SETTLEMENTS AND CHURCHES IN NOVA SCOTIA 1749 - 1776 The Origin of Protestant Churches in Relation to Settlement, from the founding of Halifax to the American Revolution. I » I PREFACE. The aim of this study is to give a comprehensive view of the origin and character of the Protestant churches in Nova Scotia before the American Revolution. This involves a detailed description of the earliest Protestant settlements; for a very close relationship existed between the two. There were no leaders in religious thought or even in missionary enterprise who stood out with sufficient prominence them­ selves to account for the beginnings of the separate communions. The churches grew out of settlements of varying character, the product of social, economic, and religious conditions prevalent in Europe and America. In each group of settlers there were persons who had been definitely attached to churches in their home­ land, and these persons became the neucleus of a congregation in the settlements they made in Nova Scotia. At least, they brought with them to their new homes a preference for the forms of worship to which they had been accustomed. Many came from America; and the field of American immigration and Church history must be explored in the effort to tell how certain denominations found a foot-hold in Nova Scotia in the earliest period of its settlement under British rule. The essay is in two parts. Part 0ne makes an exhaustive survey of all-"settlements in the province before the revolutionary war, and gives the national origin of the settlers and the causes that brought them to Nova Scotia. Part Two shows how Protestant churches grew out of the settlements thus described, adding some chapters on their later fortunes. Nova Scotia before the American Revolution included the same area as the Maritime Provinces of Canada do to-day. These provinces have therefore a common history for t IB first period of Protestant settlement. Yet, although that period is so well defined, and although it was a formative one in determining the character of the governmental and religious institutions that mark the present-day life of these provinces, no effort has been made hitherto to group the settlements systematically in the way attempted here, or to throw light on the origin of Protestant churches by%a scientific examination of the economic causes of settlement. The chief result of research in the present study is to emphasize the influence of America on every phase of life in Nova Scotia before the Revolution. Articles on the general history of the province concede the effect of New England on the course of events in Nova Scotia before the founding of Halifax; but the prominence given by certain historians to the official life centred about the government offices and the Army and Navy Headquarters at the capital, has obscured the fact that the influence of New England continued to be dominant throughout-the country settlements, and even at Halifax, until after the coming of the Loyalists. In articles on church history there appears to have been the same failure to recognize that the under-current of the life of the colony flowed from New England. The catalogue of settlements and churches giVen in this essay will make it clear that Hew Englanders formed the largest racial group in the province from 1760 to 1770, and that the influence of the Congregational church of these settlers extended to all communions. Church histories of the province have shown a further defect; historians have been too exclusively concerned with the separate history of their own denominations. A careful study of the religious life of the settlements shows a close connection between the Protestant churches before 1783. There are many instances of friendliness and cooperation between Church­ man and Dissenter; a marked contrast to the succeeding period when the question of loyalty that had arisen in the Y;ar of Independence^made the position of the Church of England a more exclusive one. Congregationalists and Presbyterians were in actual affiliation. The catalogue of settlements, and the lists of congregations and pastors are meant to be exhaustive for the Protestant churches. No attempt has been made to discuss the familiar and pathetic history of the Acadians, their expulsion and return; nor to tell the story of the enterprising Roman Catholic Church, which belongs mainly to the nineteenth century. It has been said that no problem is more worthy of the study of a critical historian than the relation of Church politics to new communities, if that study can reveal the secret of one church f s failure and another's success. It is hoped that this survey of the origins and fortunes of Protestant churches In Nova Scotia, and their struggle for existence in the life of a frontier province in the eighteenth century, will have some values for members of the same churches in the twentieth, as they face the missionary needs of the frontier in the larger life of the Dominion. CONTENTS, HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. The name Nova Scotia* Boundaries