The United Empire Loyalists: A Chronicle of the Great Migration [1920 ed.] — John Shaqi
The United Empire Loyalists: A Chronicle of the Great Migration [1920 ed.]Wallace, W. Stewart (William Stewart)
History
The United Empire Loyalists: A Chronicle of the Great Migration [1920 ed.]
Wallace, W. Stewart (William Stewart)
American loyalists; United Empire loyalists
The new province, which it was intended at first to call New Ireland, but
which was eventually called New Brunswick, was to include all that part
of Nova Scotia north of a line running across the isthmus from the mouth
of the Missiquash river to its source, and thence across to the nearest
part of Baie Verte. This boundary was another triumph for the Loyalists,
as it placed in New Brunswick Fort Cumberland and the greater part of
Cumberland county. The government of the province was offered first to
General Fox, who had been in command at Halifax in 1783, and then to
General Musgrave; but was declined by both. It was eventually accepted
by Colonel Thomas Carleton, a brother of Sir Guy Carleton, by whom it
was held for over thirty years. The chief offices of government fell
to Loyalists who were in London. The secretary of the province was the
Rev. Jonathan Odell, a witty New Jersey divine, who had been secretary
to Sir Guy Carleton in New York. It is interesting to note that Odell’s
son, the Hon. W. F. Odell, was secretary of the province after him, and
that between them they held the office for two-thirds of a century. The
chief justice was a former judge of the Supreme Court of New York; the
other judges were retired officers of regiments who had fought in the
war. The attorney-general was Jonathan Bliss, of Massachusetts; and the
solicitor-general was Ward Chipman, the friend and correspondent of
Edward Winslow. Winslow himself, whose charming letters throw such a
flood of light on the settlement of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, was
a member of the council. New Brunswick was indeed _par excellence_ the
Loyalist province.
[Illustration: THE FIRST GOVERNMENT HOUSE, FREDERICTON—BUILT 1787]
The new governor arrived at Parrtown on November 21, 1784, and was
immediately presented with an enthusiastic address of welcome by the
inhabitants. They described themselves as ‘a number of oppressed and
insulted Loyalists,’ and added that they had formerly been freemen,
and again hoped to be so under his government. Next spring the governor
granted to Parrtown incorporation as a city under the name of St John.
The name Parrtown had been given, it appears, at the request of Governor
Parr himself, who explained apologetically that the suggestion had arisen
out of ‘female vanity’; and in view of Governor Parr’s unpopularity,
the change of name was very welcome. At the same time, however, Colonel
Carleton greatly offended the people of St John by removing the capital
of the province up the river to St Anne’s, to which he gave the name
Fredericktown (Fredericton) in honour of the Duke of York.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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