“American history: comprising historical sketches of the [indigenous] tribes”

“The [Mi’kmaq], first called by the French Souriqu’ois, held possession of Nova Scotia and the adjacent isles, and were early known as the active allies of the French.

Marquis de la Roche
In 1598, the Marquis de la Roche, a French nobleman, received from the King of France a commission for founding a French colony in America. Having equipped several vessels, he sailed with a considerable number of settlers, most of whom, however, he was obliged to draw from the prisons of Paris. On Sable island, a barren spot near the coast of Nova Scotia, forty men were left to form a settlement.

La Roche dying soon after his return, the colonists Fate were neglected; and when, after seven years, a vessel was sent to inquire after them, only twelve of them were living. The dungeons from which they had been liberated were preferable to the hardships which they had suffered. The emaciated exiles were carried back to France, where they were kindly received by the king, who pardoned their crimes, and made them a liberal donation.

De Monts
In 1603, the king of France granted to De Monts, a gentleman of distinction, the sovereignty of the country from the 40th to the 46th degree of north latitude; that is, from one degree south of New York city, to one north of Montreal. Sailing with two vessels, in the spring of 1604, he arrived at Nova Scotia in May, and spent the summer in trafficking with the natives, and examining the coasts preparatory to a settlement.

Selecting an island near the mouth of the river St. Croix, on the coast of New Brunswick, he there erected a fort and passed a rigorous winter, his men suffering much from the want of suitable provisions. ‘In the following spring, 1605, De Monts removed to a place on the Bay of Fundy; and here was formed the first permanent French settlement in America. The settlement was named Port Royal, and the whole country, embracing the present New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and the adjacent islands, was called Acadia.

North and South Virginia
In 1606 James the 1st, of England, claiming all that portion of North America which lies between the 34th and the 45th degrees of north latitude, embracing the country from Cape Fear to Halifax, divided this territory into two nearly equal districts; the one, called North Virginia, extending from the 41st to the 45th degree; and the other, called South Virginia, from the 34th to the 38th.

The former he granted to a company of “Knights, gentlemen, and merchants,” of the west of England, called the Plymouth Company; and the latter to a company of “noblemen, gentlemen, and merchants,” mostly resident in London, and called the London Company. The intermediate district, from the 38th to the 41st degree, was open to both companies; but neither was to form a settlement within one hundred miles of the other.


…Early in the following year, 1690, Schenectady was burned; the settlement at Salmon Falls, on the Piscataqua, was destroyed; and a successful attack was made on the fort and settlement at Casco Bay. In anticipation of the inroads of the French, Massachusetts had hastily fitted out an expedition, under Sir William Phipps, against Nova Scotia, which resulted in the easy conquest of Port Royal.

Early in 1692 Sir William Phipps returned with a new charter, which vested the appointment of governor in the king, and united Plymouth, Massachusetts, Maine, and Nova Scotia, in one royal government. Plymouth lost her separate government contrary to her wishes; while New Hampshire, which had recently placed herself under the protection of Massachusetts, was now forcibly severed from her.

In 1707 Massachusetts attempted the reduction of Port Royal; and a fleet conveying one thousand soldiers was sent against the place; but the assailants were twice obliged to raise the siege with considerable loss. Not disheartened by the repulse, Massachusetts spent two years more in preparation, and aided by a fleet from England, in 1710 again demanded the surrender of Port Royal. The garrison, weak and dispirited, capitulated after a brief resistance; the name of the place was changed to Annapolis, in honor of Queen Anne; and Acadia, or Nova Scotia, was permanently annexed to the British crown.

The most important event of (King George’s War) in America, was the siege and capture of Louisburg. This place, situated on the island of Cape Breton, had been fortified by France at great expense, and was regarded by her as the key to her American possessions, William Shirley the governor of Massachusetts, perceiving the importance of the place, and the danger to which its possession by the French subjected the British province of Nova Scotia, laid before the legislature of the colony a plan for its capture. Although Strong objections wore urged, the govenor’s proposals were assented to; Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire, furnished their quotas of men; New York sent a supply of artillery, and Pennsylvania of provisions. Commodore Warren, then in the West Indies with an English fleet, was invited to co-operate in the enterprise, but he declined doing so without orders from England. This unexpected intelligence was kept a secret, and in April, 1745, the New England forces alone, under William Pepperell, commander-in-chief, and Roger Wolcott, second in command, sailed for Louisburg.

At Causcau they were unexpectedly met by the fleet of Commodore Warren, who had recently received orders to repair to Boston, and concert measures with Governor Shirley for his majesty’s service in North America. On the 11th of May the combined forces, numbering more than 4000 land troops, came in sight of Louisburg, and effected a landing at Gabarus Bay, which was the first intimation the French had of their danger. On the day after the landing a detachment of four hundred men marched by the city and approached the royal battery, setting fire to the houses and stores on the way. The French, imagining that the whole army was coming upon them, spiked the guns and abandoned the battery, which was immediately seized by the New England troops. Its guns were then turned upon the town, and against the island battery at the entrance of the harbor.

As it was necessary to transport the guns over a morass, where oxen and horses could not be used, they were placed on sledges constructed for the purpose, and the men with ropes, sinking to their knees in the mud, drew them safely over. Trenches were then thrown up within two hundred yards of the city,—a battery was erected on the opposite side of the harbor, at the Light House Point and the fleet of Warren captured a French gunship, with five hundred and sixty men, and a great quantity of military stores designed for the supply of the garrison. A combined attack by sea and land was planned for the 29th of June, but, on the day previous, the city, fort, and batteries, and the whole island, were surrendered. This was the most important acquisition which England made during the war, and, for its recovery, and the desolation of the English colonies, a powerful naval armament under the Duke d’Anville was sent out by France in the following year. But storms, shipwrecks, and disease, enfeebled the fleet, and blasted the hopes of the enemy.

In 1748 the war was terminated by the treaty of Aix la Chapelle. The result proved that neither party had gained any thing by the contest; for all acquisitions made by either were mutually restored. But the causes of a future and more important war still remained in the disputes about boundaries, which were left unsettled; and the “French and Indian War” soon followed, which was the last struggle of the French for dominion in America.

Expeditions of Monckton, Braddock, Shirley, and Sir William Johnson.
Early in 1755, General Braddock arrived from Ireland, with two regiments of British troops, and with the authority of commander-in-chief of the British and colonial forces. At a convention of the colonial governors, assembled at his request in Virginia, three expeditions were resolved upon; one against the French at Fort du Quesne, to be led by General Braddock himself; a second against Niagara, and a third against Crown Point, a French post on the western shore of Lake Champlain.

While preparations were making for these expeditions, an enterprise, that had been previously determined undertaken. upon, was prosecuted with success in another quarter. About the last of May, Colonel Monckton sailed from Boston, with three thousand troops, against the French settlements at the head of the Bay of Fundy, which were considered as encroachments upon the English province of Nova Scotia. Landing at Fort Lawrence, on the eastern shore of Chignecto, a branch of the Bay of Fundy, a French block-house was carried by assault, and Fort Beausejour surrendered, after an investment of four days. The name of the fort was then changed to Cumberland. Fort Gaspereau, on Bay Verte, or Green Bay, was next taken; and the forts on the New Brunswick coast were abandoned. In accordance with the views of the governor of Nova Scotia, the plantations of the French settlers were laid waste; and several thousands of the hapless fugitives, ardently attached to their mother country, and refusing to take the oath of allegiance to Great Britain, were driven on board the British shipping, at the point of the bayonet, and dispersed, in poverty, through the English colonies.


Nova Scotia, according to its present limits, forms a large peninsula, separated from the continent by the Bay of Fundy, and its branch Chignecto, and connected with it by a narrow isthmus between the latter bay and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The peninsula is about 385 miles in length from northeast to southwest, and contains an area of nearly sixteen thousand square miles. The surface of the country is broken, and the Atlantic coast is generally barren, but some portions of the interior are fertile.

The settlement of Port Royal, (now Annapolis) by De Monts, in 1605, and also the conquest of the country by Argall, in 1614, have already been mentioned. France made no complaint of Argall’s aggression, beyond demanding the restoration of the prisoners, nor did Britain take any immediate measures for retaining her conquests. But in 1621 Sir William Alexander, afterwards Earl of Stirling, obtained from the king, James I, a grant of Nova Scotia and the adjacent islands, and in 1625 the patent was renewed by Charles I., and extended so as to embrace all Canada, and the northern portions of the United States. In 1623 a vessel was despatched with settlers, but they found the whole country in the possession of the French, and were obliged to return to England without effecting a settlement.

In 1628, during a war with France, Sir David Kirk, who had been sent out by Alexander, succeeded in reducing Nova Scotia, and in the following year he completed the conquest of Canada, but the whole country was restored by treaty in 1632.

The French court now divided Nova Scotia among three individuals, La Tour, Denys, and Razillai, and appointed Razillai commander-in-chief of the country. The latter was succeeded by Charnise, between whom and La Tour a deadly feud arose, and violent hostilities were for some time carried on between the rivals. At length, Charnise dying, the controversy was for a time settled by La Tour’s marrying the widow of his deadly enemy, but soon after La Borgne appeared, a creditor of Charnise, and with an armed force endeavored to crush at once Denys and La Tour. But after having subdued several important places, and while preparing to attack St. John, a more formidable competitor presented himself.

Cromwell, having assumed the reins of power in England, declared war against France, and, in 1654, despatched an expedition against Nova Scotia, which soon succeeded in reducing the rival parties, and the whole country submitted to his authority. La Tour, accommodating himself to circumstances, and making his submission to the English, obtained, in conjunction with Sir Thomas Temple, a grant of the greater part of the country. Sir Thomas bought up the share of La Tour, spent nearly 30,000 dollars in fortifications, and greatly improved the commerce of the country; but all his prospects were blasted by the treaty of Breda in 1667, by which Nova Scotia was again ceded to France

The French now resumed possession of the colony, which as yet contained only a few unpromising settlements, the whole population in 1680 not exceeding nine hundred individuals. The fisheries, the only productive branch of business, were carried on by the English. There were but few forts, and these so weak that two of them were taken and plundered by a small piratical vessel. In this situation, after the breaking out of the war with France in 1689, Acadia appeared an easy conquest. The achievement was assigned to Massachusetts, In May, 1690, Sir William Phipps, with 700 men, appeared before Port Royal, which soon surrendered; but he merely dismantled the fortress, and then left the country a prey to pirates. A French commander arriving in November of the following year, the country was reconquered, simply by pulling down the English and hoisting the French flag.

Soon after, the Bostonians, aroused by the depredations of the French and [indigenous] on the frontiers, sent a body of 500 men, who soon regained the whole country, with the exception of one fort on the river St. John. Acadia now remained in possession of the English until the treaty of Ryswick in 1697, when it was again restored to France.

It was again resolved to reduce Nova Scotia, and the achievement was again left to Massachusetts, with the assurance that what should be gained by arms would not again be sacrificed by treaty.

The peace of 1697 was speedily succeeded by a declaration of war against France and Spain in 1702. It was again resolved to reduce Nova Scotia, and the achievement was again left to Massachusetts, with the assurance that what should be gained by arms would not again be sacrificed by treaty. The first expedition, despatched in 1704, met with little resistance, but did little more than ravage the country. In 1707 a force of 1000 soldiers was sent against Port-Royal, but the French commandant conducted the defence of the place with so much ability, that the assailants were obliged to retire with considerable loss. In 1710 a much larger force, under the command of General Nicholson, appeared before Port Royal, but the French commandant, having but a feeble garrison, and declining to attempt a resistance, obtained an honorable capitulation. Port Royal was now named Annapolis. From this period Nova Scotia has been permanently annexed to the British crown.

The [Mi’kmaq] of Nova Scotia, who were warmly attached to the French, were greatly astonished on being informed that they had become the subjects of Great Britain. Determined, however, on preserving their independence, they carried on a long and vigorous war against the English. In 1720 they plundered a large establishment at Canseau, carrying off fish and merchandise to the amount of 10,000 dollars; and in 1723 they captured at the same place, seventeen sail of vessels, with numerous prisoners, nine of whom they deliberately and cruelly put to death.

As the [Mi’kmaq] still continued hostile, the British inhabitants of Nova Scotia were obliged to solicit aid from Massachusetts, and in 1728 that province sent a body of troops against the principal village of the Norridgewocks, on the Kennebec. ‘The enemy were surprised, and defeated with great slaughter, and among the slain was Father Ralle, their missionary, a man of considerable literary attainments, who had resided among the [Mi’kmaq] forty years. By this severe stroke the [Mi’kmaq] were overawed, and for many years did not again disturb the tranquility of the English settlements.

In 1744 war broke out anew between England and France. The French governor of Cape Breton immediately attempted the reduction of Nova Scotia, took Canseau, and twice laid siege to Annapolis, but without effect. The English, on the other hand, succeeded in capturing Louisburg, the Gibraltar of America, but when peace was concluded, by the treaty of Aix la Chapelle, in 1748, the island of Cape Breton was restored to France.

After the treaty, Great Britain began to pay more attention to Nova Scotia, which had hitherto been settled relation almost exclusively by the French, who, upon every rupture between the two countries, were accused of violating their neutrality. In order to introduce a greater proportion of English settlers, it was now proposed to colonize there a large number of the soldiers who had been discharged in consequence of the disbanding of the army, and in the latter part of June, 1749, a company of nearly 4000 adventurers of this class was added to the population of the colony.

To every private was given fifty acres of land, with ten additional acres for each member of his family. A higher allowance was granted to officers, till it amounted to six hundred acres for every person above the degree of captain, with proportionable allowances for the number and increase of every family. The settlers were to be conveyed free of expense, to be furnished with arms and ammunition, and with materials and utensils for clearing their lands and erecting habitations, and to be maintained twelve months after their arrival, at the expense of the government.

The emigrants having been landed at Chebucto harbor, under the charge of the Honorable Edward Cornwallis, whom the king had appointed their governor, they immediately commenced the building of a town, on a regular plan, to which the name of Halifax was given, in honor of the nobleman who had the greatest share in funding the colony. The place selected for the settlement possessed a cold, sterile and rocky soil, yet it was preferred to Annapolis, as it was considered more favorable for trade and fishery, and it likewise possessed one of the finest harbors in America. “Of so great importance to England was the colony deemed, that Parliament” continued to make annual grants for it, which, in 1755, had amounted to the enormous sum of nearly two millions of dollars.

