History of Prince Edward Island

History of Prince Edward Island
Duncan Campbell

History of Prince Edward Island

PREFACE

The principal aim of the Author has been to produce a History of Prince Edward Island, which might claim some degree of merit as to conciseness, accuracy, and impartiality, from the period it became a British possession until its recent union with the other confederated provinces of British North America. With the view to secure these ends, it was necessary that not only all available books and pamphlets relating to the island should be attentively perused, and the correctness of their statements tested; but that a vast mass of original papers, hitherto unpublished, should be carefully examined. Application having been made to His Excellency Lord Dufferin, through Sir Robert Hodgson, the Lieutenant-governor of the island, permission was granted to examine all the numerical despatches. This task imposed an amount of labor which had not been anticipated, and which seemed incompatible with the production of so small a volume. The Author is aware that there lies in the French archives at Paris a large deposit of interesting matter bearing on the history of the Maritime Provinces, and it is to be hoped that it will soon be rendered accessible to the English reader.

It was necessary that a considerable portion of the work should deal with the Land Question. To its consideration the Author came in comparative ignorance of the entire subject, and therefore unprejudiced by ideas and associations of which it might be impossible for a native of the island entirely to divest himself. The soundness of the conclusions arrived at may be questioned; but it can be truly said that they have not been reached without deliberate consideration, and an anxious desire to arrive at the truth.

The Author desires to express his special obligations for valuable matter to His Honor Sir Robert Hodgson, the Honorable Judge Pope, Professor Caven, Mr. Henry Lawson, the Honorable Judge Hensley, the Honorable Mr. Haviland, Mr. John Ings, Hon. Francis Longworth, Mr. J. B. Cooper, Mr. Arthur DeW. Haszard, Mr. Donald Currie, the Reverend Mr. McNeill, Mr. T. B. Aitkins, of Halifax, Mr. John Ball, Mr. F. W. Hughes, the Reverend Dr. Jenkins, Mr. Charles DesBrisay, Mr. J. W. Morrison, and others too numerous to mention.

The Honorable Judge Pope possesses rare and most important documents connected with the island, without which it would have been impossible to produce a satisfactory narrative, and which he at once courteously placed at the temporary disposal of the Author, rendering further service by the remarkable extent and accuracy of his information.

The Author has also to thank the People of Prince Edward Island, especially, for the confidence reposed in him, as proved by the fact of his having received, in the course of a few weeks, orders for his then unpublished work to the number of more than two thousand seven hundred copies, – confidence which he hopes an unprejudiced perusal of the book may, to some extent, justify.

Charlottetown, October, 1875.

CHAPTER I

Geographical position of the Island – Early possession – Population in 1758 – Cession by Treaty of Fontainebleau – Survey of Captain Holland – Holland’s description of the Island – Position of Town sites – Climate – The Earl of Egmont’s scheme of settlement – Proposed division of the Island – Memorials of Egmont – Decision of the British Government respecting Egmont’s Scheme.

Prince Edward Island is situated in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. It lies between 46° and 47° 7’ north latitude, and 62° and 64° 27’ longitude west, from Greenwich. As viewed from the north-east, it presents the form of a crescent. Its length, in a course through the centre of the Island, is about one hundred and forty miles, and its breadth, in the widest part, which is from Beacon Point to East Point, towards its eastern extremity, thirty-four miles. It is separated from Nova Scotia by the Strait of Northumberland, which is only nine miles broad between Cape Traverse and Cape Tormentine. From the Island of Cape Breton it is distant twenty-seven miles, and from the nearest point of Newfoundland one hundred and twenty-five miles.

The Island was amongst the first discoveries of the celebrated navigator, Cabot, who named it Saint John, as indicative of the day of its discovery. Britain failing to lay claim to it, the French afterwards assumed it as part of the discoveries made by Verazani in 1523. In 1663 it was granted, with other Islands, by the Company of New France, to the Sieur Doublet, a captain in the French navy, with whom were associated two adventurers who established a few fishing stations, but who did not reside permanently on the island.

In the year 1713 Anne, the Queen of Great Britain, and Louis XIV, the King of France, concluded the celebrated treaty of Utrecht, by which Acadia and Newfoundland were ceded to Great Britain. The fourteenth article of that treaty provided that the French inhabitants of the ceded territory should be at liberty to remove within a year to any other place. Many of the Acadians, availing themselves of this liberty, removed to the Island of Saint John, which was then under French rule. Subsequently a French officer, who received his instructions from the Governor of Cape Breton, resided with a garrison of sixty men at Port la Joie (Charlottetown).

A Frenchman who had visited the island in 1752 published an account of it shortly afterwards. His report as to the fertility of the soil, the quantity of game, and the productiveness of the fishery was extremely favorable, and he expressed astonishment that with these advantages the island should not have been more densely populated – its inhabitants numbering only 1354.

