The Government found it necessary to check the indiscriminate sale of spirituous liquors by a license duty. On the 28th August an ordinance passed for that purpose, and all such licensed houses were to be closed at 9 p. m. under penalty. On the 31st August the Governor and Council for the first time sat as a Court of Law. This was named the General Court, all authority – legislative, executive and judicial – being vested in the Board. They met on this day for the trial of Abram Goodside, the Boatswain's mate of the Beaufort, who stabbed and wounded two men. A grand jury was summoned who found a bill of indictment; he was tried and found guilty by a petit jury, and hanged under the Governor's warrant on 2nd September, 1749. On 31st August, another Court was held for the trial of one Peter Cartal, for murder. The Acadian Deputies having returned from the country, they were called before the Governor and Council on September 6th, when they presented a letter signed by 1000 inhabitants claiming to take only a qualified Oath of Allegiance.
On the 30th August, a sloop from Liverpool, Great Britain, with 116 settlers, arrived after a passage of nine weeks. They were, however, all quite healthy, not one person being sick on board at the time of their arrival. Two streets were then added to the Town and lots assigned to these people. This was Forman's new division. We have no names of these settlers or the name of the sloop.
Information having reached the Government that the Indians of Acadia and St. John's Island, designed to molest the settlement at Halifax on the approach of winter,17 it was deemed advisable to erect outworks for its defence; accordingly the troops and inhabitants were immediately employed to construct a line of palisades around the town in connection with square log forts which were to be placed at convenient distances. A space of thirty feet was cleared without the lines, and the trees thrown up by way of a barricade, which constituted a complete defence against any attempt on the part of the Indians. Those settlers who had built their houses without the town had arms given them, and their dwellings being built of logs were musket proof; also the Ordnance Artificers, those from New England and such of the settlers as had been in the army, and such others as could be trusted with arms within the town, also received them, and an order was sent to Boston for a supply of lamps to light the streets during the winter nights. Col. Goreham was sent to the head of the Basin with his company of Rangers for the winter, with an armed sloop to assist him, and every preparation possible was made for the protection of the people during the ensuing winter.
The Indians had appeared in the neighbourhood of the town for several weeks, but intelligence had been received that they had commenced hostilities, by the capture of twenty persons at Canso under frivolous pretences, and of two vessels having been attacked by them at Chignecto, when three English and seven Indians were killed. In consequence of this information it was resolved in Council to send a letter to M. Desherbiers, Governor of Louisburg, to recall LeLoutre. On the last day of September they made an attack on the sawmill at Dartmouth, then under the charge of Major Gilman. Six of his men had been sent out to cut wood without arms. The Indians laid in ambush, killed four and carried off one, and the other escaped and gave the alarm, and a detachment of rangers was sent after the savages, who having overtaken them, cut off the heads of two Indians and scalped one.18
These proceedings compelled the government to take more active measures, and orders were given to the commanding officers at the out stations, to destroy the Indians wherever they met them, and a premium of ten guineas was offered for every Indian killed or taken prisoner, this offer was in consequence of the large rewards offered by the French to the Indians for English scalps. Orders were given for raising two independent companies of rangers, one of one hundred men by Major Gilman, who was sent to Piscataqua for that purpose,19 the other a company of volunteers by Captain Wm. Clapham, who with Goreham's Indian Rangers, now returned from their stations at the head of the Basin with a company of Philips' Regiment, were to scour the whole country around the Bay. The St. John Indians having kept the treaty, received from Governor Cornwallis a present of 1000 bushels of corn, and an order was also given to purchase at Minas 500 bushels of wheat, to be baked into biscuit for the same purpose. Captain How was intrusted with these and other presents, and was directed to bring back with him, if possible, some of the tribe to go against the Mic-Macs. The preparation necessary to the protection of the town against French-Indian hostilities tended to expedite the progress of the settlement; before the middle of October, about three hundred and fifty houses had been completed, two of the square forts finished and the barricade carried all around. A number of store houses and barrack buildings for the accommodation of the troops had been also erected and the Governor's residence completed. The Council met there on the 14th October. About 30 of the French inhabitants were employed on the Public Works, and in cutting a road from the town to the Basin of Minas. A number of influential and industrious families from New England and other places had already become settlers, and Halifax Harbor was the resort of a large number of fishing vessels.
