was after seven years’ service — he came out and settled on his land himself, building a good house for his family right away — that is without the previous erection of a log house, as is usually the case, and a very good house he appeared to have. He now owns seven hundred acres of land in different lots and had clearings of twenty acres on each of three or four of these farm lots intended for his several sons, who appear to be as industrious as himself.40
There were many William Grieves in this emigration saga. Agricultural workers, farmers, tradesmen, craftsmen, miners, and fishermen came with little spare money, but they had an overwhelming desire to succeed. To do so they had to show enormous courage and resilience. They built their communities on the west side of Nova Scotia, on the east side of Newfoundland, and in many parts of southern New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. The first large group came from Yorkshire, and following them were people who left from across the length and breadth of England. This is their story.
Laying the Foundations: Yorkshire Emigration
Remember the rock from whence ye was hewn. 1
CHARLES DIXON RECORDED his pioneering experiences for the benefit of his children. “It was for your sakes we crossed the ocean so that you would out-strip us in purity of heart and holiness of life.” 2 This was seemingly an unconventional motive for emigrating, but Dixon was a devout Methodist who wished to escape the social injustice and “troubles … befalling my native country.” A bricklayer’s son from Kirk Leavington in the North Riding of Yorkshire, he was a man of strong convictions and a natural leader. He rose to become one of Nova Scotia’s leading figures, and, following the separation of New Brunswick from Nova Scotia in 1784, served in New Brunswick’s first House of Assembly. Yet he could never have imagined this outcome when he first learned about the advantages of the New World.
Dixon had established a profitable paper factory for himself at Hutton Rudby, and his relocation to Nova Scotia seems unexpected. However, he was dissatisfied and restless and, learning about the favourable accounts of Nova Scotia being circulated by agents of Lieutenant Governor Michael Francklin, he considered emigrating. But, lacking sufficient funds, he remained where he was. When “a gentleman” called to see him out of the blue and offered “to pay [his] stock and interest in Hutton Mills,” he immediately persuaded his wife and family to move with him to Nova Scotia. They were among the group of sixty-two emigrants (seventeen families) from the North Riding who set sail from Liverpool in the Duke of York in 1772:3
We had a rough passage, none of us having been to sea before, much seasickness prevailed. After six weeks and four days we arrived at Halifax … and were received with much joy by the gentlemen in general, but were much discouraged by others, and the account given us of Cumberland4 was enough to make the stoutest heart give way.5
Fort Cumberland, near Sackville (later New Brunswick), was their destination, but upon their arrival in Halifax, Dixon and the others “heard all kinds of negative reports” about it — “enough to sway many peoples’ opinions.” When he actually reached Fort Cumberland, Dixon realized that the discontent felt by the local New Englanders “was mainly due to indolence and lack of knowledge.” The enormous potential of the land was immediately obvious to the Yorkshire group, and those with sufficient funds acquired land and livestock and some even helped friends and relatives to do the same. Fourteen Yorkshire settlers acquired over eight thousand acres in the Sackville area alone.6 Dixon set an example by purchasing a 2,500-acre farm from Daniel Hawkins for £260. Thomas Bowser, from Acklam near Birdsall,7 leased a 750-acre farm in the same area for four pounds, ten shillings per annum,8 while the thirteen-yearold George Bulmer, an apprentice mason, eventually purchased one thousand acres and obtained a grant for a further three hundred.9
Meanwhile, James Metcalf from Hawnby in the North Riding, who had also sailed in the Duke of York, bought 207 acres along the Maccan River farther to the south and shared with two others in the purchase of an additional forty-five acres. Writing to his fiancée, Ann Gill, in Huby, to the south of Easingwold, he described “a little fly called a mosquito that is troublesome in summertime and bites like a midge,” but added that was “the only thing I wish to say against the country.”10 He hoped that she would come immediately and advised her not to be fearful of the ocean crossing and not to listen to adverse comments about Nova Scotia:
If you come be not discouraged by anything in the country for it is good; if you come you will sail up to Fort Cumberland and when you are there write … to me at Maccan River … and I will come for you…. I will be as good as my word … the passage is paid at Liverpool before you go on board but, if you should not be able to pay, make friends to some that come and I will pay … may ye Lord bless you and conduct you safely hither.11
James’s letter took two years to reach her, but when it did, Ann reacted immediately. She left for Nova Scotia, and upon her arrival in Fort Cumberland (now known by its original name of Fort Beauséjour) dispatched a message to James, who rushed to meet her. They were married the following day in the stockade of Fort Cumberland, and, after producing a large family, both lie buried on the banks of the Maccan River.12
The Yorkshire influx to Nova Scotia had been encouraged and directed by no less a dignitary than the lieutenant governor. The Pooleborn Michael Francklin became one of Halifax’s leading merchants after amassing a fortune during the Seven Years’ War (1756–63) by supplying troops to the British and privateering. He was the ultimate wheelerdealer who exploited his political office to the full, but his enormous appetite for land speculation was his ruination, since it left him heavily in debt. Having acquired thousands of acres in Nova Scotia, he failed to attract New England settlers as he had hoped, thus leaving himself with no revenue and a sizable bill in quit rents to pay to the Crown.13 His solution was to seek settlers from overseas, concentrating his efforts in the North and East Ridings of Yorkshire, where he knew there was considerable discontent over enclosures and rent rises.
Map 2. Yorkshire Settler Locations in the Chignecto Isthmus, 1772–75.
Francklin offered one-hundred-acre lots at “Francklin Manor” — a choice tract in the Chignecto Isthmus that offered prime sites along the rivers that empty into the Cumberland Basin, especially the Hébert, Maccan, and Nappan (see Map 2). “None but Protestants will be admitted … and none need apply but husbandmen or artificers, and such as are possessed of at least £50 in money, that they may be able to carry on their improvements.”14 Each family that could satisfy these criteria was to receive “at least ten acres of cleared land for the immediate culture of grain, or providing winter fodder for not less than 20 head of horned cattle,” and for this the settler would pay “a yearly quit rent of one penny per acre for the first five years, sixpence per acre for the next five years and, after that period, one shilling per acre for ever…. The climate is healthy and temperate, and the lands are surrounded by settlements already made; the rivers abound with fish, the woods with game, and good timber fit for building.”15 And there was icing on this cake: “There are no game-laws, taxes on lands, or tithes in this province.” Francklin knew that emigration offered a welcome release from the feudal constraints and payments of the Old World.
