The capture of the British ship Guerriere, a first class frigate commanded by Capt. Dacres, belonging to the Halifax squadron, by the Americans, in August, caused much talk and excitement throughout the community. Capt. Dacres, a young and inexperienced officer, it was thought had surrendered too early to the enemy. He had only left the harbor a short time when he lost his ship.
In July, a press warrant was granted to Rear Admiral Sawyer for 48 hours. Desertions from the navy were frequent and large offers were reported to have been made by the enemy for such able seamen as would come over to the American navy. The Commander-in-Chief, in consequence, found it necessary to publish a proclamation at Halifax offering the King's pardon to all who had deserted, on their returning to their duty. Letters of Marque against the Americans were ordered in Council on 31st July, and all vessels were prohibited from leaving the port without special license, for the space of one month.
The old Halifax Artillery Company was at this time a very popular corps, and included many of the young merchants as well as tradesmen of the town. It was at one time supposed that the property owned by those whose names were on its roll comprised no small part of the wealth of our town.
An Act of the Legislature was passed this year regarding that part of the public road or highway which leads from Fort Massey to the exercising ground on the Commons. His Majesty's service required that this piece of road should be enclosed for the purpose of enlarging the Artillery Park. It was therefore enacted that when the officers of His Majesty's Ordnance should have laid out a new road agreeable to the plan submitted to His Excellency Sir John Cope Sherbrooke, and filed in the Surveyor General's office, measuring fifty feet in breadth, through the field of John George Pyke, and shall have procured a release from Mr. Pyke, and shall have completed said new road, that the Engineer should take in 310 feet in length of that part of said road which now leads from Fort Massey to the exercising ground on the Common, forever for the Ordnance Department at Halifax. The new road to be substituted therefor.
1813. The arrival of DeWatteville's regiment of Germans in May on their way to reinforce the army at Quebec, and of the American ship Volante with a valuable cargo and mounting 21 guns taken by H. M. Brig Curlew, Capt. Michael Head,70 and the accession of the 64th Regiment to the strength of the garrison were the chief events during the spring of 1813.
On Sunday morning, the 6th, June, the inhabitants of Halifax were surprised by the arrival of His Majesty's Ship Shannon, Capt. Broke, with her prize the United States Frigate Chesapeak, Capt. Lawrence. The engagement which was said to be the result of a challenge on the part of Capt. Broke, took place off Boston Harbor a very short time after the Shannon left Halifax. The enemy surrendered after about 20 minutes fighting. Capt. Broke ran his ship in upon the Chesapeak, and captured her with his boarding party who, "rushing upon the enemy's deck, carried away everything before them with irresistible fury." Capt. Lawrence, and his First Lieutenant, Ludlow, were killed; the latter died at Halifax on the 13th June. The engagement was one of the most bloody on record. The Shannon had 30 men killed and 57 wounded, and the Chesapeak 74 killed and above 100 wounded, all within the short space of little more than fifteen minutes. When the ships came up the harbor the decks were being swabbed and the scuppers ran quite red. Numbers of the inhabitants of the town put off in boats and visited the ships. Though the bodies of the slain had been nearly all removed from sight, yet the marks of the slaughter were terribly conspicuous. Mr. Provo Wallis, a Halifax man, one of the Lieutenants of the Shannon, brought in the prize. He received his promotion as Commander soon after, and later became a full Admiral and Knight Grand Cross of the Bath. On the 8th, the funeral of Capt. Lawrence took place. The body was landed under minute guns from the ships and the procession proceeded from the King's Wharf to the old English Burial Ground attended by an immense concourse of people. The coffin was covered by the U. S. colours and six British Post Captains bore the pall. The 34th Regiment formed the firing party. The officers of the garrison, His Majesty's Council, the principal civil officers and heads of departments, and all the officers of the navy in port followed in procession, the American officers walking next the coffin.
On the 10th August, following, an American Brig with a flag of truce arrived for the bodies of Capt. Lawrence and Lieutenant Ludlow, which were taken up and carried to their native country. That of Capt. Lawrence lies in the yard of Trinity Church, Broadway, New York, where his tomb is to be seen on the left of the entrance.