The great fortress of Louisburg fell in 1745, but was restored to the French in 1748. War was again declared by Britain against France in 1756, and in 1758 Louisburg again fell under the leadership of the gallant Wolfe. After the reduction of the fortress several war ships were detached to seize on the Island of Saint John; an object which was effected without difficulty. Mr. McGregor, in his account of the island, says that the population was stated to be at this time ten thousand, but an old Acadian living when he wrote informed him that it could not have exceeded six thousand. A little over four thousand seems to have been the number of inhabitants at this period.[1 - The Rev. Mr. Sutherland, in his Geography, estimates the population at about four thousand, which corresponds with the estimate of the writer. See History of Nova Scotia, page 143.] The expulsion of the Acadians from Nova Scotia took place in 1755, and many of them having escaped to the island in that year, its population must have been nearly doubled by the influx of fugitives.

The fall of Quebec followed that of Louisburg, and by the treaty of Fontainebleau, in 1763, Cape Breton, the Island of Saint John, and Canada were formally ceded to Great Britain, Cape Breton and the Island of Saint John being placed under the Government of Nova Scotia.

In the year 1764 the British Government resolved to have a survey of North America executed, and with that view the continent was divided into two districts, – a northern and southern, – and a Surveyor General appointed for each, to act under instructions from the Lords’ Commissioners for Trade and Plantations. Captain Samuel Holland was appointed to superintend the survey of the northern district, which comprehended all the territory in North America “lying to the north of the Potowmack River, and of a line drawn due west from the head of the main branch of that river as far as His Majesty’s dominions extend.” Captain Holland received his commission in March, and was instructed to proceed immediately to Quebec, in order to make arrangements for the survey. He was instructed to begin with the Island of Saint John. The government vessel in which Captain Holland had left sighted the Island of Cape Breton on the eleventh of July, 1764. A thick fog having come on, the vessel had approached too near to the land, when the crew heard a musket shot, and the alarming cry of breakers ahead, which had proceeded from a fishing boat. The ship barely escaped the rocks. Contrary winds were subsequently encountered, and Captain Holland resolved to proceed in a rowing boat to Quebec. He accordingly left the ship on the nineteenth of July, and arrived in Quebec on the second of August. In Quebec Captain Holland met Captain Dean, of the Mermaid, who had visited the Island of Saint John during the summer, and who advised him to take “all sorts of material and provisions with him, as there was nothing left on the island but a detachment posted at Fort Amherst, who were indifferently provided, and could not furnish himself and his staff with lodgings.” Captain Holland arrived on the island in October, 1764. He describes Fort Amherst “as a poor stockaded redoubt, with barracks scarcely sufficient to lodge the garrison, – the houses near it having been pulled down to supply material to build it.” “I am obliged,” he adds, “to build winter quarters for myself. I have chosen a spot in the woods, near the sea shore, properly situated for making astronomical observations, where I have put up an old frame of a barn, which I have covered with what material I brought with me, and some boards that we collected from the ruins of some old houses. I fear that it will not be too comfortable.” The vessel in which Captain Holland was conveyed to North America was called the Canceaux, and had been fitted out by the government with the view of aiding him in his professional operations; but on applying to Lieutenant Mowatt, her commander, for boats and men, he was coolly told that such aid could not – according to instructions – be granted. Having complained to Lord Colville, then in command of the naval force in North America, instructions were at once issued to Lieutenant Mowatt to give the required assistance; and Governor Wilmot instructed Captain Hill, the commanding officer on the island, to render all the assistance in his power in forwarding the important service in which Captain Holland was engaged.

In a letter addressed to the Earl of Hillsborough, Captain Holland reports most favourably respecting the capabilities of the island. He adds, “There are about thirty Acadian families on the island, who are regarded as prisoners, and kept on the same footing as those at Halifax. They are extremely poor, and maintain themselves by their industry in gardening, fishing, fowling, &c. The few remaining houses in the different parts of the island are very bad, and the quantity of cattle is but very inconsiderable.” At Saint Peter’s, Captain Holland met an old acquaintance, Lieutenant Burns, of the 45th Regiment, who had removed with his family to the island, and had built a house and barn, and of whom he writes to the Board of Trade very favorably.

The energy with which Captain Holland prosecuted the survey is sufficiently proved by the fact that in October, 1765, he sent home by Mr. Robinson, one of his deputies, plans of the island, as well as of the Magdalen Islands; also, a description of the Island, from which we shall quote copiously as conveying the impressions of an acute and reliable observer.

