The Loyalists of America and Their Times Volume II Part 25

"Dr. E. Ryerson." "ELIZABETH BOWMAN SPOHN."

"P.S.--One thing more I must add: My father always said there never was any cruelty inflicted upon either man, woman or child by Butler's Rangers, that he ever heard of, during the war. They did everything in their power to get the Indians to bring their prisoners in for redemption, and urged them to treat them kindly; the officers always telling them that it was more brave to take a prisoner than to kill him, and that none but a coward would kill a prisoner; that brave soldiers were always kind to women and children. He said it was false that they gave a bounty for scalps. True, the Indians did commit cruelties, but they were not countenanced in the least by the whites. E.S."

"N.B.--To this last statement of Mrs. Spohn's it may be added that it is also true that the Indians were first employed by the Revolutionists against the Loyalists, before they were employed by the latter against the former. The attempt to enlist the Indians in the contest was first made by the Revolutionists. Of this the most conclusive evidence can be adduced.

"E.R."

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 139: This must be the grandfather of General W. Fenwick Williams, of Kars.]

[Footnote 140: Dr. Canniff, in his excellent "History of the Settlement of Upper Canada," with special reference to Bay Quinte, has the following respecting Colonel Ryerson, who commanded a company and was called captain, though not yet gazetted:

"One of Captain Joseph Ryerson's old comrades, Peter Redner, of the Bay Quinte, says: 'He was a man of daring intrepidity, and a great favourite in his company.' He represented Captain Ryerson as one of the most determined men he ever knew. With the service of his country uppermost in his mind, he often exposed himself to great danger to accomplish his desires." (p. 119.)]

CHAPTER XLII.

GOVERNMENTS OF THE BRITISH PROVINCES--NOVA SCOTIA.

To the painful narrative given of the banishment of the Loyalists, and confiscation of their property, at the close of the revolutionary war, and their settlement in the British provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Lower and Upper Canada, so fully detailed in the preceding pages, it is proper to add some account of the Provincial Governments.

_Nova Scotia_ is the oldest of the present British American Provinces.

This territory had the general appellation of New France, or Acadia, and comprehended, until 1784, New Brunswick and Cape Breton. It was originally regarded as a part of Cabot's discovery of Terra Nova, and as such claimed by the English Government, and was afterwards comprehended within the boundary of a large portion of America, called North Virginia. In the wars between France and England this country changed masters several times; but in 1710 Nova Scotia was again re-conquered by the forces of her Britannic Majesty Queen Anne, sent from New England, under the command of General Nicholson; and by the Treaty of Utrecht, in 1712, it was finally ceded and secured to Great Britain, and has ever since continued in her possession.[141]

"There were originally three sorts of government established by the English on the continent of America: Charter Governments, such as those of Ma.s.sachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut; Proprietary Governments, as Pennsylvania and Maryland; and Royal Government, as Nova Scotia. A Royal Government is immediately dependent upon the Crown, and the King appoints the Governor and officers of State, and the people only elect the representatives, as in England."[142]

"Peace was declared between France and England the 8th of November, 1762; and by the treaty which followed, all the French possessions in Canada, with Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, and the islands in the Gulf of the St. Lawrence, were ceded to Great Britain. In the year 1764, the Island of St. John, named Prince Edward Island in 1799, in honour of the Duke of Kent, was annexed to Nova Scotia.

"Of Acadia, and accordingly of Nova Scotia, during its early government by the English, the province now known as New Brunswick formed a part, and to the colony was added, in 1758, the Island of Cape Breton, then finally taken from the French. In the same year the military rule which had prevailed was exchanged for a regular Const.i.tution, in which a Governor, representing the British Crown, presided over a Legislative Council and a House of a.s.sembly modelled to some extent from the two estates of the English Parliament."[143]

The first a.s.sembly of Nova Scotia met on the 7th of October, 1758, at Halifax, and elected Robert Sanderson as Speaker. A number of laws pa.s.sed by the Governor and Council were pa.s.sed with slight alterations; and the a.s.sembly, on the question being put whether any money should be paid them for their services, unanimously resolved that the members should serve without any remuneration that session. (This was repealed by the members of the next elected a.s.sembly.) The usual Speech from the Throne was made, and a complimentary address was moved in reply; and the Governor and his new a.s.sembly got on better together than he had expected.[144]

