Nova Scotia's New Englanders and the Creation of a British
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An Unsettled Plantation: Nova Scotia’s New Englanders and the Creation of a British Colony, 1759-1776 by Alexandra L. Montgomery Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts at Dalhousie University Halifax, Nova Scotia July 2012 © Copyright by Alexandra L. Montgomery, 2012 DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY The undersigned hereby certify that they have read and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate Studies for acceptance a thesis entitled “An Unsettled Plantation: Nova Scotia’s New Englanders and the Creation of a British Colony, 1759-1776” by Alexandra L. Montgomery in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. Dated: July 24, 2012 Supervisor: _________________________________ Readers: _________________________________ _________________________________ ii DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY DATE: July 24, 2012 AUTHOR: Alexandra L. Montgomery TITLE: An Unsettled Plantation: Nova Scotia’s New Englanders and the Creation of a British Colony, 1759-1776 DEPARTMENT OR SCHOOL: Department of History DEGREE: MA CONVOCATION: October YEAR: 2012 Permission is herewith granted to Dalhousie University to circulate and to have copied for non-commercial purposes, at its discretion, the above title upon the request of individuals or institutions. I understand that my thesis will be electronically available to the public. The author reserves other publication rights, and neither the thesis nor extensive extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author’s written permission. The author attests that permission has been obtained for the use of any copyrighted material appearing in the thesis (other than the brief excerpts requiring only proper acknowledgement in scholarly writing), and that all such use is clearly acknowledged. _______________________________ Signature of Author iii To Mom, Dad, and Scott, for all things big and small. iv Table of Contents List of Tables.....................................................................................................................vi List of Figures..................................................................................................................vii Abstract...........................................................................................................................viii List of Abbreviations Used..............................................................................................ix Acknowledgements............................................................................................................x Chapter One – Introduction ............................................................................................ 1 Chapter Two – A Piecemeal Planting: New England Comes to Nova Scotia............ 21 The Eighteenth-Century Expansion of New England: Contexts.......................................24 Nova Scotia: The “Infant Colony”? ..................................................................................28 The Planter Migration: Themes and Patterns....................................................................43 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................62 Chapter Three – The Builders Build in Vain: Reproducing Congregationalism..... 64 Settled Congregationalism ................................................................................................69 Migrant Congregationalism ..............................................................................................71 Porter, Scott and Seccombe: Snapshots from the Mission Field.......................................85 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................99 Chapter Four – Philadelphia Township: Colonial Suspicion and British Success. 102 Philadelphia Township: The Town That Wasn’t ............................................................105 Colonial Failure?.............................................................................................................120 British Success? ..............................................................................................................123 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................126 Chapter Five – Conclusion........................................................................................... 129 Bibliography...................................................................................................................140 v List of Tables Table 2.1 Nehemiah Porter's Children......................................................................... 54 Table 2.2 Seccombe, Perkins, Scott and Porter Trips to New England and Halifax to 1776 ............................................................................................................. 62 Table 3.1 New England Congregationalist Ministers in Nova Scotia Before the Revolution ................................................................................................... 75 vi List of Figures Figure 2.1 Migrations of the Seccombe, Scott, Perkins and Porter Families ............... 48 Figure 4.1 PhiladelphiaTownship and Environs, Showing the Approximate Location and Extent of the Philadelphia Township Grant........................................ 109 vii Abstract The New England Planters were the largest wave of Protestant migration into Nova Scotia prior to the American Revolution. Sponsored by the British government, they represent an attempt to make Nova Scotia a securely British colony in the wake of the Seven Years’ War and the Acadian deportation. Examining the experiences of several families, this thesis argues that the Planters, despite taking up lands in Nova Scotia, remained unsettled. The migration was staggered over a number of years, and Planters maintained close ties with New England. However, the Planters were unable to recreate New England culture completely. Increasing numbers of settlers from the British Isles and revolutionary suspicion marked out Planter Nova Scotia as a separate space, despite the close ties that individual Planters maintained with their homelands. The Revolution forced Planters to choose, but until then many existed between the worlds of Nova Scotia and New England. viii List of Abbreviations Used DCB Dictionary of Canadian Biography NSA Nova Scotia Archives HSP Historical Society of Pennsylvania Diary of John Seccombe John Seccombe, “Appendix B: The Diary of Rev. John Seccombe,” in Report of the Board of Trustees of the Public Archives of Nova Scotia for the Year 1959 (Halifax: Queen’s Printer, 1960), 18-45. Diary of Mercy Seccombe Mercy Seccombe, “Memoranda of Leading Events by a Member of the Seccombe Family, Harvard and Chester N.S. 1753- 1770 by Miss Seccombe Daughter of Rev. John Seccombe,” 2, MG1 vol.797c, NSA. Diary of Nehemiah Porter Nehemiah Porter, “Journal from N. England to Capeforsoe in Nova Scotia,” 2, MG1 vol.770a, NSA. Diary of Jonathan Scott Jonathan Scott, The Journal of the Reverend Jonathan Scott, With Genealogical Notes on the Scott, Marbury, Thwing, Ring and Bass Families, ed. H.E. Scott Jr. (Massachusetts: New England Genealogical Society, 1980). Diary of Simeon Perkins Simeon Perkins, The Diary of Simeon Perkins, Vol.1., ed. H Innis (Toronto: The Champlain Society, 1948). ix Acknowledgements First and foremost I must acknowledge my debt to Dalhousie University in general and the Department of History specifically, which has proved a wonderful intellectual home for both my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. Dr. Jerry Bannister was instrumental to both and has proved the ideal adviser. I could not ask for any better. I would also like to thank Dr. John E. Crowley and Dr. Julian Gwyn for agreeing to act as readers for this thesis, which was greatly improved by their comments, and Dr. Justin Roberts, who chaired my defense. I would also like to thank Val and Tina in the office and my fellow Master’s students, particularly Kilroy Abney and Nathan VanderMeulen. Outside the University, the staff of both the Nova Scotia Archives and the Historical Society of Philadelphia proved indispensible and always personable. I would like to thank my parents, who have always supported me, my dreams, and my goals. I will never be able to thank either of you enough. Finally, I would like to thank Scott. You have informed this thesis in many ways. Your absence got me thinking about the connections between Nova Scotia and the mid-Atlantic colonies, a line of thought and inquiry that eventually led to Chapter Four. Your presence got me through the last month of writing, re-writing and restructuring happy, well-fed and well-rested. I cannot wait for the rest of it. x 1 Chapter One Introduction While imperial dictates and military conquests create the framework for empire, it is people who ultimately enact it. Although Great Britain planted a flag on Acadia in 1710, changed its name to Nova Scotia and redrew the map, it was perhaps over seventy years until the dominant power in the province was British.1 That transformation required an often bloody process of negotiation, warfare, deportation and, ultimately, importation of thousands of Protestant settlers. However, the men, women and children who give flesh to ideology and make empires actual rather than simply lines on maps do not necessarily do so in the service of ideologues and mapmakers. When the New