But although the English settlers were thus firmly established, they soon found themselves unpleasantly situated. The limits of Nova Scotia had never been defined, by the treaties between France and England, with sufficient clearness to prevent disputes about boundaries, and each party was now striving to obtain possession of a territory claimed by the other. The government of France contended that the British dominion, according to the treaty which ceded Nova Scotia, extended only over the present peninsula of the same name; while, according to the English, it extended over all that large tract of country formerly known as Acadia, including the present province of New Brunswick. Admitting the English claim, France would be deprived of a portion of territory of great value to her, materially affecting her control over the River and Gulf of St. Lawrence, and greatly endangering the security of her Canadian possessions.

When, therefore, the English government showed a disposition effectually to colonize the country, the French settlers began to be alarmed; and though they did not think proper to make an open avowal of their jealousy, they employed their emissaries in exciting the [Mi’kmaq] to hostilities in the hope of effectually preventing the English from extending their plantations, and, perhaps, of inducing them to abandon their settlements entirely. The [Mi’kmaq] even made attacks upon Halifax, and the colonists could not move into the adjoining woods, singly or in small parties, without danger of being shot and scalped, or taken prisoners.

In support of the French claims, the governor of Canada sent detachments, which, aided by strong bodies of [Mi’kmaq] and a few French Acadians, erected the fort of Beau Sejour on the neck of the peninsula of Nova Scotia, and another on the river St. John, on pretence that these places were within the government of Canada. Encouraged by these demonstrations, the French inhabitants around the bay of Chignecto rose in open rebellion against the English government, and in the spring of 1750 the governor of Nova Scotia sent Major Lawrence with a few men to reduce them to obedience. At his approach, the French abandoned their dwellings, and placed themselves under the protection of the commandant of Fort Beau Sejour, when Lawrence, finding the enemy too strong for him, was obliged to retire without accomplishing his object.

Soon after, Major Lawrence was again detached with 1000 men, but after driving in the outposts of the enemy, he was a second time obliged to retire. To keep the French in check, however, the English built a fort on the neck of the peninsula, which, in honor of its founder, .was called Fort Lawrence.Still the depredations of the [Mi’kmaq] continued, the French erected additional forts in the disputed territory, and vessels of war, with troops and military stores, were sent to Canada and Cape Breton, until the forces in both these places became a source of great alarm to the English.

At length, in 1755, Admiral Boscawen commenced the war, which had long been anticipated by both parties, by capturing on the coast of Newfoundland two French vessels, having on board eight companies of soldiers and about 35,000 dollars in specie. Hostilities having thus begun, a force was immediately fitted out from New England, under Lieutenant Colonels Monckton and Winslow, to dislodge the enemy from their newly erected forts. The troops embarked at Boston on the 20th of May, and arrived at Annapolis on the 25th, whence they sailed on the 1st of June, in a fleet of forty-one vessels to Chignecto, and anchored about five miles from Fort Lawrence.

On their arrival at the river Massaguash, they found themselves opposed by a large number of regular forces, rebel Acadians, and [Mi’kmaq], 450 of whom occupied a block-house, while the remainder were posted within a strong outwork of timber. The latter were attacked by the English provincials with such spirit that they soon fled, when the garrison deserted the block-house, and left the passage of the river free. Thence Colonel Monckton advanced against Fort Beau Sejour, which he invested on the 12th of June, and after four days bombardment compelled it to surrender.

Having garrisoned the place, and changed its name to that of Cumberland, he next attacked and reduced another French fort near the mouth of the river Gaspereau, at the head of Bay Verte or Green Bay, where he found a large quantity of provisions and stores, which had been collected for the use of the [Mi’kmaq] and Acadians. A squadron sent against the post on the St. John, found it abandoned and destroyed. The success of the expedition secured the tranquility of all French Acadia, then claimed by the English under the name of Nova Scotia.

The peculiar situation of the Acadians, however, was a subject of great embarrassment to the local government of the province. In Europe, the war had begun unfavorably to the English, while General Braddock, sent with a large force to invade Canada, had been defeated with the loss of nearly his whole army. Powerful reenforcements had been sent by the French to Louisburg and other posts in America, and serious apprehensions were entertained that the enemy would next invade Nova Scotia, where they would find a friendly population, both European and [Mi’kmaq].

The French Acadians at that period amounted to Seventeen or eighteen thousand. They had cultivated a considerable extent of land, possessed about 60,000 head of cattle, had neat and comfortable dwellings, and lived in a state of plenty, but of great simplicity. They were a peaceful, industrious, and amiable race, governed mostly by their pastors, who exercised a parental authority over them; they cherished a deep attachment to their native country, they had resisted every invitation to bear arms against it, and had invariably refused to take the oath of allegiance to Great Britain. Although the great body of these people remained tranquilly occupied in the cultivation of their lands, yet a few individuals had joined the [Mi’kmaq], and about 300 were taken in the forts, in open rebellion against the government of the country.

Under these circumstances, Governor Lawrence and his council, aided by Admirals Boscawen and Mostyn, assembled to consider what disposal of the Acadians the security of the country required. Their decision resulted in the determination to tear the whole of this people from their homes, and disperse them through the different British colonies, where they would be unable to unite in any offensive measures, and where they might in time be-come naturalized to the government. Their lands, houses, and cattle, were, without any alleged crime, declared to be forfeited; and they were allowed to carry with them only their money and household furniture, both of extremely small amount.

Treachery was necessary to render this tyrannical scheme effective. The inhabitants of each district were commanded to meet at a certain place and day on urgent business, the nature of which was carefully concealed from them; and when they were all assembled, the dreadful mandate was pronounced,—and only small parties of-them were allowed to return for a short time to make the necessary preparations. They appear to have listened to their doom with unexpected resignation, making only mournful and solemn appeals, which were wholly disregarded. When, however, the moment of embarkation arrived, the young men, who were placed in front, absolutely refused to move and it required files of soldiers, with fixed bayonets, to secure obedience.

No arrangements had been made for their location elsewhere, nor was any compensation offered for the property of which they were deprived. They were merely thrown on the coast at different points, and compelled to trust to the charity of the inhabitants, who did not allow any of them to be absolutely starved. Still, through hardships, distress, and change of climate, a great proportion of them perished. So eager was their desire to return, that those sent to Georgia had set out, and actually reached New York, when they were arrested.

They addressed a pathetic representation to the English government, in which, quoting the most solemn treaties and declarations, they proved that their treatment had been as faithless as it was cruel. No attention, however, was paid to this document, and so guarded a silence government was preserved by the government of Nova Scotia, upon the subject of the removal of the Acadians, that the records of the province make no allusion whatever to the event.

Notwithstanding the barbarous diligence with which this mandate was executed, it is supposed that the banished number actually removed from the province did not exceed 7000. The rest fled into the depths of the forests, or to the nearest French settlements, enduring incredible hardships. To guard against the return of the hapless fugitives, the government reduced to ashes their habitations and property, laying waste even their own lands, with a fury exceeding that of the most savage enemy.

In one district, 236 houses were at once in a blaze. The Acadians, from the heart of the woods, beheld all they their homes possessed consigned to destruction; yet they made no movement till the devastators wantonly set their chapel on fire. They then rushed forward in desperation, killed about thirty of the incendaries, and then hastened back to their hiding-places.

But few events of importance occurred in Nova Scotia during the remainder of the French and Indian War, at the close of which, France was compelled to the transfer to her victorious rival, all her possessions on the American continent. Relieved from any farther apprehensions from the few French remaining in the country, the provincial government of the province made all the efforts of which it was Capable to extend the progress of cultivation and settlement, though all that could be done was insufficient to fill Up the dreadful blank that had already been made.

After the peace, the case of the Acadians naturally came Under the view of the government. No advantage had been derived from their barbarous treatment, and there remained no longer a pretext for continuing the persecution. They were, therefore, allowed to return, and to receive lands on taking the customary oaths, but no compensation was offered them for the property of which had been plundered. Nevertheless, a few did return, although, in 1772, out of a French population of seventeen or eighteen thousand which once composed the colony, there were only about two thousand remaining.

In 1758, during the administration of Governor Lawrence, a legislative assembly was given to the people of Nova Scotia. In 1761 an important [indigenous] treaty was concluded when the natives agreed finally to bury the hatchet, and to accept George III, instead of the king formerly owned by them, as their great father and friend. The province remained loyal to the crown during the war of the American Revolution, at the close of which, its population was greatly augmented by the arrival of a large number of loyalist refugees from the United States. Many of the new settlers directed their course to the region beyond peninsula, which, thereby acquiring a great increase of importance, was, in 1784, erected into a distinct government, under the title of New Brunswick. At the same time, the island of Cape Breton, which had been united with Nova Scotia since the capture of Louisburg in 1748, was erected into a separate government, in which it remained until 1820, when it was re-annexed to Nova Scotia.

The most interesting portions of the history of Nova Scotia, it will be observed, are found previous to the peace of 1763, which put a final termination to the colonial wars between France and England. Since that period the tranquillity of the province has been seldom interrupted, and, under a succession of popular governors, the country has continued steadily to advance in wealth and prosperity.

In 1729 the colony (of Newfoundland) was withdrawn from its nominal dependence on Nova Scotia, from which period until 1827 the government of the island was administered by naval commanders appointed to cruise on the fishing station, but who returned to England during the winter. Since 1827 the government has been administered by resident governors; and in 1832, at the earnest solicitation of the inhabitants, a representative assembly was granted them.”

Willson, Marcius. “American history: comprising historical sketches of the Indian tribes”. Cincinnati, W. H. Moore & co.; 1847. https://www.loc.gov/item/02003669/

“The history of Kings County, Nova Scotia, heart of the Acadian land”

This book asserts that in January 1757, Nova Scotia took its first steps in transitioning from being ruled solely by the Governor and Council to establishing a Representative Assembly, comprising twelve members for the province and additional representatives for various townships, including Dartmouth. Members and voters were required to be Protestant, above twenty-one years old, and possess a freehold estate in their district. The first Assembly convened in October 1758, followed by adjustments to representation in subsequent years. Governor Cornwallis initiated courts of justice based on English common law in 1749, leading to the establishment of County Courts and a General Court.

Over time, the judicial system evolved, with the introduction of Circuit Courts and changes in court jurisdictions. The New England town meeting model influenced local governance, coexisting with courts to address various civic matters, including poor relief. Dartmouth held town meetings until its incorporation as a town. The narrative also explores the growth of Baptist communities, the role of the clergy, and the social and political dynamics during the American War. Additionally, it mentions the formation of Light Infantry companies and the challenges faced by Governor Legge in maintaining loyalty during the conflict.

Following this overview, the subsequent text comprises brief biographies of prominent figures and families who are connected to Dartmouth in some capacity.


“Until January, 1757, the Governor and Council ruled alone in Nova Scotia, at that time, after long debate, it was decided that a Representative Assembly should be created, and that there should be elected for the province at large, until counties should be formed, twelve members, besides four for the township of Halifax, two for the township of Lunenburg and one each for the townships of Dartmouth, Lawrencetown (both in Halifax County), Annapolis Royal, and Cumberland. The bounds of these townships were described, and it was resolved that when twenty-five qualified electors should be settled at Piziquid, Minas, Cobequid, or any other district that might in the future be erected into a township, any one of these places should be entitled to send one representative to the Assembly and should likewise have the right to vote in the election of representatives for the province at large.

Members and voters must not be “Popish recusants”, nor be under the age of twenty-one years, and each must have a freehold estate in the district he represented or voted for. The first Assembly met in Halifax on Monday, October 2, 1758, when nineteen members—six “esquires”, and thirteen “gentlemen”, were sworn in. At a meeting of the Council in August, 1759, soon after the dissolution of the second session of the first Assembly, the Council fixed the representation of the township of Halifax at four members, and of Lunenburg, Annapolis, Horton, and Cumberland, at two each. For the newly formed counties of Halifax, Lunenburg, Annapolis, King’s, and Cumberland, there were to be two each.”

County Government, Public Officials:

“When Governor Cornwallis came to Nova Scotia in 1749, one of his earliest acts was the erection and commissioning of courts of justice for the carrying out of the principles of English common law. In pursuance of his orders from the crown he at once erected three courts, a Court of General Sessions, a County Court, having jurisdiction over the whole province, and a General Court or Court of Assize and General Jail Delivery, in which the Governor and Council for the time being, sat at judges. In 1752, the County Court was abolished, and a Court of Common Pleas similar to the Superior Courts of Common Pleas of New England erected in its place. In 1754, Jonathan Belcher, Esq., was appointed the first Chief Justice of the province, and the General Court was supplanted by a Supreme Court, in which the Chief Justice was the sole judge.

In 1829 Judge Haliburton wrote: “There is no separate Court of Common Pleas for the Province, but there are courts in each county, bearing the same appellation and resembling it in many of its powers. These courts when first constituted had power to issue both mesne and final process to any part of the Province, and had a concurrent jurisdiction with the Supreme Court in all civil causes. They were held in the several counties by Magistrates, or such other persons as were best qualified to fill the situation of judges, but there was no salary attached to the office, and fees, similar in their nature, but smaller in amount than those received by the Judges of the Supreme Court, were the only remuneration given them for their trouble. As the King’s bench was rising in reputation, from the ability and learning of its Judges, these courts fell into disuse, and few causes of difficulty or importance were tried in them. It was even found necessary to limit their jurisdiction, and they were restrained from issuing mesne process out of the county in which they sat.

The exigencies of the country requiring them to be put into a more efficient state, a law was passed in 1824 for dividing the Province into three districts or circuits and the Governor was empowered to appoint a professional man to each circuit, as first Justice of the several courts of Common Pleas within the District, and also as President of the courts of sessions. In 1774 an act of the Legislature was passed, first establishing the circuits of the Supreme Court. At Halifax the terms were fourteen days, liberty, however, being allowed for longer terms if the number of cases to be tried demanded an extension of time. No less than eighteen or twenty acts of the legislature relative to the times of holding the courts in the province, were passed between 1760 and 1840. In 1824 an act was passed changing the constitution of the courts of Common Pleas, and dividing the province into three Judicial Districts: the Eastern District, to comprise the county of Sydney, the districts of Pictou and Colchester, and the county of Cumberland; the Middle District, the counties of Hants, King’s, Lunenburg, and Queens; the Western District, the counties of Annapolis and Shelburne. In 1841, by an act of the legislature, the Inferior Courts of Common Pleas were abolished and the administration of law was generally improved.

With the advent of the New England planters to the county, came the introduction of New England’s time honoured institution, the Town Meeting.

[An institution on the radar of those in Dartmouth long before being enacted in law in Dartmouth township, a practice which continued for the first few decades of its existence as an incorporated Town. Martin indicates the last of the “old style” (New England) Town meetings in Dartmouth was held in 1902].