About this time a destructive epidemic made its appearance in the town, and it is said nearly 1000 persons fell victims during the autumn and the following winter. On the 14th day of October, the Government found it necessary to publish an ordinance, commanding all Justices of the Peace, upon the death of the settlers, to name so many of the neighbourhood or quarter (not exceeding 12) to which the deceased belonged, to attend at the burial and carry the corpse to the grave, and whoever refused to attend without sufficient reason should have his name struck off the Mess Book and Register of Settlers as unworthy of His Majesty's bounty; again in December, another order was made commanding all householders to report their dead to a clergyman within twenty-four hours.
Owing to the frequent alarms of invasion from the Indians and French stragglers during the winter, it was resolved in Council to organize a militia force for the protection of the settlement, and on the Sunday following the 6th day of December, after divine service, all the male settlers, between the age of sixteen and sixty, were assembled on the parade, and drawn up in the following order: – "Those of Mr. Ewer's and Mr. Collier's divisions to face the harbor, those of the quarters of Mr. Galland and Mr. Foreman to face the Citadel, and those of Mr. Callendar's division at one end of the parade." The proclamation bears date the 7th day of December, 1749. On the 16th, information arrived that a French force had been dispatched overland from Canada, to attack Halifax, and that the Indians were to co-operate with them, also, that two vessels with six hundred men were in the Bay Verte under LeCorne, and with ammunition and stores of all kinds for a winter expedition. The people having been again assembled on the parade after divine service, the proclamation was read and the settlers commanded to fell all the trees around the town without the forts and barricades. No attempt was, however, made upon the town, either by the Indians or French during the winter. These hostilities were being carried on by the Government of Canada, while the two Crowns were nominally at peace, under pretence that the Treaty of Utrecht only ceded to the Crown of Great Britain the peninsula of Nova Scotia proper.
The Governor deeming it expedient that some permanent system of judicial proceedings to answer the immediate exigencies of the Colony should be established, a committee of Council was accordingly appointed to examine the various systems in force in the old Colonies. On 13th December, Mr. Green reported that after a careful investigation, the laws of Virginia were found to be most applicable to the present situation of the province. The report was adopted. It referred principally to the judicial proceedings in the General Courts, the County Courts, and other tribunals.
Before concluding this chapter, which comprehends all that can be collected relative to the affairs of the settlement during the first year of its existence, it will be proper to observe that in founding the City, the spiritual wants of the settlers were not lost sight of by the British Government. Preparatory to the embarkation of the settlers, a letter was addressed by the Lords of Trade and Plantations to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, dated Whitehall, April 6th, 1749, recommending to the Society to appoint ministers and school-masters for the new settlement at Chebucto, and for such other townships or settlements as should from time to time be formed in Nova Scotia, and requesting the Society to make some provisions for them until arrangements should be made for their sufficient support, by grants of land, etc.20 The Society resolved immediately to act on this recommendation, and undertook to send six clergymen and six school-masters, when the settlements should be formed. The first missionaries appointed under this arrangement, were the Rev. William Tutty, of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and the Rev. Mr. Anwell, who both came out with the settlers in June, 1749. Mr. Tutty officiated in the open air until the necessary church accommodation could be obtained. On laying out the town, a spot was assigned by Government for the church. The site was first selected at the north end of the Grand Parade, where Dalhousie College now stands, but it was changed immediately after for the present site of St. Paul's Church, which was erected at the expense of Government and ready for the reception of the missionary, who preached his first sermon there on the 2nd day of September, 1750. The pews and inside finish were not completed for several years after. The name of Mr. Tutty does not appear among those of the settlers who came with Cornwallis. He probably, however, accompanied him. Mr. Anwell came with the expedition, but his name does not again appear; he died shortly after his arrival. Mr. Tutty spoke German and administered the Lord's Supper to the German settlers in their own language. The other missionary, J. Baptiste Moreau, who came out as school-master, and afterwards went to England for ordination, returned to the settlement and went down to Maligash with the Germans, 1752. Mr. Halstead was the school-master in charge of the Society's schools at Halifax during the first two or three years.
