  In 


7.  Rev.   John   Troutheck   was   in    Boston    as   late   as   October.    1775.   when   he 
signed  the   address    from    the   gentlemen   and   principal   inhabitants   of    Boston    to 
Governor   Gage.     When   Dr.   William  Walter,  Rector  of   Trinity  Church,   Boston, 
arrived  in  Halifax  we  do  not  know,  but  it  was  probably  earlier  than  the  coming 
there  of  Howe's  fleet. 

Colonel  Isaac  Royall  left  his  beautiful  mansion  in  Medford  (which  is  stand- 
ing still)  with  great  sorrow,  three  days  before  the  battle  of  Lexington.  He  ex- 
pected to  go  to  Antigua,  but  he  soon  decided  to  go  to  Halifax,  and  in  that  town 
he  remained  until  the  Spring  of  1776.  Probably  in  May,  1776,  he  embarked  for 
England,  and  there  without  ever  revisiting  his  native  country,  he  died  in  1781. 
One  of  his  daughters  was  the  wife  of  Col.  George  Erving,  another  the  wife  of 
Sir  William  Pepperrell,  2nd. 

Of  Colonel  RoyalFs  house  at  Medford,  Mr.  Stark  writes:  "The  mansion  it- 
self was  inded  one  of  the  finest  of  colonial  residences,  standing  as  it  did  in  the 
midst  of  elegant  surroundings.  In  the  front,  or  what  is  now  the  west  side,  was 
the  paved  court.  Reaching  farther  west  were  the  extensive  gardens,  opening  from 
the  courtyard,  a  broad  path  leading  to  the  summer  house.  The  slave  quarters 
were  at  the  south.  .  .  .  The  interior  woodwork  of  the  house  is  beautifully 
carved,  especially  the  drawing  room,  guest  chamber,  and  staircase.  The  walls  are 
pannelled,  and  the  carving  on  each  side  of  the  windows  is  very  fine." 

This  notable  mansion  was  the  scene  of  great  hospitality.  "No  home  in  the 
colony,"  continues  Mr.  Stark,  "was  more  open  to  friends,  no  gentleman  gave  bet- 
ter dinners,  or  drank  costlier  wines."  Colonel  Royal  was  a  kind  master  to  his 
slaves,  a  charitable  man  to  the  poor,  and  a  friend  to  everybody.  From  Halifax, 
March  twelfth,  1776,  he  wrote  from  Halifax  to  Dr.  Simon  Tufts  of  Medford, 
directing  Tufts  to  sell  some  of  his  slaves.  See  Stark's  "The  Loyalists  of  Massa- 
chusetts," pp.  293,  294;  and  Brooks's  "History  of  Medford,"  p.  173. 

8.  Public  acts  of  the  Massachusetts  Loyalists  that  were  particularly  offensive 
to  the  patriot  party  were,   a  respectful  address   of  the  merchants  and  others  of 
Boston  to  Governor  Hutchinson,  May  30,  1774,  before  Hutchinson's  departure  for 
England;  an  address  of  the  barristers  and  attorneys  of  Massachusetts  to  Gover- 
nor Hutchinson  on  the  same  day;  an  address  of  the  inhabitants  of  Marblehead 
to  Governor  Hutchinson,  May  25,  1774;  an  address  to  Governor  Hutchinson  from 
his  fellow  townsmen  in  the  town  of  Milton  shortly  before  the  Governor  sailed  ; 
an  address  presented  to  his  Excellency  Governor  Gage,  July  u,   1774,  on  his  ar- 
rival at  Salem;  a  loyal  address  from  the  gentlemen  and  principal  inhabitants  of 


772  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

addition,  the  belief  was  general  that  no  despatches  had  been  re- 
ceived from  the  government  since  October."  Accordingly,  on 
the  7th  of  March,  1776,  Howe  convened  his  officers  in  Council, 
and  in  a  speech,  impassioned  and  forceful,  told  them  that  in 
spite  of  the  humiliation  which  the  action  would  involve,  and 
of  the  losses  that  the  Loyalists  under  his  protection  must  inevi- 
tably suffer,  in  order  to  save  the  army  he  must  evacuate  the  town. 
Ten  days  later  the  formal  evacuation  came.  On  Sunday  the 
17th,  very  early  in  the  morning,  the  troops  began  to  embark. 
"About  nine  o'clock,"  says  Frothingham,  "the  garrison  left 
Bunker  Hill,  and  a  large  number  of  boats,  filled  with  troops  and 
inhabitants,  put  off  from  the  wharves  of  Boston."  How  soon 
after  his  final  decision  was  made  to  leave  Boston  Howe  notified 
the  majority  of  the  Loyalists  under  his  protection,  we  do  not 
know,  but  the  Rev.  Henry  Caner,  Eector  of  King's  Chapel,  tells 
us  that  he  himself  had  only  a  few  hours  given  him  to  prepare  for 
his  flight. 

Although  the  formal  evacuation  occurred  on  the  seventeenth 
of  March,  the  whole  fleet  did  not  leave  Boston  harbour  for  sev- 
eral days,  and  Frothingham  says  that  during  that  time  the 
British  officers  wrote  many  letters  to  their  friends.  On  the  day 
of  the  evacuation,  one  wrote  from  "Nantasket  Road":  "The 
dragoons  are  under  orders  to  sail  tomorrow  for  Halifax,— a 


Boston  to  Governor  Gage,  October  6,  1775,  shortly  before  he  sailed  for  England; 
and  a  "loyal  address  to  Governor  Gage  on  his  departure,  October  14,  1775,  of 
those  gentlemen  who  were  driven  from  their  habitations  in  the  country  to  the 
town  of  Boston." 

In  September,  1778,  was  passed  by  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  the 
Banishment  Act  of  the  State,  "an  Act  to  prevent  the  return  to  this  state  of  cer- 
tain persons  therein  named,  and  others  who  have  left  this  state  or  either  of  the 
United  States,  and  joined  the  enemies  thereof."  In  this  were  included  many  gen- 
tlemen in  various  professions  and  businesses  prominent  in  several  towns  of  the 
State.  The  second  section  of  the  act  reads :  "And  be  it  further  enacted  by  the 
authority  aforesaid,  that  if  any  person  or  persons,  who  shall  be  transported  as 
aforesaid,  shall  voluntarily  return  into  this  state,  without  liberty  first  had  and  ob- 
tained from  the  general  court,  he  shall  on  conviction  thereof  before  the  superior 
court  of  judicature,  court  of  assize  and  general  gaol  delivery,  suffer  the  pains  of 
death  without  benefit  of  clergy."  On  the  3Oth  of  April,  1779,  was  passed  the  "Con- 
spiracy Act,"  or  Act  of  Confiscation,  "an  Act  to  confiscate  the  estates  of  certain 
notorious  conspirators  against  the  government  and  liberties  of  the  inhabitants  of 
the  late  province,  now  state,  of  Massachusetts  Bay."  (The  term  "notorious  con- 
spirators" was  highly  insulting  to  men  who  were  honestly  convinced  that  what- 
ever the  mistakes  the  British  Government  was  then  making,  it  was  wrong  to 
thrpw^off  allegiance  to  the  mother  land.  Private  letters  of  Harrison  Gray  in  the 
writer's  custody  show  how  indignantly  they  resented  it,  and  how  inappropriate  it 
really  was). 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  773 

cursed,  cold,  wintry  place,  even  yet;  nothing  to  eat,  less  to 
drink.  Bad  times,  my  dear  friend."  On  the  twenty-fifth  of 
March,  another  wrote:  "We  do  not  know  where  we  are  going, 
but  are  in  great  distress."  On  the  twenty-sixth,  still  another 
wrote:  "Expect  no  more  letters  from  Boston.  We  have  quitted 
that  place.  Washington  played  on  the  town  for  several  days. 
A  shell,  which  burst  while  we  were  preparing  to  embark  did  very 
great  damage.  Our  men  have  suffered.  We  have  one  consola- 
tion left.  You  know  the  proverbial  expression,  t  neither  Hell, 
Hull,  nor  Halifax,'  can  afford  worse  shelter  than  Boston.9  To 
fresh  provision  I  have  for  many  months  been  an  utter  stranger. 
An  egg  was  a  rarity.  Yet  I  submit.  A  soldier  may  mention 
grievances,  though  he  should  scorn  to  repine  when  he  suffers 
them.  The  next  letter  from  Halifax." 

The  whole  effective  besieging  force  that  withdrew  with  Howe, 
says  Lossing,  including  seamen,  was  about  eleven  thousand,  and 
the  number  of  Refugees  about  eleven  hundred,  but  a  list  of  the 
latter  in  the  handwriting  of  one  of  them,  Mr.  Walter  Barrell, 
Inspector  General  of  Customs,  which  was  long  ago  printed  in  the 
"Proceedings  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society,"  gives 
the  number  as  nine  hundred  and  twenty-seven.10  In  Barrell 's 


g.     "There  is  a  proverb,  and  a  prayer  withal. 

That  we  may  not  to  three  strange  places   fall : 

From  Hull,   from  Halifax,   from  Hell,  'tis  thus, 

From  all  these  three,  good  Lord,  deliver  us!" 

John  Taylor  (the  "Water  Poet"),  1580-1654;  in  "News  from  Hell,  Hull,  and 
Halifax." 

The  siege  of  Boston  had  been  in  progress  for  ten  months  when  Howe  evac- 
uated the  town. 

10.  "Proceedings  of  the  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.,"  Vol.  18,  p.  266.  Also  Stark's 
"Loyalists  of  Massachusetts,"  pp.  133-136.  In  his  "Siege  of  Boston,"  Richard 
Frothingham,  Jr.,  gives  the  number  of  Refugees  with  Howe  as  "more  than  a  thou- 
sand." Of  members  of  Council,  commissioners,  custpm-house  officers,  and  others 
who  had  occupied  official  positions,  he  says,  there  were  a  hundred  and  two ;  of 
merchants  and  other  inhabitants  of  Boston  two  hundred  and  thirteen ;  of  persons 
from  the  country  a  hundred  and  five;  of  farmers,  traders,  and  mechanics  three 
hundred  and  eighty-two,  and  of  clergymen  eighteen,  all  of  whom  "returned  their 
names  on  their  arrival  at  Halifax."  About  two  hundred  others,  he  adds,  did  not 
return  their  names.  Where  the  "return"  made  at  Halifax,  that  Frothingham 
speaks  of,  was  ever  deposited  we  do  not  know.  Nor  can  we  feel  at  all  certain 
that  Frothingham's  summary  is  correct.  It  is  impossible,  for  instance,  that  there 
can  have  been  eighteen  clergymen  among  the  Refugees.  The  only  Massachusetts 
clergymen  that  the  fleet  can  possibly  have  carried  were  Rev.  Dr.  Henry  Caner, 
Rector  of  King's  Chapel,  Rev.  Dr.  Mather  Byles,  who  had  been  Rector  of  Christ 
Church,  Rev.  Moses  Badger,  whose  home  was  in  Haverhill,  and  possibly  though 
not  at  all  likely,  Rev.  Dr.  William  Walter,  Rector  of  Trinity  Church.  When  Dr. 


774  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

list  we  find  besides  Lieutenant-Governor  Thomas  Oliver  and  his 
servants,  six  persons  in  all,  eleven  members  of  council,  and  a 
clerk  of  the  courts,  they  and  their  households  numbering  in  all 
seventy-three,— a  group  of  custom  house  officials  numbering  no 
less  than  thirty-seven,  they  and  their  families  aggregating  a 
hundred  and  thirty-two,  and  two  hundred  and  twenty-eight  other 
men,  with  their  families,  these  comprising  the  greater  number 
of  the  Bostonians  in  private  life  who  were  regarded  as  occupy- 
ing the  most  prominent  positions  in  the  town.  Among  the  Refu- 
gees were  Hon.  Harrison  Gray,  Receiver  General  of  the  prov- 
ince and  member  of  council,  Brigadier-General  Timothy  Bug- 
gies, Hon.  Foster  Hutchinson,  Col.  John  Murray,  Col.  Josiah 
Edson,  Mr.  Richard  Lechmere,  Col.  John  Erving,  Mr.  Nathaniel 
Ray  Thomas,  Messrs.  Abijah  Willard,  Daniel  Leonard,  Nathan- 
iel Hatch,  George  Erving,— and  leading  representatives  of  the 
families  of  Atkinson,  Brattle,  Brinley,  Cazneau,  Chandler,  Cof- 
fin, Cutler,  DeBlois,  Dumaresq,  Faneuil,  Gardener,  Gay,  Gore, 
Gray,  Green,  Greenwood,  Holmes,  Hutchinson,  Inman,  Jefferies, 
Johannot,  Joy,  Loring,  Lyde,  Oliver,  Paddock,  Perkins,  Phips, 
Putnam,  Rogers,  Saltonstall,  Savage,  Sergeant,  Snelling, 
Sterns  or  Stearns,  and  Winslow.  That  several  other  important 
Boston  men  like  Thomas  Apthorp,  and  Major  John  and  Wil- 
liam Vassall,  are  not  found  in  this  list  of  Refugees  with  the  fleet 
is  to  be  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  they  had  left,  either  for 
Halifax  or  directly  for  England,  some  time  before.12 

Walter  went  to  Halifax,  we  have  nowhere  found  recorded,  it  may  have  been 
with  the  fleet,  or  it  may  have  been,  as  was  the  case  with  Rev.  John  Troutbeck,  a 
little  earlier.  There  may  have  been  several  army  or  navy  chaplains  on  Howe's 
ships,  there  were  no  Massachusetts  clergymen  except  those  we  have  mentioned. 

11.  On  page  136  of  his  "Loyalists  of  Massachusetts"  Mr.  Stark  gives  the  names 
of  thirty-six  mandamus  councillors  appointed  August  9,   1774.     Of  these,  several, 
like  Foster  Hutchinson,  Timothy  Ruggles,  and  Nathaniel  Ray  Thomas,  going  with 
the  fleet,  settled  permanently  in  Nova  Scotia. 

12.  Judge  Curwen,  of  Salem,  one  of  the  most  important  Massachusetts  Loy- 
alists, landed  at  Dover,  England,  July  3,   1775,  and  after  visiting  the  castle  there, 
at  once  took  coach  for  London.    The  next  evening,  at  seven  o'clock,  he  arrived  at 
the  New  England  Coffee-House,  on  Threadneedle  Street.     He  remained  in   Eng- 
land until  1784,  when  at  the  urgent  solicitation  of  his  old  friends,  "the  principal 
merchants  and  citizens  of   Salem,"  he  returned  to   New   England.     At  Salem  he 
says,  "not  a  man,  woman,  or  child  but  expressed  a  satisfaction  at  seeing  me,  and 
welcomed  me  back."     His  affairs  were  in  so  bad  a  condition,  however,  that  he 
thought  he  might  have  to  "retreat  to  Nova  Scotia,"  but  he  staid  in   Salem,  and 
died  there  in  1802.     April  24,  1780,  he  writes : 

"This  day,  five  years  are  completed  since  I  abandoned  my  house,  estate,  and 
effects  and  friends.     God  only  knows  whether  I  shall  ever  be  restored  to  them, 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  775 

On  the  thirtieth  of  March,  1776,  so  tradition  has  it,  the  Hali- 
fax people,  who  had  had  no  previous  notice  of  the  action  of 
Howe,  were  startled  to  see  a  fleet  sailing  into  their  harbour.13 
Their  first  thought  was  that  another  French  fleet  bent  on  re-con- 
quest of  Nova  Scotia  had  suddenly  surprised  the  town,  but  the 
truth  was  soon  learned,  and  then  the  greatest  perplexity  arose 
to  know  how  to  house  the  thousand  civilians  who  wished  to  dis- 
embark from  the  ships,  and  to  provide  food  for  the  more  than 
eleven  thousand  soldiers  and  sailors  that  General  Howe's  forces 
comprised.  To  supply  shelter  every  available  spare  room  in  the 
town  was  quickly  secured  and  tents  were  thrown  up  on  the 
Parade,  and  for  food,  cattle  were  rapidly  driven  in  from  the 
suburbs  and  slaughtered,  and  all  shops  and  storehouses  were 
taxed  to  the  limit  of  their  supplies.  So  great  was  the  demand 
for  food  that  as  in  all  such  crises  the  price  of  provisions  rose  to 
what  was  then  an  exorbitant  figure,  and  this  went  on  until  the 
Governor  was  obliged  to  issue  a  proclamation  fixing  the  price  of 
meat  at  a  shilling  a  pound,  milk  at  sixpence  a  quart,  and  butter 
at  one  and  six-pence  a  pound. 

At  this  time,  it  will  be  remembered,  Halifax  was  only  twenty- 
seven  years  old,  and  its  regular  inhabitants  numbered  not  more 
than  between  three  and  four  thousand,  and  we  can  well  imagine 
the  excitement  that  must  have  prevailed  in  all  ranks  of  society 
at  the  sudden  descent  of  such  a  force  on  the  town,  and  at  the 
prospect  of  such  a  permanent  increase  to  the  population  as  the 
remaining  there  of  a  large  number  of  the  Bostonians  would 
make.  Towards  the  troops  and  the  people  who  accompanied 
them,  however,  there  seems  to  have  been  generally  the  kindest 
feeling  shown,  and  however  limited  the  hospitality  the  Hali- 
gionians  were  able  to  offer,  the  Boston  people  were  no  doubt 
thankful  to  their  hearts'  core  to  receive  it,  for  they  had  been 
living  for  months  previous  to  their  enforced  embarkation  in  a 


or  they  to  me.  Party  rage,  like  jealousy  and  superstition  is  cruel  as  the  grave; — 
that  moderation  is  a  crime,  and  in  time  of  civil  confusions,  many  good,  virtuous, 
and  peaceable  persons  now  suffering  banishment  from  America  are  the  wretched 
proofs  and  instances."  See  Curwen's  "Journal  and  Letters,"  and  Stark's  "Loy- 
alists of  Massachusetts,"  pp.  246-254. 

13.  This  is  the  tradition,  but  it  is  also  said  somewhere  in  print  that  when 
General  Howe  found  that  he  must  leave  Boston  he  dispatched  Brigadier-General 
Robertson  to  Halifax  to  make  ready  for  the  troops. 


7;6          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

state  of  apprehension  and  in  some  cases  of  real  physical  discom- 
fort. The  distress  of  the  troops  and  inhabitants  of  Boston  dur- 
ing the  siege,  some  one  wrote  at  the  time,  "is  great  beyond  all 
possible  description.  Neither  vegetables,  flour,  nor  pulse  for  the 
inhabitants;  the  King's  stores  are  so  very  short  none  can  be 
spared  for  them;  no  fuel,  and  the  winter  set  in  remarkably  se- 
vere. The  troops  and  inhabitants  absolutely  and  literally  starv- 
ing for  want  of  provisions  and  fire."14 

Details  of  the  voyage  of  these  Boston  Tories  to  Halifax  are 
not  entirely  wanting.  In  the  Journal  of  Chief-Justice  Peter  Oli- 
ver, as  quoted  in  Thomas  Hutchinson's  "Diary  and  Letters,"15 
we  have  one  prominent  Bostonian's  account  of  it.  On  the  sev- 
enteenth of  March,  the  day  of  the  embarkation,  Judge  Oliver 
writes :  * '  The  troops  at  Boston  embarked,  and  about  20  sail  fell 
down  into  King's  Koad  by  11  o'clock  this  morning."  On  the 
twenty-seventh,  then  well  at  sea,  he  writes :  "I  sailed  from  Nan- 
tasket,  at  3  o'clock,  afternoon,  in  the  2nd  and  last  Division  of 
the  fleet,  about  70  sail,  for  Hallifax,  under  convoy  of  the  Chat- 
ham, Admiral  Shuldham,  and  of  the  Centurion,  Captn  Braith- 
waite— 28th,  A  good  wind.  29th,  Ditto.  Were  on  Cape  Sable 
Bank.  30th,  Wind  about  N.  E.  A  tumbling  sea,  supposed  to  be 
occasioned  by  the  indraught  of  the  Bay  of  Fundy.  31st,  Ditto. 
April  1st,  A  tumbling  sea :  wind  at  N.  E.  2nd,  A  southerly  wind 
and  smooth  sea.  Made  land,  on  a  north  course,  about  3  o'clock 
afternoon,  and  came  to  anchor  before  Hallifax  at  half  an  hour 
past  7  at  night.  3d,  Landed  at  Hallifax.  Edward  Lyde,  Esq.  in- 
vited me  to  his  house,  where  I  tarried  till  I  embarqued  for  Eng- 
land. I  was  very  happy  in  being  at  Mr.  Lyde's,  as  there  was  so 
great  an  addition  to  the  inhabitants  from  the  navy  and  army, 
and  Refugees  from  Boston,  which  made  the  lodgings  for  them 
very  scarce  to  be  had,  and  many  of  them,  when  procured,  quite 
intolerable.  Provisions  were  here  as  dear  as  in  London.  The 
rents  of  houses  were  extravagant  and  the  owners  of  them  took  all 
advantages  of  the  necessity  of  the  times,  so  that  I  knew  of  three 
rooms  in  one  house  wch  house  could  not  cost  500£  Sterlg,  let  for 
£250  Sterlg  p  year.  Thus  mankind  prey  upon  each  other.  .  .  . 


14.  We  can  understand   from  this  account  how  it  was  that  the   Old  North 
Church,  the  Church  of  the  Mathers   (Dr.  Increase  and  Dr.  Cotton  Mather),  with 
about  twenty  other  buildings,  was  torn  down  for  fuel  during  the  siege. 

15.  "Diary  and  Letters  of  Thomas  Hutchinson,"  Vol.  2,  pp.  46-54. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  777 

I  pitied  the  misfortunes  of  others,  but  I  could  only  pity  them :  for 
myself,  I  was  happily  provided  for,  and  was  the  more  happy,  as 
I  had  been  very  sea-sick  during  my  6  1-2  days  voyage,  so  that  I 
could  not  enjoy  to  my  wishes,  the  grand  prospect  of  the  ocean 
covered  with  ships  in  view,  and  some  of  them  so  near  as  to  con- 
verse with  our  friends  on  board  them. ' ' 

How  Halifax  appeared  to  the  Refugees  we  also  learn  from 
Judge  Oliver's  journal.  "Halifax,"  Oliver  writes,  "is  a  very 
agreeable  situation  for  prospects,  and  for  trade:  it  is  situated 
on  a  rising  ground  fronting  the  Harbour  and  ocean.  There  are 
6  or  7  streets  parallel  to  each  other  on  the  side  of  the  hill,  of 
about  1  1-2  or  2  miles  in  length,  very  strait,  and  of  good  width. 
There  are  many  others  which  ascend  the  hill,  and  intersect  the 
long  streets.  On  the  top  of  the  hill  there  is  now  a  most  delight- 
ful prospect  of  the  harbour,  Islands  near  the  entrance  of  the 
harbor,  and  of  the  ocean,  so  that  you  may  see  vessells  at  a  very 
great  distance  at  sea :  and  when  the  woods  are  cleared  off,  there 
will  be  a  most  delightfull  landscape,  but  at  present  there  is  not 
a  great  deal  of  cleared  land. 

"The  harbor  of  Hallifax  is  a  most  excellent  one,  capable  of 
containing  the  whole  English  navy,  where  they  may  ride  land- 
locked against  any  storms ;  at  this  time  there  are  200  sail  before 
the  town ;  and  when  Ld  Lodoun  was  here  in  the  year  1757,  there 
were  above  300  sail  of  vessells  in  the  harbor.  It  is  above  a  mile 
wide  for  3  or  4  miles,  and  it  is  deep  with  good  anchorage,  and  a 
bold  shore.  Above  the  harbor  there  is  a  Basin  which  empties 
into  it;  it  is  5  or  6  miles  broad,  and  7  or  8  miles  long;  a  good 
shore,  and  in  some  places  50  fathom  deep.  In  this  Basin  Duke 
D'Anville  retired  out  of  observation  in  ye  year  1745  [sic],  and 
here  he  left  one  of  his  70  gun  ships,  which  is  now  at  the  bottom 
of  this  Basin. 

"The  houses  of  Hallifax  seem  to  have  been  sowed  like  mush- 
rooms in  an  hot-bed,  and  to  have  decayed  as  fast;  for  although 
they  have  been  built  but  a  few  years,  yet  there  are  scarce  any  of 
them  habitable,  and  perhaps  a  conflagration  might  occasion  a 
Phoenix  to  rise  out  of  its  ashes."16 


16.     Chief  Justice  Oliver  further  says:  "During  my  stay  at  Hallifax,  as  well 
as  during  my  residence  in  Boston,  I  was  treated  with  ye  utmost  politeness,  not  to 


7;8          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

Until  early  in  June  Howe's  fleet  lay  at  Halifax,  the  general 
up  to  this  time  having  undoubtedly  been  waiting  for  the  arrival 
of  his  brother,  Admiral  Lord  Richard  Howe,  with  instructions 
for  his  further  movements.  In  June  the  fleet  sailed  for  New 
York,  and  there  in  July  the  general  was  joined  by  his  brother, 
who  brought  with  him  a  large  force,  and  came  armed  with  the 
King's  authority  to  the  general  and  himself  to  treat  with  the 
rebels,  who  it  was  fondly  believed  could  yet  be  cajoled  into  more 
complaisancy  towards  the  mother  country.17 

Of  the  high  standing  in  Boston  of  these  Refugees  with  Howe's 
fleet,  a  writer  in  the  "Memorial  History  of  Boston,"  giving  the 
names  of  a  hundred  and  forty  of  the  Loyalists  proscribed  in 
1778  as  inveterate  enemies  to  the  State,  says:  "When  it  is  con- 
sidered that  forty-five  of  the  above  were  termed  esquires,  nine 
were  ministers  and  doctors,  and  thirty-six  were  merchants,  we 
can  form  some  idea  of  the  great  social  changes  produced  by  the 
Revolution.  ...  It  can  easily  be  seen  that  this  forced  emi- 
gration must  have  had  the  effect  to  destroy  the  continuity  of  the 
social  history  of  the  town.  The  persons  who  adhered  to  the 
Crown  were  naturally  the  wealthy  and  conservative  classes.  They 
composed  the  families  which  had  prospered  during  the  preceding- 
century  and  which  had  been  gradually  forming  a  local  aristoc- 


say  friendship,  by  General  Howe,  who  offered  and  urged  me  to  every  assistance 
I  might  wish  for,  and  assured  me,  now  at  Hallifax,  of  being  provided  with  a  good 
ship  for  my  passage  to  England ;  but  the  Harriot  Pacquet,  Capn  Lee,  being  sent 
to  carry  home  Govr  Legge  of  Hallifax,  Mr.  Legge  invited  nr.v  niece  Jenny  Clarke 
and  myself  to  take  passage  with  him;  not  suffering  us  to  luy  in  any  stores  for 
ourselves,  but  to  partake  in  his,  of  which  he  had  made  ample  provision." 

Judge  Oliver  then  proceeds :  "We  accordingly  embarked  in  the  sd  Packet  on 
ye  1 2th  May,  having  as  passengers  in  the  cabin  Govr  Legge,  James  Monk,  Esq., 
Solicitor  General  of  Hallifax,  and  his  lady,  Mr.  Birch,  Chaplain  of  a  Regiment, 
and  Miss  Clarke  and  myself.  We  embarked  at  8  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  came 
to  sail  at  3  o'clock  in  the  afternoon.  There  were  six  sail  more  in  company,  con- 
voyed by  the  Glasgow  Man-of-War,  Capn  How."  the  voyage  to  England  was  made 
in  three  weeks,  the  ship  reaching  Falmouth  harbour  about  midnight  of  the  first 
of  June. 

It  is  probable  that  in  the  "six  sail"  Judge  Oliver  mentions  went  to  England 
most  of  the  Tories  who  did  not  wish  to  remain  in  Halifax,  or  that  did  not  a  few 
weeks  later  continue  with  Howe  to  New  York. 

17.  In  Dr.  Ezra  Stiles's  Diary  (Vol.  2,  p.  168)  we  find  recorded  a  dispatch 
from  Halifax  of  June  13,  1776.  The  dispatch  reads :  "The  British  Fleet  is  gone 
from  this  place  for  New  York ;  great  Dissention  prevailed  on  their  Departure, 
among  officers  and  soldiers.  This  morning  about  2  o'clock  two  Transports  found- 
ered in  a  gale  of  wind  near  this  place  and  about  300  troops  perished." 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  779 

racy.    The  history  of  the  times  which  should  omit  these  families 
would  be  fatally  defective."18 

A  considerable  group  of  Boston  Loyalists,  among  these  some 
who  sailed  with  the  fleet  to  Halifax,  for  a  longer  or  shorter  time 
afterwards,  settled  in  Bristol,  England.  In  a  letter  to  William 
Pynchon,  Esq.,  of  Salem,  written  April  19,  1780,  Judge  Cur- 
wen  enumerates  these  as  follows :  Miss  Arbuthnot,  Mr.  Barnes, 
wife  and  niece,  Mrs.  Borland,  a  son  and  three  daughters,  Na- 
thaniel Coffin,  wife  and  family,  Miss  Davis,  Mr.  Faneuil  and 
wife,  Robert  Hallowell,  wife  and  children,  Nicholas  Lechmere, 
wife  and  two  daughters,  R.  Lechmere,  brother  of  Nicholas,  Colo- 
nel Oliver  and  six  daughters,  Judge  Sewall,  wife,  sister,  and  two 
sons,  Samuel  Sewall,  "kinsman  to  Mr.  Faneuil,"  Mr.  Simp- 
son, John  Vassall,  wife  and  niece,  and  Mr.  Francis  Waldo.19 
Some  of  the  Boston  Loyalists  also  seem  to  have  located  for  a 
time,  at  least,  in  Birmingham,  England,  but  the  majority  settled 
in  London,  where  many  of  them  spent  the  rest  of  their  days.  In 
London  in  1776,  they  formed  a  club  for  a  weekly  dinner  at  the 
Adelphi,  Strand,  the  members  being  Messrs.  Richard  Clark,  Jo- 
seph Green,  Jonathan  Bliss,  Jonathan  Sewall,  Joseph  Waldo, 
Samson  Salter  Blowers,  Elisha  and  William  Hutchinson,  Sam- 
uel Sewall,  Samuel  Quincy,  Isaac  Smith,  Harrison  Gray,  David 
Greene,  Jonathan  Clark,  Thomas  Flucker,  Joseph  Taylor.  Dan- 
iel Silsbee,  Thomas  Brinley,  William  Cabot,  John  Singleton 
Copley,  and  Nathaniel  Coffin.  To  these  names  also  must  be  add- 
ed, Thomas  Hutchinson,  previously  governor  of  Massachusetts, 
Samuel  Porter,  Edward  Oxnard,  Benjamin  Pickman,  John 
Amory,  Judge  Robert  Auchmuty,  and  Major  Urquhart.20  In 
May,  1779,  the  Loyalists  in  London  formed  an  association,  evi- 


18.  William  H.  Whitmore  in  the  "Memorial  History  of  Boston,"  Vol.  I,  pp. 
563,  564. 

19.  "Journal  and  Letters  of  the  Late  Samuel  Curwen,  Judge  of  Admiralty, 
etc.,"  pp.  237,  238. 

20.  ''Journal  and  Letters  of  the  Late  Samuel   Curwen,  Judge  of  Admiralty, 
etc.    (1842),  p.  45.     Later  the  members  of  this  club  must  have  met  regularly  for 
their  weekly  dinner  at  the  New  England  Coffee  House.     On  the  4th  of  July,  1782, 
Judge  Curwen  writes  in  his  journal:    "Went  to  London  to  the  Thursday  dinner  at 
New    England    Coffee-House."     July    nth   he   writes:     "Dined   as    usual    at    New 
England  fish-club  dinner."     July  27th :  "Dined  at  New  England  Coffee-House  on 
fish,   in  company  with   Mr.   Flucker,   Francis  Waldo,   Mr.   Hutchinson,   Mr.   Gold- 
thwait,  etc." 


78o          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

dently  for  united  political  action,  or  for  the  improvement  of 
their  own  condition,  composed  of  representatives  from  all  the 
New  England  colonies,  and  mjade  Sir  William  Pepperrell,  sec- 
ond baronet  of  the  name,  who  was  a  leading  one  of  their  number, 
president.21 

The  unhappy  condition  of  probably  a  good  many  of  the  Boston 
Refugees  when  they  reached  Halifax,  is  reflected  in  a  letter  of 
Rev.  Dr.  Henry  Caner,  of  King's  Chapel,  written  to  the  Society 
for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel,  shortly  after  the  Loyalists 
arrived.  Under  date  of  May  tenth,  1776,  Dr.  Caner  says:  "I  am 
now  at  Halifax,  but  without  any  means  of  support  except  what 
I  receive  from  the  benevolence  of  the  worthy  Dr.  Breynton.  Sev- 
eral other  clergymen,  Dr.  Byles,  Mr.  Walter,  Mr.  Badger,  etc., 
are  likewise  driven  from  Boston  to  this  place;  but  [all]  of  them 
have  some  comfortable  provision  in  the  Army  or  Navy  as  Chap- 
lains, a  service  which  my  age22  and  infirmities  will  not  well  ad- 
mit of.  I  have  indeed  greatly  suffered  in  my  health  by  the  cold 
weather  and  other  uncomfortable  circumstances  of  a  passage  to 
this  place ;  but  having  by  the  good  providence  of  God  survived 


21.  The  Loyalists  who  went  to  England  did  not  lose  sight  of  Nova  Scotia. 
On   the    i8th    of    January,    1784,    Chief-Justice    Oliver   writes    from    Birmingham : 
"Nova  Scotia  populates   fast — 60,000  already."     February  gth  he  writes:   "Parson 
Walter  is  arrived  from  Nova  Scotia;  many  other  Refugees  are  come.    America  is  in 
a  bad  plight — they  will  lose  their  whale  and  cod  fishery,  and  Nova   Scotia  will 
ruin  the  four  New  England  governments."     March  5th  he  writes  from   London : 
"Mr.  Winslow  and  family  are  there    [Halifax].     Mr.  Walter  is  here,  having  left 
his  family  at  Port  Roseway.     Col.  Ruggles  hath  built  him  a  large  house  near  to 
Annapolis :  they  settle  there  very  fast.     The  whalemen  are  leaving  Nantucket  for 
Nova  Scotia,  and  the  New  Englanders  will  suffer  extremely  by  overacting  their 
importations,  and  English  merchants  will  suffer  by  them."     Again  he  writes :  "A 
new  Province  is  made  on  St.  John's  river,  and  called  New  Brunswick.    Gen1  Carle- 
ton's  brother,  Col.   Carleton,   is  the  Governor,  and  the  General  to  be  Govr  Gen- 
eral of  Canada  and  all.     Col.  Willard  with  a  thousand  Refugees,  I  hear,  is  em- 
barking for  Nova  Scotia,  so  that  that  they  will  encrease  rapidly,  and  I  suppose  that 
our  Province  will  sink  as  they  rise,  for  none  can  return  to  it  without  the  expense 
of    Naturalization."   "Diary  and   Letters  of   Thomas    Hutchinson." 

22.  Dr.  Caner  was  then  seventy-six.     He  too  went  to  England  in  the  Spring 
of   1776,  and  when  he  reached  there,  the  S.  P.  G.  appointed  him  at  his  own  re- 
quest, to  the  mission  at  Bristol,  Rhode  Island.     Whether  he  ever  came  to  Bristol 
or  not  we  do  not  know.     At  some  time  after  he  left  Boston  he  married  a  young 
wife,  and  at  one  time  lived  with  her  in  Wales.     He  died  in  England  in  1792.     In 
one  of  the  record  books  of  King's  Chapel  which  he  took  with  him  from  Boston, 
he  wrote:  "An  unnatural  rebellion  of  the  colonies  against  His  Majesty's  govern 
ment  obliged  the  loyal  part  of  his  subjects  to  evacuate  their  dwellings  and  sub- 
stance, and  take  refuge  in  Halifax,  London,  and  elsewhere ;  by  which  means  the 
public  worship  of  King's   Chapel   became  suspended,  and   is   likely  to  remain   so 
until  it  shall  please  God,  in  the  course  of  his  providence,  to  change  the  hearts  of 
the  rebels,  or  give  success  to  his  Majesty's  arms  for  suppressing  the  rebellion." 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  781 

the  past  distress,  I  am  in  hopes  some  charitable  hand  will  assist 
me  in  my  purpose  of  proceeding  to  England,  where  the  com- 
passion of  the  well-disposed  will  I  hope  preserve  me  from  per- 
ishing thro'  the  want  of  the  necessaries  of  life.  If  otherwise, 
God 's  will  be  done. ' '  A  letter  has  reached  the  Society  from  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Byles,  writes  the  Secretary  of  the  S.  P.  G.  in  the  So- 
ciety's report  for  1776,  who  is  "now  at  Halifax  with  five  moth- 
erless children,  for  a  time  deprived  of  all  the  means  of  support." 
But  towards  these  clergymen,  as  indeed  towards  all  the  Refu- 
gees that  needed  help,  not  only  by  Dr.  Breynton,  but  by  all  the 
leading  secular  officials  and  private  gentlemen  of  Halifax,  un- 
remitting and  thoroughly  appreciated  kindness  seems  to  have 
been  shown.  "Two  letters  have  been  received  in  the  course  of 
the  year  from  the  Society's  very  worthy  missionary,  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Breynton,"  writes  the  secretary  of  the  S.  P.  G.  in  the  report 
mentioned  above,  ' '  lamenting  the  unhappy  situation  of  affairs  in 
America ;  in  consequence  of  which  many  wealthy  and  loyal  fam- 
ilies have  quitted  New  England,  and  in  hopes  of  a  safe  retreat 
have  taken  up  their  residence  at  Halifax,  thereby  becoming  a 
great  acquisition  to  the  province,  and  a  considerable  addition  to 
his  congregation.  For  many  of  them,  tho'  Dissenters  in  New 
England,  have  constantly  attended  the  service  of  the  church 
since  their  arrival  in  Halifax." 

Of  the  social  life  of  Boston,  from  which  these  Halifax  Tories 
were  so  unwillingly  obliged  to  flee,  we  get  glimpses  in  the  '  *  An- 
nals of  King's  Chapel,"  that  admirable  history  of  the  mother 
Episcopal  parish  of  New  England,  of  which  so  many  of  the  Tor- 
ies were  members.  King's  Chapel,  says  the  annalist,  "saw  all 
the  rich  costumes  and  striking  groupings  of  that  picturesque  age 
gathered  in  that  ancient  day,  within  its  walls.  Chariots  with 
liveried  black  footmen  brought  thither  titled  gentlemen  and  fine 
ladies ;  and  the  square  pews  were  gay  with  modes  of  dress  which 
must  have  brightened  the  sober  New  England  life— as  the  ruf- 
fled sleeves  and  powdered  wigs,  and  swords ;  the  judges,  whose 
robes  were  thought  to  give  dignity  and  reverence  to  their  high 
office  as  they  set  upon  the  bench;  the  scarlet  uniforms  of  the 
British  officers  in  army  and  navy, — all  mingling  with  the  beauty 
and  fashion  which  still  look  down  from  old  family  portraits  the 


782          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

special  flavour  of  an  age  very  different  from  our  own. '  '23  At  the 
chapel,  says  the  historian,  writing  of  two  decades  before  the  Rev- 
olution, "worshipped  not  a  few  of  the  first  gentlemen  of  the 
Province,  now  at  the  meridian  of  success  and  distinction,  who 
in  twenty  years  were  to  be  swept  away  in  the  vortex  of  the 
Eevolution. "24  "We  see  again  the  Royal  Governor  in  his  pew 
of  state.  .  .  .  we  recall  the  British  officers  of  the  army  and 
navy  crowding  here  as  honoured  guests ;  we  hear  the  familiar 
prayers  for  King  and  Queen  and  royal  family  repeated  by  loyal 
lips.  The  Church  as  it  was,  seemed  to  be  in  some  sense  a  part  of 
the  majesty  of  England.  Then  the  sky  lowers,  as  the  blind  and 
senseless  oppressions  of  the  British  ministry  change  a  loyal 
colony  to  a  people  in  rebellion.  For  a  time  the  church  brightens 
more  and  more  with  the  uniforms  of  the  King's  troops,  as  the 
church  is  changed  into  a  garrison;  till,  on  a  March  Sunday  in 
1776,  they  hurriedly  depart,  never  to  return,  and  the  dutiful 
prayers  vanish,  to  become  a  dim  vision  of  the  ancient  world,  so 
different  from  ours.  A  large  part  of  the  congregation  went 
also ;  and  at  their  head  went  their  aged  rector,  whose  pride  and 
life-work  had  been  with  unwearied  pains  to  ensure  the  erection 
of  the  noble  structure  to  which  he  bade  farewell  as  he  followed 
his  convictions  of  duty  to  his  King."25 

Nor  was  the  noble  gravity  and  dignity  of  King's  chapel  as  a 
building  at  all  out  of  harmony  with  the  character  of  the  houses  in 
which  these  Loyalists  of  Boston  lived.  On  King  Street,  and 
Queen  Street,  and  Beacon  Street,  and  Tremont  Street,  as  on 
Milk  and  Marlborough  and  Summer  streets,  stood  fine  colonial 
houses,  that  had  rivals,  indeed,  in  Roxbury,  and  Cambridge,  and 
Medford,  and  Milton,  in  all  which  there  was  architectural  beauty 


23.  "Annals  of  King's  Chapel,"  by  Rev.  Henry  Wilder  Foote,  Vol.  i,  p.  549. 

24.  On  the  registers  of  King's  Chapel  most  of  the  names  prominent  in  Bos- 
ton before  the  Revolution  are  sooner  or  later  to  be  found.     Many  strictly  Congre- 
gational  families  as  they  rose  to  wealth  and  influence  gave  the  Chapel  more  or 
less  support.     Some  families  of  importance,  however,  were  from  the  first  Episco- 
palians, not  Congregationalists.     Among  the  King's  Chapel  worshippers  were  fam- 
ilies  of   Auchmuty,   Brattle,   Brinley,    Coffin,    Cradock,   DeBlois,   Gardiner,    Green- 
leaf,  Hallpwell,  Hutchinson,  Lechmere,  Lyde,  Minot,  Oliver,  Royall,  Sewall,  Shir- 
ley,  Snelling,  Vassall,  and  Winslow.     A  notable  family  was  the  large  family  of 
Mr.    Samuel    Wentworth,    originally    a    Portsmouth,    New    Hampshire,    man,    but 
long  one  of  the  most  prominent  merchants  of  Boston.     He  died  before  the  Revo- 
lution, but  his  wife  lived,  we  believe,  with  her  son,  Benning  in  Halifax,  near  her 
daughter  Lady  Frances  Wentworth,  wife  of   Governor  S'r  John. 

25.  Annals  of  King's  Chapel,  Vol.  II,  p.  336. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  783 

and  stately  elegance.  Some  of  these  houses  were  large,  two  or 
three  story  mansions,  with  handsome  approaches,  dignified  hall 
ways,  wainscotted  drawing-rooms,  fine  stair-cases  with  carved 
balusters,  ample  tiled  fireplaces,  classic  mantlepieces,  and  walls 
hung  with  portraits  and  landscapes  by  the  best  American  paint- 
ters  before  the  Bevolution.  Lady  Agnes  Frankland,  as  is  well 
known,  up  to  the  time  of  the  siege  lived  chiefly  at  Hopkinton,  but 
her  house  in  the  North  End  of  Boston,  to  which  she  came  early 
in  the  siege,  is  minutely  described  by  James  Fenimore  Cooper. 
The  Frankland  house  was  of  brick,  heavily  trimmed  with  wood, 
and  had  a  spacious  hall,  off  which  led  the  drawing-room,  the 
panels  of  whose  walls  were  painted  with  imaginary  landscapes 
and  ruins.  The  walls  were  also  "  burdened  with  armorial  bear- 
ings," indicating  the  noble  alliances  of  the  Frankland  family. 
"Beneath  the  surbase  were  smaller  divisions  of  panels,  painted 
with  various  architectural  devices;  and  above  it  rose,  between 
the  compartments,  fluted  pilasters  of  wood,  with  gilded  capitals. 
A  heavy  wooden  and  highly  ornamental  cornice  stretched  above 
the  whole,  furnishing  an  appropriate  outline  for  the  walls.  .  .  . 
The  floor,  which  shone  equally  with  the  furniture,  was  tessellated 
with  small  alternate  squares  of  red  cedar  and  pine.  ...  On 
either  side  of  the  ponderous  and  laboured  mantel  were  arched 
compartments,  of  plainer  work,  denoting  use,  the  sliding  panels 
of  which,  being  raised,  displayed  a  buffet  groaning  with  massive 
plate." 

In  1766,  John  Adams  wrote  in  his  diary :  ' '  Dined  at  Mr.  Nick 
Boylston's— an  elegant  dinner  indeed.  Went  over  the  house  to 
view  the  furniture,  which  alone  cost  a  thousand  pounds  sterling. 
A  seat  it  is  for  a  nobleman,  a  prince.  The  Turkey  carpets,  the 
painted  hangings,  the  marble  tables,  the  rich  beds  with  crimson 
damask  curtains  and  counterpanes,  the  beautiful  chimney  clock, 
the  spacious  garden,  are  the  most  magnificent  of  anything  I 
have  ever  seen.26 

As  early  as  1708  John  Oldmixon,  an  English  author,  after 
visiting  Boston  wrote:  "A  gentleman  from  London  would  al- 
mjost  think  himself  at  home  at  Boston,  when  he  observes  the 
number  of  people,  their  houses,  their  furniture,  their  tables, 


26.    "Memorial  History  of  Boston,"  Vol.  2,  p.  452. 


784          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

their  dress  and  conversation,  which  perhaps  is  as  showy  as  that 
of  the  most  considerable  tradesmen  in  London."  Thirty- two 
years  later,  in  1740,  Mr.  Joseph  Bennett,  another  Englishman, 
writes :  '  *  There  are  several  families  in  Boston  that  keep  a  coach 
and  pair  of  horses  and  some  few  drive  with  four  horses,  but  for 
chaises  and  saddlehorses  considering  the  bulk  of  the  place  they 
outdo  London.  .  .  .  When  the  ladies  ride  out  to  take  the 
air,  it  is  generally  in  a  chaise  or  chair,  and  then  but  a  single 
horse ;  and  they  have  a  negro  servant  to  drive  them.  The  gentle- 
men ride  out  here  as  in  England,  some  in  chairs,  and  others  on 
horseback,  with  their  negroes  to  attend  them.  They  travel  in 
much  the  same  manner  on  business  as  for  pleasure,  and  are  at- 
tended in  both  by  their  black  equipages.  .  .  .  For  their  do- 
mestic amusements,  every  afternoon,  after  drinking  tea,  the 
gentlemen  and  ladies  walk  the  Mall,  and  from  thence  adjourn 
to  one  another's  houses  to  spend  the  evening,— those  that  are 
not  disposed  to  attend  the  evening  lecture;  which  they  may  do, 
if  they  please,  six  nights  in  seven  the  year  round.  .  .  .  The 
government  being  in  the  hands  of  dissenters, 'they  don't  admit 
of  plays  or  music  houses,  but  of  late  they  have  set  up  an  assem- 
bly, to  which  some  of  the  ladies  resort.  .  .  .  But  notwith- 
standing plays  and  such  like  diversions  do  not  obtain  here,  they 
don't  seem  to  be  dispirited  nor  moped  for  want  of  them,  for  both 
the  ladies  and  gentlemen  dress  and  appear  as  gay,  in  common, 
as  courtiers  in  England  on  a  coronation  or  birthday.  And  the 
ladies  here  visit,  drink  tea,  and  indulge  every  little  piece  of  gen- 
tility to  the  height  of  the  mode,  and  neglect  the  affairs  of  their 
families  with  as  good  grace  as  the  finest  ladies  in  London." 
' '  I  remember, ' '  says  Miss  Dorothy  Dudley  of  Cambridge,  writ- 
ing after  the  Revolution  of  her  beloved  Christ  Church,  in  the 
university  town,  "the  families  as  they  used  to  sit  in  church. 
First,  in  front  of  the  chancel,  the  Temples,  who  every  Sabbath 
drove  from  Ten  Hills  Farm ;  Mr.  Robert  Temple  and  his  accom- 
plished wife  and  lovely  daughters.  .  .  .  Behind  the  Tem- 
ples sat  the  Royalls,  relatives  of  Mrs.  Henry  Vassall,  the  In- 
mans,  the  Borlands,  who  owned  and  occupied  the  Bishop's  Pal- 
ace, as  the  magnificent  mansion  built  by  Rev.  Mr.  Apthorp,  op- 
posite the  President's  house,  is  called.  The  house  is  grand  in 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  785 

proportions  and  architecture,  and  is  fitted  in  every  respect  to 
bear  the  name  which  clings  to  it.  It  was  thought  that  Mr.  Ap- 
thorp  had  an  eye  to  the  bishopric  when  he  came  to  take  charge 
of  Christ  Church,  and  put  up  this  house  of  stately  elegance.  .  .  . 
Among  his  congregation  were  the  Faneuils,  the  Lechmeres,  the 
Lees,  the  Olivers,  the  Ruggleses,  the  Phipses,  and  the  Vassalls. 
Mrs.  Lee,  Mrs.  Lechmere,  and  Mrs.  Vassall  the  elder,  are  sisters 
of  Colonel  David  Phips,  and  daughters  of  Lieutenant-Governor 
Spencer  Phips.  The  '  pretty  little,  dapper  man,  Colonel  Oliv- 
er,' as  Reverend  Mr.  Sergeant  used  to  call  in  sport  our  some- 
time lieutenant-governor,  married  a  sister  of  Colonel  John  Vas- 
sall the  younger,  and  Colonel  Vassall  married  his.  Mrs.  Buggies 
and  Mrs.  Borland  are  aunts  of  John  Vassall 's.  These  families 
were  on  intimate  terms  with  one  another,  and  scarcely  a  day 
passed  that  did  not  bring  them  together  for  social  pleasures. 
.  .  .  I  well  remember  the  train  of  carriages  that  rolled  up  to 
the  church  door,  bearing  the  worshippers  to  the  Sabbath  service. 
The  inevitable  red  cloak  of  Judge  Joseph  Lee,  his  badge  of  of- 
fice in  the  King's  service,  hung  in  graceful  folds  around  his 
stately  form;  the  beauty  and  elegance  of  the  ladies  were  con- 
spicuous, as  silks  and  brocades  rustled  at  every  motion,  and  In- 
dia shawls  told  of  wealth  and  luxury. ' ' 

From  Copley's  portraits,  painted  in  Boston  during  the  ten  or 
fifteen  years  preceding  the  year  1774,  when  the  painter  finally 
left  for  Europe,  we  can  see  how  richly  the  Boston  people 
dressed.  One  of  Copley's  woman  sitters  is  in  brown  satin,  the 
sleeves  ruffled  at  the  elbows,  a  lace  shawl  and  a  small  lace  cap, 
and  is  adorned  with  a  necklace  of  pearls.  Another  has  a  bodice 
of  blue  satin,  and  an  overdress  of  pink  silk,  trimmed  with 
ermine.  One  is  in  olive-brown  brocaded  damask,  one  in  white 
satin,  with  a  purple  velvet  train  edged  with  gold,  one  in  blue  sat- 
in, a  Marie  Stuart  cap,  and  a  sapphire  necklace,  one  in  pink  da- 
mask, open  in  front  to  show  a  petticoat  of  white  satin  trimmed 
with  silver  lace,  and  one  in  yellow  satin,  also  with  silver  lace, 
and  with  a  necklace  and  earrings  of  pearls.  Hardly  less  richly 
dressed,  also,  are  Copleys  men.  One  full-wigged  gentlemen 
wears  a  brown  broadcloth  coat  and  a  richly  embroidered  satin 
waistcoat,  one  a  gold-laced  brown  velvet  coat  and  small  clothes, 


786          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

one  a  blue  velvet  doublet  with  slashed  sleeves  and  a  large  collar 
trimmed  with  white  lace  (evidently  a  fancy  costume),  one  a 
brown  dinner  coat,  a  blue  satin  waistcoat  with  silver  buttons, 
and  ruffles  at  the  neck  and  wrists,  and  one  a  crimson  velvet 
morning  gown,  with  white  small-clothes,  and  a  rich  dark  velvet 
cap.27 

Before  the  Revolution,  as  we  have  seen,  a  very  considerable 
group  of  New  England  families  were  permanently  settled  in 
Halifax,  the  Brentons,  Fairbankses,Fillises,Gerrishes,  Gorhams, 
Greens,  Lawlors,  Lawsons,  Monks,  Morrises,  Newtons,  Pres- 
cotts,  Salters  and  others ;  when  the  Revolution  was  at  its  height, 
or  had  passed,  we  find  the  New  England  element  permanently 
increased  by  such  important  families  as  the  Blowerses,  Brattles, 
Brinleys,  Byleses,  Gays,  Halliburtons,  Howes,  Hutchinsons, 
Lovells,  Lydes,  Minots,  Robies,  Rogerses,  Snellings,  Sternses, 
Thomases,  Wentworths,28  and  Winslows,  with  others  besides.29 
Among  well  known  Boston  Loyalists  who  died  at  Halifax  were 
William  Brattle,  Theophilus  Lillie  and  Byfield  Lyde,  who  died 
in  1776,  John  Lovell,  the  Tory  schoolmaster,  in  1778,  Jonathan 
Snelling,  in  1782,  Christopher  Minot,  in  1783,  Jeremiah  Dum- 
mer  Rogers  and  Edward  Winslow,  Sr.,30  in  1784,  Jonathan 


27.  See   Mr.   Frank  W.    Bayley's   "The   Life   and   Works  of   John   Singleton 
Copley,"    Boston,    1915. 

28.  Sir  John  Wentworth,  Bart.,  who  was  governor  of  Nova  Scotia  from  1792 
until  1808,  was  from  New  Hampshire,  but  his  wife,  who  was  his  first  cousin,  was 
a   daughter   of    Mr.    Samuel   Wentworth   of    Boston.     Lady   Wentworth's   brother 
Benning  was  also  one  of  the  Refugees  in  Halifax  and  for  some  years  was  secretary 
of  the  province.     To  this  position  Sir.  John's  only  son,  Charles  Mary,  was  like- 
wise appointed,  but  he  probably  never  assumed  the  office. 

29.  In  a  letter  to  his  aunts  in  Boston,   written   from  Halifax  December  24, 
1783,  Mather   Byles,  3d,  eldest  son  of  Rev.   Dr.   Mather  Byles,  2d,  writes:   "The 
final  evacuation  of   New  York  has  taken  place  and  many   New   England  gentry 
arrived  here   from  that  place  are  appointed  to  the  first  offices   in  the   Garrison. 
Messrs.  Brinley,  Townsend,  Coffin,  Winslow,  and  Taylor  are  among  the  number, 
so  that  our  Refugee  party  will  be  very  strong  this  winter."     From  other  records 
we  know  that  some  of  the  Loyalists  who  settled  permanently  in  Halifax  went  on 
to  New  York  with  General  Howe,  but  several  years  later  returned  to  Halifax. 
This  was  true  of  Edward  Winslow,  Sr. 

30.  Mr.  Edward  Winslow's  funeral  at  Halifax  in  June,  1784  (he  died  June 
8)   was  conducted  with  great  ceremony.     The  pall-bearers  were  Mr.  John   (after- 
wards Sir  John)   Wentworth,  General  Edmund  Fanning,  then  lieutenant-governor 
(under  Governor  Parr),  Hon.  Arthur  Goold,  Brigadier-General  John  Small,  Hon. 
Judge  Foster  Hutchinson,  and  Henry  Lloyd,  Esq.     The  chief  mourner  was  Colo- 
nel  Edward   Winslow,   Jr.,   who   was    followed   by  the   family   servants   in   deep 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  787 

Sterns  or  Stearns  in  1798,  Judge  Foster  Hutchinson  in  1799, 
George  Brinley  in  1809,  Archibald  Cunningham  in  1820,  and 
Chief-Justice  Sampson  Salter  Blowers  in  1842.  Of  Sir  John 
Wentworth,  Baronet,  the  ninth  governor  of  Nova  Scotia  from 
Colonel  Cornwallis,  a  New  Hampshire  man  but  with  a  Boston 
wife,  we  shall  have  much  to  say  in  a  later  chapter  of  this  series. 
Brigadier-General  Timothy  Buggies,  previously  of  Hardwick, 
Massachusetts,  one  of  Gage's  mandamus  councillors,  died  in 
Annapolis  County,  Nova  Scotia,  in  1795,  and  Hon.  Nathaniel 
Bay  Thomas  of  Marshfield,  Massachusetts,  another  mandamus 
councillor,  died  at  Windsor,  Nova  Scotia,  in  1791. 

When  we  come  to  follow  the  fortunes  of  Halifax  in  detail  af- 
ter the  arrival  of  the  Boston  Loyalists,  we  shall  see  how  greatly 
the  large,  energetic  group  of  these  people  that  settled  perma- 
nently there  stimulated  the  town's  activities  and  gave  fresh  col- 
our to  its  social  life.  But  the  prominence  in  the  Nova  Scotia 
capital  of  these  new  comers  was  not  by  any  means  viewed  with 
entire  complaisance  by  the  earlier  settlers.  There  had  been  at 
the  very  first  beginning  of  the  settlement  of  Halifax, ' '  says  Mur- 
doch in  his  History  of  Nova  Scotia,  "something  like  a  division 
between  the  settlers  from  England  and  those  who  joined  them 
from  New  England,  but  this  difference  died  out  shortly  after, 
without  occasioning  much  mischief,  the  people  being  united  to 
defend  themselves  against  the  French  and  their  Indian  allies. 
Now,  however,  circumstances  had  brought  into  the  country  a 
new  and  numerous  population  from  New  England,  New  York, 
etc.,  and  a  rivalry  of  interests  sprang  up  between  their  promi- 
nent men  and  the  older  inhabitants.  .  .  .  The  party  division 


mourning.  After  this  walked  in  pairs,  Sampson  Salter  Blowers  and  William 
Taylor,  Esq'rs.  their  excellencies  the  Governor  and  the  General  of  the  forces, 
Gregory  Townsend,  Esq.,  and  Lieutenant  Hailes  of  the  38th  Grenadiers,  William 
Coffin,  Esq.,  Captain  Morrice  Robinson,  Rev.  Dr.  Mather  Byles,  Captain  Adden- 
brooke,  the  Governor's  aid-de-camp,  and  Lieutenant  Gordon,  major  of  brigade. 
Next  came  the  members  of  his  Majesty's  Council,  "a  number  of  the  respectable 
inhabitants,"  and  many  gentlemen  of  the  army  and  navy.  The  funeral  service  was 
rendered  in  St.  Paul's  Church  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Breynton  and  the  Rev.  Joshua  Win- 
gate  Weeks,  and  the  burial  was  in  the  town  burying-ground  in  Pleasant  street, 
which  bears  the  name  "St.  Paul's."  In  this  cemetery  a  stone  was  erected  to  Mr. 
Winslow,  which  bears  a  lengthy  inscription.  See  Proceedings  of  the  Mass.  Hist. 
Soc.,  2nd  Series,  Vol.  3. 


;88          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

thus  originated  extended  for  some  years  to  the  house  of  assem- 
bly, and  it  was  long  before  it  was  quite  allayed.  An  anonymous 
correspondent  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Gazette  at  this  time  alludes  to 
it  as  a  division  into  'old  comers  and  new  comers,'  or  'loyalists 
and  ancient  inhabitants. '  ' ' 

One  of  the  most  serious  local  issues  of  this  strife  was  a  severe 
charge  of  maladministration  of  justice,  brought  by  two  attor- 
neys, Messrs.  Jonathan  Sterns  or  Stearns  and  William  Taylor, 
refugees  from  Massachusetts  with  Howe's  fleet,  against  the 
Nova  Scotia  chief-justice,  Isaac  Deschamps,  and  an  assistant 
judge  of  the  supreme  court,  Judge  James  Brenton.  Deschamps 
was  of  Swiss  extraction  and  had  long  been  in  the  province,  Bren- 
ton was  from  Newport,  Rhode  Island,  and  he  too  had  early  set- 
tled in  Halifax.  The  attorneys  publicly  charged  that  cases 
brought  by  Loyalist  settlers  could  not  get  fair  trial  at  the  hands 
of  these  judges,  and  so  strongly  did  they  press  their  charges 
that  the  judges  were  finally  impeached.  For  a  time  the  lawyers 
bringing  the  charges  were  disbarred,  but  the  Chief  Justice  re- 
signed his  office,  and  Judge  Brenton  like  him  for  some  time 
remained  under  a  cloud.  At  last,  however,  in  1792,  when  the 
case  had  dragged  along  for  between  four  and  five  years,  the 
Privy  Council  in  England,  to  whom  it  had  been  appealed,  ac- 
quitted the  judges  and  the  matter  was  finally  set  at  rest.  In  a 
letter  to  his  sisters  in  Boston,  in  May,  1788,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Mather 
Byles  writes:  "From  this  day  [April  2nd]  to  the  21st,  my  time 
was  entirely  engrossed  by  the  dispute  between  the  old  inhabi- 
tants of  this  Province  and  the  American  Loyalists.  The  flame, 
which  has  been  so  long  kindling,  now  blazes  with  the  utmost  vio- 
lence. I  first  joined  in  a  remonstrance  to  the  Governor  signed 
by  more  than  two  hundred  inhabitants  of  Halifax,  and  when  this 
was  not  properly  attended  to,  I  wrote  several  letters  to  my  Eng- 
lish correspondents  recommending  Sterns  and  Taylor,  who  on 
the  21st  sailed  for  England  as  our  agents,  to  seek  that  redress 
at  White-Hall  which  it  was  impossible  to  obtain  from  a  corrupt 
junto.  They  are  both  gentlemen  of  the  law,  my  particular 
friends,  and  men  of  the  most  unblemished  character ;  they  have 
been  grossly  injured,  and  I  hope  God  will  graciously  succeed 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  789 

them.  The  case  was  so  perfectly  plain  that  I  thought  myself 
obliged  to  be  open,  active,  and  fearless ;  and  I  have  the  pleasure 
to  learn  that  remonstrances  similar  to  ours  signed  by  many  hun- 
dreds, are  constantly  arriving  from  all  parts  of  the  country. ' ' 

The  coming  of  thousands  of  New  York  Loyalists  to  Nova  Sco- 
tia in  1783  furnishes  material  for  a  highly  interesting  chapter  of 
Loyalist  history,  which,  since  the  facts  all  have  a  close  bearing 
on  Halifax  history,  we  shall  feel  it  necessary  to  give  in  some  de- 
tail as  this  narration  proceeds.  Among  the  vast  number  of  New 
York  Tories,  who  finally  settled  in  New  Brunswick  a  consider- 
able number  of  Massachusetts  Tories  also  settled,  and  some  of 
the  historic  families  of  New  Brunswick,  like  the  Blisses,  Chal- 
oners,  Chipmans,  Coffins,  Paddocks,  Sewalls,  Uphams,  and  Win- 
slows,  have  been  of  this  stock.  The  most  influential  New  York 
Loyalist  that  settled  in  Halifax  was  the  Bight  Reverend  Charles 
Inglis,  D.  D.,  previously  Kector  of  Trinity  Church,  New  York 
City,  who  in  1787  came  to  Halifax  as  the  first  incumbent  of  the 
newly  erected  Nova  Scotia  Anglican  See.  Until  1816,  when  he 
died,  Bishop  Inglis  continued  to  exert  an  influence  in  Nova  Sco- 
tia and  New  Brunswick  in  religious  and  educational  matters, 
that  has  not  ceased  to  be  felt  to  the  present  day.31 


31.  "An  Occasional,"  writing  in  the  Halifax  Acadian  Recorder  newspaper  for 
March  21,  1914,  says : 

"Let  me  remind  you  that  Charles  Inglis,  the  first  Episcopal  bishop  of  Nova 
Scotia ;  Sir  John  Wentworth,  governor  of  this  province  at  the  beginning  of  this 
century;  Edward  Winslow,  a  member  of  a  distinguished  Massachusetts  family, 
whose  death  at  Halifax,  in  1784,  was  followed  by  Tuneral  ceremonies  of  unusual 
distinction;  Sampson  Salter  Blowers  and  Ward  Chipman,  chief  justices,  the  first 
of  Nova  Scotia,  and  the  second  of  New  Brunswick;  Judge  Sewall,  of  New 
Brunswick,  an  early  and  intimate  friend  of  John  Adams ;  Foster  Hutchinson, 
judge  of  the  supreme  court  of  Nova  Scotia;  Jonathan  Bliss,  attorney-general  of 
New  Brunswick,  and  Benning  Wentworth,  provincial  secretary  of  Nova  Scotia, 
were  all  Loyalists,  and  all,  with  two  exceptions,  graduated  at  Harvard ;  that  Sir 
Brenton  Halliburton,  whose  life  story  has  been  well  told  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Hill ; 
Egerton  Ryerson,  founder  of  the  well-known  school  system  of  Ontario ;  Joseph 
Howe,  of  whom  no  Nova  Scotian  can  be  ignorant;  and  Judge  Stewart,  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  this  province,  were  sons  of  Loyalists ;  that  Sir  John  Inglis,  the 
brave  defender  of  Lucknow ;  Sir  Frederick  P.  Robinson  and  Sir  W.  H.  Robinson, 
both  knighted  on  account  of  their  military  services ;  Lemuel  Allan  Wilmot,  like 
Joseph  Howe,  a  leader  in  the  struggle  for  responsible  government,  and,  like  him, 
at  one  time  a  governor  of  his  native  province;  Sir  George  Cathcart  and  Major 
Welsford,  who  fell  in  the  Crimea  .  .  .  were  grandsons  of  Loyalists.  The  late 
Sir  Robert  Hodgson,  lieutenant-governor  of  Prince  Edward  Island,  was  also  of 
Loyalist  descent.  Let  me  remind  you  of  these  and  of  many  others  living  or  dead, 
whose  names  may  occur  to  you,  with  the  suggestion  that  a  study  of  the  history  of 
the  Loyalists  at  large  would  swell  the  brief  list  given  to  an  almost  indefinite  ex- 


790          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

In  the  next  chapter  of  this  history  we  shall  discuss  the  social 
life  of  Halifax  after  the  war  of  the  Revolution,  giving  also  some 
account  of  the  striking  physical  features  of  the  town. 


tent,  and  you  may  form  some  idea  of  the  value  of  the  men  and  of  the  descendants 
of  the  men  who  were  driven  abroad  by  the  bitterness  of  the  revolutionary  victors." 
In  this  enumeration  the  writer  makes  the  mistake  of  supposing  that  it  was 
Judge  Foster  Hutchinson  of  Massachusetts  who  became  a  judge  in  Nova  Scotia. 
The  Nova  Scotia  Judge  Foster  Hutchinson  was  son  of  the  Massachusetts  judge. 


SOME  HEROIC  WOMEN  OF  THE  REVOLUTION       827 

Housekeeping  was  conducted  on  unalterable  rules,  and  no 
work  that  could  be  avoided  was  done  on  Sunday.  All  meals 
were  served  cold.  A  member  of  Groton  Church.  Every 
year  for  fifty-six  years  she  read  the  Bible  through.  In 
1813,  Commodore  Decatur  was  blockaded  in  New  London 
Harbor  by  an  English  fleet.  Inhabitants  feared  battle.  Women 
fled  into  the  country  taking  their  children  and  valuables. 
"Mother  Bailey"  sent  her  effects,  but  remained  to  face 
the  danger.  Supply  of  flannel  being  short  for  wadding,  a 
search  was  made  in  the  village  for  some  but  not  half  enough  was 
obtained.  After  a  moment's  hesitation,  "Mother  Bailey"  seized 
her  scissors,  which  every  matron  of  that  day  carried  at  her  side, 
quickly  clipped  the  strings  of  her  flannel  skirt  and  stripping  the 
garment  from,  her  person  handed  it  to  the  messenger  saying: 
"It  is  a  good  heavy  one,  but  I  do  not  care  for  that."  The  mar- 
tial petticoat  and  its  patriotic  donor  have  ever  since  been  re- 
nowned in  our  local  annals. 

She  was  honored  with  visits  from  distinguished  soldiers  and 
statesmen.  Lafayette  and  suite  called  upon  her  in  1824.  Presi- 
dents Monroe,  Jackson  and  Van  Buren,  Colonel  R.  M.  Johnson 
and  General  Cass.  She  was  noted  for  her  qualities  as  a  nurse. 

Mr.  Bailey  died  in  August,  1848,  it  is  said  he  was  the  last  sur- 
vivor of  the  Fort  Griswold  massacre,  first  postmaster  of  Groton 
office  held  till  his  death  and  thereafter  Mrs.  Bailey  held  the  office 
till  her  death  three  years  later,  January  10,  1851,  aged  ninety- 
two  years. 

The  foregoing  is  a  copy  of  some  of  the  facts  contained  in  an 
article  written  for  the  Anna  Warner  Bailey  Chapter  by  Mrs. 
H.  T.  Palmer  and  Miss  M.  E.  Benjamin,  and  published  by  Con- 
necticut Chapters  D.  A.  R.  and  sent  to  the  magazine  by  A.  A. 
Thomas. 


Chapters  in  the  History  of  Halifax, 
Nova  Scotia 

NO.  Ill 

SOCIAL  LIFE  OF  HALIFAX  AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION 
BY  ARTHUR  WENTWORTH  HAMILTON  EATON,  M.  A.,  D.  C.  L. 

"All  hail  to  the  day  when  the  Britons  came  over 

And  planted  their  standard,  with  sea  foam  still  wet, 
Around  and   above   us   their   spirits   will   hover, 

Rejoicing  to   mark   how   we   honour   it  yet. 
Beneath   it  the  emblems  they  cherished  are  waving, 

The  Rose  of  Old  England  the  roadside  perfumes, 
The    Shamrock    and    Thistle    the    north    winds    are    braving, 

Securely  the  Mayflower  blushes  and  blooms." 

— HON.    JOSEPH    HOWE. 
(On  the  hundredth  anniversary  of  Cornwallis's  landing  at  Chebucto.) 

"Be  aristocracy  the  only  joy: 
Let  commerce  perish,  let  the  world  expire!" 

— ANONYMOUS  SATIRCAL  POEM. 

IN  the  landscape  of  Nova  Scotia  at  large,  to  the  cultivated 
traveller  as  to  any  impressionable  native  of  the  province, 
there  is  a  strongly  compelling  if  never  wholly  definable 
charm,  that  stirs  deeply  the  romantic  and  poetic  elements 
in  the  mind.    If  the  romance  of  the  early  settlement  of  the  coun- 
try, which  was  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  and  treasured  of  the 
colonies  of  ancient  Bourbon  France,  is  ever  exaggerated  in  the 
mind  of  the  historian  or  the  poet,— the  romance  of  Port  Royal, 
Pisiquid,  Beausejour,  and  Grand  Pre, — there  is  yet  in  the  varied 
natural  charm  of  the  landscape  enough  to  cast  an  unusual  spell 
over  the  imagination  and  quicken  the  soul  to  poetic  fervor.    The 
Nova  Scotia  landscape  has  great  variety,  we  find  in  it  the  verd- 
ant luxuriance  and  apparently  exhaustless  fertility  of  the  broad 
dyke-lands  about  the  Bay  of  Fundy,  the  deep  Italian  blue  of 
Minas  Basin,  the  sweet,  sheltered  grace  of  the  Valley  of  the 

(828) 


THOMAS  CHANDLER  HALIBURTON 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          829 

Gaspereau,  the  gray  lights  and  purple  shades  and  wraith-like 
mists  that  pass  over  the  steep  slopes  of  the  North  Mountain,  the 
stern  aspect  of  Blomidon,  as  it  looks  out  coldly  on  the  restless 
tide,  the  marvellous  orchard-bloom  that  rolls,  pink  and  per- 
fumed, in  great  waves  across  the  landscape  in  early  June,  the 
red  glow  of  the  laden  apple  trees  in  October,  the  wide-spreading 
fields  of  red  clover,  the  ridges  of  flaming  goldenrod,  the  splen- 
did patches  of  purple  wild  asters,— with  on  the  Atlantic  sea- 
board and  along  the  rivers  that  flow  thither,  in  contrast  to  the 
drowsy  islands  that  dot  the  bays  where  these  rivers  empty,  a 
tumbled  wealth  of  rugged  scenery  that  gives  virility  and  strength 
to  the  whole. 

Of  the  situation  and  natural  setting  of  the  capital  of  Nova 
Scotia,  the  city  of  Halifax,  a  graceful  Canadian  writer,  Dr. 
Archibald  MacMechan,  has  recently  written:  "One  feature 
must  be  plain  even  to  the  least  observant,  the  unmatched  mag- 
nificence of  the  setting.  'Beautiful  for  situation,'  the  phrase  of 
the  Psalmist  for  his  sacred  city,  fits  the  capital  of  the  Mayflower 
Province.  Before  her  feet  lies  the  great  land-locked  harbour, 
where  the  old  three-deckers  used  to  swing  at  their  anchors ;  on 
her  right  hand  extends  the  long  picturesque  fiord  we  call  the 
'Arm;'1  on  her  left  is  a  second  inner  haven,  twenty  miles  in  cir- 
cuit, called  Bedford  Basin.  In  the  very  centre  is  the  hill  crowned 
with  a  citadel.  From  this  point  of  vantage  you  can  see  how  the 
peaceful  roofs  huddle  close  around  the  base  of  the  projecting 
stronghold,  and  how  the  dark  blue  water  washes  all  sides  of  the 
triangular  peninsula  on  which  the  city  stands. ' ' 

In  general  aspect  Halifax  is  a  gray,  smoke-coloured  town, 
largely  built  with  wooden  houses,  but  containing  likewise  a  good 
many  substantial  buildings  of  brick  and  stone,  the  most  historic 


i.  The  "Northwest  Arm"  extends  inward  from  the  sea  perhaps  more  than 
a  mile,  and  is  lined  on  both  sides  with  comfortable  cottages,  occasional  club- 
houses, and  tiny  bungalows  for  summer  use.  Near  the  head  of  the  Arm  is  an 
islet  known  as  Melville  Island,  which  one  reaches  by  a  road  called  the  "Dingle 
drive."  On  this  island  stands  the  little  naval  prison,  where  after  the  war  with 
France,  numbers  of  French  sailors  who  had  been  captured  on  ships-of-war,  pri- 
vateers, and  merchant  vessels  were  for  months  confined.  These  sailors  were 
cheerful,  industrious  fellows,  who  employed  themselves  by  making  bone  boxes, 
dominoes,  and  other  small  articles,  and  it  became  the  fashion  to  row  over  to 
the  island  in  summer,  or  skate  across  in  the  winter,  to  purchase  trinkets  from  the 
men.  The  war  with  the  United  States,  of  1812,  brought  crowds  of  American 
prisoners  also  here. 


830  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

of  which  are  the  Province  Building  and  Government  House. 
The  first  of  these  buildings  Frederic  Cozzens,  an  American 
author  of  the  last  generation,  in  his  book  "A  Month  with  the 
Bluenoses, "  describes  as  a  structure  of  great  solidity  and  re- 
spectability, and  this  emphatically  the  building  is.  There  can  be 
few  more  solid  or  better  proportioned  buildings  on  the  continent. 
It  is  constructed  of  rich  brown  freestone,  its  corner-stone  was 
laid  August  12,  1811,  and  the  structure  was  completed  in  1819,  at 
a  cost  of  $209,400.  For  two  or  three  decades  after  it  was  built  it 
was  often  said  to  be  the  finest  building,  architecturally,  in  North 
America.  Within  its  walls  are  the  House  of  Assembly,  the  Leg- 
islative and  Executive  Council  Chambers,  and  the  combined 
Provincial  and  Nova  Scotia  Historical  Society's  libraries,  which 
contain  not  only  many  valuable  books,  but  a  great  wealth  of 
manuscript  records  of  priceless  value  for  purposes  of  history. 
On  the  walls  of  the  Legislative  Council  Chamber  hang  portraits 
of  King  George  II,  King  George  III,  and  King  William  IV; 
Queen  Charlotte  and  Queen  Caroline;  Sir  John  Eardley  Wilmot 
Inglis,  the  "Hero  of  Lucknow;"  Sir  Fenwick  Williams,  the 
"Hero  of  Kars ;"  Sir  Charles  Hastings  Doyle,  Sir  Brenton  Hal- 
liburton, Judge  Thomas  Chandler  Haliburton,  the  author  of 
"Sam  Slick,"  and  a  portrait  by  Benjamin  West  of  Sir  Thomas 
Andrew  Strange,  in  scarlet  gown,  and  wig.2  This  Province 
Building  is  distinguished  not  only  as  the  home  of  the  Pro- 
vincial Legislature,  but  as  having  been  the  scene  of  several  his- 
toric balls,  one  as  early  as  1826,  in  honour  of  Sir  James 
Kempt,  an  English  governor  of  the  province,  one  in  1841,  in 


2.  There  are  other  portraits  in  this  building  besides  the  ones  we  have  men- 
tioned, notably  a  recently  acquired  one  of  the  late  King  Edward.  In  private 
houses  in  Halifax  there  are  also  a  few  notable  portraits,  the  finest  being  a  Cop- 
ley of  the  elder  Dr.  Mather  Byles,  of  Boston,  painted  in  1774,  it  is  believed,  the 
year  Copley  finally  left  Boston  for  England.  This  distinguished  Copley  belongs 
to  W.  Bruce  Almon,  Esq.,  M.  D.,  and  has  been  reproduced,  by  its  owner's  kind 
permission,  in  the  writer's  latest  book,  "The  Famous  Mather  Byles.''  In  Hali- 
fax also,  in  the  possession  of  Major  William  B.  Almon,  is  an  interesting  por- 
trait of  Miss  Catherine  Byles,  daughter  of  Dr.  Byles,  senior,  which  was  painted 
by  Henry  Pelham,  Copley's  half-brother.  This  also,  by  the  owner's  kind  per- 
mission has  been  reproduced  in  the  writer's  book. 

A  highly  important  and  very  complete  resume  of  paintings  and  engravings 
done  in  Halifax  by  Robert  Field.  William  Valentine,  and  others,  who  worked  in 
this  province,  has  lately  been  published  by  Mr.  Harry  Piers,  the  able  archivist 
and  local  historian  of  Nova  Scotia,  in  the  eighteenth  volume  of  the  Collections 
of  the  Nova  Scotia  Historical  Societv. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          831 

honour  of  Prince  de  Joinville,  and  one,  the  best  remembered  of 
all,  in  1860,  in  honour  of  his  late  Majesty,  King  Edward  Seventh, 
then  Prince  of  Wales. 

The  first  Governor's  House  in  Halifax  was  a  small  wooden 
building,  the  frame  of  which,  as  we  have  seen,  was  ordered  from 
Boston,  which  stood  on  the  site  of  the  present  Province  Build- 
ing, its  primitive  defences  being  cannon  mounted  on  casks  or 
hogsheads  filled  with  gravel.  Whether  this  house  was  com- 
pleted as  early  as  October,  1749,  we  do  not  know,  but  by  the 
fourteenth  of  that  month  Governor  Cornwallis  had  removed 
from  his  ship  to  the  shore,  and  the  Council  was  meeting  in  his 
"apartment."  In  1758  Governor  Lawrence  built  a  new  resi- 
dence on  the  same  spot,  to  which  Lord  William  Campbell  added 
a  ball-room,  later  governors  still  further  enlarging  and  beauti- 
fying the  house.  In  1800,  on  the  site  of  an  old  wooden  building 
on  Pleasant  Street  long  used  to  shelter  field  officers  and  for  other 
military  purposes,  the  corner-stone  of  the  present  Government 
House  was  laid,  and  here  ever  since  it  was  finished  successive 
governors  have  kept  their  little  courts,  holding  state  levees,  giv- 
ing state  dinners  and  balls,  and  more  quietly  entertaining  hos- 
pitably not  only  native  Nova  Scotians  but  many  distinguished 
foreign  guests  as  well.  This  Government  House  is  an  exact  copy 
of  the  famous  London  Lansdowne  House,  and  for  many  decades 
it  was  naturally  the  chief  centre  of  Nova  Scotia 's  smartest  social 
life.3 


3.  The  governors  of  Nova  Scotia  in  succession,  from  1749  to  1800,  all  of 
course  during  their  terms  of  office  residing  at  Government  House,  were :  Col. 
the  Hon.  Edward  Cornwallis ;  Col.  Peregrine  Thomas  Hopson :  Col.  Charles  Law- 
rence;  Henry  Ellis,  Esq.;  Col.  the  Hon.  Montagu  Wilmot;  Rt.  Hon.  Lord  Wil- 
liam Campbell,  fourth  son  of  the  fourth  Duke  of  Argyle;  Major  Francis  Legge; 
John  Parr,  Esq. ;  Sir  John  Wentworth,  Bart.  From  1800  to  1900  they  were :  Sir 
John  Wentworth ;  Lt.  Gen.  Sir.  George  Prevost,  Bart ;  Gen.  Sir  John  Coape  Sher- 
brook,  K.  B. ;  Lt.  Gen.  George  Ramsay,  ninth  Earl  of  Dalhousie ;  Lt.  Gen.  Sir 
James  Kempt,  G.  C.  B. ;  Gen.  Sir  Peregrine  Maitland,  K.  C.  B. ;  Major  Gen.  Sir  Colin 
Campbell;  Viscount  Falkland;  Sir  John  Harvey,  K.  C.  B. ;  Hon.  Augustus  Con- 
stantine  Phipps,  2nd  Marquis  of  Normanby  and  Earl  Mulgrave ;  Sir  Richard 
Graves  Macdonnell.  K.  C.  M.  G. ;  Sir  William  Fenwick  Williams,  Bart.,  K.  C.  B. 
a  native  Nova  Scotian,  hero  of  Kars ;  Sir  Charles  Hastings  Doyle,  K.  C.  M.  G. ; 
Hon.  Joseph  Howe,  a  native  Nova  Scotian,  whose  father  was  John  Howe,  the 
Boston  Loyalist;  Hon.  Sir  Adams  George  Archibald,  K.  C.  M.  G.,  a  native  Nova 
Scotian ;  Matthew  Henry  Richey,  Esq. ;  Archibald  Woodbury  McLelan,  Esq. ; 
Hon.  Sir  Malachy  Bowes  Daly,  K.  C.  M.  G. ;  and  Hon.  Alfred  Gilpin  Jones,  a 
Nova  Scotian  of  New  England  descent,  who  was  appointed  August  7,  1900,  and 
died  in  office  March  14,  1906. 


832          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

In  a  later  chapter  of  this  history  detailed  account  may  be 
given  of  the  defences  of  Halifax,  the  great  Citadel,  surrounded 
with  its  moat,  the  various  shore  batteries  along  the  harbour, 
the  forts  on  McNab's  and  George's  islands  and  at  Point  Pleas- 
ant, Fort  Clarence,  on  the  Dartmouth  side  of  the  harbour,  and 
York  Redoubt,  far  out  in  the  bay.  Until  about  1870  two  regi- 
ments of  the  line  were  always  stationed  here,  but  Egypt  and 
Ireland  needing  more  troops,  one  was  finally  withdrawn,  and 
for  perhaps  thirty  years  before  the  Imperial  troops  were  re- 
moved there  was  but  one  Line  Regiment,  with  the  force  of  Artil- 
lery and  Engineers  about  equal  in  number  to  a  full  regiment. 
There  has  always  been,  likewise,  in  Halifax,  a  corps  of  Sub- 
marine Engineers  specially  trained  by  Imperial  officers  for  man- 
ning the  harbour  defences.  As  a  matter  of  course  there  are  in 
the  vicinity  of  the  Citadel  extensive  barracks  for  the  accom- 
modation of  soldiers  and  their  families,  and  quarters  for  those  of- 
ficers who,  unmarried,  are  not  living  in  rented  houses  in  the  town. 
Not  far  from  the  centre  of  the  city,  towards  the  South,  is  Belle- 
vue,  now  an  officers'  mess,  a  large  wooden  house  which  was  long 
the  residence  of  the  General  in  command,  and  in  the  far  northern 
part  of  the  town,  overlooking  the  Dockyard,  stands  what  was 
''Admiralty  House,"  where  until  the  Dockyard  was  closed,  from 
May  to  December  of  every  year  the  Admiral  of  the  Fleet  on  the 
North  American  station  gave  a  succession  of  agreeable  dinners 
and  balls.  The  beginning  of  the  Citadel  was  a  block-house  with 
a  parapet,  built  in  1753,  on  the  sumimit  of  the  hill,  then  eighty 
feet  higher  than  now,  that  overlooks  the  town.  This  block-house 
has  port-holes  in  its  sides  for  cannon,  and  all  around  it  a  ditch 
and  ramparts  of  earth  and  wood,  strengthened  by  palisades  or 
pickets  driven  close  together.  In  1795  his  Royal  Highness  the 
Duke  of  Kent  caused  the  old  fortifications  to  be  removed  and 
began  the  erection  of  the  present  Citadel,  which  has  accommo- 
dation within  for  a  regiment,  and  has  always  had  ready  signal 
communication  with  the  harbour  forts.  For  many  decades  in 
the  past,  with  measured  march,  from  the  eastern  entrance  of 
the  fortification  little  companies  of  soldiers  would  often  be 
seen  issuing,  while  on  extraordinary  occasions,  as  for  church 
parades,  the  greater  part  of  the  regiment,  with  its  band  playing, 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          833 

would  magnificently  march,  down  the  side  slope  of  the  hill.  Be- 
low the  glacis,  directly  facing  the  middle  of  the  town,  is  still  the 
old  square  clock-tower,  another  conspicuous  memorial  of  the 
residence  in  Halifax  of  the  Duke  of  Kent. 

The  Dockyard,  which  was  begun  in  1758,  nine  years  after  Hali- 
fax was  founded,  occupies  half  a  mile  of  the  harbour  front,  and 
within  its  guarded  walls  anciently  stood  the  Commissioner's  res- 
idence and  other  houses  for  the  several  employees  whose  official 
duties  included  the  landing  and  shipping  of  naval  stores.  The 
final  inclosure  was  made,  as  the  figures  over  the  central  gate  an- 
nounce, on  the  line  of  the  present  wall,  in  the  year  1770.  In 
1815,  one  of  the  historic  loyal  celebrations  of  Halifax  took  place 
here,  after  the  victory  of  Waterloo,  and  many  a  time  the  Dock- 
yard has  been  the  scene  of  brilliant  aquatic  contests,  of  which 
many  have  been  held  in  Halifax  harbour,  in  earlier  or  later  times, 
Until  late  in  the  nineteenth  century,  throughout  the  summers 
there  was  hardly  a  week  that  several  war-ships  of  the  British 
fleet  were  not  flying  their  flags  in  the  harbour,  hardly  an  evening 
when  the  music  of  magnificently  trained  ships '  bands  did  not  float 
from  mid-stream  across  the  water  to  the  Halifax  or  Dartmouth 
shores.  Halifax,  as  we  have  intimated,  was  the  headquarters  of 
the  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  North  American  Naval  Station, 
from  the  middle  of  May  till  the  latter  part  of  October ;  then  the 
war-ships  took  their  departure  for  Bermuda,  Nassau,  or  Ja- 
maica. During  their  stay  society  was  always  in  a  whirl  of  din- 
ner giving  and  dancing,  and  this  gayety  was  often  still  further 
increased  by  the  visit,  for  longer  or  shorter  time,  of  some  Ger- 
man, French,  or  American  man-of-war. 

The  closing  of  the  Garrison  Chapel  in  the  north  end  of  Hali- 
fax made  one  of  the  greatest  losses  the  town  suffered  by  the  re- 
moval of  the  Imperial  troops.  From  the  time  when  it  was 
opened,  the  year  1846,  until  1905,  it  was  the  authorized  place 
of  worship  for  the  British  soldiers  who  were  not  Roman  Cath- 
olics or  Presbyterians,  and  nothing  could  exceed  the  heartiness 
of  the  service  performed  there.4  From  the  Wellington  Bar- 


4.  The  corner-stone  of  the  Garrison  Chapel  was  laid  in  October,  1844,  the 
Rev.  Dr.  John  Thomas  Twining  then  being  chaplain.  The  chapel  was  closed  in 
1905,  and  the  next  year  was  purchased  by  the  congregation  of  Trinity  Church, 
which  until  1907  worshipped  in  a  church  in  Jacob  Street.  This  congregation 


834  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

racks,  from  Artillery  Park,  and  from  the  Citadel,  on  Sunday 
mornings,  the  troops,  with  bands  playing,  would  march  to  the 
church  for  a  crisp  military  service,  for  when  the  twelve  o'clock 
gun  fired  the  prayers  and  the  short  sermon  must  promptly  be 
done.  To  civilian  worshippers  it  was  always  an  inspiration  to 
hear  the  soldiers'  firm  responses,  and  their  hearty  singing,  as 
accompanied  by  the  organ  and  several  instruments  of  the  band 
they  rendered  the  familiar  chants  of  the  Prayer-Book  and  the 
"Ancient  and  Modern"  hymns.  Soldiers  who  were  Presby- 
terians as  a  rule  went  to  St.  Matthew's  Church,  and  Roman 
Catholics  to  St.  Mary's  Cathedral,  on  Spring  Garden  Road.  Not 
infrequently  in  the  quiet  Halifax  streets  would  be  heard  the  dull 
beating  of  the  muffled  drum  which  headed  the  sad  funeral  pro- 
cession of  some  private  soldier  or  soldier's  wife  or  child,  who 
as  the  waning  sun  threw  purple  shadows  round  the  Citadel,  in 
barracks  or  hospital  had  breathed  his  last  on  earth  and  gone  into 
the  unseen.  On  a  low  gun-carriage  the  still  form  would  now 
be  passing  to  Camp  Hill  Cemetery,  or  the  Military  Burying 
ground  at  Fort  Massey,  or  to  the  Cemetery  of  the  Holy  Cross, 
there  to  be  laid  away  to  moulder  slowly  to  dust.  From  the 
burial,  the  band,  according  to  custom,  would  always  return,  play- 
ing no  longer  the  ''Dead  March  in  Saul,"  but  the  liveliest  pop- 
ular airs  the  bandsmen  knew.  In  these  Halifax  burying  grounds 
where  soldiers  and  soldiers'  families  lie  are  touching  inscrip- 
tions to  the  memory  of  men  of  all  ranks  in  the  service,  lieuten- 
ant-colonels, captains,  ensigns,  colour-sergeants,  staff-sergeants, 
and  corporals,  and  to  many  a  hard-working  soldier's  wife  or 
sweet  little  one,  who  in  the  long,  cold  Halifax  winter,  perhaps 
rendered  more  susceptible  to  the  climate  by  previous  residence  in 
Bermuda  or  India,  had  sadly  drooped  and  died. 


has  occupied  the  Garrison  Chapel  since  1907.  A  newspaper  notice  at  the  time 
of  the  laying  of  the  corner-stone  of  the  chapel  reads :  "Yesterday  afternoon,  Oc- 
tober 2jd,  1844,  at  three  o'clock,  the  corner-stone  of  the  new  Military  Chapel 
was  laid.  The  troops  were  in  attendance,  accompanied  by  the  band  of  the  Royals. 
Sir  Jeremiah  Dickson,  Colonel  Calder,  Colonel  Bazelgatte,  and  Major  Tryon,  and 
other  officers  belonging  to  the  military  department  were  in  attendance. 

"A  part  of  the  o.oth  Psalm  was  sung,  and  the  Reverend  Doctor  Twining  offered 
prayer.  Sir  Jeremiah  Dickson  performed  the  ceremony  of  laying  the  stone,  on 
which  was  a  suitable  Latin  inscription.  Reverend  Doctor  Twining  remarked  in 
the  course  of  his  address  that  he  had  held  services  in  no  less  than  eleven  different 
buildings."  For  a  brief  sketch  of  Dr.  Twining,  see  Eaton's  "History  of  King's 
County,  Nova  Scotia,"  p.  851. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          835 

A  highly  picturesque  feature  of  Halifax  has  always  been  the 
"Green  Market,"  held  on  Wednesday  and  Saturday  mornings 
on  the  sidewalks,  near  the  Post  Office  and  the  Market  Slip.  All 
summer  through,  as  regularly  as  these  mornings  came,  a  mixed 
company  of  ' '  Chezzetcookers ' '  and  negroes,  the  former  some  of 
the  dark-skinned  descendants  of  the  old  Acadians,  have  been 
accustomed  to  troop  into  town,  across  the  Dartmouth  Ferry^ 
their  rude  wagons  laden  with  farm  produce,  poultry,  flowers,  and 
domestic  small  wares  of  various  sorts,  and  ranging  themselves 
along  the  side-walks  unobtrusively  offer  their  goods  for  sale. 
The  negroes,  descended  from  slaves  who  at  the  time  of  the  Rev- 
olution or  in  the  war  of  1812  escaped  from  the  Southern  States, 
are  so  like  those  one  may  see  still  in  Portsmouth,  Virginia,  or 
Charleston,  South  Carolina,  that  watching  them  squatted  on  the 
pavement  in  motley  garments  and  gay  head  coverings,  and  lis- 
tening to  their  thick  negro  dialect,  one  might  easily  imagine 
one's  self  in  far  more  southern  climes.  Describing  the  buyers 
at  this  open-air  market,  some  writer  of  early  in  the  nineteenth 
century  whose  name  is  unknown  to  us  said :  ' '  Here  we  can  see 
the  regimental  mess  man,  the  smart  gun-steward  from  the  Dock- 
yard, the  caterer  for  the  ships,  and  the  natty  private  soldier 
who  has  just  set  up  housekeeping  with  a  newly  made  wife  from 
the  servant  class  of  the  town,  jostling  gentlemen's  servants  in 
livery  and  eager-eyed  boarding  house  keepers,  or  even  the  mis- 
tress of  some  aristocratic  mansion,  who  in  fresh  morning  gown 
has  thriftily  risen  early  to  do  her  own  marketing  for  the  day." 

The  Halifax  fish  market,  too,  has  always  been  liberally  sup- 
plied and  well  patronized,— salmon,  cusk,  halibut,  pollock,  mack- 
erel, lobsters,  herring,  gaspereaux,  and  trout  being  abundant 
and  cheap.  A  story  is  told  of  a  certain  naval  captain  of  old 
days,  new  to  the  station,  who,  probably  better  accustomed  to  the 
prices  which  ruled  at  Billingsgate  than  at  Halifax,  once  gave  his 
steward  a  sovereign  to  buy  lobsters  for  the  cabin  dinner.  The 
man  returned  with  a  small  boat  load  of  the  crustaceans  in  two 
or  three  wheelbarrows  and  presented  them  to  the  captain,  whose 
surprise  can  be  easily  imagined. 

The  residences  of  the  wealthier  Haligonians  have  in  large 
part  been  built  on  the  sloping  wooded  shores  of  the  beautiful 


836  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

"Arm,"  but  they  have  not  by  any  means  been  confined  to  these 
charming  outskirts  of  the  town,  they  have  been  scattered  through 
the  city,  some  even  daring  to  show  themselves  far  in  the  mostly 
unfashionable  extreme  " north  end." 

Another  interesting  feature,  added  to  Halifax  in  the  nine- 
teenth century,  is  the  large  park,  at  Point  Pleasant,  in  the  south 
part  of  the  city,  the  point  where  the  Arm  opens  in  from  the 
Atlantic  below  the  steep,  heavily  wooded  shore.  The  Park  com- 
prises several  hundred  acres  in  an  almost  natural  state,  but  with 
nature's  primeval  ruggedness  judiciously  softened  and  refined. 
The  Halifax  Public  Garden,  too,  has  been  for  years  a  spot  of 
unusual  beauty,  in  artistic  arrangement  and  marvellous  wealth 
of  shrubbery  and  floral  bloom  easily  rivalling  the  finest  public 
gardens  of  the  old  or  the  new  world.5 

These  were  some  of  the  attractive  physical  features  of  the 
Halifax  of  the  nineteenth  century,  as  they  are  of  the  Halifax  of 
to-day,— who,  it  will  be  asked,  were  the  people  who  actually 
created  and  gave  character  to  the  finished  town!  The  negative 
answer  to  that  question  is  that  they  were  not,  save  in  a  few 
cases,  the  original  British  settlers  that  came  with  Colonel  Corn- 
wallis  in  1749.6  To  no  small  extent  they  were  native-born  Bos- 
tonians,  or  other  New  Englanders,  who  almost  immediately  after 
Halifax  was  founded,  drawn  thither  through  previous  knowl- 
edge of  the  province,  or  by  the  fresh  fame  of  the  Cornwallis  en- 
terprise, brought  their  families  here,  and  in  official  positions,  or 
in  trade,7  or  both,  soon  rose  to  influence,  and  in  some  cases  to  a 


5.  The  able  director  of  the  Halifax  Public  Garden  for  many  years  has  been 
Mr.   Powers.     One  often  wishes  that  the  Boston  Public  Garden  could  have  had 
the  benefit  of   his   artistic   skill. 

6.  The  character  of  many  of  the  settlers  of   Halifax  Governor   Cornwallis 
brought  with  him  from  England  was  not  by  any  means  pleasing  to  this  eminent 
leader  in  the  British  colonization  of  Nova  Scotia.     On  the  24th  of  July,  1749,  he 
writes  the  Lords  of  Trade  that  the  number  of  men  among  the  colonists  fitted  to 
carry  on  the  settlement  creditably  is  very  small.     Some  were  "idle  and  worthless 
persons  who  had  embraced  the  opportunity  to  get  provisions  for  a  year  without 
labour,  or  sailors  who  only  wanted  a  passage  to  New  England"  and  had  embraced 
the  opportunity  afforded  by  the  expedition  to  obtain  passage   free  to  American 
shores. 

7.  Almost  immediately  after  his  arrival  at  Halifax,  though  the  precise  date 
we   do  not  know,   Governor  Cornwallis  entered   into  an  agreement  with   Messrs. 
Charles  Apthorp  and  Thomas  Hancock,  influential  merchants  of  Boston,  to  fur- 
nish the  new  colony  with  supplies,  and  this  contract  evidently  lasted  for  years. 
At  some  early  period,  Messrs.  De  Lancey  and  Watts,  of  New  York  seem  to  have 
shared  in  furnishing  Halifax  with  supplies. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX  NOVA  SCOTIA          837 

much  wider  prosperity  than  had  found  opportunity  to  gain  in 
their  native  provinces.  The  great  migration  of  Bostonians  to 
Halifax,  as  we  have  seen  in  an  earlier  chapter  of  this  history, 
came  when  Boston  was  evacuated  by  the  British  in  March,  1776, 
but  from  1749  to  that  period  probably  not  a  year  had  passed  in 
which  some  native  of  Massachusetts,  usually  of  Boston,  had  not 
transferred  himself,  and  his  family  if  he  had  one,  permanently 
to  the  new  Nova  Scotia  capital.  Among  very  early  influential 
families  in  Halifax,  it  is  true,  were  such  families  of  immediately 
British  origin  as  Best,  Bulkeley,  Collier,  Nesbitt,  Piers,  Pyke, 
Wenman,  etc.,  but  from  Massachusetts,  chiefly  from  Boston,  much 
before  the  Revolution  came  the  Belchers,  Binneys,  Blagdons 
("Blackden"),  Clevelands,  Fairbankses,  Fillises,  Gorhams, 
Grays,  Greens,  Howes,  Lawlors,  Monks,  Morrises,  Newtons, 
Prescotts,  Salters,  Sandersons,  Shaws,  Tidmarshes,  and  others, 
almost  all  which  families  had  been  people  of  excellent  standing 
among  the  New  England  commercial  gentry  to  which  they  be- 
longed. At,  or  following  in  the  wake  of,  the  Revolution  came 
another  for  the  most  part  highly  connected  group  of  permanent 
settlers  from  New  England,  families  named  Blowers,  Brinley, 
Brown,  Byfield,  Byles,  Clarke,  De  Blois,  Gay,  Greenwood, 
Halliburton,  Hart,  Howe,  Lawson,  Minns,  Nutting,  Robie,  Saw- 
yer, Snelling,  Stayner,  Wentworth,  Winslow,  and  Wylde;  while 
in  the  same  movement  came  from  New  York  the  Inglis  family, 
and  the  Lynch,  Pryor,  Thorne,  Tremaine,  and  Wilkins  families ; 
from  New  Jersey  the  Boggs,  Cunard,  and  Odell  families;  from 
Maryland  the  Stewarts ;  from  Virginia  the  Wallaces ;  and  from 
Georgia,  through  the  island  of  Jamaica,  the  Johnstons.  A  large 
number  of  Halifax  families  of  note  in  the  nineteenth  century 
did  not  trace  to  the  United  States,  but  came  independently  and 
singly  at  intervals,  before  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  or  in 
the  early  part  of  the  nineteenth,  directly,  or  in  some  few  instances 
through  other  British  colonies,  from  Great  Britain  or  Ireland. 
Such  were  the  Allans,  Allisons,  Andersons,  Archibalds,  Beck- 
withs,  Blacks,  Bowies,  Bremners,  Breyntons,  Brymers,  Bullocks, 
Butlers,  Campbells,  Cochrans,  Crawleys,  Creightons,  Crichtons, 
Cunninghams,  Dalys,  Donaldsons,  Doulls,  Duffuses,  Fancklins, 
Francklyns,  Frasers,  Georges,  Grahams,  Grassies,  a  second 


838          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

family  of  Grays,  the  founder  of  the  Hare  family,  the  Henrys, 
two  families  of  Hills,  the  Hostermans,  Kennys,  Macleans,  Mc- 
Donalds, McNabs,  Mitchells,  Morrows,  Murdochs,  Oxleys,  Park- 
ers, Richardsons,  Richeys,  Rltchies,  Slayters,  Stairses,  Sterlings, 
Thomsons,  Tobins,  Twinings,  Uniackes,  Woodgates,  and  Youngs, 
some  of  whom,  however,  like  the  Archibalds,  Macleans,  and  Rltch- 
ies had  settled  first  in  other  counties  of  the  province.  Of  import- 
ant American  names  that  came  into  Halifax  through  the  migra- 
tion from  New  England  to  other  parts  of  Nova  Scotia  in  1760, 
we  have  Albro,  Chipman,  Cogswell,  Collins,  De  Wolfe,  Harring- 
ton, Hunt,  Longley,  Starr,  Troop,  Whidden,  and  Wier.  The 
Almon  family,  always  of  high  social  standing  in  Halifax,  was 
founded  here  by  Dr.  James  William  Almon,  a  physician,  born 
probably  in  Newport,  Rhode  Island,  though  on  his  father's  side 
of  Italian  origin,  who  married  after  the  Revolution  the  eldest 
daughter  of  the  noted  Tory  clergyman,  who  fled  here  from  Bos- 
ton, the  younger  Dr.  Mather  Byles. 

The  character  of  the  social  life  of  Halifax  throughout  the 
town's  whole  history,  has  depended  of  course  very  largely  on  the 
town's  commercial  prosperity,  and  for  a  small,  remotely  situ- 
ated eastern  American  town  the  prosperity  of  Halifax  for  many 
decades  was  rather  unusually  great.  Along  the  water  front  of 
the  city  stand  many  staunch  granite  warehouses,  where  before 
the  days  of  steamships  not  a  few  considerable  fortunes  were 
made  in  the  United-States  or  the  British- West-Indian  trade. 
In  Halifax,  as  is  well  known,  the  Cunards  early  established  a 
business  that  laid  the  foundation  of  their  world-renowned  en- 
terprise, the  great  steamship  line  that  bears  their  name.8  In 


8.  Mr.  Frederick  P.  Fairbanks,  a  native  Haligonian,  from  whom  this  chapter 
will  hereafter  quote  liberally,  writes : 

"In  1838  Samuel  Cunard  was  a  prominent  merchant  in  Halifax  and  agent  for 
the  East  India  Company.  In  response  to  certain  circulars  sent  out  by  the  British 
government  he  went  to  England  and  became  associated  with  George  Burns  and 
David  Maclver ;  and  together  they  raised  money  and  started  the  Cunard  Service. 
Then  they  made  a  contract  with  the  government  to  carry  the  mails  for  seven 
years  between  Liverpool  and  Boston,  and  Halifax  and  Boston ;  and  they  got  a 
subsidy  of  $80,000  per  annum  for  this  service.  They  were  to  employ  four  steamers ; 
these  were  at  first  the  Britannia,  Acadia,  Calendonia,  and  Columbia.  The  Britannia 
sailed  from  Liverpool  on  Friday,  July  fourth,  1840  and  inaugurated  the  serivce.  The 
facts  connected  with  this  service  are  very  interesting;  the  above  ships  were  fol- 
lowed by  the  Hibernia,  Cambria,  America,  Niagara,  Europa,  Asia,  Arabia,  Persia, 
and  Scotia.  These  ended  the  paddle  wheelers.  The  Britannia  took  14  days  and 
eight  hours  to  cross. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          839 

1825  a  group  of  merchants  of  local  note,  of  whom  Samuel 
Cunard  (afterward  Sir  Samuel  Cunard,  Bart.)  was  one,  found- 
ed here  the  first  joint-stock  banking  house  in  the  province,  and 
one  of  the  founders  of  this  bank,  the  Honorable  Enos  Collins,  of 
a  Cape  Cod,  Massachusetts,  family,  son-in-law  of  Sir  Brenton 
Halliburton,  finally  died  in  the  town  worth  six  and  a  half  millions 
of  dollars,  a  very  great  fortune  for  the  days  in  which  it  was 
acquired.9  Nor  did  the  town's  commercial  prosperity  cease 
when  sailing  ships  gave  place  to  steamships  on  the  busy  seas, 
after  that  period,  as  is  true  of  it  to-day,  Halifax  became  a  chief 
distributing  port  for  almost  the  whole  of  British  America. 

Given  a  certain  amount  of  commercial  prosperity,  the  over- 
shadowing and  largely  controlling  influence  in  the  social  life  of 
Halifax  in  the  nineteenth  century  was  undoubtedly  exerted  by 
the  presence  of  the  army  and  navy.  But  even  this  influence, 
strong,  and  foreign  to  practical  American  social  ideals,  as  it  was, 
could  not  change  the  fact  that  fundamentally  Halifax  was,  as  it 
had  been  from  the  beginning,  essentially  an  American  town.  Up 
to  the  Revolution,  Boston  had  been  virtually  an  English 
provincial  community,  but  with  an  independence  of  spirit  and 
a  power  of  creating  fresh  ideals  that  belonged  strictly  to  the 
new  world  rather  than  the  old.  From  the  start,  Halifax  drew 
much  of  its  best  life  directly  from  Boston ;  its  earliest  trade  was 
with  the  Massachusetts  capital,  and  the  frames  of  its  first  public- 
buildings  came  from  there,  from  Boston  shops  the  necessary 
housejiold  stores  of  its  people  were  replenished,  and  almost  im- 
mediately after  its  founding,  as  we  have  seen,  Boston  people  of 


"In  my  younger  days  the  arrival  of  what  was  then  generally  designated  'the 
English  steamer'  was  a  matter  of  public  importance.  All  vessels  were  signalled 
from  the  citadel.  The  first  signal  was  by  balls  signifying  a  large  or  small  steamer, 
then  would  come  the  Cunard  private  signal  showing  that  it  was  coming  to  the 
Cunard  firm,  then  the  distinctive  flag  denoting  the  'English  Mail' ;  so  the  people 
would  breathe  sighs  of  relief.  This  experience  would  be  repeated  every  fort- 
night right  along  through  the  year." 

9.  The  other  founders  of  the  bank  besides  Cunard  and  Collins  were  John 
Clarke,  Joseph  Allison,  William  Pryor,  James  Tobin,  Henry  Hezekiah  Cogswell, 
and  Martin  Gay  Black.  (Eaton's  "History  of  King's  County,  Nova  Scotia,  p. 
481).  Sir  Samuel  Cunard  died  worth  five  millions  of  dollars,  Mr.  William  Mur- 
doch worth  over  a  million  and  a  half,  and  Mr.  Charles  Murdoch  worth  a  mil- 
lion. Many  persons  in  Halifax  in  the  igth  century  accumulated  from  seven  or 
eight  hundred  thousand  down  to  a  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars.  Chief  Justice 
Sampson  Salter  Blowers  (a  Boston  born  man)  died  worth  four  hundred  thousand, 
and  Chief  Justice  Sir  William  Young  worth  three  hundred  and  fifty  thousand. 


840  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

influence  poured  into  the  town.  When  a  judiciary  needed  to  be 
established  for  the  province,  as  of  course  was  quickly  the  case, 
an  able  Boston  born  lawyer  of  eminent  family,  Mr.  Jonathan 
Belcher,  was  called  to  be  the  chief  justice,  and  in  the  determined 
movement  of  the  Halifax  people  soon  after  for  representative 
government,  Mr.  Belcher,  in  opposition  to  the  governor,  as  be- 
came a  man  reared  in  a  province  where  representative  institu- 
tions largely  prevailed,  was  the  chief  mover.  When  the  first 
Assembly  was  actually  created,  an  overwhelming  number  of  the 
members  elected  were,  like  Mr.  Belcher,  Boston  born  men.10 

In  structure  and  general  tone,  Boston  before  the  Revolution 
was  much  more  aristocratic  than  it  was  after  the  struggle.  And 
it  is  a  great  question  whether  with  the  passing  of  the  town's 
control  into  the  hands  of  men  steeped  in  the  democratic  spirit, 
Boston  did  not  suffer  forever  the  loss  of  some  of  her  very  finest 
ideals.  In  Halifax  there  was  no  Revolution,  and  here  we  may 
say  emphatically,  the  best  social  ideals  and  most  hospitable 
customs  of  pre-Revolutionary  Boston,  for  many  decades  after 
the  Revolution  continued  to  prevail.  It  is  quite  true  that  the 
general  intellectuality,  that  increased  rather  than  diminished 
in  Boston  after  the  Revolution,  was  always  sadly  lacking  in 
Halifax,  and  that  the  people,  divorced  from  libraries  and  having 
little  to  stimulate  them  to  think  world-problems  out,  absorbed 
themselves  largely  in  business  and  pleasure  and  petty  politics,  and 
that  in  religion,  when  they  felt  the  power  of  religion,  they  accept- 
ed without  question  common  traditional  orthodox  views.  For  a 
long  time,  both  before  and  after  the  Revolution,  we  know,  strict 
moralists  deplored  the  frivolity  of  Halifax,  and  censured  in 
scathing  terms  the  low  moral  standards  of  its  smart  social  life. 

Of  the  controlling  power  of  the  army  and  navy  in  Halifax,  no 
visitor  to  the  town  in  the  whole  of  the  nineteenth  century  could 
fail  to  be  aware.  About  the  time  of  the  Crimean  war,  probably 


10.  The  strength  of  the  New  England  element  in  Halifax  in  1758,  is  shown 
by  the  fact  that  probably  no  less  than  twelve  of  the  nineteen  members  elected  in  that 
year  to  the  first  House  of  Assembly  were  from  either  Massachusetts  or  Con- 
necticut. These  were :  Jonathan  Binney,  Robert  Campbell,  Joseph  Fairbanks, 
Henry  Ferguson,  John  Fillis,  William  Foye,  Joseph  Gerrish,  Philip  Hammond, 
Henry  Newton,  William  Pantree,  Joseph  Rundle  (probably  Randall),  and  Robert 
Sanderson.  The  last  of  these,  Sanderson,  was  elected  Speaker.  From  the  first 
appointment  of  members  to  the  Council,  Boston  men  figured  largely  in  that  body 
also. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          841 

very  soon  after  the  fall  of  Sebastopol,  when  Nova  Scotia,  al- 
ways, to  the  present  moment,  staunchly  loyal  to  England,  was 
more  than  usually  aglow  with  military  ardor,  Frederic  Cozzens 
of  New  York,  visiting  Halifax,  wrote  of  the  town:  "Every- 
thing here  is  suggestive  of  impending  hostilities,  war  in  bur- 
nished trappings  meets  you  at  the  street  corners,  and  the  air 
vibrates  from  time  to  time  with  bugles,  fifes,  and  drums."  "But 
0,"  he  adds,  "what  a  slow  place  it  is.  Even  two  Crimean  regi- 
ments, with  medals  and  decorations,  could  not  wake  it  up."11 
Though  Cozzens  speaks  strongly  in  praise  of  the  hospitality 
of  Halifax,  the  morals  of  the  place,  so  far  as  we  remember, 
he  does  not  criticize.  It  is  a  matter  of  common  knowledge,  how- 
ever, that  popular  British  military  and  naval  stations,  for  ob- 
vious reasons,  are  universally  places  where  superficial  love  of 
pleasure  and  often  easy  virtue  in  social  relations,  among  the 
commoner  classes  at  least,  are  apt  to  prevail.  Of  the  com- 
parative slowness  of  Halifax  in  anything  besides  pleasure,  Judge 
Thomas  Chandler  Haliburton,  a  quarter  of  a  century  earlier 
than  Cozzens,  had  made  his  Yankee  "Clockmaker"  in  answer 
to  the  question  "What  do  you  think  of  the  present  state  and 
future  prospects  of  Halifax?"  Say:  "If  you  will  tell  me  when 
the  folks  there  will  wake  up,  then  I  can  answer  you;  but  they 
are  fast  asleep."12 

The  only  important  connected  study  of  Halifax  social  life  in 
the  first  half  century  of  the  town's  history  that  to  our  knowledge 


IT.  Frederic  Swartout  Cozzens,  "Acadia,  or  a  Month  with  the  Bluenoses." 
New  York,  Derby  and  Jackson,  1859.  "That  the  Haligonians  are  a  kind  and  good 
people,  abundant  in  hospitality,"  Cozzens  says,  "let  me  attest.  One  can  scarcely 
visit  a  city  occupied  by  those  whose  grandsires  would  have  hung  your  rebel 
grandsires  (if  they  had  caught  them)  without  some  misgivings.  But  I  found 
the  old  Tory  blood  of  three  Halifax  generations  yet  warm  and  vital,  happy  to 
accept  again  a  rebellious  kinsman,  in  spite  of  Sam  Slick  and  the  Revolution." 
(Cozzens  does  not  remember  that  some  of  the  Massachusetts  patriots  would 
have  hanged  the  Tories  with  right  good  will ;  it  is  not  at  all  clear  that  the  reverse 
was  the  case). 

12.  "The  Clockmaker :  Sayings  and  Doings  of  Samuel  Slick  of  Slickville," 
first  printed  as  a  series  of  sketches  in  the  Nova  Scotian  newspaper  in  1835,  soon 
afterward  published  in  book  form.  Judge  Haliburton,  whose  books  are  many, 
was  of  New  England  descent,  but  was  born  at  Windsor,  Nova  Scotia.  His  fam- 
ily in  Nova  Scotia  belong  to  the  New  England  migration  to  that  province  in 
1760.  A  United  States  author  who  has  mentioned  the  external  features  of  Hal- 
ifax is  Charles  Dudley  Warner,  in  his  "Baddeck  and  That  Sort  of  Thing."  This 
book  "a  narrative  of  a  journey  to  New  Brunswick,  Nova  Scotia,  and  Cape  Breton," 
was  published  in  Boston  by  James  R.  Osgood  and  Co.  in  1874. 


842          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

has  come  into  print  was  made  about  1860  by  the  Eev.  Dr. 
George  William  Hill,  then  and  for  long  after,  Kector  of  St. 
Paul's  Church  in  Halifax,  in  his  memoir  of  Sir  Brenton  Halli- 
burton, Kt.,  the  seventh  chief  justice  of  Nova  Scotia.13  After 
describing  the  public  buildings  and  the  external  features  in  gen- 
eral of  Halifax,  and  giving  some  important  facts  of  the  town's 


13.  Sir  Brenton  Halliburton  (who  was  knighted  when  he  was  very  old)  was 
born  in  Newport,  Rhode  Island,  and  came  to  Halifax  with  his  parents  at  the 
Revolution.  His  father,  John  Halliburton,  was  born  in  Scotland,  but  married  in 
Newport  Susannah  Brenton,  whose  brother  (Judge)  James  Brenton  settled  early 
in  Halifax,  as  did  also  did  her  sister  Mary,  wife  of  Hon.  Joseph  Gerrish.  The 
importance  of  Hon.  Jahleel  Brenton  and  his  family  in  Newport  has  often  been 
mentioned  in  print.  Mr.  George  Champlin  Mason  in  his  "Reminiscences  of  New- 
port (1884)"  says:  "Jahleel  Brenton  was  fond  of  society  and  kept  an  open  house, 
both  at  the  homestead  [on  Thames  Street],  and  at  Hammersmith  [near  Fort 
Attains],  where  he  was  always  prepared  to  entertain  a  large  number  of  guests. 
He  was  public-spirited,  gave  the  clock  that  hangs  in  Trinity  Church  steeple,  was 
one  of  the  original  members  of  the  Artillery  Company,  and  one  of  the  committee 
to  build  the  State  House.  But  however  well  off  in  landed  property,  he  was  at 
times  crowded  for  ready  money,  and  when  he  died,  in  1767,  his  estate  was  en- 
cumbered" (p.  369). 

Of  Dr.  Halliburton,  Mr.  Brenton's  son-in-law,  Mr.  Mason  writes:  "At  the 
foot  of  the  Parade,  where  there  is  now  a  modern  brick  building,  there  stood  until 
within  a  few  years  a  large  gambrel-roof  house  that  dated  far  back  in  the  last 
century.  When  the  ground  on  which  it  stood  was  wanted  for  other  purposes  it 
was  removed  to  Bridge  Street,  where  it  still  does  service  for  shops  and  tenements. 
On  its  old  site  it  was  occupied  in  succession  by  a  number  of  physicians,  all  of 
whom  doubtless  found  it  a  good  location.  The  first  was  Dr.  Thomas  Rodman, 
who  came  from  Barbadoes  in  1680,  and  here  resided  up  to  the  time  of  his  death  in 
1827.  His  son  Thomas,  also  a  physician,  was  his  successor.  After  him  came  Dr. 
William  Hunter,  a  Scotch  physician,  who  was  eminent  in  his  day,  and  whose 
worth  has  been  frequently  dwelt  upon.  Dr.  John  Halliburton  was  the  next  phy- 
sician to  occupy  the  house.  He  was  residing  here  when  the  war  broke  out,  took 
sides  with  the  Crown,  and  in  1781  was  suspected  of  keeping  up  a  secret  commun- 
ication with  the  enemy.  So  strong  was  the  evidence  against  him  that  he  left 
hastily  in  a  boat  and  made  his  way  to  New  York  early  in  1782;  for  in  one  of  his 
letters  now  before  me,  dated  New  York,  March  17,  1782,  he  speaks  of  his  sudden 
departure  and  expresses  regret  at  having  to  leave  one  of  his  very  sick  patients, 
Mr.  William  Tweedy.  In  this  letter  he  urges  his  friends  in  Newport  to  see  that 
his  wife  and  children  were  sent  to  him  by  the  first  flag.  When  his  family  joined 
him,  he  removed  to  Nova  Scotia  and  settled  there;  but  for  a  time  at  least  his 
position  in  his  new  home  was  not  a  comfortable  one,  for  in  a  letter  dated  at  Hal- 
ifax, September  8,  1782,  he  writes:  'A  few  casual  acts  of  civility  I  have  now  and 
then  experienced,  but  that  sincere  and  generous  hospitality  that  was  formerly 
practised  in  Rhode  Island  is  seldom  to  be  met  with  in  any  country.  .  .  .  There 
are  a  few  agreeable  and  courteous  people  here,  from  whom  we  have  received 
some  civilities,  but  whether  for  want  of  a  proper  knowledge  of  us,  or  from  what- 
ever cause,  they  want  that  cordial  and  generous  confidence,  that  smiling  ease 
and  cheerful  communication  which  alone  make  civilities  palatable.'  In  time  this 
feeling  was  changed ;  there  was  a  better  understanding  between  the  doctor  and 
the  people  of  Halifax,  who  had  learned  to  know  and  esteem  him  highly.  He 
died  in  1807.  Mrs.  Halliburton,  who  was  a  daughter  of  Jahleel  Brenton,  died 
in  1818.  Their  son  Brenton  Halliburton,  chief  justice  of  the  province,  was  hon- 
ored with  Knighthood."  (pp.  28,  29). 

-*  Rev.  Dr.  George  Hill's  "Memoir  of  Sir  Brenton  Halliburton"  (207  pp.)  was 
printed  in  Halifax  by  James  Bowes  and  Sons  in  1864.  It  m?y  be  found  in  Boston 
libraries. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          843 

history,  Dr.  Hill  says :  ' '  The  private  dwellings  were  usually 
small,  covering  a  very  limited  area,  and  seldom  more  than  one 
story  in  height,  finished  above  with  an  attic.  Although  the  town 
was  laid  out  in  squares,  each  containing  sixteen  lots,  of  forty 
feet  in  width  and  sixty  feet  in  depth,  each  individual  obtained, 
if  he  could,  except  in  the  central  part,  more  lots  than  one.  Thus 
the  residences  of  many  were  quite  detached,  and  ample  scope 
afforded  for  gardens,  which  were  assiduously  cultivated  by  the 
proprietors.  .  .  .  Not  a  few  planted  trees  before  their 
doors,  under  the  shade  of  which  the  dairy  cow  loved  to  ruminate 
during  the  hot  days  of  summer,  and  to  lie  down  at  night,  to  the 
inconvenience  and  danger  of  the  pedestrian. 

"The  furniture  in  the  dwellings  of  those  who  possessed  means 
was  of  a  far  more  substantial  character  than  that  now  used  by 
persons  of  the  same  class,  and  was  considerably  more  expensive. 
.  .  .  It  was  usually  made  of  a  mahogany  wood,  of  a  rich, 
dark  color;  the  dining-room  table  was  plain,  but  massive,  sup- 
ported by  heavy  legs,  often  ornamented  with  the  carved  re- 
semblance of  a  lion 's  claw ;  the  side-board  was  high,  rather  nar- 
row and  inelegant;  the  secretary,  or  covered  writing  desk,  was 
bound  with  numberless  brass  plates  at  the  edges,  corners,  and 
sides ;  the  cellaret,  standing  in  the  corner,  which  held  the  wines 
and  liquors  brought  up  from  the  cellar  for  the  day's  consump- 
tion, was  also  bound  elaborately  with  plates  of  burnished  brass ; 
the  chairs,  cumbrous,  straight-backed,  with  their  cushions  cov- 
ered with  black  horse-hair  cloth,  were  as  uncomfortable  as  they 
were  heavy;  the  sofa,  though  not  common,  was  unadorned  but 
roomy;  the  great  arm-chair  deserved  its  title,  for  it  was  wide 
enough  and  deep  enough  to  contain  not  only  the  master  of  the 
household,  but,  if  he  pleased,  several  of  his  children  beside. 
These  for  the  most  part  comprised  the  furniture  of  the  dining- 
rooms  of  the  upper  classes.  That  contained  in  the  bed-room 
was  built  of  the  same  wood,  and  of  a  corresponding  style.  The 
bedsteads  were  those  still  known  as  four-posted,  invariably  cur- 
tained, and  with  a  canopy  overhead.  .  .  .  The  chests  of 
drawers  and  the  ladies '  wardrobes  were  covered  with  the  ubiqui- 
tous brazen  plates,  and  being  kept  bright,  gave  the  room  an  air 


844          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

of  comfort  and  cleanliness.  In  almost  every  hall  stood  a  clock, 
encased  by  a  frame  of  great  size.  .  .  . 

"The  kitchen  department  in  those  early  times  was  of  the 
greatest  importance.  The  day's  labor  began  at  early  morning 
with  the  often  unsuccessful  attempt  to  produce  fire  from  flint 
and  steel;  baking  and  brewing,  as  well  as  ordinary  cooking,  were 
for  the  most  part  attended  to  at  home,  and  all  was  done  for 
many  years  at  the  open  hearth,  on  which  hard  wood  was  burned 
for  fuel.  .  .  . 

"It  was  the  habit  to  dine  at  an  early  hour,  and  take  supper 
between  eight  and  nine  o'clock.  The  fashionable  dinner  hour 
was  three  o'clock,  and  on  some  state  occasions  it  was  made  as 
late  as  four.14  As  a  consequence  of  this  custom,  business  ceased 
to  be  transacted,  at  least  by  the  public  offices,  soon  after  mid- 
day. It  was  too  late  to  return  when  the  somewhat  lengthened 
meal  was  over.  In  the  ordinary  course,  a  custom  prevailed  of 
walking  on  a  fine  day,  after  dinner,  sometimes  towards  the 
Point,  sometimes  to  the  North,  and  in  less  favorable  weather  to 
the  Market,  for  a  promenade  beneath  the  balcony.  On  return- 
ing home,  those  whose  resources  in  themselves  were  small,  usu- 
ally played  cards  until  supper  was  laid;  while  among  the  more 
intellectual  it  was  the  admirable  custom  that  the  gentlemen 
should  read  aloud  while  the  ladies  worked  at  embroidery.  The 
standard  English  authors  were  their  text  books  on  these  oc- 
casions ;  they  had  but  few,  but  these  were  the  works  of  the  ablest 
historians  and  the  more  distinguished  poets.  Few  are  aware 
how  well  informed,  in  spite  of  many  disadvantages,  were  the 
upper  classes  of  society  in  those  early  times.  .  .  .  The  full 
and  accurate  acquaintance  of  many  ladies  with  History,  ancient 
and  modern,  with  Milton  and  Shakespeare,  with  Pope  and  Dry- 
den,  and  with  others  of  equal  fame,  may  yet  be  traced  through 
a  few  of  their  daughters  who  survive— themselves  old  ladies 
now— to  adorn  their  native  land.  Many  of  them  learned  the 
French  language,  and  both  wrote  and  spoke  it  fluently. ' ' 

Later  in  his  description  Dr.  Hill  says :  "It  is  quite  indicative 
of  the  general  ease  and  lack  of  urgent  business  in  the  community 


14.     Speaking  of  food,  Dr.  Hill  tells  us  that  porcupines  were  much  used  as 
game. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          845 

that  even  as  late  as  1796,  .  .  .  there  were  no  less  than 
twenty-four  holidays,  during  which  the  public  offices  were  clos- 
ed." Levees  at  Government  House,  he  adds,  were  very  fre- 
quent, on  which  occasions  the  streets  leading  to  the  executive 
mansion  were  filled  with  gentlemen  in  powdered  hair,  and  silk 
stockings,  and  with  silver-hilted  swords. 

Full  dress  for  the  women  of  the  period  was  commonly  a  stiff 
brocaded  silk  or  heavy  satin  gown,  with  a  long  prim  waist,  from 
which  the  ample  hooped  skirt  spread  off  like  a  balloon,  the 
sleeves  being  tight  to  the  arm.  Over  the  neck  and  bosom  a  lace 
handkerchief  was  likely  to  be  spread,  fastened  by  a  heavy 
jewelled  pin.  For  church  a  richly  wrought  apron,  and  spangled 
white  kid  shoes,  with  peaked  toes  and  high  heels  were  worn.  The 
hair,  dressed  with  pomatum,  was  drawn  over  a  cushion  perhaps 
twelve  inches  in  height  and  sprinkled  thickly  with  powder,  a 
white  rosebud  or  other  natural  flower  crowning  this  extraor- 
dinary dome.  In  these  days  there  were  few  hair  dressers  in 
Halifax,  so  people  were  obliged  to  begin  very  early  in  the  day 
to  prepare  for  afternoon  or  evening  entertainments,  and  very 
clever  must  the  fashionable  hair-dresser  have  been  who  man- 
aged to  keep  all  his  patrons  in  good  humour  as  he  went  his  slow 
rounds  from  house  to  house.  Full  dress  for  men  consisted  of 
knee-breeches,  silk  stockings,  shoes  with  silver  buckles,  a  white 
neckerchief  of  great  thickness,  a  straight-collared  coat  with 
large  buttons,  a  brilliantly  coloured  waistcoat,  and  the  silver- 
hilted  sword  or  rapier  we  have  spoken  of. 

Many  of  the  large  dinners  of  early  Halifax  were  given  at  a 
three-story  wooden  hotel  at  the  corner  of  Duke  and  Water 
streets,  known  as  the  "Great  Pontac, "  a  house  built  before  1757. 
For  dinners  the  cooks  of  the  war-ships  were  often  called  into 
requisition,  and  when  naval  officers  themselves  were  the  hosts 
the  dishes  would  be  brought  up  to  the  windows  of  the  hotel  by 
ships'  stewards,  rowed  by  sailors  in  spotless  white,  and  handed 
in  for  the  several  courses.  In  1757,  before  the  second  taking  of 
Louisburg,  Generals  Wolfe  and  Amherst  were  entertained  at 
the  Great  Pontac,  and  for  many  years  thereafter  few  distin- 
guished men  visited  Halifax  who  did  not  find  accommodation 
within  its  hospitable  walls. 


846 

About  1790  there  was  but  one  closed  carriage  in  Halifax,  and 
the  owner  of  this  vehicle  was  so  gallant  that  on  the  evening  of 
grand  balls  he  was  accustomed  to  send  his  servant  round  for 
many  of  the  ladies  of  the  smart  set,  in  turn.  For  a  long  time 
sedan  chairs  were  commonly  used  in  the  town.  An  advertise- 
ment in  a  newspaper  in  1794  announces  that  sedan  chairs  may 
be  ordered  in  Barrington  Street  at  one  shilling,  one  and  three- 
pence, and  sixpence  a  ride.  For  church  on  Sundays  the  price 
was  an  eighth  of  a  dollar ;  to  Dutchtown,  near  the  Arm,  the  price 
was  a  shilling.15 

In  a  former  chapter  we  have  described  in  some  detail  the  re- 
markable accession  to  the  population  of  Halifax  that  came  with 
the  exodus  from  Boston  in  1775  and  1776  of  almost  the  whole  of 
that  town's  acknowledged  aristocracy.  As  the  Revolutionary 
spirit  in  Massachusetts  grew,  the  position  of  those  who  felt  com- 
pelled to  take  strongly  the  British  side  became  more  and  more 
intolerable,  and  as  early  as  the  spring  of  1775,  singly  or  in 
small  groups,  Boston  and  Salem  families  of  importance  began 
to  seek  shelter  in  the  Nova  Scotia  capital.  When  the  formal 
withdrawal  from  Boston  of  General  Howe's  troops  was  posi- 
tively determined  on,  the  British  sympathizers  who  had  always 
lived  in  the  town,  and  those  who  from  other  places  had  recently 
sought  refuge  there,  also  hastily  prepared  to  leave,  and  on  the 
seventeenth  of  March,  1776,  families  and  single  men  to  the  num- 
ber of  between  nine  and  eleven  hundred  persons  embarked  with 


15.  As  we  have  shown  in  the  first  chapter  of  this  history,  a  considerable 
number  of  Germans  came  to  Halifax  in  the  wake  of  the  Cornwallis  English 
settlers.  Many  of  these  removed  to  Lunenburg,  but  a  considerable  group  remain- 
ed in  the  north  end  of  Halifax.  Among  these  Germans  some  picturesque  social 
customs  prevailed.  At  their  weddings  the  bridal  party  walked  to  church  in  pro- 
cession, led  by  the  bride  and  groom  elect,  the  women  dressed  in  white  with  white 
caps  and  ribbons,  the  men  wearing  white  trousers  and  round  blue  jackets.  At 
the  conclusion  of  the  ceremony  all  went  to  a  tavern,  and  partook  of  refreshments, 
after  which  they  went  home  for  two  or  three  days'  feasting  and  dancing.  For 
one  German  wedding,  in  Halifax,  the  good  things  provided,  included  several 
sheep,  eighteen  geese,  soups,  hams,  puddings,  pies,  cakes,  and  wines  in  abundance. 
The  best  fiddler  that  could  be  found  was  secured  and  the  people  danced  all  night 
and  perhaps  all  the  next  day.  It  is  said  that  the  host  and  hostess  generally  in- 
sisted on  the  guests  staying  until  all  the  food  was  eaten  up.  One  quaint  custom 
observed  at  these  weddings  was  for  some  guest  at  the  wedding  supper,  on  the 
first  day  of  feasting,  to  ask  the  bride  to  take  off  one  of  her  shoes,  which  he  then 
passed  round  to  each  of  the  party  for  a  coin  as  a  gift  to  the  lady.  Usually  guests 
gave  a  dollar  apiece,  and  sometimes  the  shoe  was  sold  at  auction  to  the  highest 
bidder,  who  returned  it  to  the  bride,  together  with  the  purchase  money. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          847 

the  fleet.  The  arrival  in  Halifax  of  this  bruised  and  heart-sick 
multitude,  the  straits  to  which  they  were  put  to  find  even  tem- 
porary comfortable  lodgment  on  shore,  the  departure  of  many 
of  them  in  a  few  weeks  for  England,  and  of  some  of  them  later 
with  the  fleet  for  New  York,  their  reinforcement  before  long  by 
others  of  their  sort  from  the  middle  and  southern  colonies,  the 
introduction  of  many  of  those  who  settled  permanently  in  the 
town  into  the  highest  public  positions,  and  the  natural  jealousy 
felt  towards  such  by  the  older  inhabitants— these  are  incidents 
in  the  progress  of  the  history  of  Halifax  that  we  have  already 
tried  to  describe.  The  establishment  of  an  Episcopate  in  Nova 
Scotia,  and  the  consequent  founding  there  of  a  college  in  which 
Anglican  principles  should  be  taught,  were  two  of  the  results  of 
the  coming  of  the  Loyalists,  and  the  appointment  in  1787  of 
Rev.  Dr.  Charles  Inglis  as  bishop,  and  in  1792  of  Mr.  John 
Wentworth  as  governor,  tended  soon  to  make  these  later  comers 
to  Nova  Scotia  well  nigh  supreme  in  the  councils  of  church  and 
state. 

What  gave  especial  brilliancy  to  the  social  life  of  Halifax  in 
the  last  decade  of  the  eighteenth  century  was  the  presence  there 
for  part  of  this  time  of  His  Royal  Highness  Prince  Edward, 
Duke  of  Kent,  later  Queen  Victoria's  father,  who  was  then  in 
chief  command  of  the  King's  forces  in  British  North  America. 
To  this  residence  of  Prince  Edward  in  Halifax  we  shall  devote 
an  independent  chapter  as  this  history  goes  on.  Giving,  as  it 
did,  a  great  and  lasting  stimulus  to  the  loyalty  of  Nova  Scotians 
to  the  British  Crown,  it  likewise  tended  strongly  to  stimulate 
gayety  in  Halifax,  and  the  accounts  of  social  entertainments, 
in  the  town  while  it  continued  are  highly  interesting  to  read. 
•John  Wentworth  was  governor  from  1792  until  1808,  and  for 
much  of  that  period  of  sixteen  years  he  made  Government  House 
the  scene  of  great  festivity.  Early  in  1795  he  was  created  a 
baronet,  and  after  that  notable  event  in  his  career,  as  before, 
he,  and  his  wife  Lady  Frances,  a  woman  of  unusual  charm  and 
accomplishment,  devoted  themselves  with  energy  to  making 
Halifax  social  life  as  hospitable  and  gay  as  they  could.  ' '  There 
have  dined  at  Government  House  between  12  December,  1794, 
and  29  October,  1795, ' '  writes  young  Nathaniel  Thomas,  a  cousin 


848          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

of  Lady  Wentworth  (son  of  Nathaniel  Ray  Thomas,  the  well 
known  Massachusetts  Loyalist,  who  spent  the  rest  of  his  life 
after  1776,  and  died,  in  Windsor,  Nova  Scotia),  "two  thousand, 
four  hundred  and  thirty-seven  persons."  On  the  evening  of 
Thursday,  December  twentieth,  1792,  says  a  newspaper  of  the 
day,  ' '  the  Lieutenant-Governor  and  Mrs.  Wentworth  gave  a  ball 
and  supper  to  the  ladies  and  gentlemen  of  the  town  and  the 
officers  of  the  army  and  navy,  which  was  altogether  the  most 
brilliant  and  sumptuous  entertainment  ever  given  in  this  coun- 
try. "  Describing  in  detail  the  features  of  the  entertainment, 
the  newspaper  pays  a  highly  enthusiastic  tribute  to  the  "ele- 
gance and  superiority  of  manners ' '  of  Mrs.  Wentworth,  and  the 
"hospitality,  perfect  good  breeding,  and  infinite  liberality,  which 
so  distinguish  the  character  of  our  beloved  and  adored  gov- 
ernor." On  this  magnificent  occasion,  says  the  article,  "every- 
thing tended  to  promote  one  sympathizing  joy,  and  never  was 
there  a  night  passed  with  more  perfect  harmony  and  luxurious 
festivity. ' ' 

From  year  to  year,  as  the  history  of  Halifax  in  the  time  of 
the  Wentworths  goes  on,  we  read  of  social  events  that  surprise 
us  with  their  luxury  and  brilliancy,  for  the  town  was  then,  we  re- 
member, less  than  fifty  years  old.  The  visits  of  royal  person- 
ages were  always  the  signal  for  elaborate  functions  and  great 
display.  On  the  fourth  of  October,  1786,  Prince  William  Henry, 
afterwards  King  William  the  Fourth,  arrived  in  H.  M.  ship 
Pegasus,  and  his  visit  was  twice  afterward  repeated  in  1787, 
Magnificent,  indeed,  were  the  doings  on  these  occasions,  the 
presence  of  a  son  of  the  Sovereign  making  the  people  almost 
wild  with  joy.  Notable  also  were  the  celebrations  of  the  birth- 
days of  royalties,  especially  of  that  of  King  George's  rather 
staid  and  exceedingly  proper  queen.  On  the  eighteenth  of  Janu- 
ary Queen  Charlotte  was  born,  and  every  year  as  the  day  came 
round,  Halifax  echoed  with  the  thunders  of  cannon,  while  levees 
and  balls,  with  brilliant  illuminations  of  the  houses,  enlivened 
the  cold  and  somewhat  dreary  town.  In  1794,  the  birthday  of 
Prince  Edward,  the  exact  date  of  which  was  November  second, 
came  on  Sunday,  and  the  popular  customs  precluded  any  gayety 
on  that  sacred  day.  Accordingly  there  was  only  a  salute  from 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          849 

the  citadel  and  a  quiet  levee  at  Government  House.  Monday 
night,  however,  there  was  a  magnificent  ball  and  supper  at  the 
Governor's,  for  which  three  hundred  invitations  were  issued. 
On  Tuesday  night  the  town  was  illuminated,  and  over  the  gate 
of  Government  House  appeared  a  crown  and  the  initials  P.  E., 
"enclosed  by  a  blaze  of  lights."  On  the  twelfth  of  August,  1796, 
the  Prince  of  Wales 's  birthday  was  celebrated,  with  parades, 
salutes,  and  all  the  military  pomp  possible.  A  banquet  at  Gov- 
ernment House,  "at  which  Prince  Edward,  the  army  and  navy 
officers,  and  chief  gentlemen  of  the  town  were  guests  of  Sir 
John  Wentworth,  concluded  the  festival." 

On  Tuesday,  the  thirteenth  of  September,  1796,  Lady  Went- 
worth gave  a  ball  and  supper  at  Government  House  to  Captain 
Beresford,  of  one  of  his  Majesty's  war  ships,  who  had  "success- 
fully beaten  off  a  superior  French  ship,  supposed  to  be  a  vessel 
of  the  line. "  "  Most  of  the  ladies  and  gentlemen  of  the  town, ' ' 
Murdoch  says,  "were  invited,  and  the  officers  of  the  army  and 
navy.  As  a  compliment  to  the  captain,  all  the  ladies  wore  navy 
blue  cockades,  and  many  had  on  bandeaux  and  ornaments  of 
blue,  on  which  his  name  was  inscribed  in  gold  letters.  Splendor 
and  taste  were  predominant,  and  gayety  reigned  supreme. 
The  merry  dance  was  not  deserted  till  the  small  hours  of  the 
morning  came  on." 

Nor  did  the  loyal  celebrations  of  Haligonians  lose  any  of  their 
fervor  after  the  nineteenth  century  opened.  On  Friday,  April 
seventh,  1820,  George  the  Fourth,  who  had  been  nine  years 
regent,  was  proclaimed  King  at  Halifax.  "At  half  past  ten, 
A.  M.t  the  governor  went  in  state  to  the  council  chamber.  The 
members  of  His  Majesty's  council,  the  speaker  and  several  mem- 
bers of  the  assembly  then  residing  or  remaining  in  town,  the 
justices  of  the  peace  in  Halifax,  grand  jurors,  and  many  of  the 
inhabitants,  and  the  officers  of  the  army  and  navy,  had  pre- 
viously assembled  there.  The  governor  having  taken  his  chair, 
the  provincial  secretary  read  the  official  despatches  notifying 
the  demise  of  the  late  king  and  the  accession  of  his  eldest  son  and 
heir.  A  proclamation  of  the  new  king's  reign  was  signed  by  the 
governor,  councillors,  and  other  chief  persons  present.  His 
Excellency  having  appointed  David  Shaw  Clarke,  Esquire,  to 


850          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

be  herald  at  arms,  that  gentleman  read  the  proclamation  aloud 
in  a  distinct  and  clear  voice.  At  this  time  the  Royal  standard 
was  hoisted  upon  citadel  hill.  The  herald  proceeded  from  the 
council  chamber  in  a  carriage,  accompanied  by  the  sheriff,  to 
the  front  of  the  Province  House,  to  the  market  square,  to  the 
door  of  St.  Paul's  Church,  and  to  the  new  parade  on  Brunswick 
Street,  near  the  North  Barracks,  escorted  by  troops  and  at- 
tended by  the  populace,  and  at  every  place  repeated  the  procla- 
mation. At  the  North  Parade  the  garrison  were  drawn  up  under 
arms,  and  a  salute  of  twenty-one  guns  fired  from  six  field 
pieces.  The  procession  then  returned  to  the  Province  House, 
and  the  proclamation  was  again  read  in  the  Supreme  Court 
room,  now  the  Legislative  Library.  At  one  P.  M.  the  Eoyal 
standard  was  lowered  to  half  mast,  and  minute  guns  were  fired 
from  the  fort  on  George's  Island,  which  was  continued  the  re- 
mainder of  the  day,  in  memorial  of  the  deceased  sovereign.  On 
Sunday,  sermons  suited  to  the  occasion  were  delivered  in  the 
different  places  of  public  worship." 

In  1830  was  published  by  Henry  Colburn  and  Richard  Bent- 
ley,  in  New  Burlington  Street,  London,  an  interesting  volume, 
called  ' '  Letters  from  Nova  Scotia,  Comprising  Sketches  of  a 
Young  Country, ' '  by  Captain  William  Moorsom,  of  the  Fifty-sec- 
ond Light  Infantry,  which  was  written  in  Halifax  in  1829,  while 
the  author  was  officially  engaged  "in  various  tours  undertaken 
for  the  purpose  of  gaining  some  military  information  relating  to 
the  province."16  In  describing  Halifax  the  author  says:  "The 
garrison  forms  about  one-eighth  of  the  population,  and  of  course 
materially  influences  the  tone  of  society.  A  young  officer  in 
whose  head  conceit  has  not  previously  effected  a  lodgment  stands 
every  chance  of  undergoing  a  regular  investment,  siege,  and 
assault  from  this  insidious  enemy  on  joining  his  corps  in  Hali- 
fax. He  finds  himself  raised  at  once  to  a  level  above  that  ac- 
corded to  the  scarlet  cloth  at  home— his  society  generally  sought, 
frequently  courted,  and  himself  esteemed  as  a  personage  whose 
opinions  are  regarded  with  no  little  degree  of  attention. 
It  is  not  the  fault  of  the  inhabitants  if  Halifax  be  not  a 
pleasant  quarter  for  a  stranger,  and  particularly  for  a  military 


16.    The  book  has  nineteen  chapters.    It  also  may  be  found  in  Boston  libraries. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          851 

stranger.  Hospitality,  unbounded  in  comparison  with  that 
which  such  a  person  will  experience  in  England,  is  offered  to 
his  acceptance.  .  .  .  The  general  tone  of  intercourse  is 
somewhat  analogous  to  that  we  meet  with  in  Ireland ;  it  is  in  fact 
such  as  naturally  prevails  where  the  circle  is  not  very  extended, 
where  the  individual  members  have  been  long  acquainted,  and 
where  military  have  long  been  stationed  with  few  internal 
changes.  .  .  .  There  are  no  regular  public  assemblies  in 
Halifax.  A  theatre,  conducted  by  amateurs,  is  opened  five 
or  six  tunes  during  the  season,  but  a  dearth  of  female  perfor- 
mers renders  it  not  particularly  attractive.  Quadrille  cards  have 
lately  been  issued  every  fortnight  by  one  of  the  regiments  in 
garrison,  and  have  been  received  in  the  light  they  were  intended, 
as  an  earnest  of  social  harmony  and  amusement.  Picnic  parties 
in  summer  and  sleighing  excursions  in  winter  complete  the  scale 
of  divertis semens.  .  .  .  Whenever  a  fine  day  and  a  well- 
formed  road  combine  their  attractions,  from  a  dozen  to  twenty 
of  the  members  of  the  sleigh  club  may  be  seen  with  tandem,  pair, 
four-in-hand,  or  postillions  a  I  Anglaise,  first  making  the  tour 
of  the  streets,  to  the  open-mouthed  admiration  of  all  the  little 
truant  ragamuffins,  and  the  dashing  out  of  town  along  the  fine 
' Bason  road'  to  partake  of  a  dejeuner  a  la  fourchette  at  some 
country  inn  a  few  miles  off.  Each  preux  chevalier  is  accom- 
panied by  the  lady  of  his  choice,  while  some  in  double  sleighs 
are  so  unconscionable  as  to  monopolize  three  or  four.  The  only 
sine  qua  non  of  propriety  seems  to  be  that  the  signorine  shall 
be  matronized  by  some  one.  Strange  as  it  may  appear,  while 
hosts  of  the  unqualified  are  ready  to  the  moment,  matronly 
volunteers  are  rarely  to  be  found ;  and  the  one  who  is  eventually 
pressed  into  the  service  usually  finds  her  numerous  charge  as 
perfectly  beyond  all  control,  as  the  necessity  for  which  control 
is  perfectly  trivial." 

Elsewhere  Moorsom  says:  Were  an  Englishman  "placed  in 
the  midst  of  the  party  at  the  Governor's  weekly  soiree,  he  would 
not  conceive  himself  to  be  elsewhere  than  in  some  English 
provincial  town  with  a  large  garrison.  In  fact  there  cannot 
be  any  town  out  of  Great  Britain  where  this  similarity  is  so 
complete  as  at  Halifax."  "The  winter  is  here,"  he  continues, 


852  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

"as  in  other  places,  the  season  for  gaiety  similar  to  that  we  find 
prevalent  elsewhere,  in  the  shape  of  dinner  and  evening  parties, 
rational  and  irrational,  festive,  sober,  and  joyous,  insipid,  dull, 
and  stupid.  How  far  individual  gout,  or  rather  degout,  may 
act  to  give  a  'jaundiced  eye'  I  know  not,  but  it  seems  to  me  the 
general  tone  of  these  social  meetings  indicates  a  stage  of  luxury 
rather  than  of  refinement,  of  gaiety  rather  than  its  com- 
bination with  that  intellectual  foundation  which  renders  such 
gaiety  truly  delightful." 

In  1842  and  '43,  an  educated  Italian  named  Gallenga,  who  af- 
terward wrote  many  books  under  the  pseudonym  of  L.  Mariotti, 
spent  some  time  in  Nova  Scotia  and  saw  much  of  Halifax  society. 
In  a  very  entertaining  book  he  wrote  called  "Episodes  of  my 
Second  Life,"17  he  says,  evidently  with  great  pleasure  in  the 
recollection:  "Picnics  at  the  Duke  of  Kent's  Lodge,  reunions 
at  Government  House,  balls  given  in  turn  by  the  officers  of  the 
garrison  at  the  Assembly  rooms  or  by  the  naval  officers  on  board 
the  Admiral's  frigate,  were  almost  daily  occurrences— balls  with 
such  a  show  of  beauty  as  hardly  any  other  town  of  the  same  size 
and  pretension  could  exhibit,  and  to  the  charms  of  which,  I, 


17.  In  1842,  "Luigi  Mariotti"  came  out  from  England,  where  he  had  just 
declined  the  position  of  private  secretary  to  Sir  Edward  Bulwer  Lytton,  to  be 
professor  of  modern  languages  in  King's  College,  at  VVindsor.  Lord  Falkland 
was  then  governor  of  the  province,  and  Dr.  John  Inglis,  bishop  of  the  diocese,  and 
Mariotti  gives  very  graphic  pictures  of  these  dignitaries  and  of  the  other  chief  per- 
sonages of  the  Province  at  that  time.  The  Bishop,  he  says,  was  a  dapper  little  man 
with  a  lively  face  on  which  the  sense  of  what  was  due  to  his  prelatic  dignity  was 
perpetually  struggling  to  check  the  impulse  of  his  bustling  activity.  There  was  in  him 
something  of  the  look  and  manner  of  Dean  Stanley.  The  Bishop's  wife  and  "four 
thin,  and  not  very  young  daughters,"  he  describes  as  having  stateliness  enough  for 
the  whole  Episcopal  bench  in  the  House  of  Lords.  The  new  professor  seems  not 
to  have  been  the  most  contented  person  in  the  world,  and  he  was  very  much  dis- 
appointed in  King's  College,  his  position  for  one  thing  proving  far  more  of  a 
sinecure  than  he  either  expected  or  desired,  but  he  soon  set  up  a  modest  establish- 
ment, bought  a  horse,  engaged  a  black  groom,  and  embarked  on  the  sea  of  Windsor 
and  Halifax  society.  With  Dr.  McCawley,  the  president  of  the  college,  and  his 
wife,  he  was  at  once  on  good  terms,  and  speaking  of  some  of  the  girls  he  met  at 
Windsor,  he  says  that  the  Miss  Haliburtons,  the  Miss  Heads,  and  the  Miss  Uni- 
ackes  "wanted  neither  prettiness  nor  animation  and  showed  no  invincible  objection 
to  a  little  flirting."  He  does  not  deign  to  tell  us  to  whom  it  was,  but  he  confesses 
that  he  lost  his  heart  in  Windsor,  and  when  later  he  settled  in  Halifax,  and  was 
a  frequent  guest  at  Government  House  (although  the  beautiful  Lady  Falkland  was 
then  "in  deep  mourning  for  her  brother,  the  Earl  of  Munster"),  at  the  officers' 
mess,  and  at  assembly  balls,  and  hops  on  the  Admiral's  frigate,  he  used  regularly 
on  Saturday  to  saddle  his  horse  and  ride  forty  miles  over  a  rough  road  to  spend 
Sunday  in  the  college  town  with  the  fair  captor  of  his  affections. 

An  edition  of  "Episodes  of  my  Second  Life,"  was  published  in  London  by 
Chapman  and  Hall,  in  1884.  The  book  may  be  found  at  the  Boston  Public  Library. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          853 

though  I  never  danced,  could  not  be  blind— the  charms  of.  the 
acres  of  dazzling-white  bare  necks  and  shoulders  of  the  Arch- 
deacon's strapping  daughters,  of  the  bright  eyes  and  elegant 
figures  of  the  four  Miss  Cunards,  of  the  fair  complexions  and 
sweet  expression  of  the  four  Miss  Uniackes,  two  of  them  stars 
of  the  first  magnitude— all  of  whom  whirled  before  me  as  crea- 
tures of  another  orbit,  happy  in  the  arms  of  the  red-coated  or 
blue-jacketed  gallants  encircling  their  waists." 

In  recollection  of  his  boyhood  and  young  manhood  in  Halifax, 
Mr.  Frederick  P.  Fairbanks,18  a  bachelor  of  arts  of  King's  Col- 
lege, Windsor,  much  of  whose  later  life  has  been  spent  in  the 
neighborhood  of  New  York  City,  has  written  the  following  pleas- 
ant description  of  the  social  life,  as  he  remembers  it,  of  his  native 
town.  "Halifax,"  he  says,  "had  exceptional  advantages  for 
social  recreation.  Being  the  summer  headquarters  of  the 
fleet  of  the  British  and  North  American  squadron  and 
being  garrisoned  by  two  regiments  of  infantry,  several  batteries 
of  artillery  and  a  corps  of  engineers,  the  military  and  naval  ele- 
ment were  largely  in  the  ascendant,  and  aided  to  a  considerable 
degree  in  the  entertainment  of  the  citizens.  This  element 
broughtwith  it  as  residents  the  Commander-in- Chief  of  the  forces 
in  America,  and  the  Admiral  of  the  fleet,  with  their  respective 
staffs,  and  Halifax  being  the  place  of  residence  of  the  Governor 
of  the  Province,  the  Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court,  and  all  the 
executive  officers  of  the  government,  as  well  as  the  Bishop  of  the 
Diocese,  naturally  furnished  excellent  material  for  tea  parties 
and  other  social  events.  The  respective  regiments  and  ships  of 
war  offered  a  lavish  hospitality  to  the  townspeople,  to  which 
the  latter  did  not  fail  to  make  satisfactory  response,  and  hardly 
a  week  passed  that  cards  were  not  out  for  a  General's,  Ad- 
miral's, or  Governor's  ball,  or  a  dance  on  board  ship,  or  by  in- 
vitation of  the  military  officers  or  some  one  of  the  prominent 
citizens. 

'  *  Then  to  fill  in,  there  was  a  constant  round  of  driving  parties, 


18.  Mr.  Frederick  Prescott  Fairbanks,  Barrister,  of  Passaic,  New  Jersey,  a 
warm  friend  of  the  writer,  is  one  of  the  few  Haligonians  who  have  ever  taken  the 
trouble  to  describe  the  social  life  of  their  native  town  as  it  was  about  the  middle  of 
the  nineteenth  century.  His  manuscript  is  a  notable  one  and  we  are  glad  to  re- 
produce so  much  of  it  here. 


854          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

yachting,  garden,  skating  parties,  or  picnics,  the  participants  in 
which  generally  returned  to  the  house  of  the  patron  for  an  im- 
provised dance.  Military  reviews  and  parades,  and  sham  fights, 
too,  were  very  frequent,  concerts  by  the  military  bands  were 
given  twice  a  week  at  the  public  gardens  during  the  summer, 
and  all  kinds  of  out  door  sports  were  in  vogue,  which  were 
largely  attended  by  spectators.  For  example,  it  was  not  un- 
common on  a  fine  winter  day,  when  the  ice  was  good  on  the  North 
West  Arm,  to  find  assembled  there  on  skates  the  best  representa- 
tives of  all  classes  of  society.  High  officials  of  the  government, 
judges,  lawyers,  rectors,  and  curates,  and  even  the  dignified 
Bishop  joined  hands  with  the  crowd;  colonels,  majors,  captains, 
and  middies  were  all  on  skates,  and  naturally  the  fair  sex  of  the 
city  were  out  in  force  to  greet  them.  When  the  sun  shone 
and  the  ice  was  smooth,  there  was  good  fellowship  and  enjoy- 
ment which  could  hardly  be  excelled. 

' '  In  all  social  festivities,  the  heads  of  the  house  of  Fairbanks 
indulged  and  encouraged  their  children  to  indulge.  They  ac- 
cepted invitations  and  made  bounteous  return.  For  many  years 
at  Briar  Cottage  they  kept  open  house  and  entertained  freely, 
until  all  the  daughters  but  one  were  married  and  that  one  had 
retired  from  society.  Briar  Cottage  was  seldom  quiet  in  the 
evening.  Both  parents  and  children  were  fond  of  company  and 
liked  it  best  at  home.  Large  and  small  dances,  family  dinners, 
dinners  to  politicians,  high  teas  to  clerical  friends  and  the  peo- 
ple of  the  church,  card,  charade,  round  game,  and  children's 
parties  were  interspersed  with  an  occasional  ball,  when  every- 
body in  the  Army,  Navy,  or  Citizen  force  considered  properly 
entitled  to  an  invitation  would  get  one.  A  feature  of  these  re- 
ceptions was  the  absence  of  formality.  Our  parents  made  no 
pretension  to  style,  the  ladies  wore  no  dazzling  jewels  or  costly 
attire,  and  a  man's  income  was  never  regarded  as  the  measure 
of  his  eligibility.  Everything,  however,  was  comfortable  and 
pleasing.  The  girls  looked  well,  the  military  came  in  full  dress 
uniform  with  plenty  of  scarlet  and  blue  and  gold-lace,  so  at- 
tractive to  the  feminine  fancy,  and  the  young  men  of  the  city 
were  so  well  looked  after  that  they  could  not  feel  otherwise  than 
at  home  during  the  whole  of  the  event. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          855 

"On  such  occasions  the  two  back  parlours  were  opened  for 
dancing,  the  drawing  room  was  reserved  for  tete-a-tetes  and 
conversation,  and  the  supper  was  served  in  the  front  sitting 
room,  where  it  was  laid  early  in  the  day,  the  room  not  being 
opened  till  midnight  or  thereabout.  During  the  evening,  re- 
freshments were  served  from  the  pantry  or  the  sideboard  in  the 
dining  room.  Wine  and  ale  were  always  provided,  and  the  sup- 
per was  of  a  substantial  character,  generally  comprising  boned 
turkey,  chickens,  salads,  and  sweets  of  various  kinds. 

' '  The  greater  part  of  the  time  the  daughters  had  friends  visit- 
ing them,  and  as  men  callers  were  always  welcome  in  the  even- 
ings, many  improvised  dances  were  often  got  up.  Every  night 
before  retiring  we  had  supper,  even  when  the  family  were  alone, 
and  a  good  bottle  of  ale  was  considered,  both  at  supper  and  din- 
ner a  sine  qua  non.  In  these  days  a  guest  was  never  allowed 
to  depart  without  partaking  of  some  refreshment — a  very  good 
custom,  and  one  which  our  children  would  do  well  to  observe. 

1 '  At  Christmas  there  was  always  a  family  gathering  at  Briar 
Cottage.  On  such  occasions  the  little  front  sitting  room  was 
made  to  do  duty  for  the  children,  and  the  recollection  of  that 
room  can  never  fade  from  their  minds.  While  the  children 
were  allowed  their  stockings  in  bed  in  the  morning,  they  had 
to  wait  until  after  breakfast  for  any  further  inspection  of  their 
Christmas  gifts.  Then  the  family  adjourned  to  the  sitting  room, 
where  on  a  round  table  (trees  were  not  in  vogue  with  us  in  those 
days)  the  presents  were  displayed.  This  little  front  sitting  room 
could  tell  many  a  tale,  if  it  had  a  voice,  for  it  was  the  room  re- 
served, as  well,  for  the  daughters  of  the  house  when  they  were 
about  to  be  married.  Often  at  such  momentous  times  the  boys 
would  receive  the  strict  injunction:  'Don't  come  in  without 
whistling.'  " 

In  a  later  manuscript  Mr,  Fairbanks  writes : 

' i  The  principal  public  functions  of  Halifax  were  held  at  Gov- 
ernment House,  Admiralty  House,  the  Commandant's  residence, 
the  Provincial  Building,  and  Masonic  Hall.  The  balls  on  shore 
had  no  distinctive  feature,  but  were  like  all  balls ;  it  may  be  noted, 
however,  that  by  whomsoever  the  entertainment  was  given  one 
was  sure  to  be  treated  most  lavishly  as  far  as  the  inner  man  was 


856          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

concerned.  The  hospitality  of  Halifax  is  proverbial,  and  one's 
host  was  never  lacking  in  his  desire  to  regale  one  with  the  very 
best  that  the  market  afforded  or  that  the  most  pronounced  epi- 
cure could  desire. 

"The  most  popular  of  all  the  social  events  that  took  place  in 
those  days,  were,  I  think,  the  hops  on  board  the  ships  of  war. 
This  was  possibly  owing  to  some  extent  to  the  fact  that  they 
possessed  certain  novel  features  not  met  with  on  shore.  The 
ships  lay  out  in  the  stream  some  distance  off  the  dockyard,  and 
a  constant  stream  of  boats  manned  by  the  sailors  in  holiday 
dress,  and  commanded  by  midshipmen,  moved  back  and  forth 
taking  the  guests  from  the  dockyard  to  the  ship.  Once  on  board, 
the  most  diffident  could  not  but  feel  at  home;  he  was  free  to 
dance,  smoke,  sleep,  eat  or  drink,  or  amuse  himself  by  doing 
nothing ;  there  was  simply  no  restraint,  and  abundant  opportun- 
ity was  furnished  for  having  a  good  time  in  the  way  one  wished. 
There  was  a  beautiful  deck  in  the  finest  condition  for  the  dance ; 
there  were  the  ward  room  and  gun  room  below  for  those  who 
desired  to  indulge  in  mild  dissipation ;  and  there  were  numerous 
nooks  all  over  the  vessel  to  be  used  as  desired.  There  was  most 
deferential  attendance,  there  were  eatables  and  drinkables  in 
profusion ;  and  you  were  away  from  the  hum  of  the  city,  floating 
serenely  on  the  placid  waters  of  the  great  harbour,  with  some 
of  the  finest  ships  of  the  British  navy  in  close  proximity,  and 
your  surroundings  in  all  ways  pleasing.  The  water  of  the 
harbour  was  often  an  intense  blue  which  enhanced  the  beauty 
of  the  vista  from  the  shore,  and  there  was  plenty  to  look  at  in 
the  stream  from  the  deck  of  the  man-of-war. 

Of  certain  popular  regiments,  Mr.  Fairbanks  says : 
"I  remember  the  arrival  of  the  62nd  and  63rd  regiments 
which  came  directly  to  Halifax  after  the  Crimean  war.  They 
presented  a  very  ragged  appearance  as  they  disembarked  from 
the  troop  ships  and  marched  to  their  barracks.  The  62nd  was 
very  popular  in  Halifax  and  a  number  of  its  officers  married 
Halifax  girls.  Another  very  popular  regiment  was  the  78th, 
which  took  part  in  the  relief  of  Lucknow.  It  was  customary 
at  that  time,  and  I  believe  still  is,  to  have  concerts  by  a  military 
band  in  the  Public  Garden  (then  the  'Horticultural  Garden,' 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          857 

once  or  twice  a  week).  There  was  a  musical  composition  en- 
titled *  The  Relief  of  Lucknow '  if  I  remember  rightly,  which  the 
78th  's  band  used  sometimes  to  perform.  One  part  of  the  band 
occupying  the  stand  was  supposed  to  be  in  the  fort,  and  while 
it  was  playing,  another  portion  of  the  band  was  heard 
a  long  distance  off  in  a  remote  part  of  the  garden  playing  '  The 
Campbells  are  Coming.'  As  soon  as  this  became  distinct,  the 
band  on  the  stand  took  up  the  air  and  the  two  divisions  played 
it.  in  unison  till  the  relief  party  marched  into  the  'fort,'  when 
there  was  tremendous  enthusiasm  among  the  spectators.  The 
Fourth  (King's  Own)  was  also  a  very  popular  regiment  in  Hali- 
fax. 

"A  feature  of  the  arrival  of  troops  in  the  city  was  that  the 
town  crier  turned  out,  ringing  his  bell  and  'crying  down  credit'— 
that  is  crying  to  the  effect  that  all  persons  were  prohibited  from 
giving  credit  to  the  members  of  her  majesty's  — th  regiment, 
and  that  the  government  would  not  be  responsible  if  they  did. 
I  remember  one  of  the  town  criers  very  well,  I  often  heard  him 
cry  'Lost;  Strayed;  or  Stolen!'  etc.,  etc. 

"An  extremely  popular  social  organization  in  my  day,"  this 
writer  adds,  "was  the  Halifax  Archery  and  Croquet  Club,  a 
large  and  interesting  club  to  which  many  of  the  army  and  navy 
men  as  well  as  civilians  belonged.  A  portion  of  the  Horticultural 
Garden  was  set  apart  for  its  use,  and  on  field  days  the  gathering 
was  most  animated  and  gay.  At  that  period  tennis  had  not 
come  into  vogue.  A  few  years  ago  when  in  Halifax  I  saw  an 
aquatic  carnival  on  the  Arm.  It  was  said  that  there  were  about 
a  thousand  boats  on  the  water.  It  was  one  of  the  prettiest 
sights  I  ever  saw.  The  Governor  General  of  Canada,  Earl  Grey, 
was  then  on  a  visit  to  Halifax,  and  this  and  many  other  interest- 
ing social  events  were  arranged  in  his  honour." 

In  another  manuscript  by  a  native  Nova  Scotian  we  read: 
"When  an  old  regiment  was  ordered  off  the  station  there  was 
always  sorrow  in  the  drawing  rooms  and  deep  regret  in  the 
Halifax  Club,  while  on  the  part  of  the  private  soldiers  and  their 
sweethearts  there  were  presumably  many  tender  farewells  in- 
dulged in  and  many  bitter  tears  shed.  When  the  last  echoes  of 
'  The  Girl  I  Left  Behind  Me, '  however,  had  died  on  the  air,  and 


858          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

the  new  regiment,  after  disembarking  from  the  ships,  with  flying 
colours  had  marched  into  the  town,  a  fresh  round  of  acquaint- 
anceships, usually  equally  pleasant  with  the  old,  began  to  be 
made,  fresh  dinners  and  dances  loomed  on  the  near  social 
horizon,  and  the  feminine  heart,  in  high  circles  and  low,  was 
athrob  with  the  anticipation  of  new  triumphs  in  the  matrimonial 
line.  While  imperial  troops  continued  to  visit  Halifax,  the 
general  ambition  of  girls  in  the  smart  set  was  to  marry  officers, 
and  few  families  of  fashion  in  the  town  but  succeeded,  sooner 
or  later,  in  allying  themselves  with  families  of  greater  or  less 
note  in  England  by  marrying  their  daughters  to  young  officers 
of  the  army  or  navy.  Of  these  two  sets  of  officers,  the  latter,  on 
the  whole,  had  more  popularity  than  the  former,  for  there  is 
usually  a  more  open  confidingness  in  sailors  than  in  soldiers, 
and  it  used  to  be  felt  that  naval  officers  at  large  had  the  higher 
breeding  of  the  two  departments  of  the  British  service  of  public 
defence. 

"The  entertainments  common  in  Halifax  in  the  nineteenth 
century  were  tennis,  badminton,  polo,  lobster-spearing,  tobog- 
ganing, skating,  dinners,  luncheons,  hops,  kettledrums,  balls, 
picnics,  and  fairs.  The  balls  given  by  the  naval  or  military 
officers  were  often  especially  brilliant  affairs,  the  uniforms  in 
evidence  including  those  of  the  line  regiments,  the  artillery,  the 
engineers,  and  the  various  war-ships  then  on  the  station. ' ' 

In  one  of  his  essays,  Charles  Dudley  Warner  says  of  the 
dramatic  social  plantation  life  of  the  southern  States  before 
the  abolition  of  slavery :  ' '  Already,  as  we  regard  it,  it  assumes 
an  air  of  unreality,  and  vanishes  in  its  strong  lights  and  heavy 
shades  like  a  dream  of  the  chivalric  age."  The  old  picturesque 
eighteenth  and  nineteenth  century  life  of  Halifax  has  largely 
disappeared  too.  For  better  or  for  worse,  probably  much  for 
the  better  industrially,  certainly  much  for  the  worse  in  point  of 
dramatic  interest,  under  the  influence  of  insistent  modern  prac- 
tical demands,  it  has  utterly  changed.  One  of  the  things  that 
helped  give  it  and  that  helps  it  still  retain  a  certain  flavor  of 
the  old  England  which  it  loves  to  copy,  and  in  whose  traditions 
it  has  a  persistent  feeling  of  somehow  having  a  right  to  share, 
was  and  is  the  bestowal  of  occasional  knighthoods  on  Halifax 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          859 

men.  For  special  service  to  the  Empire,  Britain  has  always  thus 
rewarded  her  sons,  and  thus  she  will  probably  long  continue  to 
reward  them.  Of  such  easily  given  honours,  that  very  likely 
tend  to  keep  dignity  in  the  popular  life,  and  that  even  in  a 
thoroughly  democratic  province  such  as  Nova  Scotia  now  is, 
cannot  at  least  do  much  if  any  harm,  Halifax  will  always,  prob- 
ably, as  long  as  Britain  remains  in  name  a  monarchical  country, 
receive  and  welcome  from  the  sovereign  a  modest  share. 

APPENDIX 

Nova  Scotians,  many  of  them  Haligonians,  who  have  received  titles.     Several 
of  these  names  appear  in  the  Dictionary  of  National  Biography. 

i 

SIR  ADAMS  GEORGE  ARCHIBALD,  K.  C.  M.  G.,  June  6,  1885  (C.  M.  G.,  1872,  Lieu- 
tenant-Governor  of  Manitoba  and  the  North  West  Territory,  1870-1873 ;  of 
Nova  Scotia,  1873-1883). 

SIR  EDWARD  MORTIMER  ARCHIBALD,  K.  C.  M.  G.,  Aug.  26,  1882,  British  Consul  for 
some  years  at  New  York. 

SIR  THOMAS  DICKSON  ARCHIBALD,  Kt.  Bachelor,  Feb.  5,  1873,  Judge  of  the  Queen's 
Bench,  London  and  Baron  of  the  Exchequer,  brother  of  Sir  Edward  Mor- 
timer Archibald. 

GENERAL  JOHN  CHARLES  BECKWITH,  C.  B.,  ITALIAN  KNIGHTHOOD  (order  of  Sts. 
Maurice  and  Lazarus,  received  from  King  Charles  Albert,  of  Italy,  Dec. 
15,  1848.  He  was  born  at  Halifax,  Oct.  2,  1789,  a  nephew  of  Sir  Brenton 
Halliburton,  Kt.  Bach. 

REAR-ADMIRAL  SIR  EDWARD  BELCHER,  R.  N.,  K.  C.  B.,  March  13,  1867  (Kt.  Bach., 

1843).     He   was  born  at   Halifax,   in    1799,   son  of   Hon.   Andrew   Belcher, 

i      M.  E.  C.,  and  his  wife,  Marianne  Geyer  (of  Boston),  his  grandfather  being 

Chief-Justice  Jonathan  Belcher,  of  Nova  Scotia,  and  his  great-grandfather 

Governor  Jonathan  Belcher,  of  Massachusetts  and  New  Jersey. 

SIR  FREDERICK  WILLIAM  BORDEN,  K.  C.  M.  G.,  1902,  born  in  King's  County,  Nova 
Scotia,  May  14,  1847.  He  was  for  some  years  Minister  of  Militia  in  the 
Dominion  Parliament. 

Rx.  HON.  SIR  ROBERT  LAIRD  BORDEN,  K.  C.  M.  G.,  1914,  born  in  King's  County, 
Nova  Scotia,  June  26,  1854.  Premier  of  Canada  at  the  present  time. 

SIR  JOHN  GEORGE  BOURINOT,  K.  C.  M.  G.,  May  21,  1898,  born  Oct.  24,  1857,  died 
Oct.  13,  1902.  He  was  Clerk  of  the  Dominion  House  of  Commons,  and 
a  literary  man  of  distinction. 

SIR  JAMES  COCHRAN  OR  COCHRANE,  Kt.  Bachelor,  March  12,  1845.  He  was  born  at 
Halifax,  June  2,  1794,  and  was  Chief-Justice  of  Gibraltar  from  1840  to 
1877.  He  was  an  uncle  of  Sir  John  Inglis,  K.  C.  B.  He  died  at  Gibraltar 
June  24,  1883. 

LIEUTENANT-GENERAL  WILLIAM  GEORGE  COCHRAN  OR  COCHRANE,  C.  B.,  brother  of 
Sir  James  Cochran,  was  born  in  Halifax  April  19,  1790.  He  was  a  dis- 
tinguished military  man,  serving  in  the  Peninsular  War. 


860          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

SIR  SAMUEL  CUNARD,  BARONET,  March  9,  1859,  was  born  in  November,  1787.  In 
1840  he  successfully  inaugurated  ocean  travel  by  establishing  the  Cunard 
Steamship  Line.  His  son  SIR  EDWARD  CUNARD,  born  January  i,  1816,  suc- 
ceeded to  his  title  April  28,  1865  and  died  in  1869.  SIR  BACHE  EDWARD 
CUNARD,  born  May  15,  1851,  succeeded  as  third  baronet  in  1869. 

:SiR  MALACHY  BOWES  DALY,  K.  C.  M.  G.,  was  Governor  of  Nova  Scotia  from 
1890  to  1895,  and  again  from  1895  to  1900. 

SIR  JOHN  WILLIAM  DAWSON,  K.  C.  M.  G.  September  11,  1884  (C.  M.  G.,  1881), 
was  an  eminent  geologist  and  President  of  McGill  University.  He  was 
born  at  Pictou,  Nova  Scotia,  Oct.  13,  1820. 

COLONEL  SIR  WILLIAM  F.  DE  LANCEY,  K.  C.  B.,  a  native  of  New  York  (son  of 
Stephen  De  Lancey)  came  with  his  father  to  Nova  Scotia  about  1783.  He 
entered  the  army,  died  at  Waterloo,  and  was  buried  at  Brussels.  His  father 
became  Chief-Justice  of  the  Bahamas,  and  later  Governor  of  Tobago.  Sir 
William's  daughter,  Susan,  was  the  wife  of  Sir  Hudson  Lowe,  Governor 
of  St.  Helena  when  Napoleon  was  captive  there. 

SIR  SANFORD  FLEMING,  K.  C.  M.  G.,  1897  (C.  M.  G.,  1877)  was  born  in  Scotland, 
but  was  for  many  years  a  summer  resident  of  Halifax,  where  he  owned 
valuable  property.  Sir  Sanford  was  long  one  of  Canada's  most  useful 
public  men.  He  died  at  Halifax  in  July,  1915. 

BARON  HALIBURTON,  1898,  (SiR  ARTHUR  LAWRENCE  HALIBURTON),  youngest  son  of 
Judge  Thomas  Chandler  Haliburton,  was  C.  B.,  1880,  K.  C.  B.,  1885,  and  G. 
C.  B.,  1887,  and  was  raised  to  the  peerage  in  1898.  He  died  childless  and  the 
peerage  is  extinct.  Lord  Haliburton  was  born  at  Windsor,  Nova  Scotia, 
Sept.  26,  1832. 

SIR  BRENTON  HALLIBURTON,  KT.  BACHELOR,  April  13,  1859,  was  a  son  of  Hon. 
John  Halliburton,  M.  D.,  and  his  wife,  Susannah  Brenton  (of  Newport, 
R.  I.).  He  was  Chief -Justice  of  Nova  Scotia  from  1833  to  1860,  when  he 
died. 

SIR  JOHN  EARDLEY  WILMOT  INGLIS,  K.  C.  B.  January  21,  1858,  was  a  son  of 
Bishop  John  Inglis  and  grandson  of  Bishop  Charles  Inglis.  He  was  born 
November  15,  1814,  and  was  knighted  for  successfully  defending  the  Pres- 
idency of  Lucknow  in  the  Crimean  War,  in  1857.  He  is  popularly  known 
in  Nova  Scotia  as  the  "hero  of  Lucknow." 

SIR  EDWARD  KENNY,  KT.  BACHELOR,  Nov.  3,  1870,  was  born  in  Ireland  in  1800, 
but  was  long  a  resident  of  Halifax.  He  was  successively  President  of  the 
Legislative  Council  of  Nova  Scotia,  Receiver  General  of  the  Province, 
President  of  the  Privy  Council  of  Canada,  and  a  member  of  the  Dominion 
Senate. 

( 

SIR  JAMES  MONK,  KT.  BACHELOR,  born  in  Boston  in  1746,  removed  with  his  parents 
to  Halifax  early  in  the  history  of  the  town,  and  by  1774  became  Solicitor 
General  of  Nova  Scotia.  After  1777  he  removed  to  Montreal  and  there 
became  Chief  Justice  of  the  Court  of  King's  Bench.  He  was  knighted  late 
in  life. 

SIR  WILLIAM  JOHNSTONE  RITCHIE,  KT.  BACHELOR,  May  24,  1881,  Chief-Justice  of 
the  Dominion  of  Canada,  was  born  at  Halifax  Oct.  28,  1813. 

SIR  THOMAS  ANDREW  STRANGE,  KT.  BACHELOR,  March  14,  1798,  was  Chief-Justice 
of  Nova  Scotia,  June  6,  1791,  to  Sept.  9,  1797.  He  was  afterward  Chief- 
Justice  of  Madras,  India. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          86 1 

SIR  JOHN  SPARROW  DAVID  THOMPSON,  K.  C.  M.  G.,  Sept.  10,  1888,  was  Minister  of 
Justice  for  the  Dominion  of  Canada,  and  later  Premier. 

SIR  CHARLES  JAMES  TOWNSHEND,  KT.  BACHELOR,  was  eleventh  Chief-Justice  of 
Nova  Scotia,  from  Nov.  2,  1907  until  some  time  in  1915. 

RT.  HON.  SIR  CHARLES  TUPPER,  BARONET,  1888  (C.  B.,  1867,  K.  C.  M.  G.,  1879,  G. 
C.  M.  G.,  1886).  Sir  Charles  was  the  most  distinguished  statesman  Nova 
Scotia  has  produced.  Like  several  others  in  this  list  he  was  of  New  Eng- 
land origin.  He  died  in  England,  October  30.  1915. 

SIR  CHARLES  HIBBERT  TUPPER,  K.  C.  M.  G.,  1893,  son  of  Sir  Charles  Tupper,  Bart., 
was  born  August  3,  1855,  and  became  Minister  of  Justice  for  the  Dominion 
of  Canada. 

REAR-ABMIRAL  SIR  PROVO  WILLIAM  PARRY  WALLIS,  G.  C.  B.,  May  24,  1873  (K.  C. 
B.,  1860),  was  born  at  Halifax,  April  12,  1791,  and  died  February,  1892.  He 
had  a  distinguished  career  in  the  Navy,  and  was  long  known  as  the  "Father 
of  the  Fleet."  It  was  he  who  conducted  the  Chesapeake  into  Halifax  in  1813. 

SIR  ROBERT  LINTON  WEATHERBE,  KT.  BACHELOR,  1906,  tenth  Chief-Justice  of  Nova 
Scotia,  from  1905  to  1907,  was  born  in  Prince  Edward  Island,  April  7,  1836, 
and  died  at  Halifax  in  1915. 

SIR  JOHN  WENTWORTH,  BARONET,  1795,  was  Governor  of  Nova  Scotia  from  1792  to 
1808.  He  died  at  Halifax  April  8,  1820,  when  his  son,  Charles  Mary  suc- 
ceeded to  the  baronetcy.  The  latter  died  childless  in  England,  April  10, 
1844,  when  the  title  became  extinct. 

VICE-ADMIRAL  SIR  GEORGE  AUGUSTUS  WESTPHAL,  K.  C.  B.  (?),  April  7,  1824.  He 
was  born  July  26,  1785,  and  died  January  n,  1875.  He  was  wounded  at 
the  battle  of  Trafalgar. 

MAJOR-GENERAL  SIR  WILLIAM  FENWICK  WILLIAMS,  R.  A.,  G.  C.  B.,  May  20,  1871  (C. 

B.,  1852,  K.  C.  B.,  1856),  was  distinguished  in  the  Crimea.  He  is  known  as  the 

"hero  of  Kars."  He  was  born  at  Annapolis  Royal,  probably  in  1799,  and  died 

unmarried  in  London,  England,  July  26,  1883. 
SIR  WILLIAM  ROBERT  WOLSEY  WINNIETT,  R.  N.,  K.  C.  B.,  June  29,  1849,  was  born 

at  Annapolis  Royal,  in  1794. 

SIR  WILLIAM  YOUNG,  KT.  BACHELOR,  1868  or  1869,  was  Chief-Justice  of  Nova 
Scotia  from  1860  to  1881.  He  died  at  Halifax  May  8,  1887. 

[Since  this  list  was  compiled,  another  Haligonian,  Dr.  Charles  Frederick  Fraser, 
has  been  knighted  for  conspicuous  public  service.  He  was  made  Kt. 
Bachelor,  June  3,  1915. 

Our  list  does  not  include  either  New  Brunswick  or  Prince  Edward  Island  men 
who  have  received  titles]. 


THE  WINTHROP  FAMILY  1001 

wealth;  let  Rome  tell  of  her  devout  Numa,  the  law-giver  by 
whom  the  most  famous  commonwealth  saw  peace  truimphing 
over  extinguished  war  and  cruel  plunders,  and  murders  giving 
place  to  the  more  mollifying  exercises  of  his  religion.  Our  New 
England  shall  boast  and  tell  of  her  Winthrop,  a  law-giver  as 
patient  as  Lycurgus,  but  not  admitting  any  of  his  criminal  dis- 
orders ;  as  devout  as  Numa,  but  not  liable  to  any  of  the  heathen- 
ish madness ;  a  governor  in  whom  the  excellence  of  Christianity 
made  a  most  improving  addition  into  the  virtues  wherein  even 
without  those  he  would  have  made  a  parallel  for  the  great  men 
of  Greece  or  of  Rome  which  the  pen  of  Plutarch  has  eternized." 

(To  be  continued) 


Chapters  in  the  History  of  Halifax, 
Nova  Scotia 

SIB  JOHN  WENTWORTH  AND  THE  DUKE  OF  KENT 
BY  ARTHUR  WENTWORTH  HAMILTON  EATON,  M.  A.,  D.  C.  L. 

No.  IV 

Here  Wentworth  and  his  Tory  compeers  came 
When  fierce  rebellion  rent  the  neighboring  land, 
Foes  to  the  foes  of  England  and  her  King. 

Acadian  Ballads. 

A  woman  of  fashion  and  wit  and  grace, 
The  Governor's  wife,  of  Portsmouth  town, 
From  Copley's  canvas  still  looks  down 
Beautiful  Lady  Wentworth 's  face. 

Acadian  Ballads. 

IN  September,  1775,  after  proroguing  the  New  Hampshire  As- 
sembly at  the  Isles  of  Shoals,  Mr.  John  Wentworth,  last  roy- 
al governor  of  this  New  England  province,  found  it  neces- 
sary to  flee  in  haste  from  his  home  in  Portsmouth  to  the  shel- 
ter of  the  King's  troops  in  Boston.    Among  the  notable  fam- 
ilies of  New  England  before  the  Revolution  not  a  single  one 
stands  out  more  conspicuously  than  the  New  Hampshire  Went- 
worths.     Descended  from  the  finest  English  stock  they  early 
planted  themselves  in  America,  and  here  brought  into  exercise 
the  high  qualities  of  intelligence,  energy,  dignity,  and  courtesy 
that  by  nature,  the  heritage  of  generations  of  high-bred  ances- 
tors, were  theirs.    Both  Longfellow  and  Whittier  have  celebrated 
the  family  in  charming  verse,  Whittier,  especially,  in  his  ' '  Amy 
Wentworth, ' '  of  whom  he  says : 

(1002) 


EDWARD,  DUKE  OF  KENT  AND  STRATHEARN    K   G 
K.  T.,  K.  St.  P.,  Etc. 


1003 

* l  Her  home  was  brave  on  Jaffrey  Street, 
With  stately  stairways  worn 
By  feet  of  old  Colonial  knights, 
And  ladies  gently  born. 

1 '  Still  green  about  its  ample  porch 
The  English  ivy  twines, 
Trained  back  to  show  in  English  oak 
The  herald's  carven  signs. 

' '  And  on  her  from  the  wainscot  old 
Ancestral  faces  frown,— 
And  this  has  worn  the  soldier 's  sword, 
And  that  the  judge's  gown." 

The  romantic  second  marriage  of  Benning  Wentworth,  first 
Royal  Governor  of  New  Hampshire  as  a  separate  colony,  furnish- 
ed the  subject,  also,  for  Longfellow's  poem,  ''Lady  Wentworth," 
the  poet's  tale  in  "Tales  of  a  Wayside  Inn."  In  this  poem  Long- 
fellow followed  closely  the  account  given  by  Brewster,  which 
runs  thus : ' '  The  Governor  invited  a  dinner  party,  and  with  many 
other  guests,  in  his  cocked  hat  comes  the  beloved  Rev.  Arthur 
Browne  [Rector  of  Qjueen's  Chapel,  Portsmouth].  The  dinner 
is  served  up  in  a  style  becoming  the  Governor 's  table,  the  wine  is 
of  good  quality,  etc.  In  due  time,  as  previously  arranged,  Mar- 
tha Hilton,  the  Governor's  maid  servant,  a  damsel  of  twenty 
summers,  appears  before  the  company.  The  Governor,  bleached 
by  the  frosts  of  sixty  winters,  rises :  '  Mr.  Browne,  I  wish  you  to 
marry  me. ' '  To  whom  ! '  asked  the  Rector  in  wondering  surprise. 
'  To  this  lady, '  was  the  reply.  The  Rector  stood  confounded.  The 
Governor  became  imperative :  '  As  the  Governor  of  New  Hamp- 
shire I  command  you  to  marry  me. '  The  ceremony  was  performed 
and  Martha  Hilton  became  Lady  Wentworth."1 

With  a  poet's  license,  Longfellow  has  given  Martha  Hilton 
Wentworth  a  title  that  was  never  hers,  Lady  Frances  Went- 
worth was  the  only  ' '  Lady  Wentworth ' '  this  continent  has  ever 
known.  Moreover,  the  Wentworth  family  history  says  that  Mar- 


i.  This  second  marriage  of  Governor  Benning  Wentworth  took  place 
March  15,  1760.  On  the  iQth  of  December,  1770,  two  months  after  her  elderly 
first  husband's  death,  Martha  Wentworth  became  the  wife  of  a  retired  English 
army  officer,  Col.  Michael  Wentworth,  one  of  the  English  Wentworths,  who 
settled  in  New  Hampshire  and  the  rest  of  his  life  shared  the  comfortable  for- 
tune his  distant  relative,  the  Governor,  had  left. 


1004         THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

tha  was  not  servant  but  young  housekeeper  to  the  Governor,  she 
being  only  twenty-three  while  her  elderly  lord  was  sixty-four. 

John  Wentworth's  grandfather,  John,  was  Lieutenant  Gover- 
nor of  New  Hampshire  before  that  Colony  became  separated  from 
Massachusetts.  Among  his  sons  were  Governor  Benning  Went- 
worth,  born  July  twenty-fourth,  1696,  graduated  at  Harvard  Col- 
lege in  1715,  who  became  as  we  have  said  the  first  royal  governor 
of  New  Hampshire  as  an  independent  colony;  Mark  Hunking 
Wentworth,  an  eminent  merchant  in  Portsmouth  and  a  represent- 
ative to  the  legislature,  whose  son  was  Governor  John  Wentworth 
of  Portsmouth  and  Halifax;  and  Samuel  Wentworth,  father  of 
Governor  John's  wife,  Lady  Frances. 

Governor  John  Wentworth  was  born  at  Portsmouth,  August 
ninth,  1737,  graduated  at  Harvard  College,  in  the  class  with 
President  John  Adams,  in  1755,  took  his  master 's  degree  in  1758, 
and  in  a  short  time  became,  like  his  father  and  his  uncle  Benning, 
a  leading  merchant  in  Portsmouth.  From  the  standing  of  his 
family  in  New  England  and  with  the  administration  in  England, 
and  through  strong  qualities  in  himself,  having  already  acquired 
political  influence,  when  in  1767,  on  account  of  age  and  infirmities 
his  uncle  Benning  resigned  the  governorship,  he  was  at  once  ap- 
pointed in  his  place ;  to  the  governorship  being  added  the  office  of 
Surveyor  of  the  King's  Woods  for  all  North  America.  On  the 
llth  of  November,  1769,  at  Queen's  Chapel,  Portsmouth,  the  Rev. 
Arthur  Browne  united  in  marriage  Governor  John  and  his  first 
cousin,  Frances,  the  remarkable  fact  being  that  exactly  a  fort- 
night before  the  lady  had  become  the  widow  of  another  first  cou- 
sin of  both  her  and  John,  young  Theodore  Atkinson,  to  whom  she 
had  been  married  less  than  eight  years.2 

For  nine  years  John  Wentworth  administered  the  government 
of  New  Hampshire,  entertaining  lavishly  in  his  comfortable  town 
house  on  Pleasant  street,  Portsmouth,  and  his  roomy  cottage  at 
Wolfeborough,  and  until  his  Tory  sympathies  showed  themselves 
was  generally  liked  by  the  New  Hampshire  people.  At  last,  how- 


2.  It  is  said  that  on  the  day  he  married  Frances  (Wentworth)  Atkinson 
to  her  cousin,  John  Wentworth,  Rev.  Arthur  Browne  fell  down  some  stone 
steps  and  broke  his  arm.  Until  the  appointment  of  his  son,  Marmaduke 
Browne,  as  assistant  missionary  he  was  the  only  Anglican  clergyman  in  New 
Hampshire.  Rev.  Arthur  Browne  was  an  Englishman. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          1005 

ever,  his  quick  response  to  Gage 's  appeal  for  workmen  from  his 
province  to  help  build  barracks  at  Boston  for  the  British  troops, 
which  appeal  had  become  necessary  by  the  refusal  of  the  Boston 
carpenters  to  assist  in  the  work,  sealed  his  own  fate  and  that  of 
his  government,  and  he  had  to  leave  Portsmouth  by  the  back  en- 
trance and  through  the  garden  of  his  house.  With  his  wife  and 
infant  son,  on  the  frigate  Scarborough  he  fled  to  Boston,3  and 
from  Boston,  in  1776,  sailed  with  Howe's  fleet  for  Halifax,  his 
wife  and  child  having  previously  left  on  the  ship  Julius  Caesar 
for  England. 

In  April,  1776,  Mr.  Wentworth  was  at  Halifax,  in  November  he 
was  at  Long  Island ;  in  January,  1777,  he  was  in  New  York  City, 
and  in  May  of  the  same  year  he  was  at  Newport,  B.I.  In  February, 
1778,  he  went  to  England,  and  there  he  remained  until  August, 
1783,4  when  as  Surveyor  General  of  all  the  woods  in  North  Amer- 
ica that  remained  to  the  King,  with  a  salary  of  seven  hundred 
pounds  a  year,  he  sailed  for  Halifax,  which  he  reached  on  the 
20th  of  September.  On. the  25th  of  November,  1791,  Governor 
Parr  died  at  Halifax,  and  late  in  April  or  early  in  May,  1792,  Mr. 
Wentworth  was  appointed  Governor  of  Nova  Scotia.  At  this 
time  he  was  in  England,  and  Saturday,  May  20th,  he  reached 
Halifax  in  his  Majesty's  frigate  Hussar,  commanded  by  Rupert 
George.5  On  Sunday  he  disembarked  and  was  received  by  a  de- 


3.  "His    Excellency   John    Wentworth,    Esq.,    Governor    of    the    Province    of 
New   Hampshire,  with  his   Lady  and  son,   is  arrived  here  in  his   Majesty's  ship, 
Scarborough,    Captain    Berkley."     Massachusetts    Gazette,   and   Boston   Post   Boy 
and  Advertiser,  for  September  7,   1775. 

"Governor  Wentworth  has  left  his  retreat  at  the  mouth  of  the  Piscataqua 
river,  and  taken  refuge  at  Boston,  with  the  rest  of  the  Tories."  Boston-Gazette 
and  Country  Journal,  September  n,  1775. 

In  a  letter  from  Halifax,  dated  September  23,  1783,  Dr.  Mather  Byles  says 
that  Governor  Wentworth  and  Lt. -Governor  Edmund  Fanning  arrived  at  Hali- 
fax from  England,  September  20,  three  days  before.  December  3Oth,  of  the  same 
year,  Dr.  Byles  dined  with  Governor  Wentworth. 

4.  It  is  said  that  in    1778  Mr.   Wentworth  was  also  in   Paris,  and   that  one 
night  on  leaving  the  theatre  he  encountered   President  Adams.     The  latter   soon 
recognized  his  Harvard  classmate,  but  it  is  pretty  clear,  as  we  may  well  believe, 
that  he  did  not  give  him  a  very  cordial  greeting.     Friendship,  however,  proved 
stronger  than  political  rancour,  and  the  two  men,  in  spite  of  the  antagonism  in 
their  political  views,  whenever  they  met  afterwards  met  as  friends.     On  this  par- 
ticular occasion,  "not  an  indelicate   expression,"   writes   President  Adams,   "to  us 
or  to  our  country  or  our  ally  escaped  him.     His  whole  behaviour  was  that  of  an 
accomplished  gentleman." 

5.  It   seems    impossible   that   his   commission    as    Governor   could   have   been 
issued  May   i4th,   since  he   reached   Halifax   May  20th,   "after  a  voyage  of   five 
weeks   from   Falmouth,"  but  so  a  printed  record  reads. 


1006          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

tachment  of  the  21st  Regiment,  and  by  the  Royal  Artillery,  who 
saluted  him  with  field  pieces  on  the  Grand  Parade.  To  Govern- 
ment House  he  was  escorted  by  the  acting  secretary  of  the  Prov- 
ince, Mr.  J.  M.  Freke  Bulkeley,  and  on  Monday  at  one  o  'clock  was 
sworn  into  office,  a  salute  of  fifteen  guns  being  fired  by  a  party  of 
Royal  Artillery  drawn  up  on  the  Parade.  Addresses  of  congratu- 
lation and  welcome  were  then  presented  him  by  the  magistrates, 
the  bishop  and  his  clergy,  and  many  societies  and  individuals. 

In  May,  1795,  Governor  Wentworth  was  created  a  baronet,6 
and  on  Sunday,  the  31st  of  that  month,  the  Duke  of  Kent  with  all 
the  officers  of  the  garrison  attended  a  levee  at  Government  House, 
where  congratulations  were  showered  upon  Sir  John  first,  and 
then  on  Lady  Wentworth  in  her  drawing  room.  Sir  John's  ad- 
ministration, of  the  Nova  Scotia  Government  lasted  until  1808, 
when  he  resigned,  and  was  succeeded  by  Sir  George  Prevost, 
Bart.  From  the  time  of  his  retirement  until  his  death,  April 
eighth,  1820,  at  the  age  of  eighty-three,  he  enjoyed  a  pension  of 
five  hundred  pounds  a  year.  Although  Sir  John  was  a  native  of 
Portsmouth  his  wife,  Lady  Frances,  was  not.  Her  parents,  Sam- 
uel and  Elizabeth  (Deering)  Wentworth,  were  important  mem- 
bers of  the  aristocratic  society  that  on  occasion  ; '  trooped  in  full 
tide  through  the  wainscotted  and  tapestried  rooms,  and  up  the 
grand  old  winding  staircase  with  its  carved  balustrades  and  its 
square  landing  places"  of  the  famous  Province  House,  of  Boston, 
' '  to  do  honor  to  the  hospitality  of  the  martial  Shute,  the  courtly 
Burnet,  the  gallant  Pownall,  or  the  haughty  Bernard, ' '  and  that 
knelt  with  proper  reverence  on  Sundays  in  the  high-walled  square 
pews  of  King's  Chapel,  where  the  Rev.  Henry  Caner,  D.  D.,  or 
his  assistants  the  Rev.  Charles  Brockwell,  or  the  Rev.  John 
Troutbeck,  said  Morning  or  Evening  Prayer.  Samuel  Went- 
worth, who  was  a  merchant  of  prominence,  died  in  1766,  but  in 
the  Revolution  his  whole  family  were  Royalists,  and  their  lives 
generally  after  the  evacuation  of  Boston  may  be  learned  from 
the  Wentworth  family  history. 

During  most  of  Sir  John's  governorship  of  Nova  Scotia  Lady 


6.  The  Wentworth  family  history  says  that  at  this  time  he  was  "further 
honoured  with  the  privilege  of  wearing  in  the  chevron  of  his  arms,  two  keys,  as 
the  emblem  of  his  fidelity." 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          1007 

Wentworth  was  with  him  in  Halifax,  her  charms  lending  not  a 
little  colour  to  the  somewhat  sombre  social  life  of  this  cold  pro- 
vincial capital.  In  England,  however,  both  she  and  Sir  John  had 
attached  themselves  to  the  well  known  titled  English  Wentworth 
families,  the  Rockinghams,  Straffords,  and  Fitzwilliams,  and  with 
the  last  of  these,  the  Earl  and  Countess  Fitzwilliam,  Lady  Fran- 
ces, and  her  son  Charles  Mary,  had  a  long  and  intimate  friend- 
ship. In  England,  in  close  intercourse  with  these  noble  kinsmen 
of  hers,  much  of  Lady  Wentworth 's  later  life  was  spent,  and  it  is 
said  that  Sir  Charles  Mary  in  his  last  years  lived  with  the  Fitz- 
williams. 

In  July,  1798,  Lady  Frances  Wentworth  was  presented  at 
court  by  Countess  Fitzwilliam,  and  Queen  Charlotte  was  so 
charmed  with  the  handsome  Colonial  that  she  had  her  appointed 
lady-in-waiting,  at  a  salary  of  five  hundred  pounds  a  year,  with 
the  privilege  of  residing  abroad  if  she  wished. 

Sir  Charles  Mary  Wentworth,  Sir  John 's  only  legitimate  child, 
named  for  his  God-parents,  the  Marquis  and  Marchioness  of 
Rockingham,7  spent  very  little  of  his  life  in  Halifax.  He  was 
graduated  at  Oxford,  acted  as  private  secretary  to  Lord  Fitzwil- 
liam when  the  latter  was  Lord  of  the  Treasury,  and  at  his  fath- 
er's death  succeeded  to  the  baronetcy.  He  died  unmarried,  at 
Kingsland,  Devon,  April  tenth,  1844,  and  the  baronetcy  granted 


7.  Sir  Charles  Mary  Wentworth,  Bart.,  was  born  at  Portsmouth,  January 
20,  1775.  On  that  event,  his  maternal  grandmother,  Mrs.  Samuel  Wentworth, 
wrote  her  sister,  Mrs.  Nathaniel  Ray  Thomas,  then  in  Boston,  the  following 
letter. 

"Portsmouth,    February   2,    1775. 
"My  Dear  Sister, 

"I  had  the  pleasure  to  receive  your  favour  of  the  loth  December,  in  which 
you  make  no  mention  of  any  from  me.  I  wrote  some  time  past  and  trust  it  met 
your  hand.  Mrs.  Wentworth  is  safe  in  bed  with  a  fine,  hearty  boy,  with  another 
blessing  added,  in  being  able  to  nurse  him  herself.  I  need  not  attempt  to  tell 
you  the  pleasure  this  child  has  brought  with  it  to  all  its  connections.  The  Gov- 
ernor's happiness  seems  to  be  complete ;  and  had  a  young  prince  been  born  there 
could  not  have  been  more  rejoicing.  The  ships  fired  their  guns.  All  the  gentle- 
men of  the  town  and  from  the  King's  ship  came  the  next  day  to  pay  their  com- 
pliments. The  ladies  followed,  and  for  one  week  there  were  cake  and  caudle 
wine,  etc.,  passing.  I  forgot  to  mention  that  this  young  gentleman  made  his  ap- 
pearance on  the  2Oth  January,  and  this  house  has  been  full  ever  since.  Adieu, 
my  dear  sister,  and  be  assured  you  have  not  a  more  affectionate  one  than 

"ELIZABETH   WENTWORTH. 

"To   Mrs.   Nathaniel  Ray  Thomas,   Boston." 

Mrs.  Nathaniel  Ray  Thomas,  it  will  be  remembered,  with  her  husband  and 
family,  came  at  the  Revolution  to  Windsor,  Nova  Scotia,  and  there  spent  the  rest 
of  her  life  and  died. 


1008         THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

his  father  then  became  extinct.  Sir  John  had  ambitions  for  his 
son  in  Nova  Scotia  and  June  sixteenth,  1801,  had  the  latter,  then 
in  his  twenty-sixth  year,  sworn  as  a  member  of  the  council.  In 
this  dignified  body  the  young  man  sat  in  1801,  1802,  and  1803,  but 
in  March,  1805,  his  father  reported  his  seat  vacant,  and  it  is 
doubtful  if  he  was  ever  in  Nova  Scotia  after  that.  When  his  un- 
cle Benning  died  in  Halifax  in  1808,  Charles  Mary  was  appointed 
to  the  vacant  Provincial  Secretaryship  and  the  Registry  of  Pat- 
ents and  Deeds,  Mr.  Michael  Wallace  being  appointed  Deputy 
Provincial  Secretary.  Three  months  after  his  appointment  Sir 
John  retired  from  the  government  and  the  son  never  personally 
assumed  the  office.8  When  Sir  Charles  Mary  died  he  left  his  cou- 
sin, Mrs.  Catherine  Gore,  the  authoress,  twenty- three  thousand 
acres  of  land  in  Nova  Scotia,  including  the  famous  " Prince's 
Lodge, ' '  and  also  the  papers,  plate,  and  pictures  he  had  inherited 
from  his  father. 

Sir  John  Wentworth's  town  house  in  Portsmouth,  as  we  have 
said,  was  on  Pleasant  Street.  It  is  yet  standing,  a  comfortable 
old  Colonial  house,  still  pointed  out  with  pride  by  the  Ports- 
mouth people.  His  house  at  Wolfeborough,  burned  the  year  of 
his  death,  was  a  hundred  feet  long,  and  forty-five  feet  wide,  with 
five  barns  near  it,  and  a  large  farm  about  it  in  which  Sir  John 
took  great  pride.  In  Portsmouth  Sir  John  lived  in  much  state, 
his  stable  containing  the  very  considerable  number  of  sixteen 
horses.  In  Halifax  he  and  Lady  Wentworth  made  Government 
House  the  centre  of  a  social  life  on  the  whole  more  brilliant  than 
Halifax  has  probably  ever  had  since.  As  we  have  said  in  a  pre- 


8.  In  place  of  Charles  Mary  Wentworth,  Mr.  Samuel  Hood  George  was 
made  Provincial  Secretary  in  1808.  Mr.  George  held  the  office  until  1813,  when 
he  died.  See  the  writer's  monograph  on  the  Cochran  family,  p.  8.  Admiral  Sir 
Rupert  George,  then  a  junior  officer  in  the  navy,  a  young  Irishman,  married  in 
Halifax,  in  1782,  Margaret,  eldest  daughter  (by  his  first  wife)  of  Hon.  Thomas 
Cochran  of  Halifax.  The  Georges  had  eight  children,  of  whom  Samuel  Hood, 
born  in  1789,  was  the  eldest,  and  Rupert  Dennis,  born  October  9,  1796,  was  the 
third. 

As  has  been  mentioned  above,  Sir  John  Wentworth  was  graduated  at  Har- 
vard in  1755,  and  took  his  Master's  degree  there  in  1758.  He  was  also  made  a 
Master  of  Arts  by  Princeton  College  in  1763;  an  LL.D.  by  the  University  of 
Aberdeen  in  1764,  and  by  Dartmouth  College  in  1773;  and  a  D  C.  L.  by  Oxford 
University  in  1766.  Sir  Charles  Mary  Wentworth,  received  his  A.  B.  from  Ox- 
ford in  1796,  and  his  A.  M.  from  the  same  university  later.  An  honorary  A.  M. 
was  also  given  him  by  Harvard  in  1801.  He  was  further  created  a  D.  C.  L. 
by  Oxford  in  1806. 


HER     ROYAL     HIGHNESS,     VICTORIA-MARY-LOUISA, 
DUCHESS  OF  KENT 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          1009 

vious  chapter,  Lady  Wentworth's  cousin,  young  Nathaniel  Bay 
Thomas,  Jr.,  once  wrote:  "There  have  dined  at  Government 
House  between  December  12,  1794,  and  October  29,  1795,  two 
thousand,  four  hundred,  and  thirty-seven  persons."  There  is  a 
story  told  of  Governor  John  in  Portsmouth,  that  one  day  a  coun- 
tryman met  him  among  his  horses.  ' '  They  say, ' '  said  the  rustic, 
"that  Johnny  is  short  and  thick  and  fond  of  wine,  but  on  the 
whole  a  pretty  clever  sort  of  fellow.  How  I  should  like  to  see 
him!"  The  Governor  soon  asked  him  to  step  into  the  house, 
where  the  man  to  his  great  confusion  learned  who  his  companion 
was.  Among  the  early  entertainments  given  by  the  Wentworths 
at  Government  House,  in  Halifax,  was  one  on  Sunday,  August 
12th,  of  the  year  of  Sir  John's  appointment.  On  that  day,  the 
birthday  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  (afterward  King  George  the 
Fourth)  Governor  Wentworth  gave  a  grand  dinner  to  the  officers 
of  the  army  and  navy  and  many  gentlemen  of  the  town.  During 
the  evening,  Government  House  was  brilliantly  illuminated. 

December  20th  of  the  same  year,  from  the  Gazette  newspaper 
we  learn  that,  "On  Thursday  evening,  the  Lieutenant  Governor 
and  Mrs.  Wentworth  gave  a  ball  and  supper  to  the  ladies  and 
gentlemen  of  the  town  and  the  officers  of  the  army  and  navy, 
which  was  altogether  the  most  brilliant  and  sumptuous  entertain- 
ment given  by  the  Wentworths.  The  company  being  assembled 
in  the  levee  room  at  eight  o  'clock,  the  bands  which  were  very  num- 
erous and  excellent,  played  *  God  save  the  King '  three  times  over, 
after  which  the  country  dances  commenced,  two  sets  dancing  at 
the  same  time.  The  whole  house  was  open — every  room  illumi- 
nated and  elegantly  decorated.  There  was  a  room  set  apart  for 
cotillions,  above  stairs,  for  those  who  chose  to  dance  them,  and  a 
band  provided  on  purpose  for  it.  During  the  dancing  there  were 
refreshments  of  ice,  orgeat,  capillaire,  and  a  variety  of  other 
things.  At  twelve  the  supper  room  was  opened,  and  too  much 
cannot  be  said  of  the  splendor  and  magnificence  of  it;  the  ladies 
sat  down  at  table  and  the  gentlemen  waited  upon  them.  Among 
other  ornaments,  which  were  altogether  superb,  there  were  exact 
representations  of  Hartshorne  and  Tremain's  new  flour-mill,  and 
of  the  windmill  on  the  Common.  The  model  of  the  new  lighthouse 
at  Shelburne  was  incomparable,  and  the  tract  of  the  new  road 


1010         THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

from  Pictou  was  delineated  in  the  most  ingenious  and  surprising 
manner,  as  was  the  representation  of  our  fisheries,  that  great 
source  of  the  wealth  of  this  country.  To  all  these  inimitable  orn- 
aments corresponding  mottoes  were  attached,  so  that  not  only 
taste  and  elegance  were  conspicuous,  but  encouragement  and  gen- 
ius were  displayed.  The  viands  and  wines  were  delectable,  and 
mirth,  grace,  and  good  humor  seemed  to  have  joined  hands  to  cel- 
ebrate some  glorious  festival ;  but  this  was  only  for  the  friends  of 
the  Governor  and  Mrs.  Wentworth.  When  the  ladies  left  the  sup- 
per-room the  gentlemen  sat  down  to  table,  when  the  governor 
gave  the  several  loyal  toasts,  with  three  times  three,  and  an  ap- 
plicable tune  was  played  after  each  bumper,  which  had  an  ad- 
mirable effect.  At  two  o  'clock  the  dancing  recommenced,  and  at 
four  the  company  retired.  That  ease,  elegance,  and  superiority 
of  manners,  which  must  ever  gain  Mrs.  Wentworth  the  admira- 
tion of  the  whole  community ;  and  that  hospitality,  perfect  good 
breeding  and  infinite  liberality  which  so  distinguish  the  charac- 
ter and  conduct  of  our  beloved  and  adored  Governor  never  shone 
with  more  lustre  than  on  this  occasion,  when  every  care  of  his  and 
Mrs.  Wentworth 's  mind  seemed  to  be  to  give  one  universal  satis- 
faction. Everything  tended  to  promote  one  sympathizing  joy, 
and  never  was  there  a  night  passed  with  more  perfect  harmony 
and  luxurious  festivity. ' ' 

At  some  time  early  in  his  official  career  in  Halifax  Governor 
Wentworth  purchased  land  and  erected  a  small  villa  a  few  miles 
north  of  the  town.  To  the  villa  he  gave  the  name,  suggested  by 
Romeo  and  Juliet,  " Friar  Laurence's  Cell,"  and  there,  until  the 
Duke  of  Kent  came,  he  probably  in  summer  lived.  This  place 
was  leased  by  his  Royal  Highness  on  his  arrival,  and  the  house 
greatly  enlarged,  and  in  it  in  considerable  state,  with  Madame  de 
St.  Laurent,  during  his  stay  the  Duke  for  the  most  part  lived.  Of 
the  Prince 's  Lodge,  as  the  place  came  to  be  called  after  the  Duke 
left,  the  late  Dr.  Thomas  B.  Akins  has  given  the  following  graphic 
account:  "This  beautiful  little  retreat,"  he  says,  "had  been 
erected  by  Prince  Edward  on  the  land  of  the  Governor,  Sir  John 
Wentworth.  The  grounds  were  laid  out  and  improved  at  con- 
siderable expense  under  his  direction.  The  Rotunda,  or  music 
room,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  road,  next  the  water,  surrounded 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          1011 

by  the  rich  foliage  of  the  beech  groves,  and  surmounted  by  a 
large  gilded  ball  flashing  in  the  sunlight,  presented  a  beautiful 
and  picturesque  appearance  on  the  approach  to  the  Lodge.  The 
villa  was  built  altogether  of  wood,  consisting  of  a  centre  of  two 
stories  containing  the  hall  and  staircase,  with  a  flat  roof.  There 
were  two  wings  containing  the  Duke's  apartments.  In  the  rear  was 
a  narrow  wooden  building  with  pointed  gothic  windows,  resem- 
bling a  chapel,  containing  the  kitchen  and  offices,  which  extended 
some  distance  southward  beyond  the  main  building.  The  group- 
ing of  the  beech  and  birch  trees  around  the  house  was  well  ar- 
ranged. They  were  the  original  forest  trees,  selected  and  per- 
mitted to  stand  in  clearing  away  the  space  for  the  buildings.  The 
rooms  were  not  spacious  and  the  ceilings  were  low,  as  appears  to 
have  been  the  fashion  of  building  in  Halifax  at  the  time. 