“The New England town meeting was and still is”, says Charles Francis Adams, “the political expressions of the town”, and many writers have spoken of the influence the institution has had in developing and conserving that spirit of independence and sense of liberty which have been characteristic of the New England colonies and colonies sprung from New England. In all the New England settlements in Nova Scotia, the Town Meeting was from the first, in conjunction with the Court of Sessions, the source of local government. The Court of Sessions was composed of the magistrates or justices of the peace, the chairman of which was the Gustos Botulorum, and its secretary, the Clerk of the Peace. By this court, the constables, assessors, surveyors of highways, school commissioners, pound keepers, fence viewers, and trustees of school lands, were appointed. In the Town Meeting the rate-payers met to discuss freely all local affairs, not the least important matter under its jurisdiction being always the relief and support of the poor and the appointment of overseers and a clerk of overseers for carrying out the provisions for the needy the Town Meeting made. For many years it was customary for certain rate-payers to “bid off” one or more poor men, women, or children, for stipulated sums to be paid weekly by the town. In these cases, where it was possible, the rate-payers made the poor whom they bid off, useful in their homes [“parties in need of domestic servants will now have no difficulty in supplying themselves.”]; for such service, and for the sum they received, giving the unfortunates, board, lodging, and clothes. Many persons also, who became town charges were “farmed out” to men who made their living wholly or in part by boarding them. See also “The Great Awakening in Nova Scotia, 1776-1809”, Armstrong, Maurice Whitman] .

Up to 1790, and how much later we do not know, the Town Meetings of Cornwallis were held in the Meeting-House, but after that they were held in some other convenient place. In 1839 an act was passed to enable the inhabitants of Cornwallis to provide a public Town House for the holding of elections in that township. For this building the township was to be assessed in a sum not to exceed two hundred pounds. In 1879 the three townships of the county were united in a central government, and the Town Meeting and Court of Sessions became things of the past. In place of the three townships now arose the Municipality of King’s County, the sole governing body of which is the Municipal Council. Under this new system the county is divided into fourteen wards, twelve of which elect one councillor each, and two, two councillors, for a term of two years. The Council as a whole then elects a Warden, who corresponds to the Custos Rotulorum, of the old Court of Sessions, and whatever other officers it was the duty of the Court of Sessions to elect. Under the Municipality’s control thus came all the interests that formerly pertained to both the Town Meeting and the Court of Sessions. The change of the county to a Municipality was affected at a meeting held at the court house on Tuesday, January 13, 1879, pursuant to a notice by the then Sheriff, John Marshall Caldwell.”

“Before 1888 the only towns in the Province incorporated, besides Halifax, were Dartmouth, Pictou, Windsor, New Glasgow, Sydney, North Sydney, and Kentville.”

“Barristers and Attorneys in King’s County: … James Ratchford De Wolf (long Medical Superintendent of the Insane Hospital at Dartmouth, N. S.)”

“The next rector of Aylesford was the Rev. Richard Avery, son of John and Elizabeth (Simmons) Avery, who was bom at Southampton, England, and educated there, at Warminster, and at Oxford, his brothers, the Rev. John S. Avery, M. A., and the Rev. William Avery, B. A., being chiefly his tutors. Passing the Clerical Board of the S. P. G. in London, Mr. Avery was sent out as a Deacon to Nova Scotia, and by Bishop John Inglis was given the curacy of Lunenburg. In the spring of 1842 he was called as assistant to St. Paul’s Church, Halifax, and Christ Church, Dartmouth”

“In 1827, the Rev. George Struthers, also of the Established Church of Scotland, who afterwards (the Rev. John Martin of Halifax officiating), January 28, 1830, married Mr. Forsyth’s eldest daughter, Mary, and the Rev. Morrison were sent from Scotland by the Lay Association as missionaries to Nova Scotia. At once Mr. Struthers came to Horton, Mr. Morrison going to Dartmouth, which place he afterwards left for Bermuda.”

“The Baptist body in Nova Scotia had its birth in a general religious Revival, and its growth may largely be traced through later similar revivals. Of these revivals King’s County has had always its share, and out of them have come undoubtedly a great deal of deep, continuing religious life.

In 1809 the members of the Cornwallis Baptist Church numbered sixty-five, in 1810 fifty-six, in 1811 sixty-three, in 1812 seventy-three, in 1813 sixty-five, in 1814 sixty-eight, and in 1820 a hundred and twenty-four.

Mr. Manning’s pastorate of the Church lasted until his death, which occurred, as we have said, on the 12th of January, 1851. In 1847, on account of his failing health, the Rev. Abram Spurr Hunt, a young graduate of Acadia College of 1844 (and master of arts of 1851), was chosen to assist him. “When Mr. Manning died Mr. Hunt succeeded to the pastorate, and in this office remained until November, 1867, when he resigned and removed to Dartmouth, the well known suburb of Halifax.”

“On the breaking out of the American War in 1775, Light Infantry companies were ordered by the Governor to be formed in the various townships of King’s and other counties. The number of the King’s County contingent was to be fifty men at Cornwallis, fifty at Horton, and fifty at Windsor, Newport, and Falmouth, together. Fearing sympathy on the part of the Nova Scotians who had come from New England with their rebellious kinsmen in the New England colonies, Governor Legge further ordered that all grown men in the several townships should take an oath of allegiance to the British Crown. … Among the men sent from England to govern the province of Nova Scotia during nearly a century and a quarter, not one ever showed such ill-temper as Governor Legge, the incumbent of the governorship at the outbreak of the war. His charges of disloyalty towards England included, not only the inhabitants of the province who had recently come from New England, but the staunchest members of the Council at Halifax as well. As early as January, 1776, he writes disparaging letters concerning the New England settlers to the British Secretary of State. A law has been passed, he says, to raise fresh militia troops, and he has been endeavouring to arm the people, but he has just been informed from Annapolis and King’s counties that the people in general refuse to be enrolled. Though Governor Campbell ‘s report to Lord Hillsborough in 1770 had stated that he did not discover in the people of Nova Scotia any of that “licentious principle” with which the neighbouring colonies were infected, it is a well known fact that in Cumberland, in 1776, the greatest disaffection towards England did prevail. That it would have been perfectly natural if the people of the midland counties of Nova Scotia had sympathized with New England in her protest against the abuse of power on the part of the British Government from which she had long suffered must be freely admitted, that among the inhabitants of Annapolis, King’s, and Hants such sympathy was outwardly shown, remains yet to be proved.

It is a well known fact that the King’s Orange Rangers, a Loyalist corps raised in Orange County, New York, through the efforts of Lieut.-Col. John Bayard in 1776 and ’77, in October, 1778, were sent to reinforce the King’s troops in Nova Scotia, and that until the disbandment of the corps in 1783 they were employed chiefly in garrison duty in Halifax. The statement of the writer of the manuscript in question is that in King’s County symptoms of rebellion strongly showed themselves, one of these being that certain King’s County people were even preparing to raise a liberty pole. This seditious spirit in King’s being reported to the government at Halifax by Major Samuel Starr, a detachment of the Orange Rangers stationed at Eastern Battery, Halifax, was ordered to Cornwallis, under command of Major Samuel Vetch Bayard.”


Biographies:

“JAMES Fillis AVERY, M. D. Dr. James Fillis Avery, son of Cap.t. Samuel and Mary (Fillis) Avery, was born in Horton, May 22, 1794, and for three years studied medicine with Dr. Almon in Halifax. He then went to Edinburgh, where he graduated in 1821. After graduation he spent six months in the Hospital of the Royal Guard at Paris, under the superintendence of the noted Baron Larrey, the first Napoleon’s principal medical adviser. Dr. Avery practised medicine in Halifax and also founded there, in George Street, the noted drug firm, which for many years he personally conducted. From this firm, in time, sprang the firms of Messrs. Brown Brothers, and Brown and “Webb. In later life he retired from business, and for some time travelled in Europe. He was an early governor of Dalhousie College, was an elder in St. Matthew’s Presbyterian Church, on Pleasant Street, and was interested in many philanthropic institutions. Among the business enterprises that he took substantial interest in was the Shubenacadie Canal, from Dartmouth to the Bay of Fundy. The first (and probably only) vessel that ever went through that canal, it is said, was called for him. The Avery. For many years, until his death. Dr. Avery’s residence was on South Street, adjoining that of Mr. George Herbert Starr, who had married his niece, Rebecca (Allison) Sawers. Dr. Avery died unmarried, universally respected, Nov. 28, 1887, and was buried near his parents at Grand Pre.

ALFRED CHIPMAN COGSWELL, D. D. S. Alfred Chipman Cogswell, son of Winckworth Allen and Caroline Eliza (Barnaby) Cogswell, was born in Upper Dyke village, Cornwallis, July 17, 1834. He married, Oct. 8, 1858, Sarah A., dau. of Col. Oliver and Sarah A. Parker, born in Bangor, Me., Oct. 10,1830, and had two sons. His residence for many years was in Halifax and in Dartmouth. Dr. Cogswell studied for two years at Acadia College, and then on account of ill health abandoned his college course. His studies in dentistry were later pursued in Portland, Me., and his first practice was in Wakefield, Mass. In 1859 he removed to Halifax, N. S., where he formed a partnership with Dr. Lawrence B. Van Buskirk. Some years later he graduated as D. D. S. at the College of Dentistry in Philadelphia. For many years Dr. Cogswell was a successful and skillful practitioner in Halifax, where he was also an elder in St. Matthew’s Presbyterian Church. The younger of his sons, Arthur W., in 1884 received the degree of M. D., and was appointed Surgeon of the Halifax Provincial and City Hospital.

HON. THOMAS ANDREW STRANGE DeWOLF, M. E. G. Hon. Thomas Andrew Strange DeWolf, M. P. P., M. E. C, fourth son of Judge Elisha and Margaret (Ratchford) DeWolf, born April 19, 1795, married December 30, 1817, or March 26, 1818, his first cousin, Nancy, daughter of Col. James and Mary (Crane) Ratchford, born June 1, 1798. Mr. DeWolf represented the County of Kings from 1837 until 1848. He was made a member of H. M.(first) Executive Council, February 10, 1838, and was subsequently Collector of Customs. When a qualification bill authorizing the election of non-resident members was introduced in the legislature as a government measure, he resigned from the Executive Council. He died at “Wolfville, September 21, 1878 ; his widow died at Dartmouth, March 10, 1883. Hon. T. A. S. DeWolf had fourteen children, the most important of whom was James Ratchford DeWolf, M. D., L. R. C. S. E. and L. M., of the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh.

THE REV. ABEAM SPURR HUNT, M. A. Eev. Abram Spurr Hunt, though not a native of King’s County, was for many years, as Rev. Edward Manning’s immediate successor, pastor of the Cornwallis First Baptist Church. He was born at Clements, Annapolis county, April 7, 1814, grad. at Acadia in 1844 (its second class), and on the 10th of Nov. of that year, was ordained over the newly formed Baptist Church at Dartmouth, N. S. In 1844 also, he married Catharine Johnstone, eldest surviving daughter of Lewis Johnston, M. D., and niece of Hon. Judge James William Johnstone, and in 1846, removed to Wolfville, where for a winter he studied theology under the Rev. Dr. Crawley. In 1847 he became assistant pastor to Rev. Edward Manning at Cornwallis, and in 1851, at Mr. Manning’s death, succeeded to the pastorate. Until 1867 he continued pastor of the Cornwallis Church, his ministry being in every sense a successful one. His field of labour, however, was so wide and his duties so arduous that at last he was obliged to seek an easier parish. When he determined to remove from Cornwallis, the Dartmouth Church recalled him, and to that Church he continued to minister till his death, which occurred, October 23, 1877. In 1870 he was also made Superintendent of Education for the Province, and the duties of this office he also discharged until his death. Mr. Hunt’s children were: Eliza Theresa, married as his 2nd wife, to the Hon. Judge Alfred William Savary, of Annapolis, so well known as a jurist and historian (see among other writings, the Calnek-Savary “History of Annapolis,” and the “Savary Family”); Lewis Gibson, M. D., D. C. L., of London, England ; James Johnstone, D. C. L., Barrister of Halifax; Aubrey Spurr; Ella Maud, m. to the Rev. Arthur Crawley Chute, D. D., Professor in Acadia University ; Rev. Ralph M., a clergyman, who died young, deeply lamented. Mrs. Abram Spurr Hunt, a woman of high breeding and exalted Christian character, survived her husband between seventeen and eighteen years. She died in Dartmouth, Halifax, May 29, 1895.

MAJOR GEORGE ELEANA MORTON Major George Eleana Morton was one of King’s County’s most excellent and enterprising sons. He was a son of Hon. John and Anne (Cogswell) Morton, was born at Upper Dyke village, Cornwallis, March 25, 1811, and was one of the pupils of the Rev. William Forsyth. Going to Halifax at about eighteen years of age he entered a drug store on Granville Street, which business he afterward purchased. In 1852 he erected the stone building at the corner of Granville and George Streets, long known as “Morton’s Comer,” where for many years he conducted a wholesale and retail drug business, at that time the largest in the province. He was the first business man in Halifax to send out a commercial traveller. About 1870 he closed his drug business and opened a book and periodical store, and a lending library of current literature. He retired from business in 1888, and died as the result of an accident, Mar. 12, 1892, and was buried in Dartmouth. Mr. Morton was a man of great intelligence, and of distinctly literary tastes, and his contributions to the press, both in prose and verse, were numerous. In 1852 he published, in conjunction with Miss Mary J. Katzmann, The Provincial, a monthly magazine. Later he published a satirical magazine called Banter. In 1875 he wrote and published the first “Guide to Halifax,” and in 1883, a “Guide to Cape Breton.” His newspaper articles appeared chiefly in the Guardian, the British Colonist, and other newspapers. He was unusually well read in English literature, and his writings contain many quotations from classical authors. He was an accomplished letter writer, and for many years kept up an interesting correspondence with friends abroad, especially with his cousin. Dr. Charles Cogswell. He was one of the original members of the N. S. Historical Society, and was always actively interested in the work of that Society. In religion he was a Presbyterian, his membership being in St. Matthew’s Church. In politics a Conservative, he was for many years a personal friend of Messrs. Johnstone, Tupper, Parker, Holmes, Marshall, and other Conservative leaders. He was an ardent supporter of confederation, and had great faith in the future of the Dominion. Nov. 23, 1859, he was appointed 1st Lieut, in the 2nd Queen’s Halifax Regt. ; Sept. 23, 1862, he was appointed Captain. On the reorganization of the militia by the Dominion Government he was retired with the rank of Major. He was one of the promoters of the N. S. Telegraph Company, was original shareholder of the N. S. Sugar Refinery, and shortly after the discovery of gold in 1860, became interested in gold-mining. He held mining claims at Waverly, Montagu, Elmsdale, and Lawrencetown. George Elkana Morton married in Halifax, in March, 1849, Martha Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Christian Conrad Casper and Martha (Prescott) Katzmann, bom Apr. 2, 1823, died Apr. 6, 1899. He had children: Annie, born Dec. 13, 1850, died Mar. 29, 1855; Charles Cogswell, born Aug. 14, 1852, married Apr. 27, 1905, Winifred, daughter of Leonard and Lucy Leadley, of Dartmouth, N.S., and now resides in Kentville. For the Katzmann Family, see the Prescott Family Sketch.”