“The soil,” says Captain Holland, “on the south side of the island is a reddish clay, though in many places it is sandy, particularly on the north coast. From the East Point to Saint Peter’s it is a greyish sand. The woods upon this coast, from the East Point as far southward as Hillsborough River, and to Bedford Bay on the west, were entirely destroyed by fire about twenty-six years ago. It was so extremely violent that all the fishing vessels at Saint Peter’s and Morell River, in Saint Peter’s Bay, were burned. In many parts round the island is a rough, steep coast, from forty to fifty feet high, in some places a hundred, composed of strata of soft red stone, which, when exposed to the air for some time, becomes harder, and is not unfit for building. Wherever this sort of coast is, it diminishes considerably every year upon the breaking up of the frost, which moulders away a great part of it. It may probably be owing to this cause that the sea betwixt the island and the Continent is frequently of a red hue, and for that reason by many people called the red sea. The rivers are properly sea creeks, the tide flowing up to the heads, where, generally, streams of fresh water empty themselves. In most parts of the island the Sarsaparilla Root is in great abundance, and very good. The Mountain Shrub and Maiden Hair are also pretty common, of whose leaves and berries the Acadian settlers frequently make a kind of tea. The ground is in general covered with strawberries and cranberries, in their different seasons, which are very good. In those places which have been settled, and are still tolerably cleared, is very good grass, but a great part of the land formerly cleared is so much overgrown with brush and small wood that it would be extremely difficult to make it fit for the plough. It may be proper to observe that very few houses mentioned in the explanation of the Townships are good for anything, and by no means tenantable, except one or two at Saint Peter’s, kept in repair by the officers, and one kept by myself at Observation Cove.”

After describing the kinds of Timber to be found on the island, Captain Holland proceeds to say: “Port la Joie (Charlottetown), Cardigan and Richmond Bays are without dispute the only places where ships of burthen can safely enter, and consequently most proper to erect the principal towns and settlements upon. In point of fishing, Richmond Bay has much the advantage of situation, the fish being in great plenty most part of the year, and close to the harbour.

“The capital, to be called Charlottetown, is proposed to be built on a point of the harbour of Port la Joie, betwixt York and Hillsborough Rivers, as being one of the best and central parts of the island, and having the advantage of an immediate and easy communication with the interior parts by means of the three fine rivers of Hillsborough, York, and Elliot. The ground designed for the town and fortifications is well situated upon a regular ascent from the waterside. A fine rivulet will run through the town. A battery or two some distance advanced will entirely command the harbour, so that an enemy attempting to attack the town cannot do so without great difficulty. Having passed the battery at the entrance to the harbour, he must attempt a passage up Hillsborough and York Rivers, the channels of both which are intricate; and the entrance of the respective channels will be so near the town that a passage must be attended with the greatest hazard. Should an enemy land troops on either side the bay of Hillsborough, they must still have the river of the same name on the east, or Elliot or York rivers on the west to pass before they can effect anything of consequence.

“As this side of the Island cannot have a fishery, it may probably be thought expedient to indulge it with some particular privileges; and as all the judicial and civil, as well as a good part of the commercial business will be transacted here, it will make it at least equally flourishing with the other county towns.

“Georgetown is recommended to be built on the point of land called Cardigan Point, there being a good harbour for ships of any burthen on each side of Cardigan river on the north, or on Montague river on the south side; but the latter – though a much narrower channel in coming in – is preferable, as the bay for anchoring will be close by the town immediately on entering the river, and going round the Goose Neck – a long point of dry sand running half over the river and forming one side of Albion Bay – the place of anchorage. On the Goose Neck may be a pier, where goods may be shipped with great facility and convenience. The place proposed is so situated as to be easily made secure, as well as the entrance into the two respective harbours. There is a communication inland by means of Cardigan, Brudenell, and Montague rivers, from the top of which last to the source of Orwell river, is not quite ten miles; and Orwell river, emptying itself into the great bay of Hillsborough, makes a safe and short communication, both in winter and summer, betwixt two of the county towns.

“Princetown is proposed to be built on a most convenient spot of ground as well for fishery as fortification. The site is on a peninsula, having Darnley Basin on the northeast, which is a convenient harbour for small vessels, and where they may lie all winter. The town will have convenient ground for drying fish, and ships of burthen can anchor near it in the bay. It can be fortified at little expense; some batteries and small works erected along the shore would entirely secure it.”