"The  woods  around  were  very  beautiful.  They  were  tra- 
versed by  walks,  and  in  several  places  by  a  carriage  road  with 
vistas  and  resting  places  where  little  wooden  seats  and  several 
imitation  Chinese  temples  were  erected.  Several  of  these  small 
summer  houses  were  in  existence  in  1828  and  probably  later,  and 
portions  of  them  could  be  seen  through  the  openings  in  the  trees 
on  passing  the  main  road.  The  Duke  erected  a  range  of  low  build- 
ings on  the  edge  of  the  Basin,  a  little  to  the  north  of  the  Rotunda, 
which  were  occupied  by  two  companies  of  his  regiment,  and  con- 
tained the  guard-room  and  a  mess-room  for  the  officers.  This 
building  was  afterwards  known  as  the  Rockingham  Inn,  a  favor- 
ite resort  in  Summer,  when  tea  and  ginger  beer  were  to  be  had 
under  the  piazza  which  ran  along  the  edge  of  the  water. '  '9 

In  September,  1795,  Sir  John  and  Lady  Wentworth  made  a 
tour  of  the  western  part  of  Nova  Scotia  and  on  this  occasion  some 
now  forgotten  poet  of  Granville,  Annapolis  County,  composed 
and  printed  the  following  poem. 


0.  The  Rockingham  Club  was  established  either  while  the  Duke  of  Kent 
was  resident  in  Halifax  or  very  soon  after  his  leaving  for  Canada.  Its  members 
were  Sir  John  Wentworth,  the  whole  of  his  Majesty's  Council,  the  Admiral  on 
the  station,  several  of  the  principal  military  officers,  and  a  number  of  leading 
civilians.  One  of  these  latter  was  the  Rev.  Dr.  Stanser,  Rector  of  St.  Paul's, 
another  the  Hon.  Andrew  Belcher,  both  of  whom  had  villas  on  the  Basin.  The 
club  was  partly  literary  and  party  social.  The  members  dined  together  at  the 
hotel,  about  this  time  named  the  "Rockingham  House,"  a  building  erected  near 
the  Prince's  Lodge  for  the  accommodation  of  the  two  companies  of  his  regi- 
ment that  the  Duke  of  Kent  had  stationed  near  him.  The  name  "Rockingham" 
was  in  compliment  to  Sir  John's  English  connexions. 


1012         THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

"ON  SEEING  His  EXCELLENCY  SIR  JOHN  WENTWORTH  PASSING 
THROUGH  GRANVILLE  ON  HIS  WAY  TO  ANNAPOLIS. 

"When  Tyrants  travel,  though  in  pompous  state, 

Each  eye  beholds  them  with  indignant  hate ; 

Destroying  angels  thus  are  said  to  move, 

The  objects  more  of  terror  than  of  love ; 

For  grandeur  can't,  unless  with  goodness  joined, 

Afford  true  pleasure  to  the  virtuous  mind. 

But  when  our  loyal  Wentworth  deigns  to  ride 

(The  Sovereign's  fav'rite  and  the  subjects'  pride) 

Around  his  chariot  crowding  numbers  throng, 

And  hail  his  virtues  as  he  moves  along. 

Such  high  respect  shall  be  conferred  on  him 

The  King  delights  to  honor  and  esteem, 

Whose  loyalty  unshaken,  spotless  fame, 

And  social  virtues  shall  endear  his  name 

In  every  loyal  bosom  long  to  live, 

As  our  lov'd  Monarch's  representative." 

The  last  years  of  her  life  Lady  Wentworth  spent  in  England, 
and  from  the  spring  of  1810  to  at  least  the  summer  of  1812  Sir 
John  was  with  her  there.  She  died  at  Sunning  Hill,  Berks,  twen- 
ty-four miles  out  of  London,  on  the  fourteenth  of  February,  1813, 
but  Sir  John  was  then  in  Halifax.  His  own  last  days  Sir  John 
spent  in  lodgings  at  Mrs.  Wentworth  Fleiger's,  on  the  east  side 
of  Hollis  Street.10  He  died  April  eighth,  1820,  aged  eighty-three 
and  his  remains  were  deposited  in  a  vault  under  St.  Paul's 
Church.  In  the  church  was  erected  a  mural  tablet  to  his  memory, 
bearing  the  following  inscription:  "In  memory  of  Sir  John 
Wentworth,  Baronet,  who  administered  the  Government  of  this 
Province  for  nearly  sixteen  years,  from  May,  1792,  to  April, 
1808.  With  what  success,  the  public  records  of  that  period,  and 
His  Majesty's  gracious  approbation  will  best  testify.  His  un- 
shaken attachment  to  his  Sovereign  and  the  British  Constitution 
was  conspicuous  throughout  his  long  life. ' '  Governor  Wentworth 


10.  From  a  letter  of  Lady  Wentworth's  written  from  Morin's  Hotel,  Lon- 
don, to  her  nephew,  Samuel  Henry  Wentworth,  and  dated  March  i,  1810,  we 
learn  that  she  and  Sir  John  had  recently  crossed  the  Atlantic  and  had  had  a 
hard  voyage.  On  their  arrival  they  had  been  met  by  their  son.  Other  letters 
prove  that  up  to  July  24,  1812,  at  least.  Sir  John  was  with  his  wife  in  England, 
but  on  her  death  at  Sunning  Hill,  Berks,  February  14,  1813,  if  not  earlier,  he 
returned  to  Halifax  and  took  lodgings  at  Mrs.  Wentworth  Fleiger's. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          1013 

left  nine  manuscript  volumes  of  copies  of  his  correspondence,  ex- 
tending from  1767  to  1808,  a  period  of  forty-one  years,  which  are 
now  in  the  Provincial  Archives  at  Halifax.  Like  many  of  the 
most  prominent  Loyalists  of  the  American  Revolution,  a  complete 
history  of  his  life  has  never  yet  been  written,  but  it  is  to  be  hoped 
that  at  least  his  correspondence  may  some  day  come  into  print. 

Of  Sir  John's  character,  the  Nova  Scotia  historian,  Mr.  Beam- 
ish Murdoch  in  a  private  letter  once  wrote :  ' '  One  thing  has  im- 
pressed me  distinctly  in  my  examinations,  viz.,  that  although  Sir 
John  was  ardently  attached  to  the  Royal  Government,  he  had  a 
great  and  sincere  love  for  his  native  land,  and  disapproved  of 
most  of  the  measures  that  incensed  the  people  and  produced  re- 
volt. At  every  step  I  have  been  more  and  more  impressed  with 
his  candor,  hospitality,  urbanity,  constancy,  and  the  affectionate 
nature  of  the  man,  evinced  toward  his  kinsfolk,  friends,  neigh- 
bors, and  his  country  (America),  of  whose  future  he  was  ever 
sanguine.  I  found  the  task  of  following  his  career  as  Governor 
of  New  Hampshire  a  very  pleasing  one.  The  confiscation  of  his 
estate  must  have  been  very  painful  to  him,  as  he  had  taken  great 
interest  in  its  improvement. ' ' 

There  are  Copley  portraits  in  existence  of  both  Sir  John  and 
Lady  Frances  Wentworth.  That  of  Sir  John  is  a  fine  crayon,  22 
by  18  inches  in  size,  made  in  1769.  In  it  Sir  John  wears  a  white 
wig  and  a  light  coat  and  waistcoat.  Lady  Wentworth 's  portrait 
was  painted  in  1765,  when  she  was  nineteen  years  old.  It  is  a 
three-quarters  length  portrait  and  an  excellent  specimen  of  Cop- 
ley's work.  In  it  Miss  Wentworth  sits  by  a  small  table  holding 
a  delicate  chain,  to  which  is  attached  a  flying  squirrel.  This  por- 
trait is  in  the  gallery  of  the  New  York  public  library.11 

The  youngest  brother  of  Lady  Frances  Wentworth  was  Ben- 
ning  Wentworth,  and  he  too,  and  his  family  were  long  distin- 
guished residents  of  Halifax.  Benning  Wentworth  was  born 
March  sixteenth,  1757,  and  baptized  at  King's  Chapel  the  first  of 
the  following  May,  Governor  Benning  Wentworth,  Charles  Pax- 


II.  Mrs.  Archibald  McPhedris  (Sarah  Wentworth),  an  aunt  of  Lady 
Frances,  was  also  painted  by  Copley.  Mrs.  Theodore  Atkinson,  another  aunt  of 
Lady  Frances,  and  Mr.  Atkinson  (second  husband  of  this  aunt),  with  their  son, 
Theodore,  cousin  and  first  husband  of  Lady  Frances,  were  painted  by  Blackburn. 


1014         THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

ton,  Esq.,  and  Mrs.  Penelope  Vassall,  being  sureties.  He  was 
graduated  at  Oxford,  married  at  All  Saints  Church,  Hereford,  to 
Ajine,  daughter  of  William  Bird,  of  Drysbridge  House,  and  after 
1788,  like  his  sister,  Frances,  removed  to  Halifax.  In  the  north 
part  of  this  city  he  owned  a  small  place  known  as  "  Poplar 
Grove,"  the  place  becoming  later  the  property  of  Col.  John  Starr, 
M.  P.  P.,12  and  finally  having  a  street  cut  through  it,  which  was 
named  ' '  Starr  Street. ' '  Before  coming  to  Nova  Scotia,  Benning 
Wentworth  must  have  lived  in  New  Hampshire,  for  by  an  Act  of 
Attainder,  in  1778,  he  was  proscribed  and  banished  and  his  estate 
confiscated  in  that  Province.  In  Nova  Scotia,  November  12, 1796, 
he  was  made  a  member  of  H.  M.  Council,  thereafter  becoming 
Treasurer  of  the  Province.  In  1800  he  was  appointed  Master  of 
the  Rolls,  Registrar  in  Chancery,  Captain  and  Paymaster  in  the 
King's  Nova  Scotia  Regiment,  and  Provincial  Secretary,  in 
which  last  important  office  he  died,  February  18,  1808.  Benning 
Wentworth  and  his  wife  had  eleven  children,  all  of  whom  sur- 
vived their  father  and  went  to  England  with  their  mother.  One 
of  these  was  Benning  William  Bentinck  Wentworth,  R.  N.,  who 
died  in  England  in  1810,  aged  twenty-one.  Mrs.  Benning  Went- 
worth died  at  Hereford  in  1812.  About  the  Wentworths  in  Hali- 
fax clustered  a  group  of  their  distinguished  Boston  connexions, 
families  of  Brinleys,  Goulds,  Monks,  and  Thomases,  some  of 
whom  came  before  the  Revolution,  some  about  the  time  that  the 
Wentworths  themselves  came. 

The  extraordinary  social  brilliancy  of  Sir  John  Wentworth 's 
administration  of  the  Nova  Scotia  government  was  enhanced  in 
no  slight  degree  by  the  residence  in  Halifax  during  part  of  the 
period  that  it  covered  of  His  Royal  Highness  Prince  Edward, 
fourth  son  of  King  George  Third,  who  while  he  was  stationed  in 
Nova  Scotia  was  created  Duke  of  Kent.13  In  1790,  at  Gilbraltar, 
the  Prince  was  given  command  of  the  7th  regiment  of  foot  (Royal 


12.  Colonel  John  Starr  was  the  writer's  great-great  uncle.     He  was   father 
of  Hon.  John  Leander  Starr,  M.  L.  C.    who  married  for  his  second  wife  a  Miss 
Throckmorton  of   New  Jersey.     A  granddaughter  of   Mr.   Starr  by  this  second 
marriage  is  Mrs.  John  DuFais,  of  Newport,  Rhode  Island,  and  a  grandson,  Mr. 
John  Starr  Hunt,  a  lawyer  in  Mexico  City. 

13.  Prince  Edward  was  born  November  2,  1767,  he  was  therefore  less  than 
twenty-seven  years  old  when  he  took  up  his  residence  in  Halifax.    When  he  mar- 
ried he  was  between  fifty  and  fifty-one. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          1015 

Fusiliers).  In  1793  he  was  at  Quebec,  the  next  year,  February 
sixth,  he  arrived  at  Boston14  on  his  way  to  the  West  Indies,  where 
he  had  been  ordered  to  assume  chief  command  of  the  troops.  In 
the  West  Indies  he  remained  but  a  short  time,  for  on  Saturday, 
May  tenth,  1794,  after  a  voyage  of  eleven  days  from  St.  Kitts,  he 
landed  at  Halifax  to  take  command  of  the  troops  on  the  North 
American  station.  The  afternoon  of  his  arrival,  at  six  o'clock, 
his  Excellency  Governor  Wentworth  waited  on  His  Royal  High- 
ness on  his  ship  and  congratulated  him  on  his  safe  arrival,  then 
the  Prince  and  the  Governor  landed  under  royal  salutes  from  the 
Blanche  and  the  Earl  of  Moira,  warships,  and  the  great  fortress 
above  the  town.  The  next  Monday  a  salute  was  fired  from  the 
Grand  Parade,  which  was  answered  by  the  garrison  batteries,  and 
on  Wednesday  there  was  a  crowded  levee  at  Government  House, 
and  in  the  evening  a  brilliant  illumination  of  the  town.  At  the  lev- 
ee flattering  addresses  were  presented  to  the  Prince,  in  which  he  is 
described  as  the  "  heroic  offspring  of  highly  revered  parents,  of  a 
king  the  undoubted  father  of  his  people,  of  a  queen  the  unriv- 
alled pattern  of  her  sex,"  and  as  himself  having  "noble  and  en- 
gaging qualities  of  active  valour  and  condescending  courteous- 
ness"— with  much  else  of  a  like  extravagant  eulogistic  sort.  On 
Saturday  His  Royal  Highness,  attended  by  General  Ogilvie,  mili- 
tary commander,  Commodore  George  of  the  Royal  Navy,  and 
other  officers,  reviewed  the  troops  stationed  in  Halifax,  behind 
the  citadel  Hill.  On  Monday  the  26th,  Bishop  Charles  Inglis  pre- 
sented the  Prince  with  an  address  on  behalf  of  himself  and  his 
clergy,  by  which  we  see  how  completely  the  Bishop  also  had  lost 
his  head  in  the  presence  of  royalty,  and  how  far  gone  he  had  got 


14.  A  fact  of  sufficient  local  interest  to  be  remembered  is  that  on  the  thir- 
teenth of  February,  1794,  Miss  Nancy  Geyer's  marriage  in  Boston  to  Mr.  Rufus 
Amory  was  graced  by  the  presence  of  Prince  Edward,  who  on  his  way  from 
Canada  to  the  West  Indies  was  detained  in  Boston  for  a  few  days.  Miss  Gey- 
er's father,  Frederick  William  Geyer,  who  lived  in  Summer  street,  was  a  mer- 
chant of  much  social  prominence  in  the  New  England  metropolis,  and  his 
daughter's  wedding  was  no  doubt  a  brilliant  affair.  How  the  Geyers  knew  the 
Prince  sufficiently  well  to  invite  him  to  the  wedding  we  do  not  know,  but  it  is 
recorded  that  they  did  invite  him  and  that  he  came  with  his  aides.  It  is  also  re- 
corded that  he  claimed  the  privilege  of  kissing  the  bride  and  bridesmaids.  An- 
other daughter  of  Mr.  Geyer,  Mary  Anne  or  Marianne,  was  married  in  1792  to 
Hon.  Andrew  Belcher,  of  Halifax,  Nova  Scotia,  son  of  Chief  Justice  Jonathan 
Belcher,  and  became  the  mother  of  Rear  Admiral  Sir  Edward  Belcher,  K.  C.  B., 
and  of  Catherine,  wife  of  Charles  Maryatt,  M.  P.,  and  mother  of  Captain  Frederick 
Marryatt,  the  English  novelist. 


1016          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

from  the  possibility  of  expressing  himself  in  unexaggerated  prose. 
"Your  progress  Sir,"  he  says  "to  this  part  of  His  Majesty's 
American  dominions,  has  been  marked  by  a  variety  of  hazards. 
Whilst  we  admired  that  heroic  ardor  and  intrepidity,  which  at  the 
call  of  duty  and  honour  led  you  to  spurn  every  danger  from  fa- 
tigue through  inhospitable  wilds,  from  the  extremes  of  climate, 
from  armed  enemies,  and  from  others  who  were  secretly  hostile, 
we  were  greatly  agitated,  and  felt  the  utmost  anxiety  for  your 
safety.  Like  the  celebrated  Roman,  who  is  equally  memorable 
for  the  number  of  his  victories  and  for  the  celerity  of  his  military 
movements,  you  flew  to  the  embattled  hosts  of  your  enemies ;  like 
him,  you  came,  you  saw  them,  you  conquered." 

Prince  Edward  was,  as  we  have  said,  the  fourth  son  of  King 
George  the  Third  and  Queen  Charlotte,  this  royal  family  compris- 
ing no  less  than  seven  sons,— George  the  Fourth,  Frederick  Duke 
of  York,  William  the  Fourth  (Duke  of  Clarence),  Edward  Duke 
of  Kent,  Ernest  Duke  of  Cumberland,  Augustus  Duke  of  Sussex, 
Adolphus  Duke  of  Cambridge;  and  besides  the  King's  favorite 
daughter,  the  Princess  Amelia,15  and  we  believe  four  other 
daughters  who  died  young,  Charlotte,  wife  of  Frederick,  King  of 
WTurtemberg,  Elizabeth,  wife  of  Frederick,  Prince  of  Hesse  Hom- 
burg,  and  Mary,  wife  of  William  Duke  of  Gloucester.16  Of  the 
coming  to  Halifax  of  Prince  Edward,  the  historian  Murdoch  says : 
"As  our  colonists  were  gratified  and  felt  deeply  honored  by  the 
repeated  visits  of  Prince  William  Henry  (afterwards  King  Wil- 
liam the  Fourth,  who  came  here  first  as  a  young  naval  officer,  and 
after  that  in  command  of  a  frigate,  and  were  charmed  with  hi? 
frank,  genial,  and  simple  manners17  [so]  they  were  dazzled  and 


15.  Miss    Frances    Burney    speaks    affectionately   of   this    child   as    "that   en- 
dearing child    ...     the   lovely  little   Princess   Amelia." 

16.  In   all,  this   prolific   royal  pair  brought  into  the  world  fifteen  children. 
"Farmer   George"  may  therefore  be  pardoned,  perhaps,   for  the  rigid  economies 
with  which  he  is  commonly  credited. 

17.  On  Wednesday,  October  fourth,  1786,   Prince  William  Henry  arrived  at 
Halifax   from   St.  John's,   Newfoundland,  in  the  war-ship  Pegasus.     On  Thurs- 
day morning  he  landed  at  the  King's  Slip,  "where  the  people  thronged  joyfully 
to  see  him."     He  was  welcomed  on  shore  by  Major-General  Campbell  and  Gov- 
ernor   Parr,   who    conducted   him   to    Government   House.     On   Thursday,    June 
twenty-eighth,   1787,  he  came  again,  this  time  from  Jamaica,  in  the  Andromeda, 
and  was  received  with  great  applause.     On  Wednesday,   October  twenty-fourth, 
1787,  he  came  the  third  time,  now  from  Quebec.       Beamish  Murdoch's  "History 
of  Nova  Scotia,"  Vol.  3,  pp.  50-53,  55,  6r. 

On   one   of    Prince   William   Henry's   visits   he   rode   through    Windsor   and 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          1017 

impressed  greatly  by  the  residence  of  the  young  prince,  Edward, 
who  brought  with  him  the  personal  reputation  he  had  earned  for 
great  activity  and  zeal  in  his  military  profession.  Independently 
of  the  eclat  which  his  rank  gave  him,  he  gained  the  hearts  of  the 
civilians  by  his  affability,  benevolence,  and  liberality.  His  gen- 
erosity was  displayed  in  many  ways.  He  gave  employment  to 
workmen  of  every  kind— laborers,  painters,  carpenters,  etc.  He 
interested  himself  sincerely  in  the  welfare  of  families  and  indi- 
viduals, and  this  feeling  continued  during  his  life ;  for  long  after 
he  bade  a  final  adieu  to  Halifax,  his  exertions  and  influence  wore 
often  used  to  procure  commissions,  pensions,  or  employment  for 
persons  whose  parents  he  had  known  while  here.  He  remained. 
in  fact,  the  ready  patron  of  Nova  Scotians  until  his  death," 

Soon  after  the  Prince  came  to  Halifax  he  leased  from  Sir  John 
Wentworth  the  property  out  of  town  we  have  referred  to, 
which  ever  since  the  Duke's  stay  in  Nova  Scotia  has  been  called 
the  " Prince's  Lodge."18  The  house  in  town  in  which  he 
first  placed  his  establishment,  and  to  which  he  probably 
from  time  to  time  returned,  was  a  dwelling  in  the  North 
End  that  chroniclers  describe  as  a  handsome  structure,  with 
a  portico  on  the  front  resting  on  Corinthian  pillars.  After 
he  went  away  this  house  became  an  army  hospital,  the  stables 
in  connection  with  it,  which  were  roomy  and  large,  being  used  as 
a  barracks  storehouse  and  for  a  garrison  library.  The  villa,  sev- 
en miles  north  of  the  town,  which  His  Royal  Highness  rented 
from  Sir  John  Wentworth,  originally  comparatively  small,  the 


Kentville  to  Annapolis  Royal,  accepting  hospitality  from  several  private  citizens 
along  the  way.  He  left  a  quieter  record  in  Nova  Scotia  than  in  Barbadoes,  for 
Leigh  Hunt  tells  us  of  a  certain  landlady  in  Barhadoes  who  became  famous  "in 
Barbadian  and  nautical  annals"  for  having  successfully  drawn  up  a  bill  of  dam- 
ages against  His  Royal  Highness  to  the  amount  of  seven  hundred  pounds.  The 
Prince,  then  a  wild  young  naval  officer,  in  a  fit  of  ultra  joviality  begun  at  the 
mess  of  the  4Qth  Regiment  had  demolished  all  the  good  woman's  furniture,  "even 
to  the  very  beds,"  and  as  a  concluding  act  of  good  nature  had  upset  the  staid 
woman  herself  as  he  left  the  house. 

18.  In  a  private  letter  to  John  King,  Esq.,  under  secretary  of  state,  written 
September  27,  1799,  Sir  John  Wentworth  says :  The  Prince  "has  entered  upon 
his  command  with  infinite  activity,  and  ideas  extremely  enlarged,  since  his  de- 
parture from  here.  The  arrangement  in  contemplation  promises  a  plenteous  cir- 
culation of  money,  and  improvement  in  this  province.  He  is  now  residing  chiefly 
at  my  house  near  town,  which  he  requested  to  reoccupy,  and  I  have  accordingly 
lent  it  to  him  during  his  stay  in  Nova  Scotia,  though  I  have  not  another  place 
to  go  to  for  a  day's  retirement.  However,  it  must  be  so !  for  he  wrote  to  me, 
and  now  says  he  has  more  pleasure  in  that  villa  than  in  any  other  place  out  of 
England."  Quoted  by  Murdoch  in  his  "History  of  Nova  Scotia,"  Vol.  3,  p  181. 


1018         THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

Prince  enlarged  until  it  became,  as  we  see  by  engravings  of  it 
that  have  come  to  us,  and  the  description  we  have  already  given, 
a  spacious  residence,  somewhat  in  the  Italian  style,  with  exten- 
sive wings  at  the  north  and  south,  and  drawing-rooms  in  the  cen- 
tre. The  Lodge  stood  in  the  middle  of  a  fine  open  lawn,  about 
two  hundred  yards  from  the  post  road  which  winds  around  Bed- 
ford Basin,  and  was  flanked  by  large  and  well  appointed  stables. 
Dr.  Akins's  pleasant  picture  of  it  and  its  surroundings  which 
we  have  reproduced  is  added  to  or  given  a  little  differently  by 
other  historians.  The  Lodge  grounds,  they  say,  though  rustic  and 
retaining  a  great  deal  of  their  primitive  wildness,  had  many 
charming  surprises,  among  these  an  artificial  lake,  and  several 
little  pagoda-like  summer  houses  and  "Greek  and  Italian"  imita- 
tion temples  which  stood  on  elevated  mounds  among  the  thick- 
growing  trees.  In  the  neighborhood  of  the  Lodge  were  dwellings 
for  mechanics  and  workmen  of  various  sorts  employed  on  the 
estate  and  in  directly  military  service,  so  that  the  place  was  like  a 
small  feudal  town.  The  little  Rotunda,  containing  a  single  room, 
which  was  richly  frescoed  and  hung  with  paintings  by  the  Prince 
himself,  was  built  especially  for  dancing,  and  under  the  narrow 
portico  which  surrounds  this  building  the  Prince's  regimental 
band  used  to  play  in  the  afternoons.  From  the  house,  gravelled 
walks  used  to  stretch  in  all  directions,  and  there  the  household 
and  their  guests  used  to  stroll  at  leisure  on  every  fine  day.  On  an 
adjoining  hill  the  Prince  had  a  signal  station  erected,  by  means  of 
which  he  could  send  his  orders  into  town,  a  responsive  signal  hav- 
ing been  erected  by  his  orders  on  Citadel  Hill.19 


19.  Writing  of  Halifax  about  1828,  Judge  Thomas  Chandler  Haliburton 
says :  "At  a  distance  of  seven  miles  from  the  town  is  a  ruined  Lodge,  built  by 
H.  R.  H.  the  late  Duke  of  Kent,  when  Commander  in  Chief  of  the  forces  of  this 
Colony,  once  his  favorite  summer  residence  and  the  scene  of  his  munifiicent 
hospitalities.  It  is  impossible  to  visit  this  spot  without  the  most  melancholy  feel- 
ings. The  tottering  fence,  the  prostrate  gates,  the  ruined  grottoes,  the  long  and 
winding  avenues  cut  out  of  the  forest,  overgrown  by  rank  grass  and  occasional 
shrubs,  and  the  silence  and  desolation  that  reign  around,  all  bespeaking  a  rapid 
and  premature  decay,  recall  to  mind  the  untimely  fate  of  its  noble  and  lamented 
owner,  and  tell  of  affecting  pleasures  and  the  transitory  nature  of  all  earthly 
things.  It  is  but  a  short  time  since  this  mansion  was  tenanted  by  its  Royal  Mas- 
ter; and  in  that  brief  space  how  great  has  been  the  devastation  of  the  elements.  A 
few  years  more  and  all  trace  of  it  will  have  disappeared  forever.  The  forest  is  fast 
reclaiming  its  own,  and  the  lawns  and  ornamental  gardens,  annually  sown  with  seeds 
scattered  by  the  winds  from  the  surrounding  woods,  are  relapsing  into  a  state  of 
nature,  and  exhibiting  in  detached  patches  a  young  growth  of  such  trees  as  are 
common  in  the  country." 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          1019 

When  Prince  Edward  came  to  Halifax  he  was  unmarried  but 
he  brought  with  him  from  the  West  Indies  a  lady  who  as  much  as 
she  was  permitted  by  society  shared  his  social  responsibilities, 
and  who,  sincerely  attached  to  his  interests  and  to  his  person,  as- 
siduously ministered  to  his  wants.  In  Martinique,  it  is  said,  the 
Prince  found  Madame  Alphonsine  Therese  Bernadine  Julie  de 
Montgenet  de  St.  Laurent,  Baronne  de  Fortisson,  and  this  noble 
Frenchwoman  was  his  companion  during  his  stay  in  Halifax,  and 
afterwards  until  nearly  the  time  of  his  marriage  to  the  widow 
who  was  to  become  through  her  alliance  with  Prince  Edward  the 
mother  of  Victoria,  England's  illustrious  and  greatly  beloved 
queen.  In  Quebec  the  Prince  had  formed  the  acquaintance  of  a 
French  family  named  De  Salaberry,  and  this  acquaintance  rip- 
ened into  a  very  close  intimacy,  cemented  by  Edward's  patron- 
age of  and  continued  regard  for  two  of  the  De  Salaberry  boys, 
Maurice  and  Chevalier.  As  a  result  of  this  friendship  we  have 
a  small  volume  of  the  letters  of  the  Prince  to  Monsieur  de  Sala- 
berry, which  contain  as  frequent  and  familiar  references  to  Ma- 
dame de  St.  Laurent  as  if  the  lady  had  been  the  Prince's  legal 
wife.  When  Prince  Edward  first  landed  in  Halifax  he  wrote  De 
Salaberry  regretting  that  his  friend  Madame  de  St.  Laurent  had 
not  yet  come,  and  in  almost  every  succeeding  letter  written  dur- 
ing his  stay  he  freely  couples  her  name  with  his  own.  How  the 
Wentworths,  at  Government  House,  treated  the  Prince's  mis- 
tress we  have  never  been  informed,  but  there  are  still  historic 
echoes  heard  in  Halifax  of  the  disapproval  with  which  Mrs.  Mi- 
chael Francklin,  and  other  conventional  ladies  (probably  like 
Mrs.  Francklin  of  Boston  antecedents)  regarded  the  lady  who 
presided  over  the  household  and  assisted  in  dispensing  the  hos- 
pitalities of  the  royal  establishment. 

In  1818  the  Duke  of  Kent  married,  and  in  that  rarely  interest- 
ing gossippy  narration  entitled  the  ' '  Creevey  Papers ' '  we  find  a 
conversation  recorded  between  him  and  Mr.  Creevey  which  took 
place  at  Brussels  the  year  before,  from  which  we  get  a  glare  of 
light  on  His  Royal  Highness'  state  of  mind  towards  matrimony 
and  towards  the  lady  who  had  so  long  and  affectionately  shared 
his  varied  fortunes.  Apropos  of  the  future  succession  to  the 
British  throne,  Prince  Edward  says :  "  As  for  the  Duke  of  York, 


1020         THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

at  his  time  of  life  and  that  of  the  Duchess,  all  issue  of  course  is 
out  of  the  question.  The  Duke  of  Clarence,  I  have  no  doubt,  will 
marry  if  he  can,  but  the  terms  he  asks  from  the  ministers  are 
such  as  they  can  never  comply  with.  Besides  a  settlement  such 
as  is  proper  for  a  Prince  who  marries  expressly  for  a  succession 
to  the  Throne,  the  Duke  of  Clarence  demands  the  payment  of  all 
his  debts,  which  are  very  great,  and  a  handsome  provision  for 
each  of  his  ten  natural  children.  These  are  terms  that  no  Minis- 
ters can  accede  to.  Should  the  Duke  of  Clarence  not  marry,  the 
next  prince  in  succession  is  myself,  and  although  I  trust  I  shall 
be  at  all  times  ready  to  obey  any  call  my  country  may  make  on 
me,  God  only  knows  the  sacrifice  it  will  be  to  make,  whenever  I 
shall  think  it  my  duty  to  become  a  married  man.  It  is  now  seven 
and  twenty  years  that  Madame  St.  Laurent  and  I  have  lived  to- 
gether; we  are  of  the  same  age,  and  have  been  in  all  climates  and 
in  all  difficulties  together,  and  you  may  well  imagine,  Mr.  Cree- 
vey,  the  pang  it  will  occasion  me  to  part  with  her.  I  put  it  to 
your  own  feeling — in  the  event  of  any  separation  between  you 
and  Mrs.  Creevey.  ...  As  for  Madame  St.  Laurent  herself, 
I  protest  I  don't  know  what  is  to  become  of  her  if  a  marriage  is 
to  be  forced  upon  me,  her  feelings  are  already  so  agitated  upon 
the  subject.  You  saw,  no  doubt,  that  unfortunate  paragraph  in 
the  Morning  Chronicle,  which  appeared  within  a  day  or  two 
after  the  Princess  Charlotte's  death,  and  in  which  my  marrying 
was  alluded  to.  Upon  receiving  the  paper  containing  that  article 
at  the  same  time  with  my  private  letters,  I  did  as  is  my  constant 
practice,  I  threw  the  newspaper  across  the  table  to  Madame  St. 
Laurent  and  began  to  open  and  read  my  letters.  I  had  not  done 
so  but  a  very  short  time  when  my  attention  was  called  to  an  extra- 
ordinary noise  and  a  strong  convulsive  movement  in  Madame  St. 
Laurent's  throat.  For  a  short  time  I  entertained  serious  appre- 
hensions for  her  safety ;  and  when  upon  her  recovery  I  enquired 
into  the  occasion  of  this  attack  she  pointed  to  the  article  in  the 
Morning  Chronicle  relating  to  my  marriage. 

1 '  From  that  day  to  this  I  am  compelled  to  be  in  the  practice  of 
daily  dissimulation  with  Madam  St.  Laurent  to  keep  this  subject 
from  her  thoughts.  I  am  fortunately  acquainted  with  the  gentle- 
men in  Bruxelles  who  conduct  the  Liberal  and  Oracle  newspa- 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          1021 

pers ;  they  have  promised  me  to  keep  all  articles  upon  the  subject 
of  my  marriage  out  of  their  papers,  and  I  hope  my  friends  in 
England  will  be  equally  prudent.  My  brother  the  Duke  of  Clar- 
ence is  the  elder  brother,  and  has  certainly  the  right  to  marry  if 
he  chooses,  and  I  would  not  interfere  with  him  on  any  account.  If 
he  wishes  to  be  King — to  be  married  and  have  children,  poor  man 
—God  help  him !  let  him  do  so.  For  myself,  I  am  a  man  of  no 
ambition  and  wish  only  to  remain  as  1  am.  .  .  .  Easter,  you 
know,  falls  very  early  this  year,  the  22d  of  March.  If  the  Duke  of 
Clarence  does  not  take  any  step  before  that  time  I  must  find  some 
pretext  to  reconcile  Madame  St.  Laurent  to  my  going  to  England 
for  a  short  time.  St.  George's  day  is  the  day  now  fixed  for  keep- 
ing the  birthday,  and  my  paying  my  respects  to  the  Eegent  on 
that  day  will  be  a  sufficient  excuse  for  my  reappearance  in  Eng- 
land. When  once  there  it  will  be  easy  for  me  to  consult  with  my 
friends  as  to  the  proper  steps  to  be  taken.  Should  the  Duke  of 
Clarence  do  nothing  before  that  time  as  to  marrying,  it  will  be- 
come my  duty,  no  doubt,  to  take  some  measures  upon  the  sub.ject 
myself. 

"You  have  heard  the  names  of  the  Princess  of  Baden  and  the 
Princess  of  Saxe-Coburg  mentioned.  The  latter  connection  would 
perhaps  be  the  better  of  the  two,  from  the  circumstance  of  Prince 
Leopold  being  so  popular  with  the  nation ;  but  before  anything  is 
proceeded  with  in  this  matter  I  shall  hope  and  expect  to  see  jus- 
tice done  by  the  Nation  and  the  Ministers  to  Madame  St.  Laurent. 
She  is  of  very  good  family  and  has  never  been  an  actress,  and  I 
am  the  first  and  onlypersonwho  ever  lived  with  her.  Her  disinter- 
estedness, too,  has  been  equal  to  her  fidelity.  When  she  first  came 
to  me  it  was  upon  a  hundred  pounds  a  year.  That  sum  was  after- 
wards raised  to  four  hundred  pounds,  and  finally  to  a  thousand 
pounds,  but  when  my  debts  made  it  necessary  for  me  to  sacrifice 
a  great  part  of  my  income,  Madame  St.  Laurent  insisted  upon 
again  returning  to  her  income  of  four  hundred  pounds  a  year. 
If  Madame  St.  L.  is  to  live  amongst  her  friends,  it  must  be  in  such 
a  state  of  independence  as  to  command  their  respect,  I  shall  not 
require  very  much,  but  a  certain  number  of  servants  and  a  ca- 
riage  are  essentials.  Whatever  the  Ministers  agree  to  give  for 
such  purpose  must  be  put  out  of  all  doubt  as  to  its  continuance.  I 


1022         THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

shall  name  Mr.  Brougham,  yourself,  and  two  other  people,  on  be- 
half  of  Madame  St.  Laurent  for  this  object. 

"As  to  my  own  settlement,  as  I  shall  marry  (if  I  marry  at  all) 
for  the  succession,  I  shall  expect  the  Duke  of  York's  marriage  to 
be  considered  the  precedent.  That  was  a  marriage  for  the  suc- 
cession, and  twenty-five  thousand  pounds  for  income  was  settled, 
in  addition  to  all  his  other  income,  purely  on  that  account.  I  shall 
be  contented  with  the  same  arrangement,  without  making  any  de- 
mands grounded  upon  the  difference  of  the  value  of  money  in 
1792  and  at  present.  As  for  the  payment  of  my  debts,  I  don't  call 
them  great.  The  Nation,  on  the  contrary,  is  greatly  my  debtor. ' ' 

Mr.  Creevey's  reporting  this  remarkable  declaration  of  the 
Duke's  which  was  clearly  not  intended  for  other  ears  than  the 
first  hearer's,  causes  the  editor  of  his  memoirs  to  say:  "It  must 
be  confessed  that  his  Royal  Highness  was  not  very  discreet  in 
chosing  Mr.  Creevey  as  the  repository  of  his  confidence  in  such  a 
delicate  matter.  Creevey  seems  to  have  had  no  scruple  in  com- 
municating the  tenour  of  the  conversation  to  some  of  his  friends. 
He  certainly  told  the  Duke  of  Wellington. ' '  Mr.  Creevey  himself 
says  somewhat  later  than  the  conversation :  ' '  The  Duke  of  Well- 
ington 's  constant  joking  with  me  about  the  Duke  of  Kent  was  ow- 
ing to  the  curious  conversation  I  had  with  the  latter  at  Brussels 
in  the  autumn  of  1817,  the  particulars  of  which  had  always 
amused  the  Duke  of  Wellington  very  much. ' ' 

It  would  be  interesting  to  know  the  details  of  the  tragical  part- 
ing between  the  Duke  and  Madame  de  St.  Laurent  when  at  last 
Prince  Edward  determined  fully  for  state  reasons  to  sacrifice  in- 
clination to  duty  and  give  up  his  mistress  for  a  wife,  but  no  such 
details  have  been  vouchsafed  to  the  world.  The  last  notice  we 
have  of  Madame  de  St.  Laurent  is  in  1819.  Sometime  in  that 
year  Major-General  de  Bothenburg  writes  Lieutenant-Colonel  de 
Salaberry  sententiously :  *  *  Madame  de  St.  Laurent  ha  s  retired  to 
a  convent." 

In  1798  the  Duke  of  Kent  had  a  troublesome  accident  in  Hali- 
fax. On  the  eighth  of  August  of  that  year  he  was  riding  fast 
across  a  little  wooden  bridge  somewhere  in  the  town,  when  a 
plank  gave  way  and  his  horse  fell,  coming  with  all  his  weight  on 
the  rider's  leg  and  thigh.  Prince  Edward  suffered  much  from 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          1023 

the  fall,  but  continued  to  perform  his  military  duties  until  Octo- 
ber, when  on  the  urgent  advice  of  Dr.  John  Halliburton,  the  phy- 
sician of  the  naval  hospital,  and  Dr.  William  James  Almon,  the 
leading  civil  doctor,  in  concurrence  with  a  Dr.  Nooth  of  Quebec, 
he  decided  to  go  to  England  for  treatment.  On  the  thirtieth  of 
November  he  reached  Portsmouth,  and  in  England  he  remained 
until  August,  1799.  On  Friday  the  sixth  of  September  of  this 
year  he  once  more  reached  Halifax,  and  here  he  stayed  until  early 
in  August,  1800,  when  with  many  expressions  of  good-will 
towards  the  people,  and  attended  by  sorrowful  regrets  on  their 
part,  he  finally  sailed  away.  On  Sunday,  August  third,  he  em- 
barked in  the  warship  Assistance,  the  garrison  forming  a  double 
line  through  which,  attended  by  the  Governor,  the  members  of  the 
Council,  and  the  naval,  military,  and  civil  officials,  he  passed  to 
the  King's  wharf.  As  he  went  through  the  town  salutes  echoed 
and  people  crowded  to  the  tops  of  the  houses  to  cheer  the  depart- 
ing royalty  on  his  way.  On  the  thirty-first  of  August  he  landed 
at  Portsmouth,  England,  again.  On  the  29th  of  May,  1818,  he 
married  at  Coburg  her  Serene  Highness  Victoria  Mary  Louisa, 
widow  of  Emich  Charles,  Prince  of  Leiningen,  the  ceremony  be- 
ing repeated  on  Monday,  the  thirteenth  of  the  following  July,  in 
the  Queen 's  drawing  room  in  England,  in  presence  of  many  mem- 
bers of  the  Royal  family.  On  the  same  occasion  the  Duke  of  Clar- 
ence married  the  Princess  Adelaide  of  Saxe-Coburg  Meiningen. 
In  Prince  Edward 's  life  at  Halifax  there  is  much  to  remind  one 
of  the  simple  homeliness  of  the  life  at  Windsor  of  his  father, 
plain  ' i  Farmer  George. ' '  The  King  used  to  get  up  at  unseason- 
able hours  and  march  round  in  his  shovel  hat  to  poor  people's 
cottages,  he  played  backgammon  every  evening  regularly  with  the 
dull  people  of  his  dull  court,  while  the  equerries  * '  yawned  them- 
selves to  death  in  the  ante-room" — Prince  Edward,  we  are  told, 
used  often  in  Halifax  to  put  his  own  hand  to  the  jack-plane  and 
drive  the  cross-cut  saw,  and  there  was  little  in  the  doings  either 
of  his  troops  or  his  ordinary  workmen  that  he  did  not  personally 
oversee.  If  he  was  deficient  in  the  strict  virtue  of  his  mother, 
who  Thackeray  tells  us  regarded  all  deviation  from  the  strict  path 
of  conventional  morality  with  absolute  disfavor  and  "hated  poor 
sinners  with  a  rancour  such  as  virtue  sometimes  has, ' '  he  at  least 


1024         THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

had  a  large  share  of  his  father's  energy  and  his  father's  simple, 
homely  tastes. 

The  great  and  lasting  service  the  Duke  of  Kent  did  for  Halifax 
was  to  put  its  defences  on  a  solid  foundation.  He  had  not  been  a 
great  while  in  Halifax  when  through  the  governor  he  called  for 
help  from  the  militia  in  constructing  the  great  citadel  and 
strengthening  and  rendering  more  impregnable  the  various  har- 
bour forts,  and  these  works,  with  other  industries  which  he  stimu- 
lated, soon  told  greatly  on  the  prosperity  of  the  town.  Mingling 
freely  and  affably  with  the  citizens,  at  the  entertainments  at  Gov- 
ernment House  and  probably  in  other  social  ways,  he  gained  the 
thorough  good-will  of  the  Halifax  people,  and  when  he  finally  left 
the  Province  his  going  was  attended  with  much  more  than  per- 
functory regret  on  the  part  of  all  classes  in  the  maritime  town. 
Whether  he  did  anything  in  Halifax  for  the  education  of  the  chil- 
dren of  the  soldiers  there  we  do  not  know,  but  he  is  said  to  have 
been  the  first  commander  of  a  regiment  in  the  whole  British  army 
to  establish  a  regimental  school.  So  highly  were  his  efforts  for 
the  education  of  soldiers'  children  appreciated,  that  in  1811,  at 
the  Free  Masons'  Tavern  in  London,  the  following  resolution, 
moved  by  Lord  Lansdowne  and  seconded  by  Lord  Keith,  was 
unanimously  adopted :  ' '  That  the  respectful  thanks  of  this  meet- 
ing be  presented  to  H.  R.  Highness  the  Duke  of  Kent,  whose 
friendship  to  soldiers'  children  has  been  shown  in  that  princely 
liberality  with  which  H.  R.  H.  has  established  a  school  in  the 
Royals,  as  Colonel  of  that  Regiment,  and  set  an  example  which  it 
is  hoped  will  be  universally  followed  by  military  commanders, 
and  thereby  promote  the  welfare  of  and  do  honour  to  the  charac- 
ter of  the  British  army. ' ' 

In  spite  of  the  general  amiability  which  won  Prince  Edward 
an  enduring  place  in  the  affections  of  the  Halifax  people,  and  has 
done  much  to  keep  his  memory  fragrant  in  Nova  Scotia  even  to 
the  present  time,20  in  his  military  discipline  the  Duke  of  Kent 


20.  Prince  Edward  is  said  to  have  had  the  faculty,  (as  had  also  his  daughter, 
Queen  Victoria)  of  never  forgetting  a  face.  He  was  always  ready  to  return,  with 
apparent  friendship,  the  greetings  of  any  persons  he  met.  At  his  dinners,  though 
of  course  much  of  the  recognized  royal  etiquette  was  observed,  every  one  felt 
comfortable  and  at  home.  In  Halifax  he  encouraged  dramatic  performances,  and 
Murdoch  says  that  during  the  winters  of  his  stay  in  the  town  plays  seem  to  have 
been  given  about  once  a  fortnight.  As  an  evidence  of  his  amiability,  DeGaspe  tells 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA         1025 

was  a  martinet,  and  sometimes,  one  cannot  help  believing,  in  his 
punishments  almost  criminally  severe.  In  the  journal  of  Dr.  Al- 
non,  who  was  the  leading  medical  practitioner  of  Halifax  at  the 
tune  of  the  Prince's  stay,  we  find  mentions  of  an  appalling  num- 
ber of  cases  of  illness  and  death  among  the  soldiers  of  the  Sev- 
enth Eoyal  Fusiliers,  the  direct  result  of  the  severe  punishments 
inflicted  by  his  orders,  and  at  the  Lodge  is  still  shown  a  burrow  or 
cave  in  which  tradition  says  he  kept  a  soldier  confined  for  two  or 
three  years  until  he  died.  It  is  recorded  that  he  ordered  for  one 
poor  fellow  a  thousand  lashes  on  his  bare  back,  and  that  once  or 
twice  in  Halifax  a  soldier  committed  suicide  from  fear  of  the  ter- 
rible punishment  he  had  sentenced  him  to  undergo.  In  the  use  of 
cards  and  drink  in  the  army  the  Duke  was  very  strict,  in  order 
to  discourage  gambling  he  never  touched  cards  himself,  and  to 
promote  temperance  both  in  the  army  and  in  civil  society  he  used 
great  moderation  in  wine.  To  prevent  drunkenness  in  his  regi- 
ment he  used  to  make  his  men  get  up  at  five  o  'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing for  drill,  which  regulation  of  course  precluded  their  being 
away  from  barracks  in  Halifax  bar-rooms  late  at  night.  At  this 
early  morning  drill  he  used  to  be  present  regularly  himself. 

The  severity  of  the  Duke  of  Kent's  discipline  we  may  attribute 
partly  to  inherited  traits,  partly  to  the  inflexible  training  he  had 
received  in  Hanover,  and  partly  to  the  almost  utter  lack  of  sym- 
pathy he  seems  to  have  found  in  his  royal  father  and  his 
carousing  brothers.  The  Dukes  of  Clarence,  Cumberland,  and 
Cambridge,  all  appear  to  have  received  from  Farmer  George 
some  proper  share  of  consideration,  but  poor  Prince  Edward  was 
early  sent  away  from  home,  and  during  his  fourteen  successive 
years  of  foreign  service,  in  the  Mediterranean,  Canada,  the  West 
Indies,  and  Nova  Scotia,  was  kept  on  a  starvation  income,  and 
allowed  to  contract  debts  which  for  many  years  made  life  for  him 
a  burden.  He  was,  we  believe,  one  of  the  best  of  George  the 
Third's  sons,  and  why  the  old  King  or  indeed  Parliament,  should 


us  that  once,  when  His  Royal  Highness  was  in  Quebec  he  went  to  the  Isle  of  Or- 
leans to  see  an  old  woman,  a  centenarian.  Having  talked  to  her  for  some  time  he 
asked  her  if  he  could  confer  any  pleasure  on  her.  "Yes,"  said  the  old  lady,  "I 
should  like  to  have  you  dance  a  minuet  with  me,  that  I  may  be  able  to  say  before 
I  die  that  I  have  danced  with  the  son  of  my  Sovereign."  The  Prince  at  once  com- 
plied with  her  wish  and  after  the  dance,  conducted  her  to  her  seat  and  bowed  gal- 
lantly, the  old  lady  curtseying  low  in  return. 


1026         THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

have  permitted  him  to  live  most  of  his  life  under  a  heavy  burden 
of  debt  it  is  quite  impossible  to  tell.  It  is  stated  in  a  pamphlet 
published  sometime  after  1815,  called  "A  detailed  statement  of 
the  case  of  His  Eoyal  Highness  the  Duke  of  Kent, ' '  that  Mr.  Pitt 
shortly  before  his  death  became  thoroughly  aroused  to  Prince 
Edward's  necessities  and  took  great  blame  to  himself  for  not  hav- 
ing considered  his  case  earlier.  Mr.  Pitt's  death,  however,  put  an 
end  to  any  hope  the  Prince  may  have  had  from  that  quarter,  and 
so,  appeals  to  his  spendthrift  brother  the  Prince  of  Wales  being 
met  with  prompt  refusal,  at  last  in  1815  he  tried  to  get  permis- 
sion to  sell  by  lottery  Castle  Hill,  the  only  piece  of  property  he 
owned,  in  order  to  raise  sorely  needed  ready  cash.  From  first  to 
last  he  seems  to  have  had  a  hard  time.  His  earliest  military 
training  was  received  in  Hanover  under  an  execrable  man,  Baron 
Wagenheim,  whom  his  father  persisted  in  keeping  as  his  tutor, 
but  whom  the  Prince  himself,  no  doubt  quite  properly,  once  char- 
acterized as  a '  *  mercenary  tyrant. ' '  When  he  was  twenty,  he  was 
removed  from  Hanover  to  Geneva,  a  better  place,  but  one  he 
found  so  utterly  uncongenial  that  as  soon  as  he  came  of  age  he 
resolved  to  go  to  England  (without  leave)  and  try  by  personal 
remonstrance  to  get  that  consideration  which  his  father  had  hith- 
erto wholly  denied  him.  Accordingly,  he  went  to  London  and 
took  up  his  quarters  at  an  hotel,  where  he  was  at  once  visited  by 
his  brother  the  Prince  of  Wales.  Together  the  two  went  to  Carl- 
ton  House,  and  were  there  joined  by  another  brother,  the  Duke 
of  York,  who  undertook  to  communicate  Prince  Edward's  arrival 
to  the  King.  The  King's  anger  was  terrible.  He  refused  to  see 
the  Prince,  and  in  a  few  days  sent  him  written  orders  to  proceed 
within  twenty-four  hours  to  Gibraltar.  On  the  night  before  he 
left,  his  royal  father  deigned  to  see  him  for  a  few  minutes,  and 
this  was  the  first  time  the  King  and  his  son  had  met  for  six 
years.21 


21.  Of  George  the  Third  himself,  Leigh  Hunt  says:  "He  was  a  very  brave  and 
honest  man.  He  feared  nothing  on  earth,  and  he  acted  according  to  his  convictions. 
But,  unfortunately,  his  convictions  were  at  the  mercy  of  a  will  far  greater  than  his 
understanding;  and  hence  his  courage  became  obstinacy,  and  his  honesty  the  dupe 
of  his  inclinations."  He  possessed  "an  extraordinary  mixture  of  domestic  virtue 
with  official  duplicity;  of  rustical,  mechanical  tastes  and  popular  manners,  with  the 
most  exalted  ideas  of  authority;  of  a  childish  and  self-betraying  cunning,  with  the 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          1027 

In  spite  of  the  Duke's  extreme  severity  with  his  soldiers  and 
his  strictness  regarding  their  conduct,  the  following  amusing 
story  is  told  of  him.  One  evening  in  one  of  the  Halifax  streets  he 
suddenly  came  upon  one  of  his  men  who  was  much  under  the  in- 
fluence of  drink.  Staggering  towards  his  colonel,  the  soldier  joc- 
osely said:  "Aha  Neddy,  you've  caught  me  at  last!"  The  Duke 
was  amused  at  hearing  once  more  his  old  nursery  name,  and 
laughing  a  little  to  himself  passed  on  without  even  reprimanding 
the  man.  Prince  Edward  had  a  special  fondness  for  young  men, 
and  many  a  youth  who  afterward  rose  to  high  rank  in  the  army 
owed  his  earliest  promotion  to  the  good  offices  of  the  Duke.22  It 
is  said  that  the  7th  Royal  Fusiliers  needed  severer  regulations 
than  other  regiments,  for  the  Duke  had  filled  it  with  good  look- 
ing fellows,  many  of  whom  had  little  but  their  fine  physical  ap- 
pearance to  recommend  them. 

The  friendship  of  Prince  Edward  for  Sir  John  and  Lady  Went- 
worth  was  of  a  very  intimate  and  enduring  character.  When 
Mr.  Wentworth  received  his  baronetcy  in  1795  the  Prince,  as 
we  have  seen,  with  all  the  officers  of  the  garrison,  went  to 
Government  House  in  due  form  to  offer  his  congratulations, 
and  it  is  evident  that  no  important  function  given  by  Sir 
John  while  the  Duke  was  in  Halifax  was  neglected  by  this 
royal  soldier.  When  the  ocean  came  to  divide  the  Went- 
worths  and  him  the  correspondence  between  the  friends 


most  stubborn  reserves ;  of  fearlessness  with  sordidness ;  good  nature  with  unfor- 
givingness;  and  of  the  health  and  strength  of  temperance  and  self-denial,  with  the 
last  weaknesses  of  understanding,  and  passions  that  exasperated  it  out  of  its  reason." 

22.  One  of  Prince  Edward's  proteges  and  warmest  admirers  in  Halifax,  among 
the  young  men  of  the  period,  was  Brenton  Halliburton,  who  began  life  as  a  lieu- 
tenant in  the  Duke's  regiment,  the  7th  Fusiliers.  In  later  life,  as  Chief-Justice  of 
Nova  Scotia,  Sir  Brenton  wrote  of  the  Prince :  "A  tale  of  woe  always  interested 
him  deeply,  and  nothing  but  gross  misconduct  could  ever  induce  him  to  abandon  any 
one  whom  he  had  once  befriended."  Another  Nova  Scotian  who  was  taken  into  the 
7th  Fusiliers  was  young  Charles  Thomas,  son  of  Hon.  Nathaniel  Ray  Thomas,  one 
of  the  Boston  refugees  in  Halifax  (who  finally  settled  in  Windsor,  Nova  Scotia). 
Charles  Thomas  was  accidentally  shot  by  a  brother  officer  in  a  road-house  near  Hal- 
ifax, in  August,  1797,  and  the  Prince  mourned  him  as  a  personal  friend.  At  Lieu- 
tenant Thomas's  funeral  his  commander  is  said  to  have  shown  much  feeling,  and  a 
little  later  he  had  a  tombstone  erected  in  St.  Paul's  burying-ground,  bearing  the  fol- 
lowing inscription : 

This  Stone  |  sacred  to  the  memory  of  |  Lieut.  Charles  Thomas  |  of  f  His 
Majesty's  |  Royal  Fusilier  Regiment  |  who  departed  this  Life  |  on  the  i6th  of  Au- 
gust, 1797  |  aged  24  years  |  is  placed  as  a  Testimony  of  |  His  Friendship  and  Es- 
teem |  by  |  Lieut.  General  His  Royal  Highness  |  Prince  Edward  |  his  Colonel. 


1028         THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

did  not  cease,  and  when  at  last  the  Prince  had  married 
\*V  and  his  illustrious  daughter  was  born,  Sir  John  sent  his  own  and 
Lady  Wentworth's  congratulations  in  due  form.  To  Sir  John's 
letter  the  Duke  replied :  "  I  have  received  your  kind  congratula- 
tions on  the  birth  of  our  little  girl,  which  you  may  be  sure  I  highly 
appreciate,  as  coming  from  the  heart  of  one  of  my  best  and  old- 
est friends.  You  will,  I  am  sure,  be  pleased  to  hear  that  the 
Duchess  has  been  able  to  suckle  her  child  from  the  first  to  the 
present  moment,  and  that  both  are  doing  wonderfully  well." 
When  Lady  Wentworth  died,  the  Duke  wrote  Sir  John  express- 
ing his  sorrow,  and  ending  with:  "I  look  forward  anxiously  to 
the  time  when  I  shall  receive  you  again  at  Castle  Hill,  and  retain 
you  there  as  a  guest. '  ' 


AN  AMERICAN  MERCHANT  MARINE  25 

world.  That  is  what  absolute  protection  has  done  for  that  great 
American  industry.  It  is  the  wonder  of  the  shipping  world  and 
yet,  some  men  actually  propose  to  destroy  this  business  by  open- 
ing it  to  the  competition  of  our  rivals ! 

Here  is  a  vast  business  performed  by  Americans  for  Ameri- 
cans, under  government  protection  from  foreign  competition  by 
laws  that  are  never  violated  and  a  vast  business  that  is  done  bet- 
ter and  cheaper  than  any  similar  business  in  all  the  world ;  done 
better  and  cheaper  than  upon  the  Seven  Seas  where  ocean  traffic 
is  carried  on  under  free  trade  conditions  and  with  less  than  half 
the  wages.  The  commerce  upon  the  Great  Lakes  saves  the 
American  people  the  vast  sum  of  $250,000,000  a  year  over  tho 
cheap  rail  rates,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  American  rail- 
roads carry  freight  cheaper  than  any  other  railways  in  the 
world. 

With  these  facts  before  us  shall  we  legislate  for  America  or  for 
Europe  and  Asia!  Shall  we  continue  to  play  into  the  hands  of 
our  commercial  rivals  or  shall  we  play  the  game  for  our  own  peo- 
ple? 


Chapters  in  the  History  of  Halifax, 
Nova  Scotia 

No.  V 

THE  COUNCIL  OF  TWELVE  AND  THE  JUDICIARY 
BY  ARTHUR  WENTWORTH  HAMILTON  EATON,  M.  A.,  D.  C.  L. 

NO  history  of  Halifax  could  properly  be  written  that  did 
not  treat  at  some  length  of  the  governmental  and  judi- 
cial institutions  of  Nova  Scotia,  that  had  and  continue 
to  have  their  source  and  fountain  head  in  the  capital 
of  the  province,  and  that  did  not  give  some  account  of  the  Halifax 
men  who  brought  these  institutions  into  being.  In  the  first  of  our 
present  series  of  sketches  we  have  shown  that  almost  immediate- 
ly after  he  reached  Chebucto,  Governor  Cornwallis  chose  a  Coun- « 
cil  of  twelve  members,  whom  he  associated  with  himself  in  the 
government  of  the  new  colony  to  which  he  had  been  sent.  This 
Council,  which  has  passed  into  history  conspicuously  as  the  '  *  Old 
Council  of  Twelve, ' '  had  a  long  and  varied  history,  the  first  check 
to  the  oligarchical  power  it  exercised  being  the  creation  of  a  Rep- 
resentative Assembly,  whose  very  existence  its  members  fre- 
quently  felt  to  be  an  impertinence,  and  from  whose  jurisdiction  it 
persistently  withheld  all  the  governmental  interests  of  the  prov- 
ince it  could. 

In  this  Council  were  vested  legislative,  executive,  and  often 
judicial  functions.  Its  members,  who  by  common  custom  were 
styled  ''honourable,"  sat  with  closed  doors,  and  in  the  order  of 
precedence  early  established  took  rank  next  to  the  Governor, 
while  at  the  chief  executive's  death  or  in  his  absence  from  the 
province,  the  eldest  of  them  as  president  for  the  time  being  ad- 
ministered the  government.  To  the  Executive  this  body  stood  in 

(26) 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  27 

nearly  the  same  relation  as  the  Privy  Council  in  Great  Britain 
stands  to  the  sovereign.  In  its  legislative  capacity  it  sometimes 
deliberated  as  a  distinct  body  apart  from  the  executive,  but  as  a 
privy  council  it  was  always  convened  by  the  governor,  who  was 
present  at  its  deliberations.  '  *  Dissimilar, ' '  says  Judge  Halibur- 
ton  in  1832,  "as  this  body  is  in  many  important  particulars  to 
the  House  of  Lords,  any  nearer  approach  to  the  original  appears 
from  the  state  of  the  country  to  be  very  difficult. "  '  *  Mr.  Pitt, ' ' 
he  adds, ' '  seems  to  have  entertained  the  idea  of  creating  an  order 
of  hereditary  nobility  in  Canada,  for  the  purpose  of  assimilating 
the  condition  of  that  province  as  nearly  as  possible  to  Great  Bri- 
tain." 

In  the  creation  of  a  House  of  Assembly  the  power  of  the  Council 
of  course  received  a  considerable  check;  but  this  body  still  con- 
tinued to  exercise  almost  absolute  sway  over  the  affairs  of  the 
province,  appointing  the  magistrates,  who  were  thus  the  creatures 
of  its  will,  and  often  vetoing  the  most  serious  and  best  considered 
measures  of  the  Assembly,  the  people  at  large  being  left  wholly 
without  redress.  The  laws  of  Nova  Scotia  explicitly  recognized 
all  forms  of  religion  save  Roman  Catholicism  as  having  a  right 
to  exist  in  the  province,  but  the  members  of  the  Council  for  the 
most  part  distinctly  favored  the  Church  of  England,  and  when 
at  last  Nova  Scotia  was  erected  into  the  first  Colonial  Anglican 
See,  the  bishop  also  became  a  member  of  the  Council,  his  appoint- 
ment henceforth  giving  the  body  a  closer  interest  in  the  ecclesias- 
tical affairs  of  the  province,  and  naturally  leading  it  to  throw  its 
influence  almost  entirely  on  the  side  of  the  church  of  England 
and  against ' '  dissent. ' '  With  an  intelligent  and  steadily  growing 
population,  the  opinions  of  four-fifths  of  whom  were  not  repre- 
sented in  the  Council,  and  who  were  properly  growing  more  and 
more  jealous  of  their  rights,  it  was  impossible  that  sooner  or  later 
there  should  not  come  a  stout  conflict  between  these  two  branches 
of  the  legislature.  Between  1830  and  1840,  such  a  strife  did  come, 
but  it  was  not  by  any  means  confined  to  this  province,  the  govern- 
ments of  both  Upper  and  Lower  Canada  were  constructed  sim- 
ilarly to  that  of  the  Maritime  Provinces,  and  in  all  the  provinces 
the  people  discovered  that  they  had  the  same  causes  of  discon- 
tent. In  Upper  Canada,  as  early  as  1820,  it  was  publicly  charged 


28  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

that  the  council  was  averse  to  every  liberal  measure,  and  that  its 
policy  was  selfish  and  narrow  throughout.  Its  members  were  re- 
proached as  ''land-grabbers,"  bigots,  and  the  enemies  of  public 
schools;  and  fierce  complaints  were  made  that  the  people  were 
prohibited  by  law  from  meeting  to  talk  over  their  grievances  and 
frame  petitions  for  the  redress  of  their  wrongs.  Nor  did  the 
Canadian  people  complain  only  of  the  councils  and  their  direct 
acts.  The  magistrates  throughout  the  country  districts  in  all  the 
provinces  were  responsible  to  no  one  but  the  councils,  and  every- 
where, it  was  charged,  neglect,  mismanagement,  and  corruption 
were  clearly  to  be  seen. 

Regarding  the  Nova  Scotia  Council  in  the  year  1762,  Mr.  Mur- 
doch says :  "It  may  not  be  amiss  to  notice,  that  although  it  was 
given  as  the  opinion  of  the  crown  lawyers  in  England  that  the 
Governor  and  Council  had  not  a  right  to  the  legislative  powers 
they  had  for  some  time  exercised,  and  that  although  an  Assembly 
had  now  been  constituted  for  four  years  to  supply  this  constitu- 
tional defect,  yet  the  Governor  and  Council  continued  on  many 
occasions  to  dispose  of  the  moneys  raised  under  the  ordinances  of 
earlier  dates,  without  seeking  the  concurrence  of  the  representa- 
tive body.  It  will  be  seen  by  and  by  that  at  subsequent  periods 
larger  funds  still  were  virtually  appropriated  and  disposed  of 
by  the  Council  without  any  reference  to  the  House.  These  being 
duties  collected  under  acts  for  the  regulation  of  trade  by  the 
English  parliament,  were  in  point  of  form  controlled  entirely  by 
the  English  authorities,  but  in  effect  the  opinion  and  recommen- 
dation of  the  Governor  and  Council  were  almost  invariably 
adopted  and  sanctioned  in  such  matters.  The  consequence  was 
that  the  influence  and  standing  of  the  Assembly  was  diminished 
and  rendered  insignificant,  as  that  body  had  but  a  very  small 
revenue  under  its  control,  while  the  Council  had  not  only  much 
public  money  to  give  away,  but  held  all  the  best  local  offices  them- 
selves, and  exercised  the  almost  exclusive  patronage  of  all  others, 
whether  of  honor  or  emolument.  This  anomalous  and  unconstitu- 
tional state  of  things  endured  far  into  the  present  century." 
Later,  speaking  of  a  conflict  between  the  two  branches  of  the  legis- 
lature in  1808,  Mr.  Murdoch  says:  "The  error  of  all  the  old 
colonial  constitutions,  which  combined  in  one  small  body  of  men 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  29 

all  kinds  of  offices  and  powers,  some  quite  incompatible  with 
others,  was  at  the  bottom  of  the  mischief.  The  same  men  were 
a  Privy  and  a  Cabinet  Council  and  a  House  of  Lords.  They  also 
held  most  of  the  executive  and  judicial  offices,  and  their  tenure 
of  all  these  functions  wras  practically  for  life ;  also,  on  a  vacancy 
in  their  number  by  death  or  removal  they  had  it  much  in  their  own 
hands  to  nominate  the  person  to  fill  it.  Thus  a  distinct  oligarchy 
was  established.  How  could  they  help  undervaluing  the  men 
sent  for  a  short  period  as  deputies  to  the  Assembly,  who  had  little 
influence  as  individuals  except  in  the  immediate  locality  of  their 
homes !  How  could  they  brook  being  opposed,  censured,  or  called 
to  account,  by  parties  comparatively  so  humble ! ' ' 

The  first  open  break  between  the  Governor  and  Council  and  the 
House  of  Assembly,  in  Nova  Scotia,  occurred  at  the  close  of  the 
elections  in  1799.  Hitherto  the  representation  of  Halifax,  the 
metropolitan  county,  had  been  held  by  residents  of  the  city  of 
Halifax ;  in  this  election  the  city  candidate,  Mr.  Michael  Wallace, 
a  man  of  high  social  standing,  was  opposed  by  a  Hants  County 
man,  Mr.  William  Cottnam  Tonge,  a  gentleman  of  excellent  edu- 
cation and  of  well  known  liberal  sentiments,  who  had  already  by 
his  ability  and  eloquence  made  himself  a  power  in  the  House. 
When  the  returns  were  counted,  Mr.  Wallace  was  found  to  be  de- 
feated by  Mr.  Tonge  by  several  hundred  majority,  but  it  being 
shown  that  Mr.  Tonge  had  not  sufficient  real  estate  in  the  county 
to  qualify  him  as  a  member,  upon  a  petition  he  was  unseated  for 
Halifax  and  relegated  to  his  return  for  Newport,  for  which  town- 
ship also  he  had  been  elected.  In  the  previous  session  of  the 
House  Mr.  Tonge  had  been  chosen  speaker,  now  when  he  was 
again  presented  for  this  office  Governor  Wentworth's  strong  Tory 
prejudices  and  hatred  of  liberal  sentiments  led  him  to  exercise 
the  prerogative,  long  unused  in  Great  Britain  and  entirely  with- 
out precedent  in  Nova  Scotia,  of  vetoing  the  choice  of  the  Assem- 
bly, and  commanding  the  House  to  choose  another  speaker.  Prom 
Sir  John's  arbitrary  decision  there  was  no  appeal,  and  the  House 
most  unwillingly  retired,  to  elect  presently  to  the  speakership 
Mr.  Lewis  Morris  Wilkins,  a  son  of  Dr.  Isaac  Wilkins,  the  old 
Westchester  Tory  lawyer  and  clergyman,  who  about  1798  had  re- 
turned from  Nova  Scotia  to  his  native  land. 


30  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

As  may  be  supposed,  the  temper  of  the  Assembly  was  not  ma« 
terially  improved  by  this  high-handed  act  of  the  executive,  and 
there  was  besides  at  the  time  another  cause  of  discontent  in  the 
minds  of  the  people  and  the  people's  representatives.  Soon  after 
the  erection  of  Nova  Scotia  into  the  first  Colonial  Diocese  of  the 
Church  of  England,  an  exclusive  and  narrow  charter  had  been 
secured  for  a  Church  College  at  Windsor,  for  the  education  of 
such  Nova  Scotia  students  as  were  in  a  position  to  take  a  college 
course.  The  restrictions  of  the  statutes  of  this  college  were  an 
outrage  on  the  intelligent  people  of  the  province,  four-fifths  of 
whom  were  not  adherents  of  the  Church  of  England  and  had  not 
the  the  slightest  idea  of  ever  becoming  so.  In  1805,  the  Rev.  Mr. 
McCulloch,  an  able  young  Scotch  Presbyterian  clergyman,  well 
known  through  a  long  and  busy  life  in  Nova  Scotia  as  the  Rev.  Dr. 
McCulloch,  conceived  the  idea  of  founding  an  academy  at  Pictou, 
that  should  be  open  to  the  whole  province  without  any  restriction 
of  creed.  For  this  purpose  an  appeal  for  funds  was  made  to  the 
legislature,  in  the  popular  branch  of  which  it  naturally  met  with 
a  cordial  response.  In  the  Council,  however,  it  was  bitterly  op- 
posed and  for  fifteen  long  years  this  opposition  was  vigorously 
kept  up.  At  last,  however,  the  Home  Government  was  obliged  to 
step  in  and  administer  to  the  Council  a  stinging  rebuke,  and  the 
body  thereupon  yielded  through  fear  what  it  had  so  long  refused 
on  the  ground  of  justice  and  right. 

During  this  protracted  struggle  some  of  the  best  speeches  of 
the  House  of  Assembly  were  made  in  favor  of  the  undenomina- 
tional academy,  and  in  its  progress  the  people  and  the  people's 
party  learned  not  only  to  understand  but  boldly  to  claim  their 
inalienable  rights.  The  men  who,  as  representatives  of  the  peo- 
ple, may  be  named  as  constituting  the  earliest  nucleus  of  the 
liberal  party  in  Nova  Scotia,  besides  Mr.  Tonge,  were  Samuel 
George  William  Archibald,  Edward  Mortimer,  Simon  Bradstreet 
Robie,  and  William  Lawson,  but  as  time  went  on  other  notable 
men  became  its  champions  and  friends. 

In  the  ten  years  between  1830  and  1840,  popular  feeling  in  all 
the  provinces  of  what  is  now  the  Dominion  of  Canada  ran  very 
high.  In  Ontario,  which  had  been  settled  chiefly  by  Loyalists,  a 
life  and  death  struggle  went  on  between  the  two  branches  of  the 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  31 

legislature,  which  was  made  still  more  bitter  by  the  controversy 
over  the  Clergy  Reserve  Fund,  the  Loyalists  generally  having  a 
bigoted  attachment  to  the  English  Church.  In  Quebec  large  and 
excited  meetings  were  held,  the  young  French  Canadians  banding 
themselves  into  societies  called  "Sons  of  Liberty,"  whose  aim 
was  to  limit  the  Council's  prerogative  and  extend  the  people's 
power.  At  last  the  struggle  passed  into  the  rebellion  of  1837, 
which  culminated  in  the  attempt  of  the  liberals  to  seize  Toronto, 
and  the  fierce  engagements  of  St.  Denis,  St.  Charles,  and  Bois 
Blanc.  In  the  Maritime  provinces  the  opposition,  though  not  con- 
ducted with  outward  violence,  as  we  have  said,  was  no  less  per- 
sistent and  strong. 

In  1836  Sir  Colin  Campbell  was  governor  of  Nova  Scotia.  He 
was  a  stern,  arbitrary  soldier,  accustomed  to  command,  unused  to 
argue,  and  so  very  poorly  fitted  to  govern  a  province  where  such 
a  fire  of  popular  discontent  had  already  begun  to  burn.  His  sym- 
pathies were  naturally  with  the  Council  and  against  the  people, 
and  under  his  administration  things  rapidly  got  worse  and  worse. 
At  this  juncture,  in  1837,  the  Honourable  Joseph  Howe  was  elect- 
ed to  the  House  of  Assembly,  and  his  commanding  abilities,  his 
utterly  fearless  championship  of  all  liberal  measures,  and  the  de- 
termined scorn  with  which  he  treated  the  prerogatives  of  the 
Council  raised  him  at  once  to  a  position  of  eminence  in  the  poli- 
tics of  the  province  such  as  no  party  leader  before  his  time  had 
ever  had.1 

Mr.  Howe's  actual  leadership  of  the  liberal  party  in  Nova 
Scotia  began  with  the  publication  in  his  newspaper  the  Nova 
Scotian  of  an  article  charging  the  magistrates  of  Halifax  with 
gross  corruption  and  neglect  of  duty.  Being  prosecuted  for  libel 


i.  The  Hon.  Joseph  Howe,  Nova  Scotia's  ablest  statesman,  was  the  son  of 
the  Loyalist,  John  Howe,  of  Boston,  who  before  the  Revolution  was  editor  with 
Mrs.  Draper  of  the  Massachusetts  Gazette  and  Boston  News-Letter.  Coming  with 
Howe's  fleet  in  1776,  John  Howe  settled  permanently  in  Halifax,  where  in  1781  he 
established  the  Halifax  Journal  and  became  King's  Printer.  He  died  in  1835,  in 
his  82d  year.  His  other  sons  besides  Hon.  Joseph  Howe  were  William,  who  was 
Assistant  Commissary  General  at  Halifax,  John,  Jr.,  who  became  King's  Printer 
and  Deputy  Post-Master  General,  and  David,  who  published  a  newspaper  at  St. 
Andrews,  New  Brunswick. 

A  very  important  biography  of  Hon.  Joseph  Howe  was  published  by  the  Hon. 
Mr.  Justice  James  Wilberforce  Longley,  D.  C.  L..  of  the  Supreme  Bench  of 
Nova  Scotia,  in  1906,  in  a  series  known  as  "Makers  of  Canada."  Morang  and 
Co.,  Toronto;  pp.  307. 


32  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

he  ably  conducted  his  own  defence,  and  on  his  triumphant  ac- 
quittal by  the  jury  at  once  proceeded  to  attack  still  further  the 
venerable  abuses  in  the  government.  In  a  short  time  he  boldly 
arraigned  the  Council  itself,  and  for  many  years,  even  after  re- 
sponsible government  was  secured,  continued  eloquently  and  ably 
to  fight  for  reform  and  to  advocate  progressive  measures,  as 
against  the  party  of  ancient  privilege,  who  nowhere  believe  that 
"the  voice  of  the  people  is  the  will  of  God."  From  this  time, 
on  all  popular  questions,  whether  national  or  local,  questions  of 
the  reconstruction  of  government,  the  opening  of  mines,  the 
building  of  railways,  education,  the  tariff,  confederation,  Mr. 
Howe  was  the  acknowledged  leader  of  the  people's  party,  and 
his  views  the  conservatives  found  it  hard  to  combat.  Unless  it  be 
the  late  Rt.  Hon.  Sir  Charles  Tupper,  Bart.,  whose  statesman- 
ship was  undoubtedly  of  a  very  high  order  and  whose  political 
career  was  exceptionally  able,  no  Nova  Scotian  has  so  distinguish- 
ed himself  in  political  life  as  the  Honourable  Joseph  Howe. 

In  the  session  of  1837,  the  Assembly,  led  by  Mr.  Howe,  formu- 
lated an  address  to  the  throne,  in  which  with  many  professions 
of  loyalty  to  the  Supreme  Authority,  its  members  stated  the 
grievances  of  the  colony  they  represented  and  proposed  a  remedy. 
In  the  infancy  of  this  colony,  they  said,  its  whole  government  was 
necessarily  vested  in  a  Governor  and  Council;  and  even  after 
a  Representative  Assembly  was  granted,  the  practice  of  choos- 
ing members  of  Council  almost  exclusively  from  the  heads  of 
departments,  and  from  among  persons  resident  in  the  capital, 
had  been  still  pursued.  With  a  single  exception,  they  added,  this 
course  had  been  continued  for  thirty  years,  and  the  practical 
effects  of  the  system  had  been  in  the  highest  degree  injurious 
to  the  best  interests  of  the  country,  "  inasmuch  as  one  entire 
branch  of  the  legislature  had  generally  been  composed  of  men, 
who,  from  a  deficiency  of  local  knowledge,  or  from  the  natural 
bias  incident  to  their  official  stations,  were  not  qualified  to  decide 
upon  the  wants  or  just  claims  of  the  people ;  by  which  the  efforts 
of  the  representative  branch  were,  in  many  instances,  neutralized, 
or  rendered  of  no  avail. ' '  Among  the  many  proofs  that  might  be 
adduced  of  the  evils  arising  from  the  imperfect  structure  of  the 
upper  branch  of  the  legislature,  they  said,  it  was  only  necessary 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  33 

to  refer  "to  the  unsuccessful  efforts  of  the  Assembly  to  extend 
to  the  out-ports  the  advantages  of  foreign  trade ;  to  the  enormous 
sums  which  it  was  compelled,  after  a  long  struggle,  to  resign, 
for  the  support  of  the  Customs  establishment;  to  the  difficulties 
thrown  in  the  way  of  a  just  and  liberal  system  of  education ; ' '  and 
to  recent  abortive  attempts  it  had  made  "to  abolish  the  uncon- 
stitutional and  obnoxious  fees  taken  by  the  judges  of  the  Supreme 
Court." 

After  setting  forth  the  injustice  of  the  Anglican  Church  alone 
having  representation  in  the  Council,  the  Bishop  having  since 
1809  belonged  to  the  body  while  no  other  denomination  of  Chris- 
tians had  been  allowed  representation  therein ;  and  in  other  ways 
illustrating  the  evils  that  existed,  the  address  still  further  urged 
that  while  the  House  had  a  due  reverence  for  British  institutions, 
and  a  desire  to  preserve  to  the  people  the  advantages  of  the  con- 
stitution under  which  the  inhabitants  of  the  British  Isles  had 
enjoyed  so  much  prosperity  and  happiness,  its  framers  were 
obliged  to  feel  that  Nova  Scotians  participated  but  slightly  in 
these  advantages.  The  spirit  of  the  British  constitution,  the 
genius  of  British  institutions,  was  complete  responsibility  to  the 
people,  by  whose  resources  and  for  whose  benefit  they  were  main- 
tained. But  in  Nova  Scotia  the  people  were  powerless,  since 
even  with  a  Representative  Assembly,  upon  the  actual  governing 
body  of  the  province  they  exercised  very  little  influence,  and 
over  its  final  action  had  absolutely  no  control.  In  England  the 
people  by  one  vote  of  their  representatives  could  change  the 
ministry  and  alter  any  course  of  policy  they  found  injurious  to 
their  interests;  in  Nova  Scotia  "the  ministry  were  his  Majesty's 
Council,  combining  legislative,  judicial,  and  executive  powers, 
holding  their  seats  for  life,  though  nominally  at  the  pleasure  of 
the  Crown,  and  often  treating  with  entire  indifference  the  wishes 
of  the  people  and  the  representations  of  the  lower  house."  As 
a  remedy  for  the  evils  under  which  they  groaned  the  petitioners 
implored  the  King  i  i  to  grant  them  an  elective  legislative  council ; 
or  to  separate  the  executive  from  the  legislative,  providing  for 
a  just  representation  of  all  the  great  interests  of  the  province  in 
both,  and  by  the  introduction  into  the  former  of  some  members 
of  the  popular  branch,  and  by  otherwise  securing  responsibility 


34  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

to  the  representatives,  to  confer  upon  the  people  of  the  province 
what  they  valued  above  all  other  possessions,  the  blessings  of  the 
British  constitution. 

Upon  the  British  government  and  upon  Lord  Glenelg,  then  at 
the  head  of  the  Colonial  Office,  this  address  had  the  desired  effect, 
and  in  answer,  the  Colonial  minister  forwarded  two  dispatches 
to  Sir  Colin  Campbell,  in  which  he  declared  the  sovereign's  cheer- 
ful assent  to  the  greater  part  of  the  measures  of  the  House,  and 
stated  that  his  Majesty  was  convinced  that  they  would  be  condu- 
cive alike  to  the  honour  of  the  Crown  and  to  the  welfare  of  his 
faithful  subjects. 

Having  no  alternative,  the  Governor  now  set  to  work  to  reor- 
ganize the  legislature,  and  before  the  opening  of  the  session  of 
1838  the  old  Council  of  Twelve  had  given  place  to  a  Legislative 
Council,  including  nineteen  members,  sitting  with  open  doors; 
and  an  Executive  Council,  consisting  of  the  old  number  of  twelve. 
Of  the  latter  Council,  four  sat  in  the  lower  house,  and  two  or 
three  in  the  upper,  but  the  body  which  "after  a  fashion  was 
charged  with  the  administration  of  affairs,"2  acknowledged  no 
responsibility  whatever  to  the  Assembly. 

Through  some  mistake  of  the  Home  Government,  the  instruc- 
tions sent  to  Lord  Durham,  the  Governor- General,  on  the  matter 
of  the  Council,  differed  materially  from  those  sent  to  Sir  Colin 
Campbell.  By  Lord  Durham's  commission,  the  Executive  Coun- 
cil was  to  be  limited  to  nine  members,  and  the  Legislative  Coun- 
cil to  fifteen.  Consequently,  before  the  close  of  the  session,  the 
two  councils  were  dissolved,  and  two  others  by  proclamation  ap- 
pointed in  their  stead.  When  the  appointments  to  these  new  coun- 
cils became  known,  it  was  found  that  Mr.  Huntington,  the  only 
liberal  in  the  Executive  had  been  left  out,  and  that  the  Legislative 
Council  contained  a  "packed  and  determined"  majority  hostile  to 
responsible  government. 

Nothing  could  have  been  more  flagrantly  opposed  to  the  spirit 
of  Lord  Glenelg 's  dispatches  than  such  a  policy  as  this,  and  the 
liberal  party,  with  Mr.  Howe  at  their  head,  at  once  began  to  wage 
relentless  warfare  upon  it.  In  1839  Lord  Durham's  famous  re- 
port as  Governor-General  of  Canada  suggested  to  the  Home  Gov- 


2.    Hon.  William  Annand,  in  "Howe's  Speeches  and  Public  Letters." 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  35 

eminent  a  union  of  all  the  British  American  provinces,  and  the 
establishment  throughout  this  confederation  of  responsible  gov- 
ernment. The  same  year  Lord  John  Russell  became  Colonial  Sec- 
retary and  entered  at  once  with  vigor  into  the  affairs  of  his  de- 
partment, one  of  his  first  acts  being  the  appointment  to  the  gov- 
ernor-generalship of  Canada  of  Mr.  Poulett  Thompson  (after- 
wards Lord  Sydenham),  in  place  of  Lord  Durham,  who  had  sud- 
denly withdrawn.  Soon  after  Mr.  Thompson  came  out,  Lord  John 
sent  him  dispatches  relative  to  his  government  of  the  Canadas 
and  the  Maritime  Provinces,  which  under  Lord  Dorchester,  in 
1786,  had  all  been  included  in  one  general  government.  These 
dispatches  were  dated  October  14th,  1839,  and  two  days  later 
were  followed  by  further  dispatches  from  the  Colonial  Secretary 
to  all  the  governors  of  the  British  North  American  colonies,  lay- 
ing down  certain  rules  thereafter  to  be  enforced,  regarding  the 
tenure  of  office  of  colonial  officials.  These  new  dispatches  which 
were  wholly  in  the  spirit  of  Lord  Durham's  report,  and  were 
much  less  guarded  than  those  sent  two  days  earlier  to  Mr.  Thomp- 
son, declared  that  offices  were  no  longer  to  be  held  for  life,  that 
all  officials  were  expected  to  retire  from  the  public  service  as  often 
as  any  motives  of  public  policy  might  seem  to  make  such  a  course 
expedient,  and  that  a  change  in  the  person  of  the  governor  would 
be  considered  as  sufficiently  warranting  the  removal  of  any  one 
from  office.  The  new  policy  was  not  to  extend  to  ministerial  or 
judicial  offices,  but  was  distinctly  to  apply  to  heads  of  depart- 
ments. 

In  New  Brunswick  the  dispatches  of  Lord  John  were  com- 
mended by  Sir  John  Harvey,  then  governor  of  that  province,  al- 
though they  displeased  his  Council,  but  in  Nova  Scotia  Sir  Colin 
Campbell  shamelessly  suppressed  them.  It  is  true  he  introduced 
three  new  members  of  the  House  of  Assembly  into  the  Council, 
but  they  were  from  the  party  of  the  minority  in  the  House,  and 
their  elevation  tended  rather  to  increase  than  to  lessen  the  popu- 
lar bitterness.  When  the  House  met  in  1840,  led  by  Mr.  Howe 
its  members  passed  resolutions  stating  their  grievances  and  de- 
claring that  the  Council  as  it  was  then  constituted  did  not  possess 
the  confidence  of  the  House.  These  resolutions  were  sent  to  the 
governor,  who  as  might  have  been  expected  treated  them  with  lit- 


36  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

tie  respect,  in  the  course  of  correspondence  taking  occasion  to 
affirm  his  own  entire  satisfaction  with  his  advisers  of  the  Council. 
The  House  had  now  gone  too  far  to  recede,  and  accordingly  felt 
that  it  must  take  the  strong  measure  of  asking  the  Home  Govern- 
ment for  Sir  Colin 's  recall.  In  the  course  of  the  summer  of  1840, 
the  Governor  General  came  to  Halifax  to  look  into  affairs,  and  in 
September  Sir  Colin  Campbell  was  summoned  home  and  Vis- 
count Falkland  (whose  wife  was  Amelia  Fitz-Clarence,  one  of  the 
natural  daughters  of  King  William  the  Fourth)  was  sent  out  in 
his  place.  A  few  weeks  later  five  of  the  members  of  the  Executive 
Council  sent  in  their  resignations,  and  three  liberal  members  of 
the  Assembly,  selected  by  the  Colonial  Office,  Messrs.  S.  G.  W. 
Archibald,  James  B.  Uniacke,  men  of  rather  moderate  views,  and 
Joseph  Howe,  were  appointed  in  their  place. 

In  November  a  general  election  came  on,  which  was  fought 
along  the  old  lines  of  the  Council  and  the  Assembly,  but  the  com- 
promise that  had  lately  been  effected  robbed  party  feeling  of 
somewhat  of  its  usual  virulence,  and  in  the  election  returns  it  was 
seen  that  the  constitution  of  the  new  Assembly  differed  very 
little  from  that  of  the  one  that  had  sat  for  the  past  four  years. 
Mr.  Howe's  acceptance  of  a  place  in  the  Executive  Council  while 
that  body  was  still  irresponsible,  has  been  variously  commented 
upon  by  his  biographers,  but  the  truth  undoubtedly  was  that  he 
felt  the  necessity  of  accepting  any  concession  that  could  be  wrung 
from  the  party  of  the  Council,  while  he  still  hoped  and  intended 
to  agitate  for  better  things.  Lord  Falkland's  administration 
began  favorably  for  the  liberal  party,  but  before  long  it  was 
discovered  that  the  governor  was  much  more  in  sympathy  with 
the  opponents  than  with  the  friends  of  responsible  government. 
Accordingly,  party  strife  ran  even  higher  than  in  the  time  of  Sir 
Colin  Campbell,  for  with  every  year  the  people  of  the  province 
at  large  had  become  more  imbued  with  liberal  sentiments  and 
more  bitter  against  exclusiveness  and  ancient  prerogative  in 
the  administration  of  public  affairs.  After  three  years,  Mr. 
Howe  and  his  sympathizers  resigned  from  the  Council,  and  it  was 
not  until  Lord  Falkland  had  left  the  province  he  had  so  sadly  mis- 
governed, and  the  much  wiser  Sir  John  Harvey  had  taken  his 
place,  that  order  began  to  come  out  of  the  political  chaos  that  had 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  37 

so  long  reigned.  During  the  last  years  of  his  rule  Lord  Falkland 
was  continually  the  butt  of  Mr.  Howe's  brilliant  sarcasm,  while 
by  the  people  at  large,  in  several  portions  of  the  province,  he  was 
respectfully  but  pointedly  told  in  public  addresses  that  his  in- 
fluence as  governor  was  completely  gone. 

At  last,  in  August,  1847,  another  general  election  was  held,  and 
a  strong  majority  of  liberals  was  returned.  The  administration 
was  defeated  in  Halifax,  and  in  many  of  the  more  populous  and 
important  counties  of  the  province,  and  when  in  January  the  ses- 
sion of  1848  began,  the  contest  over  the  speakership  resulted  in  a 
victory  for  the  liberals,  Mr.  Young,  afterwards  Sir  William 
Young,  being  elected  to  the  chair.  Almost  immediately  a  motion 
of  want  of  confidence  in  the  Executive  Council  was  made  by  Mr. 
Uniacke,  the  debate  on  which  lasted  for  two  days ;  then  the  house 
divided  and  the  motion  was  carried  by  a  majority  of  twenty-eight 
to  twenty-one.  In  accordance  with  the  practice  in  the  English 
Parliament,  a  new  cabinet  was  now  formed,  the  members  of  which, 
were,  the  Honourables  James  B.  Uniacke,  Michael  Tobin,  Hugh 
Bell,  Joseph  Howe,  James  McNab,  Herbert  Huntington,  William 
F.  DesBarres,  Lawrence  0  'Connor  Doyle,  and  George  R.  Young. 
On  Mr.  Howe  was  conferred  the  office  of  provincial  secretary, 
which  for  some  time  previously  Sir  Rupert  Dennis  George  had 
filled,  while  to  Mr.  Uniacke  was  given  the  attorney-generalship, 
and  to  Mr.  DesBarres  the  solicitor-generalship.  For  the  first  time 
in  Nova  Scotia  history  the  liberals  now  surrounded  the  lieuten- 
ant-governor and  had  free  access  to  the  Colonial  Office,  and  at 
last  and  forever  the  old  system  of  prerogative  was  done.  "  Re- 
sponsible government,"  says  Mr.  Annand,  "was  secured  to 
British  America.  Principles  and  rules  of  administration,  de- 
fined and  illustrated  by  the  conflicts  of  the  past  four  years,  were 
clearly  apprehended,  and  could  be  mis-stated  and  mystified  no 
longer.  The  right  of  any  party  commanding  a  parliamentary 
majority  to  form  a  Cabinet,  and  administer  public  affairs;  the 
right  of  ministers  to  be  consulted,  to  resign  when  they  were  not, 
and  to  go  into  opposition  without  injury  to  the  prerogative;  in 
fact,  nearly  all  the  points  upon  which  there  had  been  so  much 
controversy,  were  now  settled  and  disposed  of. ' ' 

So  came  into  being  Nova  Scotia's  present  system  of  local  gov- 


38  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

eminent,  the  Legislative  Council  being  appointed  for  life,  indeed, 
by  the  executive  head  of  the  province,  but  with  greatly  limited 
powers ;  the  Executive  Council  being  drawn  chiefly  from  the  up- 
per and  lower  houses ;  the  heads  of  departments,  who  correspond 
to  the  Cabinet  in  the  government  of  the  United  States,  unlike  the 
members  of  the  United  States  Cabinet  being  also  representatives 
of  the  people  and  in  the  event  of  a  defeat  of  the  government  being 
obliged  to  refer  again  to  the  polls. 

The  leading  opponent  of  Mr.  Howe  in  the  long  struggle  between 
the  two  branches  of  the  legislature  was  Mr.  James  William  John- 
stone,  successively  a  member  of  the  House  of  Assembly,  a  member 
of  the  Council,  Solicitor-General,  and  Judge  in  Equity.  Like  Mr. 
Howe,  in  his  last  days  when  the  heat  of  party  strife  was  past, 
he  was  appointed  to  the  governorship  of  the  province,  although 
he  did  not  live  to  take  office.  He  was  the  son  of  Captain  William 
Martin  and  Elizabeth  Lichtenstein  Johnston,  formerly  of  the 
State  of  Georgia,  but  long  settled  in  the  island  of  Jamaica,  in 
which  West  India  island,  on  the  29th  of  August,  1792,  Jarnes  Wil- 
liam Johnstone  was  born.  Coming  to  Nova  Scotia  in  early  life 
he  studied  law  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  and  when  at  last 
he  rose  to  the  Council,  from  his  position  on  that  board  he  watched 
eagerly  the  movement  in  favour  of  responsible  government.  Con- 
servative by  nature  and  a  thorough  aristocrat,  he  soon  came  out 
boldly  in  opposition  to  the  popular  movement,  and  from  that  time 
on,  for  many  years,  he  and  Mr.  Howe  were  bitter  opponents  in 
general  political  affairs. 

One  of  the  earliest  acts  of  Governor  Cornwallis  after  his  arriv- 
al, with  the  approval  of  the  Council  he  had  appointed,  was  to 
make  provision  for  an  established  Judiciary.  In  pursuance  of 
this  measure  he  appointed  a  Committee  of  Council  to  examine  the 
various  legal  systems  in  force  in  the  other  American  Colonies  and 
report  on  their  fitness  for  Nova  Scotia's  needs.  On  the  thirteenth 
of  December  (1749),  Hon.  Benjamin  Green  reported  that  after 
careful  investigation  the  committee  had  decided  that  the  laws  of 
Virginia  were  most  applicable  to  the  case  in  hand,  and  his  report 
was  adopted.  This  report,  says  Dr.  Akins, ' '  referred  principally  to 
the  judicial  proceedings  in  the  General  Courts,  the  County  Courts, 
and  other  tribunals. "  "  The  first  thing  I  set  about  after  the  de- 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  39 

parture  of  the  Charlton,  writes  the  Governor  in  March,  1750, 
was  to  establish  the  courts  of  judicature,"  and  later  in  the  year 
he  says  that  it  gives  him  great  satisfaction  to  find  that  the  Lords 
of  Trade  approve  of  the  way  in  which  he  has  established  the 
courts.  These  earliest  Nova  Scotia  courts  were  three :  a  Court  of 
General  Sessions,  having  powers  like  those  of  similar  courts  in 
England;  a  County  Court,  having  jurisdiction  over  the 
whole  province,  which  then  comprised  but  one  county,  the  mem- 
bers of  which  were  men  in  the  Commission  of  the  Peace  at  Hali- 
fax ;  and  a  General  Court,  or  Court  of  Assize  and  General  Jail 
Delivery,  in  which  for  the  time  being  the  Governor  and  Council 
sat  as  judges.  The  County  Court  sat  monthly,  and  except  in 
criminal  matters  was  invested  with  all  the  powers  of  the  Court  of 
King's  Bench,  Common  Pleas,  and  Exchequer,  without  limitation 
of  sums,  or  restriction  as  to  the  nature  of  the  action ;  either  of 
the  litigating  parties,  however,  having  the  right,  after  judgment, 
to  carry  the  cause  by  appeal  into  the  General  Court  and  there  ob- 
tain a  trial  de  novo.  The  General  Court  was  held  twice  a  year, 
in  April  and  October,  and  with  a  jury  tried  all  criminal  offences, 
and  appeals  from  the  County  Court  in  which  the  sum  in  dispute 
exceeded  five  pounds.  It  lasted,  however,  only  until  1752,  when 
a  Court  of  Common  Pleas  was  erected  in  its  stead  upon  the  plan 
of  Inferior  Courts  of  Common  Pleas  in  New  England.3  This 
Court  sat  four  times  a  year,  its  judges  being  selected  from  those 
judges  who  had  presided  in  the  County  Court.  Inconveniences 
soon  arising  from  the  peculiar  construction  of  the  General  Court, 
in  1754,  a  Chief  Justice  was  appointed,  and  a  Supreme  Court,  of 
which  the  Chief  Justice  was  the  sole  judge,  was  established  in 
place  of  the  General  Court.  This  Supreme  Court  was  also  a 
Court  of  Assize  and  General  Jail  Delivery,  and  its  jurisdiction 
was  in  all  other  respects  similar  to  that  of  the  court  whose  place 
it  took. 

In  1758,  when  the  House  of  Assembly  was  created  by  a  tem- 
porary act  of  the  legislature,  the  practice  of  the  Court  of  Com- 


3.  The  first  persons  appointed  judges  of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas  were 
Messrs.  Charles  Morris,  James  Monk,  John  Duport,  Robert  Ewer,  and  Joseph 
Scott.  John  William  Hoffman  and  Leonard  Christopher,  Esquires,  were  at  the 
same  time  appointed  justices  of  the  peace.  Of  the  first  list,  Charles  Morris  and 
James  Monk  were  Bostonians. 


40  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

mon  Pleas  was  changed  and  a  new  mode  was  prescribed,  com- 
pounded partly  from  the  practice  of  Massachusetts,  and  partly 
from  that  of  England.  Two  years  later  New  England  people 
in  large  numbers  settled  in  various  parts  of  the  province  and  then 
new  counties  were  formed  and  new  courts  of  Common  Pleas  were 
established.  As  thus  constituted  the  Nova  Scotia  Judiciary  re- 
mained until  1764,  when  on  the  advice  of  the  Assembly,  seconded 
by  the  Council,  Governor  Wilmot  appointed  two  assistant  judges 
for  the  Supreme  Court,  with  salaries  of  a  hundred  pounds  each, 
which  amount  was  afterward  reduced  to  fifty  pounds.  The  per- 
sons appointed  were  the  Honourable  Charles  Morris,  a  Bostonian 
now  active  in  Nova  Scotia,  and  the  Honourable  John  Duport,  both 
members  of  the  Council  and  conspicuously  able  men.  The  powers 
of  these  new  judges  were,  however,  very  limited,  they  were  not 
permitted  to  try  a  cause  except  with  the  Chief  Justice,  or  even 
to  open  or  adjourn  a  court  without  his  presence  or  concurrence. 
In  1770,  Judge  Duport  was  created  Chief  Justice  of  Prince  Ed- 
ward Island,  and  Mr.  Isaac  Deschamps,  one  of  the  first  judges  of 
the  Court  of  Common  Pleas  for  King's  County,  was  appointed  to 
the  judgeship  he  had  left.  Mr.  Morris,  however,  retained  his 
judgeship  until  his  death  in  1781. 

In  1774  an  act  was  passed  for  the  establishment  of  circuits  in 
the  province,  which  authorized  the  holding  of  courts  at  Horton, 
Annapolis,  and  Cumberland,  to  sit  not  beyond  five  days  at  each 
of  these  places.  At  these  courts  two  judges  were  required  to  be 
present.  The  terms  at  Halifax  were  fourteen  days  each,  the  court, 
however,  having  liberty  to  continue  six  days  longer  if  necessity 
required.  Another  act  of  the  legislature,  in  1809,  raised  the 
salaries  of  the  assistant  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  from  four 
hundred  to  five  hundred  pounds  currency  each,  besides  travel- 
ling fees,  and  increased  their  number  from  two  to  three.  Accord- 
ingly, the  next  year  the  Governor,  Sir  George  Prevost,  appointed 
as  the  third  assistant  judge,  Mr.  Foster  Hutchinson,  another 
Bostonian,  now  senior  barrister  of  the  Nova  Scotia  bar  and  a 
member  of  the  House  of  Assembly.  In  1816  an  act  was  passed 
to  appoint  an  associate  judge  on  the  circuits  of  the  Supreme 
Court,  and  in  pursuance  of  the  act,  Peleg  Wiswall,  Esquire,  also 
of  a  New  England  family,  was  given  a  judgeship.  At  the  same 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  41 

time  Mr.  Lewis  Morris  Wilkhis,  a  native  of  New  York,  was  ap- 
pointed to  a  judgeship  of  the  Supreme  Court  in  place  of  Judge 
George  Henry  Monk,  who  had  resigned. 

In  1758  there  were  also  in  existence  in  Halifax  a  Probate  Court, 
an  Admiralty  Court  of  Appeals,  and  a  Court  of  Vice  Admiralty, 
of  which  the  Hon.  John  Collier  was  the  judge.  The  judges  of 
the  Court  of  Common  Pleas  in  this  year  were  Charles  Morris, 
James  Monk,  John  Duport,  Joseph  Gerrish,  and  Edmund  Craw- 
ley,  the  first  of  whom  received  a  salary  of  sixty  pounds,  the  others 
forty  pounds  each.  Three  years  later  Joseph  Winniett,  George 
Dyson,  and  Henry  Evans,  Esquires,  were  named  as  judges  of  a 
similar  court  for  Annapolis  County,  and  Isaac  Deschamps,  Henry 
Denny  Denson,  and  Robert  Denison,  Esquires,  for  the  County  of 
King's.  The  first  Halifax  court  house  stood  at  the  corner  of 
Buckingham  and  Argyle  streets,  but  the  building  was  destroyed 
by  fire  in  1783.4 

In  reading  of  the  appointments  to  chief  places  in  the  early  Nova 
Scotia  judiciary,  we  see  at  a  glance  how  preponderatingly  large 
is  the  number  of  New  England  names  in  the  list.  Charles  Morris, 
James  Monk,  Joseph  Gerrish,  and  Foster  Hutchinson,  were  all 
representatives  of  important  Boston  families.  Henry  Evans, 
Peleg  Wiswall,  Robert  Denison  and  others,  in  various  parts  of  the 
province,  were  also  all  conspicuous  New  England  born  men.5 

Of  Judge  Foster  Hutchinson,  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  he 
was  a  son  of  Judge  Foster  Hutchinson  of  Boston,  one  of  the  five 
judges  of  the  Superior  Court  of  Massachusetts  at  the  outbreak 
of  the  Revolution ;  and  a  nephew  of  Governor  Thomas  Hutchin- 
son. The  senior  Judge  Foster  Hutchinson,  who  married,  April 
twelfth,  1750,  Margaret  Mascarene,  daughter  of  Major  Paul 
Mascarene,  came  to  Halifax  with  his  family  in  1776,  his  son  Fos- 
ter, being  then  probably  in  his  fifteenth  year.  The  Senior  Judge 
Hutchinson  died  at  Halifax  in  1799,  but  his  son  rose  to  as  great 


4.  A  tablet  has  lately  been  placed  on  a  building  now  on  the  spot,  to  commem- 
orate the  fact  of  the  court-house  having  been  there.    The  statement,  however,  has 
been  made  in  print  that  "as  late  as  1803"  the  courts,  and  the  legislative  assembly  as 
well,  met  in  a  large  wooden  building  owned  by  Hon.   Thomas  Cochran  and  his 
brothers,  which   stood  where  the   Post  Office  now  stands. 

5.  Judge  Lewis  Morris  Wilkins,  however,  as  we  have  said,  was  of  a  noted 
New  York  family,  his  father  being  Mr.   (afterward  the  Rev.)   Isaac  Wilkins,  the 
Loyalist,  whose  life  as  a  clergyman  was  spent  at  Westchester,  New  York. 


42  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

prominence  in  Nova  Scotia  as  his  father  had  enjoyed  in  Massa- 
chusetts, serving  as  representative  in  the  legislature  for  Halifax 
town,  as  senior  member  of  the  bar  receiving  a  judgeship  in  1810, 
and  being  admitted  to  the  Council  in  1813.  The  testimony  of  Sir 
George  Prevost,  the  governor,  concerning  Hutchinson  was,  that 
he  was  "  learned  in  the  law,  of  good  estate,  and  irreproachable 
character, ' '  and  Mr.  Beamish  Murdoch  exalts  him  as  "a  polished 
and  truly  amiable  gentleman  and  a  man  of  remarkable  integrity, ' ' 
his  tastes  also  being  "classical  and  refined."  Hutchinson,  how- 
ever, was  not  robust  and  he  did  not  live  long  to  enjoy  the  dignity 
of  the  bench.  He  died  in  Halifax,  unmarried,  in  1815,  in  his  fifty- 
fourth  year,  and  his  seat  on  the  Supreme  Court  bench  was  given 
to  the  Solicitor-General,  Mr.  James  Stewart.6 

The  complete  organization  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Judiciary  was 
effected,  as  we  have  seen,  in  1754,  by  the  appointment  of  a  Chief 
Justice  and  the  establishment  of  a  Supreme  Court.  The  first 
Chief  Justice  of  the  province  was  a  Boston  born  lawyer,  Mr. 
Jonathan  Belcher,  second  son  of  the  Honourable  Jonathan  Bel- 
cher, of  Boston,  who  was  successively  governor  of  Massa- 
chusetts and  New  Jersey,  and  his  first  wife,  Mary  Part- 
ridge, daughter  of  a  lieutenant-governor  of  the  province  of 
New  Hampshire.  The  Nova  Scotia  Chief  Justice  was  born 
in  Boston,  July  twenty-third,  1710,  and  was  graduated  at  Har- 
vard College  in  1728,  after  this  going  to  the  Middle  Temple 
in  London  to  study  law.  In  January,  1733,  still  of  the  Temple,  he 
was  made  a  master  of  arts  by  Cambridge  University,  and  sooner 
or  later  he  seems  to  have  gone  to1  Ireland  to  practice  his  pro- 
fession there.  In  the  Halifax  Gazette  of  Saturday,  June  eighth, 
1754,  we  find  a  dispatch  from  Boston  which  gives  an  extract  from 
a  letter  from  London,  dated  March  nineteenth  of  that  year,  con- 
taining the  announcement  that  "Jonathan  Belcher,  Esq.,  Son  of 
his  Excellency  Governor  Belcher,  is  appointed  Chief  Justice  of 
Nova  Scotia,  with  a  Salary  of  Five  Hundred  Pounds  Sterling  per 

6.  Of  Judge  Foster  Hutchinson,  Senior,  Murdoch  says  (Vol.  2,  pp.  575,  576)  : 
"Mr.  Hutchinson,  late  a  judge  in  Massachusetts,  who  came  here  on  the  evacuation 
of  Boston,  had  some  very  treasonable  addresses  reprinted  in  the  Halifax  news- 
paper, thinking  to  excite  the  resentment  of  the  people  of  Nova  Scotia  by  showing 
the  openly  avowed  rebellion  of  New  England.  The  Council  disapproved  of  this 
course  and  Mr.  Hutchinson  apologized.  A  proclamation  was  then  ordered  to  for- 
bid the  reprinting  treasonable  documents." 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  43 

Annum,  and  is  expected  here  [Boston]  from  Ireland  very  soon, 
to  embark  for  that  Place."  On  Monday,  October  fourteenth, 
having  arrived  from  Boston,  Belcher  was  sworn  in  Halifax  a 
member  of  the  Council,  and  a  week  later  he  took  the  oath  of  office 
as  Chief  Justice.7 

"On  Monday,  14th  October,"  says  Mr.  Beamish  Murdoch, 
"Jonathan  Belcher,  the  newly  appointed  Chief  Justice  of  the 
Province,  was  (by  his  Majesty's  mandamus)  sworn  in  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Council;  after  which  the  Council  adjourned  to  the 
Court  House,  where,  after  proclamation  made  for  silence,  the 
King's  commission  appointing  Charles  Lawrence  lieutenant-gov- 
ernor was  read  in  public.  He  was  sworn  in  and  took  the  chair. 
The  Council  addressed  him  in  congratulation  and  he  made  a  suit- 
able reply.  A  commission  by  patent  for  the  Chief  Justice  was 
prepared,  and  on  the  21st  October  (Monday)  it  was  read  in  Coun- 
cil, and  the  Chief  Justice  took  the  usual  oaths  and  oath  of  office. 
On  the  first  day  of  Michaelmas  term,  Chief  Justice  Belcher  walked 
in  a  procession  from  the  governor's  house  to  the  Pontac,  a  tavern. 
He  was  accompanied  by  the  Lieutenant-Governor,  Lawrence,  the 
members  of  the  Council,  and  the  gentlemen  of  the  Bar  in  their 
robes.  They  were  preceded  by  the  Provost  Marshal,  the  Judge 's 
tipstaff,  and  other  civil  officers.  At  the  long  room  of  the  Pontac 
an  elegant  breakfast  was  provided.  The  Chief  Justice  in  his 
scarlet  robes  was  there  received  and  complimented  'in  the  politest 
manner'  by  a  great  number  of  gentlemen  and  ladies  and  officers 
of  the  army. 

"Breakfast  being  over  they  proceeded,  with  the  commission 
carried  before  them,  to  the  church  (St.  Paul's),  where  the  Rever- 
end Mr.  Breynton  preached  from  this  text :  *  I  am  one  of  them  that 
are  peaceable  and  faithful  in  Israel.'  A  suitable  anthem  was 
sung.  After  this  they  proceeded  to  the  Court  House,  handsomely 
fitted  up  for  the  occasion.  The  Chief  Justice  took  his  seat  under 
a  canopy,  with  the  Lieutenant-Governor  on  his  right  hand.  The 


7.  Various  brief  sketches  of  Chief  Justice  Belcher  have  from  time  to  time  ap- 
peared in  print,  but  a  much  longer  and  by  far  the  most  valuable  sketch  of  him  is 
by  the  Hon.  Sir  Charles  Tpwnshend,  Kt,  whose  own  Chief-Justiceship  of  Nova 
Scotia  lasted  from  1907  until  1915.  Sir  Charles  was  the  eleventh  Chief  Justice  of 
Nova  Scotia.  His  successor  is  the  Hon.  Chief  Justice  Graham.  Sir  Charles's  bi- 
ography of  Chief  Justice  Belcher  will  be  found  in  the  eighteenth  volume  of  the 
"Collections  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Historical  Society,"  pp.  25-55. 


44  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

Clerk  of  the  Crown  then  presented  the  commission  to  Mr.  Belcher, 
which  he  returned.  Proclamation  for  silence  was  made.  Belcher 
gave  some  directions  for  the  conduct  of  practitioners.  The  grand 
jury  was  sworn  and  the  Chief  Justice  delivered  his  charge  to 
them.  After  this  the  court  adjourned  and  his  Honor  the  Chief 
Justice,  accompanied  and  attended  before,  went  back  to  the  Gov- 
ernor's house." 

A  few  days  after  these  elaborate  ceremonies,  the  Chief  Justice 
went  in  his  judge's  robes,  attended  by  the  members  of  the  Bar, 
the  Grand  Jury,  and  the  various  court  officers,  to  Governor  Law- 
rence's  house  and  in  his  own  name  and  the  names  of  those  who 
were  with  him  congratulated  Lawrence  on  his  appointment  to  the 
governorship.  To  the  address  Lawrence  replied  that  the  Judiciary 
would  have  his  full  support  in  the  performance  of  their  functions, 
the  law,  he  said,  being  "the  firm  and  solid  basis  of  civil  society, 
the  guardian  of  liberty,  the  protector  of  the  innocent,  the  terror 
of  the  guilty,  and  the  scourge  of  the  wicked." 

The  influence  of  Chief  Justice  Belcher  in  Nova  Scotia  was  far- 
reaching  and  wide.  The  early  enactments  of  the  legislature  which 
form  the  groundwork  of  the  statutes  of  the  province  and  make 
the  basis  of  the  legal  order  which  has  been  in  force  there  ever 
since,  were  all  prepared  by  him,  and  there  was  no  important  ques- 
tion of  government  during  his  control  of  the  Judiciary  that  he  did 
not  in  some  way  influence.  On  the  death  of  Governor  Lawrence 
in  October,  1760,  as  president  of  the  Council  he  for  a  short  time 
administered  the  government,  and  then,  the  newly  appointed  gov- 
ernor, Henry  Ellis,  formerly  Governor  of  Georgia,  for  some  rea- 
son not  coming  to  his  post,  on  the  twenty-first  of  November,  1760, 
he  was  formally  created  lieutenant-governor.  Chief  Justice  Bel- 
cher 's  greatest  achievement  for  Nova  Scotia,  however,  apart  from 
his  able  control  of  her  Judiciary,  was  his  successful  appeal  to  the 
Home  Government  for  a  Representative  Assembly  for  the  prov- 
ince. As  early  as  1755  the  question  of  the  legality  of  statutes  made 
for  the  province  by  the  Governor  and  Council  alone  was  vigorous- 
ly raised  by  Mr.  Belcher.  "  Lawrence  and  his  predecessors  in  of- 
fice," says  Sir  Charles  Townshend,  "with  the  approbation  of  the 
Council  had  passed  large  numbers  of  laws,  or  as  they  were  styled 
ordinances,  for  the  government  of  the  settlement.  They  had 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  45 

furthermore  put  these  ordinances  in  force  as  a  Court,  and  adju- 
dicated on  the  rights  and  controversies  of  the  settlers  so  far  as 
these  ordinances  applied  to  them.  They  had  even  tried,  con- 
victed, and  hanged  one  man  under  such  authority.  All  these  acts 
and  proceedings  were  in  good  faith  believed  by  them  to  be  author- 
ized by  the  Governor's  Commission  and  the  Royal  Instructions. 
Belcher  took  exception  to  such  a  construction,  and  contended  that 
laws  could  be  made  only  by  the  representatives  of  the  people  duly 
elected,  and  urged  upon  the  Council  the  necessity  of  calling  a 
Representative  Assembly  for  that  purpose.  Lawrence  and  pre- 
sumably other  members  of  the  Council  were  opposed  to  that  view. 
Finally  the  whole  matter  was  referred  to  the  Home  Authorities. ' ' 
As  a  matter  of  course  the  Lords  of  Trade  gave  the  matter  under 
such  serious  discussion  in  Halifax  their  immediate  attention,  and 
on  the  seventh  of  May,  1755,  they  wrote  Governor  Lawrence 
that  they  had  received  from  both  the  attorney-general  and  the 
solicitor-general  of  England  an  unqualified  decision  that  laws  as 
then  made  in  Nova  Scotia  were  not  valid,  and  they  directed  the 
governor  to  take  steps  to  call  a  representative  assembly.  Fear- 
ing that  such  an  assembly  would  embarrass  him  in  his  govern- 
ment of  the  province,  Lawrence  remonstrated,  but  at  last,  after 
much  debate,  in  January,  1757,  a  detailed  plan8  was  resolved  on  in 


8.  The  chief  provisions  of  the  submitted  plan  were  as  follows : — "That  a  House 
of  Representatives  of  the  inhabitants  of  this  province  be  the  Civil  Legislature 
thereof,  in  conjunction  with  H.  M.  Governor  or  Commander-in-Chief  for  the 
time  being,  and  His  Majesty's  Council  of  the  said  province. 

"The  first  House  to  be  elected  and  convened  in  the  following  manner  and  to 
be  styled  the  General  Assembly,  viz :  That  there  shall  be  elected  for  the  province 
at  large,  until  the  same  shall  be  divided  into  counties,  sixteen  members;  four  be- 
ing for  the  township  of  Halifax,  two  for  the  township  of  Lunenburg. 

"That  until  the  said  township  can  be  more  particularly  described,  the  limits 
thereof  shall  be  deemed  to  be  as  follows,  viz. :  That  the  township  of  Halifax  com- 
prehend all  the  lands  lying  southerly  of  a  line  extending  from  the  westernmost 
head  of  Bedford  Bason  across  to  the  northeasterly  head  of  St.  Margaret's  Bay,  with 
all  the  islands  nearest  to  the  said  lands,  together  with  the  islands  called  Corn- 
Wallis',  Webb's  and  Rous'  islands.  That  the  township  of  Lunesburg  compre- 
hend all  the  lands  lying  between  Lahave  river  and  the  easternmost  head  of  Mahone 
Bay,  with  all  the  islands  within  said  bay,  and  all  the  islands  within  Mirligash  Bay, 
and  those  islands  lying  to  the  southward  of  the  above  limits. 

"That  when  fifty  qualified  electors  shall  be  settled  at  Pisiquid,  Mines,  Cobe- 
guid,  or  any  other  township  which  may  hereafter  be  erected,  each  of  the  said 
townships  so  settled  shall,  for  their  encouragement,  be  entitled  to  send  two  repre- 
sentatives to  the  General  Assembly,  and  shall  likewise  have  a  right  of  voting  in  the 
elections  of  representatives  for  the  province  at  large. 

"That  the  house  shall  always  consist  of  at  least  eleven  members  present,  be- 
sides the  speaker,  before  they  enter  upon  business.  That  no  person  shall  be 
chosen  as  a  member  of  the  said  house,  or  shall  have  the  right  of  voting  in  the 


46  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

Council,  and  the  second  of  October,  1758,  nineteen  duly  elected 
representatives  of  the  people,  pursuant  to  a  summons  from  the 
Provost  Marshal  or  Sheriff,  convened  in  the  first  Nova  Scotia 
Assembly.  The  newly  elected  members  were:  Joseph  Gerrish, 
Robert  Sanderson,  Henry  Newton,  William  Foye,  William  Nes- 
bitt,  and  Joseph  Rundell,  Esquires;  and  Jonathan  Binney,  Henry 
Ferguson,  George  Suckling,  John  Burbridge,  Robert  Campbell, 
William  Pantree,  Joseph  Fairbanks,  Philip  Hammond,  John 
Fillis,  Lambert  Folkers,  Philip  Knaut,  William  Best,  and  Alex- 
ander Kedie,  gentlemen,— five  of  whom  in  the  first  group,  Ger- 
rish, Sanderson,  Newton,  Foye,  and  Rundell  (as  seems  prob- 
able), and  at  least  six  in  the  second,  Binney,  Campbell,  Pan- 
tree,  Fairbanks,  Hammond,  and  Fillis,  were  New  England,  chiefly 
Boston  born,  men.  Of  the  remaining  eight,  some  were  English- 
men, and  some  were  Germans  who  had  come  to  Halifax  shortly 
after  the  first  group  of  English  settlers  came.  The  speaker  chosen 


election  of  any  member  of  said  house,  who  shall  be  a  Popish  recusant,  or  shall  be 
under  the  age  of  twenty-one  years,  or  who  shall  not  at  the  time  of  such  election,  be 
possessed  in  his  own  right,  of  a  freehold  estate  within  the  district  for  which  he 
shall  be  elected,  or  shall  so  vote ;  nor  shall  any  elector  have  more  than  one  vote 
for  each  member  to  be  chosen  for  the  province  at  large,  or  for  any  township,  and 
that  each  freeholder  present  at  such  election,  and  giving  his  vote  for  one  mem- 
ber for  the  province  at  large,  shall  be  obliged  to  vote  also  for  the  other  fifteen." 

The  scheme  proposed  four  members  for  the  township  of  Halifax,  two  for 
Lunenburg,  one  each  for  Dartmouth,  Lawrencetown,  Annapolis,  and  Cum- 
berland, and  twelve  for  the  province  at  large.  (See  Murdoch's  "History  of  Nova 
Scotia,"  Vol.  2,  p.  234).  The  correspondence  between  the  Governor  and  the  Lords 
of  Trade  relative  to  the  Assembly  will  be  found  in  the  first  volume  of  the  "Nova 
Scotia  Archives."  The  proposed  plan  was  formally  accepted  by  the  Governor  and 
Council,  but  the  Governor  and  the  Lieutenant  Governor  being  about  to  leave  for 
Louisburg,  it  was  agreed  that  the  Assembly  should  not  be  convened  until  October. 
The  nineteen  members,  immediately  after  they  convened  elected  three  of  their 
number,  Messrs.  Nesbitt,  Newton,  and  Rundel,  to  wait  on  the  Governor.  The  lat- 
ter then  appointed  two  members  of  the  Council,  Messrs.  Green  and  Morris,  to  swear 
them  in.  After  the  oaths  had  been  administered  his  Excellency  requested  the  pres- 
ence of  the  members  at  Government  House,  where  they  found  the  Governor  sitting 
with  the  Council.  They  then  proceeded  to  choose  a  speaker.  The  minor  officers  of 
the  House  were  David  Lloyd,  clerk,  William  Reynolds,  doorkeeper,  and  John  Cal- 
beck,  messenger. 

The  New  England  members  in  the  Second  Assembly  of  the  province,  which 
met  for  the  first  time  in  December,  1759,  were :  Henry  Newton,  Jonathan  Binney, 
Malachy  Salter,  Benjamin  Gerrish,  Capt.  Charles  Proctor,  Col.  Jonathan  Hoar, 
John  Newton,  Capt.  Simon  Slocomb,  Col.  Joseph  Fry,  and  John  Huston. 

Among  Governor  Cornwallis's  first  councillors,  it  will  be  remembered,  were  at 
least  three  Massachusetts  men,  John  Gorham,  Benjamin  Green,  and  Edward  How. 
By  1758,  two  others  from  Massachusetts  had  been  added  to  the  list,  Messrs.  Jona- 
than Belcher  and  Charles  Morris.  For  Charles  Morris,  see  the  writer's  sketch  of 
him  in  the  "N.  E.  Hist,  and  Gen.  Register,"  Vol.  67,  pp.  287-290.  For  Hibbert 
Newton  and  his  family,  see  the  writer's  sketch  in  the  same  periodical,  Vol.  68,  pp. 
101-103. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  47 

was  Robert  Sanderson,  who  had  been  a  merchant  in  Boston  and 
was  now  a  merchant  and  ship-owner  in  Halifax.  He  was  without 
doubt  a  grandson  of  Robert  Sanderson,  silversmith,  of  Boston,  a 
deacon  of  the  First  Church,  who  with  John  Hull  was  given  charge 
of  the  first  coinage  of  shillings,  sixpences,  and  threepences  in  the 
Colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  in  1652. 

Chief- Justice  Belcher's  tenure  of  office  as  lieutenant-governor 
of  Nova  Scotia  lasted  only  from  November,  1761,  until  Septem- 
ber twenty-sixth,  1762,  when  Col.  the  Honorable  Montague  Wil- 
mot  assumed  the  office.  But  until  his  death,  which  occurred  on 
the  twenty-ninth  of  March,  1776,  the  Chief -Justice's  interest  was 
unremitting  in  public  affairs.  In  the  expulsion  of  the  Acadians 
from  the  province  in  1755,  and  the  subsequent  settlement  of  the 
lands  from  which  they  had  been  removed  and  the  lands  never 
previously  occupied  by  European  inhabitants ;  in  defending  Hali- 
fax from  possible  attack  by  the  French;  in  regulation  of  Nova 
Scotia's  commerce;  and  in  the  settlement  of  no  end  of  local  dis- 
putes, Mr.  Belcher's  voice  was  persistently  raised  and  his  influ- 
ence strongly  felt.  "Although  from  all  that  is  known  of  him," 
says  Sir  Charles  Townshend,  ' i  it  would  seem  that  he  was  a  man 
of  strong  will,  and  possibly  of  despotic  temperament,  against  that 
it  must  be  remembered  that  in  the  rude  and  unsettled  state  of  the 
Province,  and  the  constant  peril  and  danger  surrounding  the 
country,  first  from  the  French  and  Indians,  and  afterward  from 
the  outbreak  of  the  American  Revolution,  a  strong  and  fearless 
man  in  office  was  required. ' '  I  think  it  is  a  fair  deduction  from  all 
we  know  of  him, ' '  he  continues,  ' '  that  he  was  a  man  of  pure  and 
elevated  character,  that  he  devoted  himself  to  the  land  of  his 
adoption  with  zeal  and  energy,  and  that  to  his  great  learning  and 
his  determination  we  are  largely,  perhaps  chiefly,  indebted  for 
our  constitutional  rights  and  for  the  law  and  order  which  have 
prevailed  in  Nova  Scotia  from  the  first."9 

Chief- Justice  Belcher's  house  in  Halifax,  was  somewhere  in 
Argyle  Street,  but  he  also  owned  a  farm  at  Windsor,  which  was 
known  as  "Belvidere  Farm."  He  was  more  or  less  interested  in 
shipping,  and  he  had  grants  of  land  at  Sheet  Harbour  and  possi- 


g.    "Jonathan  Belcher,  the  First  Chief  Justice"  by  Sir  Charles  Townshend,  in 
the  "Collections  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Historical  Society,"  Vol.  18,  pp.  35,  52- 


48  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

bly  other  places,  but  he  never  amassed  wealth  and  sometime  after 
his  death  his  only  surviving  daughter  was  granted  for  her  partial 
support  a  pension  of  fifty  pounds  a  year.  On  the  thirty-first  of 
March,  1776,  he  was  buried  under  St.  Paul's  Church.  It  is  com- 
monly believed  that  in  the  Kevolution,  of  which  he  lived  to  see 
the  earlier  events,  his  sympathies  were  decidedly  with  his  New 
England  friends  who  had  espoused  the  patriot  cause.  He  was 
succeeded  in  the  office  of  Chief  Justice  by  Bryan  Finucane,  Esq., 
an  Irish  barrister,  who  assumed  the  office  early  in  1778,  but  be- 
tween his  death  and  the  arrival  in  Halifax  of  Mr.  Finucane  the  of- 
fice was  temporarily  filled  by  the  Hon.  Charles  Morris.10 

Between  1778  and  1797  four  Chief  Justices  in  succession  ad- 
ministered the  chief  judicial  affairs  of  Nova  Scotia,  Messrs. 
Bryan  Finucane,  Isaac  Deschamps,  Jeremiah  Pemberton,  and 
Thomas  Andrew  Lumisden  Strange,  none  of  whom  were  New 
England  men,  but  in  the  latter  year  a  Boston  born  lawyer  once 
more  became  head  of  the  Provincial  Judiciary.  On  the  ninth  of 
September,  1797,  Judge  Strange 's  resignation  was  placed  before 
the  Council,11  and  Sir  John  Wentworth,  who  was  then  governor, 
stated  that  he  had  His  Majesty's  approval  to  make  the  Attorney 
General,  Mr.  Sampson  Salter  Blowers,  Chief  Justice.  Sampson 
Salter  Blowers,  son  of  John  Blowers,  goldsmith,  and  his  wife 
Sarah  Salter,  was  btfrn  in  Boston,  March  tenth,  1742  (of  our 


10.  In  his  interesting  sketch  of  Chief  Justice  Belcher,  Sir  Charles  Town- 
shend  speaks  of  the  handsome  equipment  of  the  Chief  Justice's  house  and  of  the 
valuable  library  he  owned.  "We  can  fairly  presume,"  he  adds  that  at  his  hospitable 
board  many  of  the  notable  men  who  lived  in  and  visited  Halifax  were  worthily 
entertained." 

The  Belcher  family,  was  continued  for  some  years  in  Halifax  by  the  Chief 
Justice's  only  living  son,  Hon.  Andrew  Belcher,  who  married  in  Boston  Mary  Ann 
or  Marianne  Geyer,  and  among  whose  children  was  the  distinguished  Rear  Admir- 
al Sir  Edward  Belcher,  K.  C.  B.  In  the  i8th  volume  of  the  "Coll.  of  the  N.  S. 
Hist.  Soc."  the  writer  has  given  the  name  of  Mrs.  Andrew  Belcher  as  von  Geyer, 
this  is  a  mistake  which  has  repeatedly  been  made  in  print,  the  name  was  not  a  German 
but  a  New  England  name  and  sometimes  was  spelled  Gaier,  Geier,  etc.,  as  well  as 
Geyer.  For  Admiral  Sir  Edward  Belcher,  see  the  "Dictionary  of  National 
Biography." 

n.  For  the  life  of  Chief  Justice  Strange,  see  the  "Dictionary  of  National 
Biography."  Strange  was  knighted  March  14,  1798,  in  which  year  he  was  removed 
for  important  judicial  service  to  Madras,  India.  He  was  born  in  England  and  edu- 
cated at  Oxford.  A  portrait  of  him  by  Benjamin  West  was  painted  for  Halifax, 
and  one  for  Madras  by  Sir  Thomas  Lawrence.  Strange  died  in  England,  July  16, 
1841.  A  more  definite  account  of  his  appointment  in  India  than  that  given  in  the 
Dictionary  of  National  Biography  says  that  he  left  Nova  Scotia  having  accepted  the 
appointment  of  recorder  in  the  fort  of  St.  George,  Bombay.  Before  he  left  Nova 
Scotia  he  made  a  present  of  his  law  library  to  the  province.  This  became  the  nu- 
cleus of  the  present  library  of  the  Bar  at  Halifax. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  49 

present  calendar),  the  youngest  but  one  of  five  children,  four  of 
whom  were  girls.  For  the  rather  remarkable  name  he  bore  he  was 
indebted  to  his  maternal  grandfather,  Sampson  Salter,  who  when 
he  died  in  1778  mentioned  him  conspicuously  in  his  will.12  At 
the  age  of  eleven  Blowers  entered  the  Boston  Latin  School  and 
and  after  spending  six  years  there,  one  year  less  than  the  full 
course  in  that  school  in  preparation  for  college,  entered  Harvard. 
In  1763  he  graduated,  the  twenty-first  member  in  social  rank  of 
a  class  the  whole  number  of  which  was  thirty-nine,  among  his 
classmates  being  Jonathan  Bliss,  afterward  Chief  Justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  New  Brunswick,  Nathan  Gushing,  Judge  of  the 
Superior  Court  of  Massachusetts,  Dr.  John  Jeffries,  a  notable 
Tory,  remembered  for  his  balloon  flight  across  the  English  Chan- 
nel on  the  seventeenth  of  January,  1785,  Nathaniel  Noyes,  Timo- 
thy Pickering,  Secretary  of  State  for  the  United  States,  Josiah 
Quincy,  and  Joshua  Upham,  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  New 
Brunswick.  After  leaving  college  Blowers  studied  law  in  the 
office  of  Governor  Thomas  Hutchinson,  and  probably  in  July, 
1766,  was  admitted  to  the  Massachusetts  Bar. 

Blowers 's  activity  as  a  lawyer  in  Boston  is  declared  by  the 
large  number  of  cases  in  which  the  Suffolk  Court  records  show 
him  to  have  been  concerned,  a  conspicuous  one  of  these  being  the 
defence  of  Captain  Preston,  a  British  officer,  and  some  other 
British  soldiers,  who  had  taken  part  in  what  is  known  as  the 
Boston  massacre,  in  1770.  His  colleagues  in  this  case  were 
Messrs.  John  Adams  and  Blowers 's  Harvard  classmate,  Josiah 


12.  In  the  Boston  fire  of  1760,  Sampson  Salter  had  a  brew-house  burned  in 
Quaker  Lane.  Mr.  Salter  made  his  will  March  31,  1778,  (proved  April  4,  17/8).  It 
was  understood  in  Boston  that  he  originally  intended  his  grandson  to  have  much 
more  of  his  estate  than  he  finally  left  him,  but  that  he  feared  that  all  Blowers  had 
would  be  confiscated  by  the  Patriots.  For  the  Blowers  family  at  large,  see 
Paige's  "History  of  Cambridge,  Mass.,"  p.  489.  The  Blowers  descent  of  Sampson 
Salter4  Blowers  was :  John3,  Rev.  Thomas*,  Captain  Pyam1.  John  Blowers  and 
Sarah  Salter  were  married  by  Rev.  Joshua  Gee  of  the  Second  Church,  Nov.  27, 
1735,  and  had  children:  Sarah,  born  Sept.  3,  1736;  Martha,  Dec.  19,  1738;  Emma, 
March  12,  1740;  Sampson  Salter,  March  10,  1742;  Martha,  April  8,  1744.  The 
baptisms  of  the  first  three  of  these  children  will  be  found  on  the  Register  of  the 
Second  Church,  the  baptisms  of  the  last  two  we  have  not  anywhere  found.  Chief 
Justice  Sampson  Salter  Blowers  was  a  second  cousin  once  removed  of  Chief  Jus- 
tice Jonathan  Belcher  of  Nova  Scotia,  and  was  related,  but  perhaps  even  more  re- 
motely, to  Malachy  Salter,  one  of  the  most  considerable  merchants  of  Halifax  in 
early  times. 


50  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

Quincy.13  When  the  Revolution  came,  Blowers 's  sympathies 
were  strongly  with  the  British  cause  and  on  the  thirtieth  of  May, 
1774,  with  other  barristers  and  attorneys  of  Massachusetts  he 
signed  a  complimentary  address  to  his  friend  Governor  Hut- 
chinson,  shortly  before  the  latter 's  departure  for  England.  In 
this  year  the  Massachusetts  courts  were  suspended,  and  in  No- 
vember Blowers  himself  left  for  England,  where  with  other  Loy- 
alists besides  Hutchinson  we  find  him  from  shortly  before  the 
first  of  January,  1775,  until  August,  1777.  Under  date  of  January 
third,  1775,  Governor  Hutchinson  records  in  his  diary:  "Three 
gentlemen  from  New  England,  Ingersoll,  Bliss,  and  Blowers, 
came  to  my  house  in  the  evening,  with  a  great  number  of  letters 
and  papers  from  my  friends. ' '  Of  the  fourth  of  January  Hutchin- 
son says :  "In  the  morning  accompanied  the  New  England  men 
to  Ld  Dartmouth's,  who  made  a  particular  enquiry  into  the  af- 
fairs of  the  Province.  Bliss  gave  the  fullest  account.  He  was 
clear,  upon  Lord  D.  asking  whether  any  concession  would  be  like 
to  satisfy,  that  it  would  not,  and  that  nothing  but  a  force  sufficient 
would  bring  them  to  order."14 

Under  date  of  January  first,  1776,  Judge  Samuel  Curwen,  the 
Salem,  Massachusetts,  refugee,  writes  in  his  journal  kept  in  Eng- 
land: "To  the  Adelphi,  Strand,  where  by  appointment  met 
twenty-one  of  my  countrymen,  who  have  agreed  on  a  weekly  din- 
ner here,  viz.  Messrs.  Richard  Clark,  Joseph  Green,  Jonathan 
Bliss,  Jonathan  Sewall,  Joseph  Waldo,  S.  S.  Blowers,  Elisha 
Hutchinson,  William  Hutchinson,  Samuel  Sewall,  Samuel  Quincy, 
Isaac  Smith,  Harrison  Gray,  David  Greene,  Jonathan  Clark, 
Thomas  Flucker,  Joseph  Taylor,  Daniel  Silsbee,  Thomas  Brin- 
ley,  William  Cabot,  John  S.  Copley,  and  Nathaniel  Coffin.  Samuel 
Porter,  Edward  Oxnard,  Benjamin  Pickman,  John  Amory,  Judge 


13.  For  the  prominence  of  Mr.   Blowers  as  a  lawyer  in  Massachusetts,  see 
"Record  Book  of  the  Suffolk  Bar,"  in  the  igth  Vol.  of  the  Proceedings  of  the 
Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  (ist  Series),  pp.  145,  147,  148,  151,  152.    See  also  Vol.  8,  p.  440,  and 
Vol.  15,  pp.  184,  397.    See  further  Suffolk  Court  Records  unprinted;  and  Blowers's 
own  testimony  before  the  commissioner  on  Loyalist  claims  at  Halifax,  in  1785. 

14.  David  Ingersoll,  a  lawyer,  born  in  1742,  was  graduated  at  Yale  College  in 
1761.     He  like  Blowers  addressed  Hutchinson  in  1774.     He  was  the  third  son  of 
Capt.  David  Ingersoll  of  Great  Barrington,  Mass.,  and  practiced  law  in  that  town. 
He  died  in  England  Nov.  10,  1796.    Jonathan  Bliss,  born  Oct.,  1742,  graduated  at 
Harvard  in  1763,  and  like  Ingersoll  and  Blowers  practised  law.    He  settled  in  New 
Brunswick  about  1784,  and  became  Chief  Justice  of  that  province.     He  was  the 
father  of  Judge  William  Blowers  Bliss  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Supreme  Court. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  51 

Robert  Auchmuty,  and  Major  Urquhart,  absent,  are  members  of 
this  club,  as  is  also  Governor  Hutchinson."15  On  the  eighth  of 
June,  1776,  Judge  Curwen  writes:  "Dined  with  Judge  Sewall  at 
Brompton  Row;  and  with  him  his  wife  and  sister,  Mr.  Blowers 
and  wife,  Samuel  Sewall,  and  William  Browne,  was  admitted  to 
the  queen's  palace  in  St.  James's  Park."  March  twenty-seventh, 
1777,  Curwen  writes :  ' '  Walked  out  with  Judge  Sewall  and  Mr. 
A.  Willard  to  Cromwell's  garden,  which  is  in  ill  repair;  drank 
tea  at  the  house  of  the  former,  and  passed  the  evening  with  the 
New  England  Club,  say  'Brompton-Row  Tory  Club,'  at  Mr. 
Blowers."16 

The  date  of  Blowers 's  return  to  America  from  his  sojourn  in 
England  has  usually  been  given  in  print  as  some  time  in  1778, 
but  his  own  statement  before  the  commissioner  on  Loyalist 
claims  in  Halifax,  in  November,  1785,  is  that  he  left  England  for 
New  York  in  August,  1777. 17  From  New  York  he  soon  went  to 
Rhode  Island,  where  the  British  troops  were  still  in  control,  and 
in  Newport  he  remained  until  April,  1778.  On  the  eighth  of  De- 
cember, 1777,  his  father-in-law,  Mr.  Benjamin  Kent  of  Boston, 
petitioned  the  Massachusetts  Council  that  his  daughter  Eliza- 
beth might  be  permitted  to  go  to  Newport  to  see  her  sister,  who, 
he  says,  had  been  absent  from  her  family  ' '  above  three  years, ' ' 
and  bring  her  back  to  Boston  with  her.  The  next  day  the  Council 
granted  Miss  Kent  permission  "to  depart  this  State  for  New- 
port in  the  state  of  Rde  Island  to  see  her  Sister  who  has  lately  ar- 
rived there  from  Great  Britain  and  to  return  with  her  said  Sis- 
ter to  this  State,  provided  the  IIonble  Major  Genl.  Spencer  in- 


15.  A  document  printed  in  Vol.  3,  of  the  New  England  Historical  and  Genea- 
logical Register  (pp.  82,  83)  gives  the  form  of  agreement  made  by  these  gentlemen 
to  dine  at  the  Adelphi  Tavern,  every  Thursday.    There  are  twenty  signatures  given 
to  this  agreement,  of  which  Sampson  Salter  Blowers's  is  the  nineteenth.     The  ex- 
pense of  the  dinner,  exclusive  of  liquors  and  waiters  is  to  be  two  and  sixpence  each 
person  present,  and  no  more.     The  month  and  day  on  which  the  agreement  was 
signed  are  not  given,  but  the  year  was  1775. 

16.  Judge  Curwen  tells  us  that  Jonathan  Clarke,  Thomas  Danforth,  Edward 
Oxnard,  Judge  Sewall,  and  himself  all  lodged  in  Brompton  Row,  Kensington,  but  he 
does  not  tell  us  whether  Mr.  Blowers  lived  there  or  not. 

17.  The  commissioner  who  took  his  evidence  in  Halifax  on  the  3oth  of  Novem- 
ber, 1785,  was  Mr.  Jeremy  Pemberton,  previously  a  barrister  of  Lincoln's  Inn,  who 
had  been  sent  out  from  England  to  take  evidence  in  the  cases  of  Loyalists  who  had 
lost  property  in  the  Revolution.    He  sat  for  this  purpose  in  Halifax  in  1785-86.    He 
became  in  August,  1788,  fourth  Chief  Justice  of  Nova  Scotia,  but  his  incumbency 
terminated  before  May,  1790,  when  he  was  succeeded  by  Thomas  Andrew  Lumisden 
Strange. 


52  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

dulges  her  with  a  Flag  for  said  purpose,  she  engaging  to  carry  no 
papers  or  letters  detrimental  to  this  or  any  other  of  the  United 
States."18  That  Mrs.  Blowers  did  return  to  Boston  with  her  sis- 
ter we  know  from  her  husband's  declaration  before  the  commis- 
sioner in  Halifax,  for  in  that  he  details  rather  minutely  his  move- 
ments during  the  Revolutionary  struggle.19  In  April,  1778,  he 
says,  he  went  from  Newport  to  Boston  to  visit  Mrs.  Blowers,  who 
was  ill,  he  having  previously  l  i  obtained  a  written  leave  from  Gen- 
eral Sullivan"  to  do  so.  On  his  arrival  in  his  native  town,  "he 
was  immediately  thrown  into  a  Gaol  with  4  or  5  Comn.  felons  and 
kept  a  close  prisoner  for  8  days  and  then  sent  off  in  a  flag  of  Truce 
to  Halifax."20  Of  this  indignity  Mr.  Edward  Winslow,  at  Hali- 
fax, on  the  thirteenth  of  November,  1778,  writes  to  Major  Barry: 
"I've  been  listening  this  day  with  great  satisfaction  to  the  ob- 
servations of  my  friend  Blowers,  made  during  his  barbarous  con- 
finement at  Boston.  .  .  .  The  harsh  treatment  which  he  re- 
ceived during  his  stay  at  Boston  was  most  unparalleled  and  cruel. 
You  may  one  day  hear  the  particulars  from  him,  I  will  only  tell 
you  that  the  dampest,  dirtiest  hole  in  the  common  gaol  was  the 
place  allotted  him."21 

From  Halifax  Mr.  Blowers  returned  to  Newport,  and  on  the 
twenty-ninth  of  April,  1779,  was  appointed  there  Judge  of  the 
Rhode  Island  Court  of  Vice  Admiralty.  Newport  was  evacuated 
by  the  British  on  the  twenty-fifth  or  twenty-seventh  of  October, 
1779,  and  he  then  sailed  for  England  to  seek  compensation  for 
his  financial  losses.  The  next  year  he  came  back  to  America,  this 


18.  "Revolution  Petitions,"  in  the  Massachusetts  Archives,  and  also  the  "Kent 
Genealogy." 

19.  See  "Second  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Archives  of  the  Province  of  On- 
tario" (1905),  part  i,  pp.  490,  491. 

20.  The  fierce  act  of  proscription  of  the  Loyalists  who  had  left  the  State  was 
not  issued  in  Massachusetts  until  September,  1778,  so  that  Mr.  Blowers  violated  no 
statute  in  returning  to  his  native  State.     This  act  declared  that  if  any  of  the  ab- 
sentees should  voluntarily  return  from  exile  they  should  "on  conviction  thereof  by 
the  Superior  Court  of  Judicature,  Court  of  Assize  and  General  Jail  Delivery,  suf- 
fer the  pains  of  death  without  benefit  of  clergy."     It  is  said  that  this  visit  of  Mr. 
Blowers  to  Boston  was  the  last  he  ever  made  to  his  native  town. 

21.  The  "Winslow  Papers,"  edited  by  Archdeacon  Raymond,  LL.D.    Some  time 
in  1778  Edward  Winslow  wrote  Jonathan  Sewall :    "The  conduct  of  our  dearly  be- 
loved cousins  at  Boston  towards  Blowers  gives  one  a  pretty  little  idea  of  the  present 
government.     .     .     .     Blowers  tells  us  many  extraordinary  stories  relative  to  the 
improvement  of  the  Bostonians  in  what  a  certain  lady  calls  'the  liberal  arts.'  Would 
you  realize  that  the  sons  of  some  of  our  true  old  charter  saints  publicly  roll  in 
chariots  with  kept  mistresses,  and  that  many  of  our  former  meek  and  lowly  Chris- 
tians, now  freed  from  restraint,  are  rioting  at  great  rate." 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  53 

time  with  the  appointment  of  Solicitor  General  for  New  York.22 
Early  in  September,  1783,  with  Mrs.  Blowers  and  her  sis- 
ter Elizabeth  Kent,  Blowers  sailed  for  Halifax,  although  the 
evacuation  of  New  York  did  not  take  place  until  November 
twenty-fifth  of  that  year.*3 

In  an  interesting  letter  to  Ward  Chipman  ("My  dear  Chip") 
which  he  writes  from  Halifax  on  the  twenty-fifth  of  September, 
1783,  Mr.  Blowers  says  of  his  voyage  from  New  Y'ork  and  his 
reception  at  Halifax :  ' '  Our  passage  was  as  well  as  we  had  room 
to  expect,  and  we  are  now  comfortably  lodged  at  a  Mrs.  Whittys, 
where  we  have  three  rooms  and  a  kitchen  for  eight  pounds  a 
month,  and  are  now  all  three  of  us,  sitting  in  tolerable  health  and 
spirit  round  a  good  fire.  I  have  been  politely  received  by  the 
Governor,  and  have  seen  several  of  the  great  men  here,  and  am 
told  by  them  all  that  my  coming  among  them  is  agreeable  and  that 
I  shall  soon  find  business.  This  last  I  am  inclined  to  doubt  in  any 
extreme  degree. ' '  The  first  employment  of  a  public  sort  he  seems 
to  have  obtained  was  at  military  headquarters,  for  on  the  tenth 
of  October,  1783,  Winslow  writes  to  Chipman:  "GenT  Fox  has 
been  very  civil  to  Blowers,  and  on  looking  about  he  seems  toler- 
ably well  satisfy 'd.  He  is  appointed  one  of  the  Board  of  Ac- 
counts here. ' J24  In  the  early  part  of  1784,  as  we  see  by  the  Nova 
Scotia  Gazette  and  Weekly  Chronicle  of  February  third  and  Feb- 
ruary tenth,  where  we  find  published  an  extract  from  "General 
Orders  issued  from  headquarters  by  order  of  General  Campbell, ' ' 
he  was  acting  as  military  secretary  at  Halifax.25 

In  a  note  to  the  "Winslow  Papers, "  Archdeacon  Raymond  says 
that  in  1784  Blowers  was  named  as  Attorney  General  for  New 


22.  The  date  of  Mr.  Blowers's  appointment  by  the  Lords  of  the  Admiralty  to 
the  Rhode  Island  judgeship  was  April  29,  1779.     Blowers  was  appointed  by  Gover- 
nor Robertson  of  New  York  to  the  Solicitor-Generalship  of  New  York,  "under  Seal 
of  the  Province,"  March   13,  1781.     He  served  also  as  secretary  to  the  Board  of 
Loyalists  at  New  York  all  the  time  that  that  Board  existed. 

23.  Hon.  Ward  Chipman,  a  close  friend  of  Blowers,  writes  Edward  Winslow, 
July  29,  1783 :    "Blowers  with  his  family  mean  to  embark  in  the  course  of  the  next 
month  for  Halifax."    Major  Upham  writes  Edward  Winslow  from  New  York,  Au- 
gust 21,  1783 :    "We  shall  all  soon  be  with  you — everybody,  all  the  World,  moves  on 
to  Nova  Scotia — Blowers,  etc.,  will  soon  be  there."    "Winslow  Papers,"  pp.  in,  124. 
October  18,  1783,  Sarah  Winslow,  at  Halifax,  writes  Benjamin  Marston.     In  this 
letter  she  says  that  her  family  and  the  Blowers  family  arrived  at  Halifax  in  the 
same  vessel,  on  the  I4th  of  September,  1783.    "Winslow  Papers,"  pp.  141-143. 

24.  "Winslow  Papers,"  pp.  139,  140. 

25.  This  extract  from  General  Orders  is  signed  "S.  S.  Blowers,  Secretary." 


54  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

Brunswick,  but  that  he  relinquished  this  position  immediately  on 
receiving  a  similar  appointment  for  Nova  Scotia.26  In  a  letter  to 
Ward  Chipman  from  Halifax,  written  January  fourteenth,  1785, 
Blowers  says :  "You  will  have  heard  before  this  reaches  you  that 
Gov.  Parr  has  made  me  Attorney  General  here.  I  am  now  in  the 
full  execution  of  the  office.  The  warrant  has  not  yet  arrived,  but 
I  have  letters  from  Sir  William  P.,  of  the  4th  September,  ac- 
quainting me  that  Mr.  N.  was  to  write  me  at  once. 

"Nothing  is  said  respecting  my  successor  in  New  Brunswick, 
but  as  Matthews'  warrant  for  Louisburg  was  forwarded  by  the 
same  opportunity,  I  think  it  probable  he  is  not  the  man.  I  wish 
you  may  be.27  In  the  meantime,  would  it  not  be  well  to  get  an 
order  from  your  Governor  and  Council  for  you  to  do  the  duty, 
and  let  it  be  known  in  England  that  you  are  doing  it.  It  will  be 
necessary  to  have  such  appointment  when  grants  are  to  be  made, 
for  the  King's  instructions  require  the  Attorney  General's  fiat.  I 
will  furnish  you  with  the  form  whenever  you  want  it."28 

On  the  twenty-fourth  of  December,  1784,  Blowers  was  appoint- 
ed Attorney  General  of  Nova  Scotia ;  in  1785  he  sat  in  the  Assem- 
bly for  the  County  of  Halifax,  and  on  the  fifth  of  December  of  this 
year  he  was  unanimously  chosen  Speaker  of  the  House.  January 
third,  1788,  he  was  made  a  member  of  the  Council,  and  on  the 
ninth  of  September,  1797,  he  was  sworn  in  sixth  Chief  Justice  of 
Nova  Scotia,  in  succession  to  Chief  Justice  Strange.29  On  the 
same  date  he  also  took  his  seat  as  President  of  the  Council. 

In  a  note  on  Chief  Justice  Blowers  printed  in  the  "Diary  and 
Letters"  of  Governor  Thomas  Hutchinson,  which  is  signed  "W. 


26.  This  note  is  on  page  208  of  the  "Winslow  Papers."    Archdeacon  Raymond 
also  refers  here  to  Lawrence's  "Footprints  or  Incidents  in  the  Early  History  of  New 
Brunswick,"  p.  13,  and  to  "Canadian  Archives"  for  1895,  under  "New  Brunswick." 
Blowers  undoubtedly  never  lived  in  New  Brunswick  and  how  often  at  this  early 
period  of  his  residence  in  the  Lower  Provinces  he  may  have  visited  there  we  do 
not  know. 

27.  Ward   Chipman,  born  in   1754,  another  of  the  many  able   Massachusetts 
Loyalists  who  settled  in  the  Maritime  Provinces,  acted  as  Attorney  General  of  New 
Brunswick  for  some  little  time,  but  was  never  appointed  to  that  office.     He  was, 
however,  appointed  Solicitor  General  of  New  Brunswick,  August  19,  1784.    In  1809 
he  was  appointed  a  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  same  province.     He  died  in 
1824. 

28.  For  this  letter,  see  Lawrence's  "Footprints,"  and   (in  an  imperfect  form) 
the  "Kent  Genealogy." 

29.  The  annual  salary  he  received  as  Chief  Justice  was  eight  hundred  and  fifty 
pounds. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  55 

J.  Stirling,"  we  find  a  much  more  intimate  account  of  Blowers 
given  than  we  have  ever  been  able  to  get  elsewhere.  Blowers, 
says  Mr.  Stirling,  "was  of  great  ability.  He  had  untiring  in- 
dustry, vast  legal  knowledge,  sound  judgment,  impartiality,  and 
patience.  He  had  little  eloquence ;  no  wit  nor  imagination.  His 
mind  was  grave,  deliberate,  and  cautious.  But  on  one  occasion 
he  showed  an  irritable  temper.  Uniacke,  the  Attorney  General  of 
Nova  Scotia  after  Blowers,  a  very  able,  but  ruffianly  man,  had  a 
street  fight  with  Jonathan  Sterns,  a  Boston  Loyalist.  Uniacke, 
a  very  strong  man,  beat  so  savagely  Sterns,  a  weak  and  sickly 
man,  as  to  cause  his  death.  Blowers,  who  was  an  intimate  friend 
of  Mr.  Sterns,  was  so  angry  that  he  challenged  Uniacke  to  fight 
a  duel.  Uniacke  accepted  the  challenge,  but  secretly  sent  his 
wife  to  inform  the  police  Magistrate.  So  the  two  officers  of  the 
law  in  the  Colony  were  bound  over  to  keep  the  peace.30  Blowers 
had  the  greatest  esteem  for  Foster  Hutchinson,  Jr.,  [nephew  of 
Governor  Thomas  Hutchinson,  and  son  of  Judge  Foster  Hutchin- 
son, Sr.,  of  Massachusetts],  and  was  greatly  grieved  by  his  death. 
Blowers  retained  his  faculties  to  the  last.  He  kept  up  his  College 
studies,  and  always  read  with  pleasure  the  Greek  and  Latin 
classics.  In  his  latter  years  he  was  silent  and  gloomy  and  would 
not  speak  of  the  scenes  he  had  witnessed  many  years  before.  He 
destroyed  all  his  papers :  no  letters  nor  memoranda  of  any  kind 
were  left  by  him.  In  person  he  was  very  short  and  rather  thin : 
his  face  had  some  resemblance  to  that  of  Washington ;  a  portrait 
of  him  is  in  the  Legislative  House  at  Halifax,  but  does  not  in  the 
least  resemble  him.  He  had  no  children,  and  his  property,  after 
his  widow's  death,  went  to  a  Mr.  Bliss."  Another  note  in  the 
same  volume  says  that  in  the  political  and  personal  disputes  be- 


so.  Accounts  which  we  have  of  Hon.  Richard  John  Uniacke,  Sr.,  one  of  the 
ablest  public  men  in  Nova  Scotia,  in  her  whole  history,  describe  the  long  rivalry 
which  existed  between  him  and  Blowers  for  public  position.  Uniacke's_  bitterness 
rose  to  its  highest  pitch  when  Blowers  was  appointed  to  the  Chief-Justiceship  in- 
stead of  him.  It  was  probably  in  1797,  shortly  before  Blowers  was  appointed  Chief 
Justice,  and  Uniacke  succeeded  to  the  Attorney-Generalship,  as  he  did,  that  this 
duel  was  proposed.  It  is  said  that  the  duel  was  prevented  by  the  Chief  Justice 
(Strange).  Uniacke  took  the  oath  as  Attorney  General  on  the  same  day,  Septem- 
ber gth,  that  Blowers  took  the  oath  of  office  as  Chief  Justice.  Blowers  had  filled 
the  office  of  Attorney  General,  as  we  have  seen,  from  December  24,  1784.  Jonathan 
Sterns,  another  conspicuous  Massachusetts  Loyalist,  died  in  Halifax  May  23,  1798. 
Except  as  Stirling's  account  gives  it,  we  have  never  known  the  cause  of  his  death. 
Sterns  was  a  lawyer  and  his  public  career  in  Halifax  is  well  worth  tracing. 


56  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

tween  Loyalists  and  the  "Old  Inhabitants,"  which  for  several 
years  after  the  Revolution  raged  in  government  circles  in  Hali- 
fax, Blowers  was  the  acknowledged  leader  of  his  fellow  refugees. 
In  the  thirty-five  years  that  he  served  as  Chief  Justice  of  Nova 
Scotia  "he  outlived  every  person  [of  his  contemporaries]  in 
public  life  in  the  Colony.  The  Governor  and  two  of  his  succes- 
sors ;  the  two  Judges,  and  four  of  their  successors ;  the  forty  Mem- 
bers of  the  Assembly,  and  many  who  had  succeeded  to  their  seats 
—all  these  passed  away  while  Blowers  was  Chief  Justice.  He 
lived  ten  years  after  retiring  from  the  Bench,  and  died  at  Hali- 
fax, from  the  effects  of  a  fall,  in  October,  1842.  "31 

Of  the  legal  acts  or  opinions  of  Chief  Justice  Sampson  Salter 
Blowers  during  his  leadership  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Judiciary  we 
have  few  records  anywhere  remaining.  His  opinion  on  the  ques- 
tion of  the  legality  of  slave-holding  in  the  British  Colonies,  how- 
ever, we  find  recorded.  The  question  was  agitated  during  the 
chief-justiceship  of  Blowers 's  immediate  predecessor,  Strange, 
and  for  several  years  after  Blowers  himself  became  Chief  Justice, 
and  both  Strange  and  Blowers  decided  against  it.  Chief  Justice 
Ludlow  of  New  Brunswick,  previously  of  New  York,  took  his 
stand  on  what  he  called  ' '  the  Common  Law  of  the  Colonies, ' '  by 
which  he  said  the  right  to  hold  slaves  had  been  uniformly  recog- 
nized and  established  without  any  act  ever  having  been  passed 
directly  authorizing  slavery.  In  opposition  to  him,  Blowers  held 
strongly  that  the  Common  Law  of  England  was  that  of  the  Col- 
onies, that  these  had  none  other,  and  that  slavery  being  declared 
illegal  by  the  Common  Law  of  England,  its  illegality  in  the  Colon- 
ies was  undoubted.  The  difference  in  the  opinions  of  these  two 
Maritime-Provincial  Chief  Justices,  it  has  been  said,  may  have 
been  in  some  measure  due  to  the  fact  of  Ludlow 's  training  in  New 
York,  and  Blowers 's  in  Massachusetts,  in  which  province  "slav- 
ery had  obtained  but  a  weak  foothold  and  died  early  and  quietly, ' ' 
while  in  New  York  it  "had  an  earlier  establishment  and  a  more 
extensive  development. '  '32 


31.  "The  Diary  and  Letters  of  His  Excellency  Thomas  Hutchinson,  Esq.,"  Vol. 
i,  p.  341.     It  is  said  that  to  the  end  of  his  life  Chief  Justice  Blowers  was  accus- 
tomed to  take  long  walks  for  his  health.     It  is  also  said,  in  print,  that  the  Hon. 
Joseph  Howe  in  some  speech  said  that  Blowers  never  wore  an  overcoat  in  his  life. 

32.  See  "The  Slave  in  Canada,"  by  Rev.  T.  Watson  Smith,  D.  D.,  in  the  tenth 
volume  of  the  "Nova  Scotia  Historical  Society  Collections,"  pp.  97-103. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  57 

Chief  Justice  Sampson  Salter  Blowers  married  in  Boston  (the 
Rev.  Dr.  William  Walter  of  Trinity  Church  officiating)  on  the 
fifth  of  April,  1774,  Sarah  Kent,  born  May  nineteenth,  baptized 
May  twenty-seventh,  1758,  her  parents  being  Benjamin  and  Eliz- 
abeth (Watts)  Kent.  In  the  same  year  as  her  marriage  Mrs. 
Blowers  went  to  England  with  her  husband,  and  when  he  re- 
turned three  years  later,  came  with  him  to  New  York.  Late  in 
1777,  as  we  have  seen,  she  received  permission  to  revisit  Boston, 
and  there  for  a  short  time  she  remained.  After  this  we  suppose 
she  was  with  her  husband  continuously  to  the  close  of  his  life. 
Outliving  the  Chief  Justice  a  little  while,  she  died  in  Halifax  some 
time  in  July,  1845,  having  never,  so  far  as  we  know,  borne  any 
child.33 


33.  For  a  minute  account  of  Benjamin  Kent  and  his  family,  see  "Genealogies 
of  the  Different  Families  bearing  the  name  of  Kent  in  the  United  States,"  by  L. 
Vernon  Briggs,  Boston,  1898,  pp  38-48.  Benjamin  Kent,  third  son  of  Joseph  and 
Rebecca  (Chittenden)  Kent,  was  born  in  1708,  and  after  graduating  at  Harvard  in 
1727,  entered  the  Congregational  ministry.  In  1731  he  was  chaplain  of  the  garrison 
at  Fort  George,  Brunswick,  Maine,  and  October  27,  1733,  he  was  installed  minister 
of  the  church  at  Marlborough,  Mass.  In  1735  he  withdrew  from  this  charge  and  in 
time  took  up  the  study  of  the  law.  He  is  said  in  the  Kent  Genealogy  to  have  been 
"a  humorist,  not  sufficiently  reverent  of  things  divine  to  please  his  straight-faced 
contemporaries.  He  was  full  of  fun,  drollery,  humor,  and  had  an  unmethodical,  ir- 
regular head,  but  his  thoughts  were  good  and  [his]  expressions  happy.  After  leav- 
ing the  ministry  he  studied  for  the  bar,  where  he  became  celebrated  for  his  eccen- 
tricity and  wit."  During  the  years  1757-67  he  practiced  in  Worcester  County,  but 
later  he  became  prominent  in  Boston,  where  he  rose  to  be  attorney-general  of  Massa- 
chusetts. Whether  Mr.  Kent's  sympathies  in  the  Revolution  were  strongly 
with  the  British  does  not  seem  to  be  known,  but  somewhere  between  June,  1783, 
and  January,  1785,  probably  influenced  by  his  son-in-law,  with  his  wife  Elizabeth 
he  went  to  Windsor,  Nova  Scotia,  and  then  to  Halifax,  where  he  and  his  wife 
spent  the  rest  of  their  lives  and  died.  On  a  tombstone  in  St.  Paul's  burying-ground, 
Halifax,  is  the  following  inscription :  Sacred  to  the  memory  of  Benjamin  Kent, 
late  of  Boston,  New  England,  barrister-at-law,  who  died  on  the  22nd  day  of  Octo- 
ber, 1788,  in  the  8ist  year  of  his  age;  and  also  his  wife,  who  departed  this  life 
on  the  2nd  day  of  August,  1802,  in  the  8oth  year  of  her  age."  Elizabeth  Kent, 
eldest  sister  of  Mrs.  Blowers,  born  Jan.  6,  1745,  baptized  by  the  minister  of  the 
West  Church,  Boston,  Jan.  13,  1745,  was  with  her  sister,  Mrs.  Blowers,  in  New 
York,  for  in  June  of  that  year  her  father  petitioned  the  Massachusetts  legislature 
that  she  might  return  to  Boston,  as  she  was  ill  and  he  feared  greatly  that 
the  sultry  weather  of  New  York  in  midsummer  would  prove  fatal  to 
her.  Whether  she  did  return  or  not  we  do  not  know,  but  apparently  the  Great 
and  General  Court  failed  to  act  on  her  father's  petition.  (See  "Revolution  Peti- 
tions," Mass.  State  Documents,  Vol.  188,  p.  90.  Connected  with  the  petition  in  this 
volume  is  a  draft  of  the  desired  permission  for  Miss  Kent  to  return,  but  the  draft  is 
unsigned  and  was  never  acted  on  by  the  Court.  The  draft  bears  date  June  3,  1782.) 

When  the  Blowerses  finally  left  New  York  for  Nova  Scotia  Miss  Kent  was 
with  them,  and  she  was  living  in  Halifax  at  least  as  late  as  1818.  On  the  26th  of 
May,  1793,  Elizabeth  Kent,  widow  of  Benjamin  Kent,  Sampson  Salter  Blowers  and 
his  wife  Sarah,  and  Elizabeth  Kent,  single  woman,  at  Halifax,  deeded  to  William 
Burley  of  Boston,  for  six  hundred  pounds,  a  brick  dwelling  house  and  land  on  the 
north  side  of  State  Street  (earlier  known  as  King  Street),  formerly  the  dwelling 
house  of  Benjamin  Kent,  late  of  Boston,  deceased. 


58  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

Chief  Justice  Blowers  resigned  the  position  of  chief  of  the  Nova 
Scotia  Judiciary  in  the  year  1833,  his  successor  in  this  high  office 
being  Mr.  Brenton  Halliburton,  born  in  Newport,  Rhode  Island, 
(the  son  of  Dr.  John  Halliburton,  another  notable  Loyalist),  who 
received  knighthood  shortly  before  his  death,  which  occurred  in 
I860.34  Sampson  Salter  Blowers  died  at  Halifax  October  twenty- 
fifth,  1842,  his  life  having  covered,  as  we  have  said,  a  little  more 
than  a  full  century.35  He  was  buried  in  Camp  Hill  Cemetery,  as 
was  his  widow  a  little  less  than  three  years  later,  and  there  are 
tombstones  to  their  memory.  The  most  conspicuous  monument, 
however,  erected  to  the  memory  of  Chief  Justice  Blowers,  rests  on 
the  east  wall  of  St.  Paul's  Church,  Halifax,  in  which  church  the 
Chief  Justice  for  many  years  worshipped.  The  monument  is  a 
beautiful  piece  of  sculpture,  and  bears  the  following  notable  in- 
scription : 

In  Memory  of 

The  Honourable  Sampson  Salter  Blowers 
For  Five  and  Thirty  Years  President  of  H.  M.  Council 

And  Chief  Justice  of  Nova  Scotia 

A  Learned,  Careful,  And  Impartial  Judge 

An  Able  and  Faithful  Servant  of  the  Crown 

And  a  True  Friend  to  this  Province 

Of  a  Strong  and  Discriminating  Mind  and  Sound  Judgment 

Amiable  and  Benevolent  in  Manners  and  Disposition 

Exemplary  in  Conduct  and  of  the  Stricted  Integrity 

After  a  Long  Career  of  Labour  and  Usefulness 

Honoured  and  Esteemed  by  All 

He  Resigned  His  Office 

And  Passed  the  Decline  of  Life  in  Peaceful  Retirement 

And  Died  on  the  25th  Day  of  October,  A.  D.  1842 

At  the  Age  of  One  Hundred  Years 

Chief  Justice  Blowers 's  will  was  executed  at  Halifax,  Novem- 
ber twenty-ninth,  1833,  and  was  filed  and  recorded  in  Boston, 
November  thirteenth,  1843.  In  it  he  gives  to  Sarah  Ann  Bliss, 
wife  of  William  Blowers  Bliss,  two  thousand  pounds  current 


34.  An  interesting  Life  of  Sir  Brenton  Halliburton  was  written  many  years 
ago  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  George  William  Hill,  Rector  of  St.  Paul's  Church,  Halifax,  and 
will  be  found  in  the  Boston  Public  Library  and  elsewhere.    An  important  assistant 
judge  in  Nova  Scotia,  was  Judge  James  Brenton,  an  uncle  of  Sir  Brenton  Halli- 
burton. 

35.  The  exact  length  of   Mr.  Blowers's  life  was  one  hundred  years,   seven 
months,  and  fifteen  days. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  59 

money  of  Nova  Scotia,  and  also  his  house  and  grounds  at  Wind- 
sor, known  as  "Fairfield  Cottage,7'  with  the  furniture,  cattle, 
and  implements  thereto  belonging.  To  Mrs.  Ann  Anderson, 
mother  of  Mrs.  Bliss,  he  leaves  two  hundred  pounds  current 
money,  and  to  Mrs.  Ann  Kidston,  a  like  sum  of  two  hundred 
pounds.  Other  legatees  by  his  will  are  his  sister  Mrs.  Martha 
Pritchard,  "now  or  late  of  Boston,"  and  her  children,  and  the 
children  of  his  late  sister  Elizabeth  Rhodes.  The  rest  and  residue 
of  his  estate  he  leaves  to  his  dear  wife,  "for  her  use  and  behoof 
during  her  life, ' '  after  her  decease  the  whole  residue  of  his  estate 
to  go  to  Mrs.  Sarah  Ann  Bliss  and  her  heirs.  His  executor  and 
executrix  are  William  Blowers  Bliss  and  his  wife  Sarah  Ann.36 
In  Boston,  Chief  Justice  Blowers  lived  in  Southack's  Court, 
now  Howard  Street,  for  on  the  sixth  of  September,  1784,  he  and 
his  wife  sold  through  Dr.  Samuel  Danf orth,  to  whom  Blowers  had 
previously  given  power  of  attorney,  to  Elisha  Sigourney,  for  five 
hundred  pounds,  a  wooden  house,  which  had  formerly  been  their 
dwelling,  and  the  land  about  it,  in  the  westerly  part  of  Boston, 
' '  situated  on  Southack  's  Court. '  '37  The  affluence  of  the  Blowerses 


36.  William  Blowers  Bliss  was  the  third  son  of  Jonathan  Bliss,  a  classmate  of 
Chief  Justice  Blowers  at  Harvard,  a  Loyalist  and  an  early  Chief  Justice  of  New 
Bfunswick,   and  his  wife,   Mary  Worthington.     He  was  born   at   St.   John,    New 
Brunswick,  August  28,  1795,  graduated  at  King's  College,  Windsor,  Nova  Scotia, 
studied  at  the  Inner  Temple,  London,  practised  law  in  Halifax,  and  in  April,  1834, 
was  elevated  to  the  Supreme  Bench,  in  place  of  Judge  Richard  John  Uniacke  (son 
of  the  first  Richard  John  Uniacke).  He  is  regarded  as  one  of  the  ablest  judges 
Nova  Scotia  has  ever  had.    He  had  a  handsome  residence  at  Fort  Massey,  Halifax, 
where  he  died  March  16,  1874,  aged  79.    He  resigned  his  seat  on  the  Bench  in  1869. 
The  "Mrs.  Ann  Anderson,"  mother  of  Mrs.  William  Blowers  Bliss,  is  said  to  have 
been  related  in  some  way  to  Mrs.  Sampson  Salter  Blowers ;  what  the  relationship 
was,  however,  we  do  not  know.     Mrs.  Blowers  had  a  sister  Ann  Kent,  but  she 
probably  died  in  Boston  (see  the  burial  records  of  Trinity  Church)   early  in  Sep- 
tember, 1782.    Judge  William  Blowers  Bliss  and  his  wife  Sarah  Ann  had  in  all  seven 
children,  three  sons  and  four  daughters.    One  of  these  daughters,  became  the  wife 
of  the  Rt.  Rev.  Hibbert  Binney,  Anglican  Bishop  of  Nova  Scotia,  and  one  the  wife 
of  Hon.   Senator  William  Hunter  Odell.     Chief  Justice  Jonathan  Bliss  of   New 
Brunswick  died  at  Fredericton,  N.  B.,  October  i,  1822.     For  a  valuable  memoir  of 
Judge  William  Blowers  Bliss,  by  Hon.  Chief  Justice  (of  N.  S.)  Sir  Charles  Town- 
shend,  see  Nova  Scotia  Historical  Society  Collections,  Vol.  17  (1913),  pp.  23-45. 

37.  The  instrument  appointing  Blowers's  "good  friend,"  Samuel  Danforth,  of 
Boston,  physician,  his  attorney,  was  first  issued  at  Halifax,  August  7,  1783,  and  was 
affirmed  at  Halifax,  May  8,   1784.     It  was  once  more  affirmed  October   13,   1784, 
Mr.  Blowers  then  declaring  himself  as  residing  in  the  city  of  New  York.    The  in- 
strument was  first  signed,  with  seals,  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Blowers,  in  presence  of  Sam- 
uel Winslow  and  John  Amory,  Jr.    The  Blowers's  property  in  Southack's  Court  is 
fully  described  in  the  Suffolk  County  Registry  of  Deeds.     Blowers's  losses  in  the 
Revolution  are  carefuly  detailed  in  his  deposition  before  the  commissioner  on  Loyal- 
ist claims. 


60  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

in  Nova  Scotia  is  amply  testified  to  by  the  way  in  which  they 
lived,  they  had  their  town  house  in  Halifax,  and  their  country 
place  at  Windsor, 1 1  a  handsome  country  seat, ' '  as  tradition  styles 
it,  whither  they  drove  every  summer,  with  a  coachman  and  two 
liveried  footmen,  from  the  capital  town. 

The  portrait  of  Chief  Justice  Blowers,  of  which  Mr.  Stirling 
makes  mention  in  the  note  in  Governor  Hutchinson's  Life,  was 
painted  in  1820  by  request  of  the  "Quarter  Sessions  and  Grand 
Jury"  of  Halifax  made  to  Mr.  Blowers  on  the  twenty-first  of  De- 
cember, 1819.  The  painter  of  the  portrait,  Mr.  Harry  Piers  tells 
us,  was  John  Poad  Drake.38 


38.  See  Murdoch's  documentary  "History  of  Nova  Scotia"  under  the  year  1819. 
Mr.  Piers  speaks  of  the  portrait  in  his  valuable  paper  in  the  eighteenth  volume  of 
the  Nova  Scotia  Historical  Society's  "Collections,"  entitled  "Artists  in  Nova  Sco- 
tia." The  portrait  now  hangs  in  the  Halifax  County  Court  House.  It  is  reproduced 
in  the  "Winslow  Papers,"  edited  by  Archdeacon  Raymond,  opposite  page  614. 


Chapters  in  the  History  of  Halifax, 
Nova  Scotia 

BY  ARTHUR  WENTWORTH  HAMILTON  EATON,  M.  A.,.  D.  C.  L. 

No.  VI 

MIGRATIONS  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND  IN  1749  AND  1760. 

"The  present  population  of  Nova  Scotia  is^not  the  development  of  a  single 
primitive  nucleus  or  germ.  Neither  has  it  resulted  from  a  gradual  and  almost 
imperceptible  sifting  in  of  promiscuous  elements.  It  is  mainly  the  product  of 
certain  well-defined  immigrations  of  considerable  size,  capable  of  being  more  easily 
traced  because  as  a  rule  they  have  occurred  consecutively  rather  than  simultane- 
ously." Dr.  David  Allison,  in  Collections  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Historical  Society, 
Vol.  VII. 

IN  any  important  addition  to  its  population  that  the  prov- 
ince of  Nova  Scotia  at  large  has  at  any  time  received,  the 
permanent  capital  of  the  province,  Halifax,  has  naturally 
sooner  or  later  come  to  have  a  considerable  share.  The 
two  strains  that  by  all  means  predominate  in  the  present 
population  of  Nova  Scotia  are  the  New  England  and  the 
Scotch,  the  latter  of  which  is  the  product  of  a  series  of  migra- 
tions direct  from  Scotland  that  began  in  1772  and  ended  some- 
where about  1815.  Of  the  close  political  relations  between  New 
England  and  Nova  Scotia  from  the  time  of  the  capture  of  Port 
Eoyal  (Annapolis  Royal)  by  New  England  troops  in  1710  to  the 
war  of  the  Revolution,  far  too  little  has  hitherto  been  written. 
Nor  is  it  generally  recognized,  even  in  Nova  Scotia  itself,  much 
less  in  New  England,  how  largely  the  province  of  Nova  Scotia, 
and  the  adjoining  province  of  New  Brunswick,  which  until  1783 
was  part  of  Nova  Scotia,  were  in  the  eighteenth  century  settled 
by  New  England  people,  and  how  closely  allied  by  ties  of  blood 
a  great  part  of  the  native  Nova  Scotians  and  New  Brunswickers 
today  are  to  many  of  the  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  and  Rhode 
Island  families  whose  names  are  identified  with  the  history  of 

(i43) 


144  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

the  progress,  politically,  religiously,  socially,  of  these  various 
New  England  States. 

The  most  widely  known  of  the  migrations  from  New  England 
to  the  Maritime  Provinces  is  of  course  the  Loyalist  migration  of 
1775-1783,  but  the  most  permanently  influential  migration,  and 
the  one  now  most  effective  in  the  general  progress  of  at  least 
Nova  Scotia,  was  not  the  Loyalist  migration,  important  in  point 
of  numbers  and  in  some  quarters  of  political  and  social  influence 
as  that  was,  but  the  migration,  comparatively  little  known  to 
United  States  historians,  of  New  England  families  of  the  best 
stock  from  the  three  states  we  have  mentioned  chiefly  in  the 
years  1760  and  1761.  Of  the  importance  of  this  migration,  Dr. 
David  Allison,  who  has  written  much  on  Nova  Scotia  history, 
says :  ' '  The  settlement  during  the  years  1759-61  of  a  large  part 
of  Nova  Scotia,  and  that  as  a  rule  the  most  fertile  part,  by 
groups  of  colonists  from  New  England,  is  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant events  in  the  history  of  our  Province.  Until  recently 
this  event  has  unquestionably  not  received  the  attention  due  to 
its  importance.  As  a  movement  of  population  from  west  to  east 
it  was  a  reversal  of  the  usual  order,  and  has  quite  generally  been 
confounded  with  the  Loyalist  migration  to  the  Provinces,  which 
it  preceded  by  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century,  and  which  in  in- 
fluence on  the  political  and  industrial  development  of  what  is 
now  Nova  Scotia  it  undoubtedly  surpassed.  ...  As  a  rule 
this  element  has  been  the  most  tenacious  of  all  our  English 
speaking  stocks."1 


i.  See  Dr.  Allison's  article  in  Collections  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Historical 
Society,  Vol.  7,  p.  63. 

In  a  pleasantly  written  article  entitled  "The  Military  Traditions  of  Canada," 
by  A.  G.  Bradley,  printed  in  the  Cornhill  Magazine  for  December,  1915,  occurs  the 
following  entirely  inaccurate  statement :  "The  Maritime  Provinces  were  virtually 
annexed  en  bloc  by  the  United  Empire  Loyalists,  as  the  exiles  proudly  called 
themselves.  The  small  groups  of  Acadians  on  the  west  and  British,  etc.,  around 
Halifax  on  the  east  were  numerically  and  yet  more,  morally,  overwhelmed  by  the 
influx  and  count  for  little  in  the  ethnology  of  Nova  Scotia  and  New  Brunswick. 
The  United  Empire  Loyalist  element,  though  their  early  sufferings  in  the  woods 
were  great,  once  these  were  overcome,  enjoyed  a  comparatively  unclouded  future. 
In  every  sense  they  dominated  the  province.  There  was  no  geographical  contact 
or  semi-partnership  with  French  Canadians,  no  serious  influx  of  doubtful  American 
emigrants  such  as  kept  the  loyalists  of  Upper  Canada  in  a  constant  state  of 
uneasiness,  and  their  hands  metaphorically  always  on  their  sword  hilts.  .  .  . 
It  may  safely  be  affirmed  today  that  at  least  every  second  'Blue  Nose'  is  directly 
descended  from  those  brave,  unfortunate  people,  whose  devotion  to  the  Empire 
forced  them  to  start  life  afresh  in  the  wild  woods  of  the  then  dreaded  and 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  145 

Elements  of  considerable  importance  in  the  present  Nova  Sco- 
tia population,  apart  from  the  New  England  and  the  Scottish,  are 
the  Scotch-Irish,  a  strain  which  was  introduced  either  from  Lon- 
donderry and  other  neighboring  towns  of  New  Hampshire  in 
1760,  or  directly  from  the  North  of  Ireland  in  1761  and  1762 ;  the 
German  and  French  elements,  which  as  we  have  seen  in  our  chap- 
ter on  the  founding  of  Halifax  were  introduced  in  1749  and  1750 ; 
the  Celtic  Irish  element  which  has  filtered  into  the  province  as  it 
has  into  all  American  colonies  in  sporadic  migrations  during  many 
years,  and  has  had  especial  influence  in  Halifax ;  and  the  Acadian 
French,  a  strain  which  antedates  all  the  others,  but  which  since 
the  expulsion  of  all  of  the  people  of  this  blood  that  could  be  found 
in  1755,  has  had  like  the  German  comparatively  little  influence  in 
the  development  of  the  province  at  large  in  any  way. 

Migration  for  settlement  in  Nova  Scotia  of  New  England  people 
actually  began  at  the  capture  of  Annapolis  Royal  in  1710,  and 
of  this  slight  movement,  which  is  interesting  but  which  was  too 
limited  in  extent  and  for  the  most  part  too  transitory  to  be  con- 
sidered more  than  an  incident,  we  shall  give  some  account  when 
we  come  to  treat  of  the  earlier  capital  of  the  province,  the  an- 
cient town  of  Annapolis  Royal.  But  the  year  1749  brought  a 
very  large  New  England  element  to  the  town  of  Halifax,  and  the 
people  who  came  to  Nova  Scotia  at  this  time  were  almost  with- 
out exception  Bostonians.  How  largely  Halifax  business  and 
social  affairs  for  many  years  after  the  Revolution  were  con- 
trolled by  Loyalists  from  not  only  New  England  but  New  York, 


unknown  North."  Whatever  truth  there  may  be  in  this  statement  as  made  of  New 
Brunswick,  it  is  far  wide  of  the  truth  in  its  reference  to  the  Province  of  Nova 
Scotia.  It  is  quite  true  that  between  30,000  and  3S,ooo  Loyalists,  as  is  estimated, 
came  into  Nova  Scotia  and  New  Brunswick  between  1775  and  1783,  by  far  the 
larger  portion  of  them  sailing  from  New  York  in  the  latter  year,  but  there  were 
very  few  counties  of  Nova  Scotia  as  it  is  today  that  received  permanently  any 
considerable  number  of  them.  Where  they  finally  went  is  a  fair  question,  the 
Province  of  New  Brunswick  got  as  permanent  settlers  a  large  share  of  them,  but 
it  seems  almost  certain  that  many  of  them  in  longer  or  shorter  time  returned  to  the 
United  States.  In  his  article  on  the  Shelburne  Loyalists,  in  the  sixth  volume  of 
the  Collections  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Historical  Society,  Dr.  T.  Watson  Smith  says : 
"Numbers  of  these  exiles  found  their  way  to  Britain,  the  West  Indies,  and  the 
Canadas  .  .  .  Few  records  of  their  wanderings  and  sufferings  have  been  pre- 
served." It  is  rather  surprising  how  comparatively  few  well  known  Nova  Scotians 
today  are  of  Loyalist  stock.  The  Nova  Scotians  who  rise  to  conspicuous  posi- 
tions in  this  age,  like  the  present  Premier  of  Canada,  are  much  more  frequently 
descendants  of  the  New  Englanders  who  came  in  1760  or  '61. 


146 

New  Jersey,  and  other  colonies  from  which  Tories  had  fled,  is  a 
matter  of  current  knowledge,  but  the  predominating  influence 
until  a  late  period  of  the  Bostonians  who  came  in  shoals  at  the 
town's  beginning  is  a  fact  that  is  comparatively  little  in  the  minds 
of  people  today.  The  truth  is,  that  from  1749  to  the  middle  of 
the  nineteenth  century  the  blood  that  coursed  through  the  veins 
of  Halifax  was  largely  New  England,  and  of  that  chiefly  Boston, 
blood. 

Of  United  States  historians  who  have  dealt  with  the  expan- 
sion of  New  England's  population,  not  one,  we  believe,  has 
shown  more  than  the  most  superficial  knowledge  of  any  move- 
ment whatever  of  population,  except  the  Loyalist  movement, 
from  the  other  colonies  to  Nova  Scotia  at  any  time.2  The  great 
fortress  of  Louisburg,  as  we  know,  was  captured  by  New  Eng- 
land troops,  and  after  the  capture  a  considerable  number  of  peo- 
ple either  in  military  or  in  civil  occupations  remained  at  the 
place.  In  1748,  by  the  treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  the  fortress 
was  given  back  to  France,  and  this  extraordinary  diplomatic  ar- 
rangement compelled  the  speedy  withdrawal  of  the  English  gar- 
rison and  naturally  of  the  civilian  office  holders  and  traders  who 
had  for  three  years  found  it  convenient  to  live  there.  As  we 
have  already  shown,  Colonel  Cornwallis  had  been  but  a  few 
weeks  at  his  post  on  Chebucto  Bay  when  he  wrote  the  Lords  of 
Trade  who  directed  the  enterprise  in  pursuance  of  which  he  had 
come  that  a  group  of  civilians  from  Louisburg  had  arrived  to 
settle  in  the  new  town.  Other  settlers  also,  he  said,  had  come 
direct  from  New  England,  and  in  the  course  of  the  summer  and 
autumn  he  expected  that  over  a  thousand  more  would  come.  The 
interest  felt  in  Boston  in  the  Cornwallis  enterprise  is  strongly 
indicated  by  references  to  it  in  the  Boston  press  of  the  time.  In 


2..  Probably  the  fullest  consecutive  treatment  of  the  "expansion"  of  New 
England's  population  is  that  of  Lois  Kimball  Matthews  in  her  "The  Expansion 
of  New  England,  etc.,  1620 — 1865."  (Houghton  Mifflin  &  Co.,  1909,  pp.  303).  The 
extent  of  this  writer's  knowledge  of  the  several  migrations  to  Nova  Scotia  that 
we  shall  in  this  chapter  detail  is  shown  by  the  following  note  to  page  118  of  her 
book.  Miss  Matthews  says :  "There  is  no  room  in  this  study  for  the  investigation 
of  the  New  England  migrations  to  Canada  following  the  French  and  Indian 
War.  Fishermen  from  Cape  Cod  and  Nantucket  took  advantage  of  the  proclama- 
tion of  the  Governor  of  Nova  Scotia  in  1756  [sic],  and  as  early  as  1757  the 
movement  to  Cape  Sable  began.  In  1761-62  a  number  of  families  founded 
Harrington.  See  the  Doane  Family,  75,  76."  Later  in  this  chapter  we  shall  show 
the  importance  of  the  migration  of  1760  and  '61., 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  147 

the  Boston  Weekly  Neivs  Letter  of  June  7,  1750,  appears  the 
following  dispatch  from  Europe: 

"Franckfort,  March  25 

"  Printed  advertisements  have  been  stuck  up  and  dispersed 
in  this  city,  inviting  all,  who,  with  permission  of  their  sovereigns, 
intend  to  settle  in  Nova  Scotia,  to  apply  as  soon  as  possible  to  a 
commissary,  who  is  arrived  here  from  Rotterdam  to  treat  with 
them  for  their  passage." 
Underneath  this  dispatch  are  printed  the  following  stanzas 

from  the  Gentleman's  Magazine  for  February,  1750,  the  reader 
being  referred  by  this  magazine  to  the  Weekly  Entertainer  for 
the  whole  poem  to  which  they  belong : 

NOVA  SCOTIA.     A  NEW   BALLAD 
To  the  Tune  of  King  John  and  the  Abbot  of  Canterbury 

Let's  away  to  New  Scotland,  where  Plenty  sits  queen 
0  'er  as  happy  a  country  as  ever  was  seen ; 
And  blesses  her  subjects,  both  little  and  great, 
With  each  a  good  house  and  a  pretty  estate. 

Derry  Down,  etc. 

There's  wood,  and  there's  water,  there's  wild  fowl  and  tame; 
In  the  forest  good  ven'son,  good  fish  in  the  stream, 
Good  grass  for  our  cattle,  good  land  for  our  plough, 
Good  wheat  to  be  reap'd,  and  good  barley  to  mow. 

Derry  Down,  etc. 

No  landlords  are  there  the  poor  tenants  to  teaze, 
No  lawyers  to  bully,  nor  stewards  to  seize: 
But  each  honest  fellow's  a  landlord,  and  dares 
To  spend  on  himself  the  whole  fruit  of  his  cares. 

Derry  Down,  etc. 

They've  no  duties  on  candles,  no  taxes  on  malt, 
Nor  do  they,  as  we  do,  pay  sauce  for  their  salt : 
But  all  is  as  free  as  in  those  times  of  old, 
When  poets  assure  us  the  age  was  of  gold. 

Derry  down,  etc.3 

3.  For  an  important  notice  of  the  settlement  of  Halifax,  see  the  Gentleman's 
Magazine  for  August,  1749.  On  page  441  of  the  volume  containing  this  number 
of  the  magazine  a  plan  of  the  town  is  found. 


I48  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

In  the  third  year  after  Halifax  was  founded,  the  year  1752,  a 
census  of  the  town  was  taken  and  the  population  probably  ac- 
curately ascertained.4  In  this  census  the  names  of  families  re- 
siding in  the  various  sections  of  the  town,  and  the  outlying  dis- 
tricts, are  scrupulously  given,  and  almost  everywhere  we  find 
New  Englanders  in  considerable  force.  The  population  is  stated 
as  numbering  906  families,  or,  with  unmarried  men,  4,249  souls, 
and  while  only  a  critical  comparison  of  the  names  with  those  that 
appear  in  the  long  lists  of  people  who  came  from  England  with 
Cornwallis  could  make  us  sure  of  the  exact  strength  of  the  New 
England  contingent  in  the  town  at  this  date,  we  see  at  a  glance 
that  a  large  proportion  of  the  names  there  are  New  England 
names. 

In  the  "North  Suburbs,"  for  example,  we  find  such  familiar 
names  as  Caverly,  Cox,  Bowden,  Brewer,  Dwight,  Gerrish,  Oil- 
man, Harris,  Hoar,  Ives,  Proctor,  Rundell,  Storer,  and  Tongue. 
In  the  "South  Suburbs"  we  find  Brooks,  Chapman,  Child, 
Clarke,  Cleveland,  Ferguson,  Gerrish,  Greenfield,  Hammond, 
Hardin,  Harris,  Hurd,  Ives,  Jackson,  Kent,  Lamb,  Marshall, 
Mason,  Monk,  Pierce,  Pierpont,  Poor,  Porter,  Eigby,  Rogers, 
Salter,  Shatford,  Steele,  Taylor,  Trefoy,  and  Wallace.  Within 
the  Town  "we  find  Cotton,  Gerrish,  Greenwood,  Potter,  Saul, 
and  Steele.  "Within  the  Pickets"  we  find  Blackden,  Codman, 
Fairbanks,  Fillis,  Fogg,  Foye,  Green,  Lee,  Little,  Morris,  Rons, 
and  Scott.41/2  In  a  census  of  the  province  made  a  little  less  than 


4.  "A  list  of  the  Families  of  English,  Swiss,  etc.,  which  have  been  settled  in 
Nova  Scotia  since  the  year  1749,  and  who  now  are  settlers  in  places  hereafter 
mentioned."  (Halifax,  July,  1752).  Nova  Scotia  Archives,  Vol.  i,  pp.  650-670. 
In  this  census  no  account  of  the  people's  origins  is  given,  but  there  must  have 
been  in  the  town  somewhere  between  one  and  two  hundred  New  England  families. 
Of  the  departure  of  these  people  from  Boston  we  have  not  found  any  record  in 
New  England  Archives.  They  were  not  as  a  rule  among  the  most  important 
people  of  Boston,  though  some  like  William  Foye  were  members  of  families  of 
the  first  standing,  but  they  were  industrious  and  energetic,  and  a  number  of  them 
rose  to  great  influence  in  Halifax.  They  left  Boston,  it  is  probable,  as  single 
families  or  in  small  groups.  Besides  those  who  had  come  before  the  census  of 
1752  was  taken  there  were  no  doubt  some  who  came  at  later  dates.  The  lists  of 
settlers  who  came  from  England  with  Cornwallis  in  1749  are  given  in  the  Nova 
Scotia  Archives,  Vol.  i,  pp.  506-557. 

4l/2.  The  German  emigrants,  1,450  of  whom  in  May,  1753,  were  removed  by 
the  Governor's  orders  to  Lunenburg  were  almost  exclusively  settled  in  the  North 
Suburbs.  A  few  straggling  families  or  persons  engaged  in  fishing  lived  on  the 
islands  in  the  harbour,  and  a  few  more  were  settled  at  "the  Block  House  and  the 
Isthmus." 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  149 

fifteen  years  later,  however,  under  the  direction  of  the  lieutenant- 
governor,  Michael  Francklin,  where  the  population  of  Halifax 
is  given  as  only  3,022  (a  little  over  twelve  hundred  less  than 
fifteen  years  before),  we  find  1,351  persons  given  as  Americans, 
while  but  302  are  ranked  as  of  English  origin.5 

Writing  of  the  Halifax  population  at  this  early  period,  Dr. 
Thomas  B.  Akins  says:  "After  the  evacuation  of  Louisburg 
the  population  received  a  considerable  accession ;  a  number  of 
the  English  inhabitants  came  with  Governor  Hopson,  and  many 
from  New  England  were  daily  arriving,  and  upwards  of  a 
thousand  more  from  the  old  provinces  had  expressed  themselves 
[as]  desirous  of  joining  the  Settlement  before  winter.  The  Gov- 
ernor therefore  gave  orders  to  all  vessels  in  the  Government  ser- 
vice to  give  them  a  free  passage.  The  New  England  people  soon 
formed  the  basis  of  the  resident  population,  and  are  the  ances- 
tors of  many  of  the  present  inhabitants.  They  were  better  set- 
tlers than  the  old  discharged  soldiers  and  sailors  who  came  on 
the  fleet ;  most  of  whom  died  or  left  the  country  during  the  first 
three  or  four  years,  leaving,  however,  the  most  industrious  and 


5.  It  has  been  stated  in  print  that  in  this  census  of  Lieut.  Governor  Francklin's, 
which  bears  date  January  i,  1767,  and  is  of  the  whole  of  Nova  Scotia,  including 
what  is  now  New  Brunswick,  as  well  as  the  islands  of  Cape  Breton  and  St. 
John  (P.  E.  I.),  all  people  born  in  America,  whatever  the  origin  of  their  parents 
may  have  been,  are  ranked  as  "Americans."  To  what  extent  this  is  true  we  cannot 
tell,  the  part  of  the  population  of  Halifax  that  numbers  most  largely  next  to 
"Americans"  is  "Irish,"  and  these  people  we  suppose  are  chiefly  Scotch-Irish  who 
came  with  Alexander  McNutt  in  October,  1761  and  November,  1762,  from  the 
North  of  Ireland  direct.  Whether  any  of  their  children  or  the  children  of  the 
first  settlers  from  England  are  ranked  as  Americans  in  this  census  we  do  not 
know,  but  it  is  quite  certain  that  in  Truro,  where  the  whole  population  (301)  is 
given  as  "Irish,"  a  great  many  of  the  people  had  been  born  in  New  Hampshire. 
while  some  had  been  born  in  Truro  after  the  New  Hampshire  Scotch-Irish 
emigrants  came  there.  The  Halifax  population  in  1767  is  distributed  according 
to  origin  as  follows:  1,351  Americans,  853  Irish,  302  English,  264  Germans  and 
other  foreigners,  200  Acadian  French,  and  52  Scotch.  The  whole  population  of 
Nova  Scotia,  including  Cape  Breton  and  St.  John  islands,  is  given  in  this  census 
as  13,374.  Of  these  people,  6,913  are  given  as  Americans,  2,165  as  Irish,  and  only 
912  as  English.  For  the  Scotch-Irish  immigrations  to  Nova  Scotia  in  1761  and 
1762,  see  the  writer's  monographs  on  the  "Settlement  of  Colchester  County,"  in 
Transactions  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Canada,  3rd  series,  Vol.  6,  section  2  (1912)  ; 
and  "Alexander  McNutt  the  Colonizer,"  in  Americana  for  December,  1913. 

"In  1752,"  says  Professor  Walter  C.  Murray,  LL.D.  (History  of  St.  Mathews 
Church,  Halifax,  in  Coll.  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Hist.  Soc.,  Vol.  16,  p.  166.  1912), 
"there  were  4,249  persons  in  Halifax,  of  which  Mr.  Breynton  [Rector  of  St.  Paul's] 
estimates  one  half  as  members  of  the  Church  of  England.  In  1755,  the  number  of 
inhabitants  had  fallen  to  one  half.  The  census  of  1767  gave  Halifax  3,022  persons, 
of  whom  667  were  Roman  Catholics.  In  1769  the  number  was  much  reduced,  and 
in  1791  the  population  of  the  town  was  4,897.  The  exodus  during  Revolutionary 
times  made  serious  inroads  on  the  Dissenting  Congregation." 


150  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

respectable  among  them  as  permanent  settlers."6  Of  the  two 
elements  in  the  population,  Dr.  David  Allison  writes  in  the  same 
vein:  "While  Cornwallis's  transports  brought  over  a  limited 
number  of  persons  of  means,  energy,  and  character,  the  great 
bulk  of  their  passengers  were  just  such  people  as  a  rosy-colored 
advertisement  in  the  London  Gazette  would  be  likely  to  attract 
in  a  time  of  great  business  dulness.  They  were  in  no  proper 
sense  of  the  term  settlers.  As  'birds  of  passage'  they  did  not 
purpose  to  continue  long  in  one  place.  A  large  proportion 
were  men  without  families.  Over  five  hundred  had  been  man- 
of-war  sailors.  They  were  in  great  part  the  very  kind  of  per- 
sons to  whom  the  novelty  of  such  an  enterprise  would  be  attrac- 
tive and  its  practical  hardships  distasteful.  So  long  as  rations 
were  the  order  of  the  day  they  remained.  When  these  were  sus- 
pended and  men  were  expected  to  work  for  a  living,  the  place 
knew  most  of  them  no  more. ' '  But  of  the  small  group  of  * '  in- 
fluential" New  England  families  that  accompanied  or  closely 
followed  the  departing  troops  from  Louisburg  and  the  much 
larger  group  that  soon  after  came  from  Boston,  he  says,  the 
persons  who  composed  this  element  of  the  population  in  a  short 
time  ' l  drew  into  their  hands  a  large  part  of  the  business  of  the 
place,  and  filled  many  of  the  most  important  positions  in  the 
Colony."7 

To  these  testimonies  of  older  writers  to  the  strength  of  the 
New  England  element  in  the  early  Halifax  population,  Pro- 
fessor Walter  C.  Murray  adds  his  voice.  Akins,  he  writes,  says 
that  "  'the  New  England  people  soon  formed  the  basis  of  the 
resident  population,'  and  Tutty  in  1750  nearly  doubles  his  esti- 
mate of  the  population  given  the  preceding  year.  The  increase 
is  due  to  the  influx  of  New  Englanders.  .  .  .  It  is  perhaps 
unnecessary  to  say  but  little  more  in  support  of  the  opinion  that 


6.  Dr.  Thomas  Beamish  Akins's  "Prize  Essay  on  the  History  of  the  Settlement 
of  Halifax,"  enlarged  and  published  as  the  "History  of  Halifax  City,"  in  the  8th 
volume  of  the  "Collections  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Historical  Society"    (1895),  p.   16. 
Dr.  Akins  says  further  that  many  of  the  adventurers  who  came  with  Cornwallis 
''caused  him  and  his  successors  much  trouble  and  annoyance,  in  demoralizing  the 
people  by  the  illicit  sale  of  bad  liquors,  and  in  other  ways." 

7.  "The  Settlement  of  the  Early  Townships,  Illustrated  by  an  Old  Census," 
by  David  Allison,  LL.D.,  in  "Collectio"hs  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Historical  Society," 
Vol.  7  (1889-1891),  pp.  45-71.     See  chiefly  pp.  59,  60. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  151 

the  main  current  of  life  in  Halifax  in  the  early  days  was  New 
England  in  origin." 

Of  the  English  settlers  with  Cornwallis  in  1749,  a  few  from 
the  start  held  prominent  places  in  the  official  or  social  life  of  the 
town,  but  these  for  the  most  part  were  persons  who  were  in 
close  touch  with  the  Governor,  some  of  them  indeed  having  come 
out  as  members  of  his  suite.  Such  men,  as  we  can  see  by  follow- 
ing the  subsequent  history  of  the  town,  were  Richard  Bulkeley, 
John  Collier,  John  Creighton,  John  Duport,  Archibald  Hinchel- 
wood,  William  Nesbitt,  and  Lewis  Piers.8  Of  New  England  men 
on  the  other  hand,  we  find  many  who  on  account  of  business  en- 
ergy or  military  prestige  or  breeding  and  education  almost  im- 
mediately came  to  rank  as  among  the  first  citizens  of  the  town. 
Among  these  New  Englanders  of  high  standing  may  be  men- 
tioned Jonathan  Binney,  Samuel  Blackden  or  Blagdon,  Judge 
James  Brenton  (from  Newport,  Rhode  Island),  Rev.  Aaron 
Cleveland  and  his  brothers,  Josiah  and  Samuel,  Preserved  Cun- 
nabell,  Joseph  Fairbanks,  John  Fillis,  William  Foye  (a Harvard 
graduate,  son  of  the  Receiver  General  of  Massachusetts  who  im- 
mediately preceded  Harrison  Gray),  the  brothers,  Joseph  and 
Benjamin  Gerrish,  both  members  of  the  Council,  John  and  Jo- 
seph Gorham,  Joseph  Gray,  Hon.  Benjamin  Green,  Edward 
How,  Jacob  Hurd,  William  Lawlor,  William  Lawson,  Otis  Lit- 
tle, James  Monk,  Hon.  Charles  Morris,  Hon.  Henry  Newton 
(whose  father,  however,  had  long  lived  at  Annapolis  Royal), 
Jonathan  Prescott,  John  Rous,  Malachy  Salter,  and  Robert  San- 
derson. 

If  distinct  proof  were  needed  of  the  preponderating  influence 


8.  Brief  sketches  of  some  of  these  men,  as  well  as  of  the  English  settlers 
who  occupied  prominent  places  in  early  Halifax,  will  be  found  given  in  valuable 
notes  by  Dr.  Akins  in  the  first  volume  of  Nova  Scotia  Archives,  which  he  edited. 
Of  Englishmen,  Dr.  Akins  discusses,  for  example,  Captain  Edward  Amhurst, 
Richard  Bulkeley  (whose  escutcheon  hangs  in  St.  Paul's  Church,  Halifax),  John 
Collier,  Captain  William  Cotterell  (the  first  provost  marshal  of  Halifax),  John 
Creighton,  Hugh  Davidson,  John  Duport,  Archibald  Hinchelwood,  William  Nesbitt, 
and  John  Salusbury.  Richard  Bulkeley  came  out  as  aide-de-camp  to  Governor 
Cornwallis,  and  from  about  1759  to  1793  filled  the  office  of  Secretary  of  the 
Province.  John  Collier,  a  retired  army  officer,  became  one  of  the  earliest  justices 
of  the  peace,  a  captain  in  the  militia,  and  finally  a  member  of  the  Council.  Still 
other  men  of  this  English  migration  were  William  Best.  John  Burbidge,  and 
John  Pyke.  Thomas  Cochran,  who  became  a  member  of  Council,  came  from  the 
North  of  Ireland  with  McNutt,  the  Tobins  and  Kennys  were  Roman  Catholic 
Irishmen,  who  came  later  from  Ireland. 


i52  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

of  New  England  men  in  the  early  life  of  Halifax  we  should  find 
it  sufficiently  in  the  constitution  of  the  first  Representative  As- 
sembly of  Nova  Scotia,  which  was  brought  into  being  largely 
through  the  determined  efforts  of  Chief  Justice  Belcher.  In 
this  first  Assembly  there  were  nineteen  members  elected  by  the 
people,  six  of  whom  technically  ranked  as  esquires,  thirteen  as 
gentlemen.  Of  the  six  esquires  we  find  five  to  have  been  New 
England  men,— Joseph  Gerrish,  Robert  Sanderson  (who  was 
chosen  Speaker),  Henry  Newton,  William  Foye,  and  Joseph 
Rundell.  Of  the  thirteen  ranked  as  gentlemen,  we  find  at  least 
six  to  have  been  from  New  England,— Jonathan  Binney,  Rob- 
ert Campbell,  William  Pantree,  Joseph  Fairbanks,  Philip  Ham- 
mond, and  John  Fillis.  Of  the  remaining  eight  members,  six 
seem  to  have  been  Englishmen,  and  two  Germans  from  among 
the  Continental  settlers  who  were  temporarily  or  permanently 
settled  in  the  North  Suburbs  of  the  town.  In  the  second  assem- 
bly, which  met  for  the  first  time  in  December,  1759,  we  find  of 
New  England  men,  Henry  Newton,  Jonathan  Binney,  Malachy 
Salter,  Benjamin  Gerrish,  Capt.  Charles  Proctor,  Col.  Jonathan 
Hoar,  John  Newton,  Capt.  Simon  Slocomb,  Col.  Joseph  Fry, 
and  John  Huston.9 

Before  passing  on  to  the  second  large  migration  to  Nova 
Scotia  from  the  earlier  settled  American  colonies  to  the  west  and 
south,  we  may  properly  say  a  little  more  about  some  of  these 
New  England  men  and  their  families  who  largely  controlled  the 
early  destinies  of  Halifax. 

JONATHAN  BINNEY,  originally  of  Hull,  Massachusetts,  before 
coming  to  Halifax  had  been  a  merchant  and  ship-owner  in  Bos- 


9.  Professor  Murray  ("History  of  St.  Matthew's  Church,  Halifax")  goes  on 
to  say:  "The  Governor  in  1758  unconsciously  paid  a  tribute  to  the  power  of  the 
New  England  element  when  he  says  that  'too  many  members  of  the  Assembly  are 
such  as  have  not  been  the  most  remarkable  for  promoting  unity  or  obedience  to 
His  Majesty's  Government  here,  or  indeed  that  have  the  most  natural  attachment 
to  this  Province.'  Lt.  Col.  Morse  in  1783  estimated  the  number  of  old  inhabitants 
(exclusive  of  disbanded  soldiers  and  Loyalists)  to  be  about  14,000  out  of  a  total 
of  40,000,  and  he  added  'it  may  not  be  improper  to  observe  that  a  great  part  of  the 
old  inhabitants,  especially  the  wealthy  ones,  are  from  New  England,  and  that 
they  discovered  during  the  late  war  the  same  sentiments  which  prevailed  in  that 
country.  I  think  it  necessary  to  add  that  the  Legislature  is  principally  composed  of 
these  men  and  that  some  of  the  higher  public  offices  are  at  present  filled  with  the 
most  notorious  of  these  characters."  (Coll.  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Hist.  Soc.,  Vol. 
16,  pp.  148,  149. 


HON.  JOHATHAN  BELCHER, 

First  Chief  Justice  of  Nova  Scotia.     Born  in  Boston  in  1710.     Died  in  Halifax  in 
Portrait  by  John  Singleton  Copley.     Photograph  loaned  by 
Hon.  Sir  Charles  Townshend,  Kt. 


1776. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  153 

ton,  where  his  first  wife,  Martha  Hall,  had  died.  An  uncle  of 
his,  Dr.  Joseph  Binney,  had  been  a  surgeon  at  the  capture  of 
Louisburg,  and  in  the  siege  or  not  long  after  had  died  at  that 
place.  The  nephew  had  not,  so  far  as  we  know,  served  in  the 
siege,  but  it  is  possible  that  his  uncle's  service  and  death  at  Cape 
Breton  had  aroused  his  interest  in  this  eastern  province.  At 
any  rate,  in  1753  he  left  Boston  and  came  to  Halifax,  and  here 
he  married  secondly,  in  1759,  Hannah  Adams  Newton,  daughter 
of  Hibbert  Newton,  and  sister  of  Henry  Newton,  and  so  founded 
the  Halifax  Binney  family,  from  which  came  the  fourth  Anglican 
Bishop  of  Nova  Scotia,  and  other  locally  important  men. 

AARON  CLEVELAND  was  the  first  Congregational  minister  of 
Nova  Scotia,  and  he  and  William  Foye,  both  of  the  class  of  1735, 
and  Otis  Little,  were  the  first  Harvard  graduates  to  settle  in 
Halifax.  The  presence  of  so  many  Bostonians  in  the  town  at 
the  start  drew  a  Congregational  church  together  almost  as  soon 
as  an  Anglican  parish,  and  of  this  church  Aaron  Cleveland,  who 
had  come  with  his  brothers  Josiah  and  Samuel  in  1749,  became 
the  first  minister.  Cleveland  was  "a  man  of  distinction  and  a 
scholar,"  he  staid  in  Halifax  only  three  years,  then  he  went 
to  England  and  took  orders  in  the  Anglican  Church.  "On  his 
way  out  the  vessel  sprang  a  leak.  His  heroic  endeavors  to  help 
save  the  leaking  ship  injured  his  health.  After  a  short  time  in 
mission  charges  he  died  at  the  house  of  his  friend  Benjamin 
Franklin,  in  Philadelphia. ' no  The  Rev.  Mr.  Cleveland 's  brother, 
Captain  Samuel  Cleveland,  met  a  violent  death  at  the  hands  of 
Indians  in  May,  1753. 

LIEUTENANT  JOSEPH  FAIRBANKS  saw  service  at  the  first  siege 
of  Louisburg,  and  in  1752  we  find  him  settled  in  Halifax  with  a 
family  (and  servants)  consisting  of  ten  persons.  He  was  born 
in  Sherborn,  Massachusetts,  September  seventeenth,  1718,  and 
his  second  wife  was  Lydia  Blackden,  sister  of  the  second  wife  of 


10.  "The  History  of  St.  Matthew's  Church.  Halifax,"  by  Professor  Waller 
C.  Murray,  M.  A.,  LL.D.,  in  Coll.  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Historical  Society,  Vol.  16, 
pp.  168,  169.  For  a  very  valuable  sketch  of  Rev.  Aaron  Cleveland,  in  which  the 
facts  of  his  brother  Samuel's  death  are  also  given,  see  the  New  England  Historical 
and  Genealogical  Register  for  January,  1888.  The  sketch  is  by  Benjamin  Rand, 
M.  A.,  Ph.D.,  of  Harvard  University.  It  is  published  also  as  a  reprint.  Rev. 
Aaron  Cleveland  was  great-grandfather  of  the  late  Hon.  Grover  Cleveland, 
President  of  the  United  States. 