“Of the Bishop families of Horton many members have occupied positions of trust and many have attained prominence in the communities where they lived. Such have been … Watson Bishop, of Dartmouth, N. S., Superintendent of Water Works for that town”

“THE KEMPTON FAMILY The Rev. Samuel Bradford Kempton, D. D., now of Dartmouth, N. S., but for many years the honoured third pastor of the Cornwallis First Baptist Church, in succession to the Rev. Abram Spurr Hunt, is the son of Stephen and Olivia Harlowe (Locke) Kempton, and was b. at Milton, Queen’s county, Nov. 2, 1834. He received his early education at Milton Academy, and in 1857 entered Horton Academy. In 1862 he graduated, B. A., at Acadia University. He then spent a year at Acadia under the instruction of Rev. John Mockett Cramp, D. D., in post-graduate work. In 1833 he was ordained pastor of Third Horton Baptist Church, and in 1867 became pastor of the First Cornwallis Baptist Church. In that position he remained until 1893, when he removed to Dartmouth, as pastor of the Dartmouth Baptist Church. Dr. Kempton received his M. A., from Acadia University in 1872, and the honorary degree of D. D. in 1894. Prom 1878 to 1907 he was one of the governors of Acadia, and in 1882 was appointed a member of the Senate of the University. His ministry at Cornwallis was laborious and faithful, he had six preaching stations and was obliged to travel many miles every week. He married in Horton, Oct. 1, 1867, Eliza Allison, dau. of Abraham and Nancy Rebecca (Allison) Seaman, and had two children : Rev. Austin Tremaise, b. Feb. 6, 1870, m. June 7,1893, Charlotte H. Freeman; William Bradford, b. May 29, 1885, d. July 17, 1893. Of these sons, Rev. Austin Tremaise Kempton graduated at Acadia University in 1891, and received his M. A. in course in 1894. He was ordained to the Baptist ministry at Milton, Queen’s county, N. S., in 1891, later studied at Newton Theological Seminary, and has since held pastorates in Sharon, Boston, Pitchburg and Lunenburg, Mass. He has also been a successful lecturer, his lectures on the “Acadian Country” having done much to make the charms of King’s County known throughout New England.

Of one, at least, of the Orpin grantees, and the family from which he sprang, a writer in the Halifax Herald of January 25, 1899, gave the following interesting account: Among the enterprising pioneers who first came to this part of the country to make of the wilderness a fruitful field, was Joseph Moore Orpin and his wife, Anna Johnson Orpin. Mr. Orpin ‘s father, Edward Orpin, was one of the founders of the city of Halifax. He first took up land on the Dartmouth side of the harbor, and employed men to subdue and clear it of a forest of trees and a heavy crop of stone.

One day while he was on his way with a lad, sixteen years old, named Etherton, carrying dinner to the men working on his land, he was surprised and captured by the [Mi’kmaq]. They compelled silence and began their march with their captives in the direction of Shubenacadie. They had not gone far when one of the [Mi’kmaq] gave the boy a heavy blow, felling him to the ground. Instantly his crown was scalped and he was left for dead. After travelling some distance, Mr. Orpin found that one of his shoes was unbuckled. He stopped and pointed it out to the [Mi’kmaq] walking behind him. As he stooped down to buckle it the [Mi’kmaq] stepped ahead of him. Orpin saw his chance, caught up a hemlock knot, and as quick as lightning gave the [indigenous man] a blow which brought him to the ground. He had confidence in his own fleetness of foot. Instantly he was flying for liberty.

As soon as the [Mi’kmaq] in advance discovered the trick, and recovered from their surprise, they gave him chase. But Orpin was too fleet for them. He escaped and reached home in safety. Strange to relate the boy returned to the city soaked from head to foot in his own blood. The doctors of the city did what they could to heal his scalp wound. They succeeded only in part. Directed by them a silversmith made a silver plate, which the young fellow wore over his unhealed wound. After a time he returned to England.

In the same year Mr. Orpin had still another adventure with the [indigenous] neighbors of the young colony. On this occasion, too, he was on his way to the place where his men were at work, carrying them their dinners. Again he was seized by the skulking [Mi’kmaq] , and hurried away toward Shubenacadie. After reaching one of the lakes, the [Mi’kmaq] stopped to take a meal. For a special treat, Mr. Orpin was carrying a bottle of rum to his men with their dinners. At the lake the [Mi’kmaq] drank the whole of it, and it made them helplessly drunk. This was good fortune for the captive. He reached Halifax again with the scalp safe on his head. This last experience made him more cautious for a long time. The stony ground in Dartmouth, and his trouble with the [Mi’kmaq], induced him to give up his Dartmouth lot and commence anew on the Halifax side of the harbor. Some years later, he went to the North West Arm. He never returned. Diligent and thorough search was made for him; but he could not be found. The belief at the time was the [Mi’kmaq] caught him again and took secret revenge on him in torturing him to death at their leisure.”

“…the Katzmann family of Halifax county demands notice. Lieut. Christian Conrad Casper Katzmann, b. in Eimbeck, Hanover, Prussia, Aug. 18, 1780, came to Annapolis Royal, N. S., as ensign (he is also called adjutant, 3rd Battalion) of H. M. 60th Regt. He m. (1) in Annapolis Royal (by Rev. John Millidge), June 11, 1818, Eliza Georgina Fraser (who had a sister, Mrs. Robinson, and a brother, James Fraser, Jr., Postmaster at Augusta, Georgia), who d. shortly before April 5, 1819. He m. (2), April 6, 1822, by Bishop Inglis, Martha, dau. of John and Catharine (Cleverley) Prescott, of Maroon Hall, Preston, Halifax county, and retiring from the army, bought Maroon Hall. His children by his 2nd marriage were Martha Elizabeth, b. April 2,1823, m. to George Eleana Morton ; Mary Jane (the authoress), b. Jan. 15, 1828, m. to William Lawson, of Halifax; Anna Prescott, b. Sept. 25, 1832, d. unm.. May 31, 1876. Lieut. Katzmann and his family are buried in Dartmouth, N.S. Mr. and Mrs. John Prescott are probably buried at Preston.”

“THE PYKE FAMILY The Pyke family in King’s County is descended from John Pyke, who came to Halifax with Governor Cornwallis in 1749, it is said as his private secretary, and was killed by Indians in Dartmouth, in August of the next year. His wife was Anne Scroope, b. in 1716, her grandfather or his brother, it is believed, being a baronet in Lincolnshire. Precisely how long before he came to Halifax John Pyke married, it is impossible to say, but his son (and only child, so far as is known), John George, was born in England in 1743. After her first husband’s death, Anne (Scroope) Pyke was married to Richard Wenman, another of the company that came with the Cornwallis fleet, and to her second husband she bore three daughters: Susanna, married to Hon. Benjamin Green, Treasurer of the Province; a daughter m. to Captain Howe, of the Army; another daughter m. to Captain Pringle of the army. Mrs. Anne Wenman died May 21, 1792 ; her husband, Richard Wenman, was buried Sept. 30, 1781.”

Eaton, Arthur Wentworth Hamilton. The history of Kings County, Nova Scotia, heart of the Acadian land. Salem, Mass., The Salem press company, 1910. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/10025852/

Confederation examined in the light of reason and common sense

“It is my purpose, in the following pages, to expose the fallacies of a Pamphlet on Confederation, “by a Nova Scotian,” which has been widely circulated, and, though shallow in the extreme, is calculated to mislead the unwary. It bears strong evidence, of being the work of one of the unauthorized individuals, who pretend to have visited London, clothed with authority, to overturn all our political institutions.

Although the author complains, in reference to imputations cast on their spotless reputations, that “no one ventures under his signature in open day to prefer a charge, &c,” he has not mustered courage to put his own name to this tissue of mere sophistries. When the delegates returned to the Province they did not meet with a very flattering reception. They had no ovation; and no illuminations, bonfires, and other demonstrations of felicitous welcome hailed their return. They were not escorted to their homes with torches and banners, and through triumphal arches; no cannon thundered forth a noisy welcome. They were received in solemn, sullen, and ominous silence. No happy smiles greeted them; but they entered the Province as into the house of mourning.

Conscious that they had forfeited the confidence of their fellow subjects, they found it necessary to solicit approbation, and have put forth this pamphlet; but not one of them dared to put his name to the tricky and deceitful electioneering manifesto.

It is well known that they had no part in the preparation of the scheme of Confederation which was manufactured in Canada; for D’Arcy McGee, at a public dinner at Kingston, with imprudent candor, probably under the inspiration of champagne and claret, boasted that it was the work of John A. McDonald, the Canadian Attorney General. ‘The whole plot was contrived in Canada, the Nova Scotia Delegates are rot entitled to the unenviable merit of the least participation in its composition, and it is but charity to suppose that they bad not even sense enough to understand it

It would therefore scarcely do for one of the political adventurers to present himself to the people, in person, and ask them “one and all to hail it as they would a deliverer, and to close with it as a boon of priceless value, and to feel that a debt of gratitude is due to the men whose untiring efforts at length secured it, and handed  over to their country an enduring proof of their ability, and pledge Of their patriotism.”

As the author of this attempt to procure approval under false pretenses comes begging for favor anonymously, I will, for the sake of convenience, call him Lazarus, the most characteristic name I can think of. He opens with a rodomontading homily on union. The old hackneyed truism “union is strength” is the text. Every social and political beatitude is made to flow from union. There would be no civilization without union, and we have any amount of philosophical twaddle on this indispensable principle in human affairs. Well, we are ready to admit that men could not get along very well without union; for, indeed, and it is a wonder his sagacity had not detected the curious fact, we should have had no human family at all if it had not been for the union of Adam and Eve. But I can scarcely admit that all social and political unions are conducive to peace and happiness. When a tender, confiding girl gives her affections to a man, and they marry; is this social union necessarily productive of happiness? What if he should turn out a very brute in his conduct, and treat her with every species of cruelty and inhumanity? Has this social union produced the peace and happiness she anticipated?

In like manner, if a small Colony of a few hundred thousand people enters into a political marriage with one or two larger Colonies, having millions of people, does it necessarily follow that this union must produce peace and happiness? What if the larger Colonies should combine to rob the small one of her independence, should tyrannize over her, and trample on her rights and liberties: how much has the suffering Colony gained by this union?

Union may be good, or it may be evil, profitable or unprofitable. The elements of union may be beneficent or malevolent. There may be a union of angels, and there may be a union of devils. To which of these classes shall we refer that ill-fated or auspicious union, as it may hereafter prove, between the leaders of our Government and the leaders of the Opposition, which has excited the admiration of the Province ? Was this union angelical or diabolical ? Was it like the noble friendship of Brutus and Cassius, inspired by an undying love of country, or was it like the selfish, crafty and ambitious conspiracy of Anthony, Lepidus, and Augustus, against the life of Rome?

There is nothing like union! Men, he says, unite to make railroads, telegraphs, and steam navigation. So we would remind him, they sometimes unite to rob, to defraud, and to betray. Nations also, like individuals, may unite for good, or they may unite for evil. They may unite to defend, or they may unite to destroy, the liberty of their neighbors. England, Russia, Prussia, and Austria united, to preserve the liberty of the European nations from the ambitious grasp of Napoleon. Russia, Austria, and Prussia united to rob the Poles, and divide their country among themselves; and if we allow them, Ontario and Quebec will unite to rob and oppress Nova Scotia.

……..

I will not follow the example of Lazarus, and deal in mere declamation, but will establish the following propositions, by arguments logical, conclusive, and irrefragable.

That the Colonies were sufficiently united, and that, if a closer political connection was desirable, Confederation is the worst system by which they can be combined.

That the Constitution provided for the Colonies by the British North American Act, would, if adopted, rob Nova Scotia of every particle of independence, and reduce her to the degraded position of a dependency of Canada.

That the British North American Act is unconstitutional and void, and until it is ratified by a Provincial Statute, in no manner binds Nova Scotia.

That the Province, under Confederation, would, in a financial point of view, be reduced to ruin. That the Canadas would dispose of our fisheries to obtain commercial advantages to themselves from the United States.

That the Canadas, if Confederation be accepted by Nova Scotia, will sell our Railroads to pay off our public debt, and will keep our money into the bargain.

That Confederation is a Canadian Scheme, carefully prepared for the subjugation of Nova Scotia, and adopted by our Delegates from motives of personal interest.

That the delegates had not a shadow of authority from the Legislature, to procure an English Statute, for the Confederation of Canada, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, and that what little authority they had, they most grossly abused.

That the people have it in their power to reject Confederation in a constitutional manner, and that whether it is accepted or rejected, depends on their own conduct, at the next general election.”

Wilkins, Martin I., “Confederation examined in the light of reason and common sense, and the British N.A. Act shewn to be unconstitutional”. Halifax, N.S. : Z.S. Hall, 1867. https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.23420

Nova Brittiana, or, British North America, Its Extent and Future

Acadian History.
The early history of Nova Scotia, from its discovery to its eventual final cession to the British at the treaty of Versailles, is a chequered and eventful one; but our time will not permit our tracing in detail the stirring history of Acadia. The early history of those discoveries which led to the settlement of British America may however be glanced at. To arrive at a tolerably correct outline of the result of those eventful discoveries, it will be well to consider, that, since Southern Oregon and Upper California have been absorbed into the United States, the continent of North America may be divided into four great sections, viz.:
The Russian Territory on the North-west,
The British Dominions on the North,
The United States in the centre,
And on the South, Mexico and Central America uniting with South America. “The most remarkable features of both North and South America are the rivers and the mountains, the former for their size and number, and the latter for their size and position, running in an unbroken chain from the northern to the southern extremity, having on the east side an immense breadth of country open to the rivers, four of which, the St. Lawrence, the Mississippi, the Amazon, and La Plata, are amongst the largest in the world, and but a narrow strip to the west, wider in the northern than the southern continent.”