to 1765. Boundaries, 1763-1783. The French Settlements; Port Royal Early attempts at Protestant settlement "by the British. British indifference to schemes for Protestant settlement before 1749. Nova Scotian history divided into two main periods. The firs?" period of settlement under British rule, the subject of this essay. PART ONE . CHAPTER ONE. HALIFAX AMD LUNEKBURG. Military dramas of the 18th century. Halifax founded -as a result of the fall of Louisburg. She Third French and Indian war. Govenor Shirley. Lord Halifax. Nova Scotia and Georgia regarded as parallel settlements. Founding of Sal if ax. Cosmopolitan nature of Halifax population. The Foreign Protestants. Out-settlements. Halifax to 1759. CHAPTER TWO. IMMEDIATE CAUSES OF THE PRE-LOYALIST MOVEMENT TO NOVA SCOTIA. Importance and extent of the Pre-Loyalist movement. Uniform character of the population of New Tngland, The New England migration a direct result of the war. Effect of the fall of Quebec: Expansion of New England. Representative Government. The movement made chiefly by means of free associations. The two kinds of settlers: farmers and fishermen. Interest aroused by the visits of agents in 1759. CHAPTER THREE. THE FREE ASSOCIATIONS OF TISHTRLEIT AID FARLIERS The fishermen. Liverpool; Yarmouth; Barrington. The farmers or 'planters.' Newport, Falmouth, Y/indsor Horton, Cornwallis; Annapolis, Granville; Saokville, Amherst; Maugerville, Sheffield, Portland Point. CHAPTER "FOUR. THE. ULSTER MIGRATION. Truro, Onslow, Londonderry; a mixed group. General Ulster migration to America, Causes of the migration. Ulster settlements in New England. Colonel Alexander McNutt. Free associations first settle Truro and Onslow, Londonderry receives settlers direct from Ulster, CHAPTER FIYE. LAND GRANTING AFTER THE PZACE OF PARIS* The period of speculative land companies Land granting prior to 1763. Conditions after 1765: Quit rents. The rush in 1765. Actual settlements; on the St. John River; at lictou; at Chignecto, General failure of the land companies. Results. CHAPTER SIX. THE LAND SITUATION IN AMERICA AND ITS EFFECT ON THE GRANTING AND SETTLEMENT OF LAND IN NOVA SCOTIA: 1760 - 1770. The two problems. 1. Ultimate Reasons for the New England Migration. The Land system in the American colonies. Evidences of the crowding of the American colonies before the last war with France. Fall of Quebec releases pent-up New England population. Further reasons why new lands in Nova Scotia were preferred to new'lands in New England Rise of the landlords in New England. Emigrants %to Nova Scotia largely "non-Commoners." 2. Ultimat-eReasons for the Interest of the Land Com­ panies. Proclamation of the Western Line, New colonies in the West prevented. The Western Problem, Settlement of Nova Scotia one objective of the Proclamation of 1763. Fear of American independence determines home government to encourage sea-board colonies. Treaty of Fort Stanwix. "BXfTAW, CHAPTER SEVEN. SETTLEMENT FROM &&&&S* UII'CR SITTLT Geographical factors in settlement. 1. The Island of St. John. Land of the Island granted away in one day. Disastrous effects. Progress of settlement. The Highland Immigration; its causes. 2. Pictou. The Highland settlers at Pictou. 3. Cumberland. Character of the Yorkshire settlers. Causes of their emigration. 4. Minor Settlements. Catalogue of out-settlements, trading establishments,and fishing camps. On the western frontier. On the River St. John. On the northern frontier. On the north shore of the penninsula. Cape Breton. On the South Shore. CHAPTER EIGHT. CONCLUSION. Decline in population and trade The Loyalists. PART TWO. CHAPTER ONE. INTRODUCTORY. The limits of the period here studied are sharply defined, Comparative strength and distribution of churches before 1785. Theology. Social conditions. CHAPTER TWO. THE CHURCHES IN RELATION TO THE SE I. THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH. 1. Annapolis. Canso . Halifax: St. Paul's. 2. The Church and the foreign Protestants. 3.- The Church and the New England Settlements. 8 3. continued Windsor, Cornwallis; Annapolis; Cumberland; Cut-posts: The South Shore; Cape Breton, the Island of Ot. John. 4. ' mhe Society, and the "ortunes of the Church in America. 5. Government aid. CHAPTER THREE. THE CEURCEE;.; Ill RELATION ri C II. THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH. Name. The Congregational Church in New England. Puritanism in Nova Scotia. leather's, Halifax. Yarmouth, Cape Eourchu,Chebogue, Argyle. Barrington. Liverpool. Chester. Horton, Cornwallis. Annapolis, Granville. Cumberland. Llauger-ille, Sheffield. CTIAPTZiR ECUR. THE C:iUEC!E7S I1 " R .LA^ION TO SETTLE1 E:ET:- III. THE PRE8BYT"RIA1TS. Presbyterianism in the Iliddle Colonies. In the Southern Colonies. In New England. Truro. Appeal to the Presbytery of New Brunswick, N. J Rev. James tyci.. Appeal to the Secession Church in Scotland. Truro; W. ttfttiUffffyf. Londonderry, ft/fan $$<$%*, Horton, I.lr. LTurdoch. Other Presbyterian centres: Lunenburg, Eictou. CIL-^T^R "'rrE. mH" GRURCEES ITT R-.X^TlCIT TC SET^Lrj'L^T:- IY.