154  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

Dr.  Jonathan  Prescott,  surgeon  and  captain  of  Engineers  at 
Louisburg,  who  founded  the  Prescott  family,  so  distinguished 
in  Halifax  County  and  in  King's. 

Joseph  Fairbanks  left  no  children  by  either  of  his  wives.  The 
well-known  and  much  respected  Fairbanks  family  of  Halifax 
was  founded  here  by  Rufus  Fairbanks,  his  nephew,  who  was 
born  at  Killingly,  Connecticut  (where  his  father  was  a  Con- 
gregational clergyman),  October  twentieth,  1759,  and  graduated 
at  Dartmouth  College  in  1784.  Rufus  Fairbanks  married  No- 
vember seventeenth,  1785,  Ann  Prescott,  daughter  of  Dr.  Jona- 
than Prescott,  and  inheriting  his  uncle  Joseph's  property  was 
one  of  early  Halifax's  comparatively  wealthy  men.  His  son, 
Hon.  Charles  Rufus  Fairbanks,  one  of  the  ablest  lawyers  Nova 
Scotia  has  produced,  in  1832  was  appointed  Solicitor  General, 
and  in  1834  Judge  of  Vice  Admiralty  and  Master  of  the  Rolls. 

JOHN  FILLIS  had  been  in  some  kind  of  mercantile  business  in 
Boston,  where  he  was  born,  and  at  the  founding  of  Hali- 
fax he  also  with  his  family  removed  to  Nova  Scotia.  In  the  new 
maritime-provincial  town  he  became  a  highly  prosperous  mer- 
chant and  ship-owner,  and  among  the  Congregational  families 
of  Halifax  at  least  his  family  occupied  a  foremost  place.  He 
married  first,  in  Boston  in  1747,  Elizabeth  Stoddard,  second,  in 
Halifax,  not  long  after  his  settlement  there,  another  Boston 
woman,  Sarah,  widow  of  Samuel  Cleveland,  whose  first  husband 
was  one  of  the  earliest  emigrants  from  Boston  to  die.  For  many 
years  John  Fillis  with  his  son  John  was  engaged  in  a  general 
mercantile  business  in  Halifax,  and  he  owned  a  wharf  and  no 
doubt  vessels  in  which  he  traded  with  Boston.  It  would  seem 
that  for  some  years  until  the  Revolution  he  may  have  had  a 
branch  business  or  agency  in  Boston,  for  his  son,  who  married 
Louisa,  daughter  of  Byfield  Lyde,  was  stationed  in  Boston  when 
the  Revolution  began.  In  1775  some  hay  belonging  to  Mr. 
Joseph  Fairbanks  that  was  intended  for  the  British  troops  in 
Boston  was  burned  before  it  could  be  shipped,  and  Messrs. 
John  Fillis,  Sr.,  and  another  New  Englander,  Mr.  William 
Smith,  were  popularly  accused  of  having  been  the  secret  agents 
in  its  destruction.  On  the  sixteenth  of  June  of  this  year  Fillis 
and  Smith  made  formal  complaint  to  the  Assembly  that  they  had 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  155 

been  maligned  in  the  accusations,  and  being  unable  to  detect 
their  "vile  traducers,"  begged  relief  from  the  House.  In  a 
formal  resolve  of  the  Assembly  both  men  were  completely  ex- 
onerated of  the  charge,  the  government  decla'ring  that  it  be- 
lieved the  accused  persons  to  be  "dutiful  and  loyal  subjects  of 
His  Majesty  King  George."11  Fillis  died  in  Halifax  on  the  six- 
teenth of  July,  1792. 

WILLIAM  FOYE  was  a  son  of  William  F'oye,  Esq.,  who  was 
Treasurer  and  Receiver  General  of  the  province  of  Massachu- 
setts Bay  from  1736  to  1759,  and  grandson  of  Joseph  Foye, 
mariner.  His  mother  was  Elizabeth  Campbell  and  he  had  two 
sisters,  one  of  whom,  Mary,  was  married  as  his  second  wife  to 
Rev.  William  Cooper  of  Boston.  William  Foye  was  born  No- 
vember 1,  1716,  graduated  at  Harvard  College  in  1735,  and  came 
to  Halifax  in  1749.  Almost  immediately  after  coming  there  he 
was  appointed  by  Colonel  Cornwallis  provost  marshal  or  sheriff 
of  the  province.  Of  his  family,  if  he  had  any,  we  at  present 
know  nothing.  He  died  at  Halifax  in  1771,  for  in  the  Boston 
Evening  Post  of  September  23,  1771,  we  find : 

"Died  at  Halifax,  William  Foye,  Esq.,  aged  55,  son  of  the  late 
Treasurer.  He  was  Provost  Marshal  of  that  Province  22  years 
and  Lieutenant  Colonel  of  the  City  of  Halifax."12  By  his  fath- 
er's will,  which  was  made  in  Milton,  Massachusetts,  March  17, 
1759,  and  proved  April  10,  of  the  same  year,  he  inherited  valua- 
ble properties  in  Boston.  As  we  have  said,  William  F'oye  and 
Aaron  Cleveland,  both  of  the  class  of  1735,  and  Otis  Little  of  the 
class  of  1731,  were  the  earliest  Harvard  graduates  to  settle  in 
Nova  Scotia. 

JOSEPH  GEERISH— Among  pre-Revolutionary  families  in  and 
about  Boston,  as  further  east  in  the  colonies  of  New  Hampshire 
and  Maine,  few  families  were  better  known  or  socially  more  in- 
fluential than  the  Gerrish  family,  who  were  intermarried  with 
the  Sewalls,  Waldrons,  and  Greens.  An  important  member  of 


11.  Murdoch's  "History  of  Nova  Scotia,"  Vol.  2,  p.  539;  and  the  Nova  Scotia 
Gazette  of  June  20,   1775. 

12.  See  N.  E.  Hist,  and  Gen.  Register,  Vol.  19,  pp.  207,  8.    The  elder  William 
Foye's  estate  seems  to  have  been  very  large  and  he  must  have  been  known  as  an 
extremely  rich  man.     He  left  a  house  in  Mackerel  Lane,  Boston,  a  house  in  Han- 
over Street,  Boston,  whei*  he  had  lately  lived,  and  a  "mansion  house"  in  Milton. 
He  left  also  several  slaves 


156  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

the  family  was  Captain  John  Gerrish,  of  Boston,  one  of  the 
owners  of  Long  Wharf,  a  merchant  of  note,  and  a  captain  in 
the  Ancient  and  Honorable  Artillery.  With  a  large  number  of 
daughters  he  had  two  sons,  the  elder  of  whom,  Joseph,  after  his 
father's  death,  seems  to  have  closed  the  Boston  business,  in 
which  he  had  a  share,  and  when  the  call  for  volunteers  for  Lou- 
isburg  came,  joined  the  Third  Massachusetts  Regiment  and  went 
to  Cape  Breton.  After  the  capture  he  remained  in  military  ser- 
vice in  Nova  Scotia,  and  in  the  winter  of  1746-7  was  in  command 
at  Minas,  where  he  received  a  severe  wound.  Before  1759  he 
was  appointed  Naval  Storekeeper  at  Halifax,  with  a  salary  of 
a  hundred  pounds  a  year,  and  on  August  sixteenth,  1758,  was 
made  a  member  of  the  Council,  in  which  position  he  remained 
till  his  death. 

BENJAMIN  GERRISH,  younger  brother  of  Joseph,  also  settled  in 
Halifax,  sometime  before  1752.  He  married  in  Boston  in  April, 
1744,  Rebecca  Dudley,  a  daughter  of  the  Hon.  William  Dudley, 
granddaughter  of  Governor  Joseph  Dudley,  and  great  grand- 
daughter of  Governor  Thomas  Dudley;  and  in  Halifax  founded 
the  important  shipping  firm  of  "Gerrish  and  Gray."  Benjamin 
Gerrish,  like  his  brother  Joseph,  was  admitted  to  the  Council 
and  was  a  member  of  that  body  when  he  died.  His  death  oc- 
curred at  Southampton,  England,  May  sixth,  1772,  and  after  he 
died  his  widow  was  married  to  John  Burbidge,  Esq.,  of  Corn- 
wallis,  another  member  of  the  First  Assembly,  who  had  come  out 
with  Governor  Cornwallis,  from  the  Isle  of  Wight. 

COLONEL  JOHN  GORHAM,  eldest  son  of  Colonel  Shubael  Gor- 
ham  of  Barnstable,  Massachusetts,  was  born  at  Barnstable  De- 
cember twelfth,  1709,  and  married  March  ninth,  1732,  Elizabeth 
Allyn,  daughter  of  James  and  Susannah  (Lewis)  Allyn.  He 
lived  at  Barnstable  until  1742,  when  he  entered  on  military  ser- 
vice. In  1744  we  find  him  in  command  of  a  company  of  militia 
troops  at  Annapolis  Royal,  and  the  next  year,  in  Boston,  raising 
a  company  for  the  expedition  against  Louisburg.  His  father 
was  colonel  of  the  Seventh  Massachusetts  regiment,  and  as  cap- 
tain of  the  Second  Company  of  that  regiment  he  took  part  in  the 
Louisburg  siege.  Shortly  after  the  siege  he  was  promoted  to 
a  lieutenant-colonelcy,  and  on  the  death  of  his  father  was  made 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  157 

full  colonel  of  the  Seventh.    When  Louisburg  was  taken  he  re- 
turned to  Annapolis  Eoyal  in  chief  command  of  the  troops  sta- 
tioned there.    When  civil  government  for  Nova  Scotia  was  es-<X 
tablished.  Governor  Cornwallis  gave  him  a  place  on  his  new    />* 
Council,  but  he  must  have  died  late  in  1751  or  early  in  1752.    His     A 
widow  soon  after  married  Captain  John  Stevens  and  removed    & 
to  Gloucester,  Massachusetts.13 

MAJOR  GENERAL  JOSEPH  GORHAM,  brother  of  Colonel  John, 
was  born  at  Barnstable,  May  twenty-ninth,  1725,  and  was  prob- 
ably a  lieutenant  at  Louisburg.  In  1749  he  was  lieutenant  in 
the  "Bangers"  sent  from  New  England  to  Nova  Scotia,  and  this 
position  he  still  held  in  1758  and  1759.  In  1761  the  Rangers 
were  established  as  regular  troops,  and  in  1770,  as  an  officer  of 
the  British  anny  he  was  commissioned  Lieu  tenant-Governor  of 
Placentia  in  Newfoundland  in  place  of  L-t.-Col.  Otho  Hamilton. 
In  1766  he  also  was  admitted  to  the  Nova  Scotia  Council,  and  on 
the  twenty-eight  of  April,  1790,  was  made  major-general  in  the 
army.  He  married  at  Halifax  December  thirtieth,  1764,  Anne 
Spry,  sister  of  William  Spry,  judge  of  the  newly  established 
Court  of  Admirality  at  Halifax,  an  Englishman,  who  with  his 
two  sisters  had  come  to  Halifax  about  three  months  before. 
At  the  time  of  his  marriage  he  owned  a  house  in  Halifax  and  a 
place  which  he  called  ' '  Gorham  Hall, ' '  near  the  town  of  Lunen- 
burg.  Both  he  and  his  brother  received  grants  of  land  in  the 
province.  His  governorship  of  Placentia  did  not  require  his 
continued  residence  in  Newfoundland  and  he  still  lived  mostly  in 
Halifax,  where  in  his  house  on  Sundays  the  Eev.  Thomas  Wood, 
curate  of  St.  Paul's  Church,  frequently  instructed  the  Micmac 
Indians,  in  their  own  tongue.  He  died  at  Halifax  probably  in 
1790,  or  soon  after  that  year.  Of  his  children,  Joseph  William, 
born  September  twenty-fifth,  1765,  and  Amherst,  born  in  Sep- 


13.  In  Parsons's  "Life  of  Sir  William  Pepperrell,"  (p.  240),  we  find  a  letter 
from  Col.  John  Gorham  to  Pepperrell,  dated  Halifax,  July  5,  1751,  describing  the 
important  part  Gorham  took  in  the  Louisburg  siege.  The  Boston  News-Letter 
of  June  28,  1750,  has  an  account  of  a  wound  Col.  Gorham  had  received  at  Pisiquid, 
Nova  Scotia,  in  a  skirmish  with  the  French  shortly  before.  Gorham  lay  for  some 
time  in  "the  first  house  in  Pisiquid,"  then  he  was  taken  by  water  round  the  shore 
to  Halifax. 

A  memoir  of  Major  Joseph  Gorham  will  be  found  in  the  "Collections  of  the 
Nova  Scotia  Historical  Society,"  Vol.  2,  (1879-1880),  pp.  26,  27.  He  sailed  from 
New  York,  June  30,  1762,  for  the  capture  of  Havana. 


158 

tember,  1766,  were  in  the  British  army.  He  had  also  a  daughter, 
Charlotte  Spry,  who  was  married  twice. 

BENJAMIN  GREEN— One  of  the  first  members  of  the  Council 
appointed  by  Governor  Cornwallis  was  Benjamin  Green,  a  son 
of  the  Rev.  Joseph  Green,  minister  of  the  Congregational  Church 
at  Salem  Village,  now  Danvers,  Massachusetts.  Before  1745, 
Mr.  Green  was  for  some  years  in  business  in  Boston,  but  when 
the  expedition  against  Louisburg  was  organized  he  was  given 
the  position  of  secretary  with  military  rank  to  Sir  William  Pep- 
perrell.  After  the  capture  of  Louisburg  he  remained  at  the  place 
in  some  public  position  or  other  until  1749,  when  like  so  many 
other  New  Englanders  there  he  removed  to  Halifax.  In  1757  he 
was  appointed  military  secretary  to  the  commander-in-chief  of 
the  forces,  Governor  Charles  Lawrence,  and  also  colonel  in  the 
militia.  His  wife  was  Margaret  Pierce  of  Portsmouth,  New 
Hampshire,  and  she  bore  him  seven  children,  two  or  three  of 
whom  intermarried  with  the  family  of  Hon.  Henry  Newton.  Hon 
Benjamin  Green  was  a  second  cousin  of  Hon.  Joseph  and  Hon. 
Benjamin  Gerrish,  both  like  him,  as  we  have  seen,  members  of 
the  Nova  Scotia  Council. 

LIEUTENANT  COLONEL  JONATHAN  HOAR  was  a  son  of  Lieutenant 
Daniel  and  Sarah  (Jones)  Hoar,  and  was  born  at  Concord,  Mass- 
achusetts, where  his  family  always  lived,  January  6,  1707.  He  is 
recorded  as  having  graduated  at  Harvard  in  1740,  although 
thirty-three  years  is  a  very  unusual  age  for  men  to  reach  before 
leaving  college.  We  are  puzzled  likewise  with  other  facts  in  his 
record.  In  1755  he  went  as  a  major  to  Fort  Edward  (Windsor), 
Nova  Scotia,  probably  in  connexion  with  the  expulsion  of  the  Aca- 
dians.  It  may  be  also  that  a  little  earlier  he  assisted  in  the  capture 
of  Fort  Beausejour.  The  next  year  (as  lieutenant-colonel)  he 
went  with  Major  General  Winslow  to  Crown  Point,  and  in  1758 
he  was  at  the  second  capture  of  Louisburg.  In  1759,  having  re- 
ceived a  grant  of  land  at  Annapolis,  he  was  elected  to  the  legisla- 
ture for  that  township,  his  election  from  this  constituency  being 
repeated  in  1765.  In  the  Massachusetts  Archives  we  find  records 
of  military  service  performed  by  him  in  1762  and  1763,  his  resi- 
dence then  being  given  as  Concord,  Massachusetts.  But  in  1762, 


MRS.  JONATHAN  BELCHER 

Born  in  Boston  in  1727.      Died  in  Halifax,  October  9,  1771.     From  a 

painting  by  Copley.   Reproduced  from  a  photograph  loaned  by 

the  Nova  Scotia  Historical  Society 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  159 

the  History  of  Annapolis  tells  us,  he  was  a  judge  there  of  the 
court  of  common  pleas,  and  active  in  organizing  the  militia.  In 
1767,  also,  the  same  History  says,  he  was  appointed  judge  of 
probate  at  Annapolis.  In  1771,  we  learn  from  Bond's  History  of 
Watertown,  where  many  other  facts  concerning  him  are  given, 
he  was  in  England,  whence,  having  been  appointed  ' '  governor  of 
Newfoundland,"  he  sailed  for  that  island.  On  the  way  thither, 
this  record  says,  he  died.  The  estate  he  owned  at  Annapolis  was 
sold  in  1782.14 

JACOB  HUED,  member  of  a  useful  and  more  or  less  influential 
family  in  Boston,  received  a  water  lot  in  Halifax  on  the  twen- 
tieth of  July,  1752.  For  many  years  he  was  a  prosperous  mem- 
ber of  the  Halifax  trading  community  and  a  little  street  there 
known  as  Kurd's  Lane  commemorates  his  name.  He  married  in 
Boston  on  the  twentieth  of  May,  1725,  Elizabeth  Mason,  and  on 
the  register  of  the  New  South  Church  the  baptisms  of  no  less 
than  fourteen  children  born  to  him  and  his  wife  in  Boston  are 
to  be  found.  How  many  of  these  lived  and  how  many  accom- 
panied him  to  Halifax  we  do  not  know.  His  son  Nathaniel,  how- 
ever, a  well  known  engraver,  whose  portrait  was  painted  by 
Copley,  spent  his  life  and  died  in  his  and  his  parents'  native 
town.15 

THOMAS  LAWLOR  and  his  wife,  Susanna,  who  were  connected 
with  the  New  Brick  Church  in  Boston,  do  not  seem  to  have  been 
especially  noted  in  the  Boston  community,  but  their  descendants, 
if  not  themselves,  came  to  have  considerable  prominence  in  Hal- 
ifax, where  they  removed,  although  it  would  seem  not  earlier  than 
1757.  In  Boston  they  had  five  children  baptized,  the  second  of 
whom,  William,  became  an  important  officer  of  the  Halifax  mi- 


14.  Lt.-Col.   Otho   Hamilton,   governor  of    Placentia,   in    Newfoundland,   died 
in  Ireland,  February  26,  1770,  and  very  soon  after  Major  Joseph  Gorliam,  of  whom 
we  have  given  a  brief   sketch,   was  appointed  his  successor.     It  is  probable  that 
Lt.-Col.  Jonathan  Hoar  was  appointed  immediately  after  Lt.-Col.  Hamilton's  death, 
and  that  as  the  record  says,  he  died  before  assuming  the  duties  of  the  office.     See 
Bond's  "Genealogies  and  History  of  Watertown,"  p.  298;    Ar.  E.  Plist.  and  Gen. 
Register,  Vol.  53,  p.   197;    and  "History  of  Annapolis,"  pp.  323-326. 

15.  Nathaniel  Hurd,  born  in   1730,  died  in  Boston  in   1777-     He  was  one  of 
the  earliest  important  engravers  in  America,  and  he  also  painted  a  few  minatures 
on  copper.     "He  engraved  the  seal  of  Harvard  College,  and  the  seals  for  most  of 
the  thirteen  original  colonies."     His  portrait  by  Copley,  which   went  to   Halifax 
after  his   death   and   remained  there   for   about   a   hundred   years,   was   probably 
painted    about    1770.      At    the    present    time    it    is    owned    in    the    United    States. 


160  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

litia.  Their  elder  daughter,  Susanna,  became  in  Halifax,  first 
the  wife  of  William  Read  or  E-eid,  then  third  wife  of  the  eminent 
Loyalist  Angelican  clergyman,  the  younger  Dr.  Mather  Byles. 
A  grandson  of  William  Lawlor  was  the  famous  Haligonian,  Ad- 
miral Sir  Provo  William  Parry  Wallis,  who  when  he  was  only 
twenty-two  years  old  took  command  of  the  British  frigate  Shan- 
non after  her  victory  over  the  Chesapeake,  and  brought  both  ves- 
sels into  Halifax  harbour,  in  1813.16  Admiral  WTallis  who  lived 
a  little  more  than  a  full  centuiy  was  for  many  years  known  in 
British  circles  as  ' '  Father  of  the  Fleet.  He  died  in  England  in 
February,  1892. 

WILLIAM  LAWSON,  son  of  John  and  Sarah  Lawson  of  Boston, 
born  March  27,  1720,  with  his  wife  Elizabeth,  whom  he  married 
in  1743,  and  several  children,  came  to  Halifax  in  or  soon  after 
1749.  The  family  he  founded  in  Halifax,  during  the  whole  of  the 
nineteenth  century  enjoyed  much  social  prominence.  There  were 
of  course  continual  intermarriages  among  these  Halifax  families 
of  Boston  origin. 

OTIS  LITTLE,  of  Marshfield,  Massachusetts,  born  January  29, 
1711,  was  graduated  at  Harvard  in  1731,  and  then  studied  law. 
We  find  no  record  in  the  Massachusetts  Archives  of  military  ser- 
vice performed  by  him,  but  Dr.  Akins  says  he  was  "Captain  of 
one  of  the  Independent  Companies  raised  in  New  England  for 
Colonial  service. ' '  In  1748  in  London  and  in  1749  in  Boston  he 
published  an  octavo  pamphlet  entitled  "The  State  of  Trade  in 
the  Northern  Colonies  considered;  with  an  Account  of  their 
Produce,  and  a  particular  description  of  Nova  Scotia,"  extracts 
from  which  are  given  in  the  New  England  Historical  and  Genea- 
logical Register,  volume  9,  pages  105,  106.  When  the  Comwallis 
enterprise  was  set  on  foot  he  was  in  England,  and  joining  it  he 
came  out  in  the  Channing  frigate,  and  in  the  new  town  acted  for 
a  little  while  as  ' l  commissary  of  stores. ' '  From  this  office  Corn- 
wallis  removed  him,  but  in  1753  we  find  him  "the  King's  attor- 
ney" or  attorney-general  of  the  province.  He  died,  we  believe 
some  time  before  1758.  Of  his  family  we  know  nothing  except 


16.  Admiral  Wallis's  mother  was  Elizabeth  Lawlor  and  his  father  Provo 
Featherstone  Wallis  of  the  Halifax  Dockyard.  His  grandfather,  William  Lawlor, 
was  major  of  the  First  Battalion  of  the  Halifax  Regiment.  For  Admiral  Wallis 
see  the  Dictionary  of  National  Biography. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  161 

that  he  had,  as  it  is  reported,  a  daughter  who  died,  we  suppose 
in  Halifax,  unmarried.  Mr.  Little,  Rev.  Aaron  Cleveland,  and 
William  Foye,  were  the  first  Harvard  graduates  to  reside  in  Hali- 

n  .  •  1!*S4 

tax.  I  •   :f;*g 

JAMES  MONK — Before  coming  to  Halifax,  James  Monk  seems  to 
have  been  a  merchant  in  Boston,  where  he  had  lived  for  some 
years,  but  before  long  in  Halifax  he  seems  to  have  practised  and 
had  good  standing  as  a  lawyer.17  In  1752  he  was  named  as  a 
judge  of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas,  and  in  1760  "  King's  Solici- 
tor." His  wife  was  Ann  Deering,  a  sister  of  Mrs.  Samuel  Went- 
worth  (mother  of  Lady  Frances  Wentworth)  and  Mrs.  Nathaniel 
Ray  Thomas,  and  of  his  children,  born  in  Boston,  and  most  of 
them,  at  least,  baptized  at  King's  Chapel,  James  was  appointed 
Solicitor  General  at  Halifax  in  1774,  and  George  Henry  in  1801 
was  raised  to  the  Nova  Scotia  Supreme  Bench.  In  1777,  prob- 
ably, James  Monk,  Jr.,  went  to  the  province  of  Quebec,  and  in 
that  part  of  what  is  now  the  Dominion  of  Canada  in  time  became 
Chief  Justice  of  the  Court  of  Queen's  Bench.  After  he  retired 
from  the  Bench  he  was  knighted.  He  died  in  England  in  1826. 
Judge  George  Henry  Monk  was  long  a  resident  of  Windsor, 
Nova  Scotia,  where  his  relatives  the  Nathaniel  Ray  Thomases 
lived.  Late  in  his  life  he  went  to  Montreal,  and  in  that  city  died 
in  1823.18 

CHARLES  MORRIS— No  man  in  the  early  history  of  Halifax  save 
the  governors  filled  higher  positions,  or  had  a  more  active  career, 
than  Charles  Morris,  who  was  born  in  Boston  in  1711.  Morris 
was  captain  of  one  of  the  six  companies  sent  by  Governor  Shirley 
to  Annapolis  Royal  to  protect  that  place  against  recapture  by 
the  French  in  October,  1746.  The  following  December  he  was 
sent  to  Minas,  in  King's  County,  to  guard  the  settlement  there 
during  the  winter,  and  the  next  month  he  helped  repel  the  attack 
made  by  French  and  Indians  on  the  place,  in  which  Lieutenant 
Colonel  Arthur  Noble  and  his  brother  Francis,  from  Maine,  lost 


17.  Whether  James  Monk  was  nearly  related  to  George  Monk,  of  Boston,  a 
well  known  resident  and  inn  keeper  there  for  many  years  we  have  not  been  able 
to  make  out. 

18.  Judge   George   Henry  Monk's   descendants   were   for  many  years   in   the 
igth  century  very  conspicuous   in  political   life  in  the   Province  of   Quebec.     Sir 
James  Monk  died  childless. 


162  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,"  NOVA  SCOTIA 

their  lives.  When  Halifax  was  founded,  Morris,  who  had  been 
trained  as  a  surveyor,  was  employed  by  Governor  Cornwallis 
as  one  of  two  men  to  plan  and  lay  out  the  town.  After  this  he 
became  Surveyor  General  for  the  province,  was  made  a  judge  of 
the  Superior  Court  of  Common  Pleas,  although  he  was  not  a 
lawyer  rose  to  a  judgeship  of  the  Supreme  Court,  became  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Council,  and  after  Chief  Justice  Belcher  died,  for  two 
years  acted  as  Chief  Justice.  His  wife  was  a  daughter  of  At- 
torney General  John  Read  of  Boston,  and  his  eldest  son  Charles, 
who  also  became  a  member  of  the  Council  and  a  judge  of  the 
Supreme  Court,  was  his  successor  in  the  Surveyor-Generalship. 
The  office  thus  filled  by  two  generations  of  the  Morris  family 
became  indeed  hereditary  in  the  family,  it  did  not  pass  from 
Morris  hands  until  two  generations  more  of  the  family  had  dis- 
charged its  functions  and  enjoyed  its  emoluments.  The  Sur- 
veyor General  in  the  third  generation  was  Charles  Morris,  3d, 
his  successor  was  his  son  John  Spry  Morris.19 

HENBY  NEWTON  was  one  of  the  three  sons  of  Hibbert  Newton, 
Esq.,  only  son  of  Judge  Thomas  Newton  of  Boston,  to  whom  a 
tablet  was  placed  on  the  walls  of  King's  Chapel  in  1853.  The 
inscription  on  the  tablet  describes  Thomas  Newton  as  one  of 
the  original  founders  of  King's  Chapel  parish,  a  member  of  its 
first  Vestry  in  1699,  and  a  Warden  in  1704.  "He  was  many 
years,"  it  says,  "one  of  the  principal  lawyers  in  the  Province 
[of  Massachusetts]  and  filled  various  places  of  honour  and  trust 
here,  and  at  the  time  of  his  death  was  Attorney-General,  Comp- 
troller of  the  Customs,  and  had  been  a  Judge  of  the  Admiralty 
Court.  He  was  a  gentleman  of  exalted  virtues,  and  greatly  be- 
loved and  respected,  both  in  this  country  and  in  England,  where 
he  was  born  and  educated."  Hibbert  Newton,  early  settled  at 
Annapolis  Royal,  and  there  and  at  Canso  served  as  Collector  of 
Customs  long  before  Governor  Cornwallis  came.  Henry  New- 
ton, son  of  Hibbert,  was  the  first  Collector  of  Customs  at  Hali- 


19.  See  the  writer's  sketch  of  Hon.  Charles  Morris,  ist,  in  the  New  England 
Historical  and  Genealogical  Register  for  July,  1913.  This  sketch  is  the  first  of  a 
series  of  sketches  of  "eminent  Nova  Scotians  of  New  England  birth."  The  second, 
a  sketch  of  Hibbert  Newton,  will  be  found  in  the  Register  for  January,  1914.  The 
writer  has  also  published  in  the  Register  genealogical  sketches  of  the  Gerrish, 
DeBlois,  and  Byles  families. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  163 

fax,  and  this  important  office  he  filled  honorably  for  fifty  years. 
On  October  24,  1761,  during  Chief  Justice  Belcher's  administra- 
tion of  the  Government,  he  was  appointed  to  the  Council,  and  in 
February,  1790,  he  became  President  of  this  body.  He  died  at 
Halifax,  January  29,  1802,  aged  seventy,  and  a  tablet  to  his 
memory  was  later  placed  on  the  walls  of  St.  Paul 's  Church.  His 
first  wife  was  Charlotte,  daughter  of  Hon.  Benjamin  Green,  and 
his  second,  Anne  Stuart,  only  sister  of  Gilbert  Stuart  the  painter, 
whose  father  had  settled  on  his  grant  at  Newport,  Hants  County, 
in  1775.  After  her  husband's  death  Mrs.  Newton  opened  a 
school  for  young  ladies  in  Medford,  Massachusetts.  The  New- 
ton family  in  Halifax  were  intermarried  with  the  Binneys  and 
Uniackes. 

DR.  JONATHAN  PRESCOTT.  The  surgeon-general  of  Massachu- 
setts troops  at  Louisburg  was  Dr.  Edward  Ellis  of  Boston,  an  as- 
sistant surgeon  (and  captain  of  Engineers)  was  Dr.  Jonathan 
Prescott,  who  was  born  at  Littleton,  Massachusetts,  May  24, 
1725.  Dr.  Ellis  settled  in  Hants  County,  although  not  until  1760, 
Dr.  Prescott  came  to  Halifax  probably  in  1749.  Receiving  im- 
portant grants  of  land  in  Lunenburg  County  Prescott  settled  at 
Chester  and  conducted  a  prosperous  business  there,  but  he  had 
always  a  close  and  intimate  connexion  with  Halifax.  He  died  at 
Chester  January  11,  1802.  He  married,  first,  Mary  Vassall,  a 
daughter  of  William  Vassall,  Esq.,  of  Cambridge  and  Boston. 
Mrs.  Prescott  died  in  1757,  and  he  married,  secondly,  Ann  Black- 
den,  born  in  London,  England,  March  21,  1742,  died  in  Halifax 
in  February,  1810.  The  family  Dr.  Prescott  founded  in  Nova 
Scotia  had  much  social  distinction  throughout  the  province.  An 
important  sketch  of  it  will  be  found  in  Eaton's  History  of  Kings 
County,  pp.  783-785. 

CAPTAIN  JOHN  Eous  or  ROUSE  may  have  been  born  at  Marsh- 
field,  Massachusetts,  but  of  what  Massachusetts  town  he  was  a 
native  we  are  not  sure.  The  chief  biographical  sketch  of  him 
that  has  yet  come  into  print  will  be  found  in  John  Charnock's 
"Biographia  Navalis"  (vol.  5,  pp.  412-414).  In  that  sketch  he  is 
said  to  have  probably  early  become  a  lieutenant  in  the  navy,  but 
the  important  beginning  of  his  career  is  placed  at  the  first  siege 
of  Louisburg,  in  1745.  At  the  siege  he  so  distinguished  himself 


164  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

as  to  attract  the  attention  of  Sir  Peter  Warren,  who  commanded 
the  sea  force  in  the  attack.  Before  this  attack  on  the  Cape  Bre- 
ton fort  he  had  been  master  of  a  Boston  privateer,  which  after 
the  capture  became  the  Shirley  galley.  Of  the  Shirley  he  now 
became  captain,  and  this  position  he  retained  when  the  vessel 
was  hired  to  be  a  ship  of  war  * '  on  the  sloop  establishment, ' '  and 
later  when  she  was  put  on  the  higher  plane  of  post  ship  or  fri- 
gate. In  1749,  as  captain  of  the  Albany  and  in  England,  he 
sailed  with  the  Cornwallis  fleet,  but  in  1755  he  commanded  an- 
other ship,  the  Success.  In  the  last  ship  he  was  at  Beausejour, 
and  then  at  Annapolis  Eoyal,  at  the  expulsion  of  the  Acadians 
from  that  place,  in  1755.  At  the  second  siege  of  Louisburg,  in 
1758,  he  commanded  a  fourth  ship,  the  Sutherland,  but  he  died 
at  Portsmouth  (probably  England)  April  3,  1760.  October  1, 
1754,  he  was  made  a  member  of  the  Council  at  Halifax.  Of  his 
family  we  know  nothing  except  that  a  daughter  of  his,  Mary 
Rous,  became  the  first  wife  of  Hon.  Richard  Bulkeley.  Mrs. 
Bulkeley,  who  died  in  June,  1775,  bore  a  son  Freke  Bulkeley, 
who  succeeded  his  father  as  the  second  secretary  of  the  province. 
MALACHY  SALTER,  JR.,  of  Boston,  son  of  Malachy  Salter  and  his 
wife  Sarah  Holmes,  was  born  February  twenty-eighth,  1714,  and 
married  July  twenty-sixth,  1744,  Susanna  Mulberry  (both  fam- 
ilies belonging  to  the  Old  South  Church).  As  we  have  said  in  a 
previous  chapter  he  was  probably  the  most  conspicuous  Boston 
trader  on  Nova  Scotia  shores  before  Cornwallis  came.  How  early 
he  moved  his  family  to  Halifax  we  do  not  know,  but  he  and  they 
soon  became  their  important  people  in  the  town.  Salter  was 
one  of  the  most  active  and  apparently  prosperous  merchants  in 
early  Halifax  and  he  and  Robert  Sanderson  owned  at  least  one 
vessel  together.  This  was  the  armed  schooner  Lawrence,  which 
sailed  from  Halifax  November  sixteenth,  1756,  '  *  on  a  six  months 
cruise  to  the  southward  against  the  enemy."  Salter  had  a 
number  of  children,  and  his  family  were  always  prominent  in  the 
Halifax  Congregational  Church.  At  one  time  the  various  Con- 
gregational churches  of  Nova  Scotia  received  aid  from  their 
sister  churches  in  Massachusetts,  and  the  distribution  of  the 
money  raised  for  their  help  was  given  into  Mr.  Salter 's  hands. 
It  is  probable  that  in  the  early  history  of  Mather's,  later  St. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  165 

Matthew's  Church,  Salter  and  Fillis  were  the  two  most  important 
men.  Salter 's  house  stood  at  the  corner  of  the  present  Hollis 
and  Salter  streets.  It  was  afterward  for  a  long  time  occupied 
by  William  Lawson,  then  it  passed  into  the  hands  of  John  Esson. 

ROBERT  SANDERSON — The  first  Speaker  of  the  Assembly,  as  we 
have  seen,  was  Robert  Sanderson.  Like  so  many  other  Bos- 
tonians  in  Halifax  he  was  a  general  merchant  and  ship-owner. 
He  was  without  doubt  a  grandson  of  the  Robert  Sanderson,  sil- 
versmith, of  Boston,  a  deacon  of  the  First  Church,  who  with  John 
Hull  was  given  charge  of  the  first  coinage  of  shillings,  sixpences, 
and  threepences  in  Massachusetts,  in  1652 

A  Boston  woman  of  the  widest  social  influence  in  Halifax  and 
Windsor,  from  the  time  of  her  marriage  to  her  death,  was  Mrs. 
Michael  Francklin.  The  husband  of  this  lady  was  a  highly  suc- 
cessful merchant  of  Halifax,  who  began  life  there  in  1752.  He 
was  a  Devonshire  man,  who  came  out  from  England  in  the  ship 
Norfolk  late  in  the  year  mentioned,  having  previously,  we  are 
told,  had  some  business  experience  in  London,  and  in  the  begin- 
ning he  sold  liquor  at  retail  in  Halifax.  His  education  and  breed- 
ing, however,  were  evidently  such  as  to  commend  him  at  once 
to  the  people  of  best  culture  in  the  town,  and  very  soon  he 
widened  his  business  and  rose  to  great  local  prominence.  Ten 
years  after  he  landed  in  Halifax  he  married  in  Boston  (February 
7,  1762)  Susannah  Boutineau,  a  daughter  of  Mr.  James  Bou- 
tineau,  attorney,  and  his  wife  Susannah  Faneuil,  sister  of  Peter 
Faneuil,  the  princely  Boston  merchant  who  built  Faneuil  Hall. 
In  the  public  affairs  of  Nova  Scotia  no  citizen  of  Halifax  in  the 
eighteenth  century  was  more  active,  and  in  the  local  government 
none  had  a  higher  place  than  he.  March  28,  1766,  he  was  com- 
missioned lieutenant  governor  of  the  province,  and  this  position 
he  held  until  1776.  The  chief  home  of  the  Francklins  was  at 
Windsor,  where  they  had  a  fine  farm,  but  they  naturally  spent 
much  time  in  Halifax.  They  reared  a  large  family,  who  married 
well,  some  of  them  living  in  Nova  Scotia,  some  abroad.  One  or 
two  of  their  sons,  notably  James  Boutineau  Francklin,  occupied 
prominent  public  positions  in  the  province.  Both  in  Windsor 
and  in  Halifax  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Francklin  were  staunch  supporters 
of  the  Anglican  Church. 


166  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

At  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  Mrs.  Francklin's  parents,  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  James  Boutineau,  her  aunt,  Mary  Ann  Faneuil,  who 
was  then  the  widow  of  Edward  Jones,  and  her  cousins,  Peter  and 
Benjamin  Faneuil,  were  all  Loyalists.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Boutineau 
went,  possibly  via  Halifax,  to  Bristol,  England,  where  we  believe 
they  remained  until  Mr.  Boutineau 's  death,  which  occurred  some 
time  before  February  20,  1784.  For  a  while  after  the  evacua- 
tion of  Boston,  Mrs.  Edward  Jones  resided  (we  suppose  with  the 
Francklin's)  in  Halifax  and  Windsor.  The  rich  Peter  Faneuil 
of  Boston  died  intestate  in  1743,  and  no  doubt  Mrs.  Francklin 
with  the  rest  of  his  nieces  and  nephews  shared  in  his  large 
wealth.  Mrs.  Francklin  died  at  Windsor,  April  19,  1816,  in  her 
seventy-sixth  year.  The  date  of  her  birth  is  given  in  the  Bos- 
ton Town  Records  as  February  22,  1740.20 

Of  the  settlement  of  Dartmouth,  on  the  east  side  of  Halifax 
harbour,  the  most  important  suburb  of  the  capital  town,  a  few 
words  should  here  be  said.  A  history  of  Dartmouth,  written  by 
Mrs.  William  Lawson,  was  published  (after  the  writer's  death) 
in  1893.  From  this  history  we  learn  that  the  " township"  was 
not  settled  until  1786-87,  when  the  vacant  lands  there  were 
granted  to  a  small  company  of  Nantucket  whalers,  bearing  such 
familiar  names  as  Coleman,  Folger,  Starbuck,  etc.,  all  of  them 
Quakers  in  religion,  and  all  expecting  to  make  Dartmouth  a  basis 
for  the  industry  to  which  they  had  been  accustomed  in  their 
island  home.  A  frugal  and  industrious  people,  peace-loving, 
God-fearing,  says  Mrs.  Lawson,  these  Nantucket  whalers  were, 
but  the  failure  of  a  large  business  house  in  Halifax  that  had  en- 
couraged the  whale  fishing  here  gave  the  Dartmouth  settlement 


20.  Mrs.  Francklin's  mother  was  Mary  Bowdoin,  of  Boston.  We  find  thus 
introduced  into  Nova  Scotia  the  blood  of  two  of  the  notable  group  of  Huguenot 
families  that  were  so  thrifty  and  rose  to  such  high  positions  in  Boston  in  the 
i8th  century.  Such  families  were  the  Boutineaus,  Bowdoins,  Brimmers,  Faneuils, 
and  Johonnots.  The  founder  of  the  Boston  De  Blois  family  was  of  Huguenot 
stock,  but  he  came  at  a  later  time  than  the  others.  His  descendants  and  collateral 
descendants  in  the  De  Blois  name  came  also  (at  the  Revolution),  to  Halifax.  For 
an  interesting  letter  from  James  Boutineau  to  Mrs.  Edward  Jones  at  Halifax,  in 
1778,  and  from  Mrs.  James  Boutineau  to  her  nephew  Edward  Jones  at  Boston, 
in  1788,  and  her  sister  Mrs.  Jones  at  Boston  in  1785,  see  "Sabine's  Loyalists,"  under 
the  name  James  Boutineau.  For  Lieutenant  Governor  Francklin,  see  a  very  impor- 
tant sketch  by  Mr.  James  S.  McDonald  in  the  Nova  Scotia  Hist.  Coll.,  Vol.  17,  pp. 
7-40.  For  the  Francklin  family,  see  the  writer's  article  on  the  settling  of  Windsor, 
Nova  Scotia,  in  Americana  for  February,  1915. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  167 

its  death  blow,  and  in  1792,  the  greater  part  of  the  Nantucketers 
left  the  province,  never  to  return.  A  few,  however,  remained, 
for  a  longer  time,  one  of  these  being  Seth  Coleman,  a  man  whom 
the  historian  describes  as  "a  model  of  piety,  industry,  and  gen- 
eral philanthropy."21 

The  second  notable  migration  from  the  earlier  settled  Ameri- 
can colonies  to  Nova  Scotia  occurred  between  1759  and  1762, 
chiefly  in  1760  and  '61.  Early  in  1755  the  French  fort  Beause- 
jour,  which  stood  near  the  isthmus  which  connects  Nova  Scotia 
with  New  Brunswick,  was  captured,  as  Port  Royal  had  been  in 
1710  and  Louisburg  in  1745,  by  New  England  troops,  and  before 
the  end  of  1755,  in  vessels  furnished  by  New  England,  the  expe- 
dition having  been  put  in  command  of  Lieutenant-Colonel  John 
Winslow,  a  Marshfield,  Massachuetts,  man,  the  greater  number 
of  the  Acadian  French  throughout  Nova  Scotia  were  forcibly 
removed  and  the  unfortunate  people  set  down  as  paupers  in  little 
groups  wherever  they  were  allowed  to  land  on  the  American 
coast  from  Maine  to  Georgia.  The  complete  destruction  of 
French  power  in  the  province  now  being  effected,  the  govern- 
ment was  left  free  to  invite  British  settlers  to  the  unpeopled 
lands  which  the  French  had  tilled,  and  to  those  parts  of  the 
province  which  had  never  been  settled,  and  very  soon  the  gover- 
nor, then  Lieutenant-Colonel  Charles  Lawrence,  began  to  dis- 
cuss projects  for  settlement  with  the  Lords  of  Trade.  In  the 


21.  "History  of  the  Townships  of  Dartmouth,  Preston,  and  Lawrencetown, 
Halifax  County,  Nova  Scotia,"  edited  by  Harry  Piers.  This  book  was  published 
at  Halifax  by  Morton  &  Company,  in  1893.  Mrs.  Lawson  says  (pp.  17,  18)  :  "In 
1758,  a  return  was  made  by  the  Surveyor-General,  the  first  Charles  Morris,  to 
Governor  Lawrence,  giving  a  list  of  the  lots  in  the  town  of  Dartmouth,  and  the 
names  of  the  proprietors  who  had  complied  with  the  Governor's  request  regarding 
settlement  and  improvement.  The  number  was  small,  and  from  this  period  the 
township  was  almost  derelict.  The  Indians  still  collected  in  force  in  the  vicinity 
of  Shubenacadie,  and  were  always  sending  out  scouts  in  search  of  plunder.  The 
unhappy  inhabitants,  in  constant  dread  of  an  attack,  passed  a  miserable  existence, 
and  were  anxious  to  escape  from  a  place  where  there  was  neither  assurance  of 
safety  nor  promise  of  prosperity.  For  nearly  thirty  years,  only  these  few 
straggling  families  held  the  unfortunate  town.  The  government  did  nothing  to 
induce  later  arrivals  of  emigrants  to  settle  among  them,  nor  took  any  measures  to 
assist  the  discouraged  occupants  in  the  improvement  of  the  village." 

In  a  note  to  the  above  copied  by  Mr.  Piers  from  "A  Description  of  the  Several 
Towns  in  the  Province  of  Nova  Scotia,  with  the  Lands  Comprehended  in  and 
bordering  upon  said  Towns,  drawn  up  ...  Jan'y  g,  1762,  by  Charles  Morris, 
Esq.,  Chief  Surveyor"  we  find :  "The  Town  of  Dartmouth,  situated  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  Harbour,  has  at  present  two  Families  residing  there,  who 
subsist  by  cutting  wood." 


i68  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

winter  of  1756-7  Governor  Lawrence  made  a  visit  of  some  length 
to  Boston,  and  when  lie  returned  to  Halifax  wrote  the  English 
authorities  that  he  had  learned  that  a  group  of  New  Yorkers 
had  been  planning  a  settlement  at  Cape  Sable,  the  extreme  south- 
western end  of  the  province,  but  as  no  recent  attempt  had  been 
made  to  recapture  the  French  fortress  of  Louisburg  they  had 
given  the  project  up  as  unsafe.  From  what  he  knew  of  the  coun- 
try about  the  Bay  of  Fundy,  he  said,  he  felt  sure  that  at  least 
twenty  thousand  families  might  be  " commodiously  settled"  in 
the  parts  of  the  province  that  have  since  then  become  the  coun- 
ties of  Cumberland,  Colchester,  Hants,  Kings,  and  Annapolis, 
and  that  if  the  fear  of  French  aggression  were  entirely  removed, 
substantial  and  useful  settlers  would  flock  thither  from  every 
part  of  the  American  continent.  People  at  Cape  Cod,  he  added, 
were  very  anxious  to  settle,  as  New  Yorkers  had  proposed  to 
do,  at  Cape  Sable,  and  though  he  himself  had  no  knowledge  of 
that  remote  spot  he  believed  that  it  might  be  a  suitable  place  to 
make  the  base  of  a  flourishing  fishery.  While  he  was  in  New 
England  he  had  taken  every  occasion  to  discover  how  New  Eng- 
landers  felt  about  emigrating,  and  he  had  found  that  it  was 
largely  owing  to  the  lack  of  a  representative  assembly  in  Nova 
Scotia  that  they  had  not  already  made  some  movement  towards 
asking  for  grants  of  the  evacuated  Chignecto  and  Minas  and 
Annapolis  lands.22 

Determined  efforts  to  attract  settlers  from  New  England  to 
Nova  Scotia  began  to  be  made  by  the  Government  in  the  autumn 
of  1758.  At  that  time  the  Governor  and  Council  prepared  a 
proclamation,  the  terms  of  which  they  had  probably  for  the  most 
part  if  not  entirely  already  discussed  with  the  Lords  of  Trade, 
inviting  settlers  from  New  England  to  the  lands  formerly  oc- 
cupied by  the  French  and  to  the  hitherto  unsettled  lands  in  the 
province,  and  sent  it  to  Boston  for  publication.  In  the  Boston 
Gazette  of  October  12,  1758,  formal  announcement  is  made  that 
the  enemy  who  had  so  long  been  disturbing  and  harassing  the 
province  and  obstructing  its  progress  had  been  compelled  to 


22.  Murdoch's  "History  of  Nova  Scotia,"  Vol.  2,  pp.  330,  331.  Lawrence's 
letter  to  the  Lords  of  Trade,  giving  this  information  was  written  November  9, 
1757- 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  169 

retire  to  Canada,  and  that  thus  a  favorable  opportunity  was 
presented  for '  *  peopling  and  cultivating  as  well  the  lands  vacated 
by  the  French  as  every  other  part  of  this  valuable  province." 
The  French  lands  are  glowingly  described  as  comprising  "up- 
wards of  one  hundred  thousand  acres  of  interval  and  plow  lands, 
producing  wheat,  rye,  barley,  oats,  hemp,  flax,  etc."  "These 
have  been  cultivated,  for  more  than  a  hundred  years  past,  and 
never  fail  of  crops,  nor  need  manuring.  Also,  more  than  one 
hundred  thousand  acres  of  upland,  cleared,  and  stocked  with 
English  grass,  planted  with  orchards,  gardens,  etc.  These  lands 
with  good  husbandry  produce  often  two  loads  of  hay  per  acre. 
The  wild  and  unimproved  lands  adjoining  to  the  above  are  well 
timbered  and  wooded  with  beech,  black  birch,  ash,  oak,  pine, 
fir,  etc.  All  these  lands  are  so  intermixed  that  every  single 
farmer  may  have  a  proportionate  quantity  of  plow  land,  grass 
land,  and  wood  land ;  and  all  are  situated  about  the  Bay  of  Fundi, 
upon  rivers  navigable  for  ships  of  burthen."  Proposals  for 
settlement,  it  is  stated,  "will  be  received  by  Mr.  Thomas  Hancock 
of  Boston  [uncle  of  Governor  John  Hancock],  and  Messrs.  De 
Lancey  and  Watts  of  New  York,  and  will  be  transmitted  to  the 
Governor  of  Nova  Scotia,  or  in  his  absence  to  the  Lieutenant 
Governor,  or  the  President  of  the  Council." 

The  interest  which  this  proclamation  aroused  in  New  England 
seems  to  have  been  immediate  and  widespread.  A  great  many 
men  from  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  and  Rhode  Island  had 
taken  part  in  the  first  capture  of  Louisburg,  not  a  few  Massa- 
chusetts soldiers  and  sailors  had  made  themselves  acquainted 
with  the  Nova  Scotia  peninsula  by  serving  in  the  capture  of 
Beausejour  and  in  the  expulsion  of  the  Acadians,  and  fisher- 
men, especially  of  Cape  Cod,  were  thoroughly  familiar  with  the 
opportunities  for  successful  fishing  in  the  waters  that  washed  the 
shores  of  the  sea-girt  province  to  which  New  Englanders  were 
now  invited.  Consequently,  as  soon  as  the  proclamation  appear- 
ed the  agent  in  Boston  was  plied  with  questions  as  to  what  terms 
of  encouragement  would  be  offered  settlers,  how  much  land  each 
person  would  receive,  what  quit-rent  and  taxes  were  to  be  ex- 
acted, what  constitution  of  government  prevailed,  and  what  free- 
dom in  religion  settlers  would  enjoy.  The  result  of  these  in- 


170  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

quiries  was  that  at  a  meeting  of  council  held  on  Thursday,  Janu- 
ary 11,  1759,  a  second  proclamation  was  approved,  in  which  the 
Governor  states  that  he  is  empowered  to  make  grants  of  the  best 
lands  in  the  province.  That  a  hundred  acres  of  wild  wood-land 
will  be  given  each  head  of  a  family,  and  fifty  acres  additional  for 
each  person  in  his  family,  young  or  old,  male  or  female,  black  or 
white,  subject  to  a  quit-rent  of  one  shilling  per  fifty  acres,  the 
quit-rent  to  begin,  however,  not  until  ten  years  after  the  issuing 
of  the  grant.  The  grantees  must  cultivate  or  inclose  one-third 
of  the  land  in  ten  years,  one-third  more  in  twenty  years,  and  the 
remainder  in  thirty  years.  No  quantity  above  a  thousand  acres 
would  at  first  be  granted  to  any  one  person ;  on  fulfilment  of  the 
terms  of  the  first  grant,  however,  the  person  receiving  the  grant 
would  be  entitled  to  another  on  similar  terms.  The  government 
of  Nova  Scotia,  it  was  stated,  was  constituted  like  that  of  the 
neighbouring  colonies,  its  several  branches  being  a  Governor,  a 
Council,  and  an  Assembly.  As  soon  as  people  were  settled,  town- 
ships of  a  hundred  thousand  acres  each,  or  about  twelve  miles 
square,  would  be  formed,  and  each  township  would  be  entitled  to 
send  two  representatives  to  the  Assembly.  The  courts  of  justice 
were  constituted  like  those  of  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  and 
other  northern  colonies ;  and  as  to  religion,  both  by  his  majesty's 
instructions  and  by  a  late  act  of  the  Assembly,  full  liberty  of 
conscience  was  secured  to  all  "persuasions,"  Papists  only  ex- 
cepted.  Settlers  were  to  be  amply  protected  in  their  homes,  for 
forts  garrisoned  with  royal  troops  had  already  been  established 
in  close  proximity  to  the  lands  of  which  grants  would  be  made. 

The  first  formal  movement  in  New  England  towards  respond- 
ing to  Governor  Lawrence's  proclamation  seems  to  have  been 
made  in  eastern  Connecticut  and  E.hode  Island.  About  the  mid- 
dle of  April,  1759,  several  agents  from  these  two  colonies  ar- 
rived at  Halifax,  commissioned  by  groups  of  intending  settlers 
to  ascertain  the  exact  condition  of  the  offered  lands  and  to  put 
to  the  Council  questions  the  proclamation  had  not  entirely  an- 
swered. On  the  18th  of  April  the  Council  convened  at  the  Gover- 
nor's house  and  the  agents  met  its  members  there.  Questions  put 
by  the  New  Englanders  being  satisfactorily  answered,  the  Coun- 
cil invited  the  agents  to  go  in  a  government  vessel  round  the  south- 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  171 

ern  shore  to  Annapolis  Basin  and  up  the  Bay  of  Fundy  to  Chig- 
necto  and  Minas  basins,  that  they  might  make  a  thorough  in- 
spection of  the  chief  lands  from  which  the  French  had  been  ex- 
pelled. After  nearly  a  month,  the  agents,  who  had  been  accom- 
panied by  Mr.  Charles  Morris,  the  government  surveyor,  one  of 
their  own  countrymen  and  as  we  have  seen  a  highly  important 
official  at  Halifax,  returned,  greatly  pleased,  to  the  Council,  and 
requested  that  grants  to  them  and  their  constituents  might  im- 
mediately be  made.  Accordingly,  on  the  17th  of  the  month  the 
Council  ordered  two  grants  to  be  prepared,  of  a  hundred  thou- 
sand acres  each,  in  what  is  now  the  county  of  King's,  these 
grants  including  a  large  part  of  what  had  previously  been  one 
of  the  richest  and  most  productive  spots  in  the  whole  Acadian 
country.  The  "townships"  with  which  the  grants  were  synony- 
mous were  to  be  called  respectively  Horton  and  Cornwallis,  and 
the  large  tracts  they  comprised  were  to  be  distributed  in  individ- 
ual parts  of  from  750  to  250  acres  (a  share  and  a  half  to  half  a 
share)  by  some  equitable  process  of  division  as  soon  as  possible 
after  the  settlers  should  arrive. 

On  the  27th  of  June  a  grant  was  made  of  the  township  of 
Granville,  in  Annapolis  County,  and  in  July,  other  agents  came 
and  were  received  by  the  Council.  In  August  that  energetic  col- 
onizer Alexander  McNutt  appeared  and  applied  for  lands  for  a 
company  of  Scotch  Irish,  his  own  nationality,  who  or  whose 
fathers  had  come  to  the  colony  of  New  Hampshire  from  ten  to 
forty  years  before.  In  the  end  we  find  a  large  group  of  town- 
ships, which  are  comprised  now  in  nine  of  the  fourteen  counties 
in  the  Nova  Scotian  peninsula  and  two  or  three  of  the  counties  of 
New  Brunswick  settled  by  people  from  New  England  who  had 
responded  to  Governor  Lawrence's  proclamation.  In  the  census 
of  the  province  (including  what  is  now  New  Brunswick,  and  the 
islands  of  Cape  Breton  and  St.  John  (Prince  Edward  Island), 
which  was  made  under  Lieutenant  Governor  Francklin's  direc- 
tions in  1766,  we  find  ' l  Americans "  given  as  constituting  about 
half  of  the  entire  population  of  13,374,  and  if  we  add  to  this 
number  the  population  in  the  two  townships  of  Truro  and  Onslow 
which  is  ranked  as  ; '  Irish, ' '  this  meaning  Scotch  Irish  from  New 
Hampshire,  we  shall  see  that  the  New  Englanders  in  these  prov- 


i;2  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

inces  number  considerably  more  than  the  people  of  all  other 
origins  combined. 

Of  the  New  England  people  in  this  migration  of  1760-61,  those 
who  settled  in  Amherst,  Annapolis,  Barrington,  Chester,  Cum- 
berland, Granville,  Liverpool,  Maugerville,  Onslow  (in  part), 
Sackville,  Wilmot,  and  Yarmouth,  were  chiefly  from  Massachu- 
setts, but  from  widely  separated  towns  in  that  flourishing  prov- 
ince. The  settlers  in  Horton  and  Cornwallis,  the  first  estab- 
lished townships,  were  with  very  few  exceptions  from  the  chief 
townships  of  eastern  Connecticut.  The  settlers  in  Hants  Coun- 
ty, the  townships  of  Falmouth  and  Newport,  were  almost  wholly 
from  the  several  Rhode  Island  towns  bordering  on  Narragan- 
sett  Bay;  while  Truro  and  in  part  Onslow,  in  what  is  now  Col- 
chester County,  were  settled  by  Scotch  Irish,  who  had  lived  in 
Londonderry,  New  Hampshire,  and  neighbouring  New  Hamp- 
shire towns.  In  Onslow,  however,  a  large  number  of  the  most 
important  of  the  permanent  settlers  were  Massachusetts-born 
people  of  strictly  English  descent. 

It  is  surprising  how  few  mentions  have  been  made  by  New 
England  local  historians  of  this  large  widespread  migration  to 
Nova  Scotia  in  1760  and  1761,  but  three  interesting  notices  of 
it,  though  slight  ones,  we  do  find.  In  her  history  of  the  ancient 
town  of  New  London,  Connecticut,  Miss  Frances  Mainwaring 
Caulkins  says :  ' l  The  clearing  of  Nova  Scotia  of  the  French 
opened  the  way  for  the  introduction  of  English  colonists.  Be- 
tween this  period  [1760]  and  the  Eevolution,  the  tide  of  immigra- 
tion set  thitherward  from  New  England,  and  particularly  from 
Connecticut.  Menis,  Amherst,  Dublin,  and  other  towns  in  the 
province,  received  a  large  proportion  of  their  first  planters  from 
New  London  County."  And  in  her  history  of  Norwich  this 
author  says :  "Nova  Scotia  was  then  [1760]  open  to  immigrants, 
and  speculation  was  busy  with  its  lands.  Farms  and  townships 
were  thrown  into  the  market,  and  adventurers  were  eager  to 
take  possession  of  the  vacated  seats  of  the  exiled  Acadians.  The 
provincial  government  caused  these  lands  to  be  distributed  into 
towns  and  sections,  and  lots  were  offered  to  actual  settlers  on 
easy  terms.  The  inhabitants  of  the  eastern  part  of  Connecticut 
and  several  citizens  of  Norwich  in  particular,  entered  largely 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  173 

into  these  purchases,  as  they  did  also  into  the  purchase  made  at 
the  same  period  on  the  Delaware  River.  The  proprietors  held 
their  meetings  at  the  town-house  in  Norwich,  and  many  persons 
of  even  small  means  were  induced  to  become  subscribers,  in  the 
expectation  of  bettering  their  fortunes.  The  townships  of  Dublin, 
Horton,  Falmouth,  Gornwallis,  and  Amherst  were  settled  in  part 
by  Connecticut  emigrants.  Sloops  were  sent  from  Norwich  and 
New  London  with  provisions  and  passengers.  One  of  these  in  a 
single  trip  conveyed  a  hundred  and  thirty-seven  settlers  from 
New  London  County. ' '  Mention  is  also  made  of  the  migration  in 
Macy's  History  of  Nantucket.  "It  would  seem  by  the  preceding 
account  of  the  whale  fisheries,"  it  says,  "that  the  [Nantueket] 
people  were  industrious  and  doing  well  and  that  business  was  in 
a  flourishing  state.  No  one  would  suppose  that  under  the  cir- 
cumstances any  of  the  inhabitants  could  feel  an  inclination  to 
emigrate  with  their  families  to  other  places ;  yet  some,  believing 
that  they  would  improve  their  condition,  removed  to  Nova  Scotia, 
some  to  Kennebeck,  some  to  New  Garden,  in  the  State  of  South 
Carolina,  etc." 

In  several  Nova  Scotia  local  histories,  however,  accounts  of 
the  migration  of  much  greater  importance  will  be  found.  The 
most  complete  county  histories  of  Nova  Scotia  are  the  histories 
of  Annapolis  and  Kings,  and  in  both  of  these  much  light  will  be 
found  on  the  advent  of  these  New  Englanders  to  the  province  in 
1760  and  '61,  and  on  the  method  pursued  of  distributing  lands  to 
them.  Another  work  of  special  interest  dealing  with  the  migra- 
tion is  a  volume  by  Ven.  Archdeacon  Raymond,  LL.D.,  entitled 
"The  River  St.  John,  its  Physical  Features,  Legends,  and  His- 
tory, from  1604  to  1784."  In  his  account  of  the  settlement  of 
Maugerville  (in  what  is  now  New  Brunswick),  Dr.  Raymond 
says: 

"At  the  time  the  grant  of  this  township  was  being  made  out 
the  obnoxious  Stamp  Act  was  coming  into  force  in  America  and 
the  Crown  Land  Office  at  Halifax  was  besieged  with  people 
pressing  for  their  grants  in  order  to  save  stamp  duties. "  "  Nearly 
all  the  first  settlers  of  the  township  of  Maugerville  were  from 
Massachusetts,  the  majority  from  the  single  county  of  Essex. 
Thus  the  Burpees  were  from  Rowley,  the  Perleys  from  Boxford, 


174  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

the  Estexs  from  Newburyport,  while  other  families  were  from 
Haverhill,  Ipswich,  Gloucester,  Salem,  and  other  towns  of  this 
ancient  county,  which  antedates  all  others  in  Massachusetts  but 
Plymouth." 

As  we  have  seen,  the  people  who  came  chiefly  for  fishing  to 
the  southwestern  shore  of  the  province,  were  in  great  part  from 
Cape  Cod  and  Nantucket,23  while  those  who  chose  farms  in  the 
interior  were  from  a  variety  of  towns  where  agriculture  was  the 
chief  occupation.  By  the  History  of  Annapolis  we  find  that  the 
people  who  settled  that  important  county  were  from  such  widely 
separated,  for  the  most  part  agricultural,  Massachusetts  towns 
as  Barnstable,  Byfield,  Cambridge,  Dorchester,  Groton,  Haver- 
hill,  Lunenburg,  Mar]  borough,  Medford,  Mendon,  Plympton, 
Sherborn,  Shirley,  'Taunton,  Westborough,  Worcester,  and 
Wrentham.  Settlers  in  Onslow  came  from  Brookfield  Dudley, 
Spencer,  Western  (now  Warren),  and  perhaps  Worcester,  in 
Worcester  County ;  Brimfield  and  Palmer,  in  Hampden  County ; 
Medfield  in  Norfolk;  Maiden,  Reading,  and  Woburn,  in  Middle- 


23.  "The  first  people  of  English  descent  to  fix  their  abodes  at  the  head  of 
caves  and  harbours  around  the  shores  of  southwestern  Nova  Scotia  were  fisher- 
men mostly  from  Cape  Cod  and  Nantucket  in  Massachusetts.  They  were  not 
refugees  for  loyalty's  sake  but  'hard  liners'  and  net  men,  who  had  found  out  by 
their  fearless  cruises  in  'pink  stern'  craft  that  fish  abounded  in  those  waters. 
The  proclamation  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Colonial  Governor  inviting  settlers  from 
New  England  and  elsewhere  to  occupy  the  vacated  lands  followed  immediately 
the  expulsion  of  the  Acadians,  and  as  early  as  1757,  Governor  Lawrence  writes  of 
having  received  'application  from  a  number  of  substantial  persons  in  New  Eng- 
land for  lands  to  settle  at  or  near  Cape  Sable.'  A  first  company  for  some  reason 
or  other  failed  to  make  a  settlement,  but  in  1761-1762  a  large  number  representing 
the  best  families  of  Cape  Cod  and  Nantucket  removed  to  the  Cape  Sable  district 
and  formed  a  settlement  at  what  is  now  the  town  of  Barrington.  They  were  for 
the  most  part  a  lot  of  intelligent  and  so  far  as  the  times  allowed,  educated  men." 
"The  Doane  Family,"  Boston,  1902.  See  pp.  75,  76. 

"In  1760-1763,  Barrington  was  settled  by  about  80  families  from  Nantucket 
and  Cape  Cod,  and  in  1767  the  township  was  granted  to  102  persons."  "Yarmouth, 
Nova  Scotia.  A  sequel  to  Campbell's  History,"  by  George  S.  Brown,  (1888)  p.  127. 

"In  1764  the  population  of  Liverpool  was  500.  These  persons  had  arrived  at 
this  place  in  1762-3-4.  There  were,  however,  some  arrivals  as  early  as  1759." 
"History  of  Queen's  County,"  by  James  F.  More,  Esq.  (1873),  p.  13.  Mr.  More 
also  says  that  the  first  warrant  of  survey  for  a  grant  in  Liverpool  was  made  some 
time  in  1759.  The  first  effective  grant  of  the  township  was  made  in  1764. 

The  people  of  Yarmouth,  Barrington,  Liverpool,  Chester,  and  Dublin  "came 
with  scarcely  any  exceptions  from  the  Nantucket  and  Cape  Cod  districts  of  the 
Colony  of  Massachusetts,  and  save  Chester  and  Dublin  these  townships  are  still 
mainly  peopled  by  descendants  of  the  original  families."  Dr.  David  Allison,  in 
Cell,  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Historical  Society,  Vol.  7. 

"For  many  years  before  any  families  settled  in  this  County,  our  harbours  of 
Yarmouth  and  Chebogue  were  the  resort  of  American  fishermen." 

Rev.  J.  R.  Campbell  in  "History  of  the  County  of  Yarmouth,"  p.  25. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  175 

sex;  and  North  Bridgewater,  in  Plymouth.  By  the  History  of 
King's  County  we  see  that  the  settlers  in  Cornwall  is  and  Horton 
had  previously  lived  in  such  Connecticut  towns  as  Bolton,  Can- 
terbury, Colchester,  Danbury,  East  Haddam,  Fairfield,  Green- 
wich, Groton,  Guilford,  Hebron,  Killing-worth,  Lebanon,  Lyme, 
Middle  Haddam,  New  London,  Norwich,'  Preston,  Saybrook, 
Stonington,  Tolland,  Wallingford,  Windham,  and  Windsor.  The 
earlier  homes  of  the  settlers  in  Falmouth  and  Newport,  we  shall 
find  to  have  been  in  the  Ehode  Island  towns  of  East  and  West 
Greenwich,  Little  Compton,  Middlet-owii,  Newport,  North  and 
South  Kingstown,  Portsmouth,  and  Warwick. 

In  the  census  of  the  province  made  under  the  direction  of 
Lieutenant-Governor  Francklin  in  1766,  of  which  we  have 
already  spoken,  the  nationalities  of  the  people  in  the  several 
townships  for  the  first  time  are  given,  and  in  that  census  we  see 
that  in  the  peninsula  of  Nova  Scotia,  and  that  part  of  the  province 
that  since  1784  has  been  known  as  New  Brunswick,  with  Cape 
Breton  Island  also,  and  Prince  Edward  Island  as  well,  of  a  total 
population  of  13,374,  the  number  ranked  as  "Americans"  is 
almost  7,000.  The  nationality  that  figures  most  largely  next  to 
American  is  "Irish,"  and  this  of  course  means  Scotch-Irish,  of 
which  people  401  are  given  as  in  the  two  townships  of  Truro  and 
Onslow.  But  the  people  of  these  two  townships  though,  as  we 
have  seen,  of  Scotch-Irish  stock,  had  many  of  them  been  born  in 
New  Hampshire,  in  which  colony  their  parents  or  grandparents 
had  settled,  in  some  cases  as  much  as  forty  years  before.  A  con- 
siderable number  of  these,  therefore,  we  may  properly  regard 
as  Americans,  but  even  with  such  addition  we  do  not  think  it 
likely  that  seven  thousand  conies  anywhere  near  the  true  num- 
ber of  the  original  immigrants  from  New  England  in  1759-61. 
Not  a  few  who  were  granted  lands  and  came  to  the  province 
before  1762  soon  became  dissatisfied  and  returned  to  New  Eng- 
land, and  we  cannot  feel  absolute  certainty  that  the  census  of 
1767  reports  with  entire  accuracy  the  full  number  of  the  people 
that  remained  after  these  were  gone.  The  most  reasonable  guess 
we  could  make  concerning  the  actual  numerical  strength  of  this 
migration  would  fix  the  number  who  came  from  New  England 


176  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

in  1759-61  as  somewhere  between  seven  and  ten  thousand  souls.24 
Of  these  seven  to  ten  thousand  it  is  probable  that  something  like 
two  thousand  settled  in  five  or  six  townships  of  what  is  now  the 
province  of  New  Brunswick,  on  the  St.  John  river  or  near  the 
isthmus  which  connects  the  two  provinces.  It  is  evident  that 
few  settled  either  in  Cape  Breton  or  in  Prince  Edward  Island. 

Of  the  superior  intelligence  and  high  moral  worth  of  these 
settlers  in  Nova  Scotia  in  1759-61  too  much  cannot-  possibly  be 
said.  Many  of  them  were  people  of  influential  standing  in  the 
New  England  towns  from  which  they  had  come,  their  willing- 
ness to  emigrate  arising  from  the  common  wish,  especially  with 
people  of  English  stock,  to  be  considerable  owners  of  land.  One 
has  only  to  know  intimately  the  character  of  the  institutions  they 
reared  in  Nova  Scotia,  their  interest  in  education  and  in  religion, 
their  strong  self-respect  and  the  generally  high  moral  worth  that 
underlay  that  self-respect,  to  hold  these  New  England  settlers  in 
Nova  Scotia  in  the  highest  esteem.  From  the  people  of  this  mi- 
gration have  come  such  men  as  the  noted  Judge  Thomas  Chand- 
ler Haliburton,  the  Honourable  Samuel  George  William  Archi- 
bald, the  Bight  Honourable  Sir  Charles  Tupper,  Baronet,  Pro- 
fessor Simon  Newcomb,  the  astronomer,  the  Bight  Honourable 
Sir  Bobert  Borden,  the  present  premier  of  Canada,  and  many 
other  distinguished  public  men.  In  every  sort  of  industrial  and 
professional  life,  members  of  these  notable  New  England  fami- 
lies have  held  foremost  places,  a  great  many  such  naturally  find- 
ing spheres  of  distinction  and  usefulness  in  those  States  of  the 
American  Union  which  were  originally  the  colonies  whence  their 
ancestors  had  migrated.  Known,  the  continent  over  are  such 
names  as  Archibald,  Borden,  Chipman,  Collins,  Dimock,  Eaton, 
Haliburton,  Irish,  Longley,  Morse,  Newcomb,  Band,  Starr,  Tup- 
per, Woodworth,  Young,  and  many  others. 


24.  In  1783,  according  to  the  report  of  Lieut-Col.  Morse  to  Sir  Guy  Carleton, 
there  were  in  the  peninsula  of  Nova  Scotia  and  that  large  part  of  the  present 
province  of  New  Brunswick  that  was  called  the  County  of  Sunbury,  14,000  "old 
British  inhabitants,"  one  thousand  of  whom  Morse  gives  as  within  the  present 
New  Brunswick  limits.  It  is  almost  certain  that  the  actual  number  of  these  old 
settlers  was  much  larger  than  Morse  reported  it,  but  at  present  we  have  no  means 
of  knowing  what  it  really  was. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  177 

NOVA  SCOTIA  TOWNSHIPS  SETTLED  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND  BETWEEN 
1760  AND  1765,  WITH  DATES  OF  THE  EARLIEST  LARGE  GRANTS 

AMHERST,  1763. 

History  in  part  given  by  W.  C.  Milner  in  Collections  of 
the  Nova  Scotia  Historical  Society,  Vol.  15. 
ANNAPOLIS,  August  4,  1759. 

History  by  W.  A.  Calnek  and  Judge  A.  W.  Savary  in 
" History  of  Annapolis  County,"  1897. 
BARRINGTON,  December  4,  1767. 

History,  in  part,  given  by  George  S.  Brown  in  ' '  Yarmouth, 

Nova  Scotia.    A  Sequel  to  Campbell's  History,"  1888.    See 

p.  127.    Also  i '  Annals  of  Yarmouth  and  Barrington,  in  the 

Revolutionary  War,"  by  Edmund  Duval  Poole,  1899,  pp.  133. 

CHESTER,  October  18,  1759. 

The  township  first  called  l  i  Shoreham. ' '    History  given  in 
"History  of  Lunenburg   County,"   by   Judge  M.   B.   Des 
Brisay,  1895. 
CORNWALLIS,  May  21,  1759. 

History  given  by  Dr.  Arthur  Wentworth  H.  Eaton,  in 
"History  of  King's  County,"  1910. 
CUMBERLAND,  1763. 

History  in  part  given  by  W.  C.  Milner  in  ' '  Collections  of 
the  Nova  Scotia  Historical  Society, ' '  Vol.  15. 
FALMOUTH,  July  21,  1759. 

History  of  settlement  given  by  Dr.  Arthur  Wentworth  H. 
Eaton  in  Americana  (magazine),  January,  1915. 
GRANVILLE,  June  27,  1759. 

History  given  by  W.  A.  Calnek  and  Judge  A.  W.  Savary 
in  "History  of  Annapolis  County,"  1897. 
HORTON,  May  21,  1759. 

History  given  by  Dr.  Arthur  Wentworth  H.  Eaton  in 
"History  of  King's  County,"  1910. 
LIVERPOOL,  1759. 
MAUGERVILLE,  October  31,  1765. 

History  given  by  Ven.  Archdeacon  W.  0.  Raymond,  LL.D., 
in  "The  River  St.  John,  Its  Physical  Features,  Legends,  and 
History  from  1604  to  1784." 
NEWPORT,  July  21,  1761. 

History  of  settlement  given  by  Dr.  Arthur  Wentworth  H. 
Eaton,  in  Americana  (magazine),  January,  1915. 
ONSLOW,  July  24, 1758. 

History  of  settlement  given  by  Dr.  Arthur  Wentworth  H. 
Eaton,  in  "Settling  of  Colchester  County,"  etc.,  in  "Trans- 
actions of  the  Royal  Society  of  Canada";  Third  Series,  Vol. 
6,  1912. 


i;8  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

SA.CKVILLE,  1763. 

History  in  part  given  by  W.  C.  Milner,  in  ' '  Collections  of 
the  Nova  Scotia  Historical  Society,"  Vol.  15. 
TEURO,  November  24,  1759. 

History  of  settlement  given  by  Dr.  Arthur  Wentworth  H. 
Eaton,  in  " Settling  of  Colchester  County,"  etc.,  in  "Trans- 
actions of  the  Royal  Society  of  Canada";  Third  Series,  Vol. 
6,  1912. 
WILMOT,  1764. 

History  given  by  W.  A.  Calnek  and  Judge  A.  W.  Savary, 
in  "History  of  Annapolis  County,"  1877. 
YARMOUTH,  September  1,  1759. 

History  given  in  "History  of  the  County  of  Yarmouth," 
by  Rev.  J.  R.  Campbell,  1876,  pp.  200;  and  in  "Yarmouth, 
Nova  Scotia.  A  sequel  to  Campbell's  History,"  by  George 
S.  Brown,  1888,  pp.  524.* 

Of  especial  interest  is  "The  River  St.  John,  Its  Physical 
Features,  Legends,  and  History,  from  1604  to  1784."  By  Rev. 
William  0.  Raymond,  LL.D.,  F.  R.  S.  C.,  1910,  pp.  552. 

APPENDIX 

The  Province  of  Nova  Scotia  has  eighteen  counties,  fourteen  of  which  are  in 
the  Peninsula  of  Nova  Scotia  and  four  in  the  Island  of  Cape  Breton.  Of  a  few 
of  these  counties  detailed  Histories  of  great  interest  and  value  have  been  published ; 
of  others  no  complete  Histories  have  been  put  in  print,  but  published  monographs 
of  value,  or  yet  unpublished  manuscripts,  may  be  found  in  various  quarters.  Such 
Histories  and  monographs  are  as  follows : 

ANNAPOLIS.  "History  of  the  County  of  Annapolis,"  by  W.  A.  Calnek  and 
Judge  A.  W.  Savary,  1897,  pp.  660.  "Supplement  to  the  history  of  the  County  of 
Annapolis,"  by  A.  W.  Savary,  M.  A.,  D.  C.  L.,  1913,  pp.  142.  See  also  "Memoir 
of  Governor  Paul  Mascarene,"  by  J.  Mascarene  Hubbard,  printed  as  a  third 
appendix  to  "Historical  Records  of  the  4Oth  Regiment,"  published  in  1894. 

ANTIGONISH.     No  history,  far  as  we  know,  written. 

COLCHESTER.  History  in  part  written  by  Dr.  Arthur  Wentworth  H.  Eaton, 
but  still  chiefly  in  manuscript.  That  part  relating  to  the  settlement  of  the  county 
however,  published  in  "The  Settling  of  Colchester  County  by  New  England  Pur- 
itans and  Ulster  Scotsmen,"  in  "Transactions  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Canada," 
Third  Series,  1912,  pp.  221-265.  Also,  "Historical  and  Genealogical  Record  of  the 
First  Settlers  of  Colchester  County,"  by  Thomas  Miller,  1873,  pp.  400. 

CUMBERLAND.  Of  this  county  no  history  has  been  written,  but  a  valuable 
monograph  entitled  "History  of  Beau  Sejour,"  by  W.  C.  Milner  (representative 
of  the  Dominion  Archives  at  Halifax)  was  published  in  Coll.  of  the  N.  S.  Soc., 
Vol.  15,  and  reprinted  as  "Records  of  Chignecto."  A  small  volume  exists  entitled 
"The  Chicgnecto  Isthmus  and  Its  First  Settlers,"  by  Howard  Trueman,  pp.  268. 
See  also  N.  E.  Hist,  and  Gen.  Register,  Vol.  63  (1909). 


*The  "thirteen  old  townships,"  commonly  so  called,  were  probably:  Annapolis, 
Barrington,  Cornwallis,  Cumberland,  Falmouth,  Granville,  Horton,  Liverpool,  New- 
port, Onslow,  Sackville,  Truro,  Yarmouth. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  179 

DIGBY.  "A  Geography  and  History  of  the  County  of  Digby,"  by  Isaiah  W. 
Wilson  (1900),  pp.  471. 

GUYSBOROUGH.  A  history  of  this  county  has  been  written  by  Mrs.  James 
E.  Hart  (Harriet  Cunningham  Hart),  which,  still  in  manuscript,  is  in  the  custody 
of  the  N.  S.  Hist.  Soc. 

HALIFAX.  Many  monographs  on  Halifax  city  will  be  found  in  the  "Collections 
of  the  Nova  Scotia  Historical  Society,"  the  most  important  being  Dr.  Thomas 
Beamish  Akins's  chronicles.  Of  Dartmouth,  Preston,  and  Lawrencetown,  a  valuable 
history  by  Mrs.  William  Lawson  was  published  in  Halifax  in  1893,  (pp.  260).  See 
also  "Footprints  Around  and  about  Bedford  Basin,"  by  George  Mullane  (reprinted 
from  the  Acadian  Recorder),  pp.  49. 

HANTS.  The  chief  monograph  on  Hants  county  that  has  been  written  is 
found  in  a  series  of  three  articles  in  Americana,  entitled  "Rhode  Island  Settlers 
on  the  French  Lands  in  Nova  Scotia  in  1760  and  1761."  (Americana  for  Jan., 
Feb.,  and  March,  1915).  By  Dr.  Arthur  Wentworth  H.  Eaton.  See  also  a  sketch 
(bound  as  a  small  volume)  by  Ray  Greene  Huling,  entitled  "The  Rhode  Island 
Emigration  to  Nova  Scotia,"  1889,  pp.  49.  The  chief  facts  in  this  sketch  are 
included  in  Dr.  Eaton's  articles  in  Americana,  and  mentioned  above.  See  also  a 
pamphlet  by  Henry  Youle  Hind,  entitled  "Old  Parish  Burying  Ground  of  Windsor, 
Nova  Scotia,"  1889,  pp.  99.  The  chief  facts  in  this  pamphlet  also  are  included  in  Dr. 
Eaton's  articles  in  Americana. 

KING'S.  "The  History  of  King's  County,  Nova  Scotia,  Heart  of  the  Acadian 
Land,"  by  Arthur  Wentworth  Hamilton  Eaton  (the  Salem  Press  So.,  Salem,  Mass., 
1910),  pp.  898. 

LUNENBURG.  "History  of  the  County  of  Lunenburg,"  by  Judge  Mather  Byles 
DesBrisay,  2nd  edition,  1895,  pp.  585.  Historical  work  of  great  value,  it  is  under- 
stood, is  now  being  done  in  the  county. 

PICTOU.  "History  of  the  County  of  Pictou,"  by  Rev.  George  Patterson,  D.  D., 
1877,  PP-  471- 

QUEENS.    "History  of  Queen's  County,"  by  James  F.  More,  Esq.,  1873,  pp.  250. 

SHELBURNE.  Facts  in  the  history  of  Shelburne  are  given  in  Brown's  "Yar- 
mouth, Nova  Scotia.  A  sequel  to  Campbell's  History,"  pp.  129-131,  and  134,  135. 
Several  articles  of  great  value  in  the  Collections  of  the  Nova  Scotia  and  New 
Brunswick  Historical  Societies,  especially  one  on  the  Loyalists  of  Shelburne  by 
the  Rev.  Dr.  T.  Watson  Smith,  in  the  6th  volume  of  the  N.  S.  Hist.  Coll. 

YARMOUTH.  "History  of  the  County  of  Yarmouth,"  by  Rev.  J.  R.  Campbell, 
1876,  pp.  200.  "Yarmouth,  Nova  Scotia.  A  sequel  to  Campbell's  History,"  by 
George  S.  Brown,  1888,  pp.  524.  "Annals  of  Yarmouth  and  Barrington,  Nova 
Scotia,  in  the  Revolutionary  War,"  by  Edmund  Duval  Poole,  1899,  pp.  133. 

The  above  are  all  the  counties  of  the  Peninsula  of  Nova  Scotia;  on  the  four 
counties  of  the  island  of  Cape  Breton— Cape  Breton,  Inverness,  Richmond,  and 
Victoria,  so  far  as  we  know  little  has  been  written  except  in  Brown's  History  of 
the  whole  island. 

GENERAL  HISTORICAL  WORKS  ON  NOVA  SCOTIA 

"An  Historical  and  Statistical  Account  of  Nova  Scotia."  By  Thomas  Chand- 
ler Haliburton,  Esq.  2  vols.,  Halifax,  1829. 

"A  History  of  Nova  Scotia  or  Acadia."  By  Beamish  Murdoch,  Esq.,  Q.  C. 
3  vols.  Halifax,  1865,  1866,  1867. 

Nova  Scotia  in  its  Historical,  Mercantile,  and  Industrial  Relations.  By 
Duncan  Campbell,  Halifax,  N.  S.,  pp.  548.  Published  in  Montreal  in  1873- 


244  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

army  chaplains,  receiving  army  pay.  When  the  founding  of 
Halifax  was  projected,  the  Society  appointed  two  clergymen,  the 
Rev.  William  Tutty,  M.  A.,  of  Emmanuel  College,  Cambridge, 
who  had  been  ordained  in  1737,  and  the  Rev.  William  Anwyll, 
B.  A.,  a  naval  chaplain,  of  the  diocese  of  Chester  j1  and  a  school- 
master, Mr.  Edward  Halhead,  to  accompany  the  expedition.  To 
minister  to  the  continental  French  speaking  people  who  it  was 
learned  would  follow  in  the  wake  of  the  English  settlers,  they  ap- 
pointed also  a  highly  educated  French  clergyman,  the  Rev.  Jean 
Baptiste  Moreau,  who  had  been  a  Roman  Catholic,  and  prior 
of  the  Abbey  of  St.  Matthew,  near  Brest,  but  had  been  converted 
to  Protestantism  and  received  into  the  Church  of  England.2 

The  first  ships  that  came  from  England  brought  Mr.  Anwyll 
and  Mr.  Moreau,  and  a  few  weeks  later,  probably  about  midsum- 
mer, Mr.  Tutty  appeared.  On  the  twenty-first  of  June,  1749, 
which  is  regarded  as  the  birthday  of  Halifax,  Mr.  Anwyll  con- 
ducted the  first  service  on  shore,  undoubtedly  under  the  open 
sky,  and  for  a  little  while,  when  the  weather  served,  services  con- 
tinued to  be  held  out  doors.  When  Governor  Cornwallis's  house 
was  built,  on  the  spot  where  the  Province  Building  now  stands, 
the  modest  drawing-room  of  this  official  dwelling  was  used  for 
worship,  but  a  little  later,  until  a  church  building  could  be  erected, 
the  rude  warehouse  of  a  certain  half-pay  officer,  a  Mr.  Callendar, 
who  had  begun  some  kind3  of  business  in  the  town,  was  engaged. 

Among  the  first  acts  of  the  governor  after  he  landed  was  to 
send  to  Boston  for  the  frames  of  two  or  three  buildings.  One  of 
these  was  his  own  house,  another  was  St.  Paul's  Church.  In  a 
letter  to  the  Lords  of  Trade  dated  March  nineteenth,  1750,  Corn- 


1.  Before  coming  to  Halifax,  Mr.  Tutty  had  been  curate  in  a  parish  in  Hert- 
ford. For  some  reason,  but  what  we  do  not  know,  very  soon  after  the  settlement  of 
Halifax  the  Society  became  dissatisfied  with  Mr.  Anwyll  and  recalled  his  license  for 
this  mission.     The  poor  man,  however,  did  not  get  away  from  Halifax,  but  died 
there,  and  was  buried  February  10,  1750. 

2.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Moreau's  son,  Cornwallis  Moreau,  is  said  to  have  been  the 
first  male  child  of  the  new  settlers  born  in  Halifax.     Moreau  (whose  name  Judge 
Des  Brisay  in  his  "History  of  Lunenburg"  spells  Morreau)  came  out  in  the  frigate 
Canning,  Captain  Andrew  Dewar,  in  the  first  group  of  ships  that  came  from  Eng- 
land.   The  French  who  formed  his  chief  congregation  came  later,  but  it  must  have 
been  well  understood  by  the  S.  P.  G.  that  they  were  coming.     Moreau  preached  in 
Halifax  first,  Judge  Des  Brisay  says,  September  9,  1750. 

3.  In  a  letter  to  the  Lords  of  Trade  written  September  16,  1750,  Cornwallis  says 
that  he  had  had  service  performed  in  Mr.  Callendar's  warehouse  three  times  a  week 
for  some  time.    Nova  Scotia  Archives,  Vol.  I. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  245 

wallis  writes :  "I  expect  the  frame  of  the  church  will  be  here 
the  next  month  from  New  England."  The  church,  built  of  oak 
and  white  pine,  at  probably  the  estimated  cost  of  a  thousand 
pounds,  the  model  for  it  being  St.  Peter's,  Vere  Street,  London, 
was  formally  opened  for  worship  on  the  second  of  September, 
1750,  Mr.  Tutty  alone  conducting  the  service,  for  before  this  time 
Mr.  Anwyll  had  died. 

The  biographers  of  Mr.  Moreau  take  pains  to  tell  us  that  he 
could  speak  three  languages,  and  from  the  fact  that  on  the  four- 
teenth of  October,  1752,  this  missionary  writes  the  Society  that 
his  congregation  numbers  eight  hundred  adults  and  two  hundred 
children,  we  suppose  that  he  was  able  to  minister  to  the  German 
speaking  people  in  Halifax  as  well  as  the  French.  But  the  Ger- 
mans, who  were  at  least  in  part  Lutherans  of  the  Confession  of 
Augsburg,  seem  to  have  brought  with  them,  or  imported  soon,  a 
minister  of  their  own  faith,  a  Mr.  Burger,  and  pastoral  work 
among  them  seems  to  have  been  performed  by  him,  as  well  as  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Tutty  and  the  Rev.  Mr.  Moreau.  Before  long,  however, 
Burger  was  won  to  the  Anglican  Communion,  and  with  Mr. 
Tutty 's  and  Mr.  Moreau 's  and  the  Governor's  recommendations, 
sailed  for  England  to  apply  for  Orders.  Whether,  had  he  re- 
turned, he  would  soon  have  led  most  of  his  Lutheran  friends  into 
the  Church  of  England  we  do  not  know,  but  he  was  probably  lost 
at  sea  on  his  return  voyage,  for  the  town  of  Halifax  never  saw 
him  again.  On  the  eighth  of  June,  1753,  the  larger  part  of  the 
foreign  settlers,  both  Germans  and  French,  were  removed  to 
Lunenburg,  and  with  them  the  French  clergyman  Moreau.4  Af- 


4.  It  is  not  easy  to  tell  the  relative  number  of  Germans  and  French  in  Halifax 
or  Lunenburg.  The  Germans  evidently  greatly  outnumbered  the  French,  but  among 
the  grantees  in  Lunenburg  were  many  French  names.  Such  for  example,  were 
Beautillier,  Bissane,  Contoy,  Darey,  Deauphinee,  Emonout,  Jeanperin,  Jodery,  Lean- 
gille,  Masson,  Morash,  Pernette,  Risser,  Spannagel,  Vienot,  etc.  The  Germans  were 
largely  from  Luneburg,  in  Hanover,  but  some  we  believe  were  from  Switzerland. 
The  French  came  largely  from  Montbeliard,  the  capital  city  of  an  arondissement  in 
the  French  department  of  Doubs.  All  these  people  were  Protestants,  the  Germans 
being  divided  in  religion  between  Lutheranism  and  the  German  Reformed  faith,  the 
French  being  attached  to  their  own  form  of  Protestantism.  The  latter,  it  would 
seem,  more  easily  conformed  to  the  Anglican  Church  than  the  former.  French  Pro- 
testantism as  a  separate  religion  in  Lunenburg  seems  to  have  disappeared  soon  un- 
der the  influence  of  Mr.  Moreau,  Lutheranism,  however,  and  the  German  Reformed 
faith  (although  in  1837  this  was  transformed  into  Presbyterianism),  have  lasted 
there  until  the  present  day.  Mr.  Moreau  continued  to  minister  in  Lunenburg  as  an 
Anglican  clergyman  until  1770,  when  he  died. 


246  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

ter  this  there  were  left  in  the  town  of  these  foreign  people  only 
from  fifteen  to  twenty-five  families  of  Germans,  numbering  it  is 
probable  at  most  not  more  than  a  hundred  and  fifty  souls,  and  to 
them  Mr.  Tutty,  who  had  learned  the  German  language  sufficient- 
ly well  to  preach  in  it,  continued  to  minister  when  his  duties  to 
his  English  parishioners  would  permit. 

In  1752,  two  more  Anglican  clergymen  came  to  Halifax,  the 
Rev.  John  Breyntori  and  the  Rev.  Dr.  Thomas  Wood.  The  first 
of  these  was  an  Englishman,  a  graduate  of  Magdalene  College, 
Cambridge,  who  had  been  a  naval  chaplain  for  several  years,  the 
second  was  a  man  who  had  been  "bred  to  physic  and  surgery" 
in  the  province  of  New  Jersey,  and  had  served  as  a  surgeon  to 
troops  at  Louisburg,  but  from  Louisburg,  in  1749,  had  gone  to 
England  for  ordination  to  the  priesthood  of  the  Anglican  Church. 
For  between  two  and  three  years  after  graduation,  we  suppose, 
Dr.  Wood  had  ministered  to  churches  in  New  Brunswick  and 
Elizabethtown,  New  Jersey,  but  in  the  autumn  of  1752  he  came 
to  Halifax.  His  long,  valuable  service  to  the  cause  of  religion 
in  Nova  Scotia  we  cannot  here  take  time  to  describe,  in  Halifax 
and  at  Annapolis  Royal,  to  the  English  speaking  people,  and  to 
the  Micmac  natives,  whose  language  soon  after  coming  to  Nova 
Scotia  he  took  pains  to  learn,  he  gave  faithful  ministry  until  his 
death  at  Annapolis  Royal  in  1778.5  Mr.  Breynton  came  out  from 
England  to  assist  Mr.  Tutty  at  St.  Paul's,  but  early  in  1753  Mr. 
Tutty  went  home  to  attend  to  some  private  business,  and  before 


5.  The  following  letter  testimonial  which  Dr.  Wood  took  with  him  to  Eng- 
land when  he  went  there  to  apply  for  ordination  throws  light  on  Wood's  history 
from  1746  or  '47  until  June,  1749.  The  letter  reads : 

"Louisburg,  3rd  June,    1749. 

"This  is  to  certify  that  Mr.  Thomas  Wood,  late  surgeon  of  the  Regiment  of 
Kent,  commanded  by  Capt.  William  Shirley,  during  his  residence  in  this  place, 
which  was  for  the  space  of  two  years  and  upwards,  hath  lived  a  sober,  regular,  and 
blameless  life,  nor  hath  he  written  or  maintained,  as  far  as  we  know  or  believe, 
anything  contrary  to  the  doctrine  and  discipline  of  the  Church  of  England. 

"P.  HOPSON, 
ROBT.  ELLISON, 
J.  J.  L.  BASTION. 
JOHN   BREYNTON." 

After  receiving  Orders  Dr.  Wood  probably  gave  up  the  practice  of  medicine  and 
devoted  himself  to  the  ministry,  and  until  he  came  to  Nova  Scotia  (in  the  autumn 
°f  I7S2)  was  S.  P.  G.  missionary  at  New  Brunswick  and  Elizabethtown  in  New 
Jersey.  See  the  writer's  notices  of  him  in  "The  Church  of  England  in  Nova  Scotia 
and  the  Tory  Clergy  of  the  Revolution" ;  and  Canon  Vernon's  "Bicentenary 
Sketches"  (published  in  Halifax  in  1910). 


THE  REV.  HENRY  CANER,  A.  M. 
Minister  of  King's  Chapel,  Boston 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  247 

the  year  ended  lie  had  died  in  his  native  land.  Mr.  Breynton  was 
then  appointed  Rector  of  St.  Paul's,  and  in  this  position,  an 
active,  conscientious,  and  useful  clergyman,  he  ministered  to  the 
Halifax  people  for  thirty-two  years. 

The  distinction  of  St.  Paul's  Church,  Halifax,  the  parish, 
which  was  first  fully  organized  in  1759,  and  the  church  building, 
still  standing,  which  was  erected  in  1750,  as  the  mother  church 
of  the  Anglican  body  in  all  Canada,  must  render  this  church  an 
object  of  distinction  in  the  thought  of  all  the  generations  to  come. 
The  church  has  a  further  distinction  in  that  its  deed  of  endow- 
ment, dated  January  fourth,  1760,  describes  it  as  a  "  Royal  Foun- 
dation and  of  Exempt  Jurisdiction,"  which  means  that  it  is,  from 
its  peculiar  foundation,  not  subject  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
bishop,  since  its  authorization  was  directly  by  the  King  or  by  a 
subject  especially  commissioned  by  him.6  When  St.  Paul's  was 
established,  the  nearest  Anglican  parishes  to  it,  besides  whatever 
of  a  parish  existed  at  Annapolis  Royal,  were :  the  Queen 's  Chapel 
at  Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire,  whose  rector  was  Arthur 
Browne;  St.  Paul's  Church,  Newburyport,  Massachusetts,  whose 
rector  was  Matthias  Plant;  St.  Michael 's,Marblehead, whose  rec- 
tor was  Alexander  Malcolm;  St.  Paul's,  Salem,  whose  rector  was 
William  McGilchrist ;  the  King's  Chapel,  at  Boston,  where  Dr. 
Henry  Caner  was  the  chief  clergyman;  Christ  Church,  Boston, 
whose  minister  was  Dr.  Timothy  Cutler;  and  Trinity  Church, 
Boston,  the  rector  of  which  was  the  Rev.  William  Hooper.  In 
December,  1755,  Mr.  Breynton  informs  the  Society  that  the 
church  building  "is  completely  finished  without,  and  makes  a 
very  handsome  appearance,  and  is  aisled  and  plastered  within 
and  pewed  after  a  rough  manner  by  the  inhabitants."  Five 
years  later  he  writes :  ' '  The  church  at  Halifax  ( called  St.  Paul 's ) 
is  almost  finished  in  a  neat  and  elegant  manner;"  which  state- 
ment of  course  refers  chiefly  to  the  interior  of  the  building. 

Concerning  the  progress  of  the  parish  of  St.  Paul's  in  the 
earliest  years  of  its  history  we  have  much  information.  Its 
boundaries  for  a  good  while  were  coterminous  with  those  of  the 


6.     See  an  interesting  note  on  this  subject  by  the  present  Rector  of  St.  Paul's, 
Ven.  Archdeacon  Armitage,  Ph.D.,  in  the  parish  year  book  for  1910. 


248  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

town,  and  as  the  general  population  increased  or  diminished  the 
duties  of  its  rectors  and  curates  became  greater  or  less.  The 
presence  of  the  military,  in  larger  or  smaller  numbers  of  course 
added  vastly  to  the  responsibility  and  the  labours  of  the  busy 
clergy,  for  although,  at  least  after  the  Revolution,  a  special  gar- 
rison chaplain  nominally  ministered  to  the  troops,  the  regiments 
in  great  part,  and  until  a  spacious  garrison  chapel  was  built  in 
1846,  the  chief  military  and  naval  officers,  must  have  regarded 
St.  Paul's  as  their  proper  religious  home.  In  October,  1750,  Mr. 
Tutty  writes  the  Society  that  the  civilian  population  of  Halifax 
then  numbers  four  thousand,  but  in  July  of  the  next  year  he  places 
it  at  about  six  thousand.  In  June,  1753,  as  we  have  seen,  a  large 
part  of  the  French  and  German  settlers  and  some  few  English 
were  removed  permanently  to  Lunenburg,  and  this  with  the 
exodus  of  many  of  the  less  desirable  English  who  had  come 
with  Cornwallis,  to  other  parts  of  the  continent,  so  reduced  the 
population  that  in  December,  1755,  Mr.  Breynton  writes  the  So- 
ciety that  the  town  has  then  but  thirteen  hundred  civilians.  Of 
these  thirteen  hundred  the  rector  claims  eight  hundred  as  adher- 
ents of  the  Anglican  Church. 

If  Mr.  Tutty 's  estimate  of  the  population  in  the  two  successive 
years,  1750  and  1751,  is  correct,  between  these  two  dates  some 
two  thousand  persons  must  have  arrived  from  abroad,  and  from 
New  England  to  join  their  countrymen  who  had  come  from  Louis- 
burg  or  directly  from  Boston  in  1749.7  These  New  Englanders 


7.  In  the  Boston  Gazette  of  August  i,  1749,  appears  the  following :  "We  learn 
by  the  latest  Accounts  from  Chebucta  that  his  Excellency  Governor  Cornwallis  hath 
appointed  a  new  Council  to  assist  in  the  civil  Government  of  that  Infant  Settlement, 
most  of  the  old  Council  being  left  out  (as  we  learn)  on  Account  of  their  Distance 
from  that  place,  as  Chebucta  is  now  to  be  the  Metropolis."  In  the  issue  of  the  same 
paper  of  August  15,  1749,  appears  an  advertisement  for  carpenters  to  go  to  Che- 
bucta. Persons  desirous  to  go  are  directed  to  apply  to  Charles  Apthorp  and  Thomas 
Hancock.  The  passage  of  men  will  be  paid  and  provisions  found  for  them  at  the 
government's  expense. 

In  the  issue  of  August  15,  appears  an  advertisement  for  settlers  for  Halifax.  All 
persons  will  be  welcome  that  have  been  in  His  Majesty's  service  by  sea  or  land,  and 
"all  tradesmen,  artificers,  and  fishermen  who  have  a  mind  to  go."  New  England 
settlers  "will  be  on  the  same  footing  and  have  the  same  encouragement  as  those 
who  come  from  England."  The  advertisement  is  inserted  by  Messrs.  Apthorp 
and  Hancock,  by  Governor  Cornwallis"  s  orders.  Another  advertisement  to  the  same 
effect  appears  in  the  issue  of  August  29. 

The  issue  of  October  loth  contains  an  extract  from  a  letter  from  a  gentleman 
in  Halifax  saying  that  the  day  the  letter  was  written,  "Governor  Cornwallis  to  our 
great  joy  came  on  Shoar  from  the  Beaufort  under  the  discharge  of  near  a  hundred 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  249 

with  a  few  exceptions  were  Congregationalists,  who  had  been 
reared  in  Boston  Congregational  churches,  and  as  we  should  ex- 
pect and  hope,  preferring  their  own  religious  organization  and 
mode  of  worship  to  the  Anglican,  they  soon  took  measures  to 
establish  a  Congregational  Church.  In  a  communication  to  the 
Boston  Weekly  Neivs  Letter  of  April  twelfth,  1750,  a  Halifax  cor- 
respondent whose  name  is  not  given  says :  "  We  shall  soon  have 
a  large  church  erected,  and  for  the  encouragement  of  Protestant 
Dissenters  a  handsome  lot  is  laid  out  for  a  Meeting-House  and 
another  for  a  Minister,  in  a  very  pleasing  situation. ' '  In  another 
letter  in  the  same  newspaper,  probably  the  same  correspondent 
writes :  ' '  Yesterday  the  Governor  laid  the  Corner  Stone  of  the 
Church  [St.  Paul's]  which  is  now  building,  and  which  I  believe 
will  be  the  handsomest  in  America.  And  as  soon  as  we  can  get  a 
Dissenting  minister  settled  here  we  shall  have  a  handsome  Meet- 
ing-House with  a  good  Dwelling-House  for  the  Minister,  built 
at  the  Public  Expense.  I  have  subscribed  to  the  support  of  Mr. 
Cleveland  for  two  months,  as  have  the  Governor  and  most  gentle- 
men here ;  and  I  believe  we  have  Dissenters  enough  here  at  pres- 
ent for  four  ministers."8 

In  June,  1750,  the  Congregationalists  called  a  young  New  Eng- 
land minister,  Rev.  Aaron  Cleveland,  a  graduate  of  Harvard,  of 
whom  we  have  already  spoken,  to  minister  to  their  spiritual 
needs,  and  the  liberal  spirit  of  Anglican  Colonial  churchmanship 
in  that  day  is  commendably  shown  in  the  fact  that  until  a  Con- 
gregational meeting-house  was  built,  this  being  probably  from 
one  to  three  years  later  than  the  call  to  Mr.  Cleveland,  the  whole 
Congregational  community,  and  no  doubt  their  pastor,  worship- 
ped comfortably  at  St.  Paul's  on  Sunday  forenoons,  while  in  the 
afternoons  they  were  hospitably  given  the  use  of  the  church  for 


Cannon  from  the  Ships  in  the  Harbour  to  reside  in  his  own  House,  which  now 
makes  a  very  pretty  Appearance." 

In  the  issue  of  January  30,  1750,  announcement  is  made  that  the  sloop  Endeav- 
our, John  Homer,  master,  lying  at  Long  Wharf,  will  take  freight  or  people  to  Hali- 
fax. March  13,  1750,  a  similar  announcement  is  made  regarding  the  schooner 
Wealthy,  Joseph  Rose,  master.  April  24,  1750,  a  similar  announcement  is  made  re- 
garding the  brig  Dolphin,  Ebenezer  Rockwell,  master,  lying  at  Hought's  wharf,  in 
the  North  End.  (In  the  last  chapter  we  should  have  given  William  Lawson  and  his 
family,  five  persons,  as  living  in  the  South  Suburbs  of  Halifax  in  I752)- 

8.  This  is  quoted  in  the  writer's  "The  Church  of  England  in  Nova  Scotia  and 
the  Tory  Clergy  of  the  Revolution,"  p.  272. 


250  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

their  own  non-liturgical  service.  In  July,  1751,  Mr.  Tutty  writes 
the  Society :  ' '  There  is  perfect  harmony  between  the  Church  of 
England  and  the  Dissenters;"  even  the  most  "biggotted"  of 
whom,  he  says,  "seldom  fail  to  come  to  church  every  Sunday 
morning." 

The  history  of  St.  Paul's  Church  has  been  interestingly 
sketched  for  us  by  the  Reverend  Dr.  George  Hill  in  an  early 
volume  of  the  Collections  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Historical  Society, 
the  history  of  "Mather's"  Congregational  Church,  by  Professor 
Walter  Murray,  in  a  late  volume  of  these  Collections.  On  the 
registers  of  these  churches,  which  fortunately  are  well  preserved, 
will  be  found  most  of  the  names  of  the  early  settlers  of  Halifax 
of  British  or  American  birth,  for  until  the  introduction  of  Wes- 
leyanism  in  1781-1785,  the  Protestant  people  of  Halifax,  except 
the  foreigners  in  the  North  End,  belonged  for  the  most  part  to 
one  of  these  two  churches.9 

Of  the  moral  and  spiritual  condition  of  the  people  of  Halifax 
generally  in  the  forty  years  between  1750  and  1790,  in  spite  of 
the  enthusiastic  local  support  which  the  two  chief  churches  re- 
ceived, we  find  a  great  many  depressing  accounts.  One  of  the 
more  thoughtful  New  Englanders  in  the  town  wrote  the  Eev.  Dr. 


g.  In  1786,  shortly  after  his  removal  from  Amherst  to  Halifax,  the  Rev.  Wil- 
liam Black,  the  noted  Wesleyan  missionary,  wrote :  "There  is  [in  Halifax]  one 
large  English  Church,  one  small  Dutch  Church,  one  Presbyterian  Meeting  House, 
one  R.  C.  Chapel,  one  of  Sandemanians,  and  one  of  the  followers  of  Swedenborg; 
together  with  a  few  of  Lady  Huntingdon's  Society,  and  a  great  swarm  of  Infidels." 
Rev.  Dr.  T.  Watson  Smith's  History  of  the  Methodist  Church  within  the  Territor- 
ies embraced  in  the  late  Conference  of  Eastern  British  America  (2  vols.  Halifax, 
Toronto,  and  Montreal,  1890.  Vol.  i,  p.  173).  Of  the  "Dutch  Church"  of  which 
Mr.  Black  writes  we  shall  give  the  history  later,  but  of  any  Swedenborgian  chapel  we 
have  no  knowledge  at  all.  Of  the  introduction  of  Roman  Catholicism  into  Halifax, 
Dr.  Thomas  B.  Akins  says :  "The  Penal  Statutes  [against  Roman  Catholics]  had 
been  repealed  in  1783.  The  Roman  Catholics  in  the  town,  chiefly  emigrants  from 
Ireland,  having  become  numerous,  purchased  a  piece  of  ground  in  Barrington 
Street,  where  they  built  a  Chapel,  which  was  dedicated  to  St.  Peter.  The  frame  was 
erected  on  the  rgth  of  July,  1784,  and  many  of  the  inhabitants,  both  Protestants  and 
Roman  Catholics,  attended  the  ceremony.  This  building  stood  in  from  the  street, 
directly  opposite  the  head  of  Salter  Street.  It  was  painted  red,  with  a  steeple  at  the 
western  end."  Coll.  of  the  N.  S.  His.  Soc.,  Vol.  8,  p.  86. 

A  sketch  of  the  history  of  the  Church  of  England  in  Nova  Scotia  by  Dr. 
Thomas  B.  Akins,  published  in  Halifax  somewhere  about  the  middle  of  the  nine- 
teenth century;  Eaton's  "The  Church  of  England  in  Nova  Scotia  and  the  Tory 
Clery  of  the  Revolution,"  published  in  New  York  in  1891 ;  and  "Bicentenary  Sketches 
and  Early  Days  of  the  Church  in  Nova  Scotia,"  by  Canon  C.  W.  Vernon,  published 
in  Halifax  in  1910,  are  other  sources  to  be  appealed  to  for  information  concerning 
St.  Paul's  Church.  Many  of  the  most  important  facts  for  the  history  of  the  church 
are  naturally  to  be  found  in  the  first  instance  in  the  Reports  of  the  S.  P.  G. 


THE  REV.  GEORGE  WILLIAM  HILL,  D.  C.  L. 
Fifth  Rector  of  St.  Paul's  Church,  Halifax,  1865-1885 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  251 

Ezra  Stiles,  the  well  known  Puritan  divine,  laconically  in  1760 : 
"The  business  of  one-half  the  town  is  to  sell  rum,  the  other  half 
to  drink  it.  You  may  from  this  simple  circumstance  judge  of  our 
morals,  and  infer  that  we  are  not  enthusiasts  in  religion."  "Un- 
happily," writes  the  Rev.  Dr.  Hill  in  his  Life  of  Sir  Brenton  Hal- 
liburton, speaking  of  the  time  immediately  subsequent  to  the  Rev- 
olution, ' '  these  days  were  eminently  irreligious  days.  The  laxity 
of  sentiment  and  the  disregard  to  the  doctrine  and  precepts  of 
the  Gospel  were  painfully  manifest.  Noble  exceptions  there 
were,  bright  spots  amid  the  murky  clouds,  refreshing  cases  in 
the  desert.  But  the  testimony  left  on  record  by  those  whose 
opinions  is  worthy  of  trust  is  that  religion  was  treated  with  indif- 
ference by  the  many,  with  scorn  by  some,  and  with  reverence  but 
by  few.  To  cite  none  others,  the  first  Bishop  of  the  Diocese  was 
so  impressed  with  the  fearful  condition  of  the  community,  the 
general  tone  of  society,  and  the  debasing  tendency  of  the  opinions 
prevailing,  that  he  wrote  a  letter  to  some  in  high  places,  which  is 
still  extant,  bewailing  in  no  measured  terms  the  terrible  degen- 
eracy of  the  day,  and  urging  that  some  step  should  be  taken  to 
erect  barriers  against  that  impetuous  torrent,  which  threatened 
to  overwhelm  religion  and  morality."10  In  June,  1781,  the  Wes- 
leyan  minister,  Rev.  William  Black,  preached  for  two  days  in 
Halifax.  His  sermons  fell,  he  says,  on  stupid  ears,  "few  seemed 
to  care  for  their  souls.  There  was  scarce  the  shadow  of  religion 
to  be  seen." 

Services,  nevertheless,  in  the  two  churches  went  regularly  on, 
and  there  is  almost  unvarying  testimony  to  the  faithfulness  to 
his  ministry  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Breynton  of  St.  Paul's.  In  the 
ministry  of  Mather's  Church  the  Rev.  Aaron  Cleveland  remained 
only  until  the  summer  of  1754,  then,  like  the  German  minister 
Burger,  he  became  enamored  of  Anglicanism  and  going  to  Eng- 
land was  ordained  a  priest.  After  his  resignation  the  Congre- 
gationalists,  for  what  reason  we  do  not  know,  suffered  them- 
selves to  go  without  a  settled  minister  for  almost,  if  not  quite,  the 
space  of  fifteen  years.  During  this  time  they  were  ministered 
to  by  a  succession  of  either  Congregational  or  Scotch  Presbyte- 


10.    "Memoir  of  Sir  Brenton  Halliburton,"  by  Rev.  Dr.  George  W.  Hill,  p.  62. 


252  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

rian  clergymen,  who  seem  for  the  most  part  if  not  wholly  to 
have  served  merely  as  longer  or  shorter  but  still  temporary ' '  sup- 
plies." Before  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  Mather's  Con- 
gregational Church,  owing  to  a  variety  of  causes,  chiefly  the  in- 
coming to  Halifax  of  Scottish  settlers,  the  political  separation 
between  Nova  Scotia  and  New  England  occasioned  by  the  War 
of  the  Revolution,  and  very  likely  the  permanent  attachment  of 
themselves  of  a  good  many  of  the  Congregational  families  to  St. 
Paul's,  had  become  frankly  a  Scotch  Presbyterian  Church  of  the 
order  of  the  Established  Church  of  Scotland,  its  old  name  being 
changed  to  ' *  St.  Matthew's, ' '  the  name  it  still  bears. 

A  notable  religious  service  in  St.  Paul's  in  the  earliest  years 
of  this  church's  history  was  an  event  to  which  we  have  already 
alluded,  the  inauguration  of  Mr.  Jonathan  Belcher  as  the  first 
Chief-Justice  of  Nova  Scotia,  on  Monday,  the  twenty-first  of  Oc- 
tober, 1753.  After  Mr.  Belcher  had  taken  the  oaths  of  his  high 
office,  and  a  reception  and  breakfast  had  been  given  him  at  the 
Great  Pontac  inn,  in  his  scarlet  robes,  accompanied  by  Lieuten- 
ant-Governor Lawrence  and  the  other  chief  public  and  private 
men  of  the  town,  the  Chief -Justice,  with  his  commission  carried 
before  him,  proceeded  to  the  church.  There,  to  a  deeply  im- 
pressed congregation  Mr.  Breynton  preached  from  the  declara- 
tion of  the  "wise  woman"  in  Second  Samuel,11  "I  am  one  of 
them  that  are  peaceable  and  faithful  in  Israel."  A  few  years 
later,  on  Tuesday,  the  seventeenth  of  February,  1761,  at  eleven 
o  'clock  in  the  forenoon,  the  president  and  members  of  the  Coun- 
cil, the  officers  of  the  army,  and  the  "chief  inhabitants,"  dressed 
in  mourning,  went  in  procession  from  Government  House  to  St. 
Paul's  to  observe  the  recent  death  of  King  George  the  Second. 
To  memorialize  the  sad  event  the  pulpit,  reading-desk,  and  gover- 
nor's  pew  were  hung  with  black,  and  while  the  prayers  were  be- 
ing said  and  the  sermon  preached,  minute  guns  were  fired  from 
the  fortifications  of  the  town. 

By  1766,  the  Rev.  Thomas  Wood  had  become  sufficiently  skilled 
in  Micmac  to  conduct  service  and  preach  to  the  native  Indians 
in  their  own  language.  On  a  certain  Sunday  in  July,  1766,  he 


ii.    2d  Samuel  20:19. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  253 

gathered  a  large  number  of  the  red  men  into  St.  Paul 's,  and  there 
in  the  presence  of  Lord  William  Campbell,  the  governor,  most  of 
the  officers  of  the  army  and  navy,  and  the  leading  citizens,  said 
the  prayers  of  the  church  and  preached  to  these  people  of  the 
woods.  Before  the  service  the  Indians  sang  an  anthem,  and  then, 
it  is  said,  a  chief  came  forward  and  kneeling  down  prayed  that 
God  would  bless  his  Majesty,  King  George  the  Third,  "their  law- 
ful king  and  governor,"  Mr.  Wood  at  the  close  of  his  prayer 
interpreting  it  to  the  white  congregation.  The  natives  now  sang 
a  second  anthem,  and  at  the  end  of  the  whole  service  "thanked 
God,  the  Governor,  and  Mr.  Wood  for  the  opportunity  they  had 
had  of  hearing  prayer  in  their  own  tongue. ' ' 

The  arrival  at  Halifax  with  Howe 's  fleet  in  the  spring  of  1776 
of  the  Boston  Loyalists  was  a  highly  important  event  in  the 
progress  of  St.  Paul 's  Church,  as  it  was  of  course  in  the  general 
progress  of  the  town.  The  larger  proportion  of  the  refugees  who 
settled  in  the  town  were  either  Episcopalians  or  had  no  unwilling- 
ness to  become  so,  although  a  good  many  of  the  most  ardent  Bos- 
ton Tories  were  people  who  had  been  reared  in  the  Congrega- 
tional faith.  Of  any  special  activity  on  behalf  of  these  new-com- 
ers to  Halifax  shown  by  the  then  Presbyterian  pastor  of  Math- 
er's Church,  we  are  not  informed,  but  Dr.  Breynton  (for  in  1770 
in  England  this  clergyman  had  received  an  honorary  doctorate 
in  divinity)  was  indefatigable  in  his  attention  to  the  Loyalists 's 
needs.  The  responsibility  of  finding  adequate  shelter  on  shore 
for  those  who  wanted  to  leave  the  cramped  ships  made  it  neces- 
sary to  set  up  canvas  tents  on  the  Parade  in  front  of  the  church, 
and  these  not  being  adequate,  and  every  house  being  taxed  to  its 
utmost  to  give  people  shelter,  Dr.  Breynton,  we  believe,  ordered 
St.  Paul's  to  be  opened  for  a  short  time  to  give  those  who  could 
not  find  accommodation  elsewhere  a  covered  place  to  sleep. 

Of  the  Loyalists  who  remained  permanently  in  the  town,  as  a 
very  considerable  number  did,  the  DeBloises,  who  had  come  from 
Salem  in  1775,  the  Blowereses,  Brattles,  Brinleys,  Byleses,  Cof- 
fins, Cunninghams,  Gays,  Halliburtons,  Hutchinsons,  Lovells, 
Lydes,  Eobies,  Snellings,  Sternses,  Wentworths,  Winslows,  and 
others,  all  connected  themselves  with  St.  Paul's.  "Two  letters 
have  been  received  in  the  course  of  the  year, ' '  says  the  secretary 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

of  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  his  report  for 
1776,  "from  the  Society's  very  worthy  missionary  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Breynton,  lamenting  the  unhappy  situation  of  affairs  in  America ; 
in  consequence  of  which  many  wealthy  and  loyal  families  have 
quitted  New  England,  and  in  hopes  of  a  safe  retreat  have  taken 
up  their  residence  in  Halifax,  thereby  becoming  a  great  acquisi- 
tion to  the  province,  and  a  considerable  addition  to  his  congre- 
gation. For  many  of  them,  though  Dissenters  in  New  England, 
have  constantly  attended  the  services  of  the  church  since  their 
arrival  at  Halifax."12  And  in  his  report  for  the  next  year,  1777, 
Jie  says :  ' '  Three  letters  have  been  received  from  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Breynton,  acquainting  the  Society  that  the  number  of  inhabitants 
(which  usually  amounts  to  five  thousand)  is  greatly  increased 
in  that  mission ;  as  it  hath  been  for  some  time  the  only  asylum 
for  loyalists ;  and  many  of  these  refugees,  from  being  rigid  Dis- 
senters, were  become  regular  communicants." 

The  appearance  St.  Paul's  congregation  must  have  presented 
on  Sundays,  after  the  Revolution  had  passed  and  Halifax  with 
its  population  increased  with  a  good  deal  of  the  best  blood  and 
breeding  of  Boston  had  settled  into  something  like  quiet  ways, 
we  may  easily  picture  to  ourselves.  The  Rev.  Henry  Wilder 
Foote  in  his  History  of  King's  Chapel  has  given  us  alluring 
glimpses  of  the  outward  brilliancy  of  the  pre-Revolutionary  con- 
gregation that  on  Sundays  thronged  that  historic  church.  In 
an  earlier  chapter  we  have  quoted  exactly  much  of  Mr.  Foote 's 
description  of  the  scene  King's  Chapel  commonly  presented.  At 
the  time  of  service,  chariots  with  liveried  black  coachmen  and 
footmen  (for  most  of  Boston's  pre-Revolutionary  aristocrats 
kept  slaves)  would  be  seen  rolling  up  to  the  church  door  on 
Tremont  street,  bearing  fine  gentlemen  merchants  or  judges  or 
councillors  or  other  officers  of  the  Crown,  in  powdered  wigs  and 
rich  brocaded  waistcoats  and  lace  ruffles  and  velvet  knee-breeches 
and  swords  and  gold  or  silver  buckled  shoes.  Beside  them  would 
be  their  wives  and  daughters,  only  slightly  more  magnificent  than 


12.  The  report  goes  on  to  say:  "The  peculiar  situation  of  those  unhappy  fugi- 
tives, who  had  been  obliged  to  leave  their  friends,  part  of  their  families,  and  most 
of  their  substance  behind  them,  justly  claimed  all  his  [Dr.  Breynton's]  attention;  and 
from  a  principle  of  duty  he  hath  exerted  himself  in  a  singular  manner  to  soften 
and  alleviate  their  banishment  by  every  civility  and  consolation  in  his  power." 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  255 

the  men,  the  heavy  silks  or  satins  in  which  they  were  arrayed 
rustling  stiffly  or  hanging  in  rich  folds  as  they  passed  from  their 
carriages  into  the  church.  From  their  necks  and  elbows  rare 
lace  would  be  falling,  on  their  heads  would  rest  plumed  bon- 
nets of  great  elegance,  surmounting  their  high-dressed  coiffures. 
In  the  Governor's  raised  pew,  on  the  School  Street  side  of  the 
church,  with  its  red  curtains  and  canopy-roof  Would  be  seen  the 
chief  representative  in  the  province  of  royalty,  in  brave  uniform, 
some  visiting  titled  Englishman  or  British  army  officer  of  rank, 
in  red  tunic,  gold  lace,  and  epaulets,  very  likely  sitting  beside 
him.  In  various  pews  along  the  middle  and  side  aisles  would  be 
the  families  who  composed  the  most  important  set  of  the  local 
aristocracy,  the  James  Apthorps,  Robert  Auchmutys,  Thomas 
Brinleys,  Gilbert  and  Lewis  DeBloises,  George  Ervings,  Sylves- 
ter Gardiners,  Robert  Hallowells,  John  Jeffries',  Richard  Lech- 
meres,  Charles  Paxtons,  Isaac  Royalls,  John  and  William  Vas- 
salls,  and  Samuel  Wentworths.13 

After  the  Revolution  St.  Paul's  congregation  was  permanently 
enriched  by  not  a  few  of  the  same  people  who  had  frequently,  if 
not  regularly,  worshipped  at  King's  Chapel.  But  from  the  first, 
the  St.  Paul's  congregation  had  embraced  the  chief  aristocracy  of 
the  town.  Governors,  lieutenant-governors,  provincial  secretar- 
ies, the  chief-justice,  most  if  not  all  of  the  members  of  council ; 
and  as  well,  the  officers  of  the  army  and  navy  in  their  brilliant 
uniforms,  had  habitually  worshipped  in  the  church.  The  English 
settlers  who  came  with  Cornwallis  were,  we  presume,  all  An- 
glican Churchmen,  but  a  considerable  number  of  the  pre-Revolu- 
tionary  Bostonians  who  migrated  thither,  even  though  they  had 
been  reared  Congregationalists,  soon  identified  themselves  with 
the  parish  of  St.  Paul 's.  Chief  Justice  Belcher,  for  example,  be- 
longed to  a  family  whose  principal  place  of  worship  in  Boston 
was  the  Old  South  Church,  but  he,  no  doubt  in  England,  had 


13.  See  the  plan  of  the  pews  of  King's  Chapel  and  their  owners  in  1775,  "An- 
nals of  King's  Chapel,"  Vol.  2,  p.  328.  James  Apthorp  had  pew  75,  Judge  Robert 
Auchmuty  pew  25,  Thomas  Brinley  pew  79,  Gilbert  DeBlois  pew  72,  Dr.  Sylvester 
Gardiner  pews  7  and  8,  Robert  Hallowell,  pew  29,  Richard  Lechmere  pew  82,  Charles 
Paxton  pew  4,  Isaac  Royall  pew  10,  John  Vassall  pew  76,  William  Vassall  pew  109, 
and  Samuel  Wentworth  pew  9,  all  on  the  middle  isle.  Lewis  DeBlois  had  pew  66, 
George  Erving  pew  65,  and  Dr.  John  Jeffries  pew  67,  all  on  the  left  aisle.  The 
canopied  state  pew  was  of  course  on  the  right  aisle.  Almost  all  these  owners  of 
pews  mentioned  were  on  Howe's  fleet,  but  almost  all  went  to  England,  from  Halifax. 


256  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

adopted  the  Anglican  faith.  In  Boston,  after  his  Halifax  life  be- 
gan, he  married  at  King's  Chapel,  his  wife,  Abigail  Allen,  and 
until  the  last  member  of  the  Chief  Justice 's  family  disappeared 
from  Halifax  the  Belchers  were  devoted  members  of  St.  Paul's. 
The  Binney  family,  which  gave  the  fourth  bishop  to  the  diocese 
of  Nova  Scotia,  was  another  of  the  Massachusetts  Puritan  fami- 
lies that  in  Halifax  conformed  to  Episcopacy.  Joseph  Gerrish 
was  reared  a  Congregationalist,  though  his  wife  was  a  Brenton 
of  Newport  and  an  Episcopalian,  and  he,  too,  naturally  con- 
nected himself  with  St.  Paul's.14 

Of  other  New  England  settlers  in  Halifax,  Judge  James  Bren- 
ton, a  Rhode  Islander,  not  a  Massachusetts  man,  a  brother  of 
Mrs.  Gerrish,  had  been  reared  in  Trinity  Church,  Newport ;  Miss 
Mary  Cradock  (who  must  have  been  visiting  in  Halifax  before 
her  marriage  took  place),  the  second  wife  of  Hon.  Joseph  Ger- 
rish, was  a  daughter  of  George  Cradock,  one  of  the  early  prom- 
inent supporters  of  King's  Chapel;  James  Monk  (probably  an. 
Englishman  by  birth)  and  his  family  had  belonged  to  the  same 
church;  the  elder  Charles  Morris,  although  of  a  Congregational 
family,  had  married  a  daughter  of  John  Read,  who  was  likewise 
a  supporter  of  King's  Chapel ;  and  the  Newtons  also  were  sprung 
from  a  notable  founder  of  this  historic  parish. 

After  the  Revolution,  we  find  in  the  St.  Paul's  congregation 
such  familiar  Loyalist  names  as  Blowers,  Brinley,  Brown,  Byles, 
Clarke,  Coffin,  DeBlois,  Gay,  Halliburton,  Hutchinson,  Lynch, 
Pryor,  Robie,  Snelling,  Sterns,  Stewart,  Tremain,  Wentworth 
and  Winslow.  A  dignified  and  w'ell-bred  throng  indeed,  it  was. 
that  trod  the  church  aisles  every  Sunday  when  the  Revolution 
was  past,  performing  their  devotions  with  reverence  within  the 
now  ancient  walls.  As  great  Wealth  as  that  of  the  King's  Chapel 
Faneuils  and  Royalls  and  Vassalls  the  St.  Paul's  congregation 


14.  It  is  uncertain  to  us  whether  Benjamin  Gerrish  and  his  wife  Rebecca  Dud- 
ley (daughter  of  Hon.  William  Dudley  of  Roxbury)  were  in  Halifax  chiefly  Epis- 
copalians or  Congregationalists.  Joseph  Fairbanks  was  connected  with  St.  Paul's, 
though  the  Fairbanks  family  generally  in  later  generations  were  identified  with  St. 
Matthew's.  Such  families  as  the  Lawlors,  and  probably  the  Kurds  and  others, 
though  previously  Congregationalists,  in  Halifax  belonged  to  St.  Paul's.  The 
Fillises  and  Salters,  however,  prominent  Boston-Halifax  people,  seem  never  to  have 
conformed  to  Episcopacy.  The  persistently  evangelical  character  of  St.  Paul's  to  the 
present  day  may  very  well  be  due  to  the  strong  Congregational,  moderate  Calvin- 
istic,  influence  of  a  large  part  of  its  early  congregation. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  257 

perhaps  never  had,  but  Halifax  has  usually  had  a  rather  remark- 
able share  of  business  prosperity  and  incomes  have  frequently 
been  sufficiently  large  to  afford  of  a  good  deal  of  luxury.  Espe- 
cially after  the  Wentworths  were  established  at  Government 
House  and  the  Duke  of  Kent  was  in  residence  in  or  near  the 
town,  expensive  modes  of  living  and  a  great  deal  of  elegant 
display  seem  to  have  been  characteristic  of  the  town's  social  life. 
Writing  of  Halifax  in  the  first  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
Dr.  Thomas  B.  Akins  says:  "Sunday  presented  a  gay  scene  in 
Halifax  in  those  days.  There  being  then  no  garrison  chapel  for 
the  troops,  the  regiments  in  garrison  preceded  by  their  bands 
playing,  marched  in  full  dress  to  St.  Paul's  and  St.  George's 
churches,  amid  the  ringing  of  bells  and  the  sound  of  martial  mu- 
sic. The  carriage  of  the  Governor  (who  was  then  always  a  gen- 
eral officer)  bearing  his  Excellency  in  full  military  costume,  with 
his  aids-de-camp,  drove  up  to  the  south  door  of  St.  Paul's,  the 
whole  staff  having  first  assembled  under  the  portico,  which  then 
ran  along  the  southern  end  of  the  church.  His  Excellency,  fol- 
lowed by  a  brilliant  display  of  gold  lace  and  feathers,  the  clank 
of  sabres  and  spurs,  and  the  shaking  of  plumed  hats  of  officers, 
many  of  whom  were  accompanied  by  their  ladies,  on  entering  the 
church  presented  a  most  brilliant  spectacle.  All  this  was  fol- 
lowed by  the  old  Chief  Justice  Blowers  in  his  coach  and  livery, 
the  carriage  of  the  Admiral,  and  the  equipages  of  the  several 
members  of  the  Council. 

* '  All  being  seated  in  the  bodv  of  the  church,  full  of  fashion  and 

CJ  ** 

dress,  the  peal  of  the  organ  began  to  be  heard,  and  the  clergy 
in  surplices  and  hoods  (he  who  was  about  to  preach,  however, 
always  in  the  black  gown)  moved  from  the  vestry  up  the  east 
side  aisle  to  the  pulpit,  preceded  by  a  beadle  in  drab  and  gold 
lace,  carrying  a  large  silver  headed  mace,  who  after  the  clergy 
had  taken  their  seats  deliberately  walked  down  the  aisle  again 
to  the  vestry  with  the  mace  over  his  shoulder.  .  .  .  The  ser- 
mon in  the  morning  being  concluded,  the  troops  marched  back  to 
the  barracks,  and  the  General  and  Staff  returned  to  Government 
House."  After  luncheon,  Dr.  Akins  says,  at  three  o'clock,  the 
General,  attended  as  in  the  morning,  always  reviewed  the  troops 
on  the  Common. 


258  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

In  St.  Paul 's  all  the  brilliant  weddings  of  Halifax  in  early  days 
took  place,  many  of  these  being  of  Halifax  girls  of  directly  Brit- 
ish or  New  England  stock  to  young  army  or  navy  officers,  not 
rarely  men  expecting  some  day  to  inherit  titles.  Of  imposing 
funerals,  too,  there  are  many  on  record  in  the  church's  annals. 
One  of  the  earliest  of  these,  a  funeral  of  solemn  state,  was  of 
Governor  Charles  Lawrence,  the  next  governor  but  one  to  Colonel 
Cornwallis,  who  died  on  the  eleventh  of  October,  1760,  and  was 
buried  beneath  the  church.  In  May,  1766,  another  governor's 
obsequies  were  held  here,  this  governor  being  the  Honorable  Col- 
onel Montague  Wilmot,  whose  immediate  successor  in  the  gover- 
norship was  Lord  William  Campbell,  youngest  son  of  the  fourth 
Duke  of  Argyle.  In  November,  1791,  Governor  John  Parr's 
funeral  was  held  here,  and  in  1820,  Sir  John  Wentworth's;  and 
besides  these  were  Chief  Justice  Belcher's  in  1776,  Hon.  Michael 
Francklin's  in  1782,  Chief  Justice  Finucane's  in  1785,  Bishop 
Charles  Inglis  's  in  1816,  Chief  Justice  Sampson  Salter  Blowers 's 
in  1842,  and  Chief  Justice  Sir  Brenton  Halliburton 's  in  1860. 
The  funerals  also  of  all  the  Boston  Loyalists  who  died  in  Hali- 
fax probably  without  exception  took  place  in  the  church, — 
General  William  Brattle 's,  TheophilusLillie  's,  and  Byfield  Lyde  's 
in  1776,  John  Lovell,  the  "Boston  Tory  Schoolmaster's,"  in 
1778,  Col.  Jonathan  Snelling's  in  1782,  Christopher  Minot's  in 

1783,  Jeremiah  Dummer  Rogers 's  and  Edward  Winslow,  Sr.'s,  in 

1784,  Jonathan  Sterns 's  in  1798,  Judge  Foster  Hutchinson,  Sr.'s, 
in  1799,  George  Brinley's  in  1809,  and  Archibald  Cunningham's 
in  1820.    Of  Mr.  Edward  Winslow 's  funeral  in  June,  1784,  we 
have  a  minute  description,  probably  first  given  in  a  Halifax 
newspaper  of  the  time.    From  wherever  Mr.  Winslow  died,  to  the 
church,  as  we  suppose,  and  afterwards  to  the  cemetery  on  Pleas- 
ant street,  the  procession  moved.     First,  in  it,  came  probably 
the  two  officiating  clergymen,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Breynton  and  the 
Rev.  Joshua  Wingate  Weeks.     Then  came  six  pall-bearers, — 
Mr.  John  Wentworth  (not  yet  a  baronet)  and  beside  him  the 
Lieutenant-Governor  of  the  province,  General  Edmund  Fanning, 
both  fellow-Loyalists  of  the  deceased;   Hon.  Arthur  Goold  and 
Brigadier-General  John  Small;    and  Judge  Foster  Hutchinson, 
Sr.,  and  Henry  Lloyd,  Esq.     Next  came  the  body  of  Mr.  Winslow, 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  259 

probably  in  a  hearse  rather  than  on  a  gun-carriage,  followed  by 
Colonel  Edward  Winslow,  Jr.,  his  son,  and  possibly  other  rela- 
tives, and  by  the  family  servants  "in  deep  mourning."  Then 
walked  in  pairs,  Sampson  Salter  Blowers  and  William  Taylor, 
Esquires;  their  Excellencies  Governor  Parr  and  the  General  of 
the  Forces ;  Gregory  Townsend,  Esq.,  and  Lieutenant  Hailes  of 
the  38th  Grenadiers ;  William  Coffin,  Esq.,  and  Captain  Morrice 
Robinson ;  Rev.  Dr.  Mather  Byles  and  Captain  Addenbrooke ;  and 
the  Governor's  aid-de-camp  and  Lieutenant  Gordon,  major  of 
brigade.  After  these  gentlemen  walked  the  members  of  Council 
"a  number  of  respectable  inhabitants,"  and  many  gentlemen  of 
the  army  and  navy.  The  services  in  the  church  and  at  the  grave 
were  divided  between  the  clergymen  mentioned  first. 

The  extraordinary  brilliancy  which  the  presence  of  Imperial 
troops  in  large  numbers,  and  throughout  the  summers  when  war- 
ships were  in  the  harbour,  of  naval  officers  and  men,  gave  Hali- 
fax, almost  from  its  founding  until  late  in  the  nineteenth  century, 
can  not  easily  be  exaggerated.  Halifax  was  for  many  years  before 
the  Imperial  troops  were  withdrawn  and  the  "Dockyard"  was 
virtually  closed,  the  chief  military  and  naval  base  for  Great 
Britain  on  the  Atlantic  seaboard  of  the  American  continent,  and 
as  such  it  rejoiced  in  the  presence  in  successive  years  of  a  large 
number  of  the  crack  regiments  of  the  British  army  and  of  many 
of  the  noblest  ships  of  the  British  war-fleet.  In  the  general  out- 
ward brilliancy  of  the  town  on  this  account,  St.  Paul's  Church,  of 
course,  to  a  very  large  extent  shared.  For  ninety-six  years,  until 
the  Garrison  Chapel,  in  the  North  End  was  opened  in  1846,  St. 
Paul's,  as  we  have  said,  was  undoubtedly  the  chief  place  of  wor- 
ship for  both  the  army  and  the  navy,  and  the  services  there  must 
constantly  have  been  enriched  by  magnificent  displays  of  military 
and  naval  uniforms,  and  enlivened  by  the  music  performed  by 
detachments  of  the  best  regimental  bands.  After  the  Garrison 
Chapel  was  built  the  British  troops  for  the  most  part  worshipped 
there,  and  no  similar  scene  on  the  American  continent  could 
ever  have  been  more  thrilling  than  the  movement  of  troops  with 
their  bands  playing  on  Sunday  mornings,  in  the  church  parade, 
from  the  several  parts  of  the  town  where  they  were  in  barracks 
to  the  great  church  where  they  were  to  say  their  prayers  and  sing 


?6o  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

hymns.15  At  St.  Paul's,  for  many  years  before,  the  spectacle  must 
have  been  equally  fine,  and  here  in  larger  numbers  than  in  the 
later  Garrison  Church  were  mingled  with  the  troops  the  dignified 
and  cultured  citizens  of  Halifax  who  represented  the  town's  and 
indeed  the  province  of  Nova  Scotia's  most  aristocratic  social  life. 
"The  first  British  infantry  regiments  to  attend  St.  Paul's"  says 
Dr.  Armitage,  "were  Hopson's  40th  and  Warburton's  45th,  and 
the  first  corps  of  artillery,  a  detachment  of  the  Eoyal  Train  of 
Artillery  in  the  year  1750."  "In  the  years  from  1755  to  1760," 
he  adds, ' '  there  were  as  many  as  twelve  thousand  troops,  sailors, 
and  marines,  in  Halifax  under  famous  admirals  and  captains, 
notably  Holborne,  Boscawen,  Howe,  Saunders,  Warren,  and  Col- 
ville,  and  generals,  Lord  Lodoun,  Lord  Dundonald,  General  Am- 
herst,  and  General  Wolfe."  During  the  war  of  the  Revolution 
there  were  several  famous  regiments  here, ' l  notably  the  33rd,  the 
28th,  the  69th,  the  Orange  Bangers,  and  the  82nd,  in  which  Sir 
John  Moore,  the  hero  of  Corunna,  was  captain.  From  the  close 
of  the  Revolution  until  1846,  St.  Paul's  was  the  chief  place  of 
worship  of  a  multitude  of  regiments,  not  a  few  of  them  among 
the  most  renowned  in  the  Imperial  service.  And  not  only  the 
line  regiments,  but  the  Royal  Artillery  and  Royal  Engineers 
found  their  church  home  here.  ' l  Representatives  of  nearly  every 
prominent  family  in  the  United  Kingdom  and  Ireland  have 
through  our  long  connection  with  the  Army  and  Navy, ' '  says  Dr. 
Armitage,  "worshipped  in  St.  Paul's  Church."16 

After  the  removal  of  their  fellow  countrymen  to  Lunenburg 
in  1753,  the  few  families  of  Germans  who  remained  in  the  North 
End  of  Halifax,  while  welcoming  the  ministrations  which  the 
clergy  of  St.  Paul's  were  able  to  give  them,  still  persevered  in 
their  allegiance  to  the  Lutheran  faith.  By  1758,  their  humble  but 
determined  efforts  resulted  in  the  building  of  a  simple  church, 


15.  On  two  or  three  occasions  not  long  before  the  Garrison  Chapel  was  closed 
the  writer  had  the  unusual  experience  of  preaching  to  the  troops  there,  and  he 
can  never  forget  the  thrill  the  music  gave  him  as  the  bands  of  the  various  detach- 
ments of  soldiers  approached  the  church,  nor  the  uplift  of  the  scene  as  he  looked 
down  from  the  high  pulpit  into  the  faces  of  the  great  soldier  audience.    The  sing- 
ing of  the  men,  too,  was  stirring  beyond  description. 

16.  The  quotations  we  have  given  from  Archdeacon  Armitage  will  be  found  in 
St.  Paul's  Year  Book  for  1910.    The  list  of  regiments  he  gives  (on  pages  50-52)  as 
having  worshipped  in  St.   Paul's  he  says  were   furnished  him  by  Messrs.  Harry 
Piers  and  Arthur  Fenerty. 


26 1 

they  named  St.  George's,  where  in  the  absence  of  a  minister  their 
schoolmaster  every  Sunday  read  a  sermon  and  some  prayers, 
while  the  congregation  with  true  piety  joined  in  singing  their  na- 
tive German  hymns.  On  the  fourth  Sunday  in  Advent,  1758,  they 
organized  a  church,  but  they  were  then  and  always  dependent 
upon  the  priests  of  St.  Paul's  to  administer  to  them  the  Holy 
Communion  and  give  such  other  ministration  as  according  to  the 
rules  of  their  church  laymen  could  not  properly  give.  At  the 
opening  service  in  St.  George's  the  sermon  was  preached  in  Ger- 
man by  a  Mr.  Slater,  a  visiting  English  army  chaplain,  his 
double  text  being  Isaiah  48 :17,  18,  and  Hosea  9 :12.  The  conse- 
cration of  the  church,  however,  did  not  take  place  until  March, 
1760,  when  Dr.  Breynton  was  the  chief  if  not  the  only  officiating 
clergyman.  At  last  after  New  York  was  evacuated  in  the  Revo- 
lution, an  educated  German  Loyalist  clergyman,  Rev.  Ber- 
nard Michael  Houseal,  who  had  for  over  ten  years  been 
pastor  of  a  Lutheran  church  in  New  York,  came  to  the 
town,  and  possibly  raised  hopes  in  the  hearts  of  the  faithful 
Lutherans  that  he  would  remain  and  minister  to  them  in  their 
own  way.  It  seems  likely  that  he  did  so  minister  for  a  few 
months,  but  by  1785  he,  like  Mr.  Cleveland  and  Mr.  Burger,  had 
gone  over  to  Anglicanism,  and  as  an  Anglican  priest  in  that  year 
he  came  back  to  this  German  parish  in  the  North  End.  The  par- 
ish now,  whether  with  the  approval  of  the  entire  congregation  or 
not,  became  absorbed  by  the  Church  of  England.  On  the  10th  of 
April,  1800,  the  corner  stone  of  the  present  Anglican  St.  George 's 
Church,  the  ' '  Round  Church, ' '  was  laid,  the  Duke  of  Kent  per- 
forming this  office.  In  the  midst  of  the  graves  of  the  early  Ger- 
man Christians  in  Halifax,  the  little  "Chicken-Cock  Church,"  as 
it  is  familiarly  called,  the  first  St.  George's,  in  which  these 
foreigners  worshipped,  still  stands,  a  monument  to  the  earnest 
piety  and  persistent  energy  of  the  little  emigrant  band,  whose 
characteristic  religious  confidence  was  expressed  often  in  the 
great  Luther's  hymn  they  sang,  Ein  feste  Burg  ist  unser  Gott. 
The  Rev.  Bernard  Michael  Houseal  died  in  Halifax  on  the  ninth 
of  March,  1799. 

Of  the  chief  minister  of  St.  Paul's  throughout  the  most  pic- 
turesque   period    of   this   church's    history,    the    period  which 


262  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

covers  the  whole  time  of  the  Revolution  and  a  few 
years  beyond,  some  further  account  must  here  be  giv- 
en. The  Rev.  John  Breynton  was  born  in  Montgomeryshire, 
Wales,  probably  about  1718,  received  his  early  schooling  some- 
where in  Shropshire,  at  nineteen  entered  Magdalene  College,  Cam- 
bridge, and  from  this  university  in  1741  received  his  bachelor's 
degree.  In  1742  he  was  ordained  and  became  chaplain  in  the 
navy,  and  for  several  years  thereafter  he  officiated  on  the  war- 
ships Robust,  Nonsuch,  and  Chatham.  In  one  of  these  ships  or 
some  other  of  Sir  Peter  Warren's  fleet,  in  1745  he  came  to  the 
first  siege  of  Louisburg,  and  it  would  seem  that  he  remained  there 
for  four  years.  At  any  rate  he  was  there  in  June,  1749,  for  on 
the  third  of  that  month  he  signed  at  Louisburg  a  testimonial  to 
the  good  character  of  the  Rev.  Thomas  Wood.  In  1752  he  was 
sent  to  assist  Mr.  Tutty  at  Halifax,  and  the  following  year,  as  we 
have  seen,  he  became  rector  of  St.  Paul's,17  In  this  capacity  he 
laboured  faithfully  in  Halifax  until  1785,  when  he  returned  to 
England,  possibly  in  a  somewhat  uncertain  state  of  mind  as  to 
whether  he  would  ever  come  back  to  his  charge,  but  desiring  to 
keep  the  St.  Paul's  rectorship  still.  It  is  said  that  at  one  time, 
we  suppose  during  a  visit  he  made  to  England  in  1770  and  1771, 
he  was  made  chaplain  extraordinary  to  Queen  Charlotte,  and  that 
he  preached  before  her  in  German,  which  language  he  had 
learned  after  he  was  forty  years  old.  After  1785  he  never  re- 
turned to  Halifax,  but  he  kept  the  rectorship  of  St.  Paul's  until 
1791.  His  death  took  place  in  London  on  the  fifteenth  of  July, 
1799.  On  the  sixth  of  April,  1770,  he  received  from  Oxford  Uni- 
versity the  honorary  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity. 

Precisely  when  Dr.  Breynton  married  first  we  do  not  know,  but 
it  was  probably  just  before  he  came  as  curate  to  Halifax.  His 
wife's  first  name  was  Elizabeth,  but  of  her  family  name  we  are 
ignorant.  She  died  at  Halifax  September  thirteenth,  1778,  and 


17.  "St.  Paul's  Sunday  School,"  says  Ven.  Dr.  Armitage,  the  present  Rector  of 
St.  Paul's  Church,  "was  founded  by  Rev.  Dr.  Breynton  about  1783.  It  is  one  of  the 
oldest  Sunday  Schools  with  a  continuous  existence  in  the  world,  and  is  today  the 
largest  in  the  Maritime  Provinces.  Its  foundation  was  only  a  year  or  so  later  than 
the  work  of  Raikes,  the  founder  of  Sunday  Schools  at  Gloucester,  England,  1780. 
The  movement  obtained  a  footing  in  the  United  States  only  in  1791,  when  Sunday 
Schools  were  inaugurated  at  Philadelphia  under  the  leadership  of  Bishop  White." 
Year  Book  of  St.  Paul's  Church  for  1910. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  263 

was  buried  from  St.  Paul's,  September  fifteenth.  Between  1753 
and  1768,  she  bore  seven  or  eight  children.  Dr.  Breynton  mar- 
ried, secondly,  in  Halifax,  on  the  sixth  of  September,  1779,  the 
widow  of  Hon.  Joseph  Gerrish,  a  member  of  the  Council,  one  of 
the  Boston  pre-Revolutionary  settlers  in  the  town.  Mrs.  Gerrish 
was  originally  Mary  Cradock,  of  Boston,  and  she  was  the  Hon. 
Joseph  Gerrish 's  second  wife.18 

Dr.  Breynton  has  passed  into  Nova  Scotia  history  as  an 
earnest,  faithful  clergyman  and  a  sympathetic,  kindly  Christian 
man.  Chief  Justice  Jonathan  Belcher  lived,  of  course,  in  very 
close  relations  with  him,  and  this  eminent  parishioner  of  his, 
pronounces  him  a  man  of  ' '  perfect  good  acceptance ' '  in  the  com- 
munity, "indefatigable  labors,"  "experienced  assiduity,"  and 
great  moderation.  * '  He  was, ' '  says  Dr.  Hill, ' '  the  personal  friend 
and  counsellor  of  the  successive  Governors  and  Lieutenant  Gov- 
ernors, the  associate  and  adviser  of  all  others  in  authority,  the 
friend  and  helper  of  the  poor,  the  sick,  and  afflicted,  and  the  pro- 
moter and  supervisor  of  education."  He  tried  to  promote  the 


18.  The  second  Mrs.  Breynton,  who  was  the  eldest  daughter  of  Hon.  George 
and  Mary  (Lyde)  Cradock  of  Boston,  was  born  May  18,  1723.  She  had  sisters, 
Elizabeth,  wife  of  Hon.  Thomas  Brinley,  a  refugee  with  Howe's  fleet  (who  was  a 
first  cousin  of  his  wife)  ;  Catherine,  married  to  Nathaniel  Brinley  of  Boston,  Natick, 
and  Tyngsborough,  Mass. ;  and  Miss  Sarah  Cradock  of  Boston,  who  made  her  will 
July  10,  1798,  and  in  it  mentioned  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Breynton.  Sept.  21,  1791,  Dr.  Breyn- 
ton and  his  wife  Mary,  Elizabeth  Brinley,  widow,  and  Sarah  Cradock,  spinster,  "all 
of  Edgeware  Road  in  the  parish  of  Marybone,  Co.  of  Middlesex,"  England,  sold  a 
certain  property  in  Boston  to  Nathaniel  Brinley  and  his  wife  Catharine,  for  five 
pounds. 

Many  of  the  intimate  details  of  Dr.  Breynton's  life  we  have  received  from 
Miss  Beatrice  Hurst  of  H'orsham  Park,  Sussex,  England,  one  of  his 
descendants.  Miss  Hurst  gives  Trefeglawys,  Montgomeryshire,  as  the  place 
of  her  ancestor's  birth,  and  says  that  he  went  to  some  school  or  schools,  she  does  not 
know  what,  in  Shropshire.  His  mother,  "old  Mrs.  Breynton,"  died  at  Trefeglawys 
in  the  spring  of  1779,  aged  at  least  eighty-three.  In  a  list  of  English  ships  at  the 
first  siege  of  Louisburg  given  by  Mr.  C.  Ochiltree  Macdonald  in  his  book  ''The  Last 
Siege  of  Louisburg"  (p.  10),  the  Robust  Nonsuch,  and  Chatham  do  not  appear. 
Neither,  however,  does  the  Eesham,  which  we  know  was  there,  in  command  of  Cap- 
tain Philip  Durell,  who  later  became  an  admiral.  For  the  letter  of  testimonial  to 
Mr.  Wood  signed  by  Dr.  Breynton  at  Louisburg,  see  Bicentenary  Sketches  by  Canon 
Vernon,  pp.  46,  47. 

It  seems  probable  that  the  ship  on  which  Dr.  Breynton  served  longest  and  last 
was  the  Robust,  for  on  the  28th  of  August,  1781,  he  wrote  his  son-in-law.  Captain 
Eliot,  from  Halifax :  "I  have  reason  to  believe  that  the  'Robust'  Ship  of  War  will 
return  to  Europe  this  fall  and  be  paid  off,  and  as  I  have  two  yrs.  pay  due  from 
that  ship  I  have  armed  my  agent  with  proper  certificates  to  appear  at  the  Pay  table 
on  my  behalf.  The  amount  is  abt.  £250.  Mr.  Ommaney  will  lay  before  you  his 
difficulties  respecting  my  pay  for  the  'Nonsuch'  and  'Chatham,'  the  whole  amounting 
to  £160  more  or  less." 


264  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

welfare  of  the  ignorant  Micmacs,  he  influenced  the  starting  of 
missions  among  the  New  England  settlers  throughout  the  pro- 
vince who  came  in  1760  and  1761,  he  did  all  he  could  to  alleviate 
the  distresses  of  the  Loyalists  and  give  them  comfort  in  their 
exile  from  their  native  homes,  and  his  attitude  towards  clergy- 
men of  other  denominations  seems  to  have  been  uniformly  friend- 
ly and  kind.  The  hospitality  he  extended  towards  the  Congrega- 
tionalists  in  giving  them  the  use  of  St.  Paul 's  church  until  their 
own  house  of  worship  could  be  built  no  doubt  arose  from  not 
only  the  generous  nature  of  the  man  but  the  reasonable  conviction 
that  no  one  scheme  of  ecclesiasticism  has  exclusive  divine  sanc- 
tion, but  that  all  orderly  churches  are  equally  commissioned  by 
God  to  do  the  world  good.  When  Freeborn  Garrison,  one  of  the 
earliest  apostles  of  Methodism  in  the  Maritime  Provinces,  came 
to  Halifax  in  1785  to  promote  spiritual  religion  there,  Dr.  Breyn- 
ton  received  him  with  great  kindness.  "You  are  on  a  blessed 
errand,"  he  said,  "I  will  do  what  I  can  to  assist  you.  I  desire  to 
see  the  Gospel  spread  ;"19  and  the  testimony  of  a  later  Methodist 
missionary,  the  Eev.  William  Bennett,  was  that  he  never  knew 
a  man  so  universally  regretted  as  Dr.  Breynton  was  when  he  left 
the  province,  "every  individual  of  every  denomination"  being 
sorry  to  see  him  go.  "A  person  who  during  a  residence  of  up- 
wards of  twenty  years  in  this  Province  has  deservedly  gained  the 
good  will  and  esteem  of  men  of  all  ranks  and  persuasions,"  was 
the  description  of  him  once  given  by  some  man  not  of  his  own 
communion.  ' '  He  preaches  the  Gospel  of  peace  and  purity,  with 
an  eloquence  of  language  and  delivery  far  beyond  anything  I 
ever  heard  in  America. ' '  At  the  annual  meeting  of  the  ' '  Church 
Society"  which  took  place  in  St.  Paul's  in  1770,  says  Dr.  Thomas 
B.  Akins,  "the  dissenting  ministers  all  attended  at  the  church  to 
hear  the  doctor  preach  his  Visitation  Sermon." 

With  the  five  New  England  Episcopal  clergymen  who  came  to 
Halifax  either  a  little  before  or  under  the  immediate  protection 
of  Howe's  fleet,  and  with  at  least  two  others  who  came  later,  Dr. 
Breynton  had  very  close  relations.  The  Dean  of  the  New  Eng- 


19.  "History  of  the  Met'hodist  Church  within  the  Territories  embraced  in  the 
late  Conference  of  Eastern  British  America."  Rev.  Dr.  T.  Watson  Smith  (1877), 
Vol.  i,  p.  155. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  265 

land  Episcopal  clergy  was  the  venerable  Rev.  Dr.  Henry  Caner, 
of  King's  Chapel,  and  in  his  first  report  to  the  Society  for  the 
Propagation  of  the  Gospel  after  he  fled  from  Boston  this  aged 
clergyman  testified  feelingly  to  Dr.  Breynton's  kindness  to  him: 
"I  am  now  at  Halifax,"  he  says,  "but  without  any  means  of 
support  except  what  I  receive  from  the  benevolence  of  the  worthy 
Dr.  Breynton."  To  Dr.  Walter,  Dr.  Byles,  Mr.  Troutbeck,  and 
Mr.  Badger,  Dr.  Breynton  was  no  doubt,  so  far  as  they  needed 
help,  equally  kind,20  and  there  was  one  needy  New  England 
clergyman,  who  fled  to  Halifax  later  than  the  others,  to  whom 
he  was  conspicuously  a  friend.  This  clergyman  was  the  Rev. 
Jacob  Bailey,  who  like  the  greater  number  of  the  Episcopal  clergy 
of  New  England  before  the  Revolution  had  been  reared  a  Con- 
gregationalist.  Jacob  Bailey  was  born  in  Rowley,  Massachu- 
setts, in  1731,  and  graduated  at  Harvard  in  1755.  For  some  years 
after  leaving  college  he  preached  as  a  Congregational  minister, 
but  in  1760  he  went  to  England  to  take  orders  in  the  Episcopal 
Church.  Ordained  deacon  by  the  Bishop  of  Rochester,  and 
Priest  by  the  Bishop  of  Peterborough,  he  then  returned  to  New 
England  and  began  missionary  work  at  Pownalborough,  Maine. 
As  the  Revolution  progressed,  his  situation  as  an  Episcopal 


20.  In  all,  as  a  result  of  the  Revolution,  twenty-eight  Episcopal  clergyman  took 
refuge  in  Nova  Scotia :  John  Agnew,  Samuel  Andrews,  Oliver  Arnold,  Moses 
Badger,  Jacob  Bailey,  John  Beardsley,  George  Bissett,  Isaac  Browne,  - 
Brudenell,  Mather  Byles,  Henry  Caner,  Richard  Samuel  Clarke,  William  Clarke, 
Samuel  Cooke,  Nathaniel  Fisher,  John  Rutgers  Marshall,  Jonathan  Odell,  George 
Panton,  John  Hamilton  Rowland,  James  Sayre,  John  Sayre,  James  Scovil,  Epenetus 
Townsend,  Roger  Viets,  William  Walter,  Joshua  Wingate  Weeks,  John  Wiswall, 
and  Isaac  Wilkins  (the  latter,  however,  not  a  clergyman  until  after  he  returned  to 
New  York).  Of  these  men,  eight  were  graduates  of  Harvard,  seven  of  Yale,  six 
of  Columbia,  and  one  at  least  of  Princeton,  while  only  two  were  educated  in  Bri- 
tain. The  New  England  Episcopal  clergy  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution  were  al- 
most all  native  New  Englanders,  and  the  great  majority  had  been  reared  Congre- 
gationalists.  Of  the  five  who  came  a  little  before  or  with  Howe's  fleet  to  Halifax, 
Badger,  Byles,  and  Walter  were  graduates  of  Harvard,  and  Caner  was  a  graduate 
of  Yale.  Troutbeck  alone  was  an  Englishman.  Bailey  and  Weeks  who  came  in 
1779,  and  Wiswall,  who  came  in  1782,  were  also  Harvard  men.  From  Halifax 
Moses  Badger  went  to  New  York;  after  the  Revolution  he  was  Rector  of  the 
church  that  had  been  King's  Chapel,  in  Providence.  Dr.  Henry  Caner  soon  left 
Halifax  for  England,  and  so  did  John  Troutbeck.  Both  died  abroad.  Mather  Byles, 
as  we  shall  show,  staid  in  Halifax  for  thirteen  years,  then  he  settled  in  St.  John. 
Dr.  William  Walter  went  from  Halifax  to  New  York,  and  in  1783  settled  at  Shel- 
burne,  Nova  Scotia.  In  1791  he  returned  finally  to  Boston,  and  the  next  year  be- 
came Rector  of  Christ  Church,  in  which  position  he  died  December  5,  1800.  Jacob 
Bailey  died  at  Annapolis  Royal  in  1808;  John  Wiswall  died  in  Wilmot,  Annapolis 
County,  in  1812.  Sketches  of  all  these  men  will  be  found  in  the  writer's  "Church  of 
England  in  Nova  Scotia." 


266  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

clergyman  and  a  sympathizer  with  the  Crown  became  more  and 
more  intolerable  and  at  last  in  a  state  of  destitution  he  and  his 
family  got  on  board  a  small  vessel  at  Kennebec  and  sailed  for 
Halifax. 

The  sufferings  in  the  Revolution  of  no  one  of  the  Loyalist 
clergy  have  been  recorded  with  greater  minuteness  than  have 
Mr.  Bailey's  in  the  journal  he  himself  kept  and  the  letters  of  his 
that  have  been  preserved.  And  his  portrayals  of  these  suffer- 
ings are  exceedingly  graphic.  The  picture  Halifax  presented  to 
him  as  he  sailed  up  the  harbour  when  he  was  first  exiled  he  also 
reproduces  for  us  in  a  vivid  way.  After  describing  the  outer 
entrance  to  the  harbour  he  says :  "  As  we  advanced  still  further 
from  the  ocean,  the  town  began  gradually  to  open,  and  we  had 
in  prospect  several  strong  fortifications,  as  the  Eastern  Battery, 
George's  Fort,  and  strong  ramparts  upon  the  neighbouring 
heights,  with  all  their  terrible  apparatus  of  cannon  and  mortars. 
When  we  arrived  near  the  above  mentioned  Island  of  St.  George 's 
we  had  a  most  advantageous,  striking  view  of  this  northern  cap- 
ital, stretching  a  mile  and  a  half  upon  the  eastern  ascent  of  an 
extensive  hill,  while  a  large  collection  of  shipping  lay  either  con- 
tiguous to  the  wharves,  or  elsewhere  riding,  with  the  British 
colors  flying,  in  the  channel,  a  sight  which  instantly  inspired  us 
with  the  most  pleasing  sensations." 

The  vessel  on  which  he  and  his  party  were,  he  says,  came  to 
anchor  at  a  wharf  near  the  Pontac  tavern,  but  before  they  reached 
the  shore  the  people  on  deck  were  conscious  that  their  ' '  uncouth 
habits  and  uncommon  appearance  had  by  this  time  attracted  the 
notice  of  multitudes,  who  flocked  towards  the  water  to  indulge 
their  curiosity."  "These  inquisitive  strangers,"  he  continues, 
"threw  us  into  some  confusion,  and  to  prevent  a  multitude  of 
impertinent  interrogations,  which  might  naturally  be  expected 
by  persons  in  our  circumstances,  I  made  the  following  public 
declaration,  standing  on  the  quarter  deck :  *  Gentlemen,  we  are  a 
company  of  fugitives  from  Kennebeck,  in  New  England,  driven 
by  famine  and  persecution  to  take  refuge  among  you,  and  there- 
fore I  must  entreat  your  candor  and  compassion  to  excuse  the 
meanness  and  simplicity  of  our  dress.' 

After  they  anchored,  "  I  at  that  moment  discovered  among  the 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  267 

gathering  crowd,  Mr.  Kitson  [probably  Kidston],  one  of  our  Ken- 
nebeck  neighbors,  running  down  the  street  to  our  assistance.  He 
came  instantly  on  board,  and  after  mutual  salutations  helped 
us  on  shore.  Thus,  just  a  fortnight  after  we  left  our  own  be- 
loved habitation  we  found  ourselves  landed  in  a  strange  country, 
destitute  of  money,  clothing,  dwelling  or  furniture,  and  wholly 
uncertain  what  countenance  or  protection  we  might  obtain  from 
the  governing  powers.  Mr.  Kitson  kindly  offered  to  conduct  us 
either  to  Mr.  Brown's  or  Capt.  Callahan's;  and  just  as  we  had 
quitted  our  vessel,  Mr.  Moody,  formerly  clerk  to  the  King's 
Chapel,  appeared  to  welcome  our  arrival." 

If  Mr.  Bailey  could  describe  with  bitterness  the  ill-treatment 
he  received  at  the  hands  of  the  Maine  ' '  patriots, ' '  he  could  also 
describe  with  humour  the  grotesque  appearance  he  and  his  for- 
lorn party  made  when  they  reached  Halifax  and  walked  through 
the  streets.  "As  it  may  afford  some  diversion  to  the  courteous 
reader,"  he  goes  on  to  say,  "I  will  suspend  my  narration  a  few 
moments  to  describe  the  singularity  of  our  apparel,  and  the  order 
of  our  procession  through  the  streets,  which  were  surprisingly 
contrasted  by  the  elegant  dresses  of  the  gentlemen  and  ladies  we 
hapened  to  meet  in  our  lengthy  ambulation.  And  here  I  am  con- 
foundedly at  a  loss  where  to  begin,  whether  with  Capt.  Smith  or 
myself,  but  as  he  was  a  faithful  pilot  to  this  haven  of  repose,  I 
conclude  it  is  no  more  than  gratitude  and  complaisance  to  give 
him  the  preference.  He  was  clothed  in  a  long  swingling  thread- 
bare coat,  and  the  rest  of  his  habit  displayed  the  venerable  sig- 
natures of  antiquity,  both  in  the  form  and  materials.  His  hat 
carried  a  long  peak  before,  exactly  perpendicular  to  the  longi- 
tude of  his  acquiline  nose. 

"On  the  right  hand  of  this  sleek  commander  shuffled  along 
your  very  humble  servant,  having  his  feet  adorned  with  a  pair 
of  shoes  which  sustained  the  marks  of  rebellion  and  indepen- 
dence. My  legs  were  covered  with  a  thick  pair  of  blue  woolen 
stockings,  which  had  been  so  often  mended  and  darned  by  the 
fingers  of  frugality  that  scarce  an  atom  of  the  original  re- 
mained. My  breeches,  which  just  concealed  the  shame  of  my 
nakedness,  had  formerly  been  black,  but  the  colour  being  worn 
out  by  age  nothing  remained  but  a  rusty  grey,  bespattered  with 


268  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

lint  and  bedaubed  with  pitch.  Over  a  coarse  tow  and  linen  shirt, 
manufactured  in  the  looms  of  sedition,  I  sustained  a  coat  and 
waistcoat  of  the  same  dandy  grey  russet,  and  to  secrete  from  pub- 
lic inspection  the  innumerable  rents,  holes,  and  deformities  which 
time  and  misfortunes  had  wrought  in  these  ragged  and  weather- 
beaten  garments,  I  was  furnished  with  a  blue  surtout,  fretted 
at  the  elbows,  worn  at  the  button-holes,  and  stained  with  a  variety 
of  tints,  so  that  it  might  truly  be  styled  a  coat  of  many  colours, 
and  to  render  this  external  department  of  my  habit  still  more 
conspicuous  and  worthy  of  observation,  the  waist  descended  be- 
low my  knees,  and  the  skirts  hung  dangling  about  my  heels ;  and 
to  complete  the  whole,  a  jaundice-coloured  wig,  devoid  of  curls, 
was  shaded  by  the  remnants  of  a  rusty  beaver,  its  monstrous 
brim  replete  with  notches  and  furrows,  and  grown  limpsy  by  the 
alternate  inflictions  of  storm  and  sunshine,  lopped  over  my 
shoulders  and  obscured  a  face  meagre  with  famine  and  wrinkled 
with  solicitude. 

1 '  My  consort  and  niece  came  lagging  behind  at  a  little  distance, 
the  former  arrayed  in  a  ragged  baize  night-gown,  tied  round  her 
middle  with  a  woolen  string  instead  of  a  sash ;  the  latter  carried 
upon  her  back  the  tattered  remains  of  an  hemlock-coloured  lin- 
sey-woolsey, and  both  their  heads  were  adorned  with  bonnets 
composed  of  black  moth-eaten  stuff,  almost  devoured  with  the 
teeth  of  time.  I  forgot  to  mention  their  petticoats,  jagged  at  the 
bottom,  distinguished  by  a  multitude  of  fissures,  and  curiously 
drabbled  in  the  mud,  for  a  heavy  rain  was  now  beginning  to 
set  in. ' ' 

The  destination  of  the  party  was  * '  Captain  Callahan  's, ' '  nearly 
half  a  mile  from  the  wharf  where  they  had  landed.  The  Calla- 
hans  like  "Mr.  Kitson"  had  been  neighbors  and  intimate  friends 
of  the  Baileys  at  Kennebec,  and  when  the  latter  reached  the  Cal- 
lahan house  the  welcome  they  received  was  affecting.  Soon  Mir. 
Thomas  Brown  and  Mr.  Martin  Gay,  both  refugees  from  Boston, 
came  to  welcome  the  clergyman  and  his  family.  A  few  minutes 
after  they  arrived,  came  "the  polite  and  generous  Dr.  Breynton," 
rector  of  St.  Paul's.  "He  addressed  us,"  says  Mr.  Bailey,  "with 
that  ease,  freedom,  and  gentleness  peculiar  to  himself.  His  coun- 
tenance exhibited  a  most  finished  picture  of  compassionate  good 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  269 

nature,  and  the  effusions  of  tenderness  and  humanity  glistened  in 
his  venerable  eyes  when  he  had  learned  part  of  our  history.  He 
kindly  assured  us  that  he  most  heartily  congratulated  us  upon 
our  fortunate  deliverance  from  tyranny,  oppression,  and  poverty, 
and  he  declared  that  we  might  depend  on  his  attention  and  as- 
sistance to  make  us  comfortable  and  happy.  The  turn  of  his  fea- 
tures, and  the  manner  of  his  expression  afforded  a  convincing  ev- 
idence of  his  sincerity,  and  the  event  afterwards  gave  me  undeni- 
able demonstration  that  I  was  not  mistaken  in  my  favourable 
conjectures.  Before  we  parted  he  informed  me  that  it  was  ex- 
pected I  should  wait  upon  the  Governor  at  eleven  to  acquaint  him 
with  my  arrival,  and  to  solicit  his  countenance  and  protection."21 

To  Governor  Parr  he  was  soon  taken,  and  both  the  governor 
and  the  legislature  as  a  body  promptly  interested  themselves  in 
him  and  endeavoured  to  supply  his  needs.  He  was  taken  by  one 
gentleman's  orders  to  a  tailor  to  be  measured  for  a  suit  of  clothes, 
so  that  he  might  be  more  presentable,  another  man  gave  him  a 
beaver,  ' '  almost  new, ' '  Dr.  Breynton  procured  a  house  for  him 
on  the  east  side  of  Pleasant  street,  "the  most  elegant  street  in 
the  town,"  and  "much  frequented  by  gentlemen  and  ladies  for  an 
evening  walk  in  fine  weather,"  and  the  General  Assembly  gave 
him  two  hundred  dollars  in  money  and  private  gentlemen  con- 
tributed nearly  three  hundred  more.  A  few  months  after  he 
landed  he  received  a  call  to  settle  in  Cornwallis,  Kings  County, 
and  thither  in  October,  1779,  he  and  his  family  went.  In  July, 
1782,  he  removed  from  Cornwallis  to  Annapolis  Royal. 

Of  the  clergymen  who  came  to  Halifax  with  or  before  Howe's 
fleet,  Dr.  Mather  Byles  was  the  only  one  who  remained  long  in 
the  town.  One  priest  who  arrived  later,  the  Rev.  Joshua  Win- 
gate  Weeks,  previously  Rector  of  St.  Michael's  Church,  Marble- 


21.  The  interesting  extracts  from  Mr.  Bailey's  journal  we  have  given  above  are 
taken  from  a  much  longer  narration  which  will  be  found  in  "The  Frontier  Mis- 
sionary, a  Memoir  of  the  Rev.  Jacob  Bailey,  A.  M.,  Missionary  at  Pownalborough, 
Maine;  Cornwallis  and  Annapolis,  Nova  Scotia,"  by  Rev.  William  S.  Bartlett,  A.  M., 
sometime  Rector  of  Chelsea,  Massachusetts,  pp.  365.  (Published  at  Boston  by  Ide 
and  Dutt9n,  1853).  For  further  information  concerning  Mr.  Bailey,  see  this  writer's 
"History  of  King's  County,  Nova  Scotia,"  and  the  Calnek-Savary  "History  of  An- 
napolis County,  Nova  Scotia." 

The  Loyalists  Mr.  Bailey  mentions  as  finding  at  Halifax  were  Mr.  Atkins, 
"formerly  a  merchant  in  Boston  and  afterward  a  custom  house  officer  at  New- 
bury,"  Mr.  Thomas  Brown,  Mr.  Martin  Gay,  Dr.  John  Prince,  previously  of  Salem, 
and  "Colonel  Phips's  lady." 


270  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

head,  a  brother  of  the  Rev.  Jacob  Bailey's  wife,  " Sally  Weeks," 
did  remain  there  after  he  came  for  eleven  or  twelve  years,  but 
except  Dr.  Byles  he  was  the  only  refugee  clergyman  who  staid. 
Mather  Byles  was  the  eldest  son  and  the  only  son  who  lived  be- 
yond very  young  manhood  of  the  famous  Tory  Congregational 
minister  of  Boston,  the  senior  Rev.  Dr.  Mather  Byles.  A  grad- 
uate of  Harvard,  he  too  was  in  1757  ordained  to  the  Congrega- 
tional ministry,  and  settled  at  New  London,  but  in  1768  he  went 
to  England  for  ordination  to  the  Anglican  priesthood  and  before 
the  end  of  that  year  returned  to  Boston  as  Rector  of  Boston's 
now  venerable  Christ  Church.  In  1775  he  withdrew  from  the 
rectorship  of  Christ  Church,  intending  to  go  to  Queen's  Chapel, 
Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire,  but  the  troubles  of  the  Revolution 
thickening  and  his  Tory  sympathies  being  conspicuously  strong, 
he  was  obliged  to  remain  in  Boston  under  the  protection  of  the 
King's  troops.  With  the  fleet  he  went  to  Halifax,  where  he  was 
soon  made  garrison  chaplain  and  given  occasional  duty  at  St. 
Paul's,  and  in  Halifax,  sometimes  officiating  and  sometimes  not 
having  any  regular  duty,  he  remained  until  May,  1789,  when 
he  became  rector  of  Trinity  Church,  St.  John,  New  Brunswick, 
and  garrison  chaplain  in  that  Loyalist  town.22  In  his  St.  John 
rectorship  he  remained  until  his  death  in  1814. 

Like  his  father,  Dr.  Byles  was  a  man  of  character,  education, 
and  some  literary  gift.  Like  his  father,  also,  he  was  a  man  of 
aristocratic  tastes  and  his  social  and  ecclesiastical  connections, 
both  before  and  after  he  adopted  episcopacy,  were  such  as  we 


22.  On  the  3Oth  of  September,  1776,  Dr.  Byles  wrote  the  Society  for  the  Propa- 
gation of  the  Gospel  that  he  had  been  appointed  Chaplain  to  the  Garrison,  that  he 
occasionally  assisted  Dr.  Breynton,  and  that  he  had  under  his  care  two  battalions 
of  marines,  the  women  and  children  and  invalids  of  more  than  twenty  regiments,  a 
large  hospital,  and  a  school  consisting  of  nearly  four  hundred  pupils,  which  he  reg- 
ularly visited  twice  a  week.  Since  coming  to  Halifax  (in  March)  he  had  baptized 
fifty-four,  and  had  buried  fourteen.  As  long  as  he  remained  in  Halifax,  that  is 
until  May,  1789,  Byles  was  nominally  chaplain  to  the  garrison,  but  a  great  deal  of 
this  time  his  duties  seem  to  have  been  only  nominal.  Until  the  Garrison  Chapel  was 
built  in  1846,  probably  during  Byles's  stay  in  the  town  as  well  as  later,  there  were 
CTidently  small  chapels  or  buildings  used  for  chapels  in  which  services  for  special 
bodies  of  troops  were  held,  but  the  subject  of  these  chapels  is  involved  in  some 
obscurity.  At  the  time  of  Dr.  Byles's  third  marriage,  to  Mrs.  Reid  (Susannah  Law- 
lor),  we  know  from  the  Byles  correspondence  that  the  Doctor  had  a  little  chapel 
somewhere  in  the  town.  In  any  case,  for  some  years  he  despised  Dr.  Breynton  so 
thoroughly  that  he  could  not  possibly  have  been  a  worshipper  at  St.  Paul's,  much 
less  have  officiated  there.  This  will  more  emphatically  appear  if  we  ever  publish,  as 
we  hope  to  do,  our  "Life  and  Letters  of  the  Younger  Mather  Byles." 


THE  REV.  MATHER  BYLES,  JR.,  D.  D. 
From  a  painting  by  his  nephew,  Mather  Brown 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  271 

should  expect  such  a  man  to  choose.  He  was  at  heart  deeply 
religious,  but  he  was  a  man  of  great  natural  sensitiveness  and  a 
highly  nervous  organization,  and  suffering  much,  as  he  did,  from 
ill  health,  his  temper  was  frequently  anything  but  equable.  In 
Halifax,  for  what  reason  we  do  not  know,  he  came  to  have  bitter 
dislike  for  most  of  the  members  of  the  ruling  class,  and  his  antag- 
onism to  his  fellow  clergyman,  Dr.  Breynton,  was  especially  fierce. 
How  deep  this  bitterness  went  certain  allusions  in  his  correspon- 
dence, much  of  which  has  been  preserved,  enables  us  clearly  to 
see.  While  Dr.  Byles  was  in  London  in  1784,  an  infant  child  of 
ihis  died  of  small-pox,  and  both  the  family  in  Halifax  and  he 
abroad  were  plunged  by  the  event  into  deep  distress.  What  Dr. 
Breynton  had  done  on  the  occasion  to  excite  the  family's  dis- 
pleasure we  are  not  told,  but  something  unpleasant  he  had  done, 
of  which  the  family  wrote  Dr.  Byles  an  account.  On  receipt  of 
their  letter,  after  deploring  the  child's  death  the  father  wrote: 
"Dr.  Breynton 's  conduct  upon  the  occasion  was  perfectly  char- 
acteristic, equally  exciting  indignation,  horror,  and  contempt. 
Rest  satisfied  from  me  that  it  is  not  in  his  power  to  do  me  or  my 
family  the  least  prejudice.  My  son's  behavior  was  noble  and 
manly,  and  exactly  what  I  could  have  wished  it.  His  modesty, 
his  condensension,  his  prudence,  and  his  firmness  do  him  great 
honor.  It  is  a  mercy  to  mankind  that  the  greatest  bullies  when 
properly  opposed  are  always  the  most  despicable  cowards,  and 
though  w'e  are  taught  to  let  our  moderation  be  known  to  all  men, 
we  are  at  the  same  time  directed  not  to  give  place  to  the  Devil. 
Well  may  an  old  man  be  peevish  when  all  enjoyments  of  a  dissi- 
pated life  are  past,  never  to  return,  and  he  has  nothing  to  hope 
for  but  annihilation.  But  brutal  behavior  in  a  man  will  not  pur- 
chase the  fate  of  a  brute.  I  check  my  pen,  conscious  that  I  have 
said  enough  upon  the  subject — perhaps  too  much.  Shortly  af- 
ter Dr.  Breynton  left  Halifax,  finally  as  it  proved,  for  England, 
Dr.  Byles  wrote  his  sisters  in  Boston :  *  *  Two  events  have  lately 
taken  place  which  are  of  importance  in  my  history,  one  is  the  de- 
parture of  Dr.  Breynton  for  England,  with  whose  worthless  name 
I  believe  I  have  never  before  condescended  to  blacken  my  page. 
It  is  generally  hoped  he  will  never  return;  and  I  trust  that  I 


272  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

have  bid  a  final  adieu  to  the  haughtiest,  the  most  insolent,  ava- 
vicious,  unprincipled  of  men."23 

In  his  lifetime  Dr.  Byles  wrote  a  little  good  poetry,  but  as  a 
poet,  like  his  father,  who  had,  however,  distinctly  higher  poet- 
ical gifts,  he  could  occasionally  make  his  verse  the  medium  for 
expressing  his  bitter  dislikes.  Before  he  left  Halifax  he  satirized 
in  verse  most  of  the  leading  public  men  of  the  place,  while  the 
rector  of  St.  Paul's  he  held  up  to  conspicuous  ridicule.  One  of 
the  members  of  the  council  was  a  merchant,  Hon.  Thomas  Coch- 
ran,  a  North  of  Ireland  man  who  came  to  Halifax  in  1761  humble 
and  poor,  but  who  rose  by  good  business  judgment  and  energy  to 
the  highest  social  position  in  the  town.  By  his  second  wife,  Jane 
Allan,  Mr.  Oochran  had  a  family  of  sons  and  daughters  who  when 
they  grew  up  came  to  occupy  positions  of  much  importance,  but 
he  had  also  a  daughter  Margaret,  his  eldest  child,  whose  mother 
was  undoubtedly  a  North  of  Ireland  woman.  In  1778  Margaret 
Cochran  was  about  eighteen,  and  in  that  year  Dr.  Breynton's 
first  wife  died.  About  a  year  later  the  elderly  rector,  who  was 
probably  a  little  over  sixty,  married,  as  we  have  seen,  Mrs. 
Joseph  Gerrish,24  but  in  the  meantime,  if  Dr.  Byles 's  muse  is  to 
be  trusted,  the  clergyman  was  foolish  enough  to  set  his  eyes  on 
his  young  parishioner,  Miss  Cochran.  Whether  the  episode  of  his 
proposing  to  her,  which  Dr.  Byles  rather  discreditably  exploits 
in  verse,  ever  happened,  or  to  what  extent  the  details  as  Byles 
gives  them  were  true,  we  have  no  present  means  of  knowing,  but 
in  any  case  the  following  lampoon  which  Byles  wrote  for  the  edi- 
fication of  his  friends,  but  which,  however,  we  believe,  was  never 
printed,  affords  additional  testimony  to  his  strong  dislike  of  Dr. 


23.  The  other  event  of  importance  in  Dr.   Byles's  history  was  the  marriage, 
August  3,  1785,  of  his  eldest  daughter,  Rebecca,  to  Dr.  William  James  Almon,  a 
bachelor  of  about  thirty-one,  a  promising  physician  of  Halifax.    Through  this  mar- 
riage was  founded  one  of  the  most  prominent  of  the  igth  century  families  of  Hali- 
fax.    See  the  writer's  Byles  Genealogy  in  the  N.  E.  Hist,  and  Gen.  Register,  for 
April,  1915. 

24.  Miss  Beatrice  Hurst  writes  that  she  has  found  in  Dr.  Breynton's  corres- 
pondence the  announcement  of  his  engagement  to  Mrs.  Gerrish,  they  "to  be  married 
in  a  few  days."    Twice  in  later  letters  the  Doctor  says  that  "he  does  not  think  there 
could  be  found  in  the  whole  world  two  beings  more  happy,  more  healthy,  and  more 
contented  than  they  were."     When  he  wrote  these  letters  he  and  his  wife  were 
living  in  lodgings  instead  of  taking  a  house,  as  every  year  he  was  hoping  to  go 
to  England.     He  speaks  of  his  increasing  infirmities,  and  of  the  rigors  of  the  Nova 
Scotia  climate,  and  further  shows  a  longing  to  be  nearer  his  children.     The  salary 
he  receives  at  St.  Paul's,  however,  was  of  great  importance  to  him. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  273 

Breynton.  It  illustrates,  moreover,  as  well,  the  remarkable  li- 
cense in  satirical  writing  that  was  permitted  in  the  best  society 
in  the  eighteenth  century,  a  license  that  we  know  well  to  have  ex- 
isted in  England  in  at  least  the  somewhat  earlier  time  of  Pope 
and  Swift.  Dr.  Byles's  poem,  as  it  has  been  preserved  in  Hali- 
fax, is  as  follows  :'25 

ST.  AUSTIN  AND  THE  FAIR  AGATHENE  or  "A  Cure  for  Love." 

The  morning  was  fair  and  the  month  it  was  May, 
And  the  Pine  trees  exhaled  all  their  wealth, 
When  a  Parson  so  good  and  a  Lady  so  gay 
Rode  out  from  the  town,  their  devotion  to  pay 
To  the  Spring  for  the  sake  of  their  health. 

His  name  was  St.  Austin,  and  hers  Agathene, 
His  age  was  three  score  and  a  bit; 
The  Lady  just  bloomed,  in  the  charms  of  eighteen, 
Like  the  Goddess  of  Beauty  and  Love  she  was  seen, 
And  he,  like  Death's  head  on  a  spit. 

To  a  valley  they  came  that  was  still  and  remote 
When  the  Saint  squeezed  her  hand  to  his  breast, 
Thrice  attempted  to  speak,  but  a  burr  in  his  throat 
Stopp'd  the  way  and  prevented  his  sounding  a  note, 
Still  his  utterance  he  hemm'd,  haw'd,  and  spit  to  promote, 
And  at  length  thus  the  damsel  addressed : 

"By  my  Maker,  Sweet  Girl !  I'll  no  longer  restrain 
The  affection  which  tortures  my  soul, 
For  my  blood  effervesces,  and  maddens  my  brain, 
Pit-a-pat  beats  my  heart,  prayers  and  fastings  are  vain, 
And  my  love  burns  beyond  all  controul. 

"O  yes  lovely  nymph,  since  your  bib  you  laid  by 

I  have  watched  every  turn  in  your  charms, 

I  mark'd  when  your  bosom  first  heaved  with  a  sigh, 

And  the  down  on  your  cheek  with  the  peaches  might  vie, 

Till  I  saw  you  mature  for  my  arms. 

"Nay  shrink  not,  and  seem  in  this  terrible  fright, 
For  I'm  sure  you  can't  think  me  too  old, 
Pray  look  at  my  features,  complexion,  and  height, 
And  who  knows  what  a  cassock  may  hold." 

How  distressed  was  the  damsel,  she  fainted,  she  cried, 
Look'd  pale  and  then  red,  nor  from  laughter  forbore, 
Had  her  Grandfather's  skeleton  stood  by  her  side 
And  thus  wooed  her,  and  offer'd  to  make  her  his  bride, 
Her  amazement  could  ne'er  have  been  more. 


25.  In  1782,  Miss  Margaret  Cochran  was  married  in  Halifax  to  a  young  Irish 
naval  officer  Rupert  George,  who  afterward  became  Admiral  Sir  Rupert  George, 
Bart.,  and  her  eldest  son,  Samuel  Hood  George,  was  Provincial  Secretary  of  Nova 
Scotia  from  1808  to  1813.  Six  of  Lady  George's  Cochran  half  brothers  and  sisters 
were  as  follows:  Judge  Thomas;  Elizabeth,  wife  of  Bishop  John  Inglis ;  Isabella, 
wife  of  Very  Rev.  Dean  Ramsay  of  Edinburgh;  Lieutenant-General  William;  Sir 
James,  Chief  Justice  of  Gibraltar ;  and  Rupert  John,  who  died  in  New  York. 


274  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

Still  the  lover  persisted  yet  nearer  to  creep, 
The  Lady  his  suit  to  repel 
She  gave  him  a  push,  and  his  horse  took  a  leap, 
When  the  Doctor  no  longer  his  saddle  could  keep 
But  into  a  pond  that  was  muddy  and  deep 
Plump  down  to  the  bottom  he  fell. 

Thrice  he  sunk  in  the  mud,  thrice  immerg'd  to  the  chin, 
And  each  time  that  his  head  he  could  raise 
He  was  heard  to  cry  out,  with  deplorable  din, 
"Oh !    Woman,  the  flesh  and  the  devil  within, 
Had  I  never  known  thee  I  had  never  known  sin, 
And  thus  died  in  the  prime  of  my  days." 

Tho'  his  heart  was  so  heavy,  yet  his  tail  was  but  light, 
So  he  just  made  a  shift  to  creep  out, 
And  then,  Oh !  Good  Lord,  what  a  laughable  sight, 
Without  hat  or  wig,  and  his  noddle  so  white 
Was  as  black  as  a  coal  all  about. 

Hissing  hot  he  went  in,  but  now  rose  from  this  bed 
Cold  as  ice  like  an  eelskin  all  dripping  and  slack, 
Like  Aaron's  rich  ointment  the  mire  from  his  head 
Down  his  beard  to  the  skirts  of  his  pettycoat  spread, 
And  thus  he  jogged  leisurely  back. 

But  how  the  folks  star'd  in  the  Town  on  his  way 
At  a  rigure  so  strange  and  ungain, 
Geese  cackled,  ducks  quack'd,  asses  set  up  a  bray, 
The  great  dogs  all  bark'd,  the  small  ran  away, 
And  the  children  all  blubber'd  amain. 

From  that  time  to  this,  since  the  story  was  known 
Thro'  the  whole  of  the  parish,  I  ween, 
How  the  Parson  such  wonderful  prowess  has  shown, 
Neither  maid,  wife,  or  widow,  my  Lady  or  Joan, 
Would  suppose  herself  safe  with  the  Parson  alone, 
When  she  thinks  of  the  fair  Agathene. 

The  only  other  New  England  refugee  clergyman  besides  Dr. 
Byles  who  staid  long  in  Halifax  was,  as  w*e  have  said,  the  Rev. 
Joshua  Wingate  Weeks.  This  clergyman,  like  his  brother-in- 
law  Mr.  Bailey,  and  also  Dr.  Walter,  Mr.  Badger,  and  Dr.  Byles, 
was  of  Congregational  antecedents,  and  was  graduated  at  Har- 
vard College.  From  1762  to  1775,  he  was  rector  of  St.  Michael's 
Church,  Marblehead,  from  which  place  in  the  latter  year  he  was 
obliged  to  flee.  For  some  time  he  was  at  Pownalborough,  Maine, 
with  Mr.  Bailey,  then  he  went  to  England  for  a  little  while.  Three 
weeks  after  Mr.  Bailey  arrived  at  Halifax  he  too  appeared  there. 
Very  soon,  his  wife  and  eight  children,  who  had  remained  in  New 
England,  joined  him,  and  he  and  they  did  not  leave  Halifax 
finally  until  at  least  1791.  During  his  stay  in  Halifax  he  assisted 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  275 

Dr.  Breynton,  and  when  the  old  rector  went  to  England  in  1785 
he  was  given  temporary  charge  of  the  parish.  After  1791,  when 
the  Rev.  Robert  Stanser  became  rector,  Mr.  Weeks  officiated  at 
Preston,  and  at  Guysborough.26 

An  event  of  great  importance  to  organized  religion  in  eastern 
America,  and  especially  to  St.  Paul 's  Church,  was  the  erection  of 
Nova  Scotia  in  1787  into  the  first  British  Colonial  Anglican  See. 
Until  after  the  Revolution  all  efforts  made  in  America  to  secure 
the  Anglican  Episcopate  for  any  of  the  colonies  were  unavailing, 
consequently,  the  Church  of  England  was  never  completely  organ- 
ized here.  When  the  Revolution  had  passed,  the  determined 
energy  of  the  few  New  England  clergymen  who  remained  at  their 
posts  at  length  succeeded  in  wrenching  from  Britain  the  gift 
which  America  ought  to  have  had  generations  before,  and  No- 
vember fourteenth,  1784,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Samuel  Seabury  was  con- 
secrated in  Scotland  Bishop  of  the  first  "Episcopal"  diocese  on 
the  American  continent,  the  Diocese  of  Connecticut.  On  the 
fourth  of  February,  1787,  Dr.  Samuel  Provost  and  Dr.  William 
White  were  consecrated  at  Lambeth,  the  former  for  the  diocese 
of  New  York,  the  latter  for  the  diocese  of  Pennsylvania,  and  on 
the  twelfth  of  August,  1787,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Charles  Inglis,  who 
from  March,  1777,  until  November,  1783,  had  been  Rector  of  Trin- 
ity Church,  New  York,  was  consecrated  also  at  Lambeth,  for  the 
diocese  of  Nova  Scotia.  Sailing  from  England  the  sixteenth  day 
after  his  consecration,  Bishop  Inglis  reached  Halifax  on  the 
fifteenth  of  October,  and  a  reception  at  St.  Paul 's  was,  of  course, 
promptly  accorded  him  that  was  entirely  in  keeping  with  his  own 
dignity  and  with  the  importance  of  the  change  in  Nova  Scotia's 
ecclesiastical  affairs  which  his  coming  to  the  province  as  bishop 
meant.27 


26.  For  a  much  longer  notice  of  Mr.  Weeks,  see  the  writer's  "Church  of  Eng- 
land in  Nova  Scotia,"  pp.  184-186.    He,  too,  for  some  reason  came  under  the  severe 
displeasure  of  Dr.  Byles. 

27.  December   17,   1784,  Dr.   Byles,  in  London,  writes  in  a  diary  letter  to  his 
family  in  Halifax  :  "Dr.  Seabury  has  not  returned  from  his  Quixotic  Expedition  to 
Scotland,  where  he  has  been  dubbed  nonjuring  Jacobite  Bishop  of  Connecticut.     By 
renouncing  his  allegiance  he  has  forfeited  every  emolument  from  this  Country.     A 
Bishop  he  certainly  is,  but  not  in  the  Communion  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  it  is 
much  to  be  questioned  whether  the  Revenue  of  his  See  will  be  sufficient  to  furnish 
him  with  Mitres  and  Lawn-Sleeves.    The  Parliament  have  passed  an  Act  empower- 
ing the  Bishop  of  London  to  ordain  ministers  for  the  United  States,  which  is  suf- 
ficient to  convince  anybody  except  Dr.  Chandler  that  there  is  no  Design  of  sending 


276  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

More  mural  tablets  adorn  the  walls  of  St.  Paul's  Church  than 
are  to  be  found,  we  believe,  in  any  cathedral  or  other  parish 
church  on  the  continent  of  America,  the  church  has  sometimes 
fondly  been  called  ' '  the  Westminster  Abbey  of  Canada. ' '  In  the 
twenty  vaults  beneath  the  church  rest  the  ashes  of  a  good  many 
of  the  most  distinguished  early  residents  of  Halifax,  while  these 
graceful  tablets  perpetuate  the  memory  of  their  virtues  and  their 
useful  deeds.  On  the  fronts  of  the  east  and  west  galleries,  and  in 
the  vestibule  hang  also  rows  of  blazoned  heraldic  shields  or  hatch- 
ments, which  give  additional  testimony  to  the  social  importance 
of  the  church's  early  worshippers,  and  lend  richness  to  the  atmos- 
phere we  find  within  the  walls  of  the  sacred  building  today. 

Quaint  records,  too,  are  to  be  read  in  the  archives  of  the  par- 
ish. At  a  meeting  of  the  vestry  on  the  twenty-fourth  of  July,  1770, 
it  was  voted  that l  i  Whereas  the  Anthems  sung  by  the  clerk  and 
others  in  the  gallery  during  Divine  Service  have  not  answered 
the  intention  of  rasing  the  Devotion  of  the  Congregation  to  the 
Honour  and  Glory  of  God,  inasmuch  as  the  major  part  of  the 
congregation  do  not  understand  either  the  words  or  the  musick 
and  cannot  join  therein;  therefore,  for  the  future  the  clerk  have 
express  orders  not  to  sing  any  such  Anthems  or  leave  his  usual 
Seat  without  direction  and  leave  first  obtained  from  the  Reverend 
Mr.  Breynton."  Voted  further,  "that  whereas  also  the  organ- 
ist discovers  a  light  mind  in  the  Several  tunes  he  plays,  called 
voluntaries,  to  the  great  offence  of  the  congregation,  and  tending 
to  disturb  rather  than  promote  true  Devotion;  therefore  he  be 
directed  for  the  Future  to  make  a  choice  of  such  Tunes  as  are 
Solemn  and  Fitting  Divine  Worship,  in  such  his  voluntaries,  and 
that  he  also  for  the  future  be  directed  to  play  the  psalm  Tunes 
in  a  plain  Familiar  Manner  without  unnecessary  Graces." 

An  interesting  episode  of  the  Revolution  in  New  England  was 


a  Bishop  to  Nova  Scotia.  Dr.  Benevolence  Muckworm  might  therefore  have  spared 
himself  the  Trouble  of  directing  your  wise  Governor  and  Council  to  petition  against 
it."  (Dr.  Benevolence  Muckworm  was  Dr.  Breynton). 

In  his  letters  to  his  sisters,  the  Misses  Mary  and  Catherine  Byles,  in  Boston, 
Dr.  Byles  several  times  mentions  Bishop  Inglis's  friendliness  with  him.  April  2, 
1787,  he  writes :  "I  and  my  family  dined  by  invitation  at  the  Bishop's.  That  good 
man  and  I  are  upon  the  most  friendly  terms.  We  converse  with  the  utmost  familiar- 
ity and  confidence,  and  I  esteem  myself  happy  in  the  connexion.  He  frequently  con- 
sults me  and  our  sentiments  seldom  differ." 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  277 

the  introduction  into  Halifax  in  1776  of  the  small  sect  known  as 
Sandemanians,  which  had  had  an  existence  in  Boston  and  a  few 
other  places  in  New  England  for  the  preceding  ten  or  twelve 
years.  The  sect  was  founded  in  Scotland  in  1725,  by  the  Rev. 
John  Glas,  who  had  previously  been  an  earnest  minister  of  the 
Established  Church  of  Scotland,  but  its  doctrines  were  brought 
to  America  in  1764  by  Glas's  son-in-law  and  the  most  eminent 
apostle  of  his  views,  Robert  Sandeman,  who  became  a  member 
of  the  sect  while  pursuing  his  studies  at  the  University  of  Edin- 
burgh in  1736,  and  whose  subsequent  prominence  in  relation  to 
it  led  to  the  attachment  of  -his  name  to  it  rather  than  that  of  his 
father-in-law  Glas.  The  sect  was  one  of  the  many  fugitive  or 
local  sects  of  Christians  that  have  arisen  at  various  times  in  the 
old  world  or  the  new  in  defense  of  a  literalistic  return  to  the 
beliefs  and  practices  of  primitive  Christianity  and  in  protest 
against  all  departures  from  what  has  been  conceived  to  be  the 
inspired  views  and  customs  of  the  earliest  Christian  age.  With 
certain  more  or  less  defensible  notions  of  "faith,"  and  with  a 
firm  belief  that  an  exact  model  for  church  organization  and  wor- 
ship for  all  times  was  to  be  found  in  the  New  Testament,  they 
adopted  a  Congregational  polity,  refused  to  countenance  a  paid 
ministry,  received  new  members  with  the  imposition  of  hands 
of  the  "elders"  and  with  the  "holy  kiss,"  read  the  Scriptures 
at  great  length  in  their  public  services,  practised  the  washing  of 
feet,  and  at  the  Love-feast,  which  was  held  between  morning 
and  afternoon  service  on  Sundays,  gave  each  other  religiously 
the  Apostlic  "kiss  of  peace." 

The  first  Sandemanian  church  in  America  was  founded  at 
Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire,  May  fourth,  1765,  at  least  one  man 
of  influence  there,  Hon.  Nathaniel  Barrell  of  the  Governor's 
Council,  giving  it  his  strong  support.  In  Boston  the  first  meet- 
ings are  said  to  have  been  held  at  house  of  Edward  Foster,  who 
at  the  Revolution  settled  at  Dartmouth,  Nova  Scotia,  but  pre- 
cisely when  the  Boston  Society  was  organized  we  do  not  know. 
By  November,  1766,  the  sect  had  a  chapel  of  its  own,  in  the  North 
End,  and  this  being  burned  in  April,  1773,  its  members  soon 
erected  another.  Eventually  Sandemanian  churches  were  estab- 
lished in  other  New  England  towns,  as  Danbury  and  New  Haven, 


278  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

Connecticut,  and  Taunton,  Massachusetts,  but  by  1830  the 
movement  throughout  New  England  had  spent  its  strength,  al- 
though lingering  remnants  of  the  sect  were  to  be  found  as  late 
as  the  beginning  of  the  present  century. 

In  Boston,  always  since  the  downfall  of  theocratic  power  a  hot- 
bed of  new  religious  cults,  the  Sandemanian  doctrine  fastened 
itself  upon  the  minds  and  consciences  of  a  small  group  of  some- 
what influential  people,  and  when  the  Revolution  came  on  these 
people  like  others  had  to  choose  between  sympathy  with  the  pop- 
ular cause  and  continued  loyalty  to  the  crown.  The  injunction 
of  St.  Peter,  " Honour  the  King,"  they  believed  to  be  just  as 
binding  on  them  as  the  correlative  exhortation  * '  Fear  God, ' '  so 
at  the  evacuation  they  had  no  alternative  whatever  but  to  flee  to 
Halifax  with  the  rest  of  the  Loyalist  band.28  Precisely  when  or 
where  they  organized  themselves  in  Halifax  we  do  not  know,  but 
their  permanent  place  of  meeting  on  Sundays  was  the  upper 
room  of  a  wooden  building  on  the  north  side  of  Prince  street, 
between  Barrington  and  Granville  streets.  In  that  room,  it  is 
said,  Samuel  Greenwood,  one  of  the  chief  Boston  Sandemanian 
refugees,  suddenly  died.  By  the  marriage  of  two  of  the  daugh- 
ters of  Edward  Foster,  another  prominent  refugee,  to  men  of 
earlier  settled  Halifax  families,  the  sect  here  came  finally  to 
include  other  names  than  those  of  the  founders,  but  it  never 
increased  very  largely,  and  by  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, if  not  earlier,  it  was  represented  only  by  a  few  persons, 
chiefly  women.  One  of  the  leading  members  of  the  sect  and  an 
elder  was  the  Loyalist  publisher  and  printer,  the  father  of  the 
Hon.  Joseph  Howe.29 


28.  In  the  Diary  of  Ezra  Stiles,  D.  D.,  Vol.  i,  p.  502,  we  find  the  following: 
"The  Sandimanians  opened   Shops   in   Boston  on  Thanksgiving  day  last  and  the 
Episcopa  at  Cambridge  refused  to  observe  it ;  the  young  Dr.  Biles,  Episc0  Clergy- 
man, refused  to  open  his  Church  in  Boston,  to  the  great  Offence  of  his  little  Flock, 
which  are  more  for  Liberty  than  any  Episco.  Congregation  north  of  Maryland." 

29.  From  the  absence  of  immediate  records  of  the  Sandemanian  Church  in 
Boston  it  is  not  easy,  or  indeed  we  suppose  possible,  to  make  a  complete  list  of  the 
adherents  of  the  church  there  before  the  Revolution.    The  following,  however,  were 
members:  Ebenezer  Allen,  Walter  Barrell  (Inspector  General  of  Customs),  Alford 

Butler,  Edward  Foster,  Mrs.  Cotton,  Adam  De  Chezzeau,  Samuel  Greenwood, 

Joseph  and  John  Howe,  Edward  King,  David  Mitchelson,  Mrs. Rae,  Mrs.  Richard 

(Abigail)   Stayner,  Isaac  Winslow,  Sr.,  and  Isaac  Winslow,  Jr.     The  last  survivor 
of  this  group  is  said  to  have  been  Alford  Butler,  who  died  in  Boston  March  23,  1828, 
aged  90.     The   society  was   not   wholly  broken    up   by   the   Revolution,    in    1817, 
it  is  said,  it  still  had  six  members. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA  279 

Drake  in  his  "Landmarks  of  Boston"  says  that  the  earliest  services  of  the  San- 
demanians  were  held  at  the  Green  Dragon  tavern  on  Union  Street,  perhaps  the 
most  noted  hostelry  of  Boston  in  the  i8th  century.  This  tavern,  Daniel  Webster 
styled  the  headquarters  of  the  Revolution.  Another  account  says  that  the  first 
meetings  were  held  at  Edward  Foster's  house.  It  seems  likely  that  the  meetings 
were  first  held  at  Foster's,  but  that  they  soon  outgrew  a  private  house  and  went  to 
the  Green  Dragon. 

The  members  of  the  Boston  Sandemanian  Church  who  went  to  Halifax  were, 
Ebenezer  Allen,  who  became  in  1784  one  of  the  original  grantees  of  Preston,  Nova 
Scotia,  and  had  a  tan-yard  about  three  miles  from  Dartmouth,  on  what  is  now  the  old 
Preston  road ;  Edward  Foster,  who  settled  in  Dartmouth,  and  established  iron-works 
there,  and  who  died  in  1786,  leaving,  Sabine  says,  thirteen  children;  Adam  DC  Chez- 
seau,  whose  family  in  Howe's  fleet  consisted  of  seven  persons;  Samuel  Greenwood 
who  took  to  Halifax  a  family  of  five  persons ;  John  Howe,  who  went  unmarried  but 
who  later  settled  in  Halifax  permanently  with  a  wife,  and  had  an  honourable  career 
in  the  town ;  possibly  Edward  King,  who  went  with  seven  other  persons  in  the  fleet ; 
possibly  David  Mitchelson,  who  went  with  two  other  persons;  widow  Abigail  Stay- 
ner,  who  took  a  family  of  three ;  and  Isaac  Winslowr  Sr.,  who  went  with  a  family 
of  eleven,  as  also  his  nephew  Isaac  Winslow,  Jr.,  who  may  have  taken  a  family. 

At  some  later  time  came  to  Halifax  also,  Thcophilus  Chamberlain  and  Titus 
Smith,  graduates  of  Yale  College  and  previously  Congregational  ministers,  but  con- 
verts to  Sandemanianism.  These  men  were  probably  before  their  removal  to  Nova 
Scotia,  members  of  the  Sandemanian  Church  at  New  Haven,  Connecticut.  For  con- 
spicuous notices  of  them  see  Mrs.  William  Lawson's  "History  of  Dartmouth,  Pres- 
ton, and  Lawrencetown,"  pp.  171-173,  199,  205-207.  For  them  and  other  Sandeman- 
ians,  see  also  valuable  notes  by  "Occasional"  in  the  Halifax  Acadian  Recorder  for 
May  27,  1916.  For  Ebenezer  Allen,  also,  see  Mrs.  Lawson's  History,  pp.  108-111. 
His  family  in  Howe's  fleet  comprised  eight  persons.  John  Howe's  name  for  some 
reason  does  not  appear  in  Barren"  s  list  of  refugees. 

A  letter  written  by  Edward  Foster  May  i,  1782,  is  said  to  show  that  the  Sande- 
manians  in  Halifax  were  not  thoroughly  organized  as  a  church  at  that  time.  By  1784, 
however,  they  probably  were.  John  Howe  was  one  of  their  elders  in  Halifax,  and 
he  is  said  to  have  conducted  services  on  Sundays  for  a  long  time. 

For  an  interesting  account  of  the  "Sandemanians  of  New  England,"  see  an  arti- 
cle with  this  title  by  Professor  Williston  Walker  in  the  Annual  Report  of  the 
American  Historical  Association  for  the  year  1901  (Washington,  19x12),  pp.  131-162. 
Interesting  manuscript  letters  of  Robert  Sandeman  will  be  found  in  the  library  of 
the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society.  See  also  "Places  of  worship  of  the  Sande- 
manians in  Boston,"  by  Henry  H.  Edes,  in  Publications  of  the  Colonial  Society  of 
Massachusetts  Transactions,  Vol.  6  (1899,  1900),  pp.  109-130.  At  their  love  feast 
each  person  gave  the  holy  kiss  to  the  person  who  sat  next  him  on  each  side.  The 
kiss  was  regarded  as  a  divinely  appointed  means  "for  promoting  that  mutual  love 
which  is  essential  to  true  Christianity." 

[Since  the  foregoing  notes  were  put  in  print  the  writer  has  received  a  few  more 
valuable  facts  concerning  the  Halifax  Sandemanians.  In  the  Acadian  Recorder  of 
May  27,  1916,  Occasional  wrote:  "There  is  a  tradition  of  a  division  in  the  Prince 
street  congregation  on  account  of  consanguinity.  The  body  gradually  broke  up,  until 
at  last  only  three  ladies,  of  a  later  generation,  were  left.  In  1884,  an  elder,  named 
Blakeney,  an  artist  by  profession,  came  to  Halifax.  He  was  the  guest  of  Mr.  Crowe, 
of  the  firm  of  DeChezzeau  and  Crowe.  On  this  occasion  Elder  Blakeney  baptized 
one  of  the  old  ladies  mentioned  above.  The  remants  of  the  Sandemanians  left  in 
Halifax  were  among  the  Lawson  and  Piers  families."  In  corroboration  of  this  last 
statement  Mr.  Harry  Piers  has  lately  given  the  writer  important  information.  John 
Lawson,  born  in  Boston,  who  became  a  notable  merchant  in  Halifax,  married  for  his 
second  wife  a  daughter  of  Edward  Foster,  the  Sandemanian  Loyalist,  and  Temple 
Stanyan  Piers,  Esq.,  son  of  Lewis  Piers,  Esq.  (who  came  to  Halifax  from  England 
with  Governor  Cornwallis),  married  another  daughter,  Mercy  Foster.  Thus  mem- 
bers of  both  these  important  Halifax  families,  the  Lawsons  and  Pierses,  became 
members  of  the  Sandemanian  church.  Temple  Stanyan  Piers  probably  continued  to 
be  an  Anglican  Churchman,  but  he  died  early  and  both  his  young  sons,  Temple  Fos- 
ter Piers  and  Lewis  Edward  Piers,  were  reared  by  their  mother  in  the  Sandemanian 


28o  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

faith.  "My  grandfather,  Temple  Foster  Piers,"  writes  Mr.  Harry  Piers,  "was 
through  and  through  a  Sandemanian,  yet  I  think  I  am  right  in  saying  that  for  some 
years  he  did  not  attend  the  Sandemanian  place  of  worship,  but  worshipped  at  home." 
This  was  probably  owing,  Mr.  Piers  thinks,  to  the  fact  that  one  of  the  members,  per- 
haps an  elder,  had  married  a  near  relative,  a  circumstance  which  gave  offence  to 
some  of  the  stricter  members  of  the  church,  Mr.  Piers  among  the  number.  "M,y 
aunt,  Miss  Mary  DeChezeau  Piers  (born  1819,  died  6  March,  1906),"  says  Mr.  Piers, 
"may  be  considered  the  last  member  of  the  sect  here,  if  we  regard  regular  induction 
into  the  church  and  public  regard  for  its  forms  of  worship  as  constituting  member- 
ship. On  the  other  hand,  my  father,  Henry  Piers  (born  1824,  died  24  June,  1910), 
and  my  uncle,  George  Piers  (born  1830,  died  29  October,  1910)  were  in  belief  Sande- 
manians,  and  as  such  were  always  regarded  and  always  regarded  themselves."  The 
"three  ladies  of  a  later  generation"  of  whom  Occasional  makes  mention,  were  two, 
Miss  Lawsons  and  Miss  Mary  Piers.  Miss  Piers,  Occasional  says,  attended  a  Sande- 
manian Conference  at  Danbury,  Connecticut,  as  late  as  1882.  Precisely  when  these 
three  ladies  relinquished  public  worship  according  to  the  usages  of  their  sect,  Oc- 
casional probably  does  not  know.] 


FRANK  W.  WOOLWORTH  361 

and  sterling,  has  been  unbreakable  by  any  adverse  stroke  of 
fortune. 