Such is the vast continent developed by the flood-tide of discovery, which, at the end of the 15th century, bore Columbus to the New World. In 1492, Columbus discovered, in the month of October, one of the Bahama Island; and afterwards the Continent. The success of the Spanish, stimulated the enterprise of the British, and in May, 1497, in the reign of Henry VII., John Cabot and his son Sebastian sailed from Bristol in the hope of finding a western passage to India. While pursuing a westerly course, in the hope of reaching the China seas, they saw land on the 24th of June. This they called Prima Vista, and it is believed to have been a part of Nova Scotia or Newfoundland. As Galvanus says that this land was in latitude 45°, it is extremely probable that the expedition, in coasting, had entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence. During this part of their voyage they discovered an Island which they called St. John, now Prince Edward’s Island. They then steered south to Florida. England therefore claimed America by discovery and possession. The French next visited the continent. In 1518 and 1525, parties coasted along the shores from Newfoundland to Florida. In 1534, Jacques Cartier landed at Bay Chaleurs, and took possession in the name of the King of France. In 1579, an attempt was made by the British, under a charter from Queen Elizabeth, to colonize the Western World. The French followed them in 1598, under De La Boche; but the early attempts were very calamitous, and the hold obtained upon the country was slight. In 1621, James I. granted all the country now Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and Newfoundland, to Sir William Alexander, afterwards Earl of Stirling; and in 1628, Charles I. added another grant, including Canada and the chief part of the United States. An order of Baronets was created, each of whom were to receive 16,000 acres of land, and who were to take seizin on the Castle Hill of Edinburgh—Nova Scotia being included in the county of that name. In 1629, Britain took possession of Cape Breton, and held all this part of America; but attaching little importance to it, Charles I., by the treaty of St. Germains, in 1632, resigned to Louis XIII his right to New France. The progress of settlement went on. Cromwell reconquered Nova Scotia, for the third time, in 1654; but in 1667 Charles II. relinquished Acadia to France. Time went on, and, in 1710, New England conquered Nova Scotia, at an expense of £23,000,by an expedition which sailed from Boston. The treaty of Utrecht finally, in 1713, ensued, and all Acadia or Nova Scotia was ceded to Great Britain, and it has since so remained. New Brunswick was then included within its limits. In the war of 1745, Cape Breton was conquered by the Provincial troops. It was restored to France in 1749; but it again, in 1758, became the property of Britain. In 1759, the settlement proper of Nova Scotia may be said to have commenced. The subjugation of Prince Edward’s Island took place in 1761. I pass by, as more familiar to my hearers, the early history, colonization, and settlement of Canada; merely remarking, that by the treaty of Versailles, at Paris in 1763, France resigned all her claims in North America to Britain.

Such, then, is a compressed outline of the leading events in the earlier European history of this portion of British North America; and it is now time to glance at the position of Nova Scotia and the other Provinces, which were once so undervalued, that on Champlain’s return to France he found the minds of people divided with regard even to Canada, some thinking it not worth possessing.

NOVA SCOTIA
The Province of Nova Scotia now includes Cape Breton, from which it is severed by the Straits of Canso. Nova Scotia proper, says Andrews, is a long peninsula nearly wedge-shaped, connected at its eastern and broadest extremity with the continent of America by an isthmus only 15 miles wide. This narrow slip of land separates the waters of the Bay of Fundy from those of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The peninsula, 2S0 miles in length, fronts the Atlantic ocean.

The Island of Cape Breton is a singularly formed network of streams and lakes, and it is separated into two parts, with the exception of an isthmus but 767 yards wide, by the Bras d’Or Lake, an arm of the sea. The most remarkable feature in the peninsula of Nova Scotia is the numerous indentations along its coasts. Avast and uninterrupted body of water, impelled by the trade-wind from the coast of Africa to the American continent, forms a current along the coast till it strikes the Nova Scotian shore with great force, and rolls its tremendous tides, of 60 or 70 feet in height, up the Bay of Fundy, which bounds Nova Scotia on the north-west. The harbours of Nova Scotia on its Atlantic coast are unparalleled in the world Between Halifax and Cape Canso there are 12 ports capable of receiving ships of the line, and 14 others of sufficient depth for merchant men. The peninsula of Nova Scotia is supposed to contain 9,534,196 acres, and, including Cape Breton, 12,000,000. The country is undulating, and abounds with lakes. The scenery is picturesque. Nova Scotia is possessed, it is believed, of valuable mineral wealth, including large fields of coal. The development of these riches has however been checked by the fact, that in the year 1826 a charter was granted to the Duke of York, for the term of 60 years, of the mines and minerals of the Province. The lease was assigned to an English Company, which now holds it. The Province has recently come to an arrangement with this company, by which they are confined within certain limits. Still, in 1849,208,000 chaldrons were shipped to the States. The other minerals which are turned to economic uses, are iron, manganese, gypsum, &c.
The western and milder section of Nova Scotia is distinguished for its productiveness in fruits. “Wheat grows well in the eastern and in the central parts of Nova Scotia. In 1851, 297,157 bushels were raised, of which 186,497 were grown in Sydney, Pictou, Colchester, and Cumberland, a fact which shows the superiority of that section of the Province for the growth of wheat, —a peculiarity which extends along the whole north-eastern shore of New Brunswick to the boundary of Canada. Oats, hay, peas, beans, potatoes, turnips, &c. are raised in large quantities, and butter and cheese are made freely. The character of Nova Scotia for farm stock is good. My hearers may be surprised to learn that Nova Scotia exceeds 14 wheat-growing States and Territories of the Union in the growth of wheat and barley; and all the States and Territories in oats, buckwheat, potatoes, hay, butter. The trade of Nova Scotia is large. In 1850 its imports were 5 millions of dollars, and its exports 3 millions. In its general and fishing trade it employs a large marine, which must prove a fruitful nursery for seamen. In 1851 there were 3228 vessels entered inwards, 3265 outwards. In 1851 Nova Scotia had a fishing fleet of 812 vessels, manned by 3681 men, and the number of boats engaged was 5161. The total value of its fisheries for 1851 exceeded a million of dollars. The population of the Province was at last census, in that year, 276,117souls. There were in 1851, 1096 schools and 31,354 scholars. Nova Scotia has reclaimed by dykes 40,012 acres of land. Cape Breton too has a large trade, produces large quantities of fish, and there is mined besides a considerable amount of coal.

NEW BRUNSWICK.
I now turn to New Brunswick, which abuts Canada. In 1784 it was erected into a Province distinct from Nova Scotia. Its length is 190 miles, its breadth 150. It lies nearly in the form of a rectangle, and is bounded on the south-east by the Bay of Fundy and Nova Scotia, on the west by Maine, on the northwest by Canada and the Bay of Chaleurs, on the east by Northumberland Straits and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It contains 32,000 square miles or 22,000,000 of acres, and a population of210,000 inhabitants. It has a sea-coast of 400miles, with many harbours. Its staple trades are shipbuilding, the fisheries, and the timber trade. Its great agricultural capabilities are only now beginning to be known. The Commissioners appointed by the Imperial Government to survey the line for the proposed railway from Halifax to Quebec, thus speak of New Brunswick in their report, and their testimony is a weighty one :

“Of the climate, soil, and capabilities of New Brunswick it is impossible to speak too highly. There is not a country in the world so beautifully wooded and watered. An inspection of the map will show that there is scarcely a section of it without its streams, from the running brook up to the navigable river. Two thirds of its boundary are washed by the sea ; the remainder is embraced by the large rivers the St. John and the Restigouche. The beauty and richness of scenery of this latter river and its branches, are rarely surpassed by anything on this continent. ” The lakes of New Brunswick are numerous and most beautiful; its surface is undulating, hill and dale varying up to mountain and valley. It is everywhere, except a few peaks of the highest mountains, covered with dense forests of the finest growth. “The country can everywhere be penetrated by its streams. In some parts of the interior, a canoe, by a portage of three or four miles only, can float away either to the Bay of Chaleurs or the Gulf of St. Lawrence, or down to St. John and the Bay of Fundy. Its agricultural capabilities and climate are described by Bouehette, Martin, and other authors. The country is by them, and most deservedly so, highly praised. For any great plan of emigration, or colonization, there is not another British colony which presents such a favorable field as New Brunswick. On the surface is an abundant stock of the finest timber, which in the markets of England realizes large sums annually, and affords an unlimited supply to the settler. If the forests should ever become exhausted, there are the coal-fields beneath. The rivers, lakes, and sea-coast abound with fish.”

Such is the sister Province of New Brunswick; and though I am assured, on undoubted personal authority, that a large extent of her very best agricultural territory reaching onwards to Canada is still a primeval forest, still her position in regard to her trade relations is no insignificant one, as will appear from the following statements. The total imports of New Brunswick in 1851 were $4,852,440, and the exports $3,780,105. There were 3058 ships entered inwards, and 2981 outwards. The fisheries of New Brunswick are valuable, and those in the Bay of Fundy in 1850 realized $263,500. The timber floated down the St. John is very large; the quantity was estimated in 1852 at $1,945,000. There is room in New Brunswick for a large population. In 1855 there were only 6,000,000 acres of land granted, and of these but 700,000 were under cultivation. 11,000,000 acres of land continued ungranted. As to agricultural capabilities, New Brunswick—strange as the tale may seem exceeds in wheat 14 wheat-growing States of the Union, and in barley 24 out of 30; in oats, buckwheat, and potatoes, 30 States and Territories; and in butter and hay, all the States. In the growth of potatoes, hay, and oats, Munro asserts that no State in the Union can compete with New Brunswick, whether as regards weight, quality, or quantity. The average produce per Imperial acre of wheat is 19 bushels, of barley 28, oats 34, and of potatoes 226, and turnips 456; outstripping New York, Ohio, and Canada West in these. The value of the agricultural products of New Brunswick, exclusive of farm-stock, was estimated in 1854 at £2,000,000. There were in 1851,798 schools, attended by 18,892 children, and in 1853, 24,127. Professor Johnston estimated that the agricultural resources alone of New Brunswick would enable it to sustain a population of 5 millions. The climate is similar to our own. The coal-field of New Brunswick is very extensive: its area has been estimated by Gesner at 10,000 square miles. The earlier history of New Brunswick is embraced in that of Nova Scotia, and need not here be particularly referred to. “With regard to the position of the Acadian Provinces, and their relations towards the other portions of British America, and the community of interest which is arising, I avail myself of the judicious statements of Principal Dawson of McGill College, Montreal, in a lecture delivered before the Natural History Society of Montreal, on the Acadian Provinces:

“Their progress in population and wealth is slow, in comparison with that of Western America, though equal to the average of that of the American Union, and more rapid than that of the older States. Their agriculture is rapidly improving, manufacturing and mining enterprises are extending themselves, and railways are being built to connect them with the more inland parts of the continent. Like Great Britain, they possess important minerals in which the neighbouring parts of the continent are deficient, and enjoy the utmost facilities for commercial pursuits. Ultimately, therefore, they must have with the United States, Canada, and the fur countries, the same commercial relations that Britain maintains with western, central, and northern Europe. Above all, they form the great natural oceanic termination of the great valley of the St. Lawrence; and although its commerce has hitherto, by the skill and industry of its neighbours, been drawn across the natural barrier which Providence has placed between it and the sea-ports of the United States, it must ultimately take its natural channel; and then not only will the cities on the St. Lawrence be united by the strongest common interests, but they will be bound to Acadia by ties more close than any merely political union. The great thoroughfares to the rich lands and noble scenery of the West, and thence to the sea-breezes and salt-water of the Atlantic, and to the great seats of industry and art in the old world, will pass along the St. Lawrence, and through the Lower Provinces. The surplus agricultural produce of Canada will find its nearest consumers among the miners, shipwrights, mariners, and fishermen of Acadia; and they will send back the treasures of their mines and of their sea. This ultimate fusion of all the populations extending along this great river, valley, and estuary, and the establishment throughout its course of one of the principal streams of American commerce, seems in the nature of things inevitable; and there is already a large field for the profitable employment of laborers and capital in accelerating this desirable result.”

Rupert’s land
And then above us again is that vast expanse, claimed by the Hudson’s Bay adventurers, which will yet, and it may be soon, be inhabited by a large population, comprising as it does, 3,060,000 square miles. This great country cannot much longer remain unoccupied; and if we do not proceed to settle it, the Americans will appropriate it, as they did Oregon, and the Mormons are said to be threatening New Caledonia. Without entering into the question of the alleged vices in the charter by which that powerful company holds its possessions, and the mode of adjudicating thereon, there are certain practical measures which should be at once adopted. A means of communication by road and water, for summer and winter use? should be opened between Lake Superior and the Red River Settlement, and that forthwith; and that Settlement should, as of right belonging to it, be placed under the jurisdiction of Canada, with power to this Province to colonize the territory. This power should at once be given, and will doubtless be conceded on the application of Canada. This obtained, and a settlement of 7,000 souls added to our population as a centre of operations, steps can be taken for obtaining more accurate information as to the nature of the immense tract of territory, of which a large part once belonged to the 100 partners of Old France, and, though believed to be the property of Canada, is now held by the Hudson’s Bay Company. The great valley of the Saskatchewan should form the subject of immediate attention. Enough is known to satisfy us, that, though in the northerly portions of that territory commonly known as the Hudson’s Bay Territory a Siberian climate prevails, yet there is a vast region well adapted for becoming the residence of a large population. Once the Bed River Settlement is opened to our commerce, a wide field extends before our enterprise; and those who recollect or have otherwise become familiar with the struggles, 40 years ago, of even the settlers in Western Canada, and the painful, toilsome warfare with which they conquered that rising portion of the Province from the wilderness, will regard the task of colonization as a comparatively light one. The press has for some time been teeming with articles on the subject of this Territory, and has done good service thereby, and, though there is not opportunity here to enter upon

The knell of arbitrary rule has been rung. The day has gone by for the perpetuation of monopolies. The Baronets of Nova Scotia would fare but ill in our times, unless moral worth accompanied their rank. Provinces are not so lightly shared and parcelled as they once were. As for our own Province, self-government has been conceded to us, and the largest measure of political liberty is enjoyed by our people. We are left to carve out our own destiny ; and I shrewdly suspect that few among us will regard with much admiration that ancient and venerable parchment, which, under the sign-manual of Charles II., by the Grace of God, King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, recites that he, ” being desirous to promote all endeavours tending to the public good of our people, have of our especial grace, certain knowledge, and mere motion given, granted, ratified, and confirmed unto our entirely beloved cousin Prince Rupert, the Duke of Albemarle, et al., by the name of the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England, trading into Hudson’s Bay, the sole trade and commerce of all those seas, streights, bays, rivers, lakes, creeks, and sounds, in whatsoever latitude they shall lie, within the entrance of the streights commonly called Hudson’s Streights; together with all the lands and territories upon the countries, coasts, and confines of the seas, bays, lakes, rivers, creeks, and sounds aforesaid, that are not already actually possessed by the subjects of any other Christian Prince or State, with the fishing of all sorts of fish, whales, sturgeons, and all other royal fishes in the seas, bays, islets, and rivers within the premises, and the fish therein taken, together with the royalty of the sea upon the coasts within the limits aforesaid, and all mines royal, as well discovered as not discovered, of gold, silver, gems, and precious stones, to be found or discovered within the territories aforesaid.’ And what think you is the price which this charter provides shall be paid for this munificent, this princely gift, —of, as the Hudson’s Bay Company view it, half a continent, —for this comprehensive donation of everything, but the sky, which overhangs Prince Rupert’s Land.