It is interesting to note what Captain Holland, writing upwards of a century ago, says respecting the climate: – “The time of the setting in of the frost in winter, and its breaking up in the spring, is very uncertain. In general it is observed that about October there usually begins to be frost morning and evening, which gradually increases in severity till about the middle of December, when it becomes extremely sharp. At this time north-west wind, with small sleet, seldom fails. In a little time the rivers on the island are frozen up, and even the sea some distance from land. The ice soon becomes safe to travel on, as it is at least twenty-two to thirty inches thick. The snow upon the ground, and in the woods, is often a surprising depth, and it is impossible to travel except on snow-shoes. The Acadians now have recourse to little cabins or huts in the woods, where they are screened from the violence of the weather, and at the same time have the convenience of wood for fuel. Here they live on the fish they have cured in the summer, and game which they frequently kill, as hares and partridges, lynxes or wild cats, otters, martins, or musk rats, – none of which they refuse to eat, as necessity presses them. In the spring the rivers seldom break up till April, and the snow is not entirely off the ground until the middle of May. It ought to be observed that as Saint John is fortunately not troubled with fogs, as are the neighboring Islands of Cape Breton and Newfoundland, neither has it so settled and constant a climate as Canada. Here are frequent changes of weather, as rain, snow, hail, and hard frost.”

On the completion of the survey of the Island of Saint John, Captain Holland proceeded to prosecute that of Cape Breton. Here he had the misfortune to lose his most efficient deputy, Lieutenant Haldiman, who was drowned, by falling through the ice on the 16th of December, 1765. He was a Lieutenant, on half pay, when Captain Holland engaged him, having served since the age of fifteen in America. He was an excellent mathematician, and quite an adept in making accurate astronomical observations. This excellent young man perished in the twenty-fourth year of his age. Whilst Captain Holland was busy on the Island of Saint John, Haldiman was detached to superintend the survey of the Magdalen Islands. In the report sent by Holland to the Board of Trade, from which we have given extracts, was embodied Haldiman’s account of the Magdalen Islands, which is extremely interesting. We regret our space will not permit its insertion.

In December, 1763, the Earl of Egmont, then first Lord of the Admiralty, presented an elaborate memorial to the King, praying for a grant of the whole Island of Saint John, to hold the same in fee of the Crown forever, according to a tenure described in the said memorial. On the supposition that the island contained two millions of acres, – for it had not then been surveyed, – he proposed that the whole should be divided into fifty parts of equal extent, to be designated Hundreds, as in England, or Baronies, as in Ireland; forty of these to be granted to as many men who should be styled Lords of Hundreds, and each of whom should pay to the Earl, as Lord Paramount, twenty pounds sterling yearly. On the property of the Earl – to whom, with his family of nine children, ten hundreds were to be allotted – a strong castle was to be erected, mounted with ten pieces of cannon, each carrying a ball of four pounds, with a circuit round the castle of three miles every way. The forty Hundreds or Baronies were to be divided into twenty manors of two thousand acres each, which manors were to be entitled to a Court Baron, according to the Common Law of England. The Lord of each Hundred was to set apart five hundred acres for the site of a township, which township was to be divided into one hundred lots, of five acres each, and the happy proprietors of five acres were each to pay a yearly free-farm rent of four shillings sterling to the Lord of the Hundred. Each Hundred was to have a fair four times a year, and a market twice in every week. There were also to be Courts Leet and Courts Baron, under the direction of the Lord Paramount. A foot-note referring to these Courts, attached by the framers of the memorial, indicates the ideas which were entertained at this time in the old country respecting protection to life and property in the North American Colonies. “These courts – established by Alfred and others of our Saxon Princes, to maintain order, and bring justice to every man’s door – are obviously essential for a small people, forming or formed into a small society in the vast, impervious, and dangerous forests of America, intersected with seas, bays, lakes, rivers, marshes, and mountains; without roads, without inns or accommodations, locked up for half the year by snow and intense frost, and where the settler can scarce straggle from his habitation five hundred yards, even in times of peace, without risk of being intercepted, scalped, and murdered.”

To epitomise the proposal: there was to be a Lord Paramount of the whole island, forty Capital Lords of forty Hundreds, four hundred Lords of Manors, and eight hundred Freeholders. For assurance of the said tenures, eight hundred thousand acres were to be set apart for establishments for trade and commerce in the most suitable parts of the island, including one county town, forty market towns, and four hundred villages; each Hundred or Barony was to consist of somewhat less than eight square miles, and the Lord of each was bound to erect and maintain forever a castle or blockhouse as the capital seat of his property, and as a place of retreat and rendezvous for the settlers; and thus, on any alarm of sudden danger, every inhabitant might have a place of security within four miles of his habitation. A cannon fired at one of the castles would be heard at the next, and thus the firing would proceed in regular order from castle to castle, and be the means, adds the noble memorialist, “of putting every inhabitant of the whole island under arms and in motion in the space of one quarter of an hour.”

As we have already stated, Lord Egmont’s memorial was presented in December, 1763, and in January, 1764, it was backed by three different communications, addressed to the Lords of Trade and Plantations, and signed by thirty influential gentlemen, who were supposed – on account of military or other services – to have claims on the government.