"On October 19th, 1760, Governor Lawrence died from inflammation of the lungs, brought on by a cold taken at a ball at the Government House. He was deeply mourned by the colony, and his loss was severely felt. He was accorded a public funeral, and the Legislature caused a monument to be erected to his memory in St. Paul's Church, Halifax, as a mark of their sense of the many important services he had rendered the province. He was a wise and impartial administrator, and zealous and indefatigable in his endeavours for the public good; even his opposition to calling a General a.s.sembly made him few enemies, and his strongest opponent in the matter, Chief Justice Belcher, who succeeded him in the administration, remained on good terms with him."[145]

In the same month that Governor Lawrence died, occurred the death of George the Second, in consequence of which the first House of a.s.sembly of Nova Scotia was dissolved, and a new election, with some changes in the electoral districts, took place. The first meeting of the new a.s.sembly was held the 1st of July, 1761, and the members of the House again agreed to give their services gratuitously. From the death of Governor Lawrence to the close of the American Revolution in 1783, there were ten governors and lieutenant-governors of Nova Scotia, under whose administration the colony was quiet and prosperous, though there was little increase in the population (until the influx of the U.E.

Loyalists), and domestic manufactures were discouraged in the interests of English manufacturers.[146]

Down to the year 1783, at the close of the American revolutionary war, the population of Nova Scotia amounted to only a few thousand; but in the following year, by the forced exodus of the Loyalists from the United States, the population more than doubled. "Even before hostilities began, a number of loyal families emigrated from Boston, and settled on the River St. John, founding the town of Parrtown, now St John, N.B. They found the climate and soil both much better than they had expected; and the colony soon began to thrive apace. Settlements were made at Oromocto, where a fort was built, and one bold explorer penetrated as far as the present site of Fredericton, and cleared a farm there for himself. These emigrants numbered about 500, and the district they settled in was made the county of Sunbury. This, however, was only the advance guard of the immense army of emigrants which was to be attracted to the colony at the close of the war, and which was destined to play so important a part in the history of the Maritime Province. The exodus of the Loyalists from New England commenced immediately after the opening of negotiations for peace in November, 1782; for so bitter was the action of the different State Legislatures against them that Sir Guy Carleton (afterwards Lord Dorchester) could not await the action of Parliament, but took upon himself to commence their removal to Nova Scotia. On the 18th of May, 1783, the ships bearing the first instalment of Loyalist emigrants arrived at Navy Island, and during the summer they continued to arrive, until about 5,000 had settled between Parrtown (St.

John) and St. Anne's. The peninsula now occupied by the city of St. John was then almost a wilderness, covered with shrubs, scrubby spruce, and marsh. Large numbers of emigrants also arrived at Annapolis, Port Roseway, and other points; and Governor Parr, in a letter to Lord North in September, 1783, estimates the whole number that had arrived in Nova Scotia and the island of St. John (Prince Edward's Island) at 13,000.

"These emigrants included all cla.s.ses--disbanded soldiers, lawyers, clergymen, merchants, farmers, and mechanics; all in indigent circ.u.mstances, but willing to build up their own fortunes, and those of the land of their adoption, by honest labour and industry."[147]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 141: General Description of Nova Scotia. Printed at the Royal Canadian School, 1825, p. 13.]

[Footnote 142: General Description of Nova Scotia, p. 17.]

[Footnote 143: Bourne's Our Colonies and Emigration, pp. 100, 101.

"The proclamation inviting emigrants to Nova Scotia _guaranteed them the same form of government and rights as the other colonies_; but owing to alleged difficulties in the way of electing an a.s.sembly, no a.s.sembly was chosen, and laws were made and the affairs of the colony were administered by the Governor and Council, until Chief Justice Belcher raised the question in 1755, in a letter to the Lords of Trade, as to the const.i.tutionality of several laws pa.s.sed by the Governor and Council without the endors.e.m.e.nt of a representative a.s.sembly. The question was referred to the Attorney and Solicitor-General of England, who decided that the Governor and Council alone had not the right to make laws, and that any laws so made were unconst.i.tutional. The Lords of Trade _advised_ the Governor (Lawrence) to convene an a.s.sembly without delay, but he objected to it as needless and impracticable; when the Lord of Trade replied sharply, that he knew their desires on the subject; and as he did not seem disposed to gratify them, they were obliged to _order him to do so_; adding, that they knew that many had left the province and gone to other colonies on account of the discontent at the delay of calling an a.s.sembly."