Governor Cornwallis in 1749, assigned the lot at the south-west corner of Prince and Hollis streets for a Protestant Dissenting Meeting house. The old building known as Mather's, or as it was afterwards called St. Matthew's Church (destroyed by fire in 1859,) was soon after erected on this site. It was appropriated originally to the Congregationalists, many of whom came from New England to settle in Halifax. It was called Mather's Church after the celebrated Cotton Mather, one of the leading divines of that denomination at Boston, in early days. The Presbyterians, and all who did not belong to the Established Church, attended divine service in this building. The Rev. Mr. Cleveland, who came from one of the old colonies, was the first minister who officiated in this building. It afterwards fell into the hands of the Presbyterians and became the property of the Church of Scotland, and the name of Mather's was changed to that of St. Matthew. This old Church was destroyed by fire, which consumed a large portion of the buildings in Hollis Street, in 1859. The lot of ground on which it stood was afterwards sold to Mr. Doull, who erected the fine stone store thereon, now known as Doull and Miller's building.
CHAPTER II
The winter of 1749-50, as has been before mentioned, was spent in continual apprehension of Indian and French invasion, and in preparations to receive the enemy. On the 7th January, 1750, a number of the inhabitants petitioned that Martial Law should be declared, but the Governor and Council did not consider the danger so great or imminent as to make it necessary. However, stringent regulations with regard to the militia were enacted, and an ordinance was issued compelling all settlers able to bear arms between 16 and 60, to be formed into 10 companies of 70 men each,21 and a guard of – officers and 30 men to assemble every evening near the parade to keep guard until sunrise, and all militia men called upon to labour at the fortifications, were to be allowed 1s. per day. Labourers were constantly employed in raising a barricade and continuing it to the water side, and block houses were erected between the forts.
During the winter intelligence frequently arrived from Minas, Pisiquid, and the eastern shore, of attacks being made by the Indians upon stragglers, and several young Acadians were brought from Minas to Halifax for trial, having been found in arms with the Indians. A large reward was offered for the apprehension of LeLoutre, the Indian missionary, and also £10 sterling for every Indian scalp or Indian prisoner. Capt. Sylvanus Cobb, an active and bold sea captain from Massachusetts, was taken into Government employ, and sent to Chignecto with his armed sloop for the purpose of surprising LeLoutre and his gang, and afterwards to search the harbors along the coast for Indians, and bring with him all he captured as prisoners to Halifax. Troops under Capt. Bartilo and others were sent into the interior and other active proceedings taken by the Governor and Council during the months of January and February for the peace of the province. A courier having been stopped at Cobequid, Priest Gourard and the French Deputies, were all brought to Halifax, by Capt. Bartilo, for examination before the Governor and Council; Gourard was detained at Government House until the courier returned, but the deputies were dismissed. He disclosed the fact to the Council that the Mic-Mac Indians of Nova Scotia went every year to Quebec, to receive clothing from the French Government, and that LeCorn had made the French of Acadia take the Oath of Allegiance to the French King. Gourard on this occasion took the Oath of Allegiance to the Crown of Great Britain, and thereupon received a licence to officiate as Priest to the Acadians, and promised not to leave the province without special leave from the Governor.
Among the municipal regulations this winter, was an ordinance that all persons found breaking the liquor license law, should be put one hour in the public stocks, and for the second offence receive twenty lashes. These severe regulations were found to be absolutely necessary, in consequence of the demoralized state of the settlement from settlers and others who infested the town and who were not settlers.