On the 13th February, 1764, a report was made on the memorial by the Board of Trade, to which it had been referred by the King. The Board reported that the scheme was calculated to answer the purposes of defence and military discipline rather than to encourage those of commerce and agriculture, and seemed totally and fundamentally adverse in its principles to that system of settlement and tenure of property which had of late years been adopted in the colonies, with so much advantage to the interests of the kingdom; and they therefore could not see sufficient reason to justify them in advising His Majesty to comply with Lord Egmont’s proposal.

In forming plans for the settlement of the American Colonies, the object the Commissioners had principally in view was to advance and extend the commerce and navigation of the kingdom, to preserve a due dependence in the colonies on the mother country, and to secure to them the full enjoyment of every civil and religious right, so that the colonists might have just reason to value themselves on being British subjects. In order to attain these objects, the Board had recommended such a mode of granting lands as might encourage industry, which is the life and spirit of commerce; and in the form of government, they recommended a constitution for the colonies as nearly similar to that of Britain as the nature of the case would permit. In adopting this policy they had followed what appeared to have been almost the invariable practice of Government ever since the surrender and revocation of those charters which were formerly granted for the settlement of America; and the effects could be best judged of by the present flourishing state of the colonies, and the progress they had made in cultivation and commerce, compared with their condition under those charters, which, though granted to persons of rank and consequence, and accompanied by plans of government, – the result of the study and reading of wise and learned men, – yet, being founded in speculation more than in experience did, in the event, not only disappoint the sanguine expectations of the proprietors, but check and obstruct the settlement of the country.

The report pointed to the grant made to the Lords Proprietors of Carolina, as a striking example of the inexpediency of such a plan of settlement, little progress having been made in the execution of it till the property, being reinvested in the crown, a new foundation was laid, which resulted in prosperity and advancement. The report, of which we have attempted to give a sketch, ended with the following words: – “We have not thought proper to take the opinion of Your Majesty’s servants in the law upon the question whether Your Majesty can legally make the grant desired by the Earl of Egmont, because we cannot think it expedient, either in a political or commercial light, for Your Majesty to comply with his Lordship’s proposals; and as Your Majesty has been pleased to annex the Island of Saint John to your Province of Nova Scotia, we humbly recommend the settling it upon the plan and under the regulations, approved of by Your Majesty for the settlement of that province in general.”

On receiving this reply to his memorial, the Earl addressed a second one to the King, substantially the same as the former, to which no reply seems to have been made. He accordingly had a third one drawn out and presented, attaching the names of his co-adventurers, who had agreed to assist his Lordship in the settlement of the island. The list included four admirals, a large number of officers, and eight members of parliament. This memorial, like the first, was referred to the Board of Trade, who prepared a lengthened report in answer to it. The opening passage was of such a nature as to make the memorialists imagine that all desired was to be granted. “We are of opinion,” said the Board, “it may be highly conducive to the speedy cultivation of your Majesty’s American Dominions that the nobility and other persons of rank and distinction in this country should take the lead, and show the example in the undertaking and carrying into execution the settlement thereof, and that all due encouragement should be given to officers of Your Majesty’s fleet and army, to whose distinguished bravery and conduct this kingdom is so much indebted for the acquisitions made in the last war.” But this soothing paragraph was followed by others which blasted the hopes of the ardent adventurers, by insisting on the distribution of land on the island being made in conformity to those principles of settlement, cultivation, and government which had been previously adopted, and were founded on experience.

The King referred this report, and all the other papers, to a committee of council, to whom Lord Egmont sent observations on the report, drawn up with great ability, in which his former arguments were repeated, and others adduced to strengthen them. These observations are pervaded by a bitterness of expression which, in the circumstances, is pardonable. The committee of council coincided in the views of the Board of Trade, and on the 9th of May, 1764, came the climax to Lord Egmont’s proposal, in the form of a minute of council, embodying a report adverse to the proposition of the Earl, and ordering that no grants be made of land in the Island of Saint John upon any other principles than those comprised in the reports of the Lords Commissioners of trade and plantations.