He  is,  indeed,  such  a  man  as  only  the  great  civilization  of  the 
present  could  produce;  and  that  which  he  in  sober  fact  has 
wrought  seems  in  the  splendor  of  its  progress  like  the  weird 
magic  of  a  fairy  tale ;  for  to  sum  up  briefly,  without  peradven- 
ture  it  may  now  be  said  he  is  the  greatest  living  retail  merchant 
in  the  world,  he  is  without  a  peer  in  his  achievements,  and  the 
great  corporation  which  owns  his  headship  and  his  guiding 
hand  boasts  the  largest  number  of  customers  for  its  wares  of 
any  business  of  any  type  throughout  the  entire  universe,  is  in 
its  own  field  the  indisputable  peer,  and  in  a  nation  typical  of 
marvels  in  industry  and  enterprise,  stands  forth  an  industrial 
and  commercial  wonder  of  the  age.  To  all  these  may  be  added 
that  he  holds  in  private  ownership  the  very  highest  busi- 
ness building  standing  on  the  earth;  heavily  interested  and 
actively  associated  in  managing  several  of  the  big  metropolitan 
banking  institutions;  it  would  be  impossible  to  here  cite  all 
the  ramifications  of  his  varied  interests  or  adequately  to 
portray  the  whole  that  he  has  done.  Captain  of  industry; 
merchant  leader;  financier  and  banker;  director  and  conductor 
of  a  host  of  things  and  men;  the  responsibilities  of  millions 
have  not  made  him  a  machine,  but  his  sympathy  with  the  needy 
and  unfortunate  has  found  utterance  in  generous  assistance, 
and  "his  left  hand  has  helped  many  a  man  and  many  a  cause 
of  which  his  right  hand  makes  no  record." 

And  these  achievements,  this  brief  history  in  outline,  of  this 
twentieth  century  wizard  of  the  modern  forces,  comprises  not 
the  work  of  generations,  but  Frank  W.  Woolworth,  its  author, 
living,  may  in  his  own  person  view  the  giant  creatures  of  his 
brain,  his  own  work,  his  own  creation,  the  greatest,  the  most 
lasting,  the  most  monumental,  testimonial  he  could  receive. 


Chapters  in  the  History  of  Halifax, 
Nova  Scotia 

BY  ARTHUR  WENTWORTH  HAMILTON  EIATON,  M.  A.,  D.  C.  L. 

No.  VIII 

Here  loyal  Bourbons  carved  the  fleur-de-lys 
And  flung  to  Heaven  the  white  flag  of  their  Kings ; 
Here  Britain's  war-ships  came  with  flapping  wings — 
What  strifes  then  rent  the  peace  of  Acadie ! 

Acadian  Ballads. 


1 


HE  predecessor  of  Halifax  as  the  capital  of  Nova 
Scotia  was  the  little  town  known  as  Annapolis  Royal. 
At  the  head  of  Annapolis  Basin,  a  beautiful  land- 
locked bay  into  which  as  into  other  bays  on  the  Nova 
Scotia  coast  the  Bay  of  Fundy  drives  daily  its  fierce-flowing 
tides,  stands  this  peaceful  town.  Elms  and  maples  like  those  of 
New  England  and  the  rest  of  Nova  Scotia  line  its  well-kept 
streets.  Houses  that  bespeak  refinement  and  comfort,  with  gar- 
dens about  them  in  summer  rich  with  varied  bloom,  are  on  every 
hand.  Through  the  great  dykes  near  the  town  flows  the  An- 
napolis river,  while  round  the  wooden  piers  of  a  few  old  wharves 
the  Fundy  tides  dash  twice  a  day,  sometimes  bearing  on  their 
crests  peaceful  merchant  craft  and  passenger  steamships  of 
moderate  size.  Above  the  Basin,  on  a  lifted  plateau,  near  where 
the  "upper  town"  in  the  eighteenth  century  used  to  stand,  is  an 
extensive  earthwork  lined  within  with  a  wall  of  solid  masonry 
some  twelve  feet  thick  and  surrounded  by  a  dry  moat.  Inside  the 
great  inclosure  which  once  formed  this  new-world  fort  stand  the 
latest  barracks  ever  built  here,  which  are  still  in  a  good  state  of 
repair.  The  prosperous  town  and  the  ruined  fort  of  Annapolis 
Royal  attract  many  visitors  in  summer,  but  few  who  walk  the 
streets  where  the  houses  stand,  or  press  their  feet  on  the  grassy 
turf  of  the  smooth  fields  near  the  fort,  have  much  knowledge  of 

(362) 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          363 

the  long,  strange,  thrilling  story  that  Annapolis  Royal  has  to  tell 
when  she  summons  from  the  realm  of  shadow  the  many  now  al- 
most forgotten  facts  of  her  historic  past. 

Save  the  Spanish  settled  St.  Augustine  in  Florida,  which  was 
founded  in  1565,  no  town  on  the  American  continent  had  its  first 
beginning  as  early  as  Annapolis  Royal,  and  save  St.  Augustine 
and  the  English  settled  Jamestown  in  Virginia,  no  town  has  had 
so  long  a  continuous  existence  as  a  peopled  place.1  Nor  in  the 
varied  history  of  French  exploration  and  military  conquest  in 
America,  does  any  town  except  Quebec  figure  so  romantically. 
* '  Port  Royal, ' '  the  French  explorers  called  the  settlement  where 
in  1604  they  first  attempted  to  found  the  capital  of  their  great 
forest  domain.  When  at  last,  however,  after  more  than  a  cen- 
tury of  intermittent  strife  for  ownership  of  the  province  of 
Acadia,  the  country  yielded  to  the  superior  skill  of  British 
diplomacy  and  strength  of  British  arms,  the  English  captors  of 
the  fort  and  so  conquerors  of  the  province  gave  the  place  in 
honour  of  the  reigning  British  sovereign,  her  Majesty  Queen 
Anne,  the  name  it  now  bears. 

For  a  few  years  over  two  centuries  now,  Nova  Scotia,  that 
part  of  the  French  province  of  Acadia  that  was  most  settled  and 
in  every  way  best  known,  has  had  a  comparatively  peaceful  his- 
tory, though  for  thirty-nine  years  after  its  final  conquest  by 
England  in  1710,  until  Halifax  was  founded  in  1749,  there  were 
occasions  when  at  Annapolis  Royal  great  apprehension  was 
felt  for  the  security  of  British  rule  over  the  province,  and  two 
or  three  times  when  actual  attacks  on  the  fort  were  experienced. 
But  there  was  an  earlier  hundred  years  when  hostilities  were  so 
many  in  Acadia,  and  changes  of  ownership  came  so  fast  that  the 
historian  is  almost  bewildered  as  he  tries  to  follow  closely  the 


i.  St.  Augustine  was  first  settled  in  1565,  and  its  history  has  been  continuous 
to  the  present  time.  Jamestown,  the  first  settlement  made  by  the  English  on  the 
continent,  dates  from  May  13,  1607,  and  its  history  as  a  settlement  since  that  time 
has  had  no  interruption.  Annapolis  Royal  was  first  visited  and  temporarily  set- 
tled in  1604;  its  history,  however,  has  been  continuous  only  since  1610.  For  the 
complete  history  of  Annapolis  Royal,  the  town  and  fort,  two  works  should  be  con- 
sulted, these  are  "A  History  of  Nova  Scotia  or  Acadie,"  by  Beamish  Murdoch, 
Q.  C,  in  three  volumes,  1865-1867;  and  an  able  "History  of  the  County  of  Annapo- 
lis, including  Old  Port  Royal  and  Acadia,  etc.,"  by  William  Arthur  Calnek  and 
Judge  Alfred  William  Savary,  D.  C.  L.,  1897,  (with  a  later  supplement  by  Judge 
Savary,  1913).  Murdoch's  history  is  documentary,  but  it  contains  a  great  deal  of 
graceful  writing. 


364          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

march  of  events.  For  these  events  in  Acadia,  Port  Eoyal  always 
furnishes  the  chief  setting,  small  as  the  place  was,  rude  and 
often  dilapidated  as  its  fortifications  were,  it  symbolized  and 
centred  successively  the  authority  of  both  the  great  Empires 
that  held  nominal  sway  over  Acadia  as  a  transatlantic  colonial 
possession.  Within  its  confines  during  that  first  century  of  its 
history  dwelt  renowned  explorers  like  Champlain,  DeMonts, 
and  Poutrincourt,  some  of  these  nobles  of  the  then  gayest  court 
in  Europe;  cassocked  priests  of  the  historic  orders  of  Jesuits 
and  Recollets;  eminent  Huguenot  protesters  against  the  arro- 
gant domination  of  Borne ;  and  one  year  the  poet  Lescarbot,  with 
his  vivacious  spirit  and  varied  gifts  of  mind;— while  across  the 
seas,  amidst  the  splendor  of  palaces,  on  their  sometimes  un- 
worthy heads  resting  the  glittering  circles  that  denote  power, 
played  anxiously  for  the  control  of  its  destinies  great  sovereigns 
like  the  Kings  of  Nlavarre,  the  Stuarts,  or  Queen  Anne.  In  the 
hands  of  such  kings  and  queens  indeed  the  fortunes  of  Acadia 
nominally  rested,  but  the  men  who  actually  played  the  great 
game  of  empire  in  which  it  held  a  conspicuous  place  on  the  board 
were  shrewd,  skilful  statesmen,  who  often  controlled  kings  and 
queens,  men  like  the  French  Bichilieu  and  Mazarin,  of  the  Eng- 
lish Clarendon  and  Pitt. 

In  the  first  nearly  forty  years  of  its  history  after  the  final 
conquest  of  Acadia  by  England,  Annapolis  Royal  was,  as  we 
have  said,  the  capital  of  Nova  Scotia,  the  name  that  ever  since 
the  conquest  the  Acadian  peninsula  has  borne,  and  during  those 
forty  years  activities  went  on  at  Annapolis  that  since  the  town 
was  the  immediate  and  only  predecessor  of  Halifax  as  the  Nova 
Scotian  capital  it  is  neciessary  in  sketching  the  history  of  the  lat- 
ter town  briefly  to  tell.  As  the  oldest  settlement  by  far,  howr 
ever,  in  eastern  America,  with  a  history  full  of  stirring  interest, 
we  may  be  excused  if  we  run  briefly  over  the  whole  series  of 
striking  events  which  give  Annapolis  Royal  distinction,  from 
the  earliest  period  of  its  romantic  settlement  by  French  ex- 
plorers, to  the  year  1749,  when  its  distinction  as  a  new  world 
capital  forever  ceased. 

What  European  first  set  foot  on  the  soil  of  Acadia  we  shall 
never  know.  Whether  the  Cabots,  father  and  son,  even  caught 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          365 

sight  of  the  peninsula  in  their  successive  voyages  in  1497  and 
1498,  or  whether  Gasparde  Cortereal,  the  resolute  Portuguese 
mariner,  who  entered  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence  in  1500,  in  re- 
lating the  story  of  his  new-world  discovery  actually  described 
Acadia  or  not  we  cannot  tell.  We  do  know  that  the  Basque  fish- 
ermen, in  remembrance  of  a  cape  on  the  French  coast  near 
Bayonne,  sometime  in  1504  named  the  island  of  Cape  Breton. 
We  know  also  with  tolerable  certainty  that  the  Italian  Veraz- 
zano,  in  1554  skirted  seven  hundred  leagues  of  the  American 
coast,  from  North  Carolina  to  Newfoundland,  and  gave  the  coun- 
try he  looked  on  as  he  sailed  not  an  Italian  name  but  the  name 
4  i  New  France. ' '  We  are  told,  also,  that  an  English  sea-captain, 
Master  Thomas  Thorne  of  Bristol,  in  1527  entered  the  Gulf  of 
St.  Lawrence  and  went  as  far  south  as  Cape  Breton,  and  "Aram- 
bee,"  the  earliest  name  given  the  peninsula  of  Nova  Scotia. 
And  we  are  certain  that  Jacques  Cartier  in  1534  visited  and  was 
delighted  with  the  northern  coast  of  New  Brunswick,  and  that 
at  Cape  Gaspe  he  formally  took  possession  of  the  country,  erect- 
ing there  a  cross  thirty  feet  high,  hanging  on  it  the  shield  of 
France,  and  with  pious  fraud  assuring  the  Algonquin  natives 
that  he  had  put  the  monument  there  only  as  a  landmark  for  ex- 
plorers. The  sad  fate  of  the  forty  convicts  brought  to  Sable 
Island  by  the  Marquis  de  la  Roche  in  1598  is  also  a  matter  of  his- 
tory. It  is  said  that  the  Marquis  visited  the  mainland  of  Nova 
Scotia  with  the  purpose  of  selecting  there  a  place  to  locate  his 
oonvict  colony,  before  he  placed  the  wretched  men  who  com- 
posed it  on  the  barren  sands  of  Sable  Isle.  Through  the  rough 
tides  of  the  Bay  of  Fundy,  however,  we  are  not  sure  that  in  the 
whole  sixteenth  century  a  single  European  vessel  ever  rode.2 
Port  Royal  or  Annapolis  Royal's  history  begins  with  the 
landing  there  in  the  spring  of  1604  of  Sieur  de  Monts,  who  had 
previously  accompanied  Chauvin  and  Pontgrave  to  the  river  St. 
Lawrence,  had  become  possessed  with  the  spirit  of  new  world 
conquest,  which  at  the  beginning  of  the  17th  century  took  so  wide 
a  hold  on  the  popular  imagination  in  France,  and  had  determined 


2.     In   the    i6th   century,    however,   European    fishermen    diligently   prosecuted 
their  calling  along  the  Atlantic  coast  of  Nova  Scotia  and  on  the  banks  of  New- 


foundland 


366          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

moreover  to  seek  riches  in  the  fur  trade  on  these  western  shores. 
There  is  a  French  tradition  that  a  little  settlement  was  made  in 
Cape  Breton  as  early  as  154-1,  but  except  for  this,  Port  Royal 
was  the  first  settlement  ever  attempted  in  any  part  of  the  great 
province  of  Acadia,  of  which  the  peninsula  of  Nova  Scotia  was 
always  the  most  conspicuous  part.3 

In  days  when  there  are  few  worlds  left  to  conquer,  and  when 
the  spirit  of  adventure  which  characterized  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury explorers  is  consequently  little  found,  we  can  hardly  im- 
agine the  eagerness  with  which  French  explorers  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  seventeenth  century  sought  the  American  continent, 
nor  the  magnificence  of  the  dreams  that  came  to  them  of  vast 
wealth  and  power  to  be  gained  in  these  wooded  wilds.  At  the 
beginning  of  1604,  the  mantle  of  De  Chastes,  who  in  his  old  age 
had  ardently  longed  to  plant  the  cross  and  the  fleur-de-lis  in  the 
forests  of  New  France,  but  who  had  died  in  returning  from  his 
first  unsuccessful  voyage  thither,  fell  on  a  Calvinist  nobleman, 
Pierre  du  Guast,  Sieur  de  Monts,  gentleman  in  ordinary  of  the 
king's  bedchamber,  and  governor  of  Pons.  Undaunted  by  the 
tragic  fate  of  the  Marquis  de  la  Roche,  who  after  the  melan- 
choly failure  of  his  plans  for  a  convict  colony  and  of  all  his  own 
political  hopes  died  miserably  in  1599!,  and  undiscouraged  by  the 
ill  success  of  the  later  ventures  of  De  Chastes  and  young  Cham- 
plain,  this  nobleman  eagerly  petitioned  the  king  for  leave  to- 
colonize  La  Cadie  or  Accadie,  a  region  he  described  as  extending 
from  the  fiftieth  to  the  forty-sixth  degree  of  north  latitude,  or 
from  Philadelphia  to  Montreal.4  In  the  face  of  some  opposition 

3.  It  cannot  be  said  that  the  boundaries  of  Acadia  as  a  province  of  France 
were  ever  clearly  defined.     In  the  treaty  of  Utrecht,  of  1713,  the  province  is  con- 
sidered as  extending  from  the  St.  Lawrence  river  on  the  north  to  the  Atlantic  on 
the  south,  and  from  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence  and  the  Strait  of  Canso  on  the  east, 
to   a   Ime:   drawn   due   north   from   the   mouth   of   the   Penobscot   on   the   west,   the 
country  thus  embracing  the  provinces  of  Nova  Scotia,  New  Brunswick,  Prince  Ed- 
ward Island,  a  portion  of  Lower  Canada  or  Quebec,  and  part  of  the  State  of  Maine,, 
but  not  the  island  of  Cape  Breton.    At  a  much  later  date,  however,  the  French  de- 
clared that  the  province  they  had  ceded  by  this  treaty  comprised  only  about  a  twen- 
tieth part  of  this  great  territory,  not  even  the  whole  of  the  peninsula  of  Nova  Sco- 
tia being  included  in  it.     It  was  thus  that  until  1755  they  persisted  in  maintaining 
a  fort,  Beausejour,  on  the  isthmus  that  connects   Nova  Scotia  with   New   Bruns- 
wick.    Dispute  over  the  boundaries  of  Acadia,  says  Parkman,  was  "a  proximate 
cause  of  the  war  of  1755." 

4.  See  Parkman's  "Pioneers  of  France,"  pp.  240-243.     Parkman  says  that  the 
name  La  Cadie  or  Acadie  is  not  found  in  any  public  document.     The  word  is  said 
to  be  derived  from  the  Indian  word  aquoadiauke  or  aquodic,  supposed  to  be  the  fish 
pollock. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          367 

De  Monts  succeeded  with  the  King  and  soon  obtained  a  com- 
mission as  Lieutenant-General  of  the  Country  of  Cadie,  to 
people,  cultivate,  and  cause  to  be  inhabited  the  said  lands  the 
most  speedily,— to  search  for  mines  of  gold,  silver,  etc.,  to  build 
forts  and  towns  and  grant  lands,  to  convert  the  savages  to 
Christianity,  and  to  do  generally  whatsoever  might  make  for  the 
conquest,  peopling,  inhabiting,  and  preservation  of  the  said 
Acadian  land.  De  Chastes  had  forestalled  the  jealousy  of  the 
merchants  of  France  of  his  monopoly  by  forming  a  trading  com- 
pany for  his  enterprise,  and  this  company  De  Monts  now  con- 
siderably enlarged,  at  once  taking  steps  to  secure  colonists  for 
his  domain. 

By  the  early  spring  of  1604  the  colony  was  ready,  an  incon- 
gruous mixture  of  gentlemen  of  condition  and  character  and 
men  of  low  origin  and  bad  reputation,  some  Protestants,  some 
Roman  Catholics,  among  the  Protestants  at  least  being  one 
Huguenot  clergyman,  and  among  the  Catholics  one  or  more 
priests.  Conspicuous  in  the  company  were  the  ardent  young 
Champlain,  and  Baron  Poutrincourt,  a  fellow  nobleman  of  De 
Monts,  who  shared  with  the  lieutenant-general  himself  the  lead- 
ership of  the  expedition.  From  Dieppe  sailed  two  vessels  of  the 
colonizing  fleet  and  from  Havre  de  Grace  two,  one  of  the  four 
destined  for  Tadoussac,  a  fur-trading  post  in  Canada,  one,  also 
in  the  interest  of  the  fur  trade,  for  Canso,  on  the  northeastern 
shore  of  the  Nova  Scotian  peninsula,  and  to  cruise  through  the 
narrow  seas  that  lie  between  the  islands  of  Cape  Breton  and 
Prince  Edward  Island  and  the  Nova  Scotian  peninsula,  two,  in 
immediate  charge  of  De  Monts  himself,  to  come  to  some  other 
part  of  the  peninsula. 

In  the  pages  of  Parkman's  "Pioneers  of  France  in  the  New 
World"  will  be  found  in  detail  the  story,  more  interesting  than 
any  romance,  of  the  month's  voyage  of  the  French  nobleman 
and  his  colony  across  the  ocean,  of  their  exploration  of  the 
coasts  and  bays  of  the  southern  portion  of  Nova  Scotia,  of  their 
discovery  of  the  Basin  of  Annapolis,  enclosed  with  "sunny 
hills,  wrapped  in  woodland  verdure,  and  alive  with  waterfalls," 
of  their  removal  from  here  before  long  to  Passamaquoddy  Bay, 
and  of  their  settlement  for  one  sad  winter  on  the  little  rock- 
fenced  island  known  as  St.  Croix. 


368          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

The  first  spot  in  Nova  Scotia  at  which  De  Monts '  vessels  came 
to  anchor  was  La  Heve,  in  what  is  now  Lunenburg  County,  there 
they  probably  disembarked  but  they  soon  sailed  on  to  Port 
Royal.  Near  the  head  of  the  beautiful  Annapolis  Basin  they 
decided  to  remain,  and  before  long  they  threw  up  there  some 
primitive  houses.  A  few  weeks  later,  however,  they  determined 
on  further  exploration,  and  a  comparatively  short  sail  found 
them  in  Passamaquoddy  Bay.  In  this  water  was  the  little  wooded 
island  of  St.  Croix,  and  here  they  unwisely  made  up  their 
minds  to  stay.  Going  on  shore  they  at  once  began  again  to  build 
houses,  and  soon  they  had  erected  "a  spacious  house"  for  De 
Monts  and  one  nearly  opposite  for  Champlain  and  Sieur  D'Or- 
ville.  In  close  proxomity  to  these  more  pretentious  dwellings  rose 
also  smaller  houses  for  the  colonists  at  large,  barracks  for  a  com- 
pany of  Swiss  soldiers  who  had  come  with  the  expedition,  neces- 
sary workshops  of  various  kinds,  and  withal  a  magazine  and  a 
rustic  church.  In  a  few  weeks  winter  began  and  with  it  came 
terrible  hardships  and  fatal  disease.  When  spring  at  last  open- 
ed all  that  was  left  of  the  colony,  a  pitiful  remnant,  with  De 
Monts  and  Champlain  returned  to  Port  Royal,  and  here  for 
two  years  again  they  dwelt.  In  1707,  came  the  failure  of  the 
French  Trading  Company,  which  had  nourished  the  enterprise, 
and  with  this  the  rescinding  of  De  Monts'  monopoly,  and  the 
return  of  the  whole  body  of  colonists  to  France. 

Three  years  later,  in  1610,  Pontrincourt,  who  during  the  first 
brief  stay  of  De  Monts  and  his  company  at  Port  Royal,  had  been 
so  delighted  with  the  place  that  he  had  begged  a  grant  there 
for  himself,5  having  managed  to  secure  enough  influence  in 
France  to  bring  out  a  new  colony,  returned  to  Port  Royal  and 
started  the  settlement  afresh.  This  time  the  colony  was  per- 
manent. Again  the  cleared  fields  near  the  head  of  the  Basin 
began  to  yield  grain  crops,  and  the  gardens  that  three  years 
before  had  been  diligently  cultivated,  to  produce  vegetables  and 
fruit.  But  the  place  saw  many  vicissitudes.  In  the  whirligig 


5.  The  contemporary  French  historian  Charlevoix  says  of  Port  Royal :  "The 
climate  there  is  temperate,  the  winter  less  rough  than  in  many  other  places  on  the 
coast,  the  game  abundant,  the  country  charming,  vast  meadows  environed  by  large 
forests,  and  everywhere  fertile  lands."  It  was  Poutrincourt  who  named  the  place 
Port  Roval. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          369 

of  seventeenth  century  European  diplomacy  the  ownership  of 
Acadia  repeatedly  changed,  and  it  was  not  until  a  century  from 
the  time  of  Pontrincourt 's  coming  had  passed  that  this  new 
world  province  with  its  capital  came  finally  under  British  rule.6 
In  1621  England  had  nominal  possession  of  the  country  and 
James  the  First  granted  it  to  Sir  William  Alexander,  a  Clack- 
mannanshire  baronet,  whom  he  afterwards  created  Earl  of  Stir- 
ling.7 From  Alexander  the  country  passed  to  Sir  David  Kirk, 
one  of  the  early  merchant  adventurers  of  Canada.  By  the  treaty 
of  St.  Germains,  however,  Acadia  was  restored  to  France,  and 
Isaac  de  Razilly  was  appointed  its  lieutenant-governor.  At  De 
Razilly's  death,  D'Aulnay  'Charnisay  was  made  governor,  and 
then  began  the  long  historic  strife  between  him  and  Charles  de 
la  Tour,  in  the  climax  of  which  figures  so  nobly  as  a  defender 
of  her  husband's  fort  in  what  is  now  New  Brunswick  the  brave 
Madame  de  la  Tour. 

After  the  death  of  Charnisay,  Major  Robert  Sedgwick,  an 
officer  of  Cromwell's  army,  the  founder  of  the  well  known  New 
England  Sedgwick  family,  was  ordered  by  the  Protector,  who 
believed  that  Acadia  belonged  to  England  by  right  of  discovery, 
to  seize  Port  Royal  and  again  take  possession  of  Nova  Scotia 
for  England.  The  capture  being  effected,  Acadia  was  distribut- 
ed by  grant  among  Sir  'Charles  St.  Stephen,  Charles  de  la  Tour, 
Thomas  Temple,  and  William  Crowne.  In  1667  by  the  treaty  of 
Breda  the  province  was  again  ceded  to  France,  but  in  1690  Eng- 
land once  more  acquired  it.  Seven  years  later,  however,  by  the 
Peace  of  Ryswick  it  was  restored  to  its  first  owners. 

During  these  many  changes  of  ownership  the  French  popula- 
tion of  Nova  Scotia  slowly  grew.  The  settlers  who  came  with 
Poutrincourt  were  added  to  in  1632  by  Razilly's  " three  hundred 
hommes  d' elite,"  others  came  with  Charnisay  between  1639  and 
1649,  still  others  with  Charles  de  la  Tour  in  1651,  and  a  few 


6.  The  first  attack  on  Port  Royal  by  an  English  force  was  in  the  latter  part 
of  1613.    At  that  time  Captain  Samuel  Argall,  afterwards  deputy-governor  of  Vir- 
ginia, came  from  Virginia  under  orders  from  Sir  Thomas  Dale,  governor  of  that 
colony,  with  a  ship  mounting  fourteen  guns,  to  reduce  the  French  settlements  of 
Mt.  Desert,  St.  Croix,  and  Port  Royal.     His  attack  on  Port  Royal  resulted  in  the 
destruction  of  the  fort,  and  probably  the  capture  of  the  little  force  which  defended 
it,  and  the  taking  of  the  men  as  prisoners  tp  France.     The  settlement,  however, 
went  on.     See  for  Argall's  history  the  biographical  encyclopoedias. 

7.  It  is  in  Alexander's  grant  that  the  name  "Nova  Scotia"  first  appears. 


370          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

independent  groups  at  later  times.  Besides  the  humbler  folk, 
who  constituted  the  bulk  of  the  population,  many  of  these  being 
peasants  from  Saintonge  and  Poiteau,  were  a  few  aristocratic 
families  like  the  D'Entremonts  and  Belleisles,  who  as  well  as  the 
La  Tours  held  extensive  baronies  or  fiefs  not  far  from  An- 
napolis from  the  French  king,  and  whose  representatives  when 
the  province  was  finally  ceded  to  Britain  went  back  permanently 
to  France.8  From  Annapolis  inward  to  the  rich  Minas  Basin 
country  this  peasant  population  extended,  growing  by  natural 
increase  and  by  slight  immigration,  until  by  the  time  of  the  final 
cession  of  the  country  to  England  that  part  of  it  that  lived  in 
and  near  Port  Royal  alone  numbered  something  like  seven  hun- 
dred souls. 

In  all  pioneer  colonization  enterprises  there  is  untold  romance 
if  we  could  know  the  secret  springs  of  action  and  inner  experi- 
ences of  the  people  who  bring  these  enterprises  to  successful 
issue.  The  outward  facts  of  the  colonization  of  new  countries 
are  often  unrelieved,  however,  by  anything  poetic  or  exhilarat- 
ing to  the  fancy.  But  this  is  not  true  of  the  colonizing  of  Port 
Royal,— before  the  failure  of  the  French  Trading  Company 
and  the  rescinding  of  De  Monts'  monopoly,  the  sprightly 
Frenchmen  who  conducted  the  affairs  of  the  settlement  brought 
grace  and  good  fellowship  into  the  colony 's  simple  life.  Neither 
Parkman  nor  any  other  historian  of  Acadia,  English  or  French, 
has  failed  to  describe  for  us  with  glowing  imagination  the  in- 
terchange of  polished  courtesies  and  the  successful  attempts  at 
simple  elegance  which  characterized  the  forest  life  of  these 
French  pioneers.  The  second  winter  the  colonists  spent  at  Port 
Eoyal  Champlain  founded  there  the  jovial  Ordre  de  Bon  Temps, 
numbering  fifteen,  which  comprised  the  whole  group  of  nobles 


8.  About  1650  Charles  de  la  Tour  brought  with  him  from  France  a  gentleman 
of  Normandy,  who  claimed  relationship  with  the  Bourbons,  and  whom  Louis  Four- 
teenth created  Sieur  d'  Entremont.  He  had  been  one  of  La  Tour's  early  friends 
and  when  the  adventurers  reached  Port  Royal  La  Tour  made  him  his  major  and 
gave  him  the  seignory  of  Poubomcoup  or  Pubnico,  in  Yarmouth,  and  the  title  of 
Baron.  D'entremont's  eldest  son,  Jacques,  married  Anne,  daughter  of  La  Tour 
and  previously  wife  of  Charnisay,  and  the  daughter  of  Jacques  and  Anne,  Marie 
D'Entremont,  in  1705  became  the  wife,  much  against  his  superior  officer's  wishes,  of 
Sieur  Duvivier,  a  young  officer  of  the  fort.  At  the  time  of  the  expulsion  of  the 
Acadians  Jacques  D'Entremont  and  his  family  were  taken  to  Boston,  but  afterward 
some  of  the  sons  returned  to  Nova  Scotia.  From  these  are  descended  the  D'Entre- 
monts  now  in  Nova  Scotia. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          371 

and  gentlemen  adventurers  who  were  associated  in  the  settle- 
ment of  the  place.  The  principal  entertainment  of  this  brother- 
hood was  a  weekly  bon  vivant  dinner,  conducted  with  much  of 
the  ceremony  the  group  were  accustomed  to  in  the  chateaus  of 
France.  As  steward  for  the  day  of  the  dinner  each  man  of  the 
fifteen  took  his  turn,  and  when  the  hour  for  dining  arrived 
with  the  jewelled  collar  of  the  order  adorning  his  neck  and  with 
a  napkin  on  his  shoulder  and  the  staff  of  his  office  and  an  im- 
portant dish  in  his  hand  would  lead  the  group  in  procession  into 
the  room  where  the  meal  was  served.  When  the  meal  was  done 
this  functionary  would  formally  resign  his  office,  pledging  his 
next  successor  gracefully  in  a  cup  of  wine.9  As  food  the  Order 
had  moose  and  caribou  steaks,  grouse,  wild  ducks,  sturgeon,  and 
salmon,  for  the  woods  were  plentiful  in  game  and  the  river  and 
the  Basin  abounded  with  fish.  A  constant  guest  at  these  dinners 
was  the  Micmac  chief  Membertou,  whose  speedy  conversion  to 
Christianity  we  may,  not  uncharitably,  suppose  was  influenced 
in  some  degree  by  the  hospitality  the  Order  extended  to  him. 
First  fruit  of  the  zeal  of  Roman  Catholic  missionaries  in  the 
American  wilds  was  this  wrinkled  centenarian  Chief  Member- 
tou, who  with  a  group  of  his  people  was  baptized  into  Chris- 
tianity at  Annapolis  on  the  24th  of  June  in  the  year  1610. 10 

9.  A  good  and  joyous  company  of  gentlemen,"  says  Ferland,  "was  united  about 
Poutrincpurt,   among  whom   were   to   be   remarked   his   son   the   young  Biencourt, 
Champlain,  Lescarbot,  Louis  Hebert,  and  probably  Claude  de  la  Tour  as  well  as 
his  young  son,  Charles  Amadour  de  la  Tour." 

10.  The  permanent  founding  of  Port  Royal  by  Poutrincourt  excited  much  in- 
terest among  women  of  the  French  nobility  zealous  for  the  church,  and  some  of 
these,  like  the  Marquise  de  Guercheville,  wife  of  the  first  esquire  of  the  King,  the 
Marchioness  de  Vermeuil,  Madame  de  Sourdis,  and  Marie  de  Medicis  herself,  gave 
personal  encouragement  and  pecuniary  aid  to  the  religious  work  of  converting  the 
Acadian  natives.     The  first  priest  to  come  to  Port  Royal  was  Josue  Fleche.     This 
Jesuit  father  reached  there  with  Poutrincourt  in  1610,  and  it  was  he  who  baptized 
the  chief,  Membertou,  and  a  group  of  his  people,  somewhere  near  the  shore  of  the 
Basin,  June  24,  1610.    The  year  after  two  more  Jesuits,  Pere  Pierre  Biard,  a  native 
of  Grenoble  and  Pere  Evemond  or  Raimond  Masse  were  sent  out  chiefly  under  the 
auspices  and  through  the  aid  of  Madame  de  Guercheville.    These  men,  who  by  their 
devout  and  humble  conduct  gained  the  esteem  of  the  Protestant  sailors  of  the  ship 
which  brought  them  out,  on  landing  at  once  set  themselves  to  the  task  of  learning 
the  Micmac  language.  In  a  short  time  they  were  joined  by  two  others,  Pere  Guilbert 
du  Thet  and  Pere  Quentin,  the  former  of  whom  died  during  Argall's  attack  on 
Port  Royal  in  1613.    After  Argall's  destruction  of  the  settlement  it  is  probable  the 
other  three  priests  returned  to  France.     In  1619  the  Jesuits'  places  in  Acadia  were 
taken  by  three  Recollet  priests,  sent  by  one  or  more  merchant  companies  who  had 
obtained  the  right  to  carry  on  the  fishery  and  buy  furs  in  this  part  of  the  new 
world.  These  priests,  who  belonged  to  the  province  of  Aquitaine,  laboured  with  more 


372          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

Another  incident  of  historic  importance  in  connexion 
with  the  residence  of  these  vivacious  Frenchmen  at  Port  Royal 
at  this  early  time  should  here  be  recalled.  In  this  primitive  set- 
tlement Marc  Lescarbot  wrote  some  at  least  of  the  poems  that 
he  published  at  Paris  in  a  volume  entitled  Les  Muses  de  la  Nou- 
velle-France,  in  160D.  One  of  these  poems  was  a  masque  that 
bore  the  title  Theatre  de  Neptune,  which  was  not  only  written 
at  Port  Royal  but  was  played  there  under  the  author's  manage- 
ment shortly  after  it  was  written.  The  occasion  of  the  writing 
and  playing  of  it  Lescarbot  himself  describes  for  us  in  his  His- 
toire  de  la  Nouvelle-F ranee.  In  the  autumn  of  1606,  Poutrin- 
court,  the  head  of  the  little  company  at  Port  Royal  went  off  on 
a  cruise  along  the  New  England  coast.  The  season  grew  late 
and  the  voyager  had  not  returned.  At  last,  however,  his  ship 
was  sighted  in  the  Basin,  and  on  the  14th  of  November  he  drop- 
ped anchor  at  the  shore.  "  Just  as  we  were  looking  for  his  re- 
turn (with  great  longing,  for  had  ill  befallen  him  we  should  have 
been  in  danger  of  confusion),"  says  Lescarbot,  ''I  bethought 
myself  of  setting  forth  some  piece  of  merriment,  which  we  did. 
And  as  it  was  written  hurriedly  in  French  rhymes  I  have  put  it 
in  Les  Muses  de  la  Nouvelle-F  ranee,"  under  the  title  of  Theatre 
de  Neptune,  to  which  the  reader  is  referred."  The  masque  was 
"  representee  sur  les  flots  du  Port  Royal  le  quatorzieme  de  No- 
vembre  mille  six  cens  six,  au  retour  du  Sieur  de  Poutrincourt 
du  pais  des  Armouchiquois."  Thus  we  have  given  at  Port  Royal 
in  1606  the  first  play  ever  performed  by  Europeans  on  the  whole 
North  American  continent.  The  characters  in  the  masque  were 

or  less  success  in  Acadia  until  1627,  when  they  were  driven  from  the  province  by 
the  English.  In  1633,  however,  on  the  invitation  of  de  Razilly,  who  had  been  sent 
out  to  take  possession  of  Port  Royal  on  behalf  of  the  company  of  New  France, 
they  resumed  their  mission,  and  before  many  years  they  converted  all  the  Micmacs 
permanently  to  their  faith.  In  1/53,  the  French  had  six  churches  in  the  Peninsula 
of  Nova  Scotia,  one  at  Annapolis  Royal,  with  Monsieur  des  Enclaves  as  priest,  one 
at  Cobequid.  two  at  Pisiquid,  one  at  Minas,  and  one  at  Riviere  aux  Canard. 

Chief  Membertou  is  a  notable  figure  in  the  earliest  days  of  Port  Royal's  his- 
tory. He  was  very  old  when  the  explorers  first  found  him,  his  memory  going  back 
to  the  time  of  Carrier's  visit  in  1534.  In  his  day  he  had  been  a  famous  autmoin  or 
medicine  man,  and  had  been  believed  by  his  people  to  have  magical  powers.  Like 
others  of  his  tribe  he  was  a  great  story-teller  and  he  used  to  sit  cross-legged  on  the 
ground  telling  his  new  friends  marvellous  tales  of  the  prowess  of  his  people  or  of 
his  own  exploits  in  past  times.  The  bowl  of  the  pipe  he  smoked  as  he  sat  telling 
his  stories  was  made  either  of  a  lobster's  claw  or  of  red  or  green  stone,  and  the 
tube  was  decorated  with  porcupine  quills. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          373 

Neptune,  six  Tritons,  four  Indians,  and  a  jovial  attendant.  To 
celebrate  the  leader's  return  the  fort  also  was  decorated  with 
laurel.11 

A  hundred  and  thirty-eight  years  later,  when  Port  Royal  as 
Annapolis  Royal  was  the  capital  of  the  English  owned  province 
of  Nova  Scotia,  another  play  was  acted  here,  ' '  for  the  entertain- 
ment of  the  officers  and  ladies"  of  the  place.  Of  the  subject  and 
treatment  and  of  the  performance  of  the  play  we  know  nothing, 
but  in  the  prologue,  " compos 'd  and  spoke  on  that  occasion" 
occurred  the  following  lines : 

" Whilst  to  relieve  a  generous  Queen's  distress, 
Whom  proud,  ambitious  Potentates  oppress, 
Our  King  pursues  the  most  effectual  Ways, 
Soothes  some  to  Peace,  and  then  the  Storm  allays ; 
And  against  others,  who 're  more  loath  to  yield, 
He  leads  his  Britons  to  the  German  Field: 
Where  to  his  Cost  th'  insulting  Foe  has  found 
What  'tis  with  Britons  to  dispute  the  Ground : 
We  still  enjoying  Peace  in  this  cold  Clime, 
With  innocent  Diversions  pass  our  Time."12 

In  1689,  Sir  William  Phips,  then  in  England,  was  commission- 
ed to  lead  on  his  return  to  Massachusetts  a  fresh  expedition 
against  Port  Royal.  Accordingly  on  the  9th  of  May,  1690,  a 
squadron  consisting  of  a  brigate  of  forty  guns,  two  sloops,  one 
of  sixteen  guns,  the  other  of  eight,  and  four  ketches,  left  Boston, 
the  land  force  these  ships  carried  numbering  some  seven  hun- 
dred men.  The  governor  of  Acadia,  Monsieur  de  Menneval,  had 


11.  This  striking  event  is  described  by  the  late  Mr.  Frederick  Lewis  Gay  in  the 
Nation  of  February  11,  1909.     The  first  American  play  in  what  is  now  English- 
speaking  America  was  written  and  acted,  says  Mr.  Gay,  at  Annapolis  in  1606,  "two 
years  before  Quebec  was  founded,  and  while  Shakespeare  was  yet  alive."    The  com- 
position of  the  masque  and  the  occasion  of  acting  it  are  described  in  Book  4,  chap- 
ter 16  of  Lescarbot's  Histoire  de  la  Nouvcllc-France.    The  poem  is  the  third  piece 
in  Les  Muses  de  la  Nouvelle-Francc.     It  consists  of  two  hundred  and  forty-two 
rhymed  lines.     Lescarbot  was  very  versatile.     From  making  poetry  he  would  turn 
to  raising  vegetables  and  digging  the  moat  round  the  fort,  from  furnishing  enter- 
tainment for  the  soldiers  on  week  days  to  leading  their  prayers  on  Sundays.     He 
seems  to  have  acted  as  commissary  for  the  community,  directing  the  men's  hunting 
and  fishing,  and  regulating  the  supplies  of  food  when  it  was  obtained,  and  of  drink. 

12.  A   notice  of   this   play   occurs   in   the  American  Magasine  and  Historical 
Chronicle    (monthly)    for  April,   1744.     "A.   B."  asks   the  editor  of  the  magazine 
kindly  to  insert  the  following:  "We  hear  from  Annapolis  Royal  that  a  play  was 
acted   the  last  winter   for  the   entertainment  of   the   Officers   and   Ladies   at   that 
Place,"  then  giving  as  part  of  the  prologue  of  the  play  the  lines  printed  above. 


374          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

at  his  capital  a  force  of  only  eighty-six  soldiers,  and  almost  im- 
mediately the  fort  surrendered.  At  once  Phips  assembled  such 
of  the  inhabintants  of  Port  Royal  and  the  country  about  as  he 
oould  get  together  and  made  them  take  an  oath  of  fidelity  to 
William  and  Mary,  who  were  then  on  the  English  throne.  De 
Menneval  the  governor,  thirty-nine  French  soldiers,  and  two 
priests  he  carried  with  him  to  Boston.  The  next  year,  however, 
the  French  recaptured  the  place  and  again  took  formal  posses- 
sion of  all  Acadia  in  the  name  of  their  king. 

The  final  conquest  of  Acadia  by  England  was  effected  in  1710. 
In  the  early  summer  of  1707,  a  fresh  attack  was  made  on  Port 
Royal  by  New  England  troops,  but  this  the  governor,  Subercase, 
successfully  repulsed.  The  engagement  between  the  besiegers 
and  the  garrison  force  was  a  brisk  one,  and  when  it  was  over, 
eighty  or  ninety  New  England  soldiers  lay  dead  on  the  ground 
outside  the  fort.  That  the  garrison  was  able  so  successfully  to 
withstand  the  attack  was  due  to  the  arrival  twelve  hours  before 
the  New  England  vessels  anchored  in  the  Basin  of  sixty  Cana- 
dians, who  helped  their  fellow  countrymen  in  the  fort 's  defence. 
In  this  engagement  the  Baron  St.  Castin,  who  was  present,  gave 
his  fellow  countrymen  valuable  aid.  A  little  later  in  the  summer, 
Governor  Dudley  at  Boston  sent  fresh  troops  against  Port 
Royal,  but  these  in  turn  were  likewise  forced  to  withdraw.  In 
1708,  however,  Samuel  Vetch  went  from  Massachusetts  to  Eng- 
land to  solicit  aid  for  the  conquest  of  both  Canada  and  Acadia, 
and  his  efforts  to  interest  the  home  government  met  with  suc- 
cess. In  the  spring  of  1709,  having  been  made  a  colonel,  he  sail- 
ed for  America  with  her  Majesty's  commands  to  the  several  New 
England  governors  to  furnish  men  for  the  undertaking.  In  this 
year  the  ambitious,  impetuous  Colonel  Francis  Nicholson,  who 
first  and  last  was  governor  of  more  colonies  than  any  other  per- 
son known  to  history,  desiring  as  strongly  as  Vetch  to  see  the 
power  of  France  overthrown  in  America,  and  no  doubt  eager  for 
military  distinction,  also  went  to  England  with  passionate  desire 
to  promote  this  enterprise.  In  May,  1710,  he  returned  to  Boston 
armed  with  the  Queen's  commission  and  at  once  began  the  work 
of  raising  troops.  By  September  a  fleet  was  ready,  and  on  the 
18th  of  that  month  there  sailed  from  Nantasket,  with  Nicholson 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          375 

as  general  and  Vetch  as  adjutant-general,  a  group  of  English 
warships,  a  bomb  ship,  the  Massachusetts  province  galley,  some 
transports,  hospital  and  store  ships,  and  other  vessels,  about 
thirty-six  sail  in  all,  besides  a  number  of  open  sloops  for  carry- 
ing lumber  and  necessary  utensils  for  operating  the  cannon.  Of 
land  forces  on  the  transports  went  five  regiments  of  foot  com- 
manded severally  by  colonels  Robert  Beading,  Sir  Charles  Hob- 
by, William  Tailer,  William  Whiting,  and  Shadrach  Walton,  the 
grenadiers  of  Walton's  regiment  being  commanded  by  Captain 
Paul  Mascarene,  who  after  the  capture  was  effected  remained 
at  Annapolis  and  finally  became  there  lieutenant  governor  of 
the  province  and  lieutenant  governor  of  the  fort  and  town.  On 
the  24th  of  September  the  fleet  reached  the  entrance  to  An- 
napolis Basin,  and  on  the  25th  landed  near  the  fort.  Immediate- 
ly the  French  under  Monsieur  Subercase,  who  commanded  in  the 
fort,  fired  on  the  invaders,  who  quickly  answered  with  guns  and 
shells.  By  night  and  day  the  fight  actively  continued,  until  at 
length  on  the  29th  the  garrison  asked  for  a  truce.  After  two 
days  of  diplomatic  correspondence  between  the  commanders 
terms  of  capitulation  were  adopted  and  on  the  2nd  of  October 
were  formally  signed.  Three  days  later  Vetch  received  the 
keys  of  the  fort,  and  on  the  16th,  Subercase  with  his  small  force 
of  a  hundred  and  fifty  men,  "all  in  a  miserable  condition,  in  rags 
and  tatters, ' '  passed  out  of  the  gates.  With  drums  beating  and 
flags  flying  the  troops  of  her  Britannic  Majesty  then  briskly 
marched  in.13 

The  capture  thus  effected,  Major  Livingston  and  Baron  St. 
Castin  were  at  once  sent  to  the  governor  of  Canada,  the  Marquis 
de  Vandreuil,  to  inform  him  of  the  fact,  and  on  the  28th  of  Oc- 


13.  It  is  said  that  480  persons,  including  the  garrison,  soon  after  this  sailed  to 
Rochelle,  in  France.  "Thus  for  the  sixth  time,"  says  the  Calnek-Sayary  history  of 
Annapolis,  "Port  Royal,  a  hundred  and  five  years  after  its  foundation,  became  by 
conquest  a  possession  of  the  English  crown,  but  not  as  ever  before  to  pass  from 
its  rule  either  by  treaty  or  conquest." 

The  most  detailed  account  of  the  capture  in  1710  is  to  be  found  in  the  "Year 
Book  of  the  Society  of  Colonial  Wars  in  the  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts. 
Publication  No.  3,  Boston,  1897,"  pp.  81-126.  The  article  describing  it  is  entitled: 
"The  Expeditions  against  Port  Royal  in  1710  and  Quebec  in  1711,"  and  covers  pp. 
81-143.  Whatever  muster  rolls  of  this  expedition  are  preserved  in  theJMass.  Ar- 
chives are  here  reproduced.  See  also  "Indian  Wars  of  New  England,"  by  Her-- 
bert  Milton  Sylvester,  Vol.  3,  pp.  127-131 ;  and  "Narrative  and  Critical  History  of 
America." 


376          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

tober,  having  garrisoned  the  fort  with  two  hundred  marines  and 
two  hundred  and  fifty  New  England  militiamen,  Nicholson  re- 
turned to  Boston  leaving  Vetch  in  command.  With  the  general 
went  also  the  men-of-war  and  the  transports  which  he  had 
brought  for  the  attack.  Elated  with  his  victory  Nicholson  next 
went  to  England  to  beg  the  crown  to  take  measures  for  the  con- 
quest of  Canada.  On  the  llth  of  April,  1713,  a  treaty  of  peace, 
to  which  France,  England,  Holland,  Portugal,  Russia,  and  Savoy 
were  parties,  was  signed  at  Utrecht,  and  on  the  22nd  of  May 
was  formally  signed  at  Paris.  By  the  twelfth  article  of  this 
treaty  France  renounced  forever  all  claim  to  Nova  Scotia  or 
Acadia,  while  it  was  agreed  that  Cape  Breton  and  the  islands  in 
the  gulf  of  St.  Lawrence  should  still  remain  French  posses- 
sions. Soon  after,  the  king,  Louis  Fourteenth,  made  a  formal 
act  of  cession  of  Nova  Scotia  to  England,  conformable  to  the 
treaty. 

The  first  English  governor  of  Nova  Scotia,  Colonel  Vetch,  re- 
ceived his  commission  as  "Adjutant  General  of  all  her  Majesty's 
of  Great  Britain's  forces,  General  and  Commander-in-Chief  of 
all  her  troops  in  these  parts,  and  governor  of  the  Fort  of  An- 
napolis Royal  and  country  of  L'Accady  and  Nova  Scotia,"  Oc- 
tober 22,  1710.  Two  years  later,  however,  October  20,  1712, 
General  Nicholson,  man  of  many  governorships,  received  a 
similar  commission,  but  on  the  20th  of  January,  1715,  Vetch 
was  again  commissioned  governor.  After  this  we  have  at  An- 
napolis Royal  during  the  period  that  the  town  remained  the  cap- 
ital of  Nova  Scotia  a  rather  bewildering  number  of  governors 
and  lieutenant-governors,  some  of  these  having  control  of  the 
province  at  large,  some  of  the  fort  and  town,  the  authority  of  the 
two  sets  occasionally  clashing,  until  at  last  all  power  in  Nova 
Scotia,  civil  and  military  was  centered  in  one  governor-in-chief, 
and  one  lieutenant-governor,  who,  in  the  absence  of  the  chief 
from  the  province  for  many  years  until  Halifax  was  found- 
ed, held  virtually  supreme  general  and  local  control.  To  give 
lists  of  these  governors  and  lieutenant-governors,  and  to  de- 
scribe briefly  the  men,  must  occupy  a  few  pages  here  before  we 
pass  on  to  other  facts. 

GOVERNORS-IN-CHIEF  OF  THE  PROVINCE  OF  NOVA 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          377 

SCOTIA,  WITH  THE  DATES  OF  THEIR  COMMISSIONS, 
1710-1749. 

I.  COLONEL  SAMUEL  VETCH.    He  was  commissioned  October 
22,  1710. 

II.  GENERAL  FRANCIS  NICHOLSON.    His  commission  bears  date 
October  20,  1712. 

III.  COLONEL  SAMUEL  VETCH.     He  was  coir  missioned  again 
January  20, 1715. 

IV.  COLONEL  RICHARD  PHILIPPS.    Date  of  commission  August 
17, 1717.    He  seems  to  have  received  a  second  commission  March 
12,  1725,  and  a  third  June  20,  1727. 

LIEUTENANT-GOVERNORS  OF  THE  PROVIN1CE  OF 
NOVA  SCOTIA  WITH  THE  DATES  OF  THEIR  COMMIS- 
SIONS, 1710-1749. 

I.  LlEUTENANT-CoLONEL  LAWRENCE  ARMSTRONG.    Commission- 

ed  February  8,  1725. 

II.  MAJOR  JEAN  PAUL  MASCARENE.     Commissioned  May  27, 
1740. 

LIEUTENANT-GOVERNORS  OF  THE  TOWN  AMD  GAR- 
RISON OF  ANNAPOLIS  ROYAL,  WITH  THE  DATES  OF 
THEIR  COMMISSIONS,  1710-1749. 

I.  SIR  CHARLES  HOBBY.    He  received  instructions  to  act,  from 
Colonel  Vetch,  July  5,  1711.     See  the  Annual  Report  of  the 
American  Historical  Association,  1911,  vol.  I.14 

II.  MAJOR  OR  COLONEL  THOMAS  CAULFEILD.    He  was  probably 
appointed  in  1713,  for  in  that  year  he  appears  in  the  "Govern- 
or's Letter-Book."     See  Nova  Scotia  Archives,  vol.  2,  p.  1. 
Caulfield's  last  letter  in  the  Letter-Book  bears  date  December 
24,  1716. 

III.  CAPTAIN  JOHN  DOUCETT.     Commissioned  May  15,  1717. 
He  arrived  at  Annapolis  Royal  October  28,  1717.    He  died  No- 
vember 19, 1726.    See  Annual  Report  of  the  American  Historical 
Association,  vol.  1,  p.  172. 

IV.  CAPTAIN  LAWRENCE  ARMSTRONG.     He  was  appointed  by 
Royal  Commission  September  21,  1726. 


14.  This  publication  is  compiled  by  Charles  M.  Andrews  of  Yale  University. 
See  also  Hutchinson's  "History  of  Massachusetts,"  Vol.  2,  p.  140;  and  Foote  s  An- 
nals of  King's  Chapel,  Boston,"  Vol.  I,  p.  175- 


378          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

V.  MAJOR  ALEXANDER  COSBY.     He  was  appointed  by  Royal 
Commission  March  4, 1727.    See  Annual  Report  of  the  American 
Historical  Association,  1911,  vol.  1.     He  took  oath  October  20, 
1727,  and  held  office  probably  until  his  death  in  1742,  when 
Major  Mascarene  succeeded.     See  Nova  Scotia  Archives,  vol. 
3,  pp.  165,  166.    Major  Cosby 's  wife  was  Anne  Winniett.    Cosby 
died  at  Annapolis  Royal  December  26  or  27,  1742. 

VI.  MAJOR  JEAN  PAUL  MASCARENE.     Major  Mascarene  suc- 
ceeded to  the  lieutenant-governorship  of  the  town  and  fort  on 
the  death  of  Cosby  in  1742,  but  he  apparently  did  not  receive  a 
formal  commission  for  the  office  until  1744.    He  was  still  lieu- 
tenant-governor of  the  town  and  fort,  as  he  was  of  the  province 
at  large,  when  Cornwallis  came  in  1749. 

Precisely  who  these  various  officials  were  it  will  be  interesting 
for  us  to  know.  The  three  Governors-in-Chief  of  the  province, 
as  we  have  seen,  were  Vetch,  Nicholson,  and  Philipps,  the  two 
Lieutenant-Governors  of  the  province  were  Armstrong  and 
Mascarene.  The  five  Lieutenant-Governors  of  the  town  and 
Fort  of  Annapolis  Royal  were  Hobby,  Caulfeild,  Doucett,  Cosby, 
and  Mascarene.  That  two  sets  of  lieutenant-governors  should 
exist  in  Nova  Scotia  at  the  same  time  was  not  originally  conteir  - 
plated  by  the  government.  This  we  learn  from  a  letter  written 
by  Governor  Philipps  to  the  home  government  probably  in  1741. 
Elsewhere,  the  reason  for  Colonel  Armstrong's  appointment 
as  first  lieutenant-governor  of  the  province  is  explained  in  the 
following  way.  When  Armstrong  in  1725  became  lieutenant- 
colonel  of  the  40th  regiment  he  found  himself  subject  to  the  con- 
trol of  an  officer  of  lower  rank  in  his  own  regiment,  for  Captain 
John  Doucett  of  this  regiir  ent  was  then  lieutenant-governor  of 
the  town  and  fort.  This  state  of  things  seemed  to  him  anomalous 
and  was  unsatisfactory  and  he  consequently  applied  to  be  made 
lieutenant-governor  of  the  province.  His  request  was  granted 
but  neither  he  nor  his  successor  Lieutenant-Colonel  Mascarene 
received  any  salary  for  this  office.  After  Armstrong's  death, 
Colonel  Philipps,  in  the  letter  of  his  to  which  we  have  referred, 
expressed  his  hope  that  the  office  would  be  discontinued,  but  Mr. 
Mascarene 's  appeal  for  the  place  succeeded,  and  he  held  the  lieu- 
tenant-governorship until  1749. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          379 

Colonel  Samuel  Vetch,  the  first  governor-in-chief  of  the  prov- 
ince, was  a  Scotsman,  "the  son  of  a  godly  minister  and  a  glori- 
fier  of  God  in  the  Grass  Market"  of  Edinburgh.  In  1638  he  was 
one  of  the  seven  councillors  who  constituted  the  local  government 
of  the  colony  of  Caledonia,  a  Scotch  settlement  established  tem- 
porarily at  Darien,  a  little  south  of  the  Isthn  us  of  Panama.  In 
1699  he  came  to  New  York,  where,  or  at  Albany,  on  the  20th  of 
December,  1700,  he  married  Margaret  Livingston,  daughter  of 
Robert  Livingston,  Esq.,  of  Albany.  Being  adjutant-general 
under  Nicholson  of  the  expedition  against  Port  Royal  in  1710, 
after  the  capture  of  the  fort  he  formally  received  the  keys,  and 
on  the  22nd  of  October,  1710,  received  the  commission  of  "Ad- 
jutant-general of  all  her  Majasty's  of  Great  Britain's  forces, 
General  and  Commander-in-Chief  of  all  her  troops  in  these 
parts,  and  governor  of  the  fort  of  Annapolis  Royal  and  country 
of  L'Accady  and  Nova  Scotia."  This  important  position  he 
held  until  the  20th  of  October,  1712,  when  General  Francis 
Nicholson  received  a  similar  commission  and  became  his  suc- 
cessor.15 

Of  Nicholson's  relation  to  the  government  at  Annapolis  Roy- 
al, as  of  his  remarkable  career  in  general,  the  facts  are  too  well 
known  to  make  it  necessary  for  us  to  dwell  on  them  here  at  length. 
Nicholson  was  successively  lieutenant-governor  of  New  England 
in  1688,  New  York  in  1689,  Virginia  in  1690,  and  Maryland  from 
1692  to  1698.  In  the  latter  year  he  was  appointed  governor-in- 
chief  of  Virginia,  but  in  1710  he  was  appointed  to  command  the 
expedition  against  Port  Royal.  His  commission  as  General  and 
Commander-in-Chief  of  the  forces  of  Nova  Scotia  and  New- 
foundland, and  Governor  of  Nova  Scotia  and  the  town  and 
garrison  of  Annapolis  Royal  is  dated  at  Windsor  Castle,  as  we 
have  said,  the  20th  of  October,  1712.  In  less  than  three  years 
he  was  supplanted  in  his  governorship  of  Nova  Scotia  and  of 
Annapolis  Royal  by  Vetch,  who  received  a  second  commission 
as  governor  of  "the  country  and  town"  January  20,  1715.  Dur- 
ing Nicholson's  term  of  office  it  is  said  that  this  second  governor 


15.  For  Samuel  Vetch,  see  the  "Dictionary  of  National  Biography,"  where  his 
father  also  receives  notice.  See,  also,  "Collections  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Historical 
Society,"  Vol.  4,  from  p.  n  and  from  p.  64. 


380          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

of  the  province  and  the  fort  made  but  one  short  visit  to  Nova 
Scotia,  his  lieutenant  from  at  least  1713,  being  Major  Thomas 
Caulfeild,  a  cadet,  it  is  probable,  of  the  English  house  of  Charle- 
mont.16 

On  the  17th  of  August,  1717,  Colonel  Richard  Philipps  was 
comirissioned  governor  of  Nova  Scotia  and  of  Placentia  in  New- 
foundland, and  captain-general  of  the  forces  in  both  colonies. 
Philipps  was  born  somewhere  in  England  in  1661,  became  lieu- 
tenant in  Lord  Morpeth's  regiment  of  foot  February  23,  1678, 
and  served  under  William  III.  in  the  war  against  his  father- 
in-law  James.  In  October,  1719,  he  reached  Boston  on  his  way 
to  Annapolis  Royal,  but  he  did  not  hurry  to  his  post,  giving  as 
his  reason  that  navigation  of  the  Bay  of  Fundy  was  ''imprac- 
ticable." On  the  6th  of  April,  1720,  however,  he  left  for  Nova 
Scotia,  and  at  Annapolis  on  the  25th  of  the  same  month  he 
organized  the  council.  In  1721,  some  time  after  the  17th  of  May, 
he  left  the  province  again,  and  we  do  not  find  him  there  until 
November  20, 1729.  On  the  last  date  he  landed  in  the  river  from 
Canso,  and  before  the  council,  the  garrison,  and  the  inhabitants 
caused  a  new  con  mission  he  had  received  to  be  "publicly  opened 
and  read."  In  August,  1731,  he  left  his  government  again  and 
returned  to  England,  and  although  he  never  visited  Nova  Scotia 
after  that  he  remained  nominally  governor  until  Cornwallis  suc- 
ceeded him  in  1749.  Philipps  belonged  to  a  family  in  South 
Wales,  founded  there,  it  is  said,  by  a  certain  Sir  John  Philipps, 
Baronet.  His  wife  was  a  sister  of  Colonel  Alexander  Cosby,  but 
whether  he  had  children  or  not  we  do  not  know.  He  died  in 
England,  apparently  a  general,  in  1751.  In  1726  the  name  of  an 
Ensign  Erasmus  James  Philipps  appears  in  the  Nova  Scotia 
council  minutes,  in  1730  this  gentleman  was  admitted  to  the 
council  board  itself.  When  the  published  minutes  of  the  council 
end,  in  August,  1736,  he  is  still  a  member  of  the  board.  What 
relation  this  Philipps  was  to  the  governor  we  do  not  know,  but  he 
is  said  to  have  been  a  relative.17 


16.  In  a  note  at  the  bottom  of  page  I,  Vol.  2,  of  "Nova  Scotia  Archives,"  Dr. 
Mac  Mechan,  editor  of  vols.  2  and  3  of  the  Archives  says  that  Lt.  Governor  Caul- 
feild must  have  been  a  son  of  the  2nd  Viscount  Charlemont  or  one  of  the  Vis- 
count's brothers. 

17.  For  Col.  Richard  Philipps,  see  the  "Dictionary  of  National   Biography," 
and  also  "Collections  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Historical  Society,"  vols.  2,  pp.  22-24,  and 
5,  pp.  69-76.    Also,  "Acts  of  the  Privy  Council,  Colonial  Series." 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          381 

Lieutenant-Colonel  Lawrence  Armstrong  was  commissioned 
an  ensign  in  1699,  then  a  captain  of  the  40th  in  1717.  December 
1,  1720,  he  was  made  lieutenant-colonel  of  the  40th  and  took 
chief  command  of  the  troops  at  Annapolis.  At  this  time,  as 
we  have  previously  shown,  Captain  Doucett  was  lieutenant-gov- 
ernor of  the  fort  and  town,  in  the  absence  of  Governor  Philipps, 
and  the  position  he  held  gave  him  command  over  the  lieutenant- 
colonel  of  the  regiment.  Dissatisfaction  at  such  a  state  of  things 
naturally  at  once  arose  in  the  mind  of  Armstrong,  as  Doucett 's 
superior  officer  in  the  40th,  and  accordingly  the  lieutenant-col- 
onel went  to  England  and  asked  to  be  made  lieutenant-governor 
of  the  province,  an  office  that  after  Armstrong's  death  Philipps 
said  it  had  not  originally  been  the  government's  intention  to 
create.  The  commission  Armstrong  asked  was  granted,  and  on 
the  8th  of  February,  1725,  he  was  made  lieutenant-governor  of 
Nova  Scotia,  an  appointment  he  held  for  the  rest  of  his  life.18 
When  he  came  back  as  lieutenant-governor  after  the  province, 
says  Colonel  Mascarene,  writing  to  Governor  Shirley  in  1748, 
"  trouble  arose  between  him  and  the  lieutenant-governor  of  the 
fort,  the  officers  siding  some  one  way  and  some  another."19 

On  the  23rd  of  December,  1731,  Armstrong  petitioned  the 
Privy  Council  for  payment  for  his  services  during  the  absence  of 
Governor  Philipps,  from  May  29,  1725,  the  date  no  doubt  when 
he  actually  assuir  ed  the  lieutenant-governorship,  until  June  2,0, 
1729,  which  we  suppose  was  the  date  when  Philipps  again  ar- 
rived in  the  province  (probably  at  Canso)  to  take  upon  him- 
self once  more  in  person  the  control  of  public  affairs.  Arm- 
strong's petition  to  the  Privy  Council,  however,  was  dismissed 
by  that  body  as  not  coming  under  its  jurisdiction.20  Colonel 
Lawrence  was  evidently  a  nervous,  sensitive  man  and  none  too 
robust,  and  the  cares  of  his  double  position  so  weighed  upon  him 

18.  This  is  probably  the  date  of  Armstrong's  first  commission  as  lieutenant- 
governor.     He  was  at  Canso,  we  believe,  from  before  the  date  of  his  appointment, 
until  September  17,  1726,  for  on  the  latter  date  he  arrived  from  Canso.     On  the 
2ist  of  September  he  laid  before  the  Council  his  commission  as  "Lieutenant  Gov- 
ernor of  his  Majesty's  Province  of  Nova  Scotia,"  and  took  the  prescribed  oaths. 
Nova  Scotia  Archives,  Vol.  2,  p.  171,  and  Vol.  3,  pp.  124,  125. 

19.  See  Mascarene's  letter  to  Shirley  in  the  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  ist  series. 
Vol.  6,  pp.  120-126.    See  also  "Nova  Scotia  Archives,"  Vol.  2,  p.  171. 

20.  "Acts  of  the  Privy  Council,  Colonial  Series,"  Vol.  3,  p.  308  (section  226). 


382 

that  at  last  his  mind  became  impaired,  and  in  a  fit  of  melancholy 
he  stabbed  himself  with  his  sword  on  the  night  of  the  5th  of 
December,  1739.  Mr.  Murdoch's  estimate  of  him  is  undoubt- 
edly correct,  he  was,  says  this  historian,  a  man  of  "broad 
and  liberal  views,  calm,  mild,  and  considerate."  He  died,  we 
believe,  unmarried. 

A  name  that  stands  out  more  prominently  and  for  a  longer 
time  perhaps  than  any  other  in  the  history  of  Annapolis  Royal 
during  the  period  we  are  reviewing  is  that  of  Jean  Paul  Mas- 
carene.  This  gentleman  was  of  a  Huguenot  family  of  Castras, 
in  the  province  of  Languedoc,  his  father  being  a  lawyer  and  a 
prominent  man  in  the  Protestant  community  there.  Educated  at 
Geneva,  and  naturalized  in  England  in  1706,  in  1708  Paul  became 
a  2nd  lieutenant  in  Lord  Montague 's  regiment,  but  the  next  year 
was  detached  froir..  his  regiment  for  service  in  the  proposed  ex- 
pedition -for  the  conquest  of  Canada.  Embarking  in  the  frigate 
Dragon,  which  left  Spithead  March  11,  1709,  Nicholson  and 
Vetch,  and  also  Governor  Belcher  of  Massachusetts,  being  fel- 
low passengers  with  him,  he  sailed  for  Boston,  where  after  a 
long  and  disagreeable  voyage  he  landed  on  the  29th  of  April. 
In  1710,  when  the  force  was  organizing  for  the  reduction  of 
Annapolis,  he  was  given  a  captaincy  in  Colonel  Shadrach  Wal- 
ton's regiment,  and  after  the  capture  of  Annapolis  he  remained 
in  service  there,  soon  receiving  the  commission  of  major.  When 
the  Fortieth  regiment  was  organized,  in  1717,  he  was  commis- 
sioned its  senior  captain,  and  in  1720  when  Governor  Philipps 
arrived,  was  chosen  one  of  the  first  members  of  the  council  the 
governor  formed.  In  1739  he  became  major  of  the  Fortieth,  in 
1740,  after  Armstrong's  death,  he  was  made  lieutenant-gov- 
ernor of  the  province  of  Nova  Scotia,  and  in  1742  (though  for- 
mally commissioned  such,  it  would  seem,  not  until  1744),  he  suc- 
ceeded Major  Cosby  as  lieutenant-governor  of  the  fort  and  the 
town.  These  several  important  positions  he  still  held  when  Gov- 
ernor Cornwallis  came  from  England  to  found  the  new  capital, 
Halifax,  in  1749.  Of  his  assumption  in  1742,  at  Colonel  Cosby 's 
decease,  of  the  office  of  lieutenant-governor  of  the  fort  and  town, 
in  addition  to  the  lieutenant-governoship  of  the  province,  he 
writes  to  Governor  Shirley  in  1748:  "At  Colonel  Cosby 's  de- 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          383 

cease,  and  in  the  absence  of  Governor  Philipps,  the  whole  au- 
thority and  power,  both  civil  and  military,  became  vested  in 
me,  and  was  further  corroborated  when  Her  Majesty  was 
graciously  pleased  to  appoint  me  lieutenant-colonel  of  the  regi- 
ment and  lieutenant-governor  of  the  garrison."21 

When  Governor  Cornwallis  arrived  at  Chebucto  in  1749  he 
at  once  sent  for  Mascarene  and  the  members  of  the  council  at 
Annapolis,  whose  commissions  by  his  own  appointment  as  gov- 
ernor-in-chief  had  now  been  withdrawn,  and  as  a  matter  of 
course  the  first  person  on  the  list  of  new  councillors  he  created 
on  board  the  Beaufort,  in  the  harbour,  was  Colonel  Mascarene. 
The  next  year,  however,  the  old  lieutenant-governor  sold  his 
army  commission  for  two  thousand  eight  hundred  pounds  to 
Charles  Lawrence  and  returned  to  Boston,  having  up  to  that 
time  been  absent  from  his  family  for  nearly  twelve  years.  Short- 
ly after  he  left  the  province  he  was  at  Fort  St.  George,  near  the 
Penobscot,  as  a  commissioner  from  Nova  Scotia  to  negotiate 
a  treaty  with  the  Indians.  From  this  time,  however,  with  prob- 
ably only  one  short  interval,  he  remained  at  his  Boston  home, 
enjoying  the  society  of  his  daughters  and  son  and  his  friends 
at  large.  Among  these,  we  are  told,  were  Sir  Harry  Frankland, 
Sir  William  Pepperrell,  the  elder,  and  President  Holyoke  of 
Harvard  College,  whose  daughter  his  son  John  had  married. 
"His  last  public  service,  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  discover," 
says  his  biographer  and  descendant,  Mr.  James  Mascarene  Hub- 
bard,  "was  to  attend  in  1754  a  conference  with  the  Indians  at 
Falmouth."  In  January,  1758,  he  was  gazetted  major-general 
in  the  army.  Two  years  later,  January  22,  1760,  he  died,  his 
remains  being  deposited  in  the  Granary  Burying  Ground.  He 
was  in  his  seventy-fifth  year. 

Mascarene 's  long,  valuable  service  to  the  province  of  Nova 
Scotia  has  often  been  described,  but  if  we  want  to  know  it  in 
fullest  detail  we  must  follow  it  in  the  archives  of  Nova  Scotia, 
printed  and  imprinted,  and  in  the  voluminous  correspondence  of 
Major  Mascarene  himself.  His  life  was  one  of  the  most  active 
and  able  in  the  annals  of  tne  province,  a  good  deal  of  his  time, 


21.     Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  ist  series,  Vol.  6,  pp.  121,  122. 


especially  in  winter,  he  spent  in  Boston,  but  during  the  nearly 
forty  years  that  Annapolis  Royal  was  the  capital  of  Nova  Scotia, 
he  discharged  the  duties  of  his  several  offices  there,  civil  and  mil- 
itary, with  the  greatest  faithfulness  and  usually  with  statesmen- 
like  and  accomplished  military  skill.  In  dealing  with  the  French 
and  Indians,  in  regulating  and  controlling,  either  at  Annapolis 
or  at  Canso,  the  internal  affairs  of  the  garrison  and  the  town, 
in  carrying  to  a  successful  issue  many  other  difficult  matters  of 
local  governmental  administration,  he  showed  not  only  firm  in- 
tegrity and  kindly  purpose,  but  tactful  business  judgment  and 
wisdom  in  dealing  with  men.  Much  of  the  enjoyment  of  his  leis- 
ure hours  he  obtained  from  reading,  but  he  lived  also  in  close 
friendly  intercourse  with  his  fellow  officers  and  the  other  leading 
men  of  Annapolis  Royal.  He  married  in  Boston  a  widow,  Mrs. 
Elizabeth  Perry,  and  this  lady  bore  him  four  children,  three 
daughters  and  a  son.  Of  his  daughters  one  died  unmarried,  but 
the  others  were  married,  like  his  son,  into  prominent  Boston 
families.  His  house  stood  in  School  Street,  a  little  east  of  the 
site  of  the  present  city  hall.22 

Sir  Charles  Hobby,  first  lieutenant-governor  of  the  town  and 
fort  of  Annapolis  Royal,  a  son  of  William  Hobby  of  Boston, 
a  merchant,  and  his  wife  Ann,  was  a  gentleman  of  rather  luxuri- 
ous and  worldly  tendencies,  who  attained  a  good  deal  of  prom- 
inence in  military  affairs  in  Nlew  England  and  was  very  conspic- 
uous in  Boston's  social  life.  When  Governor  Joseph  Dudley 
was  given  official  welcome  to  his  government  in  1702,  this  mag- 
nate rode,  says  Judge  Sewall,  in  Major  Hobby's  coach,  drawn  by 


22.  Sketches  of  Masacerene's  life  and  conspicuous  notices  of  him  in  American 
books  and  periodicals  are  many.  Probably  the  fullest  sketch  is  that  of  Mr.  James 
Mascarene  Hubbard  of  Boston,  a  descendant,  read  first  before  the  Nova  Scotia 
Historical  Society,  and  afterwards  printed  as  an  appendix  to  the  "History  of  the 
Fortieth  (2nd  Somersetshire)  Regiment,  now  ist  Battalion  the  Prince  of  Wales's 
Volunteers  (South  Lancashire  Regiment)  from  its  Formation  in  1717  to  1893,"  by 
Captain  R.  H.  Raymond  Smythies,  1894,  pp.  620.  Encyclopoedias  of  American 
Biogranhy ;  the  "Memorial  History  of  Boston"  (Vol.  2,  p.  555)  ;  the  "New  Eng' 
land  Historical  and  Genealogical  Register,"  Vol.  9 ;  the  "Correspondence  of  William 
Shirley,"  Vol.  i ;  the  Boston  Weekly  Journal  for  January  15,  1728,  and  many  other 
sources  (besides  the  Nova  Scotia  Archives)  will  be  found  to  yield  information 
concerning  this  eminent  man. 

Mr.  Mascarene  was  long  on  the  vestry  of  King's  Chapel.  Boston,  and  about 
1749  he  gave  fifty  pounds  sterling  for  rebuilding  the  church.  His  son,  John,  a 
graduate  of  Harvard,  was  comptroller  of  H.  M.  Customs  in  Boston;  he  died  in 
1778.  His  daughters  married,  one  into  the  Hutchinson,  one  into  the  Perkins  family. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          385 

six  horses,  "richly  harnessed."  But  before  long  Hobby  was  set 
up  by  the  Bostonians  as  a  rival  to  Dudley,  and  was  prevailed  up- 
on to  go  to  England  to  try  to  obtain  the  governship  for  himself. 
"Besides  the  opposition  he  [Dudley]  met  with  in  his  adminis- 
tration," says  Governor  Hutchinson,  "endeavours  were  using 
soon  after  his  arrival  to  supplant  him  and  his  enemies  prevailed 
upon  Sir  -Charles  Hobby  (who  had  been  knighted  as  some  said 
for  fortitude  and  resolution  at  the  time  of  the  earthquake  in 
Jamaica,  others  for  the  further  consideration  of  £800  sterling) 
to  go  to  England  and  solicit  the  government.  He  was  recom- 
mended to  Sir  H.  Ashurst,  who  at  first  gave  encouragement  of 
success.  Hobby  was  a  gay  man,  a  free  liver,  and  of  very  differ- 
ent behaviour  from  what  one  would  have  expected  should  have 
recommended  him  to  the  clergy  of  New  England ;  and  yet,  such  is 
the  force  of  party  prejudice  that  it  prevails  over  religion  itself, 
and  some  of  the  most  pious  ministers  strongly  urged  in  their 
letters  that  he  might  be  appointed  their  governor  instead  of 
Dudley ;  for  which  Ashurst  himself,  after  his  acquaintance  with 
Hobby  reproves  and  censures  them."23  In  1710,  Hobby  was  given 
command  of  one,  and  Col.  William  Tailer  of  the  other,  of  the  two 
Massachusetts  regiments  sent  to  the  successful  capture  of  Port 
Royal.  After  the  capture  he  was  made  "deputy  governor"  of 
Annapolis  Royal,  but  as  he  went  almost  immediately  with 
Nicholson  to  the  conquest  of  Canada,  he  must  have  remained  a 
very  short  time  at  his  post.  He  married,  but  it  is  said  left  no 
children.  He  died  in  1715,  but  although  he  had  lived  in  much 
style  in  his  "mansion"  in  Marlborough  (now  Washington) 
Street,  his  estate  was  insolvent.  His  inventory,  however,  showed 
among  other  properties  no  less  than  six  slaves.  His  widow  was 
buried  in  Boston,  November  17,  1716.  Both  Sir  Charles  Hobby, 
and  his  father,  William,  were  officially  connected  with  King's 
Chapel,  his  father  having  been  a  very  early  supporter  of  that 
church. 

Major  Thomas  Caulfeild   (often  spelled,  probably  wrongly, 
Caulfield)  may  have  received  his  appointment  as  lieutenant- 


23.     Hutchinson's  "History  of  Massachusetts,"  Vol.  2,  pp.  .140,  141-     (See  also 
the  "Annals  of  King's  Chapel"  (both  vols.),  and  "History  of  the  Ancient  and 
orable  Society,"  Vol.  I. 


386          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

governor  of  the  town  and  fort  of  Annapolis  Royal  in  1713,  for  he 
was  acting  as  lieutenant-governor,  we  believe,  late  in  that  year. 
His  last  letter  in  the  ''Governor's  Letter-Book"  bears  date  De- 
cember 24, 1716,  and  he  probably  soon  after  this  left  Nova  Scotia. 
February  2,  1744,  he  was  '  *  an  officer  belonging  to  the  American 
Regiment  serving  at  Rattan,"24  after  which  period  we  have  not 
tried  to  follow  his  career. 

Captain  John  Doucett  of  the  40th  regiment  was  commissioned 
lieutenant-governor  of  the  town  and  garrison  on  the  15th  of 
May,  1717.  Of  his  origin  and  early  education  we  know  nothing, 
we  do  not  know  whether  he  was  related  to  other  Doucetts  at 
Annapolis  Royal  or  not.  He  arrived  at  Annapolis  the  28th  of 
October,  1717, 25  as  we  learn  from  the  Governor's  Letter-Book, 
and  November  5th  wrote  the  Secretary  of  War  in  England  a 
description  of  the  fort.  When  Governor  Philipps  formed  his 
council  in  1720  it  was  in  Doucett 's  house  in  the  fort,  and  in  the 
house  the  council  almost  unvaryingly  met  until  Doucett 's  death, 
which  took  place  on  the  19th  of  November,  1726.  Of  the  family 
of  this  lieutenant-governor  of  Annapolis  Royal,  if  he  had  one, 
we  have  no  knowledge  at  all. 

Major  Alexander  Cosby,  appointed  by  Royal  Commission 
"Lieutenant-Governor  of  the  Town  and  the  Fort,"  March  4, 
1727,  was  a  brother  of  Brigadier-General  William  Cosby,  colonel 
of  the  18th  Rhode  Island  regiment  and  also  governor  of  New 
York.  In  1717  he  was  commissioned  major  of  the  40th  at  An- 
napolis, and  March  22,  1739,  lieutenant-colonel  of  the  40th.  As 
lieutenant-governor  of  the  town  and  fort  he  took  oath  October 
20,  1727.26  On  the  24th  of  June,  1731,  Major  Mascarene  moved 
in  the  council  that  he  objected  to  taking  his  place  at  the  board 
under  the  Hon.  Lieutenant-Governor  Cosby,  whom  Governor 
Philipps  had  recently  "thought  fit"  to  appoint  president  of  the 
council,  giving  as  his  reason  that  he  was  an  elder  councillor. 
His  Excellency  laconically  answered  that  he  believed  himself  em- 
powered to  appoint  whatever  member  he  thought  fit  to  sit  as 


24.  "Acts  of  the  Privy  Council,  Colonial  Series,"  Vol.  3,  p.  763. 

25.  "Nova  Scotia  Archives,"  Vol.  2,  p.  I. 

26.  "Nova   Scotia  Archives,"  Vol.  3,  pp.   165,   166.     "Annual   Report  of   the 
American  Historical  Association,"  (1911),  Vol.  I. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          387 

president.  Major  Mascarene  having  no  recourse,  then  desired 
that  his  protest  and  the  governor's  answer  to  it  should  be  record- 
ed in  the  minutes,  and  took  the  place  assigned  him  at  the  board. 
Later  in  the  careers  of  Cosby  and  Mascarene,  there  seems  to 
have  been  continued  bad  feeling  between  the  men.  ' '  In  1744, ' ' 
says  Judge  Savary,  "Mascarene  was  made  Lieutenant-Gover- 
nor of  the  fort  and  town,  thus  uniting  in  his  own  person  and 
functions  of  two  offices  or  commands,  the  holding  of  which  by  dif- 
ferent individuals  had  so  often  led  to  difficulties  and  disputes 
injurious  to  the  peace  and  harmony  of  the  people  and  the  garri- 
son, as  well  as  of  the  public  interests.  The  Lieutenant-Governor 
of  the  Province  was  supreme  in  the  administration  of  purely  civ- 
il affairs,  and  the  Lieutenant-Governor  of  the  fort  controlled  and 
directed  the  military  duties.  This  system  had  been  the  means  of 
making  enemies  of  men  who  otherwise  would  have  been  friends, 
and  the  heart-burnings  and  jealousies  which  had  separated  Arm- 
strong and  Cosby  and  Mascarene  were  directly  traceable  to  this 
dual  system  of  administration."  Colonel  Cosby  married  at 
Annapolis,  Anne,  born  in  1712,  daughter  of  William  Winniett, 
and  had  among  his  children  a  son  Philipps  Cosby  (named  for 
his  uncle  by  marriage  Governor  Richard  Philipps),  who,  born 
at  Annapolis,  probably  in  1727,  became  an  admiral  in  the  navy.27 
Colonel  Cosby  died  of  small-pox  at  his  house  in  Annapolis  De- 
cember 27,  1742,  and  Lieutenant-Colonel  Paul  Mascarene  suc- 
ceeded to  the  position  he  had  held,  in  addition  to  that  of  lieu- 
tenant-governor of  the  province,  which  he  had  assumed  shortly 
after  the  death  of  Armstrong,  in  March,  1740.  A  sister  of  Col- 
onel Cosby 's  was  the  wife  of  Governor  Philipps.28 

Until  the  spring  of  1720  the  governors  of  Nova  Scotia  ad- 
ministered the  affairs  of  the  province  without  the  _aid  of  a  coun- 
cil, but  in  July,  1719,  Governor  Philipps,  probably  then  in  Eng- 


27.  A   sketch   of   Admiral    Cosby   will   be    found    in   the    "Dictionary  of   Na- 
tional Biography." 

28.  For   the  commissions   of   these   governors   and   lieutenant  governors,   see 
"Nova  Scotia  Archives,"  Vols.  2.  and  3 ;  various  encyclopoedias ;  sketch  of  Major 
Mascarene  in  History  of  the  40th  Regiment;  and  "Annual  Report  of  the  American 
Historical  Association,  1911,"  (2  Vols.    Vol.  I,  pp.  395-528,  501-507).    The  last  work 
is  compiled  by  Charles   M.  Andrews  of   Yale   University,  who  gives   a  list  with 
dates  of  commission  of  Nova  Scotia  governors  to  and  including  Governor  Parr, 
Andrews'  list  of  governors  of  the  fort  and  town  of  Annapolis  Royal,  is  not  how- 
ever, correct. 


388          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

land,  received  royal  instructions  to  appoint  such  "fitting  and 
discreet  persons"  as  he  should  either  find  at  Annapolis  Royal 
or  should  take  with  him  for  the  purpose,  not  exceeding  the  num- 
ber of  twelve,  to  be  a  council  to  act  with  the  chief  executive  or 
the  lieutenants  who  should  serve  in  his  absence  in  administering 
the  provincial  government.  Early  in  April,  1720,  Philipps,  who 
had  come  to  Boston  the  October  before,  arrived  at  Annapolis, 
and  there  on  the  25th  of  the  month  he  carried  out  the  instruc- 
tions he  had  received.29  On  this  date,  in  the  house  of  Captain 
John  Doucett,  governor  of  the  fort,  he  appointed  nine  men, 
besides  Doucett,  to  serve  as  the  first  council  of  Nova  Scotia,  these 
being  Lawrence  Armstrong  of  the  40th  regiment ;  Captain  Paul 
Mascarene  of  the  40;  the  Rev.  John  Harrison,  chaplain  of  the 
garrison;  Captain  Cyprian  Southack,  a  notable  sea  captain  of 
Boston,  a  man,  however,  of  English  birth ;  Arthur  Savage,  pre- 
viously a  Boston  merchant  and  then  captain  of  a  ship,  whom 
Philipps  made  secretary  of  the  council ;  Hibbert  Newton,  a  Bos- 
tonian,  who  had  been  appointed  collector  at  Annapolis;  William 
Skene,  a  Scotsman,  who  was  appointed  naval  officer  in  1725,  and 
surgeon  of  the  garrison  May  12,  1746 ;  William  Shirriff ,  another 
Scotsman,  who  appears  at  Annapolis  as  early  as  1715,  and  who 
in  his  will,  made  in  1754,  calls  himself  "Secretary  and  Commis- 
sary of  the  Musters  at  His  Majesty's  Garrison  of  Annapolis 
Royal;"  and  Peter  Boudre,  apparently  a  sea-captain,  probably 
one  of  the  native  Acadians  of  the  province.  On  the  28th  of 
April  a  second  meeting  was  held  at  Captain  Doucett 's,  at  which 


2g.  In  a  letter  to  Governor  Shirley  of  Massachusetts,  written  April  6,  1748, 
Mr.  Mascarene  gives  a  detailed  account  of  the  forming  of  the  Council.  "Mr. 
Philipps,"  Mascarene  says,  "came  over  in  1719,  Captain  General  over  the  province, 
with  instructions  to  form  a  Council  of  the  principal  of  the  British  inhabitants,  and 
till  an  Assembly  could  be  formed  to  regulate  himself  by  the  instructions  of  the 
Governor  of  Virginia.  Governor  Philipps  for  want  of  inhabitants  formed  the 
Council  with  the  Lieutenant  Governor  of  the  garrison,  Mr.  Doucett,  who  at  the  same 
time  was  a  captain  in  his  regiment  and  named  first  in  the  list  of  councillors ;  his 
major,  Lawrence  Armstrong;  the  first  captain,  Paul  Mascarene;  Captain  Southack, 
commanding  the  province  schooner ;  the  collector,  Hibbert  Newton ;  the  chaplain, 
and  other  staff  officers  of  the  garrison ;  and  Mr.  Adams  was  the  only  inhabitant 
admitted.  There  was  another,  Mr.  Winniett,  who  was  not  then  named,  but  in 
process  of  time  was  called  to  the  Board;  but  afterwards  dismissed  on  some  dis- 
gust. The  whole  number  was  twelve,  but  as  it  was  made  up  of  transient  persons  it 
was  soon  reduced,  and  to  keep  up  the  number  of  seven,  the  commander  in  chief 
took  in  officers  of  the  garrison  or  regiment,  subaltern  officers  being  often  judged 
more  capable  than  their  captains." 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          389 

all  these  councillors  were  present,  and  one  other  besides.  This 
added  member  was  Mr.  John  Adams,  a  Boston  merchant,  who 
had  taken  part  in  the  capture  of  Annapolis  Royal  and  had  set- 
tled there  probably  immediately  after,  in  pursuance  of  trade. 
Of  the  eleven  councillors,  who  thus  appear  as  constituting  the 
first  Nova  Scotia  council,  Southack,  Savage,  Newton,  and  Adams, 
it  will  be  seen,  were  New  England  men.30 

On  Wednesday,  April  19, 1721,  it  was  resolved  by  the  governor 
and  council  to  hold  a  general  court  four  times  a  year  for  the  ad- 
ministration of  justice,  the  council  to  sit  in  this  judicial  capacity 
on  the  first  Tuesdays  of  February,  May,  August,  and  November, 
and  until  the  establishment  of  a  settled  judiciary  at  Halifax  this 
was  the  only  civil  court  of  justice  Nova  Scotia  had.  In  a  letter 
to  the  Lords  of  Trade  in  England  in  1740  Major  Mascarene  says : 
" There  being  only  two  or  three  English  families  (here)  besides 
the  garrison  prevents  the  formation  of  a  civil  government  like 
that  in  the  other  colonies,  and  so  the  councillors  have  to  be  taken 
chiefly  from  the  military  officers  of  the  garrison  or  regiment." 
"The  Council  meets  upon  call  in  a  civil  or  judiciary  capacity. 
What  relates  to  the  judicial  part  is  referred  to  quarterly  ses- 
sions, appointed  three  or  four  years  ago,  in  which  all  matters  of 
meum  and  tuum  amongst  the  French  inhabitants,  who  come  from 
all  the  settlements  of  the  province,  are  stated  and  decided.  In 
other  affairs,  the  Council  meets  when  anything  of  moment  re- 
quires it,  and  has  a  messenger  under  the  name  of  constable  to 
summon  any  person  required  to  appear. '  '31 

How  the  council  sometimes  treated  offences  is  illustrated  in 
an  account  that  comes  to  us  of  its  proceedings  on  the  6th  of 
August,  1734.  At  that  time  the  cause  of  a  certain  Mary  Davis 
against  Jeanne  Picot,  the  wife  of  Louis  Thibauld,  was  consider- 
ed. Jeanne  had  accused  Mary  of  murdering  two  children,  and  the 


30.  The  number  of  councillors  was  never  as  large  as  twelve,  five,  however, 
constituted  a  quorum.     At  different  times  the  following  were  added :  August   16, 
1720,  Gillam  Phillips,  a  brother-in-law  of  Arthur  Savage,  another  Bostonian  ,  May 
J3>  1727,  Christopher  Aldridge,  Capt.  Joseph  Bennett,  Capt.  John  Blower,  and  Thom- 
as Cosby ;  at  other  dates,  Henry  Cope,  Otho  Hamilton,  William  Winniett,  Erasmus 
James  Philipps    (a  relative  of  the  governor),  John   Handfield,  Edward  Amhurst, 
John  Slater,  and  William  Howe.    These  were  probably  all  while  the  council  lasted. 

31.  This   letter   in   manuscript   is    in   the   Mass.    Hist.    Soc.    Library.     It   was 
printed  in  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  ist  Series,  Vol.  6,  pp.  120-126. 


390          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

court  finding  the  charge  "a  vile,  malicious,  groundless,  and  scan- 
dalous report, ' '  ordered  that  Jeanne  should  ' '  be  ducked  on  Sat- 
urday next,  the  tenth  instant,  at  high  water. ' '  Mary  was  merci- 
ful, however,  and  prayed  the  court  to  relieve  Jeanne  of  the 
ducking  and  instead  oblige  her  to  ask  the  plaintiff's  pardon  on 
Sunday  at  the  mass  house  door,  and  her  prayer  was  granted  by 
the  court.  On  the  12th  of  August  of  the  same  year,  Matthew  Hur- 
ry, convicted  of  stealing  a  five  pound  note  from  Sergeant  James 
Thompson,  was  sentenced  by  the  council  to  fifty  lashes  on  the 
bare  back  with  a  cat  o '  nine  tails,  and  to  return  the  money.  In 
the  autumn  of  1726,  Governor  Armstrong's  servant  man,  Nich- 
olas, who  had  committed  an  assault  on  his  master  while  at  Canso, 
was  sentenced  to  sit  for  half  an  hour  each  day  during  three  days 
on  a  gallows,  with  a  rope  round  his  neck  and  a  paper  on  his 
breast  with  the  words  " Audacious  Villain"  in  large  capitals 
printed  thereon,  and  afterwards  "to  be  whipped  at  the  cart's 
tail  from  the  prison  up  to  the  uppermost  house  of  the  cape,  and 
from  thence  back  again  to  the  prison  house, ' '  receiving  each  hun- 
dred paces  five  stripes  upon  his  bare  back  with  a  cat  o'  nine  tails, 
and  then  "to  be  turned  over  for  a  soldier."32 

Concerning  the  acts  of  this  council  until  well  on  towards  the 
time  of  its  dissolution  by  Governor  Cornwallis,  twenty-nine 
years  after  it  was  organized,  we  have  full  and  accurate  informa- 
tion in  the  records  of  its  proceedings,  which  were  published  by 
order  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Government  in  1908.33  From  these 
minutes  of  council  we  gain  indeed  very  intimate  knowledge  of 
not  only  the  public  affairs  of  the  province  at  large,  but  of  the 
social  and  individual  concerns  of  the  people  of  early  Annapolis 
Eoyal.  In  a  small,  remote  community,  isolated  completely  except 
by  slow  water  communication  from  all  other  settled  parts  of  the 
world,  its  nearest  metropolis,  Boston,  which  could  be  reached 
only  by  uncomfortable  voyages  in  cramped  schooners  or  sloops, 
the  people  were  necessarily  thrown  closely  together,  and  as  a 


32.  "Nova  Scotia  Archives,"  Vol.  3,  p.  127. 

33.  The  third  volume  of   "Nova   Scotia  Archives,"  carefully   edited  and   in- 
dexed by  Professor  Archibald  M.  MacMechan,  Ph.D.,  gives  these  minutes  of  coun- 
cil from  April,  1720,  to  August,  1736.     The  second  volume  of  "Archives,"  however, 
also  edited  (in  1900)  by  Dr.  MacMechan  gives  us  much  light  on  the  council's  acts 
until  1741. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          391 

consequence,  rivalries  and  jealousies  and  fierce  clashings  of 
petty  interests,  as  well  as  occasional  scandals  caused  by  con- 
spicuous violations  of  social  morality,  give  strong  human  colour- 
ing to  the  mixed  story  of  the  community's  life. 

The  interests  of  the  Annapolis  Royal  people,  and  the  compli- 
cations of  the  life  of  their  small  community,  were  many  and  var- 
ied. Fishing,  farming,  lumbering,  and  the  collecting  of  furs, 
had  long  been  carried  on  successfully  in  the  vicinity  by  the 
French,  and  in  all  these  occupations,  we  may  believe,  the  British 
settlers  likewise  to  some  extent  engaged.  Of  military  and  civil 
officials  in  this  garrison  town,  we  must  feel  there  was  a  great 
superabundance,  but  several  of  the  leading  men  like  Adams  and 
Winniett  undoubtedly  traded  vigorously  with  the  French,  who 
were  always  in  Nova  Scotia  an  industrious  and  in  their  primi- 
tive way  enterprising  people.  Of  the  three  localities  in  the 
province  where  the  French  population  was  greatest,  the  dis- 
tricts of  Annapolis  Royal,  Minas,  and  Chignecto,  Lieutenant 
Governor  Caulfeild  in  1715  writes  the  English  Board' of  Trade, 
Annapolis,  "the  metropolis,"  had  rich,  sound  soil,  produced 
ten  thousand  bushels  of  grain,  chiefly  wheat,  and  some 
rye,  oats  and  barley.  The  district  had  also  plenty  of  cattle, 
sheep  and  hogs ;  "masting"  could  be  had,  though  with  difficulty, 
pitch  had  been  frequently  made,  and  since  the  capture  in  1710 
forty  thousand  weight  of  furs  had  been  shipped  each  year  from 
the  place.34  In  all  these  commodities  the  Boston  sea-captains 
and  traders  who  figure  prominently  in  Annapolis  no  doubt 
found  it  profitable  to  deal  with  the  French,  and  while  most  man- 
ufactured goods  except  coarse  clothing  were  brought  to  the 
place  from  Boston,  we  may  conceive  the  Boston  food  supplies  to 
have  come  in  no  small  measure  from  the  remote  Nova  Scotia 
town.  I  have  it  "from  very  good  hands,"  writes  Caulfeild,  in 
the  report  from  which  we  have  just  quoted,  that  New  Englanders 
themselves  take  from  the  Nova  Scotia  fisheries  at  large  each  sea- 
son over  a  hundred  thousand  "kentalls,"  but  besides  this,  he 
intimates,  great  numbers  of  fish  are  sold  to  the  merchants  trad- 
ing with  Annapolis  as  their  base. 


34.     "Nova  Scotia  Archives,"  Vol.  2,  p.  24. 


392          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

Except  in  the  island  of  Cape  Breton,  there  were  during  these 
whole  forty  years  but  two  British  settlements  within  the  confines 
of  what  are  now  the  sister  provinces  of  Nova  Scotia  and  New 
Brunswick.  These  were  the  settlements  of  Annapolis  Royal 
and  Canso.  Of  the  earliest  trading  and  fishing  ventures  of  Niew 
England  men  along  the  Nova  Scotia  shores  only  scattered  facts 
are  possible  to  be  obtained,  but  Canso  we  know  to  have  become 
at  an  early  period,  certainly  after  British  rule  in  the  province 
began,  the  most  important  base  for  New  England  fisheries  that 
Nova  Scotia  had.  Besides  New  Englanders  and  Frenchmen 
who  fished  with  this  point  as  their  base,  West  of  England  people 
also  came  every  spring  for  purposes  of  fishing,  "with  many 
ships,"35  and  we  are  told  that  very  large  numbers  of  New  Eng- 
land fishing  vessels  were  seen  every  summer  anchored  in  the 
strait  of  Canso  at  the  point  where  the  town  lay.  The  fortify- 
ing of  Canso  began  under  the  influence  of  Governor  Philipps  in 
the  year  1720,  although  troops  had  been  sent  to  the  place  to  pro- 
tect it  a  little  earlier  than  this,  but  these  fortifications  seem 
never  to  have  progressed  very  far,  for  in  1734  William  Shirreff, 
secretary  of  the  council,  reported  that  Canso  lay  "  naked  and 
defenceless"  against  the  French,  "without  so  much  as  barracks 
to  lodge  the  four  companies  of  Colonel  Philipps 's  regiment  sta- 
tioned there  for  its  defence,  or  store  houses,  except  hasty  slight 
erections  put  up  from  time  to  time  by  the  commanders,  assisted 
by  the  fishermen. ' '  If  the  place  were  taken  by  the  French,  Mr. 
Shirreff  says,  "the  loss  would  affect  not  only  Nova  Scotia  but 
New  England,  New  York,  and  other  plantations;  for  British 
subjects  resort  thither  from  all  parts.  As  it  is  the  only  place  in 
the  province  that  can  be  said  to  have  been  frequented  all  along 
by  British  subjects,  its  loss  would  very  much  affect  the  traders, 
and  strengthen  the  French  and  enable  them  to  do  more  damage 
along  the  coast  with  their  privateers."  In  1723  Major  Alexan- 
der Cosby  was  in  command  of  the  garrison  at  Canso,  and  as 
early  as  1732  Captain  Christopher  Aldridge  was  ' '  civil  and  mili- 
tary commandant  there. ' '  At  some  period  after  1734,  however, 


35.  "Nova  Scotia  Archives,"  Vol.  2,  p.  56.  This  statement  is  made  of  the 
year  1719.  The  great  majority  of  New  Englanders  went  home  every  fall  and  came 
again  in  the  'Spring. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          393 

though  the  exact  date  we  do  not  know,  Major  Paul  Mascarene 
for  a  time  held  the  same  position  at  Canso.36 

Intercourse,  therefore,  between  Annapolis  Royal  and  Causo 
was  constant  during  these  forty  years;  but  Boston  was  the  com- 
mercial and  social  metropolis  of  the  Annapolis  people.37  In  Bos- 
ton a  great  part  of  the  population  had  been  born,  to  Boston  mar- 
kets the  traders  regularly  shipped  the  products  they  bought 
from  the  French,  and  from  Boston  came  all  the  manufactured 
goods  except  the  coarsest  clothing  that  the  families  of  those  who 
had  brought  their  families  to  the  place  used  in  their  homes.  Even 
the  officers  of  the  garrison,  we  may  believe,  at  intervals  varied 
the  monotony  of  their  dull  life  in  this  remote  place  by  excur- 
sions to  Boston  for  social  intercourse  with  people  who  lived  in  a 
larger  world.  Consequently  there  was  probably  not  a  week  in 
the  year,  unless  in  the  depth  of  winter,  that  vessels  were  not 
clearing  from  or  entering  the  harbour  of  the  town. 

In  all  the  period  of  nearly  four  decades  that  Annapolis  Royal 
was  the  capital  of  Nova  Scotia,  no  year  was  so  fraught  with  fear 
to  the  inhabitants  as  the  year  1744.  In  June  of  that  year,  Lieu- 
tenant-Go vernor  Mascarene  received  notice  that  a  declaration  of 
war  had  been  made  by  France  against  England,38  and  the  garri- 
son which  was  too  weak  to  resist  any  considerable  force,  and  the 
people  of  the  town,  who  knew  that  the  fort  was  in  a  ruinous 
condition,  were  alike  apprehensive.  A  little  earlier  than  the 
beginning  of  hostilities  between  the  nations,  indeed,  a  sudden 
panic  had  seized  the  people  of  the  lower  town,  where  the  families 
of  several  officers  and  soldiers  as  well  as  many  civilians  lived. 
The  cause  of  this  was  a  rumor  that  one  Morpin,  a  famous  com- 


36.  When  he  died  in  1743,  Mr.  Peter  Faneuil,  the  rich  Boston  merchant,  owned 
a  store  at  Canso.    In  the  inventory  of  his  property  this  store  is  said  to  be  valued  at 
about  four  hundred  pounds. 

37.  In  1739,  however,  Murdoch  says,  there  was  communication  between  An- 
napolis Royal  and  Canso  "scarcely  once  a  year."     This,  following  of  course  some 
reliable  document,  he  attributes  to  the  fact  that  there  was  no  vessel    allowed  for  the 
government."     Murdoch's  History  of  Nova  Scotia,  Vol.  i,  pp.  528,  529     March  14, 
1741,  Lieut-Governor  Mascarene  writes  to  the  Duke  of  Newcastle:  "We  have  no 
news  from  Europe  later  than  July  last,  nor  from  our  neighbouring  governmei 
New  England  since  last  October,  so  that  we  are  entirely  ignorant  of  any  transac- 
tions in  relation  to  war  or  peace."     But  this  statement  must  mean  only  that  he  am 
the  council  at  Annapolis  have  had  no  official  communication  from  Boston  for  many 
months,  not  that  they  have  not  had  any  news. 

38.  The  date  of  this  declaration  of  war  was  March  15,  1744- 


394          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

mander  of  a  privateer  in  the  previous  war,  had  gone  up  the 
Annapolis  river  and  had  gathered  a  force  of  French  and  Indians 
numbering  five  hundred  men.  Although  this  report  could  not  be 
traced  to  any  author,  says  Judge  Savary,  and  its  falsehood  be- 
came evident  very  soon,  yet  the  effect  it  produced  on  the  minds 
of  the  inhabitants  could  not  be  dispelled.  In  a  few  days  the 
Massachusetts  galley  arrived,  with  the  chief  engineer,  and  on 
her  return  to  Boston  she  took  with  her  for  safety  as  many  of  the 
women  and  children  as  she  could  accommodate.  Besides  this, 
more  than  seventy  women  and  children,  as  well  as  the  people's 
effects  that  could  be  removed,  remained  sheltered  for  a  time  in 
the  fort. 

On  the  first  of  July,  however,  a  force  of  about  three  hundred 
Indians,  led,  it  is  believed,  by  the  French  priest  Le  Loutre,  did 
come  to  attack  the  garrison.  But  the  bravery  of  Mascarene,  who 
sent  word  to  the  besiegers  that  he  was  determined  to  defend  the 
fort  to  the  last  drop  of  his  blood,  prevented  an  overwhelming 
attack,  and  on  the  fifth  of  July  the  Massachusetts  galley  again 
arrived,  bringing  ''seventy  auxiliaries  and  a  captain  and  en- 
sign," and  the  Indians  withdrew  and  marched  eastward  to 
Minas.  Still  stronger  reinforcements  soon  came  from  Boston, 
and  until  peace  was  declared  in  1748,  the  peace  of  Aix-la-Cha- 
pelle,  although  apprehension  in  the  town  never  entirely  ceased, 
the  fort  was  not  again  menaced  by  Indians  or  French.  In  the 
meantime,  however,  more  of  the  women  and  children  were  taken 
to  Boston. 

The  appearance  of  the  houses  at  Annapolis  Royal  in  this 
first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  the  details  of  their  ap- 
pointments, and  the  exact  modes  of  life  of  the  people  and  the 
character  of  their  social  intercourse  we  can  as  a  rule  only  con- 
jecture. From  private  letters  of  Paul  Mascarene  to  his  daughters 
in  Boston,  however,  we  do  gain  some  glimpses  of  the  Annapolis 
Royal  habits  of  life.  ' '  I  have  begun  to  keep  house, ' '  Mascarene 
writes  in  1740,  ''contrary  to  the  intention  of  Governor  Cosby  and 
other  friends,  but  I  thought  it  of  absolute  necessity  to  keep  my- 
self the  more  independent  and  the  more  at  liberty  to  keep  at 
home  when  I  found  myself  inclined  to  it.  My  family  consists  of 
an  old  soldier  of  my  company  who  behaves  very  well,  another 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 


395 


who  dresses  my  dinner,  and  a  boy  about  eight  years  of  age  whom 
I  design  to  have  bound  to  me."  The  same  year  he  writes  his 
agent  in  Boston  that  on  the  King's  accession  day  he  had  had 
Lieutenant-Governor  Cosby  and  the  members  of  the  council  to 
dine  with  him,  and  all  the  rest  of  the  officers  in  the  afternoon  to 
celebrate  the  day  in  the  usual  manner  by  drinking  loyal  healths. ' ' 
"My  appartment, "  he  in  another  letter  writes  his  daughter  Mar- 
garet,39 "contains  four  Rooms,  all  contiguous  to  one  another,  the 
first  something  larger  than  our  fore  Room  [in  Boston],  the  floor 
none  of  the  best,  is  covered  with  the  painted  cloth.  The  White 
walls  are  hung  in  part  with  four  large  Pictures  of  Mr.  Smibert 
—a  walnutt  chest  of  Drawers,  a  mahogany  table,  and  six  pretty 
good  chairs  fill  in  some  measure  the  remainder.  Over  the  mantle 
piece  are  a  dozen  of  arms  kept  clean  and  in  good  order,  with  oth- 
er warlike  accoutrements.  In  this  Room  I  dine,  sometimes  alone 
but  often  with  one  or  more  of  my  friends.  A  door  opens  from 
this  into  my  bed  room,  where  my  field  bed,  four  chairs,  the  little 
round  table,  a  desk  to  write  upon,  and  my  cloths  chest  are  all 
the  furniture  that  adorns  it.  The  two  closetts  on  the  side  of  the 
chimney  serve,  the  one  to  keep  my  papers,  the  other  to  hang 
my  cloths.  In  the  great  room  one  of  the  closetts  dispos'd  on 
the  side  of  the  chimney  is  made  to  keep  my  drinkables  for  daily 
use,  iny  case  of  bottles,  and  such  like.  The  other  is  for  a  kind  of 
pantry  and  att  the  same  time  for  a  passage  to  another  room 
wherein  I  keep  my  meal,  flour,  fresh  and  salt  provisions.  This 
communicates  by  a  door  to  my  kitchen  and  is  the  way  by  which 
I  go  every  morning  to  order  my  dinner  and  give  out  what  pro- 
vision is  necessary  for  it.  The  other  communication  from  the 
kitchen  to  the  great  room  is  by  the  parade  as  farr  as  from  our 
back  kitchen  to  our  back  entry  door.  I  have  a  bell  to  call  my  ser- 
vant both  from  my  dining  and  bed  room.  My  Domesticks  are  a 
good  old  honest  soldyer  wTho  makes  my  bed,  keeps  my  cloths 
and  my  apartment  clean  and  attends  me  very  diligently  and  very 
faithfully,  another  who  was  my  cook  when  your  [sister]  Betty 
was  here  attends  me  in  the  same  office,  they  have  a  boy  to  assist 
them  both.  All  three  discharge  their  tasks  in  an  easy  and  quiet 


39.     The  exact  date  of  this  letter  is  probably  December  ist,  the  year  is  1740. 


396          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

manner  and  give  little  or  no  trouble.  The  morning,  and  espe- 
cially in  winter  time  I  generally  pass  att  home  in  usefull  and 
diverting  employments.  I  sometimes  dine  abroad.  The  after- 
noons I  visit  some  of  the  familys  in  our  fort  or  town,  and  the 
evenings  Capn.  Handfield,  Lt.  Amhurst,  and  three  or  four  more 
of  our  officers  meet  att  one  another's  houses  over  a  game  att 
ombre  for  half  pence  and  part  att  nine,  when  after  an  hour  en- 
joy'd  quietly  in  my  own  room  I  go  to  bed.  These  rounds  I  have 
gone  for  these  months." 

Others  of  Colonel  Mascarene's  letters,  to  his  family  and  his 
agent  Douglas,  in  Boston,  give  us  little  side  lights  on  the  soci- 
ety of  Annapolis  Royal.  July  20,  1740,  for  instance,  he  writes 
Douglas  that  Mr.  Winniett  is  to  carry  two  of  Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor  Cosby 's  daughters  to  board  at  his  own  home  in  Bos- 
ton, Cosby  having  insisted  on  a  promise  Mascarene  had  made 
him  that  they  might  do  so,  which  "I  own,"  he  says,  "I  should 
not  have  been  sorry  to  have  found  an  opening  to  withdraw 
from  at  this  time,  as  I  do  not  know  how  long  matters  may 
remain  quiet  between  us."  These  young  ladies  were  probably 
being  taken  to  Massachusetts,  as  no  doubt  other  Annapolis 
children  from  time  to  time  were,  for  the  benefit  of  the  Boston 
schools.  In  December,  of  the  same  year  Mascarene  writes  his 
daughter  Betty  that  Annapolis  has  been  visited  by  an  epidemic 
of  colds  for  two  months  past,  the  ladies  of  the  community 
especially  falling  victims  to  the  trouble.  He  himself,  however, 
he  says  is  in  excellent  health.  In  an  earlier  letter  he  writes  one 
of  his  daughters:  "Mrs.  Cosby  has  also  expressed  a  great 
satisfaction  in  what  you  have  done  for  her.  The  stays  fits 
each  of  the  children  very  well."  "As  for  Mrs.  Handfield,"  he 
writes  suggestively,  "the  captain  has  rendered  her  incapable 
of  wearing  hers  for  these  twelve  months  to  come. ' ' 

The  church  where  the  Annapolis  people  worshipped  for  much 
of  the  period  under  review  was  "a  large  and  commodious" 
building  inside  the  fort,  erected  by  the  last  French  Governor, 
Monsieur  Subercase,  a  building  eighty  feet  long  and  thirty-three 
feet  wide,  half  of  which  was  intended  by  Subercase  to  be  used  as 
a  chapel,  the  remainder  to  furnish  lodgings  for  certain  officials 
of  the  fort.  When  the  fort  was  finally  invested  by  English 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          397 

troops,  services  according  to  the  Church  of  England  were  at 
once  begun  in  this  French  chapel  by  the  Rev.  John  Harrison, 
"chaplain  to  Commodore  Martin,  and  left  chaplain  to  the  garri- 
son by  commission  from  the  general."  The  first  service  in  the 
chapel  after  the  capture  was  held  on  Tuesday,  the  tenth  of  Octo- 
ber, 1710,  to  commemorate  the  great  event,  the  day  having  been 
set  apart  for  special  thanksgiving.  On  this  occasion  prayers 
were  said  by  Mr.  Harrison,  but  the  sermon  was  preached  by  the 
Eev.  Samuel  Hesker,  "chaplain  to  the  Hon.  Col.  Reading's 
Marines.  "40  The  building  now  occupied  for  Protestant  services, 
Mr.  Harrison  himself  describes  as  a  handsome  chapel,  which 
under  pressure  of  necessity  had  been  turned  into  barracks  dur- 
ing the  siege. 

The  exact  length  of  Mr.  Harrison's  chaplaincy  we  do  not 
know,  but  this  clergyman  seems  to  have  been  succeeded  in  active 
service  in  the  fort  and  town  by  the  Rev.  Robert  Cuthbert  as 
early  at  least  as  1722.  Why  he  retired  we  do  not  know,  for  he 
seems  still  to  have  been  residing  at  Annapolis  in  November, 
1732.  In  this  year,  probably,  Rev.  Richard  Watts  became  chap- 
lain, but  after  1737  until  Halifax  was  founded,  Watts  evidently, 
though  nominally  chaplain,  remained  away  from  his  duty,  and  in 
1742  Mr.  John  Adams,  as  we  shall  see,  wrote  the  Lords  of 
Trade  that  in  the  absence  of  the  chaplain  "officers  and  soldiers" 
were  profaning  "the  holy  sacraments  of  baptism  and  ministerial 
function  by  presuming  to  baptize  their  own  children. "  "  There 
has  been  no  chaplain  here,  he  says  for  these  four  years." 

As  an  illustration  of  the  scandals  which  are  sure  occasionally 
to  arise  in  small  communities  in  the  course  of  years,  we  hear  of 
one  unfortunate  occurrence  in  this  little  garrison  town  in  1724. 
The  earliest  notice  we  have  found  of  the  Rev.  Robert  Cuthbert 
is  in  the  records  of  King's  Chapel,  Boston,  where  we  find  him 
preaching  November  4,  1722.  In  that  year  he  was  already  chap- 
lain at  Annapolis,  but  just  when  he  had  been  settled  there  we 


40.  This  was  the  beginning  of  regular  services  according  to  the  ritual  of  the 
Church  of  England  in  the  whole  of  what  is  now  the  Dominion  of  Canada.  See  the 
"Journal  of  Col.  Francis  Nicholson";  the  writer's  "Church  of  England  in  Nova 
Scotia  and  the  Tory  Clergy  of  the  Revolution";  Judge  Savary's  valuable  pamphlet 
entitled  "French  and  Anglican  Churches  at  Annapolis  Royal"  (Annapolis  Royal, 
1910)  ;  the  Calnek-Savary  "History  of  Annapolis" ;  and  Rev.  Canon  C.  W.  Ver- 
non's  "Bicentenary  Sketches  and  Early  Days  of  the  Church  in  Nova  Scotia" 
(Halifax,  1910). 


398          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

do  not  know.  Less  than  two  years  later  he  was  accused  by  a 
certain  Alexander  Douglass,  of  Annapolis,  of  too  great  inti- 
macy with  Douglass's  wife,  and  the  charge  was  taken  up  by  the 
council.  On  the  22nd  of  September,  1724,  the  Board  unani- 
mously agreed  that  "Whereas  it  appears  that  the  Rev.  Mr.  Rob- 
ert Outhbert  hath  obstinately  persisted  in  keeping  company  with 
Margaret  Douglass  contrary  to  all  reproofs  and  admonitions 
from  Alexander  Douglass  her  husband  and  contrary  to  his  own 
promises  and  the  good  advice  of  his  Honour  the  Lieutenant 
Governor,  that  he  the  said  Mr.  Robert  Cuthbert  shall  be  kept  in 
the  Garrison  without  port  liberty,  and  that  his  scandalous  affair 
and  the  satisfaction  demanded  by  the  injured  husband  be  trans- 
mitted in  order  to  be  determined  at  home ;  and  that  the  Honour- 
able Lieutenant  Governor  may  write  for  another  minister  in  his 
room." 

Up  to  1728,  however,  Cuthbert  was  still  ministering  in  the 
town,  but  in  that  year  he  was  suspended  from  the  exercise  of  his 
ministerial  functions  and  no  doubt  left.  In  May,  1725,  Mar- 
garet Douglas,  whose  husband,  probably  a  sea-captain,  had  gone 
away,  petitioned  the  board  that  her  husband's  brother  Samuel 
might  be  compelled  to  pay  her  the  allowance  her  husband  had 
ordered  him  to  pay  for  that  she  and  her  child  were  destitute. 
When  Samuel  Douglas  came  before  the  board  he  declared  that  he 
had  no  property  of  his  brother's  in  his  hands,  but  that,  instead, 
his  brother  owed  him  nearly  five  pounds. 

An  important  event  in  the  history  of  Annapolis  early  in  the 
period  under  review  was  the  organizing  there  of  the  Fortieth 
regiment  of  foot  under  Governor  Philipps,  on  the  25th  of  Au- 
gust, 1717.  At  this  time  there  were  four  independent  companies 
of  foot  in  the  garrison,  left  from  the  force  that  came  from 
Boston  in  1710  for  the  capture,  and  there  existed  also  four  other 
companies  at  Placentia,  in  Newfoundland.41  Under  royal  in- 
structions, Philipps,  who  was  commissioned  colonel  of  the  regi- 
ment, though  he  had  not  yet  come  to  Nova  Scotia,  now  welded 
these  eight  companies  into  a  regiment  of  the  line,  and  henceforth 


41.  The  garrison  that  was  left  at  Annapolis  immediately  after  the  capture  is 
said  to  have  consisted  of  "two  hundred  marines  and  two  hundred  and  fifty  New 
England  volunteers." 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 


399 


until  1749,  the  troops  that  garrisoned  both  Annapolis  Royal  and 
Canso,  as  well  as  Placentia,  belonging  to  this  regiment.  The 
first  officers  commissioned  in  the  regiment  were  all  except  Cap- 
tain Paul  Mascarene  British  born  men,  and  Mascarene,  al- 
though born  in  France  and  educated  in  Switzerland,  had  before 
coming  to  New  England  been  naturalized  in  England  and  had 
received  there  a  commission  in  the  British  army.  Later  the 
regiment  naturally  drew  within  its  ranks  a  number  of  the  sons 
of  military  or  civil  officials  resident  at  Annapolis,  where  some 
of  these  young  officers  took  wives  from  among  the  Annapolis 
girls.  In  1739  nine  out  of  the  ten  companies  that  the  Fortieth 
then  comprised  were  stationed  in  Nova  Scotia,  the  tenth  being  at 
Placentia.  Of  the  nine  companies  in  Nova  Scotia,  comprising 
in  all  about  a  hundred  and  fifty-five  private  soldiers,  besides  the 
officers,  five  were  stationed  at  Annapolis  Royal,  four  at  Canso.42 
For  much  of  the  long  period  of  its  history  as  a  British  fort, 
the  fort  of  Annapolis  was  in  a  dilapidated  condition  and  the  gar- 
rison, neglected  by  the  absent  colonel  of  the  40th  and  governor 
in  chief  of  the  province,  wyas  in  a  pitiful  state.  The  next  year 
after  the  capture,  Vetch  sent  Lawrence  Armstrong  to  England 
to  try  to  induce  the  Lords  of  Trade  to  give  him  aid  in  repairing 
and  strengthening  the  place,  which  had  been  left  in  sad  condition 
by  the  French.  The  fortifications  he  describes  as  "in  form  a 
regular  square,  with  four  bastions  made  up  of  earth  and  sod- 
work;  the  earth  a  loose  gravel  or  sand,  subject  to  damage  by 
every  thaw,  and  to  great  breaches  which  happened  by  the  fall  of 
the  walls  into  the  ditch  till  a  method  was  found  to  revest  the 
works  with  timber  from  the  bottom  of  the  ditch  to  the  friezes, 


42.  We  learn  about  the  regiment  in  1739  from  a  letter  of  Governor  Philipps 
to  the  Duke  of  Newcastle  in  this  year.  For  a  detailed  history  of  the  40th,  see  "His- 
tory of  the  Fortieth  (2nd  Somersetshire  Regiment),  now  ist  Battalion  the  Prince  of 
Wales's  Volunteers  (South  Lancashire  Regiment),  from  its  foundation  in  1717  to 
1893.  By  Captain  R.  H.  Raymond  Smythies."  600  pages,  printed  at  Devonport,  Eng- 
land, in  1894.  The  officers  at  its  formation  were :  Colonel,  Richard  Philipps  ;  Major, 
Alexander  Cosby;  Captains,  John  Caulfield,  Lawrence  Armstrong,  Paul  Mascarene, 
Christopher  Aldridge,  John  Williams;  Lieutenants,  Tames  Campbell,  John  Jephson, 
Edward  Bradstreet;  Ensigns,  James  Erskine,  John  Keeting.  In  1739  the  French 
garrison  at  Louisburg  consisted  of  six  companies  of  regular  troops,  of  60  men 
each,  and  a  company  of  Swiss  of  120  men.  There  was  another  company  of  French 
soldiers  at  St.  Peter's,  four  leagues  from  Canso,  and  still  another  in  the  Island  of 
St.  John  (P.  E.  I.).  Canso,  where  there  was  a  small  British  force,  was  without 
proper  barracks  or  storehouses  for  the  troops. 


400          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

eighteen  feet,  and  above  that  with  four  feet  of  sod,  the  greatest 
part  of  which  being  done  while  General  Nicholson  was  last 
here. ' '  The  houses  and  barracks  where  the  officers  and  soldiers 
lodged,  with  the  storehouses  and  magazines,  he  describes  as  "in 
a  ruinous  condition,  and  not  like  to  stand  three  years  without 
thorough  repair."  Arriving  in  England,  Armstrong  told  the 
Board  that  the  garrison  was  dependent  on  New  England  for 
supplies  and  that  the  Boston  merchants  who  furnished  these  de- 
manded exorbitant  prices.  He  therefore  advised  the  settlement 
at  and  about  the  town  of  Annapolis  of  a  sufficient  number  of 
British  people  to  produce  the  things  the  garrison  and  the  town 
most  needed,  and  suggested  that  Annapolis  be  made  a  free  port. 
The  natural  resources  of  the  province  of  which  Annapolis  was 
the  capital  he  urged  as  being  very  great. 

In  a  letter  to  the  Duke  of  Newcastle,  September  5,  1739,  Gov- 
ernor Philipps  describes  the  fort  as  built  of  earth,  with  four 
bastions,  faced  with  picquets  to  keep  it  together,  and  surrounded 
with  a  small,  shallow  dry  ditch,  about  six  feet  deep. ' '  The  chan- 
nel in  Annapolis  Basin,  he  says,  is  of  sufficient  depth  to  allow 
men-of-war  of  from  twenty  to  fifty  guns  to  come  within  a  cable's 
length  of  the  fort.  In  1743,  Mascarene  writes  the  Duke  of  New- 
castle that  the  fort  "is  apt  to  tumble  down  in  heavy  rains  or  in 
thaws  after  frosty  weather,  as  it  is  formed  of  earth  of  a  sandy 
and  pliable  nature.  To  prevent  this  a  revestment  of  timber  had 
been  made  use  of,  which  soon  decaying  remedies  the  evil  but  for 
a  short  time,  so  that  for  these  many  years  past  there  has  been 
only  a  continual  patching. ' ' 

In  1721,  Mascarene  describes  the  appearance  of  Annapolis 
Eoyal  as  follows:  "Two  leagues  above  Goat  Island  [in  the 
Basin  of  Annapolis]  is  the  fort,  seated  on  a  sandy,  rising  ground 
on  the  south  side  of  the  river,  on  a  point  formed  by  the  British 
River  and  another  small  one  called  the  Jenny  River.  The  .lower 
town  lies  along  the  first,  and  is  commanded  by  the  fort.  The 
upper  town  stretches  in  scattering  houses  a  mile  and  a  half 
southeast  from  the  fort  on  the  rising  ground  between  the  two 
rivers.  From  this  rising  ground  to  the  banks  of  each  river,  and 
on  the  other  side  of  the  less  one,  lie  large  flats  or  meadows,  etc. 
On  both  sides  of  the  British  River  are  a  great  many  fine  farms, 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          401 

inhabited  by  about  two  hundred  families."  In  1743,  he  writes: 
The  town  ''consists  of  two  streets,  the  one  extending  along  the 
river  side  and  the  other  along  the  neck  of  land,  the  extremities 
whereof  are  of  a  quarter  of  a  mile  distant  from  the  fort." 

Concerning  the  history  of  many  of  the  families  of  Annapolis 
Royal  during  the  forty  years  under  consideration  we  are  not 
very  well  informed.  In  the  following  brief  sketches,  however, 
some  important  facts  concerning  the  heads  and  other  members 
of  a  few  of  them,  and  especially  concerning  the  families'  inter- 
relationships, will  be  found.  If  records  of  their  ministerial 
acts  were  ever  kept  by  the  garrison  chaplains  we  do  not  know 
where  they  are,  consequently  of  the  dates  of  many  baptisms  and 
marriages  performed  during  the  period  we  are  and  probably 
always  shall  be  entirely  ignorant. 

JOHN  ADAMS,  born  in  1673,  who  in  1710  went  from  Boston  in 
Sir  Charles  Hobby's  regiment  to  the  capture  of  Annapolis  Roy- 
al, is  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  figures  in  the  history  of  An- 
napolis during  a  large  part  of  this  period  of  forty  years.43  Adams 
was  the  eldest  of  three  brothers  who  were  probably  sons  of  a 
John  Adams,  of  Boston,  who  in  1690  and  later  had  a  wife  Avis, 


43.  John  Adams  of  Boston,  cordwainer,  whose  wife  in  1690  was  Avis,  re- 
ceives a  deed  from  Nathaniel  Williams,  executor  of  the  will  of  John  Morse  of 
Boston,  Dec.  20,  1688.  John  and  Avis  sell  the  property  thus  deeded  Jan.  19,  1690,  to 
Abraham  Blish.  According  to  the  Old  South  Church  register  a  John  and  Avis 
Adams  have  children  baptized  as  follows:  William,  Feb.  12,  1692-3;  John,  Nov.  5, 
1693-4;  Ebenezer,  Dec.  23,  1693-4.  Less  than  three  years  after  he  graduated  from 
college,  Rev.  Hugh  Adams  is  said  to  have  written  his  "dearly  beloved  brother  John 
Adams,  shop-keeper,  Boston,"  from  Charleston,  S.  C.,  announcing  the  death,  on  the 
23rd  of  Feb.,  1699-1700,  we  suppose  at  Charleston,  of  "our  godly  mother  Avis 
Adams."  In  some  other  writing,  possibly  a  diary,  perhaps  a  letter,  the  date  of  which 
we  do  not  know,  Rev.  Hugh  Adams  mentions  with  solicitude  his  "eldest  brother 
John's"  having  gone  to  Annapolis  Royal  with  a  company  in  Sir  Charles  Hobby's 
regiment.  If  John  Adams  was  the  eldest  of  these  three  Adams  brothers  he  must 
have  been  born  as  early  as  1672-1674,  and  we  can  hardly  believe  that  the  mother  of 
these  men  was  still  bearing  children  as  late  as  1692-93.  Avis  Adams  may  therefore 
have  been  not  the  own  mother,  but  the  stepmother  of  John,  Matthew,  and  Hugh 
although  Hugh  calls  her  their  mother.  For  important  mentions  of  this  Adams 
family,  which  was  quite  distinct  from  the  Adams  family  of  Braintree,  see  the  New 
England  Historical  and  Genealogical  Register,  Vol.  10,  pp.  89-91,  and  Vol.  32,  pp. 
J32»  J33-  In  the  latter  notice,  however,  the  list  of  John  Adams's  children  is  not 
correctlv  given. 

Of  Rev.  John  Adams,  son  of  John  Adams,  the  Councillor,  excellent  notices  will 
be  found  in  Duyckink's  "Cyclopoedia  of  American  Literature,"  and  the  "National 
Encyclopoedia  of  American  Biography."  This  young  clergyman,  the  first  poet  reared 
in  Nova  Scotia,  is  said  to  have  been  besides  a  poet,  an  eloquent  preacher,  a  master  of 
nine  languages,  and  a  generally  brilliant  man.  He  died  unmarried  at  Cambridge, 
Mass.,  Jan.  22,  1740,  at  the  early  age  of  thirty-six. 


402          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

but  of  whose  origin  and  history  we  at  present  know  absolutely 
nothing.  The  younger  brothers  of  John  were  Matthew,  a  mer- 
chant of  Boston  and  a  lover  and  collector  of  books,  and  Rev. 
Hugh,  a  Congregational  minister,  born  in  1676,  who  was  long 
pastor  of  the  church  at  Oyster  River,  now  Durham,  New  Hamp- 
shire, his  college  education  having  been  obtained  at  Harvard, 
where  he  graduated  in  1697. 

From  some  letter  or  diary  of  his  brother  Hugh  we  learn  that 
John  Adams  went  in  a  company  in  Sir  Charles  Hobby's  regi- 
ment to  the  capture  of  Port  Royal  in  1710,  and  in  Annapolis 
Adams  must  have  established  himself  as  a  trader  with  Boston 
very  soon  after  the  capture  was  effected.  In  the  town,  as 
a  person  of  importance,  Governor  Philipps  found  him  in  1720, 
and  when  Philipps  organized  the  council,  he  soon  appointed  him 
one  of  this  board.  On  the  28th  of  April,  1720,  Adams  took  his 
seat  on  the  council,  and  henceforth  until  1740  there  was  no  more 
active  member  of  the  Nova  Scotia  government  than  he.  In 
1725  he  was  appointed  Deputy  Collector  of  the  port,  and  when 
Col.  Lawrence  Armstrong,  lieutenant-governor  of  the  province, 
committed  suicide,  December  5,  1739,  Mr.  Adams  as  senior  coun- 
cillor in  residence  assumed  charge  of  the  government.  The  actual 
senior  member  of  the  council,  however,  was  Mr.  Paul  Mascarene, 
who  had  been  appointed  councillor  three  days  earlier  than 
Adams,  and  the  following  March,  when  Mascarene  returned  from 
Boston,  where  he  had  been  spending  the  winter,  he  relieved  Mr. 
Adams  of  the  charge.  In  a  short  time,  it  is  said,  blindness  com- 
pelled Adams  to  relinquish  his  duties  at  Annapolis  and  he  then 
returned  to  Boston,  where  we  hear  little  more  of  him.  In  the 
records  of  council  we  find  intimations  that  he  was  not  very  well 
off,  and  in  1732,  though  he  could  not  then  have  been  much  over 
fifty-nine,  we  find  that  he  was  infirm  and  was  considered  old.  In 
1742,  in  Boston,  it  is  said  he  gave  his  wife  Hannah  power  of 
attorney  over  his  affairs. 

Who  or  when  John  Adams  married  in  Boston  we  are  not  able 
to  say,  nor  do  we  know  whether  he  had  one  wife  or  two.  Con- 
cerning the  full  number  of  his  children  we  are  likewise  ignorant, 
but  the  following  children,  baptized  in  the  Old  South  parish, 
Boston,  we  know  to  have  been  his.  By  the  register  of  this 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          403 

church  we  find  that  John  and  his  wife  Hannah  Adams  had 
children:  Hannah,  baptized  September  17,  1699;  Anne,  Decem- 
ber 21,  1701 ;  and  John,  March  26,  1704.  Of  these  children  Han- 
nah became  at  Annapolis  the  wife  of  Hibbert  Newton,  Anne,  we 
have  reason  to  believe  became  the  wife  of  Dr.  John  Skene,  and 
John,  who  graduated  at  Harvard  in  1721,  became  a  Congrega- 
tional clergyman  (and  a  poet  of  some  note)  and  was  settled  at 
Newport,  Rhode  Island  and  in  Philadelphia.  A  third  daughter 
of  John  Adams,  whose  name,  however,  we  do  not  know,  undoubt- 
edly became  at  Annapolis  the  wife  of  Major  Otho  Hamilton, 
for  the  wife  of  Major  Hamilton,  we  learn  from  this  gentleman's 
will,  was  a  sister  of  Mrs.  Anne  Skene. 

On  the  12th  of  March,  1742,  John  Adams  writes  from  Bos- 
ton to  the  English  Lords  of  Trade :  "I  would  have  returned  to 
Annapolis  before  now,  but  there  was  no  chaplain  in  the  garrison 
to  administer  God's  word  and  sacraments  to  the  people;  but  the 
officers  and  soldiers  in  the  garrison  have  profaned  the  holy  sac- 
raments of  baptism  and  ministerial  function  by  presuming  to 
baptize  their  own  children.  Why  His  Majesty's  chaplain  does 
not  come  to  his  duty  I  know  not,  but  I  am  persuaded  it  is  a  dis- 
service and  dishonor  to  our  religion  and  nation;  and  as  I  have 
heard,  some  have  got  their  children  baptized  by  the  Popish 
priests,  for  there  has  been  no  chaplain  here  for  these  four 
years."44 

MAJOR  CHRISTOPHER  ABRIDGE  was  undoubtedly  of  British 
birth,  his  various  commissions  in  the  army  being  as  follows: 
Lieutenant,  April  6,  1706,  Captain,  August  24,  1711,  and  Captain 
in  the  40th,  August  25,  1717.  Some  time  before  1735,  he  was 
made  ' '  civil  and  military  commandant  at  Canso, ' '  in  which  com- 
mand says  the  history  of  Annapolis,  he  was  superseded  by  Ma- 
jor Mascarene.  May  13,  1727,  Captain  Aldridge,  together  with 
Captain  Joseph  Bennett,  Captain  John  Blower,  and  Thomas 
Cosby,  Esq.,  "the  commissary  of  provisions  and  fort  major," 
was  admitted  to  the  council,  but  precisely  how  long  he  remained 
in  Nova  Scotia  we  do  not  at  present  know.  February  11,  1745, 
then  " Major  Aldridge,"  he  made  his  will  in  Boston,  where  he 


44.     Murdoch's   "History   of   Nova    Scotia,"   Vol.  2,  p.    17,   and   Eaton's   "The 
Church  of  England  in  Nova  Scotia,"  pp.  21,  22. 


404          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

was  residing,  and  April  1,  1746,  the  will  was  proved.  The  chief 
persons  mentioned  in  the  will  are  his  son,  Christopher,  his 
daughter  Mary  Bradstreet,  his  daughter  Elizabeth  Jepson,  and 
his  daughter  Martha  Newgent. 

LIEUTENANT  EDWARD  AMHURST'S  name  appears  first  in  the 
council  minutes  in  July,  1733.  Amhurst  (or  Amherst)  we  sup- 
pose was  an  Englishman,  but  of  his  origin  we  know  nothing.  He 
was  commissioned  ensign  of  the  40th  regiment  either  March 
12  or  May  13,  1722,  lieutenant  April  3,  1733,  and  captain-lieuten- 
ant July  25,  1748.  For  several  years,  until  at  least  1739,  he  was 
deputy  surveyor  at  Annapolis,  and  in  1740  he  and  John  Hand- 
field  were  executors  of  Lieutenant-Governor  Lawrence  Arm- 
strong's will.  In  1749  he  was  in  England,  and  when  the  Corn- 
wallis  fleet  sailed  for  Chebucto  he  came  with  it.  Later,  Dr. 
Aldus  says,  he  became  a  major  and  commanded  the  troops  at 
Placentia,  in  Newfoundland.  He  had  a  family,  for  a  great- 
grandson  of  his  was  the  Hon.  Sir  William  Fenwick  Williams, 
Bart.,  lieutenant-governor  of  Nova  Scotia  in  the  year  1867. 

An  important  person  at  Annapolis  Royal  during  the  period 
under  review  was  MAJOR  (afterward  Lieutenant-Colonel)  OTHO 
HAMILTON  of  the  Fortieth  Regiment,  and  from  1731  unitl  prob- 
ably 1744,  a  member  of  the  council.  Major  Hamilton  was  prob- 
ably one  of  the  young  recruits  who  came  out  from  England  with 
or  soon  after  Nicholson  and  Vetch,  for  the  reduction  of  Port 
Royal,  his  ensign's  commission  bearing  date  June  16,  1710.  In 
1714  he  was  ensign  in  Captain  J.  Williams 's  independent  com- 
pany at  Annapolis  Royal,  and  when  this  company  was  incorpor- 
ated into  the  Fortieth  he  of  course  became  an  officer  of  that  now 
famous  regiment.  On  the  9th  of  August,  1718,  he  was  made 
lieutenant  of  the  40th,  July  8,  1734,  captain-lieutenant,  Septem- 
ber 3,  1739f,  captain,  and  January  30,  1746,  major.  In  1744, 
Henry  Cope,  Lieutenant-Governor  of  the  town  and  garrison  of 
Placentia,  in  Newfoundland,  died,  and  by  a  proclamation  dated 
at  St.  James's  December  25th  of  that  year  Captain  Hamilton 
was  appointed  in  his  place.  In  1761  Hamilton  resigned  from 
the  40th,  but  he  must  have  been  made  almost  immediately  a  lieu- 
tenant-colonel in  the  army.  On  the  26th  of  February,  1770,  still 
as  Lieutenant-Governor  of  Placentia,  he  died  at  Waterford,  Ire- 


405 

land,  where  he  seems  to  have  established  a  home.  Colonel  Ham- 
ilton married  at  Annapolis  Royal  a  sister  of  Anne,  wife  of  Dr. 
William  Skene,  who  it  seems  certain  was  a  daughter  of  Mr.  John 
Adams.  The  first  name  of  Mrs.  Hamilton  we  do  not  know,  and 
we  are  also  uncertain  when  and  where  she  died.  The  children 
she  bore  her  husband  were  three,  John  Hamilton,  who  was  for 
some  time  an  officer  of  the  40th,  but  who  resigned  from  the  army 
in  1766  and  went  to  live  at  Waterford ;  Otho,  Jr.,  who  entered 
the  40th  as  ensign  in  1744,  and  in  1770  became  lieutenant-colonel 
of  the  59th,  and  who  died  in  England  in  1811;  and  a  daughter 
Grizel,  who  became  the  wife  of  Colonel  Richard  Dawson  of  the 
Engineers,  an  officer  who  in  1780  was  governor  of  the  Isle  of 
Man.  Otho  Hamilton,  Sr.,  of  Annapolis  Royal,  was  the  youngest 
son  of  Colonel  Thomas  Hamilton  of  Edinburgh,  of  the  Olivestob 
Hamiltons,  and  his  wife  Grizel  (Hamilton),  and  was  born  in 
Edinburgh  about  1690.  He  died,  at  Waterford,  Ireland,  we 
suppose,  some  time  in  the  year  1770.45 

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL,  JOHN  HANDFiELD  was  probably,  like 
Hamilton,  Shirreff,  and  Skene,  a  Scotsman,  but  precisely  how 
early  he  came  to  Annapolis  Royal  we  do  not  know.  He  was 
commissioned  ensign  in  the  40th  regiment  February  26,  1720, 
lieutenant  April  12,  1731,  captain  March  22,  1740,  major  October 
15,  1754,  and  lieutenant-colonel  March  18,  1758.  He  died  at 
Waterford.  Ireland,  a  brevet  colonel  it  is  said,  in  1788.  In  1755, 
when  the  Acadians  were  expelled  he  was  in  command  of  the  fort 
at  Annapolis,  and  obeying  orders  he  assisted  in  removing  these 
unhappy  people  from  the  town  and  the  country  about.  In  1759 
he  was  still  in  service,  probably  at  the  same  place. 

Colonel  Handfield's  wife  was  Elizabeth  Winniett,  a  sister  of 
Mrs.  Alexander  Cosby  and  Mrs.  Edward  How.     At  what  time 


45.  For  a  pretty  full  account  of  Lieutenant  Colonel  Otho  Hamilton  and  his 
family  see  a  monograph  by  this  writer  published  at  Halifax,  Nova  Scotia,  in  1899. 
The  title  of  this  is  "Lt.-Col.  Otho  Hamilton  of  Olivestob,  His  Sons,  Capt.  John  and 
Lt.-Col.  Otho  Hamilton,  2nd,  and  his  Grandson  Sir  Ralph  Hamilton,  Kt.  Judge  Cur- 
wen  of  Salem  when  he  was  in  England  at  the  time  of  the  American  Revolution 
speaks  (see  "Journal  and  Letters,"  p.  247)  of  meeting  at  Liverpool,  Mrs.  Grizel 
Dawson,  a  native  of  Nova  Scotia,  whose  husband  was  then  governor  of  the  Isle  of 
Man.  In  Vol.  9,  "Nova  Scotia  Record  Commission,"  under  date  of  August  15, 
1726,  we  find  an  interesting  letter  from  Otho  Hamilton  to  Major  Mascarene  at 
Boston,  sent  as  the  writer  says  by  Mrs.  Hamilton,  his  wife.  The  letter  treats  of 
the  garrison  stores,  of  Mascarene's  man  "Will,"  etc.,  etc.  Judge  Curwen's  meeting 
with  Mrs.  Dawson  was  on  June  12,  1780. 


406          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

he  married  we  do  not  know,  but  in  1731  he  petitioned  the  coun- 
cil for  a  formal  grant  of  a  garden  plot  behind  the  house  that  he 
had  built  at  a  considerable  charge,  for  the  convenience  of  his 
family.  Of,  we  believe,  his  sons,  William  Handfield  was  com- 
missioned ensign  of  the  40th,  December  1,  1745,  lieutenant  Sep- 
tember 1,  1749,  and  adjutant  July  4,  1758 ;  John  Handfield,  Jr., 
1st  lieutenant  of  the  40th,  July  1,  1755 ;  George  Handfield,  en- 
sign of  the  40th  September  13,  1760,  and  lieutenant  April  8,  1762. 
His  daughter  Mary  was  married  at  Annapolis  August  15,  1752, 
to  Lieutenant  John  Hamilton  (elder  son  of  Col.  Otho  Hamilton), 
who  is  said  to  have  been  then  a  young  widower.  In  the  absence 
of  a  chaplain  to  the  garrison  Captain  Handfield  himself  per- 
formed the  marriage.46 

The  first  Protestant  chaplain  settled  at  Annapolis  Royal  was 
the  REV.  JOHN  HARRISON,  we  presume  a  native  of  England.  In 
the  journal  of  General  Nicholson  we  find  the  following  entry: 
"Tuesday  the  10th  [October,  1710],  was  solemnized  a  day  of 
Thanksgiving  for  the  success  of  Her  Majesty's  Arms  in  reduc- 
ing Port  Royal,  etc.,  being  so  appointed  by  the  General.  After 
Divine  Service  which  was  performed  in  the  Chapel  by  the  Rev- 
erend Mr.  John  Harrison,  Chaplain  to  Commodore  Martin  (and 
now  left  Chaplain  to  the  Garrison  by  commission  from  the  Gen- 
eral, a  sermon  was  preached  by  the  Reverend  Mr.  Samuel  Hes- 
ker,  Chaplain  to  the  Hon.  Col.  Reading's  Marines."  Later  Gen- 
eral Nicholson  records  that  he  was  pleased  to  "  commissionate, " 
before  he  left  Boston  for  Port  Royal,  among  other  officers, 
"  John  Harrison,  Clerk,  Chaplain  to  the  Garrison  of  Annapolis 
Royal."  In  1720,  as  we  have  seen,  Governor  Philipps  chose  Mr. 
Harrison  one  of  the  first  members  of  the  new  council  he  ap- 
pointed.47 

CAPTAIN  EDWARD  How,  possibly  one  of  the  Hows  of  Sudbury, 
Massachusetts,  appears  either  at  Annapolis  Royal  or  at  Canso 


46.  Of  British  officers  serving  in  America  after  the  middle  of  the  :8th  century 
there  was  a  John  Handfield  who  was  Lieut,  of  the  43d  March  7,  1762,  and  Lieut.- 
Capt.  of  the  6sth  Oct.  18,  1762;  a  Thomas  Handfield  who  was  ensign  of  the  47th 
May  23,  1759;  and  an  Edward  Handfield,  ensign  of  the  22d  Dec.  2,  1759,  and  Lieut, 
of  the  22nd  April  2,  1762.     A  William  Handfield,  also,  was  Captain  of  the  94th 
May  5,  1762. 

47.  See  the  writer's  "The  Church  of  England  in  Nova  Scotia  and  the  Tory 
Clergy  of  the  Revolution,"  pp.  16-18. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          407 

as  early  as  1714.  He  was  a  sea-captain  and  trader,  and  for  a 
long  time  his  headquarters  was  at  Canso,  where  he  served  as  a 
justice  of  the  peace.  It  would  seem  that  he  had  an  important 
part  in  supplying  the  garrisons  at  Annapolis  Royal  and  Canso 
with  goods  from  Boston.  Somewhere  about  1720  he  married 
at  Annapolis  Mary  Magdalen  Winniett,  daughter  of  William 
Winniett  the  merchant  and  ship-owner  there,  and  in  1736  be- 
came a  member  of  the  council.  In  this  body  his  importance  was 
so  great  that  when  Cornwallis  came  in  1749  this  governor  made 
him  the  second  member  of  the  council  he  created  on  board  the 
Beaufort  in  Halifax  harbour.  At  the  battle  of  Grand  Pre  in 
1747,  in  which  Colonel  Arthur  Noble  and  his  brother  Major  James 
Noble  lost  their  lives  by  the  French,  How  was  present  as  com- 
missary to  the  small  body  of  troops  at  Minas  and  was  wounded. 
Less  than  three  years  later,  in  October,  1750,  at  the  instigation  of 
the  priest  Le  Loutre  he  was  "treacherously  and  barbarously" 
murdered  near  Beaubassin,  leaving  a  widow  and  a  large  family 
of  children,  the  youngest  of  whom  was  but  a  few  months  old.  In 
1759  Mrs.  How,  who  was  very  poor,  petitioned  the  lords  of 
trade  in  England  for  a  grant  of  eleven  hundred  and  eighty 
pounds,  eighteen  shillings,  and  sixpence,  which  she  claimed  was 
due  her  husband  from  the  government  of  Nova  Scotia  at  his 
death.  Her  claim  was  considered  by  the  council  at  Halifax  and 
she  was  awarded  the  sum  of  nine  hundred  and  forty-eight 
pounds,  and  sixpence,  which  sum  the  council  charged  to  the  con- 
tingent account  of  the  settlement.  On  the  23d  of  November, 
1763,  Mrs.  How  petitioned  for  the  balance  of  her  claim,  but  she 
never  received  any  more.  Of  Captain  How  himself,  Murdoch 
says :  '  *  The  esteem  he  won  while  living,  the  general  usefulness 
of  his  conduct  as  an  early  founder  of  our  colony,  and  the  "cruel 
circumstances  of  his  death,  commend  his  memory  to  us  who 
enjoy  a  happy,  peaceful,  and  prosperous  home  [in  the  colony]." 
Of  Captain  How's  sons,  William,  who  was  probably  the  eldest, 
settled  in  Cumberland  county,  Nova  Scotia,  Edward  probably 
died  at  Annapolis  Royal,  one  son  became  an  officer  in  the  Royal 
Fusiliers,  Joseph  entered  the  navy,  and  Alexander,  who  became 
a  member  of  the  Nova  Scotia  assembly,  married  Margaret  Green, 
a  granddaughter  of  Hon.  Benjamin  Green.  Of  his  daughters, 


408          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

Deborah  was  married  to  Captain  Samuel  Cottnam  of  the  40th 
regiment,  and  one,  whose  name  we  do  not  know  became,  we 
believe,  the  first  wife  of  Col.  Winckworth  Tonge. 

The  first  collector  of  the  port  of  Annapolis  was  HIBBERT  NEW- 
TON, who  was  made  by  Philipps  one  of  the  first  members  of  the 
council  he  formed.  Mr.  Newton  was  the  only  son  of  Judge 
Thomas  Newton,  of  Boston,  a  highly  important  member  of  the 
early  Massachusetts  bar,  and  one  of  the  founders  and  prom- 
inent supporters  of  King's  Chapel.  How  long  Hibbert  Newton 
remained  a  member  of  the  Nova  Scotia  council  we  do  not  know, 
but  his  collectorship  of  the  port,  and  we  believe  of  Canso  as  well, 
lasted,  in  the  former  case  until  his  death  in  1751,  and  in  the  latter 
probably  until  the  settlement  of  Canso  was  destroyed  by  Du 
Vivier  in  1744.  In  July,  1725,  Mr.  Newton  went  to  Canso  ap- 
parently to  reside  for  some  time  and  Mr.  John  Adams  was  made 
deputy  collector  at  Annapolis,  but  how  long  he  remained  at 
Canso  we  do  not  know.  After  this  period  do  not  again  find 
him  sitting  on  the  council  board. 

Mr.  Newton  married  at  Annapolis  Hannah  Adams,  a  daugh- 
ter of  John  Adams,  she  being  baptized  in  the  Old  South  parish, 
Boston,  September  17,  1699.  At  the  founding  of  Halifax  the 
chief  collectorship  of  the  province  was  transferred  to  that  place 
and  Mr.  Newton  probably  but  not  certainly  removed  there.  At 
his  death  his  son  Henry  was  made  collector  in  his  place,  and  the 
son  also  filled  this  office  until  his  death.  Conspicuous  tablets 
to  members  of  the  Newton  family  will  be  found  on  the  walls  of 
King's  Chapel,  Boston,  and  St.  Paul's  Church,  Halifax.  Hib- 
bert Newton  had  several  sons,48  one  of  whom,  Hibbert,  was  com- 
missioned ensign  in  the  40th  Regiment,  May  12,  1746,  another, 
Phillips,  ensign  in  the  40th,  April  29,  1750. 

ARTHUR  SAVAGE,  who  before  1710,  was  a  merchant  doing  busi- 
ness on  Long  Wharf  and  dealing  in  West  Indian  products,  must 
have  so  ingratiated  himself  with  Governor  Philipps  during  the 
latter 's  stay  in  Boston  from  October,  1919,  to  April,  1720,  that 
Philipps  decided  to  take  him  to  Annapolis  and  make  him  secre- 


48.  For  an  important  sketch  of  Hibbert  Newton  and  of  this  Newton  family 
generally,  see  the  writer's  sketch  of  Hibbert  Newton  in  the  "N.  E.  Hist,  and  Gen. 
Register,"  Vol.  68  (Jan.,  1914),  pp.  101-103.  Henry  Newton  died  in  1802. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          409 

tary  of  the  council  he  was  to  form  on  his  arrival  there.  In  May, 
1714,  he  was  captain  of  the  Massachusetts  Province  galley  "sail- 
ing to  foreign  ports, ' '  and  it  is  quite  possible  that  in  this  vessel 
he  took  Philipps  to  his  new  post.  At  any  rate,  he  must  have 
accompanied  the  governor,  for  immediately  after  Philipps  came 
to  Annapolis  he  was  appointed  by  him  both  naval  officer  and 
secretary  of  the  province.  On  the  6th  of  May  he  was  admitted 
to  the  council,  but  in  1725  he  was  again  living  at  Boston.  Wheth- 
er the  fact  that  Savage's  wife's  maiden  name  was  Phillipps  (not 
Philipps),  and  that  Governor  Philipps  may  have  been  intimate 
with  members  of  the  Phillips  family  in  Boston,  had  anything  to 
do  with  the  governor 's  interest  in  Savage  we  do  not  know.  Sav- 
age married  June  1,  1710,  Faith  Phillips,  of  Boston,  his  cousin 
once  removed,  whose  brother  Gillam  Phillips  was  admitted  to 
the  council  in  August,  1720,  but  seems  never  afterwards  to  have 
taken  his  place  at  the  council  board.  Arthur  Savage  died  at  his 
house  in  Brattle  Square,  Boston,  after  a  tedious  illness,  April 
20,  1735.49 

WILLIAM  SHIEREFF,  probably  born  in  Scotland,  appears  first  in 
the  "Governor's  Letter-Book"  in  1715,  and  last  in  the 
"Commission  Book"  in  1739.  Shirreff  was  introduced 
into  the  council  in  1720,  and  of  this  body  was  still  one  of 
the  most  active  and  influential  members  as  late  at  least  as  1740. 
For  a  good  deal  of  this  time  he  acted  as  secretary  of  the  board. 
His  son  probably,  named  also  William,  was  commissioned  lieu- 
tenant of  the  47th  regiment  June  25,  1755,  adjutant  of  this  regi- 
ment September  25,  1759,  and  captain-lieutenant  February  15, 
1761.  Of  his  family,  other  than  this  son,  we  know  nothing  ex- 
cept from  his  will,  which  was  proved  in  Boston  May  24,  1768 
(made  January  12,  1754).  By  this  instrument  we  see  that  his 
wife's  name  was  Elizabeth,  and  that  he  had  children,  one  of 
whom,  possibly,  was  >Charles  Shirreff,  who  was,  with  John  Ham- 
ilton and  Alexander  Hay  of  Annapolis  Royal,  a  witness  of  the 
will.  The  testament  begins,  "I  William  Shirreff  Secy  and 
Oommy  of  the  Musters  at  His  Majesty's  Garrison  of  Annapolis 
Eoyal  in  the  Province  of  Nova  Scotia,  North  America,"  etc., 


49.  See  the  Savage  Family  Genealogy,  compiled  by  Lawrence  Park,  Esq.,  in 
the  "New  England  Historical  and  Genealogical  Register,"  Vol.  67.  For  Arthur  Sav- 
age, pp.  213-215. 


410          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

etc.  His  death,  at  the  age  of  eighty-three,  is  announced  in  the 
Boston  Evening  Post.  In  this  notice  he  is  called  "formerly  an 
officer  in  the  Nova  Scotia  Government, ' '  and  is  said  to  have  died 
in  Boston  May  5,  1768. 

DR.  WILLIAM  SKENE  we  believe  to  have  been  born  in  Scotland 
and  to  have  come  to  Annapolis  Royal  probably  at  the  same  time 
as  Major  Otho  Hamilton.  He  was  appointed  to  the  council  April 
25,  1720,  was  made  naval  officer  July  22,  1725,  and  is  mentioned 
as  sitting  in  council  as  late  at  least  as  August  17,  1736.  On  the 
15th  of  September,  1758,  administration  on  his  estate,  he  having 
owned  property  in  Massachusetts  and  having  lately  died  intes- 
tate, was  granted  to  the  Rev.  Nathaniel  Walter,  of  Roxbury.  In 
this  order  of  the  Massachusetts  Probate  Court  Dr.  Skene  is 
called  "late  a  surgeon  in  his  Majesty's  Garrison  at  Annapolis 
Royal, ' '  and  such  we  know  him  to  have  been.  His  appointment 
to  this  post  bears  date  May  12,  1746,  and  he  perhaps  discharged 
its  duties  until  1757,  for  February  7th,  of  that  year  Dr.  William 
Catherwood  was  appointed  surgeon  to  the  garrison  in  his  place. 

The  wife  of  Dr.  Skene  was  with  little  doubt  Anne  Adams,  a 
daughter  of  Mr.  John  Adams,  of  the  Annapolis  Council.  After 
her  husband's  death  Mrs.  Skene  seems  to  have  resided  at  the 
house  of  the  Rev.  Nathaniel  Walter  in  Roxbury,50  the  reason  for 
this,  as  for  Mr.  Walter's  having  administered  on  her  husband's 
estate,  we  can  only  conjecture.  On  the  16th  of  June,  1758,  war- 
rant was  given  the  selectmen  of  Roxbury  to  inquire  into  Mrs. 
Skene 's  mental  condition,  and  this  body  after  seeing  the  "gen- 
tlewoman" at  the  house  of  Mr.  Walter  reported  that  they  had 
found  her  of  sound  mind.  Their  report  to  this  effect,  in  which 
they  speak  of  her  as  not  really  belonging  to  Roxbury  but  only  re- 
siding there,  bears  date  July  7,  1758.  On  the  23d  of  May,  1772, 
administration  on  Mrs.  Skene 's  small  estate  was  granted  in  Mas- 
sachusetts to  John  Newton,  of  Halifax  (no  doubt  her  nephew), 


50.  A  temporary  New  England  resident  in  Nova  Scotia,  probably  at  Annapo- 
lis Royal,  at  a  very  early  time,  was  the  Rev.  Nehemiah  Walter,  founder  in  the  second 
generation  from  England  of  the  well-known  Walter  family  of  Boston  and  Rox- 
bury and  father  of  Rev.  Nathaniel  Walter.  Nehemiah  Walter,  who  was  born  in 
Ireland  December,  1663,  graduated  at  Harvard  in  1684,  and  shortly  after  went  to 
Nova  Scotia  to  study  French.  In  a  few  months  he  returned  to  Boston  having  at- 
tained so  much  proficiency  in  the  language  as  to  be  able  to  preach  in  it  in  the  absence 
of  their  minister  to  a  congregation  of  French  refugees  in  Boston.  See  "N.  E.  Hist, 
and  Gen.  Register,"  Vol.  8,  p.  209. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          411 

Joshua  Green  and  Joseph  Barrell,  of  Boston,  becoming  bound 
with  him  for  the  proper  discharge  of  the  trust.  In  the  will  of 
Lieutenant  Colonel  Otho  Hamilton,  made  at  Waterford,  Ireland, 
August  23,  1768,  the  testator  leaves  ten  pounds  sterling  annu- 
ally to  his  wife's  sister,  Mrs.  Anne  Skene,  a  pension  she  was 
receiving  not  being,  Col.  Hamilton  says,  enough  for  her  sup- 
port.51 

One  of  the  first  members  of  the  council  appointed  by  General 
Philipps  in  1720  was  CAPTAIN  CYPRIAN  SOUTHACK,  who  though 
born  in  England  spent  most  of  his  life  on  the  American  continent. 
Captain  Southack  was  a  son  of  Lieutenant  Cyprian  Southack, 
E.  N.,  and  his  wife  Elizabeth  Oakley  and  was  born  in  London, 
March  25,  1662.  On  the  16th  of  July,  1689,  he  was  granted  by 
the  admiralty  letters  of  marque  against  the  French,  and  on  the 
29th  of  April,  1690,  in  command  of  the  Porcupine  of  sixteen 
guns,  with  a  hundred  and  seventeen  men  he  sailed  from  Boston 
with  Sir  William  Phips  on  his  expedition  against  Port  Royal. 
After  the  capture  of  the  place  Phips  sent  him  along  the  coast  to 
complete  the  work  of  conquest  and  he  is  said  to  have  been  the 
first  Englishman  who  ever  sailed  through  the  strait  of  Canso.  In 
August  he  returned  to  Boston,  and  in  1692  we  find  him  in  com- 
mand of  the  brigantine  William  and  Mary,  which  was  commis- 
sioned as  a  guard  ship  in  the  Massachusetts  service  "to  sweep 
the  French  from  the  seas. ' '  A  little  later  we  find  him  with  Cap- 
tain Short  of  H.  M.  ship  Nonsuch,  and  from  1696  to  1713  he  was 
captain  of  the  Massachusetts  Province  galley.  In  1710  he  was 
with  Nicholson  at  the  final  capture  of  Port  Royal,  and  in  1714 
was  sent  by  Governor  Dudley  and  Nicholson  as  commissioner  to 
Quebec  for  the  exchange  of  prisoners  of  war.  Two  years  later 
we  find  him  controlling  a  fishing  station  at  Port  Roseway,  Nova 
Scotia,  and  in  1720  we  see  him  appointed  a  member  of  the  coun- 
cil at  Annapolis.  From  July  1,  1721,  to  August  17,  1723,  he 
commanded  H.  M.  Schooner  William  Augustus,  which  was  built 
in  Boston  to  serve  as  the  "Government  Sloop"  of  Nova  Scotia. 
In  1723  he  returned  to  Boston  and  settled  finally  in  the  mansion 


51.  In  1741,  the  five  members  of  the  council  at  Annapolis  appointed  to  meet 
with  similar  bodies  from  the  New  England  governments  to  settle  the  boundaries 
between  Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island  were  Messrs.  Henry  Cope,  Otho  Hamil- 
ton, Erasmus  J.  Philipps,  Shirreff,  and  Skene. 


412          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

house  he  had  built  in  Southack  Street,  now  Howard  Street,  fac- 
ing the  present  Scollay  square.  On  the  27th  of  March,  1745,  he 
died,  his  remains  being  deposited  in  tomb  No.  46  in  the  Granary 
Burying  Ground,  the  slate  stone  laid  on  the  top  of  which  was 
elaborately  carved  with  his  arms. 

In  1718  Southack  was  sent  as  a  commissioner  to  the  governor 
of  Cape  Breton  to  treat  concerning  the  settlement  of  the  long 
disputed  boundaries  of  Acadia  or  Nova  Scotia,  in  1720  he  pub- 
lished a  chart  he  had  made  of  the  New  England  coast,  and  in 

1734  he  published  a  second  edition  of  this  chart.   Between  1702 
and  1739  he  frequently  served  as  vestryman  of  King's  Chapel, 
and  in  1711-12  he  was  a  warden  of  this  church.  Some  time  before 

1735  he  gave  a  clock  to  Christ  Church,  this  being  cleaned,  re- 
paired and  set  up  in  the  tower  by  Gawen  Brown  in  1749'-50.     He 
married  in  Boston,  February  19,  1690,  Elizabeth  Foy,  daughter 
of  Captain  John  and  Dorothy  Foy,  who  bore  him  eleven  children. 
Mrs.  Southack  died  in  Boston  April  5,  1741. 

WILLIAM  WINNIETT,  whom  Governor  Philipps  calls  "the  most 
considerable  merchant  and  one  of  the  first  British  inhabitants" 
of  Annapolis,  and  whom  he  describes  as  ' '  eminent  in  his  zeal ' ' 
for  the  royal  cause,  was  an  officer  in  the  force  which  took  An- 
napolis in  1710.  In  1710  or  1711,  Mr.  Winniett,  who  was  a 
Huguenot  Frenchman,  married  at  Annapolis  Magdelaine  Mais- 
sonat,  one  of  the  native  Acadians,  and  at  once  settled  in  the 
town  as  a  merchant.52  In  the  records  of  the  council  we  find  many 
mentions  of  him,  which  show  his  importance  in  the  community, 
and  reveal  his  activity  in  the  general  community  life.  One  of  his 
daughters,  as  we  have  seen,  became  the  wife  of  Major  Alexander 
Cosby,  lieutenant  governor  of  the  town,  one  the  wife  of  Lieuten- 
ant Colonel  John  Handfield  of  the  40th  regiment,  who  was  for 
a  good  while  highly  active  in  the  fort,  and  one  the  wife  of  Cap- 
tain Edward  How.  Mr.  Winniett  was  admitted  to  the  council 
on  the  21st  of  November,  1729,  but  his  connexion  with  that  body 
was  not  a  smooth  one,  for  in  1734,  the  lieutenant-governor  of  the 
province,  Hon.  Lawrence  Armstrong,  "informed  the  board  that 
he  had  summoned  William  Winniett,  Esq.,  as  usual  to  attend  the 


52.     The  Rev.  John  Harrison  performed  this  marriage,  but  on  precisely  what 
date  we  do  not  know. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          413 

council  and  that  as  he  had  frequently  refused  to  attend  by  send- 
ing frivolous  excuses,  as  appears  by  the  minutes  of  council,  and 
had  on  several  occasions  behaved  himself  disrespectfully,  that 
therefore,  and  other  reasons,  which  he  would  lay  before  his 
Majesty,  he  did  suspend  him  the  said  William  Winniett,  Esq., 
from  being  a  member  of  this  board  till  his  Majesty's  pleasure 
be  thereon  further  known."  Long  before  he  became  a  mem- 
ber of  the  council,  indeed,  Mr.  Winniett  had  so  displeased  this 
body  that  he  had  been  arrested  by  its  orders  and  had  been  con- 
fined for  some  days  in  his  own  house.  On  receiving  from  him, 
however,  shortly  after  a  letter  of  submission,  the  council  ''out  of 
their  tenderness,"  forgave  him,  and  he  was  released.  Winniett 
had  evidently  a  strong  personality  and  we  have  only  to  glance 
at  the  record  of  his  activities  which  the  printed  Archives  of  Nova 
Scotia  contain  to  see  how  important  the  part  was  that  he  played 
in  the  life  of  the  community  where  he  lived.  Bad  feeling  be- 
tween him  and  Mr.  Armstrong  began  as  early  as  1715,  for  in 
November  of  that  year  Major  Caulfeild,  the  second  lieutenant 
governor  of  the  fort  and  town,  incloses  a  letter  and  memorial  of 
Winniett 's  to  the  lords  of  trade  in  England,  with  one  of  his  own, 
in  which  he  says  that  Winniett  has  been  of  very  great  service  to 
the  garrison  at  Annapolis  and  that  his  behaviour  did  not  in  the 
least  deserve  such  treatment  from  Captain  Armstrong  as  it  had 
received.  Mr.  Winniett  died  at  Annapolis  early  in  1742.53 

The  most  distinguished  native  of  Annapolis  Royal  living  in 
the  nineteenth  century  was  the  HON.  SIR  WTILLTAM  FEN  WICK  WIL- 
LIAMS, BART.,  known  from  his  distinguished  services  in  the  Cri- 
mean war  as  the  "hero  of  Kars. ' '  Sir  Fenwick  was  born  at  An- 
napolis in  December,  1799,  or  1800.  His  grandfather,  Thomas 
Williams,  was  commissary  and  ordnance  storekeeper  at  Annap- 
olis and  his  grandmother,  Ann,  only  daughter  of  Captain  Ed- 
ward Amhurst  of  the  40th  regiment.  For  a  short  time  in  1867 

53.  The  population  of  Annapolis  Royal  and  vicinity  in  1714,  according  to  the 
census  of  that  year  was  895,  but  in  1731  the  town  and  its  environs  and  the  garrison 
numbered  6,000.  Of  these  inhabitants  a  great  many  must  have  been  New  England- 
ers.  Such  probably  were  people  bearing  the  names  Bennett,  Bissell,  Blower,  Daniel, 
Donnelly,  Douglas,  Hart,  Harwood,  Henderson,  Henshaw,  James,  Jennings,  Part- 
ridge, and  many  others.  A  large  number  of  the  6,000  settlers  in  and  near  the  town, 
however,  were  undoubtedly  French. 


414          THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

Sir  Fenwick  was  governor  of  his  native  province,  as  he  had  pre- 
viously for  a  much  longer  time  been  of  Canada. 

With  the  town  of  Annapolis  Royal  before  the  final  capture  of 
the  place  by  England  will  always  stand  connected  the  memory 
of  a  picturesque  incident  in  the  history  of  the  granting  of  titles, 
the  creation  of  the  order  of  "Baronet  of  Nova  Scotia."  After 
his  accession  to  the  English  throne,  in  1603,  James  the  First  per- 
sistently sought  to  replenish  the  royal  treasury  by  exacting  pay- 
ment for  titles.  Almost  immediately  after  coming  to  the  throne 
he  issued  a  summons  at  Hampton  Court  charging  all  who  owned 
land  to  the  value  of  forty  pounds  a  year  to  come  to  the  court  to 
receive  knighthood,  "or  to  compound  with  the  commissioners." 
About  the  same  time  he  proposed  to  confer  knighthood  upon  all 
who  would  give  three  hundred  pounds,  to  be  expended  by  Sir 
Bevis  Bulmer  in  the  search  for  gold  mines.  A  more  important 
scheme  he  fostered  was  the  creation  in  1611  of  Baronetcies  of 
Ulster,  to  further  the  colonization  of  Ireland  and  to  yield  money 
for  his  exchequer.  Among  English  land-owners  he  created  two- 
hundred  of  these  baronetcies,  each  baronet  being  obliged  to  pay 
into  the  treasury  a  sum  equal  to  eleven  hundred  pounds.  James 
died  in  1625,  but  his  son  Charles  in  conjunction  with  his  father's 
favorite  William  Alexander,  the  same  year  established  a  similar 
order  for  Scotsmen,  giving  to  each  of  the  Scottish  baronets  he 
made  a  certain  tract  of  land  in  Nova  Scotia  and  calling  the  title 
after  the  province  where  these  nominal  grants  were  given.  In 
1628  Alexander,  who  before  James's  death  or  very  soon  after, 
had  risen  so  high  in  the  royal  favour  as  to  be  created  Earl  of 
Stirling,  sent  his  son,  the  young  Sir  William,  with  a  company  of 
about  seventy  Scotch  colonists  to  Port  Royal,  but  during  the  fol- 
lowing year  no  less  than  thirty  of  these  died.  In  1631,  however, 
Acadia  was  again  ceded  to  France,  and  the  Scottish  settlement 
disappeared.  In  name,  though  never  in  use,  the  Scottish  baro- 
nets created  under  Stirling's  influence  in  the  reigns  of  James  the 
First  and  Charles  the  First,  continued  to  keep  the  lands  in 
Nova  Scotia  that  had  been  granted  them,  and  the  title  ' '  Baronet 
of  Nova  Scotia"  is  borne  by  a  large  number  of  Scottish  noble- 
men today. 

On  the  founding  of  Halifax  by  Cornwallis  in  1749  the  prestige 


THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA          415 

which  for  well  on  to  half  a  century  Annapolis  Royal  had  enjoyed 
as  the  capital  of  Nova  Scotia  forever  ceased.  The  departure  of 
Lieutenant  Governor  Mascarene  with  a  quorum  of  his  council 
for  the  new  capital  soon  after  Cornwallis's  arrival,  brings  to  an 
end  the  distinction  the  place  had  so  long  enjoyed  as  the  seat  of 
the  government  of  a  wide  new-world  domain.  In  1755  Major 
John  Handfield  was  in  command  of  the  garrison  and  assisted  in 
deporting  the  Acadians  who  were  settled  in  and  near  Annapolis 
Royal,  but  without  doubt  after  the  founding  of  Halifax  the  force 
kept  there  was  very  small.  In  1846  Captain  Thomas  Inglis,  a 
son  of  the  third  Anglican  bishop  of  Nova  Scotia,  the  Right  Rev- 
erend Dr.  John  Inglis,  commanded  the  troops  in  the  fort,  the 
regiment  to  which  he  belonged  being  the  Second  Battalion  of  the 
Rifle  Brigade,  the  major  part  of  the  regiment  being  then  sta- 
tioned at  Halifax.  The  last  officer  who  commanded  there,  some- 
where about  1855  was  Lord  Kilmarnock,  afterwards  Earl  of  Er- 
roll,  who  belonged  to  the  same  regiment  as  Captain  Inglis.  Af- 
ter 1855,  it  is  probable  there  were  no  troops  left  at  Annapolis. 
This,  then,  briefly,  is  the  story  of  the  first  capital  of  the  prov- 
ince of  Nova  Scotia,  whose  distinction  as  capital  ended  when 
Halifax  was  founded  in  1749.  Treading  the  old  town's  quiet 
streets  today  we  see  or  hear  little  to  remind  us  of  much  that  has 
gone  on  there  in  the  past.  But  the  visitor,  at  least,  must  have 
little  imagination  if  he  fail  utterly  to  catch  glimpses  of  the  many 
warlike  scenes  that  have  been  enacted  there,  to  hear  echoes  of  the 
bugle  blasts  that  so  long  sounded  from  the  fort  and  the  martial 
music  that  was  played,  to  see  the  French  flag  and  the  English 
flag  in  succession  floating  above  the  protecting  earthworks,  and 
to  watch  stern  warships  plowing  the  placid  waters  of  the  Basin, 
and  busy  schooners  from  Boston  anchoring  beside  the  wharves. 
If  the  tides  that  daily  sweep  through  the  Basin  had  voices  what 
strange  tales  they  could  tell.  If  the  old  fort  could  speak,  or  the 
red  river-banks,  or  the  slight  mountain  ridges,  north  or  south, 
what  stories  they  might  pour  into  our  ears  of  human  passion  and 
human  strife  they  have  witnessed.  For  it  is  three  long  centuries 
now  since  Champlain  and  his  companions  first  sailed  up  the  shel- 
tered Basin  and  stepped  foot  on  the  grassy  shore. 


V; 


Dyde's  Taverns 


THE  VlCiSSITUDES  OF  MINE  HOST  S  CALLING  IN  NEW  YORK  A  CENTURY 

AGO 

IW  HOPPER  STRIKER  MOTT 

LENDER  the  General  name  of  "Dyde's"  a  number  of 
early  hostelrys  nourished  in  New  York.  Robert  Dyde 
was  an  Englishman  who  had  removed  to  the  city  from 
Long  Island,  inider  an  introduction  by  "a  dis- 
tinguished person  in  this  city,"  as  one  who  had  lived  in  affluence 
in  London,  but  by  a  succession  of  misfortunes  had  suffered  near- 
ly the  entire  loss  of  his  property.  He  had  taken  at  a  very  heavy 
rental  the  hotel  belonging  to  A.  "Marshall,  who  the  directory  lists 
as  living  at  28  Park  Row.  Thigiiostelry  adjoined  on  the  north 
the  Park  Theatre  which  occupied  lots  No.  21,  23  and  25  of  that 
street.  The  sequence  of  numbers  scorns  confusing  yet  the  facts 
are  as  above  stated.  This' he  named  the  London  Hotel  (Com- 
mercial Advertiser,  Jan. .,29,  1806),  anckit  was  announced  on  his 
behalf  that  he  depended  for  the  future\  support  of  his  family 
upon  his  success  in  this  new  line  of  life.  "He  proposed  to  keep  it 
"  in  a  true  Old  English  style,  the  principal^  of  which  are  cleanli- 
ness, civility,  comfort  and  good  cheer." 

Here  occurred  £  factional  reencounter  of  note. 
The  Long  Room  at  Martling's  Tavern,  at  ^7  Nassau  street, 
corner  Spruce/ had  been  the  wigwam  of  the  Tammany  Society 
'  ice  1798,  and,  immediately  after  the  election  of\Fefferson,  when 

nat  Society  had  become  Republican  in  politics,1  a\division  arose 



i.  Washington's  first  administration  was  non-partisan  in  character,  but,  with 
the  institution  of  the  financial  policies  of  Hamilton  in  1791,  partV  lines  assumed 
definition  and  the  two  great  parties,  Federalist  and  Republican,  sprang  into  life. 
The  Federalist,  under  the  leadership  of  Hamilton,  advocated  a  control  of  the  gov- 
ernment based  upon  aristocracy  and  wealth ;  while  the  Republican,  undej  the  leader- 
ship of  Jefferson,  upheld  the  principle  of  a  government  based  on  equal  rights  and 
true  popular  rule.  The  Anti-Federalist  (Republican)  leanings  of  the  Society  were 
inevitable  as  they  espoused  the  principle  to  which  it  was  dedicated.  (Saint  Tammany, 
etc.,  by  Kilroe,  1913,  p.  193). 

(4l6) 


T  OF  ENC  NFLUENCE  IN        r  iKEY 

-.-  ^ 
man  cruib          .itered  the  Bl        Sea  and  bombard*  i  two  Russian 

ports  at  th>       stigation  of  the  Uerman  admiral,  bui,  di  ibtless  with 
the  knowledge  of  Enver  Bey,  the  Turkish  Minister  of  War."96 

Turkey  was  ruled  by  the  army,  which  for  years  ha?  seen  things 
through  German  military  spectacles.    It  was  controlle    by  the  Ger 
man  Marshall  Liman  von  Sanders,  and  Enver  Bey,  who  was  ed' 
cated  in  Germany  and  was  known  to  fca  a  pronounced  German  syia 
pathizer.    He  was  a  powerful  member  of  the  Committee  of  Unioi 
and  Progress,  the  chief  organization  of  the  Young  Turk  movemenl 
which  also  included  the  Ministers  of  Marine,  Interior  and  Finance 
In  point  of  numbers  these  four  were  the  minority  party  of  the  gov- 
ernment, but  the  majority,  including  the  Sultan  and  Grand  Vizier, 
was  powerless  to  assert  itself,  due  to  the  minority  having  control  of 
the  army.97    These  ministers,  as  a  result  of  German  bribes,  were  re- 
sponsible for  Turkey's  entrance  into  the  war.98 

If  Germany  hoped  to  provoke  England  and  Russia  into  an  atlaok 
so  as  to  be  able  to  appeal  to  Mohammedans,  the  opposite  result  was 
obtained,  for  British  Musselmen  realized  that  the  rupture  had  no' 
been  brought  about  by  England.    Perhaps  Germany  induced  T 
key  to  enter  the  war  for  diplomatic  as  well  as  strategical  reas 
hoping  that  the  question  of  Constantinople  would  lead  to  dissent, 
among  her  enemies.    The  surprising  efficiency  of  the  Turkish  armt 
has  been  an  immediate  help  to  the  Teutons  in  that  it  has  diverted 
British  soldiers  from  the  western  front  for  the  campaigns  at  the 
Dardanelles  and  in  Mesopotamia,  as  well  as  holding  a  Russian  army 
in  the  Caucasus  Mountains. 

In  spite  of  her  regeneration,  Turkey  will  probably  have  com- 
mitted suicide  by  her  entrance  into  the  great  war.    If  the  Teutonic 
powers  are  vanquished,  Turkey  will  be  swept  back  into  Asia  •  if  tb^ 
are  victorious,  Turkey  will  become  the  vassal  and  tool  of  Gei 
The  end  of  the  war  will  see  the  gates  to  the  Black  Sea  pass  in, 
hands  of  a  strong  power,99  and  the  end  of  the  Ottoman  Empin 
Europe,  which  statesmen  have  expected  for  generations,  will  be  ai, 
hand. 


96.     The  Times  History  of  the  War,  Part  28,  III,  p.  44  to  49. 

98.  J.  Ellis  'Barker,'  "Germany  and  Turkey  "  Fortnightly  Review,  CII,  p.  IDIO. 

99.  Lord  Crc^  T,  "The  Suiride  of  the  Turk,"  Spectator,  CXV,  p.  541. 

31 


Chapters  in  the  History  of  Halifax,  Nova  Scotia 

BY  AETHUB  WENTWOBTH  HAMILTON  EATON,  M.  A.,  D.  C.  L. 

NO.  IX 

\ 

ROYAL  GOVEBNOBS  AND  GOVEBNMENT  HOUSE 

"History  should  invest  with  the  reality  of  flesh  and  blood,  beings  whom  we  are  too 
much  inclined  to  consider  as  personified  qualities  in  an  allegory ;  call  up  our  ancestors 
before  us  with  all  their  peculiarities  of  language,  manners,  and  garb ;  show  us  their  houses, 
seat  us  at  their  tables,  rummage  their  old-fashioned  wardrobes,  explain  to  us  the  uses 
of  their  ponderous  furniture.'^ 

— LORD  MACAULAY. 

"Macaulay  held  that  history,  no  less  than  fiction,  should  be  a  lively  and  vivid  picture 
of  the  actual,  warm,  human  life  of  the  past.  He  aimed  to  give  to  the  narrative  of  real 
occurrences,  to  the  portrayal  of  genuine  personages,  the  same  life  that  fiction  bestows  on 
the  events  and  characters  of  fancy." 

N  the  third  chapter  of  our  history  we  have  spoken  of  the 
two  most  historical  buildings  in  Halifax  apart  from  St. 
Paul's  Church,  the  Province  Building  and  Government 
House.  The  frames  of  three  or  four,  perhaps  more,  of 
the  earliest  buildings  of  the  newly  founded  town  were  ordered  and 
brought  from  Massachusetts,  one  of  the  chief  of  these  being  the 
frame  of  a  governor's  house.  For  the  first  few  months  after  his 
arrival  at  Chebucto,  Colonel  Cornwallis,  the  governor,  kept  to  his 
quarters  on  the  ship  in  which  he  had  sailed  from  England,  but  at 
last,  in  the  early  part  of  October,  1749,  the  frame  having  come  from 
Boston,  his  house  was  made  habitable  and  the  governor  set  up  his 
simple  establishment  on  shore.  This  primitive  house  of  the  King's 
representative  in  the  first  British  province  in  what  is  now  Canada, 
in  which  civil  government  was  established,  was  a  small,  low,  one- 
story  house,  probably  like  St.  Paul's  Church  constructed  of  oak 
and  pine. 

For  eight  or  nine  years  only  this  house  was  suffered  to  stand, 
then  in  1758  Colonel  Charles  Lawrence,  the  second  governor  after 

32 


GEN.  SIR  WILLIAM  FENWICK  WILLIAMS,  BART.,  K.  C.  B. 
Hero  of  Kars;  Lieutenant-Governor  of  Nova  Scotia,  1867-1873 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

Cornwallis,  had  the  building  taken  down  and  a  new  and  much  room- 
ier one  built.  When  Lord  William  Campbell  became  governor,  in 
1766,  he  urged  that  this  house  needed  a  ball-room,  and  the  govern- 
ment added  it.  Later,  at  different  times,  further  enlargements  or 
improvements  were  made  in  the  official  dwelling,  and  the  house  was 
used  or  at  least  stood  until  1800,  when  the  corner  stone  of  the  pres- 
ent Government  House  was  laid. 

By  1797  this  second  governor's  residence,  which  like  its  rude 
predecessor  had  been  built  of  wood,  and  green  wood  at  that,  was  in 
such  a  state  of  decay  that  Sir  John  Wentworth,  who  had  lived  in  it 
since  his  appointment  as  governor  five  years  before,  complained  to 
the  Colonial  Secretary  in  England  that  it  was  utterly  unfit  for 
occupancy,  and  that  his  health  was  suffering  so  greatly  from  its 
bad  condition  that  he  had  been  obliged  to  remove  his  household  to 
the  lodge  he  owned  on  Bedford  Basin,  six  miles  out  of  town.  In  the 
course  of  this  year,  1797,  an  act  was  passed  by  the  legislature  au- 
thorizing the  erection  of  a  building  in  which  to  house  properly  the 
legislature  in  both  its  branches  and  the  courts  of  law,  and  to  serve 
as  well-  for  the  crown  offices,  for  since  1790  these  had  all  been  ac- 
commodated in  a  business  building  which  had  been  erected  and  was 
owned  by  the  Hon.  Thomas  Cochran,  a  member  of  the  council,  and 
his  brothers  James  and  William,1  enterprising  North  of  Ireland 
men  who  had  come  to  Halifax  in  the  first  company  of  emigrants 
brought  from  Ireland,  in  1761,  by  the  enterprising  Alexander  Mc- 
Nutt.  This  "Cochran  Building"  stood  on  Hollis  Street,  almost 
immediately  opposite  the  present  Province  Building,  and  so  on  the 
site  of  the  Post  Office.  Before  the  act  could  be  brought  into  effect, 
however,  Sir  John  managed  to  have  it  repealed,  and  another  act 
passed  carrying  out  his  policy  of  having  a  governor's  house  erected 
before  a  Province  Building  should  be  undertaken.  For  the  legisla- 
ture and  the  courts,  therefore,  a  new  lease  for  ten  years  was  taken 
of  the  Cochran  building  in  1799,  and  the  erection  of  a  Province 


I.  The  Court  House  having  been  destroyed  by  fire,  early  in  May,  1790,  the  Legisla- 
ture passed  an  act  empowering  a  body  of  commissioners  to  treat  with  Messrs.  Thomas, 
James,  and  William  Cochran  for  the  rental  of  their  building  on  Hollis  Street,  opposite 
the  present  Province  Building  for  the  use  of  the  Legislature,  the  Courts  of  Law,  and 
the  Crown  Offices.  This  building  was  so  occupied,  at  a  rental,  we  believe,  of  two  hun- 
dred dollars  a  year,  from  1790  until  1820,  when  the  new  Province  Building  was  com- 
pleted. See  Akins's  Chronicles  of  Halifax,  pp.  99,  100. 

33 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

Building  remained  in  abeyance  for  a  little  over  a  decade  more.2 
The  site  of  the  first  and  second  Government  Houses  was  the  lot 
between  Hollis  and  Granville  streets  on  which  the  Province  Build- 
ing stands,  when  it  was  determined  to  erect  a  new  governor's  house 
there  was  prolonged  discussion  as  to  where  this  building  should  be 
located.  A  board  of  commissioners  had  been  appointed  to  carry  the 
project  of  a  new  government  house  out,  and  at  least  three  sites  were 
presented  for  the  consideration  of  these  men.  In  an  interesting  ac- 
count of  the  discussion  concerning  the  proper  site  and  of  the  final 
decision  to  build  on  the  well  known  spot  on  Pleasant  Street  where 
the  now  venerable  third  Government  House  stands,  the  Hon.  Sir 
Adams  Archibald,  one  of  the  most  estimable  and  able  of  later  gover- 
nors of  the  province,  tells  us  that  Sir  John  Wentworth  urged  the 
site  that  was  chosen  and  was  exceedingly  well  pleased  when  a  ma- 
jority of  the  commissioners  came  to  his  view.3 

The  corner  stone  of  the  new  building  was  laid  on  the  eleventh  of 
September,  1800,  and  a  few  days  afterwards  the  Royal  Gazette 
newspaper  described  the  event.  "On  Thursday  last,"  says  the 


•2.  Dr.  Akins  (Halifax,  pp.  213,  214)  says  of  the  first  Government  House :  "It  was 
a  small,  low  building  of  one  story,  surrounded  by  hogsheads  of  gravel  and  sand,  on 
which  small  pieces  of  ordnance  were  mounted  for  its  defence.  It  stood  in  the  centre  of 
the  square  now  occupied  by  the  Province  Building.  About  the  year  1757  or  1758  this  little 
cottage  was  removed  to  give  place  to  a  more  spacious  and  convenient  residence.  It  was 
sold  and  drawn  down  to  the  corner  of  George  Street  and  Bedford  Row,  opposite  the 
south-west  angle  of  the  City  Court  House,  and  again,  about  1775,  removed  to  the  beach 
and  placed  at  the  corner  leading  to  the  steam-boat  landing,  where  it  remained  until  1832, 
when  the  present  building,  lately  occupied  by  Thomas  Laidlaw,  was  erected  on  the  site." 
"The  new  Government  House,"  he  continues,  "was  built  during  the  time  of  Governor 
Lawrence.  Lord  William  Campbell  built  a  ball  room  at  one  end,  and  several  other  im- 
provements were  made  to  the  building  by  subsequent  governors.  It  was  surrounded  by 
a  terrace  neatly  sodded  and  ornamented.  The  building  was  of  wood,  two  stories  high. 
The  office  of  Capt.  Bulkeley,  the  Secretary,  stood  at  the  north-east  angle  of  the  square 
inside  the  rails.  Prince  Edward  resided  in  this  house  with  Governor  Wentworth  in 
1798.  This  old  house  was  pulled  down  about  the  commencement  of  the  present  cen- 
tury [the  igth]  and  the  materials  sold  to  Mr.  John  Trider,  Sr.,  who  used  them  in  the 
construction  of  the  building  on  the  road  leading  to  the  tower  at  the  head  of  Inglis  Street, 
formerly  owned  by  Colonel  Bazalgette,  and  afterwards  the  residence  of  the  late  Mr. 
George  Whidden."  The  price  paid  by  Mr.  Trider  for  the  materials  of  the  old  house, 
Sir  Adams  Archibald  says,  was  a  little  over  two  hundred  and  sixty-two  pounds. 

3.  Sir  Adams  Archibald's  account  of  the  building  of  the  present  Government  House 
will  be  found  in  the  third  volume  of  Collections  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Historical  Society, 
pp.  197-208.  Sir  Adams  published  also  in  the  same  Collections  (Vol.  4,  pp.  247-258)  an 
account  of  the  Province  Building.  In  both  cases  this  writer  has  given  much  information 
concerning  the  legislation  referring  to  the  erection  of  the  buildings.  The  Province 
Building,  says  Dr.  Akins,  "was  fully  completed  and  finished,  ready  for  the  sittings 
of  the  Courts  and  Legislature,  in  1820,  at  the  cost  of  $52,000."  See  Akins's  account  of 
Halifax  in  the  8th  volume  of  the  Collections  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Historical  Society. 

34 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

Gazette,  "this  long  projected  and  necessary  building  was  begun 
under  the  auspices  of  His  Excellency,  Sir  John  Wentworth,  Bart. 
On  this  pleasing  occasion  a  procession  was  formed  at  the  present 
Mansion  House  [the  old  Government  House],  which  preceded  by  a 
band  of  musicians  playing  'God  Save  the  King,'  'Rule  Britannia,' 
and  other  appropriate  airs,  went  to  the  site  prepared  for  the  erec- 
tion of  the  edifice,  where  the  corner  stone  was  laid  with  the  custom- 
ary forms  and  solemnities,  and  a  parchment  containing  the  fol- 
lowing inscription  was  placed  in  a  cavity  cut  for  that  purpose  in  the 
centre  of  the  stone:  "Deo  Favente." 

"The  corner  stone  of  the  Government  House,  erected  at  the  ex- 
pense of  His  Majesty's  loyal  and  faithful  subjects  of  Nova  Scotia, 
pursuant  to  a  grant  of  the  Legislature  of  the  Province,  under  the 
direction  of  Michael  Wallace,  William  Cochran,  Andrew  Belcher, 
John  Beckwith,  and  Foster  Hutchinson,  Esquires,  for  the  residence 
of  His  Majesty's  Governor,  Lieutenant-Governor,  or  person  ex- 
ercising the  chief  civil  authority,  was  laid  September  llth.  Anno 
Domini,  1800,  in  the  40th  year  of  the  reign  of  His  Most  Sacred 
Majesty,  George  the  III." 

On  this  document  then  follows  a  list  of  the  great  personages  who 
took  part  in  the  ceremony, — "Sir  John  Wentworth,  Bart,  Lieuten- 
ant-Governor and  Commander-in-Chief ;  Vice-Admiral  Sir  William 
Parker,  Bart.,  Commander-in-Chief  of  all  His  Majesty's  fleet  in 
North  America;  Lieutenant-General  Henry  Bowyer,  Commander 
of  His  Majesty's  forces  in  Nova  Scotia  and  its  dependencies;  Col. 
the  Rt.  Hon.  John  Lord  Elphinstone,  Commanding  His  Majesty's 
26th  Regiment  of  Foot;  Col.  George  Augustus  Pollen,  Member  of 
the  British  Parliament,  Commanding  His  Majesty's  Fencible  Regi- 
ment of  Loyal  Surrey  Rangers;  the  Hon.  Sampson  Salter  Blow- 
ers, Chief -Justice  of  Nova  Scotia;  the  Honourables  Alexander  Bry- 
mer,  Thomas  Cochran,  Charles  Morris,  John  Halliburton,  Henry 
Duncan,  Benning  Wentworth,  and  James  Brenton,  members  of  the 
Nova  Scotia  Council;  Mr.  Richard  John  Uniacke,  Speaker  of  the 
House  of  Assembly,  and  the  Members  of  the  Assembly  then  in  town; 
six  Captains  in  the  Royal  Navy,  Officers  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Militia, 
the  Commissary  General,  Deputy  Judge  Advocate  General,  Solicitor 
General,  Deputy  Commissary  General,  Military  Secretary,  the  Rev. 

35 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

Eobert  Stanser,  Kector  of  St.  Paul's  Church,  and  other  clergymen; 
the  magistrates,  and  many  of  the  principal  inhabitants  of  the  town. 
Closing  this  imposing  list  came  the  names  of  Isaac  Hildreth,  archi- 
tect, and  John  Henderson,  chief  mason  of  the  building. 

Immediately  after  the  corner  stone  was  laid  the  Eector  of  St. 
Paul's  offered  a  prayer  he  had  evidently  written  for  the  occasion, 
and  then  the  procession,  in  which  the  rules  of  precedence  accepted 
in  the  province  were  duly  observed,  moved  solemnly  back  to  the  old 
Government  House,  where  "a  cold  collation"  was  prepared  for 
the  august  assembly.  "From  this  period,"  says  Sir  Adams  Archi- 
bald, "the  building  went  steadily  on.  It  was  made  habitable  in  or 
about  the  year  1805,  when  Sir  John  moved  into  it.  But  it  was  still 
unfinished  as  late  as  1807. ' '  Of  the  character  of  the  building,  which, 
outwardly  at  least,  is  an  exact  reproduction  of  the  famous  Lans- 
downe  House,  London,  Sir  Adams  says:  "No  better  Government 
House  exists  in  the  Dominion,  either  as  to  solidity  of  structure  or 
convenience  of  arrangement.  The  architect,  Mr.  Isaac  Hildreth, 
seems  to  have  been  fully  entitled  to  the  certificate  given  him  by  the 
Committee  of  Assembly  in  January,  1807,  when  his  services  in  con- 
nection with  the  building  were  no  longer  required.  They  say  in 
their  report  that  they  have  *  a  full  conviction  of  the  ability  and  pro- 
fessional skill  of  Mr.  Hildreth  and  satisfactory  proof  of  his  zeal, 
integrity,  and  diligence  in  the  conduct  of  the  work  he  has  been  en- 
gaged in. '  They  recommend  a  grant  of  money  to  be  given  him  as  a 
testimonial  of  the  public  opinion  of  his  merit  and  services.  On  the 
same  day  the  House  ratified  the  Committee's  Report  by  a  Eesolu- 
tion  giving  the  grant  recommended,  the  same  to  be  considered  'as 
a  testimonial  of  the  favourable  opinion  entertained  by  the  Legisla- 
ture of  his  ability,  integrity,  diligence,  and  zeal. '  The  whole  cost 
of  the  third  Government  House  was  about  eighteen  thousand  dol- 
lars. 

The  architect  of  Government  House,  Isaac  Hildreth,  was  almost 
certainly  a  Massachusetts  man,  of  the  Hildreths  of  Chelmsford,  but 
apart  from  his  connection  with  this  building  we  have  no  knowledge 
of  him.  Nor  do  we  know  certainly  how  Lansdowne  House,  London, 
came  to  be  chosen  as  the  model  for  Government  House.  The  famous 
London  mansion  of  Berkeley  Square  was  built  about  the  middle  of 

36 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

the  18th  century  by  Robert  Adam,  and  was  begun  for  the  first  Earl 
of  Bute,  at  that  time  Prime  Minister.  Before  it  was  finished,  how- 
ever, it  became  the  property  of  John  Petty,  first  Earl  of  Shelburne, 
from  whom  in  time  it  passed  to  the  second  Earl,  who  in  1784  was 
created  Viscount  Calne  and  Calston,  Earl  of  Wycombe,  and  Marquis 
of  Lansdowne  in  the  peerage  of  Great  Britain.  The  Marquis  of 
Lansdowne  had  a  stormy  political  career,  which  began  in  1760  and 
ended  about  1783.  Although  the  most  unpopular  statesman  of  his 
time,  for  he  seems  to  have  treated  all  political  parties  with  un- 
measured contempt,  he  exercised  a  strong  influence  in  parliament, 
and  it  was  probably  his  persistent  refusal  until  he  was  forced  to 
do  so  in  1782  to  give  his  voice  for  the  independence  of  the  American 
Colonies  that  gave  him  such  prestige  with  the  Tories  in  New  York 
that  in  1783  they  gave  their  projected  town  on  the  southern  shore 
of  Nova  Scotia  the  name  ' '  Shelburne. ' '  This  first  Marquis  of  Lans- 
downe died  in  1805. 

From  the  first  occupation  of  this  third  Government  House,  in 
1805,  to  the  date  of  Confederation  in  1867,  says  Sir  Adams  Archi- 
bald, * '  thirteen  governors  have  occupied  the  house,  and  of  all  these 
men  there  is  scarce  one  who  does  not  in  one  way  or  another  tower 
more  or  less  above  the  average  of  the  class  to  which  he  belongs. 
Some  of  them  have  been  statesmen  of  mark,  others  successful 
soldiers,  many  have  performed  important  duties  in  other  parts  of 
the  empire.  Four  in  succession  left  the  governorship  of  Nova  Scotia 
to  become  governors  general  of  Canada.  As  a  body  they  may  be 
classed  as  able  and  eminent  men."  The  thirteen  of  whom  Sir  Adams 
speaks  as  having  come  between  1800  and  1867  were :  Sir  John  Went- 
worth,  Sir  George  Prevost,  Sir  John  Coape  Sherbrooke,  the  Earl 
of  Dalhousie,  Sir  James  Kempt,  Sir  Peregrine  Maitland,  Sir  Colin 
Campbell,  Lord  Falkland,  Sir  John  Harvey,  Sir  Gaspard  Le  Mar- 
chant,  the  Earl  of  Mulgrave,  Sir  Richard  MacDonnell,  and  Sir  Wil- 
liam Fenwick  Williams. 

Including  Colonel  Cornwallis,  to  the  present  day  Nova  Scotia  has 
had  thirty-two  governors  (or  "lieutenant-governors,"  as  since  1786 
these  chief  officials  have  correctly  been  styled).  Before  1786  the  rep- 
resentative of  royal  authority  in  the  province  was  "governor-in- 
chief,"  but  in  that  year  a  governor-in-chief  of  all  the  British  Prov- 

37 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

inces  remaining  to  the  crown  in  America  was  appointed,  with  a  resi- 
dence at  Quebec,  and  under  this  "Governor-General  of  Canada,"  as 
he  was  commonly  called,  the  governors  of  the  general  province  be- 
came nominally  "lieutenant-governors."  Before  1786,  however,  the 
governors  in  chief  of  the  single  provinces  frequently  had  their  lieu- 
tenants, and  of  such  we  have  in  Nova  Scotia  after  the  founding  of 
Halifax  a  list  comprising  nine.4 

The  list  of  civil  governors  of  Nova  Scotia,  of  which  as  we  have 
said  there  have  been  to  the  present  (the  year  1918)  thirty-two, 
comprises  many  men  who  have  done  the  British  Empire  conspicu- 
ous service  in  various  parts  of  the  world  and  have  earned  for  them- 
selves high  reputation.  In  the  following  pages  we  shall  give  some 
account  of  these  men  and  speak  of  the  influence  some  of  them  had 
on  Nova  Scotia  at  large,  and  particularly  on  the  city  of  Halifax, 
where  they  made  their  temporary  homes. 

COLONEL  THE  HON.  EDWAED  CORNWALLIS,  appointed  Governor-in- 
Chief  of  Nova  Scotia  on  the  9th  of  May,  1749,  was  the  sixth  son  of 
Charles,  Baron  Cornwallis,  and  his  wife  Lady  Charlotte  Butler, 
whose  father  was  Richard  Earl  of  Arran.5  Colonel  Cornwallis  was 
born  February  22, 1713,  and  early  placed  in  the  army.  He  served  as 
major  of  the  20th  regiment  in  Flanders  in  1744  and  1745,  and  in  the 
latter  year  was  appointed  lieutenant-colonel  of  his  regiment.  On 
the  death  of  his  brother  Stephen  he  was  chosen  member  of  parlia- 
ment for  Eye,  and  during  the  session  following  was  made  a  Groom 
of  H.  M.  Bedchamber.  On  the  9th  of  May,  1749,  he  became  colonel 
of  the  24th  regiment,  and  was  gazetted  1 1  Governor  of  Placentia,  in 
Newfoundland,  and  Captain-General  and  Governor-in-Chief  in  and 
over  his  Majesty's  province  of  Nova  Scotia  or  Acadia."  He  sailed 
from  England  May  14, 1749,  and  took  the  oath  as  governor,  at  Hali- 
fax, July  14,  1749.  His  salary  as  governor  was  a  thousand  pounds 
(the  customary  salary  of  the  early  civil  governors  of  Nova  Scotia). 


4.  These  lieutenant-governors,  as  we  shall  see  later,  were :    Charles  Lawrence,  Rob- 
ert Monckton,  Jonathan  Belcher,  Montague  Wilmot,  Michael  Francklin,  Mariot  Arbuth- 
not,  Richard  Hughes,  Sir  Andrew  Snape  Hamond,  Edmund  Fanning. 

5.  Colonel  Cornwallis  was  an  uncle  of  Charles  Cornwallis,  ist  marquis  and  2d  earl, 
who  from  1776  until  the  close  of  the  War  of  the  Revolution  was  in  command  of  British 
troops  in  America,  and  who  afterward  served  as  governor-general  of  India.     Col.  Ed- 
ward Cornwallis  was  twin  brother  of  Frederick  Cornwallis,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury. 

38 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

On  the  12th  of  July,  1749,  almost  immediately  after  the  arrival  of 
Cornwallis  at  Chebucto,  Paul  Mascarene,  then  lieutenant-colonel  of 
the  40th  regiment,  arrived  at  Chebucto  from  Annapolis  Royal  with 
five  members  of  his  council  (a  quorum).  On  the  14th  of  July,  Corn- 
wallis formally  dismissed  Mascarene  and  his  councillors  from  the 
offices  they  had  held  and  appointed  a  new  council.  The  members  of 
this  new  council  were :  Paul  Mascarene,  Edward  How,  John  Gor- 
ham,  Benjamin  Green,  John  Salusbury,  and  Hugh  Davidson,  the  last 
of  whom  became  the  first  secretary  of  the  province  under  civil  rule. 
Of  the  councillors,  Edward  How,  John  Gorham,  and  Benjamin 
Green  were  Boston  men.0 

"In  the  settlement  of  the  emigrants  [he  had  brought  with  him 
for  the  founding  of  Halifax],"  says  a  biographer  of  the  first  civil 
governor  of  Nova  Scotia,7  "Cornwallis  displayed  great  energy  and 
tact.  He  had  from  the  start  much  to  contend  with.  The  settlers 
were  soldiers  who  had  fought  all  over  Europe  and  were  accustomed 
to  rough  camp  and  barrack  life,  and  sailors  ready  for  a  sea  fight 
but  like  their  brethren  in  arms  utterly  unfit  for  any  other  line  of 
life.  There  were  also  disappointed  men  of  all  grades  of  society, 
forced  by  circumstances  to  face  the  privations  and  hardships  of  a 
new  life,  in  which  few  of  them  were  destined  to  have  success.  There 
were  good  men  among  them  .  .  .  but  judging  by  the  record  left 
by  Cornwallis,  three-fourths  of  them  were  as  hard  a  lot  as  could 
have  been  collected  and  sent  away  from  the  old  land  to  starve,  drink, 
and  freeze  in  the  cold,  inhospitable  climate  of  Nova  Scotia.  During 
the  founding  of  the  colony,  Cornwallis  exhibited  many  sterling 
qualities  necessary  to  a  leader  of  men.  His  executive  ability,  pa- 
tience, and  kindness  to  all  under  him,  deserved  commendation  and 
warranted  recognition,  but  the  reverse  was  the  case.  No  allowance 
was  made  by  the  authorities  for  the  unforeseen  expenses  of  a  new 
settlement.  Although  given  unlimited  powers  of  administration, 
he  was  treated  with  distrust  in  the  matter  of  expenditures.  The 


6.  See  "Governor  Cornwallis  and  the  First  Council,"  by  Dr.  Thomas  B.  Akms,  m 
the  Collections  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Historical  Society,  Vol.  2;   and  "Hon.  Edward  Corn- 
wallis," by  James  S.  Macdonald  in  the  .same  Collections,  vol.  12. 

7.  This   summary  of   Cornwallis's   work   in   founding   Halifax   is   taken   from   Mr. 
James  S.  Macdonald's  sketch  of  the  first  civil  governor  of  Nova  Scotia  in  the  i2th  vol- 
ume of  the  Collections  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Historical  Society  (pp.  9,  10).     Income  few 
instances  in  the  quotation  we  have  been  obliged  to  change  slightly  the  writer  s  English. 

39 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

board  of  trade,  frightened  at  facing  parliament  with  an  ever  in- 
creasing deficit,  curtailed  his  powers,  and  at  several  critical  times 
his  bills  of  exchange  were  returned  dishonored,  and  his  credit  was 
ruined  in  the  neighboring  colonies  of  Massachusetts  and  New  York. 
But  though  discouraged,  he  stuck  manfully  to  his  post  until  three 
years  had  passed  and  the  introductory  work  of  founding  the  colony 
had  been  accomplished." 

COLONEL  PEREGRINE  THOMAS  HOPSON  was  commissioned  captain 
general  and  commander-in-chief  of  Nova  Scotia,  and  also  vice- 
admiral,  March  31,  1752.  He  took  the  oath  as  governor  on  Mon- 
day, August  3,  1752,  but  on  the  1st  of  November,  1753,  he  sailed  for 
England  in  the  Torrington,  war-ship,  and  the  command  of  the  prov- 
ince devolved  on  the  lieutenant-governor,  Major  Charles  Lawrence. 
Col.  Hopson  was  commander-in-chief  at  Louisburg  when  that  place 
was  restored  to  the  French  by  the  treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle.  In 
July,  1749,  he  came  with  the  forces  from  Louisburg  to  Halifax,  and 
at  the  latter  place  was  sworn  in  senior  councillor,  his  superior  rank 
in  the  army  entitling  him  to  take  precedence  of  Lieutenant-Colonel 
Paul  Mascarene,  who  had  been  the  first  named  of  the  new  council. 
He  left  Halifax  for  England  on  the  first  of  November,  1753,  and 
we  suppose  very  soon  after  resigned.  After  he  left  Nova  Scotia  he 
was  in  active  military  service  until  his  death,  which  took  place  Janu- 
ary 27,  1759. 

COLONEL  CHARLES  LAWRENCE  was  appointed  governor  probably  on 
August  12,  1754.  The  history  of  this  governor  will  be  found  very 
carefully  given  by  Mr.  James  S.  Macdonald  in  the  12th  volume  of 
the  Collections  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Historical  Society  and  in  the 
" Dictionary  of  National  Biography."  He  was  commissioned  lieuten- 
ant-governor, probably  July  17, 1750,  and  so  acted  until  his  appoint- 
ment as  governor.  His  administration  as  governor  covered  the  im- 
portant period  of  the  fall  of  Fort  Beausejour  and  the  removal  of  the 
Acadians  in  1755,  and  the  settlement  of  New  England  planters 
throughout  the  province,  which  important  movement  he  did  much 
to  stimulate  and  carry  through,  in  1760  and  1761.  We  find  a  com- 
mission as  " lieutenant-governor"  given  him  August  12,  1754,  and 
find  him  taking  oath  as  "lieutenant-governor"  October  14,  1754, 

40 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

but  these  dates  we  suppose  are  the  proper  dates  of  his  entrance  on 
the  full  governorship  of  the  province. 

Lawrence  was  born  at  Portsmouth,  England,  December  14,  1709, 
and  began  his  military  career  in  England  as  an  ensign  in  Col.  Ed- 
ward Montague's  (afterwards  the  llth  Devon)  Regiment  of  Foot 
in  1727.  His  captaincy  in  1742,  and  his  majority  in  1747,  were  ob- 
tained, however,  in  the  54th  (Warbiirton's)  Regiment,  with  which 
he  served  under  Hopson  at  Louisburg,  until  the  troops  were  re- 
moved from  that  fortress  to  Halifax  in  1749.  In  1750  and  '51  he 
was  engaged  at  Beaubassin  and  Chignecto,  and  in  1752  he  went 
with  the  German  settlers,  in  command  of  a  small  force,  to  Lunen- 
burg,  to  assist  in  founding  that  town.  In  1753,  when  Hopson  went 
to  England,  he  was  given  the  administration  of  the  government,  and 
the  next  year,  as  we  have  seen,  he  was  appointed  lieutenant-gov- 
ernor. In  1756,  on  the  resignation  of  Hopson  he  was  commissioned 
governor-in-chief.  In  1757  he  commanded  the  reserve  in  Lord  Lou- 
don's  expedition,  and  December  3rd  of  that  year  he  was  promoted 
to  brigadier-general.  In  1758  he  commanded  a  brigade  at  the  sec- 
ond siege  of  Louisburg. 

The  character  of  none  of  the  governors  or  lieutenant-governors 
of  Nova  Scotia  has  been  the  subject  of  so  much  discussion  as  that 
of  Governor  Lawrence.  This  is  due  chiefly  to  the  part  he  played  in 
the  tragedy  of  the  expulsion  of  the  Acadians  in  1755,  his  connec- 
tion with  this  event  earning  him  from  many  writers  on  the  ex- 
pulsion the  reputation  of  a  bad-tempered,  pitiless  man.  The  Nova 
Scotia  historian,  Beamish  Murdoch,  however,  only  says  of  him:  "He 
was  a  man  inflexible  in  his  purposes,  and  held  control  in  no  feeble 
hands.  Earnest  and  resolute,  he  pursued  the  object  of  establishing 
and  confirming  British  authority  here  with  marked  success."  To 
this  tribute  Mr.  James  S.  Macdonald  adds,  that  among  all  the 
governors  of  Nova  Scotia  in  the  18th  century,  from  the  first,  Colonel 
Cornwallis,  to  the  last,  Sir  John  Wentworth,  the  one  who  stands 
" proudly  preeminent"  "in  intellect,  courage,  and  executive  abil- 
ity," is  Charles  Lawrence.  As  an  administrator  of  government, 
says  this  biographer,  he  combined  all  the  strong  qualities  of  the 
others  "without  a  shadow  of  their  weaknesses."8 


8.     Collections  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Historical  Society,  Vol.  12,  p.  58. 

41 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

As  we  have  shown,  Lawrence  began  to  build  a  new  Government 
House  in  1758.  On  the  eleventh  of  October,  1760,  he  gave  a  great 
ball,  probably  to  celebrate  the  completion  of  the  house,  at  which 
there  were  over  three  hundred  guests.  His  Excellency  was  in  high 
spirits  and  danced  frequently.  " During  the  evening,"  says  Mr. 
Macdonald,  "he  drank  while  heated,  a  tumbler  of  iced  water."  From 
this  "he  was  seized  with  cramps  in  the  chest,  which  developed  into 
inflammation  of  the  lungs  and  terminated  fatally  at  nine  o'clock  on 
Sunday  morning,  October  nineteenth."  On  the  twenty-fifth  his 
funeral  took  place,  "fully  four  thousand  of  the  army  and  navy,  with 
four  hundred  officers,  and  many  citizens"  in  attendance.  From 
Government  House  the  procession  moved  in  solemn  order  to  St. 
Paul's  Church.  First  came  the  troops  in  garrison,  the  military 
officers,  two  six-pound  field  pieces,  the  physicians  of  Halifax,  the 
clergy  of  the  town,  and  then  the  body  in  a  coffin  covered  with  black 
velvet  and  draped  with  a  pall  to  which  were  affixed  escutcheons  of 
his  Excellency's  arms,  the  pall-bearers  being  the  whole  body  of  his 
Majesty's  Council.  After  the  body  came  the  mourners,  the  provost 
marshal,  the  House  of  Assembly,  the  magistrates,  the  civil  officers, 
Free-Masons,  and  many  leading  citizens.  The  pall-bearers,  clergy, 
physicians,  and  all  civil  and  military  officers  wore  black  linen  or 
cambric  hat  bands. 