Ah, here it is, and very onerous and burdensome this same company of adventurers must have found their vassalage to be: “yielding and paying,” saith this grave title-deed, with which the onward rush of settlement is attempted to be stayed, somewhat, it must be confessed, after the fashion of the celebrated Mrs. Partington, when mop in hand she valiantly endeavoured to sweep out the incursion of the angry Atlantic, — “yielding and paying to us, our heirs and successors, for the same, two elks and two black beavers” —not yearly, mark you, but magnanimously— “whensoever and as often as we, our heirs and successors, shall happen to enter into the said countries, territories, and region hereby granted”; and then, by all sorts of right lawyerly phrases, not only “the whole, entire, and only trade and traffic and use and privilege of trading is granted, but also the whole trade to and with all the natives and people inhabiting, or which shall inhabit, within the territories, lands, and coasts aforesaid”; and all sorts of pains and penalties are threatened against all those who do visit, haunt, frequent, or trade, traffic or adventure into the said countries; and all such shall, saith the Royal Charles, “incur our Royal indignation, and the forfeiture and loss of the goods and merchandize so brought.” But time does not permit the dwelling longer on this relic of antiquity. It will suffice to express my confident belief, that Canada has only to express in firm but respectful tones her demands as to that vast territory, and these will be cheerfully acceded to by Britain. Those demands should be ripely considered, and so matured as to evince, not a mere grasping thirst of territorial aggrandizement, but a large-spirited and comprehensive appreciation of the requirements of the country, and a proper sense of the responsibilities to be assumed in regard to the well-being of the native and other inhabitants, and the due development of the resources of the territory. In such a spirit our statesmen will I trust be found acting. The position of our Province too is to be weighed. To a large portion of the Territory we have an indubitable legal claim; to another portion the Crown of Britain would be entitled: but all that is adapted for settlement should be placed under the jurisdiction of representative government, and any further extension of the rights of the Company to trade in the more northerly regions should be subjected to the approval or control of Colonial authorities. The subject is not without its difficulties; but, I doubt not, these can all be satisfactorily overcome; and the interests of the whole Empire imperiously demand their prompt and satisfactory adjustment.

…the Maritime Provinces alone comprise 86,000 square miles, and, as we may safely assume, are capable of sustaining a population nearly as great as England, —their natural productions and resources being very similar in kind and amount. They are as large as Holland, Greece, Belgium, Portugal, and Switzerland, all put together. New Brunswick alone is as large as the Kingdom of we find that we can endorse the views of the Hon. Joseph Howe, when he ex-claimed in the Nova Scotian House of Assembly.

“Beneath, around, and behind us, stretching away from the Atlantic to the Pacific, are 4,000,000 square miles of territory. All Europe with its family of nations contains but 3,708,000, or 292,000 miles less. The United States includes 3,300,572 square miles, or 769,128 less than British America.
Sir, I often smile when I hear some vain-glorious Republican exclaiming, ‘ No pent-up Utica contracts our powers : The whole unbounded continent is ours forgetting that the largest portion does not belong to him at all, but to us the men of the North, whose descendants will control its destinies forever.
The whole globe contains but 37,000,000 square miles. We North Americans under the British flag have one ninth of the whole, and this ought to give us ample room and verge enough for the accommodation and support of a countless population.”

Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, too, are each extending their iron arms to meet the Canadian chain of railway. A line of railway is in progress, under the control of Nova Scotia, designed to extend from Halifax to the New Brunswick frontier, and thence New Brunswick purposes to continue it to St. John, the commercial capital of New Brunswick, a distance of 255 miles from the Atlantic terminus at Halifax. The American interests, ever awake, are labouring to connect this line with Portland and Maine; but a branch is intended to connect the “European and North American Railway” with Miramichi, distant from Riviere du Loup but 200 miles. As the result, then, of these efforts in the Lower Provinces and in Canada, I look for the eventual extension of a main Provincial artery, reaching from Lake Huron to the Atlantic at Halifax ; part of it constructed, it maybe, as an inter-provincial route.

Nations, like individuals, have their peculiar characteristics. The British people, so firmly combined and yet so singularly distinct, present in proud pre-eminence a high toned national character, a fit model for our imitation. Inheriting, as we do, all the characteristics of the British people, combining therewith the chivalrous feeling and the impulsiveness of France, and fusing other nationalities which mingle here with these, into one, as I trust, harmonious whole, —rendered the more vigorous by our northern position, and enterprising by our situation in this vast country which owns us as its masters, —the British American people have duties and responsibilities of no light character imposed upon them by Providence. Enjoying self-government in political matters, —bringing home, through the municipal system, the art of government, and “consequent respect for it, to the whole people, —let a high ensample of national character be kept steadily in view, and let every effort be directed by our statesmen and by our whole people to its formation. A wide-spread dissemination of a sound education, —a steady maintenance of civil and religious liberty, and of freedom of speech and thought, in the possession and enjoyment of all classes of the community,—a becoming national respect and reverence for the behests of the Great Ruler of events and the teachings of his Word, —truthfulness and a high-toned commercial honour, -unswerving and unfaltering rectitude as a people, in the strict observance of all the liabilities of the Province towards its creditors, and in all its relations towards all connected with it, —a becoming respect for the powers that be, and a large and liberal appreciation of the plain and evident responsibilities of our position,—should be pre-eminent characteristics of the British American people; and so acting, they will not fail to win the respect, as they will command the notice, of the world.

“Nova Brittiana, or, British North America, Its Extent and Future”, Morris, Alexander, A.M. Mercantile Association of Montreal. 1858. https://qspace.library.queensu.ca/bitstream/handle/1974/10389/novabritanniaorb00morr.pdf

Nova Scotia Gazette, Nov 21 1765.

Halifax Gazette

Since few of these old newspapers are properly scanned with OCR, being multiple columns of faded text, I’ve done my best to transcribe what seemed to be the most interesting parts of this edition. It contains a number of references to the Stamp Act as well as news from the other colonies, one being a letter from Benjamin Franklin’s son William.


The Nova Scotia Gazette: Containing the freshest Intelligence, foreign and domestic. From Thursday, November 21, to Thursday November 28, 1765. Price six pence single.

Halifax Gazette

Thoughts on Various subjects:

  1. Party is the madness of many for the gain of a few.
  2. To endeavor to work upon the vulgar with fine sense, is like attempting to hew blocks with a razor.
  3. A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.
  4. Our passions are like convulsion fits, which though they make us stronger for the time, leave us weaker after.
  5. A brave man thinks no one his superior who does him an injury, for he has it then in his power to make himself superior to the other, by forgiving it.
  6. To relieve the oppressed is the most glorious act a man is capable of; it is in some measure doing the business of God and providence.
  7. Superstition is the spleen of the soul.
  8. Atheists put on a false courage and alacrity in the midst of their darkness and apprehensions; like children, who, when they go in the dark, will sing for fear.
  9. An Athiest is but a mad ridiculous derider of piety: but a hypocrite makes a sober jest of God and religion; he finds it easier to be upon his knees, than to rise to do a good action; like an impudent debtor, who goes every day and talks familiarly to his creditor, without ever paying what he owes.
  10. When men grow virtuous in their old age, they only make a sacrifice to God of the devil’s leavings.
  11. When we are young, we are sensibly employed in procuring something whereby we may live comfortably when we grow old; and when we are old, we perceive it is too late to live as we proposed.
  12. People are scandalized if one laughs at what they call a serious thing. Suppose I were to have my head cut off tomorrow, and all the world were talking of it today, yet why might not I laugh to think, what a bustle is here about my head?
  13. A man of wit is not incapable of business, but above it. A sprightly generous horse is able to carry a pack saddle as well as an ass, but he is too good to be put to the drudgery.
  14. Whereever I find a great deal of gratitude in a poor man, I take it for granted, there would be as much generosity if he were a rich man.
  15. Flowers of rhetoric in sermons, and ferocious discourses, are like the blue and red flowers in corn, pleasing to those who come only for amusement, but prejudicial to him who would reap the profit from it.
  16. When two people compliment each other with the choice of anything, each of them generally gets that which he likes least.
  17. He who tells a lye, is not sensible how great a task he undertakes, for he must be forced to invent twenty more to maintain that one.
  18. Giving advice is many times only the privilege of saying a foolish thing one’s self, under pretense of hindering another from doing on.
  19. ‘Tis with followers at court, as with followers on the road, who first bespatter those that go before, and then tread on their heels.
  20. False happiness is like false money, it passes for a crime as well as the true, and serves some ordinary occasions; but when it is brought to the touch, we find the lightness and alloy, and feel the loss.
  21. The vanity of human life is like a river, certainly passing away, and yet continually coming on.
  22. I seldom see a noble building, or any great piece of magnificence and pomp, but I think, how little is all this to satisfy the ambition, or to fill the idea, of an immortal soul?
  23. Is is with narrow souled people, as with narrow neck bottles; the less they have in them, the more noise they make in pouring it out.
  24. Many men have been capable of doing a wise thing; more a cunning thing; but very few a generous thing.
  25. Since it is reasonable to doubt most things, we should most of all doubt that reason of ours which would demonstrate all things.
  26. To buy books as some do who make no use of them, only because they were published by an eminent printer, is much as if a man should buy clothes that did not fit him, only because they were made by some famous taylor.
  27. It is as offensive to speak within a fool’s company, as it would be ill manners to whisper in it, he is displeased at both for the same reason, because he is ignorant of what is said.
  28. Old men, for the most part, are like old chronicles, that give you dull but true accounts of times past, and are worth knowing only on that score.
  29. Men are grateful, in the same degree that they are resentful.
    The longer we live, the more we shall be convinced, that it is reasonable to love God, and despise man, as far as we know either.
  30. That character in conversation, which commonly passes for agreeable, is made up of civility and falsehood.
  31. An excuse is worse, and more terrible than a lye, for an excuse is a lye guarded.
  32. Praise is like amber grease, a little whiff of it, and by snatches, is very agreeable; but when a man holds a whole lump of it to your nose, it is a stink, and strikes you down.

Short Rules for conversation:

  1. To deceive men’s expectations generally argues a settled mind, and unexpected constancy as in manner of fear, anger sudden, joy, grief, and all things that may affect or alter the mind, on public or sudden accidents.
  2. It is necessary to use a steadfast countenance, not wavering with action, as in moving the head or hand too much; which shews a fanatical light, and fickle operation of the mind; it is sufficient, with leisure, to use a modest action of either.
  3. In all kinds of speech, it is proper to speak leisurely, and rather drawingly, than hastily; because hasty speech confounds the memory, and often drives a man to nonplus, or an unseemly stammering, whereas slow speech confirms the memory, and begets an opinion of wisdom in the hearers.
  4. To desire in discourse to hold all arguments is ridiculous, and a want of true judgement; for no man can be exquisite in all things.
  5. To have common places of discourse, and to want variety, is odious to the hearers, and shows a shallowness of thought; it is therefore good to vary, and sort speeches to the present occasion; as also, to hold a moderation in all discourse, especially of religion, the state, great persons, important business, poverty, or anything deserving pity.
  6. A long continued discourse, without a good speech of interlocution shows slowness: and a good reply, without a good set of speech, shows shallowness and weakness.
  7. To use many circumstances, before you come to the matter, is wearisome; and to use none at all, is blunt.
  8. Bashfulness is a great hindrance to a man, both in uttering sentiments, and understanding what is proposed to him; it is therefore good to press forwards, with discretion, both discourse and company of the better sort.

True Virtue, What

That man is truly virtuous, who is neither proud in good fortune, nor abject in bad; who desires nothing but heaven, and fears nothing but the loss of it; who avenges affronts with favours, and injuries with pardon, who is severe to himself, and easy to his neighbour, who speaks well of all but himself, and never pardons his own defects, nor censures those of his brethren. In a word, do good, and fly from evil, is the sum of your duty. This is virtue in short hand, perfection in epitome, and heaven in reversion.


Approved Receipts

Thick ginger bread: A pound and a half of flour takes up one pound of treacle, almost as much sugar, an ounce of beaten ginger, two ounces of caraway seeds, four ounces of citron, and lemon peel candied, the yolks of four eggs; cut your sweet meats, mix all, and bake in large cakes, on tin plates.

To make a rice pudding: Grind, or beat half a pound of rice to flour, mix it by degrees with three pints of milk, and thicken it over fire with care, for fear of burning, till it is like a hefty pudding; when it is so thick, pour it out, and let it stand to cool: put to it nine eggs (but half the whites) three or four spoonfulls of orange flower water: melt almost a pound of good butter, and sweeten it to your taste. Add sweetmeats, if you please.



American Intelligence: Burlington New Jersey, Oct 5 1765.

Whereas a report has for some time past been circulated, that the governor of this province received the letter sent by the speaker of the general court of Massachusetts Bay, to the speaker of the assembly at New Jersey, detained it in his possession till the last day of the late meeting at Burlington, and, by his Management, prevailed on the assembly, not to accept of the invitation to send commissioners to New York. And whereas a Paper has been printed & published at Philadelphia, positively asserting,

“That the Governor of New Jersey has made strong efforts to subdue the spirit of liberty in his government, and arbitrary refuses to give his assembly an opportunity to join the other assemblies in decent remonstrances against the stamp law, although nine tenths of the people of the Jerseys now vehemently desire it. Nor does he confine himself to his government alone, but by assistance of Mr G_____y, is said to have practiced on the eight members of a certain county, not very remote from him, in order to get them to carry a vote against sending commissioners to New York, that the Pennsylvania Assembly might thus keep the Jersey one in countenance.”