About the time of the arrival in London of Captain Holland’s plans of the island, the friends of Lord Egmont again mustered in great strength, including officers of high rank in the naval and military service, bankers, and merchants, and drew up a final memorial in behalf of his Lordship’s scheme, which closed with these words: – “That if at the end of ten years any ill consequence should be found to have arisen therefrom, upon an address to the two houses of parliament, His Majesty in council might change the jurisdiction in such manner as experience of the use or abuse might then dictate or demand.” That Lord Egmont was sanguine as to the success of this last appeal in his behalf, appears evident from a manuscript letter now before us, addressed by him on the 8th October, 1765, to Captain Holland, in which he says: – “I think it proper to let you know that a petition will be again presented to His Majesty in a few days for a grant of the Island of Saint John, upon the very same plan as that proposed before, which I have now reason to expect will meet with better success than the former. The same persons very nearly will be concerned, those only excluded who were drawn away by proposals and grants elsewhere by the Board of Trade, in order if possible to defeat my scheme. For yourself, you may be assured of your Hundred, as formerly intended, if I have anything to do in the direction of the affair, – which probably I shall have in the same mode and manner. Whether the grant may be made before the arrival of the survey or not I cannot certainly say, but we wait patiently for it, and hope it will be done accurately as to Hundreds, Manors, Freehold Villages, Towns, and Capitals, that a moment’s time may not be lost afterwards in proceeding to draw the lots, and then in proceeding to erect the Blockhouses of the Hundreds on a determined spot, which is the very first work to be put in execution, and agreed to be completed by all the chief adventurers within one twelvemonth after the grant shall be obtained.” This communication leads to the conviction, that if the island had been then granted no time would have been lost in erecting the strongholds referred to. It is evident that the erections were intended to consist mainly of wood. The adventurers were, for the most part, wealthy and influential, and under their auspices thousands would have emigrated to the island. It were vain to speculate as to the effect which would be produced if Egmont’s scheme had been put in execution. In looking over the list of those to whom Hundreds were to be allotted, we find that of the forty persons specified, thirty-two were military or naval officers, – men whose profession did not, as a rule, fit them for the direction of the settlement of a new colony. It is probable, however, that the expense to which, at the outset, the forty Lords of Hundreds were to be put would prompt them to take a more lively interest in their property than was exhibited by the subsequent grantees. It is, however, possible that not a few of the proposed lords intended to dispose of their property to the highest bidder soon after the lots were drawn, and thus to avoid the expense of the blockhouse erections, such a transference of interest being allowable under the proposed original grant. That Egmont intended to carry out his scheme in its integrity, there is no room to doubt. He must have employed the highest legal ability to frame his memorials, which are distinguished by a mastery of the ancient feudal tenures of the kingdom, which elicited expressions of admiration from the government. The pertinacity with which he urged his scheme showed that he was not a man easily diverted from any settled purpose, and few governments could have resisted the powerful influence he brought to bear for the attainment of his object. There can be little doubt that whatever might be the consequences of possession to the Lord Paramount himself and his family of nine children, the destiny of the island would have been far better in his keeping than in that of the men to whom it was afterwards unfortunately committed. In order to conciliate Lord Egmont, and make reparation to him for the trouble and expense to which he had been put in urging his scheme, the Board of Trade, by a minute dated the 5th of June, 1767, offered him any entire parish, – comprehending about one hundred thousand acres, – which he might select, but his lordship addressed a letter to the Board on the eleventh of the same month declining to take the grant. [2 - The writer has obtained his information from manuscript copies of the original minutes of the Commissioners of Trade and Plantations.]

CHAPTER II

Determination of the Home Government to dispose of the whole Island – The manner in which it was effected – Conditions on which grants were made – Appointment of Walter Patterson as Governor – Novel duties imposed on him – Callbeck made prisoner by Americans – Arrival of Hessian Troops – Sale of Land in 1781 – Agitation in consequence – Complaints against the Governor, and his tactics in defence – Governor superceded, and Colonel Fanning appointed – Disputes between them – Charges of immorality against Patterson – His departure from the Island.