On the 2nd February, 1750, an ordinance was passed in Council, prohibiting the recovery of any debt contracted in England or elsewhere prior to the establishment of the settlement or to the debtor's arrival in Halifax, in any Court of Law within the province, except for goods imported into the Colonies. There appears to have been some difference of opinion at the Board on the subject; the Council divided, and the ordinance was carried by a small majority.
It was proposed in Council about this time, to build a quay along the shore in front of the town, but several merchants – Mr. Saul, Mr. Joshua Mauger and others, having applied for water lots, and liberty to build wharves on the beach, the subject was referred to Mr. Morris the surveyor, and Mr. Bruce the engineer. They thought the quay was a work of time and required means from England. Licences to build wharves were therefore granted, with a reservation of the right of the Crown in case the quay should be resolved on or the frontage required for government purposes. This scheme was afterwards abandoned by Government, and the licences remained unrepealed. At this period the line of the shore was so irregular, as in some places to afford only a footpath between the base line of the lots, which now form the upper side of Water Street and high water mark;22 at the Market the tide flowed up nearly to where the [old] City Court House stood, forming a cove, the outlet of a brook which came down north of George Street. Near the Ordnance Yard another cove made in, and this part of the shore was low and swampy many years after the batteries were built.23
The winter passed without any attack on the settlement, and the people were all quite healthy. The number of settlers was daily augmented by almost every vessel which arrived from New England and elsewhere; every thing required was provided for them, that they should be tolerably comfortable before the cold weather set in. The winter was very fine, very few extreme bad days, no heavy snow storms, the navigation never stopped in the slightest degree. More fine days and fewer bad ones (says the Governor) than I ever saw in winter. Spring opened early with fine warm days and thaw, and the fishing schooners began early in March to go upon the Bank.24 The snow lay all the winter, from the middle of January; it was, however, only three feet deep in the woods. The healthy condition of the settlers may be inferred from there never being more than 25 in the hospital ship at any one time.
By the 19th March, a place had been erected for a public Hospital, and a school building commenced for the orphan children. The French from the interior engaged freely for money to square timber for the erection of the blockhouses, and preparations were in progress for the completion of the Church.
A meeting of the Governor and Council took place on 19th April, when the French Deputies again appeared with a petition to be permitted to sell their lands and leave the country. The names of these deputies were Jaques Teriot from Grand Pre, Francois Granger from River de Canard, Battiste Galerne and Jean André.
Mr. Cornwallis was continually embarrassed by letters from the Board of Trade, finding fault with the expenses incurred in planting the settlement. £40,000 had been voted by Parliament, and £36,000 of excess had been demanded as a further vote; this could not be considered so great an expenditure under all the circumstances, as it included the pay and equipment of two regiments of infantry. In his replies, he says, "Not a pound shall be expended by me unnecessarily, but without money you could have had no town, no settlement, and indeed no settlers. 'Tis very certain that the public money cleared the ground, built the town, secured it, kept both soldiers and settlers from starving with cold, and has brought down above 1000 settlers from the other Colonies. Lots in Halifax are now worth 50 guineas. If there was no public money circulating, lots would be given for a gallon of rum. The money is laid out in building forts, barracks, store houses, hospitals, churches, wharves, etc., public works all that seem absolutely necessary. According to your Lordship's directions, I have discharged the two Government Apothecaries and shall discharge some of the Surgeons' Mates that may be spared. As for the saw mill, we never had one board from it – it has been a constant plague from the beginning. Thirty men have been constantly kept there ever since the affair of the Indians. Gilman has behaved so ill I shall have to discharge him from all service. I have laid in a quantity of lumber in the King's yard this spring at a reasonable price. For want of stock I have been sometimes obliged to pay £5 per M. The settlers have paid £6. I have got them lately at £3 10s., £3 and £2 15s. No new boards are given to settlers."