A memorial of the merchants of Halifax, numerously signed, was presented to the Colonial Secretary through the Governor, complaining of the permission of American vessels to resort to the British West Indies, and of the right of fishery conceded to the Americans by the Treaty of 1783, and praying that the interests of Nova Scotia might be considered in any future negotiations. Among the principal signers were William Sabatier, John Black, John Pryor, Geo. Grassie and Enos Collins. At this time the English Government was very jealous of British Colonial rights, and was ready to fight in their defence.
The town and its vicinity had for the last two years abounded with French prisoners of war. Those taken from American prizes now increased the throng. A prison had been erected at Melville Island, at the head of the North West Arm, for their accommodation, and soon became crowded. Many of the French sailors were ingenious workers in wood and bone, and made articles of use as well as ornament, which they sold to the numerous visitors who were freely permitted access to Melville Island. It was the favorite resort of the young people on Sundays and holidays, where a pleasant hour could be passed in conversing with the French prisoners and examining their toys. The French naval officers were on parole of honor, and resided in Dartmouth and Preston. They spent their time chiefly in field sports, occasionally visiting Halifax, where they mixed freely in society. M. Danseville, the Governor of St. Pierre and Miquelon, resided in the house near Preston lately owned by the Hon. Michael Tobin, known as the Brook House, where he entertained his friends with great politeness and hospitality. Many of the French prisoners were permitted to come to town and work for the inhabitants. A number of our own Halifax people were at this time languishing in French prisons. The sum of £130 sterling was subscribed in Halifax for their relief, and remitted to England in the month of July of this year.
Great quantities of prize goods were sold at auction this year, taken principally from American vessels. The American trade was terribly cut up by the British cruisers. On one occasion we find advertised for sale at public auction by order of the Court of Vice-Admiralty, dated 19th March, twelve full-rigged ships, eight brigs, seven schooners and ten or twelve small vessels, with their cargoes.
On 7th September, the merchants of Halifax petitioned the Governor and Council for permission to export to the States portions of the prize goods as being particularly adapted to the American market. The following names, among others, appear attached to this petition: John Lawson, Temple F. & Lewis E. Piers,71 Jas. Forman, Samuel Head, M. D., Hartshorne, Boggs & Co., James and Michael Tobin, James Hamilton, Roy Leslie & Co., Carrett & Alport, Scaiffe & Bain, G. Grassie, James Ewing, William Annand, Matthew Richardson, William Phillips, James Russell, Miles W. White, Smith & Thom, John Brown, W. H. Reynolds & Co., Harding & Hill, A. McDonald, Henry Ford, Stephen W. DeBlois & Co., Wm. Bremner, John Moody & Co., Collins & Allison,72 Henry Austin, William Stairs, Richard Tremain & Co., G. N. Russell, Jonathan & John Tremain.
On the 7th September, Sir Borlase Warren with his fleet arrived in Halifax Harbor in eight days from the Chesapeake. The fleet consisted of the St. Domingo, 74 guns, Diadem, 64, Diomede, 50, Junon, 38, Romulus, 36, Success, 32, Fox, 32, Nemesis, 28, Loupcervier, 18, Mariner, 15, Highflyer, 10, and several transports.
The following passage from Murdoch's history affords a lively picture of the condition and aspect of Halifax at this period, drawn no doubt, in some measure from his personal recollection:
"The effects of the war upon the people of Halifax were very marked. Our harbor had become the temporary home of the ships of war, and the place where their prizes were brought and disposed of. Our youths were eager to participate in the path that seemed to lead by a few steps to honor, glory, and fortune; and indeed when it is borne in mind that several Halifax lads rose to be admirals, we can hardly wonder at the school-boys' desire to wear the white stripe on his collar, and the ivory-handled dirk that indicated his authority to command men. The little capital, then occupying a restricted space, became crowded. Trade was active, prices rose. The fleet increasing, provisions were in great demand, and this acted as a large bounty in favor of the agriculturist and the fisherman. Rents of houses and buildings in the town were doubled and trebled. A constant bustle existed in our chief streets, cannon were forever noisy; it was a salute of a man-of-war entering or leaving, practising with guns or celebrating something or somebody. There is another side to this picture which must not be omitted. The moral condition of the town had become dreadful in the extreme. Eight or ten thousand soldiers, sailors, and prisoners of war let loose in a little town of less than 10,000 inhabitants can well be imagined."
