Among the local occurrences of the year 1759, was the trial of Thomas Lathum, baker, for the murder of Lieutenant Collins of the Royal Navy. It appeared that Mr. Collins, Captain Sweeney, Doctor Johns, Mr. Fulton and others of the Navy, had been sipping at the house of one John Field, and late in the evening proposed to go out in search of some women with whom one of them had made an engagement. They knocked at the door of one Hewitt, and inquired for Polly. On being refused admission, it appeared that Thomas Lathum, the brother-in-law of Hewitt, who lived in the neighbourhood, hearing the noise, came to his own door and demanded of the gentlemen in the street whether they intended to rob Mr. Hewitt. They replied that they were gentlemen and not robbers. Some further words provoked a scuffle, in which Fulton was dragged by Lathum into his house. The affair terminated in Lathum discharging a gun after the party, and mortally wounding Collins. Captain Sweeny had previously called the guard, who shortly after the affair arrived and took Lathum into custody. Lathum was tried on the 24th April, 1759.
The names of the grand jury, who found the bill of indictment, were Michael Francklin, foreman, Charles Proctor, Abraham Bowyer, Walter Manning, James Quinn, Nathan Nathans, J. Pernette, John Craig, Terrence Fitzpatrick, John Kerby, Jonathan Pierce, James Porter, Henry Sibley, J. Flanagan, Michael Moloney, Robert Cowie, Charles Terlaven, Jonathan Gifford and James Browne.
On the 11th March, 1760, the following gentlemen were appointed Justices of the Peace for the county of Halifax, viz.: The Hon. Jonathan Belcher, Hon. Benjamin Green, Hon. John Collier, Hon. Charles Morris, Hon. Richard Bulkeley, Hon. Thomas Saul, Hon. Joseph Gerrish, William Nesbitt, John Duport, Joseph Scott, John Creighton, Sebastine Zouberbuhler, Edward Crawley, Charles Proctor and Benjamin Gerrish, and on 30th December following, Malachi Salter, Alexander Grant, Johnathan Binney and John Burbidge were added to the number. Messrs. Morris, Duport, Scott, Gerrish and Crawley were appointed Justices of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas.
Governor Lawrence, who had been for 7 days ill, died of inflammation of the lungs on the morning of the 19th October, 1760. The Council were immediately summoned, and Chief Justice Belcher sworn in to administer the Government. A question had arisen on a previous occasion, between Mr. Belcher and Mr. Green, as to the eligibility of the Chief Justice to the office of administrator of the Government, which was decided in favour of the Chief Justice, but some years after, the question was determined by the British Government declaring that the two offices of administrator of the Government and Chief Justice, should never be held by the same person.
It was resolved in Council, that the funeral of the late Governor should be at the public expense, and a monument to his memory was afterwards voted by the Assembly to be placed in St. Paul's Church.37
The funeral of Governor Lawrence took place on the Thursday following, 24th October, at 4 p. m. The procession began from Government House as follows: —
The Troops in Garrison, the Military Officers, two field pieces 6 pounders, the Physicians, the ministers, the corpse in a coffin covered with black velvet, and the pall, to which were affixed escutcheons of His Excellency's arms, supported by the President and the rest of His Majesty's Council.
The Mourners, the Provost Marshall, the House of Assembly, the Magistrates, the Civil Officers, the Freemasons and a number of the inhabitants. The Bearers, Clergy, Physicians and all Officers, Civil and Military had linen and cambric hat-bands.
The corpse was preceded near the church by the orphans singing an anthem. The pulpit, reading desk and the Governor's pew, were covered with black and escutcheons, and a most pathetic Funeral Sermon was preached by the Reverend Mr. Breynton, Rector of the Parish, after which the corpse was interred on the right side of the Communion Table.
Minute guns were fired from one of the batteries, from the time the procession began, until the interment, when the whole was concluded with three volleys from the troops under arms.
The Supreme Court, which began on Tuesday following, was hung in mourning and escutcheons.
The following fulsome eulogium, to the late lamented Governor, appeared in the newspapers of the day: "The Lieutenant Governor was possessed of every natural endowment and acquired, accomplishment necessary to adorn the most exalted station, and every amiable quality that could promote the sweets of friendship and social intercourse of human life.