The salaries to the public officers of Cornwallis' Government appear exceedingly small in comparison with the arduous duties which devolved upon them in organizing the settlement. His Aides-de-Camp, Capt. Bulkely and Mr. Gates,25 had no allowance except some trifling commission on the issue of molasses and spirits.
In June, 1750, the Governor and Council assigned as a site the spot on which the [old] City Court House stands, for a market for black cattle, sheep, etc., and made market regulations. In July, the settlers were ordered to clear the streets in front of their respective lots to the centre. They had begun to clear George's Island and to erect block-houses. Seven 32-pounders had been mounted upon it, and a palisade carried all around the works. The frame of the Church, which had been brought from Boston, was erected and was being covered in, the estimated cost of finishing the edifice being £1000 sterling. The temporary barricades were removed, and the palisades carried completely round the town. 30,000 bricks had been manufactured in the neighbourhood and found very good. The meeting house for Dissenters had not yet been commenced. The town was increasing every day in settlers and the number of its houses, but no improvement of the lands in the neighbourhood had been made beyond a few small gardens. The fishery was prosperous and produced 25,000 quintals the first year.
In the month of August, 1750, three hundred and fifty-three settlers arrived in the ship Alderney; and in September following, three hundred German Protestants, from the Palatinate, in the ship Ann. The Governor and Council were embarrassed in providing for their support, and found it necessary to enter into pecuniary arrangements with the merchants of the town, who at this early period had formed themselves into an association for the benefit of trade. Those who came in the ship Alderney, were sent to the opposite side of the harbour, and commenced the town of Dartmouth, which was laid out in the autumn of that year. In December following, the first ferry was established, and John Connor appointed ferryman by order in Council.
In the spring of the following year the Indians surprised Dartmouth at night, scalped a number of settlers and carried off several prisoners. The inhabitants, fearing an attack, had cut down the spruce trees around their settlement, which, instead of a protection, as was intended, served as a cover for the enemy. Captain Clapham and his company of Rangers were stationed on Block-house hill, and it is said remained within his block-house firing from the loop-holes, during the whole affair. The Indians were said to have destroyed several dwellings, sparing neither women nor children. The light of the torches and the discharge of musketry alarmed the inhabitants of Halifax, some of whom put off to their assistance, but did not arrive in any force till after the Indians had retired. The night was calm, and the cries of the settlers, and whoop of the Indians were distinctly heard on the western side of the harbour. On the following morning, several bodies were brought over – the Indians having carried off the scalps.26 Mr. Pyke, father of the late John George Pyke, Esq., many years police magistrate of Halifax, lost his life on this occasion. Those who fled to the woods were all taken prisoners but one. A court martial was called on the 14th May, to inquire into the conduct of the different commanding officers, both commissioned and non-commissioned, in permitting the village to be plundered when there were about 60 men posted there for its protection.
There was a guard house and small military post at Dartmouth from the first settlement, and a gun mounted on the point near the saw mill (in the cove) in 1749. One or two transports, which had been housed over during winter and store ships were anchored in the cove, under the cover of this gun, and the ice kept broke around them to prevent the approach of the Indians. The attempt to plant a settlement at Dartmouth, does not appear to have been at first very successful. Governor Hobson in his letter to the Board of Trade, dated 1st October, 1753, says, "At Dartmouth there is a small town well picketed in, and a detachment of troops to protect it, but there are not above five families residing in it, as there is no trade or fishing to maintain any inhabitants, and they apprehend danger from the Indians in cultivating any land on the outer side of the pickets."
There is no record of any concerted attack having been made by the Indians or French on the town of Halifax. Many stragglers were cut off during the first years of the settlement, particularly along the western side of the Basin, where the best firewood was to be obtained. It was at length found necessary to send out an armed body when fuel or lumber was required. The enemy usually retired before a regular organized force. The Ranger companies under Goreham and Bartelo, were most efficient for this purpose; they were usually recruited in New England, where men for that service were more readily found.