Now this is to assure the Publick, that so far from having received and detained the above mentioned letter, I have not even yet seen it; that I never heard of any such letter being sent to, or received by, the Speaker, till the Day after the House had finished their business, and were prorogued, when I was told that they had it under consideration and had ordered an answer to be wrote at the table, acquainting the speaker of Massachusetts, that they unanimously declined complying with the proposal from the assembly of that Province, nor was the said answer ever shewn to me, though wrote the 20th of June last, until some time in the beginning of September. That from the last sessions to this present time, not a single member of the council, or house of representatives, nor any other person whatever in the province, has desired me to call another meeting of the assembly. That it is well known to several of the representatives, that I have so often declared I would always, if in my power, give the House an opportunity of meeting, when the speaker and nine or ten members should represent to me that the Business of the Publick made it necessary, -And I do likewise aver, that so far from my having practiced on the eight members of Bucks County, in order to get them to carry a vote against sending commissioners from Pennsylvania to New York, I have not, to my knowledge, seen one of them these two years past; nor have I, either through Mr Galloway or otherwise, had the least connection or correspondence with them, or any other person in the county, on any subject whatever. Nor have I, either to Mr. Galloway, or to any one Man in Pennsylvania, given the least intimation that it would, or would not, be agreeable to me, that the Assembly of that Province should send Commissions to the intended Congress.

I should not have thought it necessary to give this public Refutation of the falsehoods contained in the report and papers above mentioned, had they not been propagated and published with a view of taking advantage of the present commotions to excite a difference between me and a people for whom I have a great regard, and with whom I have lived in uninterrupted harmony ever since my arrival in the government. And I cannot help expressing my surprize that Mr. Shippen, the Deputy Governor’s Secretary, Mr. Chew, the Attorney General, and others of the principal Officers of the Government of Pennsylvania, could have given their public countenance to such a flagrant piece of injustice. This they did (as I am credibly informed) by employing the Clerk of the Court to read aloud the Paper above quoted to a large Number of people collected by their Agents for the Purpose and signifying their Approbation by loud Huzzas at the Close of every paragraph.

As to what is contained in the said Paper relative to my father’s being concerned in the planning and promotion of the Stamp Act, it is grosly false, and consequently a shameful imposition on the people. Not a Gentleman of the Proprietary Party, even among those who scruple not, can, I am convinced, be found so hardened as to avow in print, with his Name subscribed, that he believes is to be true, or to undertake to produce any Proofs in its Support. ___ My father is absent ___ but he has left Friends enough on the Spot, who are both capable and willing to clear him from any aspersions which the malice of the propriety party can suggest. To these friends I leave the defense of his reputation, if it can need any, being determined to concern myself no farther with the Disputes of Pennsylvania than as they relate to my character, or have reference to the public transactions of this Province.

WILLIAM FRANKLIN


From the Boston Post Bay, and Advertiser.

To the Printer, Sir, You desired in your last that ‘some Barrister or other capable gentleman would give the public ‘a definition of treason.’ I am no Barrister, nor do I pretend to be able to give a precise definition of this extensive term, agreeable to Magna Carta or the British Constitution, much less to enumerate all the senses in which it has of late been used. However if you please publish the following, which tho’ it is not a logical, is at least a formal Definition of it.

Negatively.

  1. It is not Treason to say the inhabitants of the North American colonies are Englishmen.
  2. It is not Treason to assert that Englishmen have rights of which no power on earth can justly deprive them.
  3. It is not Treason in Englishmen to be sensible when they are oppressed, and detest the authors of their oppression.
  4. Neither is it Treason in them to complain of their grievances and expose the wicked instrument of them:
  5. It is not Treason in any subject or body of subjects to declare what they apprehend the rights of Englishmen to be, at least when they assert none to be such but what evidently are.
  6. It is not Treason in any Legislature to pronounce declare and resolve, that those are Enemies to their country who assert and maintain doctrines diametrically opposed to the fundamental principles of the constitution.
  7. It is not Treason to suppose the most August Assembly upon Earth may be mistaken.
  8. It is not Treason to attempt to convince them of their mistake.
  9. It is not Treason to say no man can be taxed, agreeable to the British Constitution, without his consent.
  10. It is not Treason to say no man can give his consent to that which was never proposed to him or his representatives.
  11. It is not Treason to be unable to conceive how a country can in any sense, be said to be represented in an assembly where none of the members are of its election.
  12. It is not Treason so say, that all the Parts of a community are not equally free where one Part is subject to the arbitrary Power and Tyranny of another.
  13. It is not Treason in any Country charged with heavy and unconstitutional Taxes, after suitable and ineffectual Petitions Remonstrances, Struggles and efforts, to betake itself to the only possible method of paying them and subsisting – that is to say
  14. It is not Treason in the American Colonies to break off Commerce, which if carried on will inevitably prove their Ruin.
  15. It is not Treason to wish Great Britain could see what is for her own interest.
  16. It is not Treason to proceed as follows.

Affirmative

  1. To attempt the Subversion of the most happy constitution upon earth, is Treason.
  2. To assert and maintain that the King is not to rule for the good of his subjects, is Treason.
  3. To say the king is not bound to govern by the laws, is Treason.
  4. To maintain that the king and parliament may exact laws contrary to the fundamentals of the constitution, is Treason.
  5. To say the king is not bound to yield obedience to such laws, is Treason.
  6. To say the king is not bound to fulfil his engagements to his subjects is Treason.
  7. therefore to dissuade him from it, is Treason.
  8. To insinuate that the subject can never know what to depend on from Royal Grants, and Charters, is Treason.
  9. To make one part of his Majesty’s liege Subjects slaves to the rest, is Treason.
  10. To attempt to disaffect a great and important part of his majesty’s subjects to his Government, is Treason.
  11. To represent a virtuous and loyal people as villains and traitors, is Treason.
  12. To insinuate that the King and Parliament will be deaf to the just and grievous complaints of any of their oppressed subjects is treason.
  13. For the subject tamely to give up his Rights when it is in his power to avoid it, is Treason.
  14. Therefore to be loyal according to some people sense of the word is the blackest of Treason.
  15. To use arguments for the enslaving one part of his Majesty’s Dominions which equally tend to the enslaving of the whole is Treason.
  16. All Rebellion (which is no other than dissolving the peaceable Bonds of society by breaking over the fundamental laws of the commonwealth) whether in ruler or people, is high Treason.
  17. To aid assist abet or comfort (i.e. flatter and cringe to) Traiterers, is Treason.
  18. Whoever attempts either directly or indirectly, by himself or his substitute to introduce French politicks into the Realm of England or any other part of his Majesty’s Dominions is a Villain, a Parricide, and a Traiter.

On taking the great Guns at the Havannah, called the Twelve Apostles. By a lady.

England, for martial deeds renown’d, Has many a trophy got; And from where’er the Sun goes round, has wealth and glory brought. A great conquest now she gains, Then got by all her battles, For George the Thrids, so Fate ordains, Has won the twelve apostles. Him, Church’s Head, the pope now owns, To be without restriction, Since now he’ll give his Catholic Sons Apost’lic Benediction.



London, to the printer, Bread at seven pence three farthings the quartern loaf, and wheat rising every day!

Gentlemen, what think ye of it now? Ye advocates for exportation! Ye scoffers and deriders of the poor! Have ye bent the bow enough? Or will it bear stretching a little farther? Will it bear a good deal? Are ye not afraid of its bursting? Are ye not determined to try the utmost pitch? Then burst it must, and take the consequence. God preserve the innocent and just; let the guilty receive the due reward of their deeds! The cry of the poor having reached the ear of Government, some progress was made towards redressing their grievance, and supplying their hungry families with bread, at the first motion of the infernal hydra, the devouring mother called engrossing , trembled and shook, crouching under the dreadful hand lifted up against it; ready to lick the very dust, and to cease from its rapacious depredations? When alas! By some strange fatality, the decisive blow was withheld, and the wild beast retired unhurt, more audacious than ever, bidding defiance to government, eluding the vigilance of the subordinate officers, trampling upon undistinguished multitudes, devouring some, maiming others, distressing and disturbing the whole community, without intermission. Such is the wild beast, that has been let loose in England, and kept loose by some hands, who shall now be nameless, Those who saw the monster trembling under the potent hand of justice, and averted the blow, are accountable at least to God (if above the reach of man) for all the outrages and calamities it has brought, or may bring upon their Country.

In Turkey, if a famine threatened the land, and an Aga, a Busbaw of three tails, or even the Grand Vizier, should stand up to oppose any salutary means of averting a dearth or famine; all the Signiors’s despotic power could not protect him from the fatal consequences of the vindictive indignation of an injured, exasperated people. The bow string would soon consign him a lifeless victim into the black sea, to appease the furious vengeance of the enraged multitude! What shall we say then? Can the sons of liberty only stand still, and tamely see the bread torn from their tender wives, and helpless offspring perishing with hunger, to feed their rivals and enemies? Can they bear this with silent grief and stupid astonishment, without murmuring or decent complaining? Shall a band of Janizaries, the tools of despotic power, surrounding the Ottoman throne, dictate terms to their haughty master, on pressing occasions? And shall a nation of freemen, armed with every privilege of constitutional freedom, be totally destitute of the means to procure redress from the greatest grievance imaginable? Then may the Gaul, the Spaniards, and even the Turk, ridicule our fine spun notions of liberty starving, while they eat the bread out of our mouths? Britons, patriots undistinguished by partial knavish names, true lovers of your country, in whose honest breasts there yet remains undistinguished some parks of Attic fire, and true Roman virtue; stand up in your places, ye who are not in combination against the public welfare; shew yourselves in word and action, in every vigorous constitutional measure tending to the relief of the poor and industrious; pour out your whole souls! Exhaust your whole fund of eloquence! Leave no constitutional measure untried, until conviction shall pour irresistible upon gainsayers, and avarice itself be convinced of this great truth, that starving the present generation of poor Laborers and mechanics, does not tend to the permanent benefit of the present race of rich and their posterity. A FRIEND of the POOR.


Essay on Tea. Non anno Te—- Mart

It is certain that the poor people in England diminish there little pitance of income, and hurt their health, by indulging themselves in this expensive orimental luxury. They have now their nervous distempers; which, till within this century, were the sole prerogatives of the rich, idle, and luxurious. I see no abatement in tea drinking, though corn and meat are extremely dear. A day laborer, who earns but 5g. a week at this time of the year, in the country, and whom we suppose to have a wife and family must expend 3s. and 6d. in bread only for he cannot afford to buy meat. Thus supposing he has work, and is able to work their remains but 18d. a week to buy cloaths, candles &c.

Now supposing that this poor, honest, laborious drudge’s wife drinks tea, (and it is fifty to one but she does) that will amount to 7d. a week more; even though she be as great economist as she pleases; -and then we cannot allow her sugar nor buttered toast. Add to this the loss of time, and a certain lowness of spirit which calls for a [indecipherable], is she has an odd penny in her pocket. Hence come less of appetite, and an enfeebled constitution, and thus population is injured.

We compute in England five millions and a half of people, and, out of these three millions at least drink tea. One shilling a year upon each head, amongst the poorer sort, would (I trust in God) amount to a prohibition, We then suppose there will remain tow millions of tea drinkers, and let them pay annually 5g. a head and this will amount to 500,000 l. a year; and then tax upon their candles, or leather, or the new additional tax upon malt might be taken off. These three are properly the poor’s taxes. I am not writing here to enrich an exchequer, but to preserve it as rich as it was before, and ease the working and laborious poor. We can bleed no farther in the discussion of taxes, except they are sumptuary ones. Too heavy a tax upon malt, is the most unkind of all taxes, except upon meat. A draught of cheap good ale is heaven’s cordial to a hard working man.

But it will be objected, that a tax upon tea will hurt the colonies in their sugar trade. Agreed; in that one branch it may, but though England is a parent (and an indulgent parent) to her colonies, yet she is not oblidg’d too [indecipherable] them at the expence of her won children at home.

France has acted wiser than we have done in respect to tea? Though she has her sugars, yet she does not like the original burying her money in an East India gulph; and I dare appeal to such travellers as know England and France well if they do not believe, that more tea is used, every year, in Bristol and Bath only (or in any other English places of that size) than in all France.

France, in one respect, is the best governed nation in the world; for the French can make any thing fashionable at home, which is for the good fo their King & country; France, in the long run may be mistress of Europe, She lost money by keeping Canada. What what did she give us? A farm of Million of acres, knowing well at the same time, we had but one team of oxen to plough with. A few colonies are a blessing to a trading and maritime nation; over extensive ones (I speak at least problematically) may be hurtful. When colonies become large and populous, they may set up for their own manufacturers, or like [Indecipherable], wax fat and kick.

The peopleing of colonies is not so advantageous as most men imagine. Let us suppose twenty thousand men, and as many women (at an age of child getting and child bearing) to be sent from any mother country to a colony. The men at thirty pounds a man, are worth, fix hundred thousand pounds at home; and the woman, at ten pounds a head, are worth two hundred thousand pounds. Add to this, that the population, rising from these people in one century (and the depopulation consequently at home) will amount at least to two hundred thousand souls. Such are the expences of colony settlements. Now a political, frugal, and industrious nation can spare but a certain number of people. War, navigation, fisheries and colonies should only have one person out of nine or ten. France aims to be a compact bouy: She sets herself to promote agriculture, and population at home; and one time or other the asps nest will be so full, that they will take the liberty to settle themselves and make new nests in some neighbours fields. Sir, Your’s, Philo Rygis & Philo Patriae.


FORIEGN AFFAIRS. LONDON. July 18.

We are informed, since the Plantation Agents have taled in opposing the intended duty on American stamps, a motion is preparing to be made in the house, that the commissioner for the receipt of this duty may be appointed from the natives of each province, where the tax is to take place. The payment of a certain bounty or the importation of bugles is resolved on, for the better supply of the foreign trade. Certain regulations for the more effectual supply of the foreign trade. Certain regulations for the more effectual supply of the African export trade, buy a new contract with the East India Company, is resolved on. An account of the quantities of woolen and woolen yarn imported into Scotland from Ireland for the last fourteen years, distinguishing each year, with the ports to from which the same were imported and exported, is erected to be laid before the House. The usual bounty on the exportation of corn, &c. from England to the Isle of Man, is going to be discontinued. A petition from the boroughs of Leicester and Derby has been presented to parliament against the exportation of wheat and flour. We hear a parliamentary aid will be granted this sessions for building over the Tay in Scotland, which the Magistrates and Town Council of Perth have represented by petition will be a means of civilizing the Northern Highlanders of that kingdom, and of general benefit to trade. We are assured that the qualifications of all Proprietors of East India Stock will be regulated and fixed this session of parliament. On a late review of the fortifications in the British West India islands, upwards of five hundred pieces of iron ordinance were found to be useless and [indecipherable], which have since been replaced by sufficient artillery from England. We are well assured, that all the turnpike roads in the county of Kent will be immediately repaired. They write from Devonshire and Southampton, that several farmers in those counties are going to convert their orchards into hop ground being determined to make no more cyder or perry for the future. It is said that tow thousand pounds is the form allowed by authority, towards making experiments for discovering the Longitude at sea, over & above the reward offered for the discovery of it. Yesterday morning some hundred yards of foreign silk ribbon were seized at a Toy shop in New Send Street. It is said that application will be made to parliament to oblige Agents for prize money the property of his Majesty’s land forces to account for what forms are remaining in their hands unclaimed within a limited time.