Although the government had resolutely opposed the scheme of settlement proposed by Lord Egmont, yet it was disposed to divide the island among persons who had claims on the ground of military or other public services; and it was accordingly determined, in order to prevent disputes, to make the various allotments by ballot.[3 - The method of granting the lots was the following: – The Board of Trade ordered all petitioners for grants to appear before them personally or by deputy on the 17th and 24th June, and 1st July, 1767, in support of their respective claims. During these days, after hearing parties, they selected those whose claims seemed preferable, and on the 8th of July the list was completed, and finally adopted. The balloting took place on the 23rd of July, 1707, in presence of the Board. The name of each applicant was written on a slip of paper or ticket, and put in the balloting box, – the lots being granted in running numbers as they were drawn.] The Board of Trade and Plantations accordingly prepared certain conditions, under which the various grants were to be made. On twenty-six specified lots or townships a quitrent of six shillings on every hundred acres was reserved, on twenty-nine lots four shillings, and on eleven lots two shillings, payable annually on one half of the grant at the expiration of five years, and on the whole at the expiration of ten years after the date of the grants. A reservation of such parts of each lot as might afterwards be found necessary for fortifications or public purposes, and of a hundred acres for a church and glebe, and of fifty acres for a schoolmaster, was made, five hundred feet from high-water mark being reserved for the purpose of a free fishery. Deposits of gold, silver, and coal were reserved for the Crown. It was stipulated that the grantee of each township should settle the same within ten years from the date of the grant, in the proportion of one person for every two hundred acres; that such settlers should be European foreign protestants, or such persons as had resided in British North America for two years previous to the date of the grant; and, finally, that if one-third of the land was not so settled within four years from the date of the grant, the whole should be forfeited. Thus the whole island was, in 1767, disposed of in one day, with the exception of lot sixty-six, reserved for the King, and lots forty and fifty-nine, – which had been promised to Messrs. Spence, Muir, and Cathcart, and Messrs. Mill, Cathcart, and Higgens, by the government, in 1764, in consideration of their having established fisheries, and made improvements on the island,[4 - See manuscript minute of meeting of Commissioners of Trade and Plantations, dated eighth July, 1767.] – and three small reservations, intended for three county towns. A mandamus addressed to the Governor of Nova Scotia, the island being now annexed to that province, was handed to each of the proprietors, instructing the governor to issue the respective grants, on the conditions specified. In the following year, 1768, a large majority of the proprietors presented a petition to the King, praying that the island should be erected into a separate government; that the quitrents which would become payable, according to stipulation, in 1772, should become payable from the first of May, 1769, and that the payment of the remaining half should be deferred for the period of twenty years. This proposition was accepted by the government, and accordingly Captain Walter Patterson, one of the island proprietors, was appointed governor. He, accompanied by other officers, arrived on the island in 1770, at which period, notwithstanding the conditions of settlement attached to the land grants, there were only one hundred and fifty families and five proprietors residing on it. It was calculated by the government that the quitrents would amount in the aggregate to fourteen hundred and seventy pounds sterling. The governor was instructed to pay out of that fund the following annual salaries, in sterling currency: to himself, as governor, five hundred pounds, to the secretary and registrar, one hundred and fifty pounds, to the chief justice, two hundred pounds, to the attorney general, one hundred pounds, to the clerk of the crown and coroner, eighty pounds, to the provost marshal, fifty pounds, and to a minister of the Church of England, one hundred pounds. This arrangement was to remain in force not more than ten years, and in the event of the quitrents falling short, from any cause, of the required sum, the salaries were to be diminished in proportion.

The governor was required to perform other duties, which were grossly unjust, and in some cases beyond human capability. He was, for example, enjoined by the twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh articles of his instructions to permit “liberty of conscience to all persons (except Roman catholics), so they be contented with a quiet and peaceable enjoyment of the same, not giving offence and scandal to the government,” and he was also “to take especial care that God Almighty should be devoutly and duly served throughout his government.” No schoolmaster, coming from England, was permitted to teach without a license from the Bishop of London; and it was assumed in his instructions that all Christians, save those connected with the Church of England, were heterodox. Some denominations were, indeed, tolerated; but in conformity to the bigoted British policy of the times, Roman catholics were not permitted to settle on the island. This sectarian policy has borne bitter fruit in Ireland, in the alienation of a great mass of the Irish people. So deeply has alienation struck its roots, and so widely spread are its branches, that, notwithstanding catholic emancipation, its effects are still painfully visible, not only in Ireland, but also in the masses of the Irish people located in the United States, as strikingly evinced in the election of the late John Mitchell, for Tipperary, and in the honors which have been paid to his memory in the States. More than one generation will pass away ere the evil effects of unjust anti-catholic legislation are totally obliterated from the continent of America.

The little progress made in the settlement of the island, from the time it was granted until the year 1779, is indicated by the fact that no step had been taken to introduce settlers into all the lots, ranging from one to sixteen, besides other thirty-three which were in the same condition. Thus, although more than ten years had elapsed since the ballot took place, in scarcely a score of lots was there any attempt made to conform to the conditions attached to the sixty-seven townships.

Notwithstanding the very small population of the island, it was resolved to grant it a complete constitution. This step the governor was commanded in his instructions to take as early as possible. “The forming a lower house of representatives for our said Island of Saint John,” said His Majesty, “is a consideration that cannot be too early taken up, for until this object is attainable, the most important interests of the inhabitants will necessarily remain without that advantage and protection which can only arise out of the vigor and activity of a complete constitution.” In the year 1773, the first assembly was convened. The first act passed was one confirming the past proceedings of the governor and council, and rendering valid all manner of process and proceedings in the several courts of judicature within the island, from the first day of May, 1769, to the present session of assembly.

