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Saint Croix Courier, St. Stephen, NB
May 4, 1893

GLIMPSES OF THE PAST

Contributions to the History of Charlotte County and the Border Towns.

LXV – THE UNITED EMPIRE LOYALISTS.

[Rev. W. O. Raymond, M. A.]

12.-Loyalist Settlements.

Halifax, Shelburne and Annapolis were the principal places in the Nova Scotian peninsula to which the loyal refugees turned their faces; and from these, as centres, were founded a large number of settlements which were destined to play an important part in the future development of the country.

On the coast above Halifax, in Country Harbor, the refugees erected a town to which they gave the name of Stormont, in honor or [sic] Lord Stormont, who had so earnestly pleaded their cause in the House of Lords.

Guysborough was settled at the same time by a band of more than a thousand refugees.  Subsequently some eight hundred others settled in Cape Breton, chiefly at Baddeck, St. Peters and Louisburg.  Prince Edward Island, (or the Island of St. John, as it was then called,) furnished an asylum for between three and four hundred of the exiles.

The largest single settlement, as before mentioned, was that at Port Roseway, near the extreme south of Nova Scotia.  Here the Loyalists who arrived early in May laid out their town at the mouth of the Roseway river, and named it Shelburne in honor of the colonial secretary.  There were 1140 grantees, and in the course of a year the population reached nearly 12,000.  Governor Parr paid the town a visit, in July, 1783.  He was received on landing with a general discharge of cannon from the shore.  He proceeded up King street, both sides of which were lined with the inhabitants under arms, to the place appointed for his reception, where the justices of the peace and other leading citizens were collected to present him with an address.  The governor made a speech in reply, and drank the king’s health and prosperity to the town and district of Shelburne, and to the settlement of the Loyalists in Nova Scotia.  The festivities continued for several days, and the governor departed with favorable impressions regarding the future of the place.  The site of Shelburne, however, was unfortunately chosen.  Within two or three years after its founding the population began rapidly to decline.  However, the statement commonly made, that ‘a well nigh deserted spot on the spacious bay now marks the site of the transient town,’ is quite incorrect.  The Shelburne of to-day is a bright, happy looking little town, half hidden among the willows planted by its founders.  If it is not the town that it bid fair to be in its early days, it is not losing ground now.  Upon the slopes behind modern Shelburne remain land marks of the ancient town-old foundations of houses, remains of cellars, streets, and traces of streets with acres and acres of land laid out in squares.

‘Here over these old cellars,’ says a modern visitor, ‘resided for a time jurists and bankers, wine merchants, wig makers, dealers in snuff and dealers in hair powder, gunsmiths, silversmiths, carvers and all other functionaries belonging to a proud city of a hundred years ago.  Along the grass and tree covered spaces, which were laid out for streets, [?] strode martial figures familiar [?] many a battle field and grave dignitaries with the wigs and cloaks of their time.  Over these rocks tripped gay ladies in silk attire and merry maidens in homespun.  Here, in some rudely built house, whose interior furnishings and embellishments contrasted strangely with its external appearance, stately dames were escorted to dinner by stately men, and the great grandmothers of the present generation trod the minuet.’

In a year or two after the landing of its founders, the city had reached its maximum, and was for a very brief period the largest town in what is now the maritime provinces.  Five years later it had shrunk to less than one fourth its former size, and, compared with Halifax or St. John, was out of the race.

The settlements established in the township of Digby and in the neighborhood of Annapolis were favorably situated, and from the first continued to improve.

Aylesford and Rawdon received a proportion of the refugees.  The Douglas settlement was filled by disbanded soldiers of the 84th regiment; while the vacant lands at Clements, in Annapolis county, were largely taken up by Loyalists and disbanded Hessian soldiers.

At the close of the revolution there were in New York at least 2,000 negroes who had been induced by a proclamation of Sir Henry Clinton’s to come within the British lines upon a solemn assurance of liberty, safety and protection.  At the peace, a large number of these negroes, desirous of preserving their freedom and dreading the vengeance of their former masters, took passage in the ships bound for Nova Scotia.  Washington, on behalf of the American Congress, very strongly protested against such a proceeding.  In a letter to Sir Guy Carleton, May 6, 1783, he refers to their personal conference on the same day, and says:

I was surprised to hear you mention that an embarkation had already taken place, in which a large number of negroes had been carried away.  I cannot conceal from you that my private opinion is that the measure is totally different from the letter and spirit of the treaty.