The upper streets were full of brothels; grog shops and dancing houses were to be seen in almost every part of the town. A portion of Grafton Street was known under the appellation of Hogg Street from a house of ill-fame kept by a person of that name. The upper street along the base of Citadel Hill between the north and south barracks was known as "Knock him Down" Street in consequence of the number of affrays and even murders committed there. No person of any character ventured to reside there, nearly all the buildings being occupied as brothels for the soldiers and sailors. The streets of this part of the town presented continually the disgusting sight of abandoned females of the lowest class in a state of drunkenness, bare headed, without shoes, and in the most filthy and abominable condition.
The Acadian School was this year established by Walter Bromley, Esq., on the Lancaster system. It was intended chiefly for the instruction of the poor. Mr. Bromley had been paymaster of the 23rd Fusiliers, and having retired from the army while that regiment was in garrison at Halifax, devoted all the energy of his philanthropic mind to the amelioration of the condition of the poor. He first opened his school on 13th January, 1814 in the old building in Argyle Street, then lately used as a theatre for amateur performers, where he held Sunday school for poor children of all denominations and had a large class of blacks, both children and adults, to whom he devoted particular attention. Many colored men and women who afterwards became valuable servants, and some of whom entered into business in Halifax, owed their success and subsequent christian life to the exertions of Mr. Bromley. His labors to improve the condition of the Mic-mac Indians will be remembered by not a few individuals now living. His house was open to them at all times, where those who were not addicted to the habitual use of spirits were hospitably treated, clothed and furnished with means of following their hunting and other occupations. This continued until he left the country. The old play house having fallen into decay, the present stone building was erected on its site in 1816 and apartments for Mr. Bromley were therein provided. A printing press which had been established by him at the Acadian School became the means of disseminating his views regarding education throughout the province, and his little pamphlets, entitled Appeals to the People of Great Britain on behalf of the Indians of Nova Scotia, were very forcible and touching. The first edition of T. C. Halliburton's history of Nova Scotia was issued from Bromley's press in 1824. When Bromley left Halifax in 1828, the poor lost a true friend and the Indians their chief patron.
Halifax was visited by a great gale of wind in the autumn of 1813. The Gazette of the 19th November says:
"On Friday evening last, a most tremendous gale, or rather hurricane from the south-east, rushed up the harbor with such destructive violence as has not been witnessed since the tornado which happened in September, 1798. The lapse of little more than one short hour left but few vessels at their anchors and of those scarcely one that had not sustained material injury. Its utmost fury being felt about dead low water, less damage was sustained by the wharves and stores than might otherwise have been expected, but several shallops and small craft were sunk, and many others wrecked and torn by the sea. H. M. Ships St. Domingo, Hogue, Maidstone, two brigs and a schooner were driven on shore. Fourteen other men of war, including small ones, suffered by vessels being driven against them. The Barossa, Diadem and the old Centurian suffered least. There were forty-six merchant vessels, transports and prizes, all large vessels except about seventeen, stranded; most of them having been got off again. Twenty-four, including store ships and transports, suffered more or less injury, and a brig, a transport and one or two sloops sank and were totally lost. Several schooners were sunk at Prospect, and two large vessels were reported overset off the harbor. A number of lives were lost during the gale, and many seamen badly hurt on board the ships of war."
Among the deaths recorded this year was that of James Creighton, Esq.,73 in his 81st year. He was the son of one of the settlers who came with Governor Cornwallis in 1749, and had acquired a large property in the neighborhood of the town which was inherited by his son who was the ancestor of the family of that name now in the city. The fields in the north suburbs adjoining the common were for many years known as Creighton's fields; long since laid off into building lots, including the streets known as Maynard Street, Creighton Street and Bauer Street, etc.
The death of Sir Samuel Hood George, Provincial Secretary of the Province, took place this year in England, where he went for the benefit of his health. He died of consumption in the 24th year of his age.