As  the  corpse  neared  the  church  the  children  from  the  orphan 
house  sang  an  anthem.  Within,  the  pulpit,  reading-desk,  and  gov- 
ernor's pew  were  draped  with  black,  bearing  escutcheons.  The 
burial  service  was  conducted  by  Dr.  Breynton,  who  preached  a 
touching  sermon,  at  the  conclusion  of  which,  with  the  committal  ser- 
vice of  the  Prayer  Book  the  body  was  lowered  into  a  vault  at  the 
right  side  of  the  Communion  Table.  From  the  time  the  procession 
began  until  the  burial  was  completed  minute  guns  were  fired  from 
one  of  the  batteries,  the  firing  ending  with  three  volleys  from  the 
troops  under  arms.9  The  next  Tuesday  morning,  when  the  Su- 


g.  What  position  the  officers  and  men  of  the  navy  occupied  in  the  procession  we 
have  not  discovered.  Governor  Lawrence's  body  was  the  first  interred  beneath  St. 
Paul's  Church.  A  monument  to  him  with  an  elaborate  inscription,  costing  eighty  pounds 
was  soon  ordered  by  the  legislature  from  London  to  be  placed  in  the  church.  It  came 
out  and  was  affixed  to  the  south-east  corner  of  the  church  (the  first  monument  placed 
in  the  church),  but  in  a  violent  storm  which  occurred  in  1768,  the  south-east  end  of 
the  church  was  badly  damaged,  and  the  monument  or  tablet  had  to  be  taken  down. 

42 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

preme  Court  assembled,  the  court-room  was  draped  in  black ;  and  u. 
an  early  issue  of  the  Royal  Gazette  the  grief  of  the  community  was 
still  further  expressed  in  a  fulsome  eulogium  which  read  as  follows : 
"Governor  Lawrence  was  possessed  of  every  natural  endowment 
and  acquired  accomplishment  necessary  to  adorn  the  most  exalted 
station,  and  every  amiable  quality  that  could  promote  the  sweets 
of  friendship  arid  social  intercourse  of  human  life.  As  Governor 
he  exerted  his  uncommon  abilities  with  unwearied  application,  and 
the  most  disinterested  zeal  in  projecting  and  executing  every  useful 
design  that  might  render  this  Province  and  its  rising  settlements 
flourishing  and  happy.  He  encouraged  the  industrious,  rewarded 
the  deserving,  excited  the  indolent,  protected  the  oppressed,  and  re- 
lieved the  needy.  His  affability  and  masterly  address  endeared  him 
to  all  ranks  of  people,  and  a  peculiar  greatness  of  soul  made  him 
superior  to  vanity,  envy,  avarice,  or  revenge.  In  him  we  have  lost 
the  guide  and  guardian  of  our  interests;  the  reflection  on  the  good 
he  has  done,  the  anticipation  of  great  things  still  expected  from  such 
merits,  are  circumstances  which,  while  they  redound  to  his  honour, 
aggravate  the  sense  of  our  irreparable  misfortune." 

HENRY  ELLIS,  ESQ.,  born  in  England  in  1721,  who  had  previously, 
from  1756  to  1760,  been  governor  of  Georgia,  was  commissioned 
governor  of  Nova  Scotia  in  April  or  May,  1761.  When  he  received 
his  commission  he  was  in  England  and  arrangements  were  made  by 
the  Nova  Scotia  council  to  receive  him  fittingly  when  he  should  ap- 
pear. For  some  reason,  however,  he  never  came  to  his  post,  and 
in  his  absence,  first  Chief  Justice  Belcher,  who  was  commissioned 
lieutenant-governor  April  14,  1761,  and  then  Hon.  Colonel  Mon- 
tague Wilmot,  who  took  the  oath  of  office  September  26,  1762,  ad- 
ministered the  government.  Ellis  continued  to  hold  office,  however, 
until  some  time  in  1763.  He  died  on  the  shore  of  the  Bay  of  Naples, 
January  21,  1806.10 

THE  HONOURABLE  COLONEL  MONTAGUE  WILMOT  was  commissioned 


From  a  shed  near  by,  where  it  was  placed  until  the  church  could  be  repaired,  it  disap- 
peared and  its  fate  has  never  been  discovered  to  this  day.     See  "Governor  Lawrence, 
by  James  S.  Macdonald,  in  Collections  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Historical  Society,  Vol.  12; 
and  the  Dictionary  of  National  Biography. 

10.     See  the  National  Cyclopoedia  of  American  Biography,  Vol.  i,  p.  49*  • 

43 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

governor  March  11,  1763,  although  he  probably  did  not  take  oath 
until  October  8,  1763.  As  lieutenant-governor  of  Nova  Scotia  he 
had  been  commissioned  January  13, 1762.  In  the  latter  office  he  was 
succeeded  in  1766  by  the  Hon.  Michael  Francklin.  By  a  proclama- 
tion dated  at  St.  James,  October  7,  1763,  the  islands  of  St.  John  and 
Cape  Breton,  "with  the  lesser  islands  adjacent  thereto,"  were  an- 
nexed to  the  government  of  Nova  Scotia. 

One  matter,  at  least,  of  interest  to  the  reader  of  history,  which 
received  much  of  Governor  Wilmot  's  attention  during  his  governor- 
ship, was  the  question  of  what  to  do  with  the  Acadian  French  that 
still  remained  in  the  Province.  In  1764  there  were  in  Nova  Scotia, 
in  the  counties  of  Halifax,  Hants  (then  King's),  Annapolis,  and 
Cumberland,  four  hundred  and  five  families  of  these  people,  com- 
prising seventeen  hundred  and  sixty-two  persons.  On  the  22d  of 
October  of  this  year  a  project  was  reported  in  the  council  to  settle 
part  of  these  French  in  fourteen  different  places  throughout  the 
Province.  Writing  concerning  the  matter  to  the  Earl  of  Halifax, 
Governor  Wilmot  says :  * '  These  people  have  been  too  long  misled 
and  devoted  to  the  French  King  and  their  religion  to  be  soon  wean- 
ed from  such  attachments ;  and  whenever  those  objects  are  hung  out 
to  them  their  infatuation  runs  very  high.  Some  prisoners  taken  in 
the  course  of  the  war  and  residing  here  have  much  fomented  this 
spirit."  The  Acadians  living  in  and  near  Halifax  have,  he  says, 
"peremptorily  refused  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance."  The  in- 
tention of  the  Acadians,  he  continues,  was  eventually  to  settle  in 
"the  country  of  the  Illinois."  The  province  will  be  much  relieved  by 
their  departure,  he  thinks,  for  they  have  always  been  hostile  to  Brit- 
ish rule. 

Governor  Wilmot  died  in  office  May  23,  1766,  and  the  Hon.  Ben- 
jamin Green,  as  president  of  the  council,  temporarily  administered 
the  government.  The  governor's  remains  also  were  permanently 
placed  in  a  vault  under  St.  Paul's  Church. 

THE  RIGHT  HONOURABLE  LORD  WILLIAM  CAMPBELL  was  commis- 
sioned governor  of  Nova  Scotia  on  the  llth  of  August,  1766.  Lord 
William,  who  was  the  youngest  son  of  the  fourth  Duke  of  Argyle, 
was  born  probably  about  1730,  and  was  early  put  into  the  navy, 

44 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

where  in  1762  he  attained  the  rank  of  captain.  Two  years  later  he 
entered  parliament.  He  married,  in  1763,  Sarah  Izard,  daughter 
of  Ralph  Izard,  Esq.,  of  Charleston,  South  Carolina.  On  the  8th 
of  August,  1766,  he  was  commissioned  vice-admiral,  and  on  the  llth, 
as  we  have  said,  governor  of  Nova  Scotia.  Governor  Campbell  suf- 
fered from  ill  health  and  on  the  17th  of  October,  1771,  sailed  for 
Boston,  probably  on  his  way  to  South  Carolina.11  On  the  10th  of 
July,  1772,  he  returned,  much  improved  in  health  as  he  announced  to 
the  council,  but  in  February,  1773,  he  wrote  the  Secretary  of  State 
in  England  that  he  wanted  another  leave  of  absence  from  his  post, 
this  time  for  six  months,  presumably  again  to  recuperate  from  ill 
health.  He  had,  he  urged  in  his  request,  served  the  then  reigning 
king  and  his  grandfather  for  twenty-four  years.  He  declares  his 
love  for  the  people  of  Nova  Scotia,  and  believes  he  has  been  of  some 
service  to  them.  He  praises  the  Nova  Scotians'  constant  obedience 
to  his  Majesty's  commands.  In  the  London  Magazine  for  June, 
1773,  his  appointment  is  gazetted  as  captain-general  and  governor- 
in-chief  of  the  province  of  South  Carolina,  in  place  of  Lord  Charles 
Greville  Montagu.12  In  the  same  periodical  occurs  a  notice  of  the 
appointment  of  Francis  Legge,  Esq.,  to  the  governorship  of  Nova 
Scotia. 

In  his  documentary  history  of  Nova  Scotia,  briefly  narrating 
events  in  the  province  in  the  year  1769,  Mr.  Beamish  Murdoch  says : 
"In  January,  Governor  Campbell  had  daily  visits  from  the  Indians, 
demanding  provisions.  He  attributed  their  urgent  tone  to  the  ab- 
sence of  troops,  but  as  this  was  an  unusually  severe  winter  the 
weather  may  have  caused  their  importunity.  Major  Gorham,  who 
was  deputy  to  Sir  William  Johnson,  the  agent  for  Indian  affairs, 
was  absent,  and  the  governor  asks  Lord  Hillsborough  for  funds  to 
make  presents  to  the  Indians,  and  assist  them,  in  order  to  keep  them 
quiet."  Lord  William  Campbell  died  September  5,  1778,  from  a 
wound  received  in  a  naval  engagement.13 


11.  Lady  Campbell  sailed  from  England  for  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  on  the 
23d  of  January,  1769,  but  whether  she  soon  came  from  Charleston  to  Halifax  or  not  we 
do  not  know. 

12.  Lord  Charles  Greville  Montagu  died  in  Nova  Scotia  and  was  buried  under  St 
Paul's  Church,  Halifax,  in  1784. 

13.  See  the  National  Cyclopaedia  of  American  Biography. 

45 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

MAJOR  FRANCIS  LEGGE,  who  was  a  relative  of  the  Earl  of  Dart- 
mouth, was  commissioned  captain-general  and  governor-in-chief 
of  Nova  Scotia,  July  22,  1773,  and  vice-admiral,  July  26,  1773.  He 
was  sworn  into  office  as  governor  October  8,  1773.  He  has  the  dis- 
tinction of  having  been  by  far  the  most  unpopular  governor  Nova 
Scotia  has  ever  had.  He  left  the  province  May  12,  1776,  but  con- 
tinued to  hold  office  until  1782,  during  which  period  the  government 
was  administered  successively  by  Lieutenant-Governors  Mariot 
Arbuthnot,  Mr.  Richard  Hughes,  and  Sir  Andrew  Snape  Hamond. 

From  October  8,  1773,  until  May  12,  1776,  Major  Legge,  who  as 
a  Nova  Scotia  writer  has  said,  probably  with  entire  truthfulness, 
''had  been  for  many  years  a  thorn  in  the  side  of  his  noble  kinsman 
the  Earl  of  Dartmouth  and  leading  members  of  the  ministry  of 
the  day,"  who  "had  quarrelled  and  fought  with  friends  and  foes 
in  England,  and  as  a  last  resort  was  shipped  off  to  Nova  Scotia  to 
take  charge  of  this  new  colony,  to  get  rid  of  his  hated  presence  at 
home,"  was  in  residence  at  Halifax.  Whatever  social  events  took 
place  at  Government  House  during  these  three  years  we  may  be 
sure  were  not  gay  ones,  for  Legge  was  uniformly  ill-tempered  and 
jealous,  and  in  his  capacity  as  governor  did  all  he  could  to  cast  dis- 
credit on  men  in  public  life  in  the  province.  His  official  career  as 
governor  was  stormy  in  the  extreme.  He  hated  Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor  Francklin,  who  was  highly  popular  and  who  in  public  as  in 
private  was  an  excellent  man,  he  insinuated  that  Richard  Bulkeley, 
the  Provincial  Secretary,  an  official  of  unblemished  character  and 
the  highest  reputation,  was  dishonest,  he  accused  Hon.  Jonathan 
Binney  and  Hon.  John  Newton,  members  of  the  council,  "of  re- 
taining moneys  which  had  been  voted  them  for  fees  for  public  duties 
and  services,"  actually  imprisoning  Mr.  Binney  for  three  months, 
and  in  his  letters  to  England  he  (with  much  more  reason)  persist- 
ently charged  disloyalty  to  the  Crown  on  a  large  part  of  the  people 
generally  in  the  province.  So  unbearable  was  his  rule  that  the 
legislature  as  a  body  had  finally  to  appeal  to  the  English  govern- 
ment for  redress,  and  the  consequence  was  that  Legge  was  promptly 
recalled. 

On  the  12th  of  May,  as  we  have  said,  he  sailed  for  England.  As 
he  left  the  beach,  near  the  present  Market  Wharf,  in  the  launch 

46 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

which  was  to  take  him  to  the  war-ship,  in  which  he  was  to  sail,  hun- 
dreds of  the  citizens  of  Halifax,  were  watching  there  to  see  him  go. 
"As  the  boat  left  the  beach,  storms  of  hisses  and  yells  burst  from 
the  assemblage.  This  so  infuriated  Legge  that  he  stood  up  in  the 
boat  and  cursed  them  most  heartily,  and  the  last  seen  of  him  he  was 
standing  on  the  deck  of  the  frigate  shaking  his  fists  at  the  amused 
and  delighted  Haligonians.  "14 

LIEUTENANT- COLONEL  JOHN  PARE,  who  was  the  last  governor  in 
chief  of  Nova  Scotia,  was  commissioned  captain-general  and  com- 
mander-in-chief  July  29,  1782,  and  vice-admiral  July  30,  1782.  He 
took  the  oath  of  office  October  9,  1782.  In  October,  1786,  Lord 
Dorchester  was  appointed  Governor-General  of  all  the  British  prov- 
inces in  America,  and  on  the  5th  of  April,  1787,  the  King's  commis- 
sion was  read  in  the  Nova  Scotia  council  appointing  Parr  lieuten- 
ant-governor of  the  province.  No  period  in  the  history  of  Nova 
Scotia  is  perhaps  so  important  as  that  which  was  covered  by  the  ad- 
ministration of  Governor  Parr.  Parr  was  sworn  in  governor  in 
October,  1782,  and  peace  with  the  new  American  republic  was  pro- 
claimed on  the  30th  of  November,  1782,  and  beginning  with  De- 
cember of  the  latter  year  the  Loyalists  of  New  York  and  other  prov- 
inces now  states  of  the  union  came  by  thousands  to  Nova  Scotia. 
To  give  these  people  grants  of  land,  and  while  they  were  making 
themselves  new  homes  in  the  province  to  relieve  their  immediate 
necessities,  was  a  laborious  task  and  one  needing  the  greatest  sym- 
pathy and  tact.  To  his  arduous  duties  at  this  critical  time  Parr 
gave  himself  with  unremitting  faithfulness.  Throughout  the  whole 
of  the  year  1783,  every  day  found  the  governor  and  his  council  busy 
arranging  for  the  welfare  of  the  unhappy  exiles.  Parr's  deep  solici- 
tude for  the  Loyalists,  says  Mr.  Macdonald,  should  never  be  forgot- 
ten by  any  who  have  the  blood  of  these  people  in  their  veins.  He 
was  not  a  brilliant  man,  says  his  biographer,  but  he  was  the  very 
man  for  the  time  he  lived  in  and  the  duties  he  had  to  perform,  "a 
plain,  upright  soldier,  who  prided  himself  on  his  attention  to  duty, 
and  who  endeavoured  to  discharge  the  obligations  of  a  distinguished 


14.  This  graphic  account  of  Legge's  departure  is  quoted  from  Mr.  James  S.  Mac- 
donald's  memoir  of  Lieut.-Governor  Michael  Francklin  in  the  i6th  vol.  of  the  Collections 
of  the  Nova  Scotia  Historical  Society,  pp.  32,  33. 

47 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

position  with  integrity  and  honour."  During  his  administration 
several  important  settlements  were  made  in  the  province,  notably 
Shelburne  and  Parrsborough. 

In  the  summer  of  1786  and  twice  in  1787,  Prince  William  Henry, 
the  * '  sailor  prince  "  as  he  was  commonly  called,  who  afterward  came 
to  the  throne  as  King  William  the  Fourth,  visited  Halifax  and  was 
the  recipient  of  magnificent  hospitality  and  fulsome  praise.  His 
first  arrival  in  the  town  is  described  by  the  biographer  of  Governor 
Parr  as  follows :  ' l  The  Prince  landed  from  the  frigate  Pegasus  at 
the  King's  Wharf,  which  was  crowded  with  the  numerous  officials. 
Governor  Parr  was  there,  with  General  Campbell  and  Admiral 
Byron  and  the  usual  number  of  loyal  and  devoted  admirers,  and  these 
gentlemen  conducted  him  up  the  wharf  to  Government  House,  then 
situated  on  the  spot  where  the  Province  Building  is  at  present." 

A  week  later  than  the  Prince's  arrival,  the  new  governor  general 
of  the  British  provinces,  who  previously  had  been  known  as  Sir 
Guy  Carleton,  but  lately  had  been  raised  to  the  peerage  as  Lord 
Dorchester,  with  his  suite  arrived  at  Halifax  from  Quebec,  and  he 
too  was  received  with  delight.  Addresses  were  presented  to  him, 
dinners,  receptions,  and  balls  were  given  for  him,  and  a  "gay  and 
tireless  round  of  frivolities"  was  indulged  in  by  the  loyal  Hali- 
gonians  while  his  lordship  remained. 

It  was  during  Governor  Parr's  administration,  in  the  year  1787, 
that  Nova  Scotia  was  created  by  the  King  by  letters  patent  an 
Anglican  Colonial  See,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Charles  Inglis,  previously  Rec- 
tor of  Trinity  Church,  New  York,  being  consecrated  as  its  first 
diocesan.  Shortly  after  his  arrival  in  his  diocese  the  Bishop  was  so 
impressed  with  the  general  immorality  of  Halifax  that  in  taking  his 
seat  in  council  he  urged  that  steps  be  taken  by  the  government  "to 
erect  barriers  against  the  impetuous  torrent  of  vice  and  irreligion" 
which  threatened  to  overwhelm  the  morals  of  the  community,  if  not 
the  whole  province. 

Governor  Parr  was  born  in  Dublin,  Ireland,  December  20,  1725. 
He  died  at  Halifax  of  apoplexy,  on  Friday,  November  25,  1791,  and 
was  buried  under  St.  Paul's  Church.15 


15.  For  Governor  Parr  and  the  Loyalists,  see  a  highly  interesting  paper  by  Mr. 
James  S.  Macdonald  in  the  Collections  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Historical  Society,  Vol  14. 
For  Hon.  Richard  Bulkeley  see  a  paper  by  the  same  writer  in  the  Collections,  Vol.  12. 

48 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

THE  HONOURABLE  SIR  JOHN  WENT  WORTH,  BARONET,  (who  did  not, 
however,  receive  his  title  until  1795)  was  commissioned  governor  of 
Nova  Scotia,  January  13,  1792..  He  arrived  first  in  Halifax  from 
England,  after  the  Revolution,  on  the  20th  of  September,  1783,  in 
the  capacity  in  which  he  had  long  acted  while  governor  of  New 
Hampshire,  as  surveyor  general  of  the  King's  woods.  In  the  same 
ship,  with  him  came  also  Mr.  Edmund  Fanning,  who  immediately 
afterward  entered  on  the  duties  of  lieutenant-governor  to  Governor 
Parr.  The  exact  date  of  the  arrival  of  these  officials  we  have  learn- 
ed from  a  private  letter  from  the  Rev.  Dr.  Mather  Byles,  Jr.,  a  fel- 
low Loyalist  refugee  of  Mr.  Wentworth,  who  had  come  to  Halifax 
in  1776.  Commissioned  governor,  Mr.  Wentworth  arrived  again 
from  England  in  H.  M.  frigate  Hussar,  commanded  by  Captain 
Rupert  George,  after  a  five  weeks'  voyage  from  Falmouth,  England, 
on  the  12th  of  May,  1792.  On  the  14th,  at  one  o'clock  in  the  after- 
noon he  took  the  oath  of  office.  Sir  John  resigned  the  governorship 
early  in  1808,  and  from  June  1, 1808,  until  his  death  on  April  8, 1820, 
he  enjoyed  an  annual  pension  from  the  government  of  five  hundred 
pounds.  For  about  half  the  period  of  his  governorship,  Sir  John 
lived  at  the  second  built  Government  House,  but  some  time  in  1797, 
it  would  seem,  he  felt  the  house  to  be  unfit  to  live  in  and  removed 
his  household  temporarily  to  his  lodge  on  Bedford  Basin,  probably 
staying  there  for  a  time  with  the  Duke  of  Kent.16  Later  the  official 
residence  in  town  must  have  been  somewhat  repaired,  for  the  gov- 
ernor continued  for  some  time  longer  to  entertain  there.  In  this 
house  also,  on  the  16th  of  August,  1797,  occurred  the  death  of  Lady 
Wentworth 's  first  cousin,  Charles  Thomas,  a  young  lieutenant  in 
the  Duke  of  Kent's  regiment,  who  was  accidentally  shot  by  a  broth- 
er officer  in  a  road-house  a  few  miles  from  the  town. 

On  the  18th  of  November,  1799,  Sir  John  wrote  Robert  Liston, 
Esq.,  the  British  ambassador  to  the  United  States  that  the  Duke  of 
Orleans  and  his  two  brothers,  the  Duke  de  Montpensier  and  Count 
Beaujolais,  had  arrived  at  Halifax,  in  H.  M.  Ship  Porcupine,  from 


16.  Dr.  Akins  says  that  Prince  Edward  resided  at  Government  House  with  Sir 
John  Wentworth  in  1798,  but  since  Sir  John  considered  the  house  not  fit  to  live  in  in 
1797,  and  since  the  Prince  had  earlier  become  fully  installed  at  the  lodge,  this  seems  very 
unlikely.  That  the  two  did  live  together  about  this  time  at  the  lodge  seems  almost  a 
certainty.  In  1798,  however,  Lady  Wentworth  was  in  England. 

49 


A 
\ 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

New  Providence,  where  they  had  been  waiting  in  vain  for  some  time 
to  get  passage  to  England.  No  chance  for  such  passage  having 
presented  itself  they  had  come  to  Nova  Scotia,  where  they  hoped  to 
find  a  ship.  Being  unsuccessful  here  also  they  had  gone  on  to  New 
York  in  the  Lord  Duncan,  a  merchant  ship,  hoping  to  be  able  to  sail 
from  there.  "They  do  not  ostensibly,"  says  Sir  John,  "assume  their 
rank;  visited  H.  R.  H.  the  Duke  of  Kent  and  myself  and  Admiral 
Vandeput.  The  visits  were  returned,  and  they  have  dined  with  H. 
R.  H.  at  Government  House  on  the  public  dinner  days.  The  surplus 
of  cash  brought  with  them  they  invested  in  bills  of  exchange  from 
the  paymaster  general  of  the  army,  upon  the  treasury,  to  be  remit- 
ted to  London.  I  learn  they  brought  about  10,000  dollars.  It  seems 
to  be  their  intention  to  proceed  to  Spain,  to  meet  their  mother,  as 
soon  as  possible.  In  all  their  deportment  here  they  have  been  en- 
tirely discreet.  This  is  the  general  statement,  except  that  they  were 
also  at  a  public  ball  at  the  Government  House,  and  yesterday  dined 
with  me.  Friday  they  are  to  dine  with  the  Duke  of  Kent.  As  these 
prisoners  [sic]  are  of  such  high  connection  I  thought  it  would  not  be 
unacceptable  to  you  to  be  informed  of  their  progress  through  this 
place. ' ' 

"P.  S.  8  o'clock,  P.  M.  Since  the  preceding,  H.  R.  H.  the  Duke 
of  Kent  has  given  the  Duke  of  Orleans  a  letter  of  instruction  to  the 
Duke  of  Portland,  of  which  it  may  be  acceptable  to  you  to  be  as 
above  confidentially  informed. ' ' 

The  Duke  of  Orleans,  Mr.  Murdoch,  who  prints  this  letter  in  his 
"History  of  Nova  Scotia,"  explains  "was  the  prince  who  afterwards 
governed  in  France  as  King  Louis  Philippe.  It  is  said  that  he 
lodged  while  in  Halifax  with  a  Mrs.  Meagher,  a  Frenchwoman,  [sic] 
and  attended  service  in  the  small  chapel  (R.  C.)  in  Pleasant  Street, 
and  sat  in  the  pew  of  L.  Doyle,  Esq." 

In  September,  1804,  Halifax  had  a  visitor  in  the  person  of  Tom 
Moore,  the  Irish  poet.  Moore  had  lately  been  in  Bermuda,  where  he 
had  for  a  short  time,  it  is  said,  occupied  the  post  of  registrar  of  the 
court  of  vice-admiralty.  This  position  he  found  did  not  pay  him 
a  sufficient  salary  and  he  left  it,  but  before  returning  to  England  he 
determined  to  see  something  more  of  the  world.  Accordingly  he 
made  a  tour  of  the  United  States  and  Canada,  and  from  Quebec 

So 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

came  to  Halifax,  the  voyage  occupying  thirteen  days.  He  sailed 
from  Halifax  for  England  in  the  frigate  Boston,  commanded  by 
Captain  Douglas. 

"On  the  evening  of  Saturday,  April  8,"  [1820]  says  Mr.  Mur- 
doch, "Sir  John  Wentworth  died  at  Halifax,  at  his  apartments  in 
Hollis  Street.  He  was  in  his  84th  year.  His  latter  days  were  spent 
in  solitude  and  retirement.  On  the  day  before  his  departure  the 
city  was  excited  with  the  joyful  ceremonial  attendant  on  the  ele- 
vation of  the  Prince  of  Wales  to  the  sovereignty  of  this  great  em- 
pire in  his  own  right,  mingled  with  the  respect  due  a  monarch  who 
had  for  near  sixty  years  presided  with  moral  dignity  and  conscienti- 
ous earnestness  over  the  government  and  interests  of  our  nation. 
To  an  eminent  loyalist  like  Wentworth,  who  through  chequered 
scenes  of  prosperity  and  adversity  had  been  the  trusted  and  hon- 
ored servant  of  the  crown  from  an  early  period  of  this  long  reign,  if 
he  were  then  conscious  of  what  was  passing  around  him,  the  re- 
flections he  would  make  on  the  dropping  of  the  curtain  on  royalty, 
on  the  unlocked  for  loss  of  Prince  Edward,  so  long  his  intimate 
friend,  and  on  the  exit  of  his  venerated  master  from  all  sublunary 
suffering,  must  have  been  exceedingly  affecting.  Sir  John  proved 
the  sincerity  of  his  professions  of  strong  attachment  to  Nova  Scotia 
by  voluntarily  spending  his  last  days  here.  His  baronetcy  devolved 
upon  his  son,  Sir  Charles  Mary  Wentworth,  who  resided  in  Eng- 
land, but  on  the  latter 's  death  without  issue  the  title  became  ex- 
tinct.17 

LIEUTENANT-GENERAL  SIR  GEORGE  PREVOST,  BARONET,  succeeded 
Governor  Wentworth  as  the  chief  executive  of  the  Nova  Scotia  gov- 
ernment. His  commission  bears  date  January  15,  1808.  On  the  7th 
of  April  he  reached  Halifax,  and  on  the  13th  was  sworn  into  office. 
He  continued  governor  until  1811,  when  he  was  commissioned  Gov- 
ernor-in-Chief  of  all  the  British  provinces  in  America.  He  left 
Halifax  for  Quebec  on  the  25th  of  August,  1811,  Alexander  Croke, 


17.     See  Dictionary  of  National  Biography ;    "Early  Life  of  Sir  John  Wentworth 
and  "A  Chapter  in  the  Life  of  Sir  John  Wentworth"   (both  yet  in  manuscript  in  the 
archives    of    the    Nova    Scotia    Historical    Society)    by    Hon.    Sir    Adams    Archibald, 
K.  C.  M.  G.;   The  Wentworth  Genealogy;   and  Chapter  IV  of  this  history. 

51 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

LL.D.,  judge  of  vice-admiralty,  being  appointed  to  administer  the 
government  for  a  short  time. 

An  event  of  much  importance  in  the  time  of  Sir  George  Prevost 
was  the  laying  of  the  corner  stone  of  the  Province  Building  in  1811, 
On  Monday,  the  twelfth  of  August  of  that  year,  which  happened  to 
be  the  birthday  of  George  the  Fourth,  then  regent  of  the  empire  of 
Britain,  at  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  the  Lieutenant-Governor, 
attended  by  Rear-Admiral  Sawyer,  Major-General  Balfour,  Com- 
missioner Inglefield,  and  the  different  officers  of  the  Staff,  with  sev- 
eral Captains  of  the  Navy,  and  others,  was  received  at  the  eastern 
gate  of  the  inclosure  by  the  Grenadiers  and  Light  Infantry  compan- 
ies of  the  2d  battalion  of  militia,  under  command  of  Captain  Lid- 
dell,  and  the  Rifle  company  of  the  8th  battalion,  commanded  by 
Captain  Albro,  with  arms  presented,  the  band  playing  "God  Save 
the  King. ' '  Here  the  Governor  and  his  party  were  met  by  the  com- 
missioners for  superintending  the  erection  of  the  building,  who  con- 
ducted them  to  a  marquee,  where  they  were  received  by  Quarter- 
master General  Pyke,  Grand  Master  of  the  Free  and  Accepted  Or- 
der of  Masons,  and  other  officers  and  members  of  the  Grand  Lodge, 
and  given  refreshments.  Then  the  Rev.  Benjamin  Gerrish  Gray, 
Grand  Chaplain  of  the  Lodge,  offered  a  prayer,  and  the  Lieutenant- 
Governor  performed  the  great  ceremony  of  the  day.  The  architect 
of  the  building  was  Mr.  Richard  Scott.  * '  The  ceremony  was  honour- 
ed," says  the  Royal  Gazette  newspaper,  describing  the  function, 
"by  the  presence  of  a  considerable  number  of  ladies,  who  were  pro- 
vided with  seats  erected  for  their  accommodation.  The  windows 
of  the  different  houses  round  the  square  were  also  occupied  by  the 
fair  daughters  of  Acadia — the  whole  forming  a  coup  d'oeil  of  taste, 
beauty,  and  accomplishment  that  would  do  honour  to  any  part  of  His 
Majesty's  Dominions;  and  notwithstanding  there  was  a  larger  con- 
course of  people  assembled  than  we  have  almost  ever  before  wit- 
nessed in  this  town,  and  the  different  sheds,  etc.,  were  crowded  with 
spectators,  we  are  happy  to  announce  that  not  any  accident  took 
place,  nor  any  one  sustained  the  least  injury." 

A  notable  day,  indeed,  was  this,  in  the  governorship  of  Sir  George 
Prevost.  In  honour  of  the  birthday  of  the  heir  to  the  throne  and 
regent  of  the  Kingdom,  from  early  morning  flags  floated  from  the 

5* 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

ships  in  the  harbour  and  the  ports  and  chief  buildings  in  and  about 
the  town.  At  noon  the  troops  were  reviewed  by  his  Excellency  on 
the  Common,  and  three  salutes  of  seven  guns  each,  "intercalated 
by  a  like  series  of  feux  de  joie,  echoed  to  the  sky. "  "  Then  came  the 
usual  speech  approving  of  the  excellent  performance  by  the  troops 
and  militia,  after  this  a  royal  salute  from  the  ships  of  war;  then 
Sir  George  went  back  to  Government  House  to  receive  and  shake 
hands  with  all  Halifax  at  a  levee  held  in  honour  of  the  day."  It 
was  "a  heavy  day"  for  the  representative  of  his  Majesty,  says  Sir 
Adams  Archibald,  "the  address,  the  dinner,  the  answer  to  the  ad- 
dress and  the  speech  to  the  toast,  the  roar  of  artillery  in  the  morn- 
ing, feux  de  joie,  the  salutes  from  the  ships,  the  Volunteer  Artil- 
lery's salute — to  say  nothing  of  the  refreshments,  which  seem  to 
have  been  rather  profuse — must  have  sent  him  to  bed  tired  enough 
to  make  him  almost  forget  that  he  was  emerging  from  the  chrysalis 
of  Nova  Scotia  to  take  wings  for  a  higher  sphere ' '  as  governor  gen- 
eral of  all  the  British  provinces. 

Sir  George  Prevost  was  born  May  19,  1767,  and  died  in  London 
January  5,  1816.  His  popularity  in  Nova  Scotia  was  very  great.18 

GENERAL  SIR  JOHN  COAPE  SHERBROOKE,  G.  C.  B.,  was  commissioned 
lieutenant-governor  of  Nova  Scotia,  August  19,  1811,  and  sworn  in 
October  16,  1811.  On  the  29th  of  January,  1816,  he  like  his  prede- 
cessor was  commissioned  governor  in  chief  of  all  the  British  prov- 
inces, but  it  seems  to  have  been  several  months  before  he  took  his 
departure  for  Quebec.  On  the  28th  of  June,  1816,  Major-General 
George  Stracey  Smyth  was  sworn  in  administrator  of  the  Nova 
Scotia  government  until  a  new  executive  head  could  be  appointed. 
Sir  John  Coape  Sherbrooke  died  in  England  February  14,  1830.18* 

LIEUTENANT-GENERAL  GEORGE  RAMSAY,  NINTH  EARL  OF  DALHOUSIE, 
was  commissioned  for  the  government  of  Nova  Scotia,  July  20,  1816. 
He  reached  Halifax  in  H.  M.  ship  Forth,  from  England,  on  the  24th 
of  October,  1816,  and  the  same  day  took  the  oath  of  office.  In  1819, 


1 8.  See  Dictionary  of  National  Biography;  and  "Sir  George  Prevost"  (an  unpub- 
lished paper  in  the  archives  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Historical  Society),  by  James  S.  Mac- 
donald. 

i8j^.     See  Dictionary  of  National   Biography. 

53 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

he  too  was  commissioned  governor  in  chief  of  the  Canadas  and  the 
other  provinces,  in  succession  to  the  Duke  of  Richmond,  and  prob- 
ably in  October  of  that  year  he  went  from  Halifax  to  Quebec.  The 
Earl  was  born  in  1770,  and  succeeded  his  father  in  the  peerage  of 
Scotland  in  1787.  He  was  created  Baron  Dalhousie  in  the  peerage 
of  the  United  Kingdom,  August  11,  1815.  Lord  Dalhousie  was  gov- 
ernor in  chief  of  Canada  from  1819  to  1828,  and  commander  in  chief 
in  the  East  Indies  from  1829  to  1832.  He  died  March  21,  1838. 

•The  Earl  of  Dalhousie 's  governorship  of  Nova  Scotia  lasted  but 
three  years,  but  these  years  were  full  of  intelligent  activity  on  the 
part  of  this  accomplished,  energetic,  high-minded  man.  Of  Lord 
Dalhousie  the  Honourable  Joseph  Howe,  himself  a  later  governor, 
has  written :  ' '  The  Earl  was  a  square-built,  good-looking  man,  with 
hair  rather  gray  when  I  last  saw  him.  He  took  great  interest  in 
agriculture  and  was  the  patron  of  'Agricola,'  whose  letters  appear- 
ed in  the  Recorder  when  I  was  in  the  printing  office.  His  Lordship's 
example  set  all  the  Councillors  and  officials  and  fashionables  mad 
about  farming  and  political  economy.  They  went  to  ploughing- 
matches,  got  up  fairs,  made  composts,  and  bought  cattle  and  pigs. 
Every  fellow  who  wanted  an  office,  or  wished  to  get  an  invitation  to 
Government  House,  read  Sir  John  Sinclair,  talked  of  Adarn  Smith, 
bought  a  south-down,  or  hired  an  acre  of  land  and  planted  mangel 
wurtzels. 

"The  secret  about  'AgricolaV  letters  had  been  well  kept  and  the 
mystery  became  very  mysterious.  At  last  the  authorship  was  an- 
nounced, and  it  was  then  discovered  that  a  stout  Scotchman,  who 
kept  a  small  grocer's  shop  in  Water  street  and  whom  nobody  knew 
or  had  met  in  'good  society'  was  the  great  unknown.  Ovations  were 
got  up  under  the  patronage  of  the  Earl,  and  the  Judges  and  leading 
merchants  and  lawyers  came  forward  and  fraternized  with  the  stout 
Scotchman,  who  being  a  man  of  good  education  and  fine  powers  of 
mind  was  soon  discovered  to  speak  with  as  much  ease  and  fluency 
as  he  wrote.  All  this  was  marvellous  in  the  eyes  of  that  generation. 
But  no  two  governors  think  alike  or  patronize  the  same  things,  when 
Sir  James  Kempt  came  he  had  a  passion  for  road-making  and  pretty 
women,  and  the  agricultural  mania  died  away.  Agricola  was  voted 
a  bore — a  fat  Scotchman — and  his  family  decidedly  vulgar,  and  the 

54 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA.  SCOTIA 

heifers  about  Government  House  attracted  more  attention  than  the 
Durham  cows.  The  agricultural  societies  tumbled  to  pieces,  and 
although  spasmodic  efforts  were  made  from  time  to  time  by  some 
members  of  Mr.  Young's  family,  agriculture  did  not  become  fash- 
ionable in  my  day  till  Sir  Gaspard  Le  Marchant  in  1854  began  to 
talk  to  everybody  about  Shanghai  chickens  and  Alderney  cows. 
Then  a  good  deal  of  money  was  spent.  The  old  breeds  of  cows, 
which  wanted  nothing  but  care  and  judicious  crossing  to  make  them 
as  good  as  any  in  the  world,  were  reduced  in  size  that  the  cream 
might  be  made  richer,  which  it  never  was,  and  the  chickens  were 
made  twice  the  size,  with  the  additional  recommendation  that  they 
were  twice  as  tough.  Sir  Gaspard  brought  his  crochets  direct  from 
Court,  for  Prince  Albert  was  a  great  breeder,  and  the  Queen  and 
everybody  else  went  mad  about  poultry  for  a  summer  or  two."19 

Not  only  agriculture  but  higher  education  in  the  province  deeply 
interested  the  Earl  of  Dalhousie.  When  he  came  as  governor,  Nova 
Scotia  had  but  one  college,  which  was  all  the  province  then  needed, 
or  indeed  ought  ever  since  to  have  had,  the  college  known  as  King's, 
situated  at  Windsor  in  the  county  of  Hants.  Unfortunately,  how- 
ever, this  college,  established  and  always  conducted  under  Anglican 
Church  control,  had  at  the  start  burdened  itself  with  bigoted 
denominational  statutes  which  made  it  impossible  for  young  men 
of  other  churches  than  the  Anglican  to  receive  an  education  within 
its  doors.  Lord  Dalhousie  was  soon  properly  roused  to  indignation 
at  this  state  of  things  and  determined  to  do  something  to  remedy  it. 
Through  his  efforts  and  influence  Dalhousie  College  was  founded, 
a  college  "for  the  instruction  of  youth  in  the  higher  classics  and  in 


19.  This  sketch,  by  Hon.  Joseph  Howe,  is  printed  in  the  ijth  volume  of  Collec- 
tions of  the  Nova  Scotia  Historical  Society  (pp.  197,  198).  The  general  title  of  the 
article  from  which  it  is  taken  is  entitled  "Notes  on  Several  Governors  and  their  In- 
fluence." Mr.  John  Young's  "Letters  of  Agricola,"  printed  first  in  the  Acadian  Recorder 
between  July  25  and  December  26,  1818,  were  designed  to  stimulate  and  did  stimulate  in- 
telligent activity  in  agriculture  throughout  the  province.  They  appeared  anonymously 
and  their  anonymity  much  increased  the  public  interest  in  them.  In  consequence  of  sug- 
gestions they  contained,  agricultural  societies  were  quickly  organized  in  various  places, 
ploughing  matches  were  held,  and  there  was  a  general  awakening  of  interest  in  improved 
methods  of  farming.  By  March,  1819,  Mr.  Young  had  avowed  the  authorship  of  the 
letters  and  had  become  secretary  of  a  Provincial  Agricultural  Society,  in  support  of 
which  the  legislature  gave  a  subsidy  of  fifteen  hundred  pounds.  Mr.  John  Young,  as  is 
well  known,  was  father  of  Hon.  Sir  William  Young,  Kt,  the  eighth  chief  justice  of  Nova 
Scotia.  See  a  paper  in  the  archives  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Historical  Society,  by  John  br- 
vin,  entitled  "John  Young  (Agricola)  the  Junius  of  Nova  Scotia. 

55 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

all  philosophical  studies,"  whose  doors  should  be  open  to  all  who 
professed  the  Christian  religion,  especially  those  who  were  narrow- 
ly " excluded  from  Windsor."  With  great  formality  the  Earl  laid 
the  corner  stone  of  the  building  of  this  non-sectarian  college  on 
Monday,  the  22d  of  May,  1820,  the  Countess  giving  a  ball  and  supper 
to  a  large  company  on  the  same  evening.  Nine  days  later  his  lord- 
ship received  a  farewell  address  from  the  people  of  Halifax  and  took 
his  departure  also  for  the  chief  governorship  of  the  provinces  at 
large.20 

Nothing,  writes  the  Hon.  Joseph  Howe,  could  be  more  "correct 
and  refining"  than  the  tone  given  to  Halifax  society  by  Lady  Dal- 
housie.  Without  being  handsome,  and  dressing  with  marked  plain- 
ness, she  charmed  people  with  the  elegant  simplicity  of  her  man- 
ners and  with  her  gracious  desire  to  please. 

LIEUTENANT-GENERAL  SIR  JAMES  KEMPT,  G.  C.  B.,  was  appointed 
by  the  regent,  afterwards  George  the  Fourth,  to  the  lieutenant- 
governorship  of  Nova  Scotia,  October  20, 1819.  He  reached  Halifax, 
with  his  suite,  however,  not  until  June  1,  1820,  his  inauguration  tak- 
ing place  the  next  day  after  his  arrival.  From  July  10,  1828,  to 
November  24,  1830,  he  also  served  in  the  higher  position  of  gov- 
ernor general  of  the  British  provinces,  his  successor  in  Nova  Scotia 
being  Sir  Peregrine  Maitland.  Of  Halifax  social  life  during  Kempt 's 
administration  of  the  Nova  Scotia  government,  from  1820  to  1828, 
and  the  governor's  part  in  it,  Mr.  Peter  Lynch  has  given  us  some 
graphic  pictures.  "Winter,  notwithstanding  its  severity,"  says 
Mr.  Lynch,  "was  a  merry  time.  And  although  the  winds  were  laden 
with  frost  they  did  not  prevent  the  sun  shining  brilliantly  by  day 
and  the  stars  sparkling  brilliantly  by  night.  A  heavy  fall  of  snow 
was  soon  beaten  down  by  the  innumerable  sleighs  which  traversed 
it,  and  a  number  of  good  hostels  at  a  convenient  driving  distance 
from  the  town  afforded  the  certainty  of  a  good  dinner.  If  at  times 
the  days  were  dark  and  dreary  they  could  always  be  made  bright 
and  cheerful  by  the  merry  music  of  the  sleigh  bells,  and  I  have  no 
hesitation  in  saying  that  while  then  the  population  was  not  more 


20.  See  Dictionary  of  National  Biography ;  and  a  paper,  still  unpublished  in  the 
archives  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Historical  Society,  by  Professor  Archibald  MacMechan, 
entitled  "Lord  Dalhousie." 

56 


m 


X 

< 

^ 

J 

< 
ffl 


<i!  i-" 

»  •  -5-t 


V%»ii:^W  1 :|S 


cq 


U 
X 

I> 

o 

^ 

PUi 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

than  half  as  numerous  as  it  is  at  present,  yet  there  were  twice  the 
number  of  horses  and  vehicles. 

"The  Tandem  Club,  one  of  the  institutions  of  Halifax,  was  a 
splendid  sight.  It  numbered  in  its  ranks  the  elite  of  the  community, 
the  Governor  and  all  the  officials,  the  General,  his  staff,  and  a  large 
proportion  of  the  officers  in  the  garrison,  and  many  of  our  wealthy 
citizens,  who  all  made  a  grand  display  during  their  field  days. 
.  .  .  At  the  head  of  the  Club  rode  the  captain  of  the  day,  always 
with  a  six-in-hand.  After  him  came  the  Governor,  with  a  fine  team 
of  four  horses,  and  aspres  lui  le  deluge,  four-in-hands  and  tandems 
without  number,  all  forming  a  continuous  line  of  splendid  horses, 
handsome  sleighs,  and  gaily  dressed  people,  from  South  Street  to 
the  Provincial  Building,  all  entranced  by  the  many  notes  of  the  mel- 
low horn  and  the  continued  shouting  of  the  crowds  which  lined  the 
street  on  either  side. 

"Immediately  opposite  the  east  side  of  the  Provincial  Building 
was  a  very  large  house  then  occupied  by  Miller  (a  famous  host), 
who  kept  the  best  hotel  in  the  town.  There  the  party  all  brought 
up  in  several  ranks,  although  wedged  in  as  close  as  possible  filling 
the  whole  space  between  Prince  and  Sackville  streets.  At  once  the 
hotel  doors  were  thrown  open  and  the  servants  of  the  house,  to- 
gether with  those  of  the  several  messes,  and  others,  streamed  forth 
in  their  gay  liveries,  bearing  trays  laden  with  cakes,  confections, 
and  steaming  hot  negus,  then  the  favorite  beverage.  After  these 
refreshments  were  partaken  of,  the  whole  party  in  order  swept 
along  the  streets  on  their  way  to  Fultz  's  Twelve  Mile  House,  where 
about  three  o'clock,  then  the  fashionable  dinner  hour,  the  party  sat 
down  to  as  good  a  dinner  as  could  be  had  anywhere,  in  the  Province 
or  perhaps  out  of  it." 

The  Sundays  in  Halifax  in  Sir  James  Kempt 's  time,  Mr.  Lynch 
says,  "could  scarcely  be  called  holy  days,"  for  except  in  two  small 
churches,  one  a  Methodist,  the  other  a  Baptist,  few  people  were 
found  worshipping  after  the  service  of  the  forenoon.  "The  bells 
rang  out  their  invitations,  and  the  doors  of  the  churches  stood  open 
in  the  afternoons,  but  few  entered  their  precincts.  It  was  the  al- 
most universal  custom  for  gentlemen  to  visit  from  house  to  house 
after  the  morning  service.  Wine  and  cake  were  set  out  on  the 

57 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

tables  as  now  on  New  Year's  Day  (though  not  with  the  same  pro- 
fusion), and  the  time  was  spent  until  the  hour  for  dinner  in  dis- 
cussing the  gossip  of  the  day,  and  possibly  sometimes  in  the  ex- 
change of  bits  of  scandal. 

"After  dinner,  when  the  weather  permitted  it,  the  community 
streamed  out  to  the  Common,  to  see  a  review  of  the  troops.  There 
the  great  and  the  little  were  found  in  their  holiday  attire,  the 
wealthy  in  their  carriages,  the  poorer  on  foot.  At  the  west  side  of 
the  Common,  somewhere  near  where  the  old  race-course  ran,  the 
Royal  Standard  flaunted  its  gay  folds,  and  here  gathered  the  fash- 
ionable and  rich  of  the  town,  for  at  this  point  the  Governor,  who 
was  then  a  general,  and  his  staff,  were  to  take  their  places  when  they 
should  come.  At  about  half  past  four  his  Excellency  and  suite, 
their  gay  plumes  waving  in  the  air,  and  their  bright  uniforms  flash- 
ing, made  their  appearance  and  galloping  down  to  the  stand  took 
their  position.  The  several  bands  played  the  National  Anthem, 
and  the  business  of  the  review  proceeded.  A  march  round  at  slow 
step  with  a  salute,  and  another  at  quick  step  without  it,  and  the 
review  was  over  and  the  Common  in  a  brief  space  of  time  restored 
to  the  quiet  which  had  pervaded  it  some  two  hours  before. 

"But  the  business  or  rather  the  pleasure  of  the  day  was  not  yet 
over.  In  Hollis  street,  in  one  of  the  stone  houses  to  the  south  of 
Government  House,  lived  a  colonel  of  one  of  the  regiments  in  gar- 
rison, I  think  Colonel  Creigh,  and  opposite  him  another  military 
man,  I  think  a  Cochran,  and  thither,  at  about  dusk,  came  one  of  the 
regimental  bands.  From  that  time  until  perhaps  ten  o'clock  the 
band  played  dance  and  other  secular  music,  to  an  admiring  audi- 
ence, comprising  some  of  the  better  element  of  the  town,  but  con- 
sisting chiefly  of  the  great  unwashed,  who  made  the  Sabbath  night 
hideous  with  their  coarse  jests  and  noisy  conduct.  It  was  a  sad 
termination  to  the  sacred  day  which  the  Great  Lawgiver  had  com- 
manded us  to  remember  to  keep  holy." 

In  the  course  of  Sir  James  Kempt 's  administration,  the  governor 
of  Nova  Scotia  whom  Sir  James  had  immediately  followed,  the  Earl 
of  Dalhousie,  now  governor-general  of  Canada  and  the  other  prov- 
inces, came  to  Halifax  on  a  visit.  He  reached  Halifax  from  Quebec 
in  the  government  brig  Chebucto,  Captain  Cunard,  on  Thursday, 

58 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

the  3rd  of  July,  1823,  after  a  voyage  lasting  eleven  days.  That 
night,  late,  he  landed  at  the  town  with  his  aides,  Captain  W.  Hay 
and  Lieutenant  Maule,  accompanied  also  by  Lieut-Col.  Durnford,  R. 
E.,  and  Captain  Parker,  A.  D.,  quartermaster-general.  On  Saturday 
he  held  a  levee  at  Government  House,  at  one  o'clock,  and  the  next 
Tuesday  he  received  an  address  from  the  magistrates  and  other 
inhabitants,  which  was  presented  by  Sheriff  Jared  Ingersoll  Chip- 
man. 

Shortly  after  this  he  went  with  Sir  James  Kempt  to  visit  Wind- 
sor, Horton,  and  Cornwallis.  On  Wednesday  the  23rd  he  was  en- 
tertained at  a  "public  banquet"  at  Mason's  Hall,  in  the  town,  the 
Hon.  Richard  John  Uniacke  presiding,  and  the  Governor  and  his 
suite,  Rear  Admiral  Fahie,  the  captains  of  the  navy,  field  officers 
of  the  army,  the  staff  of  the  garrison,  the  members  of  council,  the 
magistrates,  and  many  others  being  guests.  At  least  forty  toasts 
were  given  at  the  banquet  by  the  chair,  the  band  of  the  81st,  Sir 
James  Kempt 's  regiment,  playing  appropriate  airs  after  each. 
The  Earl  left  at  half  past  twelve,  "but,"  says  Mr.  Murdoch  sig- 
nificantly, "the  president  and  company  continued  till  a  later  or  more 
exactly  speaking  an  earlier  hour." 

The  next  evening  the  Earl  was  given  a  public  ball  at  the  Province 
Building,  the  council  chamber  being  used  for  dancing,  and  the  as- 
sembly room  for  the  supper.  "All  the  taste  and  fashion  of  the  town 
were  displayed  on  this  occasion,  and  no  expense  was  spared  in 
rendering  it  a  treat  well  worthy  the  acceptance  of  a  peer  of  the 
realm."  "It  was  asserted,"  says  Mr.  Murdoch,  "that  of  all  the 
fetes  ever  got  up  in  Halifax  this  ball  to  the  Earl  was  the  most  bril- 
liant, in  the  beauty  of  decoration,  the  sumptuousness  of  entertain- 
ment, and  the  taste  that  reigned  over  all.  The  council  room  was 
illuminated  with  a  profusion  of  lamps  and  chandeliers.  Sofas  were 
placed  all  round  the  sides  of  the  apartment,  the  elegant  proportions 
and  loftiness  of  the  chamber  being  in  reality  its  greatest  ornament. 
A  military  band  was  stationed  in  an  elevated  orchestra,  placed  over 
the  central  doors.  The  Earl  opened  the  ball  with  Admiral  Fahie 's 
lady,  a  young  bride,  who  had  just  come  on  with  her  husband  in 
H.  M.  S.  Salisbury  from  Bermuda.  At  midnight  the  supper  began, 
Mr.  Wallace  presiding  and  giving  toasts,  and  the  dances  were  re- 

59 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

newed  afterwards. ' '    On  the  28th  of  July  the  Earl  left  town,  on  his 
way  once  more  to  Quebec. 

Sir  James  Kempt  was  born  at  Edinburgh,  in  1764,  became  cap- 
tain of  the  113th  Foot  and  as  such  served  in  Ireland  and  in  Holland, 
and  was  commissioned  a  lieutenant-colonel  in  1799.  He  was  at 
one  time  in  service  in  the  Spanish  Peninsula.  In  1813  he  was  col- 
onel-commandant of  the  60th  Foot,  and  at  Waterloo  was  severely 
wounded.  He  was  made  a  Knight  Grand  Cross  of  the  Bath,  and  was 
also  invested  with  several  foreign  orders.  The  27th  of  May,  1825, 
he  was  commissioned  lieutenant-general,  and  in  1841  was  promoted 
general.  At  one  time  he  was  master  general  of  the  ordnance.  He 
died  in  London,  December  20,  1854.21 

GENERAL  SIR  PEREGRINE  MAITLAND,  G.  C.  B.,  was  commissioned 
Lieutenant-Governor  of  Nova  Scotia  some  time  in  1828.  He  was 
born  in  Hampshire,  England,  in  1777,  and  died  in  London,  May 
30,  1854.  He  entered  the  army  in  1792,  served  in  Flanders  and  in 
Spain,  and  was  at  Waterloo,  in  command  of  the  First  British  Bri- 
gade. On  June  22,  1815,  for  his  services  at  Waterloo  he  was  made 
a  K.  C.  B.  His  wife,  Lady  Sarah,  was  a  daughter  of  the  Duke  of 
Richmond,  her  mother  being  the  Duchess  of  Richmond  who  gave 
the  famous  ball  at  Brussels  on  the  eve  of  the  battle  of  Waterloo. 
In  1818  the  Duke  of  Richmond  was  governor-general  of  all  the 
British  provinces  in  America,  and  in  that  year  Sir  Peregrine  Mait- 
land  was  made  lieutenant-governor  of  Quebec.  The  exact  date  of 
his  commission  as  governor  of  Nova  Scotia  we  do  not  know,  but  he 
served  in  this  capacity  from  1828  until  probably  some  time  in  1833. 
While  he  was  in  Halifax,  on  Sunday,  April  8, 1832,  Lady  Sarah  gave 
birth  to  a  daughter. 

From  December,  1843,  until  September,  1846,  Sir  Peregrine  was 
governor  and  commander-in-chief  at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  In 
1846  he  was  promoted  general,  and  in  1852  was  made  a  Knight 
Grand  Cross  of  the  Bath.22 

Writing  of  the  change  in  the  tone  of  social  life  in  Halifax  when 
Sir  James  Kempt  left  and  Sir  Peregrine  Maitland  came,  Mr.  Peter 


21.  See  Dictionary  of  National  Biography. 

22.  See  Dictionary  of  National  Biography. 

60 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

Lynch  writes:  ''The  advent  to  the  province  of  the  new  governor 
and  his  wife,  Sir  Peregrine  and  Lady  Sarah  Maitland,  the  latter 
a  Lennox  and  daughter  of  the  then  Duke  of  Richmond,  I  am  happy 
to  say  put  an  end  to  these  unseemly  orgies  [secular  entertainments 
on  Sunday,  etc.].  These  two  excellent  people,  from  their  consistent 
walk  together,  with  their  high  rank,  at  once  produced  a  change  in 
the  tone  of  society,  and  the  perfume  of  their  sweet  lives  permeated 
all  classes  of  the  people.  They  professed  much,  and  rigidly  prac- 
tised it.  Their  garments  smelt  of  myrrh,  aloes,  and  cassia,  and  while 
those  immediately  about  them  were  constrained  by  their  holy  lives 
to  follow  their  example,  their  influence  went  through  all  ranks  of 
the  town.  As  Caligula  'found  Eome  of  brick  and  left  it  of  marble,' 
so  these  good  people,  who  found  here  much  of  riot,  dissipation,  and 
disorder,  after  their  period  of  abode  amongst  us  left  the  community 
in  a  very  much  improved  condition.  The  good  seed  they  sowed 
yielded  much  healthy  fruit,  and  I  have  no  doubt  its  influence  has 
lasted  to  the  present  day." 

MAJOR-GENERAL  SIR  COLIN  CAMPBELL,  K.  C.  B.,  who  has  often  been 
confused  with  Sir  Colin  Campbell,  Lord  Clyde  (born  at  Glasgow, 
Scotland,  October  16,  1792),  was  commissioned  lieutenant-governor 
of  Nova  Scotia  some  time  in  1833,  and  left  the  province  probably 
in  1840.  He  was  the  fifth  son  of  John  Campbell  of  Melfort,  and  his 
wife  Colina,  daughter  of  John  Campbell  of  Auchalader,  and  was 
born  in  1776.  He  had  a  brother,  Admiral  Sir  Patrick  Campbell. 
In  1792,  at  the  age  of  sixteen,  he  became  a  midshipman  on  board 
an  East  Indiaman,  but  in  February,  1795,  he  entered  the  army  as 
lieutenant  in  the  3rd  battalion  of  the  Breadalbane  Fencibles,  then 
commanded  by  his  uncle.  He  served  with  great  ability  in  India, 
and  later  under  the  Duke  of  Wellington  on  the  continent.  With 
the  great  duke  he  had  a  warm  friendship  and  to  this  famous  gen- 
eral owed  much  of  his  distinction.  He  became  lieutenant-colonel  of 
the  65th  regiment  in  1818,  and  major-general  in  1825.  From  1839 
to  1847  he  was  governor  of  Ceylon.  He  died  in  England,  June  13, 
1847,  and  was  buried  in  the  church  of  St.  James,  Piccadilly.23 

"On  Tuesday,  the  first  of  July,  1834,"  says  Occasional  in  the 


23.    See  Dictionary  of  National  Biography. 

61 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

Acadian  Recorder,  "Major-General  Sir  Colin  Campbell,  K.  C.  B., 
arrived  in  Halifax  as  Lieutenant-Governor  of  the  Province.  For 
eighteen  months  Thomas  Jeffery,  President  of  the  Council,  had 
been  Administrator  of  the  Government  during  the  absence  of  Gov- 
ernor Maitland  in  England.  Previous  to  the  arrival  of  Governor 
Campbell,  the  President  sent  a  message  to  the  House  of  Assembly, 
which  had  just  met,  with  an  extract  of  a  dispatch  from  the  Secretary 
of  State  for  the  Colonies,  expressing  His  Majesty's  readiness  to 
place  the  casual  and  territorial  revenue  at  the  disposal  of  the  Prov- 
incial Legislature,  on  their  agreeing  to  make  a  permanent  pro- 
vision for  the  public  servants,  whose  salaries  had  been  hitherto  paid 
from  the  funds,  which  it  was  proposed  to  surrender.  A  series  of 
resolutions,  embodying  a  scale  of  salaries,  were  introducted  by  the 
Solicitor  General,  which  excited  general  indignation  as  being  utterly 
disproportionate  to  the  extent  and  financial  circumstances  of  the 
Province. 

"And  now  was  the  first  shot  fired  in  the  direction  of  decided  re- 
sponsible government.  Mr.  Alex.  Stewart,  who  afterwards  was  to  be 
the  champion  of  the  autocratic  council,  made  a  vigorous  attack  on  its 
constitution,  moving  three  resolutions,  having  for  their  object  to 
open  the  doors  of  the  council."24 

SIK  Lucius  BENTINCK  CAKY,  VISCOUNT  FALKLAND,  P.  C.,  G.  C.  H., 
was  commissioned  for  Nova  Scotia  some  time  in  1840,  and  remained 
governor  until  1846.  Lord  Falkland  was  returned  heir  to  his  father, 
the  ninth  Viscount  Falkland  (in  the  peerage  of  Scotland)  March  2, 
1809.  He  married,  first,  Lady  Amelia  Fitz-Clarence,  sister  of  the 
Earl  of  Munster,  one  of  the  natural  children  of  King  William  the 
Fourth,  and  this  lady  was  with  him  in  Halifax.  His  second  wife 
was  Elizabeth  Catherine,  dowager  duchess  of  St.  Alban's.  He  was 
created  an  English  peer  May  15, 1832.  From  1848  to  1853,  Viscount 
Falkland  was  governor  of  Bombay. 

In  the  second  year  of  Lord  Falkland's  governorship,  the  year 
1841,  his  royal  highness,  the  Prince  de  Joinville,  son  of  King  Louis 
Philippe  of  France,  made  Halifax  a  short  visit,  and  on  Tuesday, 
September  14th,  was  honoured  by  General  Sir  Jeremiah  Dickson  and 


24.    Acadian  Recorder  for  January  29,  1916. 

62 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

the  officers  of  the  staff  and  garrison  with  a  brilliant  ball  in  the 
Province  Building.  "Having  obtained  permission  from  the  proper 
authorities  for  the  use  of  the  legislative  halls,"  says  Occasional  in 
the  Acadian  Recorder,25  "a  party  of  engineers  and  workmen  were 
turned  in,  and,  in  an  incomparably  short  space  of  time,  the  ob- 
structive fixtures  were  removed,  the  whole  interior  was  purified, 
staircases  and  passages  were  lined  with  banners,  and  bayonets  were 
formed  into  candelabra  and  other  ornaments. 

"About  half -past  nine  the  company  began  to  assemble,  and  were 
received  by  the  General.  Besides  His  Royal  Highness,  and  suite, 
and  the  officers  of  the  French  warships  Belle  Poule  and  Casaud, 
His  Excellency,  the  Lieutenant-Governor  and  Lady  Falkland,  Mr. 
Stuart,  charge  d'  affaires  to  Colombia,  and  lady;  Commodore  Doug- 
las, Captain  Leith,  and  the  officers  of  the  Winchester  and  Sering- 
apatam,  with  the  chief  officers  of  the  Provincial  government,  the 
Mayor,  etc.,  were  among  the  guests.  Dancing  was  kept  up  with 
much  spirit  in  the  Council  Chamber  until  after  midnight,  when  the 
doors  of  the  Assembly  were  thrown  open,  and  the  whole  company, 
to  the  number  of  four  hundred,  sat  down  to  a  substantial  and  elegant 
supper,  prepared  by  Coblentz. 

"From  a  cross  table,  or  dais,  slightly  raised,  at  the  head  of  the 
room,  other  tables  extended  the  whole  length,  covered  with  every 
delicacy.  The  gallery  was  occupied  by  the  band,  and  non-commis- 
sioned officers  and  their  families.  The  company  having  done  jus- 
tice to  the  good  fare,  the  health  of  Her  Majesty,  of  King  Louis 
Philippe,  and  of  His  Royal  Highness,  the  guest  of  the  night,  were 
given;  after  which  the  Prince  gave  'Lady  Falkland  and  Ladies  of 
Halifax. '  Dancing  was  then  resumed  and  kept  up  till  a  late  hour— 
the  Prince  retiring  about  two  o'clock." 

SIR  JOHN  HARVEY,  K.  C.  B.,  was  commissioned  lieutenant-governor 
in  1846.  He  was  born  in  1778,  and  entered  the  army  in  the  80th  regi- 
ment. He  was  in  service  in  Holland,  in  France,  at  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope,  in  Ceylon,  and  in  Egypt.  In  1812  he  was  appointed  deputy 
adjutant-general  to  the  army  in  Canada,  with  the  rank  of  lieuten- 
ant-colonel. He  was  aide-de-camp  to  the  Duke  of  Wellington  in  his 


25.    Acadian  Recorder  for  April  15,  1916. 

63 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

Waterloo  campaign;  from  1837  to  1841  was  lieutenant-governor  of 
New  Brunswick;  from  1841  to  1846  governor  and  commander-in- 
chief  of  Newfoundland;  and  some  time  in  1846  was  commissioned 
lieutenant-governor  of  Nova  Scotia.  He  was  made  K.  C.  B.  in 
1838.  He  died  in  office  at  Halifax,  and  was  buried  there  March  22, 
1852.  A  mural  tablet  to  his  memory  rests  on  one  of  the  walls  of  St. 
Paul's  Church. 

LIEUTENANT-GENERAL,  SIR  JOHN  GASPARD  LE  MARCHANT  was  com- 
missioned lieutenant-governor  probably  in  June,  1852.  He  was 
born  in  1803  and  married  in  1839.  His  father  was  John  Gaspard 
Le  Marchant,  Esq.,  a  major-general  in  the  army,  and  the  first  lieu- 
tenant-governor of  the  Royal  Military  College.  Sir  John  was  a 
knight  of  the  first  and  third  classes  of  St.  Ferdinand  and  knight- 
commander  of  St.  Carlos  of  Spain.  From  February,  1847,  to  June, 
1852,  he  was  lieutenant-governor  of  Newfoundland.  He  held  the 
office  of  lieutenant-governor  of  Nova  Scotia  until  December,  1857. 
From  1859  to  1864  he  was  governor  of  Malta.  He  died  in  London 
February  6,  1874.26 

THE  RIGHT  HONOURABLE  GEORGE  AUGUSTUS  CONSTANTINE  PHIPPS, 
SECOND  MARQUIS  or  NORMANDY  AND  EARL  MULGRAVE,  was  commis- 
sioned lieutenant-governor  in  January,  1858.  Earl  Mulgrave  was 
born,  July  23,  1819,  entered  the  Scots  Fusilier  Guards  in  1838,  and 
in  1851  was  appointed  comptroller  and  in  1853  treasurer  of  the 
Queen's  household.  He  succeeded  his  father  as  marquis  July  28, 
1863,  when  he  resigned  the  governorship  of  Nova  Scotia  and  re- 
turned to  England.  He  was  appointed  governor  of  Queensland  in 
1871,  of  New  Zealand  in  1874,  and  of  Victoria  in  1878.27 

THE  HONOURABLE  SIR  RICHARD  GRAVES  MACDONNELL,  K.  C.  M.  G., 
LL.D.,  distinguished  as  a  jurist,  and  also  as  an  explorer,  was  com- 
missioned for  the  Nova  Scotia  government  probably  on  the  28th  of 
May,  1864,  but  remained  governor  of  the  province  only  until  Octo- 
ber of  the  following  year.  Sir  Richard  was  the  eldest  son  of  Rev. 


26.  See  Dictionary  of  National  Biography. 

27.  See  Dictionary  of  National  Biography. 

64 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

Eichard  Macdonnell,  D.  D.,  Provost  of  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  and 
was  born  in  Dublin  in  1814.  Graduating  at  Trinity,  he  was  called  to 
the  Irish  bar  in  1838  and  to  the  English  bar  in  1840.  In  1843  he  was 
appointed  chief  justice  of  the  Gambia,  and  in  1847  governor  of  the 
British  settlements  on  the  Gambia.  After  this,  for  a  long  time  he 
was  engaged  in  exploring  the  interior  of  Africa.  In  1852  he  was  gov- 
ernor of  St.  Vincent  and  captain-general,  and  in  1855  governor-in- 
chief  of  South  Australia,  where  also  he  made  valuable  explorations. 
From  October  19,  1865,  until  1872,  he  was  governor  of  Hong  Kong. 
Sir  Eichard  was  made  K.  C.  M.  G.  in  1871.28 

GENERAL  SIB  WILLIAM  FENWICK  WILLIAMS,  BAKT.,  K.  C.  B.,  com- 
missioned lieutenant-governor  October  20,  1865,  was  the  first  native 
born  governor  the  province  had.  He  was  born  at  Annapolis  Eoyal, 
Nova  Scotia,  December  4,  1800,  and  should  probably  be  regarded 
as  the  most  illustrious  of  Nova  Scotia's  sons.  At  an  early  age, 
through  the  interest  of  the  Duke  of  Kent,  he  was  placed  in  the  Eoyal 
Academy  at  Woolwich.  Entering  the  army  he  attained  the  rank 
of  captain  in  1840,  and  at  the  Crimea  earned  for  himself  undying 
fame  in  British  annals  as  ''the  hero  of  Kars."  One  of  the  gallant 
defenders  of  that  town  during  its  four  months  siege  by  Mouravieff, 
General  Williams  on  the  29th  of  September,  1855,  gave  the  besiegers 
battle,  and  after  a  fierce  conflict  of  eight  hours  duration  defeated 
a  force  much  larger  than  his  own  on  the  heights  above  Kars.  The 
town,  however,  fell,  and  General  Williams  was  taken  a  prisoner, 
first  to  Moscow,  then  to  St.  Petersburg.  Almost  immediately  af- 
terward he  was  created  a  baronet.  In  1858  he  was  commander-in- 
chief  of  the  forces  in  British  North  America.  He  administered  the 
government  of  the  British  provinces  in  America  from  October  12, 
1860,  until  January  22,  1861.  He  administered  the  Nova  Scotia 
government  until  October,  1867.  He  died,  unmarried,  in  London, 
July  26,  1883,  and  was  buried  at  Brompton  cemetery  four  days 
later.29 

MAJOR-GENERAL  SIR  CHARLES  HASTINGS  DOYLE,  K.  C.  M.  G.,  was 


28.  See  Dictionary  of  National  Biography. 

29.  See  Dictionary  of  National   Biography;    and  "Ancestry  of  the  late  Sir  Fen- 
wick  Williams  of  Kars,"  a  pamphlet  by  Hon.  Judge  A.  W.  Savary,  D.  C.  L.,  of  Annap- 
olis Royal,  Nova  Scotia. 

65 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

commissioned  lieutenant-governor  October  18,  1867.  He  was  the 
eldest  son  of  Sir  Charles  William  Doyle,  C.  B.,  G.  C.  H.,  and  his 
wife  Sophia,  daughter  of  Sir  John  Coghill,  and  was  born  in  1805. 
He  was  educated  at  Sandhurst,  and  entered  the  army  as  an  ensign 
in  the  87th,  his  great-uncle  Sir  John  Doyle's  regiment.  He  saw 
service  in  the  Orient,  the  West  Indies,  Canada,  and  Ireland.  Dur- 
ing the  American  Civil  War  he  commanded  the  troops  in  British 
North  America,  and  in  the  famous  Chesapeake  affair  showed  great 
tact.  In  May,  1868,  he  was  appointed  colonel  of  the  70th  regiment, 
and  in  1869  was  made  a  K.  C.  M.  G.  He  continued  lieutenant-gov- 
ernor of  Nova  Scotia  until  1873,  Sir  Edward  Kenny,  however,  as 
president  of  the  council,  administering  the  government  in  his  ab- 
sence from  May  13,  1870,  until  the  end  of  his  term  of  office.  After 
other  service  to  the  Empire  he  died  in  London,  March  19,  1883. 

The  confederation  of  the  British  provinces  into  the  Dominion  of 
Canada  was  effected  while  General  Doyle  was  governor  of  Nova 
Scotia,  this  event  occurring  in  1867.30 

THE  HONOURABLE  JOSEPH  HOWE  was  the  first  lieutenant-governor 
appointed  for  Nova  Scotia  after  Confederation.  He  received  his 
commission  May  1,  1873.  Hon.  Joseph  Howe,  one  of  the  most  emi- 
nent statesmen  of  the  provinces  of  the  Dominion  of  Canada,  was 
born  at  Halifax,  December  13, 1804.  His  father  was  Mr.  John  Howe 
of  Boston,  who  was  born  in  that  town  in  1753,  and  was  editor  with 
Mrs.  Margaret  Draper  of  the  News-Letter,  the  only  newspaper  that 
continued  to  be  published  in  Boston  during  the  siege  in  1775  and 
1776.  Coming  to  Halifax  as  a  Loyalist  refugee,  John  Howe 
soon  became  there  King's  printer.  He  died  in  1835.  Hon.  Joseph 
Howe 's  life  has  been  ably  written  and  his  letters  and  speeches  have 
been  published.  He  has  perhaps  received  more  honour  from  his 
countrymn  since  his  death  than  any  other  Nova  Scotian.  He  was  a 
liberal  in  politics  and  a  consistent  champion  of  the  rights  of  the  peo- 
ple. He  took  the  oath  as  lieutenant-governor  May  10,  1873,  but  his 
death  occurred  on  the  22d  day  after.  He  died  at  Halifax,  June  1, 
1873. 

The   next   appointee   to   the   lieutenant-governorship   was   Mr. 


30.     See  Dictionary  of  National  Biography. 

66 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

Howe's  long  time  opponent  in  politics,  the  Honourable  James  Wil- 
liam Jonhstone,  judge  in  equity,  member  of  the  legislative  council, 
attorney-general,  solicitor-general,  and  representative  to  the  legis- 
lature, in  politics  a  distinguished  conservative.  Judge  Johnstone 
when  he  was  appointed  lieutenant-governor  was  in  the  south  of 
France.  He  accepted  the  appointment,  but  died  in  England  on  his 
way  home.  He  was  born  in  the  island  of  Jamaica,  but  came  to 
Nova  Scotia  in  early  manhood  and  founded  an  important  family  in 
Halifax.31 


HONOURABLE  SIR  ADAMS  GEORGE  ARCHIBALD,  K.  C.  M.  G.,  was 
commissioned  lieutenant-governor  July  4,  1873.  Sir  Adams  also  was 
a  native  Nova  Scotian,  he  was  a  son  of  Mr.  Samuel  Archibald  of 
Truro,  Colchester  county,  and  grandson  of  Mr.  James  Archibald, 
also  of  Colchester  county,  a  justice  there  of  the  court  of  common 
pleas.  Sir  Adams  was  called  to  the  bar  of  Nova  Scotia  as  a  barrister 
in  1839,  was  a  member  of  the  executive  council,  first  as  solicitor-gen- 
eral, from  August  14,  1856,  to  February  14,  1857,  then  as  attorney- 
general,  from  February  10,  1860,  to  June  11,  1863.  He  was  a  dele- 
gate to  England  to  arrange  the  terms  of  settlement  with  the  British 
Government  and  the  general  mining  association  in  respect  to  Nova 
Scotia  mines,  and  also  to  obtain  the  views  of  the  government  rel- 
ative to  the  projected  union  of  the  provinces.  He  was  sworn  to  the 
privy  council  of  Canada,  July  1,  1867,  but  this  position  he  resigned 
in  1868.  From  May  20,  1870,  to  May,  1873,  he  was  lieutenant-gov- 
ernor of  Manitoba  and  the  Northwestern  Territories,  from  June 
24,  1873,  to  July  4,  1873,  he  was  judge  in  equity  in  Nova  Scotia,  and 
at  the  latter  date,  as  we  have  said,  he  was  appointed  lieutenant- 
governor  of  Nova  Scotia.  In  1873  he  was  also  one  of  the  directors 
of  the  Canadian  Pacific  railway  under  Sir  Hugh  Allan.  He  ceased 
to  be  lieutenant-governor  in  1883,  but  was  knighted  in  1885.  He 
died  at  Truro,  December  14,  1892. 

The  lieutenant-governors  since  Sir  Adams  Archibald  have  been  : 


31.  For  Hon.  Joseph  Howe,  see  the  Dictionary  of  National  Biography;  and  an 
able  biography  of  him  by  Hon.  Judge  J.  W.  Longley  of  the  Supreme  bench  of  Nova 
Scotia.  See  "Howe's  Letters  and  Speeches,"  edited  by  Hon.  William  Annand.  For 
Hon.  Judge  Johnstone,  see  "Three  Premiers,"  by  Rev.  Edward  Manning  Saunders,  D. 
D.,  and  a  sketch  by  Hon.  Judge  A.  W.  Savary,  D.  C.  L.,  of  Annapolis  Royal,  in  the 
Calnek-Savary  History  of  Annapolis. 

67 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

Matthew  Henry  Eichey,  Esq.,  Barrister,  Q.  C.,  1883-1888;  Hon. 
Archibald  Woodbury  McLelan,  1888-1890 ;  Hon.  Sir  Malachy  Bowes 
Daly,  K.  C.  M.  G.,  1890-1900;  Hon.  Alfred  Gilpin  Jones,  1900-1906; 
Hon.  Duncan  Cameron  Fraser,  1906-1910;  Hon.  James  Drummond 
McGregor,  1910-1915;  Hon.  David  McKeen,  1915-1916;  Hon.  Mac- 
Callum  Grant,  1916 — .  All  these  except  Sir  Malachy  Daly  have  been 
native  Nova  Scotians  and  men  previously  active  in  the  political  life 
of  the  province. 

The  Lieutenant-Governors  of  Nova  Scotia  from  1749  to  1786, 
while  the  governors  were  ' l  Governors-in-Chief , ' '  were  as  follows : 

COLONEL  CHARLES  LAWRENCE,  appointed  July  17,  1750,  (commis- 
sioned Governor  in  1756). 

EGBERT  MONCKTON,  ESQ.,  afterwards  General  Monckton,  com- 
missioned probably  December  31,  1755.  His  commission  seems  to 
have  been  repeated  August  17,  1757,  and  October  27,  1760.  On  the 
20th  of  March,  1761,  he  was  commissioned  governor  of  New  York,  in 
place  of  Sir  Charles  Hardy,  who  had  resigned.  Of  Monckton 's 
military  rank  when  he  was  lieutenant-governor  of  Nova  Scotia  we 
are  not  sure. 

THE  HONOURABLE  CHIEF  JUSTICE  JONATHAN  BELCHER  was  com- 
missioned April  14,  1761,  but  was  relieved  of  the  duties  of  the  office 
in  September,  1762.  He  took  the  formal  oath  of  the  office  November 
21,  1761.32 

THE  HONOURABLE  COLONEL  MONTAGUE  WILMOT  was  commissioned 
January  13, 1762.  Chief  Justice  and  Lieutenant-Governor  Jonathan 
Belcher  apprised  the  council  of  Colonel  Wilmot's  appointment,  Au- 
gust 26,  1762.  Colonel  Wilmot  took  the  oath  of  office  September 
26,  1762.  On  the  llth  of  March,  1763,  he  was  commissioned  gov- 
ernor-in-chief. 

THE  HONOURABLE  MICHAEL  FRANCKLIN  was  commissioned  lieuten- 
ant-governor March  28,  1766,  and  filled  the  office  until  some  time  in 
1776.  He  died  November  8,  1782.33 


32.  "Jonathan   Belcher,   First  Chief  Justice  of   Nova  Scotia,"  a   sketch  by   Hon. 
Sir  Charles  Townshend,  D.  C.  L.,  in  the  Collections  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Historical  So- 
ciety, Vol.  18. 

33.  See  "Lieutenant  Governor  Francklin,"  by  James   S.   Macdonald,   in   the   Col- 
lections of  the  Nova  Scotia  Historical  Society,  Vol.  16. 

68 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

ADMIRAL  MARIOT  ARBUTHNOT  was  commissioned  February  16, 
1776,  and  took  the  oath  of  office  April  22,  1776.  He  continued  in 
office  until  January,  1778,  when  he  was  advanced  to  flag  rank  and 
left  Nova  Scotia.  He  was  probably  a  captain  when  he  took  office 
as  lieutenant-governor.34 

RICHARD  HUGHES,  ESQ.,  R.  N.,  afterward  Sir  Richard  Hughes, 
Baronet,  was  commissioned  March  12,  1778,  and  took  the  oath  of 
office  August  17,  1778.  On  the  26th  of  September,  1780,  he  was  pro- 
moted rear  admiral  of  the  blue.  In  April,  1780,  he  succeeded  his 
father,  Sir  Richard  Hughes,  Sr.,  in  the  baronetcy.35 

SIR  ANDREW  SNAPE  HAMOND,  BARONET,  CAPTAIN  R.  N.,  was  com- 
missioned lieutenant-governor  December  15,  1780,  although  as  ap- 
pears he  did  not  take  the  oath  of  office  until  July  31,  1781.  He  held 
the  office  until  December,  1783,  on  the  10th  of  which  month  he  was 
created  a  baronet.  About  this  time  he  left  Halifax  for  England.36 

EDMUND  FANNING,  ESQ.,  was  commissioned  lieutenant-governor 
some  time  in  1783.  He  was  born  in  Long  Island,  New  York,  in  1737, 
and  graduated  at  Yale  College  in  1757.  He  practised  law  at  Hills- 
borough,  North  Carolina,  received  the  degrees  of  M.  A.  from  Har- 
vard in  1764  and  King's  (Columbia)  in  1772,  D.  C.  L.  from  Oxford 
in  1774,  and  LL.D.  from  both  Yale  and  Dartmouth  in  1803.  In 
1777  he  raised  a  corps  of  four  hundred  and  sixty  Loyalists,  which 
bore  the  name  of  the  Associate  Refugees  or  King's  American  Regi- 
ment, and  of  this  he  became  general.  Probably  in  the  summer  or 
early  autumn  of  1783  he  went  to  Nova  Scotia,  and  September  23, 
1783,  the  King's  Commission  appointing  him  lieutenant-governor 
of  the  province  was  read  in  council.  He  at  once  took  the  oath  of 
office  and  was  likewise  admitted  to  the  council.  In  October,  1786, 
he  was  appointed  lieutenant-governor  of  Prince  Edward  Island 
under  the  governor  general  of  all  the  provinces.  This  last  office  he 
held  for  nineteen  years.  He  died  in  London  February  28,  1818.37 

34.  See  Dictionary  of   National   Biography. 

35.  See  Dictionary  of   National  Biography. 

36.  See  Dictionary  of  National  Biography. 
37  See  Dictionary  of  National  Biography. 

69 


Chapters  in  the  History  of  Halifax,  Nova  Scotia 

BY  AKTHUE  WENTWORTH  HAMILTON  EATON,  M.  A.,  D.  C.  L. 

NO.  X 

HALIFAX  AND  THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION 

"  'And  I  abide  by  my  Mother's  House,' 
Said  our  Lady  of  the  Snows." 

— KIPLING. 

T  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution  Nova  Scotia  stood  in  no 
essentially  different  relation  to  Great  Britain  and  her 
rule  of  her  American  colonies  from  that  borne  by  the 
thirteen  colonies  that  afterward  became  the  first  States 
of  the  Union.  She  was  simply  the  most  easterly  of  the  British 
American  colonies  on  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  of  which  Pennsylvania 
extended  farthest  west  and  Georgia  farthest  south,  her  English  set- 
tlement having  been  later  than  that  of  the  others,  but  her  constitu- 
tion and  government  not  differing  in  any  essential  particular  from 
theirs,  and  her  intercourse  with  them  all,  especially  the  New  Eng- 
land colonies,  being  very  friendly  and  close.1  The  population  of  this 
extreme  eastern  province,  moreover,  which  numbered  between  fif- 
teen and  twenty  thousand,  had  been  drawn  in  great  part  from  New 
England,  between  1749  and  1762,  and  never  since  the  people  emi- 
grated, except  perhaps  in  the  depth  of  the  winters,  had  commercial 
and  social  intercourse  between  them  and  the  inhabitants  of  the  towns 
from  which  they  had  come  for  a  single  month  been  intermitted.  At 
the  beginning  of  the  revolutionary  struggle,  therefore,  it  was  not  by 
any  means  a  foregone  conclusion  that  Nova  Scotia  would  not  range 


i.  See  on  this  point,  "Nova  Scotia  during  the  Revolution,"  an  article  in  the  Amer- 
ican Historical  Review,  X,  pp.  52-71,  by  Emily  P.  Weaver.  "Writers  dealing  with  the 
period,"  says  Miss  Weaver,  "frequently  assume  that  Nova  Scotia  was  from  the  first  in 
a  class  altogether  distinct  from  that  of  the  revolting  colonies  and  therefore  dp  not  think 
her  exceptional  course  worthy  of  remark.  One  of  such  writers  is  Green  in  his  His- 
tory of  the  English  People." 

184 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

herself  on  the  side  of  the  revolting  colonies,  and  in  process  of  time 
come  to  share  whatever  fortune  the  general  protest  of  these  colonies 
against  the  abuses  of  the  government  in  England  might  bring  them. 

The  extent  of  territory  embraced  by  Nova  Scotia,  which  at  that 
time,  as  always  until  then,  had  embraced  the  present  province  of 
New  Brunswick,  and  which  also  included  the  recently  attached  island 
of  Cape  Breton,-  was  a  little  greater  than  that  of  the  province  of 
New  York,  and  was  well  up  in  the  scale  of  square  mileage  to  the 
province  of  Georgia,  and  her  well  known  fertility  and  the  great 
wealth  of  her  forests  and  fisheries,  in  spite  of  her  comparatively 
scanty  population,  made  her  an  object  of  no  little  consideration  in 
the  eyes  of  the  revolutionary  leaders.  The  importance,  moreover, 
of  the  capital  of  the  province  as  a  strategic  military  and  naval  base 
on  the  extreme  eastern  part  of  the  continent  was  by  no  means  over- 
looked. To  draw  this  maritime  province  into  the  Revolution,  there- 
fore, was  an  issue  that  the  revolutionists  strongly  desired  to  effect. 

In  July,  1775,  Benjamin  Franklin  prepared  a  sketch  of  a  plan  for 
permanent  union  of  the  American  colonies,  which  while  allowing  to 
each  the  continuance  of  the  virtual  independence  it  enjoyed,  pro- 
posed for  each  adequate  representation  in  an  annual  Congress, 
which  should  deal  with  all  measures  of  resistance  to  injustice  and 
oppression  from  any  source.  Besides  the  thirteen  colonies  that  sub- 
sequently became  the  first  States  of  the  Union,  Canada,  Nova  Scotia, 
and  Florida  were  included  in  his  plan,  while  Ireland,  the  West  In- 
dies and  Bermuda  also  were  to  be  invited  to  join.  The  plan,  another 
of  whose  details  was  the  creation  of  a  certain  number  of  "lords" 
for  each  colony,  Nova  Scotia  to  have  one,  was  submitted  to  the  Con- 
tinental Congress,  but  was  not  acted  upon.3 

The  first  action  of  Congress  relative  to  Nova  Scotia,  after  the  Rev- 
olution began,  was  a  formal  resolve  of  that  body  on  the  10th  of  No- 
vember, 1775,  to  send  two  persons  secretly  to  the  province  to  learn 
the  disposition  of  the  people  towards  the  American  cause,  to  inquire 
into  the  condition  of  the  fortifications,  wherever  there  were  any,  and 


2.  Cape  Breton  was  annexed  to  Nova  Scotia  by  royal  proclamation  on  the  7th  of 
October,  1763.     In  1784  it  was  separated  from  Nova  Scotia,  and  Sydney  was  made  the 
capital.    In  1820,  it  was  again  united  to  Nova  Scotia,  as  it  now  is. 

3.  See  Albert  Henry  Smyth's  "Life  and  Writings  of  Benjamin  Franklin,     Vol.  10, 
p.  291. 

185 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

of  the  dockyards  at  Halifax  and  probably  Fort  Cumberland,  and  to 
discover  the  quantity  of  artillery  and  warlike  stores  the  province 
had,  with  also  the  number  of  war-ships  and  other  ships  lying  in  the 
harbours,  as  also,  of  course,  the  numerical  strength  of  the  land  and 
sea  forces.  This  resolve  was  evidently  at  once  communicated  to 
General  Washington,  at  Cambridge,  for  nine  days  later  Washing- 
ton wrote  the  president  of  the  Congress  that  as  soon  as  two  "capa- 
ble persons"  could  be  found  he  would  dispatch  them  to  Nova  Scotia 
' '  on  the  service  resolved  on  in  Congress. ' '  On  the  28th  of  the  same 
month  he  again  wrote  the  president:  " There  are  two  persons  en- 
gaged to  go  to  Nova  Scotia  on  the  business  recommended  in  your 
last.  By  the  best  information  we  have  from  thence,  the  stores,  etc., 
have  been  withdrawn  some  time.  Should  this  not  be  the  case  it  is 
next  to  an  impossibility  to  attempt  anything  there  in  the  present  un- 
settled and  precarious  state  of  the  army. ' '  On  the  30th  of  January, 
1776,  he  wrote  again  from  Cambridge,  that  even  if  the  persons  sent 
for  information  to  Nova  Scotia  should  report  favourably  on  troops 
being  sent  there,  he  had  no  troops  that  he  could  send.  It  would  be 
quite  inadvisable,  he  thought,  to  raise  troops  "in  the  eastern  parts 
of  this  government. ' ' 

On  the  16th  of  February,  1776,  it  was  resolved  in  Congress  that 
this  body  ' '  submit  the  expediency  and  practicability  of  an  expedition 
to  Nova  Scotia  to  General  Washington,  and  would  by  no  means  ac- 
cept the  plan  proposed  by  Thompson  and  Obrian  so  far  as  relates  to 
Tory  property  nor  the  destruction  of  the  town  of  Halifax. ' '  On  the 
27th  of  March,  1776,  General  Washington  wrote  Congress  that  Colo- 
nel Eddy  had  brought  him  a  petition  from  Nova  Scotia  which  stated 
that  the  people  of  that  province  were  afraid  they  would  have  to  take 
up  arms  unless  they  were  protected.  The  Nova  Scotians  think, 
Washington  says,  that  it  would  be  better  if  five  or  six  hundred 
troops  could  be  sent  them,  the  presence  of  whom  would  quiet  the 
people 's  fears,  and  would  also  prevent  the  Indians  taking  sides  with 
the  government.  He  is  uncertain  what  had  better  be  done,  "for  if 
the  army  is  going  to  Halifax,  as  reported  by  them  ICol.  Eddy  and 
whoever  were  his  colleagues  in  presenting  the  appeal]  before  they 
left,  such  a  force,  or  much  more,  would  not  avail."  On  the  8th  of 

186 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

July,  1776,  Congress  resolved  "that  General  Washington  have  per- 
mission to  call  forth  and  engage  in  the  service  of  Nova  Scotia  so 
many  Indians  of  the  St.  John's,  Nova  Scotia,  and  Penobscot  tribes 
as  he  shall  judge  necessary,  and  that  he  be  desired  to  write  to  the 
General  Court  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  requesting  their  aid  in  this 
business  and  informing  them  that  Congress  will  reimburse  such  ex- 
penses as  may  be  necessarily  incurred  in  consequence  of  the  fore- 
going resolutions. ' ' 

On  the  30th  of  December,  1776,  and  the  7th  of  January,  1777, 
further  resolutions  were  passed  by  Congress  showing  that  the  reduc- 
tion of  Nova  Scotia  was  still  under  consideration,  and  on  the  8th  of 
January,  1777,  a  resolution  was  passed  that  the  Council  of  the  State 
of  Massachusetts  be  desired  "to  attend  to  the  situation  of  the  ene- 
my" in  Nova  Scotia,  and  if  this  body  thought  that  an  attack  on  Fort 
Cumberland  could  advantageously  be  made  in  that  winter  or  the  fol- 
lowing spring,  "whereby  the  dockyard  and  other  works,  together 
with  such  stores  as  could  not  easily  be  removed,"  should  be  de- 
stroyed, its  members  were  empowered  to  raise  a  body  of  not  more 
than  three  thousand  men,  under  such  officers  as  they  should  appoint, 
to  carry  on  the  said  expedition  and  to  provide  military  stores  and 
convey  them  to  such  of  the  eastern  parts  of  the  state  as  they  should 
think  best.  On  the  29th  of  April,  1777,  at  a  board  of  war,  it  was  re- 
solved that  if  fifteen  complete  battalions  should  be  furnished  by  New 
Hampshire  and  Massachusetts,  three  of  these  might  be  employed  in 
Nova  Scotia  in  such  ways  as  should  be  thought  most  conducive  to 
the  general  advantage,  either  for  offensive  operations  or  to  give  pro- 
tection to  the  friends  of  the  United  States  in  this  province. 

What  seems  to  have  been  the  last  important  resolve  of  Congress 
in  reference  to  an  invasion  of  Nova  Scotia  was  made  on  the  21st  of 
May,  1778,  and  in  negation  of  such  a  design.  On  that  date  Congress 
accepted  the  report  of  a  committee  to  whom  the  matter  of  such  in- 
vasion had  been  referred,  to  the  effect  "that  the  wresting  of  Nova 
Scotia  from  the  British  power  and  uniting  the  same  to  these  states 
is  for  many  weighty  reasons  a  very  desirable  object,  but  that  the 
propriety  of  making  this  attempt  at  the  present  crisis  seems  doubt- 
ful; and  upon  the  whole  it  appears  wise  to  wait  a  while,  until  the 
event  of  a  war  taking  place  between  France  and  Great  Britain,  and 

187 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

the  consequences  that  may  have  upon  the  British  force  on  this 
continent,  shall  render  an  attempt  upon  Nova  Scotia  more  likely  to 
succeed."  If,  however,  any  urgent  occasion  for  immediate  action 
should  arise,  the  council  of  Massachusetts  was  empowered  to  furnish 
the  people  of  Nova  Scotia  who  were  loyal  to  the  United  States  with 
a  force  not  to  exceed  two  regiments,  to  assist  in  reducing  the  prov- 
ince. 

The  exact  number  of  English  speaking  people  in  Nova  Scotia,  in- 
cluding the  present  New  Brunswick  and  the  island  of  Cape  Breton, 
in  1775,  we  are  not  able  to  give,  but  it  was  probably,  as  we  have 
stated,  somewhat  under  twenty  thousand,  and  of  these  inhabitants 
not  far  from  three-quarters,  it  is  estimated,  were  people  who  or 
whose  parents  had  been  born  in  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  or 
Ehode  Island,  and  who  naturally  shared  the  spirit  of  liberty  which 
so  generally  animated  the  people  who  still  remained  in  the  New  Eng- 
land colonies  from  which  they  had  come.  In  a  recently  published 
monograph  on  that  extraordinary  man  Alexander  McNutt,  who, 
with  vision  and  energy  but  apparently  without  sufficient  business  in- 
tegrity or  judgment  for  carrying  such  an  enterprise  successfully 
through,  tried  between  1759  and  1765  to  colonize  Nova  Scotia  with 
North  of  Ireland  people,  we  have  shown  that  McNutt  repeatedly 
appealed  to  Congress  to  take  active  measures  to  capture  the  prov- 
ince for  the  Revolution.4  When  the  Revolution  broke  out  he  was 
living  in  retirement  on  an  island  in  Shelburne  harbour  on  the  south- 
ern shore  of  Nova  Scotia,  having  long  before  ceased  his  efforts  for 
colonization,  and  his  antagonism  towards  the  Nova  Scotia  authori- 
ties, and  doubtless  towards  British  rule  at  large,  impelled  him  to  use 
his  utmost  energies  in  trying  to  induce  Congress  to  take  forcible 


4.  Our  monograph  on  Alexander  McNutt  (Americana  magazine,  December,  1913) 
shows  that  in  January  and  March,  1779,  respectively,  McNutt  appealed  to  the  Congress 
to  assist  the  Nova  Scotians  to  revolt.  His  appeals  were  referred  to  a  committee,  which 
reported  in  April,  1779.  The  report  proposed  that  in  order  to  deliver  Nova  Scotia  from 
"British  despotism"  a  road  should  be  opened  from  Penobscot  to  the  St.  John  river,  and 
that  to  prosecute  the  work  a  body  of  men  not  exceeding  fifteen  hundred  should  be  en- 
gaged, and  the  sum  of  fifteen  thousand  dollars  should  be  advanced.  What  debate  there 
may  have  been  on  this  report  we  do  not  know,  but  the  recommendations  of  the  commit- 
tee were  not  acted  on.  On  the  2gth  of  February,  1779,  Benjamin  Franklin  writes  Comte 
de  Vergennes :  "While  the  English  continue  to  possess  the  ports  of  Halifax,  Rhode  Isl- 
and, and  New  York,  they  can  refit  their  ships  of  war  in  those  seas,  defend  more  easily 
their  fisheries,  and  interrupt  more  effectually  by  their  cruisers  the  commerce  between 
France  and  America."  Life  and  Writings  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  Vol.  7,  p.  235. 

1 88 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

measures  to  wrest  Nova  Scotia  from  the  authority  of  the  Crown.  In 
his  appeals,  moreover,  McNutt  claimed  to  be  acting  not  by  any 
means  without  authorization  from  the  people  of  Nova  Scotia  itself, 
but  rather  as  the  appointed  agent  of  a  large  body  of  intelligent  Nova 
Scotians  who  were  thoroughly  disaffected  towards  the  British  Gov- 
ernment. That  McNutt,  as  he  moved  about  Nova  Scotia,  with  the 
island  in  Shelburne  harbour  as  his  base,  using  his  influence  to  em- 
bitter the  people  among  whom  he  went  against  English  rule,  found 
in  several  parts  of  the  province  very  widespread  sympathy  with  the 
Revolution  is  now  a  perfectly  well  recognized  fact.  "A  very  large 
proportion  of  the  immigrants  from  the  Atlantic  States,"  writes  a 
well  known  Nova  Scotian,  "were  open  and  avowed  sympathizers 
with  the  war  against  the  mother  country.  From  Cumberland  to  On- 
slow,  and  from  Falmouth  to  Yarmouth  they  formed  an  overwhelm- 
ing majority."5 

When  the  Assembly  met  at  Halifax  in  June,  1770,  the  Governor, 
Lord  William  Campbell,  reported  to  the  Home  Authorities  that  he 
did  not  discover  in  Nova  Scotia  "any  of  that  licentious  principle 
with  which  the  neighbouring  colonies  are  so  highly  infected. ' '  Camp- 
bell's  immediate  predecessor,  Governor  Wilmot,  who  died  in  1766, 
had  made  virtually  the  same  report;  some  time  in  his  administra- 
tion he  had  written  that  * '  the  sentiments  of  a  decent  and  dutiful  ac- 
quiescence ' '  prevailed  among  the  people  under  his  jurisdiction.  Yet 
as  early  as  July  24,  1762,  the  inhabitants  of  Liverpool  had  strongly 
protested  against  any  interference  by  the  governor  with  what  they 
claimed  as  their  rights,  saying  that  they  were  born  in  a  country  of 
liberty,  and  were  not  to  be  autocratically  ruled.  By  this  spirit  it  is 
evident  the  people  of  the  province  generally  were  controlled,  and  in 
the  earlier  stages  of  the  Revolution  it  manifested  itself  in  almost 
every  place  where  New  England  or  North  of  Ireland  people  in  con- 
siderable numbers  had  settled. 

Probably  the  earliest  active  expression  of  such  spirit  was  in  the 
remote  colony  on  Moose  Island,  in  Passamaquoddy  Bay,  where 
the  town  of  Eastport  (Maine)  now  stands.  This  island,  the  final 
ownership  of  which  as  of  other  territory  about  Passamaquoddy  Bay 


5.     This  statement  is  made  by  Mr.  W.  C.  Milner,  agent  for  the  Dominion  Archives 
in  Nova  Scotia,  in  his  "Records  of  Chignecto,"  p.  46. 

189 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

and  the  river  St.  Croix,  which  flows  into  it,  was  not  settled  until  long- 
after  the  Revolution,  was  at  that  time  popularly  regarded  as  within 
the  jurisdiction  of  Nova  Scotia,  and  the  settlers  there,  some  ten  fam- 
ilies at  least,  were  probably  all  from  New  England,  though  two  or 
three  of  them  were  clearly  of  North  of  Ireland  stock.6  In  the  Jour- 
nals of  the  Continental  Congress  we  find  under  date  of  November  2, 
1775,  that  "the  inhabitants  of  Passamaquoddy,  in  Nova  Scotia,  hav- 
ing chosen  a  Committee  of  Safety,  and  having  by  their  petition  ap- 
plied to  the  Congress  to  be  admitted  into  the  Association  of  the 
North  Americans  for  the  promotion  of  their  rights  and  liberties,"  it 
was  resolved  that  a  committee  of  five  should  be  appointed  to  take  the 
matter  into  consideration  and  report  what  steps  it  would  be  best 
to  take  in  consideration  of  the  appeal. 

On  the  14th  of  May,  1776,  a  large  proportion  of  the  heads  of  fam- 
ilies settled  at  Maugerville,  on  the  St.  John  river,  all  we  believe 
from  Massachusetts,  assembled  in  the  meeting-house  there  and 
voted  the  strongest  resolutions  of  sympathy  with  New  England,  ap- 
pointing a  committee  to  go  to  the  Massachusetts  General  Court  and 
beg  for  its  protection  and  help.  "It  is  our  minds  and  desire,"  say 
the  men,  "to  submit  ourselves  to  the  government  of  Massachusetts 
Bay,  and  we  are  ready  with  our  lives  and  fortunes  to  share  with- 
them  the  event  of  the  present  struggle  for  liberty,  however  God  in 
his  providence  may  order  it."7  To  the  Massachusetts  legislature, 
accordingly,  the  committee  went,  and  on  the  General  Court  records 
of  the  Bay  State  we  find  the  terms  of  their  petition  clearly  stated. 
The  committee  express  deep  sorrow  at  the  general  calamity  brought 
on  America  by  a  ruinous  and  destructive  civil  war,  and  complain  bit- 
terly of  the  impositions  they  and  the  people  they  represent  have 


6.  "The  New  England  period  in  Passamaquoddy  history  began  about  1763.     From 
1760  there  had  been  a  general  movement  from  the  older  provinces  to  Nova  Scotia,  and 
many  thousands    from  New   England  settled  in  the  peninsula,  while  a   few   hundreds 
came  to  what  is  now  New  Brunswick.    In  1763  various  settlers  began  to  locate  about  Pas- 
samaquoddy." New  Brunswick  Historical  Society's  Collections,  Vol.  i,  p.  211.  Men  named 
Bowen,  Boynton,  Clark,  Cochran,  Crow,  Ricker,  Shackford,  and  Tuttle,  are  said  to  have 
received  grants  of  land  on  Moose  Island,  which  was  probably  the  first  considerable  set- 
tlement in  the  Passamaquoddy  region,  between  1772  and  1774,  and  it  seems  likely  that  in 
summer  at  least  many  others  resorted  to  the  island  for  fishing.     See  Lorenzo  Sabine's, 
"Moose  Island, ".in  W.  H.  Kilby's  "Eastport  and  Passamaquoddy,"  p.  141,  and  appendix 
A.  of  this  book,  pp.  490,  491. 

7.  Archdeacon  Raymond's  "St.  John  River,"  etc.,  p.  434. 

190 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

suffered  from  oppressive  acts  of  his  Majesty's  Government.  The 
governor  of  Nova  Scotia,  they  say,  "having  thought  proper  effect- 
ually to  prevent  their  being  supplied  with  arms  and  ammunition  by 
ordering  a  large  penalty  on  any  of  those  articles  being  shipped  into 
the  province,  at  the  same  time  requiring  them  to  assemble  in  military 
array  and  by  force  of  arms  repel  all  invaders,  martial  law  pro- 
claimed throughout  the  province  and  civil  authority  made  subordi- 
nate, exorbitant  taxes  required  of  them  to  support  the  war  against 
the  United  Colonies, — under  these  circumstances  they  find  it  imprac- 
ticable for  them  to  continue  as  neutors  and  to  subsist  without  com- 
merce, and  they  therefore  now  openly  declare  that  they  could  never 
see  any  shadow  of  justice  in  that  extensive  claim  of  the  British  Par- 
liament of  the  right  of  enacting  laws  binding  the  colonies  in  all  cases 
whatever,  that  as  tyranny  ought  to  be  resisted  in  its  first  appearance 
they  are  convinced  that  the  united  provinces  are  just  in  their  pro- 
ceedings in  this  regard. ' ' 

To  both  houses  of  the  Massachusetts  legislature  this  appeal  was 
presented  and  in  the  minutes  of  the  General  Court  we  find  recorded, 
that  the  St.  John  river  people,  "after  mature  consideration  have 
thought  fit  to  submit  themselves  to  this  Government  and  desire  its 
protection  and  promise  to  adopt  such  measures  as  this  Government 
shall  propose  for  their  future  conduct  and  are  ready  with  their  lives 
and  fortunes  to  share  with  this  colony  the  event  of  the  present  strug- 
gle for  liberty;  they  therefore  humbly  ask  protection  as  a  defence- 
less people,  and  that  the  Honourable  Court  will  grant  such  relief 
and  assistance  as  is  proper,  hoping  that  the  Honourable  Court  will 
not  tamely  see  them  butchered  or  plundered  for  showing  themselves 
friendly  to  the  cause  of  America. '  '8 

Beginning  in  the  autumn  of  1776,  various  men  of  Massachusetts 
birth  who  had  settled  in  Yarmouth  and  Harrington,  in  the  peninsula 


8.  This  petition,  as  we  have  said,  was  presented  to  both  houses,  and  it  was  ordered 
that  the  commissary-general  should  give  the  agents  of  the  St.  John  river  people  (Asa 
Perley  and  Asa  Kimball)  one  barrel  of  gunpowder,  three  hundred  and  fifty  flints,  and 
two  hundred  and  fifty  weight  of  lead  from  the  colony  stores,  and  that  the  agents  should 
have  liberty  to  purchase  in  Massachusetts  forty  stand  of  small  arms  for  the  use  of 
their  constituents.  The  committees  of  correspondence  and  safety,  also  in  any  of  the 
seaports  of  Massachusetts,  were  directed  to  grant  permits  to  them  to  transport  the 
same  or  any  other  goods  from  port  to  port  within  the  colony.  Records  of  the  General 
Court  of  Massachusetts,  vol.  35,  pp.  65,  66,  85. 

191 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

of  Nova  Scotia,  appealed  to  the  Massachusetts  General  Court  for 
permission  to  return  with  their  families  and  effects  to  their  native 
province,  to  escape  the  hardships  they  were  suffering  from  the  inter- 
ruption of  friendly  relations  between  Nova  Scotia  and  the  Bay  State. 
"We  look  on  ourselves,"  some  of  these  petitioners  say,  as  being  "as 
unhappily  situated  as  any  people  in  the  world;  being  settlers  from 
the  Massachusetts  Bay,  for  whose  welfare  we  earnestly  pray,  having 
fathers,  brothers,  and  children  living  there."  Throughout  the  strug- 
gle then  going  on,  they  continue,  they  have  remained  loyal  to  the 
cause  of  liberty,  and  have  done  everything  in  their  power  to  assist 
men  still  living  in  Massachusetts  who  have  happened  to  visit  them 
to  get  back  in  safety  to  their  New  England  homes.  Of  the  distress 
to  which  they  have  been  brought  by  the  interruption  of  trade  be- 
tween Nova  Scotia  and  Massachusetts,  and  the  consequent  lack  of 
markets  for  their  fish,  they  give  a  melancholy  account,  and  they  pray 
that  provisions  shall  be  sent  them  for  the  ensuing  winter  and  until 
such  time  as  they  can  remove  from  Nova  Scotia  to  their  former 
homes,  "unless  these  tremendous  times  are  stinted,  which  God  grant 
maybe  soon."9 

In  Cumberland  County,  near  the  Chignecto  Isthmus,  and  in  what 
is  now  Colchester  County,  the  inhabitants  of  two  townships  of  which, 
Truro  and  Londonderry  wholly,  and  the  third,  Onslow,  in  part,  were 
people  of  North  of  Ireland  stock,  sympathy  with  New  England  and 
antagonism  to  the  actions  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Government  were  very 
strong.  An  oath  of  allegiance  which  the  Government  attempted  to 
enforce  on  all  adult  males  in  Truro  and  Onslow  in  1777  was  stoutly 
refused  by  all  except  five  to  whom  it  was  offered.  In  King's  County, 
also,  whose  inhabitants  had  almost  all  come  from  the  towns  of  east- 


9.  "In  the  [Massachusetts]  House  of  Representatives,  Nov.  15,  1776,  whereas  it 
appears  to  this  Court  that  the  within  petitioners,  inhabitants  of  Barrington  in  Nova 
Scotia,  have  proved  themselves  firm  friends  to  the  United  States  of  America,  and  on 
that  account  are  determined  as  soon  as  may  be  to  transport  themselves  and  their  fam- 
ilies from  that  province  to  this  state  in  order  to  get  out  of  the  reach  of  British  tyranny: 
And  it  being  represented  that  the  inhabitants  of  Barrington,  from  a  determined  refusal 
of  trade  with  the  enemies  of  America  have  exposed  themselves  to  great  hardships 
through  want  of  such  provisions  as  are  necessary  to  support  them  until  they  can  be  re- 
moved ;  therefore  Resolved  that  the  prayer  of  the  within  petition  be  so  far  granted  as 
that  the  within  named  Heman  Kenney,  be  and  he  thereby  is  permitted  to  pur- 
chase and  export  from  any  town  or  place  in  this  state  to  said  Barrington,  solely  for  the 
purpose  of  enabling  the  said  inhabitants  thereof  to  transport  themselves  from  thence  to 
this  state,  250  bushels  of  corn,  30  barrels  of  pork,  2  hogsheads  of  molasses,  2  do.  of  rum, 
200  Ibs.  of  coffee."  "In  Council  Nov.  16,  1776,  Read  and  Concurred." 

192 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

ern  Connecticut, according  to  tradition  a  liberty  pole  was  cut  and  was 
about  to  be  erected  when  a  company  of  Orange  Rangers  from  Hali- 
fax appeared  on  the  scene  and  prevented  the  rebellious  demonstra- 
tion.10 

In  Cumberland  the  disaffection  was  almost  as  universal  and  bit- 
ter as  in  Maugerville,  the  "rebels"  there  numbering,  it  is  said,  about 
two  hundred  men,  many  of  them  heads  of  families  and  persons  of 
the  largest  means  and  the  highest  consequence.  In  this  county,  near 
the  isthmus  which  connects  New  Brunswick  with  Nova  Scotia,  was 
situated  the  most  important  fort  in  the  Nova  Scotian  peninsula  next 
to  the  much  older  one  at  Annapolis  Royal,— the  little  fortification 
known  when  it  was  in  French  hands  as  Beausejour,  but  after  it  was 
finally  captured  by  New  England  troops  in  1755  as  Fort  Cumber- 
land. In  August,  1775,  it  was  reported  at  Halifax  that  the  "New 
England  rebels"  had  cleared  a  road  from  St.  John  river  to  Shepody 
to  enable  a  force  to  march  on  this  fort.  In  October,  1776,  another 
report  was  made  to  the  authorities  that  a  force  was  being  gathered 
on  the  frontier  having  the  same  purpose  in  view,  and  the  truth  of 
this  report  was  soon  to  be  established.  One  of  the  Cumberland  set- 
tlers from  Massachusetts,  a  native  of  the  town  of  Norton,  was  a  cer- 
tain Jonathan  Eddy,  who  had  taken  up  his  residence  in  Cumberland 
either  in  1760  or  a  little  later.  With  profound  sympathy  with  the 
Revolution  this  man  in  August,  1776,  had  gone  to  the  Massachusetts 
General  Court  with  a  petition,  in  which  he  was  joined  by  William 
Howe  and  Zebulon  Rowe,  other  Massachusetts  men,  neighbors  of 
his  in  Cumberland,  setting  forth  that  "the  enemy"  were  repairing 
the  forts  in  Nova  Scotia  to  the  great  disturbance  of  the  inhabitants 
of  Cumberland,  their  object  clearly  being  "to  keep  the  people  in 
subjection  to  their  tyrannical  measures."11  The  greater  part  of  the 


10.  We  have  mentioned  this  tradition  in  our  "History  of  King's  County,  Nova  Sco- 
tia," pp.  431,  432,  but  what  authority  it  has  we  do  not  know. 

11.  See  a  "Memoir  of  Colonel  Jonathan  Eddy  of  Eddington,  Maine,"  etc.,  by  Joseph 
W.  Porter,  Augusta,  Maine,  1877.     Jonathan  Eddy  was  a  son  of  Eleazer  Eddy  and  his 
wife  Elizabeth  (Cobb)  of  Norton,  Mass.,  and  was  born  in  1726.    In  1755  he  was  an  offi- 
cer in  Col.  Winslow's  regiment  in  Nova  Scotia,  in  1758  he  raised  a  company  for  the  re- 
duction of  Canada,  in  1759  he  raised  a  company  for  Colonel  Joseph  Frye's  regiment,  m 
which  he  served  as  captain  from  April  2,  1759,  to  December  31,  1759.    He  left  active  ser- 
vice in  1760,  when  he  probably  went  at  once  to  Cumberland,  Nova  Scotia.     There  he 
served  as  deputy  provost  marshal  and  in  other  offices.     March  27,  1776,  it  is  said,  he 
came  to  General  Washington's  headquarters  at  Cambridge  with  his  petition  from  Nov 
Scotia. 

193 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX.  NOVA  SCOTIA 

Nova  Scotians,  Eddy  declares,  were  much  concerned  at  the  acts  of 
their  authorities,  many  being  so  troubled  that  they  had  already  left 
their  farms  to  be  confiscated  and  had  returned  to  the  province  of 
their  birth.  The  only  way  that  proper  relief  could  come  to  the  peo- 
ple on  whose  behalf  he  was  petitioning,  he  says,  would  be  by  the 
General  Court's  granting  them  a  small  force  with  ammunition  and 
provisions  so  that  they  could  "destroy  the  enemy's  forts."  The  re- 
sponse of  the  Massachusetts  legislature  to  Eddy's  appeal  was  a 
resolution  that  the  commissary  general  be  directed  to  deliver  to  him 
and  his  fellow  petitioners  two  hundred  pounds  of  gunpowder,  five 
hundred  weight  of  musket  balls,  three  hundred  gun  flints,  and  twenty 
barrels  of  pork.12  At  the  same  time  the  court  ordered  that  James 
Bowdoin,  Walter  Spooner,  and  Henry  Gardner,  Esq.,  with  such 
others  as  the  legislature  should  join  with  them,  should  be  a  commit- 
tee "to  make  inquiry  into  the  intention  and  dispositions  of  the  in- 
habitants of  Nova  Scotia  respecting  the  cause  now  in  dispute  be- 
tween the  United  States  and  Great  Britain,  to  consider  the  probabil- 
ity of  effecting  a  revolution  in  that  province,  and  of  the  way  [of] 
and  means  for  effecting  the  same. ' m 

The  "Eddy  rebellion"  in  Cumberland  is  one  of  the  most  highly 
dramatic  and  best  remembered  events  in  the  history  of  Nova  Scotia. 
In  his  volume  "The  River  St.  John,"  Archdeacon  Raymond  de- 
scribes the  beginning  of  it  as  follows.  "In  July,  1776,  Eddy  set  out 
from  Boston  and  proceeded  to  Machias  [Maine].  He  left  that 
place  about  the  middle  of  August  in  a  schooner  with  twenty-eight 
men  as  a  nucleus  of  his  proposed  army.  At  Passamaquoddy  a  few 
people  joined  him.  He  did  not  meet  with  much  encouragement  at 
St.  John,  although  Hazen,  Simonds,  and  White  refrained  from  any 
hostile  demonstration.14  Proceeding  up  the  river  to  Maugerville,  Ed- 


12.  On  September  4,  1776,  it  was  resolved  that  whereas  the  General  Court  by  a  re- 
solve on   September  2d,  had  directed  the  commissary  general  to   deliver  to  Jonathan 
Eddy,  William  Howe,  and  Zebulon  Rowe  ammunition  and  provisions,  these  men  having 
represented  that  they  wanted  bread  rather  than  pork,  the  commissary  should  be  directed 
to  deliver  to  them  only  ten  barrels  of  pork  and  as  much  bread  as  would  amount  to  the 
value  of  ten  barrels  of  pork.    Records  of  the  General  Court,  Vol.  35,  p.  200. 

13.  General  Court  Records,  Vol.  35,  pp.  194. 

14.  Messrs.  Hazen,  Simonds,  and  White  were  New  England  men  and  conspicuous 
traders  at  what  is  now  St.  John,  New  Brunswick.     At  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution, 
says  Dr.  Raymond,  their  situation  was  very  embarrassing,  they  would  very  likely  most 
gladly  "have  assumed  a  neutral  attitude  in  the  approaching  contest,"  but  they  held  small 

194 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

dy  says,  he  found  the  people  '  almost  universally  hearty  in  our  cause ; 
they  joined  us  with  one  captain,  one  lieutenant,  and  twenty-five  men, 
as  also  sixteen  Indians.'  ...  On  his  arrival  at  Cumberland, 
Eddy  was  joined  by  many  of  the  settlers,  but  his  whole  force  did  not 
exceed  two  hundred  men,  badly  equipped  and  without  artillery. ' n5 

Colonel  Eddy's  attack  on  the  fort  and  the  failure  of  his  enterprise 
is  described  in  a  letter  of  the  leader  himself  to  the  General  Court. 
His  force  consisted  of  a  hundred  and  eighty  men,  but  a  hundred  of 
these  he  had  felt  it  necessary  to  send  to  other  points.  With  the 
eighty  that  remained  he  proceeded  to  the  fort,  to  which  he  began  at 
once  to  lay  siege.  The  force  within,  commanded  by  Lieutenant-Col- 
onel Joseph  Gorham,  consisted  of  a  hundred  men,  and  these  for  sev- 
eral days  kept  the  besieging  party  at  bay.  On  the  27th  of  Novem- 
ber an  armed  ship  arrived  from  Halifax  with  nearly  four  hundred 
soldiers  from  the  garrison  there,  and  some  of  these  entered  the  fort. 
On  the  30th,  two  hundred  soldiers  rushed  out  of  the  fort  to  the  tem- 
porary barracks  where  Eddy's  men  were  quartered  and  ordered 
the  besiegers  away.  Without  making  any  further  resistance,  it 
would  seem,  which  indeed  would  have  been  useless,  Eddy  and  his 
men  retreated  to  the  St.  John  river  and  the  fort  remained  secure  in 
British  hands."16 

In  a  letter  of  Colonel  John  Allan  of  Cumberland,  a  British  born 
man,  who  had  been  a  member  of  the  Nova  Scotia  legislature,  but 
who  was  one  of  the  strongest  sympathizers  in  this  part  of  Nova 
Scotia  with  the  Eddy  invasion,17  written  to  the  Massachusetts  Gen- 
official  positions  under  the  Nova  Scotia  Government  and  they  had  sworn  allegiance  to 
the  King,  they  therefore  remained  nominally  loyal.  Dr.  Raymond's  "St.  John  River," 
p.  427. 

15.  This  statement  does  not  seem  harmonious  with  the  records  of  the  Massachu- 
setts General  Court,  which  give  the  date  of  Eddy's  appeal  to  that  body  for  munitions  of 
war  and  provisions  as  the  month  of  August.  The  extract  from  Dr.  Raymond's  book 
given  here  will  be  found  on  pp.  437,  438  of  the  volume. 

1.6.  A  young  Cumberland  man,  Richard  John  Uniacke,  who  afterward  rose  to  exalted 
position  in  Halifax,  was  concerned  in  the  revolt.  He  was  sent  prisoner  to  Halifax.  Soon 
after  his  release  he  went  to  England  to  complete  his  law  studies.  In  1782,  he  became  so- 
licitor general  of  Nova  Scotia,  in  1783  member  of  the  assembly  for  Sackville,  and  later 
speaker  of  the  house,  attorney-general,  and  member  of  the  council.  He  died  October  10, 
1830. 

17.  Colonel  John  Allan  between  1769  and  1776  was  Justice  of  the  Peace,  clerk  of 
sessions,  and  of  the  Supreme  Court,  and  representative  to  the  assembly,  and  held  other 
local  offices.  From  the  beginning  of  1776  he  was  suspected  of  treasonable  practices. 
For  his  career  and  for  an  interesting  genealogical  account  of  the  Allan  family  see  Fred- 
erick Kidder's  "Eastern  Maine  and  Nova  Scotia  ir,  the  Revolution."  One  of  John  Allan's 

195 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

eral  Court  on  the  19th  of  February,  1777,  Colonel  Allan  declares 
that  most  of  the  English  and  all  the  French  capable  of  bearing  arms 
in  the  northern  part  of  Nova  Scotia  joined  the  Eddy  force.  In  the 
rush  of  the  garrison  upon  the  invading  troops,  he  tells  us,  only  one 
invader,  and  he  a  white  man,  was  killed;  the  rest  fled  pre- 
cipitately, the  garrison  troops  following  them  for  the  dis- 
tance of  six  miles.  On  the  way,  the  pursuing  party  burned  twelve 
houses  and  twelve  barns,  "in  which  was  contained  one-quarter  of 
the  bread  of  the  country. "  To  the  residents  of  Cumberland  who  had 
assisted  the  invasion,  Colonel  Gorham  soon  issued  a  proclamation 
of  pardon  if  they  would  lay  down  their  arms,  but  the  majority  of 
them,  it  would  seem,  before  long  with  their  families  fled  across  the 
border  of  Massachusetts  into  what  is  now  the  State  of  Maine,  at  a 
town  called  Eddington  in  1785  being  rewarded  for  their  sympathy 
with  the  Revolution  by  grants  of  land  ranging  in  size  from  fifteen 
hundred  to  a  hundred  and  fifty  acres. 

The  task  of  government  in  Nova  Scotia  in  these  suspicious  and 
troubled  times  was  attended  by  the  greatest  agitation  among  both 
public  officials  and  the  people  who  surrounded  them.  Indeed  at  Hal- 
ifax, especially,  where  the  supreme  authority  was  exercised,  there 
was  among  government  officials  and  the  people  of  all  occupations 
and  ranks  such  deep-seated  apprehension  and  continual  fear  that 
Mr.  Murdoch  forcibly  says  the  Haligonians  lived  "under  a  reign  of 
terror."  On  the  8th  of  October,  1773,  Major  Francis  Legge  had 
taken  the  oath  of  office  as  governor-in-chief ,  and  his  stay  in  the  prov- 
ince lasted  until  May  12,  1776.  In  the  first  momentous  years  of  the 
Revolution,  therefore,  he  was  at  the  head  of  all  governmental  activ- 
ities, and  if  any  local-governmental  influence  was  needed  to  fan  the 
flame  of  disaffection  against  the  Crown,  if  such  existed,  among  the 
people  at  large,  into  a  raging  fire,  his  suspicious  and  utterly  unsym- 
pathetic temper  was  calculated  to  furnish  that  influence.  In  alarm- 
ing dispatches  to  England  he  charged  rank  disloyalty  not  only  on 
the  people  generally  throughout  the  province  but  on  the  members  of 


sisters  was  Jean  Allan,  born  in  April,  1759,  who  was  married  7  February  1775,  to  the  Hon. 
Thomas  Cochran  of  Halifax,  and  reared  there  a  family  of  great  local  importance.  See  a 
monograph  by  this  author  on  the  Cochran  and  Inglis  families. 

196 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

both  houses  of  the  provincial  legislature  as  well.18  On  the  first  of 
January,  1776,  he  wrote  the  Earl  of  Dartmouth  that  the  great  ad- 
vances the  rebels  were  making  in  Canada,  and  the  determination  of 
these  people  to  capture  Nova  Scotia  for  the  Revolution  gave  him 
great  apprehension.  He  had  had  a  law  passed,  he  says,  to  enroll  a 
fifth  of  the  militia  for  active  service  and  had  tried  to  put  the  men  in 
arms,  but  that  the  people  of  at  least  two  important  counties,  An- 
napolis and  Kings,  as  he  understood,  had  refused  to  be  enrolled.  In 
the  town  of  Halifax  he  had  proclaimed  martial  law,  and  he  had  nom- 
inated a  council  of  war  to  conduct  the  military  defence  of  the  prov- 
ince in  general  with  secrecy  and  dispatch.  On  the  llth  of  January 
he  enclosed  to  the  Earl  memorials  from  the  inhabitants  of  Truro, 
Onslow,  and  Cumberland  against  the  law  to  arm  the  militia,  and  said 
that  a  similar  spirit  of  obstinate  revolt  existed  in  all  the  remoter 
districts.19 

In  November,  1776,  after  Legge  had  left  the  province  and  the  gov- 
ernment had  passed  into  the  hands  of  a  lieutenant-governor  and  the 
Council,  occurred  the  Eddy  invasion,  and  the  news  of  this  and  the 
rumor  that  still  more  powerful  measures  wTere  contemplated  to  cap- 
ture Nova  Scotia  threw  all  the  authorities  at  Halifax  into  a  panic  of 
fear.  Immediately  a  nightly  patrol  of  the  town  was  established, 
and  a  regular  inquiry  instituted  into  the  characters  and  employ- 
ments of  all  persons  entering  the  town.  Strangers  coming  from  the 
country  or  elsewhere  were  ordered  to  report  at  the  Provincial  Sec- 


18.  Lieutenant-Governor,  the  Hon.  Michael  Francklin,  between  whom  and  Legge 
there  was  very  bad  feeling,  on  the  2d  of  January,  1776,  wrote  the  Earl  of  Dartmouth: 
"It  is  with  the  utmost  reluctance  I  am  now  obliged  to  inform  your  lordship  there  is  great 
reason  to  believe  and  it  is  confidently  asserted  that  the  Governor  has  made  representa- 
tions of  the  officers  of  government,  and  that  few  or  none  of  the  inhabitants  of  this  prov- 
ince in  general,  not  even  the  officers  of  this  government  but  are  disaffected,  and  are  in- 
clinable to  give  countenance  and  assistance  to  the  rebels  now  in  arms  against  the  Crown. 
If  it  be  true  that  Governor  Legge  has  made  such  representations,  I  do  avow  and  assert 
that  such  representations  are  totally  untrue  and  without  foundation,  which  can  be  made 
to  appear  by  a  thousand  instances."  Murdoch's  "History  of  Nova  Scotia,"  Vol.  2,  pp.  564, 

565- 

19.  The  petitions  from  Cumberland,  Truro  and  Onslow  all  urge  that  if  the  hus- 
bands and  fathers  were  obliged  to  enroll  in  the  militia  and  leave  their  homes,  their  fam- 
ilies would  have  no  means  of  support,  the  Truro  petition  adds  in  addition  that  the  settle- 
ments  would  be  utterly   defenceless  against  attack  if  the  men   were  thus   drawn  off. 
"Those  of  us,"  the  Cumberland  people  say,  "who  belong  to  New  England  being  invited 
into  this  province  by  Governor  Lawrence's  proclamation,  it  must  be  the  greatest  piece 
of  cruelty  and  imposition   for  them  to  be  subjected  to  march  into  different  parts  of 
America,  and  that  done  by  order  of  his  Majesty." 

197 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

retary's  office,  and  all  persons  under  the  least  suspicion  were  obliged 
to  give  security  for  good  behaviour.  In  May,  1777,  as  we  have  seen, 
an  effort  was  made  to  exact  from  all  the  men  of  Truro,  Onslow,  and 
perhaps  Londonderry,  a  majority  of  whom  were  North  of  Ireland 
Presbyterians,  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  Britain,  but  this  oath  all  the 
men  of  these  townships  with  the  exception  of  five,  as  we  have  also 
seen,  positively  refused  to  take.  In  punishment  of  their  disloyalty 
the  Council  with  amusing  inappropriateness  resolved  to  prosecute 
these  rigid  Protestants  as  Popish  recusants. 

Precisely  how  much  ground  Governor  Legge  had  for  accusing  the 
members  of  the  Council  of  sympathy  with  the  Revolution  it  is  not 
easy  now  to  say.  Three,  at  least,  of  them,  Binney,  Gorham,  and  Mor- 
ris, were  natives  of  Massachusetts,  and  Newton  was  of  Massachu- 
setts stock,  and  there  is  no  sufficient  reason  why  they  may  not  all 
have  shared  to  some  extent  the  spirit  which  animated  their  friends 
and  relatives  in  Boston  who  took  the  popular  side.20  Of  the  Nova 
Scotia  House  of  Assembly,  out  of  a  total  of  thirty-three  members 
representing  the  province  at  large,  no  less  than  twenty-four  were 
New  England  men,  while  other  important  public  officials  like  the 
chief  surveyor,  the  solicitor-general,  the  provincial  treasurer,  the 
judge  of  admiralty  for  appeals,  and  the  register  and  marshal  of  the 
court  of  admiralty  were  of  New  England  birth.  Concerning  the  Bos- 
ton born  head  of  the  judiciary,  the  Honourable  Chief  Justice  Jona- 
than Belcher,  who  however  died  on  the  30th  of  March,  1776,  the  tra- 
dition is  emphatic  that  he  was  distinctly  in  sympathy  with  the  Revo- 
lution. That  Governor  Legge  was  not  far  wrong  in  accusing  the 
New  Englanders,  including  the  New  Hampshire  Scotch-Irish,  in  the 
province  at  large,  of  perfect  readiness  to  separate  themselves  from 
British  rule,  we  have  given,  as  we  believe,  irrefutable  proof. 


20.  The  number  of  British  born  men  in  the  Council  up  to  this  time  had  always 
t>een  greater  than  of  American  born.  In  1777  the  council  seems  to  have  had  but  ten 
members,  instead  of  twelve,  the  full  number,  the  men  of  as  we  suppose  British  birth  be- 
ing, Richard  Bulkeley,  James  Burrow,  John  Butler,  John  Creighton,  Michael  Franck- 
lin,  and  Arthur  Goold.  Of  these,  undoubtedly  the  most  influential  was  Michael  Franck- 
lin,  who  indeed  had  married  into  a  conservative  Boston  family,  but  who  retained 
throughout  his  life  a  strong  sympathy  with  England,  from  which  country  he  had  come. 
That  the  Nova  Scotia  Council  contained  a  majority  of  men  born  in  Britain  is  to  be  ac- 
counted for  by  the  fact  that  in  1777  civil  government  in  the  province  had  existed  only 
twenty-eight  years,  and  that  since  no  men  in  public  life  were  natives  of  Nova  Scotia, 
the  successive  English  governors  had  preferred  to  surround  themselves  with  men  born 
in  Britain  rather  than  men  born  in  the  New  England  colonies. 

198 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

Of  the  influential  Halifax  merchants  of  New  England  birth, 
whose  trade  had  been  in  large  measure  with  Boston,  there  were  some 
at  least  who  without  any  doubt  sympathized  preponderatingly  with 
the  colonies  from  which  they  had  come.  Among  the  reputable  mer- 
chants who  had  been  in  the  town  almost  since  Cornwallis  landed  were 
Joseph  Fairbanks  and  John  Fillis.  In  the  early  summer  of  1775, Fair- 
banks gathered  a  cargo  of  hay  for  the  British  troops  at  Boston  and 
had  it  ready  for  shipment.  Suddenly  it  took  fire,  and  some  one  sent 
a  statement  to  Boston  that  Fillis  in  conjunction  with  another  New 
England  trader  named  Smith  had  had  a  hand  in  burning  it.  On  the 
16th  of  June,  Fillis  and  Smith  complained  to  the  House  of  Assembly 
that  they  were  greatly  distressed  by  this  unjust  report  and  "were 
unable  to  detect  the  vile  traducers  of  their  characters,"  they  there- 
fore begged  the  legislature  to  exonerate  them.  In  testimony  against 
them  was  the  declaration  of  Mr.  Richard  Cunningham,  who  had  re- 
cently returned  from  Boston,  that  he  had  been  told  there  that  Gen- 
eral Gage  had  a  list  of  persons  in  Halifax  disaffected  to  the  Crown, 
and  that  the  first  names  on  that  list  were  those  of  Fillis  and  Smith, 
the  former  of  whom,  at  least,  Gage  had  been  told  had  had  a  part  in 
burning  the  hay.  Whether  there  was  any  truth  in  the  accusation  or 
not  we  cannot  tell,  but  the  House  of  Assembly  cleared  the  merchants 
of  the  charge,  declaring  that  the  gentlemen  in  question  were  dutiful 
and  loyal  subjects  of  King  George  the  Third,  and  had  behaved  with 
decency  and  good  order.  The  reports  against  their  loyalty,  the  As- 
sembly voted,  were  "base,  infamous,  and  false"  charges. 

Another  of  the  most  notable  Boston  born  merchants  in  Halifax, 
and  probably  the  earliest  of  these  who  had  settled  in  the  town,  was 
Malachy  Salter.  On  the  10th  of  October,  1777,  an  order  was  passed 
in  council  for  Salter 's  arrest  on  a  charge  of  treasonable  correspond- 
ence with  the  rebels,  and  prosecution  against  him  was  ordered. 
Somewhat  later  he  was  allowed  to  give  a  thousand  pounds  security 
for  his  good  behaviour  and  was  remanded  for  trial  at  the  next  term 
of  the  Supreme  Court.  How  long  he  had  been  under  suspicion  we 
cannot  tell,  put  this  action  of  the  council  explains  the  fact  that  a 
month  before~"the  order  was  given,  Salter,  then  in  Boston,  had  peti- 
tioned the  Massachusetts  General  Court  for  liberty  to  transfer  him- 

199 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

self  and  his  family  and  their  effects  from  Halifax  to  the  province  of 
his  birth.  "Your  petitioner,"  he  says  to  the  Massachusetts  Legisla- 
ture, "was  formerly  an  inhabitant  of  the  town  of  Boston,  but  has  for 
many  years  past  resided  at  Halifax  in  Nova  Scotia,  where  he  has  a 
considerable  interest  in  real  and  personal  estate,  but  having  suffered 
severely,  both  in  person  and  property,  on  account  of  his  political 
principles,  and  for  the  favor  and  assistance  he  afforded  to  the  Amer- 
ican seamen  and  others  in  captivity  there,  his  residence  in  that  prov- 
ince must  render  him  very  unhappy ;  Your  petitioner  therefore  hum- 
bly prays  that  he  may  have  liberty  to  depart  for  Halifax  and  return 
as  soon  as  he  conveniently  can  with  his  family  and  effects,  to  settle 
in  this  State,  without  molestation  of  any  armed  vessel,  or  any  other 
person  by  land  or  water,  belonging  to  the  United  States  of  America, 
and  that  your  Honors  will  be  pleased  to  grant  him  a  certificate  for 
his  protection,  and  your  petitioner  as  in  duty  bound  shall  ever  pray, 
etc. ' '  This  petition  was  presented  to  the  General  Court  on  the  15th 
of  September,  1777,  and  two  days  later  was  granted  by  both  houses.21 
At  his  trial  by  the  Nova  Scotia  Supreme  Court,  however,  Mr.  Salter 
was  honourably  acquitted. 

That  the  Nova  Scotians  at  large,  even  in  remote  rural  settlements, 
kept  themselves  fairly  well  informed  concerning  the  progress  of 
events  in  New  England  throughout  the  whole  of  the  war  we  have 
every  reason  to  believe.  The  first  Nova  Scotia  newspaper,  the  Nova 
Scotia  Chronicle  and  Weekly  Advertiser,  published  at  Halifax,  be- 
gan its  career  in  January,  1769,  and  in  whatever  it  said  about  poli- 
tics it  showed  sympathy  for  the  most  part  with  the  assertion  of 
colonial  rights.  In  its  modest  columns  "the  question  of  war  and  of 
separation  of  the  colonies  from  Great  Britain  was  freely  discussed 
six  years  before  the  first  shot  was  fired  at  Lexington,  and  the  people 
were  informed  that  great  numbers  of  Englishmen  looked  on  America 
as  in  rebellion. ' '  Besides  this  means  of  gaining  knowledge  of  polit- 
ical movements  in  New  England,  the  Nova  Scotians  were  in  frequent 
receipt,  through  the  coming  into  their  harbours  from  Boston  of  trad- 
ing and  fishing  vessels,  of  newspapers  printed  in  the  Massachusetts 


21.  See  the  Massachusetts  Archives,  Vol.  183,  p.  136,  General  Court  Records,  Vol. 
38,  p.  29.  Also  Edmund  Duval  Poole's  "Yarmouth  and  Harrington  in  the  Revolutionary 
War,"  p.  32. 

2OO 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

capital,  and  of  news  by  word  of  mouth  from  the  captains  and  crews 
of  these  vessels  and  occasional  passengers  which  the  vessels  brought. 
When  the  stamp  act  was  passed  in  1770,  the  Liverpool  people  showed 
public  marks  of  discontent  with  it,  and  we  cannot  doubt  that  the  peo- 
ple of  other  counties  of  which  we  have  spoken  were  just  as  strong  in 
denouncing  it  as  they. 

The  weightiest  influence  on  Nova  Scotia  in  favor  of  the  Revolution 
was  of  course,  to  a  people  struggling  for  a  prosperous  existence,  not 
so  much  political  sentiment  as  the  pressure  of  economic  necessity. 
On  the  17th  of  May,  1775,  it  was  resolved  by  Congress  "that  all  ex- 
portations  to  Quebec,  Nova  Scotia,  the  Island  of  St.  Johns  [Prince 
Edward  Island],  Newfoundland,  Georgia,  except  the  parish  of  St. 
Johns,22  and  East  and  West  Florida  should  immediately  cease,  and 
that  no  provisions  of  any  kind,  or  other  necessaries,  be  furnished  to 
the  British  fisheries  on  the  American  coasts  until  it  be  otherwise  de- 
termined by  the  Congress."23  In  the  spirit  of  this  resolution  of  Con- 
gress, on  the  5th  of  July,  1775,  Governor  Legge  issued  a  proclama- 
tion forbidding  all  persons  in  Nova  Scotia  to  correspond  with  or  in 
any  way  assist  the  rebels  in  New  England,  and  directed  the  justices 
of  the  peace  throughout  the  province  to  publish  the  order  and  cause 
it  to  be  read  several  times  in  all  places  of  public  worship.  A  second 
proclamation,  also,  under  a  recent  act  of  the  Assembly,  was  issued 
by  him,  forbidding  arms,  gunpowder,  ammunition,  or  saltpetre  be- 
ing exported  or  carried  coastwise  except  by  license  from  himself. 

In  the  Massachusetts  General  Court,  likewise,  on  the  9th  of  April, 
1776,  the  following  prohibitive  statute  was  passed:  "Whereas  it  is 
apprehended  that  some  of  the  inhabitants  of  this  colony  may  be  in- 
duced from  a  regard  to  their  own  interest  to  employ  their  vessels  the 
ensuing  season  in  the  business  of  fishing,  and  in  order  to  avoid  the 
inconveniences  they  may  be  exposed  to  by  an  act  of  parliament  pro- 
hibiting all  manner  of  trade  and  commerce  with  the  united  colonies 

•22.  "Well  governed  and  generously  treated  by  Parliament,  Georgia  had  little  cause 
to  aspire  after  independence,  but  St.  John's  Parish  sent  a  delegate  to  the  Second  Conti- 
nental Congress  in  March,  1775,  and  its  example  was  followed  by  other  parishes.  In 
1778,  the  British  captured  Savannah,  and  in  1779  Augusta  and  Sunbury.  Savannah  was 
held  by  the  British  until  1782.  The  first  State  Constitution  was  framed,  however,  in 
February,  1777,  and  on  January  2,  1788,  the  Federal  Constitution  was  ratified."  New 
International  Encyclopoedia,  Vol.  9,  p.  633. 

23.     See  "Journals  of  Each  Provincial  Congress  of  Massachusetts,  1774-1775,"  p.  313. 


2O I 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

and  declaring  forfeited  all  such  vessels  and  cargoes,  etc.,  as  shall  be 
taken  belonging  to  the  same,  may  make  over  the  property  of  their 
vessels  to  some  inhabitant  of  Nova  Scotia;  to  the  intent  therefore 
that  no  inhabitant  of  this  colony  may  unwarily  go  into  such  a  method 
of  conduct,  it  is  resolved  that  if  any  inhabitant  of  this  colony  shall 
upon  any  pretence  whatever  transfer  his  property  in  any  vessel  to  an 
inhabitant  of  the  province  of  Nova  Scotia  he  will  therefore  violate  a 
resolve  of  the  congress  prohibiting  all  intercourse  with  the  inhabit- 
ants of  that  province,  and  of  course  may  expect  to  be  obliged  to  sub- 
mit to  the  pains  and  penalties  due  to  such  an  offence. '  '24 

Besides  the  strict  prohibition  of  trade  with  the  other  colonies  un- 
less she  would  come  frankly  into  the  Revolution,  by  which  her  people 
were  reduced  to  great  distress,  Nova  Scotia  suffered  greatly  from 
the  depredations  of  Massachusetts  privateers.  As  early  as  1775, 
armed  vessels  were  fitted  out  at  various  places  in  Massachusetts  to 
prey  on  Nova  Scotia  vessels,  and  even  on  private  property  on  land  in 
places  that  were  accessible  from  the  sea.25  The  crews  that  manned 
these  vessels  in  some  cases  well  deserved  the  name  that  has  been 
given  them  of  "brutal  marauders,"  for  their  conduct  was  so  out- 
rageous that  even  friends  of  the  Revolution  in  the  province  were 
forced  to  remonstrate  to  Congress  against  their  piracies.  During 
the  autumn  of  1776,  says  Archdeacon  Raymond,  "the  Bay  of  Fundy 
was  so  infested  with  pirates  and  picaroons  that  the  war  vessels 
Vulture,  Hope,  and  Albany  were  ordered  around  from  Halifax.  But 
they  were  not  entirely  successful  in  furnishing  protection,  for  the 
privateers  managed  sometimes  to  steal  past  the  large  ships  in  the 
night  and  in  fogs,  and  continued  to  pillage  the  defenceless  inhabit- 
ants."26 

'  *  Throughout  the  whole  period  of  the  war, ' '  says  Mr.  Edmund  Du- 
val  Poole,  "the  Massachusetts  General  Court  was  in  almost  constant 
receipt  of  petitions  from  individual  inhabitants  of  Yarmouth,  Bar- 


24.  Records  of  the  Massachusetts  General  Court,  Vol.  34,  pp.  740,  741.     See  also  p. 
200. 

25.  In  1775,  people  in  the  interior  parts  of  the  province  made  earnest  appeals  to 
the  Government  at  Halifax  for  ammunition  for  their  guns,  to  prevent  the  depredations 
of  pirates. 

26.  "The  River  St.  John,  its  Physical  Features,  Legends,  and  History,  from  1604  to 
1784"  (Archdeacon  Raymond,  LL.D.,  F.  R.  S.  C),  p.  437. 

2O2 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

rington  and  other  places  in  the  Province,  praying  leave  to  return 
with  their  families  and  effects.  These  petitions  were  usually 
granted,  and  a  pass  issued  to  each  applicant,  directing  the  com- 
manders of  all  ships  of  war  and  privateers  belonging  to  the  State  not 
to  interfere  with  or  molest  the  holder  on  his  passage  between  Nova 
Scotia  and  Massachusetts.  But  comparatively  few  availed  them- 
selves of  the  privilege  after  having  obtained  the  desired  permission 
to  return.  It  is  very  evident  that  the  written  passports  were  them- 
selves the  desideratum,  and  were  used  as  a  means  of  protection 
against  the  reprisals  of  American  privateers  while  engaged  in  fish- 
ing or  coasting  in  their  small  shallops  or  schooners.  In  a  great 
many  instances  our  fishermen  were  able  to  save  their  vessels  from 
capture  and  confiscation  by  this  shrewd  Yankee  trick,  although  it 
did  not  always  succeed." 

On  the  part  of  the  Nova  Scotians,  also,  not  a  little  retaliatory 
privateering  was  done,  New  England  vessels  being  captured  and 
brought  into  Halifax  and  their  crews  and  the  passengers  on  them 
imprisoned  there.  For  the  confinement  of  these  prisoners  of  war, 
says  a  recent  writer,27  the  prison  ships  and  jail  were  utterly  inade- 
quate. Moreover,  the  restraints  laid  upon  the  prisoners  were  ex- 
tremely lax,  a  few  were  allowed  to  give  their  parole  and  then  get 
to  their  homes  as  best  they  could,  but  large  numbers  of  them  were 
constantly  escaping,  and  the  Government  does  not  seem  to  have 
made  much  effort  to  recapture  them.  A  great  many  of  them  made 


27.  This  writer  is  the  author  of  the  very  valuable  articles  appearing  in  the  Halifax 
Acadian  Recorder  once  a  week,  under  the  pseudonym  "An  Occasional."  We  have  re- 
produced in  a  few  sentences  above,  without  quoting  exactly,  his  remarks  on  the  subject 
in  hand.  In  his  discussion  of  the  subject  "An  Occasional"  further  says :  "Although  all 
manner  of  intercourse  between  the  Colony  and  the  Province  was  forbidden  by  both 
Governments,  there  was  one  way  by  which  these  conditions  could  equalize  themselves, 
and  the  authorities  necessarily  shut  their  eyes  to  a  great  deal.  From  time  to  time  as 
provisions  grew  scarce,  it  became  customary  for  one  or  more  of  our  fishermen  to  load 
his  shallop  with  fish  or  salt  (another  article  in  great  demand  in  the  Colonies,  and  with 
which  our  people  were  well  supplied,  by  reason  of  their  trade  with  the  West  Indies), 
and  to  put  on  board  as  many  of  the  ex-prisoners  as  were  at  hand  or  could  be  accom- 
modated, and  boldly  set  sail  for  some  Massachusetts  port.  Often  they  were  held  up  by 
American  privateers  while  on  their  way,  but  usually  the  presence  of  the  Americans  on 
board,  together  with  the  permits  described  above,  served  as  a  means  of  protection  and 
they  were  allowed  to  proceed.  Upon  their  arrival  their  vessels  were  sometimes  seized 
as  the  property  of  subjects  of  the  King  of  Great  Britain."  But  the  next  thing  in  order 
would  be  a  petition  from  the  owners  or  captains  of  the  vessels  before  the  cargoes  could 
be  disposed  of,  "praying  for  liberty  to  sell  the  fish  or  salt,  to  purchase  provisions  with 
the  proceeds,  and  to  depart  with  the  same.  These  petitions  were  almost  invariably 
granted." 

203 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

their  way,  sometimes  through  the  woods,  sometimes  along  the  shore, 
to  Barrington  and  Yarmouth,  where  they  were  sure  to  find  friends. 

When  peace  between  Britain  and  the  United  States  was  finally 
sealed,  the  restrictions  of  trade  and  general  intercourse  between 
Nova  Scotia  and  the  other  colonies  were  of  course  removed,  and  un- 
der changed  conditions,  but  with  somewhat  of  the  old  freedom,  the 
earlier  relations  between  the  closely  allied  peoples  were  resumed. 

Why  Nova  Scotia  did  not  give  the  Revolution  the  strong  support 
the  other  Atlantic  seaboard  colonies  of  Britain  in  America  gave  it 
and  become  a  fourteenth  State  in  the  American  Union,  instead  of 
remaining  a  possession  of  the  British  Crown,  is  a  question  that  it  is 
hardly  necessary  now  to  answer,  for  the  answer  is  implicit  in  the 
long  array  of  facts  we  have  in  this  chapter  adduced.  From  first  to 
last  there  was  no  reluctance  on  the  part  of  a  great  majority  of  the 
people  to  throw  in  their  lot  frankly  with  their  friends  in  the  New 
England  colonies  who  had  revolted  against  British  oppression,  and 
many  were  anxious  to  do  so,  but  they  were  a  rural  people,  lacking 
the  necessary  equipment  of  war,  and  too  few  in  numbers  and  too 
scattered  to  make  organized  resistance  to  the  authority  exercised  at 
Halifax,  without  powerful  aid  from  the  New  England  colonies,  at  all 
able  to  succeed.  That  such  help  from  the  Continental  Congress  or 
the  Massachusetts  General  Court  did  not  come  we  have  seen,  and  the 
Nova  Scotia  government  being  firmly  in  the  hands  of  men  loyal 
to  Britain,  a  governor-in-chief  and  lieutenant  governor  sworn  to  de- 
fend British  authority  and  a  council  in  which  Englishmen  rather 
than  colonials  were  in  the  majority,  nominal  allegiance  to  Britain 
on  the  part  of  the  whole  population  was  preserved.  Thus  Nova 
Scotia  in  the  end  was  left  divorced  in  large  measure  from  the  colon- 
ies to  which  she  was  bound  by  the  closest  geographical,  social,  and 
commercial  ties.  In  such  unfortunate  isolation  she  remained  until 
she  became  a  province  of  the  Dominion  of  Canada  in  the  federation 
of  the  provinces  in  1867. 


204 


THE  ROWLAND  FAMILY 

Rowland,  who  was  also  a  passenger  on  the  "Mayflower."  Eliza- 
beth (Tilley)  Howland  died  December  21,  1687,  aged  eighty  years. 
(See  Howland  II). 

NOTE. — References   in    foregoing   will  be   found   in    former  or   future  numbers  of 
"Americana." 


271 


Chapters  in  the  History  of  Halifax,  Nova  Scotia 

BY  ARTHUR  WENTWORTH  HAMILTON  EATON,  M.  A.,  D.  C.  L. 

No.  XI 
HALIFAX  AND  THE  NEW  YORK  TORIES 

"To  go  or  not  to  go,  that  is  the  question ; 
Whether  'tis  best  to  trust  the  inclement  sky 
That  scowls  indignant,  or  the  dreary  Bay 
Of  Fundy  and  Cape  Sable's  rocks  and  shoals, 
And  seek  our  new  domain  in  Scotia's  wilds, 
Barren  and  bare,  or  stay  among  the  rebels, 
And  by  our  stay  rouse  up  their  keenest  rage." 

The  Tory's  Soliloquy  (printed  in  the  New  Jersey  Journal). 

HE  great  migration  of  Loyalists  to  Nova  Scotia  as  a 
result  of  the  Revolution,  of  which  the  flight  of  the  Bos- 
ton Tories  thither  with  Howe's  fleet  is  the  picturesque 
prelude,  occurred,  as  is  well  known,  in  the  years  1782 
and  1783,  especially  the  latter  year.  That  by  far  the  larger  num- 
ber of  these  later  refugees  from  the  other  Colonies  landed  either 
at  Port  Eoseway,  Digby,  or  the  mouth  of  the  St.  John  river  is  of 
course  true,  but  that  Halifax  more  or  less  permanently  received  a 
share  of  them  is  equally  true.  In  an  interesting  sketch  of  Governor 
Parr,  in  the  Collections  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Historical  Society,  the 
late  Mr.  James  Macdonald  says:1  "Parr  was  sworn  in  Governor 
in  October,  1782,  and  peace  with  the  new  Republic  was  arranged 
on  the  30th  of  November,  1782.  In  December  following,  many  ships 
with  a  large  number  of  Loyalists  and  troops  that  had  fought  on  the 
British  side  arrived  from  New  York,  and  the  Governor's  work 
began.  Every  week  brought  its  quota  to  swell  the  already  over- 


i.  "Memoir  of  Governor  John  Parr,"  by  James  S.  Macdonald,  in  the  Collections 
of  the  Nova  Scotia  Historical  Society,  vol.  14,  pp.  41-78.  In  quoting  at  length  from 
Mr.  Macdonald  we  always  have  to  revise  his  rhetoric.  In  this  quotation  we  give  his 
exact  statements,  but  some  changes  in  the  English  have  been  absolutely  necessary  and 
have  been  made. 

272 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

populated  town.  The  feeding  of  such  a  multitude  was  a  most  diffi- 
cult task,  and  the  flour  mills  at  Sackville  were  kept  at  work  night 
and  day  to  provide  bread.  Parr  worked  steadily  and  methodically, 
as  he  had  done  all  his  life,  and  being  a  seasoned  veteran  was  able, 
it  is  said,  to  work  at  times  twenty  out  of  the  twenty-four  hours  of 
the  day  at  the  task  of  arranging  for  the  subsistence  of  such  a  host. 
The  greatest  problem  was  to  have  them  housed  before  the  severity 
of  winter  came.  The  troops  came  by  shiploads,  and  the  vivid  expe- 
rience of  Halifax  at  the  declaration  of  war  was  repeated.  Every 
shed,  outhouse,  and  store  was  crowded  with  people.  Thousands 
were  under  canvas  on  the  Citadel  and  at  Point  Pleasant,  every- 
where indeed  where  tents  could  be  pitched.  vSt.  Paul's  and  St. 
Matthew's  churches  were  crowded,  and  hundreds  were  sheltered 
there  for  months.  Cabooses  and  cook-houses  were  brought  ashore 
from  the  ships,  and  the  people  were  fed  near  them  on  Granville  and 
Hollis  streets.  People  suffered  all  the  miseries  of  unsanitary  con- 
ditions in  an  overcrowded  town,  and  there  were  many  deaths  among 
the  strangers.  For  months  the  greater  number  of  these  ten  thou- 
sand refugees  were  fed  on  the  streets,  among  the  people  being 
many  who  had  been  reared  in  luxury. ' ' 

Whether  it  is  true  that  as  many  as  ten  thousand  Loyalists,  includ- 
ing troops  that  had  fought  on  the  British  side,  were  for  a  longer 
or  shorter  period  located  in  Halifax  or  not,  we  do  not  know,  but  the 
Tory  migration  at  this  time  to  the  province  generally  had  so 
direct  and  lasting  an  influence  on  the  capital  town  that  it  becomes 
necessary  to  devote  a  chapter  exclusively  to  it  here. 

In  the  colony  of  New  York,  which  unlike  Massachusetts  was  a 
Eoyal  or  Crown  Colony,  a  large  proportion  of  the  people,  particu- 
larly of  Westchester  County,  Queen's  County  (Long  Island),2  and 
Staten  Island,  were  sympathetic  with  the  British  cause,  and  when 
the  issue  of  the  war  became  clearly  unfavorable  for  the  British,  and 
finally  when  peace  was  declared,  these  champions  of  loyalty  to  the 


2.    Of  Queen's  County,  Long  Island,  Judge  Jones  in  his  "History  of  New  \ork 
during  the  Revolution"  says:     "Nearly  a  third  of  the  whole  inhabitants  have  since  the 
late  peace  and  the  recognition  of  American   independence,  preferred  the  rahospitabl 
wilds  of  Nova  Scotia  rather  than  live  in  a  country  governed  by  the  iron  and  opj 
sive  hand  of  rebellion,  though  settled,  planted,  and  improved  by  their  ancest 
a  century  and  a  half  ago." 

273 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

mother  country  saw  that  nothing  was  left  them  but  to  emigrate. 
From  the  summer  of  1776,  when  the  battle  of  Long  Island  put  New 
York  in  the  hands  of  General  Howe,  for  seven  years  this  town  was 
the  headquarters  of  British  rule  in  America.  Under  the  protection 
of  the  forces  garrisoned  there,  therefore,  many  of  the  most  influ- 
ential citizens  of  New  York,  as  of  other  colonies  besides  New  York, 
put  themselves,  and  this  was  especially  true  when  the  act  of  at- 
tainder, passed  by  the  New  York  legislature  on  the  22d  of  October, 
1779,  proscribed  nearly  sixty  prominent  citizens,  "for  the  crime  of 
adhering  to  the  enemies  of  the  State,"  declared  their  estates,  real 
and  personal,  confiscated,  and  proclaimed  that  each  and  every  of 
them  who  should  at  any  time  thereafter  be  found  in  any  part  of  the 
State  should  be  and  were  adjudged  and  declared  guilty  of  felony, 
and  should  suffer  death  as  in  cases  of  felony,  without  benefit  of 
clergy. 

Thrust  from  all  places  of  public  influence,  robbed  of  their  prop- 
erty, insulted  by  mobs,  declared  felons  by  the  newly  constituted 
authorities,  and  as  we  have  seen,  even  threatened  with  death,  they 
soon  looked  toward  Nova  Scotia,  where  six  or  seven  years  before 
their  Boston  fellow  sufferers  had  gone,  as  a  suitable  place  of  refuge. 
In  February,  1782,  the  new  English  ministry  recalled  Sir  Henry 
Clinton  from  his  command  of  the  American  forces,  and  in  his  place 
appointed  Sir  Guy  Carleton,  who  arrived  in  New  York  and  took 
command  the  following  April.  In  November  of  the  same  year, 
provisional  articles  of  peace  were  signed  at  Paris  and  then  the 
necessity  for  the  removal  of  the  Loyalists  became  urgent.  Sir  Guy 
accordingly  began  a  correspondence  with  the  governor  of  Nova  Sco- 
tia with  reference  to  their  settlement  in  this  province,  and  the  Loy- 
alists themselves  appointed  agents  to  whom  they  entrusted  the  most 
important  matters  connected  with  their  proposed  emigration.  These 
agents  were  Lieutenant-Colonel  Benjamin  Thompson  of  Massachu- 
setts, better  known  as  Count  Kumf  ord ;  Lieutenant-Colonel  Edward 
Winslow,  Jr.,  of  Massachusetts,  Muster-Master-General  of  the  Loy- 
alist forces  employed  under  the  Crown;  Major  Joshua  Upham,  of 
Brookfield,  Massachusetts,  a  graduate  of  Harvard  of  the  class  of 
1763;  the  Rev.  John  Sayre,  who  at  the  beginning  of  the  war  was 
Eector  of  Trinity  Church,  Fairfield,  Connecticut;  Amos  Botsford, 

274 


COUNT  RUMFORD 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

of  Newtown,  Connecticut,  a  graduate  of  Yale,  of  1763;  and  James 
Peters,  of  New  York.  It  seems  singular  that  of  these  seven  New 
York  agents,  six  should  have  been  New  England  men,  and  only  one 
a  native  New  Yorker. 

The  first  emigration  of  New  York  people  to  Nova  Scotia  took 
place  soon  after  the  signing  of  the  provisional  articles  at  Paris. 
About  two  months  before  this,  the  Lieutenant-Governor  of  Nova 
Scotia,  Sir  Andrew  Snape  Hamond,  received  a  letter  from  Sir 
Guy  Carleton,  in  which  the  latter  announced  that  more  than  six  hun- 
dred persons  wished  to  embark  for  Nova  Scotia  before  winter,  and 
a  much  larger  number  the  next  spring,  but  that  he  could  not  find 
shipping  just  then  for  more  than  three  hundred.  He  recommends 
for  these  intending  emigrants  that  a  grant  of  five  or  six  hundred 
acres  shall  be  given  each  family,  and  three  hundred  acres  apiece 
to  single  men,  and  that  two  thousand  acres  for  a  glebe  and  a  thou- 
sand acres  for  a  school  shall  be  set  apart  in  each  township,  no  fees 
or  quit-rents,  whatever,  to  be  exacted  for  these  lands.  He  also 
recommends  that  the  ''Refugees"  be  given  materials  and  the  assist- 
ance of  workmen  for  their  necessary  building.  About  this  time  Sir 
Guy  was  waited  on  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Seabury,  then  of  Westchester, 
and  Col.  Benjamin  Thompson,  of  the  King's  American  Dragoons,  on 
behalf  of  the  Loyalists  desiring  to  go  to  Nova  Scotia.  The  result 
of  the  conference  was  a  promise  from  the  Commander-in-Chief  that 
they  should  be  provided  with  proper  vessels  to  carry  them  and 
their  horses  and  cattle  as  near  as  possible  to  the  place  in  which 
they  intended  to  settle ;  that  besides  food  for  the  voyage,  one  year's 
provisions  or  the  equivalent  in  money  should  be  allowed  them ;  that 
warm  clothing  in  proportion  to  the  wants  of  each  family,  and  medi- 
cines, should  be  furnished  them;  that  pairs  of  mill  stones,  iron 
work  for  grist  mills  and  saw  mills,  nails,  spikes,  hoes,  axes,  spades, 
shovels,  plough-irons,  and  such  other  farming  utensils  as  should 
appear  necessary,  and  also  window  glass,  should  be  given  them; 
that  tracts  of  land,  free  from  disputed  titles  and  conveniently  situ- 
ated, large  enough  to  afford  from  three  to  six  hundred  acres  to  each 
family,  to  be  surveyed  and  divided  at  public  cost,  should  be  guar- 
anteed; that  in  every  township,  "over  and  above"  two  thousand 
acres  should  be  allowed  for  the  support  of  a  clergyman  and  one 

275 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

thousand  acres  for  the  support  of  a  school,  and  that  these  lands 
should  be  inalienable  forever.  Finally,  that  a  sufficient  number  of 
good  muskets  and  cannon,  with  a  proper  quantity  of  ammunition, 
should  be  allowed,  to  enable  the  people  to  defend  themselves  against 
any  hostile  invasion. 

On  the  nineteenth  of  October,  five  hundred  Loyalists  from  New 
York  arrived  at  Annapolis  Royal,  Nova  Scotia,3  bringing  with 
them  at  least  one  member  of  the  committee  appointed  in  New  York  to 
look  after  their  affairs,  a  man  who  founded  one  of  the  leading  New 
Brunswick  families,  Mr.  Amos  Botsford.  The  London  Political 
Magazine  in  1783  says :  ''When  the  Loyal  Refugees  from  the  north- 
ern Provinces  were  informed  of  the  resolution  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons against  offensive  war  with  the  rebels,  they  instantly  saw  there 
were  no  hopes  left  them  of  regaining  their  ancient  settlements  or  of 
settling  down  again  in  their  native  country.  Most  of  them,  there- 
fore, who  had  been  forward  in  taking  up  arms  and  in  fighting  the 
battles  of  the  mother  country,  finding  themselves  deserted,  began  to 
look  out  for  a  place  of  refuge,  and  Nova  Scotia  being  the  nearest 
place  to  their  old  plantations,  they  determined  on  settling  in  that 
province.  Accordingly,  to  the  number  of  five  hundred,  they  em- 
barked for  Annapolis  Royal:  they  had  arms  and  ammunition,  and 
one  year's  provisions,  and  were  put  under  the  care  and  convoy  of 
H.  M.  S.  Amphitrite,  of  twenty-four  guns,  Captain  Robert  Briggs. 
This  officer  behaved  to  them  with  great  attention,  humanity,  and 
generosity,  and  saw  them  safely  landed  and  settled  in  the  barracks 
at  Annapolis,  which  the  Loyalists  soon  repaired.  There  were 
plenty  of  wild  fowl  in  the  country,  and  at  that  time  (which  was  last 
fall)  a  goose  sold  for  two  shillings  and  a  turkey  for  two  and  six- 
pence. The  Captain  was  at  two  hundred  pounds  expense  out  of  his 
own  pocket,  in  order  to  render  the  passage  and  arrival  of  the  unfor- 
tunate Loyalists  in  some  degree  comfortable  to  them." 

Before  Captain  Briggs  sailed  from  Annapolis  the  grateful  Loy- 
alists waited  on  him  with  the  following  address : 

"To  Robert  Briggs,  Esqr.,  Commander  of  H.  M.  S.  Amphitrite: 
The  loyal  refugees  who  have  emigrated  from  New  York  to  settle  in 

3.     Murdoch's  History  of  Nova  Scotia,  vol.  3,  says  three  hundred. 

276 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

Nova  Scotia  beg  your  acceptance  of  their  warmest  thanks  for  the 
kind  and  unremitted  attention  you  have  paid  to  their  preservation 
and  safe  conduct  at  all  times  during  their  passage.  Driven  from 
pur  respective  dwellings  for  our  loyalty  to  our  King,  after  endur- 
ing innumerable  hardships  and  seeking  a  settlement  in  a  land 
unknown  to  us,  our  distresses  were  sensibly  relieved  during  an 
uncomfortable  passage  by  your  humanity,  ever  attentive  to  our 
preservation. 

;'Be  pleased  to  accept  of  our  most  grateful  acknowledgments  so 
justly  due  to  you  and  the  officers  under  your  command,  and  be 
assured  we  shall  remember  your  kindness  with  the  most 'grateful 
sensibility. 

''We  are,  with  the  warmest  wishes  for  your  health  and  happiness 
and  a  prosperous  voyage, 

"With  the  greatest  respect,  Your  most  obedient  humble  servants, 
"In  behalf  of  the  refugees. 

"AMOS  BOTSFORD, 
TH.  WARD, 
FRED.  HAUSER, 
SAM.  CUMMINGS, 
ELIJAH  WILLIAMS.* 
"Annapolis  Royal,  the  20th  of  October,  1782." 

On  the  fourteenth  of  January,  1783,  Amos  Botsford  and  his  fel- 
low explorers  wrote  from  Annapolis  to  their  friends  in  New  York, 
describing  the  country.  After  giving  the  most  favorable  account 
of  the  region  from  Annapolis  to  St.  Mary's  Bay,  they  say:  "We 
proceeded  to  St.  John's  river,  where  we  arrived  the  latter  end  of 
November,  it  being  too  late  to  pass  in  boats,  and  the  water  not 
being  sufficiently  frozen  to  bear.  In  this  situation  we  left  the  river, 
and  (for  a  straight  course)  steered  by  a  compass  through  the  woods, 
encamping  out  several  nights  in  the  course,  and  went  as  far  as  the 
Oromocto,  about  seventy  miles  up  the  river,  where  there  is  a  block- 


4.  Of  the  persons  whose  names  are  signed  to  this  address,  Amos  Botsford  was 
from  Newtown,  Conn.  (See  Sabine's  Loyalists)  ;  Frederick  Hauser,  of  whose  origin 
we  know  nothing,  was  a  surveyor,  and  with  Amos  Botsford  and  Samuel  Cummings 
explored  St.  Mary's  Bay  and  the  lower  part  of  the  St.  John  river  (see  the  Winslow 
Papers,  edited  by  Archdeacon  Raymond,  pp.  77,  211)  ;  Samuel  Cummings  was  from  NCMT 
Hampshire,  and  with  his  wife  and  two  children  (at  Annapolis  Royal)  was  proscribed 
in  1782  (see  Sabine's  Loyalists,  vol.  2,  p.  502)  ;  Elijah  Williams,  a  son  of  Major  Elijah 
Williams  of  Deerfield,  Mass.,  before  coming  to  Nova  Scotia  had  been  practising  law  at 
Keene,  N.  H.  (See  "The  Genealogy  and  History  of  the  Family  of  Williams  _.  .  . 
Descendants  of  Robert  Williams  of  Roxbury,"  published  at  Greenfield,  Mass.,  in  1847) 
He  returned  later  to  Mass,  and  died  at  Deerfield  in  1793. 

277 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

house,  a  British  post.  The  St.  John's  is  a  fine  river,  equal  in  mag- 
nitude to  the  Connecticut  or  Hudson.  At  the  mouth  of  the  river 
is  a  fine  harbour,  accessible  at  all  seasons  of  the  year — never  frozen 
or  obstructed  by  the  ice,  which  breaks  in  passing  over  the  falls; 
here  stands  Fort  Howe,  two  leagues  north  of  Annapolis  Gut." 
"The  interval  lies  on  the  river,  and  is  a  most  fertile  soil,  annually 
manured  by  the  overflowings  of  the  river,  and  produces  crops  of  all 
kinds  with  little  labour,  and  vegetables  in  the  greatest  perfection. 
The  up-lands  produce  wheat  both  of  the  summer  and  winter  kinds, 
as  well  as  Indian  corn.  Some  of  our  people  chuse  Conway  [now 
Digby],  others  give  the  preference  to  St.  John.  Our  people  who 
came  with  us  are  settled  here  for  the  winter ;  some  at  the  fort,  some 
in  the  town,  and  others  extend  up  the  Annapolis  river  near  twenty 
miles,  having  made  terms  with  the  inhabitants; — some  are  doing 
well,  others  are  living  on  their  provisions;  their  behaviour  is  as 
orderly  and  regular  as  we  could  expect.  * ' 

These  five  hundred  New  York  Loyalists  were  speedily  followed 
by  five  hundred  and  one  refugees  from  the  Carolinas,  who  fled  from 
Charleston  when  that  city  was  evacuated.  In  a  dispatch  to  the 
Right  Hon.  Thomas  Johnston,  the  minister  in  England,  Governor 
Parr  of  Nova  Scotia  says :  "I  have  the  honor  to  inform  you  that 
with  the  arrival  here  of  the  heavy  ordnance  from  Charleston  in 
South  Carolina,  came  five  hundred  and  one  refugees,  men,  women, 
and  children,  in  consequence  of  directions  from  Sir  Guy  Carletori  to 
Lieutenant-General  Leslie,  who  has  sent  them  to  the  care  of  Major- 
General  Patterson,  commander  of  the  troops  in  this  province,  with 
whom  I  have  concurred  as  far  as  in  my  power  to  afford  them  a 
reception. ' ' 

In  January,  1783,  the  governor  notified  the  English  minister  of 
future  arrivals,  but  it  was  in  the  spring  of  that  year  that  the  great 
emigration  of  New  York  Tories  to  Nova  Scotia  began.  In  April, 
two  separate  fleets  left  for  the  Acadian  Province  by  the  Sea.  The 
first,  which  sailed  from  New  York,  April  26th,  comprised  sixteen 
square  rigged  ships  and  several  schooners  and  sloops  protected  by 
two  ships  of  war,  and  carried  four  hundred  and  seventy-one  fam- 
ilies, under  command  of  Colonel  Beverly  Robinson,  its  destination 

278 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

being  Port  Razoir,  or  Boseway,  afterwards  Shelburne,  near  the 
south-western  end  of  Nova  Scotia. 

On  the  fourth  of  May  these  people  reached  Port  Roseway  and 
were  met  by  three  surveyors  from  Halifax,  with  whose  aid  they  at 
once  began  to  lay  out  a  city  which  they  had  projected  before  leav- 
ing New  York.5  Their  plan  made  provision  for  five  main  parallel 
streets,  sixty  feet  wide,  to  be  intersected  by  others  at  right  angles, 
each  square  to  contain  sixteen  lots,  sixty  feet  in  width  and  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty  feet  in  depth.  At  each  end  of  the  town  a  large 
space  was  left  for  a  common,  and  when  the  refugees  came,  these 
reservations  the  engineers  with  the  assistance  of  the  fatigue  par- 
ties rapidly  cleared,  so  that  tents  could  be  erected  for  the  tem- 
porary shelter  of  the  people.  July  eleventh,  the  town  was  divided 
into  north  and  south,  the  streets  were  named,  and  the  lots  were 
numbered,  every  settler  being  given  fifty  acres  on  each  side  the 
harbour,  and  a  town  and  water  lot  besides. 

The  other  fleet,  which  sailed  from  New  York  on  the  twenty-sev- 
enth of  April,  1783,  comprised  twenty  vessels,  on  board  of  which 
were  three  thousand  people,  men,  women,  and  children.  The  names 
of  the  vessels  were :  the  Camel,  Captain  Tinker ;  the  Union,  Captain 
Wilson;  the  Aurora,  Captain  Jackson;  the  Hope,  Captain  Peacock; 
the  Otter,  Captain  Burns ;  the  Spencer;  the  Emmett,  Captain  Reed; 
the  Thames;  the  Spring,  Captain  Cadish;  the  Bridgewater;  the 
Favorite,  Captain  Ellis;  the  Ann,  Captain  Clark;  the  Commerce, 
Captain  Strong;  the  William;  the  Lord  Townshend,  Captain  Hogg; 
the  Sovereign,  Captain  Stuart;  the  Sally,  Captain  Bell;  the  Cyrus; 
the  Britain;  and  the  King  George.  The  destination  of  this  fleet 
was  the  River  St.  John,  at  the  mouth  of  which,  a  little  distance 
apart,  stood  the  two  old  forts,  La  Tour,  then  called  Fort  Freder- 
ick, and  the  less  historical  Fort  Howe.  On  the  eighteenth  of  May 
the  vessels  came  to  anchor  in  the  harbour  of  St.  John,  the  Loyalists 
for  the  most  part  landing  at  Lower  Cove,  near  the  old  Sydney 
Market  House.6 


5.  The  Church  of  England  in  Nova  Scotia,  Dr.  A.  W.  H.  Eaton,  pp.  135,  6. 

6.  May  12,  1783,  Sir  Guy  Carleton  writes  General  Washington:  "An  embarkation 
was  in  much  forwardness  previous  to  the  official  information  of  peace.    .    .    . 

fleet  sailed  about  the  27th  of  April  for  different  parts  of  Nova  Scotia,  and  including  the 

279 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

The  people  of  the  first  fleet  are  said  to  have  come  to  their 
determination  to  settle  at  Shelburne,  through  advice  given  them  by 
Captain  Gideon  White,  a  native  of  Plymouth,  Massachusetts,  in 
which  place  he  was  born  March  28,  1752.  This  young  man,  who 
was  a  great  grandson  of  Peregrine  White,  of  Plymouth,  and  father 
of  the  late  venerable  Rev.  Thomas  Howland  White,  D.  D.,  of  Shel- 
burne, at  the  outbreak  of  the  war  made  his  escape  from  Plymouth 
to  avoid  being  either  drafted  into  the  American  army  or  thrown 
into  prison,  and  starting  for  Nova  Scotia  on  a  trading  voyage  vis- 
ited various  places  along  the  south  shore  of  the  province.  At  Bar- 
rington  he  was  captured  by  an  American  armed  vessel,  commanded 
by  a  Captain  Sampson,  and  then  was  carried  back  to  Plymouth  and 
thrown  into  prison,  where  he  found  his  father.  Within  a  day  or 
two  he  was  taken  out  and  hanged  by  the  waist  to  the  village  ''liberty 
pole,"  but  Captain  Sampson,  hearing  of  the  outrage,  landed  with  a 
party  of  his  men  and  rescued  the  prisoner  from  his  uncomfortable, 
if  not  dangerous,  position.  In  the  list  of  persons  who  went  to  Hal- 
ifax with  General  Howe's  fleet,  Gideon  White's  name  is  found,  and 
it  is  probable  that  he  returned  with  the  fleet  to  New  York  and  there 
gave  information  regarding  the  Nova  Scotia  sea-board  to  the  Loy- 
alist leaders,  who  acting  on  his  advice  finally  determined  to  found  a 
city  at  Port  Bazoir. 

That  St.  John  should  have  been  chosen  by  the  Tories  as  the 
site  of  another  town  is  not  strange,  for  the  broad,  navigable  St. 
John  river,  lined  with  fertile  marshes,  had  long  attracted  traders 
from  New  England,  and  on  both  sides  of  it,  awaiting  settlement,  lay 
an  immense  tract  of  country  as  fertile  as  the  peninsula  of  Nova 
Scotia  itself,  and  even  greater  in  extent. 

On  the  6th  of  June  Governor  Parr  informs  the  Secretary  of  State 
that  since  January  15th  upwards  of  seven  thousand  refugees  have 
arrived  in  the  province,  and  these,  he  says,  are  to  be  followed  by 
three  thousand  of  the  provincial  forces,  and  by  others  besides. 


troops  carried  seven  thousand  persons  with  all  their  effects ;  also  some  artillery,  and  pub- 
lic stores." 

May  22d,  Adjutant  General  Oliver  De  Lancey  orders,  that  "the  Refugees  and  all  the 
Masters  of  Vessels  will  be  attentive  that  no  Person  is  permitted  to  embark  as  a  Refugee 
who  has  not  resided  Twelve  Months  within  the  British  Lines,  without  a  special  Pass- 
port from  the  Commandant.  It  is  also  recommended  to  the  Refugees  to  take  Care  no 
Person  of  bad  Character  is  suffered  to  embark  with  them." 

280 


July  6th,  he  writes  that  a  considerable  number  of  Loyalists  had  peti- 
tioned for  land  in  the  island  of  Cape  Breton,  and  the  governor, 
who  had  had  instructions  to  grant  no  land  in  that  island,  asks  his 
Majesty's  pleasure  in  the  matter.  In  a  letter  to  Lord  North,  of 
the  30th  of  September,  Governor  Parr  states  that  from  November, 
1782,  to  the  end  of  July,  1783,  upwards  of  thirteen  thousand  had 
arrived  at  Annapolis,  Halifax,  Port  Eoseway,  St.  John  River,  and 
Cumberland,  and  that  since  July,  many  more  had  landed  at  these 
places  and  at  Passamaquoddy,  so  that  the  total  number  in  the 
province  then  was  probably  not  less  than  eighteen  thousand.  He 
had  visited  Port  Eoseway  as  soon  as  he  could  after  the  arrival 
of  the  settlers  there,  and  had  found  upwards  of  five  thousand  per- 
sons, to  which  number  many  more,  he  expected,  would  soon  be 
added.7 

In  September  many  vessels  left  New  York  for  Nova  Scotia,  car- 
rying in  all  some  eight  thousand  refugees.  One  of  these  was  the 
ship  Martha,  which  had  on  board  a  corps  of  the  Maryland  Loyalists, 
and  a  detachment  of  De  Lancey's  2d  Eegiment,  in  all  a  hundred 
and  seventy-four  persons.  This  vessel  was  wrecked  on  a  ledge  of. 
rocks  between  Cape  Sable  and  the  Tuskets,  and  ninety-nine  per- 
ished, seventy-five  being  saved  by  fishing  boats  and  carried  to  St. 
John,  where  they  had  intended  settling.  Between  the  end  of  Sep- 
tember and  the  twenty-first  of  October,  two  thousand  Loyalists 
arrived,  and  at  some  time  in  the  latter  month  what  is  known  as  the 
"Fall  Fleet"  reached  St.  John,  bringing  twelve  hundred  more.  Oth- 
ers coming  in  single  vessels,  before  and  at  the  final  evacuation  of 
New  York,  which  occurred  November  25,  1783,  it  is  estimated  that 
not  less  than  five  thousand  spent  the  winter  of  1783-84  on  the  site 
of  the  city  of  St.  John.  August  thirteenth  of  the  latter  year,  Gover- 
nor Parr  writes  Lord  North  that  grants  for  four  thousand,  eight 
hundred  and  eighty-two  families  had  passed  the  great  seal  of  the 

7.  In  a  letter  from  an  officer  belonging  to  H.  M.  Ship  Due  de  Chartrcs,  dated  Nova 
Scotia,  October  12,  1783,  the  writer  says :  "The  great  emigration  of  Loyalists  from  New 
York  to  this  province  is  almost  incredible,  they  have  made  many  new  settlements  in  the 
Bay  of  Fundy.  .  .  .  Numbers  of  families  are  also  gone  to  Halifax,  but  the  majority 
are  fixed  at  Port  Roseway,  where  they  have  erected  a  large  city,  which  contains  nine 
thousand  inhabitants,  exclusive  of  Black  Town,  containing  about  twelve  hundred  free 
Blacks,  who  have  served  during  the  war."  Quoted  in  the  "Manual  of  the  Corporation 
of  the  City  of  New  York"  for  1870. 

28l 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

province,  and  that  others  were  preparing  for  a  hundred  and  fifty 
more.  The  number  of  persons  already  located,  he  thinks,  amounts 
to  nearly  thirty  thousand. 

The  whole  number  of  Loyalists  who  left  the  revolting  colonies, 
first  and  last,  cannot  have  been  less  than  a  hundred  thousand  souls, 
Judge  Jones  thinks  that  Sir  Guy  Carleton  must  have  assisted  that 
many  to  leave  New  York  alone.  Mr.  De  Lancey  says :  * '  They  came 
to  New  York  to  embark  for  almost  all  parts  of  the  world,  England, 
Scotland,  Ireland,  Canada,  Newfoundland,  Cape  Breton,  Nova  Sco- 
tia, New  Brunswick,  the  Bermudas,  the  Bahamas,  Florida,  Jamaica, 
and  the  lesser  West  Indies."  The  Loyalists  of  the  Southern  col- 
onies chiefly  shipped  for  Florida,  the  Bermudas,  the  Bahamas,  and 
the  West  Indies.  Of  the  Tory  emigrants  to  Upper  Canada,  which 
was  then,  like  Nova  Scotia  (and  New  Brunswick),  almost  wholly 
unsettled,  Kyerson,  in  his  " Loyalists  of  America,"8  says:  "Five 
vessels  were  procured  and  furnished  to  convey  this  first  colony  of 
banished  refugee  Loyalists  to  Upper  Canada;  they  sailed  around 
the  Coast  of  New  Brunswick  and  Nova  Scotia,  and  up  the  St.  Law- 
rence to  Sorel,  where  they  arrived  in  October,  1783,  and  where  they 
built  themselves  huts  or  shanties,  and  wintered.  In  May,  1784,  they 
prosecuted  their  voyage  in  boats,  and  reached  their  destination, 
Cataraqui,  afterwards  Kingston,  in  July."  Other  bands  of  Loyal- 
ists made  their  way  to  Canada  by  land,  the  most  common  route 
being  by  Albany. 

Many  of  the  Loyalists  who  had  come  to  Nova  Scotia  were  so 
destitute  that  in  May,  1783,  an  order  for  a  muster  was  issued  by 
Governor  Parr,  so  that  their  needs  might  be  fully  known.  This 
muster  occupied  a  little  over  two  months,  from  May  twentieth  to 
July  twenty-seventh,  and  the  report  finally  made  by  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  Robert  Morse,  who  had  the  direction  of  it,9  covers  the  fol- 
lowing nearly  thirty  settlements:  Annapolis  Royal  and  vicinity, 
Antigonish,  Bear  River,  Chedabucto,  Chester  Road,  Cornwallis  and 
Horton,  Country  Harbour,  Cumberland  and  vicinity,  Dartmouth, 


8.  Vol.  2,  p.  188. 

9.  "A  General  Description  of  the  Province  of  Nova  Scotia  and  a  Report  of  the 
Present  State  of  the  Defences,  with  Observations  leading  to  the  further  growth  and 
Security  of  this  Colony,  done  by  Lieutenant-Colonel  Morse,  Chief  Engineer  in  America, 
upon  a  Tour  of  the  Province  in  the  Autumn  of  the  Year  1783  and  the  Summer  of  1784." 

282 


1  3 

3.  w 

•—  o 

3  » 


n 

(U 


Crt 

C 

X 

n 
ffi 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

Digby,  Gulliver's  Hole  (St.  Mary's  Bay);  Halifax  and  vicinity; 
about  Halifax  Harbour;  between  Halifax  and  Shelburne,  along  the 
coast;  Jedore,  Musquodoboit,  Newport  and  Kenticook;  Nine  Mile 
Eiver,  Partridge  Island,  Passamaquoddy ;  Pictou  and  Meri- 
gomish;  River  St.  John;  Sheet  Harbour,  Shelburne,  Ship 
Harbour,  Island  of  St.  John  (Prince  Edward  Island),  Windsor, 
Windsor  Road,  and  Sackville.  According  to  this  muster  the  War 
of  the  Revolution  had  brought  into  Nova  Scotia  28,347  persons,  of 
whom  12,383  were  men,  5,486  women,  4,671  children  above  the  age  of 
ten,  4,575  children  under  the  age  of  ten,  and  1,232  servants,  chiefly, 
no  doubt,  negroes  who  had  been  and  virtually  still  continued  to  be 
slaves.  Of  these  people,  9,260  are  reported  as  at  River  St.  John, 
7,923  at  Shelburne,  1,830  at  Annapolis  Royal  and  vicinity,  1,787  at 
Passamaquoddy,  1,295  at  Digby,  1,053  at  Chedabucto,  856  at  Cum- 
berland and  thereabouts,  651  between  Halifax  and  Shelburne,  480  at 
Dartmouth,  and  380  in  the  Island  of  St.  John ;  the  rest  being  scat- 
tered, in  numbers  ranging  from  16  to  324,  through  the  other  places 
mentioned  above.  The  name  Chedabucto  in  Lieutenant-Colonel 
Morse's  report  is  the  original  name  of  what  is  now  Guysborough. 
The  Indians  gave  the  name  Chedabucto  to  at  least  that  part  of 
Guysborough  County  which  lies  about  the  harbour  or  bay.10 

10.  The  record  of  grants  in  the  Crown  Land  Office  in  Halifax  shows  that  soon 
after  the  Revolution,  principally  in  1784  and  1785,  grants  were  made  to  persons  at 
Advocate  Harbour,  Antigonish,  Aylesfprd,  Beaver  Harbour,  Chester,  Clements,  Country 
Harbour,  Dartmouth,  Digby,  Green  River,  Guysborough,  Jordan  River,  Maccan,  Meri- 
gomish,  Musquodoboit,  New  Manchester,  Parrsborough,  Port  Hebert,  Port  Medway, 
Port  Mouton,  Port  Roseway,  Remsheg  and  Tatamagouche,  River  Philip,  Roseway 
Harbour,  Salmon  Brook,  Sable  River,  Shelburne,  Ship  Harbour,  Sissibou,  St.  Mary's 
Bay,  Tracadie,  and  Wilmot.  These  grants  were  probably  not  all  to  Loyalists  but 
undoubtedly  most  of  them  were.  Some  grants  probably  were  never  taken  up. 

Of  Colonel  Morse's  report,  Dr.  Raymond  writes :  "The  report  of  Lt.-Col.  Morse 
is  in  the  possession  of  J.  W.  Lawrence  (of  St.  John),  and  I  have  studied  it.  We 
must  bear  in  mind  that  Col.  Morse's  muster  was  made  in  the  summer  of  1784,  and  is 
liable  to  be  under  the  mark,  for  two  reasons.  First,  a  considerable  number  of  the 
Loyalists  had  already  removed,  owing  to  their  unfavorable  impressions  of  the  country, 
some  to  Upper  Canada  (see  Ryerson's  Loyalists),  some  to  England — these  chiefly  of 
the  more  affluent  classes,  while  some  had  returned  to  the  United  States.  A  second 
class,  I  have  no  doubt,  failed  to  be  enumerated  by  Col.  Morse  owing  to  the  scattered 
settlements,  established  at  isolated  points,  and  to  the  hurried  way  in  which  the  enumera- 
tion was  completed.  Loyalist  settlements  were  made  on  the  St.  John  river  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1783,  at  some  eight  or  more  points,  that  at  Woodstock  being  a  hundred  and 
forty-four  miles  from  the  sea.  Other  settlements  were  made  at  Passamaquoddy 
by  refugees  from  Penobscot  and  elsewhere,  at  various  points  at  the  head  of  the  Bay 
of  Fundy,  along  the  New  Brunswick  shore,  and  at  a  large  number  of  points  in  Nova 
Scotia  and  Cape  Breton.  The  facilities  for  communication  were  so  poor  at  this  time, 

283 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

Gathered  into  a  publication  entitled  "Manual  of  the  Corporation 
of  the  City  of  New  York"  for  1870,  we  find  many  notices  from 
sources  contemporary  with  the  migrations  of  the  removal  of  Royal- 
ists from  New  York  to  Nova  Scotia,  Canada,  Jamaica,  the  Bahamas, 
etc.,  but  chiefly  to  Nova  Scotia,  in  1783.  Under  date  of  April  22  of 
that  year,  a  Philadelphia  newspaper  (but  what  newspaper  we  do 
not  know)  says:  "Accounts  from  New  York  mention  that  the  last 
embarkation  of  refugees,  consisting  of  near  5,000  souls,  sailed  from 
thence  on  Thursday  last  for  Nova  Scotia."  A  New  York  newspa- 
per of  April  23d  says :  ' l  The  number  of  inhabitants  going  to  Nova 
Scotia  in  the  present  fleet  consists  of  upwards  of  nine  thousand 
souls,  exceeding  by  more  than  one  thousand  the  largest  town  in 
Connecticut,  including  the  out  parishes."  A  Philadelphia  news- 
paper of  April  29,  1783,  informs  its  readers  that  "a  late  New  York 
paper  says  that  the  number  of  souls  embarked  in  the  last  fleet  for 
Nova  Scotia  amounts  to  9,000."  "Yesterday,"  says  a  New  York 
newspaper  of  May  17th,  "arrived  a  vessel  from  Halifax,  by  which 
we  learn  that  the  fleet  with  about  six  thousand  Eefugees,  which 
lately  left  this  city,  were  safely  landed  at  Port  Roseway,  after  a 


that  the  enumeration  could  scarcely  have  been  carried  out  with  exactness,  and  I  there- 
fore think  the  number  returned  by  Col.  Morse  was  much  too  small."  "In  addition  to  the 
Loyalist  exiles  from  New  York  to  Nova  Scotia  during  the  first  ten  months  of  1783,  there 
were  arrivals  at  Halifax  and  Annapolis  from  Boston  and  other  New  England  ports, 
amounting  to  probably  at  least  2,000,  of  whom  1,100  came  at  the  time  of  the  evacuation 
of  Boston." 

Dr.  Raymond's  judgment  regarding  the  probable  understatement  of  the  number  of 
Loyalists  in  Nova  Scotia  in  Colonel  Morse's  Report  is  no  doubt  correct.  The  general 
style  of  Colonel  Morse's  report  on  Nova  Scotia  shows  that  he  was  not  a  very  accurate 
observer,  and  in  some  degree  weakens  the  value  of  his  statistics.  Nevertheless,  they 
must  be  duly  weighed  by  any  one  desiring  properly  to  estimate  the  number  of  Loyalists 
who  came  to  Nova  Scotia  at  the  close  of  the  war.  It  seems  likely,  judging  from  other 
data,  that  the  number  at  Halifax,  Shelburne,  and  on  the  St.  John  River,  is  understated, 
for  Colonel  Morse  himself  admits  that  "a  very  small  proportion  of  the  people  are  yet  on 
their  lands."  A  few  thousands,  therefore,  might  be  added  to  include  those  overlooked 
in  the  muster,  those  who  had  come  early  to  Nova  Scotia  and  had  gone  thence  to  Eng- 
land, Upper  Canada,  Newfoundland,  or  back  to  the  United  States,  and  the  few  Loy- 
alists that  might  not  put  in  a  claim  for  "the  Royal  bounty  of  provisions."  Having  made 
a  liberal  allowance  for  all  these,  however,  it  is  hard  to  believe,  if  Colonel  Morse's 
muster  be  in  any  degree  accurate,  that  the  number  of  Loyalists  was  much  more  than 
thirty  thousand  in  Nova  Scotia  and  New  Brunswick.  It  is  possible,  however,  that  to 
this  number  two  or  three  thousand  more  may  be  added  and  the  limits  of  accurate  state- 
ment not  be  transgressed. 

Mr.  Edward  F.  De  Lancey,  editor  of  Judge  Thomas  Jones's  History  of  New  York 
during  the  Revolutionary  War,  says  he  is  satisfied  from  a  personal  examination  of  the 
manuscript  records  in  the  Secretary's  office  at  Halifax  that  the  number  of  Tories,  men, 
women,  and  children,  who  emigrated  from  New  York  to  Nova  Scotia,  amounted  to  at 
least  thirty-five  thousand. 

284 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

six  days  passage."  A  Chatham,  New  Jersey,  newspaper  of  May 
21st,  says:  "The  British  and  their  adherents,  so  habituated  to 
perfidy,  find  it  difficult  to  forego  it;  for  in  the  last  Nova  Scotia 
fleet  they  sent  off  upwards  of  700  negroes  belonging  to  the  good 
people  of  these  states." 

A  New  York  newspaper  of  June  7th  is  quoted  as  saying:  "Yes- 
terday arrived  the  Camel,  Captain  William  Tinker,  in  eight  days 
from  the  river  St.  John,  in  the  Bay  of  Fundy,  who  left  the  new 
settlers  there  in  good  health  and  spirits.  Captain  Tinker  sailed  in 
company  with  eight  other  transports  for  this  port."  A  Philadel- 
phia newspaper  of  June  10th,"  says:  "We  hear  that  another  em- 
barkation of  his  Britannic  Majesty's  most  faithful  and  loyal  sub- 
jects, the  refugees,  will  shortly  leave  New  York,  destined  for  Nova 
Scotia.  They  are  said  to  consist  of  about  6,000." 

A  New  York  newspaper  of  June  llth  records:  "The  Schooner 
Two  Friends,  Captain  Fisher,  arrived  here  on  Sunday  last  in 
seven  days  from  Port  Eoseway.  A  number  of  transports  and  small 
vessels  were  preparing  to  sail  for  this  port  under  convoy  of  his 
Majesty's  Ship  Albacora,  when  Captain  Fisher  left  that  port. 

.  .  The  Benevolent  and  Charitable  of  all  Denominations  are 
hereby  informed  that  a  very  considerable  number  of  People,  having 
left  their  former  Habitations,  are  now  embarked  for  the  Province  of 
Nova  Scotia.  The  greater  part  of  whom,  having  tender  Wives  and 
little  Infants,  and  having  lost  All,  are  left  in  circumstances  ex- 
tremely indigent;  they  are  therefore  recommended  in  the  most 
earnest  manner  to  the  Public,  as  proper  objects  of  charity.  Note. 
As  their  Necessities  are  very  urgent  it  is  much  to  be  wished  that 
those  who  choose  to  Contribute  will  do  it  without  delay."  This 
appeal  is  signed  by  Messrs.  Rogers  and  Murray,  and  William 
Laight,  Queen  Street;  by  David  Seabury,  Peter  Bogart,  and  Eev. 
John  Sayre,  Smith  Street ;  and  by  Rev.  James  Sayre,  at  Brooklyn." 

A  Chatham,  New  Jersey,  newspaper,  under  date  of  June  llth, 
records:  "From  the  many  accounts  from  Westchester  and  the 
neighboring  towns  in  the  State  of  New  York,  near  the  British  posts, 
the  inhabitants  of  said  towns  are  in  the  most  unhappy  Situation  of 
any  people  under  the  sun.  Those  called  the  King's  or  loyal  Refu- 
gees continue  in  their  old  practice  of  beating,  burning,  hanging, 

285 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

and  cutting  men  and  women  in  order  to  extort  their  money  and 
other  effects ;  which  is  of  late  continued  and  put  in  practice  with  the 
most  unheard  of  cruelties  and  barbarity  that  ever  was  known ;  but 
especially  since  the  refugees  have  left  Morrisania  are  now  getting 
all  they  can  to  carry  off  with  them  to  Nova  Scarcity,  where  they  say 
is  nine  months  winter  and  three  months  cold  weather  in  the  year. 
They  come  from  New  York  and  Long  Island  in  the  night  and  sculk 
about  Westchester  in  the  day,  and  when  night  comes  on  again  they 
exercise  the  above-recited  cruelties;  so  that  the  inhabitants  dare 
not  lodge  in  their  houses."  Some  of  the  chief  offenders  are  then 
mentioned,  the  names  given  being,  Henry  Quaill,  Abraham  Bonker, 
Archibald  Purdy,  Jonathan  Lovebury,  and  Stephen  Baxter.11 

How  large  a  proportion  of  the  Loyalist  emigrants  to  Nova  Scotia 
consisted  of  officers  and  men  of  the  various  regiments  that  had 
been  in  service  in  the  other  colonies  on  the  British  side,  so  far  as 
we  know  has  never  been  exactly  estimated.  In  March,  1783,  the 
commanding  officers  of  fourteen  of  the  thirty-one  provincial  regi- 
ments named  by  Sabine12  in  his  "American  Loyalists"  petitioned 
for  grants  of  land  in  the  still  loyal  British  colonies  for  their  officers 
and  men,  asking  also  for  pensions  and  half  pay.13  A  New  York 
newspaper  of  August  16,  1783,  is  quoted14  as  saying:  "We  are 
informed  that  the  following  British  Regiments  are  intended  for 
Nova  Scotia,  viz. :  Seventeenth,  Eoyal  Welsh  or  Twenty-Third, 
Thirty-Third,  Thirty-Seventh,  Eoyal  Highlanders  or  Forty-Second, 
Fifty-Seventh,  and  that  all  the  other  British  Battalions  are  to 
depart  for  Europe."  In  September  of  this  year  the  ship  Martha, 
which  was  wrecked  between  Cape  Sable  and  Tusket,  started  for  St. 
John  with  a  corps  of  the  Maryland  Loyalists,  and  a  detachment  of 
De  Lancey's  Second  Battalion.  General  Oliver  De  Lancey's  Bri- 
gade comprised  three  battalions,  each  five  hundred  strong,  the  first 
and  second  of  which  consisted  in  part  of  New  York  men,  with  prob- 
ably a  strong  contingent  from  the  Tory  towns  of  Connecticut,  such 


11.  An  occasional  newspaper  notice  also  appears  in  the  publication   from  which 
these  extracts  are  copied  of  the  foundering  of  some  vessel  carrying  refugees  to  Nova 
Scotia  and  the  drowning  of  all  on  board.    Why  this  publication  does  not  give  the  names 
of  the  newspapers  from  which  it  quotes  we  do  not  know. 

12.  Sabine's  American  Loyalists,  vol.  I,  p.  73. 

13.  Murdoch's  History  of  Nova  Scotia,  vol.  3,  p.  15. 

14.  In  the  "Manual  of  the  Corporation  of  the  City  of  New  York"  for  1870. 

286 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

as  Stamford,  Greenwich,  Norwalk,  and  Fairfield.15  The  third  bat- 
talion was  drawn  entirely  from  Queen's  County,  Long  Island.  The 
anger  of  the  patriots  was  naturally  fierce  against  De  Lancey  's  whole 
brigade,  which,  in  a  petition  against  the  men  being  allowed  to 
return  to  their  homes  in  Stamford  or  Greenwich,  was  designated  as 
that  "most  infamous  banditti  known  as  De  Lancey  's  corps."  At 
the  close  of  the  war  this  brigade  was  disbanded  in  Nova  Scotia. 
The  third  battalion,  commanded  by  Captain  Ludlow,  arrived  at  St. 
John  in  October,  1783,  and  it  is  probable  that  the  second  battalion 
also  spent  the  next  winter  at  St.  John,  for  Captain  Jacob  Smith, 
Sergeant  Thomas  Fowler,  Corporal  Richard  Rogers,  and  others  of 
this  battalion  drew  adjoining  city  lots  on  the  south  side  of  Britain 
Street,  near  Wentworth  Street,16  in  the  New  Brunswick  town.  The 
following  year,  October  15,  1784,  a  grant  was  passed,  under  the 
great  seal  of  the  province  of  Nova  Scotia,  of  lands  to  a  hundred  and 
twenty  men  of  this  battalion,  on  the  Upper  St.  John.17  As  a  rule 
each  private  received  a  hundred  acres,  each  non-commis- 
sioned officer  two  hundred  acres,  and  each  commissioned  of- 
ficer five  hundred  and  fifty  acres.  The  whole  grant  comprised 
twenty-four  thousand  one  hundred  and  fifty  acres,  with  the  usual 
allowance  of  ten  per  cent,  for  roads.  The  first  settlement  at  Wood- 
stock, New  Brunswick,  was  made  by  members  of  De  Lancey  's  corps, 
either  in  the  summer  of  1783,  or  more  probably  in  the  following 

spring. 

Regarding  the  settlement  of  disbanded  troops  at  Guysborough, 
in  the  eastern  part  of  Nova  Scotia,  the  late  Mrs.  James  E.  Hart,  a 
careful  historian  of  Guysborough  county  has  written  :  'The  Duke 
of  Cumberland's  Regiment  (Lord  Charles  Montagu's),  was  the 
first  to  arrive  at  Chedabucto.  These  troops  reached  there  in  the 
transport  Content,  May  16,  1784.  They  were  disbanded  in  Jamaica, 
October  24,  1783,  and  Lord  Charles  made  arrangements  for  then 
settlement  in  Nova  Scotia,  and  himself  came  with  them  to  Halifax 

15     De  Lancey's  second  battalion  was  commanded  by  Col.  George  Brewerton,  Stephen 
De  Lancey,  eldest  son  of  the  General,  being  lieutenant-colonel. 

16.    Early  Days  of  Woodstock   (pamphlet)   by  Archdeacon  Raym, 

names  of  these  grantees  are  recorded  in  the  Crown  Land  Office  at  Fred- 


cricton. 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

in  the  transports  Industry  and  Argo,  arriving  there  December  13th. 
The  regiment  comprised  three  hundred  men,  under  Captain  Ralph 
Cunningham,  but  as  no  provision  had  been  made  for  their  reception 
the  whole  force  had  to  spend  the  winter  in  huts  in  Halifax,  erected  on 
the  site  of  the  present  Province  Building.  Owing  to  the  severity  of 
the  climate  and  their  poor  shelter  many  of  them  died,  Lord  Charles 
Montagu  himself,  to  the  great  grief  of  the  troops,  succumbing  like 
his  men.18 

"In  the  autumn  of  1783,  about  eight  hundred  people,  soldiers  and 
their  families  belonging  to  the  British  Legion,  came  to  Port  Mouton, 
in  the  western  part  of  the  Province.  The  next  spring  a  fire  des- 
troyed all  their  houses,  furniture,  clothing,  and  most  of  their  live 
stock.  Word  of  this  was  sent  to  Halifax,  and  with  all  possible  dis- 
patch a  war-ship  was  sent  to  their  relief.  Not  satisfied  to  rebuild 
at  Port  Mouton,  they  had  scouting  parties  reconnoitre  the  Province, 
with  the  result  that  they  decided  to  go  to  Chedabucto.  On  the  21st 
of  June,  1784,  part  of  them,  under  Colonel  Mollison,  arrived  there, 
sailing  probably  from  Halifax.  They  are  called  in  the  muster-roll 
the  *  Associated  Departments  of  the  Army  and  Navy.' 

"On  the  13th  of  July,  1784,  the  Loyalists  from  St.  Augustine, 
Florida,  were  mustered  at  Halifax  on  board  the  transport  Argo, 
bound  for  Chedabucto.  They  numbered  fifty-nine  men,  twenty 
women,  thirty-three  children,  and  nine  servants.  They  settled  in 
Guysborough  county,  near  the  entrance  of  the  Strait  of  Oanso.  On 
the  17th  of  July,  1784,  the  3rd  and  4th  Battalions  of  the  60th,  or 
Eoyal  American  Regiment,  were  mustered  at  Halifax,  on  their  way 
to  Chedabucto.  They  numbered  seventy-six  men,  thirty-four 
women,  nineteen  children,  and  four  servants.  They  located  on  the 
south  side  of  Chedabucto  Bay.  They  had  enlisted  in  New  York, 
New  Jersey,  and  Pennsylvania,  many  of  them  having  German  an- 
cestries, some  being  of  Dutch  descent. 

"In  December,  1783,  the  transport  Nymph  arrived  at  Country 


18.  Lord  Charles  Greville  Montagu,  second  son  of  Robert,  third  Duke  of  Man- 
chester, was  born  in  1741.  He  died  at  or  near  Halifax,  February  3,  1784.  Murdoch  in 
his  "History  of  Nova  Scotia"  (vol.  3,  p.  24),  giving  notes  of  the  year  1783,  says  that 
late  in  the  year  Lord  Charles  Montagu  arrived  at  Halifax,  "with  200  of  his  disbanded 
corps  from  Jamaica,  via  Havana,  whither  they  had  been  driven  by  storm."  Lord 
Charles  Greville  Montagu  is  buried  under  St.  Paul's  Church,  in  which  there  is  a  mon- 
ument to  his  memory. 

288 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

Harbour,  Guysborough  county,  with  officers  and  privates,  some  of 
them  with  families.  They  belonged  to  the  South  Carolina  Royalists, 
Royal  North  Carolina  Regiment,  and  King's  Carolina  Rangers. 
Their  port  of  sailing  is  not  known. ' '' 

That  in  the  cases  of  some  of  the  disbanded  troops  who  settled 
in  Nova  Scotia  there  was  unfortunate  delay  in  the  granting  of  lands, 
is  shown,  for  instance,  by  the  fact  that  Colonel  Edward  Winslow, 
Jr.,  Muster-Master-General  of  the  Loyalist  forces  employed  under 
the  Crown,  and  a  member  of  the  first  council  of  New  Brunswick, 
wrote  to  his  friend  Ward  Chipman:  "I  saw  all  these  provincials, 
whom  we  have  so  frequently  mustered,  landing  in  this  inhospitable 
climate  in  the  month  of  October,  without  shelter  and  without  know- 
ing where  to  find  a  place  to  reside.  The  chagrin  of  the  officers  was 
not  to  me  as  truly  affecting  as  the  distress  of  the  men.  Those  rep- 
utable sergeants  of  Ludlow's,  Fanning 's,  Robinson's,  etc.  (once 
hospitable  yeomen  of  the  country),  addressed  me  in  language  that 
almost  murdered  me  as  I  heard  it:  'Sir,  we  have  served  all  the 
war ;  we  were  promised  land,  we  expected  you  had  obtained  it  for 
us.  We  like  the  country ;  only  let  us  have  a  spot  of  our  own  and 
give  us  such  kind  of  regulations  as  will  protect  us. '  : 

Regarding  the  Hessian  troops  who  came  to  Nova  Scotia,  a  large 
number  of  them  settling  here  permanently,  as  for  example  in  the 
locality  known  as  the  "Waldeck  Line,"  near  Clementsvale,  in  An- 
napolis county,  an  accurate  Halifax  local  historiographer,  Mr.  T. 
Vardy  Hill,  in  a  letter  to  the  writer  of  this  history,  says:  "On  the 
15th  of  April,  1782,  the  Secretary  of  State,  Lord  George  Germaine, 
sent  orders  to  the  chief  officer  in  command  of  the  Hessian  forces 
at  New  York  to  proceed  to  Halifax  with  these  troops,  to  place  them 
there  under  General  Campbell,  commanding  officer  in  Nova  Scotia.19 
On  the  13th  of  August,  1782,  one  thousand,  nine  hundred  and  four- 
teen Germans  arrived  at  Halifax.  The  headquarters  office  record 
of  corps,  etc.,  which  served  in  the  Nova  Scotia  command  after  1783, 
gives  the  following  regiments  as  leaving  New  York  for  that  prov- 
ince in  May,  1783:  De  Seitz's  Regiment,  the  Hessian  Recruits, 


io  Mr  Hill  here  refers  to  the  Canadian  Archives  for  1894,  P-  390.  Major  Gen- 
eral J9ohn  Campbell  arrived  at  Halifax  from  New  York  as  commander  of  the  forces, 
December  o,  1783.  Murdoch's  "History  of  Nova  Scotia,  vol.  3,  P-  24. 

289 


Hesse-Hanoverian  Grenadiers,  Hesse-Hanoverian  Yagers,  Anhalt 
Zerbsters,  Waldeckers,  Hesse-Hanoverian  Eegiment  (1st  Bat- 
talion), and  Brunswickers."20  3aron  De  Seitz,  as  is  well  remem- 
bered, died  at  Halifax  soon  after  coming  there  with  his  regiment 
and  was  buried  in  a  vault  under  St.  Paul's  Church.  In  the  church 
still  hangs  his  hatchment,  which  has  the  unusual  feature  of  an 
inscription.  This  inscription  is  as  follows :  "In  Memory  of  Franz 
Carl  Erdman  Baron  de  Seitz,  Colonel  and  chief  of  a  Eegiment  of 
Hessian  foot  and  Knight  of  the  order  pour  la  vertue  militaire, 
departed  this  life  decbr  1782,  in  the  65th  year  of  his  age. ' ' 

The  arrival  of  the  Loyalists  at  St.  John  and  at  Shelburne  and 
other  points  on  the  rocky  Nova  Scotia  sea-coast,  cannot  be  pictured 
without  sadness.  The  age  in  which  these  exiles  lived  was  far  less 
luxurious  than  that  in  which  we  live,  yet  in  the  older  colonies 
from  which  they  came  many  of  them  had  been  the  possessors  of  con- 
siderable wealth,  a  few  having  had  what  was  then  great  wealth,  and 
most  of  them,  at  least  having  owned  or  been  the  inmates  of  com- 
fortable homes  in  prosperous  communities.  To  have  been  com- 
pelled to  leave  these  settled  homes  for  hastily  constructed  tents  and 
log  houses  in  the  wild  forests  of  an  almost  unexplored  province; 
and,  men,  women,  and  little  children,  to  be  made  to  suffer  all  the 
privations  and  hardships  of  pioneer  life, was  enough,  one  would  sup- 
pose, to  have  discouraged  even  the  bravest  hearts.  For  such  peo- 
ple as  the  Barclays,  Bayards,  De  Lanceys,  Ludlows,  Eobinsons,  and 
Wilkinses  of  New  York;  and  the  Blisses,  Chipmans,  Lydes,  Put- 
nams,  Snellings,  and  Winslows  of  Massachusetts,  to  be  obliged  to 
leave  luxurious  surroundings  for  the  incredible  hardships  of  life 
in  Nova  Scotia  and  New  Brunswick  in  those  days,  must  have  been 
much  the  same  as  it  would  be  now  for  the  Cuttings,  Iselins,  Morgans, 
or  Ehinelanders  of  New  York ;  or  the  Higginsons,  Lawrences,  Low- 
ells, or  Thayers  of  Boston,  to  banish  themselves  suddenly  to  some 
lonely  part  of  Arizona,  leaving  most  of  their  property  behind. 

