Instructions under the direction of the Secretary of State for the Colonial Department

“Township of Dartmouth

Opposite the Town of Halifax, the Town called Dartmouth was laid out in the Year 1749; but in the war of 1756, the [Mi’kmaq] collected in great force on the basin of Minas, ascended the Shubenacadie in their canoes, and in the night surprised the guard, and killed, scalped, or carried away the most of the settlers; from which period the settlement went to decline, and was almost derelict until the year 1784, when a number of families were encouraged to settle there from Nantucket, to carry on the whale fishery. The town was then laid out in a new form, and cultivation and business revived with spirit and activity, and very encouraging expectations were formed of success in the whale fishery by all concerned in it, until these enterprising people were persuaded, by liberal encouragement, to quit this Country, and remove to Whitehaven in England, where they settled, and became connected with merchants of great capital.

N.B. – The Town of Dartmouth took its name from the Earl of Dartmouth, the Secretary of State for the Colonial Department of that day.

The remaining townships within the County of Halifax are Lawrencetown, Preston, Truro, Onslow, and Londonderry.”

Wilmot Horton, Robert. Cockburn, Francis. “Instructions under the direction of the Secretary of State for the Colonial Department : communicated to Lieut. Col. Cockburn by the Rt. Honorable R.W. Horton in a letter dated 26th January 1827, with a letter and appendix addressed to the Rt. Honorable R.W. Horton by Lieut. Col. Cockburn, detailing the execution of these instructions.” Great Britain. Colonial Office. [S.l. : s.n., 1827?] https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.59329