In the month of January, 1813, a murder was committed on the Market Wharf, which caused considerable excitement in the town. About 7 o'clock on Monday evening, January 25th, five soldiers, having had some dispute with the shallop men on the wharf, attacked them with their bayonets and badly wounded four men, Frederick and Henry Publicover, Cornelius Uhlman and George Teele. The main guard from the King's Wharf being called out, three of the soldiers were secured. Henry Publicover died of his wounds and the Coroner's Jury brought in a verdict of wilful murder against some persons unknown. One of those who had been apprehended, a young soldier named Oliver Hart, was tried and convicted of the murder at the Easter term of the Supreme Court, but was afterwards pardoned by the Governor. Much dissatisfaction existed in the community in consequence of the termination of this affair.
In the month of March the crew of a Spanish schooner, the Serifina, was brought into Halifax. They had killed six of their fellow-sufferers upon the alleged necessity of saving their own lives by subsisting on the flesh of those they killed. Investigations were entered into, the result of which does not appear.
The Commissioners of Streets for the town were appointed on the 12th May. They consisted of James Forman, John Albro, Michael Tobin, Frederick Major, James Fraser and John Allen. The three former remained in office until about 1829 or 1830, when a new system was inaugurated under the management of H. H. Cogswell and others. Matthew Forrester was the Overseer and Superintendent of Streets under the Commissioners for many years. The old Commissioners, a short time before their retirement, undertook to remove all obstructions to side paths; many old houses stood on banks with cellar doors projecting into what was supposed to be part of the street. Others again were approached by flights of steps, all of which were removed to the detriment of many buildings in the suburbs. At this time the town was adorned in many places by ranges of trees in the sides of the streets. St. Paul's Church was surrounded by large old willow trees; a range of fine old willows extended from William Pryor's corner down the eastern side of Hollis Street past the Lumber Yard Gate. A fine range of willows of less dimensions also ran along that part of Argyle Street between the late H. H. Cogswell's stone house and the residence of the late R. J. Uniacke, since sold for a country market. Again in Poplar Grove, and the old Grenadier fort house which stood on the site of the present Trinity Chapel in Jacob Street, on both sides of Brunswick Street, particularly on the east side, there were several fine clusters of Lombardy poplar trees of gigantic size, several being in front of the residence of James Kirby. There were also some fine trees in other parts of the town. These were all cut down without mercy by Mr. Forrester, under the directions of the Commissioners before the year 1830, and the lower stairs of a number of buildings were buried in levelling the streets. Albermarle and Grafton Streets were at this time in a very rough condition, particularly the former, where banks of earth and stones were to be seen in the centre of the street, sufficient in some places to obstruct carriages. These were removed by the new Commissioners.
The town was at this time supplied with water by public wells and pumps in various parts of the town. A pump stood at the north end of the Province Building Square, in George Street, known as Black's pump; another at the south end of the square; another, known as the White pump, stood in the centre of Prince Street, where it is crossed by Albermarle Street; this was one of the last to be removed. There were two known as the Sisters at the corner of Duke and Hollis Streets, near the site of the building occupied by the People's Bank. There were four or five along the east side of Brunswick Street, one at the foot of Cornwallis Street, and a number in the south suburbs and other parts of the town; also two in Barrington Street in front of the Parade.
1814. During the winter of 1813-14 some distress existed among the poor in the upper streets. This part of the town was chiefly occupied by people of the lower order, and in consequence of the war had become a resort for soldiers and sailors. Barrack Street, before mentioned, was known as "The Hill" and was as well known through His Majesty's dominions for its evil reputation as the worst haunts of Plymouth or Portsmouth in England.
On the 25th February a public fast was proclaimed by the Governor, after which we do not find any further proclamations of this kind for many years.
A press warrant was granted to Rear Admiral Griffiths on 28th February, when many of the idle and worthless vagabonds of the town were happily secured for His Majesty's service, where they would be brought under wholesome restraint.
It had been arranged this spring that a residence for the Admiral of the station should be erected. The British Parliament had granted the sum of £3000 for this purpose, which being found insufficient, the House of Assembly of this province voted £1500 towards its completion. A site was selected in the field between the Naval Hospital grounds and Gottingen Street, and the present building known as Admiralty House was commenced this year, but not finished until some time after. Why the local funds of the province should have been devoted to this purpose does not clearly appear.