To  the  actual  physical  discomforts  which  these  people  suffered 
on  sea  and  land  we  must  add  the  sorrow  many  felt  at  the  severing  of 
family  ties,  the  breaking  of  friendships  that  were  dear  as  life  itself, 


20.    Mr.  Hill  here  refers  to  Canadian  Archives  for  1894,  p.  490. 

290 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

and  the  sad  separation  from  scenes  that  had  become  endeared  to 
them  by  a  thousand  tender  associations.  Bishop  John  Inglis  writes 
in  1844,  after  his  first  episcopal  visit  to  Shelburne,  that  he  had 
found  there,  still  living,  some  of  the  New  York  emigrants,  who  told 
him  "that  on  their  first  arrival,  lines  of  women  could  be  seen  sitting 
on  the  rocks  of  the  shore,  weeping  at  their  altered  condition;"  and 
Sabine  says,  "I  have  stood  at  the  graves  of  some  of  these  wives  and 
daughters,  and  have  listened  to  the  accounts  of  the  living  in  shame 
and  anger."  At  St.  John  the  first  dwellings  were  all  log  huts,  a  little 
church  being  the  earliest  frame  building  erected.  Walter  Bates, 
describing  the  settlement  of  Kingston,  on  the  St.  John  river,  by 
himself  and  his  fellow  passengers  of  the  "good  ship  Union,"  says: 
"The  next  morning  with  all  our  effects,  women  and  children,  we 
set  sail  above  the  falls,  and  arrived  at  Belleisle  Bay  before  sunset. 
Nothing  but  wilderness  before  our  eyes;  the  women  and  children 
did  not  refrain  from  tears !  John  Marvin,  John  Lyon  and  myself 
went  on  shore  and  pitched  a  tent  in  the  bushes  and  slept  in  it  all 
night.  Next  morning  every  man  came  on  shore  and  cleared  away 
and  landed  all  our  baggage,  and  the  women  and  children,  and  the 
sloop  left  us  alone  in  the  wilderness.  We  had  been  informed  that 
the  Indians  were  uneasy  at  our  coming,  and  that  a  considerable 
body  had  collected  at  the  head  of  Belleisle.  Yet  our  hope  and  trust 
remained  firm  that  God  would  not  forsake  us.  We  set  to  work 
with  such  resolution  that  before  night  we  had  as  many  tents  set  as 
made  the  women  and  children  comfortable."  Soon  "every  man 
was  jointly  employed  clearing  places  for  building,  cutting  logs, 
carrying  them  together  by  strength  of  hands,  and  laying  up  log 
houses,  by  which  means  seventeen  log  houses  were  laid  up  and  cov- 
ered with  bark,  so  that  by  the  month  of  November,  every  man  in  the 
district  found  himself  and  family  covered  under  his  own  roof,  and 
a  happier  people  never  lived  upon  this  globe,  enjoying  in  unity 
the  blessings  which  God  had  provided  for  us  in  the  country  into 
whose  coves  and  wild  woods  we  were  driven  through  persecution. ' ' 
The  annual  reports  of  the  Church  of  England  missionaries,  to 
the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel,  give  us  much  insight 
into  the  troubles  experienced  by  the  Tory  exiles  at  the  beginning 
of  their  new  life  in  these  provinces.  Not  a  little  of  their  suffering, 

291 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

as  in  the  case  of  the  disbanded  troops,  came  from  unavoidable 
delays  in  the  allotment  of  lands  for  their  use.  It  is  quite  possible 
that  the  Nova  Scotia  government  may  not  have  been  thoroughly 
systematic  in  its  methods  of  arranging  for  the  settlement  of  these 
unhappy  people,  but  it  will  be  remembered  that  for  two  or  three 
years  the  refugees  kept  pouring  into  the  province  in  bewildering 
numbers,  and  that  certain  formalities  were  necessary  in  granting 
the  smallest  amount  of  government  land  for  their  use.  No  one  who 
examines  the  records  of  the  time  can  help  seeing  that,  as  Sir  Guy 
Carleton  in  New  York  was  determined  to  leave  nothing  undone 
that  he  could  do  to  assist  the  Loyalists  in  leaving  their  old  homes, 
so  Governor  Parr  in  Nova  Scotia,  was  most  anxious  to  help  them 
find  comfortable  new  homes  in  the  country  to  which  they  had  come. 
But  it  is  clear  that  Parr  and  his  Council  were  sometimes  at  their 
wits '  end  to  know  how  to  provide  for  this  unexpected  influx  of  new 
inhabitants. 

The  progress  of  the  leading  Loyalist  settlements  in  Nova  Scotia 
and  New  Brunswick  can  perhaps  be  ascertained  better  from  the 
Reports  of  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  than  in 
any  other  way.  The  missionaries,  who  like  their  congregations 
had  been  obliged  to  leave  the  revolting  colonies,  knew  intimately 
the  condition  of  the  wilderness  communities  in  which  their  lot  was 
now  cast ;  and  the  exigencies  of  their  missions  and  the  rules  of  the 
Society  required  that  detailed  reports  of  the  people's  condition 
should  be  sent  to  England  every  year.  ' '  Of  the  terrible  sufferings 
and  hardships  the  Loyalists  underwent,  who  came  to  Nova  Scotia 
and  New  Brunswick,"  says  Mr.  Edward  F.  De  Lancey,  "the  history 
of  these  provinces  makes  sad  mention.  Suffice  it  to  say  here,  that 
they  have  never  been  paralleled  since  the  persecution  of  the 
Huguenots  and  their  flight  from  France  at  the  Eevocation  of  the 
Edict  of  Nantes,  in  1685." 

Among  the  Loyalists  who  left  the  various  colonies  now  states 
of  the  American  Union,  for  Nova  Scotia  and  New  Brunswick,  were 
some  seventy  men  who  were  promoted  to  so  high  official  rank,  or 
became  otherwise  so  prominent  in  their  new  spheres,  as  to  have  left 
their  names  indelibly  stamped  on  the  history  of  the  Maritime  Prov- 
inces. Thomas  Barclay,  who  after  the  peace  became  H.  M.  first 

292 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

Consul-General  at  New  York,  was  one  of  these  men;  Daniel  and 
Jonathan  Bliss,  Sampson  Salter  Blowers,  Ward  Chipman,  Charles 
Inglis,  Jonathan  Odell,  John  Wentworth,  and  Isaac  Wilkins  were 
others.  A  great  many  of  the  Loyalists  who  founded  families  in 
Nova  Scotia  or  New  Brunswick  came  from  Westchester,  New  York. 
Of  this  stock  are  the  families  of  Bates,  Bonnett,  Bugbee,  Disbrow, 
Gidney,  Merritt,  Mott,  Palmer,  Purdy,  Sneden,  Wetmore,  and  Wil- 
kins. Other  New  York  names  were  Anderson,  Andrews,  Auch- 
muty,  Barclay,  Barry,  Barton,  Baxter,  Bayard,  Beardsley,  Bedle, 
Bell,  Betts,  Billopp,  Bremner,  Burton,  Campbell,  Carman,  Coyle, 
De  Lancey,  De  Mille,  De  Peyster,  De  Veber,  Dick,  Ditmars,  Dunn, 
Fowler,  Hatfield,  Hewlett,  Horsfield,  Inglis,  Livingston,  Ludlow, 
McKay,  Miles,  Moore,  Murray,  Peters,  Pine,  Pryor,  Rapalje,  Rem- 
sen,  Robinson,  Sands,  Seaman,  Thorne,  Van  Cortlandt,  Ward,  Wat- 
son, Weeks,  Wetmore,  Wiggins,  Willett,  and  Wilmot.  From  Mas- 
sachusetts came  representatives  of  the  families  of  Ayres,  Barnard, 
Beaman,  Bliss,  Blowers,  Brattle,  Brinley,  Brymer,  Burton,  Camp- 
bell, Chipman,  Courtney,  Cunningham,  Cutler,  Danforth,  Davis, 
De  Blois,  Dunbar,  Forrester,  Garnett,  Garrison,  Gore,  Gray,  Green, 
Greenwood,  Hallowell,  Hatch,  Hathaway,  Hazen,  Hill,  Howe,  Hub- 
bard,  Hutchinson,  Jones,  Kent,  Leonard,  Leslie,  Loring,  Lyde, 
Mansfield,  Minot,  Murray,  Oliver,  Paine,  Parker,  Perkins,  Poole, 
Putnam,  Robie,  Ruggles,  Sewall,  Snelling,  Stearns,  Upham,  White, 
Winslow,  and  Willard.  From  Connecticut  came  Bates,  Botsford, 
Hanford,  and  Jarvis.  From  Rhode  Island,  Chaloner,  Coles,  Halli- 
burton, and  Hazard.  From  Maine,  Gardiner;  from  New  Hamp- 
shire Blanchard  and  Wentworth;  from  New  Jersey,  Blauvelt, 
Burwell,  Cooke,  Crowell,  Hartshorne,  Lawrence,  Milledge,  Odell, 
Van  Buskirk,  and  Van  Norden.  From  Pennsylvania,  Butler,  Bis- 
sett,  Boggs,  Lenox,  Marchington,  Stansbury,  and  Vernon.  From 
Virginia,  Benedict,  Bustin,  Coulbourne,  Donaldson,  Lear,  Saun- 
ders,  and  Wallace;  from  North  Carolina,  Fanning;  from  Mary- 
land, Hensley.  Viscount  Bury  says  truly  of  the  settlement  of  the 
Loyalists  in  the  several  provinces  of  what  is  now  the  Dominion  of 
Canada:  "It  may  safely  be  said  that  no  portion  of  the  British 
possessions  ever  received  so  noble  an  acquisition." 

The  advent  of  so  many  thousands  of  new  people  to  Nova  Scotia 

293 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

and  the  unusual  interest  taken  in  their  welfare  by  the  Home  Gov- 
ernment and  the  provincial  authorities,  naturally  created  some 
jealousy  in  the  minds  of  the  older  inhabitants.  The  Tories  were 
not  in  a  conciliatory  frame  of  mind,  and  having  lately  come  out  of 
a  far  more  advanced  civilization  than  that  of  the  forest  girt  Nova 
Scotian  shores,  they  would,  not  unnaturally,  also  make  more  or  less 
assertion  of  superiority  to  the  older  settlers  at  their  quiet  fisheries 
and  on  their  farms  along  the  rough  Atlantic  seashore  and  beside  the 
dyke-lands  of  the  Basin  of  Minas  and  Cobequid  Bay.  The  inev- 
itable friction  that  actually  did  arise  between  the  two  bodies  of  peo- 
ple could  not  be  lessened,  either,  by  the  fact  that  many  of  the  Loy- 
alists were  men  so  long  accustomed  to  assert  themselves  strongly 
in  political  and  social  affairs  that  in  their  new  sphere  they  could  not 
help  soon  making  their  influence  felt  in  marked  ways.  Such  per- 
sons as  General  Timothy  Euggles,  Major  Thomas  Barclay,  Col. 
James  and  Col.  Stephen  De  Lancey,  Mr.  Isaac  Wilkins,  and  Samp- 
son Salter  Blowers,  could  not  remain  inactive,  or  take  second  rank 
in  any  place  where  their  fortunes  might  be  cast.  Accordingly,  we 
find  these  men,  and  others  of  their  fellow  Loyalists,  shortly  occu- 
pying prominent  places  in  the  Council,  the  House  of  Assembly,  the 
Judiciary,  and  the  social  life  of  Nova  Scotia ;  while  in  what  is  now 
New  Brunswick  a  distinct  agitation  very  soon  began  to  show  itself 
for  the  formation  of  a  new  province. 

The  history  of  Shelburne,  the  Loyalist  settlement  at  Port  Razoir, 
begun  with  such  high  hopes  and  resulting  in  a  few  years  in  such 
dismal  failure,  has  a  melancholy  interest.  Its  New  York  founders 
from  the  start  determined  to  make  it  an  important  naval  and  mili- 
tary station,  and  at  one  time  hoped  that  it  would  supplant  Halifax 
as  the  capital  of  the  Province.  In  a  short  time  after  its  founda- 
tion, its  population  rose  to  between  ten  and  twelve  thousand,  but 
the  site  chosen  for  it  was  so  unfavorable,  there  being  no  good  farm- 
ing country  about  it,  that  before  many  years  had  passed  the  major- 
ity of  its  inhabitants  had  moved  away,  either  to  New  Brunswick, 
to  other  parts  of  Nova  Scotia,  or,  as  in  many  cases,  to  their  old 
homes  in  the  United  States,  leaving  it  a  sad  and  disappointed  place. 
Such  of  those  who  returned  to  the  United  States  locked  their  doors, 
not  even  removing  their  furniture,  and  quietly  went  away,  leaving 

294 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

their  houses  to  be  taken  unchallenged  possession  of  by  negroes  or 
other  poor  settlers  in  future  times. 

"I  have  lately  been  at  Shelburne,"  writes  Bishop  John  Inglis 
in  1844,  m  his  letter  already  referred  to,  "where  nearly  ten  thou- 
sand Loyalists,  chiefly  from  New  York,  and  comprising  many  of 
my  father's  parishioners,  attracted  by  the  beauty  and  security  of 
a  most  noble  harbor,  were  tempted  to  plant  themselves,  regardless 
of  the  important  want  of  any  country  in  the  neighborhood  fit  for 
cultivation.  Their  means  were  soon  exhausted  in  building  a  spa- 
cious town,  at  great  expense,  and  vainly  contending  against  indom- 
itable rocks ;  but  in  a  few  years  the  place  was  reduced  to  a  few 
hundred  families.  Many  of  these  returned  to  their  native  country, 
and  a  large  portion  of  them  were  reduced  to  poverty. 
Some  few  of  the  first  emigrants  are  still  living."  How  many  ac- 
tually remained  in  the  peninsula  of  Nova  Scotia,  and  how  many 
went  back  to  the  United  States,  it  is  impossible  to  say.  There  are 
still  many  families  of  Loyalist  descent  in  this  province,  but  a  large 
number  of  the  most  important  Loyalist  names  have  now  almost  or 
quite  disappeared. 

In  1783,  as  soon  as  the  people  of  Shelburne  were  well  settled, 
Governor  Parr  came  down  from  Halifax  and  paid  them  a  visit.  On 
Sunday,  July  twentieth,  he  arrived  in  H.  M.  Sloop  La  Sophie.  When 
he  disembarked,  salutes  were  fired  from  the  ship,  and  as  he  landed, 
cannon  were  also  fired  by  the  artillery  at  the  port,  the  officers  of 
the  corps  on  duty  receiving  him  with  due  formality.  On  Tuesday 
morning  he  again  landed,  amidst  loud  cannonading,  and  marched 
up  King  Street,  through  long  lines  of  the  inhabitants  assembled  to 
do  him  honor,  to  the  place  appointed  for  his  reception  by  the  jus- 
tices of  the  peace  and  other  principal  inhabitants  of  the  place. 
After  an  address  had  been  presented  to  him,  he  named  the  new  town 
Shelburne,  and  "drank  the  King's  health,  prosperity  to  the  town 
and  district  of  Shelburne,  and  to  the  Loyalists,  each  toast  being 
accompanied  with  a  general  discharge  of  cannon. ' '  In  the  evening 
a  grand  dinner  was  given  on  board  the  Sophie,  and  the  next  day 
another  at  the  house  of  Justice  Robertson,  in  the  town.  A  public 
ball  and  supper,  "conducted  with  the  greatest  festivity  and  de- 

295 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

corum,"  followed  later;  after  which  his  Excellency,  well  pleased, 
returned  to  Halifax. 

The  next  year,  in  May,  Sir  Charles  Douglas,  Bart.,  Commander 
of  the  British  Navy,  on  this  station,  visited  the  town  and  was  fit- 
tingly received;  the  same  month  Sir  John  Wentworth,  then  Mr. 
Wentworth,  Surveyor  General  of  the  King's  Woods  in  North  Amer- 
ica, made  Shelburne  a  brief  visit.  Four  years  later,  the  town 
received  Prince  William  Henry,  afterwards  King  William  IV,  then 
a  young  naval  officer,  who  came  in  the  warship  Andromeda  and 
staid  four  days.  'During  his  stay  a  ball  was  given  for  his  Royal 
Highness,  which  the  Prince  himself  opened  with  Mrs.  Bruce,  wife 
of  the  Collector  of  the  port.  In  1786,  says  Murdoch,  "the  new  city 
was  a  gay  and  lively  place.  Every  holiday  or  anniversary  of  any 
description,  was  loyally  kept  and  mirthfully  enjoyed.  On  St.  An- 
drew's day,  December  eleventh,  of  that  year,  the  St.  Andrew's  So- 
ciety gave  an  elegant  ball  at  the  Merchants'  coffee  house.  The  ball 
room  was  crowded  on  the  occasion,  and  the  hours  of  the  night  passed 
away  in  the  most  pleasing  manner. ' ' 

The  settlement  at  the  mouth  of  the  St.  John  River  was  much 
more  successful.  When  the  first  Loyalists  reached  that  picturesque 
bay  the  shores  were  densely  wooded,  only  a  little  spot  about  Fort 
Howe  showing  that  white  men  had  ever  been  there  before.  The 
refugees  lived  first  in  log  huts,  brush  camps,  or  canvas  tents,  but 
slowly,  on  the  cleared  slopes  small  frame  houses  arose,  a  little 
Anglican  Church,  also,  being  built  for  worship,  as  well.  In  the  be- 
ginning, the  town  was  laid  out  in  lots  and  given  in  two  grants,  one  to 
eleven  hundred  and  eighty-four  grantees,  another  to  ninety-three. 
Other  Loyalist  settlements  also  soon  arose, — at  Fredericton,  which 
in  1788,  was  made  the  capital  of  the  new  province,  at  Gagetown, 
Kingston,  Maugerville,  St.  Andrews,  Sussex,  and  Woodstock. 

The  displeasure  of  many  of  the  Loyalists,  civilians  as  well  as 
soldiers,  regarding  what  they  felt  to  be  the  tardy  action  of  govern- 
ment in  the  apportionment  of  their  lands,  or  with  the  allotments 
themselves,  has  frequently  been  discussed.  Both  in  Nova  Scotia 
and  New  Brunswick,  this  displeasure  emphatically  showed  itself. 
At  Shelburne,  in  consequence  of  discontent  with  the  allotments 
already  made,  the  Governor  and  Council,  August  5,  1784,  appointed 

296 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

the  following  persons  as  their  agents  there  in  the  assignment  of 
lands:  Isaac  Wilkins,  James  McEwen,  Abraham  Van  Buskirk, 
Joseph  Brewer,  David  Thompson,  Joshua  Watson,  Benjamin  Da- 
vis, Charles  McNeal,  Ebenezer  Parker,  Alexander  Leckie,  Joshua 
Pell,  Nicholas  Ogden,  Eobert  Gray,  justices  of  the  peace ;  Valentine 
Nutter,  Peter  Lynch,  William  Charles  White,  John  Lownds,  Alex- 
ander Robinson,  Patrick  Wall,  Michael  Langan,  Isaac  Wilkins  and 
any  four  of  the  others,  to  constitute  a  quorum.  In  November,  1784, 
the  governor  authorized  Amos  Botsford,  the  Rev.  Edward  Brude- 
nell,  Colonel  Barton,  and  Messrs.  Hill  and  Stump,  to  lay  out  and 
assign  unlocated  lands  in  Digby  to  such  persons  there  as  were 
unprovided  with  land.  At  St.  John  there  was  so  great  dissatis- 
faction that  in  1783  four  hundred  persons  signed  an  agreement  to 
remove  to  Passamaquoddy.  Tuttle,  in  his  history  of  Canada,  says : 
"The  Loyalists  who  settled  at  the  St.  John  River  did  not  agree  very 
well  with  the  original  settlers.  They  grew  angry  with  the  Gov- 
ernor because  their  grants  of  land  had  not  been  surveyed,  and  he  in 
turn  charged  them  with  refusing  to  assist  in  the  surveys  by  acting 
as  chainmen  unless  they  were  well  paid  for  it. ' ' 

Soon  the  Loyalists  demanded  additional  representation  in  the 
Nova  Scotia  Assembly,  but  this  Governor  Parr  opposed,  on  the 
ground  that  his  instructions  forbade  his  increasing  or  diminishing 
the  number  of  representatives  in  the  Assembly.  Failing  in  their 
efforts  to  secure  increased  representation,  the  people  next  began 
to  agitate  for  a  new  province  north  of  the  isthmus,  a  policy  against 
which  Governor  Parr  naturally  strongly  contended.  In  the  early 
part  of  1784  as  many  as  three  hundred  and  forty-one  persons  at 
Parr  Town  (St.  John)  passed  resolutions  of  various  sorts  regard- 
ing the  separation,  and  so  influential  were  the  Loyalists  with  the 
English  ministry  that  their  request  was  granted  and  in  August 
news  came  out  to  the  Halifax  authorities,  in  the  packet  from  Fal- 
mouth,  that  a  new  province,  in  compliment  to  the  reigning  family 
of  England  to  be  called  New  Brunswick,  was  to  be  at  once  set  off. 
The  line  between  New  Brunswick  and  Nova  Scotia,  it  was  declared, 
was  to  be  at  the  narrowest  part  of  the  isthmus,  from  Bay  Verte  to 
Cumberland  Basin,  which  division  would  place  Fort  Cumberland, 
and  indeed  much  of  what  was  then  Cumberland  County,  within 

297 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

the  limits  of  the  new  province.  The  governor  of  New  Brunswick 
was  to  be  Colonel  Thomas  Carleton,  a  brother  of  Sir  Guy,  who  had 
himself  commanded  a  regiment  during  the  war  and  was  highly 
esteemed  by  the  exiled  Loyalists. 

In  October,  Colonel  Carleton  and  his  family  arrived  at  Halifax 
from  London,  in  the  St.  Lawrence,  Captain  Wyatt,  after  a  passage 
of  eight  weeks;  and  on  Sunday,  November  twenty-first,  at  three 
o  'clock  in  the  afternoon,  they  reached  St.  John,  where  they  received 
a  most  enthusiastic  welcome.  As  the  Ranger,  the  sloop  in  which 
they  had  crossed  the  bay  from  Digby,  entered  the  harbor,  one  salute 
of  seventeen  guns  was  fired  from  the  battery  at  Lower  Cove,  and 
another  from  Fort  Howe.  The  house  of  Mr.  George  Leonard,  at 
the  corner  of  Union  and  Dock  streets,  had  been  fitted  up  for  their 
reception,  and  thither,  amidst  great  applause,  the  distinguished 
party  was  at  once  conducted.  As  his  Excellency  entered  the  door 
the  crowd  gave  three  rousing  cheers,  with  ' '  Long  live  our  King  and 
Governor!"  Then  the  enthusiastic  people  dispersed,  to  dream  of 
the  august  ceremony  that  should  be  held  on  the  morrow,  when  the 
Chief  should  take  the  oaths  of  his  office  and  the  new  Council  be 
sworn. 

The  first  Legislative  Council  of  New  Brunswick  consisted  of 
George  Duncan  Ludlow,  James  Putnam,  Abijah  Willard,  Gabriel  G. 
Ludlow,  Isaac  Allan,  William  Hazen,  and  Dr.  Jonathan  Odell,  all 
of  whom  had  been  men  of  considerable  note  in  the  colonies  from 
which  they  had  come.  Five  days  after  the  first  meeting  of  the  new 
Council,  its  number  was  increased  by  the  appointment  of  Guilfred 
Studholm,  and  on  the  fourth  of  December,  by  that  of  Edward  Wins- 
low.  In  July,  1766,  two  more  members  were  added,  Messrs.  Joshua 
Upham  and  Daniel  Bliss.  A  judiciary  was  also  appointed,  consist- 
ing of  George  Duncan  Ludlow,  Chief  Justice;  and  James  Putnam, 
Isaac  Allan,  and  Joshua  Upham,  Assistant  Judges.  The  Supreme 
Court  met  for  the  first  time  on  Tuesday,  February  first,  1785,  in 
the  little  frame  church,  which  thus  served  both  for  worship  and  the 
administration  of  justice.  The  first  parliament  of  the  province 
assembled  at  St.  John  on  the  third  of  January,  1786,  in  a  house 
known  as  the  "Mallard"  house,  on  the  north  side  of  King  Street, 
the  members  being :  Stanton  Hazard,  and  John  McGeorge,  for  the 

298 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

City  of  St.  John;  and  William  Pagan,  Ward  Chipman,  Jonathan 
Bliss,  and  Christopher  Billopp,  for  the  county.  The  Speakership 
of  the  House  of  Assembly  was  given  to  Amos  Botsford,  the  presi- 
dency of  the  Council  to  the  Chief  Justice,  Mr.  Ludlow,  the  office 
of  Attorney-General  to  Dr.  Jonathan  Odell,  and  that  of  Provincial 
Secretary  to  Jonathan  Bliss. 

Of  these  high  officials,  most  of  whom  were  for  many  years  after 
their  first  appointment  intimately  connected  with  the  destinies  of 
the  province  they  had  helped  create,  George  Duncan  Ludlow  had 
been  a  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  New  York;  James  Putnam  had 
long  ranked  as  one  of  the  ablest  lawyers  in  America ;  Abijah  Wil- 
lard,  of  Massachusetts,  had  been  a  mandamus  councillor  and  had 
served  in  the  army  from  the  taking  of  Louisburg  until  1763,  later 
being  commissary  to  the  troops  at  New  York ;  Gabriel  G.  Ludlow,  of 
New  York  had  commanded  a  battalion  of  Maryland  volunteers ;  Isaac 
Allan  had  been  colonel  of  a  New  Jersey  corps  of  volunteers  and  had 
lost  an  estate  in  Pennsylvania  because  of  his  attachment  to  the  royal 
cause;  William  Hazen,  formerly  of  Newburyport,  Massachusetts, 
had  come  to  Passamaquoddy  and  St.  John  as  a  trader  in  1764;  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Jonathan  Odell,  of  New  Jersey,  had  practised  medicine, 
and  had  been  a  successful  Church  of  England  clergyman,  in  the  lat- 
ter capacity  acting  as  chaplain  to  the  royal  troops;  and  Guilfred 
Studholm,  probably  also  a  New  England  man,  had  been  in  the  prov- 
ince for  some  years  in  military  service,  as  commander  at  Fort  Howe. 

Connected  with  the  city  of  St.  John,  in  the  present  province  of 
New  Brunswick,  in  the  days  of  its  founding  by  New  York  Loyalists, 
is  the  name  of  one  man  whose  record  in  the  Revolution  no  one  has 
ever  attempted  to  justify.  This  was  the  notorious  Benedict  Ar- 
nold. In  1787,  Arnold  made  his  residence  in  St.  John,  and  there 
entered  into  mercantile  life,  trading  chiefly  with  the  West  Indies. 
"Mr.  Sparks  suggests,"  writes  Mr.  Isaac  N.  Arnold,  "that  the  Eng- 
lish Government  granted  him  facilities  in  the  way  of  contracts  for 
supplying  the  troops  there  with  provisions.  At  any  rate  he  car- 
ried on  an  extensive  business,  building  ships,  and  sending  cargoes 
to  the  West  Indies,  his  two  sons,  Richard  and  Henry,  aiding  him  in 
his  operations.  .  .  .  Arnold  is  said  to  have  exhibited  here  some 
of  his  characteristic  faults,  living  in  a  style  of  ostentation  and  dis- 

299 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

play,  and  being  so  haughty  and  reserved  in  his  intercourse  that  he 
became  personally  obnoxious.  While  the  family  were  residing  at 
St.  John,  George  Arnold,  their  sixth  child  was  born."  In  1788, 
General  Arnold  and  his  family  returned  to  London,  where  they  had 
first  settled  five  years  before.  In  1790  they  were  again  at  St. 
John,  but  in  1791  they  removed  permanently  to  England. 

In  his  survey  of  the  Loyalists  at  large,  Dr.  George  E.  Ellis  of 
Boston,  in  the  "Narrative  and  Critical  History  of  America,"  says  :21 
"Among  those  most  frank  and  fearless  in  the  avowal  of  loyalty  and 
who  suffered  the  severest  penalties,  were  men  of  the  noblest  char- 
acter and  of  the  highest  position.  So,  also,  bearing  the  same  odious 
title,  were  men  of  the  most  despicable  nature,  self-seeking,  and 
unprincipled,  ready  for  any  act  of  evil.  And  between  these  two 
were  men  of  every  grade  of  respectability  and  every  shade  of  mean- 
ness. ' '  The  New  York  Loyalists  have  often  been  spoken  of  as  if  they 
comprehended  all  the  "aristocracy"  of  that  town.  Such  a  state- 
ment if  made  of  Boston  would  be  more  nearly,  though  not  entirely, 
true.  In  New  York  some  of  the  most  active  supporters  of  the  Rev- 
olution,  like  John  Jay  and  Governor  Morris,  bore  names  as  aris- 
tocratic and  held  places  as  socially  high  as  any  in  the  province ;  and 
though  the  De  Lanceys,  De  Peysters,  Philippses,  and  Johnsons,  and 
the  greater  part  of  the  people  in  society  who  acknowledged  the  lead- 
ership of  these  families,  were  enthusiastic  supporters  of  the  crown, 
the  Schuylers  and  Livingstons,  at  least,  were  known  as  equally 
loyal  to  the  cause  of  the  Whigs. 

So  far  as  religion  ruled  in  the  colonies,  the  Episcopalians  were 
very  largely  Tory  in  sympathy,  and  the  same  was  true  of  a  minority 
of  the  adherents  of  the  Dutch  Reformed  body  wherever  it  existed. 
The  Presbyterians,  however,  of  the  middle  colonies  and  the  Con- 
gregationalists  of  New  England  almost  without  exception  gave 
their  support  strongly  to  the  patriot  cause.  In  both  the  middle  col- 
onies and  New  England  the  government  officials  of  all  sorts  natur- 
ally ranged  themselves  on  the  royal  side,  while  in  such  sea- 
ports as  Salem  and  Plymouth,  and  in  the  trading  villages  of  New 
York,  including  those  of  Long  Island  and  Staten  Island,  the  mer- 


21.     "Narrative  and  Critical  History  of  America,"  vol.  8,  p.  185. 

300 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

chants  who  did  business  directly  with  the  mother  country 
and  whose  interests  would  necessarily  suffer  by  any  disturbance  of 
the  old  relations,  were  opposed  to  the  Eevolution.  Besides  these 
two  classes  of  people,  whose  material  interests  made  it  almost  neces- 
sary for  them  to  be  loyal  to  Britain,  not  a  single  fair-minded  histor- 
ian in  these  days  fails  to  recognize  that  there  were  among  the  Loy- 
olists  countless  men  and  women  of  the  highest  principles,  who  loved 
constitutional  order,  hated  anarchy,  and  believed  that  obedience  to 
law  was  the  first  duty  of  honest  citizens.  The  people  of  this  class, 
however,  were  not  by  any  means  all  so  bigotedly  conservative,  and 
so  stupidly  insensible  to  their  rights  as  colonists,  as  to  be  willing  to 
endure  any  hardships  that  overbearing  ministries  in  England  might 
impose  upon  them,  but  believing  that  to  preserve  a  united  empire 
was  more  important  than  to  secure  the  immediate  redress  of  tem- 
porary wrongs,  they  were  willing  to  bide  their  time  until  the  mother 
country  could  be  made  to  see  her  duty  towards  her  American 
colonies  and  should  be  willing  to  abolish  their  wrongs. 


301 


De  Soto's  Route  in  Arkansas 

BY  ADA  MIXON,  WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 

T  has  never  been  satisfactorily  determined  just  where  De 
Soto  crossed  the  Mississippi  river,  which  he  discovered 
on  June  18,  1541,  or  how  far  westward  he  went  after- 
ward. His  wanderings  through  the  present  States  of 
Florida,  Georgia,  Alabama  and  Mississippi  have  been  traced  with  a 
fair  degree  of  accuracy,  but  the  few  writers  who  have  touched  upon 
his  route  through  Arkansas  each  give  a  different  account  of  it. 
Some  chroniclers  state  that  he  went  as  far  west  as  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains, unmindful  of  the  fact  that  it  took  him  two  years  to  travel  from 
Tampa  Bay  to  the  point  where  he  crossed  the  Mississippi,  and  that 
his  travels  west  of  that  river  occupied  only  a  year.  Some  writers 
have  placed  the  point  of  crossing  at  Chickasaw  Bluff,  and  the  route 
through  the  Ozarks  of  Arkansas  and  Missouri.  Later  writers  are 
of  the  opinion  that  the  point  of  crossing  must  have  been  a  short 
distance  north  of  the  34th  parallel,  and  this  is  far  more  likely,  as 
may  be  determined  by  the  description  of  his  wanderings  immedi- 
ately after  reaching  the  western  bank  and  by  comparing  that  des- 
cription with  the  present  aspect  of  the  same  region. 

The  route  outlined  on  the  accompanying  sketch  has  been  worked 
out  from  a  careful  study  of  the  only  recorded  accounts  which  are 
regarded  as  accurate.  First  in  importance  is  the  report  of  the  Fac- 
tor or  Chief  Commissary  of  the  expedition,  Don  Luys  Hernandez  de 
Biedma,  which  was  written  from  notes  jotted  down  during  the 
journey.  This  is  very  brief,  giving  only  a  few  essential  details, 
names  of  tribes,  towns,  rivers,  resources  and  some  directions.  Sec- 
ond, the  journal  of  Eodrigo  Ranjel,  De  Soto's  private  secretary, 
which  bears  evidence  that  it  was  an  actual  journal  made  during 
their  travels,  and  gives  more  fully  than  Biedma 's  work  the  direc- 
tions taken  and  descriptions  of  the  various  regions  traversed.  Third, 
the  account  given  by  an  anonymous  writer  known  only  as  ' '  The  Gen- 

302 


Chapters  in  the  History  of  Halifax,  Nova  Scotia 

BY  ARTHUR  WENTWORTH  HAMILTON  EATON,  M.  A.,  D.  C.  L. 

No.  XII 
THE  HALIFAX  GARRISON  AND  SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  TOWN 


IFE  in  Halifax  among  military  officers,  and  the  relations 
between  these  and  the  civilian  population,  during  the 
long  period  that  Halifax  remained  a  popular  military 
station  garrisoned  by  Imperial  troops,  we  should  no 
doubt  find  picturesquely  illustrated  in  thousands  of  unprinted  let- 
ters and  diaries  existing  in  the  British  Empire,  if  we  could  get  at 
these.  Printed  descriptions  of  Halifax  military-social  life  are  not 
too  frequently  found,  but  some  such  descriptions,  as  we  have  before 
intimated,  certain  interesting  printed  volumes  yield. 

One  such  account  occurs  in  the  diary  of  General  William  Dyott,  a 
genial  officer  who  died  in  Staffordshire,  England,  in  May,  1847,  at 
the  advanced  age  of  almost  eighty-six.1  General  Dyott,  who  was 
born  in  Staffordshire,  on  the  17th  of  April,  1761,  stood  socially  very 
high  in  the  army,  and  his  diary  extending  over  sixty-four  of  the 
most  interesting  years  in  English  history,  from  1781  to  1845,  has 
much  of  the  piquant  charm  of  the  diary  of  the  immortal  Pepys.  In 
April,  1787,  at  the  age  of  twenty-six,  a  lieutenant  in  the  Fourth,  he 
was  ordered  with  his  regiment  from  Ireland  to  Halifax,  and  in  No- 
va Scotia  he  remained  continuously  until  December,  1792.  On  the 
22nd  of  July,  1787,  he  arrived  in  Halifax  harbour,  and  his  descrip- 
tion of  the  scenery  along  the  shores  and  of  the  town  as  he  ap- 
proached it  is  interesting  to  read.  He  says : 

"We  were  agreeably  awoke  at  six  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  the 
22nd,  and  informed  that  we  were  in  the  Bay  of  Halifax,  and  should 

i.  "Dyott's  Diary,  1781-1845.  A  selection  from  the  Journal  of  William  Dyott,  some- 
time General  in  the  British  Army  and  Aide-de-Camp  to  His  Majesty,  King  George  III." 
London.  Archibald  Constable  and  Company,  Limited.  1007. 

419 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

be  at  anchor  by  ten  o'clock.  We  all  got  up  happy  in  the  idea  of 
being  released  from  seven  weeks'  confinement.  The  entrance  into 

the  harbour  of  Halifax  has  nothing  very  pleasing.  It  lies  nearly 
east  and  west.  The  west  side  is  a  rock  partly  covered  with  wood, 
and  has  at  the  extremity  a  lighthouse,  there  being  a  very  danger- 
ous reef  of  rocks  running  some  distance  into  the  sea.  The  east  side 
is  pretty  enough.  There  is  a  large  island  called  Cornwallis  Island, 
which  has  some  cultivation  and  a  good  deal  of  wood.  Near  the 
town,  and  about  the  centre  of  the  harbour,  there  is  a  small  island 
called  G  eorge  's  Island,  where  the  signals  are  made  for  the  shipping, 
and  on  which  there  are  works.  It  is  very  well  situated  for  guarding 
the  harbour.  We  came  to  anchor  close  to  the  town  about  twelve 
o'clock.  I  never  was  more  rejoiced.  The  Colonel  immediately  went 
on  shore  to  wait  upon  the  Governor.  In  the  afternoon  I  dressed 
and  went  on  shore,  after  being  seven  weeks  in  filth  and  rags.  A 
clean  coat  appeared  quite  awkward  and  strange. 

"The  town  of  Halifax  is  prettily  enough  situated  on  a  hillside,  at 
the  top  of  which  there  is  a  citadel  and  block-house.  The  houses  are 
all  built  of  wood,  and  in  general  painted  white  or  yellow,  which  has  a 
very  pleasing  effect,  particularly  in  summer.  The  streets  extend 
from  north  to  south  along  the  side  of  the  hill,  and  are  intersected 
by  cross  streets,  extending  from  the  shore  up  the  hill  towards  the 
block-house.  The  Governor,  Parr,  and  the  commissioner  of  the  dock- 
yard, have  both  very  good  nouses.  There  are  three  barracks,  which 
would  contain  from  600  to  1,000  men.  There  are  also  two  churches, 
both  very  neat  buildings  of  wood,  and  one  or  two  meeting-houses. 
There  is  a  square  in  town  called  the  Grand  Parade,  where  the  troops 
in  garrison  parade  every  evening  during  the  summer,  and  where 
all  the  belles  and  beaux  of  the  place  promenade,  and  the  bands  re- 
main to  play  as  long  as  they  walk." 

Leaving  the  ship,  young  Dyott  went,  he  says,  to  the  Parade. 

"The  first  person  I  saw  was  Mr.  Cartwright,  late  lieutenant  in 
the  Staffordshire  Militia.  He  was  an  ensign  in  the  60th,  acting  ad- 
jutant. We  disembarked  the  next  day,  the  23rd,  about  two  o'clock, 
and  dined  with  the  60th  regiment.  They  were  going  to  Quebec. 
We  were  not  able  to  get  into  our  barrack-rooms,  as  the  60th  did  not 
embark  till  Thursday.  However,  we  got  an  empty  room  in  the  bar- 
racks, and  four  of  us  laid  our  beds  on  the  floor,  "and  enjoyed  most 
heartily  our  repose,  hard  as  it  was. 

"July  27.— We  began  our  mess.  From  the  high  price  of  pro- 
visions, beef  being  eightpence  and  mutton  sixpence  per  pound,  we 

420 


I 


W 
U 

w 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

were  obliged  to  pay  high  for  messing.  Two  dollars  a  week  and  our 
rations  equal  to  threee  shillings  and  sixpence  more.  Port  wine 
from  fifteen  to  twenty  pence  per  bottle ;  sherry  nearly  the  same. 

"August  11.— I  went  on  a  fishing  party  with  Captain  Devernet, 
of  the  artillery.  It  is  one  of  the  principal  summer  amusements  of 
this  place,  and  a  very  pleasant  one  indeed.  There  were  ten  of  us; 
we  had  a  large  boat,  allowed  the  artillery  by  government,  and  also 
a  smaller  one  for  the  eatables.  .  .  .  We  sat  down  about  four 
o'clock,  and  of  all  the  dishes  I  ever  tasted,  I  never  met  so  exquisitely 
good  a  thing  as  the  chowder.  We  attempted  to  make  it  on  board 
ship,  but  nothing  like  this.  It  is  a  soup,  and  better  in  my  opinion 
than  turtle.  The  recipe  I  don't  exactly  know,  but  the  principal 
ingredients  are  cod,  haddock,  pork,  onions,  sea-biscuit,  butter,  and  a 
large  quantity  of  cayenne  pepper.  In  short,  the  tout  ensemble  was 
the  best  thing  I  ever  ate.  We  had  some  excellent  Madeira,  of 
which  we  drank  a  bottle  each,  and  some  very  good  lime  punch  with 
dinner. 

"August  20.— A  duel  was  fought  between  Captain  Dalrymple  of 
the  42d,  and  Lieutenant  Roberts  of  the  57th,  owing  to  the  former 
having  two  years  prior  to  the  duel  said  in  a  company  that  Mr.  Rob- 
erts was  not  fit  for  the  Grenadiers ;  at  the  same  time  hinting  that  he 
had  sold  some  of  his  brother's  books.  Lieutenant  Roberts  at  the 
time  this  discourse  took  place  was  in  Europe,  and  not  meeting  with 
Captain  Dalrymple  till  now,  he  being  quartered  at  Cape  Breton,  had 
not  an  opportunity  of  demanding  satisfaction.  They  fired  only  one 
pistol  each,  as  Captain  Dalrymple  was  wounded  in  the  arm,  but  not 
dangerously. 

"Friday,  October  2ti.— I  dined  at  the  Commissioner's.  That  same 
day  the  fleet  from  'Quebec,  under  the  command  of  Commodore  Saw- 
yer, arrived  here,  consisting  of  the  Leander,  50  guns,  Captain  Sir 
James  Barclay,  Bart.,  with  the  broad  pennant;  the  Pegasus,  28 
guns,  Captain  his  Royal  Highness  Prince  William  Henry ;  the  Re- 
source, 28  guns,  Captain  Minchin;  and  the  Wenzel  sloop,  Captain 
Wood.  On  their  passage  from  Quebec,  the  Leander  struck  on  a  rock 
in  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  and  was  very  near  being  lost.  It  was 
a  most  dismal  situation,  as  all  the  Commodore's  family  were  with 
him  on  board.  They  were  obliged  to  quit  the  ship,  and  went  on 
board  his  Royal  Highness 's  ship.  When  the  Leander  came  in,  she 
was  obliged  to  be  towed  up  the  harbour  to  the  Dockyard  and  hove 
down.  Her  bottom  was  found  to  be  in  a  most  shattered  condition. 
His  Royal  Highness  was  rather  expected  in  the  evening  at  the  Com- 
missioner's, but  he  did  not  quit  his  ship.  On  his  coming  to  anchor, 

421 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

the  Brigadier-General  waited  upon  him ;  he  positively  declined  any 
compliments  as  a  prince. 

"Sunday  his  Royal  Highness  dined  at  the  Commodore's;  Mon- 
day at  the  Commissioner's;  Tuesday  he  reviewed  the  regiment  at 
11  o'clock.  It  was  the  first  time  I  had  seen  him,  and  little  expected 
to  have  received  such  marks  of  his  condescension  as  I  afterward  did. 
Our  review  was  nothing  more  than  the  common  form;  his  Royal 
Highness  expressed  much  satisfaction  at  the  appearance  of  the  men. 
After  the  review  was  over,  the  officers  were  all  presented  to  him  on 
the  Parade.  His  Royal  Highness  is  very  much  like  his  Majesty,  but 
better  looking.  He  is  about  5  foot  7  or  8  inches  high,  good  com- 
plexion and  fair  hair.  He  did  the  regiment  the  honour  to  dine  with 
them;  I  sang  several  songs,  with  which  he  was  much  entertained. 
He  dislikes  drinking  very  much,  but  that  day  he  drank  near  two  bot- 
tles of  Madeira.  When  we  broke  up  from  the  mess  he  went  to  my 
room  and  got  my  cloak  to  go  to  his  barge,  as  it  rained  a  good  deal. 
I  accompanied  him  to  the  boat  and  wished  him  a  good  night. 

"Wednesday  Morning.— I  met  him  walking  in  the  street  by  him- 
self. I  was  with  Major  Vesey,  of  the  6th  regiment.  His  Royal 
Highness  made  us  walk  with  him ;  he  took  hold  of  my  arm,  and  we 
visited  all  the  young  ladies  in  town.  During  our  walk  he  told  Vesey 
and  me  he  had  taken  the  liberty  of  sending  us  a  card  to  dine  with 
him  on  Sunday  (a  great  liberty !).  Vesey  and  I  walked  with  him  till 
he  went  on  board.  He  dined  en  famille  with  the  Commodore.  I 
dined  with  Vesey  at  O'Brien's. 

"In  the  evening  a  ball  at  the  Governor's.  We  went  about  seven; 
his  Royal  Highness  came  about  half  after,  and  almost  immediately 
began  country  dances  with  Miss  Parr,  the  Governor's  daughter.  We 
changed  partners  every  dance ;  he  danced  with  all  the  pretty  women 
in  the  room,  and  was  just  as  affable  as  any  other  man.  He  did  me 
the  honour  to  talk  a  great  deal  to  me  before  supper  during  the 
dance.  We  went  to  supper  about  twelve,  a  most  elegant  thing,  near 
sixty  people  sat  down.  We  had  scarce  began  supper  when  he  called 
out:  'Dyott,  fill  your  glass'  (before  he  asked  any  person  in  the 
room  to  drink) ;  when  I  told  his  Royal  Highness  my  glass  was  full, 
he  said,  'Dyott,  your  good  health,  and  your  family.'  About  half 
an  hour  after,  he  called  out:  'Dyott,  fill  a  bumper'— then,  'Dyott, 
here's  a  bumper  toast.'  After  supper  he  gave  five  or  six  bumper 
toasts,  and  always  called  to  me  to  see  them  filled  at  my  table.  We 
had  a  most  jolly  evening,  and  he  retired  about  two  o'clock.  The  la- 
dies all  stood  up  when  he  came  into  the  room,  and  remained  so  till 
he  sat  down. 

"Thursday  Morning.— I  met  him  on  the  Parade.     He,  Major 

422 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

Vesey,  and  myself,  walked  about  the  town  all  morning.  He  would 
go  into  any  house  where  he  saw  a  pretty  girl,  and  was  perfectly 
acquainted  with  every  house  of  a  certain  description  in  the  town. 
He  dined  with  the  Commodore  and  Captain  of  the  Fleet  at  O'Brien's 
Tavern. 

" Saturday.  —  I  met  him  at  Parade,  and  attended  him  all  the  morn- 
ing. He  dined  with  the  captain  of  the  Resource.  Vesey  dined  with 
me,  and  we  had  a  good  deal  of  company  at  the  mess,  and  got  very 
drunk. 

"Sunday  Morning. —  I  met  him  after  church  at  Mrs.  Wentworth's, 
Governor  Wentworth's  lady.  He  [Mr.  Wentworth]  was  gone  up 
the  country  on  business,  as  he  is  surveyor-general  of  the  woods  of 
this  province.  Mrs.  W.  is,  1  believe,  a  lady  fonder  of  our  sex  than 
her  own,  and  his  Royal  Highness  used  to  be  there  frequently.  I  at- 
tended him  from  thence  to  his  barge ;  as  we  went  along  he  told  me 
he  would  send  his  cutter  for  me  to  any  place  I  chose,  to  come  to  din- 
ner. I  told  his  Royal  Highness  I  was  to  go  on  board  with  Captain 
Minchin  in  his  barge.  We  went  a  little  after  three,  all  in  boots,  at 
his  particular  wish  (he  dined  everywhere  in  boots  himself). 

"He  received  us  on  the  quarter-deck  with  all  possible  attention, 
and  showed  us  into  the  cabin  himself.  His  cabin  is  rather  small  and 
neatly  furnished.  The  company  at  dinner  was:  The  Governor; 
the  General;  two  of  the  captains  of  the  fleet;  Major  Vesey;  Cap- 
tain Gladstanes,  57th  regiment ;  Captain  Dalryrnple,  42nd ;  Hodg- 
son, of  ours,  and  myself.  A  most  elegant  dinner;  I  did  not  think  it 
possible  to  have  had  anything  like  it  on  board  ship.  Two  courses, 
removes,  and  a  most  elegant  dessert.  Wines  of  all  sorts,  such  Ma- 
deira I  never  tasted.  It  had  been  twenty-eight  years  in  bottle ;  was 
sent  as  a  present  to  his  Royal  Highness  from  the  East  Indies  by 
Sir  Archibald  Campbell.  We  had  two  servants  out  of  livery,  and 
four  in  the  King's  livery.  His  Royal  Highness  sat  at  the  head  of 
the  table,  and  one  of  the  chaplains  of  the  navy  at  the  foot.  No  of- 
ficer of  his  ship,  as  it  is  a  rule  he  has  laid  down  never  to  dine  in  com- 
pany with  any  subaltern  officer  in  the  navy.  We  dined  at  half-past 
three,  and  drank  pretty  freely  till  eight,  when  we  had  coffee,  and 
after,  noyau,  etc.  He  found  out  I  had  never  been  on  board  so  large 
a  ship,  and  before  I  came  away  he  told  me  to  come  and  breakfast 
with  him  the  next  morning  at  eight  o'clock,  and  he  would  show  me  all 
over  the  ship. 

"I  went  ashore  that  evening  with  Captain  Minchin,  who  has  a 
house  in  town.  Gladstanes,  Dalrymple,  Hodgson,  and  I  supped 
with  him.  Before  I  went  there  I  met  his  Royal  Highness  and  Sir 
James  Barclay,  captain  of  the  Leander,  walking  about  the  streets. 

423 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

He  made  me  walk  with  him  till  near  ten  o'clock,  and  some  pretty 
scenes  we  had. 

"The  next  day,  Monday,  the  5th  of  November,  he  had  fixed  to  land 
as  a  prince  of  the  blood,  to  receive  the  address  from  the  Governor 
and  Council,  to  dine  with  them,  and  to  go  to  a  ball  given  by  the 
town.  I  went  to  breakfast  with  him  at  eight,  found  the  cutter  wait- 
ing for  me  at  the  dockyard  and  a  royal  midshipman  attending.  His 
Royal  Highness  was  on  the  quarter-deck  when  I  went  on  board.  We 
immediately  went  below  to  breakfast,  which  consisted  of  tea,  coffee, 
and  all  sorts  of  cold  meat,  cold  game,  etc.,  etc.  His  Highness  break- 
fasted almost  entirely  on  cold  turkey.  His  purser  made  breakfast, 
and  his  first  lieutenant  and  two  of  the  midshipmen  (who  take  it  in 
turn)  breakfasted.  They  did  not  stay  two  minutes  after." 

When  breakfast  was  over  for  the  Prince  and  his  guest,  his  Royal 
Highness  showed  Dyott  over  the  ship,  and  then  the  young  lieuten- 
ant went  on  shore  "to  get  the  regiment  ready"  to  receive  the  prince : 

"At  two  o'clock  the  garrison  marched  down  and  lined  the  streets 
from  the  wharf  to  the  Government  House.  A  captain's  guard  with 
colours  was  formed  on  the  right  to  receive  him,  and  a  detachment  of 
artillery  with  three  field-pieces  fired  a  royal  salute  on  his  landing. 
His  Royal  Highness  left  the  Commodore's  ship  about  a  quarter  af- 
ter two  in  his  own  barge  (which  was  steered  by  an  officer).  His 
barge's  crew  most  elegantly  dressed,  and  the  handsomest  caps  I 
ever  saw— black  velvet,  and  all  except  the  coxwain's  with  a  silver 
ornament  in  front,  and  the  King's  arms  most  elegantly  cast.  The 
coxwain's  was  of  gold,  and  his  Royal  Highness  told  me  it  cost  fifty 
guineas.  As  he  was  steered  by  an  officer,  what  is  termed  the 
strokesman  wore  the  coxwain's  cap.  The  Commodore's  ship  lay 
about  half  a  mile  from  the  wharf  where  he  landed,  and  as  he 
passed  the  ships,  followed  by  the  Commodore  and  captains  of  the 
fleet  in  their  barges,  his  Royal  Highness  and  the  Commodore  each 
having  the  standard  of  England  hoisted  in  their  barge,  he  was  sa- 
luted by  each  of  them  separately,  having  their  yards  maimed,  etc. 
When  he  came  within  a  hundred  yards  of  the  wharf,  his  barge  drop- 
ped astern,  and  the  Commodore's  and  captain's  pushed  on  and 
landed  to  receive  him  immediately  on  his  stepping  out  of  his  barge 
(the  Governor,  Council,  House  of  Assembly,  etc.,  and  all  the  great 
people  being  there  to  receive  him).  He  was  saluted  by  the  field- 
pieces  on  the  wharf,  and  proceeded  through  a  line  of  troops  to  the 
Government  House,  the  soldiers  with  presented  arms,  the  officers 
and  colours  saluting  him  as  he  passed,  and  all  the  bands  playing 
'God  save  the  King.' 

424 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

"When  he  entered  the  Government  House  he  was  saluted  by  the 
twenty-four  pounders  on  the  Citadel  Hill.  On  his  being  arrived  in 
the  levee  room,  the  different  branches  of  the  legislature  being  there 
assembled  and  all  the  officers  allowed  to  be  present,  the  Governor 
presented  the  address,  to  which  his  Royal  Highness  read  his  answer, 
and  read  it  with  more  energy  and  emphasis  than  anything  I  ever 
heard.  At  the  same  time  he  had  the  most  majestic  and  manly  ap- 
pearance I  ever  beheld. 

"Immediately  he  had  finished,  the  officers  went  out  to  change  the 
position  of  the  troops  from  the  wharf  to  the  tavern  where  he  was 
to  dine.  He  passed  up  the  line  and  was  saluted  as  before.  The 
troops  then  marched  to  their  barracks,  and  in  the  evening  fired  a 
feu  de,  jole  on  the  Citadel  Hill.  At  eight  o'clock  his  Royal  High- 
ness went  to  the  ball,  where,  I  do  suppose,  there  must  have  been  near 
three  hundred  people.  The  business  much  better  conducted  than  I 
imagined  it  would.  The  supper  was  quite  a  crowd,  and  some  such 
figures  I  never  saw.  His  Royal  Highness  danced  a  good  deal.  He 
began  with  Miss  Parr,  the  Governor's  daughter.  He  did  me  the 
honour  to  converse  with  me  frequently,  and  walked  arm-in-arm 
about  the  room  for  half  an  hour.  He  retired  about  one  o  'clock  and 
appeared  much  pleased  with  the  entertainment. 

"Tuesday.— He  came  on  shore  about  twelve,  and  was  made  a 
member  of  the  Loyal  and  Friendly  Society  of  the  Blue  and  Orange, 
and  dined  with  the  Society  at  our  mess-room.  All  our  officers  were 
members,  and  invited  the  Governor,  the  Commodore,  the  Commis- 
sioner, and  Major  Vesey  of  the  6th  regiment  to  meet  the  Prince.  We 
gave  him  a  very  good  dinner,  and  he  was  in  very  good  spirits.  He  is 
not  fond  of  drinking  himself,  but  has  no  objection  to  seeing  other 
people.  I  was  vice-president,  and  sung,  etc.  He  got  up  about  nine, 
and  as  he  left  the  room  he  called,  '  Dyott, '  on  which  I  followed,  and 
had  the  honour  of  walking  with  him  alone  to  his  barge,  as  he  wished 
the  General  and  the  rest  a  good  night.  .  .  . 

"Wednesday.—- 1  met  him  in  the  street  and  walked  about  all  morn- 
ing. That  day  I  had  the  honour  to  meet  his  Royal  Highness  at  din- 
ner at  Governor  Wentworth's,  or  rather  Mrs.  Wentworth's,  the 
Governor  being  away  from  home.  Mrs.  Wentworth  is  a  most 
charming  woman,  but,  unhappily  for  her  husband,  rather  more  par- 
tial to  our  sex  than  her  own.  But  he,  poor  man,  cannot  see  her 
foibles,  and  they  live  very  happy.  1  believe  there  was  a  mutual 
passion  which  subsisted  between  his  Royal  Highness  and  her.2  She 
is  an  American,  but  lived  a  good  deal  in  England  and  with  people 

2.     Prince  William   Henry  was  almost  twenty  years  Lady  Wentworth's  junior,   he 
was  born  August  21,  1765,  the  date  of  her  birth  was  September  30,  1745. 

425 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

of  the  first  fashion.  As  I  was  pretty  intimate  in  the  house,  she 
desired  me  to  dine  there.  The  company  was,  his  Royal  Highness, 
Major  Vesey,  Captain  Gladstanes,  Hodgson  of  ours,  a  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Brindley,  the  latter  a  sister  of  Mrs.  Wentworth's,  and  myself.  I 
never  laughed  so  much  in  my  life ;  he  was  in  vast  spirits  and  pleas- 
anter  than  anything  I  ever  saw.  We  had  a  most  elegant  dinner 
and  coffee,  and  then  went  to  dress,  as  he  always  dines  in  boots,  and 
the  Commissioner  gave  a  ball  in  honour  of  his  Royal  Highness.  He 
dressed  at  Mrs.  Wentworth's  and  went  in  her  carriage,  but  not  with 
her,  as  the  ladies  of  Halifax  are  a  little  scrupulous  of  their  virtue, 
and  think  it  a  danger  if  they  were  to  visit  Mrs.  Wentworth.  For  my 
part  I  think  her  the  best-bred  woman  in  the  province.  I  was  obliged 
to  go  early,  as  the  Commissioner  requested  I  would  manage  the 
dancing,  etc. ;  that  is,  that  I  would  act  as  a  master  of  the  ceremonies, 
I  went  about  eight.  The  Commissioner's  house  and  the  dockyard 
was  most  beautifully  illuminated  and  made  a  fine  appearance.  His 
Royal  Highness  arrived  about  nine.  Everybody  stands  up  when  he 
enters,  and  remains  so  till  he  desires  the  mistress  of  the  house  to 
sit  down.  Soon  after  he  came  we  began  dancing.  I  forgot  to  men- 
tion that  at  Mrs.  Wentworth's  he  told  me  I  was  to  dine  with  him 
on  Friday.  He  is  very  fond  of  dancing ;  we  changed  partners  every 
dance.  He  always  began,  and  generally  called  to  me  to  tell  him  a 
dance.  The  last  dance  before  supper  at  the  Governor's  and  at  the 
Commissioner's,  his  Royal  Highness,  Major  Vesey,  myself,  and  six 
very  pretty  women  danced  'Country  Bumpkin'  for  near  an  hour. 
We  went  to  supper  about  one.  .  .  . 

''Thursday  Morning.— I  met  him  in  town,  and  walked  in  the  dock- 
yard with  him  all  morning.  He  dined  that  day  with  the  57th  regi- 
ment. I  had  the  honour  of  an  invitation  to  meet  him.  We  had  an 
amazing  company;  all  the  great  people,  but  not  very  pleas- 
ant. His  Royal  Highness  retired  about  eight;  and'  as  we 
went  out  he  called  me  to  accompany  him.  We  strolled  about 
the  town,  went  to  some  of  the  houses  of  a  certain  description,  and 
to  be  sure  had  some  pretty  scenes.  He  did  me  the  honour  to  say 
it  was  very  seldom  he  took  so  much  notice  of  a  subaltern.  He  said 
it  was  not  from  any  dislike  he  had  to  them,  but  that  he  was  in  a  situ- 
ation where  everybody  had  an  eye  on  him,  and  it  would  be  expected 
he  should  form  acquaintance  with  people  high  in  rank.  I  attended 
him  to  his  barge ;  he  went  aboard  about  ten. 

''Friday  Morning.— I  met  him  at  Mrs.  Wentworth's.  We  stayed 
there  more  than  an  hour.  Then  walked  the  town  till  two  o'clock,  as 
he  dined  at  three.  .  .  .  The  cutter  was  waiting  at  the  dockyard 
a  little  before  three.  The  company :  Colonel  Brownlow  of  the  57th, 

426 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

who  had  arrived  from  England  the  day  before;  Major  Vesey, 
Hodgson,  Captain  Hood  of  the  navy,  and  myself.  His  Royal  High- 
ness received  us  on  the  quarter-deck,  and  we  went  to  dinner  imme- 
diately. Not  quite  so  great  a  dinner  as  before,  but  vastly  elegant. 
He  was  in  great  spirits  and  we  all  got  a  little  inebriated.  We  went 
ashore  about  seven  to  dress  for  a  ball  at  the  Commodore's.  He 
dressed  at  Mrs.  Wentworth's.  When,  we  first  came  on  shore,  he 
was  very  much  out  indeed,  shouted  and  talked  to  every  person  he 
met.  I  was  rather  late  at  the  Commodore's.  The  company  not 
quite  so  numerous  as  at  the  Governor's;  the  house  not  being  large. 
We  had  a  very  pleasant  ball;  'Country  Bumpkin,'  the  same  set,  and 
a  devilish  good  supper.  We  danced  after  supper  and  till  four 
o'clock.  He  dances  vastly  well,  and  is  very  fond  of  it.  I  never  saw 
people  so  completely  tired  as  they  all  were.  I  saw  his  Royal  High- 
ness to  his  barge  and  ran  home  as  fast  as  I  could. 

"Saturday  Morning.— W"e  had  a  meeting  of  the  Blue  and  Orange, 
as  his  Royal  Highness  gave  a  dinner  to  the  Society  that  day  at  our 
mess-room,  and  was  chosen  Superior  of  the  Order.  He,  Major  Ve- 
sey, and  myself,  walked  about  all  morning  visiting  the  ladies,  etc. 
He  desired  to  dine  at  half -past  three.  He  took  the  chair  himself  and 
ordered  me  to  be  his  vice.  We  had  a  very  good  dinner,  and  he  sent 
wine  of  his  own;  the  very  best  claret  I  ever  tasted.  We  had  the 
Grenadiers  drawn  up  in  front  of  the  mess-room  windows  to  fire  a 
volley  in  honour  of  the  toasts.  As  soon  as  dinner  was  over  he  began. 
He  did  not  drink  himself;  he  always  drinks  Madeira.  He  took 
very  good  care  to  see  everybody  fill,  and  he  gave  twenty-three  bump- 
ers without  a  halt.  In  the  course  of  my  experience  I  never  saw  such 
fair  drinking.  When  he  had  finished  his  list  of  bumpers,  I  begged 
leave  as  vice  to  give  the  Superior,  and  recommended  it  to  the  So- 
ciety to  stand  upon  our  chairs  with  three  times  three,  taking  their 
time  from  the  vice.  I  think  it  was  the  most  laughable  sight  I  ever 
beheld,  to  see  the  Governor,  our  General,  and  the  Commodore,  all 
so  drunk  they  could  scarce  stand  on  the  floor,  hoisted  up  on  their 
chairs  with  each  a  bumper  in  his  hand;  and  the  three  times  three 
cheer  was  what  they  were  afraid  to  attempt  for  fear  of  falling.  I 
then  proposed  his  Royal  Highness  and  a  good  wind  whenever  he 
sailed  (as  he  intended  sailing  on  Monday),  with  the  same  ceremony. 
He  stood  at  the  head  of  the  table  during  both  these  toasts,  and  I 
never  saw  a  man  laugh  so  in  my  life.  When  we  had  drunk  the  last, 
the  old  Governor  desired  to  know  if  we  had  any  more,  as  he  said  if 
he  once  got  down,  he  should  never  get  up  again.  His  Royal  High- 
ness saw  we  were  all  pretty  well  done,  and  he  walked  off.  There 
were  just  twenty  dined  and  we  drank  sixty-three  bottles  of  wine. 

427 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

4 'When  he  went  out  he  called  me  and  told  me  he  would  go  to  my 
room  and  have  some  tea.  The  General,  Colonel  Brownlow,  and  my- 
self were  at  tea.  The  General  and  Colonel  as  drunk  as  two  drum- 
mers. I  was  tolerably  well  myself,  and  knew  what  I  was  about, 
perfectly.  He  laughed  at  them  very  much.  After  tea  we  left 
them  in  my  room  alid  went  on  a  cruise,  as  he  calls  it,  till  eleven, 
when  he  went  on  board.  I  don't  recollect  ever  to  have  spent  so 
pleasant  a  day.  His  Royal  Highness,  whenever  any  person  did  not 
fill  a  bumper,  always  called  out,  '  1  see  some  of  God  Almighty 's  day- 
light in  that  glass,  Sir ;  vanish  it. ' 

"Monday  Morning.— At  seven  o'clock  his  Royal  Highness  sailed. 
I  got  up  to  take  a  last  view  of  his  ship  as  she  went  out,  and  as  a 
tribute  of  respect  to  his  Royal  Highness,  from  whom  I  had  received 
such  flattering  marks  of  condescension.  I  think  I  never  spent  a 
time  so  joyously  in  my  life ;  and  very  sorry  when  he  left  us. ' ':i 

"New  Years  Day,  January  1,  1788.— I  dined  at  Mr.  Brindley's, 
brother-in-law  to  Mrs.  Wentworth.  The  same  party  as  on  Christ- 
mas Day  at  Governor  Wentworth 's.  I  cannot  say  I  was  in  very 
good  spirits.  Was  asked  to  dine  the  next  day  at  Mr.  Townsend's 
and  at  the  Commissioner's,  but  as  it  was  the  day  on  which  I  lost 
my  dear  father,  I  refused  them  both  and  did  not  leave  the  barracks 
all  day." 

In  contrast  to  all  this  dining  and  wining  and  exuberant  general 
gayety,  with  a  little  scandal  casually  thrown  in,  is  the  account  the 
young  lieutenant  gives  of  the  death  and  funeral  of  a  daughter  of  the 
Admiral  then  on  the  Station: 


3.  Prince  William  Henry,  Duke  of  Clarence,  third  son  of  George  3rd,  and  Queen 
Charlotte  Sophia,  was  born  in  Buckingham  Palace,  August  21,  1765.  He  was  therefore  a 
little  over  twenty-two  when  he  first  reached  Halifax.  On  this  visit,  which  lasted  from 
October  26  to  November  13,  1787,  he  was  captain  of  the  Pegasus.  His  second  visit  last- 
ed from  August  17,  1788,  until  late  in  November,  1788.  This  time  he  came  in  the  An- 
dromeda. The  whole  fleet  was  under  command  of  Commodore  Herbert  Sawyer,  who  be- 
came an  admiral  in  1795. 

The  Duke  of  Clarence  succeeded  to  the  throne  as  William  IV  on  the  death  of  his 
brother,  George  IV,  on  the  26th  of  June,  1830.  Many  times  during  his  reign  General 
Dyott  was  at  court  and  the  King  was  always  gracious  to  him,  usually  asking  him  what 
the  difference  in  their  ages  was,  and  how  long  they  had  been  acquainted.  But  Dyott  was 
disappointed  that  the  King  did  nothing  to  advance  him,  and  his  references  to  his  old 
companion  at  Halifax  are  sometimes  tinged  slightly  with  acrimony.  On  the  accession  of 
William  he  writes:  "Having  in  younger  days  seen  much  of  King  William  the  Fourth 
and  partaken  of  several  weeks  familiar  intercourse  as  far  as  Prince  and  subject  was  al- 
lowable, I  have  little  hesitation  in  arguing  that  William's  will  not  be  a  reign  in  which 
any  great  benefits  are  likely  to  accrue  to  the  nation  from  kingly  exertion.  He  has 
neither  consistency,  firmness,  nor  discretion.  I  hope  I  may  be  mistaken.  .  .  .  His 
present  Majesty  three  and  forty  years  ago  has  more  than  once  said  to  me  'I  shall  be 
glad  if  I  can  ever  be  of  any  service  to  you.'  Prince's  promises  are  not  permanent 
proofs."  Dyott's  Diary,  vol.  2,  p.  82. 

428 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

"On  the  30th  of  January  [1788],  poor  Miss  S.  Sawyer,  daughter 
to  the  Admiral,  died,  universally  regretted  by  all  ranks  as  a  most 
amiable,  good,  deserving  young  woman.  She  had  had  a  swelling 
in  her  arm  for  some  months.  The  faculty  agreed  it  should  be 
opened,  which  was  done  accordingly.  It  continued  in  that  state,  not 
healing  or  mending,  for  near  two  months.  That  at  length  brought 
on  a  fever,  of  which  she  languished  for  twenty-one  days.  I  was 
much  hurt,  knowing  her  to  be  so  good  a  creature.  She  was  only 
eighteen  years  of  age,  and  a  very  handsome,  fine  woman.  I  was  de- 
sired to  attend  her  funeral  as  a  bearer.  I  cannot  say  I  ever  felt 
more  in  my  life  than  on  the  occasion,  when  I  reflected  that  about 
three  months  before  I  was  dancing  with  her,  and  that  now  I  was  at- 
tending her  to  her  grave.  It  really  made  me  as  melancholy  as  any- 
thing I  ever  experienced.  The  funeral  was  a  handsome  one,  as 
follows : 

"At  the  head  of  the  procession  were  the  Bishop  and  Rector;  then 
the  body  with  eight  bearers.  That  is,  on  the  right  side,  Lieutenant 
Nicholson,  57th  regiment;  Captain  Gladstones,  ditto;  Lieutenant 
Lawford,  B.  N. ;  Captain  Sir  James  Barclay,  ditto ;  on  the  left  side 
Lieutenant  Dyott,  4th;  Captain  Hodgson,  ditto;  Lieutenant 
d  'Acres,  R.  N. ;  Captain  Hood,  ditto.  The  under  bearers  were  the 
Admiral's  barge  crew  in  white  trousers,  white  shirts,  with  a  piece 
of  love  ribbon  tied  round  the  left  arm,  black  velvet  caps  and  white 
ribbons  tied  round  them.  The  coffin  covered  with  white  cloth  hand- 
somely ornamented.  On  a  silver  plate,  'Sophia  Sawyer.  Born 
10th  March  '70.  Died  31st  Jan.  '88.' 

"After  the  body,  Mr.  d 'Acres,  secretary  to  the  Admiral  as  chief 
mourner;  next  the  nurse  and  Miss  Sawyer's  maid  in  deep  mourn- 
ing and  white  hoods.  The  bearers  had  on  full  uniform ;  white  hat- 
bands and  scarves,  black  sword-knots,  cockades,  and  crape  round  the 
left  arm.  After  the  two  women  followed  Colonel  Brownlow,  57th, 
and  Captain  Minchin,  R.  N.,  General  Ogilvie,  and  the  Commissioner, 
and  the  Governor  by  himself.  All  with  white  hat-bands  and  scarves. 
There  were  also  three  or  four  of  the  family,  and  some  officers  be- 
longing to  the  Admiral's  ship,  with  hat-bands  and  scarves.  After 
them  followed  almost  all  the  officers  belonging  to  the  fleet ;  many  of 
the  garrison ;  all  the  people  in  town  that  were  acquainted  with  the 
Admiral ;  and  to  close  up  the  whole,  a  long  string  of  empty  carriages. 
"As  we  entered  the  church  [St.  Paul's],  which  is  a  full  rnile 
from  the  Admiralty,  the  organ  began  a  most  solemn  dirge,  which 
continued  near  a  quarter  of  an  hour.  The  service  was  then  per- 
formed, and  I  think  in  my  life  I  never  saw  so  much  grief  as  through- 
out the  whole  congregation.  I  must  own  I  have  never  shed  so  many 

429 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX, 

tears  since  I  left  school.  I  believe  sorrow  was  never  more  universal 
than  on  the  occasion.  Tt  was  a  very  cold  day,  and  walking  so  slow 
in  silk  stockings  and  thin  shoes,  I  was  almost  perished. 

"The  following  Sunday,  all  the  people  who  had  been  invited  to 
the  funeral  attended  Church,  as  the  Bishop  was  to  preach  an  occa- 
sional sermon.  His  text  was  most  admirably  adapted  from  the 
Thessalonians,  and  his  discourse  the  most  affecting  I  ever  heard. 
He  frequently  pointed  to  her  grave  and  admonished  the  younger 
part  of  his  hearers,  and  more  particularly  those  who  had  attended 
the  interment,  to  prepare  to  meet  death,  not  knowing  how  soon  they 
might  be  cut  off.  On  the  whole  it  was  a  most  admirable  sermon, 
and  called  up  the  passions  more  forcibly  than  anything  I  ever 
heard." 

Unfortunately  for  the  morals  of  both  the  military  and  civilian 
population  of  Halifax,  in  August,  1788,  the  future  King  of  Eng- 
land unexpectedly  returned,  for  another  and  longer  visit.  Lieuten- 
ant Dyott's  diary  therefore  for  over  three  months  describes  din- 
ners, with  excessive  wine-drinking,  balls,  suppers,  visits  at  Mrs. 
Wentworth's,  and  public  reviews  of  the  troops  and  other  spectacu- 
lar events  that  give  glowing  colour  to  his  chronicle,  but  that  do  not 
"bespeak  for  the  town  the  highest  degree  of  seriousness  or  morality. 
On  a  certain  Friday  his  Royal  Highness  dined  at  the  Chief  Justice's, 
and  how  it  was  the  lieutenant  "does  not  know,"  but  the  sailor  prince 
set  to  immediately  after  dinner,  "and  I  never  saw,"  says  Dyott, 
"a  man  get  so  completely  drunk.  He  desired  the  General  to  order 
the  whole  garrison  up  to  Citadel  Hill,  to  fire  a  feu  de  joie,  but  his 
Highness  was  not  able  to  attend  to  it,  as  he  was  obliged  to  go  to  bed 
at  Pemberton's,  where  he  slept  for  three  hours,  and  then  went  to 
his  ship."  "I  believe  I  shall  never  spend  three  months  in  that  way 
again,  for  such  a  time  of  dissipation,  etc.,  etc.,  I  cannot  suppose 
possible  to  happen,"  reflects  the  diarist  on  the  Prince's  departure, 
yet,  "I  must  own,"  he  says,  "I  thought  it  time  as  agreeably  em- 
ployed as  I  ever  experienced,  and  to  be  sure  the  company  of  a  Prince 
added  not  a  little  to  the  joyous  hours." 

In  the  biography  of  another  young  officer  of  the  garrison  at  a 
period  some  sixty  years  later  than  that  of  Dyott's  diary,  the  biog- 

430 


CHAPTERS   IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

raphy  of  Captain  Hedley  Vicars,4  we  are  glad  to  be  introduced  to  a 
far  different  phase  of  Halifax  garrison  life  from  that  portrayed  by 
General  Dyott.  In  the  summer  of  1851,  Hedley  Vicars,  then  a  lieu- 
tenant, and  in  his  twenty-fifth  year,  came  from  Jamaica  to  Hali- 
fax with  his  regiment,  the  97th  foot.  For  a  very  short  time  he  was 
sent  probably  to  Quebec,  but  soon  his  regiment  was  transferred  to 
the  Halifax  garrison.  In  Halifax  Vicars  remained  until  May,  1853, 
and  in  that  time  he  developed  a  spiritual  faith  and  consecration  to 
true  religion  that  give  him  a  high  place  in  the  ranks  of  fervent  dis- 
ciples of  Christ  the  ages  along.  Naturally  conscientious,  and  with 
strong  religious  tendencies,  soon  after  he  reached  Halifax,  it  would 
seem,  he  had  a  profound  conversion.  ' '  It  was  in  the  month  of  No- 
vember, 1851,"  says  his  biographer,  "that  while  awaiting  the  return 
of  a  brother  officer  to  his  room,  he  idly  turned  over  the  leaves  of 
a  Bible  which  lay  on  the  table.  The  words  caught  his  eye,  'The 
blood  of  Jesus  Christ  his  Son  cleanseth  us  from  all  sin.'  Closing 
the  book,  he  said,  'If  this  be  true  for  me,  henceforth  I  will  live,  by 
the  grace  of  God,  as  a  man  should  live  who  has  been  washed  in  the 
blood  of  Jesus  Christ. '  This  new  spirit  of  consecration  he  retained 
uninterruptedly  to  the  end  of  his  brief  career,  which  sadly  termi- 
nated in  the  camp  before  Sebastopol,  in  the  war  of  the  Crimea,  on 
the  night  of  the  22d  of  March,  1855." 

During  six  or  seven  months  after  his  resolve,  he  had  to  encounter, 
says  his  biographer,  no  slight  opposition  from  fellow  officers,  in  the 
mess.  A  few,  however,  wrere  also  "walking  with  God,"  and  they 
and  he  had  many  times  of  delightful  Christian  intercourse.  The 
chaplain  of  the  garrison  at  that  time  (and  until  his  death  in  1860) 
was  the  Rev.  Dr.  John  Thomas  Twining,  one  of  the  most  devoted 
Christian  ministers  Halifax  has  ever  known,  and  in  him  Hedley  Vic- 
ars and  his  religious  fellow  officers  found  a  warm  sympathizer  and 
friend.5  "Under  so  deep  an  obligation  did  Vicars  consider  himself 


4.  Hedley  Shafto  Johnstone  Vicars  was  born  in  the  Mauritius,  on  the  7th  of  De- 
cember, 1826,  his  father  being  an  officer  there  in  the  Royal  Engineers.     His  first  com- 
mission he  obtained  in  1843,  his  captaincy  he  reached  after  he  left  Halifax,  in  1854.    He 
died  of  wounds  at  the  Crimea  on  the  226  of  March,  1855.     His  biography,  one  of  the 
most  touching  religious  biographies  known  to  evangelical  religious  literature,  was  writ- 
ten by  Catherine   M.   Marsh,  and   published  by  Robert  Carter  and   Brothers  of    New 
York  in  1859  (2d  edition   1861),  pp.  300.     See  also  the  "Dicctionary  of  National  Biog- 
raphy." 

5.  A  brief  sketch  of  the  Rev.  John  Thomas  Twining,  D.  D.,  will  be  found  in  Eaton's 
"History  of  King's  County,  Nova  Scotia,"  ,p.  851. 

431 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

to  I>r.  Twining,  that  he  frequently  referred  to  him  as  his  spiritual 
father;  and  to  his  spiritual  preaching  and  teaching,  and  blessed 
example  of  'walking  with  God,'  may  doubtless  be  traced,  under  the 
mighty  working  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  those  clear  and  happy  views  of 
religion,  and  that  consistency  and  holiness  of  life,  which  succeeded 
his  conversion."  Dr.  Twining  held  Bible  classes  for  the  officers 
and  men  of  the  regiments,  and  at  these  Vicars  was  always  present. 
On  his  part,  the  young  soldier  taught  in  the  garrison  Sunday  School, 
visited  the  sick,  and  took  every  opportunity  to  read  the  Scriptures 
and  pray  with  the  men  of  his  regiment  singly.  Of  three  of  these, 
wrote  one  of  his  fellow  officers,  Lieutenant-Colonel  Ingraham,  ''he 
could  soon  say  confidently  that  they  had  followed  him  in  turning  to 
God.  At  the  same  time  he  was  also  the  means  of  awakening  some  of 
his  brother  officers  to  make  the  earnest  inquiry,  'What  must  I  do 
to  be  saved?'  .  .  .  The  name  of  Jesus  was  ever  on  his  lips  and 
in  his  heart.  Much  grace  was  given  him  to  confess  Jesus  boldly  be- 
fore others ;  and  when  he  was  adjutant,  his  example  and  his  rebukes 
to  the  men  for  swearing  carried  great  weight,  and  showed  his  zeal 
for  the  honour  of  God."  In  a  touching  letter  to  Captain  Vicars' 
sister,  Lady  Eayleigh,  written  on  the  21st  of  May,  1855,  two  months 
after  .Vicars '  death,  Dr.  Twining  says  of  his  friend : 

' '  His  was  a  lovely  character ;  it  was  impossible  to  know  him  and 
not  love  him ;  every  creature  about  my  house  did  love  him.  He  had 
to  suffer  a  fiery  persecution  from  some  of  the  officers  of  his  regi- 
ment. The  Lord  saw  that  it  was  best,  and  made  it  a  means  of 
strengthening  and  confirming  him  in  the  faith.  You  know,  my  dear 
madam,  that  a  certain  degree  of  religion  is  considered  by  the  world 
to  be  decorous  and  proper,  but  there  is  nothing  so  much  dreaded  as 
being  '  righteous  over  much. '  It  is  quite  impossible  for  a  Christian 
to  comply  with  the  maxims  and  customs  of  a  world  which  'lieth  in 
wickedness ; '  but  my  beloved  friend  was  strengthened  to  bear  a  con- 
sistent testimony  to  the  truth,  to  take  up  his  cross  and  follow  Jesus. 
He  took  part  in  all  efforts  amongst  us  in  the  Redeemer's  cause  to 
win  souls  to  Him.  For  example,  the  Naval  and  Military  Bible  So- 
ciety, City  Missions  on  the  plan  of  those  at  home,  and  a  Society  for 
giving  the  Scriptures  in  their  own  language  to  the  Mic-mac  Indians 
—the  aborigines  of  this  country.  Of  these  Societies  he  was  a  mem- 
ber, and  his  memory  is  now  warmly  cherished  by  those  with  whom 

432 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 


he  was  a  fellow  labourer  in  these  causes.     But  he  rests  from 
labours,  his  emancipated  spirit  is  with  its  Clod."6 


his 


6.  Captain  Hedley  Vicars'  devoted  life  in  Halifax  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  tra- 
ditions Halifax  keeps.  Early  in  1918  died  in  Halifax,  at  an  advanced  age,  probably  the 
last  person  who  remembered  and  had  been  influenced  by  Captain  Vicars.  This  was  Mr. 
Stuart  Tremaine.  The  fact  of  Mr.  Tremaine's  friendship  with  Captain  Vicars  was  al- 
luded to  by  Ven.  Archdeacon  Armitage  at  the  time  of  Tremaine's  funeral. 


433 


Moses  Qreeley  Parker,  M.  D. 

ARKER  is  an  ancient  English  family  name  derived  from 
the  occupation  of  the  progenitors  who  first  used  it  as  a 
surname,  as  park  keeper,  and  the  forms  Parcus  and  De 
Parco  are  found  in  the  Domesday  Book,  the  eleventh 
century.  It  is  unlikely  that  the  numerous  English  families  have  the 
same  original  ancestor.  Geoffrey  Parker,  for  instance,  was  in  Eng- 
land before  the  year  925,  probably  a  Saxon,  while  Johannes  Le 
Parker,  a  Norman,  came  with  William  the  Conqueror,  and  was 
a  keeper  of  the  royal  parks. 

Arms.  —  Gules,  on  a  chevron  between  three  keys  erect  argent,  as 
many  fleurs-de-lis  of  the  field. 

Crest.— An  elephant's  head  couped  argent,  collared  gules,  charged 
with  three  fleurs-de-lis  or. 

Motto.— Secundis  dubiisque  rectus  (Upright  both  in  prosperity 
and  in  perils). 

There  were  no  less  than  twenty-five  immigrants  named  Parker  in 
the  State  of  Massachusetts  alone,  before  1650.  It  is  not  likely  that 
they  were  all  closely  related,  but  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  the 
Parkers  of  Reading,  Woburn,  Chelmsford,  and  Groton,  were  broth- 
ers or  very  near  relatives.  Abraham  Parker  lived  in  Woburn,  and 
in  Chelmsford,  Massachusetts. 

Deacon  Thomas  Parker,  who  was  born  in  England,  embarked  for 
America  on  March  llth,  1635,  in  the  ship  "Susan  and  Ellen,"  which 
was  fitted  out  by  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  with  whose  family  a  tra- 
dition connects  the  Parkers  by  marriage.  He  settled  in  Dynn  Vil- 
lage, later  called  Reading,  where  he  lived  in  the  eastern  part,  on  the 
old  Parker  homestead  where  Deacon  Parker,  the  immigrant  ances- 
tor, died,  and  where  Deacon  Parker,  the  last  of  his  family  to  occupy 
it,  passed  away  in  1822.  He  was  an  active  and  prominent  citizen,  a 
man  of  ability  and  property.  He  was  appointed  a  commissioner  to 
try  small  causes  in  1636,  and  admitted  a  freeman  in  1637.  The 

434 


L 


Chapters  in  the  History  of  Halifax,  Nova  Scotia 

BY  AKTHTJR  WENTWOETH  HAMILTON  EATON,  M.  A.,  D.  C.  L. 

No.  XIII 
HALIFAX  DEFENCES 

"It  is  most  meet  we  arm  as  'gainst  the  foe : 
For   peace   itself   should  not   so   dull   a   kingdom 
But  that  defences,  musters,  preparations, 
Should  be  maintain'd,  assembled,  and  collected 
As  were  a  war  in  expectation." 

HENRY  V.,  ACT  II,  Sc.  4. 

"Horribly    stuffed    with    epithets    of    war." 
OTHELLO,  Act  i,  Sc.  i. 

Let's  on  to  Halifax !  There  we  shall  dine  to-day 
With  fine  young  warriors,  fresh  from  foreign  fields, 
Glimpse  from  the  Hill  that  guards  the  glittering  Bay 
Symbolled  in  forts  the  power  that  Britain  wields, — 
And  for  Old  England's  rule  give  thanks  and  pray. 


ITH  the  King  of  France  still  ruler  of  the  province  of 
Quebec,  and  with  Louisburg  again  a  French  fortress, 
the  question  of  defence  necessarily  demanded  prompt 
consideration  from  the  founders  of  the  new  town  of 
Halifax  and  organizers  there  of  stable  civil  government  for  the 
Acadian  province.  More  immediate  foes,  also,  of  the  peace  of  the 
new  community  existed  in  the  French  inhabitants  scattered,  in  some 
places  thickly,  throughout  the  peninsula,  and  in  the  Micmac  In- 
dians, who  for  the  most  part  commonly  showed  themselves  in  close 
sympathy  with  the  French  rather  than  with  the  English.  The 
defences  of  Halifax,  which  in  their  later  condition  of  strength  and 
security  have  given  the  Nova  Scotia  capital  a  position  of  marked 
distinction  among  fortified  towns  in  the  British  Empire,  were 
therefore  begun  in  a  feeble  way  almost  as  soon  as  Cornwallis  landed 
his  settlers.  On  the  plan  of  "Chebucto,"  made  by  Admiral  Du- 
rell  shortly  before  the  settlers  came,  the  two  sides  of  the  entrance 
to  Bedford  Basin,  far  up  the  harbour,  very  near,  indeed,  the  fatal 

21 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

spot  where  the  recent  calamitous  explosion  occurred,  were  marked  as 
places  suitable  for  chief  fortifications,  but  this  suggestion,  for  obvi- 
ous reasons,  Cornwallis  ignored.  Instead,  he  more  wisely  fixed  upon 
Sandwich  Point,  now  Point  Pleasant,  much  lower  down  the  harbour, 
and  upon  the  high  lands  opposite,  on  the  Dartmouth  side  of  the  har- 
bour, now  York  Redoubt,  and  also  on  the  little  island  first  called 
Cornwallis  Island,  but  later  named  George's  Island,  as  the  proper 
places  for  establishing  defences.  On  this  island  he  immediately 
placed  a  guard,  landed  his  stores,  and  prepared  to  build  a  magazine 
to  hold  powder.  Very  soon  after,  he  had  block  houses  erected  here, 
on  which  he  mounted  seven  thirty-two  pounder  guns,  then  carry- 
ing a  palisade  completely  around  the  works. 

One  of  the  first  things  he  urged  on  the  settlers  after  they  had 
taken  possession  of  the  lots  assigned  them  and  had  begun  to  build 
their  houses,  was  that  they  should  throw  up  a  rude  barricade  of  logs 
and  brush  around  the  town,  and  although  at  first  he  found  them 
unwilling  to  spend  their  time  on  such  a  work,  by  the  promise  of  a 
mild  wage  he  succeeded  in  making  them  do  it.  From  1750,  for  at 
least  four  or  five  years,  the  encircling  defences  thus  built  consisted 
of  palisades  or  pickets  placed  upright,  with  several  block-houses  of 
logs  reared  at  convenient  distances  apart.  The  exact  course  of  the 
barricade  was  from  the  spot  on  which  St.  Mary's  Roman  Catholic 
Cathedral  now  stands,  "to  the  beach  south  of  Fairbanks 's  wharf, 
and  on  the  north,  along  the  line  of  Jacob  Street  to  the  harbour."1 
Gradually  a  line  of  block-houses  came  to  be  erected,  which  extended 
from  the  head  of  the  North-West  Arm  to  Bedford  Basin,  the  pur- 
pose of  these  being  to  guard  the  town  from  the  Indians  who  lived 
in  various  places  in  the  interior.  A  single  block-house  also  was 
erected  at  Dartmouth,  where  a  gun  of  greater  or  less  calibre  was 
mounted  for  defending  the  eastern  side  of  the  harbour.  In  "Re- 
marks relative  to  return  of  the  forces  in  Nova  Scotia, ' '  printed  in  a 
volume  of  "Selections  from  the  Public  Documents  of  Nova  Scotia," 
under  date  of  March  30,  1755,  we  read :  * '  New  Battery  has  lately 
been  begun — likewise  not  finished.  It  stands  on  a  rising  ground 
about  two  miles  east,  across  the  Harbour  from  Halifax.  This  to 
prevent  shipping  entering  the  Harbour  under  the  Eastern  shore 


JDr.  Akin's  Chronicles  of  Halifax  ("History  of  Halifax  City"),  p.  209.  "These 
palisades,"  says  Dr.  Akins,  "were  in  existence  in  1753,  but  were  removed  at  a  very  early 
period."  They  were  not  standing,  he  says,  in  1825. 

22 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

without  reach  of  George's  Island."  The  battery  here  described 
was  the  well-known  ''Fort  Clarence,"  and  we  learn  that  its  erection 
had  begun,  as  the  extract  we  have  given  implies,  some  time  in  1754. 
In  the  diary  of  Dr.  John  Thomas,  a  surgeon  in  Col.  John  Winslow's 
expedition  for  the  removal  of  the  Acadians  in  1755,  the  statement  is 
made  that  about  two  hundred  and  thirty  of  the  New  England  troops 
under  Winslow  were  quartered  at  this  fort  in  December  of  that 
year. 

In  1755,  Governor  Lawrence  had  four  batteries  built  along  the 
beach — the  first,  the  " Middle"  or  "Governor's"  Battery,  being 
where  the  King's  Wharf  is,  and  directly  opposite  the  first  built  Gov- 
ernment House;  the  second,  the  "Five"  or  "Nine"  Gun  Battery, 
being  where  the  "Ordnance  Yard"  was  afterward  established;  the 
third  being  a  little  north  of  Fairbanks 's  Wharf;  the  fourth,  the 
"South"  or  "Grand"  Battery  (which  is  still  in  existence),  being  at 
the  "Lumber  Yard."  These  four  batteries  were  built  of  stone 
and  gravel,  supported  by  cross-logs  covered  with  earth  and  planted 
with  grass,  and  had  battlements  in  front  and  at  the  two  ends,  ele- 
vated about  twenty  or  twenty-five  feet  above  the  water.  According 
to  the  plan  of  Halifax  made  by  Col.  Desbarres  in  1779  or  1780,  and 
published  in  his  nautical  charts  in  1781,2  there  was  when 
he  made  his  plan  a  nine-gun  battery  near  where  the  Ord- 
nance Wharf  now  is,  and  a  five-gun  battery  a  little  to  the 
north  of  that,  "but  on  an  angle  with  the  other."  These  forti- 
-fications  were  for  the  most  part  removed  about  the  year  1783,  and 
the  grounds  appropriated  to  their  present  purposes.  The  Ord- 
nance Yard,  then  a  swamp  around  the  battery,  and  the  King's 
Wharf,  were  both  filled  up  and  levelled  by  means  of  stone  and  rub- 
bish removed  from  the  five-acre  lots  of  the  peninsula,  which  were 
beginning  to  be  cleared  about  this  time. 

From  various  sources,  soon  after  the  founding  of  Halifax  began, 
Cornwallis  received  warning  that  the  Indians  in  other  places  in  the 
province  and  in  the  Island  of  St.  John,  under  the  direction  of  the 


'Joseph  Frederick  Wallet  Desbarres  (1722-1824),  military  engineer,  also  captain  in 
the  6oth  Regiment,  made  a  successful  expedition  against  the  North  American  Indians  in 
1757,  and  surveyed  the  coast  of  Nova  Scotia  in  1763-1773.  He  was  lieutenant-governor 
of  Cape  Breton,  1784-1805,  was  gazetted  colonel  in  1798,  and  served  as  governor  of  Prince 
Edward  Island  i8o5-'i3.  He  published  charts  of  the  Atlantic  and  North  American  coasts. 
See  Prowse's  "History  of  Newfoundland,"  p.  423.  See  also  General  William  Dyott's 
Diary,  p.  58. 

23 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

r 

intriguing  priest  Le  Loutre,  were  laying  plans  to  attack  the  settle- 
ment at  some  time  during  the  next  winter.  Before  winter  began, 
indeed  no  later  than  the  last  day  of  Sepetmber,  1749,  the  savages 
made  their  first  attack.  This,  however,  was  not  on  the  town  itselfr 
but  on  the  scanty  settlement  which  is  now  Dartmouth,  on  the  east 
side  of  the  harbour.  In  this  raid  the  Micmacs  killed  four  persons 
and  carried  off  one.  In  the  spring  of  1750  they  repeated  their 
attack  on  the  same  settlement,  setting  fire  to  several  dwellings  and 
killing  and  scalping  a  much  larger  number  than  in  the  first  raid.  On 
Halifax  itself  there  was  never,  so  far  as  is  recorded,  any  attack 
made  either  by  Indians  or  by  the  French  inhabitants ;  there  were, 
however,  occasional  murders  by  Indians  in  the  outskirts  of  the 
town,  towards  Bedford  Basin,  of  individual  men  who  had  found 
it  necessary  to  forage  in  that  direction  for  firewood. 

In  the  summer  of  1755,  Governor  Lawrence  sent  the  authorities 
in  England  a  plan  of  the  four  batteries  he  had  just  completed,  to 
which  we  have  already  referred.  They  were  each  twelve  feet  in 
height  above  high  water  mark,  two  hundred  and  forty  feet  in  length, 
and  sixty-five  feet  in  breadth.  The  parapet  raised  on  each  was 
seven  feet  high,  and  the  materials  were  logs  and  timber  framed 
and  filled  up  with  stones,  gravel,  and  soft  earth.  The  next  month 
after  their  completion,  twenty  guns  were  mounted  on  these  three 
batteries.  Later,  but  just  when  we  do  not  know,  the  number  of  bat- 
teries was  increased. 

In  the  autumn  of  1757,  strong  appeals  were  made  by  the  inhab- 
itants to  the  governor  and  council  to  put  the  town  in  a  better  state 
of  defence.  The  majority  of  the  persons  so  appealing  were  Mas- 
sachusetts born  men,  who  humbly  begged  the  authorities  to  let  them 
know  promptly  whether  their  appeal  could  be  granted  or  not.  If 
it  could  not,  they  desired  to  take  the  first  opportunity  to  remove 
with  their  families  and  effects  to  some  neighbouring  colony  where 
they  might  be  better  protected.  Probably  on  the  ground  of  insuf- 
ficient revenue,  the  authorities  seem  to  have  disregarded  the  appeal, 
and  it  was  not  until  July,  1762,  that  any  energetic  measures  were 
taken  materially  to  improve  the  defences  of  the  town.  In  the  early 
summer  of  1762,  news  came  that  the  French  had  invaded  the  Brit- 
ish settlements  in  Newfoundland,  and  fear  was  newly  felt  that  Hal- 
ifax also  might  be  attacked,  the  authorities  therefore  called  a  coun- 
cil of  war  to  consult  on  better  means  of  defence  in  case  this  should 

24 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

happen.  The  council  met  on  the  10th  of  July  and  continued  its 
sittings  until  August  17th,  the  result  of  its  deliberations  being  a 
recommendation  to  the  governor  and  council  to  put  in  repair  and 
furnish  with  guns  the  batteries  "on  George's  Island,  Fort  George, 
Point  Pleasant,  and  East  Battery, ' '  and  to  erect  such  works  around 
the  town  and  at  the  Dockyard  as  might  be  considered  necessary  to 
give  the  town  full  protection.  As  a  result  of  this  recommendation, 
some  of  the  old  works  were  put  in  repair  and  new  ones  constructed, 
but  the  immediate  cause  of  alarm  soon  subsiding,  ' '  further  expense 
was  deemed  unnecessary,"  and  the  matter  dropped. 

In  1763,  the  palisaded  defences  of  Halifax  were  in  a  state  of 
decay,  and  the  Home  Government  sent  a  Swiss  engineer,  who  had 
been  General  Wolfe 's  quartermaster-general  at  Quebec,  to  Halifax, 
to  prepare  plans  for  permanent  defences  for  the  place.  To  the 
Ordnance  department  at  Halifax  the  engineer  submitted  several 
plans,  the  first  of  which  proposed  making  the  place  a  walled  town, 
with  lines  of  masonry  running  up  from  the  water  front  to  the  cita- 
del, with  batteries  at  intervals  on  each  side.  The  Dockyard  being 
so  far  north  of  the  proposed  line  of  defence  that  it  could  not  thus 
be  protected,  this  plan,  however,  was  given  up,  but  another  that 
was  proposed  was  adopted,  though  it  was  not  put  in  operation  until 
thirty  years  later.  This  plan  included  the  building  of  a  strong 
citadel  on  the  hill  overlooking  the  town  (which  seems  to  have  been 
then  commonly  known  as  "Signal  Hill",  and  reconstructing  and 
strengthening  all  the  harbour  forts.3 

In  his  chapter  on  the  fortifications  of  Halifax  in  his  chronicles 
of  the  town  published  in  the  "Collections  of  the  Nova  Scotia  His- 
torical Society"  in  1895,  Dr.  Thomas  B.  Akins  summarizes  the  early 
defences  thus: 

"From  the  year  1749  to  1754  or  '55,  the  defences  of  the  town  con- 
sisted of  palisades  or  pickets  placed  upright,  with  block  houses  built 

3"At  the  first  settlement,"  says  Dr.  Akins,  "it  had  been  found  necessary  to  occupy 
not  only  every  elevated  position  in  the  vicinity,  but  also  large  spaces  around  the  town  as 
at  first  laid  out,  for  the  purposes  of  defence  and  other  military  objects.  After  the  neces- 
sity for  those  defences  had  ceased  it  frequently  occurred  that  the  military  commanders 
would  lay  claim  to  the  grounds  as  military  property,  and  in  this  way  obstacles  had  con- 
tinually arisen  to  the  extension  of  the  town,  a  grievance  which  has  continued  to  be  felt 
until  the  present  time.  Those  whose  duty  it  was  to  plan  and  lay  out  the  town  appear 
to  have  been  guided  more  with  a  view  to  the  construction  of  a  military  encampment  than 
that  of  a  town  for  the  accommodation  of  an  increasing  population."  Collections  of  the 
Nova  Scotia  Historical  Society,  Vol.  8,  pp.  66,  67. 

25 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

of  logs  at  convenient  distances.  This  fence  extended  from  where 
the  Eoman  Catholic  Cathedral  now  stands  to  the  beach  south  of 
Fairbanks 's  Wharf,  and  on  the  north  along  the  line  of  Jacob  street 
to  the  harbour.  These  palisades  were  in  existence  in  1753,  but  were 
removed  at  a  very  early  period,  a  time  not  within  the  recollection 
of  the  oldest  natives  of  the  town  living  in  1825.  .  .  .  There  were 
several  block-houses  south  of  the  town — at  Point  Pleasant,  Fort 
Massey,  and  other  places.  A  line  of  block-houses  was  built  at  a 
very  early  period  of  the  settlement,  extending  from  the  head  of  the 
North  West  ,Arm  to  the  Basin,  as  a  defence  against  the  Indians. 
The  foundation  of  the  centre  block-house  was  still  to  be  seen  in 
1848,  in  the  hollow  below  Philip  Bayers 's  pasture.  .  .  .  These 
block-houses  were  built  of  square  timber,  with  loopholes  for  mus- 
ketry, they  were  of  great  thickness  and  had  parapets  around  the 
top  and  a  platform  at  the  base,  with  a  well  for  the  use  of  the  guard." 

As  the  revolution  in  the  colonies  adjoining  Nova  Scotia  drew  on, 
the  Halifax  authorities  became  once  more  greatly  alarmed  at  the 
inadequacy  of  the  town's  defences.  In  the  autumn  of  1774  the 
council  eagerly  discussed  the  matter  and  came  to  the  conclusion  that 
the  ground  being  too  rocky  for  intrenchments,  the  only  practical  for- 
tifications would  be  temporary  block-houses  and  fresh  palisades.  It 
was  resolved,  also,  that  the  Dockyard  should  be  fortified  in  a  similar 
way,  so  that  this  inclosure  might  serve  as  a  retreat  for  the  inhab- 
itants in  case  the  town  should  be  attacked.  Any  attempt  at  increas- 
ing the  fortifications  on  Citadel  Hill  at  that  moment,  owing  to  the 
lateness  of  the  season  and  the  scarcity  of  workmen  and  of  troops  to 
garrison  a  fort,  was  considered  out  of  the  question.  On  George's 
Island,  however,  additional  batteries  were  erected,  and  thither  the 
chief  military  stores  of  the  town  were  removed.  Sketches  of  the 
town,  made  by  a  certain  Colonel  Hicks,  about  1780,  and  soon  after 
engraved  and  published  in  London,  show  fortifications  then  at  Cita- 
del Hill,  Fort  Massey,  Fort  Needham,  Point  Pleasant,  and  George's 
Island. 

Although  the  better  fortifying  of  Citadel  Hill  was  suspended  in 
1774,  about  four  years  later  such  a  work  was  undertaken.  At  that 
time  a  small  redoubt  with  a  flag  staff  and  guardhouse  stood  near  the 
summit  of  the  hill,  which  was  about  eighty  feet  higher  than  it  is  at 
present,  but  the  hill  had  no  other  fortification.  The  works  then  con- 
structed were  ' '  an  octangular  tower  of  wood  of  the  block-house  kind, 
having  a  parapet  and  small  tower  on  top,  with  port-holes  for  can- 

26 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

non,  the  whole  encompassed  by  a  ditch  and  ramparts  of  earth  and 
wood,  with  pickets  placed  close  together,  slanting  outwards.  Below 
this  there  were  several  outworks  of  the  same  description,  extending 
down  the  sides  of  the  hill  a  considerable  distance." 

In  1793,  Sir  John  Wentworth  did  something  towards  repairing 
the  citadel  fort,  but  much  more  vigorous  measures  were  taken  by 
his  Eoyal  Highness  Prince  Edward  in  1795  and  1796  to  make  it 
worthy  of  the  commanding  position  it  held.  His  efforts  extended 
also  to  other  forts,  notably  those  at  the  mouth  of  the  harbour,  but 
from  the  citadel  fort  he  swept  away  the  old  wooden  fortifications, 
and  cutting  down  the  summit  of  the  hill  to  its  present  level  he  rebuilt 
the  earth  ramparts,  at  each  angle  of  which  he  placed  five  or  six 
guns,  deepened  the  moat,  planted  willow  trees  around  the  ramparts, 
and  inclosed  the  whole  fortification  with  a  picket  fence.  Leading 
into  the  fort,  Dr.  Akins  tells  us,  he  built  "  covered  walks  and  pass- 
ages." In  making  these  important  changes,  with  the  cooperation 
of  the  Governor  he  employed  besides  garrison  troops,  the  country 
militia,  and  for  a  time  a  considerable  detachment  of  the  Jamaica 
Maroons,  who  were  brought  to  the  province  in  1796. 

The  Halifax  citadel  as  it  is  now,  with  its  great  interior  wall  of 
solid  masonry,  dates  from  the  year  1812.  The  disturbance  between 
Britain  and  the  United  States  on  account  of  the  impressment  of 
British  sailors  on  American  ships  culminated  in  this  year,  creating 
the  last  great  agitation  on  account  of  hostile  military  operations  by 
a  foreign  power  by  which  Halifax  was  stirred  until  the  outbreak 
of  the  present  great  European  war,  started  by  Germany  in  1914. 
In  the  beginning  of  1812,  orders  were  issued  to  put-  the  forts  of 
Halifax  in  better  repair,  among  these  the  citadel  fort,  which  by  this 
time  was  in  a  state  of  some  dilapidation.  The  commanding  engi- 
neer on  the  station,  Captain  Gustavus  Nicholls,  accordingly  made 
the  Board  of  Ordnance  an  elaborate  report  concerning  repairs 
needed,  and  the  carrying  out  of  the  details  of  his  plan  was  imme- 
diately begun.4 


4Dr.  Aikins  says :  "The  towers  on  George's  Island,  Point  Pleasant,  the  East  Bat- 
tery, Mauger's  Beach,  and  York  Redoubt  were  built  at  the  commencement  of  the  present 
[the  iQth]  century.  .  .  .  The  Chain  Battery  at  Point  Pleasant  was  first  constructed, 
it  is  said,  by  Lord  Colville,  in  or  about  1761.  The  present  ring  bolts  were  put  down 
during  the  war  of  1812  to  1815.  The  old  block  house  at  Fort  Needham  and  that  above 
Philip  Bayers's  farm,  on  the  road  leading  to  the  Basin,  called  the  Blue  Bell  Road,  were 
built  during  the  American  Revolution,  and  reconstructed  during  Prince  Edward's  time. 
They  were  there  in  1820,  but  soon  after  fell  into  decay,  being  composed  of  square  timber 
only.  All  the  other  block  houses  had  disappeared  many  years  previous  to  that  date." 
Akins  Chronicles  of  Halifax,  p.  212. 

27 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

Other  buildings  early  erected  as  parts  of  the  military  establish- 
ment in  Halifax  were  the  North  Barracks,  built  soon  after  the  town 
was  settled;  the  South  Barracks,  built  in  the  time  of  the  Duke  of 
Kent;  a  barracks  at  the  East  Battery,  erected  very  early,  but 
rebuilt  by  Prince  Edward  in  1800;  probably  a  military  prison,  the 
building  being  a  dwelling  house  purchased  for  this  use  in  1752 ;  and 
the  Lumber  Yard  and  Ordnance  Yard,  begun  about  1784  or  1785. 
' i During  the  Eevolutionary  War,"  says  Dr.  Akins,  "the  main  guard- 
house stood  on  the  spot  now  occupied  by  Masons '  Hall.  It  was  used 
as  a  military  post  at  a  very  early  period,  as  the  French  prisoners 
from  Annapolis,  etc.,  were  lodged  there."  A  building  called  the 
Military  Office,  this  historian  adds,  "  stood  at  the  south  corner  of 
the  market  wharf,  near  where  the  main  guard  house  now  is.  It  was 
used  as  a  military  office  until  1790,  or  perhaps  later. ' ' 

In  an  earlier  chapter  we  have  mentioned  the  town  residence  of 
the  Duke  of  Kent,  while  he  lived  in  Halifax,  a  handsome  dwelling 
having  a  portico  resting  on  Corinthian  pillars.  This  house  stood 
on  the  north  slope  of  the  Citadel  Hill,  in  rear  of  the  then  stand- 
i  ing  North  Barracks,  and  seems  to  have  been  erected  for  his  Royal 
Highness'  use.  After  the  Prince  left  Halifax  the  house  was  taken 
by  the  military  authorities  for  an  army  hospital,  a  low  range  of 
buildings  connected  with  it,  which  were  used  by  the  Duke  as  stables 
and  offices,  making  places  for  barrack  stores  and  a  garrison  library. 

The  times  of  greatest  military  activity  in  the  century  and  almost 
three-quarters  that  the  history  of  Halifax  covers,  are  the  periods  of 
the  so-called  French  and  Indian  War,  between  1754  and  1760,  the 
American  Revolution,  between  1774  and  1783,  the  War  of  1812,  be- 
tween 1812  and  1815,  and  the  present  great  European  War,  between 
1914  and  1918.  The  period  of  the  so-called  French  and  Indian  War, 
between  1754  and  1760,  was  a  time  of  almost  continuous  agitation  in 
Halifax,  among  both  the  military  and  civilian  elements  in  the  pop- 
ulation. The  determined  effort  of  Shirley  as  commander-in-chief 
in  Massachusetts,  pursuant  to  the  great  plan  of  Pitt,  to  break  for- 
ever the  power  of  France  in  America,  included  in  its  scope  not  only 
the  destruction  of  Louisburg  and  the  conquest  of  Quebec,  but  the 
capture  of  the  only  important  fort  in  the  peninsula  of  Nova  Sco- 
tia that  remained  in  French  hands,  the  little  stronghold  on  the  bor- 
der line  between  what  the  French  recognized  as  Nova  Scotia  and  the 

28 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

adjoining  (New  Brunswick)  territory,  which  they  still  claimed  as 
belonging  to  France,  the  fort  called  Beausejour.  The  only  thing 
remaining  to  be  accomplished  in  destroying  the  French  power  in 
Nova  Scotia  was  the  complete  subjugation  to  British  authority  or 
else  the  removal  from  their  homes  and  the  distribution  of  them 
throughout  other  British  colonies  of  the  nearly  ten  thousand  inhab- 
itants who  were  industriously  tilling  the  soil  and  fishing  in  various 
parts  of  the  peninsula.  To  capture  Fort  Beausejour,  Shirley  sum- 
moned in  New  England  a  force  of  two  battalions,  to  be  led  respec- 
tively by  Lieutenant  Colonel  John  Winslow  of  Marshfield,  Massa- 
chusetts, and  Lieutenant-Colonel  George  Scott,  giving  the  general 
command  to  Colonel  Robert  Monckton.  On  the  16th  of  June,  1755, 
this  New  England  force  captured  Fort  Beausejour,  and  in  the  au- 
tumn of  the  same  year  the  authorities  at  Halifax  in  conjunction 
with  the  Government  of  Massachusetts  forcibly  removed  some  seven 
or  eight  thousand  of  the  Nova  Scotia  French  from  their  native 
homes  in  the  province  and  distributed  them  in  pitiful  pauper  groups 
along  the  Atlantic  coast  from  Maine  to  Georgia.  In  July,  1758, 
Louisburg  for  the  second  time  fell  into  English  hands,  and  in  Sep- 
tember, 1759,  under  General  Wolfe,  Quebec  was  captured,  at  both 
which  events,  as  at  the  capture  of  Beausejour  and  the  removal  of  the 
Acadians,  universal  satisfaction  was  felt  at  Halifax. 

The  next  event  to  arouse  Halifax  was  the  American  Revolution, 
and  the  next,  after  peace  was  declared  in  1783,  was  the  less  import- 
ant but  still  important  conflict  between  England  and  the  United 
States  known  as  the  War  of  1812.  After  this  struggle  had  passed, 
the  life  of  Halifax,  either  military  or  civil,  had  remarkably  little  to 
disturb  it  until  when  a  full  century  had  passed  the  great  European 
War  broke  out  in  1914.  Of  the  part  Halifax  has  been  made  to  play 
by  the  military  and  naval  authorities  of  the  British  Empire  in  this 
greatest  of  world-conflicts  the  history  will  some  day  be  written ;  it 
is  much  too  early  to  write  it  yet.  As  a  base  for  the  departure  of 
by  far  the  greatest  number  of  the  troops  that  Canada  has  dis- 
patched for  service  on  the  eastern  front  of  the  war,  the  Nova  Sco- 
tia capital  will  always  stand  conspicuous  in  the  great  war's  annals 
when  they  come  into  print. 

In  1917,  a  war  geography  bulletin  issued  by  the  National  Geo- 
graphic Society  of  Montreal  described  Halifax  and  its  defences  as 
follows:  "The  town  was  the  first  English  speaking  settlement 

29 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

in  the  midst  of  the  French  colonies  of  Acadia,  and  it  speedily  took 
on  importance.  Within  five  years  from  its  founding  it  became  the 
seat  of  British  North  American  government,  and  Britons  have  long 
termed  it  the  'Warden  of  the  Honour  of  the  North.'  Its  harbour 
is  deep  and  ample,  and  said  to  be  sufficient  to  float  all  the  navies  of 
Europe.  Eleven  forts  command  its  spacious  waters,  and  up  to 
1905  Halifax  was  a  busy  British  military  point.  In  that  year,  how- 
ever, as  a  mark  of  friendly  relations  with  the  United  States,  all 
British  regular  troops  were  withdrawn  and  the  care  of  Halifax  and 
its  fortifications  was  committed  to  the  government  of  the  Dominion 
of  Canada.  With  the  outbreak  of  the  European  war,  however,  Hal- 
ifax was  again  made  the  military  and  naval  headquarters  for  Brit- 
ish America,  and  many  German  prisoners  have  been  interned  upon 
the  well-guarded  islands  of  its  harbour.  Here  too  was  the  chief 
port  of  embarkation  for  the  numerous  contingents  which  Canada 
has  contributed  to  the  English  armies.  During  the  Napoleonic 
wars,  Halifax  was  the  scene  of  many  a  demonstration  of  English 
powers.  The  privateers,  fitted  out  by  enterprising  Haligonians, 
frequently  returned  with  their  prizes.  Distinguished  French  pris- 
oners made  use  of  the  enforced  hospitality  of  the  Citadel  .  .  . 
which  still  caps  the  highest  ground  and  is  a  landmark  far  to  sea." 

The  number  of  troops  in  the  Halifax  garrison  from  decade  to 
decade  during  the  century  and  almost  three-quarters  which  the 
history  of  the  town  covers,  has  greatly  varied.  And  just  as  diverse 
has  been  the  character  of  the  regiments  permanently  stationed  or 
briefly  located  here.  The  earliest  troops  to  invest  the  town 
were  partly  British  regulars  and  partly  New  England  militia. 
In  July,  1750,  the  garrison  of  Louisburg  was  expected  but  had  not 
yet  arrived,  there  were  here,  however,  one  company  of  Hopson's 
29th  regiment,  one  of  Warburton's  45th,  both  on  the  regular  estab- 
lishment, and  also  sixty  men  of  Gorham's  New  England  Rangers. 

In  the  course  of  the  year  1782,  a  little  before  the  close  of  the 
American  Revolution,  there  were  for  longer  or  shorter  periods  no 
less  than  thirty-two  regiment  or  parts  of  regiments  in  the  town, 
while  during  the  war  of  1812  there  were  thirteen.  After  1837,  for 
at  least  thirty  years,  there  were  always  two  full  regiments  of  the 
line  in  this  garrison,  and  during  this  time,  as  before,  the  regiments 

30 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

stationed  here  were  often  among  the  most  distinguished  in  the  Brit- 
ish service.5 

In  the  spring  of  1758,  the  brilliant  young  soldier,  General  Wolfe, 
visited  Halifax.  On  the  23d  of  January  of  that  year,  being  then 
lieutenant-colonel  of  the  20th,  he  had  been  commissioned  brigadier- 
general  in  North  America,  with  an  expedition  in  view  for  the  cap- 
ture again  of  the  fortress  of  Louisburg.  On  the  8th  of  May,  1758, 
he  reached  Halifax  harbour  in  the  Princess  Amelia,  and  until  the 
28th  of  this  month  he  remained  here  on  his  ship.  When  he  stepped 
on  shore  from  the  ship  on  the  9th  of  May,  writes  Mr.  Beccles  Will- 
son,  he  "had  a  pretty  exact  idea  of  the  fort  and  settlement,  which  his 
friend  and  comrade  in  arms,  Cornwallis,  had  founded  nine  years 
before.  ...  It  was  perhaps  in  the  officers'  quarters  in  Hollis 
street,  the  site  of  which  has  been  marked  by  an  Historical  Society 
tablet,  that  Wolfe  sat  down  two  days  later  and  wrote  a  long  letter  to 
his  friend  Sackville.  'We  found,'  he  writes,  'Amherst's  Regi- 
ment in  the  harbour  in  fine  order  and  healthy.  Fraser's  and  Brig- 
adier Lawrence 's  battalions  were  here  and  both  in  good  condition. ' 
Although  he  praised  the  Highlanders,  Wolfe  does  not  appear  to 
have  been  impressed  by  the  American  Rangers.  'About  500  Rang- 


*In  the  Year  Book  of  St.  Paul's  Church,  Halifax,  for  1909,  Ven.  Archdeacon  Arm- 
itage,  Rector  of  the  church,  enumerates  carefully  the  regiments  that  between  1750  and 
1844  have  probably  worshipped  at  St.  Paul's.  The  list,  which  we  reproduce  here,  was 
supplied  Dr.  Armitage  by  Messrs.  Harry  Piers,  Provincial  Archivist  and  Curator  of  the 
Provincial  Museum,  and  Mr.  Arthur  Fenerty  of  H.  M.  Customs  at  Halifax,  both  of 
whom  have  given  close  attention  to  the  history  of  the  garrison. 

The  regiments  in  garrison  at  Halifax  in  successive  years  are  as  follows :  In  1750  one 
company  of  Hopson's  29th  regiment,  one  company  of  Warbarton's  45th,  part  of  the  40th, 
and  sixty  men  of  Gorham's  New  England  Rangers.  In  1752,  Lascelles'  47th;  in  1758  the 
Royal  Provincial  Rangers  under  Colonel  Jarvis,  the  2d  and  3d  battalions  of  the  Royal 
American  regiment,  the  22d  under  Colonel  Wilmot,  the  28th,  45th,  47th  under  Colonel 
Monckton,  the  2d  Brigade,  I5th,  35th,  4Oth  and  63rd,  under  Colonel  Murray;  in  1768 
the  9Oth  and  64th;  in  1771  the  35th;  in  1773  the  6sth  under  Colonel  Hollingsdale ;  in  1774 
the  Loyal  American  Volunteer  regiment  under  Colonel  Kingslake;  in  1776  the  Royal 
Colonial  regiment  under  Colonel  Hilson ;  in  1777  the  loth  regiment ;  in  1778  McLean's 
82nd,  the  Cape  regiment  under  Colonel  Augustus  Waldron,  and  the  Royal  Nova  Scotia  Vol- 
unteer regiment  under  Colonel  Lushington,  "probably  the  first  Imperial  Colonial  regi- 
ment ever  raised  for  active  service";  in  1779  the  Hessian  regiment  of  Baron  DeSeitz;  in 
1782  the  3d  and  5th  battalions  of  the  6oth  or  Loyal  American  regiment  of  foot,  the  7th, 
J7th,  22d,  23d,  33d,  37th,  38th,  40th,  42d,  43d,  54th,  57th,  63d,  64th,  74th,  82d,  and  84th, 
and  also  detachments  of  the  Royal  British  Recruits,  the  Royal  Garrison  Battalion,  the 
Royal  Fencible  Americans,  the  Royal  Nova  Scotia  Volunteers,  the  King's  Orange  regi- 
ment, the  King's  Rangers,  the  St.  John's  Volunteers,  the  Hessian  Recruits,  the  Hesse- 
Hanoverian  Grenadiers,  the  Hesse-Hanoverian  Jagers,  the  Anhalt  Zerbsters,  the 
Waldeckers,  and  the  Brunswickers ;  in  1784  the  loth,  I7th,  33d,  27th,  42d,  57th,  and  54th ; 
in  1786  the  6th  and  6oth;  in  1787  the  4th;  in  1788  the  King's  Own,  the  37th,  and  the 
57th;  in  1789  the  6th;  in  1790  the  4th,  the  20th,  and  the  2ist;  in  1794  the  Royal  Nova 
Scotia  regiment,  and  the  ist  battalion  of  the  7th  under  Colonel  Burrows ;  in  1795  the  2d  bat- 

31 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

ers  are  come,  which  to  appearance  are  little  better  than  canaille.' 
.  .  .  How  did  Wolfe  spend  the  next  fortnight  of  his  sojourn 
in  Halifax  before  the  squadron  sailed  for  Cape  Breton?  He  cer- 
tainly wrote  a  great  many  letters,  and  he  passed  a  great  deal  of  time 
in  examining  the  condition  and  discipline  of  the  troops.  The  state 
of  things  that  met  his  eye  was  distressing  enough  to  a  man  whose 
standards  were  as  high  as  Wolfe's.  He  wrote  Sackville  that  he 
found  some  of  the  regiments  had  three  or  four  hundred  men  eaten 
up  with  scurvy.  '  There  is  not  an  ounce  of  fresh  beef  or  mutton  con- 
tracted even  for  the  sick  and  wounded,  which  besides  the  inhu- 
manity is  both  impolitic  and  absurd.  Mr.  Boscawen,  indeed,  has 
taken  the  best  precautions  in  his  power  by  ordering  600  head  of  live 
cattle  for  the  fleet  and  army  the  moment  he  arrived. '  Then  he  goes 
on  to  say,  '  The  curious  part  of  this  barbarity  is  that  the  scoundrels 
of  contractors  can  afford  the  fresh  meat  in  many  places  and  circum- 
stances as  cheap  as  salt.  I  think  our  stock  for  the  siege  full  little, 
and  none  of  the  medicines  for  them  arrived.  No  horses  or  oxen  for 
the  artillery,  et  cetera.'  ". 

One  of  the  incidents  of  this  visit  of  the  famous  general  was  a 
dinner  he  gave  at  the  Great  Pontac,  at  the  corner  of  Duke  and  Wa- 
ter streets,  to  a  group  of  officers  of  the  army  and  navy  and  certain 


talion  of  the  7th;  in  1797  the  Royal  Fusiliers  under  Col.  Layard,  the  4th,  6th  (Irish 
Brigade  Division),  and  7th;  in  1798  the  24th,  47th,  and  66th  under  Colonel  Urquhart  and 
Lieutenant-Colonel  Arthur  Benson,  the  4th  battalion  of  the  King's  Royal  Veteran  regi- 
ment under  Colonel  Ashburnham,  and  the  99th  under  Colonel  Addison ;  in  1800  the  26th 
Loyal  Surrey  Rangers  under  Colonel  Edwards  and  Colonel  Hollen ;  in  1801  the  7th,  26th 
Loyal  Surrey  Rangers,  Royal  Nova  Scotia  regiment  under  Lieutenant-Colonel  Bayard, 
and  Royal  Newfoundland  regiment  under  Lieutenant-Colonel  Williams ;  in  1802  the 
Royal  Newfoundland  Fencibles,  the  7th  Royal  Fusiliers  under  Colonel  Layard,  the  29th 
under  Colonel  Lord  F.  Montagu,  the  6oth  and  the  83d  under  Lieutenant-Colonel  Smyth ; 
in  1803  the  Nova  Scotia  Fencibles  under  Colonel  F.  A.  Weatherall ;  in  1805  the  6oth  and 
97th;  in  1807  the  zoist;  in  1804  the  Glen  Fencibles  under  Colonel  Gates;  in  1808  the  7th, 
8th,  and  23d;  in  1810  the  2d  battalion  of  the  8th  and  the  98th ;  in  1812-14  the  8th,  27th, 
3d  battalion  of  the  2Oth,  6oth,  first  battalion  of  the  62d,  the  7th  Royal  Fusiliers,  64th,  8gth 
under  Colonel  Westfield,  98th  under  Colonel  Bazalgette,  99th  under  Colonel  Addison, 
I02d,  loth  Royal  Veteran  Battalion  under  Colonel  McLaughlin,  and  Royal  Staff  Corps ; 
in  1816  the  isth  and  6oth  under  Colonel  Bagnell;  in  1818  the  62d  and  ist  Royal  Garrison 
Battalion  under  Colonel  John  Ready ;  in  1819  the  7th,  24th,  26th,  Royal  Nova  Scotia, 
Royal  York  Rangers,  and  Royal  West  Indian  Rangers  under  Colonel  Fortescue ;  in  1821 
the  8ist  ;  in  1823  the  74th  under  Colonel  Hiller ;  in  1824  the  96th ;  in  1825  the  ist  battalion 
Rifle  Brigade  under  Colonel  Lord  Lenox ;  in  1826  the  52d  Oxfordshire  Light  Infantry,  a 
famous  Waterloo  regiment,  the  74th  of  Peninsular  fame;  in  1829  the  34th  under  Colonel 
Fox  and  Colonel  Forrest,  and  the  Royal  Staff  Corps ;  in  1830  the  8th ;  in  1832  the  Rifle 
Brigade ;  in  1834  the  83d ;  in  1836  the  85th ;  in  1837  the  34th,  and  6sth ;  in  1838  the  6sth ; 
in  1839  the  23d  Royal  Welsh  Fusiliers,  and  the  36th ;  in  1841  the  3oth  Reserve  Battalion 
Rifle  Brigade  under  Colonel  Hallett,  and  the  76th ;  in  1842  the  30th,  64th,  68th  and  2d 
battalion  of  the  76th;  in  1844  the  2d  battalion  of  the  2d  Royal  Regiment,  and  the  74th. 
To  these  must  be  added  at  all  times  the  Royal  Artillery  and  Royal  Engineers. 

32 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

leading  citizens,  at  some  time  during  his  stay.  The  entertainment 
was  lavish,  for  a  copy  of  the  bill  of  fare  of  the  dinner  was  preserved 
in  Halifax  up  to  a  recent  date,  and  the  cost  of  the  meal,  according 
to  a  duplicate  of  the  inn-keeper's  receipt,  amounted  to  seventy 
pounds.  On  the  30th  of  April,  1759,  Wolfe  arrived  at  Halifax  again, 
from  there  going  very  soon  to  Louisburg,  whence  in  June  he  sailed 
for  Quebec.  When  he  came  first  to  Halifax  he  was  major  of  bri- 
gade, when  he  came  the  second  time  he  was  major-general.  He 
died  at  Quebec,  as  is  well  known,  on  the  13th  of  September,  1759.6 

In  1878,  the  army  staff  in  Halifax  was  as  follows:  The  Com- 
mander of  the  forces,  His  Excellency  General  Sir  William  0  'Grady 
Haley,  K.  C.  B.,  colonel  of  the  47th  foot;  Assistant  Military  Secre- 
tary, Lieutenant-Colonel  A.  S.  Quill,  half  pay  R.  C.  Rifles;  Aides- 
de-Camp,  Captain  R.  H.  0 'Grady  Haley  and  Brigade  Major  E.  L. 
England,  13th  Foot;  Assistant  Adjutant  and  Quartermaster  Gen- 
eral, Lieutenant-Colonel  W.  H.  Kerr;  Town  Major,  Captain  R. 
Nagle,  half -pay  of  late  Canadian  Rifles;  Garrison  Instructor,  G. 
E.  Milner,  18th  Foot;  Officer  Commanding  Royal  Artillery,  Colonel 
J.  H.  Elgee,  R.  A.;  Officer  Commanding  Royal  Engineers,  Colonel 
J.  W.  Lovell,  C.  B.,  District  Commissary-General;  Assistant  Com- 
missary-General, J.  W.  Murray;  Commissary-General  (Ordnance), 
Assistant  Commissary-General  A.  S.  Beswick;  Principal  Medical 
Officer,  Deputy  Surgeon-General,  G.  A.  F.  Shelton,  M.  B.;  Chap- 
lains, Rev.  R.  Morrison,  M.  A.,  Presbyterian,  Rev.  A.  J.  Townend, 
B.  A.,  Anglican,  Rev.  T.  Moore,  Roman  Catholic. 

At  this  time,  the  Royal  Artillery  on  the  station  comprised  the  3d, 
5th  and  6th  Batteries ;  the  Royal  Engineers,  the  9th  Company.  The 
Infantry  regiments  were,  the  20th  East  Devonshire,  now  called  the 
Lancashire  Fusiliers,  and  the  97th  (Earl  of  Ulster's  Regiment). 
The  first  of  these,  the  20th,  is  one  of  the  famous  regiments  of  the 
British  army.  It  was  raised  in  the  time  of  William  of  Orange,  by 
Sir  Robert  Peyton,  whose  command  of  it,  however,  was  brief.  Sir 


"Murdoch  in  his  History  of  Nova  Scotia  (yol.  2,  p.  363)  says:  "Though  Wolfe 
died  young,  he  lived  long  in  the  affections  of  British  Americans.  I  can  well  remember 
seeing  his  likeness  (an  engraving)  in  many  of  the  quiet  and  happy  homes  of  my  native 
town  of  Halifax,  which  had  been  preserved  among  the  penates  of  the  colonial  hearths 
for  half  a  century.  I  can  recall  the  engraving  well:  the  cocked  hat  of  antique  pattern, 
the  military  garb,  the  bright  young  face,  and  the  inscription  'General  James  Wolfe; 
aetatis  33.'  I  fancy  this  was  the  workmanship  of  a  Mr.  Hurd  of  Boston,  brother  of  Ja- 
cob Kurd  of  Halifax,  from  whom  Kurd's  Lane  derives  the  name." 

33 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

Robert  was  succeeded  by  Gustavus  Hamilton,  afterward  Viscount 
Boyne,  and  under  him  the  regiment  fought  at  the  Boyne.  The  regi- 
ment remained  in  Ireland  until  the  outbreak  of  the  war  of  the 
Spanish  Succession  in  1702,  then  it  served  in  the  Cadiz  expedition, 
and  at  the  capture  of  the  Spanish  treasure  ship  in  Vigo  Bay,  after 
which  it  went  to  the  West  Indies,  where  it  remained  until  1705.  Af- 
ter the  disastrous  battle  of  Almenza  in  1707  it  was  sent  to  the 
Peninsula,  where  it  was  in  active  service  until  the  peace,  when  it 
went  to  Gibraltar.  There  it  did  duty  for  many  years,  it  being  one  of 
the  regiments  which  defended  the  fortress  against  the  Spaniards  in 
the  second  of  the  three  sieges  during  the  British  occupation,  from 
December,  1727,  until  June,  1728.  Later,  it  served  under  Lord 
Stair  and  Duke  William  of  Cumberland  in  Flanders  and  in  the 
North,  fought  at  Dettingen,  at  Fonteroy,  and  at  Culloden,  and  made 
the  campaigns  in  Flanders,  under  Cumberland  and  Wade.  After 
this  it  was  at  home  for  several  years,  and  incidental  notices  of  it  will 
be  found  in  the  correspondence  of  General  Wolfe,  who  on  the  5th 
of  January,  1749,  was  made  its  major,  and  in  1750  its  lieutenant- 
colonel.  In  August,  1759,  it  won  lasting  fame  on  the  historic  field 
of  Minden,  in  Germany.  Tradition  says  that  during  this  fray,  in 
which  it  showed  great  bravery  but  met  with  severe  losses,  it  was 
posted  near  a  rose  garden,  and  that  its  men  plucked  roses  and  deco- 
rated their  hats  with  them.  Ever  since  then,  on  the  anniversaries 
of  Minden,  the  men  of  the  20th  have  commemorated  the  battle  by 
wearing  roses  in  their  caps. 

At  the  outbreak  of  the  Seven  Years  War,  the  20th  raised  a  sec- 
ond battalion,  and  this  in  1758  became  the  67th.  Of  this  new  regi- 
ment, on  the  21st  of  April,  1758,  General  Wolfe  was  given  the  col- 
onelcy. This  regiment,  also,  like  the  old  20th,  has  a  long  record  of 
distinguished  service. 

In  the  course  of  years  a  very  considerable  number  of  British  mil- 
itary officers  who  have  had  distinguished  careers  in  various  parts 
of  the  world  have  either  claimed  Halifax  as  the  place  of  their  birth, 
or  belonging  to  other  parts  of  Nova  Scotia,  in  later  life  have  had 
close  relations  with  the  capital  city.  Two  such  were  General  Sir 
William  Fenwick  Williams,  Baronet,  K.  C.  B.,  who  in  British  mili- 
tary annals  bears  an  illustrious  name.  General  Williams,  as  we 
have  already  seen,  was  born  at  Annapolis  Royal,  December  21, 

34 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

1799,7  his  parents  being  Thomas  Williams,  Commissary  and  Ord- 
nance Storekeeper  at  Annapolis  Royal,  and  a  leading  man  in  the 
county  of  Annapolis  in  civil  and  military  affairs,  and  Anna  Maria 
(Walker)  Williams,  daughter  of  Lieutenant  Thomas  Walker  of  the 
40th  regiment,  and  barrack-master  at  Annapolis  Eoyal.  At  an 
early  age  he  was  placed  in  the  Eoyal  Military  Academy  at  Wool- 
wich, and  entering  the  army  rose  to  his  captaincy  in  1840.  In  the 
war  of  the  Crimea  he  earned  for  himself  an  undying  name  as  the 
"hero  of  Kars;"  one  of  the  gallant  defenders  of  this  town  during 
its  four  months  siege  by  Moravieff,  on  the  29th  of  September, 
1855,  he  gave  the  besiegers  battle,  and  after  a  fierce  conflict  of  eight 
hours  duration,  defeated  a  force  much  larger  than  his  own  on  the 
heights  above  Kars.  The  town  fell,  however,  and  General  Wil- 
liams was  taken  prisoner,  first  to  Moscow,  then  to  St.  Petersburg. 
Very  soon  afterward  he  was  created  a  baronet,  and  in  1858  was 
made  commander-in-chief  of  the  forces  in  British  North  America, 
From  October  12,  1860,  until  January  22,  1861,  he  was  governor- 
in-chief  of  the  British  provinces  in  North  America,  and  from  the 
18th  of  October,  1867,  until  the  spring  of  1873,  was  lieutenant-gov- 
ernor of  his  native  province.  For  part  of  this  time  he  resided  at 
Halifax.  He  died,  unmarried,  in  London,  July  26,  1883,  and  was 
buried  at  Brompton.  "Firm  as  a  rock  on  duty,"  says  one  of  his 
biographers,  "he  had  the  kindliest,  gentlest  heart  that  ever  beat." 


'In  the  9th  chapter  of  this  history,  page  65,  we  have  given  the  date  of  General  Wil- 
liams's  birth,  and  one  other  fact  concerning  this  illustrious  man,  incorrectly.  He  was 
born,  so  it  is  believed,  on  the  date  we  have  given  here,  December  21,  1799,  and  was  en- 
tered at  Woolwich,  but  not,  as  we  previously  said,  through  the  influence  of  the  Duke 
of  Kent.  He  had  an  aunt  married  to  Col.  William  Fenrick  and  his  admission  to  Wool- 
wich was  secured  by  Col.  Fenwick  and  his  wife.  The  correct  date  of  his  birth  and  this 
fact  concerning  his  admission  to  Woolwich  have  been  brought  out  very  distinctly  in  a 
monograph  by  Mr.  Justice  Savary,  D.  C.  L.,  (printed  in  pamphlet  form  in  1911),  enti- 
tled "Ancestry  of  General  Sir  William  Fenwick  Williams  of  Kars."  In  our  sketch  of 
General  Williams  as  a  governor  of  Nova  Scotia  we  also  unintentionally  omitted  to  give 
his  parents'  names.  In  making  these  corrections  in  our  sketch  in  the  9th  chapter  we  are 
obliged  to  differ  from  the  author  of  the  sketch  of  General  Williams  in  the  "Dictionary 
of  National  Biography." 

In  making  these  corrections  we  also  herewith  state  that  in  almost  every  instance  in 
previous  chapters  where  we  have  attributed  statements  to  Mr.  Justice  Savary,  D.  C.  L., 
we  should^  have  attributed  them  to  what  is  commonly  called  the  "Calnek-Savary"  History 
of  Annapolis  County.  This  valuable  book  was  written  by  a  gentleman  long  since  de- 
ceased, Mr.  W.  A.  Calnek,  though  it  was  "edited  and  completed,"  as  the  title  page  tells 
us,  by  Mr.  Justice  Savary.  The  statement  it  contains,  therefore,  should  as  a  rule  be 
attributed  not  to  its  editor  but  to  the  original  author.  Mr.  Justice  Savary  is  the  author  of 
a  "Supplement"  to  this  History,  published  in  1913,  and  has  done  a  great  deal  otherwise  to 
stimulate  interest  in  and  increase  knowledge  of  the  history  and  traditions  of  Nova  Sco- 
tia at  large. 

35 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

The  next  most  illustrious  name  in  the  list  of  military  officers 
whom  Nova  Scotia  has  produced,  is  that  of  Sir  John  Eardley  Wil- 
mot  Inglis,  K.  C.  B.,  son  of  Bishop  John  and  grandson  of  Bishop 
Charles  Inglis.  Sir  John  Inglis  was  born  at  Halifax,  November  15, 
1814,  for  a  while  studied  at  King's  College,  Windsor,  entered  the 
army  as  ensign  in  the  32d  foot,  August  2, 1833,  and  as  brevet  colonel 
was  in  command  of  this  regiment  at  Lucknow  at  the  outbreak  of  the 
Indian  Mutiny  in  1857.  Succeeding  Sir  Henry  Lawrence  in  full 
command  as  brigadier-general  in  July  of  the  same  year,  he  bravely 
and  successfully  defended  the  residency  of  Lucknow,  and  for  this 
gallant  defence  became  commonly  known  as  "hero  of  Lucknow." 
In  1857  he  was  appointed  major-general  and  was  given  the  title  of 
K.  C.  B.  He  married  in  1851,  Hon.  Julia  Selina  Thesiger,  second 
daughter  of  the  first  Lord  Chelmsford,  who  with  her  three  children 
was  present  in  the  Lucknow  residency  throughout  the  defence.  Sir 
John  died  at  Homburg,  Germany,  September  27,  1862,  and  was 
buried  at  Homburg.  Lady  Inglis,  who  in  1892  published  an  inter- 
esting book  called  "The  Siege  of  Lucknow,  a  Diary,"  died  in  Eng- 
land in  February,  1904. 

Another  native  Haligonian  who  gained  much  distinction  in  the 
army  was  Lieutenant-General  William  Cochrane  (William  George 
Cochran),  born  at  Halifax,  April  19,  1790.  General  Cochrane  was 
the  third  son  and  sixth  child  of  Hon.  Thomas  Cochran,  a  merchant 
of  Halifax,  who  came  from  the  North  of  Ireland  in  1761,  with  the 
first  company  brought  to  the  province  from  Ireland  by  Alexander 
McNutt.  Entering  the  army  as  ensign  in  1805,  he  rose  to  be  major- 
general  in  1851,  and  lieutenant-general  in  1856,  his  most  important 
service  being  in  the  Peninsular  War  from  1808  to  1812.  During  the 
period  he  served  in  the  Peninsula,  he  was  present  and  took  part 
with  his  regiment  in  many  important  engagements.  On  leaving  the 
Peninsula  he  proceeded  to  Canada,  where  he  was  employed  during 
almost  two  years  of  the  war  of  1812,  as  acting  aide-de-camp  to  Lieu- 
tenant-General  Sir  George  Prevost,  governor  general  of  the  Brit- 
ish provinces  and  commander-in-chief.  As  lieutenant-colonel  he 
commanded  for  several  years  the  10th  regiment  of  foot.  In  July, 
1838,  he  retired  on  half  pay,  but  he  continued  to  fill  important  posi- 
tions until  his  promotion  to  lieutenant-general  in  1856,  and  indeed 
beyond  that,  until  his  death.  He  died  in  England,  probably  unmar- 
ried, September  4,  1857.  General  Cochrane  was  an  uncle  of  Sir 

36 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

John  Eardley  Wilmot  Inglis.  He  had  a  younger  brother,  Sir  James 
Cochrane,  Kt.,  who  was  chief -justice  of  Gibraltar,  and  a  sister  Isa- 
bella, married  to  the  noted  Dean  Kamsay  of  Edinburgh,  author  of 
"Reminiscences  of  Scottish  Life  and  Character." 

A  military  officer  born  in  Halifax,  who  attained  great  distinction, 
though  in  a  different  field  of  activity  from  that  presented  by  war, 
was  Major-General  John  Charles  Beckwith.  General  Beckwith 's 
father,  Captain  John  Beckwith,  of  the  57th  regiment,  was  a  mem- 
ber of  a  noted  English  military  family,  and  his  mother  was  Mary 
Halliburton,  daughter  of  Dr.  John  and  Susannah  (Brenton)  Halli- 
burton,8 after  the  War  of  the  Eevolution  residents  of  Halifax,  but 
previously  belonging  to  Newport,  Ehode  Island.  General  Beckwith 
was  born  at  Halifax,  October  2,  1789,  and  in  1803  obtained  an  en- 
signcy  in  the  50th  regiment.  The  next  year,  however,  he  exchanged 
into  the  95th,  of  which  his  uncle  Sydney  Beckwith  (General  Sir 
Thomas  Sydney  Beckwith)  was  lieutenant-colonel.  His  career  in 
the  army  ended  at  the  battle  of  Waterloo,  where  at  the  age  of  only 
twenty-six  he  lost  one  of  his  legs.  Compelled  by  this  misfortune  to 
seek  other  than  military  interests,  before  long  he  resolved  to  do 
something  towards  educating  and  generally  helping  the  Waldenses 
in  the  valleys  of  Piedmont.  The  past  history  of  these  people  and 
their  great  need  so  weighed  upon  him  that  he  resolved  to  settle 
among  them  and  spend  his  whole  time  in  their  service.  This  he  did, 
and  for  thirty-five  years,  until  his  death  in  1862,  he  was  a  devoted 
missionary  among  them  of  education  and  religion.  "His  two  main 
aims  were  to  educate  the  people  and  to  arouse  in  them  once  more 
the  old  evangelical  faith."  To  educate  them  he  established  no  less 
than  a  hundred  and  twenty  schools  in  the  district  where  he  had  set- 
'tled,  all  of  which  he  continually  personally  inspected.  In  1850  he 
married  a  Waldensian  girl,  Caroline  Valle,  and  in  all  ways  he  iden- 
tified himself  with  the  Waldensian  people.  Throughout  the  Italian 
valleys  the  one-legged  general  was  universally  known  and  beloved, 
and  when  he  died  his  funeral  was  attended  by  thousands  of  the 
peasants,  whose  lives  he  had  made  happier  by  his  devoted  work. 
The  greatness  of  his  services  was  recognized  by  King  Charles  Al- 
bert of  Sardinia,  who  in  1848  made  him  a  knight  of  the  order  of  St. 


'Married  at  Halifax,  December  17,  1788,  "Captain  John  Beckwith,  57th  regiment, 
and  Miss  Polly  Halliburton,  eldest  daughter  of  Hon.  John  Halliburton."  See  Murdoch  s 
History  of  Nova  Scotia,  Vol.  3,  p.  63. 

37 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

Maurice  and  St.  Lazarus.  He  was  promoted  lieutenant-colonel  and 
made  C.  B.  soon  after  Waterloo,  was  promoted  colonel  in  1837,  and 
was  made  major-general  in  1846.  He  died  at  his  home,  LaTorre,  on 
the  19th  of  July,  1862. 

One  of  the  most  conspicuous  monuments  in  Halifax  is  the  arch, 
surmounted  by  a  lion,  which  stands  just  within  St.  Paul's  Cemetery, 
on  Pleasant  street,  directly  in  front  of  the  iron  entrance  gates.  The 
monument  was  reared  in  memory  of  two  native  Haligonians  who 
fell  in  the  CrimeanWar,  Captain  William  Parker  and  Major  Au- 
gustus Welsford.  It  was  erected  by  the  citizens  of  Halifax  in  1860, 
its  dedication  being  on  the  16th  of  July  of  that  year.  The  dedi- 
cation prayer  was  made  by  the  Rev.  John  Scott,  minister  of 
St.  Matthew's  Presbyterian  Church,  who  thanked  God  for  the 
many  mercies  He  had  shown  towards  the  British  nation,  more 
especially  for  the  valour  with  which  He  had  endowed  its  soldiers.  A 
speech  was  made  by  the  lieutenant-governor,  Earl  Mulgrave,  "re- 
ferring in  terms  of  high  eulogium  to  the  valour  of  Parker  and  Wels- 
ford, native  heroes,  of  whom  Nova  Scotia  was  justly  proud,"  and 
incidentally  praising  the  young  naval  lieutenant,  Provo  William  Par- 
ry Wallis,  who  commanded  the  Shannon  when  she  came  into  the  port 
with  her  prize  the  Chesapeake,  to  the  "peaceful  but  perilous" 
achievements  of  Admiral  Sir  Edward  Belcher  in  Arctic  seas,  the  gal- 
lant defence  of  Kars  by  General  Sir  Fenwick  Williams,  and  the 
prowess  of  Sir  John  Inglis  at  Lucknow,  all  these  fellow  heroes  with 
the  men  to  whom  the  monument  had  been  erected.  After  this  came  an 
oration,  delivered  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  George  William  Hill,  rector  of  St. 
Paul's,  who  was  followed  in  a  shorter,  martial  speech  by  General 
Trollop,  chief  commander  of  the  troops.  The  sculptor  of  the  monu- 
ment was  Mr.  George  Laing,  who,  on  the  dais  erected  for  the  speak- 
ers, dressed  in  the  uniform  of  the  Chebucto  Greys,  as  the  orator 
complimented  him  on  the  noble  work  he  had  produced,  "drew  the 
drapery  from  the  monument  and  revealed  the  lion  on  the  top  of  the 
arch  standing  out  in  triumphant  attitude  against  the  clear  blue 
sky."  As  a  close  for  the  exercises,  a  salute  of  thirteen  guns  was 
fired  in  slow  time  by  the  volunteer  artillery.  The  monument  is  said 
to  have  cost  two  thousand  five  hundred  pounds. 

Captain  William  Parker,  son  of  Captain  William  Parker  of  the 
64th  regiment,  an  Englishman  who  had  retired  from  the  army  in 
Halifax  and  settled  at  Lawrencetown  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  har- 

38 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

bour  on  half  pay,  was  born  at  Lawrencetown,  near  Halifax,  about 
1820,  and  was  first  educated  at  Horton  Academy,  in  the  county  of 
King's.  In  1839,  his  mother,  who  was  originally  Susan  Green,  of 
Halifax,  and  was  then  a  widow,  obtained  an  ensign's  commission  for 
him  in  the  regiment  in  which  his  father  had  served.  In  February, 
1843,  he  became  a  lieutenant  and  exchanged  to  the  78th  Highlanders, 
and  thereafter  for  twelve  years  he  served  in  India.  In  January, 
1855,  he  was  promoted  captain  of  the  77th,  and  on  the  8th  of  Septem- 
ber of  the  same  year  at  the  final  attack  on  the  Redan  in  the  Crimean 
campaign  he  died  bravely,  in  the  thirty-fifth  year  of  his  age.9 

Major  Augustus  Welsford,  whose  memory  is  honoured  with  that 
of  Captain  Parker  in  the  Halifax  monument,  was  a  son  of  Lieuten- 
ant-Colonel Welsford  of  the  101st  regiment,  and  was  born  at  Hali- 
fax, but  in  what  year  we  do  not  know.  His  early  education  was 
obtained  at  King's  College,  Windsor,  Nova  Scotia,  after  leaving 
which  he  obtained  an  ensigncy  in  the  97th  regiment.  With  this  reg- 
iment he  saw  service  in  various  parts  of  the  world,  in  the  latter  part 
of  1854  being  stationed  in  Greece.  "When  Colonel  Lockyer  was 
made  a  brigadier,"  says  one  of  his  biographers,  "he  was  for  some 
time  in  command  of  the  regiment,  serving  thus  during  the  last 
memorable  battle  before  Sebastopol.  In  this  engagement  he  re- 
pulsed a  serious  sortie  of  the  Russians  with  two  hundred  of  his  men, 
and  for  his  bravery  was  mentioned  by  Lord  Raglan  in  official  dis- 
patches." Major  Welsford,  also,  was  killed  at  the  storming  of  the 
Redan  on  the  8th  of  September,  1855.  Although  a  thorough  soldier, 
he  was  a  truly  kind-hearted  man.  His  fellow  soldiers  loved  and  re- 
vered him;  "It  was  a  bitter  hour  for  us  all,"  once  wrote  a  sergeant 
who  had  served  under  him,  "when  the  poor  major's  body  was 
brought  back  to  us ;  had  he  lived  he  would  have  been  crowned  with 
laurel.  Let  us  hope  he  has  won  a  brighter  crown  now." 


*See  Mrs.  Lawson's  "History  of  Dartmouth,  Preston  and  Lawrencetown,"  pp. 
251,  252.  The  Green  family  to  which  Captain  Parker's  mother  belonged  was  one  of  the 
best  known  Boston  families  in  Halifax. 


39 


The  Lottery  in  American  History 

BY  HOWARD  0.  ROGERS,  PORTLAND,  OREGON. 

AN  is  naturally  a  gambler.  Of  all  human  characteristics^ 
the  sporting  instinct — the  temptation  to  play  the  game 
of  chance  in  the  hope  of  winning  much  at  the  risk  of  lit- 
tle— is  one  of  the  strongest  and  most  universal.  We  find 
abundant  recognition  of  this  human  weakness  and  want  of  self-con^ 
trol  to  avoid  the  evil  effects  of  its  indulgence,  in  the  vast  amount  of 
present-day  paternalistic  legislation  prohibiting  gambling  in  every 
form.  Man's  inability  to  resist  his  own  natural  cupidity,  and  the 
fascination  involved  in  the  thrills  of  hope  produced  by  the  chance- 
element,  has  made  it  necessary  for  his  government  to  step  in  and 
protect  him  against  himself. 

But  prior  to  the  awakening  of  public  conscience  in  comparatively 
modern  times,  this  natural  gaming  instinct  was  not  only  allowed  to 
be  played  upon  for  the  profit  of  individuals,  but  was  exploited  by 
government  agencies  and  thus  made  to  pay  public  revenue.  In  the 
fiscal  history  of  nations  this  human  passion  has  played  an  important 
part. 

The  instrumentality  employed  so  largely  to  work  this  rich  mine  of 
gambling  propensity  was  the  lottery.  The  modern  law-abiding 
American  citizen  knows  little  of  the  lottery  except  as  a  gambling  vice 
long  since  banned  by  the  law,  and  now  universally  accepted  as  a  so- 
cial evil  wisely  suppressed.  But  it  was  not  ever  thus. 

For  many  centuries  this  device  was  not  only  tolerated  by  public 
opinion,  but  legalized,  encouraged  and  employed  by  the  state  itself. 
Lotteries  prevailed  in  the  old  Eoman  times,  and  the  emperors  of  that 
day  followed  the  plan  on  a  magnificent  scale.  This  custom  later  de- 
scended to  festivals  given  by  the  feudal  and  merchant  princes  of 
Europe,  especially  of  Italy.  It  formed  a  prominent  feature  of  the 
splendid  court  hospitality  of  Louis  XIV  in  France.  One  of  the  first 
French  lottery  charters  was  granted  in  the  early  part  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  and  was  employed  as  a  revenue  measure  to  raise  funds  with 

40 


Chapters  in  the  History  of  Halifax,  Nova  Scotia 

BY  ABTHUB  WENTWOBTH  HAMILTON  EATON,  M.  A.,  D.  C.  L. 

No.  XIV 
HALIFAX  HABBOUB  AND  ITS  FAMOUS  TBADITIONS 

"Within  a  long  recess  there  lies  a  Bay, 
An  island  shades  it  from  the  rolling  sea 
And  forms  a  Port  secure  for  ships  to  ride, 
Broke  by  the  jutting  land  on  either  side." 

— Dryden's  Virgil. 

"In  addition  to  its  physical  beauty,  Halifax  Harbour  is  a  grand  commercial  asset, 
not  only  for  its  residents  but  for  the  Province  and  the  whole  Dominion  as  well." 
— A.  Martin  Payne  in  the  New  England  Magazine  for  November,  1906. 

HE  noble  harbour  of  Halifax,"  says  Judge  Haliburton, 
in  his  volume  "The  Old  Judge,"  published  long  ago, 
"is  one  of  the  best,  perhaps,  in  the  world:  its  con- 
tiguity to  Canada  and  the  United  States,  its  accessi- 
bility at  all  seasons  of  the  year,  and  its  proximity  to  England  (it 
being  the  most  eastern  part  of  this  continent)  give  it  a  decided  ad- 
vantage over  its  rival  [Bermuda] ;  while  the  frightful  destruction  of 
stores  at  Bermuda,  from  the  effects  of  the  climate,  its  insalubrity, 
and  the  dangers  with  which  it  is  beset,  have  never  failed  to  excite 
astonishment  at  the  want  of  judgment  shown  in  its  selection,  and  the 
utter  disregard  of  expense  with  which  it  has  been  attended."  From 
Judge  Haliburton 's  opinion  of  the  relative  advantages  Halifax 
harbour  there  has  never  been  any  dissent,  it  is  in  every  respect  one 
of  the  finest  harbours  in  the  world.  "During  fifty  years  service," 
said,  once,  a  distinguished  naval  officer,  "I  have  seen  all  the  great 
harbours  of  the  world,  Sydney  (New  South  Wales),  Rio  de  Janeiro, 
Naples,  Queenstown,  and  Halifax,  and  in  my  opinion  among  them 
Halifax  should  be  placed  first,  taking  into  consideration  its  ease  of 
access  from  the  open  ocean,  its  long  stretches  of  deep  water  close 
to  the  land  on  both  sides,  and  the  perfect  shelter  it  gives  ships. 
From  the  view-point  of  a  naval  base  and  the  requirements  of  a  great 

253 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

commercial  shipping  post  it  is  unrivalled  around  the  globe."    Says 
a  more  recent  writer: 

"Halifax  Harbour  is  described  in  nautical  works  as  one  of  the 
best  in  the  world,  affording  space  and  depth  of  water  sufficient  for 
any  number  of  the  largest  ships  with  safety.  It  is  easier  of  access 
and  egress  than  any  other  large  harbour  on  the  coast.  .  .  .  Unlike 
New  York,  Halifax  has  no  intricate  entrance  channel  such  as  that 
at  Sandy  Hook,  impassible  by  Atlantic  liners  at  some  conditions  of 
the  tide,  especially  in  bad  weather."  "We  have  the  same  broad, 
open  harbour  that  delighted  Colonel  Cornwallis  on  his  first  ap- 
proach to  our  shores,  the  same  wide-mouthed  entrance  through 
which  the  Cunarders  in  the  pioneer  days  of  steamships  came  and 
went  year  after  year  without  accident,  let,  or  hindrance,  the  same 
great  depth  and  broad  expanse  of  water  that  was  required  to  float 
that  huge,  clumsy  hulk  the  'Great  Eastern,'  the  same  magnificent 
roadstead,  which  the  entire  British  Navy  could  manoeuvre  in.  We 
have  also  along  the  harbour's  shores  light-houses,  buoys,  and  signal 
stations,  and  if  anything  more  is  needed  to  make  it  the  most  perfect 
harbour  in  the  world  we  can  have  that  too. ' ' 

Halifax  harbour  proper  is  a  magnificent  sheet  of  water,  from  eight 
to  twelve  fathoms  deep,  from  one  to  two  miles  wide,  and  from  the 
entrance,  fifteen  miles  long,  the  island  known  as  McNab's  giving 
it  the  shelter  of  a  natural  breakwater.  With  its  forty-two  miles 
of  shore  line  it  may  be  described  "as  a  group  of  harbours,  the  main 
harbour  of  commerce  being  flanked  on  the  Dartmouth  side  by  the 
Eastern  Passage  and  on  the  city  side  by  the  picturesque  Northwest 
Arm. ' ' 

The  importance  of  the  part  the  harbour  has  played  in  the  recent 
world-war,  now  happily  ended,  cannot  be  overestimated,  and  this 
in  a  future  chapter  we  shall  hope  as  adequately  as  possible  to  de- 
scribe. In  later  chapters  we  shall  also  give  some  account  of  the  hor- 
rible tragedy  that  in  the  course  of  the  war  occurred  on  the  shore  of 
the  harbour,  visiting  with  death  and  destruction  much  of  the  north 
end  of  the  city,  and  also  of  the  wonderful  series  of  docks  that  the 
Dominion  Government  is  now  at  great  cost  constructing  on  the  lower 
harbour  for  the  accommodation  of  future  maritime  trade.  In  the 
present  chapter  we  shall  run  back  over  the  seventeen  decades  during 
which  the  harbour  has  been  conspicuously  used  for  human  enterprise 
and  sketch  briefly  the  chief  maritime — commercial  and  striking  his- 

254 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

torical  naval  events  that  are  the  outstanding  features  of  the  varied 
history  of  this  beautiful  bay. 

The  first  striking  episode  in  the  history  of  the  harbour  was  the 
sailing  into  its  quiet  shelter  in  the  autumn  of  1746  of  the  forlorn 
remnant  of  the  fleet  of  the  Due  d'Anville,  which  had  proudly  left 
Eochelle,  in  France,  for  America,  on  the  22d  of  June  of  that  year. 
D'Anville 's  fleet  consisted  of  twenty-one  war-ships,  twenty  other 
frigates  and  privateers,  and  several  transports,  which  carried  be- 
sides a  sea  force  no  less  than  three  thousand  one  hundred  and 
fifty  soldiers,  militia  troops,  and  marines.  The  commission  the 
fleet's  commander  bore  ambitiously  authorized  the  retaking  and  dis- 
mantling of  Louisburg,  effecting  a  junction  with  the  French  troops 
collected  at  Bale  Verte  and  expelling  the  British  from  Nova  Scotia, 
consigning  Boston  to  flames,  ravaging  New  England,  and  wasting 
the  British  West  Indies.1  Fate,  however,  had  decided  against  the 
success  of  this  far  reaching  policy  of  the  French  King,  the  voyage 
across  the  ocean  was  made  difficult  and  dangerous  by  contrary 
winds,  arid  on  the  2nd  of  September,  the  fleet  having  reached  the 
dreaded  shoals  of  Sable  Island,  the  whole  squadron  was  there  dis- 
persed by  a  fierce  storm,  and  four  ships  of  the  line  and  a  transport 
were  probably  sunk.  At  last,  between  the  8th  and  the  16th  of  Sep- 
tember, six  or  seven  ships  of  the  line  and  a  few  transports  sought 
refuge  in  Halifax  harbour,  and  there  the  Due  d'Anville  and  his  com- 
panion officer  Vice-Admiral  D'Estournelle  both  died.  On  the  pas- 
sage scorbutic  fever  and  dysentery  had  been  fatal  to  twelve  or  thir- 
teen hundred  of  the  men,  and  these  diseases  now  continued  their 
ravages  until  no  less  than  1,130  more,  it  is  said,  had  died  and  been 
buried  on  the  shore  of  Bedford  Basin,  at  the  upper  end  of  the  har- 
bour. The  Due  d'Anville  himself  died  of  "apoplexy,  sickness,  or 
poison,"  and  was  probably  buried  on  George's  Island,  while  Vice- 
Admiral  d'Estournelle,  "agitated,  feverish,  and  delirious."  is  re- 
ported to  have  fallen  on  his  sword  and  as  a  result  died  within 
twenty-four  hours  after. 

Less  than  three  years  had  passed  after  d'Anville 's  mournful  few 
ships  steered  into  the  harbour  when  Colonel  Edward  Cornwallis 


'See  C.  Ochiltree  MacDonald's  "The  Last  Siege  of  Louisburg,"  pp.  23,  24;  and 
many  other  authorities.  By  the  terms  of  the  treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  which  was 
concluded  and  signed  in  October,  1748,  Louisburg  so  almost  miraculously  captured, 
chiefly  by  New  England  troops,  in  1745,  had  been  restored  to  France,  a  blunder  that 
cost  England  another  siege  of  the  place  in  1758. 

255 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

brought  hither  his  fleet,  laden  with  English  emigrants  to  found  Hali- 
fax, thus  opening  for  the  harbour  an  era  of  incessant  shipping 
activity  which  is  destined  to  continue  as  long  as  time  lasts.  In  June 
or  July,  1749,  as  a  consequence  of  the  restoration  of  Louisburg  to 
France,  the  English  and  New  England  civilian  residents  of  the 
French  town  in  the  island  of  Cape  Breton,  as  well  as  the  troops  that 
had  occupied  the  fortress,  came  up  to  Halifax,  partly  in  transports 
that  had  been  lent  them  for  the  passage  by  Desherbiers,  the  newly 
appointed  governor  of  Cape  Breton;2  and  these,  in  addition  to  the 
steady  stream  of  schooners  and  sloops  that  came  directly  from  Bos- 
ton, bringing  settlers  from  Massachusetts  for  Halifax,  and  also 
laden  with  supplies  for  the  civilians  and  soldiers  at  the  new  capital, 
made  the  harbour  a  busy  place. 

In  July,  1757,  Admiral  Holburne  with  a  fleet  of  fifteen  ships  of  the 
line  and  one  vessel  of  fifty  guns,  carrying  at  least  twelve  thousand 
men,  arrived  at  Halifax  from  England,  with  the  intention  of  re- 
capturing Louisburg,  but  hearing  that  the  French  had  a  larger  force 
at  Cape  Breton  than  he  had  been  led  to  believe,  he  abandoned  his 
purpose.  The  next  year,  however,  the  harbour  was  the  rendezvous 
for  another  fleet,  with  the  same  object  in  view,  the  chief  commander 
of  this  enterprise  being  Admiral  Boscawen.  Soon  after  the  middle 
of  May  (1758)  twenty-three  ships  of  the  line,  eighteen  frigates  and  a 
hundred  and  sixteen  transports  and  small  craft  sailed  into  the  har- 
bour, General  Jeffery  Amherst  and  General  Wolfe  and  the  troops 
they  commanded  being  also  with  the  fleet.  On  Sunday,  May  28th, 
this  formidable  armada  left  for  the  French  stronghold,  and  the  suc- 
cess of  the  expedition  is  graphically  described  by  Sir  Gilbert  Parker 
and  Mr.  Claude  G.  Bryan  in  their  picturesque  volume  entitled  "Old 
Quebec."3  "The  years  since  1745,"  says  these  writers,  "had  been 


'In  his  first  letter  from  Chebucko  to  the  Duke  of  Bedford,  dated  June  22,  1749, 
Colonel  Cornwallis  says  that  he  finds  that  Governor  Hopson  of  Louisburg,  who  had 
been  under  orders  to  transport  the  English  troops  stationed  there  to  Chebucto,  had 
no  transports  in  which  to  bring  them.  As  he  does  not  know  when  he  himself  can  send 
transports  he  thinks  it  absolutely  necessary  to  send  the  sloop  by  which  Hopson  has  sent 
messages  to  him,  to  Boston  "with  orders  to  Apthorp  and  Hancock,  who  Mr.  Hopson 
has  recommendd  as  the  persons  that  have  been  always  employed  on  the  part  of  the 
Government  to  hire  vessels  with  all  expedition  for  the  transportation  of  these  troops 
from  Louisburg  to  Chebucto."  A  few  days  later,  however,  Cornwallis  rescinded  the 
order  to  Apthorp  and  Hancock,  but  before  his  second  order  could  get  to  Boston  these 
enterprising  merchants  had  engaged  the  transports,  so  Cornwallis  had  to  pay  something 
for  them.  The  troops  at  Louisburg  seem  to  have  been  conveyed  to  Halifax  partly  by 
English  transports  which  had  brought  the  Cornwallis  settlers,  partly  by  French  ships 
which  had  come  out  with  Deshrbiers. 

'Sir  Gilbert  Parker  and  Claude  G.  Bryan,  in  "Old  Quebec,  the  Fortress  of  New 
France"  (1903),  pp.  253-255. 

256 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

years  of  growing  strength  for  Louisburg,  and  in  1758  it  almost 
equalled  Quebec  itself  in  importance.  Its  capable  commandant,  the 
Chevalier  de  Drucour,  counted  4,000  citizens  and  3,000  men-at-arms 
for  his  garrison ;  while  twelve  battleships,  mounting  544  guns,  and 
manned  by  3,000  sailors  and  marines,  rode  at  anchor  in  the  rock- 
girt  harbour,  the  fortress  itself,  with  its  formidable  outworks,  con- 
taining 219  cannon  and  seventeen  mortars.  Bold  men  only  could 
essay  the  capture  of  such  a  fortress,  but  such  were  Wolfe,  Amherst, 
and  Admiral  Boscawen,  whose  work  it  was  to  do. 

"The  fleet  and  transports  sailed  from  Halifax,  bearing  eleven 
thousand,  six  hundred  men  full  of  spirit  and  faith  in  their  com- 
manders. All  accessible  landing-places  at  Louisburg  had  been  forti- 
fied by  the  French ;  but  in  spite  of  this  precaution  and  a  heavy  surf, 
Wolfe 's  division  gained  the  beach  and  carried  the  redoubts  at  Fresh- 
water Cove.  A  general  landing  having  been  thus  effected,  Wolfe 
marched  round  the  flank  of  the  fortress  to  establish  a  battery  at 
Lighthouse  Point.  The  story  may  only  be  outlined  here.  First  the 
French  were  forced  to  abandon  Grand  Battery,  which  frowned  over 
the  harbour,  then  the  Island  Battery  was  silenced.  On  the  forty- 
third  day  of  the  siege,  a  frigate  in  the  harbour  was  fired  by  shells, 
and  drifting  from  her  moorings,  destroyed  two  sister  ships.  Four 
vessels  which  had  been  sunk  at  the  mouth  of  the  harbour  warded 
Boscawen 's  fleet  from  the  assault,  but  did  not  prevent  six  hundred 
daring  blue-jackets  from  seizing  the  Prudent  and  Bienfaisant,  the 
two  remaining  ships  of  the  French  squadron. 

"Meanwhile,  zigzag  trenches  crept  closer  and  closer  to  the  walls, 
upon  which  the  heavy  artillery  now  played  at  short  range  with 
deadly  effect.  Bombs  and  grenades  hissed  over  the  shattering  ram- 
parts and  burst  in  the  crowded  streets;  roundshot  and  grape 
tore  their  way  through  the  wooden  barracks;  while  mortars  and 
musketry  poured  a  hail  of  shell  and  bullet  upon  the  brave  defenders. 
Nothing  could  save  Louisburg,  now  that  Pitt's  policy  of  Thorough 
had  got  headway.  On  the  26th  of  July,  a  white  flag  fluttered  over 
the  Dauphin's  Bastion;  and  by  midnight  of  that  date  Drucour  had 
signed  Amherst 's  terms  enjoining  unconditional  surrender. 

* '  Then  the  work  of  demolition  commenced.  The  mighty  fortress, 
which  had  cast  a  dark  shade  over  New  England  for  almost  half  a 
century,  'the  Dunkirk  of  America,'  must  stand  no  longer  as  a 
menace.  An  army  of  workmen  labored  for  months  with  pick  and 
spade  and  blasting-powder  upon  those  vast  fortifications ;  yet  noth- 
ing but  an  upheaval  of  nature  itself  could  obliterate  all  traces  of 
earthwork,  ditch,  glacis,  and  casemate,  which  together  made  up  the 
frowning  fortress  of  Louisburg.  To-day  grass  grows  on  the  Grand 

257 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

Parade,  and  daisies  blow  upon  the  turf — grown  bastions ;  but  who 
may  pick  his  way  over  those  historic  mounds  of  earth  without  a 
sigh  for  the  buried  valour  of  bygone  years. ' ' 

As  every  resident  of  Halifax  or  visitor  to  the  city  knows,  the  long 
water-front  of  the  town  is  flanked  by  a  succession  of  nearly  fifty 
wharves  for  the  accommodation  of  ships  and  the  pursuit  of  maritime 
trade.4  Writing  the  lords  of  trade  the  day  after  his  arrival  at 
Chebucto,  his  impressions  of  the  place  selected  for  the  new  settle- 
ment, Governor  Cornwallis  says :  "  All  the  officers  agree  the  harbour 
is  the  finest  they  have  ever  seen,"  to  this  adding  in  a  later  letter  that 
it  is  "the  finest  perhaps  in  the  world."  Along  the  beach,  he  says, 
wharves  may  easily  be  built,  one  already  having  been  finished 
sufficiently  ample  to  accommodate  ships  of  two  hundred  tons.  In 
February,  1750,  it  was  proposed  in  council  that  a  quay  should  be 
built  along  the  shore  in  front  of  the  town,  but  several  merchants, 
among  whom  were  Messrs.  Thomas  Saul  and  Joshua  Mauger,  hav- 
ing applied  for  water  lots  and  liberty  to  build  individual  wharves 
along  the  beach,  the  question  of  the  quay  was  referred  to  the  pro- 
vincial surveyor,  Mr.  Charles  Morris,  and  the  government  engineer. 
Mr.  John  Bruce,  for  their  decision.5  The  expense  of  the  quay  prom- 
ised to  be  so  heavy  and  the  time  required  to  build  it  so  long  that 
these  officials  reported  unfavorably  on  it,  and  licenses  to  build 
wharves  were  accordingly  granted.6  At  this  period,  says  Dr.  Akins, 
the  line  of  the  shore  was  so  irregular  as  in  some  places  to  afford  only 
a  footpath  between  the  base  line  of  the  lots  which  now  form  the 
upper  side  of  Water  Street  and  high  water  mark.  At  the  Market 


4"There  are  forty-seven  docks,  piers,  and  wharves  along  the  water-front  of  Hali- 
fax proper,  nine  of  which,  at  Richmond  and  the  deep  water  terminus,  have  connections 
at  the  ships'  side  with  the  Intercolonial  railway."  A.  Martin  Payne,  in  the  Boston 
Christian  Science  Monitor  for  November  29,  1911. 

8A  list  of  men  in  the  "south  suburbs"  who  sometime  in  1750  received  permission 
from  Governor  Cornwallis  to  build  wharves  "on  the  beach  before  the  town  of  Halifax, 
agreeable  to  order  of  Council"  is  the  following:  Terence  Fitzpatrick,  John  Shippy, 
John  Alden  and  Jonathan  Trumble,  Rundle  and  Crawley,  Captain  Trevoy,  Samuel 
Cleveland,  William  Wheeler,  Joshua  Mauger,  Henry  Ferguson,  and  Samuel  Sellon. 
Most  of  these  were  New  England  men. 

"At  a  Council  meeting  at  the  Governor's  house  on  Saturday,  February  24,  1750, 
the  Council  announced  that  merchants  and  others  might  build  wharves  where  they  judged 
proper,  and  spoke  in  favour  of  their  doing  so.  The  members,  however,  prescribed 
certain  conditions  for  prospective  builders,  one  of  which  was  that  no  storehouses  should 
be  built  on  wharves  "in  front  of  the  town."  "When  once  this  harbour  is  secure,  well 
peopled,  and  a  certain  fishery  established,"  wrote  Cornwallis  to  the  Lords  of  Trade, 
March  19,  1750,  "people  will  come  from  all  parts  without  any  expense  to  the  public, 
»nd  it  will  be  easy  to  extend  to  other  parts  of  the  Province." 

258 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

the  tide  flowed  up  nearly  to  where  the  [old]  City  Court  House  stood, 
forming  a  cove,  into  which  flowed  a  brook  which  came  down  a  little 
to  the  north  of  George  Street.  Near  the  Ordnance  Yard  another 
cove  made  in  and  this  part  of  the  shore  was  low  and  swampy  many 
years  after  the  batteries  were  built. 

From  the  business  advertisements  in  the  earliest  modest  news- 
paper of  Halifax  in  the  first  year  of  its  publication,  the  year  1752, 
we  find  mention  of  at  least  four  wharves  that  were  already  built, — 
Barnard's,  Captain  Cook's,  Fairbanks',  and  Grant's,  and  there  were 
certainly  others  like  Mauger's,  which  lay  at  the  foot  of  Jacob  Street. 
Gerrish's  wharf,  afterwards  known  as  Marchington's,  lay  immedi- 
ately north  of  the  Ordnance  Yard,  Proctor's  is  said  to  have  been 
situated  near  the  spot  where  the  Cunard  wharf  was  in  time  built, 
Frederick's  later  became  Beamish 's,  Fillis's,  afterward  Mitchell's, 
was  a  little  south  of  the  King's  Wharf,  Terence  Fitzpatrick's  was 
situated  almost  or  quite  on  the  spot  where  Esson  and  Boak's  later 
was  built,  Crawley's  was  south  of  this,  and  Collier's  occupied  the 
spot  where  the  later  Pryor's  was  built.  In  1753,  as  we  learn  from 
the  Halifax  GazeMe,  there  was  still  another  wharf  known  as  Bourn 
and  Freeman's. 

On  Colonel  Desbarres'  plan  of  Halifax,  made  in  1781,  Gerrish's 
wharf,  afterward  known  as  Marchington's,  is  shown  as  immediately 
north  of  the  five  gun  battery,  which  was  slightly  north  of  the  Ord- 
nance wharf;  Joshua  Mauger's  is  at  the  foot  of  Jacob  Street;  Proc- 
tor's seems  to  be  near  where  Cunard 's  old  wharf  now  is;  Freder- 
icks's,  afterward  Beamish 's,  is  the  present  market  wharf;  Fillis's 
seems  to  be  the  present  Mitchell's,  a  little  south  of  the  Queen's 
Wharf;  Terence  Fitzpatrick's  is  situated  about  where  Esson  and 
Boak's  now  is;  Crawley's  is  slightly  south  of  Fitzpatrick's;  and 
Collier's  is  identical  with  the  present  Pryor's.7 

The  Boston  merchants  whose  enterprise  in  sending  ships  to  Hali- 
fax, for  more  than  a  decade  after  the  settlement  of  the  town,  was 
greatest,  were  Messrs.  Charles  Apthorp  and  Thomas  Hancock.  For 
some  years  before  Cornwallis  came,  indeed,  these  important  Boston 
traders  apparently  had  enjoyed  almost  a  monopoly  in  supplying, 
by  contract  with  the  Nova  Scotia  government,  the  garrisons  at 
Annapolis  Royal  and  Chignecto,  and  indeed  Louisburg  when  it  was 
in  British  hands.  Some  time  in  1750,  Cornwallis  complains  to  the 


'See  Dr.  Akin's  Chronicles  of  Halifax,  p.  221. 

259 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

lords  of  trade  that  Messrs.  Ap thorp  and  Hancock,  "the  two  richest 
merchants  in  Boston,  who  have  made  their  fortunes  out  of  govern- 
ment contracts,"  because  they  could  not  entirely  monopolize  the. 
supplying  of  Halifax  had  given  him  a  great  deal  of  trouble.  * '  They 
distress  and  domineer, ' '  he  says,  ' '  and  now  wanton  in  their  insolent 
demands."  For  some  years  longer,  however,  as  we  have  said, 
Apthorp  and  Hancock  continued  to  be  the  chief  Boston  merchants 
sending  supplies  to  the  town.8 

The  comparative  wealth  of  Halifax  up  to  late  in  the  nineteenth 
century  is  recognized  by  all  historians  of  the  economic  and  social 
condition  of  the  Maritime  Provinces  to  have  been  in  great  measure 
due  to  the  trade  her  merchants  carried  on  with  the  West  Indies. 
This  trade,  however,  did  not  well  begin  until  some  years  after  the 
signing  of  the  articles  of  peace  between  Great  Britain  and  the 
United  States  at  Versailles  in  January,  1783.  In  the  British  Parlia- 
ment in  May,  1784,  the  question  of  commercial  intercourse  between 
the  British  West  Indies  and  the  United  States  was  earnestly  dis- 
cussed. England  had  hitherto  strictly  limited  the  trade  of  her  West 
Indian  colonies  to  herself  and  her  other  colonies,  now  peace  having 
been  established  between  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  the 
West  Indian  planters  remonstrated  at  such  limitation  and  petitioned 
to  have  it  removed.  Canada,  Nova  Scotia,  and  Prince  Edward  Is- 
land, however,  made  strong  efforts  to  convince  the  home  authorities 
that  the  West  Indies  would  still  find  sufficient  markets  in  British 
possessions  and  would  have  their  own  needs  adequately  supplied 


'Thomas  Hancock,  who  built  the  noted  Hancock  house  on  Beacon  Hill,  Boston,  died 
August  i,  1764.  His  partner,  Charles  Apthorp,  died  November  u,  1758.  In  the  obituary, 
Mr.  Apthorp,  in  the  Boston  Newsletter,  he  is  calld  "the  greatest  and  most  noted  mer- 
chant on  this  Continent."  For  a  brief  sketch  of  his  life  and  a  portrait  of  him,  see 
"Annals  of  King's  Chapel,"  Vol.  2,  p.  144.  Thomas  Hancock's  business,  as  is  well  known, 
was  inherited  by  his  nephew  (Governor)  John  Hancock,  who  continued  to  trade 
with  Nova  Scotia  until  at  least  1773.  In  Council,  July  6,  1750,  Governor  Cornwallis 
says  that  "there  having  been  some  difficulty  in  raising  the  supplies  of  money  necessary 
for  the  service  of  the  Colony,  he  has  agreed  to  proposals  sent  him  by  Messrs.  Apthorp 
and  Hancock  of  Boston,  who  engaged  to  provide  him  with  dollars  upon  condition  that 
they  should  likewise  have  the  furnishing  all  stores  and  materials,  which  his  Excellency 
understood  as  meaning  all  such  as  might  be  wanted  from  that  Province,  but  that  these 
gentlemen  had  since  explained  their  terms  so  as  to  oblige  him  to  take  everything  what- 
ever wanted  for  this  Province  from  them  and  not  to  leave  it  in  his  power  to  buy  any- 
thing whatever  here  or  in  any  of  the  northern  colonys,  which  terms  he  could  not  agree 
to  without  first  consulting  the  Council."  Delancey  &  Watts  of  New  York,  he  says,  have 
written  him  that  provided  his  Excellency  could  assure  them  of  the  bills  being  duly 
honoured  there  could  be  no  difficulty  in  being  provided  with  dollars  from  New  York. 
The  Council  unanimously  agreed  that  to  accede  to  the  proposals  of  Apthorp  and  Hancock 
would  be  very  disadvantageous  to  the  new  settlement.  See  Nova  Scotia  Archives,  vol. 
I.  See  also  the  "Correspondence  of  William  Shirley." 

260 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

from  British  sources,  except  indeed  in  the  matter  of  rice.  In  dis- 
cussing the  question,  the  West  Indian  sugar  planters  admitted  that 
"on  every  principle  of  honour,  humanity,  and  justice,"  the  Loyalist 
refugees  of  Canada  and  Nova  Scotia  were  entitled  to  a  preference 
in  their  trade,  provided  that  Canada  and  Nova  Scotia  had  the  prod- 
ucts to  supply  the  West  Indies,  but  they  contended  that  before  any 
permanent  regulations  governing  their  trade  should  be  made,  exact 
information  should  be  sought  as  to  how  much  of  the  annual  con- 
sumption of  American  staples  in  the  West  Indies  these  provinces 
had  hitherto  supplied  and  how  much  they  might  be  expected  in  the 
future  to  supply. 

When  the  matter  was  thoroughly  examined  by  means  of  custom 
house  records,  it  was  found  that  of  1,208  cargoes  of  lumber  and  pro- 
visions imported  from  North  America  into  the  British  sugar-raising 
colonies  in  the  year  1772,  only  seven  of  the  cargoes  were  from  Can- 
ada and  Nova  Scotia,  and  that  of  701  topsail  vessels  and  1,681  sloops 
which  had  been  cleared  from  North  America  to  the  British  and 
foreign  West  Indies  in  the  same  year,  only  two  of  the  topsail  vessels 
and  eleven  of  the  sloops  were  from  those  provinces.  Respecting 
Nova  Scotia,  it  was  stated  that  this  province  had  never  at  any  one 
period  produced  enough  grain  for  its  own  people,  and  had  never 
exported  lumber  "worthy  the  name  of  merchandise,"  and  that  a 
considerable  amount  of  the  lumber  it  was  then  producing  was  being 
used  to  build  houses  for  the  Loyalists  in  the  town  of  Port  Eoseway. 

Between  April  3, 1783,  and  October  26,  1784,  no  flour,  ship-biscuit, 
Indian  corn  or  other  meal,  horses,  cattle,  sheep,  hogs,  or  poultry 
came  into  the  island  of  Jamaica  from  Canada,  Nova  Scotia,  or 
Prince  Edward  Island,  the  only  provisions  were  180  bushels  of 
potatoes,  751  hogsheads  and  about  500  barrels  of  salted  fish,  with 
also  some  manufactured  lumber.  Previous  to  the  war  of  the  Rev- 
olution, in  the  years  1768-1772,  the  whole  imports  into  Jamaica  from 
Canada,  Nova  Scotia,  and  Prince  Edward  Island  were  seven  hogs- 
heads of  fish,  eight  barrels  of  oil,  three  barrels  of  tar,  pitch,  and 
turpentine,  36,000  shingles  and  staves,  and  27,235  feet  of  lumber. 

In  the  year  1807,  however,  as  is  shown  by  Judge  Haliburton  in  his 
statistical  account  of  Nova  Scotia,  fifty  ships  aggregating  5,013 
tons,  arrived  at  Halifax  from  the  West  Indies,  while  eighty  ships, 
with  a  tonnage  of  9,269  left  this  port  for  the  West  Indies.  Twelve 
years  later,  in  the  year  1828,  a  hundred  and  sixty-seven  ships,  with  a 

261 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

tonnage  of  17,062  arrived  at  Halifax,  while  a  hundred  and  seventy- 
seven  ships,  with  a  tonnage  of  18,739,  were  cleared  for  the  West 
Indies.  From  other  sources  than  Haliburton  we  further  learn  that 
the  value  of  imports  to  Halifax  from  the  West  Indies  between  Janu- 
ary 5,  1819,  and  January  5,  1823,  was  £348,175,  while  the  value  of 
exports  to  these  islands  in  the  same  period  was  £621,494.  During 
the  six  months  ending  September  30,  1866,  there  arrived  at  Halifax, 
from  the  British  West  Indies,  fifty  vessels  with  a  tonnage  of  7,844, 
and  from  the  Foreign  West  Indies  sixty-five  vessels  with  a  tonnage 
of  7,446,  these  ships  bringing  rum  (as  the  most  valuable  import), 
sugar,  molasses,  brandy,  gin,  salt,  and  coffee.  The  total  value  of 
imports  from  the  British  West  Indies  in  this  period  was  $238,143, 
from  the  Spanish  West  Indies  $233,246,  from  the  French  $11,017, 
from  the  Danish  $5,326.  Exports  from  Halifax  to  these  islands 
included  all  agricultural  products,  gypsum,  lime,  plaster,  cattle, 
apples,  hides,  fish  oil  and  fish.9 

In  all  records  of  the  early  shipping  activities  and  general  com- 
merce of  Halifax,  the  names  conspicuously  appear  of  Joshua  Maug- 
er  and  Thomas  Saul,  the  latter  of  whom,  a  member  of  the  Council, 
Dr.  Akins  says,  was  the  wealthiest  and  most  enterprising  merchant 
of  the  town  from  1749  to  1760.  The  career  of  Joshua  Mauger  we 
have  elsewhere  in  this  history  sketched ;  he  was  the  son  of  a  Jewish 
merchant  in  London,  who  in  early  life  began  to  trade  between  certain 
West  Indian  ports,  later  extending  his  activities  to  the  French  town 
and  garrison  of  Louisburg.  At  the  founding  of  Halifax  he  took  up 
his  residence  in  this  town,  establishing  truck-houses  in  the  interior 
of  the  province,  setting  up  three  distilleries  of  rum  in  the  capital, 
and  also  securing  there  the  position  of  agent-victualler  to  the  gov- 
ernment. Of  Thomas  Saul  we  know  less  than  we  do  of  Mauger, 
but  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  he  also  was  an  English-born  man. 
Precisely  when  he  first  came  to  Halifax  we  have  not  discovered,  but 


"See  "The  History,  Civil  and  Commercial,  of  the  British  Colonies  in  the  West 
Indies,"  by  Bryan  Edwards,  Esq.,  3rd  edition,  volume  2.,  Book  6,  Chapter  4.  See  also 
Haliburton's  "Historical  and  Statistical  Account  of  Nova  Scotia"  (2  volumes,  1829), 
volume  2;  Murdoch's  "History  of  Nova  Scotia,"  vol.  3,  pages  445,  503;  and  "Various 
Statements  connected  with  Trade  and  Commerce  of  the  Province  of  Nova  Scotia  for 
the  Twelve  Months  ended  30  September,  1886"  (Halifax,  1866).  Of  moderate  sized 
manufacturing  plants,  Halifax  has  had  and  has  a  considerable  number,  most  if  not  all 
of  which  have  had  their  beginning  since  1815.  These  comprise  sugar  refineries,  flour- 
mills,  bakeries,  canneries,  cordage-factories,  carriage-factories,  cabinet  works,  soap, 
candle,  glue,  linseed  oil,  comb,  brush,  tobacco,  paper,  and  confectionery  factories,  dis- 
tilleries of  rum,  gin,  and  whiskey,  and  breweries  of  ale  and  porter. 

262 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

his  trading  ventures  like  Mauger's  must  have  begun  soon  after 
the  town  was  established.  About  1753,  says  Dr.  Akins,  he  built  the 
most  elegant  private  residence  in  the  town.  Having  made  a  fortune 
in  Halifax,  about  the  same  time  as  Mauger  he  also  probably  returned 
to  England  to  spend  the  rest  of  his  days.  "Among  the  principal 
merchants  in  Halifax  in  1769,"  says  Dr.  Akins,  "the  Hon.  John 
Butler,  uncle  to  the  late  Hon.  J.  Butler  Dight,  Robert  Campbell  on 
the  Beach,  John  Grant,  Alexander  Brymer,  and  Gerrish  and  Gray 
appear  most  prominent.  Among  the  shopkeepers  and  tradesmen  who 
advertised  during  this  year  were  Robert  Fletcher  on  the  Parade, 
bookseller  and  stationer,  Andrew  Cunod,  grocer,  Hammond  and 
Brown,  auctioneers,  and  Robert  Millwood,  blocknlaker,  who  adver- 
tised the  best  Spanish  River  Coal  at  thirty  shillings  a  chaldron." 
Among  the  New  England  born  merchants  of  most  note  in  the  early 
history  of  the  town  were  Joseph  Fairbanks,  John  Fillis,  Benjamin 
Garrish,  Malachy  Salter,  and  Robert  Sanderson.  As  the  town 
progressed  we  find  among  the  leading  merchants,  Michael  Francklin, 
from  England,  Thomas  Cochran  and  Charles  Hill,  from  the  North 
of  Ireland,  Michael  and  James  Tobin  and  Edward  Kenny  from 
farther  south  in  Ireland,  and  a  good  many  enterprising  men  directly 
from  Scotland,  who  and  whose  descendants  have  always  borne  a 
conspicuous  part  in  the  social  as  well  as  commercial  activities  of 
the  place. 

In  a  valuable  monograph  on  Nova  Scotia  privateers  at  different 
periods,  written  by  Mr.  George  Nichols  of  Halifax,  and  published  in 
the  Collections  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Historical  Society,  we  find  im- 
portant facts  concerning  the  ships  fitted  out  at  Halifax  at  different 
periods  to  prey  on  the  sea  commerce  of  hostile  countries.  In  the 
autumn  of  1756,  Messrs.  Malachy  Salter  and  Robert  Sanderson 
together  fitted  out  a  schooner  of  a  hundred  tons  burden,  called  the 
Lawrence,  and  on  the  16th  of  November  started  her  on  a  privateer- 
ing voyage  against  the  French.  This  vessel,  Mr.  Nichols  says,  was 
the  first  privateer  to  be  fitted  out  at  Halifax.  She  was  armed  with 
fourteen  carriage  four-pounder  guns,  and  twenty  swivel  guns,  be- 
sides small  arms  and  ammunition  sufficient  for  a  six  months  cruise, 
and  had  a  crew  of  a  hundred  men,  and  her  captain  carried  a  letter 
of  marque  authorizing  him  to  capture  if  he  could  any  French  trading 
ship  with  her  cargo  that  he  might  come  upon  afloat.  At  the  same 
time  two  other  trading  vessels  owned  in  Halifax,  the  Hertford  and 

263 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

the  Musketo,  the  first,  owned  partly  by  John  Hale,  a  vessel  of  three 
hundred  tons,  armed  with  twenty  carriage  guns,  and  carrying  a 
crew  of  170  men,  the  second,  owned  by  Joshua  Mauger  and  John 
Hale,  of  a  hundred  and  twenty  tons,  manned  by  a  crew  of  eighty  men. 

"During  the  Seven  Years  War,"  says  Mr.  Nichols,  "which  lasted 
from  1756  to  1763, 1  can  learn  of  at  least  fifteen  privatee? s  that  were 
armed  and  fitted  out  at  this  port.  The  names  of  these  vessels  and 
their  commanders  have  been  preserved  to  us,  together  with  the 
particulars  of  their  tonnage  and  armament  and  the  number  of  their 
crews.  These  privateers  were  larger  and  more  heavily  armed  than 
their  successors  of  the  Kevolutionary  period.  Several  of  them  were 
ships  of  three  and  four  hundred  tons  burthen,  carrying  upwards  of 
a  hundred  and  sixty  men,  and  armed  with  as  many  as  twenty  car- 
riage guns  and  twenty-two  swivels.  The  tonnage  of  these  vessels 
seems  to  be  no  indication  of  their  armament,  for  the  small  schooner 
Lawrence  of  a  hundred  tons  carried  fourteen  carriage  guns  and 
twenty  swivels,  while  the  Wasp,  another  vessel  of  the  same  size, 
carried  twenty  guns  and  a  hundred  and  fifty  men.  The  majority  of 
the  cruises  starting  from  Halifax  were  directed  against  the  French 
in  southern  waters,  and  the  commissions  authorizing  them  generally 
named  six  months  as  the  period  during  which  they  might  lawfully 
be  prosecuted. ' '  Several  of  the  privateers  sailing  from  Halifax  at 
this  period,  however,  were  not  owned  in  Nova  Scotia,  but  in  other 
British  Provinces  or  in  England.  The  Halifax  shipping  merchants 
that  were  most  conspicuous  in  these  privateering  expeditions  of  the 
Seven  Years  War,  and  so  that  may  properly  be  considered  the  lead- 
ing ship-owners  here  at  this  period,  were  Messrs.  Michael  Francklin, 
Joshua  Mauger,  Malachy  Salter,  Robert  Sanderson,  Thomas  Saul, 
and  William  Ball. 

In  the  early  period  of  the  American  Revolution  all  the  waters 
about  the  Nova  Scotia  shores  were  infested  with  privateering  vessels 
sent  from  the  revolting  colonies,  and  their  crews  committed  many 
serious  depredations  at  various  ports.  By  an  act  of  the  Imperial 
Parliament  any  British  sympathizer  could  obtain  leave  from  the 
provincial  government  to  arm  and  man  any  vessel  he  owned  to  resist 
and  capture  the  enemy,  and  under  this  act  a  considerable  number  of 
privateer  schooners  were  sent  out  from  various  ports,  notably  Hali- 
fax and  Liverpool,  to  seize  any  booty  they  could  from  hostile  vessels 
anywhere  on  the  seas.  "Of  their  success,"  says  Mr.  Nichols,  "there 

264 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

is  no  doubt,  for  while  records  are  meagre,  no  less  than  forty-eight 
prizes  and  four  recaptures  arrived  in  Halifax  alone  between  the  4th 
of  January  and  the  20th  of  December,  1778,  among  the  captures  be- 
ing six  ships,  seven  brigs,  and  nine  brigantines. "  "Between  1779 
and  1781,"  he  further  says,  "we  have  records  of  forty-two  prizes 
and  recaptures  brought  into  this  port,  among  them  being  three  ships, 
six  brigs,  and  twelve  brigantines."  By  this  time,  it  is  clear,  many 
of  the  vessels  employed  either  in  peaceful  commerce  or  in  privateer- 
ing by  Nova  Scotia  traders  were  built  at  Nova  Scotia  ports,  but  con- 
cerning the  number  and  extent  of  ship  building  enterprises  at  or 
near  Halifax  then  we  are  not  at  present  informed. 

By  1793,  England  and  France  had  once  more  begun  active  hos- 
tilities, and  under  the  authority  of  the  Imperial  Government,  letters 
of  marque  could  be  obtained  by  all  owners  of  armed  vessels  to  seize 
French  ships  and  their  cargoes  wherever  they  could  find  them. 
The  Nova  Scotia  privateering  at  this  period  was  conducted  by  mer- 
chants and  captains  chiefly  from  the  two  ports  of  Liverpool  and 
Halifax,  the  greater  activity,  however,  being  at  the  southern  port. 
In  the  war  of  1812,  one  of  the  first  hostile  measures  taken  by  the 
United  States  against  England  was  to  issue  letters  of  marque 
against  British  ships,  and  within  a  month  after  war  was  declared 
Nova  Scotians  under  the  personal  authority  of  the  governor  of  the 
province,  Sir  John  Coape  Sherbrooke,  were  likewise  exercising 
the  privateering  right.  Between  1812  and  1815,  Nova  Scotia  vessels 
brought  into  the  various  leading  ports  of  the  province  more  than 
two  hundred  prizes,  exclusive  of  a  number  of  recaptures,  Halifax 
of  course  having  her  due  share  of  these  prizes.10 

His  Majesty's  Dockyard  at  Halifax,  the  "Naval  Yard,"  as  this 
famous  inclosure  on  the  shores  of  the  harbour  was  originally  called, 
has  a  long  and  varied  history  that  links  closely  with  Britain's  naval 
history  at  large  since  the  Dockyard  was  founded.  The  initial  site 


""At  this  period  of  the  war  [of  1812]  the  English  ships  of  war  did  not  molest  the 
unarmed  coasting  and  fishing  vessels  of  the  Americans,  but  the  American  privateers  were 
not  of  the  same  mind.  Our  coasters,  fishermen,  and  colliers  were  captured,  pillaged,  and 
sometimes  used  cruelly.  On  the  8th  of  October  a  boat's  crew  from  an  American  priva- 
teer landed  on  Sheep  Island,  at  the  mouth  of  Tusket  river,  where  lived  a  poor  man 
named  Francis  Clements,  and  his  family.  Without  provocation  they  shot  the  man 
dead,  ransacked  his  house,  carried  off  stock,  and  went  away.  This  privateer  was  shortly 
after  captured  by  the  Shannon,  and  the  homicide  was  identified  among  the  prisoners 
as  the  first  lieutenant  of  the  privateer.  Clements  left  a  widow  and  nine  orphan  chil- 
dren, the  oldest  only  seventeen,  the  second  daughter  a  helpless  cripple."  Murdoch's 
"History  of  Nova  Scotia,"  vol.  3,  p.  333. 

265 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

for  the  Naval  Yard  was  secured  under  deed  on  the  7th  of  February, 
in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1759.  The  trustees  to  whom  the  deed  was 
given  were  Admiral  Philip  Durell,  and  Messrs.  Joseph  Gerrish  and 
William  Nesbitt,  Esquires,  and  the  purpose  for  which  the  two  lots 
the  site  comprised,  "in  the  north  suburbs  of  Halifax,"  were  granted, 
was  specified  to  be  "for  the  use  and  uses  of  a  Naval  Yard  for  the 
use  of  His  Majesty's  Navy  or  such  other  uses  as  His  Majesty  shall 
direct  and  appoint  and  to  or  for  no  other  use,  intent,  or  purpose 
whatever."  On  the  4th  of  January,  1765,  a  third  lot  was  obtained 
for  the  extension  of  the  yard,  and  henceforth  for  well  on  towards 
a  century  and  a  half  the  Halifax  Dockyard  was  the  official  head- 
quarters of  business  in  connexion  with  the  British  navy  on  the 
North  American  coast.  Soon  after  the  first  deed  of  land  for  the 
Dockyard  site  was  secured,  buildings  necessary  for  carrying  on  the 
navy's  official  business  were  begun,  including  storehouses  for  masts, 
sails,  coal,  oil,  and  provisions,  and  residences  for  the  commissioner 
of  the  yard  and  his  clerks  and  other  employees.  In  1770  the  first 
conspicuous  gate  to  the  Dockyard  was  built,  and  this  stood  until 
1844,  when  another  was  erected  to  take  its  place.  In  1883  the  gate 
was  rebuilt  again. 

In  1783  a  naval  hospital  outside  the  yard  was  added  to  the  estab- 
lishment, and  in  1814  a  piece  of  land  high  up  on  the  hill  overlooking 
the  yard  was  purchased  for  the  erection  of  a  large  stone  dwelling 
house  for  the  Admiral  on  the  station,  when  he  should  be  here,  and 
the  locally  famous  residence  known  as  "Admiralty  House"  was  / 
begun.    At  some  early  date,  we  do  not  know  precisely  when,  a  small  i 
tract  near  the  Dockyard  was  set  apart  for  a  naval  cemetery.    In  his 
"History  of  Nova  Scotia,"  published  in  1829,  Judge  Haliburton 
wrote : 

"Of  Government  establishments  [in  Halifax]  the  most  important 
is  the  King's  Dockyard.  This  was  commenced  about  the  year  1758 
and  has  been  not  only  of  infinite  service  to  the  navy  during  the  late 
war,  but  by  its  very  great  expenditure  of  money,  of  most  essential 
advantage  to  the  Province.  It  is  enclosed  on  the  side  towards  the 
town  by  a  high  stone  wall,  and  contains  within  it  very  commodious 
buildings  for  the  residence  of  its  officers  and  servants,  besides  stores, 
warehouses,  and  workshops  of  different  descriptions.  It  is  on  a 
more  respectable  footing  than  any  in  America,  and  the  vast  number 
of  ships  refitted  there  during  the  last  twenty  years,  and  the  prodi- 
gious labour  and  duty  performed  on  them  are  strong  proofs  of  its 

266 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

regulation  and  order.  In  the  rear  of  the  Dockyard  and  on  an  ele- 
vated piece  of  ground  that  overlooks  the  works  and  the  harbour,  is 
the  Admiral's  house,  which  is  a  plain  stone  building  erected  partly 
by  funds  provided  by  Government  and  partly  by  a  grant  of  the 
Provincial  Legislature.  This  house  was  completed  in  1820,  and 
as  its  name  denotes  is  designed  for  the  residence  of  the  Admiral 
or  senior  Naval  Officer  commanding  on  the  Station." 

In  his  "Old  Judge"  this  same  author  writes: 

"The  Dockyard  at  Halifax  is  a  beautiful  establishment,  in  ex- 
cellent order,  and  perfect  of  its  kind,  with  the  singular  exception  of 
not  having  the  accommodation  of  a  dock  from  which  it  derives  its 
name."  Nova  Scotia,  he  writes,  is  the  principal  naval  station  of 
Britain  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic,  but  it  shares  this  honour  with 
Bermuda,  the  Admiral  residing  in  summer  at  the  former  place,  in 
winter  at  the  latter.  The  arrival  of  this  high  official  at  Halifax  in 
the  spring  "is  always  looked  forward  to  with  anxiety  and  pleasure, 
as  it  at  once  enlivens  and  benefits  the  town.  Those  common  dem- 
onstrations of  respect,  salutes,  proclaim  the  event,  which  is  soon 
followed  by  the  equally  harmless  and  no  less  noisy  revels  of  sailors, 
who  give  vent  to  their  happiness  in  uproarious  merriment.  The 
Admiral  is  always  popular  with  the  townspeople,  as  he  often  renders 
them  essential  services,  and  seldom  or  never  comes  into  collision 
with  them.  He  is  independent  of  them,  and  wholly  disconnected 
with  the  civil  government.  'Lucky  fellow!'  as  Sir  Hercules  Samp- 
son, the  Governor,  once  said;  'he  has  no  turbulent  House  of  Assem- 
bly to  plague  him.'  '  "On  an  eminence  immediately  above  the 
Dockyard,"  he  adds,  "is  the  official  residence,  a  heavy,  square,  stone 
building,  surrounded  by  massive  walls,  and  resembling  in  its  solidity 
and  security  a  public  asylum.  The  entrance  is  guarded  by  two 
sentinels,  belonging  to  that  gallant  and  valuable  corps,  the  marines, 
who  combine  the  activity  of  the  sailor  with  the  steadiness  and  dis- 
cipline of  the  soldier,  forming  a  happy  mixture  of  the  best  qualities 
of  both,  and  bearing  a  very  little  resemblance  to  either.  'These 
ambitious  troops,'  my  old  friend  Sir  James  Capstan  used  to  say, 
'  are  very  much  in  the  way  on  board  of  a  ship,  except  in  action,  and 
then  they  are  always  in  the  right  place. '  ' 

A  complete  list  of  the  war  ships  that  have  anchored  in  Halifax 
harbour  since  1759  would  include  most  of  the  great  ships  of  Eng- 
land's majestic  fleet;  the  naval  commanders-in-chief  who  in  suc- 
cession have  ordered  their  flag-ships  into  these  smooth  waters,  and 
for  the  time  being  have  occupied  Admiralty  House,  have  included 

267 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

many  of  the  greatest  Admirals,  Rear  Admirals,  and  Vice  Admirals 
of  the  noblest  navy  of  modern  times.11 

No  single  event  in  connexion  with  Halifax  harbour  has  greater 
dramatic  interest  than  the  arrival  in  its  waters  of  the  British  frigate 
Shannon  with  the  captured  United  States  frigate  Chesapeake  in 
June,  1813.  The  war  of  1812  was  the  culmination  of  a  gradually 
increasing  animosity  on  the  part  of  the  United  States  against  Eng- 
land for  the  frequent  exercise  of  the  latter 's  claim  that  she  had  a 
right  to  impress  British  seamen  or  seamen  asserted  to  be  British 
from  on  board  United  States  merchant  vessels  wherever  they  might 
be  found.  This  alleged  right  the  United  States  strongly  disputed, 
and  England  not  yielding,  at  last  the  inevitable  conflict  came.  One 
of  the  United  States  vessels  from  which  seamen  had  been  taken  was 
the  Chesapeake,  the  command  of  which  at  Boston  in  May,  1812,  had 
been  given  to  Captain  James  Lawrence,  who  the  year  previous  had 
earned  distinction  as  commander  of  another  American  ship,  the 
Hornet.  Dn  the  31st  of  May,  1813,  on  the  Chesapeake,  Lawrence 
received  a  challenge  from  Captain  Broke  of  the  British  frigate 
Shannon,  which  was  then  cruising  in  Boston  harbour,  and  although 
the  Chesapeake  was  poorly  fitted  for  an  engagement,  chiefly  owing 
to  the  fact  that  she  had  an  unreliable  crew,  the  challenge  was  ac- 
cepted and  the  next  day  the  fight  took  place.  The  engagement  be- 
gan with  fierce  volleys  of  shots  fired  from  the  opposing  ships  simul- 
taneously, the  injury  from  which  to  the  vessels  themselves  was 
slight,  but  which  caused  on  both  a  considerable  loss  of  life.  On  the 
Chesapeake,  both  Lawrence  and  his  lieutenant,  Augustus  Ludlow, 
were  severely  wounded,  Lawrence  having  received  his  wound  in  the 
leg.  The  anchor  of  the  American  ship  fouling  on  one  of  the  after 
ports  of  the  Shannon,  the  crew  of  the  latter  was  able  to  board  the 
Chesapeake,  and  the  sailors  of  this  vessel  " could  not  be  made  to 
repel"  the  British  crew.  In  the  skirmish  that  ensued,  Captain 
Lawrence  was  mortally  wounded  by  a  musket  shot  and  had  to  be  car- 
ried to  the  wardroom.  While  passing  the  gangway  he  cried  to  his 


"Other  interesting  facts  in  this  connexion  than  those  we  have  here  given  including 
a  list  of  the  naval  commanders-in-chief  who  temporarily  resided  on  this  station  between 
1767  and  1891  will  be  found  in  an  interesting  article  entitled  "Dockyard  Mem- 
oranda," by  Charles  H.  Stubbing,  Esq.,  a  former  clerk  in  the  Dockyard,  published  in  the 
Collections  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Historical  Society,  vol.  13,  pp.  103-109.  Some  time 
before  1759  Mr.  Joseph  Gerrish,  formerly  of  Boston,  older  brother  of  Benjamin  Ger- 
rish,  likewise  of  Halifax,  was  appointed  naval  storekeeper  at  the  Dockyard,  and  this 
position  he  held  for  a  number  of  years.  He  received  a  salary  for  his  work,  of  a  hundred 
pounds  a  year,  and  he  had  a  clerk  who  received  fifty  pounds. 

268 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

men  " Don't  give  up  the  ship!"  but  the  fate  of  the  battle  was  de- 
cided, and  Lieutenant  Ludlow,  himself  desperately  and  as  it  proved 
mortally  wounded,  who  had  assumed  command,  quickly  surrendered. 
The  Shannon  with  her  prize  then  made  for  Halifax,  but  before  she 
could  reach  port  Captain  Lawrence  died.  In  the  engagement,  sixty 
men,  including  Captain  Lawrence,  of  the  American  frigate's  crew, 
were  killed,  and  eighty-three  were  wounded.  Of  the  British  frigate's 
crew  twenty-six  were  killed  and  fifty-seven,  including  Captain 
Broke,  were  wounded.  The  ships  arriving  at  Halifax,  the  Ches- 
apeake's  commander  was  buried  with  military  honors  in  the  burying 
ground  on  Pleasant  Street,  his  funeral  taking  place  on  the  8th  of 
June.  On  the  13th  of  June  Lieutenant  Ludlow  died  at  Halifax,  and 
he  too  received  military  burial.  Early  in  August  both  bodies  were 
disinterred  and  carried  by  Captain  George  Crowninshield,  Jr.,  in 
his  own  vessel,  at  his  own  expense,  under  a  flag  of  truce  to  Salem, 
Massachusetts,  where  on  the  23rd  of  August  they  were  given  an- 
other funeral.  They  were  then  carried  over  land  to  New  York  City 
and  buried  in  Trinity  churchyard  again  with  all  the  honors  of  war. 
When  the  two  ships  reached  Halifax  Captain  Lawrence's  body  was 
landed  under  a  discharge  of  minute  guns  at  the  King's  Wharf, 
whence  it  was  carried  probably  directly  to  the  burying  ground  on 
Pleasant  Street.  On  its  way  it  was  attended  by  the  Chesapeake' s 
surviving  officers,  the  officers  of  the  British  army  and  navy  on  ser- 
vice at  Halifax,  and  many  of  the  leading  inhabitants  of  the  town. 
The  pall  was  borne  by  six  captains  of  the  Royal  navy,  a  military 
band  was  in  attendance,  and  three  hundred  men  of  the  Sixty-fourth 
regiment  followed  in  the  procession.  The  burial  service  was  ren- 
dered by  the  Rector  of  St.  Paul's,  the  Reverend  Robert  Stanser, 
D.  D.,  after  which  three  volleys  were  fired  over  the  grave.  Law- 
rence's ship  the  Chesapeake  was  kept  at  Halifax  until  October,  1813, 
when  she  was  taken  to  England  and  probably  put  in  commission  in 
the  British  service.  In  1820  her  timbers  were  sold  to  a  miller  of 
Wickham,  in  Hants,  by  whom  they  were  used  in  the  construction  of 
a  flour  mill.12 

"Captain  James  Lawrence  was  the  youngest  son  of  Judge  John  Lawrence,  of  Bur- 
lington, New  Jersey,  and  was  born  at  Burlington,  October  i,  1781.  He  entered  the  navy 
as  a  midshipman  in  1798,  received  his  lieutenancy  in  1802,  and  was  promoted  captain  and 
assigned  to  the  Hornet  in  1811.  He  died  on  board  the  Chesapeake,  June  6,  1813. 
Lieutenant  Ludlow,  as  we  have  said,  died  at  Halifax,  June  13,  1813.  On  the  loth  of 
August,  under  a  flag  of  truce  Captain  Crowninshield  arrived  at  Halifax  from  Salem,  and 
with  the  bodies  of  the  two  officers  left  very  soon.  An  interesting  account  of  the  battle 
between  the  Shannon  and  the  Chesapeake  will  be  found  in  the  late  Theodore  Roosevlt  s 
"The  Naval  War  of  1812,"  New  York,  1882. 