"As Governor, he exerted his uncommon abilities with unwearied application, and the most disinterested zeal in projecting and executing every useful design that might render this Province and its rising settlements flourishing and happy. He encouraged the industrious, rewarded the deserving, excited the indolent, protected the oppressed and relieved the needy. His affability and masterly address endeared him to all ranks of people, and a peculiar greatness of soul made him superior to vanity, envy, avarice or revenge.
"In him we have lost the guide and guardian of our interests, the reflection on the good he has done, the anticipation of great things still expected from such merits, and circumstances which, while they redound to his honour, aggravate the sense of our irreparable misfortune."
About the end of October, Commodore Lord Colville arrived in the harbor with the Northumberland and three other ships of the line and several frigates from Quebec. The Sloop-of-War England also arrived from England with dispatches and next day sailed for Louisburg and Quebec. Several transports also came in about the same time with Col. Montgomery's Highlanders to relieve the two battalions of the 60th Royal Americans.
Among the advertisements in the Halifax Gazette of 1st November, 1760, is the following:
"To be sold at public auction, on Monday the 3rd of November, at the house of Mr. John Rider, two Slaves, viz.: a boy and girl, about eleven years old; likewise, a puncheon of choice old cherry brandy, with sundry other articles."
1759. Among the town officers nominated by the Grand Jury this year were, John Fillis, Richd. Wenman, Richd. Gibbon and Wm. Schwartz as Commissioners of the poor for the town.
Surveyors of Highways, Chas. Morris, Esq., Chas. Proctor, Esq., Mr. Wm. Prescott and Mr. John Rider.
This year an Act of the Legislature was passed to regulate the Sambro Light House at the entrance of Halifax Harbor, which had been erected the previous year at the expense of £1000. The Work House was also erected this year. Firing guns within the town and peninsula was forbidden in 1758 under a penalty.
The accession of King George the Third was proclaimed at Halifax on the 11th February, 1761, with great ceremony. The proclamation was first read at the Court House door,38 then at the north gate of the town,39 at Government House, at the south gate,40 and lastly on the Parade, where the troops were drawn up and a salute fired by the artillery. Lord Colville's fleet being in the harbour at the time, "each ship fired a Royal Salute, beginning with his Lordship's flagship the Northumberland."
The order of the procession on this occasion was as follows: – 1st, A Company of Grenadiers; 2nd, Constables of the Town; 3rd, Magistrates; 4th, Civil Officers of Government; 5th, Constables; 6th, The Provost Marshall with two deputies on horseback; 7th, a Band of Music; 8th, Constables; 9th, The Commander-in-Chief of the Province, the Honorable Jonathan Belcher, with Admiral Lord Colville and Colonel Foster, commandant of the Garrison, and the members of His Majesty's Council; 10th, the Speaker and the members of the House of Assembly, followed by the principal inhabitants. At three o'clock the company waited on the Commander-in-Chief at Governor Lawrence's head tavern, where a very elegant entertainment was provided for them, and after dinner His Majesty's health was drunk under Royal Salute from the Batteries, also other toasts, and the evening concluded with great rejoicings and illuminations, bon-fires and artificial fire works, played off by the Royal Artillery. A sermon was afterwards ordered to be preached (13th February, 1761) in St. Paul's Church, on account of the decease of the late King, and all public amusements were ordered to cease for one month from that day. The 17th was accordingly set apart and the sermon preached by the Rev. T. Wood, the Curate. Part of St. Paul's church was hung in black, and minute guns were fired for an hour and a half, and the flags on the Citadel and George's Island were half-mast during the day.
