Map 7). The Yorkshire settlers effectively doubled the population of the isthmus and, by bringing their advanced farming techniques with them, greatly enhanced the economic development of the area.52
When he visited Cumberland County in 1829, Thomas Haliburton observed the rivers “emptying into the Bay of Chignecto, upon which there are extensive tracts of alluvial land, and flourishing settlements. On the Maccan and Nappan rivers are to be found many substantial farmers, composed of Yorkshire men and their descendants.” Many more were situated along the River Hébert, “up which the tide flows thirteen miles, enriching it with 1,800 acres of excellent marsh land.”53 Yorkshire settlers were also to be found along the River Philip, farther to the east (see Map 8). Eleven years earlier, when our roving reporter Lord Dalhousie had arrived on the scene, he described their farms in glowing terms: “The large fields, extensive crops and gardens about their houses show them strangers in this country and more industrious than others of their class.”54 He had seen their New Canaan settlement, established in 1798, indicating that further contingents of Yorkshire people had followed the initial groups of the early 1770s. Undoubtedly, the Yorkshire farmers were in a class of their own and, according to his lordship, were “more rich and comfortable” than people in the rest of the province.
However, success had come at a price. Having recently lost his father, John Harrision wrote to a cousin he had had not seen for thirty-six years, to try to reconnect with his long-lost Yorkshire past. He recalled how he and his family had first brought an untamed wilderness into cultivation:
I settled here on this River [Maccan] about 23 years ago [1787] upon lands that had never been cultivated, all a wilderness. We cut down the wood of the land and burnt it off, and sowed it with wheat and rye, so that we made out a very good living. Here we make our own sugar, our own soap and candles and likewise our own clothing. We spin and weave our own linen and wool and make the biggest part of it into garments within our own family. This I suppose you will think strange but it is merely for want of settlers and more mechanics of different branches.55
But he was so very lonely: “Dear cousin, I could wish to see you once more to talk with you face to face.” Having left as a fourteen-year-old, he hardly knew his cousin, but he inquired whether they could now begin to correspond “every year or at every opportunity.” John was also deeply troubled by the shortage of people in the Maccan River area: “If there are any young men have any notion of coming to this country, of an industrious turn of mind, there is no doubt of making out very well for himself, for if he does not like this part he can soon earn money to carry him out again for wages are very high here.” Also, his two grown-up sons each needed “a good industrious wife.” Likewise, thinking beyond his needs, he wrote, “Pray send out a shipload of young women, for there is great call for them that can card and spin. The wages is from five to six shillings a week.” Like his brother Luke, who “oftimes visits Rillington”56 in his dreams, John would never forget his Yorkshire origins.
The naming of New Canaan, with its biblical connotations, suggested a people who hoped to find their “promised land” in Nova Scotia. Having strong Christian beliefs, they had been drawn specifically to Methodism because it “was of that strenuous type which must give expression to its faith in hearty song and lively preaching.”57 Even during the Jenny’s sea crossing in 1775, the eighty passengers were called by the captain “to come to his cabin, morning and evening” to pray together.58 Many of the Yorkshire families who came to Nova Scotia had been influenced by John Wesley’s teachings and sought to live according to the Christian disciplines that he had enunciated. Their great spiritual leader, William Black, only a boy of fourteen when he emigrated in 1775, would devote his life to the Methodist cause.
Like Henry Alline, who was twelve years older, Black had suffered from a sense of profound guilt over his perceived wickedness. But he experienced a dramatic conversion one day in 1779 “when his guilt was removed” and “a sweet peace and gladness were diffused” through his soul.59 Feeling himself to be saved, the nineteen-year-old Black went on to become a preacher, concentrating initially on the Yorkshire settlers on the isthmus. Embarking on a single-minded mission “to save souls,” he travelled far and wide, bringing the message of redemption to many hundreds of people across Atlantic Canada. Known affectionately as Bishop Black, he was often referred to, long before his death in 1834, as the father of Methodism in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.60
United Church, River Philip (Cumberland County), built in 1862. It replaced the original log-built Methodist meeting place that had been constructed in 1827.
The Reverend William Black, Methodist minister.
Although he was more anxious to save souls than build organizations, Black secured the appointment of further preachers, thus establishing Methodism firmly in many parts of the province. With the help of the British Methodist Missionary Society61 a structure was in place by 1804 that had Black based in Halifax but taking charge of Liverpool and Shelburne, William Bennett taking services in Cumberland from his base in Annapolis, John Mann presiding over Horton (where he lived), and his brother John doing the same at Windsor.62 By 1817 there were sufficient Methodists in Ramsheg (near Wallace) in Cumberland County to attract a minister there, where a congregation of 120, spread over an area of around fifty miles, would have been an enormous challenge.63 By 1871 Cumberland County was almost entirely Methodist, having the largest concentration in the province64 (see Map 6). Meanwhile, the Church of England commanded some support at Amherst, which had its first Anglican church built by 1822.65
With the opening up of Guysborough on the east side of the province to Loyalists, the county acquired an instant population in the mid-1780s, but its settlers struggled to survive. Lord Dalhousie found “utmost poverty in every hut” when he visited in 1817. The people subsisted as best they could “by fishing and their small potato gardens.”66 An Anglican church had been built as early as 1787, and by 1845 the county had five other churches and ten outlying preaching stations. One of the stations was at Marie Joseph, where that year “a body of 50 men marched joyfully into the woods to procure materials” for a chapel, and “a singular harmony of religious sentiment appears to prevail.”67 Methodism also enjoyed support in and around Guysborough itself, with the first mission having been established in 1838 (see Map 6).
Lord Dalhousie’s tour of the province occurred just as British immigrants were streaming into the Maritimes. With the growing timber trade, ships sailed regularly from the major British ports to Pictou, Saint John, and Charlottetown, and when the ships docked they often arrived with a fresh batch of immigrants in their holds. However, when Upper Canada, with its more favourable climate, fertile soil, and job opportunities, became more accessible once inland routes were established in the mid-1820s, the Maritimes experienced a steady decline in immigrant numbers. The majority of those who did arrive came from Scotland, not England, but the province’s ability to attract immigrants improved somewhat when the coal-mining industry began to develop, although the numbers were relatively small.