The proposal to pay the government officials in the island from the amount realized from the quitrents completely failed, as but few of the proprietors acted as if they had been under obligation to comply with the conditions on which they obtained their grants. The sum realized from the amount of quitrents paid was totally inadequate to pay the official salaries. Hence it was necessary that some other arrangement should be adopted. The governor was reduced to such straits for want of money, that he was under the necessity of appropriating three thousand pounds, granted by parliament for the erection of public buildings in the island, for the maintenance of himself and the other government officers. The governor went to England in 1775, when it was agreed that the proprietors, in order to meet the difficulties of the case, should present a memorial to the Secretary of State for the colonies, praying that the civil establishment of the island should be provided for by an annual parliamentary grant, as in the case of the other colonies. By a minute of the seventh August, 1776, it was ordered by the government that the arrears of the quitrents due should be enforced by legal proceedings, and that the sum thus obtained should be devoted to the refunding of the amount expended, in a manner incompatible with the object for which it was voted. The power for the recovery of the quitrents, with which the governor was thus invested, was not speedily exercised, as he was anxious not to offend the proprietors, through whose influence the payment of the civil establishment of the island was placed on a more satisfactory footing.

During the governor’s absence in England the Hon. Mr. Callbeck, being the senior member of the council, was sworn in as administrator. In November of that year, a ship from London, having on board a number of settlers, and loaded with a valuable cargo, was unfortunately wrecked on the north side of the island. All on board were saved, but the cargo was either lost, or destroyed to such an extent as to be of little value, – an accident which involved no small hardship to the inhabitants.

In this year too a memorable incident occurred. Whilst the good people of Charlottetown were living in apparent security from hostile aggression, two American armed vessels which had been sent to cruise in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, in order to intercept English ordnance store-ships, supposed to be on the way to Quebec, entered the harbor, and a landing was effected without any opposition, when the administrator, Mr. Callbeck, Mr. Wright, the surveyor general, and other officers of the government were made prisoners, and put with such valuable booty as the Americans could lay hands on, on board ship, and conveyed to New England. On arriving at the head-quarters of the American army, then at Cambridge, General Washington disapproved of the hostile act, dismissing the principal officers from their commands, telling them that “they had done those things which they ought not to have done, and left undone those things which it was their duty to have done.” At the same time he discharged the prisoners with expressions of regret, and returned all the property.

In the following year the Diligent, an armed brig, was detached by the admiral, commanding in America, to protect the island, which vessel was replaced by the Hunter, sloop of war, towards the end of the year, and which remained till November, 1777. The arrival of the latter vessel was extremely opportune, as a hostile expedition to the island was being organized by rebels from Machias, in Massachusetts, who had arrived at Fort Cumberland, in Nova Scotia. These men paid a visit to Pictou, where they seized on an armed merchant ship, then loading for Scotland. Fearing resistance, which they were not in a condition to overcome successfully, these rebels entered, with their prize, into the Bay of Verte, for the purpose of receiving reinforcements. But not being successful in this effort, on account of a defeat at Fort Cumberland, the vessel was given up to one of the officers, the rebels escaping on shore. The vessel then came to Charlottetown, where she remained during the winter.

In 1777 the administrator received instructions from the secretary of state for the colonies to raise an independent force for the defence of the island; but from the small number of the male population, which had been previously considerably reduced by recruiting officers, this force was never completed. In the following year, however, four provincial companies were sent from New York, under the command of Major Hierliky, for whom barracks were erected, under the direction of an engineer from Nova Scotia, and the island was thus placed in a defensive position, which greatly reduced the chances of a successful attack during the American war. With the exception of a few sheep, occasionally taken by the men of privateers, and some valuable property seized at the harbor of Saint George (now Georgetown), the inhabitants of the island experienced no further annoyance from the Americans during the continuance of the contest. The monotony of Charlottetown was betimes enlivened during the summer by the presence of the British war vessels employed in accompanying convoys to Quebec, and the occasional conduct into the harbor of American privateers which had been captured at sea by the British cruisers, and whose men were marched as prisoners through the woods to Halifax.

An interesting trial took place in Charlottetown in 1779, in the case of Thomas Mellish, v. the Convoy ship Dutchess of London, which Mr. Mellish seized for smuggling. The trial lasted for several months. Mr. Mellish was an officer in the First Troop of Horse Guards, and served also in the colonial military service. He was a member of the house of assembly, and held the office of collector of customs and other public positions for many years. His son, Thomas Mellish, died at an advanced age in 1859. Referring to his death, the Islander describes him as a most loyal British subject, and a devoted adherent of the Church of England.

Towards the end of October, 1779, the town of Charlottetown received a temporary accession to its inhabitants, by the arrival of the Hessian regiment of Knyphansen, under convoy of the war ship Camilla. Severe gales were encountered in the River Saint Lawrence, which compelled the ship to take refuge in the island. The troops were landed, and there being no barrack accommodation for them, some succeeded in hutting themselves most comfortably. Some of the men were suffering from fever, but speedily recovered, on account of the admirable character of the climate. The town supply of provisions was utterly inadequate to meet the demand occasioned by so large an addition to the population, but the farmers soon made up the deficiency, and the Hessians remained till the month of June, when they left for their destination. Not a few of the men were so favorably impressed with the island, that they returned to it from Germany, many years afterwards, and became industrious settlers.