269 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

In  Trinity  Churchyard,  New  York  City,  a  little  to  the  left  of  the 
main  entrance  from  Broadway  stands  a  large  granite  sarcophagus, 
on  which  the  following  inscription  may  be  read : 

"In  Memory  of  CAPTAIN  JAMES  LAWBENCE,  of  the  United  States 
Navy,  who  fell  on  the  1st  day  of  June,  1813,  in  the  32nd  year  of  his 
age,  in  the  action  between  the  frigates  Chesapeake  and  Shannon. 
He  was  distinguished  on  various  occasions,  but  especially  when  com- 
manding the  sloop  of  war  Hornet  he  captured  and  sunk  his  Bri- 
tannick  Majesty's  sloop  of  war  Peacock,  after  a  desperate  action  of 
fourteen  minutes.  His  bravery  in  action  was  equalled  only  by  his 
modesty  in  triumph  and  his  magnanimity  to  the  vanquished.  In 
private  life  He  was  a  Gentleman  of  the  most  generous  and  endear- 
ing qualities,  the  whole  Nation  mourned  his  loss  and  the  Enemy  con- 
tended with  his  Countrymen  who  should  most  honour  his  remains. ' ' 

On  the  east  end  of  the  sarcophagus  is  inscribed  the  following: 
"The  Heroick  Commander  of  the  frigate  Chesapeake,  whose  re- 
mains are  here  deposited,  expressed  with  his  expiring  breath  his 
devotion  to  his  Country.  Neither  the  fury  of  battle,  the  anguish  of 
a  mortal  wound,  nor  the  horrors  of  approaching  death  could  subdue 
his  gallant  spirit.  His  dying  words  were:  'Don't  Give  Up  The 
Ship.'  " 

On  the  South  side  of  the  sarcophagus  is  inscribed:  "In  Memory 
of  LIEUTENANT  AUGUSTUS  C.  LUDLOW,  Born  in  Newburgh,  1792,  Died 
in  Halifax,  1813.  Scarcely  was  he  21  years  of  age,  when  like  the 
blooming  Euryalus  he  accompanied  his  beloved  Commander  to  bat- 
tle. Never  could  it  have  been  more  truly  said  'His  amor  unus  erat, 
pariterque  in  bella  ruebant.'  The  favorite  of  Lawrence  and  sec- 
ond in  command,  he  emulated  the  patriotic  valour  of  his  friend  on 
the  bloody  decks  of  the  Chesapeake,  and  when  required,  like  him 
yielded  with  courageous  resignation  his  Spirit  to  Him  who  gave  it. ' ' 

In  the  War  of  1812,  says  Mrs.  William  Lawson,  several  United 
States  naval  officers  were  taken  prisoners  and  sent  to  Halifax  for 
safe  keeping.  These  were  generally  quartered  on  the  eastern  side 
of  the  harbour,  and  those  of  them  who  were  on  parole  were  lodged 
in  the  farm  houses  in  or  near  Preston  and  Dartmouth.  They  were 
allowed  perfect  liberty  of  action,  except  in  the  matter  of  crossing 
the  ferry  to  Halifax,  the  town  being  the  only  point  from  which  they 
could  hope  to  escape.  They  were  all  quiet,  gentlemanlike  men,  and 
were  cordially  entertained  and  much  liked  by  the  farmers  and  their 

270 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

families,  and  they  were  not  slow  in  making  love  to  the  girls,  in 
some  cases  engaging  to  marry  them.  Naturally,  however,  they 
chafed  at  their  internment,  and  when  peace  was  declared  were  glad 
to  leave.  The  Preston  farmers'  daughters  waited  in  vain  for  them 
to  return  to  marry  them ;  the  faithless  foreigners  never  fulfilled  the 
promises  they  had  made  "in  the  rosy  twilight  or  under  the  glow  of 
the  inconstant  moon." 

A  year  after  the  arrival  at  Halifax  of  the  Shannon  and  Ches- 
apeake, on  the  5th  of  July,  1814,  a  British  expedition  was  secretly 
dispatched  from  Halifax  harbour  for  the  capture  of  Eastport, 
Maine.  Either  lower  down  the  harbour  or  at  some  point  without,  a 
fleet  six  days  from  Bermuda  joined  the  expedition,  and  together  all 
sailed  for  the  Maine  coast.  The  whole  fleet  now  comprised  the 
Ramilies,  having  on  board  the  commodore,  Sir  Thomas  Hardy,  the 
Martin,  a  sloop-of-war,  the  big  Borer,  the  Breame,  the  Terror,  a 
bomb  ship,  and  several  transports,  on  board  of  which  was  a  very 
considerable  military  force.  On  the  llth  of  July  the  ships  anchored 
abreast  of  Eastport  and  the  commodore  at  once  demanded  the  sur- 
render of  the  fort.  The  officer  in  command  was  Major  Perley  Put- 
nam, of  Salem,  Massachusetts,  and  he  at  first  refused  the  demand 
and  prepared  to  meet  the  assault.  Through  the  earnest  persuasion 
of  the  inhabitants,  however,  he  was  reluctantly  induced  to  order  his 
flag  struck  without  resistance,  and  the  British  took  possession  of 
the  fort. 

On  the  26th  of  August  of  the  same  year,  another  expedition  left 
Halifax  to  seize  Penobscot  and  Machias,  Maine.  The  ships  in  this 
fleet  were  three  74 's,  the  Dragon,  the  Spenser,  and  the  Bulwark, 
two  frigates,  the  Burhante  and  the  Tenedos,  lately  from  the  Medi- 
terranean, two  sloops  of  war,  the  Sylph  and  the  Peruvian,  an  armed 
schooner,  the  Pictu,  a  large  tender,  and  ten  transports.  The  number 
of  troops  they  carried  was  about  3,000,  the  land  forces  among  which 
were  directly  commanded  by  Major  General  Gosselin,  with  Lieuten- 
ant-General Sir  John  Coape  Sherbrooke,  then  and  for  nearly  two 
years  longer  lieutenant-governor  of  Nova  Scotia  (under  the  gov- 
ernor general  of  all  the  British  provinces),  in  highest  command. 
The  naval  squadron  was  under  command  of  Bear  Admiral  of  the 
White  Edward  Griffith.  September  1st  the  fleet  rode  into  the  har- 
fepjir^_C^tineand_anchored in  sight  of  the  fort.  The  troops  in  the 
garrison,  seeing  resistance  entirely  vain,  then  blew  up  the  fort  and 

271 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

fled  for  safety  into  the  interior.  For  eight  months  the  British  held 
this  military  post,  but  on  the  25th  of  April,  1815,  a  treaty  of  peace 
between  England  and  the  United  States  having  been  signed  at 
Ghent  the  previous  December,  they  finally  evacuated  Castine,  and 
English  power  ceased  forever  in  the  whole  of  eastern  Maine.13 

The  commanding  officer  of  the  Shannon  when  she  came  with  her 
prize  the  Chesapeake  into  Halifax  harbour  was  a  Halifax  man.  In 
January,  1812,  young  Provo  William  Parry  Wallis,  who  was  born  at 
Halifax  April  12,  1791,  was  appointed  second  lieutenant  of  the 
Shannon,  then  commanded  by  Captain  Philip  Bowes  Vere  Broke. 
Captain  Broke  being  dangerously  wounded  in  the  Shannon's  en- 
gagement with  the  Chesapeake,  and  his  first  lieutenant  being  killed, 
Wallis,  although  only  a  little  over  twenty-two,  was  left  in  command. 
Admiral  Sir  Provo  William  Parry  Wallis,  G.  C.  B.,  as  he  afterwards 
became,  earning  for  himself  in  his  long  distinguished  naval  career 
the  title  of  "Father  of  the  Fleet,"  was  the  son  of  an  Englishman, 
Provo  Featherstone  Wallis,  who  was  chief  clerk  to  the  naval  com- 
missioner in  Halifax,  and  his  wife  Elizabeth  (Lawlor),  grand- 
daughter of  Thomas  Lawlor,  one  of  the  Bostonians  who  had  settled 
at  Halifax  in  or  shortly  after  1749. 

In  the  "Dictionary  of  National  Biography"  will  be  found  a  sketch 
of  Admiral  Sir  Edward  Belcher,  K.  C.  B.,  another  Haligonian,  who 
was  born  in  Halifax  in  1799.  Admiral  Belcher's  parents  were  the 
Hon.  Andrew  and  Marianne  (Geyer)  Belcher,  his  paternal  grand- 
father having  been  the  first  Chief  Justice  of  Nova  Scotia.  In  1812 
Belcher  entered  the  navy  as  a  midshipman,  and  six.  years  later  he 
was  made  a  lieutenant.  A  great  part  of  his  active  life  was  spent  in 
making  naval  surveys,  but  in  1852  he  was  appointed  to  command  an 
expedition  to  the  arctic  in  search  of  Sir  John  Franklin.  For  such 
a  peculiarly  difficult  command  he  is  said  to  have  had  "neither  temper 
nor  tact,"  and  in  the  enterprise,  which  was  fruitless,  he  inspired 
great  dislike  among  his  men.  In  making  surveys  he  spent  much 
time  in  the  Pacific  and  at  Behring  Straits,  on  the  west  and  north 
coasts  of  Africa,  at  Borneo,  the  Philippine  Islands,  and  China,  in 
the  Irish  Sea,  and  on  the  west  coast  of  both  North  and  South  Amer- 
ica. He  was  made  commander  in  1829,  advanced  to  post  rank  in 
1841,  received  knighthood  in  1843,  attained  his  flag  in  1861,  and  be- 
came vice-admiral  in  1866,  and  admiral  in  1872.  In  1867  he  was 


"See  Williamson's  "History  of  Maine,"  2  vols.,  1832. 

272 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

further  honoured  with  a  K.  C.  B.  The  last  part  of  his  life  he  spent 
quietly  in  scientific  and  literary  occupations.  Belcher  published  in 
1835  "A  Treatise  on  Nautical  Surveying,"  in  1843  " Narrative  of  a 
Voyage  round  the  World  in  H.  M.  Ship  Sulphur  during  the  years 
1836-1842;"  in  1848  "Narrative  of  the  Voyage  of  H.  M.  Ship  Sam- 
arang,"  in  1855  "The  Last  of  the  Arctic  Voyages,"  and  in  1856  a 
three  volume  novel  entitled  "Horatio  Howard  Brenton,  a  Naval 
Novel."  In  1867  he  edited  Sir  W.  H.  Smyth's  "Sailors'  Word 
Book."  He  died  March  18, 1817, 

Two  other  famous  British  naval  officers  were  born  near  Halifax. 
These  were  Admiral  Philip  Westphal  and  Captain  Sir  George  Au- 
gustus Westphal,  sons  of  George  Westphal,  Esq.,  a  retired  German 
army  officer,  one  of  the  first  grantees  of  and  settlers  in  the  township 
of  Preston.  Admiral  Philip  Westphal,  the  elder  of  these  men,,  was 
born  at  Preston  in  1782,  and  entered  the  British  navy  in  1794.  From 
1794  to  1802  he  served  successively  on  the  Oiseau,  the  Albatross,  the 
Shannon,  the  Asia,  and  the  Blanche,  one  of  the  frigates  with  Nel- 
son at  Copenhagen.  For  his  share  in  this  action  he  was  promoted 
to  a  lieutenancy  and  placed  on  the  Defiance.  In  May,  1802,  he  wa8 
appointed  to  the  Amazon,  with  Nelson,  off  Toulon.  After  much 
more  service,  in  June,  1815,  he  was  made  commander.  From  the 
Kent,  on  July  22,  1830,  he  was  advanced  to  post  rank.  In  1847,  he 
was  retired  on  a  Greenwich  Hospital  pension,  rising  in  due  course, 
on  the  retired  list,  in  1855  to  be  rear-admiral,  in  1862  to  be  vice- 
admiral,  and  in  1866  to  be  admiral.  He  died  at  Byde,  March  16, 
1880. 

Admiral  Sir  George  Augustus  Westphal,  younger  brother  of  Ad- 
miral Philip  Westphal,  was  born  at  Preston  either  March  27  or 
July  26,  1785.  He  entered  the  navy  on  board  the  Porcupine  frigate 
on  the  North  American  station  in  1798.  He  afterward  served  on  the 
home  station  and  in  the  West  Indies,  in  March,  1803,  joining  the 
Amphion,  which  carried  Nelson  out  to  the  Mediterranean.  Off 
Toulon  he  was  moved  into  the  Victory,  in  which  ship  he  was  wound- 
ed at  the  battle  of  Trafalgar.  While  he  was  lying  in  the  cockpit 
after  receiving  his  wound,  Nelson's  coat,  hastily  rolled  up,  was  put 
under  his  head  for  a  pillow.  It  is  related  that  some  of  the  bullions 
of  the  epaulettes  got  entangled  in  his  hair,  and  that  the  blood  from 
his  wound  as  it  dried  fastened  them  there  so  that  several  of  them 
had  to  be  cut  off  before  the  coat  could  be  released.  These  bullions 

273 


CHAPTERS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  HALIFAX,  NOVA  SCOTIA 

Westphal  long  treasured  as  mementoes  of  Nelson.  After  much  dis- 
tinguished service  in  many  places,  he  was  in  1819  advanced  to  post 
rank.  In  May,  1822,  he  was  appointed  to  the  Jupiter,  in  which  he 
carried  Lord  Amherst  to  India.  On  his  return  to  England,  in  1824, 
he  was  knighted.  He  was  advanced  in  regular  gradation  to  be 
rear-admiral  in  1851,  vice-admiral  in  1857,  and  admiral  in  1863.  He 
died  at  Hove,  Brighton,  January  11,  1875.  He  married  in  1817, 
Alicia,  widow  of  William  Chambers." 

The  Cunard  Steamship  Company,  as  is  well  known,  was  founded 
by  Sir  Samuel  Cunard,  Bart.,  a  Halifax  merchant,  and  for  a  long 
time  Halifax  was  the  first  stopping  place  for  the  Cunard  ships  on 
this  side  of  the  Atlantic.  The  story  of  the  Cunard  enterprise  will 
appear  in  another  chapter  of  this  history. 


"For  the  brothers  Westphal,  see  Mrs.  William  Lawson's  "History  of  Dartmouth, 
Preston,  and  Lawrencetown,"  Halifax  County,  pp.  201-205. 


274 


JANUARY,   1915 

AMERICANA 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Rhode  Island  Settlers  on  the  French  Lands  in  Nova  Scotia 
in  1760  and  1761. 

By  Arthur  Wentworth  Hamilton  Eaton,  D.  C.  L.      .      1 
For  Conscience  Sake. 

By  Cornelia  Mitchell  Parsons 44 

History  of  the  Mormon  Church.    Chapter  CXIV. 

By  Brigham  H.  Roberts 52 


I.  M.  GREENE,  Editor. 

JOSIAH  COLLINS  PUMPELLY,  A.  M.,  LL.B.,  Member  Publication 
Committee  New  York  Genealogical  and  Biographical  So- 
ciety, Associate  Editor. 

VICTOR  HUGO  DURAS,  D.  C.  L.,  M.  Diplomacy,  Historian  of  the 
American  Group  of  the  Interparliamentary  Union  of  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States,  Contributing  Editor. 


Published  by  the  National  Americana  Society, 

DAVID  I.  NELKE,  President  and  Treasurer, 

131  East  23rd  Street, 

New  York,  N.  Y. 


Copyright,   1915,  by 

THE  NATIONAL  AMERICANA  SOCIETY 

Entered  at  the   New  York  Postoffice  as  Second-class  Mail  Matter 


All  rights  reserved. 


HENRY  W.   LONGFELLOW 


AMERICANA 

January,    1915 

Rhode  Island  Settlers  on  the  French  Lands 
in  Nova  Scotia  in  1760  and  1761 

BY  ARTHUR  WENTWORTH  HAMILTON  EATON,  D.  C.  L. 

"Still  stands  the  forest  primeval ;    but  under  the  shade  of  its  branches 
Dwells  another  race,  with  other  customs  and  language." 

— LoNGrHLLOW. 

AN  episode  of  New  England  history  that  has  hitherto 
been  only  slightly  touched  upon  by  writers  in  the 
United  States,  or  even  in  Canada,  is  the  very  consider- 
able migration  from  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  and 
Rhode  Island,  to  the  maritime  province  of  Nova  Scotia,  shortly 
after  the  tragical  expulsion  of  the  Acadians  in  1755.  In  the  issue 
of  Americana  for  December,  1913,  the  writer  of  this  article  gave 
a  lengthy  sketch  of  the  career  of  an  extraordinary  man  named 
Alexander  McNutt,  who  between  1759  and  1766  made  heroic  but 
for  the  most  part  futile  efforts  to  settle  the  depopulated  lands 
and  the  yet  uncultivated  parts  of  the  beautiful  province  that 
for  a  century  and  more  after  its  first  colonization  by  the  French, 
had  borne  the  musical  name  Acadia.  In  the  same  writer's  re- 
cent " History  of  King's  County,  Nova  Scotia,  Heart  of  the 
Acadian  Land,"  and  in  a  paper  on  the  settlement  of  Colchester 
County,  Nova  Scotia,  published  still  later,  in  the  Transactions  of 
the  Eoyal  Society  of  Canada,  many  details  are  given  of  the  con- 
spicuous migration  from  New  England  of  which  we  have  spoken. 
McNutt 's  enthusiasm  for  the  Nova  Scotia  lands,  and  his  glowing 
visions  of  widespread  settlements  thereon,  were  shared  to  the 
full  by  many  groups  of  New  Englanders  as  soon  as  the  procla- 
mation was  issued  inviting  settlement  in  this  historic  British  pos- 
session, and  by  the  close  of  1761  the  province  was  richer  in  popu- 

(i) 


2  RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA 

lation  by  some  ten  thousand  souls,  probably,  than  it  had  been  at 
the  beginning  of  1759. 

With  a  rapidly  increasing  varied  population,  active  in  all  the 
great  enterprises  that  engage  the  attention  and  stimulate  the 
powers  of  modern  men,  spreading  today  enthusiastically  through- 
out the  several  provinces  of  the  Dominion  of  Canada  from  the 
Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  it  is  as  interesting  as  it  is  necessary  to 
recall  in  detail  the  first  permanent  British  settlement  of  any  part 
of  Canada.  Thirty-three  years  before  the  first  bands  of  Ameri- 
can Loyalists,  all  Britons  to  the  core,  began  to  occupy  the  rich 
unsettled  country  along  the  Bay  of  Quinte  and  in  the  Niagara 
peninsula,  the  province  of  Nova  Scotia  welcomed  to  the  shores 
of  its  Chebucto  Bay  the  very  earliest  group  of  permanent  Brit- 
ish settlers  in  the  whole  Dominion.  In  1749,  the  Hon.  Edward 
Cornwallis  brought  out  the  English  colony  that  established  the 
town  and  fortress  of  Halifax,  which  as  a  civil  and  military 
stronghold  it  was  intended  should  henceforth  serve  as  a  bulwark 
against  French  aggression  in  eastern  America,  and,  in  counter- 
poise to  Louisburg,  as  a  strong  strategic  centre  from  which 
necessary  defensive,  or  if  need  be  offensive,  warlike  operations, 
might  be  carried  on.  The  capture  of  Fort  Beausejour,  in  Nova 
Scotia,  and  the  forcible  removal  of  the  French  population  in  gen- 
eral from  this  province,  both  occurred,  it  will  be  remembered,  in 
1755,  and  the  final  seizure  of  Louisburg  in  1758,  and  the  historic 
fall  of  Quebec  in  1759,  at  last  gave  England  supreme  control  in 
Nova  Scotia,  Cape  Breton,  and  Canada,  and  brought  the  long  de- 
sired day  of  opportunity  for  permanent  British  settlement  in 
these  provinces  fully  to  dawn. 

When  the  removal  of  French  influence  from  Nova  Scotia  was 
fully  accomplished,  the  Governor  and  Council  of  the  Province,  as 
we  have  intimated,  made  public  proclamation  in  New  England 
of  their  desire  to  give  large  grants  to  New  England  families  will- 
ing to  emigrate,  and  the  result  was  that  before  the  end  of  1761 
many  Massachusetts,  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island  towns  had 
witnessed  the  removal  of  numbers  of  their  best  inhabitants  to 
this  ancient  province  by  the  sea.  In  this  New  England  migra- 
tion began  the  modern  settlement  of  the  beautiful  Nova  Scotia 
country  that  borders  Minas  and  Annapolis  Basins,  and  Chignec- 


RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN   NOVA  SCOTIA  3 

to  Bay,  and  that  stretches  to  the  interior  for  many  miles  from 
the  picturesque  wave-washed  southeastern  Atlantic  shore.  That 
no  other  single  British  migration  into  any  part  of  Canada,  at 
any  time,  has  so  powerfully  and  with  such  lasting  results  influ- 
enced the  destiny  of  British  America  we  believe  may  safely  be 
asserted.  Even  the  great  Loyalist  migration  of  1776  to  1784, 
large  as  it  was,  we  cannot  regard  as  having  such  permanent  influ- 
ence on  Canada  as  this  pre-Revolutionary  exclusively  New  Eng- 
land settlement  in  Nova  Scotia  in  1760  and  1761. 

Hants  County,  Nova  Scotia,  with  the  adjoining  county  of 
Kings,  and  perhaps  part  of  Annapolis,  may  be  said  to  constitute 
what  has  long  been  currently  known  as  the  "Garden  of  Nova 
Scotia."  King's  and  Hants  Counties,  rich  in  agricultural  pro- 
ducts, covered  now  with  glorious  apple  orchards,  whose  blos- 
soms in  June  are  veritable 

"Banks  of  bloom  on  a  billowy  plain," 

border  the  blue  Basin  of  Minas,  and  seem  to  claim  the  special 
protection  of  the  white-mist-wreathed  cliff,  Blomidon,  which 
rears  its  head  like  a  tall  turbanned  sheik  at  the  entrance  of  the 
Basin  and  watches  in  somnolent  silence  the  daily  rush,  forward 
and  backward,  of  the  never  ceasing  currents  of  Fundy's  tireless 
tides.  King's  County  was  settled  chiefly  from  eastern  Connecti- 
cut, as  Cumberland,  Annapolis,  Queen's  and  part  of  Shelburne 
were  from  Massachusetts,  but  Hants  County  received  its  fine 
population  in  very  great  part  from  the  pleasant  State  of  Rhode 
Island,  a  little  less  than  two  decades,  however  before  Rhode 
Island  became  a  State.  Hants  County  lies  east,  west  and  south 
along  the  Avon  river,  a  stream  which  flows  into  Minas  Basin ;  it 
is  intersected  also  by  the  rivers  St.  Croix,  Hebert,  and  Kennet- 
cook.  In  French  times  part  of  the  county  was  a  region  of  inde- 
terminate extent  known  as  Pisiquid,  and  Judge  Haliburton,  a 
distinguished  native  of  the  county,  in  his  well  known  History  of 
Nova  Scotia,  tells  us,  as  we  know  from  many  other  sources,  that 
it  was  a  part  of  Acadia  held  in  great  estimation  by  the  habitants, 
who  valued,  as  they  might  well  do,  its  priceless  alluvial  dyke- 
lands,  some  portions  of  which  they  inclosed  from  the  sea,  and 


4  RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA 

its  rich  upland  meadows,  on  which  they  raised  fine  crops  of 
wheat  and  other  grains,  in  part  for  the  eager  Bostonians,  whose 
bread-needs  afforded  them  the  nearest  markets  they  had.1  At 
the  time  of  the  Acadian  deportation,  as  Lieutenant-Colonel  John 
Winslow's  journal  shows,  Pisiquid  occupied  with  Minas  the 
chief  place  in  the  attention  of  the  authorities  at  Halifax,  and 
Captain  Alexander  Murray,  who  held  command  at  Fort  Edward, 
the  little  fort  which  had  been  erected  five  years  before  at  what  is 
now  the  town  of  Windsor,  was  for  some  time  in  constant  com- 
munication with  Winslow  at  Minas,  to  whom  he  made  frequent 
detailed  reports  of  the  progress  of  his  measures  for  capturing 
the  unfortunate  Pisiquid  French.  It  was  within  the  confines  of 
this  Pisiquid  fort,  indeed,  that  the  two  commanders  together 
drew  up  the  fatal  proclamation  from  the  King  informing  the 
terrified  people  in  both  Hants  and  Kings  that  it  was  the  govern- 
ment's settled  purpose  to  exile  them  permanently  from  their 
homes.2 

The  establishment  of  townships  within  the  limits  of  the  five 
first  formed  counties  of  Nova  Scotia  slightly  antedates  the  erec- 
tion of  the  counties.  The  oldest  townships  of  King's  County, 
Horton  and  Cornwallis,  were  established  (though  the  first  grants 
were  nullified  in  1761)  on  the  21st  of  May,  1759,  while  Falmouth, 
the  oldest  of  the  townships  that  later  came  to  form  Hants  Coun- 
ty, was  set  apart  on  the  21st  of  July,  1759.  The  County  of  King's 
was  erected  by  the  Council  on  the  17th  of  August,  1759,  its  limits 
embracing  besides  the  present  King's,  a  corner  of  Lunenburg,  al- 
most if  not  quite  the  whole  of  Hants,  more  than  a  third  of  Col- 
chester, and  about  half  of  Cumberland.  Little  by  little  the  coun- 
ty was  reduced  in  size,  until  by  the  cutting  off  of  Parrsborough 
in  1840,  and  the  distribution  of  this  township  between  Colchester 
and  Cumberland,  only  the  present  territory  remained  to  King's. 
The  History  of  King's  County,  that  is,  chiefly  the  present 


1.  See    "An    Historical    and    Statistical    Account   of    Nova    Scotia,"   by  Judge 
Haliburton   (1829),  p.  100.     The  name  Pisiquid,  which  the  French  gave  the  region 
is  also  spelled  Piziguet,  Pigiquit,  Piziquid,  Pizeqiut  and  Pizaquid.     Judge  Halibur- 
ton says  this  name,  in  its  various  spellings,  is  an  Indian  word  signifying  the  junc- 
tion of  two  rivers   (the  Avon  and  St.  Croix). 

2.  By  the  early  part  of  November,  1755,  Lieut.  Col.  Winslow  had  sent  off,  in 
nine  vessels,  1,510  Acadians  of  the  Minas  and  River  Canard  districts,  while  Cap- 
tain Murray's  activity  had  resulted  in  the  deportation  of   1,100  persons,  "in  four 
frightfully  crowded  transports,"  from  the  district  of  Pisiquid. 


RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA  5 

King's,  was  published,  as  we  have  said,  by  the  writer  of  this 
paper,  in  a  large  volume  in  1910,3  but  since  Falmouth  and  its  sis- 
ter townships,  Newport  and  Windsor,  were  in  1781  removed 
from  King's  and  organized  as  Hants,  the  history  of  these  town- 
ships is  but  slightly  touched  upon  in  that  book.  The  writer's 
present  purpose,  therefore,  is  to  give  somewhat  in  detail  the 
story  of  the  settlement,  in  large  part  from  Rhode  Island,  of  the 
Hants  County  townships  of  Falmouth  and  Newport,  and  to  re- 
cord some  important  facts  concerning  the  peopling  of  the  third 
early  Hants  township,  the  inhabitants  of  which  were  of  rather 
more  varied  origin,  the  township  of  Windsor. 

In  the  late  spring  or  early  summer  of  1781,  the  three  then 
King's  County  townships  we  have  just  mentioned  petitioned  to 
be  erected  into  an  independent  county,  and  on  the  17th  of  June 
of  that  year,  the  Governor  and  Council  granted  their  petition.  A 
Council  minute  of  this  date  says:  "On  the  memorial  of  the  In- 
habitants of  the  towns  of  Windsor,  Falmouth,  and  Newport, 
praying  the  said  towns  may  be  erected  into  a  separate  county, 
owing  to  the  distance  between  said  towns  and  Horton,  the  county 
town  in  King's  County,  which  creates  great  difficulty  to  the  in- 
habitants and  expense  to  them  in  crossing  the  Rivers  to  attend 
the  county  business,  whereupon  it  was  resolved  that  the  said 
Townships  of  Windsor,  Falmouth,  and  Newport,  and  the  lands 
contiguous  thereunto,  be  erected  into  a  County  to  be  known  by 
the  name  of  the  County  of  Hants."  In  the  Crown  Land  Office  in 
Halifax  we  find  the  following  description  of  Hants  County's 
bounds  :4  ' '  Beginning  at  the  bounds  between  Horton  and  Fal- 
mouth, Pizaquid  River  now  called  Avon,  thence  to  run  South 
30  degrees  East  [words  missing]  Thence  in  a  Right  line  to  the 
Bridge  on  Shubenacadie  River,  Thence  to  Run  down  the  Shu- 
benacadie  River  passing  through  the  lake  commonly  called  the 
Grand  Lake  to  the  mouth  or  Confluence  of  that  River  with  Col- 
chester Bay.  Thence  down  the  said  Bay  and  up  the  River  Avon 


3.  This  volume,  which  comprises,  with  a  carefully  made  index,  over  900  pages, 
was  published  by  the  Salem  Press,  Salem,  Massachusetts,  late  in  1910. 

4.  Crown  Land  Description  Book  4,  folio  112.     Hants  County  covers  an  area 
of  786,560  acres,  the  adjoining  county.  King's,  of  552,960.     The  present  population 
of  Hants  is  reported  to  be   (in  1911)    19,703;  of  King's,  21,780.     In  religion 'Hants 
has  5,742  Presbyterians,  4,218  Methodists,  3.722  Baptists,  and  3,631  Anglicans. 


6  RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA 

to  the  bounds  first  Mentioned."  How  the  name  Hants  came  to 
be  given  the  county,  whether  some  one  or  more  of  the  important 
early  grantees  of  Windsor  may  have  had  a  special  interest  in  the 
English  Hants  and  requested  it,  or  whether  the  name  was  chos- 
en by  the  Council  at  Halifax,  we  cannot  now  tell. 

The  townships  regularly  organized  and  existing  within  the 
limits  of  Hants  county  in  1781,  as  we  have  seen,  were  but  three, 
but  in  time  three  others  were  more  or  less  formally  created: 
Rawdon,  bounded  by  Douglas  on  the  north  and  east,  and  New- 
port on  the  south  and  west,  on  the  3d  of  August,  1784 ;  Douglas, 
which  included  the  Kennetcook  river,  the  Five  Mile  river,  the 
Nine  Mile  river,  and  the  land  along  their  courses,  together  with 
the  Gore  settlements,  also  in  1784;  and  Kempt,  a  region  com- 
prising 80,000  acres,  which  adjoined  Maitland  to  the  west  and 
bordered  on  the  Basin  of  Minas,  east  of  the  mouth  of  the  Avon, 
(though  much  earlier  settled)  not  until  1825. 

On  Johnston's  topographical  map  of  Canada,  published  in 
1874,  Maitland  also  is  given  as  a  township,  but  in  Judge  Hali- 
burton's  description  of  Hants  County,  Maitland,  bordering  on 
Cobequid  Bay  and  the  Shubenacadie  river,  is  properly  included 
in  Douglas.  The  scope  of  the  present  paper  forbids  any  lengthy 
description  of  the  settlement  of  the  last  three  of  these  acknowl- 
edged Hants  County  townships,  but  of  the  settlement  of  two  of 
them,  Rawdon  and  Douglas,  a  few  words  may  here  be  said.4%  The 
extent  of  Rawdon  was  24,000  acres,  and  the  first  settlers  were 
soldiers  who  had  served  under  Lord  Rawdon,  afterward  Mar- 
quis of  Hastings,  in  South  Carolina,  in  the  war  of  the  American 
Revolution.  It  was  thus,  of  course,  that  the  township  received 
its  name.  The  township  of  Douglas  was  bounded  on  the  north 
and  east  by  Cobequid  Bay  and  the  river  Shubenacadie,  south  by 
the  county  of  Halifax,  and  west  by  Rawdon  and  Newport,  the 
extent  of  its  territory  being  105,000  acres.  Douglas  was  granted 
(in  1784,  as  we  have  said)  to  Lieutenant  Colonel  Small,4%  for  the 


4/4.     In  appendix  No.  V  we  have  given  a  list  of  the  Rawdon  grantees. 

4^4-  Lieut-Col.  John  Small,  born  in  Scotland  in  1726,  entered  the  42d  High- 
land regiment,  as  ensign  29  August,  1747,  and  as  lieutenant  served  in  America  under 
Abercrombie,  and  in  the  West  Indies.  He  received  his  captaincy  in  1762.  June  14, 
I77S,  he  was  commissioned  major  to  raise  a  corps  of  Highlanders  in  Nova 
Scotia  to  serve  in  the  Revolution.  With  this  force,  we  suppose,  he  served  at  the 
battle  of  Bunker  Hill.  Later  he  was  appointed  major  commanding  the  2d  battalion 


RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA  7 

location  of  the  disbanded  Second  battalion  of  the  84th  regiment, 
which  he  had  commanded  under  Sir  Henry  Clinton  in  New 
York  from  1779.  Of  the  township  of  Kempt,  Judge  Haliburton 
says :  ' '  The  upland  here  is  indifferent,  and  the  interval  was  the 
principal  attraction  to  the  first  inhabitants,  who  were  Ameri- 
cans that  had  enlisted  in  the  84th  regiment  while  it  was  stationed 
on  Long  Island,  New  York.5  In  1879  the  county  of  Hants  was 
divided  for  purposes  of  representation  and  local  government 
into  two  municipalities,  and  the  ancient  township  divisions  tech- 
nically disappeared. 

Details  like  these  are  tiresome,  but  they  are  necessary  to  be 
remembered  if  we  would  know  fully  the  story  of  the  settlement 
from  Rhode  Island  in  Nova  Scotia  in  1761.  Since  the  time  of 
the  Revolution,  when  the  Nova  Scotia  government  by  strong, 
determined  measures  kept  the  province  under  its  control  from 
joining,  as  a  large  portion  of  its  people  would  have  been  willing 
to  have  it  do,  in  the  movement  for  independence,  the  province- 
by-the-sea  has  been  to  United  States  people  a  foreign  country, 
but  from  the  establishment  of  the  colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay 
until  the  Revolution,  Nova  Scotia  was  in  close  alliance  with 
Massachusetts,  and,  through  all  the  political  changes  the  Acadian 
province  underwent,  to  the  time  of  the  complete  destruction  of 
French  power  within  its  borders,  the  Massachusetts  authorities 
kept  its  interests  closely  at  heart.  A  chapter  of  local  history 
that  has  never  fully  been  written  but  that  offers  an  interesting 
field  for  searchers  among  the  records  of  the  past  is  the  story  of 
the  mild  adventures  of  the  little  garrison  at  Annapolis  Royal 
from  the  capture  of  this  historic  fortress  by  Nicholson  in  1710 
to  the  establishment  of  civil  government  at  Halifax  and  the  re- 
moval of  the  chief  military  power  to  that  place,  in  1749.  The 
record  of  land-granting  in  Nova  Scotia  from  1759  to  the  end  of 
the  Revolutionary  period  in  America  is  another  subject  that 
has  in  it  also  distinct  elements  of  romance,  but  land  granting  in 


of  the  84th  Royal  Engineers,  with  part  cf  which  in  1779  he  joined  the  army 
under  Sir  Henry  Clinton  at  New  York.  In  1780  he  was  made  lieut.-col.,  18  Nov.. 
1790,  col.,  in  1793  Lieut.-Gov.  of  Guernsey,  and  3  Oct.,  1794,  major-general.  He 
died  in  Guernsey,  17  March,  1796.  See  Diet,  of  National  Biography  and  Appleton's 
Encyclopoedia  of  Am.  Biography. 

5.     These  settlers  were  probably  part  of  the  troops  under  Col.   Small's  com- 
mand in  the  Revolution. 


8  RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA 

the  province  began  while  the  Annapolis  garrison  still  exercised 
control  over  the  wild  lands  of  the  province,  and  indeed  over  the 
tilled  farms  of  the  industrious  French,  for  on  the  13th  of  No- 
vember, 1735,  Lieutenant-Governor  Lawrence  Armstrong,  who 
was  chief  in  the  garrison,  announced  to  his  councillors  "that 
having  had  two  Scrawls  of  Grants  from  Mr.  Secretary,  vizt., 
One  for  Lands  to  be  granted  at  Chiconito  [Chignecto],  and  the 
other  for  lands  to  be  also  granted  at  Menis  or  Piziguet,  he 
thought  it  necessary  to  lay  the  matter  before  the  board  for  their 
consideration."  The  grants  were  then  given,  in  1736,  the  Gov- 
ernor and  Council  deciding  that  the  "Township"  to  be  settled 
at  Piziguet  should  be  called  "Harrington  in  the  parish  of  Har- 
rington, "5l/2  that  each  grant,  at  Chiconito  or  Piziguet,  should 
comprise  100,000  acres,  and  that  the  grantees  should  be  re- 
quired to  place  on  their  grants  a  certain  number  of  settlers,  to 
make  the  grants  operative.  Undoubtedly  the  grantees,  who 
were  naturally  members  of  the  military  government,  Armstrong 
himself  being  one,  were  unable  to  fulfil  the  important  condition 
requiring  settlement  of  their  grants,  and  in  1759,  when  the  in- 
tending New  England  settlers  in  Hants  County  desired  grants, 
the  Council  at  Halifax,  that  ten  years  before  had  supplanted  the 
Military  Council  at  Annapolis  Koyal,  announced  that  the  ear- 
lier grants  at  "Piziguet"  were  no  longer  in  force,  for  the  gran- 
tees, Brigadier-General  Richard  Philipps,  Lieutenant-Governor 
Lawrence  Armstrong  and  "other  official  persons,"  had  never 
fulfilled  the  terms  of  their  grants,  which  therefore  must  now  be 
formally  escheated  to  the  Crown. 


The  expulsion  of  the  French  from  Nova  Scotia  in  1755,  com- 
memorated by  Longfellow  in  his  famous  poem  Evangeline,  was 
a  drastic  measure  that  the  Lords  of  Trade  in  England  and  the 
local  authorities  at  Halifax  at  last  came  to  feel  necessary  for 
the  carrying  out  of  an  intention  that  at  a  much  earlier  time  had, 
with  more  or  less  distinctness,  taken  shape  in  their  minds,  to 


See  Nova  Scotia  Archives  (printed),  Vol.  3,  pp.  327,  328. 


RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA  9 

settle  the  province  preponderating^  with  people  of  British 
stock.  The  removal  was  accomplished, 

— "on  the  falling  tide  the  freighted  vessels  departed, 
Bearing  a  nation,  with  all  its  household  gods,  into  exile, 
Exile  without  an  end,  and  without  an  example  in  story, ' ' 

and  when  the  French  were  gone  and  the  government  had  leisure 
to  carry  out  its  own  wishes  and  the  wish  of  the  Home  Govern- 
ment, as  also  that  of  its  neighbour  colony  of  Massachusetts,  in 
reference  to  British  settlement  of  the  province,  the  Nova  Scotia 
Council  in  1758,  under  direct  instructions  from  England,  adopt- 
ed a  proclamation  relative  to  settling  the  vacant  lands  through- 
out the  province,  both  those  lands  that  had  formerly  been  occu- 
pied and  tilled  by  the  French,  and  those  that  had  never  hitherto 
been  settled  at  all.  The  proclamation  stated  that  by  the  de- 
struction of  French  power  in  Cape  Breton  and  Nova  Scotia  the 
enemy  who  had  formerly  disturbed  and  harassed  the  province 
and  obstructed  its  progress  had  been  obliged  to  retire  to  Can- 
ada, and  that  thus  a  favourable  opportunity  was  presented  '  *  for 
peopling  and  cultivating  as  well  the  lands  vacated  by  the  French 
as  every  other  part  of  this  valuable  province."  Proposals  for 
settlement,  it  was  announced,  would  be  received  by  Mr.  Thomas 
Hancock  of  Boston,  and  Messrs.  DeLancey  and  Watts  of  New 
York,  and  would  be  transmitted  to  the  Governor  of  Nova  Sco- 
tia, or  in  his  absence  to  the  Lieutenant-Governor,  or  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  Council. 

The  next  step  was  to  have  the  proclamation  issued,  and  ac- 
cordingly on  the  12th  of  October,  1758,  the  Council  caused  it  to 
be  published  in  the  Boston  Gazette?  As  soon  as  the  proclama- 
tion appeared  the  Boston  agent  was  plied  with  questions  as  to 
what  terms  of  encouragement  would  be  offered  settlers,  how 
much  land  each  person  would  receive,  what  quit-rent  and  taxes 
were  to  be  exacted,  what  constitution  of  government  prevailed 
in  the  province,  and  what  freedom  in  religion  settlers  would  be 
allowed.  The  result  of  these  inquiries  was  that  at  a  meeting  of 


6.    It  seems  that  posters  or  flyers  were  also  printed,  for  Rev.  Dr.  John  Forrest 
of  Halifax  has  told  the  writer  that  he  had  one  of  these. 


io          RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA 

the  Council  held  on  Thursday,  January  11,  1759,  a  second  proc- 
lamation was  approved,  in  which  the  Governor  stated  that  he 
was  empowered  to  make  grants  of  the  best  lands  in  the  province, 
that  a  hundred  acres  of  wild  wood-land  would  be  given  each 
head  of  a  family  and  fifty  acres  additional  for  each  person  in 
his  family,  young  or  old,  male  or  female,  black  or  white,  subject 
to  a  quit-rent  of  one  shilling  for  every  fifty  acres,  the  rent  to 
begin,  however,  not  until  ten  years  after  the  issuing  of  the 
grant.  The  grantees  must  cultivate  or  inclose  one-third  of  their 
land  in  ten  years,  one-third  more  in  twenty  years,  and  the  re- 
mainder in  thirty  years.  No  quantity  above  a  thousand  acres, 
however,  would  be  granted  to  any  one  person.  On  fulfilment  of 
the  terms  of  the  first  grant  the  person  receiving  it  should  be 
entitled  to  another  on  similar  conditions. 

The  lands  on  the  Bay  of  Fundy  were  to  be  distributed  "with 
proportions  of  interval  plow  land,  mowing  land,  and  pasture," 
which  lands  for  more  than  a  hundred  years  had  produced  abun- 
dant crops  of  wheat,  rye,  barley,  oats,  hemp,  and  flax,  without 
ever  needing  to  be  manured.  The  government  of  Nova  Scotia, 
it  was  declared,  was  constituted  like  that  of  the  neighbouring 
New  England  colonies,  the  legislature  consisting  of  a  governor, 
a  council,  and  an  assembly.  As  soon  as  the  people  were  settled, 
townships  of  a  hundred  thousand  acres  each,  or  about  twelve 
miles  square,  would  be  formed,  and  each  township  would  be  en- 
titled to  send  two  representatives  to  the  assembly.  The  courts 
of  justice  were  constituted  like  those  of  Massachusetts,  Connec- 
ticut, and  other  northern  colonies;  and  as  to  religion,  both  by 
His  Majesty's  instructions  and  by  a  late  act  of  the  assembly  full 
liberty  of  conscience  was  secured  to  persons  of  all  persuasions, 
Papists  alone  excepted.  Settlers  were  to  be  amply  protected  in 
their  homes,  for  forts  garrisoned  with  royal  troops  had  already 
been  established  in  close  proximity  to  the  lands  proposed  to  be 
settled.7 

The  reponse  to  the  Governor's  proclamations,  throughout  New 
England  was  widespread  and  prompt.  In  April,  1759,  a  large 
number  of  persons  in  Connecticut  and  Ehode  Island8  signified 


7.  See  for  virtually  this  same  account,  Eaton's  "History  of  King's  County," 
PP.  59-6i. 

8.  The  number  is  given  as  330. 


RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA  n 

their  intention,  if  the  conditions  were  as  favorable  as  had  been 
represented,  of  removing  to  the  country  about  the  Basin  of  Min- 
as  left  vacant  by  the  departure  of  the  French.  Accordingly  they 
sent  as  agents  to  confer  with  the  Governor9  and  personally  view 
the  lands  five  men,  Messrs.  (Major)  Robert  Denison,  Jonathan 
Harris,  Joseph  Otis,  and  Amos  Fuller,  of  Connecticut,  and  Mr. 
John  Hicks  of  Ehode  Island,  all  men  of  worth  and  standing  in 
the  towns  where  they  lived.  That  these  agents  might  be  thor- 
oughly informed  concerning  the  lands  about  the  Basin,  the 
Council  sent  them  in  an  armed  vessel,  with  an  officer  of  artillery 
and  eight  soldiers,  the  government  surveyor,  Mr.  Charles  Mor- 
ris, accompanying  the  party,  round  the  southern  coast  of  the 
province  and  up  the  Bay  of  Fundy.  At  Grand  Pre  and  Pisi- 
quid  they  disembarked,  in  the  latter  district  finding  many  of  the 
houses  and  barns  of  the  exiled  French  still  standing.10  It  was 
now  about  the  middle  of  May  and  the  rich  dykes  and  uplands 
showing  unmistakable  signs  of  great  fertility  and  in  their  early 
summer  greenness  so  impressed  the  agents  that  as  soon  as  they 
reached  Halifax  again  they  entered  into  an  agreement  with  the 
Governor  and  Council  to  settle  two  townships,  Horton,  the 
French  "Minas,"  and  Cornwallis,  the  French  "River  Canard." 
Two  of  the  agents,  Messrs.  Hicks  and  Fuller,  also  laid  before 
the  authorities  "some  proposals  for  settling  part  of  a  township 
at  Pisiquid,  desiring  that  a  sufficient  quantity  of  lands  there 
might  be  reserved  for  them  until  the  last  day  of  July  next,  by 
which  time  they  proposed  to  return  a  list  of  the  names  of  the 
persons  whom  they  should  engage  as  settlers."11  In  recogni- 
tion of  this  proposal  the  Council  resolved  that  lands  lying  on 
the  north  side  of  the  river  Pisiquid  should  be  reserved  for  the 


g.  This  was  Colonel  Charles  Lawrence,  who  was  appointed  lieutenant-gover- 
nor July  17,  1750,  and  was  made  governor  July  23,  1756.  He  was  energetic  in  the 
removal  of  the  Acadians,  and  in  the  subsequent  settling  of  the  province  from  New 
England.  He  died  in  office  on  Saturday,  October  n,  1760,  and  was  succeeded  in 
1761  by  Henry  Ellis,  Esq.,  who  had  been  governor  of  Georgia.  Lawrence's  prede- 
cessors in  the  civil  government  of  Nova  Scotia  were  Col.  the  Hon.  Edward  Corn- 
wallis and  Col.  Peregrine  Thomas  Hopson.  A  sketch  of  Governor  Lawrence  by 
Dr.  Thomas  B.  Akins  will  be  found  in  vol.  2  of  the  Collections  of  the  Nova 
Scotia  Historical  Society. 

10.  At  Grand  Pre  and  River  Canard  the  buildings  were  almost  without  excep- 
tion burned,  in  the  district  of  Pisiquid  for  some  reason  Captain  Murray  left  them 
standing. 

it.  The  date  of  the  Council  meeting  at  which  this  proposal  was  made  was 
May  21,  1759. 


12          RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IX  NOVA  SCOTIA 

applicants  and  their  associates,  provided  a  list  of  the  intending 
settlers  should  be  presented  on  or  before  the  last  day  of  July  of 
that  year,  and  that  the  agents  should  engage  to  settle  fifty  fam- 
ilies on  or  before  the  first  day  of  September,  1760.  The  Council 
on  its  part  promised  that  the  settlers,  when  they  should  come, 
should  receive  all  manner  of  protection  and  countenance  from 
His  Majesty's  troops,  and  should  have  the  same  advantage  in 
respect  to  transportation  of  themselves  and  their  families,  and 
their  stock,  as  had  been  proposed  in  the  case  of  the  families  in- 
tending to  settle  the  townships  of  Horton  and  Cornwallis.  At  the 
Council  meeting  at  which  these  declarations  were  made  the 
grants  of  Horton  and  Cornwallis  also  were  ordered  to  pass  the 
seal  of  the  province,  and  two  months  later,  on  the  21st  of  July, 
the  township  of  Falrnouth,  covering  a  large  part  of  the  inde- 
terminate region  known  as  Pisiquid,  and  comprising  50,000 
acres,  was  formally  set  apart.  12  On  the  16th  of  July,  as  the 
Council  minutes  reveal,  Mr.  John  Hicks,  in  pursuance  of  the 
agreement  made  by  him  and  Mr.  Fuller  with  the  Council  on  the 
21st  of  the  preceding  May  delivered  a  list  of  the  persons  who 
proposed  to  settle  Falmouth,  and  a  grant  ofN  this  third  Minas 
Basin  township  was  ordered  to  be  made  out.  By  the  govern- 
ment surveyor,  the  three  new  townships  were  soon  properly  sur- 
veyed, but  in  each  case  the  first  grant  was  a  little  later  rescind- 
ed. The  reason  for  the  withdrawal  of  these  first  grants  we  have 
nowhere  seen  officially  stated,  but  it  seems  almost  certain  that  it 
was  chiefly  because  a  considerable  number  of  the  first  intending 
grantees  changed  their  minds  about  coming  to  Nova  Scotia,  de- 
ciding to  remain  in  their  New  England  homes. 

In  a  minute  of  Council  of  October  26,  1759,  the  fact  is  al- 
luded to  that  some  of  the  lands  in  Pisiquid,  including  part 
of  Falmouth,  had  over  twenty  years  before  been  granted  to 
persons  at  Annapolis  Royal  and  now  had  to  be  formally  es- 


12.  Before  the  townships  of  Horton,  Cornwallis,  and  Falmouth  were  organized, 
the  following  townships,  and  these  only,  existed  in  Nova  Scotia :  Halifax,  Lunen- 
burg,  Dartmouth,  Lawrence  Town  (in  Halifax  County),  Annapolis  Royal,  and 
Cumberland.  The  limits  of  these  six  earliest  townships  were  provisionally  fixed  by 
the  Council,  and  representation  in  the  Assembly  given  them,  January  3,  1757.  Nova 
Scotia  Archives,  Vol.  I,  pp.  718,  719.  Falmouth  was  probably  named  in  recogni- 
tion of  the  famous  Admiral  Boscawen,  3rd  son  of  Hugh,  1st  Viscount  Falmouth, 
and  brother  of  Hugh,  and  Viscount.  Admiral  Boscawen  died  January  10,  1761. 


RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA  13 

cheated  before  they  could  be  granted  to  others.  The  minute 
reads :  ' '  Mr.  Amos  Fuller  and  others  having  made  application 
for  lands  for  a  township  situated  on  Pisiquid  River,  upon 
searching  the  old  Records  of  the  Province  it  appeared  that  a 
part  of  the  said  Lands  had  been  granted  away  in  the  year  1736, 
to  Brigadier  General  Richard  Philipps,  Lieutenant-Governor 
Lawrence  Armstrong  and  others,  and  a  copy  of  the  Deed  where- 
by the  same  were  Granted  being  read  and  taken  into  considera- 
tion, the  Council  are  of  opinion  that  the  Grantees  have  failed 
to  perform  the  several  conditions  of  the  said  Grant,  and  that 
the  Lands  are  thereby  forfeited  to  the  Crown."  They  therefore 
advise  the  formal  escheating  of  their  lands, l  i  that  the  crown  may 
be  enabled  to  grant  the  said  lands  to  the  above  persons,  who 
are  desirous  immediately  to  cultivate  and  improve  them." 

At  the  meeting  of  Council  held  on  the  16th  of  July,  1759,  when 
Mr.  John  Hicks  presented  his  list  of  intending  settlers,  it  was 
debated  whether  or  not  it  would  be  better  to  transport  the  set- 
tlers from  Connecticut  that  autumn  to  Horton  and  Cornwallis, 
or  whether  it  would  not  be  advisable  and  expedient  to  post- 
pone their  removal  until  the  following  spring,  "on  account  of 
the  French  and  Indians  being  more  numerous  and  aggressive 
than  previously."  To  settle  the  matter,  Mr.  Hicks  was  called  in 
and  asked  his  opinion.  He  gave  as  his  judgment  that  the  peo- 
ple would  rather  wait,  whereupon  the  Council  advised  that 
arrangements  for  the  transportation  of  the  people  for  these 
townships  should  be  deferred.  Although  Falmouth  is  not 
included  with  Horton  and  Cornwallis  in  this  minute  of  Council 
concerning  the  postponement  of  the  settlement  of  King's  County, 
in  a  letter  to  the  Lords  of  Trade  of  September  20,  1759,  Gover- 
nor Lawrence  says:  "As  the  reasons  for  postponing  the  Set- 
tlements of  Minas,  Canard  and  Pisiquid  until  the  next  Spring 
are  fully  explained  in  the  Council  records  of  July  16th,  I  need 
not  repeat  them  here,  but  it  may  be  necessary  for  your  Lord- 
ships information  to  observe  that  tho'  the  Settlers  grants  run 
to  500  acres  to  a  family,  there  are  only  25,  or  thereabouts,  of 
cleared  Land  in  each  Grant." 

The  actual  migration  from  Rhode  Island  to  Hants  County 
seems  to  have  begun  early  in  the  spring  of  1760,  for  in  May  of 


14          RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA 

that  year  Governor  Lawrence  reports  that  forty  families  have 
come  to  settle  "in  the  direction  of  Annapolis,  Minas  and  Pizi- 
quid."  In  May  the  sloop  Sally,  Jonathan  Lovett,  master,  is  re- 
corded to  have  brought  from  Newport,  Rhode  Island,  to  Pal- 
mouth,  thirty-five  persons,  and  the  sloop  Lydia,  Samuel  Toby, 
master,  twenty- three  more.12V2  In  a  letter  to  the  Lords  of  Trade 
of  April  10,  1761,  Lieutenant-Governor  Belcher  says :  ' l  The 
three  Townships  of  Horton,  Cornwallis,  and  Falmouth  will  have 
their  compliment  [sic]  of  settlers  this  spring,  and  a  considera- 
ble addition  will  be  made  to  Annapolis,  Granville,  and  Liver- 
pool, and  with  little  or  no  expence  to  the  Government."13  July 
2,  1762,  he  writes  that  since  his  "last  address"  many  settlers 
have  come  to  the  townships  of  Barrington,  Yarmouth,  Truro, 
Onslow,  and  Newport,  and  have  brought  credentials  with  them 
of  their  industry  and  knowledge  of  husbandry. 

The  details  of  the  movement  in  Ehode  Island  for  settlement 
in  Nova  Scotia  we  are  left  in  great  measure  to  imagine.  The 
proclamations  of  Governor  Lawrence  must  have  produced  great 
excitement  in  many  towns,  and  one  of  the  chief  topics  of  con- 
versation about  Narragansett  Bay  for  many  months  must  have 
been  the  offer  of  rich  lands  about  the  Bay  of  Fundy  and  Minas 
Basin  to  any  reputable  settler  who  would  apply  for  lands.  In 
his  long  letter  to  the  Lords  of  Trade  of  December  12,  1760,  Lieu- 
tenant-Governor  Belcher  says  that  great  opposition  had  been 
manifested  in  New  England  (he  says  "on  the  Continent")  to 
people's  coming  to  Nova  Scotia,  but  how  general  this  opposi- 
tion was  or  where  it  most  manifested  itself  we  have  no  means 
of  knowing.  The  lands  in  Nova  Scotia,  Belcher  declares  had 
been  depreciated  in  New  England,  and  men  had  even  been 
pressed  into  military  service  against  the  French  to  prevent 
their  migrating.  It  is  of  course  not  an  intentional  omission  on 
the  part  of  local  historians,  but  yet  it  seems  strange  that  so 


i2l/2.  March  10,  1760,  the  Nova  Scotia  Council  "did  advise  that  His  Excellency 
should  as  soon  as  may  be  take  up  such  transports  either  here  or  at  Connecticut  as 
may  be  necessary  to  assist  the  Province  Vessels  in  the  transport  of  those  Settlers 
who  are  to  be  brought  at  the  Government's  Expence." 

13.  In  a  letter  to  the  Lords  of  Trade  written  November  3,  1761,  Belcher  says : 
"The  Towns  of  Onslow  and  Truro  in  the  District  of  Cobequid,  of  Cumberland  in 
that  of  Chignecto,  of  Annapolis  Royal  and  Granville,  have  been  settled  in  the 
course  of  this  summer  with  one  hundred  and  fifty  Families,  by  the  return  of  the 
chief  surveyor  to  me." 


RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA  15 

large  a  migration  of  prominent  families  from  Massachusetts, 
Connecticut,  and  Rhode  Island  towns  should  have  left  so  little 
record  as  it  has  done  in  New  England  history.  In  our  History 
of  King's  County  we  have  spoken  of  the  slight  though  signifi- 
cant mentions  made  by  Miss  Caulkins  and  Macy  in  their  histor- 
ies respectively  of  New  London  and  Norwich,  and  Nantucket, 
of  the  Connecticut  and  Nantucket  Island  migrations.131/2  Arn- 
old's History  of  Rhode  Island  tells  us  that  there  was  "an  exten- 
sive emigration  from  New  England  to  Nova  Scotia,"  probably 
in  1760,  about  a  hundred  persons  going  from  the  town  of  New- 
port alone.14  In  Rhode  Island  court  records  of  1762,  also,  we 
find  it  stated  that  many  of  his  Majesty's  good  subjects  born  in 
this  colony  had  removed  to  other  places.  In  1729  Rhode  Island 
had  been  divided  into  three  counties,  Newport,  comprising  the 
Islands  with  New  Shoreham;  Providence,  including  the  town  of 
that  name,  Warwick,  and  East  Greenwich;  and  King's,  includ- 
ing North  and  South  Kingstown,  with  Westerly,  the  shire  being- 
South  Kingstown;  and  from  each  of  these  original  counties  and 
from  many  towns  in  the  counties  important  families  embarked 
for  the  Nova  Scotia  shores.  From  Newport,  Tiverton,  Little 
Compton,  Portsmouth,  Middletown,  Warwick,  East  and  West 
Greenwich,  and  both  the  Kingstowns,  it  is  probable,  the  Nova 
Scotia  settlement  was  reinforced,  but  if  we  can  judge  from  a 
casual  tracing  of  the  families  who  migrated  it  would  seem  that 
Newport,  Little  Compton,  and  the  Kingstowns  sent  the  most. 

The  expulsion  of  the  Acadians,  as  we  know,  has  stirred  poet- 
ical imagination  as  few  other  incidents  of  American  history  have 
done,  but  the  migration  from  New  England  also  has  had  recent 
commemoration  in  verse,  for  the  human  interest  in  it  is  vital 
and  strong.  Of  the  coming  of  the  Connecticut  people  from  the 
port  of  New  London,  and  the  Rhode  Island  people  from  Nar- 
ragansett  Bay,  to  the  regions  of  Grand  Pre,  Riviere  aux  Ca- 
nards, and  Pisiquid  one  poet  has  sung : 

"They  come  as  came  the  Hebrews  into  their  promised  land, 
Not  as  to  rocky  Plymouth  shores  came  first  the  Pilgrim  band, 
The  Minas  fields  were  fruitful,  and  the  Gaspereau  had  borne 
To  seaward  many  a  vessel  with  its  freight  of  golden  corn. 


2.    History  of  King's  County,  Nova  Scotia,  pp.  61,  62. 

14.  "History  of  the  State  of  Rhode  Island  and  Providence  Plantations,'  by 
Samuel  Greene  Arnold  (1860),  Vol.  2,  pp.  233,  494.  The  Rhode  Island  court 
record  given  above  is  also  quoted  by  Arnold. 


16          RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA 

"They  come  as  Puritans,  but  who  shall  say  their  hearts  are  blind 
To  the  subtle  charms  of  nature,  and  the  love  of  human  kind, 
New  England's  rigorous  creeds  have  warped  their  native  faith,  'tis  true, 
But  human  creeds  can  never  wholly  Heaven's  work  undo, 

"And  tears  fall  fast  from  many  an  eye,  long  time  unused  to  weep, 
For  o'er  the  fields  lie  whitening  the  bones  of  cows  and  sheep, 
The  faithful  flocks  that  used  to  feed  upon  the  broad  Grand  Pre, 
And  with  their  tinkling  bells  come  slowly  home  at  close  of  day." 

But  no  poet  can  ever  fully  picture  the  emotions  of  any  peo- 
ple, especially  people  of  such  fine  mould  as  the  Rhode  Island 
people  of  this  migration,  in  leaving  loved  old  homes  for  perma- 
nent residence  in  lands  that  are  to  them  utterly  strange  and  new. 

Of  the  vessels  that  brought  the  people  from  Rhode  Island  to 
Nova  Scotia,  and  of  the  men  who  captained  the  ships,  we  have 
been  able  to  gain  some  information.15  One  of  the  captains  who 
was  most  active  in  transporting  the  people  was  Captain  John 
Taggart,  who  himself,  with  two  mates,  a  pilot,  a  gunner,  and 
eighteen  men,  at  some  time  during  the  migration  period  com- 
manded the  brig  Snow.  Captain  Taggart 's  services  were  highly 
commended  by  Mr.  Belcher  in  a  letter  to  the  Lords  of  Trade  of 
December  21st,  1760.  Belcher  writes:  "As  Captain  Taggart  has 
been  very  diligent  and  usefull  on  the  Continent  in  assisting  and 
promoting  the  Embarkation  of  the  Settlements,  I  would  beg 
leave  to  recommend  his  services  to  your  Lordship's  considera- 
tion." The  total  expense  to  the  Government  of  Captain  Tag- 
gart's  services  "in  hiring  vessels  and  transporting  passengers," 
was  £3,014.12.111/4,  for  which  Taggart  drew  on  Thomas  Han- 
cock, Esq.,  at  Boston.  A  vessel  that  is  conspicuously  mentioned 
as  bringing  food  for  the  settlers  was  the  brigantine  Montague, 
Captain  Rogers,  whose  crew  consisted  of  a  mate,  a  pilot,  and 
eighteen  men.  This  vessel  after  unloading  provisions  for  the 
people  of  Horton  and  Cornwallis,  in  her  passage  through  the 
river  Canard  ran  upon  a  bank  of  mud  and  was  "overset  so 
deep"  that  she  became  a  total  loss.  To  take  her  place  a  new 
vessel  was  purchased  at  a  cost  of  five  hundred  pounds.  Besides 
these  vessels  we  have  the  sloop  Diamond,  Peter  Rogers,  master ; 
the  sloop  Dispatch;  the  sloop  Dragon,  Joseph  Normand,  master ; 


15.  More  or  less  of  this  information  we  have  gleaned  from  accounts  appended 
to  the  Nova  Scotia  Governor  Lawrence's  correspondence  concerning  the  settlement, 
with  the  English  Lords  of  Trade. 


RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA  17 

the  Hoi  ton  Packet;  the  sloop  Lidia,  Jonathan  Molony,  master; 
the  sloop  Lucy,  James  Cox,  master ;  the  schooner  Monkton,  Sol- 
omon Tripp,  master ;  the  schooner  Norwich,  Packett  (1)  Trapp, 
master;  the  schooner  Pilot,  with  a  master  and  four  men;  the 
Province  Brig,  Captain  Rogers;  the  sloop  Rain-Bow,  Jacob 
Kurd,  master;  the  sloop  Sally  (either  this  vessel  or  another 
Sally,  had  as  master  Jeffrey  Grossman),  Jonathan  Bardock, 
master ;  the  sloop  Speedwell,  Seth  Harding,  master ;  the  schoon- 
er Warren;  the  sloop  Wolfe,  Joseph  Winship,  master ;  the  sloop 
Yarmouth;  and  the  sloop  York,  Captain  Cobb,  with  also  a  mate, 
a  pilot,  and  eighteen  men.  We  have  also  a  record  of  William 
Rockville's  carrying  thirty-five  settlers  to  Horton,  at  a  charge 
of  fifteen  pounds. 

The  record  of  the  first  Falmouth  grant  will  be  found  in  Grant 
Book  No.  2,  pp.  28-32,  in  the  Crown  Land  Office  at  Halifax.  It 
reads  as  follows : 

"A  Grant  made  by  His  Excellency  Governor  Lawrence  with 
the  Advice  and  Consent  of  His  Majesty's  Council  for  this  Prov- 
ince to  John  Hicks,  Amos  Fuller,  and  a  Number  of  other  Per- 
sons (hereafter  named)  whom  they  represented  as  their  Com- 
mittee, passed  under  the  Seal  of  this  Province  Giving  and  Con- 
firming unto  them  in  the  respective  Shares  hereafter  specified 
the  whole  of  a  Tract  of  Land  now  erected  into  a  Township  by 
the  Name  of  the  Township  of  Falmouth  Situate  lying  and  being 
within  the  Bason  of  Minas  on  Pisiguid  River,  within  the  said 
Province  of  Nova  Scotia,  and  is  bounded  North  Westerly  by  the 
Township  of  Horton,  and  beginning  at  a  Point  of  Land  on  said 
Pisiguid  River,  and  running  South  Sixty  Degrees  West,  measur- 
ing Eleven  hundred  and  fifty  Chains  of  four  Rods  to  a  Chain, 
Southwesterly  on  ungranted  Lands  running  South  Thirty  De- 
grees East  measuring  five  hundred  and  Sixty  Chains,  Thence 
North  Sixty  Degrees  East  to  the  River  Pisiguid,  measuring 
Four  hundred  and  twenty  Chains,  and  thence  bounded  by  the 
said  River  according  to  the  Course  thereof  to  the  Boundaries 
first  mentioned  containing  in  the  whole  by  Estimation  Fifty 
thousand  Acres,  be  the  same  more  or  less  according  to  a  Plan 
and  Survey  of  the  same  to  be  therewith  registered. 

"The  Terms  and  Conditions  on  which  this  Grant  is  made  are  of 


i8          RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA 

the  same  Tenor  as  those  (of  Horton,  Cornwallis,  etc.)  already  en- 
tered on  this  Book.  The  Land  Granted  to  be  Improv'd  or  In- 
clos'd,  Hemp  raised;  The  Quit  Eent  to  be  paid;  and  The  Prem- 
ises not  suffered  to  be  alienated  without  License,  as  in  the  Said 
Grants. 

"Fifty  of  the  said  Grantees  with  their  Wives,  Children,  Ser- 
vants, and  Stock  are  to  remove  and  settle  themselves  on  the  said 
Tract  of  Land  on  or  before  the  thirty-first  Day  of  May  next, 
otherwise  the  Grant  to  be  entirely  void  &  of  none  effect.  But 
if  performed  &  fulfilled  to  be  good  valid  &  effectual  to  the 
said  fifty.  But  in  Case  any  of  the  remaining  Grantees  shall  not 
remove  and  Settle  on  the  said  Premises  as  aforesaid  on  or  be- 
fore the  first  Day  of  September  One  thousand  seven  hundred 
&  Sixty  then  the  Grant  to  every  Grantee  so  failing  to  be  null 
and  void  &  their  Bight  or  share  to  revert  to  the  Crown,  etc. 

"SIGNED  SEALED  AND  DATED  AT  HALIFAX  in  the 
said  Province  this  Twenty  first  Day  of  July  in  the  Thirty  third 
Year  of  His  Maj  'ys  Reign,  Anno  Domini  One  Thousand  Seven 
hundred  and  fifty  nine." 

The  grantees '  names,  in  the  order  in  which  they  are  given,  are 
as  follows:  Amos  Fuller  and  John  Hicks,  half  a  share  each; 
Benjamin  Corey,  Jeremiah  Trescutt,  Edward  Cole,  Jeremiah 
Cook,  Elisha  Parker,  and  William  Nevil  Wolseley,  one  and  a 
half  shares  each;  William  Piggott,  Alexander  Phelps,  Esq., 
Samuel  Gilbert,  Esq.,  Captain  Samuel  Philer,  Jeremiah  Angle, 
Esq.,  Ichabod  Bruster,  David  Barker,  Benjamin  Grimes,  Abner 
Hall,  Gideon  Abby,  Gideon  Abby,  Jr.,  David  Sweetland,  Silvan- 
us  Phelps,  Silas  Crane,  Job  Piss,  Jonathan  Crosby,  Moses 
Cleary,  David  Parry,  Zachariah  Parker,  Cornelius  Stores,  Eben- 
ezer  Down,  Joshua  Hall,  Daniel  Hovey,  Lemuel  Cleveland,  Ste- 
phen Barnabus  [Barnaby],  Nathaniel  Stiles,  John  Gillet,  Pele- 
tiah  Marsh,  David  Waters,  Nehemiah  Angle,  Edmund  Hovey, 
Moses  Phelps,  Jessey  Gourd,  Timothy  Buell,  Isaac  Owen,  Rich- 
ard Webber,  Israel  Morrey,  Jonathan  Root,  Joseph  Mane,  Ru- 
ben Cone,  Daniel  Burg,  Ephraim  Taylor,  Jonathan  Dawson, 
David  Randal,  John  Davison,  Shubeal  Dimock,  Nathaniel  Park- 
er, Thomas  Hall,  Simon  Ely,  James  Calkings,  Elisha  Dunk, 
John  Steel,  Obediah  Hosfurd,  Elisha  Bill,  Jabez  Chappel,  Heze- 


RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA  19 

kiah  Cogshill,  Joseph  Phelps  the  third,  David  Carver,  Elisha 
Huntington,  Chloe  Fuller,  Richard  Beal,  Mordecai  Decoster, 
James  Willson,  Robert  Lawson,  Wignul  Cole,  George  Northrop,' 
Silas  Gardner,  Benjamin  Hicks,  William  Allen,  Hannah  Hicks' 
Samuel  Sample,  Abiah  Phelps,  Barnabus  Hall,  Nathaniel  Cush- 
man,  William  Sweetland,  Lebues  Woodworth,  Cornelius  Stores, 
Jr.,  Daniel  Hovey,  Jr.,  Nehemiah  Wood,  Martha  Dyer,  Joseph 
Steward,  Judiah  Agard,  Consider  Cushman,  Edmund  Hovey, 
Jr.,  Robert  Avery,  Jr.,  Gamaliel  Little,  Jr.,  Ezriah  Peirs,  Cy- 
prian Davison,  Jedediah  Williams,  Jr.,  John  Darsey,  Richard 
Hakes,  John  Hovey,  Joseph  Chamberlain,  Benjamin  Agward, 
William  Fuller,  David  Cogswell,  Sebel  Cogswell,  Nathaniel  Ho- 
vey, Ephraim  Hall,  Ger shorn  Hall;  John  Hanks,  Samuel  Wes- 
coat,  Eunice  Greenhill,  John  Freeman,  John  White.  (Whether 
all  of  these  received  one  share,  or  some  of  them  only  half  a 
share,  each,  the  record,  we  believe,  does  not  say).  Of  the  113 
names  which  appear  in  this  grant,  very  few,  as  we  shall  see,  are 
to  be  found  in  the  effective  grant  of  1761.  A  considerable  num- 
ber of  the  names  in  this  grant  are  of  Connecticut  men,  those  in 
the  grant  of  1761  of  men  who  actually  settled  in  Falmouth  are 
almost  exclusively  Rhode  Island  names. 

The  grant  of  Falmouth  which  went  permanently  into  effect  is 
declared  to  comprise  "65  shares  or  rights."  It  was  given  June 
11,  1761,  and  registered  July  21st  of  the  same  year.16  Each 
share  of  the  township  was  to  consist  of  500  acres,  but  the  whole 
was  to  comprise  750,000  instead  of  50,000  acres,  as  in  the  first 
grant.  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  65  shares  allotted  reached  only 
the  sum  of  34,000  acres,  though  the  full  100  shares  would  have 
reached  the  sum  of  50,000.  The  shares  on  this  grant  given  for 
public  uses,  as  we  shall  see,  were,  one  share  for  the  first  minis- 
ter, one  share  of  600  acres  for  a  glebe,  and  400  acres  for  a 
school.  After  this  distribution  was  made,  therefore,  there  re- 
mained yet  much  land  to  be  granted.  An  undated  plan  in  the 
Crown  Land  Office  in  Halifax  gives  the  boundaries  of  this  "new 
grant  of  Falmouth  on  the  west  side  of  Pizaquid  River"  as  fol- 
lows: "A  Tract  of  Land  Situate  lying  and  being  within  the  Ba- 
son of  Minas  being  the  District  commonly  called  Pizaquid  now 

16.     See  Grant  Book  3,  pp.  37-45- 


20          RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IX  NOVA  SCOTIA 

called  and  to  be  hereafter  known  by  the  Name  of  the  Township 
of  Falmouth  within  the  said  Province  of  Nova  Scotia,  in  which 
Township  are  comprehended  the  Lands  hereby  granted,  being 
bounded  northerly  by  the  Township  of  Horton,  Beginning  at  a 
Point  of  Land  on  Pizaquid  River  and  running  south  60  Degrees 
West,  measuring  Thirteen  hundred  chains  of  four  Rods  to  a 
chain,  Westerly  on  ungranted  Lands  running  South  30  Degrees 
East  measuring  880  chains,  Southerly  on  ungranted  Lands  run- 
ning 60  Degrees  East  to  Lands  granted  to  James  Monk,  Esq., 
and  others,  measuring  440  chains,  and  on  the  Said  Land  running 
North  30  Degrees  West  300  chains,  thence  on  the  Same  North 
60  Degrees  East  192  chains  till  it  meets  with  Pizaquid  River  to 
the  Boundaries  first  mentioned,  containing  on  the  whole  50,000 
acres,  allowance  being  made  for  Mountainous  Lands,  Lakes,  and 
high  Ways,  according  to  the  Plan."17 

By  a  comparison  of  the  boundaries  of  the  two  Falmouth  grants 
it  will  be  seen  that  the  second  grant  was  somewhat  larger  than 
the  first,  though  the  lands  in  both  lay  entirely  on  the  west  side 
of  Piziquid  river.  On  the  28th  of  August,  1759,  as  we  shall  see 
when  we  come  to  describe  the  settlement  of  the  township  of  Wind- 
sor, a  grant  of  7,000  acres,  known  still  as  the  "Councillors' 
Grant,"  was  given  to  seven  members  of  the  Council;  and  on  the 
first  of  September  following,  another  large  grant,  the  size  of 
which,  however,  we  do  not  know,  was  given  to  Messrs.  Joshua 
Mauger,  Michael  Francklin,  Isaac  Deschamps,  Charles  Proctor, 
William  Saul,  Moses  Delesdernier,  and  Gideon  Delesdernier, 
very  near  the  former.  The  territory  covered  by  these  grants 
and  others  which  shortly  followed  was  known  locally  as  East 
Falmouth,  until  December,  1764,  when  it  was  organized  into  the 


17.  Dr.  Hind  says  (p.  47)  :  "That  the  division  of  land  included  within  the  lim- 
its of  West  Falmouth  was  not  made  strictly  in  accordance  with  the  original  agree- 
ment with  John  Hicks  and  Amos  Fuller  would  appear  from  the  following  unpub- 
lished letter  addressed  by  the  Hon.  Jonathan  Belcher  to  Isaac  Deschamps : 

"  'HALIFAX,  27th  June,  1761. 

"  'SiR. — If  any  share  in  West  Falmouth  is  ungranted  you  will  please  to  reserve 
it  till  you  have  my  further  directions.  I  shall  be  expecting  your  attendance  at  the 
general  assembly  with  the  other  representatives  of  the  King's  county  on  Wednesday 
next,  pursuant  to  the  last  proclamation. 

"  'I  am,  sir,  your  most  obedient  servant, 

"'(Signed)   J.  BELCHER. 

"  'ISAAC  DESCHAMPS,  ESQ. 

"'(Ms.  letter  in  possession  of  Mrs.  Wiggins).'" 


RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA 


21 


township  of  Windsor.  Thus  between  1760  and  1764  we  find  fre- 
quent mention  in  old  records  of  both  East  and  West  Falmouth.18 
In  his  "Old  Parish  Burying  Ground"19  Dr.  Hind  reproduces  an 
interesting  letter,  which  we  believe  has  otherwise  never  ap- 
peared in  print,  from  the  Hon.  Charles  Morris  at  Halifax  to  Mr. 
Isaac  Deschamps  at  Piziquid,  a  little  less  than  four  months  be- 
fore the  great  grant  of  Newport  township  was  made,  in  which 
we  find  significant  mention  of  East  Falmouth.  The  letter  reads : 

"Halifax,  March  31,  1761. 

"Sir,— Cap t.  Maloney,  upon  the  application  of  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Horton  and  Cornwallis,  is  to  return  to  New  London  to 
take  in  provisions,  but  half  his  lading;  he  is  then  to  proceed  to 
Newport  [R.  I.]  to  take  provisions  for  East  and  West  Fal- 
mouth ;  he  has  also  orders  to  take  Dr.  Ellis  and  his  family  and 
effects  and  one  Mr.  Mather  if  they  are  ready. 

' '  The  inhabitants  of  East  Falmouth  have  petitioned  to  be  set 
off  as  a  distinct  township,  and  it  has  been  mentioned  in  council, 
but  nothing  in  conclusion  done.  There  is  an  objection  because 
of  the  fewness  of  the  proprietors,  but  if  they  will  consent  to 
have  an  addition  of  20  rights,  a  sufficient  quantity  of  land  be- 
ing added  for  that  end,  I  believe  they  may  obtain  it.  I  have 
proposed  to  have  it  named  Newport,  from  my  Lord  Newport,  a 
friend  of  Mr.  Belcher's,  and  which  I  believe  will  be  agreeable  to 
the  people  if  they  think  it  will  be  of  advantage  to  them.  I  think 
the  addition  of  20  shares  will  be  no  disadvantage,  as  they  have 
land  equivalent.  You  can  inform  yourself  of  their  opinion  on 
this  head. 

"I  am  obliged  to  you  for  the  assistance  you  gave  my  son 
among  the  inhabitants.  It  will  not  be  long  before  you  will  be 
here,  and  then  I  will  fully  inform  you  of  the  other  affairs,  till 
when,  I  am,  in  haste, 

"Your  most  obedient  servant, 

(Signed)     C.  MORRIS." 

"Endorsed— Rec.  5th  April;  Ans.  14th  do." 

18.  In  the  third  Assembly  of  the  Province,  which  lasted  from   1761  to  1765, 
besides  the  two  representatives  for  King's  County  and  two  each  for  the  townships  of 
Horton  and  Cornwallis,  the  township  of  West  Falmouth  has  two  members.    In  the 
fourth  Assembly,  however,  and  thereafter,  the  name  West  Falmouth  becomes  merely 
Falmouth.    Falmouth  and  Newport  were  the  only  townships  in  Hants  to  send  mem- 
bers to  the  legislature  as  long  as  township  representation  continued. 

19.  "Old  Parish  Burying  Ground,"  p.  56. 


22 


RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA 


In  a  little  less  than  four  months  after  the  date  of  this  letter  the 
township  of  Newport  was  formed,  but  it  was  not  constituted 
from  lands  that  belonged  to  what  was  then  popularly  known  as 
East  Falmouth,  these  lands  in  1764  fell  into  the  township  of 
Windsor. 

GRANTEES  OF  FALMOUTH  (OR  WEST  FALMOUTH)  IN  1761,  IN  AL- 
PHABETICAL ORDER 


Akin,  Stephen,  y>  share. 
Akin,  Thomas,  1  share. 
Allen,  William,  1  share. 
Barnaby,  Stephen,  1  share. 
Bayley,  Joseph,  y2  share 
Bayley,  Samuel,  1  share. 
Brown,  Samuel,  1  share. 
Burden,  Perry,  y>  share. 
Chase,  Zacheus,  1  share. 
Church,  Constant,  1  share. 
Church,  Edward,  1  share. 
Cole,  Wigunl.  iy>  shares. 
Crosman,  Jesse,  1  share. 
Davison,  Cyprian,  y,  share. 
Davison,  John,  1  share. 
Davison,  Jonathan,  1  share. 
Denson,  Henry  Denny,  Esq.,  2 

shares. 

Denson,   John,   iy>   shares. 
Denson,  Lucy,  1  share. 
Dewey,  Christopher,  y>  share. 
Dimmick,  Shubael,  1  share. 
Doan,  Eleazer,  1  share. 
Dyer,  Martha,  y2  share. 
First  Minister,  1  share. 
Glebe,  600  acres. 
Green,  Daniel,  1  share. 
Hall,  Abner,  ly.  shares. 
Hall,  Barnabas,  y2  share. 
Herrington,  Jabesh,  1  share. 
Hicks,  Benjamin,  1  share. 
Hicks,  John,  1  share. 
Horswell,  Luke,  1  share. 
Hovey,  Daniel,  Jr.,  i/2  share. 


Hovey,  Enoch,  y2  share. 
Hovey,  Nathan,  y>  share. 
Hovey,  Thomas,  y>  share. 
Jess,  Joseph,  1  share. 
Lovelass,  John,  y,  share. 
Lyon,  Henry,  1  share. 
Manchester,  Edward,  y>  share. 
Masters,  Abraham,  1  share. 
Masters,  Jonathan,  1  share. 
Masters,  Moses,  y?  share. 
MacCulloch,  Alexander,  1 

share. 

McCulloch,  Adam,  1  share. 
Meachum,  John,  1  share. 
Northup,  Jeremiah,  1  share. 
Northup,  Joseph,  1  share. 
Owen,  Amos,  1  share. 
Parker,  Thomas,  1  share. 
Peasant,  Mary,  1  share. 
Pyke,  David,  1  share. 
Randall,  David,  iy2  shares. 
Reynolds,  Nathaniel,  1  share. 
Roode,  Jabesh,  y>  share. 
Saunders,  Timothy,  1  share. 
School,  400  acres. 
Shaver,  John,  1  share. 
Shaw,  Peter,  1  share. 
Shey,  William,  1  share. 
Steel,  John,  1  share. 
Stoddart,  Ichabod,  iy>  shares. 
Sweet,  Benoni,  y2  share. 
Watemough,  Edward,  1  share. 
Wilson,  James,  1  share. 
Wilson,  Joseph,  1  share. 


RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN   NOVA  -SCOTIA          23 

Wolsley,    William     Nevil,    li/>  Woodworth,  Thomas,  1  share. 

shares.  York,  Edward,  Esq.,  iy2 

Wood,  Nehemiah,  1  share.  shares. 

Wood,  William,  1/2  share.  York,  William,  1  share. 

A  highly  important  early  settler  in  Falmouth  was  Colonel 
Henry  Denny  Denson.  As  will  be  seen  from  this  list  of  grantees 
in  1761,  he  received  in  Falmouth  a  grant  of  two  shares,  1,000 
acres,  a  John  Denson  receiving  750  acres,  and  Lucy  Denson  500 
acres.  In  the  proprietors'  records  of  the  township  his  name 
is  very  conspicuous,  and  in  1773,  we  believe,  he  was  speaker  of 
the  Assembly  of  the  province.  The  place  of  his  residence 
at  Falmouth,  "Mt.  Denson,"  stills  bears  his  name.  He  is 
said  to  have  left  no  male  descendants.  He  was  probably  a  colo- 
nel in  the  militia,  though  it  is  likely  he  had  held  some  army  com- 
mission before  attaining  that  rank. 

One  of  the  most  eminently  useful  native  Nova  Scotians  was  a 
descendant  of  the  Falmouth  grantee,  Thomas  Akin.  This  was 
Thomas  Beamish  Akins,  D.  C.  L.,  for  many  years  commissioner 
of  records  in  Nova  Scotia,  who  died  unmarried  at  Halifax  in 
May,  1891.  Dr.  Akins'  Rhode  Island  ancestry  we  have  not 
traced,  but  the  name  is  found  on  the  register  of  Trinity 
Church,  Newport,  and  probably  in  other  Rhode  Island  records. 
On  the  death  of  Dr.  Akins  the  House  of  Assembly  moved  that 
"this  house  has  learned  with  profound  regret  of  the  death  of 
Thomas  B.  Akins,  Esqire,  who  for  many  years  has  held  the 
position  of  commissioner  of  records  in  this  province,  and 
desires  to  express  the  recognition  of  his  eminent  learning  and 
research  and  of  the  great  services  which  his  assiduous  devotion 
to  the  records  of  our  provincial  history  has  rendered  to  the 
students  of  Nova  Scotian  and  indeed  of  North  American  his- 
tory." The  many  valuable  papers  presented  by  Dr.  Akins  to 
the  Nova  Scotia  Historical  Society,  his  careful  editing  of  the 
first  volume  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Archives,  and  the  large 
collection  of  books  he  left  as  a  legacy  to  the  Nova  Scotia  His- 
torical Society,  sufficiently  attest  his  distinguished  usefulness. 
His  summer  home  to  the  time  of  his  death  was  Falmouth,  and 
in  that  town,  as  in  Halifax,  he  was  greatly  beloved. 

Among  the    many  Rhode  Island    grantees  of    Falmouth    in 


24          RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA 

1761  Captain  Edmund  Watmough  was  one.  In  the  list,  how- 
ever, he  appears  as  "Edward  Watemough."  In  Ford's  list  of 
British  officers  serving  in  America  between  1754  and  1774  he 
is  called  "Edmond"  Watmough,  and  is  said  to  have  received 
a  captain-lieutenancy  in  the  Rangers,  September  25,  1761.  In 
the  grant  books  at  Halifax  he  appears  also,  October  31,  1764, 
with  a  grant  in  Falmouth  of  500  acres.  From  Updike's  well 
known  History  of  the  Narragansett  Church,  with  its  valuable 
notes  by  Rev.  Daniel  Goodwin,  D.  D.,  we  find  that  "Mr.  George 
Watmough,  an  English  man,"  was  one  of  the  bearers  at  the 
burial  of  the  wife  of  Rev.  Dr.  Mac  Sparran,  long  Rector  of  the 
Narragansett  Church,  who  died  in  England  in  1755,  while  she 
and  her  husband  were  visiting  there.  Twenty  years  earlier 
than  this,  Miss  Rebecca  Watmough  was  married  at  "St.  Paul's 
Church,"  London,  to  Capt.  Benjamin  Wickham,  of  Newport, 
Rhode  Island.  Some  years  later,  this  history  records,  "Mr. 
Edmund  Watmough,  perhaps  a  brother  of  Mrs.  Wickham,  vis- 
ited Newport  and  remained  there."  He  subsequently,  however, 
it  is  said,  returned  to  England.  Captain  Edmund  Watmough 
married  at  Newport,  R.  I.,  but  at  what  date  is  not  clear, 
Maria  Ellis,  eldest  daughter  of  Dr.  Edward  Ellis,20  and  removed 
to  Falmouth,  but  how  long  he  staid  there  we  cannot  tell.  On 
the  19th  of  February,  1768,  James  Horatio  Watmough  and  oth- 
ers received  a  grant  of  6,322  acres  in  Newport,  Hants  County, 
and  20  Nov.,  1772,  he  and  others,  received  a  grant  of  S47y2  acres 
in  Falmouth. 

On  the  Falmouth  township  book  is  recorded  the  marriage,  De- 
cember 27,  1761,  of  "Mr.  Moses  Delesdernier  and  Mrs.  Eleanor 
Bonner,"  also  the  birth,  December  2,  1762,  of  their  daughter, 
Martha  Maria.  Moses  Delesdernier  (De  Lesdernier  or  De  le 
Dernier)  like  Isaac  Deschamps  was  a  Swiss.  He  was  born,  it  is 
said,  in  the  Canton  of  Geneva,  and  was  in  Falmouth  as  early  as 
November  12,  1757,  for  at  that  date  Governor  Lawrence  gave 
him  formal  leave  "to  go  to  Pisiquid  and  there  to  Repossess 
lands,  carry  on  Lawful  trade,  etc."  Lawrence's  warrant,  a  copy 
of  which  we  find  in  the  Falmouth  Township  Book,  reads: 


20.     See  Mrs.  Sarah  Elizabeth  Titcomb's  "Early  New  England  People." 


RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA          25 

"Whereas  application  has  been  made  unto  me  by  Mr.  Moses  Le 
denier  for  leave  to  go  to  Pisiquid  and  Repossess  the  Houses  and 
Lands  Commonly  called  Labradores  Farm,  which  was  formerly 
occupied  by  him  and  his  servants  with  my  permission,  together 
with  the  Ground  that  he  inclosed  near  the  Fort,  which  Lands  he 
intends  to  cultivate  and  improve,  These  are  therefore  to  Certify 
all  whom  it  may  concern,  that  I  have  given,  and  do  hereby  give 
liberty  to  the  said  Moses  Le  dernier  to  possess  the  aforesaid 
Premises  as  he  did  heretofore,  until  further  orders  and  that  at 
his  request,  I  have  given  him  License  to  carry  on  any  sort  of 
lawful  Trade  or  Merchandise  (selling  Spirits  mixed  or  unmixed 
to  the  Troops  only  excepted)  And  I  do  hereby  desire  and  require 
the  Commanding  Officer  for  the  time  being  of  Fort  Edward,  and 
all  others  whom  it  may  concern  to  give  the  same  aid,  Assistance, 
and  protection,  to  the  said  Moses  Le  dernier  and  the  People  em- 
ployed by  him,  which  is  due  to  any  of  his  Majesty's  good  Sub- 
jects, And  in  case  the  said  Moses  Le  dernier  shall  find  himself 
in  a  capacity  of  improving  any  other  lands  in  that  Neighborhood 
that  are  now  vacant,  he  has  hereby  my  permission  to  Possess  the 
same  for  that  purpose,  untill  he  shall  have  orders  to  the  con- 
trary. '  '20V2    This  warrant  is  dated  November  12,  1757.    At  some 
time  after  his  marriage,  Delesdernier  removed  to  the  Chignecto 
Isthmus,  and  became  a  resident  of  North  Joggins,  Sackville 
(now  in  New  Brunswick),  and  a  trader  and  it  is  said  army  con- 
tractor there.    In  1774  he  was  in  Philadelphia,  "no  doubt  on  a 
trading  cruise,"  when  happening  to  notice  a  number  of  immi- 
grants landing  on  a  wharf  from  a  West  Indian  vessel,  he  was 
attracted  by  the  appearance  of  a  young  man  of  striking  person- 
ality.   He  accosted  the  youth  and  found  that  his  name  was  Rich- 
ard John  Uniacke  and  that  he  had  left  his  home  in  Ireland  to 
seek  his  fortune.     Delesdernier  invited  him  to  return  to  Sack- 
ville with  him  and  he  did  so.    Uniacke  soon  fell  in  love  with  his 
host's  daughter,  and  on  the  3d  of  May,  1775,  married  her,  he  be- 
ing then  twenty-one  years  of  age  and  his  bride  less  than  thir- 

2Ql/2.  "The  country  east  of  the  road  to  Halifax,"  says  Dr.  Hind,  "fell  into 
other  hands.  Among  these  were  Moses  Delesderniers,  who  in  November,  1757, 
received  a  warrant  entitling  him  to  re-occupy  premises  formerly  held  by  him,  and 
to  take  possession  of  certain  lands  about  Fort  Edward."  "Old  Parish  Burying 
Ground,"  p.  55. 


24          RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA 

1761  Captain  Edmund  Watmough  was  one.  In  the  list,  how- 
ever, he  appears  as  "Edward  Watemough."  In  Ford's  list  of 
British  officers  serving  in  America  between  1754  and  1774  he 
is  called  "Edmond"  Watmough,  and  is  said  to  have  received 
a  captain-lieutenancy  in  the  Bangers,  September  25,  1761.  In 
the  grant  books  at  Halifax  he  appears  also,  October  31,  1764, 
with  a  grant  in  Falmouth  of  500  acres.  From  Updike's  well 
known  History  of  the  Narragansett  Church,  with  its  valuable 
notes  by  Rev.  Daniel  Goodwin,  D.  D.,  we  find  that  "Mr.  George 
Watmough,  an  English  man,"  was  one  of  the  bearers  at  the 
burial  of  the  wife  of  Rev.  Dr.  Mac  Sparran,  long  Rector  of  the 
Narragansett  Church,  who  died  in  England  in  1755,  while  she 
and  her  husband  were  visiting  there.  Twenty  years  earlier 
than  this,  Miss  Rebecca  Watmough  was  married  at  "St.  Paul's 
Church,"  London,  to  Capt.  Benjamin  Wickham,  of  Newport, 
Rhode  Island.  Some  years  later,  this  history  records,  "Mr. 
Edmund  Watmough,  perhaps  a  brother  of  Mrs.  Wickham,  vis- 
ited Newport  and  remained  there."  He  subsequently,  however, 
it  is  said,  returned  to  England.  Captain  Edmund  Watmough 
married  at  Newport,  R.  I.,  but  at  what  date  is  not  clear, 
Maria  Ellis,  eldest  daughter  of  Dr.  Edward  Ellis,20  and  removed 
to  Falmouth,  but  how  long  he  staid  there  we  cannot  tell.  On 
the  19th  of  February,  1768,  James  Horatio  Watmough  and  oth- 
ers received  a  grant  of  6,322  acres  in  Newport,  Hants  County, 
and  20  Nov.,  1772,  he  and  others,  received  a  grant  of  847y2  acres 
in  Falmouth. 

On  the  Falmouth  township  book  is  recorded  the  marriage,  De- 
cember 27,  1761,  of  "Mr.  Moses  Delesdernier  and  Mrs.  Eleanor 
Bonner,"  also  the  birth,  December  2,  1762,  of  their  daughter, 
Martha  Maria.  Moses  Delesdernier  (De  Lesdernier  or  De  le 
Dernier)  like  Isaac  Deschamps  was  a  Swiss.  He  was  born,  it  is 
said,  in  the  Canton  of  Geneva,  and  was  in  Falmouth  as  early  as 
November  12,  1757,  for  at  that  date  Governor  Lawrence  gave 
him  formal  leave  "to  go  to  Pisiquid  and  there  to  Repossess 
lands,  carry  on  Lawful  trade,  etc. ' '  Lawrence 's  warrant,  a  copy 
of  which  we  find  in  the  Falmouth  Township  Book,  reads: 


20.     See  Mrs.  Sarah  Elizabeth  Titcomb's  "Early  New  England  People." 


RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA          25 

"Whereas  application  has  been  made  unto  me  by  Mr.  Moses  Le 
denier  for  leave  to  go  to  Pisiquid  and  Repossess  the  Houses  and 
Lands  Commonly  called  Labradores  Farm,  which  was  formerly 
occupied  by  him  and  his  servants  with  my  permission,  together 
with  the  Ground  that  he  inclosed  near  the  Fort,  which  Lands  he 
intends  to  cultivate  and  improve,  These  are  therefore  to  Certify 
all  whom  it  may  concern,  that  I  have  given,  and  do  hereby  give 
liberty  to  the  said  Moses  Le  dernier  to  possess  the  aforesaid 
Premises  as  he  did  heretofore,  until  further  orders  and  that  at 
his  request,  I  have  given  him  License  to  carry  on  any  sort  of 
lawful  Trade  or  Merchandise  (selling  Spirits  mixed  or  unmixed 
to  the  Troops  only  excepted)  And  I  do  hereby  desire  and  require 
the  Commanding  Officer  for  the  time  being  of  Fort  Edward,  and 
all  others  whom  it  may  concern  to  give  the  same  aid,  Assistance, 
and  protection,  to  the  said  Moses  Le  dernier  and  the  People  em- 
ployed by  him,  which  is  due  to  any  of  his  Majesty's  good  Sub- 
jects, And  in  case  the  said  Moses  Le  dernier  shall  find  himself 
in  a  capacity  of  improving  any  other  lands  in  that  Neighborhood 
that  are  now  vacant,  he  has  hereby  my  permission  to  Possess  the 
same  for  that  purpose,  untill  he  shall  have  orders  to  the  con- 
trary. '  '2oy2  This  warrant  is  dated  November  12,  1757.  At  some 
time  after  his  marriage,  Delesdernier  removed  to  the  Chignecto 
Isthmus,  and  became  a  resident  of  North  Joggins,  Sackville 
(now  in  New  Brunswick),  and  a  trader  and  it  is  said  army  con- 
tractor there.  In  1774  he  was  in  Philadelphia,  "no  doubt  on  a 
trading  cruise,"  when  happening  to  notice  a  number  of  immi- 
grants landing  on  a  wharf  from  a  West  Indian  vessel,  he  was 
attracted  by  the  appearance  of  a  young  man  of  striking  person- 
ality. He  accosted  the  youth  and  found  that  his  name  was  Eich- 
ard  John  Uniacke  and  that  he  had  left  his  home  in  Ireland  to 
seek  his  fortune.  Delesdernier  invited  him  to  return  to  Sack- 
ville with  him  and  he  did  so.  Uniacke  soon  fell  in  love  with  his 
host's  daughter,  and  on  the  3d  of  May,  1775,  married  her,  he  be- 
ing then  twenty-one  years  of  age  and  his  bride  less  than  thir- 

2Ql/2.  "The  country  east  of  the  road  to  Halifax,"  says  Dr.  Hind,  "fell  into 
other  hands.  Among  these  were  Moses  Delesderniers,  who  in  November,  1757, 
received  a  warrant  entitling  him  to  re-occupy  premises  formerly  held  by  him,  and 
to  take  possession  of  certain  lands  about  Fort  Edward."  "Old  Parish  Burying 
Ground,"  p.  55. 


26          RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA 

teen.  During  the  American  Revolution  Delesdernier  was  ac- 
cused of  disloyalty  to  the  crown,  but  in  letters  to  the  government 
at  Halifax  he  stoutly  denied  the  charge,  and  he  was  finally  ex- 
onerated. Mr.  W.  C.  Milner,  in  his  "Records  of  Chignecto," 
from  which  some  of  the  above  facts  are  taken,  says  also  that  in 
1775,  in  partnership  with  a  Mr.  DeWitt,  Delesdernier  established 
a  truck  business  at  Hopewell  Hill.  The  next  year  a  certain  Cap- 
tain Eddy,  with  a  force  of  180  men  recruited  chiefly  at  Machias, 
Maine,  and  at  Maugerville,  on  the  St.  John  river,  attempted  to 
capture  Fort  Cumberland  in  the  interest  of  the  Revolution,  and 
in  his  campaign  sacked  Delesdernier 's  place,  and  caused  the  lat- 
ter with  his  family  to  seek  the  shelter  of  the  fort.  Delesdernier 
died  in  1811  at  the  age  of  95  years.  Mrs.  Eleanor  Delesdernier 
died  at  Mount  Uniacke,  on  Friday  evening,  July  27,  1826,  in  her 
85th  year.  The  newspaper  notice  of  her  death  calls  her  "Elea- 
nor, widow  of  the  late  Moses  DeLesdernier,  Esq." 

One  of  the  Falmouth  settlers  from  Rhode  Island  in  1761,  as 
the  list  shows,  was  William  Allen  or  Alline,  and  the  famous  New 
Light  religious  revival  which  stirred  Nova  Scotia  for  a  few  years 
after  1776,  was  largely  due  to  a  son  of  his,  young  Henry  Alline. 
William  Alline  had  begun  life  and  married  in  Boston,  but  before 
Henry  was  born  had  moved  to  Newport,  Rhode  Island.  From 
Newport  he  and  his  family  came  to  Falmouth,  and  there  in  1774 
Henry  experienced  a  remarkable  conversion.  In  1776  he  began 
to  preach  as  an  evangelist,  and  his  fervency  had  such  an  effect 
on  the  people  of  the  province  that  in  a  short  time  the  country 
places  were  in  the  throes  of  a  religious  revival  similar  to  the 
great  awakening  in  New  England  under  Whitefield  and  others 
between  thirty  and  forty  years  before.  Henry  Alline  died  in 
Northampton,  New  Hampshire,  in  February,  1784,  the  victim  of 
consumption,  his  end  hastened  no  doubt  by  the  tremendous  ner- 
vous excitement  he  had  for  almost  ten  years  without  ceasing  un- 
dergone.21 


21.    A  longer  biographical  sketch  of  him  will  be  found  in  Eaton's  History  of 
King's  County,  pp.  280-293. 


RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA          27 
THE  TOWNSHIP  OF  NEWPORT 

The  township  of  Newport  was  named,  not  as  we  should  natur- 
ally suppose  from  Newport,  Rhode  Island,  from  which  place 
some  of  the  settlers  of  1760  and  '61  came,  but,  as  a  letter  from 
Hon.  Charles  Morris  which  we  have  already  quoted  shows,  in 
compliment  to  Lord  Newport,  a  friend  of  Hon.  Jonathan  Bel- 
cher, who  at  the  time  of  the  settlement  was  not  only  chief -jus- 
tice but  also  lieutenant-governor  of  the  province.22  In  this  part 
of  Hants  County  the  Acadians  had  not  made  very  much  settle- 
ment, the  lands  on  which  they  located  lying  chiefly  in  Falmouth 
and  Windsor.  The  soil,  however,  throughout  the  township  was 
and  is  very  fertile,  and  its  agricultural  capacities  great,  and 
since  early  in  the  New  England  settlement  its  extensive  plaster 
quarries  have  yielded  great  quantities  of  this  useful  ore  for  mar- 
kets in  the  United  States.  A  month  and  ten  days  after  the  final 
grant  of  Falmouth  was  ordered  by  the  Council,  the  great  grant 
of  Newport  township  was  sanctioned  by  that  body.  The  land 
within  the  limits  of  the  grant  was  not,  however,  all  yet  unap- 
propriated, for  before  the  New  England  settlers  applied  for 
land  in  the  county,  a  considerable  number  of  grants,  as  we  shall 
presently  see,  partly  in  Windsor,  but  very  largely  also  in  New- 
port, had  been  given  to  army  officers  who  had  served  at  Beause- 
jour  and  Louisburg,  and  perhaps  a  few  other  persons  of  im- 
portance, but  for  the  most  part  the  soil  of  Newport  was  owned 
still  by  the  government  and  remained  in  the  government 's  hands 
to  give  away. 

The  grant  of  Falmouth  had  been  given  on  the  west  side  of  the 
Pisiquid,  or  Avon,  river,  the  grant  of  Newport,  which  lay  out- 
side the  territory  commonly  known  as  East  Falmouth,  was  on 
the  east  side  of  the  Pisiquid,  between  that  river  and  the  portion 
of  country  which  later  became  currently  known  as  the  township 
of  Rawdon.  The  Newport  grant  bears  date  July  21,  1761,  and 
is  made  in  the  description  to  consist  of  63  rights  or  shares,  each 
share  like  the  shares  in  other  townships  to  comprise  500  acres, 


22.  Thomas,  4th  Earl  of  Bradford  and  Viscount  Newport,  died  unmarried 
April  18,  1762,  when  all  the  honors  of  the  family  became  extinct  and  the  represen- 
tation went  into  the  Bridgeman  family. 


28 


RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA 


and  the  whole  to  make  the  sum  of  58,000  acres.23  In  reality,  the 
shares  allotted  by  the  grant  numbered  66,  but  these  aggregated 
only  the  sum  of  33,000  acres.  The  ungranted  remainder  of  the 
township,  therefore,  was  thus  left  for  later  distribution  to  indi- 
vidual grantees.  As  in  the  case  of  Falmouth,  the  first  minister 
was  to  receive  by  the  grant  one  share,  while  for  a  glebe  600  acres 
were  set  apart,  and  for  a  school  400  acres,  "making  together  two 
shares  for  the  use  of  the  church  and  school  forever."  In  the 
Crown  Land  Office  Description  Book,  under  date  of  July  21, 1761, 
the  boundaries  of  Newport  township  are  given  as  follows :  * '  Be- 
ginning at  a  stake  and  stones  one  mile  north  of  Cochmegun  River 
on  the  River  Pizaquid  and  to  run  into  the  woods  east  ten  miles, 
thence  south  till  it  meets  with  the  road  leading  from  Pizaquid 
to  Halifax  thence  westerly  on  the  road  to  the  lands  granted  to 
Major  George  Scott  and  others,  and  is  bounded  by  the  farm 
granted  to  the  said  Scott  and  others  till  it  comes  to  the  River 
St.  Croix  and  is  bounded  westerly  by  the  river  St.  Croix  to  Piza- 
quid River,  and  thence  by  the  said  Pizaquid  River  till  it  comes 
to  the  bounds  first  mentioned,  containing  on  the  whole  by  esti- 
mation 58,000  acres  more  or  less,  according  to  the  plan  and  sur- 
vey of  the  same. '  '231/2 

The  list  of  grantees,  put  in  alphabetical  order,  is  as  follows : 

NEWPORT  GRANTEES  or  1761 


Albro,  Samuel,  1  share. 
Albro,  William,  1  share. 
Allen,  William,  y2  share. 
Badcock,  Jonathan,  1  share. 
Bailey,  Joseph,  1  share. 
Baker,  Jeremiah,  1  share. 
Bentley,  Samuel,  1  share. 
Bourgeois,  Peter,  i/2  share. 


Brenton,  Samuel,  1  share. 
Brightman,  George,  y2  share. 
Burdin,  Benjamin,  1  share. 
Burdin,  Samuel,  y%  share. 
Butts,  Aaron,  1/2  share. 
Card,  James,  1  share. 
Card,  Jonathan,  i/2  share. 
Card,  Richard,  1  share. 


23.  The  grant  was  registered  in  the  Crown  Land  Office,  July  22,  1761.  See 
Grant  Book  No.  4,  pp.  100-105. 

23^2.  In  the  History  of  King's  County,  p.  3,  we  have  said  that  in  1761,  from 
the  part  of  Falmouth  east  of  the  Pisiquid,  which  was  commonly  known  as  East 
Falmouth,  the  township  of  Newport  was  set  off.  This  statement,  as  we  have 
elsewhere  shown,  is  incorrect,  the  territory  known  as  East  Falmouth  in  1764  came 
into  the  township  of  Windsor,  no  part  of  it  was  given  to  Newport.  The  grant  of 
Newport  was  given  where  the  New  England  agents  had  first  requested  that  land 
should  be  set  off  to  them,  that  is  on  the  northeast  side  of  Pisiquid  river. 


RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA 


29 


Garden,  John,  1  share. 
Chambers,  John,  1  share. 
Chapman,  Stephen,  1  share. 
Church,  Edward,  y2  share. 
Clark,  Elisha,  1  share. 
De     Lesdernier,     Gideon,     y2 

share. 
De     Lesdernier,      Moses,     y2 

share. 

Deschamps,  Isaac,  y2  share. 
Dimock,  Daniel,  y2  share. 
Ellis,  Edward,  1  share. 
First  Minister,  1  share. 
Fish,  Michael,  1  share. 
Glebe  Land,  600  acres. 
Gosbee,  John,  1  share. 
Halyburton,  William,  1  share. 
Hervie,  Archibald,  y2  share. 
Hervie,  James,  1  share. 
Hervie,  James,  Jr.,  y2  share. 
Hervie,  John,  1  share. 
Irish,  Levi,  ]  share. 
Jeffers,  John,  y2  share. 
Julian,  James,  y2  share. 
Knowles,  Henry,  1  share. 
Lake,  Caleb,  1  share. 
Macomber,  Ichabod,  1  share. 
Macomber,  Stephen,  1  share. 
Michenor,  Abel,  y2  share. 
Mosher,  James,  1  share. 
Mumford,  George,  1  share. 
Potter,  Cornelius,1  1  share. 


Reynolds,  Benjamin,  1  share. 
Rogers,  Jonathan,  1  share. 
Sanford,  Benjamin,  1  share. 
Sanford,  Daniel,  y2  share. 
Sanford,  Income,  1  share. 
Sanford,  Joseph,  1  share. 
Sanford,  Joshua,  1  share. 
School,  400  acres. 
Shaw,  Arnold,  1  share. 
Shaw,  John,  1  share. 
Shey,  Peter,  1  share. 
Simpson,  James,  1  share. 
Slocomb,  John,  1  share. 
Smith,  James,  1  share. 
Stewart,  Gilbert,  1  share. 
Strait,  Joseph,  1  share. 
Wascoat,  Robert,  Sr.,  1  share. 
Wascoat,  Robert,  1  share. 
Wascoat,  Stutely,  1  share. 
Wascoat,  Zerobabel,  1  share. 
Weaver,  Silas,  1  share. 
Weedon,  James,  1  share. 
Wier,  Daniel,  1  share. 
Wilcocks,  Benjamin,  1  share. 
Wilson,  Joseph,  y2  share. 
Wood,  John,  1  share. 
Woodman,  John,  i/>  share. 
Wooley,  Amos,  T/>  share. 
Wooley,  Benjamin,  y2  share. 
Woolhaber,  John,  1  share. 
York,  James,  y2  share. 


From  correspondence  on  the  subject  between  the  Government 
at  Halifax  and  the  Lords  of  Trade  we  should  judge  that  a  ma- 
jority of  the  Nova  Scotia  settlers,  both  from  Rhode  Island  and 
Connecticut,  received  help  from  the  Government  in  transporting 
(themselves  and  their  belongings  to  their  new  homes.  In  a  letter 
to  the  Lords  of  Trade  of  December  10,  1759,  Governor  Law- 
rence states  that  the  expense  of  transportation  of  settlers  from 
Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island,  with  their  stock  and  other  ef- 
fects, and  of  furnishing  them  with  a  quantity  of  corn,  from  the 
llth  of  June,  1759,  to  the  end  of  the  winter  of  1759-60,  will  in  his 


30          RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA 

judgment  reach  the  sum  of  fifteen  hundred  pounds.  In  a  letter 
to  the  same  body  of  the  12th  of  December,  1760,  Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor  Belcher  says  that  the  Government  had  not  engaged  to  give 
free  transportation  to  any  of  the  grantees  except  those  of  Hor- 
ton,  Cornwallis,  and  Falmouth,  but  he  thinks  that  other  settlers 
also  should  have  help.  Nor  did  government  aid  to  the  settlers 
stop  with  transportation.  "The  only  circumstance  which  we 
regret  in  the  management  of  this  important  business,"  say  the 
Lords  of  Trade  in  a  memorial  to  the  King  dated  December  20, 
1759,  "is  that  notwithstanding  the  uncommon  fertility  and  other 
peculiar  advantages  of  these  Lands,  which  might  be  deemed  to 
afford  sufficient  encouragement  to  the  settlers  without  incurring 
any  expence  to  the  Publick,  we  find  that  Mr.  Lawrence  has  been 
obliged  to  consent  to  pay  the  charge  of  transporting  the  first 
year's  settlers  of  the  three  first  Townships,  and  of  making  them 
a  small  allowance  of  Bread  corn.  But  we  are  hopeful  neverthe- 
less that  the  Reasons  set  forth  in  the  said  Governor's  letter  and 
in  the  Minutes  of  the  Council  (extracts  of  which  we  humbly  beg 
leave  to  annex)  may  induce  your  Majesty  to  approve  the  con 
duct  of  your  Governor  in  consenting  to  these  allowances,  rather 
than  risquing  by  too  strict  an  attention  to  Economy  the  whole  suc- 
cess of  a  measure  which  must  be  productive  of  the  most  essen- 
tial advantages,  not  only  to  the  Colony  of  Nova  Scotia  but  to 
your  Majesty's  other  Colonies  on  the  Continent  of  North  Amer- 
ica, and  finally  to  this  Kingdom."  By  a  minute  of  the  Nova 
Scotia  Council  of  October  24,  1760,  we  find  that  Mr.  Charles 
Morris  had  represented  to  the  Council  concerning  Horton,  Corn- 
wallis, and  Falmouth,  "that  it  would  be  of  more  advantage  to 
those  settlements  if  the  species  of  provisions  to  be  allowed  them 
was  altered,  and  that  instead  of  the  whole  allowance  of  Indian 
corn  they  should  be  furnished  with  a  proportion  of  mackerel  and 
flour.  Also  that  it  would  be  necessary  immediately  to  purchase 
and  send  away  the  same,  as  the  navigation  in  the  Bay  of  Fundi 
would  soon  become  dangerous,  and  the  arrival  thereof  would  be 
thereby  rendered  very  precarious."  The  Council  resolved,  the 
minute  adds,  "that  the  proposed  alteration  should  be  made,  and 
that  the  necessary  quantity  of  mackerel  and  flour  should  be  im- 
mediately purchased  and  sent  to  those  settlements  with  the  ut- 


RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA          31 

most  expedition."  On  the  llth  of  October,  1760,  Governor  Law- 
rence died,  and  Chief  Justice  Jonathan  Belcher  as  president  of 
the  Council  temporarily  assumed  the  government.  Writing  to 
the  Lords  of  Trade  on  the  12th  of  December,  concerning  the 
new  townships  in  the  Province  generally,  Mr.  Belcher  says: 
"Many  of  the  Inhabitants  are  rich  and  in  good  circumstances. 
About  a  hundred  of  them  have  transported  themselves  and  their 
effects  at  their  own  expense  and  are  very  well  able  to  provide 
for  their  own  support."  But  of  the  poorer  sort,  he  declares, 
"there  is  provision  made  for  them  until  the  month  of  next  Au- 
gust." "In  the  engagements  entered  into  for  carrying  on  the 
settlements,"  he  adds,  "no  promises  were  made  of  transporta- 
tion or  corn  to  any  but  the  grantees  of  Horton,  Cornwallis,  and 
Falmouth,  and  although  the  latter  grantees  have  readily  and 
cheerfully  engaged  themselves,  yet  they  pleaded  much  for  such 
encouragements,  and  have  found  themselves  greatly  obstructed 
for  want  of  these  advantages. ' ; 

Of  the  character  of  the  New  England  «ettlers  generally  in 
King's  and  Hants  counties  it  is  impossible  to  speak  in  too  high 
praise,  and  one  needs  only  a  slight  acquaintance  with  Rhode  Isl- 
and history  to  know  the  unusual  prominence  and  worth  of  the 
families  from  that  colony  that  came  to  Falmouth  and  Newport. 
In  the  Falmouth  grant  for  example,  we  find  the  well  known 
names,  Akin,  Church,  Dimock,  Dyer,  Green,  Harrington,  Hors- 
well,  Northup,  Shaw,  Sweet,  Wilson,  and  York;  in  the  Newport 
grant,  Albro,  Babcock,  Brenton,  Card,  Church,  Dimock,  Hali- 
burton,  Irish,  Mumford,  Sanford,  Shaw,  Stewart,  and  Wier.23% 
In  a  letter  dated  June  16,  1760,  after  describing  in  much  detail 
the  beginning  of  the  settlement  of  Liverpool,  Queen's  County, 
Governor  Lawrence  says:  "I  have  just  received  from  Mr.  Mor- 
ris, His  Majesty's  Land  Surveyor,  who  went  from  Liverpool  to 
Annapolis  and  Minas  with  orders  to  lay  out  the  Townships,  very 
flattering  accounts  of  the  families  which  are  come  to  Horton, 
Cornwallis,  and  Falmouth.  He  speaks  of  them  in  general  as 
being  substantial,  laborious  people,  adapted  entirely  to  agricul- 
ture, and  so  highly  pleased  with  their  present  possessions  as  to 


23^-    Not  a  few  of  these  families  had  intermarried  in  Rhode  Island,  and  con- 
tinued to  intermarry  in  Nova  Scotia. 


32 

declare  that  they  think  the  lands  fertile  beyond  any  description 
which  had  been  given  of  them. ' '  On  the  21st  of  November,  Bel- 
cher was  formally  made  lieutenant-governor,  and  for  some  nine 
months  after  this  laboured  incessantly  to  develop  the  new  settle- 
ments. Writing  to  the  Lords  of  Trade  on  the  12th  of  December, 
he  says:  "I  have  the  satisfaction  to  acquaint  your  Lordships 
that  the  Townships  of  Horton,  Cornwallis,  and  Falmouth  are  so 
well  established  that  everything  bears  a  most  hopeful  appear- 
ance. As  soon  as  these  Townships  were  laid  out  by  the  Sur- 
veyor, palesaded  forts  were  erected  in  each  of  them  by  order 
of  the  late  Governor,  with  room  to  secure  all  the  inhabitants, 
who  were  formed  into  a  militia,  to  join  what  troops  could  be 
spared  to  oppose  any  attempts  that  might  be  formed  against 
them  by  Indian  tribes  which  had  not  then  surrendered,  and 
bodies  of  the  French  Inhabitants  who  were  hovering  about  the 
Country,  the  fate  of  Canada  being  then  undecided.  After  the 
necessary  business,  the  proper  season  coming  on,  they  were  em- 
ployed in  gathering  hay  for  winter.  One  thousand  tons  were 
provided  for  Horton,  five  hundred  for  Cornwallis,  and  six  hun- 
dred for  Falmouth,  and  about  this  time  they  put  some  root  crops 
into  the  ground,  and  began  to  build  their  houses." 

Of  the  earliest  proprietors '  meetings  or  town  meetings  of  Fal- 
mouth the  records  have  fortunately  been  preserved.24  The  first 
meeting,  as  we  believe,  was  held  on  the  10th  of  June,  1760,  when 
a  committee  of  three  was  chosen  to  manage  the  town's  affairs. 
The  moderator  was  Shubael  Dimock,  and  the  clerk  Abner  Hall, 
and  the  three  committeemen  chosen  were  Wignul  Cole,  Abner 
Hall,  and  David  Randall.  The  second  meeting  was  held  on  the 
15th  of  June,  when  it  was  voted  that  a  herdsman  be  appointed  to 
take  care  of  the  horses,  neat  cattle,  sheep,  and  swine,  ' '  and  keep 
said  stock  off  of  the  land;"  and  that  the  owners  of  stock  keep 
their  stock  confined  in  yards  every  night  until  the  hay  was 
mowed,  or  failing  to  do  so  be  liable  to  pay  all  damages  arising 
from  their  neglect.  The  third  meeting  was  held  June  19th, 
Henry  Denny  Denson  being  chosen  moderator,  and  at  this  meet- 
ing a  vote  was  taken  to  have  three  men  appointed  to  survey  and 


24.    These  original  records  were  copied  by  Dr.  Thomas  B.  Akins,  and  although 
the  original  book  is  lost  are  still  preserved  in  Falmouth. 


RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA          33 

oversee  the  mending  and  repairing  of  the  dykes.  At  this  and 
subsequent  meetings  action  was  taken  to  distribute  systemati- 
cally the  houses  and  barns  formerly  occupied  by  the  Acadians, 
and  to  apportion  fairly  the  lumber  they  had  stored  up. 

The  most  immediately  valuable  part  of  the  settlers'  grants 
were  the  fertile  dyked  lands  but  on  the  third  and  fourth  of  No- 
vember, 1759,  a  violent  storm  and  extremely  high  tides  had 
broken  the  protecting  dykes  and  for  the  time  had  completely 
ruined  the  crops  of  hay,25  consequently  the  re-building  of  the 
dykes  was  one  of  the  first  and  most  pressing  concerns  of  the 
settlers.  On  the  10th  of  December,  1759,  Governor  Lawrence 
wrote  to  the  Lords  of  Trade  that  the  marsh  lands  along  the  Bay 
of  Fundy  were  all  overflowed  as  the  result  of  the  tremendous 
storm  of  the  preceding  month,  and  that  he  estimates  the  expense 
of  repairing  and  building  them,  exclusive  of  the  personal  labour 
the  intending  grantees  might  put  on  the  work  as  £250  for  Corn- 
wallis,  £100  for  Minas,  and  £100  for  Palmouth.20  In  repairing 
the  Falrnouth  dykes,  as  also  those  of  Horton  and  Cornwallis,  the 
French  who  had  managed  to  escape  deportation  and  who  were 
held  in  more  or  less  close  imprisonment  at  Fort  Edward,  were 
largely  employed,  they  being  far  more  proficient  in  the  art  of 
dyke-building  than  the  New  England  men  themselves. 

In  religion  a  majority  of  the  Falmouth  and  Newport  settlers 
were  Congregationalists,  but  a  certain  number  had  become  in 
Rhode  Island  adherents  of  the  Anglican  Church.  To  trace  these 
latter  families  back  to  the  historic  Narragansett  and  Newport 
churches,  where  they  had  been  worshippers  would  be  an  interest- 
ing task.  The  Albros,  Mumfords,  Stuarts,  and  Wiers,  at  least, 
had  all  been  communicants  of  the  Narragansett  Church  and  had 
been  trained  in  churchmanship  by  the  noted  Dr.  MacSparran, 
while  the  Haliburton  family  during  their  residence  in  Newport 
had  attended  Trinity  Church.  Other  families,  also  in  Hants 


25.  "Old  Parish  Burying  Ground,"  p.  51.    The  dyked  lands  of  the  French  were 
limited  in  extent  compared  with  those  at  present  bearing  hay  in  King's  and  Hants 
counties. 

26.  He  estimates  the  corresponding  expense   for  Granville  and  Annapolis  as 
£150,  and  for  Truro  and  Onslow  as  £150.    "Old  Parish  Burying  Ground,"  pp.  52-54, 
and  Eaton's  History  of  King's  County,  pp.   184-186.     Much  concerning  the  repair 
of  the  injured  dykes  will  be  found  in  Lawrence's  and  Belcher's  letters  to  the  Lords 
of  Trade. 


34          RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA 

County,  like  the  Coles,  Congdons,  and  Sweets,  may  have  been 
members  of  the  Narragansett  Church. 

The  first  public  religious  services  in  Hants  County  after  the 
settlers  came  were  held  by  Anglican  clergymen.  In  the  autumn 
of  1760,  Rev.  Dr.  Breynton  of  Halifax  visited  East  and  West 
Falmouth,  Horton,  and  Cornwallis,27  at  all  which  places  he 
preached  to  numerous  congregations,  and  though  he  found  the 
inhabitants  "mostly  dissenters"  yet  he  was  cordially  received 
and  requested  to  come  again.  In  the  year  1762  both  he  and  his 
colleague,  the  Eev.  Thomas  Wood,  repeatedly  visited  the  new 
settlements,  and  in  November  of  the  same  year,  the  Rev.  Joseph 
Bennett  was  placed  by  the  Venerable  Society  as  missionary  in 
the  large  King's  County  field.2™  In  1775  the  Rev.  William  Ellis 
succeeded  Mr.  Bennett,  and  as  missionary  to  the  whole  county 
continued  until  1782,  when  the  mission  was  divided.  In  that  year 
the  Rev.  John  Wiswall  was  placed  in  Horton  and  Cornwallis, 
while  Mr.  Ellis  was  given  pastoral  charge  of  Falmouth,  Newport, 
and  Windsor.  Notwithstanding  the  strength  of  Congregational- 
ism in  Falmouth  and  Newport,  there  was  no  organized  Congrega- 
tional Church  in  either  township  in  1770,  and  though  a  certain 
number  of  the  Newport  settlers  had  become  Baptists  before  their 
migration  from  Rhode  Island,  no  Baptist  Church  was  founded 
in  Newport  until  1799.  In  a  letter  to  the  S.  P.  G.  from  Fort  Ed- 
ward, dated  January  4,  1763,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Bennett  says  that  he 
has  then  been  settled  in  King's  County  six  weeks  and  by  resid- 
ing there  has  prevented  the  inhabitants  of  the  several  townships 
sending  to  New  England  for  "dissenting"  ministers.  He  hopes 
in  time  to  be  able  to  reconcile  the  people  generally  to  the  Church 
of  England.  In  Horton,  he  writes,  there  are  670  persons,  of 
whom  375  are  children,  in  Cornwallis  518,  of  whom  319  are  chil- 
dren, in  Falmouth  278,  of  whom  146  are  children,  and  in  New- 
port 251,  of  whom  111  are  children. 

In  the  township  of  Newport,  at  least  two  large  estates  were 
early  acquired  that  greatly  overshadowed  in  importance  any  of 
the  land  holdings  of  the  Rhode  Island  grantees.  These  were  the 


27.  Dr.  Breynton  in  his  report  of  this  to  the  S.  P.  G.  says  nothing  about 
Newport 

27}^.  Reports  of  the  S.  P.  G.  for  1760-1763.  See  also  Eaton's  History  of 
King's  County,  pp.  241-245. 


RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA  35 

estates  known  as  ' '  Mantua ' '  and  ' '  Winckworth, ' '  the  former  own- 
ed and  improved  by  Dr.  George  Day,  the  latter  by  Colonel  Winck- 
worth Tonge.  Dr.  George  Day  had  been  a  surgeon  in  the  Royal 
Navy,  and  was  possibly  among  the  settlers  that  came  with  Corn- 
wallis  to  Halifax  in  1749.  At  what  time  he  settled  in  Newport  is 
uncertain,  but  it  is  said  that  he  was  living  there,  engaged  in 
farming  and  in  a  schooner  trade  with  other  places,  as  early  as 
1759.  His  house,  indeed,  it  is  affirmed,  strongly-built  and  forti- 
fied and  of  good  colonial  architecture,  was  erected  in  1758.  The 
earliest  record  we  have,  however,  of  a  grant  to  him  was  August 
29,  1760,  when  in  conjunction  with  Major  George  Scott  and  oth- 
ers he  received  land  in  Newport  on  the  north  side  of  the  St. 
Croix  river,  the  major  part  of  which,  on  the  Windsor  side, 
"  coincides  with  that  of  the  Tonge  estate,  as  ordinarily  known, 
but  includes  a  large  stretch  in  the  rear."28  Very  early  in  his  res- 
idence in  Newport  Dr.  Day  began  to  build  schooners  for  trade 
with  Maritime-Provincial  ports  and  with  Boston,  his  enterprise 
later  leading  him  to  construct  larger  vessels  for  ocean  trade.  In 
the  early  part  of  the  War  of  the  Revolution  he  had  a  contract 
to  supply  the  British  troops  in  that  town  with  hay,  which  com- 
modity he  shipped  in  vessels  from  Miller's  Creek  on  the  St.  Croix 
river  and  possibly  other  points.28*  After  the  siege  of  Boston  he 
still  continued  to  trade  with  the  New  England  capital,  and  some- 
time in  1777  he  himself  started  in  one  of  his  vessels  with  a  cargo 
of  hay  for  that  market.  When  his  vessel  neared  the  Massachu- 
setts coast,  she  was  struck  by  lightning  and  burned,  and  he  and 
all  his  crew  perished. 

Whom  Dr.  Day  first  married,  and  whether  his  wife  was  liv- 
ing when  he  came  to  Nova  Scotia  we  do  not  know,  but  he  had 
by  her  a  son,  John  Day,  who  in  1760  was  a  young  man  grown. 
Dr.  Day's  second  wife  was  Henrietta  Maria  Cottnam,  a  sister  of 
Mrs.  George  Scott  and  Mrs.  Winckworth  Tonge,  and  by  her  he 
had  a  daughter,  Margaret  Bunbury,  who  became  the  wife  of  John 
Irish,  son  of  Levi  Irish,  one  of  the  Rhode  Island  grantees  of 


28.  This  description  has  been  given  the  writer  by  Dr.  David  Allison,  the  well 
known  educator  and  writer. 

2Sl/2  Dr.  Allison  says:  "Between  Mantua  and  the  settlement  of  the  New 
England  people  was  a  stretch  of  land  called  Miller's  Creek,  bounded  easterly  by 
Mantua  and  westwardly  by  the  land  granted  the  Rhode  Islanders. 


36          RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA 

Newport.  This  second  Mrs.  Day,  after  her  husband's  death  lived 
probably  with  her  step-son;  she  died  in  Newport,  January  20, 
1838,  in  her  92d  year,  the  newspaper  notice  of  her  death  describ- 
ing her  as  "a  lady  whose  amiable  qualities  endeared  her  to  all 
her  acquaintance."  John  Day,  son  of  Dr.  George  Day,  became 
an  M.  P.  P.  for  Newport,  and  like  his  father  a  generally  promi- 
nent man.29 

Colonel  Winckworth  Tonge  appears  in  the  British  army  lists 
as  having  been  commissioned  lieutenant  of  the  45th  regiment 
(Colonel,  afterward  Lieut.-General,  Hugh  Warburton  command- 
ing) April  8,  1755.  In  this  year  he  was  in  command  of  the  en- 
gineering party  that  assisted  in  the  capture  of  Fort  Beausejour, 
and  in  or  after  1758,  like  Major  Charles  Lawrence,  who  became 
governor  of  Nova  Scotia,  he  was  probably  in  service  at  the  gar- 
rison of  Louisburg.  His  colonelcy  he  received  at  some  later  date 
in  the  Nova  Scotia  militia.  His  epitaph  in  St.  Paul's  burying- 
ground,  Halifax,  describes  him  as  "naval  officer,  M.  P.  P.,  col- 
onel in  the  militia,  justice  of  the  court  of  common  pleas  for 
the  county  of  Hants,"  and  says  that  he  was  born  the  4th  of 
February,  1728,  in  the  county  of  Wexford,  Ireland,  and  died 
February  2d,  1792.  After  the  capture  of  Beausejour  Col.  Tonge 
received  a  grant  in  Cumberland  County,  stretching  southwardly 
from  the  glacis  of  the  fort  to  the  Missiquash  river.29%  This 
Cumberland  grant  included  Tonge 's  Island,  on  which  Col.  Tonge 
is  said  to  have  planted  the  cannon  at  the  siege  of  the  fort. 

It  is  probable  that  Col.  Tonge  got  his  first  foothold  in  Hants 
County  on  the  2nd  of  June,  1759,  when  as  we  have  seen,  he  and 
George  and  Henry  Scott  received  2,500  acres  at ' '  Five  Houses,  St. 
Croix,  Pisiquid. ' '  On  the  27th  of  July  of  the  same  year  he  and 
William  and  George  Tonge  received  1,500  acres  at  "St.  Croix, 
Pisiquid, ' '  and  from  his  part  of  these  grants  "Winckworth  Tonge 
created  his  estate,  Winckworth  (of  late  years  incorrectly  called 


29.  Dr.  David  Allison  was  brought  up  in  the  house  built  by  Dr.  Day  on  his 
Mantua  estate,  and  to  him  we  are  indebted  for  much  of  the  information  we  pos- 
sess about  Newport,  and  concerning  the  Day  and  Tonge  families.  Two  hundred 
acres  of  Mantua  are  now  owned  by  a  family  named  Mounce.  West  and  south  of 
Mantua  lay  the  large  Tonge  estate,  comprising  Winckworth,  Macclesfield,  Martha, 
etc.,  etc. 

291/2.  This  land  was  purchased  from  the  Tonge  estate,  probably  in  1789,  by 
Titus  W.  Knapp,  a  Loyalist  merchant  who  did  a  large  business  at  Fort  Cumberland, 
one  of  the  Wiers,  it  is  said,  acting  as  his  attorney  in  the  purchase. 


RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA          37 

" Wentworth"),  which  lay  south  of  the  St.  Croix  and  extended 
for  three  or  three  and  a  half  miles  eastward  from  the  present 
town  of  Windsor.29*  On  the  20th  of  May,  1760,  he  received  a 
further  grant  of  1,500  acres  in  Falmouth,  but  what  disposition 
he  may  have  made  of  this  grant  we  have  not  inquired. 

An  advertisement  of  the  various  properties  of  Col.  Tonge  in 
1789,  preserved  in  the  archives  at  Halifax  includes  his  estate 
Winckworth,  "in  Windsor,"  2,000  acres;  Macclesfield,  in  New- 
port, 600  acres;  Martha's  farm  in  Newport,  600  acres;  also  a 
tract  in  Newport  township,  1,500  acres ;  wood  lots,  600  acres  "on 
the  road  from  Newport  to  Halifax,  main  road,  515  acres  at  junc- 
tion of  those  roads ; ' '  400  acres  on  Ardoise  Hill  on  the  main  road 
to  Halifax ;  400  acres  one  mile  north  of  river  Kennetcook ;  and  a 
farm  in  Westmoreland,  New  Brunswick,  on  gently  rising  ground 
in  the  midst  of  extensive  marsh,  called  Tonge 's  Island,  130  acres. 
At  the  sale  of  these  properties  "Winckworth"  in  Newport  was 
purchased  by  Hon.  Alexander  Brymer,  a  member  of  the  Coun- 
cil, for  £2,475.  17.  11%.  A  certain  portion  of  the  Tonge  prop- 
erty in  Hants  County,  but  just  what  part  we  are  not  informed, 
came  much  later  than  this  into  the  hands  of  Perez  Morton  Cun- 
ningham, barrister  of  Windsor,  who  was  born  in  1812. 

Colonel  Tonge  married,  perhaps  as  his  second  wife,30  Martha 


Dr.  David  Allison  writes  :  "Colonel  Tonge  was  appointed  in  1760  or  there- 
abouts to  lay  off  the  Rhode  Island  settlers'  lots  in  Newport,  opposite  the  southern 
boundary,  the  St.  Croix  river."  Of  a  plan  he  has  roughly  sketched  of  part  of  New- 
port, Dr.  Allison  says :  "You  will  see  on  this  plan  a  large  ungranted  lot  between 
the  Shaw  lot  and  the  Mantua  place,  which  latter  antedates  the  township  of  Newport 
two  years  at  least.  Long  ago  on  looking  at  the  original  plan  of  Newport  in  the 
Record  Office  I  noticed  that  the  Mantua  property  seemed  entirely  too  long,  i.  e. 
stretched  down  the  St.  Croix  river  some  mile  or  so  further  than  it  should.  This 
puzzled  me.  Then,  later,  I  heard  that  Col.  Tonge  had  failed  to  lay  off  the  land  on 
the  river  to  its  full  extent,  i.  e.  to  the  western  boundary,  and  had  kept  the  inter- 
vening territory  for  himself.  The  Colonel  got  into  financial  difficulties  towards  the 
end  of  his  life  and  advertised  for  sale  all  of  his  properties.  He  offers  his  Winck- 
worth estate,  his  Fort  Cumberland  property,  sundry  wood  lots,  and  noticeably  the 
two  farms  of  600  acres  each,  called  Macclesfield  and  Martha,  situated  in  the  town- 
ship of  Newport,  just  opposite  (across  the  St.  Croix)  the  home  estate  previously 
mentioned.  At  present  the  whole  region  covered  by  these  two  farms  is  known  as 
'Miller's  Creek.'  When  offered  for  sale  in  1789  'Macclesfield'  and  'Martha'  had  each 
of  them  a  house  and  barn."  The  Miller  family  came  from  Ireland  with  Alexander 
McNutt,  and  two  sons  of  the  original  settler  became,  as  did  several  other  Irish- 
men of  this  migration,  tenant  farmers  on  Tonge's  estate.  The  Rhode  Island  ele- 
ment has  within  the  present  half  century  largely  encroached  on  'Martha'  and 
'Macclesfield.'  The  Greeno  family  got  a  small  slice  of  Macclesfield  from  Tonge 
himself.  In  early  days  Greeno's,  at  the  ferry,  was  the  Newport  tavern. 

30.    If  he  had  a  first  wife  we  do  not  know  who  she  was.    In  1820  Mrs.  Martha 
Tonge  was  granted  an  allowance  of  £80  a  year  by  H.  M.  home  government 


38          RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA 

Cottnam,  a  daughter,  we  suppose,  of  George  Cottnam,  and  sister 
of  Henrietta  Maria  Cottnam,  wife  of  Dr.  George  Day  of  Mantua, 
and  Mary  Cottnam,  wife  of  Major  or  Colonel  George  Scott.  He 
had  children  recorded  in  Windsor :  William  Cottnam,  born  April 
29,  1764;  Winckworth,  Jr.,  born  October  11,  1765;  Caleb,  born 
November  21,  1767;  and  William  Sheriffe,  born  December  21, 
1772.31  Of  these,  William  Cottnam  (born  in  1764)  was  appoint- 
ed naval  officer  by  His  Majesty's  mandamus,  probably  before 
June  14,  1786.  Later  he  became  prominent  as  a  representative 
in  the  legislature  and  was  "  noted  for  his  eloquence  and  popu- 
larity. ' '  In  1805  he  was  elected  Speaker  of  the  House.  Later  still, 
it  is  believed,  he  went  with  Sir  George  Prevost  to  the  West  Indies 
and  then  to  Demerara,  where  he  was  appointed  secretary,  and 
remained  until  his  death.  Miss  Gertrude  E.  Tonge  "of  Wind- 
sor," a  poetess,  whose  death  at  Demerara  was  noticed  in  the 
Acadian  Recorder  (Halifax)  of  March  5th  and  9th,  and  appar- 
ently July  16th,  1825,  was  probably  his  daughter.  Dr.  Hind 
says  that  his  son,  Winckworth,  3d,  was  buried  in  Windsor  in 
1799,  and  his  wife  in  1805.32 

Winckworth  Tonge,  Jr.  (born  in  1765)  was  the  "Winckworth 
Tonge,  Esq.,  deputy  judge  advocate  general  at  Jamaica,  son  of 
the  late  Col.  Tonge  of  Windsor, ' '  who  died  at  Jamaica,  W.  I.,  in 
1820. 

George  Scott,  who  with  Henry  Scott  and  Winckworth  Tonge 
participated  in  the  grant  of  2,500  acres  at  Five  Houses,  St. 
Croix,  Pisiquid,  June  2,  1759,  may  have  been  the  George  Scott 
who  was  commissioned  captain  of  the  40th  regiment,  June  28, 
1751,  and  it  would  seem  somewhat  probable  that  he  was  the 
same  George  Scott  to  whom  Governor  Shirley  gave  command  of 
one  of  the  battalions  of  the  regiment  formed  by  Lieutenant-Col- 
onel John  Winslow  in  Massachusetts  for  the  subjugation  of  Fort 
Beausejour  in  1755.  Doubt  on  this  last  point,  however,  must  be 
felt  from  the  fact  that  Shirley  would  be  much  more  likely  to 
give  military  command  to  a  New  England  man  than  to  a  British 


31.  Who  the  William  and  George  Tonge  were  who  shared  in  the  grant  at  St. 
Croix,  June  2,  1759,  we  do  not  know.     Nor  do  we  know  who  the  Henry  Scott  was 
who   shared   in  that  grant.    In    1781   the   small   cutter  Jack,  six  guns,  was  com- 
manded by  R.  P.  Tonge,  but  who  R.  P.  Tonge  was  we  do  not  know. 

32.  "Old  Parish  Burying  Ground,"  p.  12. 


THOMAS  CHANDLER  HALIBURTON 


RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA          39 

born  man,  as  we  suppose  the  Captain  George  Scott  of  the  40th 
regiment  to  have  been,  and  from  the  fact  that  the  George  Scott  of 
Beausejour  is  commonly  called  lieutenant-colonel.33  The  George 
Scott  who  was  active  in  the  taking  of  Beausejour  did  valiant  ser- 
vice also  at  the  second  capture  of  .Louisburg,  in  1758.  "The 
boat  of  Major  Scott,  who  commanded  the  light  infantry  and 
rangers,"  says  Parkman  describing  this  siege  of  Louisburg, 
'  *  next  came  up  and  was  stove  in  an  instant ;  but  Scott  gained  the 
shore,  climbed  the  crags,  and  found  himself  with  ten  men  in  front 
of  some  seventy  French  and  Indians.  Half  his  followers  were 
killed  and  wounded,  and  three  bullets  were  shot  through  his 
clothes;  but  with  admirable  gallantry  he  held  his  ground  till 
others  came  to  his  aid."  Side  by  side  with  him  in  this  action 
was  the  famous  General  AVolfe. 

The  George  Scott  who  received  the  grant  in  Hants  County  in 
1759  is  said  also  to  have  received  an  immense  grant  in  Halifax 
County,  near  Bedford  Basin,  the  tract  including  the  whole  of 
Sackville  township.  He  married,  but  at  what  time  we  do  not  know, 
Mary  Cottnam,  a  sister  of  Mrs.  Winckworth  Tonge  and  the  sec- 
cond  Mrs.  George  Day.  Who  Henry  Scott  who  also  participated 
in  the  grant  of  1759  was,  we  do  not  know. 

The  most  famous  native  of  Hants  County,  a  man  born  in 
Windsor,  but  whose  New  England  born  grandfather  settled  in 
Newport,  was  Judge  Thomas  Chandler  Haliburton,  the  eminent 
Nova  Scotia  statesman,  jurist,  and  wit.  Judge  Haliburton  is 
known  in  literature  as  the  pioneer  American  humourist,  his  "Sam 
Slick,"  the  Yankee  clockmaker,  being  a  noted  creation  of  some 
three-quarters  of  a  century  ago,  whose  quaint  humour  and 
shrewd  reflections  on  the  rural  populations  of  New  England  and 
Nova  Scotia,  and  whose  characteristic  dialect  furnished  great 
amusement  to  our  grandparents  in  their  day.34  Judge  Halibur- 


33.  See   "Winslow's  Journal,"   and   Parkman's   "Montcalm   and   Wolfe,"   Vol. 
i,  pp.  246,  249-253 ;  Vol.  2,  p.  60. 

34.  "Sam    Slick,   the   Clock   Maker,"   was   a   clever   satire   on   both   the   pre- 
Revolutionary    Nova    Scotian    Yankee    and    the    pre-Reyolutionary    New    England 
Yankee.     It  is  said  that  the  definite  original  of  Sam  Slick  was  a  tin  peddler,  who 
died  perhaps  twenty  years  ago  in  Calais,  Maine.     In  any  case,  the  New  England 
peddler  was  a  well  known  character  in  the  British  maritime  provinces  for  many 
years,  and  Judge  Haliburton,  at  his  home  in  Windsor,  and  in  Annapolis  Royal,  where 
he  practised  law  for  some  years,  but  more  especially  in  his  travels  on  circuit  as  a 
judge,  had  an  excellent  chance  to  become  intimately  acquainted  with  him  and  to 
know  his  peculiarities  well. 


40          RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA 

ton's  grandfather,  William  Haliburton,  was  born  in  Boston, 
April  16,  1739,  and  baptized  in  King's  Chapel  parish,  May  20th, 
of  the  same  year.  He  married,  April  9, 1761,  his  first  cousin,  Su- 
sanna Otis,  daughter  of  Dr.  Ephraim  and  Rachel  (Hersey)  Otis 
of  Scituate,  Massachusetts,  and  came  probably  by  way  of  New- 
port, Rhode  Island,  where  his  mother  had  for  some  years  pre- 
viously lived,  to  Newport,  Nova  Scotia,  in  1760.  His  parents 
were  Andrew  Haliburton  of  Boston  and  his  second  wife,  Abi- 
gail Otis,  his  mother,  however,  at  the  time  of  the  migration  to 
Nova  Scotia  being  the  second  wife  of  Dr.  Edward  Ellis.  William 
and  Susanna  Haliburton  had  in  all  seven  children,  the  third  of 
whom,  William  Hersey  Otis,  born  September  3,  1767,  was  the 
father  of  Judge  Thomas  Chandler  Haliburton  and  grandfather 
of  the  Judge 's  son,  Arthur  Lawrence,  Lord  Haliburton,  who  was 
raised  to  the  peerage  of  the  United  Kingdom  in  1898,  and  died 
in  1907.  Lord  Haliburton  was  made  a  C.  B.  in  1880,  K.  C.  B. 
(civil)  in  1885,  G.  C.  B.  (civil)  in  1897.  He  married  in  1877  Ma- 
riana Emily,  daughter  of  Leo  Schuster,  Esq.,  and  widow  of  Sir 
William  Dickason  Clay,  Bart. 

The  mother  of  William  Haliburton,  as  we  have  said,  became 
the  second  wife  of  Edward  Ellis,  M.  D.,  of  Boston,  who  served 
as  surgeon-general  at  the  first  siege  of  Louisburg,  in  1745.  Dr. 
Ellis  and  his  wife  also  settled  in  Newport,  Nova  Scotia,  whither 
they  came,  as  we  have  intimated,  from  Newport,  Rhode  Island. 
Like  his  step-son's,  Dr.  Ellis 's  grant  comprised  500  acres.  By 
his  first  wife,  Mary  (Willard)  Cuyler,  Dr.  Ellis  had  three  daugh- 
ters :  Maria,  who  became  the  wife  of  Capt.-Lieut.  Edmund  Wat- 
mough,  who  obtained  a  grant  of  500  acres  in  Falmouth;  Sarah, 
who  became  the  second  wife  of  Mr.  Isaac  Deschamps ;  Elizabeth, 
who  was  married  to  a  Captain  Peter  Jacob  Dordin.  By  his  sec- 
ond wife,  Mrs.  Haliburton,  he  had  no  children.  Dr.  Ellis  died  at 
Amsterdam,  Holland,  about  1769.  His  wife  died,  we  presume  in 
Newport,  not  long  before  this  date.  William  Haliburton  did  not 
remain  long  on  his  Newport  farm,  his  tastes  were  intellectual, 
and  he  soon  removed  from  Newport  to  Windsor  and  in  the  lat- 
ter place  began  the  study  of  law.  After  being  admitted  to  the 
Bar  he  practiced  in  Windsor  during  the  rest  of  his  life. 

Gilbert  Stewart  or  Stuart,  a  Scotsman  who  had  come  out  to 


GILBERT  CHARLES  STUART 


RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA          41 

North  Kingstown  (Wickford),  Rhode  Island,  between  1746  and 
1750,  to  grind  snuff  for  Dr.  Thomas  Moffat,  a  Scotch  physician 
who  had  earlier  emigrated  and  who  desired  to  set  up  a  snuff 
mill  in  the  Narragansett  country,  was  another  of  the  Rhode  Isl- 
and emigrants  to  Nova  Scotia.  On  the  23d  of  May,  1751,  Stuart 
had  married  in  Newport,  Rhode  Island,  Elizabeth  Anthony, 
daughter  of  Albro  Anthony  and  his  wife  Susanna  (Heffernan), 
and  between  1752  and  1756  had  three  children  born :  James,  bap- 
tized September  1,  1752,  at  five  months  old;  Ann,  born  Novem- 
ber 18,  1753,  baptized  April  18,  1754;  and  Gilbert,  Jr.,  the  emi- 
nent painter,  born  December  3,  1755,  baptized  April  11,  1756. 
Of  these  children,  James  died  young ;  Ann  came  with  her  mother 
to  Nova  Scotia,  and  about  1786  was  married  in  Halifax,  as  sec- 
ond wife,  to  Hon.  Henry  Newton,  whose  first  wife  had  been  Char- 
lotte, daughter  of  Hon.  Benjamin  Green;  and  Gilbert,  Jr.,  as  we 
have  said,  became  the  famous  portrait  painter,  worthy  succes- 
sor of  his  master  and  teacher,  the  noted  Benjamin  West.  Al- 
though he  received  a  grant  in  Newport  in  1761,  for  some  reason 
Gilbert  Stuart,  the  father,  did  not  come  to  Nova  Scotia  until 
1775,  then,  because  he  found  it  impossible,  as  the  records  say, 
to  maintain  his  family  in  Rhode  Island,  he  followed  his  friends 
the  Wiers  and  others  to  Newport  and  there  we  suppose  began 
to  farm.  In  1776  Mrs.  Stuart  and  her  daughter  Ann  followed ;  but 
the  year  previous  young  Gilbert  Stuart  had  gone  to  England  to 
study  and  so  far  as  we  know  he  was  never  in  Nova  Scotia  after 
his  parents  came  to  the  province,  although  while  the  Duke  of 
Kent  was  at  Halifax  the  Hon.  Henry  Newton  proposed  to  him 
that  he  should  come  to  the  Nova  Scotia  capital  and  paint  his 
Royal  Highness,  the  prince  having  offered  to  send  a  war  ship 
for  him  to  England  or  Ireland  if  he  would  come.  The  elder  Gil- 
bert Stuart  died  in  Halifax  in  1793,  his  widow  then  returning  to 
Boston  to  live  with  her  son,  Gilbert,  who  meantime  had  returned 
to  America.  Mrs.  Stuart  died  either  in  Roxbury  in  1812  or  in 
Boston  in  1816.  A  son,  Gilbert  Stuart  Newton,  of  Hon.  Henry 
and  Ann  Stuart  Newton,  also  became  a  painter  of  considerable 
note.  He  was  baptized  in  Halifax  September  20,  1794,  went 
early  to  England  to  study,  there  became  a  royal  academician,  and 
died  in  Wimbledon,  August  5,  1832. 


42          RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA 

One  of  the  best  known  families  in  Hants  County  has  been  the 
Wier  family,  leading  members  of  which  held  influential  posi- 
tions in  Halifax  city,  also,  for  many  years.  Daniel  Wier,  the 
founder  of  the  family  in  Newport,  in  early  life  removed,  perhaps 
from  Boston  (although  of  his  birthplace  we  are  not  certain),  to 
Narragansett,  and  on  the  7th  of  April,  1744,  married  at  the 
house  of  her  parents,  the  Rev.  Dr.  MacSparran  officiating,  Phebe 
Mumford,  daughter  of  Mr.  Benjamin  Mumford,  a  very  promi- 
nent member  of  St.  Paul's  Church  in  North  Kingstown.  In  1752 
and  1753  he  acted  as  precentor  or  parish  clerk,  and  until  his  re- 
moval to  Nova  Scotia  in,  we  suppose,  1760,  maintained  his  con- 
nection with  the  parish.  The  part  of  Newport  where  Mr.  Wier 
received  his  grant  was  what  is  known  as  Scotch  Village.  It  is  on 
the  southern  side  of  the  Kennetcook  river,  and  includes  what  is 
known  as  ' '  Marsters '  hill. ' '  The  estate,  in  whole  or  in  part,  was 
owned  and  occupied  by  members  of  the  Wier  family  until  1845, 
when  Benjamin  and  Joseph  Wier  of  Halifax,  Daniel's  great- 
grandsons,  sold  it  to  some  other  family. 

Before  they  left  Rhode  Island  the  Wiers  had  seven  children 
born,  John,  Benjamin,  William,  James,  Ann,  James,  and  Phebe ; 
after  they  came  to  Nova  Scotia  they  had  a  son,  Samuel,  born. 
The  founder  of  the  Mumford  family  in  Hants  County  was 
George  Mumford,  a  brother-in-law  of  Daniel  Wier,  who  proba- 
bly came  with  his  family  at  the  same  time  as  the  Wiers.  The 
baptism  of  George  Mumford,  December  9,  1730,  will  be  found 
recorded  in  the  register  of  the  Narragansett  Church,  but  who  he 
married  or  how  many  children  he  had  we  do  not  know.  An  in- 
teresting fact  in  connection  with  the  history  of  the  Wier  family 
is  that  Mrs.  Phebe  (Mumford)  Wier  was  baptized  in  St.  Paul's 
Church,  North  Kingstown,  at  the  same  time  as  Gilbert  Stuart  the 
painter,  the  date  being  Palm  Sunday,  April  11,  1756,  and  that 
the  sponsors  at  Stuart's  baptism  were  Phebe  Mumford 's  par- 
ents, Benjamin  and  Hannah  (or  Ann)  Mumford,  who  also  acted 
as  sponsors,  with  the  child's  aunt,  Ann  Mumford,  for  their  own 
child. 

A  family  very  widely  known  and  highly  respected  throughout 
Nova  Scotia  was  that  branch  of  the  Allison  family  settled  in 
Newport.  The  Allisons  came  in  1769  from  Drumnaha,  near  Lim- 


RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA          43 

avady,  County  Londonderry,  Ireland,  and  settled  in  Horton,  but 
John  Allison,  born  in  Ireland  in  1753,  with  his  wife,  Nancy  Whid- 
den,  whom  he  had  married  in  Horton  or  Cornwallis,  in  1804,  re- 
moved to  Newport,  of  which  town  he  became  an  important  resi- 
dent. His  son,  James  Whidden,  born  in  Horton  December  1, 
1795,  married  in  Hants  County  in  July,  1821,  Margaret,  daugh- 
ter of  Matthew  and  -  -  (Jenkins)  Elder,  and  had  seven  chil- 
dren. He  was  one  of  the  leading  magistrates  of  Newport,  and 
for  five  years  represented  the  town  in  the  legislature.  Of  his 
children,  Rev.  David  Allison,  LL.D.,  has  been  the  most  noted. 
An  eminent  scholar  and  educator,  he  has  held  the  distinguished 
positions  of  president  of  Mount  Allison  University  at  Sackville, 
New  Brunswick,  and  Superintendent  of  Education  for  Nova  Sco- 
tia, and  in  the  field  of  local  historical  writing  he  has  done  and  is 
doing  important  work. 

(To  be  continued.) 


"  For  Conscience  Sake  " 


BY    CORNELIA    MITCHELL   PARSONS 

CHAPTEE  VIII 

GOVENOR  WlNTHROP  ARRIVES 

''She  was  like  a  summer  rose,  making  everything  and  everybody  glad  about 
her.''  — J.  HOPKINSON  SMITH. 

NNETZE,  fetch  me  my  hood,  lined  with  crimson, 
W  v      /%     please. ' ' 

It  was  Mistress  Frances  who  spoke,  and  the 
buxom  Annetze  hurried  away  to  do  her  bidding. 
Mistress  Frances  had  a  basket  on  her  arm,  and  was  about  to 
gather  flowers  and  feathered  grasses  which  come  in  the  late  Au- 
tumn. The  world  was  very  fair;  the  air  frosty,  and  the  ground 
covered  with  a  carpet  of  yellow  and  crimson  leaves,  with  a  touch 
here  and  there  of  brown.  The  birds  were  singing,  and  the  chip- 
munks at  work  collecting  their  winter's  store  of  nuts.  The  wat- 
ers of  the  distant  bay  sparkled  in  the  sunlight. 

' l  How  beautiful  it  all  is, ' '  Frances  murmured  to  herself.  ' t  So 
beautiful  that  I  would  have  it  last  forever. ' '  A  voice  at  her  el- 
bow startled  her.  It  was  not  Annetze  with  her  hood,  but  their 
guest,  Governor  John  Winthrop. 

' '  The  top  of  the  morning  to  you,  Mistress  Frances,  the  birds 
would  not  let  me  sleep,  and  seeing  you,  fair  lady,  I  thought  I 
might  perchance  join  you,  with  your  permission."  And  the  gal- 
lant old  gentleman  laid  his  hand  on  his  heart. 

"Methinks,  sir,  it  will  give  me  pleasure,  I  am  honored  in- 
deed." 

"You  are  an  early  bird,  Mistress  Frances." 

"Yea,  in  truth,  but  the  early  bird  catches  the  worm."  She 
blushed. 

(44) 


FEBRUARY,   1915 

AMERICANA 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Commemorative  Tablets  of  Historic  Sites  of  the  Revolution 
and  Some  Revolutionary  Relics. 

By  Edward  Hale  Brush 79 

Rhode  Island  Settlers  on  the  French  Lands  in  Nova  Scotia 
in  1760  and  1761.     (Part  II). 

By  Arthur  Wentworth  Hamilton  Eaton,  D.  C.  L.    .      83 
For  Conscience  Sake,  Chapters  10  and  11. 

By  Cornelia  Mitchell  Parsons 105 

History  of  the  Mormon  Church,  Chapters  CXV  and  CXVI. 

By  Brigham  H.  Roberts 116 


I.  M.  GREENE,  Editor. 

JOSIAH  COLLINS  PUMPELLY,  A.  M.,  LL.B.,  Member  Publication 
Committee  New  York  Genealogical  and  Biographical  So- 
ciety, Associate  Editor. 

VICTOR  HUGO  DURAS,  D.  C.  L.,  M.  Diplomacy,  Historian  of  the 
American  Group  of  the  Interparliamentary  Union  of  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States,  Contributing  Editor. 


Published  by  the  National  Americana  Society, 

DAVID  I.  NELKE,  President  and  Treasurer, 

131  East  23rd  Street, 

New  York,  N.  Y. 


Copyright,   1915,  by 

THE  NATIONAL  AMERICANA  SOCIETY 

Entered  at  the  New  York  Postoffice  as  Second-class  Mail  Matter 


All  rights  reserved. 


en  o 

W  ^ 

U  w 

Z  C/3 

<  H- 


K-J 


h 
iv    92 

HH         O 

<  ^ 

"a 

in    t^ 


ffi       O 

O    £ 


Rhode  Island  Settlers  on  the  French  Lands 
in  Nova  Scotia  in  1760  and  1761 

BY  ARTHUR  WENTWORTH  HAMILTON  EATON,  D.  C.  L. 

PART  II 
THE  TOWNSHIP  OF  WINDSOR 


1 


HE  most  important  town  in  the  interior  of  Nova  Sco- 
tia, westward  from  Halifax,  is  Windsor,  the  seat  of 
King's  College,  the  oldest  colonial  college  of  the  Brit- 
ish empire.  As  the  settlement  of  Hants  County  pro- 
gressed, the  village  of  Windsor  became  not  only  the  seat  of  gov- 
ernment for  the  county,  the  " shire  town,"  but  the  centre  of  its 
fashion  and  wealth.  Seventy-five  years  ago  the  town  of  Windsor 
boasted  that  it  had,  on  the  whole,  the  most  aristocratic  society 
outside  of  England,  and  indeed  its  people  were,  for  the  most 
part,  a  well-bred  and  dignified  set.  The  town  of  Windsor  is 
picturesquely  located  near  the  mouth  of  the  Avon,  in  full  sight 
of  the  great  tides  that  from  the  Bay  of  Fundy  sweep  daily  into 
Minas  Basin,  and  leave  rich  alluvial  deposits  on  its  winding 
shores.  A  great  event  in  the  early  history  of  Windsor 
township,  and  indeed  in  the  early  history  of  Nova  Scotia  at 
large,  was  the  establishment  in  Windsor  village  in  November, 
1788,  under  Anglican  auspices,  of  an  academy  for  boys,  which 
was  the  nucleus  of  the  present  King's  College.  During  the  war 
of  the  Revolution,  and  at  the  establishment  of  peace,  from  thir- 
ty to  thirty-five  thousand  Loyalists  or  Tories  swept  into  Nova 
Scotia,  and  here  in  1787  was  established  the  first  Colonial  Dio- 
cese of  the  English  Church.  The  first  bishop  consecrated  for 
the  diocese  was  Dr.  Charles  Inglis,  who  at  the  outbreak  of  the 
Revolution  was  Rector  of  Trinity  Church  in  New  York  City,  and 

(83) 


84          RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA 

who  brought  to  Nova  Scotia1  the  highest  educational  ideals  that 
up  to  that  time  prevailed  in  the  diocese  of  New  York,  in  which 
he  had  been  a  priest.  The  school  Bishop  Inglis  founded  at 
Windsor  was  opened  in  a  house  which  had  formerly  been  the 
private  residence  of  Mrs.  Susanna  Francklin,  widow  of  Hon. 
Michael  Francklin,  and  which  was  then  apparently  owned  by  her 
and  her  son,  Mr.  James  Boutineau  Francklin.  In  1789,  the  leg- 
islature, no  doubt  on  Bishop  Inglis 's  urgent  petition,  passed  an 
act  for  the  establishment  of  a  still  higher  school  of  learning  at 
Windsor,  and  two  years  later,  in  1791,  the  still  standing  main 
building  of  King's  College  was  begun,  an  imposing  structure, 
though  built  of  wood,  with  a  dignified  portico  raised  on  high 
Doric  pillars,  noble  grounds  as  a  background  and  setting  for 
which  had  been  purchased  a  year  before.  For  the  building  of 
the  college  the  Imperial  Government  at  first  granted  the  sum  of 
three  thousand  pounds,  adding  to  this  later  the  sum  of  fifteen 
hundred  pounds. 

King's  college  obtained  its  charter,  May  12,  1802,  and  its  first 
governors  were  Sir  John  Wentworth,  Bart.,  Bishop  Charles  Ing- 
lis, Chief  Justice  Samson  Salter  Blowers,  Alexander  Croke, 
Judge  of  the  Court  of  Vice  Admiralty,  Richard  John  Uniacke, 
Speaker  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Assembly  and  Attorney  General, 
and  the  Hon.  Benning  Wentworth,  secretary  of  the  province, 
with  four  others  to  be  elected,  one  of  whom  was  to  be  the  presi- 
dent of  the  college.  The  charter  was  accompanied  by  an  imperial 
grant  of  a  thousand  pounds  per  annum,  which  was  continued 
until  1834.  From  1790  to  1803,  before  the  charter  was  obtained, 
the  college  had  in  all  two  hundred  graduates ;  from  1803  to  1810, 
twenty-one ;  from  1810  to  1820,  fifty-one ;  from  1820  to  1830,  six- 
ty-nine; and  from  1830  to  1840,  forty-eight.  Of  this  number, 
fifty-four  in  all  became  clergymen.  Among  the  famous  pre- 
charter  students  of  King's  were  Major-General  James  Robert- 
son Arnold,  Colonel  deLancey  Barclay,  Sir  James  Cochran  (lat- 
er Chief  Justice  of  Gibraltar)  and  General  William  Cochran, 


i.  Dr.  Inglis  was  consecrated  at  Lambeth  in  August,  1787,  and  came  to  Nova 
Scotia  immediately  afterward.  For  several  years  before  his  consecration  he  had 
been  living  in  England.  The  Diocese  of  Nova  Scotia  at  first  included  Upper  and 
Lower  Canada,  the  three  Maritime  Provinces,  and  also  Bermuda  and  Newfound- 
land. 


RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA          85 

his  brother ;  the  Hon.  Henry  Hezekiah  Cogswell  of  Halifax,  Col- 
onel Sir  William  F.  deLancey,  K.  C.  B.,  Hon.  Charles  Bufus  Fair- 
banks, Lieut.-Col.  William  Hulme,  Judge  Richard  John  Uni- 
acke,  Rt.  Rev.  Dr.  John  Inglis,  third  bishop  of  Nova  Scotia, 
Hon.  Sir  James  Stewart,  Kt.,  Attorney-General  of  Lower  Can- 
ada, and  Rev.  Benjamin  Gerrish  Gray.2 

The  beautiful  country  bordering  the  Pisiquid  or  Avon  river, 
which  in  1764  was  legally  incorporated  as  the  township  of  Wind- 
sor, began  to  have  special  attractions  for  the  settlers  of  Halifax 
almost  as  soon  as  Colonel  Cornwallis  and  his  company  landed  at 
Chebucto  Bay.  It  was  not  many  years,  therefore,  before  appli- 
cations for  land  in  the  region  were  secured  by  persons  of  influ- 
ence, like  members  of  Council  or  army  officers  who  had  previous- 
ly done  service  in  ridding  Nova  Scotia  and  Cape  Breton  of  the 
French.  "Writing  to  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the 
Gospel  in  1826,  the  Rt.  Rev.  Dr.  John  Inglis,  third  bishop  of 
Nova  Scotia,  says  of  Windsor  village:  "It  is  beautifully  situ- 
ated, and  would  attract  attention  in  the  richest  parts  of  Eng- 
land." And  such  glowing  praise  of  Windsor's  natural  fertility 
and  beauty  cannot  be  regarded  as  at  all  too  high.  The  most  con- 

2.  A  fuller  account  of  the  establishment  of  King's  College  will  be  found  in 
this  writer's  "The  Church  of  England  in  Nova  Scotia  and  the  Tory  Clergy  of  the 
Revolution  "  The  founding  of  the  college  brought  many  cultivated  people  perma- 
nently to  Windsor,  and  before  long  the  great  beauty  of  the  town  and  its  com- 
parative nearness  to  Halifax  led  others,  for  the  most  part  people  of  some  means 
who  had  more  or  less  connection  with  the  capital,  to  purchase  estates  there  and 
make  the  town  their  home.  Among  such  families,  toward  the  middle  of  the  iQth 
century,  were  the  Bowmans,  whose  estate  was  called  Spa  Spring,  the  Butlers,  who 
owned  Martock,  the  Cunninghams  who  lived  at  Saulsbrook  Farm,  the  Frasers, 
who  occupied  Gerrish  Hall,  the  Haliburtons  who  lived  at  Clifton,  and  the  Kings, 
whose  place  was  known  as  Retreat  Farm,  while  across  the  meadow,  through  the 
trees,  nearly  on  the  site  of  the  early  church  of  the  Acadian  French,  rose  the  wood- 
en tower  of  quaint  Christ  Church,  where  they  all  worshipped  on  Sunday.  On 
the  front  of  the  gallery  of  the  church,  at  the  west  end,  rested  the  British  Arms, 
while  near  the  chancel,  at  the  right,  stood  the  great  square  pew  with  a  table  for 
the  prayer  books,  devoted  to  the  Governor's  use  when  he  should  be  there.  The 
college  Encoenia,  which  always  took  place  in  June,  was  attended  with  great  eclat. 
Thither  came,  in  state,  from  Halifax  the  Governor  and  his  staff,  the  Chief  Justice, 
the  Attorney-General,  the  Bishop,  and  often  distinguished  army  officers  and  their 
wives.  For  many  years  at  the  time  of  the  Encoenia  the  Frasers  gave  a  ball  at 
Gerrish  Hall,  which  was  a  brilliant  affair,  but  all  the  year  through  there  were 
agreeable  dinners  and  tea-drinkings,  at  Martock,  and  Clifton,  and  Saulsbrook  Farm, 
and  other  places,  at  every  one  of  which  people  drank  excellent  wines,  sang  good 
English  songs,  danced  stately  minuets  and  quadrilles,  and  played  religiously,  like 
all  English  gentlefolk,  their  after  dinner  rubbers  of  whist.  On  Sundays  they  never 
failed  to  occupy  their  places  in  the  Parish  Church,  where  they  prayed  as  in  duty 
bound,  for  the  king,  and  listened,  let  us  hope  with  profit,  to  the  practical  discourses 
of  their  rectors,  delivered  with  precision  from  the  high  pulpit  on  the  chancel's  left. 


86          RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA 

spicuous  early  grant  in  what  later  became  Windsor  township 
was  what  is  still  remembered  as  the  ''Councillors'  grant."  On 
the  28th  of  August,  1759,  seven  members  of  the  Council  at  Hali- 
fax received  here  a  grant  of  7,000  acres,  these  gentlemen  being 
Messrs.  Jonathan  Belcher,  Benjamin  Green,  John  Collier, 
Charles  Morris,  Richard  Bulkeley,  Thomas  Saul,  and  Joseph 
Gerrish.3  The  plan  of  the  grant  allots  to  the  grantees  the  whole 
of  the  area  west  of  Fort  Edward  hill  and  south  of  the  Avon 
river,  for  a  distance  varying  from  one  to  two  miles  south  and 
three  miles  west.  The  area  is  divided  on  the  plan  into  twenty- 
eight  lots,  of  which  four  lots  are  assigned  to  each  grantee,  Hon. 
Joseph  Gerrish 's  being  the  lot  next  to  Fort  Edward,  extending 
as  far  south  as  the  spot  occupied  by  the  old  parish  church.4  In 
the  record  at  Halifax  of  the  Councillor's  grant,  the  tract  is  de- 
scribed as  "situate,  lying  and  being  on  Pisiquid  River,  begin- 
ning on  said  River,  and  thence  running  south  30  degrees  east  9 
chains  to  the  upland  on  which  the  Fort  at  Pisaquid  stands,  and 
bounded  by  the  said  upland,  thence  running  to  the  bridge  on 
the  Road  from  said  Fort  to  Halifax,  and  on  the  said  Road  ac- 
cording to  the  course  thereof,  measuring  in  Distance  from  the 
said  River  four  miles,  and  from  the  first  bounds  on  Pisaquid 
River  to  be  bounded  by  the  said  River  to  measure  in  a  straight 
line  240  chains,  and  from  thence  on  the  said  River  to  run  back 
south  30  degrees  East  four  miles,  and  from  thence  course  north 
60  degrees  East  to  the  boundaries  on  Halifax  Road."  In  the 
grant  were  included  all  mines  unopened  except  gold,  silver, 
precious  stones,  and  lapis  lazuli.  On  the  first  of  September, 
1759,5  another  large  grant,  previously  mentioned,  was  given  to 
Joshua  Mauger,  Michael  Francklin,  Isaac  Deschamps,  Charles 
Proctor,  William  Saul,  Moses  Delesdernier,  and  Gideon  Deles- 


3.  The  grant  like  all  others  of  this  period  bears  the  signature  of  Richard 
Bulkeley,  secretary  of  the  province.     It  was  registered   September  27,   1759.     See 
Old  Registry  Book,  pp.  68,  69.     Of  the  grantees,  Belcher,  Green,  Morris,  Gerrish, 
and  probably  Saul,  had  come  from  New  England. 

4.  See  Professor  Hind's  "Old  Parish  Burying  Ground,"  pp.  22,  23,  55.  Gerrish's 
lot,  says  Dr.  Hind,  "is  bounded  on  the  east  by  the  path  from  Fort  Edward  to  Hali- 
fax, after  the  path  leaves  Fort  Edward  hill."    The  plan  shows,  says,  Dr.  Hind,  that 
the  Councillor's  grant  "covers  the  whole  of  the  land  west  of  Fort  Edward  hill  now- 
included  in  the  town  of  Windsor."     The  parchment  plan,  he  says,  is  owned  by  Mr. 
P.  Burnham  of  Windsor. 

5.  Old  Registry  Book,  at  Halifax,  pp.  70-72.     The  grant  was  registered  Sep- 
tember 28,   1759. 


RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA          87 

dernier.  It  is  described  as  a  tract  of  land  situate,  lying  and  be- 
ing within  the  District  of  Pisiquid,  beginning  ' '  at  the  North  East 
end  of  the  land  called  Burying  Island,  near  the  foot  of  Pisaquid 
and  bounded  North  Easterly  by  the  River  St.  Croix,  and  to  pro- 
ceed up  the  River  Till  it  meets  with  the  Lands  lately  granted  to 
William  Tonge  and  others,  and  to  be  Bounded  south  Easterly  by 
the  said  Tonge 's  Lot,  and  to  proceed  according  to  the  Course  of 
the  North  Bounds  of  said  Tonge 's  Lot,  being  West  15  degrees 
south  from  the  River  St.  Croix,  Till  it  meets  the  Road  leading 
to  Halifax,  and  to  be  bounded  south  westerly  by  the  said  Road, 
to  proceed  along  the  said  Road  to  the  Bridge  called  the  Fort 
Bridge  and  from  thence  to  the  Bounds  first  mentioned,  Preserv- 
ing all  the  uplands  on  which  the  Fort  stands  for  the  use  of  the 
said  Fort,  containing  in  the  whole  by  Estimation  2,500  acres, 
more  or  less."  In  this  grant,  also,  all  mines  unopened,  except 
gold,  silver,  precious  stones,  and  lapis  lazuli,  are  included.  The 
distribution  of  the  land  was  as  follows:  to  Joshua  Mauger, 
Michael  Francklin,  Isaac  Deschamps,  Charles  Proctor  and  Wil- 
liam Saul,  one-sixth  each;  to  Moses  and  Gideon  Delesdernier 
one-twelfth  each.  The  size  of  the  tract  is  not  specified  in  the 
grant.6 

The  township  of  Windsor,  which  Bishop  John  Inglis  in  1826, 
in  his  letter  just  referred  to,  says  comprised  seventy-eight 
square  miles,  and  at  that  time  had  a  population  of  2,000  souls, 
was  organized  largely  of  the  areas  described  above,  and  probably 
other  tracts  of  greater  or  less  extent,  on  the  24th  of  December, 
1764.7  At  a  meeting  of  the  Council  held  on  that  date  it  was  re- 
solved that  "that  part  of  the  tract  of  land  formerly  called  Pisi- 
quid, on  the  South-east  of  the  River  commonly  known  by  the 
name  of  Pisiquid  River,  in  the  Province  of  Nova  Scotia,  shall 
be  erected  and  incorporated  into  a  township,  hereinafter  to  be 
known  and  called  by  the  name  of  Windsor,  the  limits  and  bounds 

6.  It  is  impossible  without  critical  examination  to  be  sure  of  the  exact  loca- 
tion of  some  of  these  Hants  County  grants,  it  may  be  that  this  grant  transcended  the 
limits  of  Windsor  township  and  ran  into  Newport. 

7.  On  the  2Qth   of  August,    1759,    Hon.   Benjamin   Gerrish  and  others  had  a 
grant  of  1,400  acres  at  "Pisiquid  River,"  and  as  Gerrish  when  he  died  had  a  farm 
at  Windsor  we  suppose  that  his  part  of  this  grant  was  in  Windsor  township.     On 
the  same  date  Edmund  Crawley  of  Halifax  received  a  grant  of  1,400  acres  at  "Pisi- 
quid River." 


88          RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA 

of  which  township  shall  be  as  follows,  that  is  to  say:  To  begin 
from  the  South-western  limits  of  lands  commonly  called  the 
Justices  lands,  and  extending  from  the  South-west  limits  of 
such  lands  to  the  River  Pisiquid,  and  thence  to  be  bounded  by 
the  River  Pisiquid  till  it  meets  with  the  River  St.  Croix,  and 
thence  by  the  River  St.  C'roix  till  it  meets  the  bridge  on  the  Pub- 
lic Road  or  Highway,  and  from  the  said  bridge  thence  by  the 
Common  Highway  leading  from  Pisiquid  to  Halifax,  till  it 
comes  to  lands  granted  to  William  Piggot,  and  to  be  bounded  by 
the  said  Piggot 's  farm,  and  thence  South-west  till  Thirteen  miles 
be  completed  from  the  said  Common  Highway,  and  from  the  end 
of  the  said  Thirteen  miles  to  run  North-westerly  till  it  meets  the 
South-west  limits  of  the  said  land  commonly  called  the  justices 
lands,  which  limits  shall  hereafter  be  reputed  to  be  the  estab- 
lished boundaries  of  said  township  of  Windsor."8 

That  part  of  the  district  of  Pisiquid  that  was  organized  into 
the  township  of  Windsor  in  1764,  thus  comprised  only  lands 
that  had  not  been  included  in  the  township  of  Falmouth  and 
Newport,  and  that,  as  we  have  intimated,  had  probably  nearly 
all  been  distributed  to  men  who  had  been  prominent  in  military 
service  in  the  province  or  who  occupied  positions  of  influence  at 
Halifax.  In  June,  1773,  says  Murdoch,9  Lord  William  Camp- 
bell, who  was  then  governor  of  the  province,  declared  in  Council 
his  intention  of  reserving  for  himself  a  tract  containing  about 
twenty-one  acres,  around  the  hill  at  Windsor,  ' '  on  which  the  fort 
formerly  stood,"  and  this  act,  says  Dr.  Hind,  "disposed  of  the 
entire  area  west  of  the  path  or  road  to  Halifax.10  The  new  set- 
tlers, when  they  built  houses  on  their  grants,  as  they  undoubted- 


8.  Council  Book,  Letter  C,  folio  515.  Dr.  Hind  (p.  g)  says  that  the  town- 
ship of  Windsor  as  represented  on  the  county  map  differs  in  some  particulars  from 
the  description  here.  It  is  frequently  noted  that  the  Council  declared  the  township 
of  Windsor  to  be  in  the  county  of  Halifax,  but  since  we  know  that  until  1781  it 
was  always  in  the  county  of  King's  we  are  unable  not  to  believe  that  Halifax  was 
written  in  the  Council  minutes  by  mistake  for  King's.  Dr.  David  Allison,  in  the 
Collections  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Historical  Society,  Vol.  7,  p.  67,  says :  "A  letter  pre- 
served in  the  Deschamps  collection,  written  by  the  widow  of  Col.  Winckworth 
Tonge,  of  Beausejour  celebrity  and  proprietor  of  one  of  the  largest  Windsor  es- 
tates, affirms  that  residents  of  Windsor  were  always  electors  of  King's  County, 
though  it  seems  to  imply  that  to  exercise  their  franchise  they  had  to  cross  the 
river  [Avon]  to  the  neighboring  township  of  Falmouth."  The  village  of  Wind- 
sor, however,  was  for  a  certain  number  of  years,  we  do  not  know  how  many,  the 
headquarters  of  probate  registration  for  the  whole  county  of  King's. 

g.     Murdoch's  History  of  Nova  Scotia,  Vol.  2,  p.  510. 

10.     "Old   Parish   Burying  Ground,"   p.   23. 


RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA          89 

ly  soon  began  to  do,  built  them  chiefly  on  the  slopes  of  Fort  Ed- 
ward hill,  on  the  west  side,  and  thence  toward  the  settlement 
now  known  as  Clifton. 

Describing  the  township  of  Windsor  and  its  great  fertility 
and  beauty,  Judge  Haliburton  says :  ' '  That  portion  of  it  which 
fell  into  the  hands  of  resident  proprietors  was  divided  among 
a  few  individuals,  and  thus  was  introduced  a  system  of  tenancy, 
which  in  Nova  Scotia  neither  contributes  to  the  improvement  of 
the  soil  nor  the  profit  of  the  landlord."11  This  system  of  tenant 
farming  seems  to  have  prevailed  in  Windsor  as  nowhere  else  in 
Nova  Scotia,  the  farmers  being  in  great  part,  it  would  appear, 
North  of  Ireland  settlers  who  had  come  into  the  province  in 
1761  through  the  efforts  of  the  adventurous  colonizer,  Alexander 
McNutt.  In  1760,  as  is  well  known,  McNutt  helped  organize  a 
colony  of  North  of  Ireland  people  who  were  living  in  London- 
derry, New  Hampshire,  to  settle  Truro,  Nova  Scotia,  but  in 
1761  he  brought  out  a  group  of  settlers  direct  from  Ireland  it- 
self, most  of  whom  finally  located  in  Londonderry,  Colchester 
County,  some,  however,  either  late  in  1761  or  early  in  1762,  set- 
tling in  other  townships,  a  not  inconsiderable  number  planting 
themselves  in  Windsor  and  Newport.12  In  1766,  Lieutenant- 
Governor  Francklin  made  a  census  of  Nova  Scotia,  and  by  this 
census  we  are  able  to  determine  the  number  of  people  ranking 
as  of  Irish  birth  then  in  the  various  townships.  At  Windsor,  out 
of  a  population  of  243  souls,  sixty-three  are  given  as  of  Irish 
origin,  in  Falmouth,  out  of  a  population  of  292,  twenty  are  so 
given,  while  in  Newport,  out  of  a  population  of  279,  seventeen 
rank  as  Irish.13  Among  these  Irish  settlers  in  Hants  County, 


11.  "An  Historical  and  Statistical  Account  of  Nova  Scotia,"  (1889),  p.  100. 

12.  See  a  monograph  on  "The   Settling  of  Colchester  County,   Nova  Scotia,, 
by  New  England  Puritans  and  Ulster  Scotsmen,"  published  by  the  writer  of  this 
paper  in  the  Transactions  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Canada  in  1912,  and  one  on  "Alex- 
ander McNutt  the  Colonizer,"  in  the  New  York  historical  magazine  Americana,  for 
December,  1913,  by  the  same  writer.  McNutt  reached  Halifax  with  his  first  company 
from  Ireland,  October  9,  1761.     Some  of  the  people  he  brought  stayed  in  Halifax, 
some  went  to   Amherst,  Newport,   and  Windsor,  but  a  larger  number  than  went 
elsewhere   settled   in   Londonderry.     The  people   who  went  to  Londonderry  went 
probably  by  way  of  Windsor. 

13.  Of  the  other  King's  County  townships,  Horton  with  a  population  of  634,. 
and  Cornwallis  with  a  population  of  727,  received  virtually  none  of  these  Irish  set- 
tlers.    The  Allisons  and  Magees,  however,  of  a  later  small  group  of  Irish  settlers,. 
did  settle  further  west  in  King's  County. 


90          RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA 

chiefly  in  Windsor,  were  families,  named  Caldwell,  Clarke,14 
Curry,  Dill,  Elder,  Hunter,  Jenkins,  O'Brien,  Palmer  (proba- 
bly), Patterson,  Spencer,  and  a  certain  family  named  Ellison  or 
Allison,  the  head  of  which  was  Matthew  Ellison  or  Allison,  who 
bore  no  known  relationship  to  the  founder  of  the  distinguished 
Allison  family  of  Nova  Scotia. 

In  1769,  another  small  group  of  North  of  Ireland  people,  in- 
cluding the  founders  and  their  children  of  the  well  known  fami- 
lies of  Allison,  Magee,  McColla,  McCormick,  McHeffey,  and  Mil- 
ler, embarked  at  Londonderry,  Ireland,  for  Lancaster  County, 
Pennsylvania,  where  many  of  their  friends  and  relatives  had 
previously  gone.  The  vessel  in  which  they  crossed  the  Atlantic 
meeting  with  some  misfortune  off  the  coast  of  Sable  Island, 
these  voyagers  took  refuge  in  Halifax,  and  were  induced  to 
remain  there.  Before  long  we  find  them  established  chiefly  in 
and  about  Windsor  and  Newport,  some  of  them,  however, 
pushing  on  to  Horton  and  even  farther  west  in  King's 
County.  A  family  of  Cunninghams,  who  were  long  known  in 
Hants,  and  Halifax,  and  Antigonish,  came  from  Roscommon, 
Ireland,  but  earlier  than  the  McNutt  settlers,  the  vessel  in  which 
they  sailed  being  wrecked  and  sinking  somewhere  off  Sable 
Island.  It  is  possible  that  the  McCollas  were  in  their  company 
and  not  in  the  later  one,  to  which  belonged  the  Allisons  and  Mc- 
Heffeys.  The  importance  of  both  the  Allison  and  McHeffey 
families  in  Hants  County  is  a  matter  of  common  knowledge, 
while  of  McNutt 's  settlers,  families  of  Clarkes,  Currys,  Elders, 
Jenkinses,  and  O'Briens  have  held  no  less  prominent  places.15 

One  of  the  most  conspicuous  early  settlers  in  Windsor,  the 
proprietor  there,  indeed,  who  occupied  the  highest  position 
among  the  local  aristocracy  and  wielded  the  strongest  influ- 
ence, was  the  Hon.  Michael  Francklin,  whose  mercantile  busi- 


14.  John  Clarke  of  Windsor  we  suppose  was  of  the  McNutt  emigration.     He 
married,  probably  in  Windsor,  Eleanor  Palmer,  and  had  children  born  as  follows : 
Catharine,  November  8,  1766;  Jane,  June  3,  1768;  William,  October  18,  1770,  (died 
September  14,   1775);  Mary,  August  30,   1772;  Elizabeth,  December  23,   1774;  Isa- 
bella, November  14,  1776;  Eleanor,  August  22,  1778;  Susanna,  June  23,  1780;  John 
Palmer,  July  5,  1785. 

15.  Dr.  Hind    (page  35),  gives  the  following  as  members  of  the   Presbyterian 
congregation  and  subscribers  to  the  building  of  the  meeting  house,  in  Windsor,  Octo- 
b.gr  9,  1824:  John  Clarke,  Esq.;  Robert  McHeffey,  Nathaniel  Jenkins,  Matthew  Al- 
lison,   Richard    McHeffey,    James    Robertson,    Ludovick    Hunter,    Alexander    Dill, 
John  Jack,  William  Edwards,  John  Murray,  Joseph  Caldwell,  and  Hugh  Jenkins. 


RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA          91 

ness  was  at  Halifax,  where  indeed  his  official  duties  kept  him  for 
much  of  the  year,  but  whose  favorite  residence  was  in  the  Hants 
County  shire  town.  On  his  extensive  farm  in  Windsor  he  early 
built  a  roomy  mansion,  and  there,  for  a  great  portion  of  his  busy 
life,  with  his  large  family  he  spent  as  much  of  the  year  as  he 
could.  Staunch  supporters  of  the  Church  of  England,  he  and 
his  wife  and  children,  as  we  have  intimated,  actively  promoted 
the  Anglican  cause  in  the  Windsor  community,  and  to  his  gen- 
erosity the  parish  owed  the  land  which  Christ  Church  and  the 
churchyard  occupied.16  Mr.  Francklin  was  a  native  of  Devon- 
shire, England,  who  late  in  1752,  as  a  young  man,  migrated  to 
Halifax,  and  began  business  as  a  dealer  in  liquors.  He  was  not 
only  enterprising,  but  well  educated,  dignified,  and  genial,  and 
he  had  signal  ability  for  the  management  of  affairs,  and  from 
selling  spirits  he  soon  enlarged  his  business  to  selling  bread- 
stuffs  and  fine  wines,  and  to  the  exportation  of  dry  fish  to  Na- 
ples. He  also  came  to  take  large  contracts  for  furnishing  sup- 
plies to  the  army  and  navy  at  Halifax.  In  this  general  busi- 
ness he  finally  amassed  a  large  fortune  and  thus  became  a  rec- 
ognized power  in  the  province.  Gradually  he  entered  into  public 
affairs,  and  in  1762  was  made  a  member  of  the  Council.  May 
23,  1766,  Hon.  Colonel  Montague  Wilmot,  governor  of  the  prov- 
ince died,  and  on  the  23d  of  August,  1766,  Mr.  Francklin  was 
sworn  lieutenant-governor,  Hon.  Benjamin  Green  having  in  the 
meantime  administered  the  government.  On  the  27th  of  Novem- 
ber, 1766,  the  Bight  Honourable  Lord  William  Campbell,  young- 
est son  of  the  fourth  Duke  of  Argyle,  was  sworn  governor,  but 
during  this  interval  Mr.  Francklin  held  chief  command.  On 
Lord  William's  assumption  of  the  governorship,  Mr.  Francklin 
was  continued  as  lieutenant-governor,  and  in  this  office  he  re- 
mained until  1776,  in  the  meantime  having  been  appointed  also 
(August  13,  1768)  lieutenant-governor  of  Prince  Edward  Island. 
During  his  ten  years  incumbency  of  the  lieutenant-governorship, 
Mr.  Francklin  was  obliged  to  exert  a  high  degree  of  control  in 
public  affairs,  and  his  influence  was  always  exercised  with  in- 


~tf  The  deed  of  this  land  specifies  that  it  is  given  "for  the  purpose  of  erecting 
thereon  a  church  or  place  of  public  worship  conformable  to  the  Established  Church 
of  England,  and  for  a  place  of  Interment,  Burying  Ground,  or  Grave  Yard,  for 
the  use  of  the  Christian  People  of  the  said  township  of  Windsor. 


92          RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA 

telligence  and  wisdom.  He  died  November  8,  1782.  In  a  highly 
interesting  monograph  on  Mr.  Francklin  in  the  16th  volume  of 
the  Collections  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Historical  Society,  Mr.  James 

5.  Macdonald  writes :   * '  Francklin  was  a  man  of  great  personal 
magnetism,  combined  with  courage,  integrity,  energy,  and  inde- 
pendence.    His  were  the  qualities  which  were  necessary  to  a 
leader.    His  splendid  example  and  many  virtues  were  strongly 
impressed  on  his  own  and  possibly  the  immediately  succeeding 
generation. ' ' 

Hon.  Michael  Francklin  married  in  Boston,  February  7,  1762, 
Susannah  Boutineau,  elder  daughter  of  James  and  Susannah 
(Faneuil)  Boutineau,  and  niece  of  Mr.  Peter  Faneuil,  the  prince- 
ly Boston  merchant  who  built  Faneuil  Hall.  Mrs.  Francklin 
died  at  Windsor,  April  19,  1816,  in  her  76th  year.  The  Franck- 
lins  had  children  born  as  follows:  James  Boutineau,  July  31, 
1763;  Elizabeth  Mauger,  September  3,  1764;  Susanna,  August 
23,  1765 ;  Ann,  August  31,  1767 ;  Joshua  Mauger,  September  1, 
1769 ;  Michael  Nickleson,  August  20,  1773 ;  John  Robinson,  July 

6,  1774;  George  Sackville  Germaine,  January  15,  1777;  Mary 
Phillipps,  October  7,  1779 ;  Sarah  Nickleson,  December  21,  1780. 

The  earliest  of  all  conspicuous  traders  in  Windsor  was  Josh- 
ua Mauger,  an  enterprising  English  Jew,  who  before  the  found- 
ing of  Halifax,  with  Louisburg  as  headquarters,  traded  with  the 
French  population  of  Cape  Breton  and  Nova  Scotia,  and  at 
some  time,  we  do  not  know  precisely  when,  established  truck 
houses  at  Windsor,  Grand  Pre,  and  Annapolis  Eoyal.  A  prince  of 
smugglers,  he  is  also  said  to  have  been  for  years  the  great  inter- 
mediary between  the  French  government  and  the  inhabitants  of 
Acadia,  both  French  and  Indian,  and  next  to  the  priest  Le  Lou- 
tre  the  most  mischievous  influence  in  Nova  Scotia  with  which 
the  government  had  to  deal.  Notwithstanding  this,  when,  very 
rich,  he  finally  retired  from  business  and  returned  to  England 
to  live,  he  was  made  London  agent  for  Nova  Scotia,  a  position 
he  filled  for  several  years.  His  only  daughter  was  married  to 
the  Due  de  Brouillan,  who  lost  his  head  in  the  French  Revolu- 
tion. Mauger 's  history  has  been  interestingly  told  in  print  in 
the  12th  volume  of  the  Collections  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Historical 


RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA 


93 


Society.17  How  soon  after  the  expulsion  of  the  Acadians  Mauger 
ceased  trading  at  Windsor  we  do  not  know,  but  he  was  there  at 
the  expulsion,  for  just  previous  to  the  event  Governor  Lawrence 
ordered  Captain  Murray  at  Fort  Edward  to  cut  off  communica- 
tion between  the  inhabitants  and  "Mr.  Mauger 's  people."18  In 
1776  the  site  of  the  parish  Church  in  Windsor,  which  had  al- 
ready been  given  by  Hon.  Michael  Francklin  for  Church  use, 
was  somehow,  with  other  property,  deeded  to  him,  but  on  the  6th 
of  February,  1785,  he  made  over  the  two  acres  it  and  the  church- 
yard comprised  to  James  Boutineau  Francklin,  in  order  that  the 
original  intention  of  Hon.  Michael  Francklin  might  be  carried 
out. 

A  name  conspicuous  in  the  early  annals  of  Windsor  is  the 
name  Deschamps.  Isaac  Deschamps,  who  became  Nova  Scotia's 
third  chief-justice,  like  Moses  Delesdernier  was  a  Swiss,  but  how 
or  precisely  when  he  migrated  to  Nova  Scotia,  or  who  he  mar- 
ried, we  do  not  know.19  As  a  young  man  he  was  a  clerk  in  Josh- 
ua Mauger 's  i '  truck  house ' '  at  Windsor,  and  in  1754,  it  is  said, 
he  assisted  Captain  Murray  in  suppressing  disturbances  among 
the  French  in  that  vicinity.  In  1759,  as  we  have  seen,  his  name 
appears  on  a  large  grant  at  Pisiquid,  and  on  the  16th  of  June, 
1760,  Governor  Lawrence  appointed  him  "  truckmaster "  at  Fort 
Edward  and  for  King's  County,  for  carrying  on  commerce  on 
behalf  of  the  government  of  the  province  with  the  Indians, 
Moses  Delesdernier  having  been  similarly  appointed  Novem- 
ber 12,  1757.  In  1761  his  name  appears  on  the  general  Newport 
grant,  and  the  same  year  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  Assem- 
bly for  West  Falmouth,  and  also  one  of  the  justices  of  the  court 
of  common  pleas.  In  1768  he  was  appointed  by  Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor  Francklin  a  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  in  Prince  Ed- 
ward Island  (St.  John  Island),  and  in  1770,  assistant  judge  of 
the  Supreme  Court  of  Nova  Scotia  in  place  of  Judge  John  Du- 
port.  October  6,  1783,  he  was  admitted  to  the  Council,  and  on 


17.  See  also  Eaton's  "History  of  King's  County,  Nova  Scotia,"  pp.  40,  200. 

18.  See  Col.  John  Winslow's  Journal,  published  in  the  3d  volume  of  the  Col- 
lections of  the  Nova  Scotia  Historical   Society.     It  is  likely  that  his  truck  house 
was  taken  over  in  1757  by  Moses  Delesdernier,  for  in  1757  Delesdernier  received  a 
license  to  trade  at  Pisiquid. 

19.  An  Isaac  Deschamps,  son  of  Isaac,  was  born  in  Boston,   10  Nov.,  1674, 
and  baptized  in  the  Old  South  Church  parish,  15  Nov.,  1674. 


94          RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS   IN   NOVA  SCOTIA 

the  death  of  Chief  Justice  Bryan  Finucane  was  promoted,  April 
21,  1785,  to  the  chief-justiceship.  In  1787,  with  Judge  James 
Brenton,  a  native  of  Rhode  Island,  he  was  accused  of  "im- 
proper and  irregular"  administration  of  justice,  and  was  in- 
volved in  a  trial  which  was  terminated  in  his  favour  by  the  Privy 
Council  in  England  in  1792.20  In  the  course  of  the  proceedings 
he  resigned  the  chief-justiceship,  his  successor,  Jeremiah  Pem- 
berton,  being  commissioned  chief-justice  August  19,  1788.20* 
Great  indignation  was  felt  at  the  impeachment  of  Deschamps 
and  Brenton,  of  the  former  of  whom  a  contemporaneous  writ- 
er says  that ' '  a  gentleman  of  a  more  tender  and  benevolent  heart 
than  Justice  Deschamps  does  not  at  this  day  exist  in  Nova  Sco- 
tia, ' '  and  whom  he  calls  * '  the  good  old  man. ' '  Isaac  Deschamps 
married  as  his  second  wife,  Sarah  Ellis,  second  daughter  of  Dr. 
Edward  Ellis  by  his  first  wife,  and  younger  sister  of  Mrs.  Ed- 
ward Watmough.  He  died,  but  whether  at  Halifax  or  at  Wind- 
sor we  do  not  know,  August  11, 1801,  "upwards  of  79  years  old." 

George  Deschamps,  son  of  Isaac,  was  Judge  of  Probate  for 
Hants  County  (it  is  said  immediately  succeeding  his  father  in 
that  office),  and  generally  one  of  Windsor's  most  important 
men.  Until  a  few  years  ago  the  stone  foundations  of  his  house, 
on  the  west  slope  of  Fort  Hill,  could  still  be  traced.  The  oldest 
tombstone  yet  discovered  in  the  old  Windsor  Churchyard,  says 
Dr.  Hind,  bears  the  names  and  dates  of  death  of  Elizabeth,  wife 
of  George  Deschamps,  who  died  in  1779,  her  son  George,  who 
died  in  1776,  and  her  daughter,  Sarah,  who  died  in  1778.  He 
is  said  to  have  married  a  daughter  of  James  Monk,  of  Boston 
and  Halifax,  and  his  wife  Ann  (Deering).  The  plaster  trade  of 
Newport,  that  for  many  years  has  been  one  of  the  chief  indus- 
tries of  Hants  County  was  started  by  George  Deschamps.21 

Among  the  group  of  young  British  born  men  at  Annapolis 


20.  These  judges  were  impeached  by  two  attorneys,  Messrs.  Sterns  and  Tay- 
lor, who  before  long  were  disbarred  for  statements  they  had  made  in  a  newspaper, 
which  were  considered  slanderous.     See  Murdoch's  History  of  Nova   Scotia,  Vol. 
3,  p.  101. 

2o*/2.    His  patent  was  read  October  21,    1788,  when  he  opened  the  Supreme 
Court. 

21.  The  Boston  Independent  Chronicle  of  February  4,  1802,  says:  "It  is  said 
that  discovery   has   been   made   of  the    earth    called  Plaister  of  Paris,  of  the  most 
useful  quality,  equal  to  any  in  Nova  Scotia.     It  was  discovered  near  Newton,  Sus- 
sex County,  New  Jersey." 


RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN   NOVA  SCOTIA          95 

Eoyal  in  1731  was  Samuel  Cottnam,  who  in  1734  is  spoken  of  as 
Ensign  Samuel  Cottnam,  and  who  we  suppose  at  the  latter  date, 
at  least,  was  a  young  officer  in  the  40th  regiment.22  December 
18,  1731,  he  was  dispatched  by  Lieutenant-Governor  Lawrence 
Armstrong,  with  full  powers  to  treat  with  the  French  inhabi- 
tant of  Pisiquid  and  Cobequid  for  provisions  for  Annapolis 
Eoyal,23  and  in  the  same  year  he  is  spoken  of  as  deputy  collec- 
tor. In  1732  he  was  sent  to  help  build  a  magazine  at  Minas, 
and  in  1734  from  Minas  he  wrote  Armstrong  giving  him  an  ac- 
count of  clandestine  trade  carried  on  there.  September  30, 
1734,  John  Hamilton,  deputy  collector  at  Annapolis,  was  or- 
dered to  go  in  the  sloop  Mary  to  St.  John  to  prevent  illicit  trad- 
ing there  and  Ensign  Cottnam  was  authorized  to  seize  vessels, 
etc.,  for  the  same  purpose.24  At  some  time  in  his  career  at  An- 
napolis he  married  Deborah  How,  daughter  of  Captain  Edward 
and  Mary  Magdalene  (Winniett)  How,  whose  tombstone  in  the 
Windsor  churchyard  calls  her  "Mrs.  Deborah  Cottnam,  wife  of 
S.  Cottnam,  Esq.,  long  an  officer  in  His  Majesty's  service."25 
On  the  15th  of  October,  1754,  he  was  commissioned  captain  of 
the  40th  regiment.  He  received  grants  in  Hants  County  as  fol- 
lows :  August  27,  1764,  1,000  acres  on  Windsor  Eoad ;  April  8, 
1768,  500  acres  somewhere  in  the  township  of  Newport.  How 
many  children  Samuel  and  Deborah  Cottnam  had  we  cannot 
tell,  they  had  one  daughter,  "Grissey  Elizabeth,"  baptized  in 
King's  Chapel,  Boston,  December  19,  1755;  and  probably  others. 
On  the  relationship  of  George  Cottnam  to  Samuel  Cottnam 

22.  Nova  Scotia  Archives,  Vols.  2  and  3. 

23.  From  the  organization  of  the  4Oth  regiment  at  Annapolis  Royal  in   1717, 
(see  Murdoch's  History  of  Nova  Scotia,  Vol.  i,  p.  351)  the  officers  of  the  regiment 
were  in  great  measure  young  British  born  men  of  good  family  who  had  come  to 
America  to  seek  their  fortunes.     The  history  of  this  regiment,  the  "Fighting  For- 
tieth" is  in  print,  and  an  important  reference  to  the  regiment  will  be  found  in  the 
Calnek-Savary  History    of    Annapolis,  pp.  183,  184.     From  1717  until  1758,  part  of 
the  regiment,  at  least,  was  held  at  Annapolis  to  garrison  the  fort  there;  in  1758  it 
was  drawn  off  to  assist  in  the  second  taking  of  Louisburg.     For  many  of  its  offi- 
cers, see  Worthington  C.  Ford's  list  of  British  officers  serving  in  America  between 
1754  and   1774,  printed  in  the   N.   E.   Hist,  and  Gen.  Register,  Vols.  48,  49.     The 
regiment  is  now  the  First  Battalion   Prince   of  Wales  Volunteers    (South  Lanca- 
shire regiment). 

24.  Murdoch's  History  of  Nova  Scotia,  Vol.  i,  p.  501. 

25.  For  an  admirable  sketch  of  Captain  Edward  How  and  his  family,  see  the 
Calnek-Savary  History  of  Annapolis,  Nova  Scotia,  pp.  527-534.     How  was  a  New 
England  man  who  settled  early  at  Annapolis  Royal,  and  his  murder  at  Chignecto  in 
October,  1750,  was  a  tragical  event.    For  the  inscription  on  Mrs.  Deborah  Cottnam's 
tombstone,  see  Hind's  "Old  Parish  Burying  Ground,"  p.  6. 


96          RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA 

we  have  no  clear  light.  June  30,  1742,  George  and  Margaret 
Cottnam  had  a  son  John  baptized  in  King's  Chapel,  Boston,  and 
September  5,  1746,  George  Cottnam  was  commissioned  a  first 
lieutenant  of  the  40th  regiment.  In  1768,  Murdoch  tells  us,  as 
the  troops  were  to  be  withdrawn  from  Louisburg,  George  Cott- 
nam ''as  a  person  of  courage  and  resolution"  was  appointed 
"to  keep  the  peace  and  execute  the  laws  in  the  island  of  Cape 
Breton.26  The  three  Cottnam  sisters,  Mary,  Henrietta  Maria, 
and  Martha,  who  became  respectively  the  wives  of  Captain,  Ma- 
jor, or  Colonel  George  Scott,  Dr.  George  Day  of  Mantua,  and 
Colonel  Winckworth  Tonge,  were  probably  his  and  not  Samuel 
Cottnam's  daughters.  May  14,  1782,  a  Susanna  "Ootman"  was 
buried  in  St.  Paul's  parish,  Halifax. 

A  family  that  came  early  to  Windsor  was  the  Cunningham 
family.  John  Cunningham,  supposed  to  have  been  an  Irishman, 
appears  in  Halifax  on  the  7th  of  April,  1761,  on  which  date  he 
buys  a  house  and  lot  on  Argyle  street,  for  £  142.  currency.  On 
the  28th  of  May,  1763,  he  bought  lots  in  the  south  suburbs  of 
the  town,  for  £  20.  On  the  6th  of  October,  1763,  he  bought  land 
in  the  north  suburbs,  for  £  233.6.8,  and  on  the  20th  of  December, 
1777,  he  bought  lot  No.  10  in  Mr.  Forman's  division  for  £  25. 
On  the  24th  of  March,  1769,  he  was  appointed  Commissioner  of 
Indian  affairs,  for  the  duties  of  which  office  he  was  to  receive 
ten  shillings  a  day.  His  tenure  of  the  commissionership  lasted 
until  October  4,  1773,  when  he  gave  the  office  up.  The  Nova 
Scotia  treasury  at  this  time  was  low  and  his  salary  was  not  paid, 
so  he  was  at  last  obliged  to  appeal  to  the  Bight  Honourable  the 
Lords  Commissioners  of  His  Majesty's  Treasury. 

At  some  period  in  his  career  among  other  purchases  of  land 
out  of  Halifax,  Mr.  Cunningham  had  bought  "Saulsbrook  farm," 
at  Windsor,  a  property  that  had  originally  been  granted  to 
Thomas  Saul.  In  his  will,  dated  June  1,  1785,  he  leaves  this 
farm,  as  indeed  most  of  his  property,  to  his  three  children,  Cap- 
tain John  Cunningham,  Ensign  Richard  Cunningham,  and  Mrs. 
Elizabeth  Boyd,  wife  of  George  Frederick  Boyd,  Esq.  His  will 
mentions  also  his  mother,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Cunningham,  his  sis- 
ters Jane  and  Magdalen,  and  his  servant  James  Daly.  His 


26.    Murdoch's  History  of  Nova  Scotia,  Vol.  2,  p.  479. 


RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA          97 

wife's  name  was  Elizabeth,  but  she  must  have  died  before  his 
will  was  made. 

Of  the  two  sons  of  John  Cunningham,  Captain  John  held  a 
commission  in  the  Loyal  Nova  Scotia  Volunteers,  but  of  his  ca- 
reer we  know  very  little,  and  of  his  wife  and  children  if  he  ever 
married,  nothing.  Of  Richard  Cunningham  we  know  more,  he 
was  commissioned  ensign  in  the  Loyal  Nova  Scotia  Volunteers 
on  the  7th  of  December,  1781,  and  he  purchased  many  proper- 
ties, principally  in  Hants  County,  among  these,  April  17,  1800, 
the  Winckworth  estate,  "two  parcels  of  land,  beginning  at  the 
mouth  of  a  creek  on  the  river  St.  Croix, "  from  Hon.  Alexander 
Brymer  and  Harriet  his  wife.  For  this  valuable  property  he 
gave  £2,700.  He  married  "at  the  seat  of  Sir  John  Wentworth, 
Bart."  (probably  the  "Lodge,"  near  Halifax),  22  August,  1809, 
Rev.  Dr.  Benjamin  Gerrish  Gray  officiating,  Sarah  Apthorp 
Morton,  eldest  daughter  of  Hon.  Perez  Morton,  of  Boston,  and 
grand-niece  of  Lady  Frances  Wentworth,  born  June  2,  1782, 
died  July  14,  1844.  Richard  Cunningham  made  his  will  July 
15,  1824,  and  died  some  time  before  July  1,  1835,  when  his 
daughters,  Eliza  Deering  Boyd  Cunningham  and  Frances 
Sarah  Wentworth  Cunningham,  applied  for  certain  parts  of  his 
estate.  He  had  children:  Griselda  Eastwick,  born  August  16, 
1810,  married  Rev.  Joseph  Hart  Clinch;  Perez  Morton,  born 
May  2,  1812,  graduated  B.  A.  at  King's  College,  Windsor,  in 
1832,  died  unmarried,  January  21,  1866;  Eliza  Deering  Boyd; 
Frances  Sarah  Wentworth,  married  Rev.  John  Storrs;  Char- 
lotte, born  Dec.  23,  1817,  married  Dr.  Howard  Sargent  of  Bos- 
ton; John,  born  June  30,  1820,  educated  at  King's  College, 
Windsor,  died  unmarried  April  6,  1851. 

A  family  of  recognized  importance  in  Windsor  for  many  years 
was  the  DeWolf  family,  founded  there  by  Benjamin  DeWolf, 
born  in  Lyme,  Connecticut,  October  14,  1744.  Benjamin's  fath- 
er, Simeon,  was  one  of  the  grantees  of  Horton,  but  Benjamin 
himself  in  early  life  settled  in  Windsor.  There  he  married, 
March  16,  1769,  Rachel  Otis,  a  daughter  of  Dr.  Ephraim  Otis,  of 
Scituate,  Massachusetts,  and  sister  of  Susannah  Otis,  wife  of 
William  Haliburton  of  Newport  and  Windsor.  The  DeWolfs 
had  children:  Sarah  Hersey  Otis,  born  May  14,  1770,  married 


98          RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA 

to  Nathaniel  Ray  Thomas,  Jr. ;  Rachel  Hersey,  born  January  7, 
1772,  died  March  1772 ;  Rachel  Otis,  born  February  1,  1773,  mar- 
ried October  14,  1802,  to  Hon.  James  Fraser,  M.  E.  C.,  born  in 
Inverness,  Scotland,  their  eldest  daughter  becoming  the  wife  of 
Hon.  Charles  Stephen  Gore,  G.  C.  B.  and  K.  H.,  third  son  of  the 
2d  Earl  of  Arran ;  John,  born  and  died  June  1,  1775 ;  Susanna 
Isabella,  born  June  17,  1776,  died  September  25,  1777;  Frances 
Mary,  born  February  23,  1778,  died  November  17,  1791 ;  Isabel- 
la Amelia,  born  October  2,  1779,  married  August  1,  1821,  to  Cap- 
tain John  McKay,  H.  M.,  27th  regiment;  Harriot  Sophia,  born 
September  8,  1781,  married  September  17,  1799,  to  Rev.  William 
Colsell  King,  Rector  of  Windsor. 

Another  family  of  note  in  Windsor  was  the  McHeffey  family, 
the  founders  of  which  came  from  Ireland  with  the  Allisons,  Ma- 
gees,  McCollas,  McCormicks,  and  Millers,  in  1769.  This  family 
was  not  limited  to  the  township  of  Windsor,  but  spread  into 
other  townships  as  well.  Richard  McHeffey  and  his  wife  Mary 
(Caulfield),  who  were  probably  married  in  Ireland  in  1756,  had 
children  recorded  in  Windsor  (though  some  of  them  were  of 
course  born  in  Ireland):  Robert,  February  22,  1758;  Daniel, 
February  19,  1763;  William,  August  10,  1765;  George  Henry, 
February  6,  1771 ;  Richard,  December  26,  1773 ;  James,  April  9y 
1776 ;  John,  November  21,  1778 ;  Joseph,  March  4,  1781. 

An  important  family  in  Windsor  after  the  Revolution  was 
that  of  Nathaniel  Ray  Thomas,  born  in  Marshfield,  Massachu- 
setts in  1731,  whom  Governor  Gage  appointed  one  of  his  man- 
damus councillors  (though  he  never  took  the  oath),  who  went 
with  Howe's  fleet  to  Halifax,  was  proscribed  and  banished  and 
had  much  of  his  estate  in  Massachusetts  confiscated,  and  who 
died  at  Windsor  September  19,  1787.  His  wife,  whom  he  mar- 
ried in  Boston  (intention  recorded  November  7,  1754),  was 
Sarah  Deering,  an  aunt  of  Lady  Frances  Wentworth;  she  died 
at  Windsor  in  1810,  aged  78.  Mrs.  Thomas  was  a  lady  of  recog- 
nized worth,  and  on  her  death  Mrs.  Richard  Cunningham  wrote: 

"O,  snatched  too  soon,  ere  love  could  find 

One  life-bound  hope  decay, 
Ere  time  or  sorrow  from  thy  mind 

Could  steal  one  charm  away. 


RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA          99 

"For  though  around  thy  fading  brows 

The  wintry  storms  had  prest, 
Yet  all  that  cheerful  summer  knows 

Was  pictured  in  thy  breast; 

"Still  flashed  the  eye— and  sparkling  played, 

More  than  could  lips  express, 
And  still  the  melting  smile  displayed 

A  soul  of  tenderness. 

"That   soul   by    sense  and   judgment  moved, 

By  virtue's  self  inspired, 
Thou  wert  in  every  scene  beloved, 

Through  every  change  admired. 

"Though  at  thy  heart  so  oft  were  driven 

The  arrows  of  Despair, 
The  tearful  eyes  were  raised  to  Heaven 

And    shielding   Faith   was   there."27 

The  will  of  Nathaniel  Ray  Thomas,  made  at  Windsor  June  8, 
1787,  and  proved  October  5,  of  the  same  year,  mentions  six  chil- 
dren, in  the  following  order:  Nathaniel  Bay,  Jr.,  John,  Sarah 
Deering,  Mary,  Elizabeth  Packer,  and  Charles.  Of  the  exact 
order  of  their  births,  however,  we  are  somewhat  uncertain,  Na- 
thaniel Ray,  Jr.,  was  born  perhaps  in  1755,  John  we  know  was 
born  August  30,  1764,  and  Charles  probably  in  1772.  We  should 
suppose,  therefore,  that  the  three  daughters  came  between  Na- 
thaniel Ray,  Jr.,  and  John. 

Of  these  children,  Nathaniel  Ray,  Jr.,  married  at  Windsor, 
Sarah  Hersey  Otis  DeWolf,  born  May  14,  1770,  a  daughter  of 
Benjamin  and  Rachel  (Otis)  DeWolf.  In  mature  life  he  became 
custos  rotulorum  and  collector  of  customs  at  Windsor.27172  His 
death  occurred  at  Windsor,  August  12,  1823.  His  children  that 
we  know  of  were,  Charles  Wentworth,  an  officer  in  H.  M.  81st 
regiment,  and  Sarah  Rachel  (an  only  daughter),  who  was  mar- 
ried January  30,  1828,  to  Judge  Lewis  Morris  Wilkins,  Jr..  of 
the  Supreme  bench  of  Nova  Scotia  (born  at  Halifax,  May  24, 
1801,  died  at  Windsor  March  14,  1885). 