In obedience to these instructions, Governor Lawrence brought the subject before his Council the 20th of May, 1758, and a resolution (prepared by Chief Justice Belcher the year before) was pa.s.sed, to the effect "That a House of Representatives of the inhabitants of this province be a civil Legislature thereof, in conjunction with the Governor for the time being, and the Council; that the first House shall be known as the General a.s.sembly, and shall consist of sixteen members, to be elected by the province at large--four by the township of Halifax, and two by the township of Lunenburg; and that as soon as any other township which might be erected had fifty electors (freeholders), it should be ent.i.tled to elect two representatives to the a.s.sembly, as well as having the right of voting for representatives for the Province at large. Eleven members besides the Speaker were to form a quorum."

(Tuttle's History of the Dominion of Canada, Chap, li., pp. 238, 239.)]

[Footnote 144: _Ib._, p. 239.

"Lawrence was an active and able officer, and paid great attention to developing the resources of the province and promoting the welfare of the people. He opposed the Government scheme of making the colony a military settlement, and was permitted to invite a more desirable cla.s.s of emigrants, farmers, mechanics, etc. A proclamation was issued, and inquiry soon followed as to the inducements offered to settlers. The terms were liberal. The townships were laid out at twelve miles square, or one hundred thousand acres each; and each settler was ent.i.tled to one hundred acres for himself, and fifty acres for every member of his family, on condition that he cultivated the land within thirty years; and each township was to have the right to send two members to the Legislature as soon as it contained fifty families. Agents from parties in Connecticut and Rhode Island visited Halifax in 1759, with a view to emigration, and selected Minas, Chignecto, and Cobequid, which had formerly been settled by the Acadians, as sites for townships.

Emigration soon set in steadily towards the province; six vessels, with two hundred settlers, arrived from Boston; four schooners, with one hundred, came from Rhode Island; New London and Plymouth furnished two hundred and eighty; and three hundred came from Ireland, under the management of Alexander Mc.n.u.tt."--_Ib._]

[Footnote 145: Tuttle's History of the Dominion of Canada, Chap, li., p.

239.]

[Footnote 146: Governor Francklin wrote to the Earl of Shelburne, in 1766, that "The country, in general, work up for their own use, into stockings and a stuff called home-spun, what little wool their few sheep produce; and they also make part of their coa.r.s.e linen from the flax they produce."--"I cannot omit representing to your lordship on this occasion, _that this Government has at no time given encouragement to manufactures which could interfere with those of Great Britain_, nor has there been the least appearance of any a.s.sociation of private persons for that purpose."--"It may be also proper to observe to your lordship, that all the inhabitants in this colony are employed either in husbandry, fishing, or providing lumber; and that all the manufactures for their clothing, and the utensils for farming and fishing, are made in Great Britain." (Tuttle, Chap. lxvi, p. 325.)]

[Footnote 147: Tuttle's History of the Dominion of Canada, Chap. lxvi., p. 327.

"The Loyalists who settled at the St. John River did not agree very well with the original settlers. They grew angry with the Governor because their grants of land had not been surveyed. He in turn charged them with refusing to a.s.sist in the surveys, by acting as chainmen, unless they were well paid for it. Then they demanded additional representation in the a.s.sembly. Nova Scotia was then divided into eight counties, and there were thirty-six representatives in the a.s.sembly, the districts where a number of Loyalists had settled being included in the county of Halifax. Governor Parr opposed an increase of representation, as his instructions forbade his increasing or diminishing the number of representatives in the a.s.sembly.

"The Loyalists then began to agitate for a division of the province--a policy which was strongly opposed by the Governor, and which gave rise to much excitement and ill-feeling. Parr went so far as to remove some of the Loyalists to the other side of the Bay of Fundy, in the hope that that would settle the agitation; but it only increased it, and the Loyalists, who had many warm and influential friends at court, urged a division so earnestly that the Ministry yielded to their wishes, and the Province of New Brunswick was created (in 1784), so called out of compliment to the reigning family of England. The River Missiquash was const.i.tuted the boundary line between the two provinces, and the separation took place in the fall of 1784, and the first Governor of New Brunswick, Colonel Thomas Carleton (brother of Lord Dorchester), arrived at St. John on the 21st of November. In the same year Cape Breton was made a separate colony[148]; and as the Island of St. John (Prince Edward Island) had been separated from Nova Scotia in 1770, there were now four separate governments in what at present const.i.tute the Maritime Provinces." (Tuttle's History of the Dominion of Canada, Chap. lxvi., pp. 328, 329.)]