The German settlers who came in the ship Ann, were employed in the public works at 2s. per day, besides a supply of beer and other liquors to each. It was decided that all settlers who came in the previous year, should cease to draw provisions after the 15th September, 1750. This order was afterwards repealed on 29th, and it was determined that all settlers already in the town or who should come before 1st December, should be entitled to one year's provisions from the time of their names being entered on the victualling book.27
It was the intention of Government that the Germans should be sent into the interior of the province; but they having arrived so late in the season, and the want of a sufficient supply of provisions then in store to sustain them through the winter rendered it impossible, and they were retained in the town. They were very sickly, many of them old and unfit for settlers, and their passages not being paid, and there being no person to purchase them, they were employed on the public works to work out their passage money.
About this period a gloom was cast over the settlement by the news of the murder of the Hon. Edward How, one of the Council at Chignecto. "Captain How was employed on the expedition to Chignecto as knowing the country well and being acquainted both with the Indians and the inhabitants, and furthermore he knew personally their leaders, LeCorne and LeLoutre. His whole aim and study was to obtain a peace with the Indians, and get the English prisoners out of their hands, for which purpose he often had conferences with the French officers under a flag of truce. LeCorne one day sent a flag of truce by a French officer to the water side, a small river which parts his people from the British troops. Capt. How and the officers held a parley for some time across the river. How had no sooner taken leave of the officers than a party that lay in ambush fired a volley at him and shot him through the heart, an instance of treacherous brutality not to be paralleled in history, and a violation of a flag of truce, which had ever been held sacred, and without which all faith is at an end, and all transactions with an enemy." – [Cornwallis' letter 27th November.]
The spring of 1751 the five acre lots on the Peninsula were laid out; the people engaged in clearing the land. The uncertainty from surprise by Indians, however, much retarded the work; a large space, however, was cleared around the town before winter set in.
Another vessel having arrived on the 10th June, with German Palatine settlers, they were directed to be employed at Dartmouth in picketing in the back of the town. In July, the arrival of 200 more was reported, and they were ordered to be placed at the head of the N. W. Arm and mouth of the Basin; and those who owed work for their passage, were directed to picket in their stations. Monsieur Dupacquir, who had engaged to bring out 300 Swiss, brought but twenty this year, but more were expected in the following spring.
Ninth July, a proclamation issued to forfeit all lots of the town settlers who only put up slight frames of houses, unless they immediately proceeded to board them in and finish them as dwellings.
On the 18th June, Jas. Stephens and Wm. Harris were hanged for house-breaking; this was the second public execution which took place in the town.
William Piggot had a license granted him to open a coffee house on the 8th April the same year.
In January of this year the Council passed a series of regulations for the General Court and County Courts, and ordered them to be published by the Provost Marshal by reading the same after the beat of drum through the settlement, and on the first day of the next sitting of the General Court and County Courts.
The only matters further recorded worthy of notice during the year 1751, was the dismissal of Mr. Otis Little, the Commissary of Stores, for remissness in his office, and the resolution of the Governor and Council to pay a draft for £882, sent from Quebec, for the ransom of English prisoners taken by the Indians and carried to Canada. It appeared that Lt. Hamilton and upwards of sixty officers, soldiers and settlers had fallen into the hands of the savages, and Priest LeLoutre had agreed to ransom them for the sum above mentioned.
It may here be mentioned that several batteries have already been erected on George's Island,28 and expensive earth works had been thrown up.
Towards the close of the year Mr. Joshua Mauger, a gentleman from England, who came out at the commencement of the settlement to trade and distil rum for the soldiers, was charged by government with having attempted to make Halifax the repository for Louisburg merchandize, brought up secretly and to be carrying on an illicit traffic, he being at the time agent victualler to Government. Governor Cornwallis, upon information, caused Mr. Mauger's stores to be searched for contraband articles brought from Louisburg. Much discussion ensued, and the settlement was for some time thrown into commotion, by what Mr. Mauger called in his letter to England, the high-handed proceedings of the Governor.