27.  "Memorials  of  Marshfield"  says :  She  left  an  "excellent  character  at 
Green  Harbour.  During  the  direful  'dearth  of  bread,'  at  one  period  of  the  war, 
she  fed  the  very  people  from  whom,  in  the  warmth  of  party  feeling,  she  had  met 
with  much  indignity." 

27^.  On  the  24th  of  April,  1789,  the  grand  jury  of  the  sessions  of  the  peace 
for  Hants  County  made  a  presentment  that  "George  Henry  Monk,  Esq.,  and  Mr. 
Nathl.  R.  Thomas  had  neglected  to  attend  divine  worship  for  the  space  of  three 
months,  to  the  evil  example  of  society."  Whereupon  Mr.  Thomas  was  fined  ten 
shillings,  and  Major  Monk  "traversed  the  presentment  on  technical  grounds  and 
escaped  the  fine.  See  "Old  Parish  Burying  Ground,"  p.  66.  This  reference  is  of 
course  to  Nathaniel  Ray  Thomas,  Jr. 


ioo        RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA 

John  Thomas,  known  as  Captain  John  Thomas,  was  born  at 
Marshfield,  and  after  he  had  grown  up  returned  from  Nova 
Scotia  and  settled  there,  on  property  of  his  father's  that  had 
not  been  confiscated.  He  married  in  Pembroke,  Massachusetts, 
first  Lucy  Baker,  secondly  Lucy  Turner,  by  his  two  marriages 
having  nine  children,  the  youngest  of  whom  was  named  for  his 
grandfather  and  uncle,  Nathaniel  Ray.28 

Charles  Thomas,  born  probably  in  1772,  was  a  lieutenant  in 
H.  M.  7th  Royal  Fusiliers  regiment,  at  that  time  commanded  in 
Nova  Scotia  by  His  Royal  Highness,  Prince  Edward,  Duke  of 
Kent,  Queen  Victoria's  father.  Lieutenant  Thomas  was  acci- 
dentally shot  by  a  brother  officer,  at  an  inn  not  many  miles  from 
Halifax,  where  both  officers  were  resting  after  a  successful  hunt 
for  a  deserter,  and  died  at  Government  House,  Halifax,  August 
16,  1797,  in  his  25th  year.  After  his  death  the  Duke  caused  a 
handsome  table  tombstone  to  be  placed  over  his  grave  in  St. 
Paul's  burying  grounds,  bearing  the  following  inscription: 
"This  Stone  Sacred  to  the  Memory  of  Lieut.  Charles  Thomas 
of  His  Majesty's  Royal  Fusilier  Regiment  who  departed  this 
Life  on  the  16th  of  August,  1797,  Aged  24  years :  is  placed  as  a 
Testimony  of  His  Friendship  and  Esteem  by  Lieut.  General 
His  Royal  Highness  Prince  Edward  his  Colonel." 

The  following  "Elegy  on  the  death  of  Lieutenant  Charles 
Thomas,  of  the  Royal  Fusiliers,  who  was  accidentally  shot  by 
his  most  intimate  friend,"  was  written  (and  published  in  the 
Halifax  Acadian  Recorder,  April  15,  1820)  by  a  Mrs.  Fletcher 
of  Yarmouth,  Nova  Scotia: 

"Slow  moves   in   funeral  pomp  the  mournful  bier, 

That  gives  the  warrior  to  the  silent  grave ; 
While  scarce  the  manly  eye  can  hide  the  tear; 
While  sighs  respire  the  bosoms  of  the  brave. 

"The  martial  arm  with  sable  crape  entwined, 

The  drum  deep  muffled,  and  th'  inverted  spear, 
The  mournful  dirge  that  floats  upon  the  wind, 

And  strikes  in  plaintive  sounds  the  pensive  ear. 

"These  wake  attention  from  her  silent  cell, 

Arrest  the  footstep,  fix  the  wand'ring  eye; 
These  thy  sad  tale  emphatically  tell, 

And  breathe  the  loud  memento,  'thou  must  die.' 


28.    See  Richards'   History  of  Marshfield,   Mass.,  Vol.  2,  pp.  87, 


RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA        101 

"In  life's  gay  bloom,  in  valor's  glorious  road, 

In  fame,  in  honor's  warm  pursuit  he  fell, 
What  manly  virtues  in  thy  bosom  glow'd, 

Thy  friends  remember,  and  thy  friends  shall  tell. 

"For  worth  and  honor  there  were  deep  enshrin'd, 

And  filial  love  and  tenderness  sincere ; 
And  generous  friendship  sought  thy  nobler  mind, 

That  reared  with  pride  her  sacred  altar  there. 

"Lamented  youth !    how  many  weep  thy  fall 

With  real  grief  and  undissembled  woe ! 
Oh  fate!  who  bade  thee  guide  that  rapid  ball? 

A  friend's  unconscious  hand  to  deal  the  blow. 

"Ah !  then  misfortune  hurl'd  her  bitt'rest  dart ! 

The  missile  shaft  accelerated  flew — 
Fate  only  bade  it  pierce  one  noble  heart, 

Friendship   had  join'd  them,   and   it   severed  two. 

"But  tho'  in  life's  meridian  pride  he  fell, 

Not  in  the  field  with  glory's  laurels  crown'd, 
Ere  fame  her  clarion  in  his  praise  could  swell, 

While  list'ning  thousands  caught  the  glorious  sound. 

"A  nobler  meed  was  thine — a  nobler  fame — 

Think  not  ye  friends  his  destiny  severe, 
Whose  valour,  virtue,  and  whose  fate  could  claim 

From  royal  Edward's  eye  th'  impassioned  tear." 

It  is  impossible  to  mention  here  all  the  separate  grants  by 
which  Windsor  township  was  distributed,  for  unlike  Palmouth 
and  Newport  the  lands  it  comprises  were  not  given  chiefly  en 
bloc,  but  we  append  a  list  of  individual  grants  in  Hants  County, 
which  contains  the  most  important  grants  in  Windsor.  To  de- 
termine the  exact  locations  and  boundaries  of  any  of  these  grants, 
however,  would  for  our  present  purpose  be  an  impossible  task. 

INDIVIDUAL  GRANTS,  IN  GREAT  PART  IN  WINDSOR. 

1759- 

2  June,  George  and  Henry  Scott  and  Winckworth  Tonge, 
2,500  acres  at  Five  Houses,  St.  Croix,  Pisiquid. 

27  July,  Winckworth,  William,  and  George  Tonge,  1,500 

acres  at  St.  Croix,  Pisiquid. 

28  August,  The  "Councillors  Grant"  to  seven  members,  7,- 

000  acres  at  Windsor. 

29  August,  Benjamin  Gerrish  and  others,  14,000  acres  at 

Pisiquid  Eiver. 
29  August,  John  Tonge  and  others,  5,500  acres  at  Pisiquid. 


29  August,  Edmund  Crawley,  1,400  acres  at  Pisiquid  Eiver. 

1  September,  Joshua  Mauger  and  others,  seven  in  all,  2,500 

acres. 
1760- 

20  May,  Winckworth,  William,  and  George  Tonge,  1,500 
acres  at  Falmouth. 

7  August,  Joseph  and  Michael  Scott,  1,000  acres  at  Fal- 
mouth. 

14  August,  Moses  Delesdernier,  A  lot  "in  the  township  of 

Falmouth  on  the  south-west  side  of  Fort  Edward." 

28  August,  Joseph  Gerrish,  7,000  acres  at  Pisiquid  River. 

29  August,  Major  George  Scott,  Dr.  George  Day,  and  oth- 
ers, 6,000  acres  on  the  River  St.  Croix,  township  of 
Falmouth. 

7  November,  John  Collier,  a  grant  in  Falmouth,  amount 

not  specified  in  registry. 

15  November,  Martha  Dyer  and  Moses  Masters,  a  town  lot 

in  Falmouth. 
1761- 

9  July,  Benjamin  Gerrish,  1,000  acres  in  Falmouth. 
29  December,  Moses  Delesdernier,  40  acres  in  Falmouth. 
1762- 

3  June,  Alexander  Grant,  1,000  acres  in  Falmouth. 

25  June,  William  Hore,  500  acres  in  Falmouth. 

25  June,  Henry  Denny  Denson  and  Henry  Maturin  Denson, 

750  acres  in  Falmouth. 

28  October,  Isaac  Deschamps,  house  lot,  and  barn  and  gar- 
den, in  Falmouth. 
1763- 

8  June,  Walter  Manning,  500  acres  in  Falmouth. 

8  June,  Edward  Cumberbach,  500  acres  in  Falmouth. 
8  June,  Terence  Fitzpatrick,  500  acres  in  Falmouth. 
8  June,  John  Gray,  500  acres  in  Falmouth. 
8  June,  Simon  Parry,  500  acres  in  Falmouth. 
8  June,  J.  F.  W.  Desbarres  and  others,  1,500  acres  in  Fal- 
mouth. 

24  August,  Henry  Tucker,  500  acres  in  Newport. 
6  September,  Alexander  MacCullock,  500  acres  in  Falmouth. 


RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA        103 

1764- 

2  February,  Benjamin  Gerrish,  168  acres  in  Falmouth. 
4  February,  Walter  Manning,  500  acres  on  Windsor  Road. 
4  February,  Rev.  Joseph  Bennett,  500  acres  in  Newport. 
19  July,  Abel  and  Matthew  Michenor,  750   acres    in    Fal- 
mouth. 

27  August,  Samuel  Cottnam,  1,000  acres  on  Windsor  Road. 
31  October,  Edmund  W^atmough,  500  acres  in  Falmouth. 
1765- 

15  June,  Benjamin,  Joseph,  and  John  McNutt  and  Patrick 

McCollum,  1,000  acres  in  Noel. 
1766- 

22  November,  Winckworth  Tonge  and  others  in  trust  to 

hold  fairs,  a  grant  at  Fort  Edward  hill,  Windsor. 
1768- 

19  February,  Henry  Potter  and  others,  a  grant  in  Fal- 
mouth. 

19  February,  James  Horatio  Watmough  and  others,  6,322 

acres  in  Falmouth. 

8  April,  James  Brenton,  500  acres  in  Newport. 
8  April,  Samuel  Cottnam,  500  acres  in  Newport. 
8  April,  John  Garden,  500  acres  in  Newport. 
1772- 

11  March,  William  Haliburton,  14  acre  at  Windsor. 

1  June,  James  Campbell,  1,000  acres  at  Kennetcook  River. 

31  July,  Henry  Denny  Denson,  2,000  acres  in  Falmouth. 

20  November,  James  Horatio  Watmough  and  others,  847^ 

acres  in  Falmouth. 
1773- 

Ephraim  Stannus,  1/4  acre  at  Windsor. 
1775- 

8  February,  Jeremiah  Northup,  500  acres  in  Falmouth. 
1784- 

3  August,  Captain  John  Bond  and    many    others,    23,000 

acres — the  township  of  Rawdon. 

5  November,  Rev.  William  Ellis,  1,000  acres  in  Newport. 
This  land  is  said  to  have  been  escheated  from  John 
Carden,  Jr. 


104        RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCO'TIA 

1786- 

3  April,  Joseph  Gray,  6  water  lots  in  Windsor. 
1797- 

23  August,  Edward  and  Philip  Hosier  (Mosher),  520  acres 
in  Newport. 

17  October,  S.  Coleman,  2301/4  acres  in  Newport. 
1803- 

22  July,  Eev.  Edward  Chapman  Willoughby,  600  acres. 

1810- 

Nathaniel,  John,  James,  and  William  Jenkins,  1,750  acres. 

1815- 

3  July,  William  Haliburton  and  others,  trustees  for  a  mar- 
ket in  Windsor,  a  lot  at  Fort  Edward  hill,  Windsor. 
(To  be  Continued). 


MARCH,  1915 

AMERICANA 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Rhode  Island  Settlers  on  the  French  Lands  in  Nova  Scotia 
in  1760  and  1761.     (Part  III). 

By  Arthur  Wentworth  Hamilton  Eaton,  D.  C.  L.     .     179 
For  Conscience  Sake.    Chapter  XII. 

By  Cornelia  Mitchell  Parsons          ....    198 
History  of  the  Mormon  Church.    Chapter  CXVII. 

By  Brigham  H.  Roberts 204 

Historic  Views  and  Reviews 265 

"The  Power  to  Right  our  Wrongs,"  by  Anna  Fitzgerald 

Van  Loan. 
The  National  Cyclopedia  of  American  Biography. 

I.  M.  GREENE,  Editor. 

JOSIAH  COLLINS  PUMPELLY,  A.  M.,  LL.B.,  Member  Publication 
Committee  New  York  Genealogical  and  Biographical  So- 
ciety, Associate  Editor. 

VICTOR  HUGO  DURAS,  D.  C.  L.,  M.  Diplomacy,  Historian  of  the 
American  Group  of  the  Interparliamentary  Union  of  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States,  Contributing  Editor. 


Published  by  the  National  Americana  Society, 

DAVID  I.  NELKE,  President  and  Treasurer, 

131  East  23rd  Street, 

New  York,  N.  Y. 


Copyright,  1915,  by 

THE  NATIONAL  AMERICANA  SOCIETY 

Entered  at  the  New  York  Postoffice  as  Second-class  Mail  Matter 


All  rights  reserved. 


AMERICANA 

March,    1915 

Rhode  Island  Settlers  on  the  French  Lands 
in  Nova  Scotia  in  1760  and  1761 

BY  ARTHUE  WENT  WORTH  HAMILTON  EATON,  D.  C.  L. 
FORT  EDWARD,  IN  THE  TOWNSHIP  OF  WINDSOR 

r  •  1  HE  only  fortification  that  we  have  record  of  in  Hants 
County,  save  a  little  place  of  defence  in  "West  Fal- 
mouth" known  as  "Fort  Lawrence,"  was  Fort  Ed- 
-*-  ward,  about  which  the  first  British  settlement  in  East 
Falmouth,  afterward  Windsor,  grew  up.  Of  the  history  of  the 
obscure  Fort  Lawrence,  in  Falmouth,  we  know  virtually  noth- 
ing. In  the  minutes  of  the  town  meeting  "held  in  Falmouth  on  the 
13th  of  October  (October  22,  new  style),  1760,"  however,  we  find 
record  of  a  note  to  adjourn  to  Saturday,  the  18th  of  October, 
to  Fort  Lawrence,  "there  to  proceed  to  draw  for  the  six  acre 
lots  and  also  to  transact  any  other  affairs  of  the  township  that 
may  occur,  and  hereafter  to  be  continued  every  second  Monday 
as  usual."1  Of  the  more  important  Fort  Edward  we  have  a 
pretty  continuous  record  from  the  time  of  its  building  until  it 
became  finally  disused. 

The  little  stockade  at  Windsor  known  as  Fort  Edward  was 
built  by  Major  Lawrence's  orders  in  1750,  a  corps  of  regular 
soldiers  and  probably  of  "Rangers"  from  New  England  per- 
forming the  work.2  In  an  account  of  the  defences  of  Nova 

1.  This  record  will  be  found  in  the  little  manuscript  minute  book  of  Falmouth 
Town  Meetings,  copied  by  the  late  Dr.  Thomas  B.  Akins,  and  at  present  in  private 
hands  in  Falmouth.    Dr.  Hind  quotes  it  in  his  "Old  Parish  Burying  Ground,"  p.  49. 
On  page  56  Dr.  Hind  says  that  Fort  Edward  and  Fort  Lawrence  were  nearly  op- 
posite each  other,  the  Pisiquid  river  dividing  them. 

2.  Dr.   Hind   says,  p.  42:   "On  his  journey  to   Mines,  where  a  rendezvous  of 
troops  took  place  in  that  year  [1750],  Major  Lawrence  had  under  his  command  165 
regulars   and   about  200   rangers.     Fort   Edward   was  built  after  his   return   from 
Chignecto,  and  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  both  the  regulars  and  the  rangers  as- 
sisted in  its  construction.    Dr.  Hind,  p.  7,  also  states  that  an  order  to  erect  a  block 
house   at   Pisiquid   was  given   by   Governor   Cornwallis   to   Captain  John   Gorham, 
March  12,  1749. 

179 


i So  RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA 

Scotia  he  sent  Lord  Lodoun  on  the  21st  of  June,  1756,  Major 
Lawrence  says: 

"Piziquid  or  Fort  Edward  is  a  fort  situated  upon  an  eminence 
on  the  South  East  side  of  Mines  Bason,  between  the  rivers 
Piziquid  and  St.  Croix,  to  which  we  have  access  by  land  by  way 
of  Fort  Sackville  [in  Halifax  County]  and  is  distant  therefrom 
about  40  miles ;  we  have  also  a  communication  therewith  by  the 
Bay  of  Fundy.  There  is  a  necessity  of  keeping  a  strong  gar- 
rison here  to  send  out  detachments  to  scour  the  country  for  In- 
dians and  to  keep  the  disaffected  French  inhabitants  under  sub- 
jection. "3 

Of  the  "Bangers,"  who  probably  helped  in  the  construction 
of  Fort  Edward,  a  few  words  should  here  be  said.  They  were 
volunteer  troops  from  the  interior  of  Massachusetts  and  New 
Hampshire,  raised  early  in  the  history  of  New  England, 
to  defend  the  people  of  Massachusetts  against  the  Indians. 
' '  They  ascended  the  rivers,  penetrated  into  the  heart  of  the  prov- 
ince, and  attacked  the  enemy  in  their  strongholds."4  A  corps 
of  the  Rangers  was  sent  to  Nova  Scotia  in  command  of  Major 
Joseph  Gorham  save  after  the  settlement  of  Halifax,  and  Dr. 
Hind  says  they  passed  through  Pisiquid  in  1750.  This  corps, 
Dr.  Akins  tells  us,  was  composed  chiefly  of  "half  blood  In- 
dians."5 Early  in  1758,  under  instructions  from  the  Earl  of 
Lodoun,  commander-in-chief  of  the  forces  in  North  Ameri- 
ca, Captain,  afterward  Major,  Robert  Rogers  raised  five 
additional  companies,  one  of  them  an  Indian  company,  to  aug- 
ment the  Rangers '  force.  The  five  companies  were  ready  for  ser- 
vice on  the  4th  of  March,  1758,  and  Major  Rogers  says  that 
four  of  them  were  at  once  sent  to  Louisburg  to  assist  General 
Amherst.6  In  1758,  says  Dr.  Akins,  it  was  again  found  neces- 
sary to  procure  the  services  of  250  of  the  Rangers,  and  prom- 


3.  Dr.  Hind  gives  March  30,  1755,  as  the  date  of  this  description  "Old  Parish 
Burying  Ground,"  pp.  5,  6. 

4.  Dr.  Thomas  B.  Akins,  in  his  "History  of  the  Settlement  of  Halifax,"  Col- 
lections of  the  Nova  Scotia  Historical  Society,  Vol.  8. 

5.  Nova   Scotia   Archives,   Vol.    i,   p.    564.     Dr.    Hind   says   of   the  Rangers: 
"Long  accustomed  to  border  war  with  the  Indians  and  French  of  Canada,  they  had 
become  well  disciplined  and  accustomed  to  hardship  and  fatigue,  and  were  perhaps 
at  this  time  [1758]  superior  to  all  other  provincial  troops  in  America."     "Old  Par- 
ish Burying  Ground,"  p.  46. 

6.  "Journals  of  Major  Robert  Rogers,"  p.  78. 


RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA  181 

ises  of  high  pay  and  other  advantages  were  made  them  if  they 
would  come.  Whether  the  corps  in  the  Province  at  the  time  of 
the  building  of  Fort  Edward  remained  much  longer,  or  what 
their  movements  for  the  next  few  years  were,  we  cannot  at  pres- 
ent stop  to  inquire.7 

The  name  of  the  Pisiquid  fort  has  sometimes  mistakenly  been 
said  to  have  been  given  in  compliment  to  the  Duke  of  Kent,  who 
late  in  the  18th  century  spent  a  few  years  in  Nova  Scotia  in 
command  of  the  British  North  American  forces,  but  this  is  not 
true,  the  fort  was  undoubtedly  named  for  Colonel  Edward  Corn- 
wallis,  who  was  governor  of  the  Province  when  it  was  erected, 
Fort  Lawrence,  across  the  Pisiquid,  being  named  for  the  lieu- 
tenant-governor, Major  Charles  Lawrence,  who  in  July,  1750, 
was  made  lieutenant-governor,  and  in  July,  1756,  succeeding 
Colonel  Peregrine  Thomas  Hopson,  governor.  The  name  Fort 
Edward  of  the  Pisiquid  fort  appears  in  documents  of  the  time 
certainly  as  early  as  1752,  the  Duke  of  Kent  was  not  born  until 
1767. 

At  the  time  of  the  expulsion  of  the  Acadians  in  1755,  the  gar- 
rison at  Fort  Edward  was  in  command  of  Captain  Alexander 
Murray,  and  the  proclamation  requiring  the  men  of  Pisiquid  and 
Grand  Pre  to  assemble  in  their  respective  churches  to  hear  the 
King's  orders,  was  drawn  up  by  Col.  John  Winslow  and  Cap- 
tain Murray,  conjointly,  within  the  precincts  of  the  Pisiquid 
fort.8  When  their  countrymen  were  taken  away,  as  is  well  known, 
a  very  considerable  number  of  the  French  of  King's  County 
escaped  to  the  woods,  and  this  is  probably  more  true  of  the  peo- 
ple of  Pisiquid  than  of  Minas  or  River  Canard.  From  the  close 
of  1755  to  1765,  says  Dr.  Hind,  the  duties  of  the  Pisiquid  sol- 


7.  In  a  return  made  by  General  Amherst  of  the  troops  voted  to  be  levied,  those 
actually  raised,  and  those  to  remain  in  service  during  the  winter,  for  the  year  1762, 
in  all  the  colonies,  we  find  that  nearly  3,000  Massachusetts  troops  were  in  service 
in  this  year.  Of  these  3,000,  500  were  at  Cape  Breton  and  Newfoundland.  Among 
these  were  Major  Joseph  Gorham's  Rangers,  "an  independent  corps  which  had 
previously  been  recruited  largely  from  Massachusetts."  The  recruiting  office  was 
at  Boston.  One  of  Gorham's  officers  recruited  34  men  in  Nova  Scotia  and  14  at 
Boston;  those  from  Nova  Scotia  are  said  to  have  been  sent  to  Boston. 

8  Parkman's  "Montcalm  and  Wolfe,"  and  Winslpw's  Journal,  published  in 
Vols  3  and  4  of  the  Collections  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Historical  Society  The  part 
of  Winslow's  Journal  that  relates  to  the  deportation  of  the  Acadians  will  be  found 
in  Vol.  3. 


182  RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA 

diers  "were  arduous  and  painful.  The  Acadians  and  Indians 
appear  to  have  been  hunted  down  as  a  necessary,  though  dis- 
tressing, precautionary  measure.  Those  of  the  Acadians  who 
were  not  killed  were  kept  as  prisoners  when  taken,  many  of  them 
voluntarily  surrendering  in  order  to  escape  starvation."  On 
the  5th  of  October,  1761,  the  number  of  French  families  "at" 
Fort  Edward  is  chronicled  as  231,  and  of  prisoners  victualled  at 
the  fort  as  82.  On  the  llth  of  October,  1762,  the  number  of  fam- 
ilies is  said  to  be  217,  and  June  12th,  1762,  the  number  of  prison- 
ers is  given  as  91.  In  1763  the  number  of  prisoners  varies  from 
335  to  391.  The  unsettled  state  of  the  Pisiquid  district  will  show 
the  reason  why  the  first  settlers  in  Falmouth  and  Newport  were 
protected  by  forts  and  soldiers  .  .  .  and  why  so  little  is 
recorded  of  the  occupation  of  the  fertile  country  about  Windsor 
from  1755  to  1760,  a  period  of  four  years."9 

In  1762,  the  garrison  of  Fort  Edward  was  composed  of  the 
militia  of  King's  County,  all  regular  troops  being  concentrated 
at  Halifax,  with  the  exception  of  a  hundred  men  at  St.  John 
Eiver,  Annapolis,  and  Cumberland.  As  the  entire  population  of 
the  four  King's  County  townships,  Horton,  Cornwallis,  Fal- 
mouth and  Newport,  in  1763  was  367  families,  comprising  1,936 
souls,  nearly  all  the  able-bodied  men  of  the  county  must  have 
been  enrolled  in  order  to  garrison  the  forts  and  blockhouses,  of 
which  Fort  Edward  was  chief.  At  a  meeting  of  Council,  July 
26,  1762,  it  was  stated  that  it  had  been  indispensable  for  the 
safety  of  the  settlers  to  send  a  hundred  and  thirty  Acadians 
from  King's  County  to  Halifax,  under  a  militia  guard  of  a  hun- 
dred men  of  King's  County. 

On  the  16th  of  March,  1759,  General  Ajnherst  at  New  York 
writes  to  Governor  Lawrence  at  Halifax:  "I  have  wrote  to 
Governor  Pownall  for  fifteen  hundred  Provincials  to  joyn  the 
five  hundred  that  will  be  detached  from  Monckton's  and  Lau- 
rence's Battalions  for  the  protection  of  Halifax,  Nova  Scotia, 
and  the  Bay  of  Fundy,  and  that  there  may  be  no  loss  of  time  I 
shall  order  the  Provincials  to  be  embarked  at  Boston  and  to 
proceed  directly  to  the  different  Garrisons  in  the  Bay  of  Fundy 


9.     "Old  Parish  Burying  Ground,"  pp.  30,  42. 


RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA  183 

at  the  following  distributions:  400  to  Fort  Cumberland,  250  to 
Annapolis,  250  to  St.  John's,  100  to  Pisiquid,  200  to  Lunen- 
burg."9%  June  1,  1760,  Hon.  Charles  Morris,  provisional  sur- 
veyor, writes  Governor  Lawrence  from  Pisiquid  that  "Captain 
Watmore"  informs  him  that  he  has  but  110  men  "in  both  De- 
tachments, ' '  a  number  that  he  believes  his  Excellency  will  think 
too  small  to  defend  Fort  Edward  and  protect  the  King's 
County  settlements,  as  two  of  them,  Minas  and  Canard,  are  re- 
mote and  cannot  depend  upon  assistance  "from  hence."10 

Before  1773,  Fort  Edward,  says  Murdoch,  was  almost  entirely 
destroyed,  for  in  June  of  that  year  Lord  William  Campbell, 
the  governor,  declared  to  the  Council  his  intention  of  reserving 
for  himself  a  tract  of  land  containing  about  twenty-one  acres 
around  the  hill  on  ivhich  the  fort  had  formerly  stood.11  Tradi- 
tion has  it,  says  Dr.  Hind,  that  Lord  William  had  a  race  course 
round  Fort  Edward  hill,  and  Judge  Haliburton  says  that  "the 
ground  originally  reserved  for  military  purposes  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  the  fort  was  granted  during  the  administration  of 
Lord  William  Campbell,  in  the  year  1767,  to  his  lordship's 
groom,  and  was  afterward  purchased  for  a  valuable  considera- 
tion by  government,"12  Colonel  Robert  Morse,  R.  E.,  however, 
who  in  1783  and  1784,  under  direction  of  Governor  Parr,  made  a 
census  of  Nova  Scotia  and  part  of  New  Brunswick,  at  this  later 
period  describes  the  fort  as  still  in  tolerable  order  and  equipped 
for  purposes  of  defence.  Fort  Edward,  he  says,  "is  a  small, 
square  fort  of  85  yards  exterior  front,  with  bastions,  a  ditch, 
and  a  raised  counterscarp,  and  is  composed  of  sod.  Here  are 
eight  pieces  of  cannon  mounted.  This  fort  .  .  .  was  built 
early  in  the  settlement  of  the  province,  first  intended  as  a  place 
of  security  against  the  Indians,  and  repaired  and  improved  in 
the  beginning  of  the  late  war  to  protect  the  inhabitants  of  Wind- 
sor from  the  ravages  of  the  American  privateers."  Colonel 
Morse  says  that  the  fort  had  accommodation  for  168  men  and  8 


gl/2.     Nova  Scotia  Archives,  Vol.  i,  pp.  403.  442. 

10.  See  Mr.  Morris's  letter,  appendix. 

11.  Beamish  Murdoch's  "History  of  Nova  Scotia,"  Vol.  2,  p.  510. 

12.  Haliburton's  "Historical  and  Statistical  Account  of  Nova  Scotia,"  Vol.  2, 
p.  108. 


K°4          RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA 

officers,  and  that  the  cannon  it  mounted  included  five  iron  nine- 
pounders,  one  iron  six-pounder,  and  two  iron  four-pounders,  and 
that  it  was  supplied  with  696  round  shot,  10  case,  and  10  grape.13 

In  1829,  Judge  Haliburton  wrote :  ' '  There  is  a  small  military 
post  at  Windsor,  called  Fort  Edward,  in  honor  of  his  Royal 
Highness  the  late  Duke  of  Kent,  which  is  much  out  of  repair 
and  now  scarcely  tenantable.  It  is  pleasantly  and  advantageously 
situated  on  elevated  land  that  commands  the  entrance  of  both 
rivers.  .  .  .  The  fortifications,  it  is  said,  are  to  be  re- 
paired and  new  and  commodious  barracks  erected.  At  pres- 
ent a  subaltern  and  a  small  detachment  are  stationed  there."14 

In  command  at  Fort  Edward  in  successive  years  were  the 
following  officers :  1750,  Captain  John  Gorham ;  1751,  Captain 
St.  Loe  of  the  regular  army,  and  Captain  Sutherland  of  War- 
burton's  regiment;  1753,  Captain  Hale,  relieved  November  1 
(of  that  year)  by  Captain  Matthew  Floyer;  1754,  Captain  Floy- 
er,  Captain  Cox  (formerly,  as  was  Captain  Floyer  in  1750,  com- 
mandant at  "Vieux  Logis,"  Minas),  and  Captain  Alexander 
Murray;  1755  Captains  Murray  and  Cox,  the  force  they  com- 
manded being  increased,  December  5,  by  Captain  Lampson's  and 
Captain  Cobb's  companies  of  the  First  Battalion  of  Governor 
Shirley's  Massachusetts  regiment;  1756,  Captains  Cox,  Lamp- 
son  and  Cobb;  1757,  Colonel  Kennedy  (in  August  the  garrison 
received  part  of  Colonel  Kennedy's  regiment,  under  Lord  Lon- 
doun) ;  1758,  Captain  Fletcher  of  Col.  Frye's  Massachusetts 
regiment,  a  detachment  of  the  New  England  Bangers  possibly 
also  being  in  the  fort;  1759,  Captain  Fletcher,  Captain  Gay  of 
Colonel  John  Thomas'  Massachusetts  regiment,  and  Colonel 
Nathan  Thwing;  1760,  Captain  Jotham  Gay  of  Colonel  Nathan 
Thwing's  Massachusetts  regiment.15 


13.     Hind's  "Old  Parish  Burying  Ground,"  p.  3. 

14  Haliburton's  "Nova  Scotia,"  Vol.  2,  p.  108.  It  is  in  this  connection  that 
Judge  Haliburton  says  that  the  land  about  the  fort  was  granted  in  1767  to  Lord 
William  Campbell's  groom. 

15.     "Old  Parish  Burying  Ground,"  p.  43. 


RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA  185 

APPENDIX  I 


"To  the  King's  most  excellent  Majesty 

"May  it  please  your  Majesty 
"The  success  of  your  Majesty's 

"arms  in  the  year  1755,  in  dispossessing  the  French  of  the  sev- 
eral encroachments  they  had  made  at  Beausejour,  Bay  Verte, 
and  in  other  parts  of  the  Colony  of  Nova  Scotia,  having  afforded 
a  favourable  opportunity  of  reducing  the  French  Inhabitants  of 
the  Colony  to  that  obedience  which  as  subjects  under  the  faith 
of  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht  they  owed  to  your  Majesty's  Govern- 
ment, or  forcing  them  to  quit  the  Country,  Charles  Lawrence, 
Esqr.,  your  Majesty's  Governor  of  the  said  Colony,  availed  him- 
self of  that  conjuncture  to  try  every  means  of  inducing  them  to 
take  the  proper  Oath  of  allegiance  to  your  Majesty,  unqualified 
with  any  Eeservation  whatever.  But  they  persisting  in  an  unan- 
imous Refusal  of  such  Oath,  the  said  Governor  and  your  Ma- 
jesty's Council,  assisted  by  the  advice  and  opinion  of  Admiral 
Boscawen  and  the  late  Rear  Admiral  Mostyn,  resolved  it  to  be 
indispensably  necessary  to  the  security  of  Nova  Scotia,  imme- 
diately to  remove  from  that  colony  a  set  of  people  who  refusing 
to  become  subjects  to  your  Majesty  according  to  the  stipulation 
of  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht,  had  ever  since  under  the  name  of  Neu- 
trals either  abetted  every  hostile  attempt  of  the  French  by  secret 
Treachery  or  countenanced  them  by  open  force. 

"This  Resolution  being  carried  into  effectual  execution  by 
transporting  the  said  French  Inhabitants  to  the  amount  of  near 
7,000  persons  and  distributing  them  in  proper  proportions  among 
the  colonies  on  the  Continent  of  North  America,  vast  quantities 
of  the  most  fertile  land  in  an  actual  state  of  cultivation  and  in 
those  parts  of  the  Province  the  most  advantageously  situated 
for  commerce  in  general  and  that  of  the  Fishery  in  particular, 
became  vacant  and  subject  to  your  Majesty's  disposal:  And 
the  filling  them  with  useful  and  industrious  Inhabitants  appeared 
to  us  to  be  of  so  great  Importance  to  the  future  security  and 
prosperity  of  Nova  Scotia  that  it  became  an  immediate  object 
of  our  utmost  attention  and  sollicitude.  Accordingly  we  lost 


iH6          RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA 

no  time  in  recommending  it  to  your  Majesty's  Governor  to  con- 
sult with  such  of  the  neighboring  Colonies  as  abound  in  Inhab- 
itants and  whose  cleared  Lands  are  already  taken  up  and  to  use 
every  other  means  in  his  Power  toward  inviting  and  procuring 
a  proper  number  of  settlers  to  seat  themselves  on  the  said  va- 
cated lands  on  the  terms  and  conditions  prescribed  by  your 
Majesty's  Instructions. 

1  'In  pursuance  of  these  directions  your  Majesty's  Governor 
by  private  correspondence  at  first  and  afterwards  by  two  publick 
Proclamations  (of  which  we  humbly  beg  leave  to  annex  copies) 
made  known  the  quantities,  situation,  and  nature  of  the  Lands, 
and  the  conditions  on  which  he  was  impowered  to  Grant  them, 
appointed  agents  at  Boston  and  New  York  to  treat  with  all  Per- 
sons desirous  to  become  settlers,  and  in  consequence  received 
several  Proposals  for  settling  Townships  in  different  parts  of 
the  Province.  And  altho'  the  execution  of  those  proposals  has 
been  greatly  delayed  by  circumstances  the  most  unfavorable  to 
such  undertakings,  which  necessarily  arise  in  time  of  war,  and 
particularly  by  the  dread  of  those  incursions  and  cruelties  of 
the  French  and  Indians,  with  which  this  Province  has  continu- 
ally been  harassed.  We  have  nevertheless  the  great  satisfac- 
tion humbly  to  represent  to  your  Majesty  that  the  zealous  en- 
deavors of  your  said  Governor  have  at  length  been  crowned  with 
a  success  greatly  beyond  our  expectations  and  almost  equal  to 
our  wishes. 

''It  appears,  may  it  please  your  Majesty,  by  letters  and  pa- 
pers which  we  have  lately  received  from  Mr.  Lawrence  that  an 
extraordinary  disposition  for  settling  in  Nova  Scotia,  having  in 
consequence  of  the  said  Proclamations  diffused  itself  thro'  the 
Colonies  of  the  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  and  Ehode  Island, 
in  the  two  last  of  which  the  Inhabitants  are  growing  too  numer- 
ous for  their  present  possessions,  the  said  Governor  has  availed 
himself  of  that  spirit  not  merely  to  people  the  cultivated  Lands 
heretofore  possessed  by  the  French  Inhabitants,  according  to 
the  first  idea,  but  also  to  grant  out  with  them  a  very  large  pro- 
portion of  wild  and  uncultivated  country.  That  upon  this  Plan 
he  has  actually  passed  Grants  of  nine  Townships  containing 
100,000  acres  each  within  ye  Bay  of  Fundy,  and  of  four  other 


RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA  187 

Townships  of  the  like  number  of  acres  each  on  the  Cape  Sable 
shore.  In  which  13  townships  it  is  covenanted  that  2,550  Fam- 
ilies, making  in  the  whole  12,750  Persons,  shall  be  seated  in  the 
course  of  the  three  ensuing  years,  in  such  Proportion  and  at  such 
Periods  as  are  specified  in  the  annexed  copy  of  the  Abstract  of 
the  said  grants,  and  Mr.  Lawrence  further  informs  us  that  he 
is  actually  in  treaty  with  Persons  who  have  applyed  to  him  for 
Grants  of  Six  or  Eight  Townships  more  than  are  mentioned  in 
the  said  abstract  with  respect  to  the  Terms  and  Conditions  on 
which  the  said  13  Townships  have  been  Granted.  .  .  . 

"It  appears  by  a  copy  of  one  of  the  Grants  which  Mr.  Law- 
rence has  transmitted  to  us  as  the  model  by  which  the  rest  were 
framed  that  they  are  conformable  to  the  directions  of  your  Ma- 
jesty's Instructions  with  regard  to  the  Quantity  allotted  to  each 
family,  the  Quit  rent  reserved  by  your  Majesty  and  the  condi- 
tions of  cultivation  and  improvement.  And  the  only  circum- 
stance which  we  regret  in  the  management  of  this  important 
business  is  that  notwithstanding  the  uncommon  fertility  and 
other  peculiar  advantages  of  these  Lands  which  might  be  deemed 
to  afford  sufficient  encouragement  to  the  settlers  without  incur- 
ring any  expence  to  the  Publick,  we  find  that  Mr.  Lawrence  has 
been  obliged  to  consent  to  pay  the  charge  of  transporting  the 
first  year's  settlers  of  the  three  first  Townships,  and  of  making 
them  a  small  allowance  of  Bread  corn.  But  we  are  hopeful 
nevertheless  that  the  Reasons  set  forth  in  the  said  Governor's 
letter  and  in  the  Minutes  of  the  Council  (extracts  of  which  we 
humbly  beg  leave  to  annex  may  induce  your  Majesty  to  approve 
the  conduct  of  your  Governor  in  consenting  to  these  allowances, 
rather  than  fisquing  by  too  strict  an  attention  to  Economy  the 
whole  success  of  a  measure  which  must  be  productive  of  the  most 
essential  advantages,  not  only  to  the  Colony  of  Nova  Scotia  but 
to  your  Majesty's  other  Colonies  on  the  Continent  of  North 
America  and  finally  to  this  Kingdom.  For,  by  the  accomplish- 
ment of  this  important  undertaking,  the  Colony  of  Nova  Scotia, 
becoming  almost  at  once  populous,  will  rise  from  the  weak 
of  Infancy  to  such  a  degree  of  internal  strength  and  stability  as 
will  naturally  produce  its  own  security,  and  contribute  in  a  great 
measure  to  that  of  those  neighboring  Provinces  to  which  it  is  a 


i88  RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA 

Frontier.  In  consequence  of  these  advantages  it  may  reasonably 
be  hoped  that  this  Colony  will  in  a  few  years  cease  to  be  a 
Burthen  to  the  Mother  Country  to  whose  bountifull  assistance  it 
has  hitherto  owed  its  support,  and  that  being  thus  enabled  fully 
to  avail  itself  of  those  great  and  lasting  sources  of  Wealth  which 
it  possesses,  it  will  not  only  have  within  itself  all  the  necessaries 
of  life  sufficient  for  its  own  consumption  but  be  in  a  capacity  of 
exporting  large  Quantities  of  Grain,  Hemp,  Flax,  Fish  and  other 
valuable  commodities  to  the  great  increase  and  benefit  of  the 
Trade  and  Navigation  of  Great  Britain  and  her  Colonies. 

' '  For  these  reasons  we  think  it  our  duty  humbly  to  lay  before 
your  Majesty  the  whole  Proceedings  of  your  Governor  and 
Council  in  this  important  service  (as  set  forth  in  the  several 
papers  hereunto  annexed)  humbly  proposing  that  they  may 
receive  the  sanction  of  your  Majesty's  Eoyal  approbation. 

"All  which  is  most  humbly  submitted. 

"DUNK  HALIFAX, 
SOAME  JENYNS, 
W.  G.  HAMILTON, 
W.  SLOPES. 
"Whitehall, 

"Decemr20th,  1759." 

The  thirteen  ' '  old  townships ' '  referred  to  in  this  letter  were, 
we  believe,  Horton,  Cornwallis,  Falmouth  (the  first  townships 
formed  for  New  England  people),  Truro,  Onslow,  Cumberland, 
Sackville,  Amherst,  Chester,  Dublin,  Annapolis,  Granville,  Liv- 
erpool. In  a  letter  from  the  Lords  of  Trade  to  Lawrence  of 
December  14,  1759,  the  gentlemen  comprising  this  body  signify 
their  approval  of  Lawrence's  attempts  "to  settle  the  Province 
of  Nova  Scotia  by  scheme  for  Horton  and  12  other  Townships." 

APPENDIX  II 

Governor  Lawrence  on  the  5th  of  February,  1759,  writes  the 
Lords  of  Trade:  "Since  I  had  the  honour  of  writing  to  your 
Lordships  in  December  last,  enclosing  a  Proclamation  issued  in 


RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA  189 

the  month  of  October,  encouraging  the  settlement  of  the  vacated 
lands,  I  have  received  information  from  Mr.  Hancock,  who  does 
the  business  of  this  Province  at  Boston,  that  various  applications 
have  been  made  to  him  in  consequence  of  it  by  people  disposed 
to  settle  the  Lands,  but  that  there  are  some  interesting  points 
which  the  Proclamation  did  not  fully  sett  forth  and  explain,  and 
that  it  would  be  therefore  necessary  in  order  to  his  being  ena- 
bled to  resolve  in  a  satisfactory  manner  such  doubts  as  might 
arise  in  the  people's  minds  upon  these  points  that  he  should  be 
further  instructed  concerning  them.  I  immediately  laid  this 
letter  before  His  Majesty's  Council  for  their  opinion,  who  ad- 
vised me  to  issue  another  proclamation  which  herewith  I  have 
the  honour  to  transmitt  [dated  January  11,  1759],  to  your  lord- 
ships not  doubting  but  as  it  is  as  nearly  conformable  as  possible 
to  His  Majesty's  commands  signified  in  His  Instructions,  I  shall 
be  happy  in  your  Lordships  approbation  of  my  conduct  therein. 

"It  would  be  matter  of  the  highest  mortification  to  me  should 
I  hereafter  appear  to  have  taken  any  undue  steps  in  a  measure 
of  so  much  moment  as  that  of  peopling  these  valuable  tracts  of 
land,  and  therefore  whatever  I  engage  in,  without  first  hearing 
from  your  Lordships  I  shall  undertake  with  the  utmost  caution 
and  circumspection,  but  as  the  people  on  the  continent  discover 
at  present  a  particular  spirit  to  become  adventurers  in  that  part 
of  the  country,  which  if  discouraged  by  any  delay  might  be  of 
the  highest  detriment  to  so  desirable  an  undertaking,  I  presume 
your  Lordships  would  have  me  use  my  best  endeavours  to  avail 
myself  of  this  favourable  crisis  and  introduce  what  settlers  I 
can,  etc.,  etc." 

April  20,  1759,  Lawrence  writes :  "I  have  now  the  satisfac- 
tion to  acquaint  your  Lordships  further  that  agents  appointed 
by  some  hundred  of  associated  substantial  families  residing  in 
the  colonies  of  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island  are  arrived  here  to 
visit  the  Bay  of  Fundy  and  chuse  lands  for  the  immediate  estab- 
lishment of  two  or  more  townships  if  in  viewing  the  country  they 
find  it  answers  the  description  I  have  given  of  it  in  the  Procla- 
mation and  the  accounts  handed  about  by  the  different  people 
who  have  transiently  had  occasion  to  know  something  of  its  un- 
common fertility.  I  propose  sending  them  away  in  a  few  days 


190          RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA 

in  one  of  the  Province  Vessells  with  the  Principal  Surveyor 
[Hon.  Charles  Morris],  who  is  well  acquainted  with  every  de- 
partment in  the  Bay,  and  who  I  am  persuaded  will  bring  them 
back  perfectly  pleased  and  satisfied  with  every  thing  that  falls 
under  their  observation,"  etc.,  etc.,  etc.1 

APPENDIX  III 

[Letter  from  Hon.  Charles  Morris  to  Governor  Lawrence, 
taken  from  the  Council  Records ]. 

"PISIQUID,  June  1,  1760. 

"  SIR.— Having  left  the  inhabitants  of  Liverpool  in  high  spir- 
its, extremely  well  pleased  with  their  situation  and  the  choice 
they  have  made  for  a  Township,  and  for  having  discovered 
among  other  things  great  Quantities  of  fine  Oak  for  ship  build- 
ing, on  the  24th  Inst.  I  sailed  for  the  Bay,  the  29th  I  put  into 
Annapolis  to  deliver  the  settlers  I  had  charge  of;  there  I  found 
forty  settlers  belonging  to  the  Township  of  Annapolis,  arrived 
just  before  us,  and  a  committee  for  the  Township  of  Granville, 
to  lay  out  Lotts  for  their  first  setters.  These  came  in  a  vessel 
hired  by  Mr.  Hancock  for  Mr.  Evans  and  compy.  and  was  to 
return  the  next  Day  for  the  remainder  of  the  setlers  and  stock, 
who  were  not  at  first  ready,  so  that  they  have  hired  one  Vessel 
to  go  two  Trips  instead  of  two  Vessels  (I  was  obliged  to  tarry 
with  them  part  of  the  next  day,  in  order  to  satisfy  some  dis- 
contents), on  account  of  the  number  of  Troops  allowed  for  their 
Protection. 

"Colonel  Hoar  has  not  above  70  men  reenlisted,  the  others  in- 
sisting on  being  released  and  sent  home,  and  I  find  by  a  Letter  he 
has  received  by  this  Vessel  from  Governor  Pownall  there  is  no 
Recruits  to  be  expected  from  thence,  but  he  informs  him  the 
Troops  will  soon  be  otherways  relieved ;  perhaps  he  has  Advice 
that  (as  it  is  reported)  Louisburg  is  to  be  demolished,  and  the 
Troops  removed  from  this  Province. 


i.  Hon.  Charles  Morris,  for  many  years  Surveyor  General  of  Nova  Scotia, 
was  a  Boston  man.  For  a  sketch  of  him  (by  the  writer  of  this  paper)  see  the  New 
England  Historical  and  Genealogical  Register,  for  July,  1913. 


RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA  191 

'  The  want  of  a  sufficient  number  of  Troops  at  this  Juncture 
where  so  many  settlements  are  carrying  on,  is  not  a  little  dis- 
couraging to  the  new  Setlers,  I  am  in  hopes  no  Accident  will  hap- 
pen to  make  a  greater  number  necessary. 

''The  Gape  Sable  Indians  have  been  at  Annapolis,  and  have 
behaved  friendly  and  left  some  of  their  wives  and  children  there, 
and  propose  to  return  and  bring  their  families,  I  think  Mr. 
Hoar  told  me  there  were  nine  families. 

"There  is  one  Circumstance  I  beg  leave  to  take  notice  of  to 
your  Excellency,  mentioned  to  me  by  Coll.  Hoar,  that  he  had 
received  Advice  from  Major  Arbuthnot  that  160  of  his  men  had 
deserted,  that  he  was  apprehensive  the  others  would  the  first 
opportunity,  and  that  the  Garrison  would  be  in  danger  if  any- 
thing should  happen  in  that  part  of  the  Country. 

"Having  put  the  new  Inhabitants  at  Annapolis,  in  a  method 
how  to  divide  and  Improve  their  Land  to  their  Satisfaction,  I 
set  sail  the  30th  and  arrived  last  night  here,  and  this  morning 
between  Eleven  &  Twelve,  came  up  Captain  Rogers,  with  six 
Transports  with  Inhabitants,  principally  for  the  Township  of 
Minas,  they  have  been  out  21  days  and  Suffered  much  for  want 
of  sufficient  Provinder  and  Hay  for  their  Stock.  We  were  obliged 
to  Land  the  Cattle  here  which  was  done  immediately,  and  pur- 
pose after  they  have  recruited  to  drive  them  to  Minas. 

"Captain  Rogers  informs  me  that  there  were  many  Families 
more  than  they  could  provide  Transports  for,  waiting  at  New 
London  with  their  Cattle  and  that  Captain  Taggart  who  is  daily 
expected,  will  bring  a  more  full  account  of  the  particulars. 

"I  should  be  glad  of  your  Excellency's  immediate  orders  if 
you  think  proper  for  sending  back  the  Transports  and  which  of 
the  Province  Vessels  you  purpose  to  accompany  them,  or  both, 
and  whether  the  vessels  belonging  to  the  Inhabitants  of  this 
Province  are  not  to  be  preferred  if  there  be  more  Vessels 
than  sufficient:  I  am  humbly  of  opinion  that  this  opportunity 
of  importing  the  Inhabitants  ought  by  no  means  to  be  neglected, 
seeing  they  are  ready  for  embarkation,  the  vessels  already  pre- 
pared both  for  Men  and  Cattle,  and  the  Passage  to  and  from 
Connecticut  cannot  be  much  longer  than  a  month  at  this  season. 


192  RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA 

"June  2d. 

"There  are  four  seperate  Places  to  be  Settled,  Canard, 
Minas,  North  and  East  side  of  Pisiquid. 

' '  The  Places  I  intend  to  propose  at  Canard  is  Boudrow  's  Bank, 
at  Minas  the  Vieux  Lodgees,  at  Pisiquid  for  the  North  side  the 
upland  (between  both  marshes)  East  of  Petit  Cape  in  sight  of 
this  Fort,  and  the  other  I  have  not  yet  examined  but  intend  such 
a  Place  as  is  within  Sight  of  this  Fort,  and  may  by  Signal  be 
relieved. 

"I  hope  your  Excellency  will  think  with  me  it  is  necessary 
at  all  these  Places  to  have  a  small  Lodgment  for  the  Troops  and 
a  Place  of  Eefuge  in  case  any  attempt  now  unforseen  should  be 
made.  That  if  they  are  permitted  to  scatter  in  their  Settlements 
under  its  Present  Circumstances,  it  may  tempt  the  neutral  French 
and  the  Indians  to  give  them  a  fatal  Blow  which  otherwise  they 
would  not  think  of. 

"That  a  compact  Town  will  be  necessary  at  all  these  Places 
upon  account  of  Trade  and  Tradesmen,  and  that  such  Settle- 
ments placed  as  they  will  be  in  the  midst  of  all  their  clear  Land, 
may  be  as  advantageous  to  the  Farmers,  but  that  which  is  of 
the  utmost  Importance,  is  defending  them  at  first  and  securing 
them  so  as  to  stand  in  spite  of  all  attempts.  Individuals  may  be 
unfortunate  but  a  Settlement  so  founded  will  hold  its  ground. 

"The  charge  of  doing  these  things  shall  not  be  great  but  it 
will  be  necessary  to  have  at  least  one  Load  of  Boards  about  30 
in.  for  covering  for  the  Troops  and  Stores :  The  rails  I  brought 
with  me  will  be  sufficient  but  cash  will  be  wanting  for  Labour, 
and  for  which  I  shall  want  your  Excellency's  orders  or  leave 
to  draw  for,  and  which  I  promise  shall  be  as  little  as  possible. 

"Captain  Watmore  is  heartily  disposed  to  serve  the  Settle- 
ments and  would  be  glad  of  a  Share  in  some  of  those  Lands  for 
his  children  if  any  Vacancy  should  remain  or  be  forfeited. 

"He  informs  me  he  has  but  110  men  in  both  Detachments,  a 
number  I  apprehend  your  Excellency  will  think  too  small  to 
defend  this  Fort  and  protect  these  Settlements,  as  two  of  them, 
Minas  and  Canard,  are  remote,  and  cannot  depend  upon  assist- 
ance from  hence,  however  I  shall  proceed  tomorrow  if  possible 
with  the  People  to  Minas,  in  order  to  unload  the  Vessels  and 


RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA  193 

have  them  ready  in  case  your  Excellency  thinks  it  necessary  they 
should  immediately  return  for  Setlers,  and  hope  to  have  Advice 
and  orders  thereon  by  the  Return  of  the  Party. 

"I  have  inclosed  your  Excellency  a  Return  of  the  number  of 
Setlers  and  have  inquired  into  the  deficiency  of  Arms  for  which 
they  have  applied  and  for  Ammunition.  I  have  told  them  I  would 
make  a  Return  to  your  Excellency  of  what  Arms  were  wanting, 
as  to  Ammunition  it  should  be  lodged  with  the  officers  Command- 
ing the  Parties,  and  to  be  issued  only  in  Time  of  Necessity. 

"I  have  the  Honour  to  be 
"with  the  greatest  Respect, 
"Your  Excellency's 
"Most  obliged  &  obed1. 
"humble  Servant 

"Signed 

"CHAS.  MORRIS" 

APPENDIX  IV 

It  is  well  known  that  for  many  years,  almost  from  the  begin- 
ning of  the  settlement  of  Halifax,  Messrs.  Charles  Apthorp  and 
Thomas  Hancock  of  Boston  and  Messrs.  Delancey  and  Watts  of 
New  York  were  "factors "or  agents  in  the  other  colonies  for  the 
Nova  Scotia  Government.  At  a  Council  meeting  held  at  Gover- 
nor Cornwallis'  house,  July  6, 1750,  His  Excellency  and  six  coun- 
cillors being  present,  the  Governor  informed  the  Council  that  as 
there  had  been  ' l  some  difficulty  in  raising  the  supplies  of  money 
necessary  for  the  service  of  the  colony,  he  had  agreed  to  a  pro- 
posal sent  him  by  Messrs.  Apthorp  and  Hancock  of  Boston,  who 
engaged  to  provide  him  with  Dollars,  upon  condition  that  they 
should  likewise  have  the  furnishing  of  all  stores  and  materials, 
which  His  Excellency  understood  as  meaning  all  such  as  might 
be  wanted  from  that  Province,  but  that  these  Gentlemen  had 
since  explained  their  terms,  so  as  to  oblige  him  to  take  every- 
thing whatever  wanted  for  this  Province  from  them  only  and 
not  have  it  in  his  Power  to  buy  anything  whatever  here,  or  in 
any  of  the  northern  Colonys,  which  terms  he  could  not  agree  to 
without  first  consulting  the  Council.  .  .  .  That  Delancy  and 


194          RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA 

Watts  write  that  provided  His  Excellency  could  assure  them 
of  the  bills  being  duly  honoured,  there  could  be  no  Difficulty  in 
being  provided  with  Dollars  from  New  York."  Nova  Scotia 
Archives  (printed),  Vol.  1,  pp.  619,  620. 

November  27,  1750,  Governor  Lawrence  writes  the  Lords  of 
Trade :  * '  Some  gentlemen  of  Boston,  who  have  long  served  the 
Government,  because  they  have  not  the  supplying  of  every  thing, 
have  done  all  the  mischief  they  could;  their  substance  which 
they  have  got  from  the  Public  enables  them  to  distress  and  dom- 
ineer; without  them,  they  say,  we  can't  do  and  so  must  comply 
with  what  terms  they  think  proper  to  impose;  these  are 
Messrs.  Apthorp  and  Hancock,  the  two  richest  Merchants  in 
Boston ;  made  so  by  the  public  money  and  now  wanton  in  their 
insolent  demands.  They  were  proffered  to  supply  all  things 
from  Boston,  provided  they  would  do  it  upon  as  reasonable  terms 
as  others,  and  supply  money.  No— unless  every  thing  wanted 
was  taken  from  them,  they  would  not  and  have  endeavored  as 
far  as  in  them  lies,  to  depreciate  the  credit  of  the  province.  I 
have  employed  Mr.  Gunter,  a  person  who  has  shown  his  regard 
for  the  settlement  by  laying  out  a  great  deal  of  money  in  it, 
whereas  the  others  have  not  contributed  a  sixpence  to  it,  and 
have  had  the  supplying,  I  dare  say,  one  half  of  the  necessaries 
wanted,  and  this  is  the  return  they  make.  It  is  quite  indifferent 
to  me  who  is  employed.  I  wish  to  God  some  person  you  confide 
in  was  sent  to  transact  the  affairs  of  the  Country  relating  to 
money  matters. 

.  .  .  ' '  Messrs.  Delancey  and  Watts  of  New  York,  who  have 
done  all  in  their  power  to  serve  the  Government,  complain  great- 
ly of  Mr.  Kilby,  his  not  acquainting  them  whether  their  Bills 
were  paid  or  not;  his  threatening  them  with  the  charge  of  the 
Protest  of  their  Bills  and  all  costs.  Indeed,  my  Lords,  Mr.  Kilby 
wants  looking  after,  and  if  the  complaints  made  against  him  are 
true,  will  ruin  the  credit  and  every  being  of  the  Province.  I 
know  very  little  of  him,  he  is  a  very  fair  spoken  man  but  in  trade 
and  has  his  connections  in  New  England,  and  if  what  is  said  be 
true  gives  very  unjust  preferences  in  his  payment  of  bills."  Nova 
Scotia  Archives,  Vol.  1,  pp.  630,  631. 

Governor  Shirley  at  Boston  in  a  letter  to  Governor  Lawrence 


RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA  195 

at  Halifax  of  January  6,  1755,  says:  "Your  Honour  hath,  I 
perceive,  given  Colonel  Moncton  unlimited  credit  upon  Messrs. 
Ap thorp  and  Hancock,  and  he  looks  upon  himself  confin'd  by 
that  to  those  Gentlemen  for  every  article  to  be  provided  for  in 
this  expedition :  I  have  a  friendship  for  both  of  them  and  have 
been  instrumental  in  introducing  them,  particularly  Mr.  Ap- 
thorp  into  the  Business  of  the  Board  of  Ordnance  and  as  mer- 
chant factors  for  your  Honour's  Government,  whc  I  think  stands 
upon  no  appointment  nor  order  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  but 
purely  upon  the  pleasure  of  the  Govrs.  of  Nova  Scotia  from  time 
to  time :  My  kindness  still  remains  for  them,  and  we  are  upon 
exceedingly  good  terms ;  But  as  I  have  a  Daughter  lately  mar- 
ry'd  to  a  mercht.  here,  who  is  a  Young  Gentleman  of  extreme 
good  character,  and  for  whose  fidelity  and  honour  in  his  deal- 
ings I  can  be  answerable,  of  some  Capital,  and  Eldest  son  to  a 
mercht.  of  the  largest  fortune  of  any  one  in  Boston  I  think  I 
shall  not  do  anything  unreasonable  by  Mr.  Apthorp  and  Han- 
cock, if  I  request  the  favour  of  your  Honour  to  let  my  son  in 
Law  Mr.  John  Erving  be  join'd  with  them  in  furnishing 
money  and  stores  for  this  Expedition  upon  the  same  terms  as 
they  do."  Nova  Scotia  Archives,  Vol.  1,  p.  399. 

Messrs.  Apthorp  and  Hancock  furnished  Lawrence  with  ves- 
sels in  which  to  remove  the  Acadians,  and  presented  large  bills 
for  this  service.  Nova  Scotia  Archives,  Vol.  1,  pp.  285-293.  De- 
cember 12,  1760,  Lieutenant-Governor  Belcher  writes  that  Mr. 
Hancock  "has  advanced  a  very  considerable  sum  towards  the 
transportation  and  necessary  supplies  of  corn  for  the  settlers." 
In  1751  Joshua  Mauger  was  "agent  victualler"  for  the  navy  at 
Halifax. 

APPENDIX  V 

The  grant  of  the  township  of  Rawdon  to  which  reference  has 
been  made  in  the  foregoing  paper  was  given  on  the  3d  of  August, 
1784,  (registered  September  4th).  The  boundaries  of  the  town- 
ship as  described  in  the  grant  were  probably  virtually  the  same 
as  those  of  the  present  township  of  Kawdon.  The  warrant  for 
the  grant  bears  date  June  26,  1784,  and  orders  the  laying  out  of 


1 96 


RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA 


fifty-eight  allotments  of  land  to  ' '  John  Bond  and  other  associated 
Loyalists."  The  grant  was  actually  given  to  Captain  John  Bond, 
William  Meek,  Colonel  Zachariah  Gibbs,  Captain  George  Bond, 
and  fifty-two  others,  and  was  for  23,000  acres  in  all,  exclusive  of 
2,000  acres  reserved  for  a  school  and  glebe  and  other  public  uses, 
''also  for  an  allowance  for  all  such  roads  as  may  hereafter  be 
deemed  necessary  to  pass  through  the  same.  The  grantees' 
names  put  in  alphabetical  order,  and  not  in  the  order  in  which 
they  occur  in  the  grant,  are  as  follows : 


Alexander,  Robert. 
Atwood,  Richard. 
Bond,  Capt.  George. 
Bond,  Capt.  John. 
Bond,  John. 
Bowman,  William. 
Bruce,  Moses. 
Bryson,  John. 
Bryson,  William. 
Bryson,  William,  Jr. 
Costley,  Robert. 
Covill,  Samuel. 
Crossian,  Jeremiah. 
Cunningham,  William. 
Dimick,  Shubald. 
Ellis,  Joseph. 
Fitzsimmons,  James. 
Frelick,  Adam. 
Gibbs,  Col.  Zachariah. 
Green,  Henry. 
Hoyt,  Eli. 
Landerkin,  John. 
Lewis,  John. 
Lively,  Reuben. 
Martindale,  Henry. 
Martindale,  Henry,  Jr. 
McAllister,  Samuel. 
McCullum,  John. 
McGuire,  John. 

Sources:  Nova  Scotia  Crown  Land  Registers;  Nova  Scotia 
Council  Records;  Nova  Scotia  Archives,  3  vols. ;  Haliburton's 
History  of  Nova  Scotia;  Murdoch's  History  of  Nova  Scotia; 


McMullon,  Richard. 
Meek,  John. 
Meek,  Samuel. 
Meek,  William. 
Murphy,  John. 
Murphy,  Philip. 
Murphy,  William. 
Nichols,  James. 
Pearson,  Col.  Thomas. 
Procter,  Samuel. 
Ryland,  Peter. 
Saunderson,  John. 
Scott,  Robert. 
Simpson,  Joseph. 
Snell,  Daniel. 
Snell,  David. 
Snell,  George. 
Thornton,  Abraham. 
Thornton,  Eli. 
Thornton,  Thomas. 
Wallace,  William. 
WTier,  Benjamin. 
Wier,  William. 
Wrilliams,  Thomas. 
Wilson,  Roger. 
Withrow,  David. 
Withrow,  Jacob. 
WTithrow,  John. 


RHODE  ISLAND  SETTLERS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA  197 

Hind's  Old  Parish  Burying  Ground;  Falmouth,  Newport,  and 
Windsor  Township  Books;  Eaton's  Histories  of  Kings  County, 
Nova  Scotia,  and  the  Church  of  England  in  Nova  Scotia ;  W.  C. 
Milner's  Chignecto  Isthmus;  Windsor  Parish  Register;  Park- 
man's  Montcalm  and  Wolfe;  New  England  Historical  and 
Genealogical  Register;  Updike's  History  of  the  Episcopal 
Qhurch  in  Narragansett,  2nd  edition,  edited  by  Rev.  Dr.  Daniel 
Goodwin;  Arnold's  Genealogical  Dictionary  of  Rhode  Island; 
William  B.  Weeden's  Early  Rhode  Island,  a  Social  History  of 
the  People ;  etc.,  etc. 

The  writer  has  also  received  valuable  help  from  Dr.  David  Al- 
lison, of  Halifax,  Nova  Scotia,  who  has  a  very  intimate  knowl- 
edge especially  of  the  township  of  Newport. 


"  For  Conscience  Sake ' 

BY  CORNELIA  MITCHELL.  PARSONS 

CHAPTER  XII 
ENGLISH  FLAG  RAISED — TREACHERY 

"Skillful  pilots  gain  their  reputation  from  storms  and  tempests." 

— EPICURUS 

"Conscience    is    the   oracle   of   God." — BYRON. 


I 


HERE  was  much  uneasiness  in  Gravesend.  The  Eng- 
lish colonists  were  growing  restive  under  the  yoke  of 
Holland,  and  longed  for  freedom,  and  England's  rule. 
There  was  much  plotting,  but  Lady  Moody,  always 
loyal  to  the  Dutch  and  Governor  Stuyvesant,  spent  precious 
time  in  trying  to  allay  the  excitement.  She  was  growing  old, 
and  the  ' ; grasshopper  had  become  a  burden." 

George  Baxter,  as  the  months  had  passed,  had  been  exiled 
and  sent  to  England,  where  he  spent  some  time.  He  returned 
with  new  plans  and  a  decided  purpose  to  rouse  the  English  at 
Gravesend. 

It  was  winter  tune,  December,  1655.  The  East  River  had  froz- 
en over;  the  ice  was  very  thick.  Ensign  George  Baxter  on  his 
skates  easily  made  his  way  to  the  Long  Island  shore. 

It  had  been  a  full  day  fo  Lady  Moody  and  Frances.  Both 
had  been  busily  engrossed  with  the  plans  for  the  coming  mar- 
riage, which  was  to  take  place  on  the  twenty-fourth,  Christmas 
Eve.  Looking  from  a  window,  Frances  heard  shouts,  and  called 
Lady  Moody  to  her  side.  They  could  plainly  discern  that  the 
English  flag  had  been  hoisted  in  place  of  the  Dutch.  The  flag- 
pole was  surrounded  by  wildly  excited  English,  while  the  Dutch 
women,  shaking  their  fists,  and  the  men  with  fire-arms,  were 

198 


DECEMBER,  1913 

AMERICANA 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 
Alexander  McNutt,  the  Colonizer. 

By  A.  W.  H.  Eaton,  D.C.L.,  F.E.S.C.    .        .        .    1065 

Josiah  Stoddard  Johnston. 

By  John  Howard  Brown 1107 

Eleazer  Williams  and  the  Prince  de  Joinville. 

Contributed  by  Duane  Mowry,  LL.B.      .        .        .     1109 

History  of  the  Mormon  Church.       Chapters  XCVI  and 
XCVII. 

By  Brigham  H.  Roberts 1114 

Historic  Views  and  Reviews  1154 


JOHN  HOWARD  BROWN,  Historian  and  Genealogist  American  His- 
torical Society,  Editor. 

JOSIAH  COLLINS  PUMPELLY,  A.  M.,  LL.B.,  Member  Publication 
Committee  New  York  Genealogical  and  Biographical  So- 
ciety, Associate  Editor. 


Published  by  the  National  Americana  Society, 

DAVID  I.  NELKE,  President  and  Treasurer, 

131  East  23rd  Street, 

New  York,  N.  Y. 

i 


Copyright,  1913,  by 

THE  NATIONAL  AMERICANA  SOCIETY 

Entered  at  the  New  York  Postoffice  as  Second-class  Mail  Matter 


All  rights  reserved. 


11 


AMERICANA 

December,  1913 
Alexander  McNutt,  The  Colonizer 

BY  ABTHUE  WENTWORTH  HAMILTON  EATON,  D.C.L.,  F.E.S.C. 

I 

IN  early  annals  of  the  province  of  Nova  Scotia  many  notices 
are  to  be  found  of  a  remarkable  and  hitherto  rather  myste- 
rious person  known  commonly  as  "Colonel"  Alexander 
McNutt.  It  is  a  far  cry  from  western  Virginia  to  Nova 
Scotia,  but  in  western  Virginia  local  history  also  we  are  con- 
fronted with  occasional  statements  concerning  this  man.  Mc- 
Nutt was  reared  in  Virginia,  his  parents,  of  the  Scotch-Irish  race, 
having  probably  brought  him  from  Ireland  to  Pennsylvania  at 
about  the  age  of  five  years.  Of  the  family  from  which  he  and 
his  brothers  sprang  we  have  almost  no  knowledge,  it  was  one 
of  the  many  thrifty  Scotch-Irish  families  that  came  out  to  Penn- 
sylvania between  1728  and  1740,  and  scattering  through  the  coun- 
ties of  Chester,  Lancaster,  Cumberland,  and  York,  and  multiply- 
ing rapidly  there,  at  last  spread  over  wider  areas  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  penetrated  into  more  southern  colonies,  where  wild, 
unbroken  forests  still  remained.  In  the  successive  migrations 
from  Ireland  to  Pennsylvania  there  were  many  families  named 
McNutt,  McNaught,  McNitt,  and  McKnight,  and  one  of  these, 
the  Christian  name  of  whose  head  was  possibly  Alexander,  after 
1732,  following  in  the  wake  of  the  pioneer  John  Lewis  and  his 
brawny  sons,  with  sturdy  courage  travelled  south  into  that  wide 
Virginia  region  known  as  the  County  of  Orange,  west  of  the 
Blue  Ridge,  and  there,  like  many  others  of  his  countrymen, 
cleared  a  farm  and  began  life  anew.  In  1738  the  county  of 

(1065) 


io66  ALEXANDER  McNUTT,  THE  COLONIZER 

Augusta  was  organized  from  the  county  of  Orange,1  and  from 
WaddelPs  "Annals  of  Augusta  County"  we  learn  that  by  this 
time  in  the  great  Shenandoah  Valley  county,  the  Scotch  Irish 
had  become  very  numerous,  families  existing  there  bearing  the 
names,  among  others,  of  Alexander,  Anderson,  Bell,  Brecken- 
ridge,  Buchanan,  Caldwell,  Campbell,  Craig,  Crawford,  Cunning- 
ham, Davison,  Dickinson,  Dunlap,  Hays,  Herison,  Kerr,  Lewis, 
McNutt,  Patton,  Stuart,  and  Thompson.  Of  these  people  in  gen- 
eral, we  know  that  no  better  stock  has  ever  been  transplanted  to 
our  shores,  they  were  plain,  frugal,  hardy,  intelligent  farmers 
and  artisans,  full  of  courage,  dominated  by  the  Calvinistic  faith, 
willing  and  able  to  endure  hardships,  and  bound  to  produce  men 
who  should  by  and  by  come  to  places  of  high  control  in  American 
life.  Of  the  McNutt  family  in  the  beginning  we  know,  as  we 
have  said,  almost  nothing.  The  eleventh  governor  of  Missis- 
sippi, Alexander  Gallatin  McNutt,  born  in  1801  or  1802,  is  said 
to  have  been  a  great-grandson  of  its  founder,  and  whatever  the 
first  name  of  the  Virginia  pioneer  may  have  been,  it  is  clear  that 
the  subject  of  the  present  sketch  was  one  of  his  sons.2 

The  first  notice  of  any  kind  we  have  of  the  man  known  as 
"Colonel"  Alexander  McNutt  is  in  connection  with  the  settle- 
ment of  Staunton,  the  capital  of  Augusta  county,  Virginia,  in 
1750.  In  the  laying  out  of  that  town,  the  historian  Joseph  A. 
Waddell  informs  us,  "Alexander  McNutt  purchased  for  three 
pounds  the  lot  of  forty-eight  poles  adjoining  and  east  of  the  pres- 
ent jail  lot,  where  the  Bell  Tavern  afterwards  stood."3  That 
the  buyer  of  this  lot  was  ' '  Colonel ' '  McNutt  seems  evident  from 
the  statement  of  Mr.  Waddell  that  "while  living  in  Nova  Scotia 
in  1761  McNutt  executed  a  power  of  attorney  authorizing  his 
brother  John  to  sell  and  convey  his  real  estate, ' '  in  pursuance  of 
which  instrument,  ' '  John  McNutt,  on  August  16,  1785,  conveyed 
to  Thomas  Smith,  in  consideration  of  £110,  lot  No.  10  in  Staun- 


i.     One  historian  that  we  have  seen  says  that  it  was  organized  in  1745. 

2,.  A  volume  called  "Genealogies  and  Reminiscences,"  published  in  Chicago 
in  1897,  attempts  a  genealogical  sketch  of  the  Virginia  McNutt  family,  but  a  com- 
parison of  this  sketch  with  facts  we  shall  give  as  our  paper  proceeds  will  show 
the  Chicago  author's  almost  entire  ignorance  of  the  family. 

3.  "Annals  of  Augusta  County,  Virginia,  from  1726  to  1871,"  by  Joseph  Addi- 
son  Waddell,  Second  Edition,  revised  and  enlarged,  published  by  C.  Russell  Cald- 
well. Staunton,  Va.,  1902,  p.  72. 


ALEXANDER  McNUTT,  THE  COLONIZER  1067 

ton,  which  was  purchased  by  Alexander  in  1750  for  £3,  as  stated 
on  page  72. '  '4 

The  second  notice  we  have  of  Alexander  McNutt  is  in  con- 
nection with  an  attempted  raid,  by  order  of  Governor  Dinwiddie 
of  Virginia,  on  a  remote  village  of  Shawnee  Indians  on  the  Ohio 
river,  in  1756.  In  this  obscure  expedition,  which  is  commonly 
spoken  of  as  the  ' '  Sandy  Creek  Expedition, "  as  a  young  militia 
lieutenant,  or  probably  captain,  McNutt  took  part,  our  knowledge 
of  this  fact  coming  from  established  Virginia  local  tradition  and 
from  an  evident  casual  mention  of  McNutt  in  a  letter  of  Gov- 
ernor Dinwiddie,  in  which  the  latter,  relating  the  preparations 
made  for  the  expedition  says :  ' '  One  Capt.  McMett5  and  some 
others  proposed  some  men  on  a  voluntary  subscription."  The 
chief  command  of  this  expedition  had  been  given  by  the  governor 
to  a  certain  Major  Andrew  Lewis,  probably  one  of  the  sons  of  the 
pioneer  John  Lewis,  and  tradition  has  it  that  during  its  progress 
McNutt  kept  a  journal  in  which  he  commented  unfavorably  on 
his  superior  officer's  judgment  and  skill.  Sometime  after  the 
event  he  handed  his  journal  to  the  governor,  and  when  Major 
Lewis  knew  of  the  facts  he  was  so  angry  that  on  next  meeting 
McNutt  in  the  street  of  Staunton,  he  attacked  him  and  the  two 
had  a  knock-down  fight.6  Whether  this  public  quarrel  between 

4.  Annals  of  Augusta  County   (1902),  p.  230.     It  is  said  further,  p.  231,  that 
John  McNutt,  brother  of  Alexander,  "settled  on  North  River,  Rockbridge."     This 
is   a  mistake,   in    1765  he   settled,   as  a  blacksmith,   in   Nova   Scotia,   and   in   Nova 
Scotia  he  thereafter  lived  until  his  death. 

5.  The   spelling   "McMett,"   in    Dinwiddie's    letter,   may   be   a   mistake   of   the 
printer.     At  any  rate  the  reference  seems  to  show  that  Dinwiddie  had  only  a  slight 
acquaintance  with   McNutt. 

6.  In  Alexander   Scott  Withers'   "Chronicles  of   Border  Warfare,"  first  pub- 
lished   in    Clarksburg,    in   northwestern   Virginia,    in    1831,    describing   the   "Sandy 
Creek  expedition"  against  the  Shawnees,  the  author  says :  "In  Captain  Alexander's 
company,    John   M'Nutt,   afterwards   governor   of   Nova   Scotia,   was   a   subaltern. 
.     .     .     A  journal  of  this  campaign  was  kept  by  Lieutenant  M'Nutt,  a  gentleman  of 
liberal  education  and  fine  mind.     On  his  return  to  Williamsburg  he  presented  it  to 
Governor  Fauquier,  by  whom  it  was  deposited  in  the  executive  archives.     In  this 
journal    Colonel    Lewis    was   censured    for   not    having   proceeded   directly   to   the 
Scioto   towns.     .     .     .     This  produced  an   altercation  between   Lewis  and   M'Nutt, 
which  was  terminated  by  a  personal  encounter."     Captain  Paul,  Withers  says,  had 
proposed  to  cross  the  Ohio  river,  invade  the  towns  on  the  Scioto,  and  burn  them, 
or  perish  in  the  attempt.     This  proposal  McNutt  supported,  but  Lewis  overruled. 
Withers'  "Chronicles  of  Border  Warfare"  was  in  part  based  on  some  earlier  news- 
paper sketches  by  Hugh  Paul  Taylor.    It  was  edited  and  annotated  by  Reuben  Gold 
Thwaites,  and  republished  in  Cincinnati  in  1895.     See  for  the  account  above,  this 
new  edition,  pp.  81-86.     Commenting  on  the  Sandy  Creek  expedition,  Mr.  Joseph  A. 
Waddell,  the  Virginia  historian,  says:  "As  much  doubt  remains  in  regard  to  many 
facts  connected  with  this   famous  expedition  as  surrounds  the  wars  between  the 


io68  ALEXANDER  McNUTT,  THE  COLONIZER 

Lewis  and  McNutt  occurred  in  1756  or  1757  we  do  not  know,  but 
it  is  not  impossible  that  it  may  have  had  something  to  do  with 
McNutt 's  leaving  Virginia  and  coming  north  to  Massachusetts 
and  New  Hampshire.  How  soon  after  the  quarrel  he  did  come 
north  we  cannot  tell,  but  in  September,  1758,  we  find  him,  then 
probably  aged  about  thirty,  living  among  his  Scotch-Irish  coun- 
trymen in  the  town  of  Londonderry,  New  Hampshire,  the  earliest 
of  whom  had  landed  in  Boston  from  Ireland  in  1718.  What  his 
occupation  in  Londonderry  was,  or  for  what  purpose,  precisely, 
he  had  come  north  we  have  no  facts  to  show,  but  on  the  26th  of 
September  of  the  year  given  above,  as  one  of  a  group  of  seventy- 
one  "freeholders  and  inhabitants"  of  Londonderry,  he  signs  a 
memorial  of  thanks  to  his  Excellency  Benning  Wentworth,  Esq., 
governor,  for  not  permitting  an  increase  of  tavern  licenses  to 
be  granted  the  town.7 

How  much  time  may  have  elapsed  after  this  before  McNutt 's 
military  ambition  led  him  to  apply  to  the  Governor  of  Massa- 
chusetts for  employment  in  the  Massachusetts  militia  service  we 
cannot  tell,  but  in  the  Council  records  of  this  colony  of  the  year 
1759  we  suddenly  come  on  the  following  entry:  "Advised  and 
consented  that  a  warrant  be  made  out  to  the  Treasurer  to  pay 
unto  Captain  Alexander  McNutt  and  company  the  sum  of  eighty- 
Greeks  and  Trojans.  Various  writers  state  that  the  expedition  took  place  in  1757, 
and  that  the  men  were  recalled  when  near  the  Ohio  river,  by  order  of  Governor 
Fauquier,  but  the  Dinwiddie  papers  show  that  it  occurred  early  in  1756,  and  that 
the  survivors  returned  home  more  than  two  years  before  Fauquier  became  Gover- 
nor of  Virginia.  To  this  day,  however,  the  number  of  men  led  out  into  the 
wilderness  by  Lewis  is  uncertain,  and  also  how  many  companies  there  were  and 
who  commanded  them."  Mr.  Waddell  also  says:  "The  person  referred  to  by  Gov- 
ernor Dinwiddie  as  'one  Captain  McMett'  was  no  doubt  Alexander  McNutt,  a 
subaltern  officer  in  Captain  Alexander's  company.  He  has  been  mentioned  as  the 
purchaser  of  a  town  lot  in  Staunton.  It  is  stated  that  Lieutenant  McNutt  kept  a 
journal  of  the  campaign,  which  he  presented  to  Governor  Fauquier,  when  the  latter 
came  into  office,  and  which  was  deposited  in  the  executive  archives  at  Williamsburg. 
In  this  journal  the  writer  reflected  upon  the  conduct  of  Major  Lewis,  which  led  to 
a  personal  affray  between  Lewis  and  McNutt  in  Staunton."  If  McNutt's  journal 
ever  existed  nothing  whatever  is  now  known  of  its  fate.  See  "Annals  of  Augusta 
County,  Virginia,"  by  Joseph  Addison  Waddell. 

7.  New  Hampshire  State  Papers  (Town  Papers),  Vol.  g.  See  index.  The 
name  here  signed  "Alexander  McNutt"  can  reasonably  be  no  other  than  that  of 
the  Virginia  Captain,  for  no  other  person  of  the  McNutt  name  can  be  found  in  or 
near  Londonderry  at  this  date.  As  we  have  elsewhere  intimated,  _  we  have  had  no 
opportunity  to  examine  Virginia  local  records,  but  it  would  seem  incontestable  that 
the  Alexander  McNutt  of  the  Sandy  Creek  expedition  and  the  town  of  Staunton 
was  the  Nova  Scotia  colonizer.  If  it  were  not  for  the  notices  of  him  in  Virginia 
we  should  suppose  that  when  he  appeared  first  in  New  Hampshire  he  had  newly 
arrived  from  Ireland.  If  he  came  from  Virginia,  as  we  suppose  he  did,  we  are 
under  the  necessity  of  believing  that  after  he  began  to  colonize  Nova  Scotia  he 
induced  his  three  brothers  and  his  sister  to  remove  from  Virginia  also. 


ALEXANDER  McNUTT,  THE  COLONIZER  1069 

one  pounds,  nineteen  shillings  and  seven  pence  (to  each  person  or 
order  the  sum  respectively  due),  for  their  service  at  Pemaquid 
[Maine]  from  the  2nd  day  of  October,  1759,  to  the  18th  of  Octo- 
ber, 1760. "  On  a  later  page  of  the  same  volume  of  Records  we 
find  recorded  a  warrant  "for  payment  to  Alexander  McNutt  and 
company,  the  sum  of  four  hundred  and  seventy-two  pounds,  six- 
teen shillings,  and  one  penny  (to  each  person  or  order  the' sum 
respectively  due)  for  their  service  in  the  pay  of  the  Province,  to 
discharge  the  muster  roll  beginning  the  28th  day  of  April,  1760, 
and  ending  the  30th  day  of  November  following.  To  Captain 
Alexander  McNutt  the  sum  of  nineteen  pounds,  three  and  two- 
pence, for  sending  supplies  to  the  men.  Amounting  on  the  whole 
to  the  sum  of  four  hundred  and  ninety-one  pounds,  nineteen  and 
threepence.9  In  one  of  the  volumes  of  the  unprinted  Massachu- 
setts Archives  that  record  the  military  services  of  Massachusetts 
troops  before  the  Revolution,  under  date  of  December  8,  1760, 
we  find  McNutt  swearing  to  the  accuracy  of  an  account  of  £491, 
19.3.,  "for  payment  of  a  party  of  thirty-two  men  belonging  to  a 
company  of  Provincials  under  his  charge,"  who  had  enlisted 
April  28,  1760,  for  Fort  Cumberland,  Nova  Scotia,  and  had 
served  to  November  30,  1760. 10  Accompanying  this  charge  is  a 
muster  roll  giving  the  names  of  the  men  and  the  amount  of  wages 
due  each.  Several  of  the  company  were  from  Windham,  New 
Hampshire,  one  of  the  Windham  men  being  Samuel  Clyde,  who 
later  became  a  colonel  and  saw  service  in  the  Revolution  on  the 
American  side.11  Clyde's  wages  were  £12.3.0.,  and  it  seems  that 
he  did  not  return  from  Nova  Scotia  with  McNutt  and  the  rest  of 
the  company,  but  remained,  probably  at  Halifax.  Curiously,  in 
some  miscellaneous  unprinted  "Suffolk  Court  Records,"  in  Bos- 
ton, we  find  it  recorded  that  January  1, 1761,  Clyde,  then  in  Hali- 
fax, sued  McNutt  in  Boston  for  a  debt  of  £21.3.0.,  due  him,  and 
attached  a  chest  of  McNutt 's.  In  the  Inferior  Court  of  Massa- 
chusetts, Clyde  obtained  a  judgment  against  McNutt,  and  with- 
out legal  protest  McNutt  paid  the  debt.12  The  Windham  men  in 

8.  Massachusetts  Council  Records,  unprinted,  Volume  14,  p.  289. 

9.  Massachusetts  Council  Records,  Vol.  14,  p.  293. 

10.  Massachusetts   Archives,    Vol.   98,   pp.    146,   221. 

11.  Morrison's  History  of  Windham,  New  Hampshire,  p.  60. 

12.  Suffolk  SS.     George  the  Third  by  the  Grace  of  God,  of  Great  Britain, 
France,  and   Ireland,   King,  Defender  of  the  Faith,  etc.    To  the   Sheriff  of  Our 
County  of  Suffolk,  his  under  Sheriff  or  Deputy  Greeting:    We  command  you  to 


1070  ALEXANDER  McNUTT,  THE  COLONIZER 

this  company  of  McNutt's,  the  History  of  Windham  says,  all 
served  at  Fort  Cumberland.  In  the  Council  Records  of  Massa- 
chusetts, under  date  of  November  29,  1760,  stands  a  warrant  for 
the  payment  to  Captain  Alexander  McNutt  of  sixteen  pounds, 
sixteen  shillings,  to  discharge  his  account  for  the  passage  of  him- 
self and  twenty-seven  men  from  Halifax,  at  two  dollars  each18 
In  the  Massachusetts  Archives  are  also  two  undated  bills  of 
McNutt's,  one  for  the  sum  of  £1.12.6.,  for  having  enlisted  five 
men  and  an  ensign  for  the  total  reduction  of  Canada,  and  one  for 
the  sum  of  £10.10.8.,  for  payment  of  a  company  of  sixty  men  and 
a  lieutenant,  that  he  had  raised  for  the  reduction  of  Canada, ' '  out 
of  Colonel  Osgood's  regiment."  The  sixty-one  names  in  the 
billeting  roll  accompanying  this  charge  are  plainly  written,  and 
many  of  them  prove  to  be  Scotch-Irish  names,  some  of  whom, 
from  New  Hampshire  towns,  we  find  among  the  first  grantees 
and  settlers  in  Truro,  Nova  Scotia,  directed  thither,  as  is  well 
known,  by  McNutt.14 

The  last  record  of  McNutt  in  the  military  archives  of  Mas- 
sachusetts is  dated  December  6,  1760.  At  this  date  McNutt  ren- 
ders an  account  to  the  General  Court  for  his  expenses  in  making 
two  journeys  from  Boston  to  Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire,  in 
quest  of  deserters;  for  David  Robinson's  expenses  in  travelling 
to  Bedford  and  Framingham  for  deserters;  for  payment  to 

attach  the  goods  or  estate  of  Alexander  McNutt,  gentleman,  now  residing  in 
Boston  in  sd.  county,  to  the  value  of  thirty  pounds,  and  for  want  thereof  to  take 
the  body  of  the  said  Alexander  (if  he  may  be  found  in  your  precinct)  and  him 
safely  keep,  so  that  you  have  him  before  our  Justices  of  Our  Inferior  Court  of 
Common  Pleas  next  to  be  holden  at  Boston  within  and  for  our  said  county  of 
Suffolk  on  the  first  Tuesday  of  April  next,  then  and  there  in  our  said  court  to 
answer  unto  Samuel  Clyde  of  Hallifax  in  our  Province  of  Nova  Scotia,  yeoman,  in 
a  plea  of  the  case  for  that  the  defendant  on  the  fourteenth  day  of  January  cur- 
rent, at  Boston  aforesaid  being  indebted  to  the  plaintiff  in  the  sum  of  twenty-one 
pounds  and  three  shillings  for  that  sum  which  the  Defendant  before  that  had 
received  at  two  different  times,  viz.,  twelve  pounds  and  three  shillings  at  one  time 
of  Harrison  Gray  and  the  rest  before  that,  and  in  consideration  thereof  the 
Defendant  though  requested  has  not  paid  them  but  neglects  to  pay  it  to  the 
damage  of  the  said  Samuel  Clyde  as  he  saith,  the  sum  of  thirty  pounds  which 
shall  then  and  there  be  made  to  appear,  with  other  damages  and  have  you  there 
this  writ  with  your  doings  therein. 

"Witness,  Eliakim  Hutchinson,  Esq.,  at  Boston  this  10  day  of  January,  in  the 
1st  year  of  our  reign.  Annoque  Domini,  1761.  Middlecott  Cook,  Clerk." 

On  the  back  of  this  warrant  is  endorsed :  "Suffolk,  January  16, 
1761.  Then  and  by  virtue  of  this  writ  I  attached  a  Chest  of  the  Defendant  and 
would  have  left  him  a  Summons  but  the  Defendant  paid  the  plaintiff  his  demand. 
Benjamin  Cudworth,  Deputy  Sheriff."  Below  is  Clyde's  receipt:  "I  acknowl- 
edge the  above  to  be  true.  Witness  my  hand.  SAMUEL  CLYDE." 

13.  Massachusetts  Council  Records,  Vol.   14,  p.  291. 

14.  Massachusetts  Archives,  Vol.  98,  pp.   146,   147. 


ALEXANDER  McNUTT,  THE  COLONIZER  1071 

James  Cowan  and  Moses  Blaisdell,  "as  per  account;"  for  the 
payment  of  the  passage  of  one  of  his  soldiers  to  Halifax;  and 
for  the  payment  of  a  clerk  who  had  made  up  his  muster  roll.16 

In  1755,  as  the  world  knows,  occurred  that  pitiful  tragedy,  the 
forcible  expulsion  of  the  French  from  Nova  Scotia,  and  shortly 
afterwards,  the  Nova  Scotia  governor,  Colonel  Charles  Law- 
rence, with  the  authority  of  the  crown  issued  two  proclama- 
tions15%  offering  the  recently  depopulated  and  hitherto  unsettled 
lands  in  the  fertile  Acadian  province  freely  to  settlers  of  British 
stock.  That  these  proclamations  should  have  stirred  the  imagi- 
nation of  McNutt  as  they  stirred  the  ambition  of  thousands  of 
native  New  Englanders,  who  accepted  their  terms  and  trans- 
ferred themselves  and  their  belongings  to  Nova  Scotia,  is  not  at 
all  strange,  McNutt,  with  more  than  the  usual  ambition  of  ener- 
getic young  manhood  was  looking  for  worlds  to  conquer,  and  the 
alluring  possibility  of  making  himself  a  great  colonizer  and 
peopling  the  fair  province  by  the  sea  with  families  of  his  own 
race  soon  began  to  fire  his  restless  brain.  It  was  not  until  seven 
months  after  Lawrence's  second  proclamation,  however,  that  he 
presented  himself  to  the  governor  and  council  in  Halifax  as  de- 
siring to  assist  emigration  to  the  province.  In  the  meantime  a 
good  many  agents  representing  considerable  groups  of  New 
England  people  who  had  read  the  proclamations  and  were  seri- 
ously contemplating  removal  to  Nova  Scotia,  had  arrived  at  Hali- 
fax and  been  received  by  the  government.  According  to  the 
careful  memorial  of  the  Committee  of  Council  to  the  English 
Lords  of  Trade,16  McNutt  came  first  to  Halifax  in  the  month  of 
August,  1759,  and  applied  to  Governor  Lawrence  for  grants  of 
land  "for  himself  and  sundry  persons  his  associates,"  and  his 
request  was  met  by  a  written  engagement  of  the  Governor  to 
have  one  township  set  apart  for  him  at  Port  Roseway,  in  what  is 
now  the  county  of  Shelburne,  at  the  extreme  southwestern  end  of 
Nova  Scotia,  and  six  townships  in  the  district  of  Cobequid,  in 
what  is  now  Colchester  County,  on  or  near  Cojiequid  Bay  and 
along  the  Shubenacadie  river,  with  leave  to  settle  families  in 

15.  Massachusetts    Archives,   Vol.    98,   p.    222. 

iej/2      The  dates  of  the  issuing  of  these  proclamations  were  respectively,  October 
12,  1758,' and  January  n,  1759-    See  Eaton's  History  of  King's  County,  Nova  Scotia, 

p.  60. 

16.  This  memorial  is  given  as  an  appendix  to  the  present  paper. 


io;2     ALEXANDER  McNUTT,  THE  COLONIZER 

thirty-five  "rights"  in  the  township  of  Granville,  in  Annapolis 
County.  McNutt's  visit  at  this  time  could  not  have  lasted  long, 
and  it  is  doubtful  whether  he  was  again  in  Halifax  until  April, 
1760,16V2  when  he  took,  as  we  believe,  the  little  company  of  thirty- 
two  soldiers  to  the  province  to  serve  for  a  few  months  in  the  gar- 
rison at  Fort  Cumberland.  At  that  time  he  produced,  the  Com- 
mittee of  Council  say,  a  list  of  six  hundred  subscribers  who  had 
engaged  with  him  to  settle  in  Nova  Scotia,  among  these,  no  doubt, 
the  names  of  the  men  who  soon  after  became  grantees  in  the 
Nova  Scotia  township  of  Truro,  in  Colchester  County.  The  first 
Truro  grantees  number  by  actual  count,  fathers  and  their  young 
sons  together,  only  eighty-two,  and  this  substantiates  the  Com- 
mittee of  Council's  statement  that  of  McNutt's  six  hundred  sub- 
scribers only  fifty  families  came  to  Nova  Scotia. 

McNutt's  first  successful  efforts  at  colonizing  Nova  Scotia 
were  made  among  his  friends  in  the  Scotch-Irish  colony  at  and 
near  Londonderry,  New  Hampshire.  On  his  movements  as  a 
militia  captain,  and  the  organizer  of  the  New  Hampshire  com- 
pany which  settled  Truro,  Nova  Scotia,  in  1761,  interesting  side- 
lights are  thrown  by  the  Diary  of  Hon.  Matthew  Patten  of 
Bedford,  New  Hampshire.17  It  has  been  questioned  whether 
McNutt  was  really  the  organizer  of  this  company,  but  certain 
entries  in  this  Diary  show  plainly  that  he  was.  With  the  excep- 
tion of  the  Truro  colony  and  one  other,  the  Essex  County,  Massa- 
chusetts, group  of  families  that  in  1762  settled  Maugerville,  on 
the  St.  John  River,  in  what  is  now  the  province  of  New  Bruns- 
wick,18 in  spite  of  McNutt's  own  ambitious  claims  that  he  had 
been  instrumental  in  bringing  to  Nova  Scotia  virtually  all  the 
New  England  people  who  settled  in  the  province,  we  have  not 

i6y2.  A  careful  examination  of  the  Council  Books  at  Halifax  shows  that  Nov. 
3,  1760,  is  the  earliest  date  on  which  McNutt  is  mentioned  in  these  records.  At  this 
date  it  is  said  that  McNutt  petitions  the  Council,  as  the  late  Governor  of  the 
Province  had  promised  him  land  at  Cobequid,  Shubenacadie,  and  Port  Roseway  on 
the  Cape  Sable  shore,  on  condition  that  he  would  procure  settlers,  to  give  him  all  the 
help  this  body  could. 

17.  "Diary  of  Matthew  Patten  of  Bedford,  N.  H.,  from  1754  to  1799,"  pub- 
lished  in    1903. 

18.  Archdeacon  Raymond's   History  of  the  River   St.   John,  chapters   13  and 
16,  and  his  first  monograph,  pp.  81-83.    In  his  "St.  John  River,"  chapter   13   (p. 
277),   Dr.   Raymond   says:     "Lieut-Governor    Belcher   in    1763   complained   to   the 
Lords  of  Trade  of  McNutt's  'percipitate  and  unjustifiable'  act  in  sending  so  large 
a  body  of  settlers  to  the  River  St.  John  without  previous  notice  or  indeed  any 
suspicion  of  such  a  measure  on  the  part  of  the  authorities  of  Nova  Scotia." 


ALEXANDER  McNUTT,  THE  COLONIZER  1073 

the  slightest  reason  to  believe  that  any  one  of  the  other  town- 
ships peopled  by  New  Englanders  in  any  measure  owed  its  set- 
tlement to  him.  Even  with  the  settlement  of  Onslow,  the  adjoin- 
ing township  to  Truro,  whose  people  came  largely  from  towards 
the  western  part  of  Massachusetts,  we  find  no  evidence  that  Mc- 
Nutt had  anything  whatever  to  do.19  At  this  period  of  his  life, 
as  indeed  throughout  his  whole  career,  McNutt  kept  himself 
pretty  closely  identified  with  the  Scotch-Irish  race,  to  which  he 
belonged,  and  as  early  as  November,  1760,  he  tells  the  Nova  Sco- 
tia Council  that  he  has  already  sent  a  vessel  to  the  North  of  Ire- 
land to  bring  out  settlers  from  there,  and  that  he  soon  intends 
to  go  to  Ireland  himself.20  In  the  beginning  of  1761,  even  before 
his  New  Hampshire  colony  had  sailed  for  Truro  he  did  go  to  Eng- 
land, with  a  letter  from  Lieutenant-Governor  Belcher  recominen- 
ing  him  as  a  proper  agent  to  bring  over  settlers  from  Ireland. 
From  that  country,  the  October  following,  he  brought  to  Halifax 
a  company,  which  he  himself  represents  as  "near  four  hundred 
persons,"  but  which  Lieutenant  Governor  Belcher  in  the  year 
that  they  came  speaks  of  as  "upwards  of  two  hundred,"  and 
the  Report  of  the  Committee  of  the  Council  in  1766  gives  as 
* '  about  two  hundred  and  fifty.  "21  In  November,  1762,  he  brought 
out  from  Ireland  a  smaller  group,  of  about  a  hundred  and  fifty 
persons,  which  number  in  his  memorial  to  the  Lords  of  Trade, 
read  March  23,  1763,  he  likewise  characteristically  exaggerates 
to  "near  four  hundred."22 

Returning  soon  to  England  McNutt  remained  abroad  until  the 
autumn  of  1764,  his  occupation  in  the  interval,  he  says,  being 
*  *  sending  away  French  Protestants  to  America. ' '  What  he  really 
was  doing  or  how  he  managed  to  live,  is  a  mystery  to  us,  but  dur- 
ing the  time  the  new  scheme  evidently  formed  in  his  mind  of 
inducing  Pennsylvania  Scotch-Irishmen  and  perhaps  others  to 
remove  to  Nova  Scotia,  and  in  the  autumn  of  1764  he  recrossed 
the  ocean  to  Philadelphia.  Like  other ' '  promoters ' '  he  naturally 


19  See    Eaton's    "Settlement    of    Colchester    County,    Nova    Scotia,"    in    the 
Transactions   of   the   Royal    Society  of   Canada    for    1912. 

20  Archdeacon  Raymond's  first  monograph,  p.  64.     It  is  not  likely  that 
had  really  sent  a  vessel  to  Ireland  at  this  early  period  of  his  colonization  schemes. 

21.  Archdeacon   Raymond's    first   monograph,   p.   69,    and   the   Report 
Committee   of   Council,    in   the    appendix. 

22.  The    Report   of   the    Committee   of    Council    gives    the   number    as    abo 
a    hundred    and    fifty. 


1074  ALEXANDER  McNUTT,  THE  COLONIZER 

went  first  with  his  project  to  conspicuous  men,  and  Benjamin 
Franklin,  who  was  then  at  home,  was  probably  one  of  the  first 
persons  he  approached.  What  his  representations  to  Franklin 
and  other  Philadelphia  gentlemen  of  influence  were  we  can  easily 
conjecture,  for  McNutt  never  minimized  his  own  authority  or 
presented  his  schemes  in  a  less  alluring  light  than  the  facts  war- 
ranted. That  in  some  way,  in  the  course  of  his  brief  negotiations 
with  Franklin,  he  became  liable  to  the  latter  for  money,  we  have 
evidence  in  letters  from  Franklin's  business  associate  in  Wood- 
bridge,  New  Jersey.  In  a  letter  of  November  23,  1764,  Parker 
mentions  ' '  Colonel  McNott, ' '  and  in  another  of  January  14,  1765, 
he  says :  "I  was  returned  from  Pennsylvania  before  your  let- 
ter from  the  Capes  came  up,  wherein  you  mention  Mr.  Nott's 
affair.  I  upon  the  notice  you  wrote  about  it,  wrote  to  Dunlap 
and  Mr.  Nott— the  latter  of  which  informed  the  other  that  he  had 
agreed  to  pay  you,  and  that  those  orders  were  gone  home ;  that 
however  he,  Mr.  McNott,  agreed  to  give  you  a  bond  for  the 
money  due,  which  if  paid  in  England  could  be  afterwards  taken 
up,  which  bond  he  executed  and  sent  to  me,  so  I  give  Dunlap 
credit  for  it.  This  I  hope  will  be  agreeable  to  your  instructions 
or  intentions.  The  sum  is  £48.4.10.,  payable  ye  first  of  May 
next.23  In  the  "Draft  Scheme"  of  his  autobiography  Mr.  Frank- 
lin has  the  item,  "Grant  of  Land  in  Nova  Scotia,"  but  the 
autobiography  is  not  carried  far  enough  to  give  any  mention  of 
the  obtaining  of  the  grant.  The  Grant  Books  at  Halifax,  how- 
ever, inform  us  that  on  the  31st  of  October,  1765,  a  grant  of 
100,000  acres  was  given  at  Peticodiac,  to  Alexander  McNutt, 
Matthew  Clarkson,  Edward  Duffield,  Gerardus  Clarkson,  John 
Nagle,  Benjamin  Franklin,  Anthony  Wayne,  John  Hughes,  John 
Cox,  Jr.,  Isaac  Caton,  John  Relfe,  James  Caton,  William  Smith, 
Hugh  Neal,  Thomas  Barton,  William  Moore,  Joseph  Richardson, 
John  Hall,  William  Craig,  Jobina  Jacobs,  John  Bayley,  and  Ben- 
jamin Jacobs.  On  the  same  date  another  grant  of  100,000  acres 
on  the  River  St.  John,  was  given  to  almost  the  same  group  of 
men,  Benjamin  Franklin  among  them. 

Accompanied  by  several  prominent  Philadelphians,  no  doubt 


23.     Proceedings  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  1902,  Second  Series. 
Vol.    16,  pp.    195,    196. 


ALEXANDER  McNUTT,  THE  COLONIZER  1075 

from  the  group  whose  names  we  have  just  given,  in  March,  1765 
as  both  McNutt  himself  and  the  Committee  of  Council  relate,' 
McNutt  arrived  in  Halifax.  In  one  of  his  wordy  memorials  he 
declares  that  he  brought  with  him  "a  great  number  of  families," 
but  the  Committee  of  Council  in  their  categorical  statement  of 
McNutt 's  services  to  the  Province  mention  no  such  company 
though  they  say  that  ''another  Association  from  Philadelphia, 
who  had  contracted  with  the  Government  to  settle  a  Township 
at  Sepody,  sent  a  ship  about  this  time  with  twenty-five  families, 
agreeable  to  their  contracts,  seated  them  on  their  lands,  fur- 
nished them  with  stock,  materials  for  building  and  farming,  and 
have  supported  with  provision  ever  since,  in  which  Colonel  Mc- 
Nutt had  no  kind  of  concern  whatever."  The  only  other  emi- 
grants that  we  know  of  from  Pennsylvania  to  Nova  Scotia  were 
six  families  who  arrived  at  Pictou  in  the  Hope,  from  Philadel- 
phia, June  10,  1765,  to  settle  on  the  so-called  "Philadelphia 
Grant."  Of  these  a  family  of  Harrises  remained  permanently 
in  the  province,  as  did  also  a  family  of  Pattersons,  but  concern- 
ing the  others  we  are  not  informed.  It  may  or  may  not  have 
been  due  to  McNutt 's  influence  that  these  families  came.24 

With  regard  to  the  gentlemen  who  accompanied  McNutt  from 
Philadelphia  to  Halifax,  the  Committee  of  Council  further  say: 
These  gentlemen  "informed  the  Government  that  Colonel  Mc- 
Nutt had  assured  them  that  his  Majesty's  Instructions  to  the 
Governor  of  Nova  Scotia,  dated  the  20th  of  May,  1763,  directing 
the  terms  of  settlement  to  be  granted  to  the  settlers  he  had  intro- 
duced into  this  province  from  the  Kingdom  of  Ireland,  included 
them  and  all  others  whom  he  should  introduce,  and  promised  that 
they  should  have  lands  on  those  terms,  which  was  not  only  deceiv- 
ing those  people,  but  also  created  many  difficulties  for  the  Gov- 
ernment here,  and  those  gentlemen  declared  that  they  would  have 
no  further  concern  with  Colonel  McNutt,  and  accordingly  made 
their  applications  to  Government  without  taking  any  notice  of 
him." 

We  have  here,  no  doubt,  the  exact  facts  concerning  the  emi- 
gration of  Pennsylvanians  to  Nova  Scotia  in  1765,  except  that 
the  Association  sending  the  twenty-five  families  may  possibly 

24.    Rev.  Dr.   Patterson's  "History  of  Pictou,   Nova  Scotia,"  and  Campbell's 
"The   Scotsman   in   Canada,"  pp.  94-99- 


1076  ALEXANDER  McNUTT,  THE  COLONIZER 

have  been  formed  owing  in  some  measure  to  the  interest  aroused 
in  Nova  Scotia  by  the  efforts  of  McNutt.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
probably  not  more  than  half  a  dozen,  if  so  many,  of  the  twenty- 
five  families  remained,  for  we  have  Mr.  Franklin's  authority  for 
saying  that  most  of  the  Pennsylvanians  who  came  to  the  Prov- 
ince, "with  great  complaints  against  the  severity  and  length  of 
the  winters, ' '  before  long  returned  to  the  middle  states.25 

In  this  comparatively  unimportant  migration  of  Pennsyl- 
vanians to  Nova  Scotia  in  1765,  we  reach  the  extremest  limit  of 
McNutt 's  success  in  colonizing  Nova  Scotia.  His  own  claims  to 
the  Lords  of  Trade  concerning  the  number  of  people  he  had 
brought  to  the  Province  widely  transcend  the  facts,  it  is  clear 
now  that  the  various  groups  he  had  brought  or  induced  to  come, 
limit  themselves  to  the  New  Hampshire  colony  that  settled 
Truro,  the  two  groups  he  himself  led  from  Ireland  in  1761  and 
1762,  respectively,  the  Essex  County,  Massachusetts,  people  he 
influenced  to  come  to  Maugerville  in  1762,  about  fifty  people  who 
came  from  Ireland  to  join  their  old  friends  and  neighbors  in  the 
province,  in  1765,26  and  the  very  few  permanent  settlers  who  may 
have  been  influenced  by  him  to  come  from  Pennsylvania  in  1765. 

In  1911  an  able  Canadian  historian,  Ven.  Archdeacon  Ray- 
mond, LL.  D.,  published  in  the  Transactions  of  the  Royal  So- 
ciety of  Canada  a  remarkable  monograph  on  "Colonel  Alexan- 
der McNutt  and  the  Pre-Loyalist  Settlements  of  Nova  Scotia. '  '27 
In  the  archives  at  Ottawa  Dr.  Raymond  found  copies  of  a  large 
number  of  papers  relating  to  McNutt  and  his  colonization 
schemes  during  the  seven  years  from  1759  to  1766,  and  in  his 
monograph  he  has  given  us  the  main  facts  of  McNutt 's  tangled 
negotiations  with  the  Nova  Scotia  Government  and  the  Lords 
of  Trade  in  England  in  the  prosecution  of  his  schemes  during 
those  years.  At  first  the  government  showed  him  great  favor, 
for  settlers  for  the  province  were  strongly  desired,  and  McNutt 
made  representations  that  seemed  to  promise  a  speedy  occupation 


25.  "The  Writings  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  Collected  and  Edited,  with  a  Life 
and  Introduction,"  by  Albert  Henry  Smyth,  New  York,  1907,  Vol.  5,  p.  508. 

26.  See  the  statement  of  the  Committee  of  Council  in  the  Appendix. 

27.  In  1912,  Archdeacon  Raymond,  having  in  the  meantime  discovered  some 
of  the  facts  that  we  have  embodied  in  this  paper,  published  in  the  "Transactions." 
Another  shorter  monograph  on  McNutt,  which  considerably  modified  the  first. 


ALEXANDER  McNUTT,  THE  COLONIZER  1077 

of  a  great  part  of  the  unsettled  Nova  Scotia  land.  Very  soon, 
however,  the  colonizer  began  to  complain  bitterly  of  obstruction 
to  his  plans,  and  until  he  finally  retired  from  the  field  he  pursued 
a  course  of  loud  recrimination  against  the  government  that  we 
believe  to  have  been  largely  unwarranted  and  to  give  evidence 
chiefly  that  he  was  possessed  of  an  unbalanced  mind.  It  is 
strongly  our  opinion  that  the  Nova  Scotia  Committee  of  Coun- 
cil spoke  truly  when  they  finally  declared  with  warmth  that  the 
obstruction  to  his  plans  on  the  part  of  the  Government  that 
Colonel  McNutt  so  persistently  complained  of,  was  chiefly  due  to 
his  own  "intemperate  zeal  and  exorbitant  demands,"  and  that 
the  Government  had  been  disposed  to  show  him  *  *  the  indulgence 
and  kind  treatment  that  any  reasonable  man  could  properly 
desire. "  Of  the  Government's  willingness  to  give  proper  assist- 
ance in  any  reasonable  effort  to  settle  the  province  we  need  no 
further  assurance  than  the  fact  that  between  the  first  of  June 
and  the  last  of  October,  1765,  to  McNutt  and  his  brothers  and 
large  groups  of  men  whom  the  colonizer  represented  as  intend- 
ing to  settle  in  the  province  and  for  whom  he  claimed  to  be  act- 
ing, the  governor  and  council  granted  the  enormous  sum  of  about 
a  million  and  three-quarters  acres  of  land.  That  McNutt 's 
claims  concerning  the  number  of  people  who  had  empowered  him 
to  act  for  them  in  obtaining  grants  were  greatly  exaggerated, 
seems  to  us  certain  from  the  fact  that  before  1812  by  far  the 
greater  part  of  these  huge  grants,  because  of  the  absence  of  set- 
tlers, by  formal  escheatment  was  once  more  restored  to  the 
crown27^ 

A  remarkable  feature  of  McNutt 's  character,  indeed,  was  his 
tendency  to  make  exaggerated  claims.  This  is  nowhere  more 
conspicuous  than  in  the  declarations  he  makes  to  the  Lords  of 
Trade  of  service  he  had  actually  rendered  in  the  matter  of  col- 

2714.  The  appearance  of  McNutt's  own  name  on  a  great  many  of  the  grants 
in  question  is  explained  by  the  Committee  of  Council,  and  we  believe  truthfully, 
to  have  been  due  to  the  Government's  conscientious  desire  to  do  McNutt  no 
injustice  in  its  apportionment  of  lands.  Not  always  satisfied  with  his  conduct, 
and  finally  altogether  distrusting  the  man,  they  yet  recognized  "his  apparent 
zeal  for  settling  the  vacated  lands"  in  the  Province,  and  as  they  conceived  that  it 
might  in  some  measure  primarily  be  owing  to  him  that  various  groups  of  men  had 
applied  for  land,  which  persons  if  they  should  become  settlers  would  prove  a 
great  acquisition  to  the  young  colony,  thought  it  only  "just  and  right"  that  his 
name  should  be  included  in  grants  to  all  "associations"  with  whom  he  appeared 
in  any  way  to  have  been  concerned. 


1078  ALEXANDER  McNUTT,  THE  COLONIZER 

onizing  Nova  Scotia.  Before  us  lie  four  memorials,  of  the  many 
which  in  the  course  of  his  efforts  to  colonize  he  formally  pre- 
sented to  the  Lords  of  Trade,28  in  which  McNutt  makes  state- 
ments that  are  truly  astounding.  In  1760,  he  says,  he  procured 
about  one  thousand  families,  from  New  Hampshire,  Massachu- 
setts Bay,  Rhode  Island,  Connecticut,  New  York,  Pennsylvania, 
and  Virginia,  to  settle  in  Nova  Scotia.  He  has  employed,  he 
states,  at  great  expense  more  than  thirty  agents,  in  ten  different 
provinces  to  prosecute  the  colonization  of  Nova  Scotia,  and  he 
has  an  agent  at  Halifax  to  attend  to  his  business  there.  He  has 
settled  in  the  Province  two  thousand  families,  including  a  num- 
ber of  German  families,  and  he  has  contracts  for  settlement  with 
six  thousand  families  more.  In  March,  1765,  he  took,  he  says, 
" a  great  number  of  families"  from  Pennsylvania  to  Nova  Sco- 
tia, and  he  adds  that  the  gentlemen  who  accompanied  him  had 
been  appointed  to  represent  "many  thousand  families  who  had 
engaged  to  settle  in  Nova  Scotia."  He  is  able  and  ready  to 
introduce  into  the  province  any  number  of  people  from  other 
American  colonies,  or  Protestants  from  Germany  and  France. 
The  expenses  he  has  incurred  in  his  vast  undertakings  have  been 
enormous,  and  the  damages  he  has  sustained  by  the  Nova  Scotia 
Government's  bad  treatment  of  him  have  reached  startling  fig- 
ures. The  real  facts  of  this  strange  man's  services  to  the  colon- 
ization of  Nova  Scotia,  as  we  have  shown,  are  not  now  difficult  to 
make  out,  and  many  of  these  statements  of  his  are  so  grossly 
at  variance  with  facts  that  we  hesitate  to  believe  that  a  person 
who  could  so  boldly  make  them  can  properly  be  regarded  as  sane. 
At  the  time  when  McNutt  said  he  had  settled  a  thousand  families 
in  Nova  Scotia  there  were  only  about  five  hundred  families  in 
all  the  townships.29  Not  only  from  the  plain  statements  of  the 
Committee  of  Council  but  influenced  by  many  other  considera- 
tions we  say  without  hesitation  that  with  the  removal  of  the 
greater  part  of  the  Massachusetts,  as  with  the  Connecticut  and 

28.  These  Memories  bearing  the  Expective  dates  of  reception  by  the  Lords 
of  Trade  of  January  19,  March   18,  and  March  23,   1763,  and  April   17,   1766,  as 
well  as  the  Report  of  the   Committee  of   Council,   read    November  6,    1766    (See 
Appendix),   in   which   McNutt's   charges   are   indignantly   refuted   and   his   actual 
services   to   the   Province    categorically   and    with   due   acknowledgment   set   forth, 
were  copied  at  Ottawa  by  Archdeacon  Raymond,  and  have  very  generously  been 
lent  by   him   for  use    in   preparing  this   paper. 

29.  Archdeacon   Raymond's   first  monograph,   p.   63. 


ALEXANDER  McNUTT,  THE  COLONIZER  1079 

Rhode  Island,  settlers  to  Nova  Scotia,  in  1760  and  1761,  McNutt 
had  not  the  slightest  connection.  That  he  was  ever  concerned  or 
had  any  marked  influence  in  sending  to  any  part  of  America  large 
numbers  of  German  or  French  Protestants  we  do  not  believe.30 
That  he  had  ever  directed  to  Nova  Scotia  any  German  families 
at  all  we  have  seen  no  evidence  of.  His  assertion  that  he  had 
brought  to  Halifax  in  1765  a  great  number  of  families  from 
Pennsylvania  we  know  to  have  been  false.  The  plain  truth 
about  the  man  and  his  statements  is  without  doubt  told  in  the 
indignant  memorial  of  the  Committee  of  Council,  in  refutation  of 
his  exaggerated  claims  of  service,  and  his  fierce  charges  against 
the  Government,  presented  to  the  Lords  of  Trade  in  August, 
1766.  ''Upon  the  whole,"  says  the  memorial,  ''the  Committee 
of  His  Majesty's  Council  are  of  the  opinion  the  memorial  of 
Colonel  Alexander  McNutt  addressed  to  the  Lords  Commission- 
ers for  Trade  and  Plantations  is  almost  and  altogether  false  and 
scandalous,  that  the  facts  are  misrepresented,  and  his  complaints 
without  just  grounds. "  * '  That  the  obstruction  Colonel  McNutt 
complains  of  from  the  rulers  in  this  province  since  the  death 
of  Governor  Lawrence  have  proceeded  from  his  own  intemperate 
zeal  and  exorbitant  demands. "  * '  That  the  great  expense  incur- 
red by  Colonel  McNutt  in  pursuing  his  scheme  of  making  set- 
tlements in  this  province  cannot  be  charged  to  any  obstruction 
he  met  with  from  the  Government  here  in  any  respect,  nor  can 

30.  "A  rather  curious  proposition,"  says  Archdeacon  Raymond,  "was  made  by 
McNutt  to  the  Lords  of  Trade  early  in  1763.  McNutt  offered  at  four  weeks' 
notice  to  provide  vessels,  properly  fitted  and  victualled,  to  transport  foreign  Pro- 
testants without  any  cost  to  the  Government,  to  South  Carolina,  on  consideration 
that  he  should  receive  for  every  man,  woman  and  child  embarked,  at  the  rate  of 
fifty  acres  of  land  on  the  Island  of  St.  John  (Prince  Edward  Island)."  "The 
Lords  of  Trade  were  not  disposed  to  grant  so  large  a  quantity  of  land  on  the 
Island  of  St.  John  to  one  individual,  as  it  might  tend  to  a  monopoly  inconsistent 
with  the  public  interest.  They  therefore  offered  the  Colonel  the  grant  of  a  tract 
in  Nova  Scotia,  free  from  the  payment  of  quit  rents  for  ten  years,  in  proportion 
to  the  number  of  people  he  should  carry  to  Carolina.  In  consequence  of  the 
engagements  entered  into,  McNutt  at  the  close  of  the  year  submitted  a  me- 
morial to  the  Lords  of  Trade  stating  that  he  was  entitled  to  10,000  acres  of  land 
and  desired  to  have  a  grant  on  each  side  of  Indian  Bay,  in  the  Island  of  Cape 
Breton,  with  Cape  Sherburne  and  other  such  parts  as  he  might  choose  upon 
Spaniard's  Bay  or  Harbour."  Archdeacon  Raymond's  first  monograph,  p.  84. 

If  McNutt  was  entitled  to  the  10,000  acres  he  claimed,  i.  e.  fifty  acres  for 
every  person  he  had  taken  or  directed  to  South  Carolina,  then  the  number  of  his 
emigrants  would  have  been  two  hundred.  Regarding  this  alleged  enterprise  we 
can  only  say  that  no  history  of  South  Carolina  we  have  seen  makes  any  mention  of 
if,  and  with  so  many  other  false  statements  of  McNutt's  before  us  we  have  no 
faith  that  McNutt  here  tells  the  truth.  The  whole  matter,  as  Archdeacon  Ray- 
mond says,  is  indeed  most  extraordinary. 


io8o  ALEXANDER  McNUTT,  THE  COLONIZER 

we  tell  how  it  arose  that  Colonel  McNutt,  though  often  called 
upon  for  that  purpose,  never  produced  vouchers  for  the  expendi- 
ture of  one  shilling,  except  he  means  some  accounts  from  his 
agents,31  not  signed  by  them  and  otherwise  very  blind  and  imper- 
fect." ''That  after  inquiry  we  cannot  find  any  agent  Colonel 
McNutt  ever  had  at  Halifax,  unless  he  means  some  one  of  his 
creditors  of  whom  he  borrowed  money,  and  at  his  going  away 
deposited  in  his  hands  sundry  securities  that  he  had  taken  from 
the  settlers  he  brought  into  this  province  for  payment  of  their 
passages. "  ' '  And  we  could  wish  that  the  great  concern  Colonel 
McNutt  expresses  at  being  under  the  necessity  of  mentioning 
anything  in  the  least  tending  to  the  disadvantage  of  any  man's 
character,  had  in  any  degree  prevented  his  departure  from  truth 
and  decency,  his  reflections  on  that  head  being  altogether  without 
either. ' ' 

"The  year  1766,"  says  Archdeacon  Raymond,  "witnessed  the 
decline  of  Alexander  McNutt 's  fortunes.  His  plans  for  the  pro- 
motion of  Irish  immigration,  which  at  one  time  looked  so  prom- 
ising, had  been  frustrated  by  the  action  of  the  ministry  in  Eng- 
land. He  had  ceased  to  be  a  middleman  between  the  immigrants 
of  Pennsylvania  and  the  Nova  Scotia  government.  He  had  quar- 
relled with  Governor  Wilmot  and  his  council  at  Halifax.  In  con- 
sequence he  seems  to  have  concluded  it  best  to  retire  to  Port 
Eoseway  and  do  what  he  could  to  promote  his  settlement  there."32 
From  the  beginning  of  his  negotiations  with  the  Nova  Scotia 
Government  McNutt  seems  to  have  had  a  special  liking  for  the 
country  bordering  on  what  is  now  Shelburne  harbor.  This  har- 
bor is  indeed  a  beautiful  and  spacious  one,  and  so  attractive  did 
it  prove  at  a  later  time  that  when  in  1783  the  New  York  Loyalists 
determined  to  remove  to  some  part  of  Nova  Scotia  it  was  here 
that  they  planned  to  settle  and  did  for  a  time  locate.  In  1759  the 
Nova  Scotia  government  had  promised  McNutt  a  township  at 
Port  Roseway,  but  it  was  not  until  1765  that  a  grant  at  this  place 
was  actually  given  him.  On  the  26th  of  September,  1765,  a  me- 
morial from  him  was  read  at  a  meeting  of  the  Council  in  Hali- 
fax asking  for  a  grant  at  Port  Roseway  in  order  that  he  might 

31.  Who   the    "more   than    thirty"    agents    McNutt    says   he   had    in   various 
colonies   were   we   should   much    like   to   know. 

32.  Archdeacon   Raymond's  first  monograph,  p.  95. 


ALEXANDER  McNUTT,  THE  COLONIZER  1081 

found  there  a  township  to  be  called  by  the  extraordinary  name 
New  Jerusalem.  This  petition  was  granted  and  on  the  15th  of 
October  the  grant  was  formally  made  out  and  McNutt  entered 
into  possession  of  an  immense  tract  of  land,  containing  roughly 
one  hundred  thousand  acres,  including  islands  lying  south  of  the 
tract.33  Of  these  islands  the  most  important  was  the  large  island 
at  the  mouth  of  Shelburne  Harbor  which  still  bears  the  name 
" McNutt 's  Island,"  and  here  McNutt  himself,  we  presume  in 
conjunction  with  his  brother  Benjamin,  built  a  house  in  which 
Benjamin  evidently  lived  until  near  the  time  of  his  death,  and 
to  which  Alexander  in  the  intervals  of  his  wandering  frequently 
returned.34  Of  McNutt 's  efforts  to  settle  his  township,  New 
Jerusalem,  we  have  found  no  records  whatever,  but  careful  study 
of  the  early  history  of  Shelburne  County  has  made  certain  the 
fact  that  he  brought  at  least  one  family,  that  of  his  brother  Jo- 
seph, to  a  spot  on  the  mainland  a  little  to  the  southwest  of  the 
Island,  called  Point  Carleton  or  Round  Bay.  That  he  may  have 
induced  a  few  other  families  to  settle  in  the  township  is  quite 
possible,  for  in  1786,  as  we  shall  later  see,  one  or  two  men  in  the 
Shelburne  tax  list  are  designated,  as  was  the  widow  of  Joseph 
McNutt,  "old  settlers."  The  period  of  McNutt 's  ownership  of 
his  hundred  thousand  acres  at  Port  Roseway  was,  however,  very 
short.  On  the  14th  of  December,  1768,  to  satisfy  an  execution  of 
Henry  Ferguson,  a  merchant  of  Halifax  town,  against  McNutt, 

33.  This  tract  is  described  as  "100,000  acres  near  Cape  Negro  River;'     Crown 
Land  register,  Vol.  7,  fol.  18.     In    his  Akins  Prize  Essay,  in  manuscript,  in  King's 
College    Library,    Nova    Scotia,    Mr.    Thomas    Robertson    minutely    describes    the 
boundaries  of  this   Port  Roseway  grant,  as  "beginning  at  the  first  Lake  in   Cape 
Negro  River  and  running  from  thence   N.  33°   15'  West  and  measuring  ten  miles, 
then   N.   66°    15'   East  till   it   meets   with   the   line  beginning  at   the   falls   of   Green 
River  and  running  North  33°   15'  West,  and  is  bounded  by  the  ocean  on  the  South 
East,  and  West  by  the  Harbour  and  River  of  Cape  Negro,  together  with  all  the 
Islands    South    of  "said    limits,    containing    in    all    about    100,000    acres."     "A    short 
time   after  this    [the   giving  of  the   grant],"    says   Mr.   Robertson,   "he    [McNutt] 
asked  leave  of  the  Government  at  Halifax  to  allow  the  first  settlers  who  should 
arrive  at  Port  Roseway  to  settle  on  the  vacant  lands  in  the  Townships  of  Bar- 
rington   and  Yarmouth,   together  with   a   small   island   called   Cape   Negro   Head." 
Archdeacon    Raymond    says :     "In    one    of    his    later    memorials    to   the    Lords    of 
Trade    and    Plantations,    McNutt    speaks    of   having   laid    out   a    tract   of  land    at 
Port  Roseway,  near  Cape  Sable,  on  which  he  proposed  to  build_  a  city,  a  plan  of 
which   he    submits,   and   prays   their   Lordships   to   obtain    for   him    a   charter    for 
establishing  and  confirming  the  said  city  in  its  rights  and  privileges.     He  proposed 
to   call   the   city    New   Jerusalem." 

34.  Mr.  Thomas  Robertson  says  that  in  1871,  when  he  wrote  his  prize  essay 
on  Shelburne  "the  site"  of  McNutt's  house  (by  which  he  probably  means  traces  of 
the    foundation)    wer^  still    to   be    seen. 


io82  ALEXANDER  McNUTT,  THE  COLONIZER 

the  provost  marshal  (sheriff)  of  Halifax  County  "set  off,  made 
over,  and  sold"  to  Ferguson  this  whole  enormous  tract.  On  the 
9th  of  March,  1771,  the  sheriff  gave  a  formal  deed  of  the  prop- 
erty to  Hon.  Benjamin  Gerrish  of  Halifax,  the  township  of  New 
Jerusalem  having  been  put  up  at  auction  by  this  officer  and  sold 
for  Ferguson's  benefit  to  the  highest  bidder.  For  his  newly  ac- 
quired property  Mr.  Gerrish,  one  of  the  most  prosperous  mer- 
chants of  Halifax,  gave  the  not  inconsiderable  sum  of  three  hun- 
dred and  fifty  pounds  currency.  In  the  Halifax  Gazette,  three 
years  after  Mr.  Gerrish 's  death,  which  took  place  in  1772,  the 
Port  Roseway  grant  entire  was  repeatedly  advertised  to  be  sold 
at  auction,  by  the  executors  of  his  estate.  That  it  was  never 
transferred  to  any  other  person,  however,  seems  clear  from  the 
absence  of  the  record  of  any  such  transfer  in  the  Halifax  deeds.35 
After  the  Loyalists  came  to  Shelburne,  or  about  the  time  of  their 
coming,  it  became  necessary  to  distribute  the  Port  Roseway  land, 
and  whether  with  or  without  recompense  to  the  estate  of  Mr.  Ger- 
rish, if  the  estate  still  held  it,  the  property  was  formally  es- 
cheated, the  instrument  of  escheat  declaring  that  the  original 
grantee  had  never  fulfilled  the  conditions  under  which  he  had 
obtained  the  grant,  he  having  neither  paid  quit  rent  nor  settled 
the  required  number  of  families  on  his  land.36  After  1768,  as 
we  know,  no  part  of  the  island  properly  belonged  to  McNutt  or 
his  brother,  but  as  his  brother  Joseph  and  whatever  other  set- 
tlers he  had  introduced  into  the  township  were  allowed  to  remain 
in  undisturbed  possession  of  the  land  on  which  they  had  been 
placed,  so  he  and  his  brother  were  permitted  still  to  occupy  the 
upper  end  of  the  island,  where  their  house  stood.  To  that  island, 
in  the  intervals  of  his  wandering,  McNutt  no  doubt  occasionally 
returned,  but  his  brother  Benjamin  probably  stayed  there,  farm- 
ing and  fishing  most  of  the  time.  On  the  7th  of  July,  1785,  the 
island  (which  Archdeacon  Raymond  says  in  some  of  the  early 
plans  is  called  "Roseneath")  was  distributed  among  thirty- 

35.  The  facts  given  here  have  been  gleaned  from  the  registers  of  deeds  in 
Halifax    and    from    the    Halifax    Gazette.     In    the    advertisement    in    the    Halifax 
Gazette   the   land   is    described   as    formerly   granted   to   Alexander   McNutt,    "but 
lately  the  property  of  Benjamin  Gerrish."     The  auction  was  to  take  place  at  the 
house   of   Mr.   John   Rider   in   Halifax. 

36.  The  record  of  escheatment  of  this  property  may  be  seen  in  the  Crown 
Land   Office  in   Halifax,  but  the  endorsement  has  nothing  to   show  that   money 
was  paid  the  Gerrish  estate  when  the  land  was  taken  by  the  crown. 


ALEXANDER  McNUTT,  THE  COLONIZER  1083 

eight  proprietors,  thirty-seven  of  these  receiving  fifty  acres 
apiece,  the  thirty-eighth,  Benjamin  McNutt,  no  doubt  in  consider- 
ation of  his  having  lived  there  so  many  years,  receiving  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty.37  When  we  come  to  speak  more  definitely  of  Ben- 
jamin McNutt  we  shall  see  that  in  his  will  he  bequeathed  his 
property  on  the  island  to  his  " friend"  Martin  McNutt,  cooper, 
probably  of  Shelburne  town. 

During  the  twelve  years  between  1766  and  1778,  Alexander 
McNutt  lived  probably  much  of  the  time  on  the  island  where  he 
and  his  brother  had  their  house,  but  he  was  a  restless  spirit, 
and  moreover  he  had  interests  in  other  parts  of  the  province, 
notably  Truro,  and  in  this  township  we  sometimes  find  him, 
among  the  Archibalds  and  others  whom  he  had  directed  from 
Londonderry,  New  Hampshire,  in  1761.  In  1771  McNutt  is  reck- 
oned in  a  census  of  Truro  as  living,  a  single  man,  in  Truro,  and 
on  the  8th  of  May  of  that  year  we  find  him  executing  in  Truro 
a  deed  of  two  rights  (a  thousand  acres)  he  had  received  in  Lon- 
donderry, Colchester  County,  to  his  "loving  son  Samuel  Archi- 
bald McNutt  of  Truro,  surveyor. "  To  an  historian  unacquainted 
with  McNutt 's  eccentricities  this  extraordinary  deed  would  be  a 
puzzling  document,  for  McNutt  is  believed  never  to  have  mar- 
ried, and  the  history  of  Truro  shows  no  such  person  living  there 
at  any  time  as  Samuel  Archibald  McNutt.  The  deed  begins: 
"I  Alexander  McNutt,  Esqr.,  of  Jerusalem  Pillgrim,"  and  states 
that  for  and  in  consideration  of  the  love  and  affection  he  has  and 
bears  towards  his  loving  son,  he  gives  and  grants  freely  and 
clearly  and  of  his  own  good  will  and  mere  motion,  to  Samuel 
Archibald  McNutt  the  land  in  Londonderry  he  had  received  by  a 
grant  from  Government,  October  31,  1765.  Instead  of  "Samuel 
Archibald  McNutt,  surveyor,"  the  person  intended  in  this  deed 
was  undoubtedly  Samuel  Archibald,  surveyor,  a  young  man  of 
twenty-eight,  whose  father,  David  Archibald,  was  one  of  the 
Londonderry,  New  Hampshire,  settlers  whom  McNutt  had  di- 
rected to  Truro.  The  deed  is  executed  before  David  Archibald, 
as  justice  of  the  peace,  and  witnessed  also  by  David  Archibald, 

•V  See  Archdeacon  Raymond's  first  monograph,  pp.  95,  ?6,  and  manuscript 
records  in  Shelburne.  Dr.  Raymond  speaks  of  a  plan  of  the  island  preserved  at 
Ottawa,  which  is  marked  "Survey'd,  laid  out,  and  granted  Benjamin  McNutt  and 
87  others."  The  number  is  properly  37. 


1084  ALEXANDER  McNUTT,  THE  COLONIZER 

and  that  McNutt  should  have  given  young  Archibald,  apparently 
seriously,  a  name  to  which  he  had  not  the  least  claim,  and  which 
would  of  course  make  the  deed  to  him  valueless  is  to  be  as  lit- 
tle understood  as  many  other  freaks  of  this  curious  man.  Mc- 
Nutt 's  land  at  Londonderry,  which  if  we  remember  rightly  com- 
prised the  only  other  individual  grant  besides  Port  Koseway, 
with  which  the  Nova  Scotia  Government  endowed  the  colonizer, 
like  the  Port  Boseway  grant  to  him,  was  finally  seized  by  the 
Sheriff  for  debt,  and  on  the  29th  of  June,  1776,  the  creditor, 
James  Fulton,  of  Colchester  County,  sold  it  all,  except  sixty 
acres  of  marsh,  which  was  * t  occupied  by  the  inhabitants  of  Chig- 
anoise, "  to  a  group  of  Colchester  men.38 

Whatever  McNutt 's  chief  interests  were  between  the  time 
that  he  ceased  his  colonization  schemes  and  his  leaving  Nova  Sco- 
tia in  the  early  stages  of  the  Eevolution,  it  is  evident  that  he 
did  not  cease  to  annoy  the  Government  with  rash  and  unwar- 
ranted acts.  This  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  in  1769  Attorney 
General  Nesbitt  informed  the  Council  that  McNutt  had  "par- 
celled out  land  to  several  persons,  pretending  to  have  authority 
under  the  King's  sign  manual  to  settle  all  ungranted  lands  in 
the  province.  On  this  it  was  ordered  that  the  Attorney  General 
should  prosecute  McNutt,  and  that  a  proclamation  should  issue 
forbidding  unauthorized  occupation  of  land  and  cutting  timber 
under  penalties. ' >39  So  far  as  we  know  the  ordered  prosecution 
was  never  carried  out,  and  it  is  natural  to  suppose  that  McNutt, 
learning  of  the  order  of  Council  felt  it  wise  to  desist  from  the 
particular  offensive  acts  of  which  the  Attorney  General  had  com- 
plained. 

II 

In  the  early  summer  of  1778,  McNutt  left  Port  Boseway  on  a 
vessel  for  Boston,  in  which  city  he  took  up  his  residence  and  at 
once  began  a  new  species  of  activities.  He  was  apparently  never 
so  happy  as  when  memorializing  governmental  bodies,  and  he 
had  no  sooner  reached  Boston  than  he  began  a  series  of 

38.  These    facts    have   been   discovered,    like   the    facts   concerning  the    Port 
Roseway  grant,  in  the  registers  of  deeds  in  Halifax,  Truro  registers  also  furnish- 
ing important   information   concerning  the   latter   grant. 

39.  Records  of  the  Council,  quoted  also  by  Murdoch  in  his  History  of  Nova 
Scotia. 


ALEXANDER  McNUTT,  THE  COLONIZER  1085 

appeals  to  the  Massachusetts  Council,  complaining  of  the  robbery 
of  his  house  at  Port  Roseway  by  a  party  of  "armed  ruffians" 
from  a  Boston  privateer  called  the  Congress,  on  the  preceding 
22nd  of  June,  and  begging  that  the  Council  would  give  him  re- 
dress. His  brother,  he  says,  was  with  him  when  the  robbery  was 
committed  and  like  himself  had  suffered  violence  at  the  robbers' 
hands.40  As  soon  as  the  scoundrels  left,  he  tells  the  Council,  he 
had  departed  for  Boston,  and  he  relates  that  on  his  passage 
thither,  in  a  small  vessel,  he  had  been  seized  by  a  British  frigate 
but  had  afterwards  been  released  and  set  on  shore.  From  what- 
ever point  he  landed  he  had  proceeded  in  a  whaleboat  to  Fal- 
mouth,  Maine,  from  which  place  he  had  continued  his  journey  to 
Boston  on  foot."  In  his  memorials  he  declares  strongly  his 
sympathy  with  the  American  revolutionists  and  challenges  "even 
Enmity  itself"  to  produce  one  single  instance  in,  which  he  has 
"deviated  from  the  Resolves  of  Congress"  since  the  year  1774. 
Before  he  left  Nova  Scotia,  he  complains,  he  had  been  deprived 
(he  means,  no  doubt,  by  the  Government  )of  property  worth 
forty  thousand  pounds  sterling,  probably  much  more  having 
likewise  been  taken  from  him  since  he  came  away.  A  certain 
Dr.  Prince,  he  says,  "with  others  of  like  kind,"  had  applied  to 
Britain  for  his  lands,  and  for  his  life,  representing  him  as  dis- 
affected to  the  crown,  which  application  had  been  supported  by 
the  Governor  and  Council. 

Almost  immediately  after  he  reached  Boston  he  also  began  a 
series  of  appeals  to  the  Continental  Congress  at  Philadelphia, 
imploring  that  body  to  take  steps  to  draw  Nova  Scotia  into  the 
Revolution.  The  people  of  this  maritime  province,  he  claimed, 
were  anxious  to  get  free  from  Britain's  rule  and  would  thank- 
fully receive  any  assistance  in  securing  their  freedom  that  Con- 
gress might  give.  How  early  after  this  McNutt  visited  Phila- 
delphia we  do  not  know,  but  his  first  appeal  was  read  there  before 
Congress  on  the  29th  of  September,  1778.  His  memorial  was 
referred  by  Congress  to  a  committee  of  three,  and  a  month  later 

40  McNutt  claimed  that  he  had  been  robbed  by  these  ruffians  of  fire-arms 
and  ammunition,  furniture,  "superfine  Scarlet  and  Bleu  Cloths,  Books,  Silver 
Spoons,  Silver  Buckles,  Plain,  Set  and  Carved,  Gold  lace,  Diamond  Rings,  with  a 
number  of  other  articles."  McNutt's  memorials  are  found  in  the  Massachusetts 
Archives,  and  have  been  printed  by  Edmund  Duval  Poole  in  his  Annals  of  Yar- 
mouth and  Barrington  in  the  Revolutionary  War"  (1889). 


io86  ALEXANDER  McNUTT,  THE  COLONIZER 

the  committee  reported  that ' '  after  a  conference  with  the  memo- 
rialist, it  appears  unnecessary  to  take  any  further  action  at  pres- 
ent," and  recommended  that  the  sum  of  three  hundred  dollars 
be  given  McNutt  in  consideration  of  the  expenses  he  had  incur- 
red in  his  efforts  to  serve  the  United  States.  In  January  and 
March,  respectively,  1779,  he  makes  similar  appeals,  in  the 
March  petition  being  joined  by  Phineas  Nevers,  one  of  his  orig- 
inal colony  at  Maugerville,  New  Brunswick,  and  Samuel  Rogers, 
who  had  settled  at  Sackville,  in  the  same  province.41  On  the  7th 
of  April  the  Committee  to  whom  these  appeals  had  been  referred 
report  on  the  "memorial  of  Alexander  McNutt  and  others,  agents 
for  several  townships  in  Nova  Scotia, ' '  that  in  their  opinion  ' '  it 
is  greatly  interesting  to  the  United  States  of  America  that  Nova 
Scotia  should  not  remain  subjected  to  the  government  of  Great 
Britain,  to  be  used  as  an  instrument  to  check  their  growth  or 
molest  their  tranquillity.  That  the  people  in  general  of  that 
Province  have  been  thoroughly  well  disposed  towards  the  United 
States  from  the  beginning  of  the  present  war.  That  they  made 
early  application  to  Congress  for  direction  how  they  might  be 
serviceable  to  the  Continental  cause,  offering  to  raise  three  thou- 
sand men  in  ten  days.  That  they  have  since  repeatedly  applied 
for  countenance  and  aid  to  enable  them  to  assert  their  inde- 
pendence. That  they  have  as  often  received  friendly  assurances 
from  Congress,  though  circumstances  prevented  any  vigorous 
efforts  in  their  favor.  That  they  begin  now  to  apprehend  the 
United  States  will  rest  satisfied  with  their  own  independence,  and 
leave  Nova  Scotia  under  British  despotism.  That  the  memorialists 
were  sent  forward  by  the  people  to  obtain  from  Congress  some 
assurances  to  the  contrary,  hoping  they  may  not  be  reduced  to 
ask  for  ammunition  and  a  guarantee  of  their  freedom  in  France 
or  Holland.  That  it  would  tend  greatly  to  animate  the  well-dis- 
posed in  Nova  Scotia  and  to  secure  the  Indians  to  the  United 
States,  as  well  as  to  promote  desertion  from  the  enemy  and  facil- 
itate supplies  of  live  stock  to  the  eastern  parts  of  the  Union,  if  a 
road  was  opened  through  the  country  from  Penobscot  to  St. 
John's  River.  That  for  such  a  work  a  body  of  faithful  men 

41.  Rogers  at  a  certain  date  appeals  to  the  Continental  Congress  to  be 
allowed  to  have  Saekville  and  come  with  his  family  and  their  effects  to  the 
United  States.  See  the  Journals  of  Congress. 


ALEXANDER  McNUTT,  THE  COLONIZER  1087 

strongly  interested  to  accomplish  it  might  be  found  among  those 
who  have  been  driven  by  the  hand  of  oppression  from  Nova  Sco- 
tia. Your  committee  therefore  propose  the  following  Resolu- 
tion: Resolved,  That  Lieut.-Col.  Phineas  Nevers  and  Captain 
Samuel  Rogers  be  employed  to  lay  out,  mark  and  clear  a  road 
from  Penobscot  river  to  St.  John's  river  in  the  most  commodious 
line  and  in  the  most  prudent  manner.  That  they  be  empowered 
to  enlist  for  such  service  a  body  of  men  not  to  exceed  fifteen  hun- 
dred. That  fifteen  thousand  dollars  be  advanced  to  them  for  car- 
rying on  this  work,  for  the  faithful  expenditure  of  which  they 
shall  become  bound  to  the  United  States  on  a  bond  to  be  given 
to  the  Continental  treasurer."  What  debate  there  may  have 
been  in  Congress  on  this  report  we  do  not  know,  but  it  is  clear 
that  the  recommendations  of  the  Committee  were  not  acted  upon, 
and  after  two  more  appeals  to  Congress  in  1779,  one  of  which 
signed  also  by  Joseph  "McKnutt,"  Samuel  Henderson,  and 
Anthony  Henderson,  prays  that  certain  persons  may  be  allowed 
to  come  from  "Great  Britain  and  Ireland''  to  the  United  States; 
and  still  two  other  appeals,  the  substance  of  which  we  have  not 
ascertained/2  McNutt  in  1781,  ceases  his  memorials  to  the  Con- 
tinental Congress. 

On  the  attitude  of  the  people  of  Nova  Scotia  generally  in  the 
war  of  the  Revolution,  it  becomes  increasingly  clear  that  the  last 
word  has  not  yet  been  spoken.  From  the  entries  we  have  given 
and  from  other  mentions  in  the  Journals  of  Congress  we  see  how 
strong  the  desire  of  Congress  was  to  draw  Nova  Scotia  also  into 
the  revolt  against  the  British  Crown,  and  as  time  goes  on  more 
and  more  echoes  reach  us  of  the  sympathy  that  was  undoubtedly 
felt  in  various  parts  of  the  province  with  the  war  for  indepen- 
dence that  was  so  successful  in  the  thirteen  colonies  that  became 
the  original  United  States.  From  these  appeals  of  McNutt 's  to 
Congress  we  judge  that  before  he  left  Nova  Scotia  he  had  been 
actively  engaged  in  fomenting  rebellion,  but  how  true  his  claims 
are  to  be  the  authorized  representative  of  any  considerable  body 
of  Nova  Scotians  in  seeking  aid  from  Congress,  we  are  left  to 
imagine.  From  what  we  know  of  the  man  and  his  habitual  ten- 

42.  The  two  memorials  in  1781  were  dated  respectively,  January  3rd 1  and 
Tune  isth  The  first  of  these  was  read  January  I3th,  and  the  second,  which 
indosed  "Extracts  from  memorials  presented  at  Whitehall"  by  McNutt,  was  read 
October  I5th. 


io88  ALEXANDER  McNUTT,  THE  COLONIZER 

dency  to  falsify  we  may  believe  that  in  his  appeals  to  Con- 
gress he  characteristically  misrepresents  facts,  and  in  regard  to 
himself  claims  authority  to  represent  the  Nova  Scotia  people 
which  no  important  community  had  given  him.  In  this  judg- 
ment we  are  strengthened  by  the  following  scathing  arraign- 
ment of  him  in  a  letter  to  Major  Studholme  at  Fort  Howe,  on 
the  St.  John  River,  received  by  that  officer  about  the  middle  of 
October,  1781 :  "  I  am  to  inform  you  that  there  is  a  certain  Col- 
onel McNutt,  who  is  well  known  in  Nova  Scotia,  that  he  has 
pawned  [palmed]  himself  upon  the  Congress  at  Philadelphia  for 
some  time  past  as  an  agent  to  transact  business  with  that  body 
for  the  inhabitants  of  Nova  Scotia,  by  virtue  of  certain  powers 
invested  in  him  for  that  purpose;  as  he  is  a  subtle,  designing 
fellow,  and  has  endeavored  to  circulate  several  letters  and  dan- 
gerous pamphlets  throughout  the  Province,  I  wish  to  acquaint 
Government  of  it  in  order  that  such  necessary  steps  should  be 
taken  as  may  be  thought  proper  to  suppress  such  unwarrantable 
proceedings  and  prevent  the  ill  consequences  that  may  attend  it. ' ' 
This  letter  Major  Studholme  sent  to  Lieutenant-Governor 
Francklin  with  the  request  that  after  he  had  read  it  he  would  in- 
close it  to  Mr.  Bulkeley,  the  Provincial  Secretary.13 

Local  Virginia  tradition  says  that  at  the  close  of  the  Revolu- 
tion McNutt  went  again  to  Nova  Scotia  and  remained  there  some 
years,  and  this  Virginia  tradition  records  preserved  in  the  town 
of  Shelburne  fully  bear  out.  In  his  manuscript  history  of  Shel- 
burne  County,  to  which  we  have  several  times  referred,  Mr. 
Thomas  Robertson  says :  "In  September,  1791,  Colonel  McNutt 
was  living  on  the  island  in  Shelburne  Harbor,  as  I  find  by  a  letter 
in  an  old  letter  book  addressed  to  him  from  one  of  the  merchants 
of  Shelburne. ' '  In  tax  lists  of  Shelburne  of  the  years  1786  and 
1787  Alexander  McNutt 's  name  is  found,  in  that  of  1787  his 
brother  Benjamin's  also  appearing.  In  the  list  for  1786,  Alex- 
ander is  designated  "gentleman,"  his  residence  being  given  as 
McNutt 's  Island,  but  in  the  list  for  1787  both  Alexander  and 
Benjamin  are  called  "farmers,"  their  taxes  respectively  being 

43.  Our  authority  for  the  reception  by  Major  Studholme  of  this  letter  is, 
"Biographical  Sketches,"  in  Mr.  Thomas  Robertson's  "History  of  Shelburne 
County,"  in  manuscript  in  King's  College  Library,  Nova  Scotia.  Mr.  Robertson 
wrote  his  essay  in  Halifax,  and  he  no  doubt  found  the  information  above  in  the 
Nova  Scotia  Archives  or  the  Minutes  of  Council. 


ALEXANDER  McNUTT,  THE  COLONIZER  1089 

3/3  county  tax  and  2/9  poor  tax.  In  the  previous  year  Alexan- 
der's taxes  had  been  20/  county  tax  and  10/  poor  tax,  but  for 
both  years  the  taxes  remained  unpaid  until  October  5, 1790,  when 
a  summons  and  execution  compelled  them  to  be  given  in.  From 
a  capitation  tax  list  of  Shelburne  in  1794,  preserved  in  Halifax,4* 
we  know  that  Alexander  was  still  in  Shelburne,  but  from  a  deed 
(of  property  he  did  not  own  and  had  never  owned)  which  he 
executed  in  Eockbridge  County,  Virginia,  on  the  20th  of  March, 
1797,  we  see  that  he  had  left  Nova  Scotia  some  time  earlier  than 
this  date.45 

Of  Alexander  McNutt 's  last  years  in  Virginia  we  know  very 
little.  The  statement  that  he  spent  these  years  at  the  home  of  a 
brother  John  at  the  "Forks"  in  Lexington,  Virginia,  is  of  course 
untrue,  for  his  brother  John  never  left  Nova  Scotia  after  his  set- 
tlement there  in  1765.  In  the  County  Court  records  of  Rock- 
bridge  County,46  in  a  document  dated  September  18,  1802,  Mc- 
Nutt  is  designated  '  *  Colonel  Alexander  McNutt  from  Nova  Sco- 
tia, now  in  Eockbridge  County,  and  State  of  Virginia,"  but 
with  whom  he  was  living  we  have  no  idea.  He  is  said  to  have 
died  in  1811,  but  local  tradition  is  uncertain  as  to  where  he  was 
buried,  one  statement  being  that  his  grave  was  in  the  cemetery  at 
Lexington,  the  capital  of  Eockbridge  County,  the  other  that  he 
was  buried  at  Falling  Spring.  Twenty  years  after  his  death 
conspicuous  notices  of  him  began  to  appear  in  Virginia  publica- 
tions. The  first  of  these,  probably,  in  permanent  form,  was  in 
Alexander  Scott  Withers '  * '  Chronicles  of  Border  Warfare, ' '  first 
published  in  Northwestern  Virginia  in  1831.  In  his  '  *  Historical 
Collections  of  Virginia,"  published  in  1852,  the  historian 
Henry  Howe  says:  "In  the  Falling  Spring  churchyard, 
on  the  forks  of  the  James  Eiver,  is  the  grave  of 


44.  Four  capitation  tax  lists  of  Shelburne  are  preserved  in  Halifax,  of  the 
years    1791,   1792,   1793,  and   1794,  respectively,  and  in  all  the  names  of  both  the 
McNutt  brothers  appear.     In  all  the  lists  both  men  are  designated  farmers,  and 
their  relative  ownerships  of  property  are  thus  indicated;   in  all  four  lists  Alex- 
ander's tax  is  one  shilling,  in  1791  and  1792  Benjamin's  being  the  same;    m  1793, 
however,  Benjamin's  is  2/7,  and  in   1794,  2/2.     In  both  1793  and   1794,  Benjamin 
McNutt   is   credited   with   having  three   horses   and   ten   sheep,   while   Alexanders 
property  is  not  specified. 

45.  See  Archdeacon  Raymond's  first  monograph,  pp.  09,  100. 

46.  Will  Book,   No.  2,  p.  300.     See  Archdeacon  Raymonds  first  monograph, 
p.  101.    We  have  never  been  able  personally  to  examine  Virginia  records,  but  we 
take  for  granted  that  this  particular  record  is  there. 


1090  ALEXANDER  McNUTT,  THE  COLONIZER 

Governor  M'Nutt,  who  died  in  1811.  He  was  a  lieu- 
tenant in  the  company  of  Captain  John  Alexander  (father  of 
Dr.  Archibald  Alexander),  in  the  Sandy  Creek  voyage,  in  1757. 
Shortly  after,  he  was  appointed  governor  of  Nova  Scotia,  where 
he  remained  until  the  commencement  of  the  American  Revolu- 
tion. In  this  contest  he  adhered  to  the  cause  of  liberty,  and 
joined  his  countrymen  in  arms  under  Gates,  at  Saratoga.  He 
was  afterwards  known  as  a  valuable  officer  in  the  brigade  of 
Baron  de  Kalb  in  the  South."47  Mr.  Joseph  Addison  Waddell, 
in  his  much  more  recent  "Ajinals  of  Augusta  County," 
says:  "For  some  years  McNutt  resided  in  Nova  Scotia, 
but  the  popular  beilef  that  he  was  governor  of  that  prov- 
ince is  unfounded.  After  the  Revolutionary  War  he  joined  the 
American  Army  at  Saratoga,  and  was  afterward  an  officer  under 
DeKalb  in  the  South.  He  died  in  1811,  and  was  buried  at  Fall- 
ing Spring  Churchyard,  Rockbridge.  "48  Describing  McNutt 's 
connection  with  the  Sandy  Creek  expedition  of  1756,  Mr.  Wad- 
dell  says :  * '  McNutt  is  supposed  to  have  been  in  confidential  rela- 
tions with  Governor  Dinwiddie,  to  whom  (and  not  to  Governor 
Fauquier)  he  delivered  his  account  of  the  Sandy  Creek  expe- 
dition. After  his  affray  in  Staunton  with  Andrew  Lewis  he  went 
to  England,  and  being  recommended  by  the  Governor  of  Vir- 
ginia was  admitted  to  an  audience  with  the  King.  Ever  after- 
wards he  wore  the  prescribed  court  dress. "  ' '  The  French  having 
been  driven  out  of  Nova  Scotia,  McNutt  received  from  the  Gov- 
ernment grants  of  extensive  tracts  of  land  in  that  province  upon 
condition  of  introducing  other  settlers.  He  accordingly  brought 
over  many  people  from  the  north  of  Ireland,  including 
persons  of  his  own  name,  and  a  sister,  who  married 
a  Mr.  Weir.  Admiral  Cochrane,  of  the  Britsh  Navy, 
is  believed  to  be  a  descendant  of  Mrs.  Weir,  and  others  of 
her  descendants  are  now  living  in  Nova  Scotia."  " Alexander 
McNutt  seems  to  have  returned  to  Nova  Scotia  after  the  Revolu- 
tion, as  in  the  deed  of  1785  he  is  described  as  'late  of  Augusta 

47.  "Historical  Collections  of  Virginia,"  by  Henry  Howe,  Charleston,  S.  C, 
1852,    p.    456. 

48.  "Annals   of   Augusta   County,   Virginia,   from    1726  to    1871,"   by  Joseph 
Addison   Waddell,   first  published   at   Richmond,   Va.,   in    1888.     (See  p.   84,   and 
Supplement,  pp.  440-442)  ;    2nd  Edition,  revised  and  enlarged,  published  at  Staun- 
ton, Va.,   1902    (pp.  72,   130,  230). 


ALEXANDER  McNUTT,  THE  COLONIZER  1091 

county,  now  of  Halifax,  Nova  Scotia,'49  But  he  did  not  remain 
there  long.  He  appears  to  have  been  a  visionary  man,  and  in 
his  latter  days  at  least,  somewhat  of  a  religious  enthusiast.  While 
living  in  Nova  Scotia  he  attempted  to  found  there  a  settlement 
to  be  called  '  New  Jerusalem. '  It  is  presumed  that  his  lands  in 
that  Province  were  confiscated  when  he  came  away  and  joined 
the  American  'rebels;'  but  in  1796  he  undertook  to  convey  by 
deed  100,000  acres  in  Nova  Scotia  [sic]  to  the  Synod  of  Virginia, 
in  trust  for  the  benefit  of  Liberty  Hall  Academy,  in  Rockbridge, 
among  other  purposes  '  for  the  support  of  public  lectures  in  said 
seminary,  annually,  on  man's  state  by  nature  and  his  recovery 
by  free  and  unmerited  grace  through  Christ  Jesus,  and  against 
opposite  errors. '  Possibly  finding  that  this  deed  would  not  do, 
he  executed  another  next  year  directly  to  the  trustees  of  Liberty 
Hall,  for  the  same  uses.  The  second  deed  was  witnessed  by  An- 
drew Alexander,  Conrad  Speece,  and  Archibald  Alexander.  It 
is  unnecessary  to  say  that  Liberty  Hall  did  not  get  the  land. 
McNutt  never  married,  and  left  no  posterity.  His  old-fashioned 
dress  sword  was  preserved  by  his  collateral  descendant,  Alex- 
ander McNutt  Glasgow,  of  Rockbridge ;  but  at  the  time  of  Hunt- 
er's  Raid,  in  1864,  the  silver-mounted  scabbard  was  carried  off, 
leaving  only  the  naked  blade.  John  McNutt,  a  brother  of  Alex- 
ander, settled  on  North  River,  Rockbridge." 

In  the  Staunton,  Virginia,  Spectator,  of  February  29,  1888, 
appeared  a  letter  from  the  Hon.  William  A.  Glasgow,  of  Lexing- 
ton, regarding  the  McNutt  family  of  Virginia,  from  whom  the 
writer  was  descended,  and  especially  concerning  his  collateral 
ancestor  "Colonel"  Alexander  McNutt.  Mr.  Glasgow  repeats 


49.  "While  living  in  Nova  Scotia  in  1761,  McNutt  executed  a  power  of 
attorney,  authorizing  his  brother  John  to  sell  and  convey  his  real  estate.  In 
pursuance  of  his  instrument  John  McNutt,  on  August  16,  1785,  conveyed  to 
Thomas  Smith,  in  consideration  of  £110,  lot  No.  10  in  Staunton,  which  was  pur- 
chased by  Alexander  in  1750  for  £3,  as  stated  on  page  72.  ...  John  McNutt, 
a  brother  of  Alexander,  settled  on  North  River,  Rockbridge,"  etc.,  etc.  "Annals  of 
Augusta  Co.,  Va.,  from  1726  to  1871."  Second  Edition,  1902.  We  have  not  been 
able  to  do  any  genealogical  work  in  Virginia,  and  as  we  have  said,  we  know  very 
little  of  the  McNutt  family  settled  there.  By  Virginia  census  returns  of  the 
years  1783-1786  we  learn,  however,  that  at  that  time,  somewhere  _m  Greenbner 
County  West  Virginia,  there  were  living,  probably  as  heads  of  families,  a  James,  a 
John  and  a  Francis  McNutt.  Who  the  John  McNutt  who  is  said  to  have  set- 
tled on  North  River,  Rockbridge,  may  have  been  we  cannot  tell,  it  was  certainly 
not  Alexander's  brother  John,  for  he  was  a  blacksmith  in  Nova  Scotia,  where,  as 
we  have  said,  he  lived  continuously  probably  from  1765  to  the  end  of  his  days. 


1092 

the  statement  that  not  long  after  the  expedition  against  the 
Shawnees,  McNutt  took  passage  for  England,  "it  is  supposed," 
with  strong  testimonials  from  Governor  Dinwiddie,  in  intimate 
relations  with  whom  "he  is  supposed"  to  have  been.  When  he 
returned  from  England  it  was  with  the  military  title  of  Colonel, 
and  "in  court  dress,  which  he  always  afterward  wore,  and  with 
a  dress  sword  at  his  side." 

A  still  later  publication  in  the  United  States,  dealing  with 
Alexander  McNutt,  is  a  volume  entitled  ' '  Genealogies  and  Rem- 
iniscences,"  compiled  under  the  auspices  of  Mrs.  Henrietta  Ham- 
ilton McCormick,  a  descendant  of  the  John  McNutt  of  Virginia 
who  is  said  to  have  been  Alexander's  brother.50  In  this  volume 
appears  a  most  uncritical  sketch  of  the  Virginia  McNutt  family, 
in  the  course  of  which  many  of  the  preceding  tales  of  Alexander 
McNutt 's  greatness  are  re- told,  and  the  additional  flattering  dis- 
tinction given  the  gentleman  of  having  been  knighted  by  King 
George  II  "for  his  services  and  gallantry."  "The  sword  which 
was  then  presented  to  him  by  the  King,"  says  this  writer,  "is 
still  preserved,  though  despoiled  of  its  silver  mounting,  chains, 
and  ornamented  scabbard,  by  the  soldiers  of  General  Hunter's 
command,  when  they  made  their  raid  in  the  Valley  of  Virginia 
during  the  Civil  War."  The  writer  of  the  sketch  repeats  the 
fond  story  that  after  he  left  Nova  Scotia  McNutt  joined  the  Con- 
tinental forces  under  General  Gates  at  Saratoga,  and  then  was  a 
"meritorious  officer"  on  the  staff  of  De  Kalb  in  the  South.  At 
the  close  of  the  war,  the  writer  says,  McNutt ' '  returned  to  his  es- 
tate on  McNutt 's  Island,"  from  which  fact  "it  would  seem  that 
his  original  house  in  Halifax  [sic]  and  his  island  estate  were  left 
untouched  by  the  British  Government."  It  was  Governor  Din- 
widdie, the  writer  explains,  not  Governor  Fauquier,  who  pre- 
sented McNutt  at  the  court  of  George  II,  and  paved  the  way  for 
the  honors  and  favors  afterwards  heaped  upon  the  colonizer. 
**As  long  as  this  distinguished  personage  lived,**  adds 
the  writer,  "he  wore  the  court  costume  of  the  reign  of 
George  II,  with  buckles  and  ornamented  buttons  of  silver,  and 
trimmings  of  gold  lace,  a  cocked  hat,  powdered  hair,  and  top 
boots.  His  sword  never  left  his  side."  The  writer  concludes  by 


50.     Genealogies  and  Reminiscences,  Compiled  by  Henrietta  Hamilton  McCor- 
mick.   Revised   Edition.     Chicago:     Published   by  the   Author.     1897,  pp.   53-64. 


ALEXANDER  McNUTT,  THE  COLONIZER  1093 

saying  that  McNutt  " expired"  in  1811,  and  was  " interred"  in 
the  cemetery  at  Lexington.51  In  view  of  the  actual  facts  of  Mc- 
Nutt's  life  as  we  know  them  from  reliable  documents,  most  of 
these  flattering  statements  have  to  be  pronounced  entirely  untrue. 
That  McNutt  in  earlier  life  was  in  confidential  relations  with 
Governor  Dinwiddie  is  a  baseless  assumption,  and  that  soon  after 
the  obscure  Shawnee  raid,  in  which  as  a  rustic  subaltern  he  had 
taken  part,  this  young  militia  officer,  with  Dinwiddie 's  introduc- 
tion, went  to  England  and  had  an  interview  with  the  King  and 
received  a  sword  from  him  is  quite  impossible,  especially  as  his 
supposed  patron,  Dinwiddie,  left  the  governorship  of  Virginia 
as  early  as  January,  1758.  In  any  case,  McNutt 's  quarrel  with 
Lewis  took  place  in  Staunton  at  some  time  between  1756  and 
1758,  and  as  early  as  September,  1758,  and  probably  somewhat 
earlier  he  was  settled  among  the  Scotch-Irish  in  Londonderry, 
New  Hampshire.  That  McNutt  was  ever  in  England  before 
1761,  when  he  went  there  to  further  his  colonization  schemes, 
seems  next  to  impossible,  and  on  the  25th  of  October,  1760, 
George  the  Second  had  died.  That  the  colonizer  ever  saw  any 
distinguished  military  service  whatever  is  impossible,  nor  can 
we  believe  that  he  properly  bore  the  title  ' l  colonel. "  As  a  mili- 
tia officer  in  Massachusetts  he  was  to  the  end  of  his  slight  service 
there,  captain,  not  colonel,  and  there  seems  no  way  that  he  could 
ever  have  reached  any  higher  military  rank.52  Nor  did  he,  after 
he  left  Nova  Scotia,  serve  with  General  Gates  at  Saratoga  or 
Baron  de  Kalb  in  the  South.  On  the  17th  of  October,  1777,  Bur- 
goyne  surrendered  to  Gates  at  Saratoga,  and  it  was  not  until  late 
in  June,  1778,  that  McNutt  came  to  Boston  from  his  Port  Rose- 
way  home.  Baron  de  Kalb  died  August  19,  1780,  and  at  that 
time,  as  at  least  for  a  year  afterward,  McNutt  was  clearly  living 
between  Boston  and  Philadelphia,  busily  engaged  in  his  favorite 
pastime  of  drawing  up  memorials,  and  publishing  through  the 

51.  "Genealogies    and    Reminiscences,"    pp.    61-64. 

52.  In  a  letter  from  the  Lords  of  Trade  to  Jonathan  Belcher,  Esq.,  President 
of  the    Nova   Scotia   Council,   written    March   3,    1761,    McNutt   is   referred   to   as 
"Captain  Mac  Nutt."     More  frequently  he  is  spoken  of  in  official  correspondence 
of  the  time  as  "Mr."  McNutt.     In  a  letter  dated  at  Halifax,  November  13,  1762, 
from  Honbles.  John  Collier,  Charles  Morris,  Henry  Newton,  and  Michael  Franck- 
lin,  to  His  Excellency  Governor  Ellis,  annexed  to  a  petition  from  McNutt  to  the 
Lords   of   Trade,    and   received   April    12,    1763,   the  gentlemen   writing  the   letter 
call    McNutt    "Colonel."     On   what   grounds    they   do   this,   unless   it    is    on    some 
representation  made  by  McNutt  himself,  it  is  impossible  to  see. 


1094  ALEXANDER  McNUTT,  THE  COLONIZER 

printing  press  of  Robert  Aitken  of  Philadelphia  a  series  of 
strange  pamphlets,  some  of  which  have  come  to  us,  furthering 
a  scheme  he  had  conceived  of  making  the  Maritime  Provinces  an 
independent  republic  with  a  democratic  government  which  he 
somewhat  ably  outlines,  and  bearing  the  not  hitherto  unheard  of 
name  of  "New  Ireland."  That  most  of  the  popular  stories  of 
his  greatness  were  invented  by  himself  in  Virginia  after  he 
finally  left  the  North  seems  almost  certain,  for  McNutt  was  quite 
equal  to  such  inventions,  and  in  the  remote  southern  country 
where  he  had  been  brought  up,  he  no  doubt  found  a  receptive 
audience.53  In  one  particular,  however,  Virginia  tradition  con- 
cerning McNutt  is  very  likely  correct,  after  he  returned  to  Vir- 
ginia he  is  said  to  have  been  on  friendly  terms  with  Thomas 
Jefferson,  sometimes  visiting  this  gentleman  at  Monticello, 
whither  from  Bockbridge  County  he  always  travelled  afoot.54 

The  culminating  act  of  McNutt 's  singular  career,  was  the 
giving,  as  we  have  intimated,  of  worthless  deeds  in  1796  and 
1797,  to  a  Presbyterian  academy  in  Rockbridge  County,  Virginia, 
of  a  hundred  thousand  acres  of  land  on  the  St.  John  River,  which 
he  speaks  of  as  still  "lying  in  the  Province  of  Nova  Scotia." 
The  lands  which  he  describes  in  this  deed  had  never  belonged  to 
him,  nor  indeed  with  one  exception  had  he  ever  had  any  actual 
share  in  lands  on  the  St.  John  River,  and  Archdeacon  Ray- 
mond's chief  explanation  of  his  performance  is,  that  he  had  now 
passed  his  three-score  and  ten  years,  and  his  mind  and  memory 
may  have  been  confused.55 

Regarding  the  publications  of  McNutt  to  which  we  have  just 
referred,  a  few  words  ought  to  be  said.  In  the  Boston  Public  and 
the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society's  libraries  are  to  be  found 


53.  McNutt's  militia  service  in  Virginia  and  in  New  England  was  so  slight 
that  we  cannot  help  being  amused  at  the  statement  he  boldly  makes  to  the  Lords 
of    Trade    that    (See    Archdeacon    Raymond's    first    monograph,    pp.    62,    in)    he 
had  raised  three  hundred  men  for  Louisburg,  a  tale  which  finds  not  the  least  con- 
firmation   in   Massachusetts    records,    nor   astounded   at   the   falsehood   which   also 
occurs    in    a   memorial   he   presents   to   the    Lords   of   Trade   that   ever   since   the 
defeat  of  Braddock  he  had  been  engaged  in  defence  of  the  Protestant  interest, 
had  been  in  upwards  of  twenty  engagements  by  sea  and  land,  and  had  always  served 
as  a  volunteer,  having  never  asked  nor  received  one  shilling  for  all  his  expenses." 
See  Archdeacon  Raymond's  first  monograph,  p.  75,  and  compare  McNutt's  state- 
ment quoted  there,  which  we  have  just  paraphrased,  with  the  payments  he  received 
for  military  services  from  the  Massachusetts  Council,  as  recorded  in  Mass. 

54.  Archdeacon    Raymond's    first    Monograph,    p.    99. 

55.  Archdeacon  Raymond's  first  monograph,  pp.  99-101. 


ALEXANDER  McNUTT,  THE  COLONIZER  1095 

copies  of  a  16  mo.  pamphlet  entitled,  "The  Constitution  and 
Frame  of  Government  of  the  Free  and  Independent  State  and 
Commonwealth  of  New  Ireland.     As  prepared  by  the  special 
dictation  of  the  people,  for  the  consideration  of  their  convention, 
when  met.     Composed  by  those  who  are  invested  with  proper 
authority  for  that  purpose.     Printed  by  R.  Aitken,  for  the  free 
and  independent  State  of  New  Ireland.  '  '     The  pamphlet  covers, 
besides  a  title  page  and  one  blank  page,  thirty-seven  pages,  and 
comprises,  in  all,  four  divisions  :     An  opening  address  '  '  to  the 
good  people  of  New  Ireland,"  of  four  pages;   a  declaration  of 
the  rights  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  State  of  New  Ireland,  of 
between  five  and  six  pages  ;  '  i  the  Constitution  and  frame  of  gov- 
ernment of  the  free  and  independent  state  and  commonwealth  of 
New  Ireland,  '  '  of  eight  pages  ;   and  a  detailed  scheme  of  '  '  gov- 
ernment of  the  state  of  New  Ireland,"  of  nineteen  pages.      To 
this  is  appended,  in  larger  type,  an  '  '  Advertisement,  "  of  a  little 
less  than  five  pages,  unnumbered,  signed  "  A.  M'  N.  of  J.  P."    In 
the  library  of  Harvard  University  is  another  copy  of  this  same 
pamphlet,  bound  cheaply,  together  with  three  separate  appeals  or 
addresses  "to  the  peace  makers,"  numbered  respectively  iv.,  v., 
and  vi.,  covering  in  all  twenty-two  consecutively  numbered  pages, 
each  address,  like  a  sermon,  headed  with  a  Scripture  text,  and 
and  signed  in  the  following  inscrutable  way:     "A.  (a  symbol  of 
the  sun)  N.  P.  of  S.  J.  A.  &  N.  i"50    A  title-page  to  the  little 
volume  in  which  these  several  publications  are  brought  together 
bears  the  following:    "Considerations  on  the  sovereignty,  inde- 
pendence, trade  and  fisheries  of  New  Ireland  (formerly  known  by 
the  name  of  Nova  Scotia)57  and  the  adjacent  islands:     Submit- 
ted to  the  European  powers  that  may  be  engaged  in  settling  the 
terms  of  peace,  among  the  nations  at  war.    Published  by  order 
of  the  sovereign,  free  and  independent  commonwealth  of  New 
Ireland."     On  the  back  of  the  title  page  is  this  remarkable  pre- 
tended authorization  of  the  appeals  :    "By  virtue  of  the  author- 

c6  We  have  found  it  impossible  fully  to  interpret  this  collection  of  initial 
letters  'and  symbols.  The  symbol  of  the  sun  is  probably  a  hieroglyphic  denoting 
son  (Mac)  and  this  is  part  of  McNutt's  name,  and  the  last  letters  N  I.  mean 
undoubtedly  "New  Ireland,",  but  what  the  others  mean,  or  what  the  foregoing 


island   by   this    name. 


1096  ALEXANDER  McNUTT,  THE  COLONIZER 

ity  derived  from  the  people  of  New  Ireland,  formerly  known  by 
the  name  of  Nova  Scotia,  comprehending  the  islands  adjacent, 
viz.,  St.  John's,  Cape  Breton,  Newfoundland,  etc.,  etc.,  these  num- 
bers are  published  and  forwarded  for  the  consideration  of  the 
European  courts :  the  preceding  numbers  more  especially  concern 
the  people  of  New  Ireland,  and  the  United  States.  A  person 
vested  with  full  power  to  act  in  behalf  of  the  people  of  New  Ire- 
land, in  the  treaty  of  peace,  when  this  shall  take  place,  will  soon 
be  dispatched  to  Europe. ' '  At  the  top  of  the  general  title  page 
of  this  small  volume  in  the  Harvard  Library  is  written :  * '  Col. 
McNut  to  Jno.  White, ' '  and  in  the  back  of  the  volume  is  inscribed 
in  a  much  more  modern  handwriting :  ' l  Written  by  Col.  McNutt 
who  was  in  Salem  just  before  the  close  of  the  war  of  the  Ameri- 
can Revolution."  Below  this  is  written  in  still  another  hand: 
' l  The  above  notice  was  written  by  the  Rev.  Wm.  Bentley  of  Sa- 
lem. It  appears  by  the  title  page  that  this  copy  was  presented 
to  John  White  of  Salem  by  Col.  McNutt  himself." 

In  the  letter  to  Major  Studholme  we  have  given  on  a  previous 
page,  the  writer  says  that  McNutt ' l  has  endeavoured  to  circulate 
several  letters  and  dangerous  pamphlets  throughout  the  pro- 
vince." These  pamphlets,  we  must  believe,  were  the  earlier 
pamphlets,  Nos.  I,  II,  and  III,  of  the  series  of  which  McNutt  in 
the  little  volume  in  the  Harvard  Library,  gives  Nos.  IV,  V,  and 
VI,  for  McNutt  says  that  these  earlier  pamphlets,  no  copies  of 
which  have  so  far  come  to  our  hand,  were  addressed  particularly 
to  the  people  of  America.  In  the  governmental  scheme  for  New 
Ireland  that  McNutt  outlines,  an  intelligence  in  matters  of  gov- 
ernment is  manifested  that  would  in  any  age  stamp  the  origina- 
tor as  a  man  of  unusual  clearness  of  mind  and  consecutive  judg- 
ment, but  when  one  remembers  that  no  such  state  as  the  New 
Ireland  commonwealth  he  assumes  as  existing  really  did  exist, 
and  when  in  his  "Advertisement"  he  says  that  "Europeans 
panting  after  the  sweets  of  liberty  and  independence  will  flock 
thither,  as  well  as  many  well  disposed  persons  from  other 
states,"  and  adds,  "we  are  happy  that  it  is  in  our  power  to 
offer  them  such  encouragement  as  is  not  to  be  found  in  any  other 
spot  on  earth;"  and  when  he  boldly  announces  that  "wherever 
a  sufficient  number  appears,  a  vessel  will  be  appointed  to  take 
them  on  board,  at  the  most  convenient  port  or  harbor,  for  the 


ALEXANDER  McNUTT,  THE  COLONIZER  1097 

customary  freight,"  and  further  advises  people  to  apply  early, 
"as  the  season  is  advancing,"  we  wonder  again  whether  the  curi- 
ous man  who  wrote  these  pamphlets  was  sane.58  This  whole 
series  of  pamphlets  is  undated,  but  they  were  undoubtedly  all 
printed  by  Robert  Aitken  of  Philadelphia,  at  intervals  between 
1776  and  1781. 

Concerning  the  relatives  of  "Colonel"  Alexander  McNutt  who 
settled  in  Nova  Scotia  many  highly  inaccurate  statements  have 
been  put  in  print.  As  we  have  already  stated,  the  names  of  his 
parents  we  do  not  certainly  know,  but  Nova  Scotia  records  give 
us  considerable  light  on  the  brothers  and  probably  the  sister  he 
brought  to  this  province  as  early  as  1765.  In  the  registry  of 
deeds  of  Truro  will  be  found  a  declaration  from  McNutt,  appar- 
ently made  to  prevent  the  escheatment  of  a  grant  he  had  secured 
for  his  brothers,  partly  in  Londonderry,  Colchester  County,  and 
partly  in  Noel,  Hants  County,  that  the  owners  of  the  grant,  Ben- 
jamin, Joseph,  and  John  McNutt,  were  his  "three  brothers."59 

58.  Archdeacon    Raymond    says:     McNutt    "was    quick    to    think,    quick    to 
act,    quick   to   write.     His    memorials    to    the    Lords    of    Trade    and    Governors   of 
Nova  Scotia  are  in  some  cases  very  voluminous,  seemingly  written  with  haste,  not 
always  elegant  in  style,  and  expressed  with  greater  freedom  than  was  customary 
in  those  days.     Many  of  his  suggestions  were  wise,  his  criticism  was  often  trenchant 
and  well  timed;    but  on  the  other  hand,  some  of  his  plans  were  very  unpractical 
and  the  claims  he  advanced  not  always  reasonable.     He  was  a  staunch  upholder 
of  the  cause  of  civil  and  religious  liberty."     First  monograph,  pp.  61,  67,  68,  93. 

59.  The    declaration    is    as    follows : 

''Be  it  hereby  made  known  and  manifest  to  all  whom  it  may  concern  that  I 
the  Subscriber  did  procure  a  Grant  of  a  Tract  of  Lands  at  the  Village  Noel,  and 
also  in  the  Township  of  Londonderry,  to  Benjamin  Me  nutt,  Joseph  nutt,  John 
Me  nutt,  &c.,  which  I  obtained  for  them,  the  said  Benjamin  Me  nutt  &c.  in  the 
time  of  Govr  Wilmot  and  that  the  said  Benjamin  Me  nutt,  Joseph  Me  nutt  and 
John  Me  nutt  are  my  three  Brethren,  and  further  that  my  Brother  Benjamin 
did  in  the  year  1761  Introduce  into  this  Colony  of  Nova  Scotia  and  pay  the 
Passage  of  a  Sufficient  Number  of  Settlers  to  fully  Secure  the  aforesaid  Grants 
of  Lands  forever,  from  forefeiture,  agreeable  to  my  Proposals  and  Covenants  at 
White  Hall  or  Westminster,  all  which  is  Hereby  Certified  this  27th  Day  of  Oc- 
tober 1787  By 

Alexander    McNutt    [Seal] 

Signd   Seald   in   presence   of 

George    Cochran 

5/  Kings    County    Ss,    Horton    Nova    Scotia    October    27th    1787    Personally 

appeared  Alexander  McNutt  Esqr  and  made  Solemn  oath  To  the  truth  of  the 
above  manifest  or  Certificate 

Before  me  Jonathan  Crane  J.  P. 

The  grant  which  Alexander  McNutt  here  mentions  was  given  to  Benjamin, 
Joseph,  and  John  McNutt  and  Patrick  McCollum,  June  15,  1765.  The  subse- 
quent history  of  this  grant  has  been  clearly  made  out.  One  thousand  acres  of 
it  lay  in  Noel,  Hants  County,  and  this  was  sold  by  the  McNutt  brothers  to  James 
Densmore  and  then  on  petition  of  Densmore,  probably  in  order  that  he  might  be 
able  to  get  a  clear  title,  formally  escheated,  the  petitioner  paying  the  Crown  for 
escheating.  The  remaining  three  thousand  acres,  which  lay  in  Londonberry,  Col- 


1098  ALEXANDER  McNUTT,  THE  COLONIZER 

This,  of  course,  is  decisive,  and  tradition  has  it  that  Esther  Mc- 
Nutt,  who  in  Newport,  Hants  County,  where  John  McNutt, 
blacksmith,  at  first  lived,  was  married  to  Benjamin  Wier,  was  a 
sister  of  these  men.60  The  most  prolific  McNutt  family  in  Nova 
Scotia  was  a  family  founded  in  Onslow,  Colchester  County,  in 
1761,  by  a  certain  William  McNutt  and  his  wife  Elizabeth  (Thom- 
son), but  this  family  came  directly  from  Palmer,  Massachusetts, 
and  had  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the  colonizer.  William  Mc- 
Nutt 's  father,  Barnard,  and  grandfather,  Alexander,  both  came 
from  Donegal,  Ireland,  to  Massachusetts,  about  1720,  Barnard 
having  at  least  twelve  children,  of  whom  William,  born  in  Pal- 
mer, July  25,  1733,  was  one.  The  name  of  this  family  uniformly 
in  Massachusetts,  and  frequently  in  Nova  Scotia,  was  spelled 
"McNitt."61  Of  Benjamin  McNutt,  Alexander's  brother,  no 
doubt  the  eldest  of  the  three  whom  Alexander  mentions,  we 
know  a  good  deal.  He  lived  on  McNutt 's  Island  with  Alexan- 
der, when  the  latter  was  there,  and  farmed  and  no  doubt  fished. 
He  died,  probably  in  Shelburne  town,  between  September  10th 
and  21st,  1798,  leaving  all  his  property  to  his  "friend,"  which 


Chester  County,  remained  long  in  the  McNutt  family  and  was  never  escheated. 
It  will  be  noticed  that  Alexander  McNutt  states  that  his  brother  Benjamin  in 
1761  paid  the  passage  of  a  sufficient  number  of  settlers  into  Nova  Scotia  to  settle 
on  the  grant  procured  in  1765  and  thus  secure  the  grant.  What  truth  there  may 
have  been  in  this  statement  no  one  can  tell.  It  would  be  interesting  to  know 
where  Benjamin  McNutt  lived  in  1761,  whether  he  was  in  any  way  concerned 
in  his  brother's  colonization  schemes,  and  whether  at  this  time  he  did  introduce 
settlers  into  Londonderry,  Nova  Scotia,  whose  presence  there  before  the  grant 
was  obtained  might  have  been  considered  as  fulfilling  the  conditions  of  the 
settlement  mentioned  in  the  later  given  grant. 

60.  In    Archdeacon    Raymond's    second    monograph    the    incidental    statement 
appears  that  a  certain  Lieut.  John  Wier  of  Londonderry,  N.   H.,  was  Alexander 
McNutt's  brother-in-law.     For  this  statement,  which  is  not  true,  the  writer  of  the 
present  paper  and  not  Dr.  Raymond  is  responsible,  the  Nova  Scotia  Wier  family 
was  founded  in  Newport,  Hants  Co.,  N.  S.,  in  1761,  by  Daniel  and  Phebe  (Mum- 
ford)    Wier  from  Rhode  Island  and  so  far  as  we  know_  had  nothing  to  do  with 
the  N.  H.  Wiers.     In  Nova  Scotia  the  Wiers  intermarried  with  the  Cochrans  of 
Newport  township,  to  whom  Admiral   Cochrane  of  the  British   Navy  was   in  no 
way  related.    Admiral  Cochrane,  however,  did  live  in  Nova  Scotia  for  some  years. 

61.  In  "Genealogies  and  Reminiscences"  William  McNutt  or  McNitt  is  mis- 
takeably  said  to  be  a  brother  of  Alexander  McNutt  the  Colonizer,  and  to  have 
come  to  Nova  Scotia  with  him.    This  statement  has  no  foundation  in  fact,  Wil- 
liam McNutt,  the  grantee  in  Onslow,  farmer,  and  carpenter   (for  he  had  the  con- 
tract to  build  the  first  Presbyterian  church  in  Truro,  the  adjoining  township  to 
Onslow),  had  a  family,  the  births  of  part  of  whom  are  recorded  in  the  town  of 
Palmer,  Massachusetts,  part  in  Onslow.    From  this  family  descends  a  very  suc- 
cessful physician,   Dr.   William  Fletcher  McNutt  of   San   Francisco,  whose  name 
appears    in    "Who's    Who    in    America."    Other    descendants    are    mentioned    in 
"Genealogies   and  Reminiscences." 


ALEXANDER  McNUTT,  THE  COLONIZER  1099 

probably  means  nephew,  Martin  McNutt,  cooper.62  It  seems  cer- 
tain that  he  died  unmarried.  Joseph  McNutt  settled  early  in 
Shelburne  County,  as  a  farmer,  probably  at  Round  Bay,  and  we 
believe  died  there,  or  was  drowned,  in  1785.  It  seems  certain 
that  his  wife  was  Agnes  McNutt,  who  appears  in  1786  and  there- 
after as  a  widow  at  Round  Bay,  and  his  children,  probably,  Jo- 
seph, mariner,  John,  Jr.,  Arthur,  farmer  and  fisherman,  who 
lived  at  Shelburne  but  was  dead  in  1795,  Francis,  mariner,  who 
lived  first  at  Shelburne  but  afterwards  for  many  years  in  Lon- 
donderry, Colchester  County,  where  he  probably  died,  Martin, 
cooper,  who  lived  and  died  at  Shelburne,  Margaret,  who  was  liv- 
ing, a  spinster,  at  Point  Carleton  (Round  Bay)  in  1807,  and  in 
Shelburne  town  in  1809,  and  Ann,  a  widow  Belcher,  living  in 
Londonderry,  with  or  near  her  brother  Francis  in  1819.  John 
McNutt,  blacksmith,  probably  the  youngest  of  Alexander's  broth- 
ers, born  about  1747,  as  we  learn  from  his  tombstone,  was  living 
in  Newport,  Hants  County,  in  1781,  but  sometime  between  1785 
and  1795  he  removed  to  Londonderry,  Colchester  County,  where 
he  continued  his  useful  calling.  He  married,  as  we  have  good 
reason  to  believe,  Ann  Wier,  born  in  Rhode  Island,  sister  of  the 
Benjamin  Wier  who  married  his  sister  Esther  McNutt,  and  died 
childless  in  Londonderry,  June  16,  1813.  His  wife  and  he  are 
both  buried  in  the  " Folly"  burying  ground. 

A  more  active  adventurer  than  Alexander  McNutt  has  perhaps 
never  been  seen  on  the  American  continent.  He  conceived  great 
schemes,  and  showed  remarkable  energy  in  prosecuting  them,  but 
he  seems  to  have  been  constitutionally  unbalanced,  and  after 
tracing  him  carefully  through  the  various  stages  of  his  checkered 
career  we  are  forced  to  the  same  conclusion  concerning  him  that 
Lieutenant  Governor  Jonathan  Belcher  arrived  at  as  early  as 
1761,  that  he  was  from  first  to  last  "an  erratic  individual,  lacking 
in  mental  ballast,  and  one  whose  proposals  needed  to  be 
watched. '  '63  Where  he  managed  to  get  sufficient  money  to  travel 
as  much  as  he  did  in  the  enthusiastic  pursuit  of  his  schemes  we 
can  hardly  see,  for  he  belonged  to  a  family  that  must  have  been 
comparatively  poor,  and  from  the  first  he  was  evidently  depen- 

62.  Martin  McNutt,  cooper,  and  his  wife  Rebecca  (Stewart)  were  the  parents 
of  Rev.  Arthur  McNutt,  a  well  known  Wesleyan  minister  in  Nova  Scotia. 

63.  Archdeacon  Raymond's  first  monograph,  p.  73. 


i  ioo  ALEXANDER  McNUTT,  THE  COLONIZER 

dent  chiefly  on  his  own  exertions.  The  great  expense  he  claimed 
to  have  incurred  in  bringing  settlers  to  Nova  Scotia  was,  how- 
ever, undoubtedly  largely  met  by  North  of  Ireland  shipping  mer- 
chants whom  he  had  managed  to  interest  in  his  projects,  and 
most  likely  in  part  by  his  emigrants,  from  whom  he  probably 
exacted  head  money,  but  we  know  that  he  was  often  unable  to  pay 
large  bills  he  had  contracted,  and  it  seems  quite  certain  that  he 
was  occasionally  forced  to  borrow  of  men  with  whom  he  had  busi- 
ness relations.  At  one  period  of  his  life  in  Nova  Scotia  he  was 
evidently  appropriating  timber  that  did  not  belong  to  him,  and  it 
is  possible  that  by  means  of  vessels  trading  between  Port  Rose- 
way  and  Boston  he  and  his  brothers  and  his  nephews  may  have 
been  able  to  establish  some  little  general  trade  on  the  Shelburne 
shore.  As  to  the  honors  claimed  for  him  by  Virginia  historians, 
we  have  shown  that  these  were  for  the  most  part  imaginary,  and 
as  we  have  intimated,  the  most  reasonable  explanation  we  can 
find  of  the  stories  of  them  that  came  into  circulation  in  the  region 
where  he  spent  his  last  years  is  that  he  characteristically  in- 
vented them  himself. 

APPENDIX 

CANADIAN  ARCHIVES,  SERIES  M,  466,  PP.  16-35 

B.  T.  N.  S.,  Vol.  121,  N.  108,  1766,  30  Augst. 

' t  The  Committee  of  H.  M.  Council,  appointed  to  examine  into 
the  facts  stated  in  the  memorial  of  Colonel  Alexander  McNutt 
addressed  to  the  Et.  Hon.  the  Lords  Commissioners  for  Trade 
and  Plantations  dated  the  17th  of  April,  1766,  transmitted  by 
their  Lordship  to  His  Excellency  Governor  Wilmot,  and  laid  be- 
fore H.  M.  Council  by  the  Hon.  Michael  Francklin,  Esqr.,  Lieut. 
Governor  of  the  Province  on  the  26th  inst.  Having  deliberately 
and  maturely  considered  the  several  Allegations  and  examined 
into  the  particular  facts  therein  asserted,  do  report  vizt. 

"That  His  Excellency  Governor  Lawrence  issued  a  procla- 
mation dated  the  12th  of  October  1758  (as  Colonel  McNutt  sets 
forth)  for  the  settling  the  vacated  lands  in  this  Province. 

"That  being  found  Necessary  to  declare  the  terms  on  which 
the  same  would  be  granted  another  Proclamation  of  the  llth  of 
January  1759  was  publish 'd  and  transmitted  to  Thomas  Hancock 
Esqr.  then  Agent  for  this  Government  at  Boston. 

"That  in  Consequence  of  those  proclamations  many  Commit- 


HOI 


tees  Appointed  by  Persons  in  the  Colonies  proposing  to  settle 
themselves  on  the  said  Lands  came  to  Halifax  early  in  the  Spring 
of  the  year  1759,  who  were  sent  at  the  expense  of  Government  to 
view  the  Lands  intended  to  be  granted,  and  on  their  return  to 
Halifax,  a  contract  was  made  with  those  Committees  for  the  in- 
troduction of  twelve  Thousand  Inhabitants  in  three  years  from 
the  date  of  their  Grants,  in  the  following  Townships,  Falmouth, 
Horton,  Cornwallis,  Annapolis,  Granville,  Cumberland,  Amherst, 
Sackville,  Truro,  Onslow,  Liverpool,  and  Yarmouth,  an  Account 
of  which  was  transmitted  to  the  Lords  Commissioners  of  Trade 
and  Plantations. 

'  That  the  Contracts  above  mentioned  were  made  previous  to 
any  Application  to  Government  by  Colonel  McNutt  and  many 
Thousand  Inhabitants  are  now  settled  in  consequence  thereof,  in 
which  Colonel  McNutt  had  no  Men-it  or  concern  whatever. 

"That  in  the  Month  of  August  of  the  same  year,  Colonel  Mc- 
Nutt arrived  at  Halifax  &  applied  to  Governor  Lawrence  for 
Grants  of  Land  for  Himself  and  sundry  persons  his  Associates, 
and  obtained  a  reserve  or  large  tract  of  Land  for  that  purpose, 
which  appear  by  a  Written  engagement  of  Governor  Lawrence's 
to  have  been  one  Township  at  Port  Rosaway,  and  six  Townships 
in  the  District  of  Cobequid,  and  on  the  Shubennaccada  River, 
with  leave  to  settle  Families  on  Thirty-five  Rights  in  the  Town- 
ship of  Granville  in  consequence  of  which  in  the  Spring  following 
He  produced  a  List  of  Six  Hundred  Subscribers  being  persons  of 
the  Colonies  who  had  engaged  with  Him  to  settle  those  Lands,  but 
of  those  Six  Hundred  Subscribers,  Fifty  Families  only  came  into 
the  Province  who  were  transported  Hither  at  the  expence  of 
Government,  had  Lands  assign 'd  them  in  the  Township  of  Truro 
and  were  supported  there  two  years,  with  an  additional  expence 
to  Government  of  building  Forts  and  Barracks  for  their  Security 
and  Troops  were  sent  for  their  Protection  &  lately  five  Hundred 
pounds  of  the  Provincial  Funds  has  been  expended,  for  opening 
Roads  of  Communication  from  Halifax  to  those  Settlements, 
without  One  Shilling  expence  to  Col.  McNutt. 

"That  no  care  was  taken  by  Colonel  McNutt  to  Settle  Families 
on  the  vacant  Rights  at  Granville  in  the  Time  Limetted  for  that 
purpose,  therefore  those  Rights  were  assign 'd  to  Substantial 
Settlers  from  the  Colonies,  that  He  also  neglected  to  send  a  suf- 
ficient number  of  Inhabitants  to  settle  on  the  resedue  of  the 
Lands  reserved  for  Him,  at  Cobequid  and  the  Bason  of  Minas, 
and  the  Terms  of  Agreement  being  exposed,  the  Government 
have  granted  some  of  those  Lands  to  other  Persons,  but  Coll. 
McNutt  has  obtained  Grants  for  Himself  and  Associates  of  One 
Hundred  and  Fifty  Thousand  Acres,  part  of  that  reservation  to 


1 102      ALEXANDER  McNUTT,  THE  COLONIZER 

be  hereafter  settled,  also  the  Township  of  Truro  and  London- 
Derry,  other  part  of  the  before  mentioned  reserve  consisting  of 
One  Hundred  and  Fifty  Thousand  Acres  more,  on  part  of  which 
are  settled  some  of  those  Persons  He  has  already  introduced. 

"That  in  October,  1761,  Colonel  McNutt  arrived  at  Halifax 
from  Ireland  with  about  Two  Hundred  and  Fifty  Persons  a  very 
unseasonable  time  in  this  Climate  for  Seating  them  on  their 
Lands,  and  as  most  of  them  were  indigent  People  without  means 
of  Subsistance  they  clearly  remained  at  Halifax  the  ensuing 
Winter,  and  were  supported  by  the  Government  the  Charitable 
Contribution  of  the  Inhabitants,  and  some  Provisions  borrowed 
by  Colonel  McNutt  from  the  Government  for  which  he  still 
stands  indebted. 

"That  early  in  the  Spring  1762  a  contribution  was  actually 
made  by  the  Council  and  Principal  Inhabitants  of  Halifax,  for 
the  hire  of  a  Vessel  to  transport  those  indigent  People  and  their 
Families,  to  the  District  of  Cobequid  where  the  best  Lands,  and 
greatest  Quantities  of  marsh  in  that  part  of  the  Country  were 
Assigned  them  also  to  furnish  them  with  Provisions  out  of  the 
Provincial  Fund  and  without  One  Shilling  expense  to  Colonel 
McNutt. 

"That  in  August  [It  was  November],  1762,  Colonel  McNutt  ar- 
rived at  Halifax  from  Ireland,  with  about  One  hundred  &  Fifty 
Persons  more,  and  was  much  dissatisfied  that  the  then  Lieut. 
Governor  would  not  Grant  them  Lands  on  the  Terms  Stipulated 
between  the  Lords  of  Trade  and  Him,  Nevertheless  the  Settlers 
had  Lands  Assign 'd  them  at  Le  Have  on  the  usual  Terms,  and 
were  transported  for  [from]  Halifax  to  their  Lands,  and  fur- 
nish'd  with  Provisions  for  the  Winter  at  the  expence  of  Govern- 
ment without  One  Shilling  expence  to  Colonel  McNutt. 

"That  in  consequence  of  His  Majesty's  Instruction  to  the  Gov- 
ernor of  this  Province  dated  the  20th  of  May,  1763,  Lands  have 
been  since  Granted  to  all  such  persons  as  were  introduced  by 
Colonel  McNutt,  on  the  Terms  formerly  Stipulated  between  the 
Lords  Commissioners  of  Trade  and  him. 

' '  That  after  enquiry  we  cannot  find  any  Agent  Colonel  McNutt 
ever  had  at  Halifax  unless  he  means  some  one  of  his  Creditors 
of  whom  he  borrowed  Money,  and  at  His  going  away  deposited 
in  His  Hands  Sundry  securities  that  He  had  taken  from  the 
Settlers  He  brought  into  this  Province  for  the  Payment  of  their 
Passages. 

"That  from  Colonel  McNutt 's  return  to  England  in  1762  He 
never  came  into  this  Province  till  the  year  1765,  when  he  arrived 
again  at  Halifax  from  Philadelphia,  and  then  produced  to  the 
Government  sundry  lists  of  Persons  in  the  Colonies  associated 


ALEXANDER  McNUTT,  THE  COLONIZER  1103 

together  with  a  design  of  making  Settlements  in  this  Province, 
&  was  then  accompanied  by  several  Gentlemen  of  ability  of  Phil- 
adelphia who  came  in  behalf  of  themselves  and  others  concern 'd 
in  those  associations  to  view  the  Lands  in  the  Province,  and  to 
apply  for  Grants,  who  informed  the  Government  that  Colol.  Mc- 
Nutt had  assured  them  that  His  Majesty's  Instruction  to  the 
Governor  of  Nova  Scotia  dated  the  20th  of  May,  1763— directing 
the  Terms  of  Settlement  to  be  granted  to  the  Settlers  he  had 
introduc'd  into  this  Province  from  the  Kingdom  of  Ireland  in- 
cluded them  and  all  others  whom  He  should  introduce  and  prom- 
ised that  they  should  have  Lands  on  those  Terms  which  was  not 
only  deceiving  those  people,  but  also  created  many  Difficulties  for 
the  Government  Here,  and  those  Gentlemen  declared  they  would 
no  further  concern  with  Colol.  McNutt  and  accordingly  made 
their  applications  to  Government  for  Lands,  without  taking  any 
Notice  of  Him.  Notwithstanding  which  the  Government  in  con- 
sideration of  Colol.  McNutt 's  apparent  zeal  for  settling  the  Va- 
cated Lands  of  this  Province  &  as  they  conceived  it  might  in 
some  measure  primarily  be  owing  to  him  that  these  Associations 
were  entered  into  for  that  purpose  and  that  the  procuring  such 
a  number  of  Inhabitants  of  Ability  was  a  great  Acquisition  to 
this  Infant  Colony,  they  thought  it  but  just  and  right  to  have 
Colonel  McNutt  included  with  each  &  every  Association  wherein 
he  appeared  to  have  been  any  way  concern 'd  and  his  Name  was 
accordingly  inserted  in  the  Grants  made  to  them  of  about  Six- 
teen Townships. 

"That  another  Association  from  Philadelphia  who  had  con- 
tracted with  the  Government  to  settle  a  Township  at  Sepody  sent 
a  ship  about  this  Time  with  Twenty-five  Families  agreeable  ^  to 
their  contract  seated  them  on  their  Lands  furnish 'd  them  with 
Stock,  materials  for  Building  &  Farming  and  have  supported 
with  Provision  ever  since  in  which  Colonel  McNutt  had  no  kind 
of  concern  whatever. 

"That  in  the  same  year  a  Vessel  arrived  at  Halifax  from  Ire- 
land which  brought  about  Fifty  Persons  chiefly  belonging  to 
Families  before  introduced  and  settled  by  Colonel  McNutt,  and 
we  know  of  no  other  Embarkation  of  Settlers  whatsoever,  made 
by  Colonel  McNutt  notwithstanding  He  asserts  to  have  intro- 
duced in  several  Vessels,  several  Hundred  Families  about  this 

"That  the  measures  complained  of  by  Colonel  McNutt  prac- 
tised by  this  Government  which  he  says  has  obstructed  the  settle- 
ment of  the  Province,  have  been  Conformable  to  His  Majesty  s 
Instructions,  and  directions  from  the  Lords  Commissioners  of 
Trade  &  Plantations  except  in  the  Terms  of  those  Grants  made 


1 104     ALEXANDER  McNUTT,  THE  COLONIZER 

to  Him  and  His  Associates,  where  the  Government  departed 
from  those  Instructions  and  directions  in  order  to  favour  & 
Encourage  him  and  his  undertaking. 

' '  That  those  Grants  of  Twenty  Thousand  Acres  made  to  sun- 
dry persons  of  which  Colonel  McNutt  complains,  were  made  in 
consequence  of  their  Petition  to  His  Majesty,  and  laid  out  at  their 
own  expence,  under  the  direction  of  the  Chief  Surveyor,  in  such 
parts  of  the  Province  as  they  chose,  and  were  intituled  to,  by  the 
Tenor  of  His  Majesty's  order  to  the  Governor  of  this  Province, 
and  under  the  Terms  and  conditions  therein  prescribed,  but  not 
within  the  limits  of  any  of  the  tracts  of  Land  reserved  by  Gov- 
ernor Lawrence  for  Colonel  McNutt  or  any  other  Person,  and 
notwithstanding,  His  Majesty  was  graciously  pleased  to  allow 
them  ten  years  for  the  first  period  of  their  Settlement  neverthe- 
less upon  the  Grants  being  passed  to  those  Gentlemen  One  of  the 
Grants  was  immediately  employ 'd  to  procure  protestant  Fam- 
ilies from  Germany  to  settle  on  those  Lands,  and  a  very  consider- 
able Sum  of  Money  was  advanced  for  that  purpose  and  the  Set- 
tlers are  now  daily  expected. 

"That  in  July  1765  Mr.  Green  Commissary  of  Provisions  for 
the  Garrison  of  Fort  Frederick  on  the  River  St.  Johns  ac- 
quainted Governor  Wilmot  that  the  Indians  were  assembled  near 
the  Fort  in  great  numbers,  and  had  given  out  that  there  was  sev- 
eral French  Ships  of  War  on  the  Coast  and  that  they  should  soon 
commence  hostilities,  and  immediately  after  several  reports  were 
sent  to  the  Governor  from  other  parts  of  the  province  to  the  same 
purpose,  upon  which  the  Governor  thought  it  advisable  to  send 
expresses  to  those  parts  of  the  province  where  it  was  most  likely 
to  discover  the  truth  of  these  reports,  and  as  several  of  the 
Deputy  Surveyors  (being  persons  best  acquainted  with  the 
course  through  the  Country)  were  sent  on  this  Occasion,  Orders 
were  given  them  to  make  Surveys  of  the  Land  they  passed  over, 
which  they  perform'd  and  of  the  Land  so  survey 'd  Two  Hundred 
Thousand  Acres  was  Granted  to  Colonel  McNutt  and  His  As- 
sociates. 

' '  That  the  great  expence  incurred  by  Colonel  McNutt  in  pursu- 
ing His  Scheme  of  making  Settlements  in  this  Province,  cannot 
be  charged  to  any  obstruction  he  met  with  from  the  Government 
Here  in  any  respect,  nor  can  we  tell  how  it  arose,  that  Colonel 
McNutt  tho'  often  called  upon  for  that  purpose  never  produced 
Vouchers  for  the  expendature  of  One  Shilling  except  He  means 
some  Accounts  from  His  Agents,  not  signed  by  them,  and  other- 
wise very  blind  and  imperfect  wherein  He  is  charged  with  the 
Hire  &  Damage  of  those  Vessels  that  transported  the  few  fam- 
ilies He  introduced  from  Ireland,  and  the  Money  advanced  for 


ALEXANDER  McNUTT,  THE  COLONIZER  1105 

sundrys  by  His  Account  was  idly  expended  in  bringing  &  hiring 
Vessels  to  coast  about  the  Province  in  search  of,  and  surveying 
Lands,  in  so  much  that  His  Associates  made  great  complaints 
and  protested  against  his  Measures  and  refused  payment  of  the 
Bills  drawn  on  them  for  that  expence  as  they  found  he  was  or 
might  have  been  furnish 'd  from  the  Surveyor's  Office  at  Halifax, 
with  everything  sufficient  to  answer  all  His  and  their  purposes. 

'  That  the  Obstruction  Colonel  McNutt  complains  of  from  the 
Rulers  in  this  Province  since  the  Death  of  Governor  Lawrence, 
have  proceeded  from  his  own  intemperate  Zeal  &  exorbitant 
demands  from  the  Government  were  by  His  Majesty's  Instruc- 
tions forbid  to  Grant  in  all  other  respects  having  had  that  Indul- 
gence and  kind  treatment  from  the  Government  that  any  reason- 
able Man  could  desire,  not  on  Account  of  His  Knowledge  or 
Ability,  but  from  a  hope  the  Government  had  that  His  Zeal  and 
application  to  make  Settlements  in  this  Province  might  be  a 
means  of  inducing  men  of  much  more  knowledge  and  ability  than 
Himself  to  become  Inhabitants  in  it. 

"That  the  remarks  already  made  on  the  expence  incurred  by 
making  these  Settlements  to  Colonel  McNutt  may  be  sufficient 
yet  we  must  observe  further  on  that  head  that  the  proportion 
of  Land  stipulated  to  be  given  Him  by  the  plan  settled  between 
the  Lords  Commissioners  of  Trade  &  for  him  for  His  trouble  and 
expence  in  introducing  Settlers  into  this  Province,  has  been 
granted  to  him  by  the  Governor  and  Council  in  such  tracts  of 
Land  as  He  himself  chose  and  fixed  upon. 

"And  we  could  wish  that  the  great  concern  Colonel  McNutt 
expresses,  at  being  under  the  nesessety  of  mentioning  anything 
in  the  least  tending  to  the  disadvantage  of  any  Man's  Caracter, 
had  in  any  degree  prevented  his  departure  from  Truth  &  De- 
cency, his  reflections  on  that  head  being  altogether  without 
either. 

"That  Colol.  McNutt  complains,  that  the  Settlers  introduced 
by  Him  have  been  denied  several  of  the  Privileges  promised  and 
granted  to  them,  but  We  know  of  no  Persons  who  are  deprived 
of  those  Rights  and  that  Liberty,  which  the  Laws  &  Constitution 
of  Great  Britain,  or  of  this  Province  intitle  them  to. 

"Upon  the  whole  the  Committee  of  His  Maesty's  Council  are  of 
Opinion  that  the  Memorial  of  Colonel  Alexr  McNutt  address 'd 
to  the  Lords  Commissioners  for  Trade  &  Plantations,  is  almost, 
and  altogether,  false,  and  scandalous,  that  the  facts  are  misrep- 
resented &  his  complaints  without  Just  grounds,  that  His  propos- 
als in  the  Latter  part  of  His  Memorial,  are  Presumptions,  that 
several  of  them  if  granted  would  be  very  injurious  to  Private  Per- 
sons, as  He  proposes  to  disposses  many  of  those  Grantees  of  the 


iio6  ALEXANDER  McNUTT,  THE  COLONIZER 

Conditions  contained  in  their  Patents,  which  they  obtain 'd  by 
Vertue  of  the  King's  Order,  or  by  His  Majesty's  Proclamation 
making  provision  for  disbanded  Officers,  Soldiers  and  Seamen, 
and  of  their  Lands  also,  unless  they  submit  to  the  new  Terms 
proposed  by  Him. 

* '  That  other  of  His  proposals  would  if  Granted  be  highly  pre- 
judicial to  the  peace  and  good  Government  of  this  Colony,  partic- 
ularly that  of  sending  two  Members  to  represent  the  people  in 
General  Assembly,  from  each  Town  He  settles,  more  especially 
should  those  He  may  hereafter  introduce  into  this  Province  be 
of  the  same  troublesome  disposition  with  the  few  He  has  brought, 
The  Government  Here  having  experienced  more  difficulty  in 
Keeping  peace  and  good  order  in  the  Two  little  Towns  of  Truro 
and  Londonderry  settled  by  Colonel  McNutt's  followers,  than 
with  all  the  other  Settlements  in  the  Whole  Province,  they  being 
mostly  composed  of  Persons  from  the  Charter  Governments  who 
still  retain  so  great  a  degree  of  republican  principals  that  they 
make  it  a  point  to  oppose  on  all  Occasions  every  measure  of 
Government  calculated  to  support  the  Honor  and  Authority  of 
His  Majesty's  Crown  and  Dignity.  The  dangerous  Influence  of 
which  Spirit  cannot  be  too  much  garded  against  as  the  late  un- 
happy disturbances  in  America  more  than  abundantly  prove. 

' '  That  the  Laws  of  Great  Britain,  &  the  Laws  of  this  Province 
sufficiently  secure  the  Eights  Civil  &  Religious  of  all  His  Ma- 
jesty's Subjects  in  it,  and  the  Committee  cannot  conceive  what 
inducement  Colol  McNutt  had  to  suggest,  Assert  &  propose  the 
several  matters  contained  in  His  Memorial  as  we  find  from  the 
matter  of  fact  inquired  into,  that  the  Government  here  have  pro- 
moted, &  forwarded  His  undertaking  to  introduce  Settlers  into 
this  Province,  by  every  means  in  their  Power,  and  flattered  them- 
selves that  He  was  employing  His  Time  in  collecting  Persons  to 
fulfill  His  engagements. 

"Halifax  30  Augt.  1766 

Endorsed : 

Report  of  the  Committee  of  the  Council  of  Nova  Scotia  on  the 
Memorial  of  Mr  McNutt 

In  Lt  Govrs  Letter  of  2.  Sept.  1766. 

Read  Novr.  6.  1766. 
N.  108." 


University  of  Toronto 
Library 


Acme  Library  Card  Pocket 

Under  Pat.  "Ref.  Index  File" 
Made  by  LIBRARY  BUREAU