In reply, Sir Guy Carleton insisted that it could not have been the intention of the British Government, by the treaty of peace, to reduce themselves to the necessity of violating their faith to the negroes who came into the British lines under the proclamations of his predecessors.  ‘The negroes in question,’ said Sir Guy, ‘I found free when I arrived at New York.  I had therefore no right, as I thought, to prevent their going away to any part of the world they thought proper.’  He further urges that delivering them up to their former masters would be delivering them up, some possibly to executions, and others to severe punishments, which in his opinion would be a dishonorable violation of the public faith pledged the negroes in the proclamations.  If the sending them away should hereafter be declared an infraction of the treaty, compensation must be made to the owners by the crown of Great Britain.  Sir Guy added that he had taken measures to provide for this contingency by directing an accurate register to be kept of all negroes who went off, specifying the name, age and occupation of the slave and the name and place of residence of his former master.  Had the negroes been denied permission to embark, they would, in spite of every means to prevent it, have found various methods of quitting New York; the former owners would no longer have been able to trace them, and of course would have lost in every way all chance for compensation.  Speaking of the action of Sir Guy Carleton in this matter, Judge Jones says:

Congress and the several legislatures of the States jumped at his proposal.  A valuation of the slaves was made and approved of.  The money, it is true, has never been paid.  What occasioned it?  An absolute refusal on the part of the Americans to comply with a single article in the treaty in favor of the Loyalists.

Very many of the negro refugees settled at Birchtown, near Shelburne, and nearly 400 more in Digby and Annapolis counties.

Some further particulars regarding the size and importance of the Loyalist settlements may be gleaned from the following-

General Return of all the Disbanded Troops and other Loyalists who have lately become Settlers in the Province of Nova Scotia, made up from the Rolls taken by the several Muster Masters: Halifax, 4th Novr., 1784.

Of this total there were 7419 men, 3563 women, 2701 children above ten years of age, 2826 children under ten years, and 791 servants.

From the reports of the muster-masters, the following remarks are taken:-

Dartmouth.  This settlement, from its vicinity to Halifax and some other good harbors, promises to be a place of importance soon.

Musquodobbin.  The muster-master reports that this is a promising little settlement; that the harbor abounds with fish of every kind, both winter and summer.

Ship Harbour.  The Loyalists here are industrious laborious people.  The muster-master says they, as well as the disbanded troops, are still in the dark with respect to their lands; that many of the latter have quit the settlement on that account, and if not soon remedied it will [?] the whole away.

Sheet Harbour.  No lands have yet been granted to these people.  That which they now occupy is a donation from a Mr. Kirby, who holds a tract of 8,000 acres here.

Country Harbour.  This place exhibits instances of industry and perseverance that do honor to the settlers.

Chedebucto.  There are at this place 228 Negro settlers exclusive of the blacks employed as servants.  This is a good harbor and fertile soil.

Island of St. John.  Great delays have arisen in laying out lands for the people.  The muster-master complains that Governor Patteson declined giving him assistance, and that great abuses have been committed in the issue of provisions.

Antigonish, Pictou and Merrigonish.  These settlements afford the most agreeable appearance of industry, and promise to become in a little time very flourishing.

Cornwallis and Horton.  From the inattention of the surveyor many of these people, from not getting their lands, have been obliged to leave the lands they were cultivating.

Newport and Kentecoot.  The settlers here wear the appearance of industry, and will be able to raise a quantity of grain and vegetables this season.

Annapolis, Granville, Wilmot and Clements.  The settlers in these districts are very enterprising in their endeavours to improve the country, particularly those at Wilmot.

Bear River.  The settlers here have made great improvements; there is not one of them who has not planted a crop of some kind or other.

Digby.  This is a good harbor and the settlement is in a very flourishing condition.

Gulliver’s Hole, St. Mary’s Bay and Sissiboo.  These settlements are in a very promising condition owing to the exertions of the settlers.  Sissiboo is conveniently situated for a fishery.

Nine Mile River.  The people seem pleased with their situation.

Settlements between Halifax and Shelburne.  The commissary of musters observes that the harbors of Prospect, Margaret’s Bay, Chester, Lunenburg, La Have, Port Matoon and the Ragged Islands are well situated for fisheries and that the settlements of Loyalists at those places will afford a respectable defence to the coast.

The unfortunate people included in the foregoing return as objects of charity at Halifax consisted chiefly of crippled soldiers and the widows and orphans of Loyalists and soldiers.  Col. Edward Winslow, in one of his private letters written at Halifax, Sep. 25, 1784, says, ‘It is not possible for any pen or tongue to describe the variety of wretchedness that is at this time exhibited in the streets of this place.’  Amongst those who appealed for a share of the government provisions issued under his supervision, he instances ‘a little multitude of old crippled Refugees-men and women who have seen better days.’  ‘Some of them,’ he says, ‘tell me they formerly knew me; they have no other friend to depend upon, and they solicit in language so emphatical and so pathetic that ’tis impossible for any man whose heart is not callous to every tender feeling to refuse their requests.  Next to them comes an unfortunate set of Blackies begging for Christ’s sake that Masser would give ’em a little provisions if it’s only for one week.  ‘He wife sick, he children sick, and he will die if he have not some.’