[Footnote 148: In 1829, Cape Breton was restored to Nova Scotia, of which it now forms a part.]

CHAPTER XLIII.

NEW BRUNSWICK.

The population of New Brunswick at the time of its separation from Nova Scotia, in 1784, was about 12,000. The governments of both provinces were similarly const.i.tuted--a Governor, an Executive and Legislative Council, members of the latter appointed by the Crown for life, and an a.s.sembly or House of Commons, elected periodically by the freeholders: and both provinces were prosperous and contented for many years under successive governors, who seemed to have ruled impartially, and for the best interests of the people, though with narrower views of free government than those which obtained at a later period. The Loyalists not only obtained the establishment of New Brunswick as a province, but const.i.tuted the princ.i.p.al members of its Legislature, the officers of its government, and founders of its inst.i.tutions; and the chief public men of the province have been from that day to this either U.E.

Loyalists or their descendants.

Mr. Andrew Archer, in his excellent _History of Canada for the Use of Schools_, prescribed by the Board of Education for New Brunswick, gives the following account of the formation of the government of that province, and its founders:

"On Sunday, the 21st of November, 1784, Colonel _Thomas Carleton_ (brother to Sir _Guy Carleton_), the first Governor of New Brunswick, arrived in St. John harbour and landed at Reed's Point. He had commanded a regiment during the revolutionary war, and was much esteemed by his Majesty's exiled Loyalists. The province was formally proclaimed the next day.

"The government of New Brunswick consisted of a Governor and a Council that united both executive and legislative functions, and a House of a.s.sembly of twenty-six representatives. The Council was composed of twelve members. They were men of great talent, and had occupied before the war positions of influence in their native States. Chief Justice _Ludlow_ had been a judge of the Supreme Court of New York; _James Putman_ was considered one of the ablest lawyers in all America; the Rev. and Hon. _Jonathan Odell_, first Provincial Secretary, had acted as chaplain in the Royal army, practised physic and written political poetry; Judge _Joshua Upham_, a graduate of Harvard, abandoned the Bar during the war, and became a colonel of dragoons; Judge _Israel Allen_ had been colonel of a New Jersey Volunteer corps, and lost an estate in Pennsylvania through his devotion to the Loyalist cause; Judge _Edward Winslow_, nephew of Colonel _John Winslow_, who executed the decree that expelled the Acadians from Nova Scotia, had attained the rank of colonel in the Royal army; _Beverley Robinson_ had raised and commanded the Loyal American Regiment, and had lost great estates on Hudson river; _Gabriel G. Ludlow_ had commanded a battalion of Maryland Volunteers; _Daniel Bliss_ had been a commissary of the Royal army; _Elijah Willard_ had taken no active part in the war; _William Hagen_ and _Guildford Studholme_ were settled in the province before the landing of the Loyalists; Judge _John Saunders_, of a cavalier family in Virginia, had been captain in the Queen's Rangers, under Colonel Simcoe, and had afterwards entered the Temple and studied law in London. He was appointed to the Council after the death of Judge Putman. The government of the young province was governed with very few changes for several years.

"The town and district of Parr was incorporated in 1785, and became the city of _St. John_. It was the first, and long continued to be the only incorporated town in British America. It was governed by a mayor and a board of six aldermen and six a.s.sistants. The first two sessions of the General a.s.sembly (1786-87) met in St. John. On meeting the Legislature at its first session, Governor Carleton expressed his satisfaction at seeing the endeavours of his Majesty to procure for the inhabitants the protection of a free government in so fair a way of being finally successful. He spoke of the peculiar munificence which had been extended to New Brunswick--the asylum of loyalty--and all the neighbouring States; and expressed his conviction that the people could not show their grat.i.tude in a more becoming manner than by promoting sobriety, industry, and religion; by discouraging all factious and party distinctions, and by inculcating the utmost harmony between the newly-arrived Loyalists and the subjects formerly settled in the province.

"Two years afterwards (1788), the seat of government was removed to St.

Anne's Point, Fredericton, which was considered the most central position in the province. It is said that Fredericton was chosen to be the seat of government because Albany, the seat of the Legislature of New York (from which State the great body of the Loyalists came), is situated many miles up the River Hudson, and is thus removed from the distracting bustle, the factious and corrupting influences of the great commercial metropolis at its mouth."[149]