On the 11th day of February, 1760, two Indian Chiefs of the Passamaquoddy and St. John River tribes, came to Halifax with Colonel Arbuthnot and appeared before the Council, and by their interpreter, settled with the Governor terms of peace, renewing the Treaty of 1725 and giving hostages for their good behaviour. At their request truck houses were established at Fort Frederick. Benjamin Gerrish, John Collier and Thomas Saul were appointed a Committee to prepare the Treaty in French and English, which was to be taken back with them to be ratified by their tribes. It was arranged that Colonel Arbuthnot should accompany them, and that they should be sent back at the public expense, after which His Majesty's health was drunk and the Chiefs returned to the quarters assigned them by the Governor. On the 13th the Treaty was ratified in Council and the Indians and the Governor and Council settled the table of the prices to be established at the truck houses. The Indians stated that the number of their tribes, men, women and children, was about 500. During the sitting of the Council on the 13th, Roger Morris, one of the Mic-Mac Indians, appeared and brought with him three Frenchmen who were lately arrived from Pictou, and another Indian called Claude Renie, who said he was Chief of the Tribe of Cheboudie Indians. He stated that he had left 70 of his people at Jeddore; the men were out killing moose and their families were in want of provisions. It was arranged that provisions should be sent to them and that the men should forthwith come up and conclude a peace.
Treaties of peace were afterwards concluded on 10th March following with three Mic-Mac Chiefs, viz., Paul Laurent, chief of the Tribe of LaHave, Michael Augustine, chief of the Tribe of Richibucto, and the before-mentioned Claude Renie, chief of the Cheboudie and Musquodoboit Indians; the treaty was signed in Council on that day and they received their annual presents. Another treaty of peace was signed in Council on 15th October, 1761, with Jannesvil Peitougawash, Chief of the Indians of the Tribe of Pictock and Malogomish, and the merchants and traders were notified that the Indian trade to the eastward would be thrown open under regulations in the following spring. The following summer Joseph Argunault, Chief of the Mongwash Indians, with a number of followers, appeared before the Council and executed a final Treaty of peace. The members of Council and Legislature, with the Magistrates and public officers, attended on the occasion.
The Abbe Mallaird being introduced, interpreted the treaty to the Chief, who was then addressed by the Hon. Mr. Belcher, the Commander-in-Chief. The treaty was respectively signed by the Commander-in-Chief and the Indian Chief, and witnessed by the members of the Council present, the Speaker of the Assembly and Mr. Mallaird.41 The Chief then addressed Mr. Belcher in the following manner: That he had formerly paid obedience to another King, but that he now acknowledged King George 3rd for his only lawful Sovereign, and vowed eternal fidelity and submission to him; that his submission was not by compulsion, but that it was free and voluntary with his whole heart, and that he should always esteem King George 3rd as his good father and protector. That he now buried the hatchet in behalf of himself and his whole tribe, in token of their submission, and of their having made a peace which should never be broken upon any consideration whatever. The Chief then laid the hatchet on the earth, and the same being buried the Indians went through the ceremony of washing the paint from their bodies, in token of hostilities being ended, and then partook of a repast set out for them on the ground, and the whole ceremony was concluded by all present drinking the King's health and their Haggas. This ceremony is said to have been performed in the Governor's garden, westward of the old English burial ground, where the Court House now stands. Benjamin Gerrish, Esquire, was appointed Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and additional truck houses were built and other arrangements made throughout the Province for more effectually carrying on the Indian trade.
On the 30th December, 1760, Malachi Salter, Alexander Grant, Jonathan Binney and John Burbidge were appointed Justices of the Peace for the Town of Halifax. Mr. Burbidge was a member of Assembly; he afterwards removed to the country and settled in Cornwallis township, where his descendants now remain.
The French having invaded the British settlements in Newfoundland, and captured the fort of St. John, a council-of-war was called at Halifax, for the purpose of consulting on means of the defence of the town in case of an attack. This Council was composed of Lt. Governor Belcher, Col. Richard Bulkely, Halifax Militia, Major General Bastead of the Engineers, Col. William Foster, Lt. Col. Hamilton, Lt. Col. Job Winslow, and the Right Honorable Lord Colville, commander-in-chief of the squadron. They met on the 10th July, 1762, and continued their sittings until 17th August. They recommended to Government the embodying a portion of the militia force, and that the Batteries on George's Island, Fort George, Point Pleasant and East Battery should be put in repair and guns mounted, and the erection of such works around the town and at the Dockyard as might be considered necessary for the protection of the place. The whole to be placed under the superintendence of General Bastead of the Engineers. Some of the old works were put in repair and others added on this occasion, but the cause of alarm having subsided, further expense was deemed unnecessary.