‘I am illy calculated for such services,’ adds Winslow.  ‘It is not possible to relieve their distresses; I long to retreat from such scenes.’

The Loyalists at Shelburne soon found their prospects less encouraging than they had anticipated, and many of them wrote to their friends at New York by no means to come to that place, in consequence of which more than 200 families decided to establish a settlement at Albaco, one of the Bahama Islands.  Another large party, under the command of Alexander White, formerly Sheriff of Tryon Co., New York, appear to have sailed for Canada in a fleet which left New York on the 9th July.  Shortly before the final evacuation of that city, two ships laden with Loyalists, convoyed by the brig Hope, sailed up the St. Lawrence to Sorel, where they united with others who had come by way of the old military road down the Richilieu.  The united parties spent the winter in log huts, and in the following spring proceeded up the river in flat bottomed boats and established themselves at various points from Glengarry to the Bay of Quinte.

By the Hudson and Mohawk, past Oswego, another stream of emigrants made their way, to settle along Lake Ontario and the Niagara river; and Loyalist districts extended even to Detroit along the shore of Lake Erie.  Probably 10,000 Loyalists, ‘men and women of determination and principle,’ laid at this time the foundation of the noble province of Ontario.  There was a large military element from the disbanded Provincial corps, including the 84th Royal New York, or Royal Green, and the Highland Fencibles.

Dr. Ryerson gives many interesting details regarding the settlements established by the United Empire Loyalists in what was then western Canada.

The precise number of Loyalists who at various times found an asylum within the borders of the old province of Nova Scotia it is difficult to determine.  The exodus from the revolted colonies which began with the evacuation of Boston, in 1776, continued throughout the war; but many who came during this period sought merely a temporary refuge and did not remain.  Many, too, of the immense multitude that arrived in the great immigration of 1783 were discouraged by the outlook, and as soon as possible either returned to the States or made their homes in other parts of the British dominions.  The place of these transient inhabitants was in some measure supplied by those who continued to find their way to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick during the years immediately following the peace.

Many prominent loyal refugees who had been in England awaiting the issue of the conflict, when the independence of the United States was assured, concluded to begin life anew in the northern provinces that remained to the crown.  About the middle of August, 1784, three hundred poverty stricken refugees arrived at Halifax in the transport Sally; and despatches received from London announced that a further number of Loyalists then in England might shortly be expected, vessels having been chartered by the government for the purpose of bringing them out.

No enumeration taken at any one time will suffice to show the total number of those who came to Nova Scotia; but it may be approximately fixed at 35,000.

The reader who has any curiosity upon the subject can compare the following statements:-

1. Rev. John Breynton, missionary at Halifax, in his report to the S. P. G. for the year 1784 says that ‘30,000 Loyalists are settled in Nova Scotia.’

2. Governor Parr, in a letter to Gen. Haldimand, of Jan. 14, 1784, writes that ‘30,000 Loyalists have arrived in Nova Scotia’; and seven months afterwards he informed Lord North, the secretary of state, that ‘the number now located amounts to near 30,000.’

3. Sir Brook Watson states in one of his letters: ‘In 1783, as Commissary General to the army, it became my duty under the command of Sir Guy Carleton to embark 35,000 Loyalists at New York to take shelter in Nova Scotia; and,’ he adds, ‘I trust all in my power was done to alleviate the sufferings of those who were so severely treated for endeavouring to support the union of the British Empire.’

4. Mr. E. F. deLancey, of the New York Historical Society, ‘is satisfied, from a personal examination of the M. S. records in the secretary’s office at Halifax, that the emigration amounted to at least 35,000 men, women and children.’

5. The Lords Commissioners of his Majesty’s treasury, having been convinced by Sir Guy Carleton’s forcible representation of the necessity of continuing for some time the aid extended the Loyalists on their arrival, issued an order ‘to victual the Loyalists in Nova Scotia-being 33,682-whereof 4,691 are under ten years, at two-thirds allowance, from the 1st of May, 1784, to the 1st of  May, 1785, and from that period at one-third allowance, to the 1st of May, 1786; estimating the whole ration at one pound of flour and one pound of beef or twelve ounces of pork; the children under ten years of age to have a moiety of the allowance made to grown persons.’

Caren’s note: In three places in this article you will see “[?]” in place of words.  In each case, it appears to be only one word that is illegible as a result of a flaw in the copy of the article that I have.