Boston: Extract of a letter from Piscataqua.

Whatever different interests there may be, among the several province and colonies in North America, it is certain they are all firmly united in this single point, namely, to make a more opposition to the stamp act, which is justly accounted destructive of English Liberty both in Great Britain and all the American plantations. However, by letters from your Metropolis, we are informed that many among you are of opinion, that however our chief may stand effected most of our people are for tamely submitting to the reasonable hardships of the Act. In this I can inform you with great certainty, that you are mistaken. For though in the days of yore, when you’d enquire [indecipherable] it was confidently said in Boston, that the people of New Hampshire had but one privilege left them, which was a negative one not to be sold for slaves, we can now assure you, we have a more noble relish for British Liberty. Accordingly, when our Stamp Master arrived among us, had he not humbled himself, and made consideration, and solemly promised to renouce the detestable employment of distributing the stamp papers, he would immediately have felt the warm resentments of our inraged people. You have liberty to communicate these things to the public, that all North America may know the general sentiments of this province, not to submit to the Stamp Act, or to any other unconstitutional imposition.

Halifax November 28. Last Friday arrived here Capt. Allen in the Gaspee Cutter, from New York, but last from Piscataqua, who met with a storm, which carried away her bowspirit. Entered inwards, none. Cleared outwards, Sloop Sally Dunning, Virginia & North Carolina. Sloop Charming Nancy, Mullowney, Philadelphia. Sloop Nibby, Godfrey, Lisbon. Brig Chance, Brown, Liverpool G. Britain.

HALIFAX, (in NOVA SCOTIA) Printed and sold by A. Henry, at his printing office in Sackville Street, where all Persons may be supplied with a whole sheet of this paper at eighteen shillings a year, until the publisher has an 150 Subscribers, when it will be no more than twelve shillings. Advertisements are taken in, and inserted as Cheap as the Stamp Act will allow.

Nova Scotia Gazette, [Halifax, NS] Thursday Nov 21-Thursday November 28, 1765 https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=4p3FJGzxjgAC&dat=17651121&printsec=frontpage&hl=en Accessed July 3, 2021.

Catalogue of books in the Nova Scotia Legislative Council Library

The collection of documents in the Library of Nova Scotia’s legislative library, particularly the Acts of the Legislature of Virginia, Constitution of the United States, and various documents from New York, indicates a deep connection between Nova Scotia and certain states, particularly Virginia and New York. These documents were used to guide the formation of legislation in Nova Scotia’s early years, suggesting a significant influence from American legal and political frameworks.

The inclusion of Virginia’s historical documents, such as the Declaration of Independence and Constitution of Virginia, alongside New York’s assembly and senate journals and laws, highlights the reliance on American precedents and models in shaping Nova Scotia’s legal and legislative systems. This connection underscores the historical ties and shared legal heritage between Nova Scotia and specific states in the United States, reflecting a broader transatlantic influence on the development of Canadian law and governance.


“Catalogue: Acts of the Parliament of Virginia, 1660 to 1748, Annals of Congress from 1789 to 1797, Assembly Journals of New York 1850 to 1855, Assembly Documents of New York 1850 to 1855, Senate Journals of New York 1850 to 1855, Senate documents of New York 1850 to 1855, Chalmer’s Introduction to the History of the Revolt of the American Colonies, Colonial History of New York, DeTocqueville’s Democracy in America, Dixon’s Life of William Penn, Documentary History of New York, Documents relating to the colonial History of New York-vol. 1-9 (except vol. 2), Journals of Provincial Congress of New York, 1775-1776-1777, Laws of New York from 1691 to 1773, Laws of New York from 1850-1855″

Acts of the Legislature of Virginia

  1. Resolution of the Convention of Virginia, authorising their delegates in Congress to declare American independence. Constitution of the United States. Declaration of independence. Articles of confederation. Declaration of rights of Virginia. Constitution of Virginia. Ancient charters relating to the first settlement of Virginia. Commission to Sir Francis Wyatt (July 24th, 1621) Instructions to Governor Wyatt (July 24th, 1621) Acts of assembly, 1619-1649. Articles at the surrender of the country, &c. Acts of assembly, 1652-1660
  2. 1660-1682. Historical documents from 1660 to 1682
  3. 1684-1710. Historical documents from 1682 to 1710
  4. 1711-1736
  5. 1738-1748

Annals of Congress from 1789 to 1797

  1. Debates of Congress March 4, 1789-June 1, 1796
  2. The United States Senate, 1787-1801: a dissertation on the first fourteen years of the upper legislative body
  3. General index of the Journals of Congress 1789-1809, from the First to Tenth Congress inclusive
  4. Sketches of debate in the first Senate of the United States 1789-91

Assembly Journals of New York

  1. Journal of the Assembly of the State of New York, 1850 v1
  2. Journal of the Assembly of the State of New York, 1851 v1
  3. Journal of the Assembly of the State of New York, 1851 v2
  4. Journal of the Assembly of the State of New York, 1852
  5. Journal of the Assembly of the State of New York, 1853 v1
  6. Journal of the Assembly of the State of New York, 1853 v2
  7. Journal of the Assembly of the State of New York, 1854
  8. Journal of the Assembly of the State of New York, 1855

Assembly Documents of New York

  1. Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York, (1850:no.1-15)
  2. Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York, (1850:no.18-49)
  3. Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York, (1850:no.199)
  4. Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York, (1851:no.1-21)
  5. Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York, (1851:no.22-44)
  6. Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York, (1851:no.45-90)
  7. Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York, (1851:no.91-131)
  8. Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York, (1851:no.150-159)
  9. Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York, (1852:no.1-27)
  10. Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York, (1852:no.28-88)
  11. Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York, (1852:no.89)
  12. Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York, (1852:no.90)
  13. Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York, (1852:no.91-125)
  14. Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York, (1852:no.126)
  15. Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York, (1852:no.127-129)
  16. Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York, (1853:no.1-14)
  17. Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York, (1853:no.15-54)
  18. Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York, (1853:no.55-80)
  19. Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York, (1853:no.81-111)
  20. Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York, (1854:no.1-39)
  21. Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York, (1854:no.76-124)
  22. Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York, (1854:no.125-144)
  23. Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York, (1854:no.145-150)
  24. Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York, (1854:no.151)
  25. Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York, (1855:no.1-24)
  26. Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York, (1855:no.25-59)
  27. Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York, (1855:no.60-80)
  28. Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York, (1855:no.81-115)
  29. Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York, (1855:no.116-144)
  30. Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York, (1855:no.145)
  31. Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York, (1855:no.146-151)

Senate Journals of New York

  1. Journal of the Senate of the State of New York, sess.73 1850
  2. Journal of the Senate of the State of New York, sess.74 1851
  3. Journal of the Senate of the State of New York, sess.75 1852
  4. Journal of the Senate of the State of New York, sess.76 1853
  5. Journal of the Senate of the State of New York, sess.77 1854
  6. Journal of the Senate of the State of New York, sess.78 1855

Senate documents of New York

  1. Documents of the Senate of the State of New York, 73rd v.1 no.1-40(1850)
  2. Documents of the Senate of the State of New York, 73rd v.2 no.41-75(1850)
  3. Documents of the Senate of the State of New York, 73rd v.3 no.76-113(1850)
  4. Documents of the Senate of the State of New York, 1851 v.1
  5. Documents of the Senate of the State of New York, 74th v.2 no.21-64(1851)
  6. Documents of the Senate of the State of New York, 74th v.3 no.65-97(1851)
  7. Documents of the Senate of the State of New York, 75th v.1 no.1-50(1852)
  8. Documents of the Senate of the State of New York, (1852:no.51-92)
  9. Documents of the Senate of the State of New York, (1852:no.93-98)
  10. Documents of the Senate of the State of New York, c.1 sess.76 v.1 1853
  11. Documents of the Senate of the State of New York, c.1 sess.76 v.2 1853
  12. Documents of the Senate of the State of New York, c.1 sess.76 v.3 1853
  13. Documents of the Senate of the State of New York, c.1 sess.77 v.1 1854
  14. Documents of the Senate of the State of New York, c.1 sess.77 v.2 1854
  15. Documents of the Senate of the State of New York, c.1 sess.77 v.3 1854
  16. Documents of the Senate of the State of New York, c.1 sess.78 v.1 1855
  17. Documents of the Senate of the State of New York, c.1 sess.78 v.2 1855
  18. Documents of the Senate of the State of New York, c.1 sess.78 v.3 1855

The Documentary history of the State of New York

  1. The Documentary history of the state of New-York Vol.1
  2. The Documentary history of the state of New-York Vol.2
  3. The Documentary history of the state of New-York Vol.3
  4. The Documentary history of the state of New-York Vol.4

Documents relating to the colonial History of New York

  1. Documents relating to the colonial History of New York, v.1
  2. Documents relating to the colonial History of New York, v.2
  3. Documents relating to the colonial History of New York, v.3
  4. Documents relating to the colonial History of New York, v.4
  5. Documents relating to the colonial History of New York, v.5
  6. Documents relating to the colonial History of New York, v.6
  7. Documents relating to the colonial History of New York, v.7
  8. Documents relating to the colonial History of New York, v.8
  9. Documents relating to the colonial History of New York, v.9

Laws of the State of New York from 1850-1855

  1. Laws of the State of New York, 1850
  2. Laws of the State of New York, 1851
  3. Laws of the State of New York, 1852
  4. Laws of the State of New York, 1853
  5. Laws of the State of New York, 1854
  6. Laws of the State of New York, 1855

Nova Scotia. Legislative Council. Library. Catalogue of Books In the Legislative Council Library: 1859. [Halifax, N.S.?: s.n.], 1859. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/aeu.ark:/13960/t45q5c924

Constitution and by-laws of the Anglo-African Mutual Improvement and Aid Association of Nova Scotia

“Whereas, it is perfectly consistent with the dictates of prudence and the interests of self-preservation, that men, for their mutual support and protection, and the advancement of their interests, should form themselves into an Association, thereby giving unto themselves that strength and importance belonging to Unity.

Therefore, We, the Colored Men of Nova Scotia, have unanimously agreed to form ourselves into an Association to guard and cherish our social rights, and advance our Financial as well as our Political interests…”

“It shall be the duty of the Committee on Political Action to watch narrowly the Civic and Political arena, confer with, and lay before all Candidates for Civic or Political honors who many appeal to them individually or collectively for support, this Association, its objects, and our being debarred, as a people, from several public offices which we are capable of filling, and other privileges that we are justly entitled to as ratepayers.”

Anglo-African Mutual Improvement and Aid Association of Nova Scotia. Constitution And By-laws of the Anglo-African Mutual Improvement And Aid Association of Nova Scotia. [Halifax, N.S.?: s.n., 18. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/aeu.ark:/13960/t7dr4207r

Speech on the union of the colonies, Debates, 1865

“It has been argued that we are so small a territory, that we should endeavor to unite with some larger country, in order to enlarge our scope for action… Turn to the American States, and contrast the size of Nova Scotia with some States there, and from which we have heard no talk of forming any union with any other State, in order to increase their importance in the Union. There are the States of New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland, &c- all very much smaller in area than Nova Scotia, and yet from these we hear of no Union being formed among them, in order that the citizens may have more area or room for development. Nova Scotia contains 20,436 square miles; New Hampshire 9,280; Vermont 9,056; Connecticut 4,730; Massachusetts, that occupies so conspicuous a position in the American nation, 7,800. Yet Nova Scotia, that our statesmen look down upon with contempt, is larger than any two of the States I have named; and where we find the Americans perfectly satisfied with the proportions these States occupy in the American nation, we should also be content, that whilst we are Nova Scotia’s, we are at the same time citizens of the British Empire, with all the room and scope which it affords for development.”

“We are told by the Provincial Secretary of the government they proposed to constitute a Federation of British North America. -It appears to me that in the very outset, in the second resolution of this report, they have given the evidence which shows that this Federal Union cannot be stable under the circumstances. They allude there to the “diversity of the interests of the several Provinces.” The fact that the interests of the Provinces are so diversified that each has its own interests, and its center of interest within itself- precludes the possibility of a Federal Union being formed to work harmoniously.”

“Upper and Lower Canada may have disputes at times too, but whenever the Lower provinces come in, they will unite as one province against us.”

Nova Scotia. House of Assembly, and A. W. (Archibald Woodbury) McLelan. Speech On the Union of the Colonies. Halifax, N.S.: Printed at the “Morning Chronicle” Office, 1865. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.hni43j

Missionary enterprise among the [black] people of the Maritime Provinces of Canada

black history

African Methodist Episcopal Church of Nova Scotia. Missionary Enterprise Among the Coloured People of the Maritime Provinces of Canada. [Halifax, N.S.?: s.n., 1899. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/aeu.ark:/13960/t87h1xk0h

Acadia; missing links of a lost chapter in American history

“The work I am now undertaking has never been done before. This sweeping assertion may astonish the reader; but there is this very good reason for making it: the archives of the most important part of this history have been either carried off, or destroyed, or simply lost. Which of these alternatives is the most likely will appear later on.

An American writer, Philip H. Smith, treating of the same subject, gave his book this title: “ Acadia— A Lost Chapter in American History.” Though he had not the documents needed for a complete reconstruction, yet, with his sound judgment and great impartiality, by making good use of what he had in hand, he has managed to hit upon a line of development that affords a glimpse of what was hidden in the missing documents. That lost chapter I believe I have reconstructed in its essential parts. The reader will judge if the title I have chosen suits the work I lay before him.

Have I, then, found the missing portion of the archives? Yes and no. A considerable part of them will, probably, never be found; but good luck has put in my way fragments of them, which are amply sufficient to throw light, if not upon the secret details of this history, at least upon its main outlines. Close and continued thought has done the rest.”

Richard, Edouard, 1844-1904, and J. Drummond. Acadia: Missing Links of a Lost Chapter In American History. New York: Home book company, 1895 https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015065261938, https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015065261953

Page 1 of 3
1 2 3