At the first settlement it had been found necessary to occupy not only every elevated position in the vicinity, but also large spaces around the town as at first laid out, for the purposes of defence and other military objects. After the necessity for those defences had ceased, it frequently occurred that the military commanders would lay claim to the grounds as military property, and in this way obstacles had continually arisen to the extension of the town, a grievance which has continued to be felt until the present time. Those whose duty it was to plan and lay out the town appear to have been guided more with a view to the construction of a military encampment than that of a town for the accommodation of an increasing population. The narrow blocks and small dimensions of the building lots have been found to be a continual drawback on the comfort, the health and the convenience of the inhabitants, and of late years these inconveniences have been severely felt in the business parts of the city. This, however, was not the case in laying out the north and south suburbs; here the lots were of ample dimensions, and though the streets were not of the width frequently met with in modern cities, yet of sufficient dimensions to ensure comfort. It is to be regretted that the town and city authorities, during the last 35 years, have not, as in other places, exerted their authority in the arrangement and laying off of building lots, and by wholesome regulations, prevented the crowding of buildings on pieces of land not sufficiently deep to admit of proper ventilation. It is also a matter of the utmost importance to the future welfare of the city that those lands now in the hands of the military and naval boards in various directions around the city which are not immediately required for military works should be handed over to the Civil Government for public promenades and other useful purposes.
July 18th, 1768. The Chiefs of the tribes of Indians of St. John's River, named Pierre Thomas and Ambroise St. Aubon, appeared before the Council with the following requests: They said the use of rum and spirituous liquors was too common among them, and requested that a remedy might be thought of to prevent it. They also required lands for cultivation, and that they should not be required to bear arms in case of war with any of the European powers. That some further regulations of prices in their traffic should be made, and several other matters, all of which appear to have been granted them. They desired to return home as soon as possible, that their people might not be debauched with liquor in the town.
This year (1768) Mr. Joshua Mauger retired from the office of Agent of the Province in London. Mr. Mauger came up from Louisburg with the army and resided in the town as a distiller of rum, and followed the camp for several years. He received grants of land from the government in various parts of the province. The bench at the south-west extremity of Cornwallis Island, now known as McNab's Island, was named after him. Mr. Mauger was afterwards elected a member of the British Parliament.
In the month of May of this year was presented to the Legislature the celebrated revolutionary document known as the Massachusetts or Boston Letter. This was a letter addressed by Speaker Cushin of the House of Representatives at Boston, to the Speaker of the Assembly in Nova Scotia. It bears the date February 11, 1768, and was on the subject of the differences existing between the British Government and the American Colonies, then on the eve of revolt. This letter is couched in very moderate but firm language; it appears to have been received, however, with great indignation by the House, who declined to have it read. A memorial was presented to the Governor and Council in March, 1767, by Colonel Dalrymple, then commander of His Majesty's troops at Halifax, complaining of the undue occupation of grounds about the town, on which there had been palisaded forts and lines of defence. It appeared that Governor Lawrence had granted certain small tracts of land on which a palisaded line of defence had formerly been, and that such tracts of land could not be supposed to come into use on any future occasion for fortifications. That Colonel McKellan of the Engineers had advised the situation of the Work House with an enclosure, in the front of said line, and that a whole bastion of two curtains of Lutterell's fort were covered by it, and that Governor Lawrence had further laid out more of such grounds on which part of the palisading of Horseman's Fort formerly stood, all of which it appeared he did by an undoubted right of the power given him by the King's Commission, to erect and demolish fortifications, and therefore to convert the ground to other uses, it being no more serviceable for the former purposes. But it also appeared that none of the Barracks were ever granted or admitted into private occupation. That Governor Lawrence had admitted the occupation of some of the ground reserved for fortification, on condition it should be surrendered when the King's service should again require it, by which it was evident that the King's rights in their lands had been sufficiently secured. Horseman's fort occupied the ground in the vicinity of the present Roman Catholic Cathedral. Lutterell's fort stood where the old Poor House and County Jail formerly stood. In June, 1763, the Council recommended the Governor to make a grant of the Common for the Town of Halifax to trustees for the benefit of the inhabitants. The Trustees were John Collier, Charles Morris, Richard Bulkeley, William Nesbitt, Charles Proctor and Richard Best. Some question having arisen as to the limits of the common, the Council were unanimously of the opinion that the lands which had been granted without the town were not within the limits of the Common as appeared by the plan thereof laid before the Lords of Trade, and which had not been disapproved of by their Lordships. No copy of this plan is now to be found.