The arrival of the English packet on 21st May furnished news of the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte and the entry of the allied armies into Paris. It being Sunday, the event was celebrated all Monday by a military review with salutes, and the whole town was illuminated in the evening. A military band performed during the evening on the flat roof of the old market house, long since removed to make way for the present brick structure, and the streets were crowded to a very late hour. The merchants and many of the principal inhabitants met at the Exchange Coffee House and other places, where hot suppers were consumed in honor of the occasion.
Among the captures this year was that of the American privateer, Snap Dragon, six guns and 70 men, brought in by H. M. Sloop, Martin on 5th July, taken off Sambro Light, and on the 13th, the United States Sloop Rattlesnake, 18 guns, by the Leander frigate, taken near Shelburne Harbor. About the same time 340 British prisoners were brought to Halifax in Cartels from Salem in Massachusetts. The Rattlesnake was afterwards sold and fitted out as a privateer by merchants in Liverpool, Queens County.
The British forces having captured Washington in August, 1814, a large number of black slaves, of both sexes, from the plantations along the Potomac and Chesapeake Rivers, who had deserted their masters, took refuge on board the British men-of-war while they laid in Chesapeake Bay. Sir George Cochran, the naval commander, sent them on to Halifax, where many of them arrived in September, following in a transport ship and the Brig Jasper. They were afterwards located at Preston and Hammond's Plains. Many of the domestic slaves remained in the town as servants, attaching themselves to the inhabitants. Those who went to the country, being unused to cold and hard labor, were unable even with the assistance of the Government allowance to make their living; soon became paupers and a burden to the community, a condition in which their children and grand-children largely remain. At the close of the war a quantity of American soldiers' uniforms, taken at Castine, in Maine, were served out to the Chesapeake negroes. Their grotesque appearance in the blue and yellow coats, occasionally intermixed with the green and red facings of the corps called the York Rangers, (at the peace disbanded in Halifax,) must be within the recollection of many of our old inhabitants.
The grand event of this year for Halifax was the fitting out of the expedition for the invasion of the State of Maine. This expedition consisted of the 29th, 60th, 62nd and 98th British Regiments, with artillery and some militia. The two brigades were commanded by Major Goslin and Colonel Douglas; the whole being under the command of Lieutenant-General Sir John Cope Sherbrooke. Rear Admiral Griffiths commanded the squadron, which was composed of 3 seventy-four gun ships, the Bulwark, Dragon and the Spencer, with two brigs, a schooner and ten transports. Castine was taken on 1st September, and the town of Michias by Lieut. – Col. Pilkington, on the 11th. Thus all the State or District of Maine fell into the hands of the British as far west as the old bounds of Acadia. This territory was originally part of Nova Scotia, and at the peace of 1783 had been conceded to the Americans through the ignorance and imbecility of Lord Gambier, who had been intrusted by the British Ministry with the settlement of our lines. The British Government was erroneously induced to relinquish this conquest at the close of the war, a policy which has deprived this Dominion of the fairest timber lands of New Brunswick, and caused the loss of the most direct line of communication between the Canadian provinces through British territory, a loss which the whole expense incurred by the British Government during the war could not now repay. Sir John, having left a garrison to take care of his conquest, soon returned with his little army to Halifax. Several Halifax merchants availed themselves of the opening afforded to make money, sent agents with supplies of goods to establish shops at Castine, etc. The British authorities collected the Revenue of Maine while in occupation, which amounted to a considerable sum of money. This fund was placed by the colonial minister in the hands of the Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia, who appropriated it in various ways as he thought most for the benefit of the country. It was from this fund that Dalhousie College was afterwards built and endowed by the Earl of Dalhousie, who succeeded Sir John Cope Sherbrooke in the government, the Legislature of the Province having been induced to vote the sum of £5,000 currency towards the same object.
In the autumn the small pox made its appearance in Dartmouth and Preston and was very fatal among the Chesapeake negroes.
The old Rockingham Club, which in the days of Prince Edward and Sir John Wentworth dined periodically at the Rockingham Hotel on the Basin, had ceased to exist, but it appears to have revived about this time under the name of the Wellington Club. A dinner at the Rockingham by the Wellington Club was announced in the papers of 26th August to take place on the 30th instant at half past four o'clock. Five o'clock was the fashionable dinner hour. The Governor's dinner cards of this date were all for that hour.