The number of families residing in and around the town in 1763 was estimated at 500, which would make the population about 2500 souls. There was also supposed to be, at this time, about one thousand Acadian French in and about the town.
In June, 1763, the Hon. Montague Wilmot was sworn in Lieut. Governor in place of Mr. Belcher. In the following year he received the appointment of Governor-in-Chief.
On the 29th day of September, 1766, the Germans, who had been located to the west of the peninsula, the settlement now known as the Dutch Village, petitioned the Government that a convenient road should be laid out for them to their settlement. The Surveyor was ordered to report on the petition. He reported that he found the road from the north German lots to the southward of George Bayers' stone wall, now laid out, in the most convenient place, and that the road should be at least four rods wide. That from George Bayers' stone wall the road should be on the south side of said wall and thence to run until it meets the public road leading to the town.
About this time, at the request of the Magistrates, the Hospital was granted for an alms house. This hospital was established very early for the use of the settlers, and stood on part of the land now occupied by the Government House, to the north of that building.
The church of St. Paul's had now been for some years finished, and the Town and vicinity had been, by an Act of Legislature, constituted into a parish with corporate powers in the church wardens and vestry. After the death of Mr. Tutty, the Reverend Thomas Wood, from the Province of New Jersey, was appointed to assist Dr. Breynton, and he and the doctor were jointly inducted into the parish in 1758; Dr. Breynton as rector, and Mr. Wood as vicar or curate, to assist. Mr. W. continued at St. Paul's until 1763, when he was removed to Annapolis Royal with the consent of the Governor and the church wardens and vestry, when the whole duties of the Mission at Halifax devolved upon Mr. Breynton. Mr. B. was in the habit of officiating to the Germans in their own language. In 1761, he preached in German and English to the small congregation in the old Dutch church in Brunswick Street, on occasion of its being dedicated as the church of St. George. In 1770, at the solicitation of the Governor and Council, the Chief Justice and the congregation of St. Paul's, he received from the University of Cambridge the degree of D. D., to which he was entitled from his standing in the University. Early in his ministry the Doctor established in the Town an orphan school, and provided for the tuition of 50 poor children, through the assistance afforded him by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. Mr. Ralph Sharrock, a discharged soldier, was his first schoolmaster. In 1776, Dr. Breynton mentions in his report to the Society, having administered the Lord's Supper to 500 men of the Baron de Seiltz's German regiment in their own language "whose exemplary and regular behaviour" he says, "did them great honour." The following extract from a document, in reference to Dr. Breynton, said to have been written by a Dissenter, is given by Mr. Hawkins, from the records of the Propagation Society: "As a person who, during a residence of upwards of twenty years in this Province, has deservedly gained the good will and esteem of men of all ranks and persuasions. He preaches the Gospel of peace and purity, with an eloquence of language and delivery, far beyond anything I ever heard in America." He lived to a good old age, preserving the esteem of his fellow townsmen to the last. He appears to have lived on terms of Christian fellowship with the clergy of other denominations, as we find that at the annual meeting of the Church Society, which took place in St. Paul's in 1770, the dissenting ministers all attended at the Church to hear the doctor preach his Visitation Sermon. One of the last acts of his ministry was the establishment of a Sunday School in the city. This was about 1783, perhaps a little later, and was the first Sunday School instituted in Nova Scotia.
In the month of July, 1769, a large number of Indians, many of whom at this time appear to have been Protestants, attended divine service in St. Paul's Church, when prayers were read by the Reverend Thomas Wood, in the Mic-Mac language, the Governor and many of the principal inhabitants being present. The Indians sang an anthem both before and after the service. Before the service began a Chief came forward, and kneeling down, prayed for the prosperity of the Province and the blessing of Almighty God on King George, the Royal family and the Governor of the Province. He then rose up, and Mr. Wood, who understood the language, at his desire explained the prayer in English to the whole congregation. When service was ended the Indians returned thanksgivings for the opportunity they had of hearing prayers in their own language. In the following year Mr. Wood again performed divine service at Halifax in the Mic-Mac language at the residence of Colonel Joseph Gorham, where a number of Indians were assembled. He had obtained great influence with the Indians through his friendship with the Abbe Maillard, and particularly from his behaviour to him a little before his death. He was in consequence frequently called on both by the Indians and French to baptize their children and visit the sick in the absence of a priest of their own church. In one of his letters to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, in 1762, he mentions having attended the Abbe Maillard during his illness of several weeks, and at his request, the day before his death read to him the office of visitation of the sick in presence of many of the French, and having performed the funeral service of the Church of England, in French, on his remains in the presence of the principal inhabitants of Halifax and a number of French and Indians. The Governor and all the public functionaries attended the funeral of M. Maillard, who was highly esteemed and beloved in the community, and the members of His Majesty's Council were the pall bearers.42
Mr. Wood was shortly after removed to Annapolis Royal, where he died in the year 1778. While there he applied himself to a closer study of the Mic-Mac language, and by assistance of papers left him by M. Maillard was enabled to prepare a Mic-Mac grammar and dictionary. He sent the first volume of his grammar, and a Mic-Mac translation of the Creed and Lord's Prayer to England in 1776. He continued occasionally to minister to the Indians in their own language until his death.
February 26th, 1769. Halifax harbour was so full of ice that vessels could not come in, which had not been the case for (says the Gazette for that day) ten years. The cold was intense, snow between four and five feet deep in the woods and on the peninsula, an instance of which had not been known for several years.
May 9th, 1769. Major Leonard Lockman died after a lingering illness in the 73rd year of his age; he was interred under the old German church in Brunswick Street, and a monument to his memory, with coat of arms, is yet to be seen in that church. Major Lockman was one of the leading settlers among the Germans. The street running between the German lots and Water Street in the north suburbs bears his name.
In the fall of this year the town was visited by a severe gale of wind from the S. W., which caused the destruction of much property and some loss of life.
Among the principal merchants in Halifax in 1769, the Hon. John Butler, uncle to the late Hon. J. Butler Dight, Robert Campbell on the Beach, John Grant, Alexander Brymer, Gerrish and Gray appear most prominent. Among the shopkeepers and tradesmen who advertized during the year were, Robert Fletcher on the Parade, Bookseller and Stationer, Andrew Cunod, Grocer, Hammond and Brown, Auctioneers, Robert Millwood, Blockmaker, who advertized best Spanish River Coal at 30s. per chaldron.
The period between 1770 and 1776 was one of great public excitement, emissaries from the revolted colonies were numerous, and the Governor and Council deemed it expedient as early as 1770, to prohibit all public meetings of a political nature.43 The same spring the general election took place, after which the House sat for fourteen years without being dissolved.
In 1771, Governor Lord William Campbell issued a proclamation forbidding horse races as tending to gambling and idleness.
October 8th, 1773. Governor Legge was sworn into office.
The subject of fortifying the town came under the consideration of the Council in the following year. It was considered that the ground being rocky in many places around the town, it would not admit of entrenchments being made, and that the only practical fortifications would be temporary blockhouses and palisades, and it was resolved that the Engineers under Col. Spry do immediately proceed to fortify the Navy Yard in that manner, which may be defended by the people of the town, and afford a retreat for them. Any attempt at fortifying the Citadel Hill this season was thought to be out of the question, the season being too late, the scarcity of workmen very great, and there being no troops for its defence.
The Governor proposed and it was agreed in Council to collect a force of 1000 men with pay and provisions, and that four companies of light infantry now forming at Lunenburg be ordered up, and that 100 Acadians from Clare and Yarmouth, and two light companies from Kings County do march immediately to Halifax. The public authorities appear to have been kept in a constant state of apprehension of invasion, while a continued suspicion of many of the leading inhabitants being favourable to the revolt, seemed to have taken possession of the mind of Governor Legge, who, having differences of opinion with some of his officials, attributed their disagreement with him on subjects of finance, etc., as marks of disloyalty. He at length became so obnoxious to those in authority, that it was deemed advisable to remove him from the Government. His quarrels with Jonathan Binney, Governor Francklin and other leading men of the town, are disclosed in the official letters and minutes of Council of that day.