The old Rockingham was destroyed by fire nearly half a century ago. It stood on the shore of the Basin, a short distance north of the Rotunda. After the departure of the Prince it became a house of entertainment, kept successively by Graves, Paine and others. It was a favorite resort being a convenient distance from town. The approach from the post road was by a carriage drive next to the Rotunda, between two beech trees, from which hung suspended a sign with the Wentworth Arms. When destroyed it was the property of the estate of David Muirhead.
In September the body of General Ross, who had been killed before Baltimore, was brought to Halifax for interment. He was buried in the old English burial ground with all military honors. No monument to his memory appears in St. Paul's Church.
On the 24th November, the Man-of-War Brig Fantome, 18 guns, went on shore at Prospect. She soon went to pieces, as also a schooner which accompanied her. No lives were lost.
The merchants presented several petitions to the Governor this year relative to the trade of the port. The following names appear appended to these petitions, among which we will find those of many of our principal citizens whose faces were once familiar to many now living:
James Forman,74 Belcher & Wright,75 John Clarke, William Rudolf, John Stayner, Rufus G. Taylor, William Strachan, William Young, Jr., Austin & Stairs,76 Jessie Woodward, Richard Kidston, Lawrence Doyle, John Carrol, Henry Yeomans, Francis Stevens, Benjamin Etter, John Merrick, W. C. Wilkie, Charles Boggs, And. Smith, William Duffus, James Kerby, Charles Tropolet. Again, Thomas Wallace, Bowie & DeBlois,77 Hosterman & Etter, John & David Howe,78 W. A. & S. Black,79 James Baine, Martin Gay Black, Duncan McColl, Thomas Cleary, Robert Phelon, Levi Moses & Co., and John A. Barry.80
The Province Building and the Admiralty House were both slowly progressing during the summer and autumn.
Halifax did a brisk trade during the period of the American War. The following list of exports for the year 1813 is given by Murdoch in one of his notes: Vessels, 412; Tons, 54,457; men, 2,868; Boards and Plank, 1,881,722 feet; Staves, 232,562; Dry Fish, 82,059 quintals; Pickled Fish in tierces, 408; Barrels, 29,829; Smoked Herring in barrels, 142; Boxes, 6,425; Fish Oil, 49,668 gallons.
1815. The winter of 1814-15 was more severe than the previous one. The small pox had broken out in the town and many persons died of it. A number of the black refugee negroes had been, about the month of May, after the removal of the prisoners, placed on Melville Island. They were all vaccinated to prevent the spread of the disease among them. They remained here for a short time until they could be located in the country.
The treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United States was ratified in February 1815, and executed at Ghent on the 24th December following. An immediate exchange of prisoners took place after the ratification, and many seafaring men belonging to Halifax, who had been confined in American prisons, were restored to their homes. Peace was proclaimed at Halifax on 3rd March. This spring an Act of the Legislature passed for establishing a Bridewell or House of Correction in Halifax. It was placed under the control of the sessions, and the old gamble-roofed building formerly used as a poor house, then situated at the western end of the space known as the old poor house grounds, was taken for the purpose and fitted up with cells, etc., for the prisoners. This building was taken down, having ceased to be used after the erection of Rock Head Prison and the Provincial Penitentiary on the North West Arm. It was one of the oldest buildings in the town afterwards, and was in early days the residence of Mr. Wenman, the keeper of the Asylum. When it was first built is uncertain, but being situate within the lines of the old forts, was probably a military residence of some sort during the first five or six years of the settlement.
A regular police court was this summer established in the brick Court House. John George Pyke, John Howe and John Liddell were appointed police magistrates. Mr. Pyke had long been custos of the county, and he and subsequently Mr. Liddell gave regular attendance at the office. Mr. Pyke was allowed eleven shillings and eight pence per day, and had three police constables at his command, with the additional assistance of Hawkins, a colored gentleman, who dressed in an old military uniform with cap and feathers, usually escorted the criminals to and from the workhouse, and when occasion required inflicted his 39 lashes on juvenile offenders at the old whipping post, which stood at the south-west corner of the building opposite Messrs. Stairs' office – a system of punishment less expensive than paying their board and lodging for eight or ten weeks from the taxes of the citizens.